First Peter chapter 2, we're going to look at two verses here and then we'll look in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. First Peter chapter 2, verse 9 through 10 says, but ye are a chosen generation, royal priesthood, a holy nation, kill your people that you should show forth the praises of him who has 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 look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 The Bible says this, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Now these are three verses that as Christians we ought to probably memorize. really. Knowing that, we probably ought to put them in our heart and not forget them. Because truth of the matter is, many times we forget that we're new creatures in Christ, don't we? I mean, the flesh sometimes gets the best of us. Paul said it himself, sometimes it must have got the best of him, didn't it? And so, and it does, it gets the best of us. Listen, I'm guilty just like the next person. Sometimes, sometimes I'm not very peculiar. As I was driving in through Lexington, we kind of got stopped in traffic there, not as long as Brother Jerry did, but I kept thinking, I was like, should I call Brother Rob or not? And we're sitting there, I'm seeing all these people, I'm thinking, you know what? I get out in this crowd of people, and I work in Lexington some. And when I get out around people from Lexington, I'm not people from Lexington. So, listen, I go anywhere in the country, and they don't even have to guess where this old boy's from. They just automatically, you're from Kentucky, aren't you? I don't even have to wear Kentucky blue, all right? That's a dead giveaway. They hear me speak, see I'm wearing blue, and they just know that that boy's from Kentucky. I met some people when we were up in Wyoming, and he heard me and my wife talking, best I can remember the story, and I asked anyway if we were from Kentucky. Yeah, we're from Kentucky. He's from Kentucky. He's from Lexington. He don't sound like he's from Kentucky. All right, so, but anyway, it'd do us good to put these verses in our heart, keep them fresh on our mind, and always remember who we are. But I was looking at these people and I thought, you know, I'm peculiar in the fact they hear me talk, my actions, I'm different, there's no doubt about it. But, you know, the question is, am I really peculiar? Am I really different? That's what's important. We're going to look at that. These three verses teach us some things as Christians. Tell us that we ought to be different from the rest of the world. We're a chosen generation. We didn't come to Him. He came to us, right? He came to us. He made us one family distinct from the common world. We're different than the world. And as a family, the family of God, we ought to act different than the world. He gave us a new spirit, He gave us new principles, new practices, and He sanctified us by His Spirit. We've been set apart for God. He made us a new creature in Christ. He freed us from our bondage to sin. Well, I tell you what, you start thinking about bondage and you realize that our freedom that we have, we hear people talk about the freedom in this country, freedom, freedom, freedom. Listen, there is no freedom like freedom in Christ. Freed from the bondage of sin. We're no longer slaves that we're forced to sin, slaves to sin. Paul said it in Romans chapter 7, he said, we are not our flesh. Right? This fellow right here is on the inside. You see, one day this flesh is going to be gone, but I'm still going to be there. And thank God that I'm going to be with Him. And we ought to desire to be with our Father. We ought to desire to be with the Father. I'm not saying in heaven. I'm saying right here on earth, we ought to desire to be with the Father. It's kind of like the parable of the older son, as Brother Grant would call it. And that older son didn't desire to be with the Father, did he? Not a bit. And he didn't even rejoice when his brother came home. We ought to desire to be with the Father. And the truth of the matter is, that prodigal son, that's all he wanted when he came back. He just wanted to be with the Father. We ought to want to be with the Father. He made us a royal priesthood. We're royal in our relation to Christ. We're separated from sin and sinners. We ought to be different. We're consecrated to God. And we are to offer spiritual services to God. Why? Because we love Him. Because He first loved us. And we've been made acceptable through Jesus Christ. We ought to be a holy nation. We ought to act like a holy nation. You know, we look at the stories of Israel, and they were to be a holy nation, but did they act like a holy nation most of the time? Mm-mm. Wherever a Christian may be, whatever part of the world they may be at. See, I was in Wyoming, and I was noticed for what? my voice. Kind of like Peter was when he got noticed for his voice when he was trying to deny the Lord and did deny the Lord. But you know what me and Peter should have been noticed for? our peculiarity, right? That's what we should have been noticed for. So we ought to be a holy nation to God. Why? Because He has made us a holy nation. We're all one holy nation before God and under God. We are made new and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, consecrated, and we ought to be devoted to God. And he made us a peculiar people, and that's what we'll talk about tonight. We're a peculiar people in that God chose us, right? That's kind of peculiar, isn't it? You look at the story of Jacob and Esau, and I don't wonder, you know, really, why he chose Jacob. I wonder why he didn't chose Esau sometimes, right? I mean, Jacob was a trickster and a liar. And I think, man, you know, I don't know which one of them fellas, you know, Jacob seemed like he was a mama's boy. Esau, he was kind of a hairy fella. You know, he was a country boy. That was my kind of fella. I'm not saying I'm hairy. I'm just saying. That ain't got nothing to do with it. But he was a country boy. That's what I'm saying. He liked to get out and hunt and things like that. And here Jacob is. He's in the house. He's cooking and he's doing these things. And he's mama's boy. And listen, you men cook, hallelujah. I've got a good cook at home. My wife's a good cook. I can cook, but I don't have to. And I thank God for it. But see, I'd want to be friends with Esau, wouldn't you? Really, I would be. But it's peculiar to me that God chose Jacob. But you know what? Truth of the matter is, I'll tell you what's even more peculiar to me. They chose me. Amen? That He rushed out of Heaven and changed me in spite of myself, just like He did Paul. Paul's on the road to Damascus, and man, this fella is in the process of going to kill Christians. He's heard Stephen preach. He probably saw Jesus crucified and all these things. Either way, Paul is on the road to kill Christians. He don't want nothing to do with them. And he's walking down this pathway, and all that's on his mind is, I want to kill everything with the name of Christ. And suddenly, something changed in Paul. What changed in Paul? Jesus did. Amen? That's the truth. Now God changed Paul. And Paul, he's on the road, he can't see anything in front of him, but just, I mean, vehemently against Christianity. But God blinded him. Jesus blinded him. And suddenly he saw Jesus, but all the men around him, they didn't see anything. You know what they thought about Paul? Pretty peculiar, wouldn't it? Amen? And then after that, I promise you, Paul was peculiar. Or Saul, we'll call him Saul for that instance, but he became Paul. He was a peculiar people. I'm thankful that God chose me and made me a new creature in Christ. These five things tell me, we look at these, we're chosen iteration, a new creature in Christ, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that we're to be separated unto His will to the point that the world around us can see Him and not us. To see Him and not us. To shine, our light is to shine through His light is to shine through our lives that the world around us might see Him. Matthew 5, 16 says, let your light so shine before men that they may notice, they may see your good works and what? Glorify you? Glorify your Father which is in heaven. Now, we look at Israel, they're to be a peculiar people, right? They're supposed to be different. God said you're peculiar. If we take a quick look at them, and we will in the Old Testament, I want to see what we can find that made Israel different and what made them peculiar. Turn to Exodus chapter 19 if you want to, verse 3 through 6, Exodus 19, verses 3 through 6. The Bible says, Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice, and deed, and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE, AND YOU SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND A HOLY NATION. THESE ARE THE WORDS WHICH THOU SHALT SPEAK UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. LET ME TELL YOU WHAT TOOK PLACE. Here God calls Moses up on the mountain. He says, you go tell the house of Jacob. I've brought them out of Egypt. I chose them, brought them out of Egypt. I've set them apart. I did this because I'm the God of heaven. I have rescued them from their bondage, from the bondage of Egypt. I've chose them to be a peculiar people above all people. I've brought them under the shelter and the safety of myself. And I want them to do my will. I want them to obey my voice, keep my covenant, and if they'll do these things, I will make them peculiar unto me. And they'll be peculiar above all people. And I'll make them a kingdom of priests. I'll make them a holy nation, and they'll be set apart from my works and will be the recipients of my blessing. So what made them peculiar? Well, let's look. They were a commissioned people. You know what they were to do? They were to separate themselves to His work, to His will, and they were to be a light to all the nations around them, that they might see God and hear of God through them. You say, well, that sounds a little bit like our commission, doesn't it? Go into all the world and preach the gospel? Absolutely. They were a commanded people. They were always to serve the Lord in obedience HIS WORD AND HIS COMMANDS, EVEN IF THEY DIDN'T LIKE IT. YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES, I MIGHT NOT LIKE IT. YOU EVER READ THE BIBLE? YOU'RE READING IT AND YOU'RE LIKE, I DON'T KNOW IF I LIKE THAT OR NOT. Anybody ever done that? Amen. You know what? And the story of the elder brother, that ought to speak to us, because you know what happens sometimes? That's who we are, isn't it? We're not happy when somebody we don't like or somebody we think is a worse sinner than we are, when they get right with God and God blesses them, boy, we get jealous, don't we? We ought not to be that way. We're to be peculiar. We're not to be like the rest of the world, not at all. So they were a commanded people. They were to always listen to and obey the Word of God. hide his word in your heart. They were a covenant people. We're not going to get deep into that, but they were to set their sights on the promises of God on heavenly things, not physical things, heavenly things. They were to believe that his power could save them. They were to believe that it could secure them, sanctify them and succeed them in everything that they were to do and succeed them in all the promises that God had made to them. AND THEY WOULD BE HIS PEOPLE. SO THEY WERE TO BE NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST, WEREN'T THEY? THAT'S WHAT IT WAS. THEY WOULD BE NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST. ALL THEIR OLD WORLDLY LUSTS AND ALL THE THINGS THAT THEY WANTED TO DO IN THE FLESH, THOSE THINGS WERE TO PASS AWAY. THEY WERE TO BE ABOLISHED AND THEY WERE TO LIVE IN THE WAYS OF GOD AND REFLECT HIS WORD AND HIS LOVE AND HIS GRACE IN THEIR LIFE. THAT'S WHAT ISRAEL WAS TO DO. NOW, I'LL ASK YOU A QUESTION. DO WE DO THAT IN OUR LIVES? THINK ABOUT THAT. Joshua chapter 2 and verse 9 through 14, beautiful story and man I wish I had time just to preach it too. You've heard the story of Rahab and how the spies entered Jericho and they're going into the land, they're going to capture the land. And they get in there, Rahab hides the spies, and the king hears about it, and long story short, the king sends some men to kill them. And Rahab, she hid the men beneath the stalks of flax on top of the roof, and hallelujah, what a story there is in that, but she hid them beneath the stalks of flax, but here's what happened. A little more to the story, if we read, verse 9 of the Bible says, she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land. I know. And that your terror is falling upon us. Boy, they're scared. And all the inhabitants of the land, they faint because of you. Could you imagine? I mean, you think back into, some of you men here, and women maybe, you can remember times of serious war, and manned countries, you know, they just almost crumble under just the thought of some other country coming in to, right? This is what happened to these people. She said, but notice this, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt, and what ye did unto the kings of the Amorites, what was their name, Sihon and Gog, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, as soon as we heard them, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. And now therefore I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, and boy did she ever. that ye'll also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token, and ye'll save alive my father, mother, brethren, sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. And these boys said, and our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And this shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Now I said this to prove a very important point. When the people were obedient, God blessed them. They were brought out of Egypt, a peculiar people. They entered Jericho, a peculiar people. Rahab had heard about the God of this peculiar people. She had heard the testimony of how God had moved in Israel, how God had blessed them. And she said, God, He is a God of what heaven, and God of the earth beneath. She heard how they trusted the Lord, heard how they triumphed over the enemy, and how they threatened the very land before them with the power and majesty of God. I want to say because of their testimony, because of their peculiarity. Not only did Rahab believe, but she went on to have a son named Boaz. Boaz met a young lady named Ruth. Boaz and Ruth had a child named Obed. Obed had a child named Jesse. Jesse had a boy named David. Later, David had a boy named Solomon. We could trace that through Matthew chapter 1. I'm going to tell you what we're going to find. You know where I'm going. Boy, I tell you, I said Monday night, boy, it makes me want to shout. Because you know what happened is later on from that lineage came this fellow named Jesus Christ who became the Savior of the world. He's the one that made me peculiar. He's the one that loved me when I was unlovable. He's the one that made you peculiar. He's the one we ought to want to serve, that we ought to want to love, that we ought to want to act like. And what do we act like most times? Like everybody else around us. Right? We're not peculiar enough. I'm not peculiar enough. You say, Preacher, boy, this hits the heart. I'm going to tell you where it hits hardest. It's right here. Amen? I've never been one to hide behind the pulpit and pretend like I'm somebody. I know where God brought me from. I know where I could have been. little harlot named Rahab, all because of the peculiarity of the people, because they loved the Lord, because they trusted the Lord, because they obeyed His commands, because they did what they needed to do in service for the Lord. A harlot named Rahab was saved. It's important to be a peculiar people in a popular world. It's very important. You know, I think about the story, I've got a daughter and her name is Hadassah. So any of you in here that know much about the story of Esther, you know why I named her Hadassah. And I could have named her Esther. And we thought about it. We got a sister back here named Esther. And I told my wife, I said, she didn't like it for a young girl. No offense, sister. But she's like, I don't know if I like that name or not. And I said, well, you know what the truth of the matter is? I said, her name was Hadassah. The only reason her name was changed is so she could go where she needed to go for such a time as that. And that's why I named my daughter. I told my wife, I said, I hope to God that she's born for such a time as this. I hope she's peculiar in a popular world, right? And we named our son Solomon. I know there's some things that Solomon did that we disagree with wholeheartedly. But brother, I'm going to tell you, Solomon was wise beyond any man. except Jesus Christ. And we named our next one Lydia because we ran out of real good ones. But I'm going to tell you something, Lydia, the Lord changed her heart. Right? Amen? He changed her heart. But you know, as long as the people were separated, from the things of this evil world, Israel, as long as they spoke about God and His blessing, as long as they served Him and searched His ways, as long as they did those things, they were peculiar. As long as they did those things, they had the blessing of the hand of the Lord upon them. Ezekiel 37, verse 27, the Bible says, My tabernacle also shall be with them. Yea, I will be their God, they shall be My people. You know what that means? It means God said, I will come down here and tabernacle with you. That means to live with, live in you, to live with you. And listen, that's what He did. He came down here with Israel, there was a tabernacle, there was a tent, the tabernacle, the temple, and so on and so forth. And what He was saying was, I want to be with them. I will be with them. He wanted to dwell among them. Thank God He wants to dwell among His peculiar people. Thank God it ought to get us excited that we ought to know that God chose to dwell with us. Now, that's exactly what he did for us through Jesus Christ. He said, I am the temple. Hey, that old temple, that old tabernacle, that old tent, that was just a picture of the good thing that was to come. That's just, hey, that didn't mean a whole lot. That was just a picture of what was to come. Thank God Jesus is the temple. He's the chief cornerstone. We're the lively stones built upon that temple, right? We become the temple. And where does he live? IN THE TEMPLE. IN THE TEMPLE. IN THE BOOK OF TITUS, PAUL WROTE TO TITUS THAT HE SHOULD ENCOURAGE THE PEOPLE TO BE PECULIAR. IN VERSE 7 AND 8 HE SAID, IN ALL THINGS SHOWING THYSELF WHAT A PATTERN OF GOOD WORKS. IN DOCTRINE SHOWING UNCORRUPTEDNESS, GRAVITY, SINCERITY. HEY, I BELIEVE THIS. I BELIEVE IF WE'RE GONNA STUDY THE BIBLE, WE'RE GONNA SPEAK, WE'RE GONNA PREACH ABOUT THE BIBLE, WE OUGHT TO HAVE SOME GOOD DOCTRINE. AMEN? AND SOUND SPEECH THAT CANNOT BE CONDEMNED. THAT HE THAT IS OF THE CONTRARY PART MAY BE ASHAMED, HAVING NO EVIL THING TO SAY OF YOU." BROTHER, I TELL YOU, WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO WHEN WE'RE ARGUING WITH THE WORLD, IT OUGHT TO BE THAT THEY CAN'T COME BACK AT US. THEY OUGHT NOT TO BE ABLE TO SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT US. WE OUGHT TO MAKE THEM SPEECHLESS LIKE JESUS DID TO THE PHARISEES, RIGHT? THAT'S WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO. WE'RE TO PATTERN OUR LIFE AFTER HIM. AND I CAN LOOK AT PAUL, I CAN LOOK AT DAVID, I CAN LOOK AT ABRAHAM, BUT I'M TO LOOK TO CHRIST. You know what Paul was telling us here that we ought to be peculiar. I'm going to tell you why. He said, we're a commanded people. Matthew chapter 22, Jesus commanded us what? He said, oh yeah, you've got all the commands, but I'll give you two commandments. And in these, all the others will be fulfilled. And he said, love the Lord thy God, or love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves." Man, if we could do those two things, it would be alright. You know who your neighbor is? Yep, yep, we all know who the neighbor is. It's everybody, whoever we're around at the time. You know, when I was little, I was like, well, I like all my neighbors. And I did. I have one that's pretty nosy, a pastor. There's a pastor and his wife. And I'm telling this story because it's funny. My dad wanted to build a garage, and it was close to the line. And he said, is it OK if I build it here? And he said, well, I don't have no problem with it. Let me ask my wife. And long story short, he came back, and he said, she really don't want you to build it there because she won't be able to see what's going on at your place. YOU KNOW WHERE MY DAD BUILT IT? RIGHT ON THE LINE. ALRIGHT? I MEAN NOT THIS FAR FROM IT, ON THE LINE, ALRIGHT? AND SO, LET'S STRAIGHTEN THAT OUT REAL QUICK. NO, WE'RE COMMANDED, WE'RE COMMISSIONED PEOPLE. IN MARK 16 JESUS SAID, GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD, PREACH THE GOSPEL UNTO EVERY CREATURE. You know, I told them at Mount Hebron there at their camp, I said, you know what? We hear this, and I preach it, preachers preach it, and all that you hear is, well, I'm supposed to go tell everybody. I'm to tell everybody. You know what I told them? I said, you know what? Sometimes it ain't about telling them, it's about showing them. PREACH THE GOSPEL THROUGH YOUR LIFE. HEY, LISTEN, AND IT TOOK ME YEARS TO FIGURE THAT OUT. THAT'S A SHAME, ISN'T IT? I WOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT FROM THE START, THAT IT AIN'T ABOUT JUST TELLING SOMEBODY, THAT IT'S ABOUT SHOWING THEM. I CAN TELL PEOPLE ALL DAY LONG. I CAN TRAIN PEOPLE IN THE JOB, BUT I CAN TELL THEM AND TELL THEM AND TELL THEM. BUT UNTIL I SHOW THEM, THEY DON'T KNOW. RIGHT? WE GOT A FELLA HERE FROM THE SHOW ME STATE. AMEN? Well, man, you just busted my bubble. All right. I don't blame you. I'd have said that, too. No, I'm just kidding. I've got some friends in Missouri. And anytime they come visit and she says something, every time she says it, I say, show me. And we get a kick out of it. But we're a covenant people. In Colossians, the Bible, in Colossians chapter 3, the Bible tells us, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead and your life is hid with Christ. I look dead to you. I'm alive, but you know my flesh is to be dead to me and he is to be alive to me. I'm not to be the flesh, we're to be peculiar in a popular world. I want to look at three things, I'll move through them quick and we'll be done. How is your separation from this world? Probably not very good, is it? Probably not. Sometimes mine isn't. I'm not going to pretend, I'm just going to tell you the truth. Sometimes I'm not that separated from the world. Now I'm not out here living a riotous life, don't misunderstand me, but sometimes I can look and I can say, boy, I just wasn't too separated that day or at this time. 2 Corinthians 6.17 says, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Are we a pattern of good works? That's what it'll take to separate us from this world, is to be a pattern of good works. Do good things for the Lord. I've told my church many times, you know, we see people out here, they do all these works over in foreign countries that feed the starving, they try to doctor the sick, and all those things, they're alright, but they're not good works. From a human standpoint, they are. But from a spiritual standpoint, you can feed them, you can clothe them, you can do anything you want to. But unless you give them the gospel of Jesus Christ, they'll die and split hell wide open and never thank you for what you did. I told my, I may have said this here at church before, and don't you misunderstand me. I love my kids and I want to see them to grow old and have beautiful lives, have beautiful grandchildren for me, not for them. I don't want to live that long. And so I want those things, but I'm going to tell you, if I had to choose to see my children in heaven and not now or never get to see them again, I'd choose to see them in heaven. Right? Amen? We ought to be separate from this world. And if we're not separate from this world, we'll not be a pattern of good works. But if we are a pattern of good works, we'll be separate from this world. We have to be dedicated to serving the Lord and let Him rule every area of our lives. We're not to set our affections on this world. We're not to love the things of this world. We're not to love the people of this world. You say, wait a minute, preacher, I've never heard somebody say not to love the people. Yeah, we're to love people in this world. Love them as Christ loved us. Share the gospel, but we're not to be in love with the people of this world and their sin. We'll be separated from that. We'll set our affections on Him. We'll act like Christ. We'll devote our time to the commission of Christ. And we'll treat other people with the same love with which Christ treated us. If you do these things, it'll separate you from this world. I tell you what, you read your Bible just a little bit, you try to be a good witness for just a little bit, and suddenly you'll see yourself start to separate from the world. It's the little steps. They don't have to be all at once, little steps. Hey, if we've been there before and we're not there now, we ought to take some little steps back in that direction. Second thing is, how is your speech? Ephesians 4.29 says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. I'm going to tell you, you know who that talks to right there? Talks to me, don't it? Hey, listen, foolish words. Man, I'm a joker. I always have been. Man, when I was in school, I was always a class clown. And I didn't even have to try to be. I mean, they just laughed at me. No, I'm just kidding. But I was a class clown. I mean, man, I'm a smart aleck. It's just whatever I could do. Correcting teachers if they misspoke or something like that, it's just what I did, you know? And sometimes I find myself doing them childish things, how stupid, how petty that they are. I do it for a laugh. Yeah, it makes people laugh. And I'm not saying it's corrupt, but I'm going to tell you there's better things that could come out of my mouth, right? Listen, I've been young. I've been stupid. I've had foul language. I'll never forget the words I said one time. God was calling me to preach and I was ignoring it. And then I had a job. I was selling rainbow vacuum cleaners. Imagine that. And man, I was making some real money, too. And boy, I was proud of it. And I'd come home and I'd tell my dad, I'd say, boy, I bet my check's bigger than yours. It didn't last long, though. Hey, man, I got to bragging about it. They all kind of fell off, but that taught me a real good lesson. But you know what? You learn from those things. But this old boy one day, he's a friend of mine. I was in a suit and tie, because that's the way I went out and sold them. Because if you was in a suit and tie, most of the time I thought you could sell, and I learned later that maybe you could just wear blue jeans and sell just as much. But I was in a suit and tie, and he called me, he hollered at me, he said, I came unglued. You know that was crudeness coming out. You know why? Because I was needing to be separated. I was needing to be peculiar. I was being called to preach, but I didn't want to. So I didn't separate. My speech wasn't good, among other things. But I want to ask you, does your speech prove that you're saved? It ought to. Peter's speech betrayed him. We already talked about that. Our speech ought to betray us. Mine betrays me all the time, I told you, I can go anywhere in the country. I don't know if I could go anywhere, probably, I could probably go to anywhere in the world and they'd say, oh, that boy's from Kentucky, or yonk hang ha, or whatever, you know, and they're saying it to themselves, right? He's from Kentucky. But the truth of the matter is, it ought to be said that Matt Hess, that fellow's Christian. You can tell by the way he acts, he's different. Well, how's our speech? Can others hear Jesus in your words? Can they hear Jesus in your words? You know what you find sometimes? You talk about a lot of things. Thank God for Brother Robbie and Brother Grant, we talk quite a bit. And Brother Troy, we talk quite a bit. And you know what keeps us sharp, good to have friends like that we can talk to and talk about the Lord. But you know who we all be talking to the Lord about? People that don't know about Him. Right, that's who we ought to be talking about. Here's what we're to do. We're to have no corrupt communication. Say, what is that? It's anything that would guide others away from Christ. That's corrupt communication. Or, I might go even a little bit farther and say it's kind of like anything that wouldn't lead someone to Christ. But, man, that's kind of corrupt communication. LANGUAGE THAT RESEMBLES, I SAID THIS, LANGUAGE THAT RESEMBLES A BIG OL' PILE OF ROTTEN MEAT FULL OF MAGGOTS. YOU SAY, OH MY GOSH, THAT'S NASTY. YOU KNOW WHAT? THAT'S WHAT CORRUPT COMMUNICATION IS AND THAT'S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO THE LORD. AND IT'S WHAT IT OUGHT TO LOOK LIKE TO US AND IT'S WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE. We ought to use only edifying words that build people up instead of tear them down, words that show others that Christ can save. We ought to be one that builds up instead of tearing down. We ought to use graceful words. Proverbs 15, one says, a soft answer turneth away wrath, which took me many years to find that. I was a young fellow, man, I had a temper, still do. boils inside me sometimes. I mean, really boils inside me. You can tell by the way I talk, probably, that I'm a man with a temper, a really big one. But I've learned to control it, thank God, because if I didn't, I'd have probably either killed somebody or somebody would have killed me by now. But I've been in a time that I didn't use graceful words, and I've learned now, a soft answer turneth away wrath. You know what? It was always written right there. You know what? All I had to do was read it, wouldn't it? But you know what happened? I didn't like it. It's like, yeah, it may turn away wrath, but bless God, it don't help me any, right? That's what I thought. Don't make me feel any better. But you know what? I changed that, thank God, and now I am much better. And I realize, boy I tell you what, a soft answer makes me feel better. It makes me feel better. If you're concerned for the souls of others and for your testimony, those are the things you ought to watch your speech. You ought to watch your speech. Let it reflect that you've spent some time with Christ. Not that you've spent time with your buddies or anything. That you've spent your time with Christ. We ought to be a willing witness for Jesus. We ought to be peculiar enough in this popular world that folks can see Christ in us. If you want to have wholesome speech that builds other people up, that proves that you belong to Christ, attend to the Word. Read the Word. Get yourself in it. Hide His words in your heart. Hide His Word in your heart and share it with others, and that'll make you peculiar. Last thing is, how's your service? Matthew 6, 24 says, No man can serve two masters. He'll love the one and hate the other. Well, I tell you what, sometimes you think, man, who am I serving? You ever been that way? Say, who am I serving? Am I really serving the Lord, or am I trying to serve myself? And if I'm serving myself, who am I really serving? You hear me? Who am I really serving? Who are you serving? And are you willing to serve the Lord? You know, Israel, when they were willing to serve the Lord, God blessed. Man, when they were willing to serve the Lord, Rahab heard about it, she was saved. Thank God for it when they were willing to serve the Lord. I want to ask you these questions. Are you faithful to your church? Not really. You have to be. Hey, listen, if you're not faithful to your church, I don't care what else you try to do. You're not going to serve the Lord. You've got to be faithful to church, not reluctantly, not out of necessity, but because you love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Are you obedient to authority? Well, I tell you what, I've said it. I've had a problem with that in my life. Man, sometimes, maybe I still do, you know? I do. And some of us do. We have a problem with that. You know what? I had a problem with authority on my way up here. You don't want to know how fast I drove. Amen? And still got stuck in traffic and almost was late. So, it didn't help a bit. We ought to submit to authority. We ought to submit to the authority of God and His Word. Make Him our Lord, the Lord of our lives. We'll submit to His authority and He'll make us a peculiar people. You can waste your life in this world, acting like the world, loving the world, dating the world, dancing with the world, holding the world in your bosom. I'll tell you what, it'll bite you. It's like that old rattlesnake. You know what? You can pick it up. You can hold it out of the way from you. You see people do it. Hey man, there's churches that do it. They're just tempting that rattlesnake to bite. You know what? Eventually it'll get you. Sure will. Can a man take fire to his bosom and not be burned? Nope. I know a man that can walk on coals, and it don't hurt him, but it still burns his feet. Hey, man, I'm serious. I really do. He can walk on coals. He can walk on nails, anything. He's barefoot all of his life. But you know what? You're not going to take it to your bosom and not get burned. We live in this world, we have to, but we're to be separate from it. If we can pull this world into our bosom, it'll be like Samson. Yep. We don't want to be like that. We want to be like David, the man after God's own heart. We want to be a peculiar people in a popular world. So the question is, are you peculiar in a popular world, or are you just blending in? You know David? He was peculiar, wasn't he? Very peculiar. Very peculiar person in the popular world. When the army of Israel was hitting the rocks and the caves, you know what David did? He said, is there not a cause? He went out and he faced that giant. And guess what? God showed up and God showed off, didn't he? Through David. He showed up and he showed off. And that old giant, he fell. Which way did he fall? Anybody remember? I believe he fell forward, didn't he? You know, here's what I'd say. David may have hit him between the eyes with a rock, but God hit him in the back of the head. Amen? Why? Because David chose to be peculiar. Are you peculiar? We ought to be.