In our house, we had normal, everyday, sometimes chipped dishes that we used for all of our meals.
THEN we had what we called the “good china.”
The “good china” (which was grannies) only came out on special occasions.
We didn’t even keep them with the ordinary dishes.
2nd Timothy 2:20
“In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.”
God wants to use you, but if you don’t know you’re special, if you don’t know and act like you’re different, HOW CAN HE??
You say, “Well, I don’t really feel that special.”
Then, you’re not acting according to God’s Word about you!
1st Peter 2:9
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.
But you are a chosen people = accepted by God
Our desire to be accepted influences
1. the kind of clothes we wear
2. the kind of car we drive
3. the kind of house we buy
4. the career we choose.
You go out of your way to be accepted by EVERYONE ELSE, so how great is your desire to be accepted by God?
a royal priesthood
Exodus 19:6
You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
1. We have the right to go directly to God.
2. We have a responsibility to minister to the needs of other people.
a holy nation
Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Quite frankly, a lot of people don’t want to be holy.
For the very reason that it “sets us apart,” and that is our greatest fear.
a people belonging to God
1st Corinthians 6:19
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
If you do not walk in holiness, you cannot contain the Holy Spirit.
Exodus 29:36b “Purify the altar by making atonement for it; make it holy by anointing it with oil.”
This altar was not just to be an ordinary altar.
This altar existed for a specific purpose and that purpose was to make offerings to God.
No other use for this altar was permissible, because this altar had been set apart for this purpose.
We are not like ordinary people.
What are you doing to keep yourself where God has CALLED you?
“set apart?”
Are you sacrificing daily at the altar?
Meaning, are you coming before God EVERY day??????
Are you making sure what you do is ANOINTED with oil?
Meaning, are you keeping what you do, what you choose, separate from what others are choosing?
Or are you doing things just because that is how everyone else seems to be doing it?
When I moved back to Clarksville, I knew it was to take care of our elderly parents.
Well, that’s just a nice thing for someone to do.
Taking care of your parents is what a lot of considerate people do.
But, I prayed.
I fasted.
EVEN THOUGH I KNEW IT WAS God.
Why?
Because I wanted to make sure that what we were about to do was different from anyone else who might do it because it was “nice and considerate.”
I wanted it to have the anointing, the blessing, the confirmation of God.
And as a result, what we stepped into brought us incredible FAVOR.
People couldn’t help seeing the favor on our lives.
WE couldn’t help seeing it.
You don’t think we TALKED about it?
To everyone??!!
They were amazed at how our lives were being blessed.
When we choose to walk in holiness people will want to have what we have.
When I was a teen pastor, I had incredible favor with those teens.
What in the world would make a teenager look at a 50+ year old as someone who was cool????
They actually listened to me.
They wanted to be around me.
Same thing with my wife right now at the high school where she teaches.
The kids FLOCK around her.
There is an ANOINTING on her work.
Jesus said in Luke 4:18
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Lots of religious leaders with good ideas have come and gone in our world.
If all Jesus had were good ideas, he would be no better than the others.
But because a Holy Spirit anointing on him, there was power in his words.
People can SEE it, feel it ON you!
2nd Corinthians 6:14
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."
