God says he has chosen you and ordained you that you would go and bring forth fruit and your fruit shall remain; amen?  Think about that word for a moment.  Chosen, out of billions of people, hallelujah! God saw beginning to end in our lives and chose us.  It doesn’t mean we’re all going to finish this course in right standing, but He chose to give you this opportunity.  What are we going to do with it?  What are we going to invest back into bringing glory to Him, to establishing His kingdom on the earth?

John 16:1-3, says, “These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended.  They shall put you out of their synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God’s service.  And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  It didn’t say they don’t know of the Father, it didn’t say they don’t know who the Father is, it’s that they don’t have communion with Him (the Greek word is ginosko), they don’t have that intimate relationship.  Because of that, He says they will kill you and believe they are doing God’s service.  All the religious rituals, all of the mindset of religion today, we all know what it is; religion is based upon this kind of a thought process, “Well, my good deeds outweigh my evil deeds.” That’s why you will hear people talk, it doesn’t matter who you’re talking to, you could be talking to Mormons, you could be talking to Muslims, you can be talking to those that are of some of the Eastern religions and it’s based upon, “How good can I possibly be?”  Well, you could be the most moral person that walks the face of the earth and no one even comes close to what you’ve produced, and in the presence of a holy God your righteousness is as filthy rags; amen?  The reality is you can’t be good enough to get into God’s presence.  How tragic it is that people are doing the best they can do and some are very serious about their pursuit and trying to be kinder and trying to be more moral and trying to be more benevolent, whatever it might be, and they’re just filth in the eyes of God.

Hallelujah!  Aren’t you glad you’ve been made right with God through Jesus’ righteousness and not your own?  Do you have that assurance that you’re right with God?  “Well, I can’t know for sure.”  But the Bible says you can know for sure; amen?  You can know that you’re right with God.  We can bring this love message of grace; by grace we’re saved through faith; amen?  They hate that because in their own self-righteousness they want to produce something on their own.  The better we try to make ourselves, the more self-righteous we become.  The more Law we keep, the more we want to bring everybody around us under the Law.  The religious people can’t stand it when they see a man walking free in the spirit, that can stand and say with all confidence, “I’m accepted in the beloved, sin no longer has dominion over me, I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.”  These people will hate us.  They hated Jesus because He came and lived a life of obedience and made them continue to realize they are guilty in their sin.  He revealed their sin through His righteousness and obedience and that’s why they hated Him.  And they are going to hate us.  These are the things that are going to bring persecution our way.  What are we going to do to prepare ourselves?