The Doctrine Of Election - Part 4

It comes out of an email this week on Thanksgiving. The fourth pastoral observation about the doctrine of election is when a person embraces – I use the word carefully – not just believes, not just affirms, but embraces and is embraced by the doctrine of free, gracious election, radical, loving, risk-taking ministry and missions are unleashed. Now I could give you lots of examples. I'm going to give you one straight off the mission field this week, but I could talk about William Carey, Adnan Judson, David Livingston, John Patton, George Mueller, Charles Spurgeon, and Jonathan Edwards, all of whom loved the doctrine of unconditional election, were embraced by it and gave their lives away for poor people and for the gospel. But I'm going to use Kristen Carlson as my example. Raise your hand if you know Kristen. What is she, 22, 21, 23, somewhere in there, I don't know. She's in Zambia, and she's working with street children, and she's out with Action International, who, by the way, is led by Doug Nichols. And if you want to get around somebody whose belief in the doctrine of election has driven him to crazy and wonderful things, get around Doug Nichols, because when he had cancer and got colostomy, he got on a jet and went to Rwanda against his Jewish surgeon's advice. And he called the Jewish surgeon from Rwanda, who was helping the massive problem there a few years ago, and he said, hey, this is Doug, where are you? Rwanda. You're supposed to be dead. I'm not dead yet, and if I am, what a great way to go. That's the kind of guy who leads Action International, with whom Kristen is in Zambia, and this is what she wrote Thanksgiving morning from Zambia. First of all, I am thankful for God's unfathomable grace in choosing me. I have done nothing to deserve this, and I continually marvel at my Father's goodness to me. The reason I am thankful to be chosen is because I know what I have been chosen for. Chosen to proclaim the excellencies of God. Chosen to be eternally satisfied in God through Jesus. Chosen to live in light and not darkness. Chosen to taste and see that he is good. Now, some of you do not have a clue what she's talking about. Because you've grown up all your life outside the doctrine, looking at it, suspicious of it. You've been taught it's either untrue or unhelpful, and so you've kind of looked around it, then forgot about it, then looked around it, then forgot about it, then looked at it and said no, no. And here you're hearing a message, maybe for the first time, from somebody who's inside the doctrine. Who's wearing it as a magnificent, life-giving, ministry-producing, humbling, hope-giving cloak. You're hearing the unimaginable from your prior standpoint. You've got to hear the rest of it. I'm thankful that God chose Vasco, a hard, ignorant, rebellious street kid, out of darkness into his marvelous light. And the fruit I already see in Vasco's life is testimony to his abiding in Jesus divine. I am thankful for God's overflowing goodness in the past year. What an amazing work to be a part of, becoming friends with street kids and sharing the only lasting hope with them. And as an insert here, I am thankful for the heart of God. I am thankful for the heart God has given me for these kids. Objectively speaking, I know it's not normal to love treading through garbage piles and sitting on plush couches, parenthesis, a small metal object with a piece of cardboard on top for a seat, close parenthesis, with dirty, smelly kids, but so it is, I love it. The doctrine of election, first when it is embraced and when it embraces you, first unleashes radical, sacrificial, risk-taking love. Then it opens your eyes to see that beauty did not come from you, so that you give all praise to God. And you might ask, is that biblical? Does the Bible teach that the doctrine of election is supposed to have that kind of effect, or is that just Christian, she's your authority? Here's the text that teaches it. Colossians 3:12, put on then, Bethlehem, put on then as God's elect, holy and loved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearing with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. All that that begins with, as God's elect, put that on, there must be a connection in other words. That's what he's saying. I'm speaking to you as the elect. If you wore this, if you put this on, if this were precious to you, if you saw this, if you crawled into the grace, instead of just suspiciously watching it from the outside, all these things would be born in your life. Zambia, street kids, dirty, smelly, precious street kids being reached because she has been overwhelmed by grace as she understands it in unconditional election. Here's one other verse that helps get at the dynamics of how it works. Listen to Paul. You remember this in Romans 8? This is verse 33. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. What's the point of a rhetorical question like that? He looks out, as it were, over the congregation there in Rome and he says, Who can bring any charge against God's elect? Now what are we supposed to feel when he says that? We're supposed to feel assurance, joy, encouragement, boldness, Kristen Carlson-like readiness to take risks. That's what we're supposed to feel. Election is not given to us to make us controversial. It's not given to fight. It's given for missions. It's given for humility. It's given to make us compassionate and kind and forgiving. Finally, I close with one last brief pastoral thought. Do not think of election apart from Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:3 God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. In other words, when God planned salvation,