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Starts with the host's welcome. Ends as Doug invites the congregation to pray. Words that could not be made out are marked [unclear].
Our 22nd anniversary as a church, and I have the absolute joy and the absolute honor of introducing our speaker this morning. He has been faithfully serving as a pastor in this community, and faithfully serving the churches of the Conejo Valley community. For over 40 years, he is serving as a missions partner, teaching God's word to pastors and leaders in the majority world. And 22 years ago, he and his wife [unclear] and planted a church in Thousand Oaks with a vision to be a Bible teaching church that is firmly rooted in
and firmly planted on the love of Jesus and the truth of Scripture. He has become a dear friend, a dear brother, a dear mentor, and he is my pastor. And this morning I have the joy of introducing him to you. You'll see even this morning that you can't help but to look up to him.
Quite literally.
Would you all join me in welcoming our founding pastor, Pastor Doug Posey.
I can't believe it, 22 years. That's amazing. I haven't changed a bit. You guys. No, you're all looking good. And this is a wonderful day. And I want to say thanks to Pastor Larry DeWitt. Without Pastor Larry, no Living Oaks. He invited me to join his team at Calvary Community Church back in 1989, 1990. And I came out of a wilderness experience at that point. I wasn't in ministry, but that was the turning point for me and has been a mentor and a friend to me ever since.
A lot of the things I do is because of him. I got it from him. I stole it from him. And if I'm the spiritual dad of this church, being the founding pastor, then Pastor Larry is the grandpa. For sure. He is a spiritual dad to me. But thank you, everybody. And also, I see so many people that I'd like to talk about. I want to mention Clem. Clem's here. You all know Clem Jasinski. For so long, she was like the control center of the church.
The church could not operate without Clem. And she did such a great job, and I'm so thankful for her, and she's a good friend and everything, too. So God has done some wonderful things. And as Conrad mentioned, he uses people. He uses us to get his work done, to build his church. And the gates of hell won't prevail against it. And that's what he is doing and continues to do Living Oaks Church, and it warms my heart, and I'm just thankful to be here today.
And thanks for inviting me to share the word. I know you're in a series in 1 Peter. So today, if you want to open your Bible or scroll or tap or whatever you do with your Bible, to 1 Peter 2, verses 9 through 12. That's what we'll look at today. 1 Peter 2, 9 through 12. And as you're opening your Bibles, let me just say something that might not come as a big surprise to most of you. But I was not a great student as a young child.
I was a bad student as a young child. In fact, all the way up through sixth grade, I got terrible grades. I mean, we're talking the best I could do was a C once in a while. C's and D's were normal for me, and I didn't care. That's who I was because my sister, who came before me, was the smart one. She was the scholarly one. She was first in all of her classes. And all the teachers knew who Jan Posey was.
But then when Doug Posey came along, it was a little bit different identity for me because I wasn't a scholar. But then at one point in my life, when I got into seventh grade, something changed. By the way, that was the first year that Redwood Intermediate School, Redwood Middle School was open. That's how old I am. And I was in middle school, in the seventh grade at that point. I started in seventh grade.
And my sister had had a teacher that I heard a lot about. And I'd seen him a couple times. And she raved about this great teacher, Mr. Schmidt. And Mr. Schmidt was a good teacher. He had a great respect for my sister, being such a good student. And when I got to Redwood, to my surprise, they had put me in the higher achievers class. I thought, man, they made a mistake. I should be with those other guys.
But it was Mr. Schmidt teaching the class. And the first assignment that he gave was to just write a little paper on your summer vacation. What was your summer like? I just wrote something. When I got that paper back, it's He gave me an A. At first I said, what is that letter? But it was an A. And I thought, if I have an A now, right now I'm getting straight A's. And I can keep that going if I just change.
I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Mr. Schmidt. I didn't want to be known as the CD student. So I started working hard. That changed my behavior. And from then on, I was on the honor roll. A lot of things improved in my academics. I went on to college, and I've told you before, I graduated summa cum skin and teeth from college. And went on to graduate school, postgraduate school. And I look back, and I think it's really because of Mr.
Schmidt. He made a difference in my life that changed my identity. And that's what I want to talk about today. The big idea for this message today is that our identity as God's people should shape our conduct before the watching world. Do you see that as your number one identity? You are a child of God. You belong to Jesus. You are a Christian, a little Christ, and you reflect Christ to the world. Let's start by reading from 1 Peter, this passage we're going to look at today.
I'll read and you can listen along. It's from the ESV, beginning in verse 9, 1 Peter chapter 2. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Let's pray. Lord God, thank you for your word. We pray that as we look into your word, as we hear from you, Lord, that you would hearken our ears and our hearts to what you have to teach us and change us as a result.
That we may continue as your ambassadors. to effectively build your church. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, speaking of school, I remember being assigned to read a book called The Cost of Discipleship when I got to seminary. And that was my introduction to somebody named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And many of you are familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He became one of my favorite Christian heroes. He not only wrote the book, The Cost of Discipleship, but he exemplified the willingness to live out and to pay the cost of discipleship, the price for knowing Jesus and making him known.
During Hitler's reign in Germany, Bonhoeffer was persecuted for his faith, arrested, and eventually hanged at the age of just 39 years old. He had defied Hitler. He had defied the Nazis. He smuggled Jews over the border to safety. And he was involved in a plot to attempt to assassinate Hitler. He knew what it meant to identify with Christ and to suffer for Christ. And I think Bonhoeffer viewed his sufferings for Jesus as Paul viewed suffering.
If you look at Romans 8.18, you can just listen, if you would. Paul said this, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Do you believe that the suffering is worth it? Do you count the cost of being a Christian? Some people don't pay the price of being a Christian, not that that saves you, but they don't do it because it's too uncomfortable and they would rather the world not know that they identify with Christ.
But once you identify with Jesus, and that is the primary identity in your life, you will find that there are things in your life that cause you to grow, but they're not easy. They can be painful. And it can be any number of things, relationally, health-wise, socially, things that happen. But they're nothing compared to what God not only has in store for us, but what we experience in this life with Jesus.
It's an awesome thing. Jesus talks much about the cost of discipleship. He says, in this world you will have trouble. But then he says, take heart, I've overcome the world. He says, take up your cross and follow me. He says, referring to the life as a disciple, no one builds a barn without first counting the cost. So he talked a lot about counting the cost. And there is sacrifice, there is suffering, but none of that can compare to the riches, the benefits that we have now and in the future as those who belong to Christ.
And so today... We'll look at some of those riches. Today we'll look at some of those privileges, some of those benefits, and how knowing and believing that they are ours in Christ should change our lives here and now. We should live in light of who we are in Christ and have a mind for not only what he has for us here, but what he has in store for us. So as we look today, That first Peter chapter 2 will begin in verse 9, and I want to give you the exhortation, remember who you are.
Remember who you are, because that's what Peter's going to talk about as we get into that verse. And before we do, I want to ask you, who are you? Think about how you identify. If someone else were to proclaim your identity, what would be the first thing they would say? Who are you? People are prone to taking on other identities. From the time we are little children, we will pretend that we're somebody else.
When I was a little kid up through about age six, I didn't think I was Zorro, I was. I was Zorro. And I wore my Zorro outfit until it literally fell off of me. And then my friends in the neighborhood didn't even know who this new kid was because I didn't have a Zorro mask on. We tend to pretend to be other people as humans. My little granddaughter, the one who's here in California, I've got some in Texas and a couple grandkids here.
She says that she is, well, it depends on the day. One day she'll say, I'm Sophie. I had not heard of Sophie, but Sophie is a popular, you know who Sophie is, you other little kids. Popular cartoon character, Sophie. And if you call her by her name, which by the way is Autumn, she'll get upset. "I'm not Autumn, I'm Sophie!" But then the next day you might call her Sophie and she'll say, "I'm not Sophie, I'm Elsa!" Elsa's from Frozen.
And if any of you had kids that grew up in the last, what, how many years? 20 years at least, if Frozen's been around, You can't get that one song out of your mind. Don't do it. Don't do it. What is it? Don't do it. No. No. No. No. Now the rest of the day you're going to sing it. But you can blame Elsa for that. The grown people are pretending to be something they are not today. We see that in the news.
It's really laughable. They'll claim they're one thing when they clearly couldn't be that thing. But that is what they want [unclear], and they want to have that identity. And they expect you to treat them as if their chosen false identity is true. Peter has described, beginning up in verse 4, you guys have already looked at this, who we are. And some of those things included united with Christ.
In verse 4 it says we come to him, we're united with him. We're living stones. Jesus is the cornerstone, the precious cornerstone. And we, because of him, are living stones as the church is built. We are part of a spiritual house, the church. We have access directly to God through Christ. In verse 5, it talks about the royal priesthood, the holy priesthood. Being priest, by the way, means that you have constant and consistent access directly to God.
You don't have to go through another human priesthood As they had to do in the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement, where the priest would go into the Holy of Holies, and it was before the presence of God, and he had to ring a bell constantly, because if the bell stopped ringing, that meant he'd been consumed by the presence of God. We don't have to worry about that. We can go directly before God because we are priests.
It's the kingdom of priests. We have security in Christ. That was in verse 6. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. And we have special affection for Christ, a special love relationship. If we truly identify with Christ, we love him so much. He is our precious cornerstone. We love him. We love his word. We love the people of God. We love building his church. We have a special affection for Christ.
In verse 8, Peter has described those who stumble over Christ, those who stumble over that cornerstone that we consider precious. He said this in verse 8, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. And then we finally come to verse 9. And he says this, but you. You know, I love those words. When you see but you or but God in the Bible, that's a good thing.
That's a turning point. It's something very positive. But you are a chosen race. That's good. The word in Greek is genos, which is the word from which we get genealogy. It's like a family relationship. We are a chosen race, a people, as it describes that in verse 10. Not identified by skin color, not identified by language, not identified by geography or history, but simply identified by having been chosen by God through Christ.
That is part of our identity. We are a chosen people. And God referred, of course, to Israel as a chosen people as well in a very similar way. Deuteronomy 10, yet the Lord has set his heart and love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them. You above all peoples as you are this day. He chose you. We can't take credit for the fact that we are here today. God is sovereign and before the foundations of the world, he chose you.
And as you no doubt heard here, God chooses whom he chooses because he chooses to choose them. He's God. And he makes the choice. Our job is to make the choice and ignite what God has planned for us in our lives. In Isaiah 43, 20 and 21, my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. That's why we're here too. He's talking about Israel, but we are here as a chosen people to declare his praise.
This does not nullify the promises that he made to Israel. Those promises have been and will continue to be fulfilled through his chosen people, Israel. The Lord has not forgotten Israel. Let me read you something that makes it very clear. In Isaiah chapter 49, it says, But Zion said, referring to God's people, The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me. And then Isaiah says, Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Can that happen with a mother? Come on. But even though they may forget, yet I, God says, will not forget you. Because he chose us. He chose them. He hasn't forgotten Israel, and he won't forget us. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me. I have a couple of scars on my hand right here. Looks like a shark bite. [unclear] But it was really surgery I had back when I was probably 23, 24 years old because of getting a blister on my hand when I was doing physical labor in a construction work.
And I got a blister. That thing got infected. My hand swelled up so much they had to cut it open and drain it for four days in the hospital. Which is why I became a pastor. But these scars are a reminder every time I look at my hand of what happened. And imagine what God's saying here. I've carved you, engraved you on the palms of my hands.
He's not going to forget Israel and he's not going to forget us.
We've been chosen, elected, predestined. Why? Why? Not based on our choices, but on his because he knew ahead of time. Now some people say it's because he knew ahead of time that we'd be making the decision we made to accept Christ. Is that why we're chosen? Because he knew we would choose him? Well, he did know, obviously. But that's not why he chose us. We chose him because he chose us before the foundations of the earth.
We were already chosen. As Paul said in Romans 9-11. And Paul's explaining how Jacob was chosen over his older brother Esau. And in 9-11 of Romans, he says, though they were not yet born and had nothing either good or bad, had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue. Not because of works. but because of him who calls. We cannot look back at anything and say he chose me because I chose him.
He chose me because he knew what a great person I'd be.
He wants me in the kingdom. All the credit goes to him. We cannot take pride in choosing Christ for the credit for that God gets the credit. I believe his choices are activated when we choose Christ. So you belong to a chosen people. That's the first part of your identity that Peter talks about here in these verses. Second part of verse 9, you belong to a royal priesthood. Royal priesthood. What is that?
That's a priesthood that is both royal and priesthood. Kind of like Melchizedek. Remember the story of Melchizedek? We are a royal priesthood because we serve the king. We serve alongside the king in eternity. We have dominion with the king. And so we are serving the king and we rule with the king. In 1 Peter 2.5, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We are royal reigning with Christ. and a priesthood because we offer sacrifices to Christ and we have direct access to God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 3, Paul has been talking about Christians who take other Christians to court before the secular courts. And he's saying to the Corinthians, you shouldn't do that. And one of the reasons he gives is in verse 3, he says, Do you not know that we are to judge angels?
In other words, one day we will rule with Christ and we will judge angels. Angels, how much more than matters pertaining to this life? Why would you take another Christian before a secular court when one day you'll be judging angels because you belong to a royal priesthood? We're priests because we need not go through a man to get to Christ. We are kings because Because we will rule with the king of kings over whatever we're assigned in heaven.
So you belong to a chosen people. You belong to a royal priesthood. And third, you're part of a holy nation. Part of a holy nation. Holy means set apart from all others and set apart from sin unto holiness. Set apart from the world unto God. It doesn't matter where you live. In this world, if you are in Christ, you are a citizen of heaven. And that's where your home is. Philippians 3.20 says, Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember that old song, This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid out somewhere beyond the blue. That's where we live. Keep that in mind. When things happen to you here, when you do suffer for Christ, you need to be reminded that this is not all there is and something's coming that's much better. And I'm already a citizen of Christ. You are a chosen people. You are a royal priesthood.
a holy nation. And fourth, you are God's own possession. Peter says you are a people for his own possession. We're set apart for God, we're holy, we belong to him, but we literally are his possession. It means that God has preserved you for himself. Everyone serves somebody. Everyone has a master. Everyone has a master. We belong to God, and therefore he is our master. Do you have other masters in your life that tell you what to do, and you do it?
Think about it. Christ is our master. You are God's own possession. I remember Bob Dylan way back in the 70s, a great theologian. He wrote some good songs. There's [unclear] of practicing faith in Christ. And he wrote this. You may be an ambassador to England or France. You may like to gamble. You might like to dance. You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.
But you're going to have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed, you're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil himself. Or it may be the Lord. But you're going to have to serve somebody. You have a choice of who you serve. And people become slaves to all kinds of people and things, but you are bought and paid for by Christ, and you and I are to serve him. He is our master. Amen? So remember who you are.
You are a chosen people. a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession. And the second major point is remember why you're here. Remember why you're here. People will often ask, how can I know why I'm here? How can I determine God's will for my life? What's God's will for my life? Should I go to that school? Should I marry that person? What's God's will? Should I buy that house? Should I buy that car?
What's God's will for my life?
How can I find out?
Well, it's right here. God's will can be found for the most part right here in God's Word. And if you're busy doing what He has called us to do, You'll find that all the other things kind of fall into place. In fact, all those other things are details. If we focus on following Christ and serving Him and building our identity in Christ, everything else is just details. And you don't need to worry about it.
Jesus reminded us of that in Matthew 6, verse 33. He said, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What do you seek first? God's kingdom, God's righteousness. And he says, and all these things will be added to you. They're just details. Remember why you're here. You're here to work on your identity in Christ and be a witness for Christ. Seeking first his kingdom. You're here to let people know about God.
He goes on to say in verse 9, that you may proclaim the excellencies, the virtues, the attributes of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Do you talk about God to people? Do you know what to say? Some of us don't talk about God because we're afraid we don't know what to say. And sometimes you'll run into people who don't believe in God. You might talk to somebody who says, I don't believe in God.
And if you ask them why, what's the obstacle to your faith in God, they almost always start with a sentence that begins, because I can't believe in a God who, and then fill in a blank. And half the time, the way you describe God, you couldn't believe in that God either, because they're just wrong. And they need to be educated. I can't believe in a God who would allow pain and suffering. I can't believe in a God who would take away my Gertrude.
Guess what? God didn't take away Gertrude. Death did. And we have death for a reason. You want to know why? You can tell them about it. I can't believe in a God who would send people to hell. Well, that's not the God I know either. He didn't send people. I can't believe in a God who would. Be able to tell them who the true God is. Let people know about God. Remember why you're here. To let people know about God.
It's great to have great theology. You articulate theology and truth and always give an answer to somebody who asks you to explain the hope you have. That's good. We should work on those things. But guess what? We all have a story. We all have a story to tell about God in our lives. What has God done in your life Tell people. Tell people. They can't argue with that. God did this for me. No, he didn't.
No, they can't argue with that. This is what God has done for you. And Peter goes on to say in verse 10, this is what God has done for you. Here's your story. Once you were a people, but now, once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Love that but now. Tell your but now story. You know, once I was a jerk. But now.
But now I hope you're not a jerk.
Once I was blind, but now I see. Once I was lost, but now I'm found. Once I was selfish, but now. Once I was dishonest. Once I was addicted. Once I was violent, but now. Tell them what God has done. How has God changed your life? Tell your story. That's part of why we're here. We're here to tell people about God. We're here to tell our faith story. And don't just proclaim God with words. You also can proclaim him with actions.
Number three is reflect Jesus in your choices. Reflect Jesus in your choices. First, choose to be obedient to God. Look at verse 11. 11, I urge you. Now notice Paul does not say, I suggest. I recommend. Hey, it might be a good idea. He says, I urge you. That is a very high priority, the way he's expressing it. It needs to happen. I urge you as sojourners. We're sojourners. Where's our home? What's our citizenship?
In heaven, we're aliens here. We're wanderers, we're sojourners in a foreign land. We are exiles. So as exiles, as citizens of heaven, live a certain way when you're before a watching world. Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. He makes a heartfelt and earnest appeal to us. Abstain. And evidently that's something over which we do have control. Because that's a choice.
To pull away from something and then pull toward something else. Abstain. Pull toward God's standards as long as you're in this world. As long as you're here, you are at war. It's a war. You go out every day into battle. And if you're not prepared with the full armor of God, you're going to get riddled with darts from the evil one. And that dart sticks in your skull. Anybody ever had that happen? Not comfortable.
You could have avoided it if you had the helmet on. The helmet of salvation. Put on the full armor of God every day you go out into a battlefield. It's a war we're in. There are two sides to every battle, two sides to every war. And I want to give you an illustration that's really old. It's so old that I remember it from when I was a little kid. But it's stood me in good stead over the years. I always think about this when I think about the battle between the flesh and the spirit inside.
And it goes like this. A young man once described a battle he was having with an old habit. He said it felt like carrying two voices inside him. One voice said, just this once. Nobody will know. You deserve it. And the other said, walk away. You know where this leads. And he imagined the two voices as two wolves fighting inside of him. One was fed by his impulses, the desire for pleasure and comfort, recognition and immediate satisfaction.
The other was fed by prayer, scripture, obedience, and the desire to honor God. One day, an older Christian listened to him describe the struggle and asked which wolf is going to win. The young man thought for a moment and he said, probably the one I feed. And the older man nodded, exactly. The one you feed. Another way of saying it is that it's a war and the army that is well fed and well equipped will always defeat the starving, ill-equipped army.
Which side do you feed the most and which side do you equip? And obedience can be a private endeavor because Looking at all of you here today, you all look very spiritual. So I imagine you are. But I don't know your private life. God does. And many of us have private sins that we have not actually done anything about because nobody else knows. They can't see it. But God sees it. And so for those who have that as an issue,
Obedience might be private, and abstaining might be a private choice. That doesn't change our obligation to choose obedience. But there's a public side to obedience too. Peter goes on to say to choose publicly to honor God. Choose publicly to honor God in verse 12. He says, keep your conduct among the Gentiles. Gentiles just refers to unbelievers because most of the believers there were, in that day, were Jewish.
And so he refers to unbelievers as Gentiles. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. The Gentiles or the world has a different definition of what behavior is honorable. When you watch the news or you watch TV or some of these crime shows that we like to watch, you can't believe the moral standards that people have. Completely different from what we would consider morality. But somehow they miraculously know how Christians should act.
And the minute you blow it, they're going to let you know. It reminds me of my kids. When my kids were growing up, it's hard to be a pastor and have a family. Isn't it? When my kids were growing up, you know, I'm not perfect. I know that comes as a shock to you. I'm not. And sometimes in my home, I might do something like raise my voice, say a word I shouldn't say, have an attitude I shouldn't have.
And one of my kids would inevitably Say, real good, Pastor. The world is watching, and they're waiting to point the finger at Christians. So keep your conduct among the unbelievers, among the Gentiles, honorable, Peter says. So that when, he doesn't say if, notice, he says when they speak against you as evildoers. In other words, the world is, at some point, not going to like you. And go so far as to believe the way you believe and the people that you hang around with are evil.
They're evildoers. And they're doing things that we would consider evil. But when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. They're watching. The world is watching you. And the Christians in Peter's day, one of the reasons he wrote these letters, is they were experiencing persecution because the world hated Christians. They were being persecuted, so he writes to them to tell them how to respond in light of persecution.
And if we respond honorably, some at least will see our good deeds, and then on the day of visitation, on Judgment Day, at the return of Christ, at the And when God is overseeing the issues concerning mankind, these people will be in a place because of your example to glorify God. Wouldn't that be awesome? And you didn't even know that you affected that person's life in that way, but just because you responded in a godly fashion when they expected you to respond with anger or some other sinful response.
You've got them thinking about the truth that you believe. That's awesome. We're not here to hide our faith. We're not here to keep our faith a private thing. Oh, my faith is a private thing. I don't want to talk about my faith. I don't want to push my faith on people. I don't wear my faith on my sleeve. I almost wrote, I love Jesus on this sleeve. Because I'd like to wear my faith on my sleeve. I want people to know what I believe, and I want to back it up with obedience to Christ.
Jesus said that we don't light a lamp and put it under a basket, but we take the basket off and let light shine in the household. Then he said in Matthew 5.16, In the same way, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. That is the result of our good works. Not a pat on the back for us. We may not ever see that here, this side of heaven.
But the fact that somebody else is watching and it may lead them to glory to God. Glorify your Father who is in heaven. Both Peter and Jesus describe this progression. It starts with good works, which leads to unbelievers see them, which leads to God receives the glory. Good works, unbelievers see them, and God receives the glory. Let the world see the difference that God's made in your life. That's your identity in Christ.
That's our identity in Christ. Identity is reflected in behavior. When I was in middle school, when my identity changed, my grades changed. My work habit changed. I actually did homework, which I've never done before. You change if your identity changes in behavior, private and public. So, remember who you are. You're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession. Live like it.
Remember why you're here. You're here to proclaim Christ in word and deed and reflect Jesus in your choices. Your identity in Christ is not because of what you've done. It's because of what he's done. By his grace, you can never feel proud because you did it, but you can seek to live as if you're truly thankful that he did it.
He chose you.
Are you happy about that? Isn't that an awesome thing? He chose you.
Let's pray.