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[ Silence ] [Music] ♪ Give me that old pride religion ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ Give me that old pride religion ♪ ♪ Give me that old pride religion ♪ ♪ Give me that old pride religion ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ It was good for my mother ♪ ♪ It was good for my mother ♪ ♪ It was good for all of us ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ Makes me love everybody ♪ ♪ Makes me love everybody ♪ ♪ Makes me love everybody ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ Give me that old time religion ♪ ♪ Give me that old time religion ♪ ♪ In that old timey love ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ Did I say it enough for her ♪ ♪ Did I say it enough for her ♪ ♪ Did I say it enough for her ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ It was good for the prophet Daniel ♪ ♪ It was good for the prophet Daniel ♪ ♪ It was good for the prophet Daniel ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ If you had a long time to live ♪ ♪ If you had a long time to live ♪ ♪ If you had a long time to live ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ If you had a long time to live ♪ ♪ If you had a long time to live ♪ ♪ Living out a whole new kind of religion ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ Living out a whole new kind of religion ♪ ♪ Living out a whole new kind of religion ♪ ♪ Living out a whole new kind of religion ♪ ♪ It's good enough for me ♪

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♪ Living out a whole new kind of religion ♪ ♪ Living out a whole new kind of religion ♪ ♪ In the old town we come ♪ ♪ It's the reason for me ♪

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- Amen, amen. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee.

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I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shall be a blessing. I will bless them that bless you

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and curse him that curses thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3. Exodus 19 verses 5 and 6.

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"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. for all the earth is mine.

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And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and holy nation. The subject of the message,

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God's peculiar people. God's peculiar people. This message may be considered as the introductory sermon on what is our doctrinal emphasis in our church training during the month of April. For the doctrine on which we focus this year is the doctrine of the laity.

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There is a gross misunderstanding concerning the nature and function of the church. Many think of the church as being made up of just pulpit and pew with one being against the other, the pastor and the congregation. And the pastor is at odds with the congregation, and the congregation is at odds with the pastor.

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Some look upon the pastor as being, along with staff, the hard hand. These people, the staff, the staff should do the work of witnessing and winning people in the service of Christ, that's what they are paid to do, and we are to see that they do it.

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That's the view that many people have of the church. Our churches are weak in many instances because of a lack of knowledge concerning what the Bible teaches concerning the laity. The word laity comes from the Greek word laos, which means people of God, God's people,

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God's family. It includes all of the people of God, pastor and congregation, pulpit and pew, staff members, individual members of the congregation, everybody. This word "laos" is used in the New Testament to describe the people of God.

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In the Old Testament, there's a Hebrew phrase, "the kohol Yahweh," meaning the congregation of God in the Old Testament. We do not have the word "laos" in the Old Testament, only in the New. that the doctrine concerning the laity is throughout the Scripture. It is in the

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Old Testament as well as the New. Those who belong to the family of God in the biblical sense are those who honor God, this God who reveals himself through Jesus Christ and seek to live in obedience to his will, those who do that are called God's own people. They are peculiar. They are different from other

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people. They are God's peculiar people. Now to be peculiar is to be regarded as strange. It's to be considered as odd, different, to be thought of as funny, acting some people say. To be considered peculiar is to be put in a class to yourself, to have a circle drawn around

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you. It is to be unique, it is to be special, it is to be different. God's own people, God's peculiar people are different kind of people. They have certain distinguishing marks. They are particular people with special characteristics. You know physically when they seek to

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zero in on our identity they want to know what are some peculiar things. I say well I have a scar on my left shoulder that I got when I was washing dishes and went behind the stove and got burned, left a scar. It's different. Somebody else

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may have a mold or this or that that is peculiar. But then we have some things that really are peculiar about us in other ways. But as we think about God's peculiar people, what really is it that makes one a part of the family of God so that you may be numbered with God's peculiar people? They are those who have heard the call of God in their lives. They have

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heard the voice of God summoning them to a new life, the voice of God calling them to be different. The voice of God that calls them to be a pioneer, to become a pilgrim on an upward journey. The call of God. And this call is described in the life of Abraham. God calls him by name saying, "Abraham, Abraham." You see Abraham

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is in Ur of Chaldees. He's among his kindred. He's among his kind. He's committed to the worship of false gods. But something strange occurs in Abraham's experience. He hears the call of God to come up higher, to be different. Abraham, you see, has been under the influence of what we may call mass

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society in Babylon doing what everybody else does. You see, he was influenced by the movers and shakers of Babylon, but he's changed because he hears the call of God. He's changed because he responds to a strange voice. He hears a strange voice saying, "Abraham, Abraham, walk before me. Through you I will not only

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Bless you as you leave your father's house. I want you to get out from where you are. You leave your kindred, leave your father's house, leave this land of Babylon to a land that I will show you. Get out of your country. Leave your familiar surroundings. Get away from your kind, from your father's house. Get out of

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Babylon. No doubt Abraham says in his own heart of hearts, "Lord where will I go? To a land that I will show you." And it's just rather something that is strange when you start listening to a higher voice. When you're somewhat motivated by a voice that is beyond the noise and clamor of our times. Imagine how it must have been when Abraham comes home and says

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to Sarah, honey pack the bags we got to move out of here. What do you mean move out of here? We've been here all our lives. Where we going? I don't know. I heard a voice. A voice? What kind of voice? What would the average housewife say today if her husband came home saying he's quitting his job and all of that, he's going out to California somewhere because he heard a voice?

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But that's what happens in the life of Abraham. He certainly was acting peculiar. And no doubt it was noised about in the family. Abraham sure is acting peculiar.

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Something must be happening to him. Maybe he's going off his rocker. That's the first thing we say. And she said, "Well, Abraham, all of our investments are yet." Yes, I know that, but I've heard a voice. We've got to get out of here. We've got to leave Babylon. rather peculiar action. Abraham has heard the voice of God telling him to go to a

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land that he will be shown. So the first thing about a person being a part of this community of the peculiar, the peculiar people of God is that you hear first of all the voice of God. Those who have not really heard the voice of God in their lives cannot be numbered among God's peculiar people. It's a strange

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voice beyond the noise and clamor of our day. A whole lot of people listen to the voice of the people and they get it confused with the voice of God. Some preachers do that too. A lot of difference between the voice of God and the voice of the people. Some people want to know before they do anything, they want to check the polls,

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they want to take a poll, what are they doing? And they want to feel the pulse, and then they decide, well, this is the way it's going, so I'll go over here. The voice of God is a strange voice. So the first thing that one must do to be in this number of the peculiar people of God is to hear the call of God and to respond, to respond to that voice. He calls,

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he's calling, many people do not respond. I remember when I was a lad many, many years ago we played a game. It went something like this, "Grandma Gray, may I go to play?" And she said, "No, my child, it's too early in the day." And then you'd go out and she'd let you go out to play in the game. And then she'd come and say, "My children,

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I'm calling you." And we'd come up with that, "I don't hear you." Well, that's the way it is many times. God is calling. He's calling and many are saying, "I don't hear you. He's calling us, you know. How many people who have certain talents and the Lord is calling you to use the talent and you're saying to the Lord, "I don't hear you."

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It may be to sing in the choir, it may be to teach in the Sunday school, or to work in church training, or to serve as a circle leader. No, I don't hear you. The people of God not only hear and respond to the voice of God, they do a second thing and that is that they obey. They obey. They obey. And you see when Moses leads the

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children of Israel out of Egypt while they're in the promised land they come to Sinai and there at Sinai, you see what God is really doing, he is building a new people. In other words, in Egypt they were somewhat considered as nobodies. They were slaves. We've had some experience like that, you know, being considered

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nobody. When we first came to this country we were considered as three-fifths of a person, not a whole person, not if you were black. You were three-fifths by law. Nobodies. So you see these Hebrew people were considered sort of as nobodies and so what God is doing in bringing them out of Egypt is he is

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building up a new people and this new people that God is building up. The marriage so to speak takes place at the foot of Sinai and at the foot of Sinai the Ten Commandments are presented and the people are told that all of these things you are to do and in that waiting the people what will you what's what's

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the answer to this question do you promise to do all of the things that God says for you to do here in his law and the answer I do and then God in turn to them if you will do all of these things, then you will be to me a peculiar people, a peculiar people, a peculiar people.

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And you will be not only a peculiar people, you will be my peculiar treasure, but you will be to me as a kingdom of priests. Listen, a kingdom of priests. A kingdom of priests.

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Now a whole lot of Baptist people, people who have their names on the church, some Baptist church don't really understand that. A kingdom of priests, that means what we call

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our doctrine the priesthood of all believers. The priesthood of, you know what a priest is? Every one of us a priest? A priest is one who is a mediator between God and man. The priest speaks for God to the people and he also speaks for the people to God. Now some people would like to say that the preacher,

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So that's not for me, honey, that's Reverend Griffin. But to be a priest means that every one of us is a priest, every one of us. But somehow if I belong to the peculiar people of God, but as God has called me out of Egypt, and that he has made of me a new creature. That's what every one of us says. And as a new creature, he has also made of me his

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peculiar treasure. And as his peculiar treasure, that I'm a part of a kingdom of priests. Kingdom of priests. That means that every one of us can communicate with God not only for ourselves, but we communicate with God on behalf of others And if our churches really believe that, they would be different. We somehow have

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lost sight of the doctrine, this biblical doctrine of the laity, and we've sort of set up our doctrine of clericalism. Most of our churches do that. We raise our budgets, we get our staff, we say, "Okay, staff, you do this. Why haven't you done this?" And we sit down and we do not witness. We have our revivals and very

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seldom we go out and bring in someone. We have an evangelist and if somehow he can holler out loud enough for the people in the nooks and corners of the city to come, fine. But we're not going out there bringing them. That's the attitude of many of us. But the doctrine of the laity really means that somehow every person,

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preacher and people, are a part of the kingdom of priests. That's what it means, my brothers and sisters, the kingdom of priests. So the pastor is sort of like a player coach. When I was living in Cleveland, the Cleveland Indians had on the team had a coach manager by the name of Lou Boudreau. I think he played

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shortstop and he was also the manager of the team so he was a player and a manager. He did both and that's what the preacher is to be. He used to be a player and a manager but you see he was involved in the game. All of them were playing the game and that's what it means to really understand and practice

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the doctrine of the laity, to be God's peculiar people, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood. And so John sort of picks up that refrain in the book of Revelation when he says that Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests, That somehow Jesus Christ has enabled us to be kings.

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We belong to royalty. We are kings. That he has absolute authority in our lives. We are his kings.

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The king didn't have anyone else that he really had to subject himself to but God himself. The first task of the Christian is to be obedient to Jesus Christ. Everything else comes secondary. John goes on to say that when that book was there in heaven and there was no one that

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could open that book, there was great sorrow. He began to weep and he said, "Don't weep, for the Lamb is able to open the book." When the Lamb came and opened the book, they began to sing a new song and that new song his. Blessed is the Lamb for he is the one, this worthy Lamb is the one who has

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made us kings and priests unto our God and his Father. Secondly, we said that the doctrine of the laity involves being obedient to God. It involves in the third place being sent out to work for God. It means being on mission for God. We're not out there doing God's work. That's the task of every person. Now the preacher

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may be in the pulpit and we may have a minister of music and we may have a secretary and all those other things as far as the staff is concerned, but it's the task of every one of us to be out there on mission for God, doing God's work, carrying out his will. On our jobs every day, in our homes, wherever we are,

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we are called to do God's work. So what does it really mean to be God's peculiar people? Somebody has said that no two snowflakes are alike. No two human beings are exactly alike, even identical twins are not just alike, there's something different. That every one of us is unique, every one of

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us is different. And yet somehow we live in a society many times where we we feel afraid to be different. Kierkegaard talks about it, he talks about being a solitary individual. You know that's a price to pay for just being you? Because so many people want to mold you into what they want you to be. They want to

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shape your mind, they want to determine what you are to do every moment and somehow if you want to get along with me you've got to do as I say. But to be that solitary individual means that you're willing to pay the price to be different and to be different just to be like God. You see God is odd. There's nobody like

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him. He's odd. Someone has said, "How odd of God to choose the Jews. How odd of God to choose the Jews." A persecuted people, small group, and yet they are the Israel in the Old Testament, and we who follow Jesus Christ are considered the Israel in the New New Testament peculiar. Peculiar. Peculiar. To be followers of God, for this God says,

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"I don't want any other God before me. In fact, I'm in a class to myself. You shall have no other gods before me." God is odd. And so somehow we come as the people of God to celebrate our uniqueness we come to celebrate our oddity. There's a fraternal group, a benevolent group called the odd fellows, they celebrate

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the fact that they are odd. Christians are God's peculiar treasure, God's peculiar people. Doesn't matter what others may say if you really understand what it means to be God's peculiar treasure. You see to be peculiar is to follow the peculiar one of history. The peculiar one in history is the one that

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Isaiah describes so beautifully when he talks about him. He says that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He says he's peculiar because he is as a sapling that comes up out of dry ground. That's peculiar. He said he wasn't so beautiful that we'd like to look at him said we hid as it were our faces from him.

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He's peculiar. He's a peculiar one. We follow him. Phyllis Brooks says of him that he never owned a home. He's born of poor parents. He never went to college. He never wrote a book. He never led an army or navy. In fact, he never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness and yet he's one of the most peculiar

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persons in history and he's the one that we follow to be God's peculiar people to dare to be different for God to be different for justice to be different for truth to be different for peace sake to be different because you're a child God. Be peculiar. There's a price to pay for that. And I say to you, celebrate your

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uniqueness, celebrate your oddity, celebrate the fact that you're peculiar. That's the gift of God. When I was a boy, many times they say that nappy head boy, And sometimes you'd be afraid, you'd be ashamed of your hair because someone called it nappy. Someone else says, "Well, he has a flat nose.

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He has thick lips. He has a strange way of walking." And all of us have some kind of peculiarity. And yet somehow you're made by God just as you are.

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Someone said, "Well, that old black person or that old this person is this and that." And one fellow said, "Well, you may call me ugly and all of that. You may talk about my hair and you may talk about my other appearances." He said, "But I know one thing, God don't make no junk."

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That we're made of God and God calls us to be his peculiar people, to be his treasure, and somehow if we are called of the spirit of God and we walk as God would have us walk, means that we're gonna walk in some strange places and we're gonna talk in a strange manner and we're gonna have a different lifestyle. That's what it means

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to be God's people. So I'm glad, I'm glad I'm peculiar. I'm glad God made me just as he did. I'm glad that God made me, but what he really wants me to do is to walk according to his command. As peculiar as I am and as peculiar as you are, that somehow together we can do God's will and be God's peculiar people. That's what it

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means to understand and practice the doctrine of the laity. As we come now to the hymn of invitation. We invite you to accept the opportunity to be workers together with God in his world. (muffled speaking)

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(dramatic music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (dramatic music)

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(dramatic music) (chanting) (chanting) (upbeat music)

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♪ And you will have granted me the part of our world ♪ ♪ That once did recall ♪ ♪ That you could feel the breath of love ♪ ♪ And die just a little ♪

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♪ Has he not ♪ ♪ O gentle Savior ♪ ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ My own mother's proud calling ♪

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♪ Do not, do not, do not pass me by ♪ ♪ Pass me not, for death was slain ♪ ♪ O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While on others Thou art calling ♪

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♪ True light, true light ♪ ♪ True light has begun ♪ ♪ O my Savior, O my Savior ♪ ♪ All my days ♪

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♪ Sing, yon ♪ ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ One of others ♪ ♪ I was calling ♪

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♪ Do not ♪ ♪ Do not ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ ♪ For my Savior ♪

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♪ For my Savior ♪ ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While all others ♪ ♪ Thou art calling ♪

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♪ Do not ♪ ♪ Do not ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪

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♪ Do not pass me by ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]