Jason Helopoulos

We, the church, are the beloved of God.

You notice...

That God is the active person.

It is where the ones that are acted upon.

Christians are the recipients, the beloved of God the Father.

He's the actor.

He's the initiator.

Why did he choose to call you?

Because he loved you.

There's that wonderful passage, Deuteronomy 6, the great Shema, where God is walking through Israel, the thing that will mark them more than anything else as the people set apart for God, you know, that they have one God.

And then you get to Deuteronomy 7, and Deuteronomy 7, one of my favorite passages, where God

They are being spoken to, and Moses is speaking to them about this fact that they have been set apart by God for God.

And he says this, he says, "'For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.'"

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasure possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Why is it that he chose them instead of the Canaanites?

Why did he choose them instead of the Egyptians?

Why did he choose them instead of the Chinese?

And Moses has one answer.

Because the Lord loves you.

You're beloved.