You Are a Chosen People

December 3, 2023 · Brad Yates

Scripture referenced 9 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

1 Peter 2:9-10 the central text of the sermon, read aloud and expounded throughout

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
10 who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

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Romans 5

cited to show that we were enemies of God but now have peace with God through Jesus

1 Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

2 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;

4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:

5 and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

6 For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die.

8 But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.

10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

11 Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

12 Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.

13 For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.

15 But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

16 The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification.

17 For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

18 So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.

19 For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.

20 The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;

21 that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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John 17

Jesus praying that his followers are not of the world just as he is not of the world

1 Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;

2 even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

3 This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

4 I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

6 I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.

7 Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

8 for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

9 I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

10 All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

13 But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

14 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.

19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word,

21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

24 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

26 I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

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James 4

warning that friendship with the world is hostility toward God

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

17 To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

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Genesis 12

referenced as the source of God's promises to Abraham

1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treates you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan.

6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land.

7 Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.

8 He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s name.

9 Abram traveled, still going on toward the South.

10 There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was severe in the land.

11 When he had come near to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at.

12 It will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me, but they will save you alive.

13 Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you.”

14 When Abram had come into Egypt, Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15 The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

16 He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

18 Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way.”

20 Pharaoh commanded men concerning him, and they escorted him away with his wife and all that he had.

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1 John 2

quoted to show that no one who denies the Son has the Father

1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

2 And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.

4 One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.

5 But whoever keeps his word, God’s love has most certainly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him:

6 he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.

7 Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.

8 Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines.

9 He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now.

10 He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him.

11 But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.

13 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father.

14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

15 Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.

17 The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.

18 Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour.

19 They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us.

20 You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

21 I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

23 Whoever denies the Son, the same doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.

24 Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father.

25 This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.

26 These things I have written to you concerning those who would lead you astray.

27 As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.

28 Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

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Proverbs 14:4

used to illustrate that community and church life, though messy, produces profit

4 Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

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Revelation 1

referenced to describe believers as a kingdom of priests

1 This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,

2 who testified to God’s word, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.

3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.

4 John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;

5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood;

6 and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

9 I John, your brother and partner with you in the oppression, Kingdom, and perseverance in Christ Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet

11 saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

12 I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands.

13 And among the lamp stands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.

14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

15 His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters.

16 He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,

18 and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

19 Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter;

20 the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lamp stands are seven assemblies.

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Galatians 5

the fruits of the Spirit listed and applied personally by name as a self-examination exercise

1 Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

2 Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.

3 Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

4 You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

5 For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

7 You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth?

8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

9 A little yeast grows through the whole lump.

10 I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

11 But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.

12 I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

13 For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

15 But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,

20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies,

21 envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.

26 Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

Brad Yates, one of our elders, preached from 1 Peter 2:9-10 on the identity that belongs to everyone who is in Christ. His central point was that when God saved us, He made us part of something genuinely new, and that the church, understood rightly, is called to be visibly, observably different from the culture around it.

What was said

Brad opened by noting that human beings have a deep need to belong, and that this need for identity is not trivial. His argument was that if you cannot answer the question "who are you?" simply and clearly, then, as he put it, Satan will answer it for you. The text from 1 Peter gives four phrases that answer that question for the Christian, and he worked through each of them.

The first phrase is "chosen people," and Brad used it to push back against the idea that Christianity is mainly a list of things to avoid. He introduced what he called the bad news of the gospel, that no one can make themselves acceptable to God by their own effort, and said that you cannot receive the good news until you have accepted the bad news. The good news is that Christ lived a perfect life, died the death we deserved, and walked out of the grave, and that everyone who is found in Him will follow in that resurrection.

Moving to "holy nation," Brad was careful to say that Peter is not describing a political entity, a nation-state, or any country on a modern map. He addressed the question of Israel directly, noting that the modern state of Israel, while a necessary refuge for Jewish people, is a secular nation, and that over half of its population does not identify as religiously Jewish. The holy nation Peter describes has no borders, no ethnicity, and no political alliances. It is made up of Christians scattered across the world who are called to be set apart within whatever context they find themselves in.

Brad then turned to the phrase "people for God's own possession," which he called especially necessary for an anxious age. His point was simple: if you have faith in Jesus, you belong to God, and there is nothing you can do to ruin that. He used the example of Paul, who killed Christians before becoming one, to make the case that no one is too far gone. He also reminded the congregation that Peter himself, the author of the letter, denied Jesus three times, and was still used to lead the early church.

The final phrase, "royal priesthood," carried the most personal weight for Brad. In the Old Testament, priests were the mediators between people and God. That role, he said, now belongs to all of us, not just the vocational ministers on staff. He quoted Tony Evans on what it means to be part of a church versus simply attending one, using the analogy of a marriage where both spouses live in different cities: you are still married, but you never grow. He was direct about areas where he felt the congregation, and he himself, was falling short of this priestly calling, including the willingness to share faith, to confess sin to one another, and to live with a sexual morality that is actually different from the surrounding culture.

Brad closed by returning to the structure of the text itself. All four phrases, chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for God's own possession, are not ends in themselves. Peter gives a reason for all of them: "so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." The identity is given for a purpose, and that purpose is telling people about Jesus. Brad's summary call was to stop living for complacency or fear, and to recommit, together, to being the kind of community that the world notices as genuinely different.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

Brad said that if you cannot simply and succinctly answer the question 'who are you?', Satan will do it for you. How would you answer that question right now, and where does your sense of identity actually come from day to day?
Brad described what he called the bad news of the gospel, that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God, and said we cannot accept the good news until we have accepted the bad news first. Do you agree with that, and what does it look like in practice to hold both at the same time?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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Alright. Good morning, friends. How are we doing? The timer count, it went down, and it looks like we're we're here to worship. So would you stand, with me, and we'll we'll sing joy to the world, some familiar Christmas carols this morning.

And go tell it on them.

You can have a seat here for

a moment. We got a few announcements. Hey,

everybody. Oh, there we go. Hey, everybody. Welcome to First Baptist Church, and welcome for the Christmas season as we kinda kick things off here a little bit. There was a discovery class between services.

If anybody's interested in becoming a member, just let us know. It's just an opportunity to, to get to know the church, to get to know what we believe, see if we line up, and, to join as a member, and we can schedule that, whenever whenever you're available. I wanna see you at Awana. We have Awana Kids Club every Monday night here at the church, and there are somewhere around 65 kids, right, that have been attending. Would you keep Awana in your prayers?

It's a really important, very valuable ministry, and lots of great people are involved in it. Consider helping out. We've got some familiar faces who are there all the time. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance is back. It's the first Wednesday of the month at 06:30AM.

Here at the church, it's an opportunity to get some free pancakes, and who doesn't want those? That's reason enough to come. So if you're a guy or know a guy, come on in. It's a great chance to get connected. And there are paper calendars available in the back.

I thought I was a little too sassy during the first service about this. Just to say, if you still use a paper calendar, would you please consider picking up one here? They're a wonderful collector's item. We'll autograph it if you want. How does that sound?

All the money goes towards, our youth programs. And here's our Christmas calendar. Everything's on the website, so if you forget, don't worry about it. It's also gonna be in all the emails until and through Christmas, but we're just gonna go through the breakdown. December 10 is the scout Sunday, and that's when they come and they cook breakfast for us here.

They spend the night here beforehand, cook the breakfast during the 9AM service, goes into the connect hour. So y'all come a little early for that. And then on the seventeenth, the Christmas caroling and chili cook off. We're gonna be walking from here onto Town Square, singing some carols starting at 04:30, and come back here for a chili cook off potluck. So we need a lot of chili.

And I've been told by Mike, our youth director, that we need, as adults, to step it up because our youth have beaten us for too many years in a row, and we to dominate some of these categories. It's secret ballots, and I think this year, we're going have an adult win. So, it's spiciest category, fan favorite, and then most unique. Those are the three you can win prizes for, and we've added a category this year of prizes you can win of things left behind in the church. If you're missing something, you might get it back.

Come on come on by. But it is a chili cook off, and we would love to have lots of chili. Typically, if you could bring it in a crock pot, that's a great way to go. And if you could bring two crock pots, you stand a better chance of winning because you have enough for people to actually taste your chili. On the twenty fourth, Christmas Eve, there are no morning services even though it falls on a Sunday.

So, if you if you wanna show up, you're welcome to entertain everybody else who showed up and forgot, but there won't be a scheduled Christmas, service that morning because we have the 04:30 and the 6PM services that night. Those are the candlelight services. It's always a big hit. We want you to bring the whole family, but would you consider coming maybe to the 6PM instead of the 04:30 to make a little bit of room for other people and or sit in the front because a lot of people don't sit in the front or consider going into the overflow room if there's too many people? We're just trying to make it comfortable because a lot of times, that's the only service people come to in here, and we'd like to make it possible for them to do that.

On Christmas Day, the twenty fifth, there are no services here as well. So if you have any questions, feel free to let us know. The women's Christmas luncheon is December 6. That's this week. If you'd like to go, it's free over the Snow King Ballroom, and that's in the hotel section up there.

But please RSVP. If you need help with that, let me know. But the link is on our website. It is free. A great chance to invite somebody who doesn't know the Lord, to be there.

The angel tree is out in the lobby. Tommy is taking that on again. The tags are due back by December 20. You can take a tag, buy the item that's on it, bring it back to the church, but do us a favor and leave that tag on the packaging so that we don't have to unwrap and find out what you got. That'd be great.

By December 20, just kind of expedites things and makes it easier for us as well. I think that's it. We do have the candle of hope today, and the geek family is going to come up and do our first advent reading of the year.

I'm Mary Geek, and this is Josh and Baron and Charlotte, and the kids are gonna read, our advent today. Your turn. Today is the first Sunday in Advent. We light the first candle, the candle of hope. We have hope because of our faithful promises of God.

He sent his son, and we received our savior, a savior born to redeem the world from sin and death.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you, Geek family. And shall we stand and sing again? Birthday of the king. Man, you can have a seat here for a moment. This is the the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite our ushers to come forward here.

And and, also, would you would you join me in just a word of prayer? Lord Jesus, we're we're grateful to to gather here together to mourning, this morning. And in your name, God, would would we just quiet our hearts, still our minds, take a moment to pause, and simply say thankful and to say thank you. Thank you for the gift of your son. Emmanuel, we've sung of it.

But, Lord, we just pause to say it out loud. Emmanuel, God with us every moment, every day, everywhere we go to the very end of age. That's your promise to us, Emmanuel. Lord, would you would you use us? Would you use us as your continued body on earth and and use these gifts that are are put in these plates and otherwise because there's so much more than than that goes so much more than just what goes in these plates.

Lord, it's the day to day things. Obediently carrying out your will in our lives with the gifts that we've been given to advance your kingdom right here in Jackson to the ends of the earth. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Judy. And I would like to invite up Brad Yates.

Brad, Yates is one of our elders, and he's gonna be, preaching this morning from first Peter, two verse nine and ten. And, before before you speak, can I pray for you and pray for pray for us too? Lord Lord Jesus, we thank you for your word, that it is living and active, that it does not return void. And we trust that. We believe that.

And we ask, Lord, that that you'd give us an an open and receptive heart, Lord, that the that the word would fall on on fertile soil here, that we'd not only be listeners, but but doers, that there would be something in the word this this morning that that captures us maybe like never before. And so, Lord, would you use the truth of your word? Would you use Brad's personality here to con convey it to us? And, Lord, may your kingdom advance because of your willing and obedient servants. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I got a red light. Is this a sign? It's working. I'm gonna use the batteries real quick. Okay.

I'm excited for that to happen in real time. So it's alright. Good morning. So as humans, we have this deep seated need to oh, we are doing this right now. Look.

Okay. As humans, we have this deep seated need to Hi. Levels good? Everybody hear me? Great.

Let's try that again. Good morning. Hey, we're doing great. All right. So as humans, we have this deep seated need to belong, and you see this play out in all sorts of ways.

Our identity depends I'm gonna knock these off if I don't move them. Our identity depends so much on the groups that we associate with and those that we're accepted into. And one of the funnier ways that it plays out is with spectator sports. And so for me personally, in the odd year that Wake Forest is having a decent football team, the emotional connection I feel with these kids is borderline absurd and they are kids. But I don't know them.

I can't do anything to help them, and I can't even do anything, like, remotely near supporting them. And yet, when there's a big play, when there's a touchdown, whatever, there's like this primal, let's go or go on or, you know, like and it's ridiculous. And that's even before I confess to you guys that often I'm watching a recording of the game after it's already taken place. But it's a fundamental part of who we are as humans that we have a need to belong. Well, today we're gonna talk about the ultimate belonging, our ultimate source of identity.

And you need to know your identity because if you can't simply and succinctly answer the question, who are you? Then Satan will do it for you. Now I confess, I feel a little bit like a fraud in bringing this message to you guys. This is something that I've wrestled with all week. My life is not the way that I would want it to look in light of the text that we're gonna discuss today.

But that in no way actually relieves the burden on me to teach it. If anything, it just elevates my necessary response. So I've been convicted in the Holy Spirit as I've prepared this text, and I've honestly prayed that you guys would too. So let's take a look at our text for today. First Peter two nine through 10, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

For once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So for a bit of context there, you need to know that I have no formal training in Greek or Hebrew. The only ancient language I ever took was a few years of Latin in high school, and doctor Jacobs didn't think very highly of my skills then, And they've only degraded since. But I am capable of reading commentaries, consulting experts, things like that.

And one of the key points for this letter is the use of the second person plural. One of the failings of our English language is that we tend to use the same word for both second person singular and second person plural, that being you. However, my creative friends from back home in Texas, we have an inventive solution for this that the rest of the world thinks is backwards, of course, being y'all. There we go. Or even the more emphatic, all y'all.

But what you need to know for today's context is that in the vast majority of Peter's epistle and most of the epistles, it's being written in Texan. It's y'all. So our central thesis today, accordingly, is that when God chose us and saved us, he made us part of something brand new. And in light of the kingdom of God, we as a church are to be different from the people around us. Now getting from that sort of central thesis to our text, we're gonna pick out four phrases that we're gonna take a look at.

Chosen people, holy nation, people for God's own possession, and royal priesthood. So first, looking at the phrase chosen people. Because I don't know about you guys, but I can often get pulled into this cultural idea that Christianity is a list of things that we are supposed to not do. It's as if by removing some aspect of myself or some part of my life that I can somehow make myself good enough for the eternal perfect and holy God. And you hear this subtly reinforced throughout our culture because everybody seems to know what we as Christians are against, but nobody knows what we're for.

And some of that's on us. In modern western culture, they think that we're too conservative, that we are in the way of social progress, that we should just get with the program regarding sexual or identity mores. When the truth is that some of the very things that are considered love or kindness in our society are the very things that God condemns or tells us to speak out against. But the irony of course is that in many Eastern or shame and honor cultures, Christians are considered far too liberal for these ideas of forgiveness or of grace or of the idea that all humans have equal dignity, value, and worth. The idea that women and children are not property or chattel.

It would if it weren't so tragic, it would actually be a little bit funny the way that modern Western culture kind of usurps the ideas of human dignity from Christianity. Reinvents them, perverts them for their own purposes, and then pretends as if they're some modern new invention of secular humanism. But it's not the case. Anyway, people that have only a a lazy or passing knowledge of the Christian faith think that we're just like any other religion. You've heard the Ray talks about old time religion, you know, that don't drink, don't chew, and don't go with girls that do.

So we respond, and we get grumpy. And and and in some ways, we should lament the passing of social norms and of morals from our society. But that can't be the end of our faith. That's a shallow religion, and the Bible knows nothing of that. No.

Our faith is that we cannot be good enough for God, that there is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves that makes us acceptable to the creator. No one can. We are all sinners. You, me, Carl, all of us. I've recently heard this called the bad news of the gospel.

And that's a phrase that I just love and you're probably gonna hear me repeat. But the bad news is that there is nothing that we can do to redeem ourselves. That we are so inherently flawed and sinful that we cannot be made acceptable to our creator by any efforts of our own, no matter how good or noble. And you can't accept the good news of the gospel unless we accept the bad news of the gospel first. We cannot accept the good news that God made provision for that.

That Christ Jesus lived a perfect life, died a perfect death that we deserved, and then on the third day he walked out of that grave. No. The good news is that when he walked out of that grave, he was the first in the resurrection. And that all of us that identify in Christ, we will follow him one day in that resurrection. So we can't accept, like I said, we can't accept the good news until we've accepted the bad news.

Because God chose to reveal himself to us here today through the person and work of Jesus for the purpose of creating this very gathering, this people, the church, so that we might work together for his glory. We do that in loving one another no matter how imperfectly we do that and by reminding each other of the grace that we have received in Jesus. Because you guys realize that as Romans five says, we were enemies of God, each and every one of us. We weren't Switzerland. We weren't neutral parties.

We were enemies of God. But now, as Paul goes on to say, we have peace with God through Jesus. And it's not just so that we can be a more polite version of ourselves. This is what Peter is talking about when he says, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The bad news of our iniquity, our transgression, our sin, that was the darkness that we were in.

But God called us out of that into his glorious light, and that light is that we are made whole in Jesus and we are given a new life to live here on earth and to proclaim every day until we die or until Jesus calls us home and comes back. Because when Jesus walked out of that grave and he did, and it's the single most important fact in human history. He created something new when he called us to follow him. Peter says on this, for once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. A big part on this is that we have to remember that Peter was a Jew.

And being a Jew in first century Israel was a huge deal for your identity. And yet, when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles in acts two, it created not just a new nation, but a new type of nation. This is not a political entity. This is not a nation based on borders or ethnicity or history or geography. This is something brand new.

This is the holy nation. And this is why Peter in our text today is using several mixed analogies. He's trying to explain something that is brand new. We aren't the new nation, the Republic Of Christendom. No.

We are a nation of Christians in whatever context we are in, spread out around the world, but we are to be set apart within that context. You've all likely heard the phrase at some point that we Christians are supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. Yes, we're physically here. We participate in it. We take our kids to ridiculous hockey practice times, but we are a nation without borders, ethnicity, and without alliances.

Jesus, when he's praying to the father, he's with and praying for the disciples and for each and every one of us. He says, I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Peter is extrapolating effectively this text when he's talking about us as an as a as a new thing. Peter's contemporary James, the half brother of Christ, gives us the warning version of today's text when he says, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

And that text terrifies me. Because I I know that I am, and I suspect that we are all guilty of friendship with the world in the way that James is talking about it. Now to be clear, the way that James is talking about it does not mean that we are to be jerks or that we are to isolate. The church has never correctly interpreted it that or applied it that way. Now what he's talking about here is compromise.

Friendship with the world means being of the world, like our text in John 17 said. Now what he means here and what helps us with our text today is that we are to be different. Fundamentally, intrinsically, observably different, like oil and water. And think about how different or otherworldly Jesus was. He owned nothing.

He had no worldly achievements. He's made plenty of time and he spoke kindly while in truth to the least of society. And he spoke boldly boldly without fear of consequence to those in power. He lived in constant prayer, and he lived in abject poverty, and from a worldly standpoint, deep material need. And yet his apostles chose to follow that example.

But by way of contrast, I hesitate to share my faith with people because in my mind, I downplayed the ultimate realities of eternal life. I instead worry or fear about being vulnerable or as if it matters that I won't be articulate enough in the way that I share my faith. Or I worry first about my worldly comforts and control. My friend, Caleb Malone, back in Dallas, it's his birthday today actually. So if you see this, hi, Caleb, has this great line that says, it is better to be awkward than silent.

Keep in mind that's only regarding evangelism. In the rest of your life, it's probably better the opposite. But when we're talking about Jesus, when we are proclaiming the excellencies of him, it is better to be awkward than silent. And if we do it frequently, we'll grow less awkward over time. And that's what our text today is telling us to do.

There we go. Got it that one. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, not of ourselves. We're not telling people how good we are. We have nothing good to offer in this equation.

We're proclaiming the excellencies of him. No. Because the best way to counter the cultural pull around us is actually to talk about Jesus, and this is something I struggle with. We we don't need to talk about conservative morals or about church or about God generally or about love is love or any of the other meaningless tropes that the culture trots out. We talk about Jesus.

The son of God that loved us and gave himself for us so that we might have right relationship with the father and with one another. That we might love one another in such a way that the world says, I don't like that. That's different. Or they even disagree with it or maybe even so far as hate it. But they know that there's something appealing about it.

That's what we're called to when we love one another. Similarly, I have brothers and sisters in every country and on every continent. And I have more in common with them than I do with my unbelieving neighbors because we have Jesus. I don't know if you guys have ever done this before, but you're in this random context. You're just going through your daily life, And you see somebody, and they've got the the fish ring or the cross necklace or the tattoo or whatever.

And you just kinda go, oh, that's that's neat. What does that mean to you? And they say something about their Christian faith. And then you kinda do that awkward dance where you're both trying to figure out if you're like a real follower for Jesus. And And there's that moment and you realize it and you do the like the high five pound thing that doesn't really work.

But you're just like so excited in that moment. And I've had that on like with taxi drivers or Uber drivers on trips before. Where there's that moment that you realize that this person, though, is from the other part of the world. So the only thing you have in common with them is that you the physical space that you're in in that moment and Jesus. And so what do you talk about when the only thing you have in common is Jesus?

You talk about Jesus, and you praise Jesus. And can't you see how God is glorified in that moment? And it's so great. But, similarly, as we're thinking about nations, we need to talk about holy nation. Because something I have to speak to briefly here is what Peter is not talking about with regards to holy nation.

He is not talking about nation states or political entities. And he's definitely not talking about The United States. And I know that seems obvious that that's not what Peter's talking about because that's how time works. But I think it bears repeating as we can often get tied up in our national or political identities, maybe even more than our Christian ones. Now don't mishear me.

Patriotism is a healthy thing. I think the American democracy experiment is probably the best in the history of human ideas. But we have to be able to clearly prioritize our Christian faith in and above any national or political identity. That's true of America, and it's also true of our friends in Israel. Now that's particularly loaded to say right now, so I'm gonna be very careful and use my notes.

But when Peter says holy nation here, he is not talking about the modern state of Israel. I know that Israel as a nation state today is a secular modern nation. It is an amazing and necessary safe harbor for ethnic Jews, but it is a very far cry from what God is talking about in the Bible or what God promised Abraham in Genesis 12. So when you see Israel in the Bible and you see Israel on the news, we cannot a 100% conflate the two. There's overlap for sure.

But over half of polled adults in the current state of Israel do not identify themselves as religiously Jewish. And even those that are Jewish, they love the father, but they've rejected the son. So which John has a the apostle John has a great quote. First John two, no one who denies the son has the father. Whoever confesses the son has the father also.

So church, we pray for Israel. We support Israel when they are in the modern when they are in the moral right. But we are ultimately praying for them in the same way that we are praying for any anyone else. That they would find a saving faith in Jesus. Now, the Bible makes very clear that God is faithful to his promises, and God has made specific promises to the nation of Israel.

But again, for our purposes, that does not involve everyone that carries an Israeli passport or lives within its national borders. Does that make sense? Okay. Another historical example is in three thirteen AD, Constantine issued what's called the Edict of Milan, making the practice of Christianity in the Roman Empire no longer illegal. 10 later, Christianity is effectively the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Why I bring it up here is that Christian leaders then, as now, struggle with the consequences of that. How do we include people in a Christian nation when Christianity is not an inherited religion? Let me put it this way. God has no grandchildren. It is available to every single one of us to be children of God, but you are not a Christian because your parents were or their parents before them.

You are a Christian if you have placed your hope in the saving person and work of Jesus Christ and him alone. So running a nation as Christians then, it gets a little complicated because we can set up moral, ethical, or legal guardrails against evil. But just as nations are incapable of doing anything against the spread of the kingdom of God, and boy, aren't we seeing that play out in North Korea and Iran and China right now? But just as they can't do anything to stop the spread of the kingdom of God, nation states will be used by God but cannot legislate a saving faith in Jesus. For example, here's an exhaustive list of the officially Christian nations that exist in the world.

Just to pick on one. Do you know the percentage of Norway's population that attends church on a regular basis? 2%. It's an official Christian nation. The other nations on this list, especially those in the developed world, they don't fare any better by those metrics.

So that is not what Peter is calling us to here. Our chosen people, our holy nation, they're totally different from anything that has existed before. And that's really powerful because if you find yourself being sold on a political alliance or having your healthy patriotism elevated above your Christian faith, Keep in mind that the Bible is calling you to so much more. So what makes this holy nation different? I'm really glad you asked because that's the next point in my outline, which is that we are a people for God's own possession.

This is such a powerful idea that Peter is communicating to us here, and it is so necessary for our anxious age. Because

you know who you belong to if you have a faith in Jesus? You belong to God. The creator, sustainer, redeemer of all creation, of all that has ever been, and all that ever will be. And there is nothing that you can do to ruin that no matter what. There is no sin that is unforgivable apart from denying Jesus.

And you know who got scared and denied Jesus three times for a little bit? The author of this very letter, Peter, the leader of the early church. So that's not what the Bible is talking about when it talks about denying Jesus. Now what it's talking about is a determined permanent denial of Jesus. Like deciding and then successfully following through with never submitting to Christ.

So no matter what you have done, no matter how many times, no matter how for how long, there is grace available to you. Guys, angels in heaven, they rejoice when atheists, when Muslims, when Satanists, when abortionists, when they come to a saving faith in Jesus, the heavens cry out. And it happens all the time. So we talked about Peter. How about some of the other biblical leaders?

Do you know that one of them professionally killed Christians before he became one? Apostle Paul. But God had plans for him. God chose him, revealed himself to him, and redeemed him out of his own self righteousness. And then kind of as a flex of the Holy Spirit, Paul spends the rest of his life running around founding churches, not buildings, people, writing over half the New Testament and then is martyred for his faith.

It's just such a beautiful example of how no one is too far gone for God. Because, show of hands, has anyone here killed Christians? No? Okay. Because if you have, you still need to go to jail.

But we will pray for you. We will celebrate you. We will baptize you. We'll go wild celebrating your faith. And we'll even help you start a prison ministry, and God will bless that too because of the blood of Jesus.

But I use that as an extreme example. But we need this because we fall short, all of us, some aspect or another. And we just need to be reminded that there is grace available to us would we but partake in it. But just as Peter talks today about God showing us mercy, we can show mercy to ourselves and to everyone around us. So when you screw up, whether it's large or small, public or private, you bring it to God and you share it with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Because the other key point in this text is that you are a people. And as I mentioned in the introduction, all throughout this text and in the epistles in general, it's written in Texan. It doesn't come across in the ESV or the NASB. Maybe if Eugene Peterson had been from Dallas or something, his his paraphrase the message would have gotten it. But when this text says you read y'all, as in y'all are a royal priesthood, y'all are a chosen nation.

Chosen people, holy nation. It sounds good. But my point is this command is it's written to us collectively because each and every one of us, we have a responsibility to try and live out the commands that Christ has given us. But we can't do it alone. This is that famous analogy of the hands and the feet and the eyes and the tongue.

We all have different gifts and different capacities. And and I realized that I'm I'm saying this to a Sunday gathering. So you're here. That's the great first step. But if this is the sum total of your interaction with the church, I'm saying that you're missing out on the blessing that's available.

And I think this text is saying that you're falling short of the calling. Tony Evans out of Oak Cliff Bible has this. Jim, you paying attention? Yep. We were talking about Tony Evans earlier.

Tony Evans has this great quote. He says, I hear people say, I don't have to go to church to be a Christian, and they're absolutely right. Salvation is through faith alone and Christ alone. But you don't have to go home to be married. But you stay away long enough and your relationship, it will be affected.

Natalie and I got married here about ten years ago. And you don't have to tell me, for those of you all that have met her, she doesn't age today and I look like somebody took me out of the fridge and left me on the counter for too long. But if after that beautiful day, if she'd gone home to Dallas and I'd stayed here, we would still be married. And we would have a great theoretical idea of each other. We would have never had any of the conflict over kids or or budget or house or, you know, ministry or schedules or any of those sort of things.

But we would have never gotten any closer to our biblical roles. And we would not have benefited from the maturing that occurs when iron sharpens iron. I'm reminded of of Proverbs fourteen four, which says, where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but much profit comes by the strength of the ox. Community works the same way. Church does too.

If all you ever do is put on your Sunday best and keep your hands clean, you might be saved. It's not for me to tell, but I'm saying that you're missing out on the blessing that's available to you because we are saved for God's purposes, not our own. This is my segue to royal priesthood because I worry a lot that we are gonna have too pretty of a church. We have this really cool old building with this beautiful backdrop. And Tim Dalton and his team, they do I can see him getting nervous now they said it.

Do an awesome job taking care of the facilities here. Steve Baldock is moderator, Jim Reed running financials. These guys make the church work. We're really good at managing butts, budgets, buildings here. But I worry that we're leaving too much of the mess to the professionals.

I am thankful that Ray and Carl and Mike and Diane and Nick, they do such an amazing job interfacing with our community and dealing with those that are hurting and broken. And they do it on a day in and day out basis, and it's often thankless. But there's an opportunity for us to do that too. And we get to grow in those opportunities when we interface with a hurting neighbor or when our brother or sister in Christ, when they're hurting or when they need to confess something, instead of pointing them to the vocational ministers if we deal with that ourselves. That's community.

Because if you look through acts, if you read through the Bible, and you look at what the difference is between our job description and Ray's or Carl's or Nick's, it's not much. This letter was not written to vocational pastors. This letter was written to y'all, to me. And this is something where I feel like I've fallen short recently. Because priests in the Old Testament, they were the mediators between men and God.

They were set apart specifically for that purpose, and now that's our job. All of us. Take a second and reflect on that. How are you doing as a priest recently? How are we doing as priests collectively?

Because I'll confess to you right now, I know I'm falling short. And I've wrestled with God a lot in preparing this message. This is this was a hard one for me and it's a really healthy one. The last time I spoke, think I told you guys about I I need these paradigms. I need really simple phrases that I can like burn into my brain that pop up whenever I'm in need of it.

And the one I think I told you last time was that there's a there's a phrase that I've that I've adopted, which is that what I really deserve is death. And it just keeps me living a life of gratitude. Similarly, for today, I'm committing to being weird. That's it. And I know there's some etymology issues with the word weird related to witchcraft and things like that.

Believe me, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about being weird in the way being different, being abnormal, being supernatural. I'm committing to being weird, and I'm asking you guys too as well. And I mean that as a church. We should be weird.

They should say, hey, those first b people, they're weird the way they love each other, the way they always wanna talk about Christ. But God will glorify that. And we get there by reminding ourselves that we are a kingdom of priests as it says in Revelation one. And that we are, as Peter said earlier in our text, called out of darkness and into light. That what each of us really deserve is death.

What we deserve is judgment, but we've been spared that. And so we can be grateful. Because you know what the difference is with this mindset? It's you. It's me.

The circumstances will still be just as hard. That driver with California plates looking at their cell phone is still gonna cut you off and have no idea. But you have the opportunity to bless them, to pray for them, and they're not gonna know. Your coworker, your gossipy friend, your terrible boss, whatever, they're still gonna be too self absorbed to notice. But everybody else around you will see that there is something different about you, that you have a joy and a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Guys, priests priests are holy. They're set apart. They're weird. So how do we then take that and we live a life similar to this famous passage from Galatians five? So that we're living out the fruits of the spirit.

I like to I take this passage and I try to insert my name. And I see and it's a question when I do it, just to be clear. Brad is love. Brad is joy. Brad is peace.

And this is the kind of stuff I've wrestled with this week because that convicts me. Do I have more gentleness or do I have more anger? Do I have more selfish ambition, or do I have more peace? Those are things that have hit me hard this week. Here's another one.

If we're gonna be priests, is our sexual morality actually different from that of our neighbors? Do you protect what your eyes see? Do you take your thoughts captive? Or do you fall prey to the massive industry that wants to monetize your attention and it does so in allegiance and in tandem with the enemy that wants to destroy your ministry and your marriage and your purity through pornography, lust, and adultery? I realized in the 9AM that this is far too small for them, so certainly for you guys.

But this is a Barna Group study called the porn phenomenon. And these are all terrifying statistics about porn both in and out of the church and usage of it. You can find this study if you just Google it. You can send me an email and I'll get you the stats. But the really important note here actually is that if any of this in any way describes you, these stats are actually clearly saying that you're not alone.

And the Bible is very clear about what we are to do when we are caught in a sin struggle. We're to confess it to God and we're to bring it to a brother or sister in Christ. Because the most terrifying and the most freeing conversation that you will ever have, if you would but have the courage to start it, will be the day that you bring what you thought was a disqualifying sin to a brother or sister in Christ and you bring it to God as well. For some, that initial conversation, that sets people free from lifetimes of struggle. For others, not as much.

For others, it'll still be a struggle, but at least you'll have a co laborer. You'll have somebody with you, a brother or sister in Christ to remind you that that sin does not determine your identity. It does not disqualify you, and it does not define you. As we said earlier, you are God's own possession. And there is nothing that you can do to change that.

There is no sin that surprises God. Jesus knew what he was buying when he was on the cross. Because Jesus died for that one too. So in the church, we've often referred to this whole idea as strangers and aliens. And you know who the coolest stranger and alien is in fiction?

Superman. Now in the comics, Superman is actually an alien named Kal El and he's from the planet Krypton. And depending on how old you are, Superman either looks something like Henry Cavill or Christopher Reeve. But here's the thing about Superman. His energy comes from a different source than the people around him.

And because of that, he can do things that the people around him can't. Guys, he can fly. And we at First Be, we talk about not falling into the ditch on either side of legalism or licentiousness, which is somehow both fancy and folksy, which is what you get when you have a head pastor from rural Georgia with advanced degrees. But it gets the point across. But what Peter is saying and what I'm saying to you today is that you can fly.

We don't wanna bounce between the ditches of this exhausted, angry, white knuckled moralism and legalism, or this devil may care, Jesus paid for that too, so what is sin? Licentiousness. No. We fly above those. You can transcend them.

And because you can transcend them, there is the expectation that you will. And you do so by joining together with aliens in a way that the world says is weird. And that's where the Superman analogy breaks down because he does things on his own. He's Superman. I'm learning at the age of 38 that I'm not.

And I'll invite Judy back up, but you are a chosen people. You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. You are a people of God's own possession. Why? So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into light.

And I'll say it again to make it very clear. All those things that Jesus or that Peter says that you are, the chosen people, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, that is so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You were called out of the world while being physically left in it so that you can tell people about Jesus. There is opportunity right now today to change the rest of your life to stop living for the complacency, for the sin that can control you, for the fear of others, for the fruits of the flesh, and we can recommit to being holy together, all y'all. Church, y'all are the people of God.

Go forth and proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out, and into his marvelous light. Do not be merely hearers of the word, but doers. I love you so much, church. Thank you for this time. Have a great week of worship.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brad. And would you stand and we'll sing one last song together, A Little Town of Bethlehem? And I wanna leave this, leave us with this verse from from Galatians, five as we part here, and it is that we've been called to live in freedom. That's what happens when we put our faith and and trust in Christ. We've been called to live in freedom.

But it says, our brothers and sisters, let's not use that freedom to satisfy our sinful nature, but instead use that freedom to serve one another in love. Amen.

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