INTRO.- The nobility of you and me. Nobility doesn’t sound like a big deal to us. Nobility sounds like someone who is royal, high and mighty, wealthy, great, powerful, or perhaps someone who is a celebrity. Do any of these adjectives fit you? Are there any celebrities here today?
ILL.- When Richard Nixon was Vice President (1953-61 under Eisenhower) he enjoyed relating an incident that took place at the Boy Scout Jamboree at Valley Forge. Practically every scout there had a camera and was trying to get a picture of the Vice President. One little fellow was as anxious as anyone else, but after snapping three shots he closed his camera and said, “That’s all my budget allows for Vice Presidents.”
That’s about how I feel about most celebrities today. There are not many that I want to take a picture of or perhaps even go see not even if they came to our town!
ILL.- Mark Twain was a distinguished-looking figure in his later years. One day he was strolling in the park when a little girl pattered up to him and asked if she could walk with him. Highly flattered, Twain told her stories for an hour, then gave her a nickel and said, “Now run along home—and when you grow up you can tell your friends you once walked with Mark Twain.” “Mark Twain!” echoed the little girl, bursting into tears. “I thought you were Buffalo Bill!”
Brothers and sisters, some people might relish the idea of being a celebrity, others would prefer to be hidden, behind the scenes, so to speak and perhaps just lead the so-called ordinary life. No fan-fare, no paparazzi following us.
ILL.- In one “Peanuts” comic strip one of the female small fry came to Charlie Brown and said, “Yes sir, Charlie Brown, Abraham Lincoln was a great man."
"Charlie Brown, would you like to have been Abraham Lincoln?”
“Well, now, I don’t think so,” he replied slowly; “I am having a hard enough time being just plain old Charlie Brown....”
I think this is true for most of us. We have a hard enough time just being ourselves without trying to be somebody else. Some day it’s tough to be you, to go to work, to serve people, to love others, to love your family, etc.
God does not expect us to be someone else or fill someone else’s shoes, but He does expect us to make full use of our God-given abilities and to live a life of faithfulness before Him. Now in regard to your nobility and mine, there is something to this. WE ARE ROYALTY! At least, in the sight of God.
I Peter 2:9-10 "But 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. Once 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."
We are royalty! A royal people who belong to God and who live for Him! Because of whose we are, we are royalty!
Now that may not sound very exciting to some of you, but when you stop and think in terms of eternity, being royal in sight of God sounds pretty good! Some day we will leave this world and the only thing that will allow us into God’s heaven is our connection to Him through Jesus Christ! I WOULD SAY THAT’S PRETTY ROYAL!
In our text, Paul said that the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians. What made them that way and what will make even more noble in the sight of God?
PROP.- From this text, let’s think about how to be more noble than others in the sight of God.
1- We must receive the message
2- We must examine the scriptures
3- We must present the Word
I. WE MUST RECEIVE THE MESSAGE
11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness."
ILL.- One time a southerner was in New York on business. I’m not sure what business a southerner would have in New York though! But he did, nevertheless. And while he was in New York he went to church on Sunday morning. As the preacher got wound up so did the southerner and he shouted an "Amen" or two.
The preacher wasn’t used to such interruptions and it was obvious that he was a bit disturbed. One of the church deacons noticed this and went to the stranger and whispered, "You’re upsetting the minister. You’ll have to be quiet." The southerner nodded his consent.
A few minutes later, however, the southerner got caught up in the sermon again and shouted another "Amen." The deacon came back to him and said, "Now listen, you’ll have to be quiet." The southerner said, "I can’t help it. I got religion." The deacon said, "Well, you didn’t get it here so shut up!"
Are we in the south? No, we’re in northern Arkansas so I guess it’s excusable that we don’t say "Amen" occasionally in church.
What has happened to our excitement when it comes to the message of God? Why don’t we hear any "amens" any more? Are we afraid of what others will think? Or is it that we have no fire within us?
ILL.- A little boy was playing with his blocks when his father entered the room. “Quiet dad, I’m building a church.” The father, thinking that he would test his son along the lines of religious knowledge, said, “Why do we want to be quiet at church?” “We have to, because the people are sleeping.”
ILL.- The cartoon shows a little boy sitting beside his father and mother at church. The little boy said to his father: “Mom wants to cook the dinner, you want to play golf, I want to play football. Why are we here?” Is this why we have no fire within?
ILL.- It’s exactly like what old preacher Vance Havner said: “The same church members who yell like Commanche Indians at a ball game on Saturday, sit like wooden Indians in church on Sunday.”
We can really get excited about ball games and certain things in life, but where is our fire for God and His message? If anything, instead of being excited, we’re negative and critical.
Some go to church just for a walk,
Some go to church to laugh and talk,
Some go there the time to spend,
Some go there to meet a friend.
Some go there for speculation—
Some go there for observation,
Some go there to doze and nod,
Some, how few, to worship God.
Brothers and sisters, what has happened to our fire, our eagerness for God? Whatever happened to: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD"? And if we’ve truly lost our fire, how do we get it back?
Romans 12:11 "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."
Acts 13:52 "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."
One way to get your fire back or to get fired up for the Lord is to ask for this fire! "Father, fill me with joy and your Holy Spirit." "Fill me with fire and your Holy Spirit."
II. WE MUST EXAMINE THE SCRIPTURES
11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
How well do you know the scriptures. Do you examine the Scriptures to see if what I say is true?
ILL.- The young man came to his father with the question, “Dad, is the moon really made out of green cheese?” The father, busy with his newspaper, replied, “Go read the Bible and see.” Soon the boy was back with the answer, saying, “It isn’t made out of green cheese, Dad.” Interested now, the father asked, “How do you know it isn’t?" “Because the Bible says God made the moon the fourth day and that He didn’t make cows until the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:16, 24)
Wouldn’t it be great if we checked out everything in life with scripture? That is, we compared everything with what the Word of God says!
ILL.- A little boy saw his father use a square to see if a board he was planing was straight. “Why are you so careful, Daddy?” asked the boy. “We can’t guess in carpenter work,” his dad said. “You have to be just right. People guess at too many things. God does not like that way of living.”
“I guess there are no squares for living by,” said the boy. “Yes, there are squares to live by, and you will find them in the Bible. Test all that you do by them, and you go straight in life, my boy.”
God has given us His Word as a square to live by! So that we’ll know what is right and what is wrong and choose what is right.
And more importantly, God has given us His Word so that we can know Him and be saved eternally!
ILL.- Preacher Dwight L. Moody once said: “If all the time I have spent praying for faith was put together it would be months. I thought that someday faith was going to come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not come. Then one day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.’ I had closed my Bible, and prayed for ‘faith.’ I now opened my Bible and began to read God’s Word, and faith has been growing ever since.” (Romans 10:17) We MUST examine the scriptures daily if we want to know God and get our fire back!
ILL.- A circuit riding preacher entered one church building with his young son, and dropped a coin into the offering box in the back. Not many came that Sunday, and those who did didn’t seem too excited about what was said. After the service, the preacher and son walked to the back, and he emptied the box. Out fell one coin. The young boy said, "Dad, if you’d have put more in, you’d have gotten more out!" This is true of scripture as well. The more time we put into it, the more we’ll get out of it!
II Timothy 2:15-16 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of
truth."
II Timothy 3:13-17 "While evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
The way to get our fire back and get more noble in the sight of God is by getting into the Word of God!
III. WE MUST PRESENT THE WORD
12Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. 13When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.
ILL.- A preacher was on a program at a district convention to preach for twenty minutes. The other preachers from the district were sitting behind him in the choir section, giving him moral support and throwing in an occasional "Amen" to help the preacher along. The preacher preached his twenty minutes and continued on despite his alloted time. He preached for 30 minutes, then forty minutes and then for an hour. He even continued for an hour and ten minutes.
Finally, a brother sitting on the front row took a song book and threw it at the preacher that was still going strong in his message. The preacher saw the song book as it was hurled his way and he ducked. The song book hit one of the preachers sitting in the choir section. As the man in the choir section was going down, you could hear him say, "Hit me again, I can still hear him preaching!"
Brothers and sisters, can you believe an hour and ten minute sermon? No, thank you. I don’t think that’s the kind of preaching that would turn on most people. And our purpose should be to turn people on to God and His Word, and to the message of the gospel of Christ!
In our text, whenever Paul preached the Word of God many people believed the message. WHAT ABOUT US? Are we even preaching or presenting the message to others outside the church? If not, how do we expect people to believe and respond to Christ?
Cup Of Sugar Led To Salvation
Needing a cup of sugar,
I knocked at my neighbor’s door;
I meant to stay only a minute,
But lingered an hour or more.
For there on the kitchen table
An open Bible lay,
And she put down her work and read to me;
Then we bowed down our heads to pray.
I gave my life to the Savior
As we knelt by her kitchen chair.
How I thank the Lord for a neighbor
Who has more than sugar to share.
Do we not a have a message to share with others? Doesn’t the message of Christ apply to all people? If so, how can we share it with others? What’s our motivation that will get us to talking to others?
ILL.- I remember well the day when my mother, my dad and I were in their living room in Webb City, MO, many years ago. And mother said, "I need to bring daddy up there to have him baptized." My dad immediately said, "You got to get the head right first."
Brothers and sisters, my dad was never baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At least, not as far as I know.
I don’t know that my dad ever asked Jesus to forgive him, to come into heart, etc. I don’t know if my dad ever publicly confessed his faith in Christ as Jesus asks us to do.
What’s our motivation for telling others? Death. On Saturday night, Dec. 10th, my mother called and said, "Daddy’s in the hospital. He’s had a heart attack." What she didn’t tell me was that he’d been in the hospital all week long and had suffered a series of heart attacks. I told her that I’d be there tomorrow because it was 9 o’clock at night when she called and I lived 180 miles away.
The next morning at about 5:30 I got another and I thought, "Who is calling at this time of the morning?" It was mother and said, "Daddy’s gone." His death hit me like a ton of bricks.
Brothers and sisters, people will die and people need Jesus before they die. That’s our motivation for presenting Christ to them as best we can, anyway we can.
CONCLUSION----------------------------------
ILL.- Gipsy Smith told of a man who said he had received no inspiration from the Bible although he had "gone through it several times." "Let it go through you once," replied Smith, "then you will tell a different story!"
Let the scripture go through you just one time and you will be a different person! Why is that? Because all scripture is from God and it’s alive and powerful!
Today we’re talking about becoming more noble in the sight of God. And if there is a way to do this, it is by hearing the Word of God, receiving it joyfully, examining it and passing it on! WILL YOU DO THESE THINGS?
