Hello, this is Terry Cheek, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Marion, North Carolina. I want to thank you for choosing our broadcast, and my prayer is that it will be an encouragement to your walk with the Lord. Comments or questions can be directed to me via the link on our sermon audio page. Now, on to your selection. OK, would any of the children or young people that want to come up and join me? Well, good morning. Good morning. Do we? OK, this is going to be our group this morning. Very good, OK. Let me ask you a question. Do do you see the wind when it blows? Oh, do we have some more? OK, great, great. We have some more. Dolson, you can come too. Yeah. That's right. You sit right up here with the big boys. Oh, now that's a group. Look at this handsome group of young people. Yeah. Okay, back to my question. When the wind blows, can you see the wind? Right. You know it blows though by how? How do you know it's blowing? You can feel it and you can watch the trees move. and the leaves roll across the ground when the wind moves them? Well, do you know the wind blowing like that is also a picture of how God moves in our life. Can we see God? But we know he's there, don't we? How do we know he's there? We feel His presence. Just like we feel the wind blowing against us, we feel the presence of God in our lives. We also see God and the way God moves in the lives of other people and the work that He does in other people's lives. We can see that. Just like we see the leaves rolling across the ground when the wind blows, we see people's lives changed. when God works in their life. And as God works in your life, you will be able to see it, and you will be able to feel it, and you'll be able to see it in other people's lives too, just because you recognize His presence. Now, you know how you learn these things? You learn these things through your children's church, and through your Sunday schools, and through your Good News Bible clubs, and all of those things like that. When you learn about God, you learn about how He is present, and how He is seen in other people's lives, and in your own life. So as I dismiss you this morning, go back to your children's church, pay attention, and learn how God moves in your life and the lives of others, okay? All right, y'all have a great service this morning, okay? It's always a blessing to be able to spend a few minutes with the children and share something with them. And I hope it's a blessing in their lives as well today. This morning, if you would, turn with me to 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10. 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10. As we continue to look at the book of 1 Peter, and we continue to read the encouragement and the exhortation that Peter gives to the church, as they are a scattered people. The verses today, that we're going to look at, they give us some insight into who we are as Christians as well. As we open this morning, I want to go over quickly verses 9 and 10. I want to read them and then I want to review a little bit from last week's message because it does tie in very closely to today's message. Beginning in verse 9, that ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous 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. Now last week we read the passage before and it talked about being a building block. How you are a building block or you are a stumbling block to the work of Christ. You are one of those two. And it is based upon your salvation, your maturity, your walk with God, and how all of that develops and works into your life. but you fall into one of those two categories. You're either a building block for God to use to encourage and strengthen and move forward the gospel into the world around us and do God's work through the church, or you're a stumbling block that's going to prohibit it. And I hope none of you see yourselves as stumbling blocks today. I hope all of you find yourselves and see yourselves as building blocks for the gospel. Because in the end, that is the purpose of the church. And we can go into all of the opinions and all of the thoughts about what denominations believe and what individuals think, and all of us will have our own views and opinions of things. But in the end, the body of Christ, which is the church, has its sole function of carrying forth the gospel into the hearts and lives of those that do not know Jesus Christ so that people can be saved, so that Christians can grow and can mature and can develop and can reach out and can do broader work and greater work as the body of Christ. That is the Great Commission. That is what we are called to do. And now today, as we look at this piece of Scripture that we just read, Peter opens up in this portion of his letter, and he wants to let the listeners know, the Christians, in a very personal way. And how do I know it's personal? Look in the opening words in verse 9, But ye, but you, you. It's very personal. It speaks just about by name. You could take ye and you could put your name right there. But Terry is a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of peculiar people. Now not many of you would argue the fact that I'm peculiar. There's not a lot of people that would argue the fact that I'm peculiar. But being peculiar in our understanding is not the same thing as being peculiar in God's understanding. We understand and we need to understand we are chosen today. If we are born again by faith in Christ, we are chosen by Him. Jesus says in John's Gospel, many are called but few are chosen. Many are called with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But few are chosen because few respond to it. If you have responded and you are a part of that chosen generation this morning, you are also part of a royal priesthood. Now if we go back into the Old Testament, we see the priesthood of Aaron was established out of the Levitical tribe and out of the Levitical priesthood in order to do the services of the tabernacle and the services of the temple, in order to take care of things and manage things and do God's work and to reach out into the community and to do those things. But as a royal priesthood, we are more of the priesthood of Melchizedek. You see, Melchizedek was not of the Levitical priesthood. It was not something that he inherited by name or by birth or anything like that. Melchizedek was just chosen to be a priest, a priest of his people. God chooses the Christian to be the priesthood of his people. We are all in that category if we're born again today. We all have those responsibilities, just as there are responsibilities to a chosen generation. Next is a holy nation. A nation is not here speaking of a border, like the United States has a Canadian border and a Mexican border, and has the oceans on either side that are borders. This isn't what Peter is talking about. A nation is a nationality of people, a group of people that have something in common, a group of people who are a very specific type of an individual, who share some common things and are set aside and different from those around them. That is the Christian. The Christian today is not just a Caucasian man or woman. The Christian today is not just an African man or woman. The Christian today is not just a Hispanic man or woman. The Christian today doesn't come from the northern part of the United States, nor does the Christian today come from the southern part of the United States. Neither do they come from the east or from the west. They cover all of these nationalities of people, all of the races, both of the sexes. They cover all of the geographical locations around the world, but yet they are a nation in and of themselves because of their relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the holy nation that is spoken. and that peculiar people. You may not want to admit it this morning, but you're just as peculiar as me if you're safe. You're just as peculiar as me in many areas, in all of the areas that we've just talked about, and in many, many more, because you see we're different. We're different in the fact and in the reality that we are born again, that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus and in Jesus alone. We have a relationship with God that others do not have. Not because they can't have it, but because they choose not to have it. It isn't because we are special. It isn't because we, like the priesthood of Aaron, and the Levitical priesthood have been born into this. No, Christianity isn't something you're born into. It isn't something that you write a check for membership into. It isn't something that you are adopted into because you spend so many hours in church. No, it is accepting the blood of Jesus Christ as atonement for your sin, being saved and born again through faith in Jesus Christ. That is the peculiar people of God's people. That's what makes us peculiar. And all of these peculiarities, all of these things that are listed here in the first part of verse 9, they are personal to you and to me. And likewise, just as they are personal, they have responsibilities. But they also have something that comes from Him. They are there in your heart and in your life that you should show forth praises of Him who has called you. How long has it been since you've actually praised God and thanked God for saving your soul? You may thank God for the food on your table. You may thank God for the car that you drive. You may thank God for the house that you live in. You may thank God for the family that you have. You may thank God for a list of numerous things, on and on and on. But how long has it been since you genuinely thanked God for your salvation? And how long has it been since you really put thought into what that is in your life, put thought into what it appears to be, what difference it made in your life? Where would you be today if it wasn't for your salvation? Many of us would find ourselves either dead or in prison. Because if we continued down the path of life that we lived and that we went on before we met Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we would have lived the life that would have taken our life. We would have died from the consequences of our life. Or we would have found ourselves locked away in prison. Maybe we would find ourselves lonely and destitute on the streets, living in a homeless shelter. Where would you have found yourself? Where would your lot in life have been today if it wasn't for Jesus Christ? That is the praises that Peter is asking his people to remember. Now remember, these people here in the church that Peter was writing to, they were being persecuted, they were being killed, they were being martyred. The church had been torn apart. The people had been scattered all over. The Holy Land as we know it today. And Peter had written this letter and it was circulating around them because they couldn't meet in a public place anymore. They couldn't meet in church like we're meeting this morning. They had to meet in their houses secretly at night. In a back room with a candle burning because if the government would have caught them worshipping, they would have been killed. And through all of that, Peter says, give praises to Him that called you out of darkness and into light. Give praises to the One that saved your soul. Now if those Christians who were experiencing that could find a way and a reason and a purpose to praise God for saving their souls, why do we have such a hard time about it? Why do we struggle with it? What does God have to do in our life to get our attention so that we fulfill and that we take seriously the responsibilities that He's given us? You've heard me mention responsibilities several times if you've been paying attention. What are those responsibilities? I want to share with you four responsibilities that Christians have that we need to take not just seriously, but we need to apply them to our heart and apply them to our life, and we need to put purpose behind them, and we need to take those responsibilities, and we need to move them forward in the church. First, I want you to notice this morning that there is a responsibility in this Scripture to praise God. Not only is it in this Scripture, but it is also mentioned in Hebrews 13, verse 15, "...and by Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." Have you ever thought about praise as being a sacrifice? Some people, they struggle badly to praise God. When I see some folks struggle as hard as they do to praise God, yes, I can see it being a sacrifice. Not the kind of sacrifice the Scripture talks about though. You see, when we praise God, we praise Him because we fear Him. Not fear as in what He may or may not do, but fear as in reverence. Praise is something that we choose to do. It's something we choose to do because we love God, because we are reverent to God, because we are in awe of who He is in our life and what He's done in our life. Praise is something that we offer from the inside out. It's something that comes from our heart. It's not just words that are put together and eloquently spoken. Praise can be something that is mumbled and muttered through tears and through weeping, but it's done out of a love and out of a compassion for God. We have a responsibility to praise God, not because He says we should do it, but because it ought to be something that's in our heart. It ought to be something that we do, just a natural outflowing of our salvation. That comes back to what I asked you earlier. How long has it been since you've really praised God for your salvation? How long has it been since you really took a look at what salvation has done in your life? When you get a grip on that, when you embrace that, and you really let it get into your heart, praise will just flow naturally. Praise is something we should desire. Good, genuine, godly praise. Not only is praise a responsibility, but there's a responsibility that comes with being the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul, speaks to the Romans in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The Christian is the body of Christ. I think I've already established that. And as so, we have responsibilities to that character. You have characteristics in your life that are Christ-like. You may not want to embrace them. You may not want to deal with them. You may never have to look at them or think about them, but they're there. They're there. And as such, we present our bodies a living sacrifice. Now how do we do that? How do we present our bodies a living sacrifice? A sacrifice is something that is thought of as being dead, as being killed. An animal is sacrificed on an altar, it is killed. A person is martyred in a sacrifice, they are killed. So how are we a living sacrifice? We die daily to Jesus Christ. This morning, when you got out of bed, did you die daily to Jesus Christ? Did you commit your life today to Christ? If you are saved and if you are born again this morning, why not? Why wasn't the first thing that you've done this morning committing yourself fresh today to Christ? Because it is that holy and acceptable practice. It is the reasonable service that we have. What are your plans today? What is your purpose today? What will the rest of your day look like in service to God. What does any part of your day, any day of the week look like in service to God? Not to man, not to your favorite charity, not to a denomination, not to any of those purposes, not to anything like that, but to God. Have you given yourself over to God totally, fully, completely, and wake up daily and give yourself over to Him as a living sacrifice every morning? The body of Christ tells us, as the body of Christ, God's Word tells us, that's what we need to be doing and practicing. And it isn't some type of a standard. It isn't some type of a routine. It isn't a ceremony. It isn't a ritual. It's something that we do from the heart. It's something that we do to satisfy God. If you get into that and understand that and you start utilizing it daily, if you miss it, if you fail to do it, You realize your day will be ruined. You won't know how to act. You won't know how to behave. You won't know what to do because you're trying to do something that's out of character. You're trying to be someone you're not. Because you are Christ. You are His. You are His body. You are His arms and His legs and His voice. You are the gospel to the world around you. And when you go through and you learn what it is to submit yourself to Him daily, and to be that living sacrifice, and to know that He's working through you, and to see that evident in other people, and to understand what it is like for other people to see Christ through you, and then when you fail to do it once, and you will fail to do it if you do this, Every once in a while, occasionally, you just get up and you fail to do it, and your life is just out of sync. Nothing is working right. Because Christ doesn't have His way and His will in your life. There's a lot of people today who are true, born-again Christians, but their life is all messed up. Their life is all messed up. It's all out of sync. They're trying to be worldly. They're trying to conform to the world while being a Christian, and it's just not working. And it won't work. Because they can't be conformed to the world. They can't live a life that is revolving around money or wealth or power. They can't live a life that is focused on themselves or on other types of worldliness or fleshly things, because their life has already been transformed by Christ. Christ is waiting on them to be that living sacrifice so that He can start working through them. And they're not willing to do that. They're willing to be something else. They're willing to have one foot in heaven and one foot in the world and have to stand there like this. And they want to say, I want the best of both worlds. If we're going to lean toward worldliness, then we're going to deal with the convictions and the consequences of disappointing God. And if we're going to lean toward godliness and lean into that and try to have that, then we're going to disappoint the world and we're going to have to deal with that. Godliness and worldliness cannot coexist. We've got a responsibility when it comes to being the body of Christ. A holiness, a godliness. That brings me to the next one. The next responsibility that we have is to be His witness. Again, Paul speaks to this in Romans 12, 12. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Now when we talk about being a witness to God and a witness to Christ, what does that look like? Well, it looks like the same thing that's used in a courtroom. When you're sitting in a courtroom and you're watching a trial take place, you have the judge, You have the prosecution, you have the defense, and they're debating and they're arguing their points in their cases, and they call a witness. And that witness has to have some very particular characteristics. They have to have first-hand knowledge of what's going on. If they're a witness, they have to have first-hand knowledge of the person that they're talking about. In either case, there has to be some first-hand knowledge there. If you're going to be a witness for Jesus Christ, if you are saved, you are a witness for Jesus Christ. And that witness is personally. What is your first-hand knowledge of Christ? How has He worked in your life? And if you want to sit there and you want to say, well, I really don't know, I'm not sure, then you better think about your salvation. Because if you can sit there and in one breath say, yes, I am saved, and in another say, I have no idea what He's done in my life, that's not a very good witness. That's not a witness of having first-hand knowledge. If you're saved, you know you're saved. And if you're saved, you know what Christ has done in your life. And it's not something that you can toy around with. It's not something you can waffle around with. Either you know or you don't know. Either you have first-hand knowledge or you don't. And if you have first-hand knowledge, you're going to be rejoicing in hope, you're going to be patient in tribulation, and you're going to be continuing in instant prayer. In other words, you're going to know when you need to pray. You're not going to wait on someone to say, I need you to pray for me. The Holy Spirit is going to tell you, in your heart, that person needs prayer. The situation needs prayer. That group, that wife, that husband, that child needs prayer. I hope you're following me in this. You see, there's trouble. He talks about being patient in tribulation. There's trouble in all of our lives. There isn't one person sitting in this church this morning that doesn't have trouble of some kind in their life. There's not one person at work that you're going to run into that doesn't have trouble in their life. They're going to have some difficulties. But you know what? The hope in Jesus Christ is going to lead the Christian through those difficulties. That's going to be part of your witness. What has Christ worked and led you through and worked through with you in your life? When I was studying this, I thought about the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They were thrown in to the fiery furnace. because they would not bow down and eat the food of the king. You know, God could have done a lot of things with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And God could have wiped out the king and wiped out all the bad guys that were there and just let Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go their way. God could have put the fire out in the furnace. God could have done anything. But God didn't choose to do any of that. What God chose to do, God chose to walk with them through that fire. God chose to walk with them through that difficulty. God chose to give them the leadership of Jesus Christ to take them through that tribulation and take them through that trouble. Just like in your life, there are things in your life you may ask the question, why didn't God do this? Or why didn't God do that? You know, I don't know the answer to why He didn't. But I do know this, because of what you've got today, you know that God went through it with you. That's how you made it through. God went through it with you. Well, what about those who don't make it through? What about all those that were murdered and martyred? What about all of those? Where was God when all of that happened? God was right there with them going through it, suffering with them. It was God who made the decision to let that be the defining moment that would end their life. And it was God that said, I will be there with you to take you through that. We have a responsibility to be His witness. In the good, the bad, the difficult, the easy, you have a life story. And that life story is one that can bless someone else. It's one that can point someone else to Jesus Christ. So this morning, are you sharing your life story? Are you sharing what Christ has done? And I mean, you share it in a way that gives meaningfulness to God and to Jesus Christ. You think about how you're going to share it, but you share it. You share it honestly. You share it truthfully. You share it lovingly, to point others to Him. That's being a witness. I told you there were four. This is number four. There is a responsibility to render willful service. The author of Hebrews chapter 13 verse 6 says, So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. I know there's a lot of people who do a lot of work through the church. Not just this church, but any church. There's a lot of people who hold and wear a lot of hats. They have a lot of titles hung around their neck. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about willful service to God. It's one thing to have a title, that's given to you by being voted on by people. But it is another to know what God wants from you. It is another to know what God has prepared you to do, and you are willfully stepping out to do that without worry about a title, without worry about anything else that's going on. I'll give you a picture of that when it comes to preachers and pastors. Many times in ordination councils and committees, the very last question that is asked to a candidate for a pastor for an ordination is this. If this committee chooses not to recommend you to be ordained, what will that do to you? How will you proceed? Now, I can't speak for no one other than myself. My answer to that question is, I will continue going on and doing what God has called me to do. Keep your title. Keep your piece of paper. If God's called me to do it, and if God has gifted me to do it, and if God has moved in my heart and in my life to do it, I'm going to do it. That's a picture of willful service. If God has called you to do something, do it. Not for man. Not for a group. Not for a denomination. Not for anything else. You do it because of God. And you do it respectfully. And you do it lovingly. And you do it kindly and compassionately. But you do it. We need to speak boldly about Christ. We need to speak boldly. About what He has called us to do. About what He has gifted us to do. Church needs to go back to being about Christ. Not about people. But about Christ. It needs to go back to being about what Christ wants. What God wants. What's the direction that we're being taken in by the Holy Spirit? What does He want from me? What does He want from us? What is our willful service? So the Lord calls us. He chose us. He chose us. Because in the past we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. We had not obtained mercy. We didn't know what mercy was until Jesus called us. We didn't know what mercy was until Jesus touched our hearts and said, come follow me. We didn't have any idea what grace was, what it meant in our lives. what it was going to do in our lives until we obtained it. But now that we have it, what are we going to do with it? Are we fulfilling our individual responsibility of reaching the gospel, sending the gospel around the world? Are we doing everything that we can according to what God has gifted us to do? Are we actually inviting the unchurched people that we know to come to church? You know, right there is one that I want to make an additional comment on. I know church people. I know church members today. And they will not invite an unchurched person. They won't invite someone that's not in church to come visit their church. They won't invite them because they know they're going to be different. They know they're going to look different. They know that they're going to be out of place just because they're not saved. And they don't want the other church members questioning them. Why did you bring them? Why did you want to bring them? Those are the people that we need to bring to church. You know why? Because we were once one of those people. You were once one of those people. You were once without a church home yourself. You were once without a Savior. You were once without redemption yourself. We ought to be drawn to those people. We ought to be drawn to those and we ought to have a hunger and a heart to bring them to Christ. Are we in turn sharing what God has done in our lives and telling others what He can do in their life? How long has it been since you have shared Christ with someone? Not told them they need to get in church, not told them that they need to talk to someone else. How long has it been since you have personally told someone about what Jesus Christ has done in your life and what He can do in their life? These are questions that we need to address and we need to prayerfully address. We don't need to worry about what the folks in the pew beside of us are saying, or the folks sitting beside of us are saying, or what the answer to this one and the answer to that. We don't need to worry about all that. We need to come back to me and say, God, what about me? Where do I stand in all of this? Where do I stand in it with you? Am I doing what you want, God? I am a chosen person. I am part of that chosen generation. I am part of a royal priesthood. I am part of a holy nation. I am part of a peculiar people. Yes, that's me, God! Yes, that's me! But am I living it? Or am I just wearing the title? That's where the rubber meets the road. That's the reality of being a Christian. That's the reality of being that chosen people, of being the redeemed. So, when I'm, as I'm closing, and I'm getting ready to end this thing out, you say amen or oh hey. We need to address this stuff. Individual. If we're going to be a membership of a church, is that membership going to be the body of Christ? Or is it going to have some other underlying feature or definition? If it isn't being the body of Christ, God's not going to bless it. Whether it's your individual life, whether it's the life of a church congregation, whether it's the life of a denomination. It can be as small or as big as you want it to be. But the bottom line is, if it's not being done as the body of Christ, God's not going to bless you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we close this morning, I pray that Your words have have went out and that they're ringing inside of our hearts this morning. And I pray that we can come to you and we can have a desire to be your witness, to be your people, to be your royal priesthood, to be peculiar, as when counted amongst the world, we're peculiar. God, I pray that we would desire all of these things, but I pray that we would desire them to glorify You through Your Son Jesus Christ. I pray that we would desire them to glorify You and to lift You up in front of the world around us, in front of the lost and those that don't know You. God, I pray that we would be that witness. that would be able to tell and be willing to tell someone else about the goodness of God and what He's done in our lives and what you can do in their life. God, I pray not just for those under the sound of my voice this morning, but I pray for myself first and foremost that I would be burdened daily. Burdened daily. to be a living sacrifice for you, that I would be burdened daily to submit myself to you, that I could die daily so that Christ could live through me. Lead, guide, and direct us in everything that we do, everything that we say. Let your word return, not void to you, but let it accomplish everything that you've purposed it to do. For it's in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.