By Pastor Raul Granillo

But you are a chosen people… (1 Peter 2:9 NIV)

When my elementary school P.E. teacher told us we would be playing a team sport I would always throw out a quick prayer. “Dear God, please let our teacher pick me as a team captain.”

I did this because I knew that if I wasn’t chosen as a team captain then I would have to stand in the ranks and go through the torturous practice of being “picked”. I wasn’t athletic, and I wasn’t popular, so you can imagine how that went down for me. And when I was in school, your draft position said a great deal about what others thought of your talent or potential. This was often heartbreaking for me, but it did cause me to try all the harder so that I might get bumped up the line next time.

When we choose just about anything, we make our choice based upon what that person or thing can offer us in comparison to something else. A great deal of money is spent everyday advertising why a person or thing is a better choice than another. For most people, making the right choice can be painstaking and even nerve-wrecking because we don’t want our agenda to fail simply because we made a poor choice. Even in Christian churches we spend a great deal of our resources trying to explain why God is a better choice than no god or another god, or even why our church is better than the one down the road.

This mentality is so ingrained within us that it can affect how we think about our relationship with God. When everything we know about choices says that they should be made on their ability to benefit us or our agenda, why would we hope that God would think any differently? And if this is the case, then there are some of us who may feel as if there is no hope that God would ever choose us, because our track record is one of failure and maybe we have nothing to bring to the table.

The reality is that no one has anything to “bring to the table.” God has never chosen any person, nation, or thing based upon their ability to benefit God or His agenda. He is all powerful, and so He has no real need for anyone. Instead, God chooses us, out of a deep love for us. He wants to give us potential, in order to transform us into beings that have a real ability to play on His team. And the good news about that is that God wants everyone on His team (2 Peter 3:9; Ezekiel 18:32)!

He doesn’t pick us based upon our talents; instead, He gives us talents in order to do great things through us. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29 NIV).

If you are serving God, please don’t think you are great by your own merit; but instead know that you have a great responsibility to become the person He has called you to be. All are equal before the cross, and being on His team means you have accepted the invitation for Him to give you His potential.

If you don’t serve God, please know that He loves and desires you and calls you even now. There is nothing that you have ever done that would prevent your Creator from putting you on His team and making you into

the amazing person He created you to be. It’s not about what you have done, but what He will do through you. There should be no fear that God would not pick you—He already has, will you accept?

To find out more about La Vista Church, or to hear this and other messages, visit our website at www.lavistanaz.org or email me at raul@lavistanaz.org. Follow Pastor Raul on Twitter @RaulGranillo007

Please come join us as we fix our eyes on Jesus. We meet Sundays at 9 a.m. for Sunday school and 10 a.m. for worship. Everyone is welcome!