We Are A Peculiar People

Brothers and sisters, in my lifetime, I’ve known many people from many walks of life. I’ve traveled to Africa, Spain, England, Caribbean, Australia, and many other countries and states.

In this walk, I’ve known people who didn’t believe in technology and refused to have any of the conveniences that many of us enjoy today, and believe that we must have for survival. Some even had peculiar ideas or personalities, but what they all had in common was that their oddity separated them from humanity, so much so that I would say that God’s people have many differences as people, yet they are the peculiarities of God’s people. AMEN

I read a story about a man who lived a long time ago. This man lived a meager life. The home he lived in didn’t have electricity nor did it have running water. The man survived by collecting cans and bottles and turning them in for money.

One day this man died and the city struggled to locate his next of kin, but they couldn’t find anyone. The man had lived alone all his life, never having friends, never really letting anyone in his life, never getting to know others.

When he died he was buried as poor person, in an un-kept graveyard, without a headstone, because there wasn’t any money for a proper burial. All his life, his neighbors and those who saw him had looked upon him as being poor and peculiar.

The City tried very hard to find a relative, but couldn’t find one, so they took over his meager estate and prepared to sell it and all that was in it. The workers’ that were clearing out the house was also looking for anything of value that could be auctioned off.

One of the workers was removing a mattress when she noticed a slit in the mattress. Out of curiosity she placed her hand into the slit and pulled out a roll of money. Each time she reached back in the mattress there was more money. By the time all the money had been removed from the mattress there was nearly a million dollars hidden in that old mattress. WOW!

What good did it do this man to stash away all this money. It didn’t do him any good nor did it do any one else any good. He had no one to leave it too nor could he carry it with him when he died. This man forgot to enjoy life! He forgot to share his life with others.

Maybe he believed this was what he was supposed to do, or maybe he was saving all that he had in hopes that someone would find it and share his lifetime of saving with people that needed it. We don’t know, but on the outside looking in, we may see what he did as a little “peculiar”. AMEN

All these years, people had thought the man was poor and all that time he was sleeping on a fortune. This man lived a strange life, to say the least. But why? God does not call us to be peculiar in this way. He doesn’t ask us to live alone, He doesn’t ask us NOT to enjoy our lives, and He doesn’t require us to die alone.

I Peter 2: 9-10 states: “ But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

My message today is: We are Peculiar People

Now, the word “peculiar” originally came for the Latin word “peculium” which means: "private property." Thus when the KJV was originally written, the word was used to describe private property. It wasn't used to describe any old private property; this property was a treasured possession that belonged to God.

For the English speaking people of that time, “peculiar” didn’t mean something that was strange or bizarre. They understood it to be talking about something that was special to God.

Deuteronomy 14:2 states: “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”

In other words God was saying He OWNED Israel. They were His special treasured possession. In fact, they were so special to God… no one touched them unless He wanted them touched. They were under His exclusive protection.

What God means by peculiar is this; Christians are to be peculiar because we are not like the rest of the world.

• We think differently,