Understanding Your Rights
I Peter 2: 2-10 (Contemporary English Version)
2Be like newborn babies who are thirsty for the pure spiritual milk that will help you grow and be saved. 3You have already found out how good the Lord really is.
4Come to Jesus Christ. He is the living stone that people have rejected, but which God has chosen and highly honored. 5And now you are living stones that are being used to build a spiritual house. You are also a group of holy priests, and with the help of Jesus Christ you will offer sacrifices that please God. 6It is just as God says in the Scriptures,
"Look! I am placing in Zion
a choice and precious
cornerstone.
No one who has faith
in that one
will be disappointed."
7You are followers of the Lord, and that stone is precious to you. But it isn’t precious to those who refuse to follow him. They are the builders who tossed aside the stone that turned out to be the most important one of all. 8They disobeyed the message and stumbled and fell over that stone, because they were doomed.
9But you are God’s chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say,
10"Once you were nobody.
Now you are God’s people.
At one time no one
had pity on you.
Now God has treated you
with kindness.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
Today we are gonna talk about the rights that we have been giving as children of God. What I do know that living as Easter Sunday Christians in a Good Friday World… we need to be reminded of who we are and who we belong to from time to time. Even I need to be reminded of that. Believe when it can be literally a matter of life and death because we need to understand that we got it going on in God and with God. We got to make sure that when it’s all said and done that we keep it pushing around here because we have a job to do because we are living in a state of emergency, but we have always remember that as children of the Most High we are living in victory! We have to be reminded that we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus!
1st Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Often times you will see someone or speak with them and ask the question “How are you doing” and many times the reply that you get, if we are honest with ourselves we do not really want to hear. They begin by saying things aren’t going to well, my back is aching, my chest is tight, my kids are driving me crazy, my marriage is on the rock, all in all things are going to pot, my day is bad, my life is bad, there seems as if there is no rest for the weary, I’m tired and I wish that everything was over, the devil is making mince-meat out of me and I don’t know just how much more I can take. These are saved folks talking like this. They go through life being bombarded by the devil, tossed around like an old rag doll, held in psychological slavery, they are emotionally destitute, they are spiritually impoverished, and are literally at the point of just about ready to lose their natural minds.
The reason they are suffering the things they are suffering and the reason why their lives seems to be in utter turmoil is because they have failed to understand their rights, they have not yet comprehended that they have certain rights that are afforded to them just because of who and whose they are.
The Christian of today faces many challenges in life; there are many obstacles that must be faced. Trials and tribulations must come, for as the old cliché states “into every life a little rain must fall”, but in the midst of it all you must understand your rights.
Rights, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is something to which one has a just claim, the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled, and something that one may properly claim as due. There is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family it is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. It establishes that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. It states that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. That’s the rights of just being human-beings.
There are civil rights and political rights, as well economic, social and cultural rights. There are women’s right, gay rights, and religious rights. There is what is called Miranda Rights, which states even if a person has committed a crime and you know with out a shadow of doubt that they are guilty, they have rights, before they can be arrested they are informed of their rights. If they are not informed of these rights before hand it could lead to the dismissal of the case and they could be set free even though proof has shown that they are guilty. So it is imperative that they know their rights. There are spiritual rights that we as children of God must understand as well.
The Bible says in 1st Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
This scripture gives us such an illustrative awareness of the rights that are ours if we just come into the realization of them. The writer, the Apostle Peter, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, is trying to plant into the spiritual intellect the concept of understanding just who and whose we are and the rights that we have because of our status.
To be chosen is to be one who is the object of choice or of divine favor, an elect person, selected, and preferred for a certain and divine purpose, the object of choice. Oh you didn’t catch that, an object is something that when viewed stirs a particular emotion, something toward which thought, feeling, or action is directed, a cause for attention or concern. We are a chosen generation, when God looks at us it stirs His emotion of Love and compassion and He directs His blessing down upon us, WHY, because we are chosen and are the cause for His attention and concern. We are chosen somebody say chosen.
We are chosen by God Himself, to fulfill a specific purpose in His divine plan and have been predestined (predestinated) to the culmination of that plan ever since the beginning of time, for the Bible says in Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Also John 15:16 says “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
a. God has chosen us to be a witness to the world, to bring forth fruit, to minister to the world, and to be stewards of the mysteries of God. The Bible says in Isa. 43:10 says “Ye are my witness, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” 1st Corinthians 4:1 says “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” The word minister has several different meanings, but to get the full understanding let us endeavor to comprehend the meaning in this fashion, minister means: an under-rower. An under-rower, were the slaves that sat in the belly of the ships and pulled the oars to carry the ship across the water.
** God is the Captain and His ship is the word of God, we are his ministers (slaves the under-rower) to carry His word across the world. **Understand
We are working for the Lord Jesus Christ in order that we may spread His word to this world that men and women, boys and girls may be saved, this is the meaning of working out you own soul salvation. We are ministers, under-rowers, working for the Lord expecting to be caught up in the rapture and travel to that Holy place and spend eternity (to maintain forever) with Him.** I am looking to travel to a building not made by man, but made by God’s hands.
So we understand that we are chosen for a divine purpose in God’s plan for humanity. The reason you are where you are in your life, the reason you are at the place you are, the purpose for the things that you are facing in your life is because you have been chosen. It was God that chose us and not us that chose God. The Bible says for we are a chosen generation, it said nothing about He is a chosen God. God chose us, the reason you have been chosen to go through the things that you are going through is because God chose you because He knew the depth of your spirit was not limited to your circumstances.
We are a “royal priesthood”; this statement when fully comprehended is so profound and prolific that when we truly grasp the content of it’s meaning it astonishes the natural mind. The concept of royalty encompasses certain characteristics that should parallel the children of God’s spiritual life.
I’ve been reading this book by Michelle McKinney Hammond called the Secrets of and Irresistible Woman. Yes, I’m reading this book because though my failed relationships, I’ve lost touch with who I am because when you get caught up in matters of the heart… well most of us know how that can be. But the essence of the book is not to help women win the man of their dreams, but to be the woman that God has called us to be that will make any woman irresistible to any man. She stressed that as Christian women we are heiress to the kingdom. We not only have to talk the talk, but walk the walk as well. We have to remember who we belong to first as women before we could ever hope to receive the relationship that we desire… not the relationship that we want as women, but what we desire as daughters of the most high. When you know your rights as a woman… Well there’s no stopping us.
This holds true for men, but since I am a woman… that was a concept that I could relate to in knowing who I am and who I belong too. I am royalty. I am Princess Deena Marie… who’s name means in Hebrew being judged and vindicated by God. Who are you? And further more do you know your rights?
As a royal priesthood we have conferred upon us an unlimited resource, God said He would supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory, regardless of how many come to Him, He has resources that have yet to be touched. I am reminded of a song we used to sing that said “There’s room at the cross, those many have come there’s still room for one, there’s room at the cross for you. We have unlimited freedom, because He said whom the son has set free is free indeed, and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, we have authority over the devil and this world, for all power in heaven and earth is in His hands and we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We have the ability to demand that the devil be bound and that the spirit of God be released in our lives, that is the authority that we have if we ask in His name.
My thing is this… God is with us, but he’s not gonna do all the work for you.
Sin does not have dominion over us we have dominion over sin. The Bible says in Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Therefore since we have dominion over sin, when the devil tries to attack us with things contrary to the will of God, we have the authority and right to bind it from coming into fruition. Depression is subject to us, sickness is subject to us, financial ruin, bankruptcy, marital destruction, and family dysfunction is subject to us. Not because we are of any importance, but because we have been placed into a royal status through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that whenever we come in contact with such things, they are conscious of the authority that is placed within us and can take no liberties upon us. There is no reason why we have to walk through this life or even go through a day being depressed, feeling defeated, emotionally destitute, psychologically frustrated, or spiritually imprisoned. Because of the royal status that we hold, because we are chosen of God, for God; therefore, in all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us and there is no need for any special consideration or allowances to be made for the weakness of the flesh, because the victory of Jesus Christ is our victory.
You have the right to tell the devil to get that hell out of your life. We are Sons and Daughters of the King, (KINGS KIDS) and when you are the kings kid you have superior rights, when someone infringes on those rights they literally have offended the King Himself.
When the devil infringes upon you, he has done so without permission from the King and therefore must be put to death. You have the RIGHT to put that devil to death in your life because you are a KINGS KID.
STOP being violated by the Devil, Know your Rights:
1. You have the right to have life and life more abundantly.
2. You have the right to Praise the Lord.
3. You have the right to be Healed.
4. You have the right to be delivered.
5. You have the right to eternal life.
6. You have the right to be more than conquerors.
7. You have the right to be called the Sons & Daughters of God.
8. You have the right to be FREE.
When you understand your rights then the devil will not be able to make mince-meat out of you anymore. Remember you are a Royal priesthood and a chosen generation.
I love reagge music.. In fact… sometimes I feel that I was born in the wrong generation… I was digging Bob Marley when he said Get up stand up…
Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
We sick an tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin n goin to heaven in-a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you cant fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights!)
Stand up for your rights!
No we won’t give up the fight…
Stand up for your rights.
My people God’s people… get up stand
In the name of Jesus Christ I urge you to understand your rights and stand up for them. Amen! Amen! Amen
