Hi, it's David Platt. Have you signed up for Secret Church 25 yet? It's happening online, April 11th,

and I would love for you to join us. We're going to spend six hours together studying the book of

Matthew, discovering how to make our lives count for what matters most, and praying for our

persecuted family around the world. Prices go up after February 25th, so register today at radical.net slash

SC25. I'd love to see you there. Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen

you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the

earth. What a verse. God's speaking to his people in the Old Testament and basically describing how much he loves them.

And he makes clear to them in this whole chapter that he does not love them because of some level of merit in them that they've done to earn his love.

He loves them, not because of merit in them, but because of

mercy in him. He says, it's not that you are a morally exemplary people. It's not like you went

through tryouts among all the peoples of the earth, and I chose you because you were this or you

were that. God says, I simply chose you

because I love you. I've chosen you to be a people for my treasured possession out of all the

peoples who are on the face of the earth. And this is a consistent theme we see throughout scripture. God, calling, choosing people

who are not worthy of being chosen or called because of merit in them, but solely because of mercy

in God. And this is a theme that transfers over right into the New Testament.

When Jesus says to his disciples, you do not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit,

fruit that lasts. And Paul writes in Ephesians 1, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world

To be predestined for adoption as his children.

What a thought!

Just let this soak in, follower of Jesus.

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