The Nobility Of You, The Nobility Of Me

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!"