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.
Did anything like that ever happen to you? Did anything ever come your way to make you feel somewhat special?
ILL.- I’ve been sending in my sermons to sermon central.com for about 9 years and recently, a preacher friend wrote and said, "I see you’ve been featured lately." Oh wow! Featured on the internet site sermon central. Not much wow! Yes, they actually put my picture on their opening page but I doubt seriously that it gets a lot of attention. Most say, "You look a lot older in your picture." THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
If nothing outstanding or exciting has ever happened to you or come your way, please remember your position in Christ! You are a chosen person in Christ.
ILL.- C. S. Lewis wrote: When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in? This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.
Some day God, the author of all life, will walk onto the stage of planet earth and time will be no more. What has been done, will be. And as Lewis said, "It will be too late to choose your side."
But thank God, we’ve already made our choice in life! We have chosen Jesus to be our Savior, our deliverer! And because we have chosen Him, God has chosen us!
Eph. 1:3-5 "3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."
Eph. 1:11-12 "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory."
God’s chosen people are those who have chosen His Son whom He gave as a sacrifice for our sins! God decided before creation that His chosen ones would be those who would chose His Son.
WE ARE SPECIAL IN THE EYES OF GOD BECAUSE WE HAVE CHOSEN HIS SON!
II. WE ARE A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
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.
You are both royalty and you are a priest.
ILL.- There was a wealthy man who, in his old age, was asked to recall the happiest experience of his life. He said, "It was when I was in a hospital in a strange town, seriously ill for three weeks with typhoid fever."
When his listeners expressed surprise that this was the happiest situation of his life, he continued: "The hospital was understaffed and overcrowded with patients. It was a difficult time for everyone. But there was one nurse who never let it get her down, who treated each one of us patients as if we were royalty. Every time she came into my room, I felt a deep sense of peace.
"I have never felt anything like it since and I have never forgotten her. It was the happiest period of my life in spite of the physical suffering."
Doesn’t that sound great? I felt special. I felt like royalty. it would be great if all people were treated that way when they are hospitalized.
ILL.- My mother was an LPN in the old days. When she was hospitalized numerous time for gall bladder surgery, eye infection, and several other things she used to say how different it was when she was a nurse. She said, "We used to give the patients back rubs." It sounds like the old days were better days in making a patient feel like they were royalty.
ILL.- He was so different from the other boys in the school. He was always kind, helpful, willing, cheerful. When there was any rough play, or a fight, or any dishonesty, you could be sure he was not in it. Why was he so different? His teacher determined to find out. One day after school she called him to her desk.
After thanking him for his helpfulness and unfailing willingness, she said, "You must have a good mother. Won’t you take me to see her someday?" "I’m afraid I can’t," he replied. "I have no mother." "I’m sorry," apologized the teacher. "Take me to see you father, then."
"I have no father, either," said the little fellow. "I’m living with kind friends. If I tell you my story, you’ll promise not to let the other boys know?" he queried. "Why, of course, if you would rather I didn’t."
Then he told the teacher of a little French school he once attended in Eastern Europe, how invading armies raided his homeland, and how his mother and father, a prince and princess, had be led away from their home to the place of execution.
Just before they parted, his father had said to him, "Remember, dear boy, wherever you may go, that you are the son of royalty. Never stoop to anything unworthy of your high rank."
The boy’s tears flowed freely. The teacher laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
Now she understood. Though he might mingle with all types of boys on the playground, some rough and uncouth, he always remembered his father’s last words. He was a prince!
We, too, are royalty. We are children of the King. And never forget it. And never forget to do your priestly thing. What’s that? Make intercession on behalf of others. Pray constantly for others. And please remember: The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. THE PRAYER OF ROYAL PRIESTS IS ALWAYS POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE.
III. WE ARE A HOLY NATION
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.
We are also a holy nation or a holy people. I am sure, however, there are days when you don’t feel very holy. When?
ILL.- Imagine all the obstacles a person might have to overcome if he were to walk from New York City to San Francisco. One man who accomplished this rare achievement mentioned a rather surprising difficulty when asked to tell of his biggest hurdle. He said that the toughest part of the trip wasn’t traversing the steep slopes of the mountains or crossing hot, dry, barren stretches of desert. Instead, he said, "The thing that came the closest to defeating me was the sand in my shoes."
Such a small thing and yet, it became a big hindrance in his walk. The same thing may be true with us. Small things often trip us up more than big things.
For example, we would never be guilty of murdering someone and yet Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22 "21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ’Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."
We wouldn’t even dream of murdering someone but we would become very angry toward someone. We don’t condone murder but we may well condone our anger toward someone, claiming it was justified. It was "righteous" anger.
Or again, most would never commit adultery but Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28 "You have heard that it was said, ’Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
And where does this verse put most of us? Do we dare answer? Even though we have sinned, small or large, we are called to be a holy nation, a holy people.
When do you feel most holy? At what time or place or situation? I feel most holy when I am on holy ground, worshiping the Lord. I feel most holy when I partake of the Lord’s Supper, and when I am singing hymns of praise, and when I am in prayer. I feel most holy when I am alone with God!
We need more time alone with God! We need to sing to Him, praise Him and pray to Him. And the more we focus on Him, the less likely we’ll sin, small or large. This must mean we need to focus on Him as much as possible. We need to be in His presence continually, constantly talking to Him. We need Him and the holiness that comes from being with Him.
CONCLUSION-----------------------------
ILL.- American artist James Whistler, who was never known to be bashful about his talent, was once advised that a shipment of blank canvases he had ordered had been lost in the mail. When asked if the canvases were of any great value, Whistler remarked, "not yet, not yet."
If you don’t feel valuable yet, you will be! Keep growing. Keep learning. Keep praying. Keep seeking. Keep worshiping. Keep serving.
You are special, chosen, royal, holy, etc. We just need to keep going forward in Christ. He is one who makes us special!
