Chosen, Royal And Holy Series

INTRO.- ILL.- A guy had been feeling down for so long that he finally decided to seek the aid of a psychiatrist.

He went there, lay on the couch, spilled his guts then waited for the profound wisdom of the psychiatrist to make him feel better.

The psychiatrist asked a few questions, took some notes then sat thinking in silence for a few minutes with a puzzled look on his face.

Suddenly, he looked up with an expression of delight and said, "Um, I think your problem is low self-esteem. It is very common among losers."

Well thank you very much for telling me I’m a loser! No wonder I feel so bad. DID YOU EVER FEEL THAT WAY?

ILL.- A very homely person made an appointment with a psychiatrist. The homely person walked into the doctor’s office and said, "Doctor, I’m so depressed and lonely. I don’t have any friends, no one will come near me, and everybody laughs at me. Can you help me accept my ugliness?"

"I’m sure I can." the psychiatrist replied. "Just go over and lie face down on that couch."

ILL.- Mary was having a tough day and had stretched herself out on the couch to do a bit of what she thought to be well-deserved complaining and self- pitying. She moaned to her mom and brother, "Nobody loves me ... the whole world hates me!"

Her brother, busily occupied playing a game, hardly looked up at her and passed on this encouraging word: "That’s not true, Mary. Some people don’t even know you."

Did you ever feel like nobody loved you or cared about you? Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I think I’ll go eat worms.

Take heart! There is someone who cares for you.

ILL.- A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. "I couldn’t read it," the friend explained. "Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." "Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!"

His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn’t have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German."

Brothers and sisters, that’s you! Whether you realize it or not, you have the writing on Christ on you, in fact, all over you! Consequently, that’s what makes you far more valuable than you could ever imagine!

While we often devalue ourselves, God values us highly in spite of who we are or what we’ve done or even what we haven’t done for Him!

ILL.- When my son stopped doing his wild thing and went back to church, he used to say to me, "Dad, I don’t know how God could ever forgive me for what I’ve done." I said, "Son, I forgive you. I don’t hold anything against you. And don’t you think God is greater than your daddy?"

Oh yes, he is far greater than any earthly daddy! No comparison. Therefore, His love for us is far greater than ours could ever be! And He loves us far more than we will ever know in this life. Our text gives us an idea of how important we are and how we are to be.

PROP.- Let’s examine this text about how important we are: Chosen, royal, and holy.

1- We are a chosen people

2- We are a royal priesthood

3- We are a holy nation

I. WE ARE A CHOSEN PEOPLE

9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

ILL.- One day a sergeant came into the barracks and asked if any of his men knew shorthand. The recruits thought that it would be easy duty and all of them raised their hands. "Good," said the sergeant, "They’re SHORTHANDED in the mess hall!"

Most of us are not chosen as special or for anything special in life. And I suppose in the armed service you don’t want t be quick to raise your hand to volunteer for anything.

Sometimes we feel like we are only chosen for the lowly things of life: lowly positions, duties, jobs, etc.

ILL.- When I was just a kid, however, I won an electric train at a local grocery store in Webb City, MO, at their grand opening. They had a drawing and I won! And of course, I was one excited kid.