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Pastor Burns and his family and this has been a great retreat to come out here, this really cool spot we got to come last year and it's a huge blessing to be invited back and to get to preach to you guys this evening. The accommodations are excellent. We get to glamp while a lot of you guys are like doing the real camping and so it's been great. As Pastor Jimenez says, it's great when you go on a camping trip and they still feed you steak dinner. So, you know, however that worked out, you know, he brought a little Texas with you here, so I'm just kidding. But we really appreciate it and you have a great church here and I really enjoyed the other sermons I've got to listen to Pastor Williams and Pastor Menes preached some really good sermons and so I'm really thankful to be out here this evening. I want to start back at verse number nine here in 1 Peter chapter 2. The Bible says, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of Him who have called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And when I look at all the people here, the thought that comes to mind is a peculiar people. A peculiar people. That's the title of my sermon this evening and the word peculiar often in our modern society I would think has kind of a negative connotation. A lot of people would think of the word peculiar as being synonymous with the word weird or odd or abnormal, strange. However, when the Bible uses the word peculiar, that's not the meaning that it actually has. It has a different meaning, but this meaning still found in the modern dictionary. It's still used appropriately in our modern context. But I want to go through the Bible quickly this evening and kind of show you all the mentions of the word peculiar and show you that it means something different than this negative kind of like weird or odd type definition. In fact, what it really means is something that's unique, special or distinctive. If you actually look at a dictionary, the word peculiar, the first definition is characteristic of only one person, group or thing distinctive. So just saying it's unique, it's set apart from everyone else. It's something that's very different than everything else, but that can be in a very positive connotation being special or unique. And I want to go back to Exodus chapter 19. Go to Exodus chapter 19. We'll eventually come back to 1 Peter 2, but you don't have to necessarily keep a finger there because I won't go back there soon. But Exodus chapter number 19, I want to show you that God used the word peculiar in this same context over and over in the Bible. And I really like the way He words it in Exodus chapter 19 because in 1 Peter chapter 2, He said that He wants a peculiar people, but in Exodus chapter 19, look at verse number 5, the Bible says, Now therefore, if you 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. So here in Exodus chapter number 19, He says, if you're following My commandments, if you guys actually obey My word, you're going to be a peculiar treasure above all people in the entire earth. So when we use the word peculiar here in this particular passage, we're not talking about something that's weird. We're not talking about something that's odd. We're talking about something that's unique, a unique treasure, a special treasure unto God. And that's what God wants us to be is a peculiar treasure unto Him. And what I like about this is it says above all people. When you think about the definition of peculiar from the dictionary, what does it say? It says it's a characteristic of a group that's only one. There's only like one group of people that have this particular unique characteristic. And what is this characteristic? That to God, these people are a treasure. That to God, these people are set apart. To God, these people are different than everyone else. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 14. Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 14. Let's see how God words this again. And what you have to understand is in the Old Testament, God selected the children of Israel to be a chosen people different than all the other nations. It was God's people. And God used physical carnal pictures in the Old Testament for spiritual truths in the New Testament. So while the children of Israel as a collective are the children of God or they're the chosen people in kind of a physical sense, that also carries forward into the New Testament how we are a chosen people but in a spiritual context. Now of course some people in the Old Testament were both. You know, those that were saved, those that actually believed in the Lord, they were both the physical chosen group and they were the spiritual chosen group. And yet all of them though were the chosen physical group to be God's children to picture things in the New Testament. Now in Deuteronomy chapter 14, he says in verse number 1, you're the children of the Lord your God. So notice how he talks to all the children of Israel. He says you guys are the children of the Lord. You guys are the children of God. He says ye shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead for thou art and holy people unto the Lord thy God and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth. So when he says this group is peculiar, what he's saying is y'all are set apart, y'all are above all the other nations, y'all are different than all of the other nations. You guys are unique in what way? They're the children of the Lord. By being a child of God, by being of the children of the Lord, you are a peculiar people. You're different than everybody else. And what I like about this, he says, is above all nations. You know, more important than being a citizen of the United States of America is being a child of God. And, you know, a lot of people, they want to be an American, but you know what's way better than being an American is being a child of God. And notice that what's peculiar is not being an American or being any other kind of nation. It doesn't matter what nation or nationality. The children of God are supposed to be of all nations, because God is not a respecter of persons. God doesn't care about the national labels that we give to ourselves today. He has a distinction between the people of God and those who are not the people of God. And he wants the people of God to be different than everybody else, to be peculiar. Now, what is some of the ways that he told us in verse number one? You should not cut yourselves. So notice, the world today will cut themselves, all the nations will cut themselves, but God's people are not to be cutting themselves. Now, we say, what does that mean? I mean, I believe it means very literal in every kind of way. But lots of people have practices, whether that's a pagan practice or other religious type practices, where they'll literally cut themselves. The prophets of Baal, the Bible describes, would literally cut themselves when worshiping their false god. There's even pseudo-Christian groups in certain parts of the country. They'll literally beat themselves, they'll literally whip themselves or cut themselves. But notice that the Bible's saying we're not supposed to cut ourselves. You know, unfortunately, going to public school growing up, there would be a lot of people that would cut themselves. They'd cut themselves on their arm or on their leg or something like this. But the Bible says that we're not supposed to be cutting ourselves. Why? Because men are made in the image of God and women are in the glory of the man. And God created us in a certain way to look a certain way. He doesn't want us to mutilate ourselves. He doesn't want us to damage ourselves. God gave us a body the way He wants, and we're not supposed to be tampering with that. We're not supposed to be messing with that. You know, there's a lot of people today, the transgender community, that want to cut themselves and think that they would be better off by losing parts of their body. This is sick. This is weird. This is not for God's people to do this kind of bizarre behavior to cut ourselves and mutilate ourselves, to mar ourselves, or do some kind of damage to ourselves. He even says in the same passage, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. Now, I'll be honest with you. I don't know exactly what pagan practice they were doing here in the Old Testament. But what I believe you can take from that particular phrasing is this, that we shouldn't manicure ourselves in a strange way or an aberrant type of way. You know, like a strange haircut or strange beard, or there's all kinds of weird things people do. They'll put these giant hoops in their ear called gauges, or they'll basically like just stretch out their ear to look super big. Or they'll just put rods straight through their nose or through their cheek, or they'll just put all kinds of weird stuff on their body. And a lot of times, these type of practices are associated with the occult. They're associated with literal Satanists and people that worship the devil. They're doing it, and then teenagers like saw their favorite band, their favorite artists looking that way, the guy that's literally worshiping Satan, and then they mimic that. They emulate that, and they don't even realize that they're trying to be like the devil and his ministers and those that are of occult type practices. You know, God doesn't want us to try and fix ourselves. We're already exactly how He wants us. We're wonderfully and fearfully made. And God wants us to embrace who He has created us to be, you know, not be like Michael Jackson and bleach our skin a different color. Or, you know, it's really popular, I've noticed, I don't know if you've noticed this, it seems like wherever I go, all the youth dyes their hair like this strange color, like orange or purple or blue or red or whatever. And I'm just, I'm thinking to myself, you guys aren't even unique, because everybody's doing it. I mean, you're trying to stand out, you're trying to be cool. But it seems like if you just found a young teenager today at Starbucks that didn't have a strange haircut, no rods in his face, no hoop earrings, nothing weird going on, that would be the peculiar person. I mean, everybody at these establishments just seems like they have to do something strange to their body to stick out. But really, they're not even sticking out. They're just blending in with everybody else. And God's people should have a higher standard for themselves and not try to just mess with everything that God has created. You know, I've seen this other weird thing that people do. Girls will like shave like half of their head. So they'll just basically have like a bald side and then they'll have like this long side or whatever. And I'm just thinking like, what are you doing? Okay. You know, it says you're the baldest, but I don't know what that is. But I can't imagine, you know, Moses or any of the children, I was seeing that thing and that was cool. That's weird. Why are people, you know, or cutting yourself, there's a person that did this. It's the Joker. He like cuts the sides of his face to like have this fake smile or whatever. It's like, why would I want to do that? You know, or get all this Botox injection like, I guess a fangirl of his, Joyce Meyer, so she can look like the Joker all the time. Look, I like smiling and I like people that smile but if you smile 100% of the time, there's something wrong with you. Okay, you shouldn't get all these injections where you're just like, you know, you're just always smiling. It just starts looking weird. It started looking creepy. Okay. Try having that face when you go to a funeral or something. That's got to be weird. Go to Leviticus chapter 19, go to Leviticus chapter 19. But there's this, there's this desire in young people to want to stand out, to be cool and fit in. But who are you trying to impress? Because the world's not going to be impressed with you. The world's not going to find you that cool. And really the only person who should be trying to impress is God. Because he wants you to be a peculiar people and not damage yourself. And you know what, while it might seem pretty cool to do all these things when you're a teenager, once you become a young adult and want to get a job, it's not as cool. Because your employer is not going to think that colored hair is super awesome. Unless you just want to work at Starbucks for the rest of your life, okay. They're not going to think those rods through your face are really cool when you want to get a job that's like real serious and they have magnets. Because they're afraid you're facing it, suck to the magnet, okay. Some kind of industrial job or something like that. Or you know, dudes that have these long hair styles, get these long dreadlocks or something like that. If you actually do a real physical job, you can get that caught in the lawnmower or something. You know, you get that caught when you're out working, it doesn't make any sense. You know, guys need a high and tight so they don't get their hair caught in some machine or something, okay. It's weird. You know, and the things that you try to do to make yourself look cool usually are impractical. Like sagging your pants down. How is that practical? I mean, if somebody comes in and is chasing you, you're going to fall right over. You can't run. You can't jump. You can't do anything cool. I mean, all this stuff that they're trying to get you to do is impractical. It doesn't make sense. It makes you look kind of silly. Leviticus chapter 19, look at verse 28. The Bible says this, you should not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord. So kind of a similar passage to what we had in Deuteronomy chapter 14 is talking about again, this cutting and doing it for the dead. Apparently, you know, one of the satanic practices is just cutting yourself and hurting yourself, which makes sense because the devil hates you. The devil doesn't like anyone. The devil hates all mankind because they're made in the image of God. And the devil is one who just wants to drag as many people down with them as possible. So it seems pretty logical, if that's his modus operandi, to cause people to literally hurt themselves, to literally damage themselves, to cut themselves or mutilate themselves or injure themselves. And this makes no sense. This is just, you know, a strange behavior, but it even brings up printing marks on your body. It says, nor print any marks upon you. Now, I often associate this with just being, you know, getting a tattoo of some type or some form where they put some kind of ink. But the thing you have to understand about tattooing is it kind of actually really like cuts the flesh even a little bit. You know, when they're sitting there and it's pounding, that's why it hurts. People that have gotten a tattoo, especially on a sensitive part of your body, they tell you it's excruciating. They'll tell you that it hurts really bad. It's really painful. It's not any fun. And it is oftentimes a very permanent thing to do to your body. This is not what God has designed for us to do, is to mark up our bodies. You know, I'm pretty sure that people getting marks in the Book of Revelation, it doesn't go well with them. We shouldn't be getting marks on our body. I mean, this doesn't make any sense. God made you exactly how he wants you to be. And we should embrace that and not constantly cut ourselves. So when I… the Bible says being peculiar, it's not saying getting all these face tattoos and cutting yourself and rods through your body and gauge your… you know, it's actually just embracing who you are. As strange as that is. I mean, it's actually just following God's commandments. It's actually looking at the Bible and saying, what does the Bible say? And that's going to actually make you stand out. You know, a blank canvas as it were. You know what I think about a blank canvas, I think about virginity. That's something that will stand out. But you know what? It's a great thing. It's a peculiar treasure that we should teach our children to have. Go to Deuteronomy 26. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 26. I want to go and show you another mention of peculiar. It's only mentioned seven times in the Bible. But you know, in today's society, if you're a young adult and you tell people that you're a virgin, they'll think that that's odd. They'll think that that's weird. They'll think that that's strange. But let me tell you something. It's not odd or weird, it's special. It's unique. It's a treasure. You know, and the Bible tells us that young women that are virgin are a treasure. They're a special treasure. Their price is far above rubies. What is a ruby? A ruby is a special treasure. It's a peculiar treasure. It's something that's highly valued. But you know what? Being a whore has no value. It's diminished value. It's like putting an above ground pool in your front yard. That didn't increase the value of your home. That's an eyesore. You know, you'd rather have the blank canvas, okay? They're looking at this like, how am I going to get rid of this? Okay. But the problem with the above ground pool is it like mars the land and kill all the grass there or whatever. It's kind of like the STD. You can't get rid of that. You know, that's the above ground pool and it really brings down the value of the of the house or the property. Sorry if you have an above ground pool. Okay. I'm just trying to help you out. If you're going to sell, get rid of that first. All right. Praise God. You can get rid of that easier than you can herpes. Deuteronomy chapter 26 look at verse number 18. The Bible says this, and the Lord had the vows the this day to be his peculiar people as he had promised thee and that thou should keep all his commandments. Now the word of vows just simply is related to like testifying or a witness. You know, if you're going to say I'm going to vouch for someone, you're basically certifying that they're a good person. You're kind of testifying or witnessing on their behalf. And and the previous verse, the Bible says that he avowed to it. It says in verse or that he avowed in verse 18 verse 17 says, thou has avowed the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his ways and to keep his statues and his commandments and his judgments and argan in his voice. And the Lord has avowed thee this day to be his peculiar people. So he's saying because you guys are choosing me, I'm choosing you back. It's basically a mutual relationship that he's bringing up. And because they chose God, he's going to choose them. And it's kind of the same way of if you think about in the New Testament, when you choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when you choose to put your faith on Jesus for salvation, you have become a child of God and God chooses you to be his son or his daughter. And you're adopted into that family. And now you are a peculiar people unto him. You're special unto him. Just like everybody in this room, your children are special to you above everyone else's children. They're a special treasure unto you. You have different feelings towards them than you do everybody else. And the same is with God. God has chosen us as his people through faith in Jesus Christ. You know, we're elect according to the foreknowledge of God, meaning before the world ever began, God knew those who would choose him by faith. And so they are the chosen people. He's choosing them back. God has ordained it that those that have faith in Jesus will be the saved, will be the children of God. And those that reject him by faith are going to go to hell for all of eternity. So when we understand that we've been chosen by God, and he chose these group of people, we should realize that we should have a high standard for ourselves as his children. We want to do what's pleasing to him. Those that are not his children, why do they have to abide by his rules the same as his children? Okay, so there should be a difference and wanting to follow God's rules when you're his child when you're not versus when you're not. Meaning that you shouldn't expect the children of a father to follow the rules worse than people that are not his children, than people that, you know, if your friend comes over to the house and is more respectful to dad than you are, that's strange. You know, the children should be the most respectful. The children should be the most obedient. The children should be different than random strangers or than other people or than other children. And that's what God wants for us. Now go to Psalms 135. Go to Psalms 135. Again, I'm just trying to show you every mention here very quickly just to give you an idea of what the Bible means by peculiar. But so far, we've had a very consistent theme. It hasn't said anything really different. It's basically reiterating the exact same point. God chose us to be unique and a special people unto him. And that's true from the Old Testament. That's true from the New Testament. Obviously, we understand in the New Testament, you know, it's not about being a physical person or physical descendant of a particular nation or a citizen of a particular nation or the descendant of a particular parents that makes you chosen. It's actually faith in Jesus Christ that makes you chosen. And we believe what's called replacement theology. That the physical nation of Israel has been replaced by the spiritual nation of believers in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you know, you still had those that were saved by faith in the Old Testament that are also that spiritual nation. But basically that physical nation has been replaced by the church. And no longer do you have this kind of mixed multitude where you kind of have believers and unbelievers both considered the Children of God. Now it's just the church. Now it's just those who are saved. Now I'm gonna read for you one place, but keep your finger in Psalms 1 35 and Ecclesiastes Chapter two in verse eight. The Bible says, I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings in the provinces. I got me men singers and women singers and the lights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that and that of all sorts. So one mention of peculiar is not necessarily in relation to us or people. It's when Solomon is basically describing how when he was in search of the purpose of life, he basically gathered to himself every unique treasure, every special treasure as the Bible says, peculiar treasures of all the kings of the earth. But that didn't satisfy him. Because the only thing that satisfies is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing that satisfies is serving God. That's the conclusion of Ecclesiastes. But again, that word of peculiar mentioned in Ecclesiastes Chapter two, it's not a negative mention. It's a positive mention because it's saying peculiar treasure, meaning something of value, something that's special, something that's unique. Now we look here in Psalms 1 35. Look at verse four. The Bible says for the Lord has chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. So again, God is saying that the children of Israel, the children of God are a peculiar, notice this treasure. Go over to Titus chapter number two, Titus chapter number two, and that's the last place we're going to look for this word peculiar in the Bible. But it's been real consistent and you know, we should bring back a positive outlook on the word peculiar because the Bible only talks about it in positive terms. It's actually a good thing. You know, to say that something's peculiar, it's in a positive, unique, special, distinct type way. Titus chapter number two, look at verse 13. The Bible is this, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifying himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. So when God defines for us what a peculiar people looks like, what did he say in the Old Testament? He said people that follow all the commandments. He said people that observe and obey everything that he said. He also brings up here in Titus chapter number two that they're zealous of good works. So notice if you're a peculiar treasure, if you're a peculiar people unto God, it's those that are saved. It's those that are following the commandments and it's those that are zealous of good works. Now when I say, hey, when I look here, I see a lot of peculiar people. You might feel a little differently about that now, right? I'm not saying you guys are odd and weird looking, okay? And if you, you know, have the face tattoo, you can't get rid of it, right? But what I'm saying is people that actually are saved, people that actually want to follow God's commandments and people that are actually zealous of good works, that is the peculiar people that Jesus Christ wants for us, wants. And what I like about this particular mention is it said in verse number 13, it's talking about Jesus Christ and it says in verse 14, in the verse, who gave himself for us. Now when we think about Jesus Christ dying for us, what is the primary context or the primary application that we usually think of was the first mention here that he might redeem us from all iniquity, right? Jesus died on the cross to pay for all of our sins. And I mean, that's the most important context that we can think of. When we go out and preach the gospel, that's what we're telling people. We're saying, hey, Jesus Christ is going to redeem you from all iniquity if you just put faith in him. He gave himself for us so that we can redeem from all iniquity. We can be saved and we're saved from a spiritual punishment called death and hell. But notice there's another word in here, and. What does that mean? Something else. So not only did Jesus Christ want to save you and take you to heaven, not only did Jesus Christ die for all of your sins, he wants something else too. He wants to purify unto himself a peculiar people. So Jesus Christ giving of his entire life, dying on the cross, making the ultimate sacrifice, while we typically think of this as in the context of salvation, it's also to set an example unto us of how we're supposed to live our lives, how we're supposed to dedicate our lives, how we're supposed to lay down our lives as well. And he wants us to be peculiar. He wants us to be zealous of good works. Now, when I was thinking about this sermon, what I was thinking about is the fact that there's a lot of things that the world today would look at the activities that we do, and they would say, this is peculiar. Now, when they say peculiar, in their mind, we're thinking weird, odd, abnormal. But to us, it's special. Go back to 1 Peter, chapter number two, go back to 1 Peter, chapter number two. And that's kind of what he's saying in 1 Peter, chapter number two. Let's go back a few verses from where we first started. But it says in verse number six, wherefore also does contain in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. So there's your salvation, right? Believing on Jesus Christ, you won't be confounded. It says in verse seven, unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. So when we think about Jesus, what do we think about? That he's special, that he's unique. We think of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We think about his sacrifice as being one of the greatest things that's ever happened. In fact, it is. I mean, the Gospel is the greatest thing to ever happen. It's so unique, it's so special to us. We love to tell the story, the old, old story of Jesus and his love, right? Of him dying on the cross. Jesus paid it all. I mean, this to us is so special, it's so precious. But notice what it says, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereinto also they were appointed. So unto them, it's not this precious thing. They don't necessarily like it. They're disobedient unto this. They mock this. They don't like this. In verse nine, it says, but you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold glorified God in the day of visitation. So while we look at the things of Christianity as being precious unto us, they're not precious unto the world. They don't like these things. They abhor the things of God. They make fun of the things of God. They make fun of the Gospel. They make fun of Jesus Christ. But see, who cares what they think? Because I know that Jesus is precious. I know that Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords. I know that Jesus Christ died on the cross, and he was thinking of me. I know he's thinking of you. I know that he was thinking of them. And that's what makes him so precious and so special to me, and nuts to what they think, because I'm not here to impress man. I'm not here to impress the world. I'm here because of what Jesus did for me. And I want to be peculiar because of what Jesus did for me. Now here's the thing. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, it's not like you have to struggle with liking Jesus. In your new man, you love him. In your new man, you think he's precious. You think he's wonderful. You know, it's not like I have to sit here and struggle with the Gospel. It's the greatest thing to me. You know, it's something that we love to go and share and tell. And I think for the Christian life, sometimes we worry that there's certain things that we may do that are going to be peculiar unto us because the world makes fun of them. But if you actually embrace it, you'll realize it's the same as the Gospel. As much as you love the Gospel, you'll love every part of Christianity, every part of the Christian life, and nuts to what the world thinks about it. You know, to some people, camping in the woods seems peculiar. It's like, where do I use the bathroom? You know, you lose all these modern conveniences. I mean, to go out into the woods and to camp and to fish to some people is really peculiar, isn't it? Really odd, really weird. But you know, the people that actually come out and do it, they love it. They like it. It's precious to them. And so, while they may think peculiar is bad, you think peculiar is great. You think that it's unique. You know, some people might think that going to a hate preacher's church is weird. They're like, why do you go to that hate preacher's church? Have you seen Pastor Burz's on the news? You know, he seems so hateful and everything. But then you actually show up and you can't find a hateful person in the building. Why? Why is that? Because the world has the weird ideas. The world is the one that's abnormal. The world is the one that's cutting. Remember, they were cutting themselves and they're printing all these weird marks on their body. I mean, some of the tattoos people get, I'm thinking like, wow. Like some tattoos kind of look cool at first, but most of them, you're just thinking like, why would you ever get, why would you get a hamburger on your body? I remember when I was in college, there was a guy, he got the Batman symbol on his chest. Literally. I mean, you're thinking like, what are you doing? The things that, you know, you're not looking at that being like, that's cool, man. Everybody's thinking this, that's cool for you. I don't want that. Okay. And look, it only looks good for a little while. Then you start getting bigger. I'm not saying Batman, saying fat man. You know what I mean? Why? Because the world's the one that's weird. It's not weird to not damage yourself. It's not weird to not print all these things. It's not weird to not shove metal into your body. Okay. And the same is with Christianity. The things that God wants us to do, he's not asking us to do strange and weird things. He's asking us to do things that are unique and special and are going to be treasures unto him. Just like I said earlier, being a virgin on your wedding night is a special treasure to your husband, to your wife, for both sides of the family and to God. God looks at that as being a special treasure. It's not weird. And I guarantee every person, if they were going to just be honest, they would say, I want to marry a virgin. They're not looking at like, oh, I wish I was with somebody that's just been a whore their whole life. I mean, that's bizarre. I mean, think about this. Even the most perverted religion on the planet, Islam, what do they have waiting for them in heaven? Not 72 whores, 72 virgins. Why? Because they know that it's a treasure. They know that it's a privilege. They know that it's unique. You know, all these sick perverts out there, they always want children. Why? Because they haven't been defiled yet. They don't want them defiled. They're already done with that. You know, they want to hurt something that's innocent, something that's precious, something that's a peculiar treasure. And we as men need to guard our family and keep intact that peculiar treasure and not say like, oh, it's weird that your dad won't let us go off by ourselves on a date. No, it's weird that you would. I mean, you know, it's one thing when you think about your sons and it's like, for some reason, for me, it's way different when I think about my daughters, you know, like my sons, I'm like, okay, but you know, my daughter, I'm thinking like, I don't want any guy going out with her ever. She can just live with us forever. You know what I mean? No guy's worthy of that. And you know, it's weird that our culture says, you know what, just pick up my daughter dressed like a whore and do whatever you want. Go out and be with her. I don't even know your name. I mean, this is bizarre to me. Dads that let their daughters dress like whores in their presence. I just don't get it. And I mean, I'm thinking like they have to know and they have to notice all the men staring at their daughter like a piece of meat every time they go out in public. I mean, how does that not rage you? And I'm thinking like, that's not normal, but that's what's normal to the world. You know, it's not normal to those that are the children of God. It's funny to me when they call us this hate group, right? And you're going to this hate preacher. Seems like all the people that are actually hateful are always the ones that leave or get thrown out. You know, they're always slandering everybody on their way out. And they're always hating on everybody and hating on everything. You know, this is the most loving people I've ever met. Church people are the most loving people you'll ever meet. I mean, where are you going to go out in this world and find a group of people that actually care for you and are going to serve you and do nice things unto you and expect nothing in return? I mean, you're not going to find that in the Freemason Lodge. Good luck there. And the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts in this world, they're all selfish. They only care about themselves. Look, it's God's people that are the loving people that are the generous people. And you know, when you go to this quote unquote, new IMP hate church or whatever, after going you start realizing this is a peculiar treasure. When you hear Pastor Burzins preach versus other people preach, you're like this is a peculiar treasure. You can't find that everywhere. That's not in every single church. There might be a Baptist church all over Georgia, but you know what? There's only one Pastor Burzins. There's only one stronghold. Why do you think people are driving hours to come to that church? It's peculiar. That's why. And you say, what do you mean by peculiar? Special, distinctive, unique. And you know what? It makes sense to do that. To the world, it makes no sense. Because the world only goes to church five minutes from their house. That's why there's literally a church five minutes from every house. And sometimes there's 10. And almost every time when I knock doors even, and I'm talking to people, what's the first question they ask me? How far is your church? Because that's, I mean, why is that the most important thing? When you think about it? Like you're, we're talking about a church here, and you're saying your most important criterion is just how far is it from my house? You know, it makes me think of Jeroboam. Jeroboam's thinking like, hey, I'll just set up some golden calfs real close by so you don't have to travel real far. But it's like, why do I want to go to golden calf Baptist church when I could go to the actual Jerusalem where the Lord is? You know, that's not an important question of how close it is. A better question is like, what do they believe? Hey, what, here's one. What Bible do y'all use? That's a pretty good question. You know, to the world, it's weird that you say, hey, we're King James only. Who art thou? Right? And to the world, don't they make fun of the King James Bible all the time? Oh, who art thou? Oh, would Shakespeare write your Bible? No. And they make fun of the King James Bible. But here's the thing. If you read the King James Bible, you won't make fun of it. Compare it to the NIV, and you'll realize, oh, wow, I know which one's the joke, actually. It's the NIV. You know, the other Bibles are just bad paraphrases. And what's weird to me is, is how so many Christians today will say that they're the same. So many Christians are like, oh, it's all the same. Who cares what Bible you're using or whatever. That just tells me they've never read both. Because if you read both, you're gonna see a huge difference. You can't say they're the same. Now, you might prefer one or the other. But to say they're the same is just complete ignorance. It's a really foolish attitude. But you know what? We love the King James Bible because it's peculiar. What do you mean by peculiar, Pastor Shelley? It's unique. It's special. You can't find another English version like it. It's way different than all the other ones. And all the other ones are like the same. If you actually understand, I mean, they make all the same changes. They say all the weird junk. They take out all the verses, typically. You know, it's interesting. And, you know, it's not necessarily conclusive. But I just think this is an interesting point. And depending on exactly Cambridge, Oxford or whatever, you could you could triple it. You know, you could trip up at the the pointlessness of that. But there is a couple people that have tried to study like how many words are in the Bible. Okay. And one study I saw said in the King James Bible, there's 783,137 words. Some people say it's a few more or less. But this one study is saying it's roughly 783,137 words. The new King James is 770,430. So that's 13,000 less. Just the total number of words. But how about the NIV? The NIV is 727,969 words. When you compare that, that's over 55,000 words short of the King James. By chapter, because there's 1189 chapters, that's over 46 words a chapter. Now, here's the thing. You could obviously sometimes communicate in a more efficient manner. But when we're talking about 55,000 words, how is that the same? I mean, that's a pretty big, that's a pretty significant difference. And that doesn't necessarily say who's right or wrong. My point is this. They're different. There's something different about that. And you know, I just I didn't even know if this was true. I just thought in my mind I was thinking like, you know, I bet the King James has more words than all the other versions. And pretty much when you look it up, it has more words than all the other versions. Just like in the total number of words. And you know what? I want every word of God. I mean, that's what Jesus Christ said. But you know what? The NIV takes that out. And Luke chapter 44. I mean, it doesn't even have that phrase. But in the King James Bible says that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. You know, I want an every word Bible, not a paraphrase, not just the gist of what God had to say. And the people that make fun of the King James Bible, I guarantee they haven't read it cover to cover in comparison to the others. Because you'll notice the special treasure. You'll notice the unique difference of the King James Bible, you'll notice the power of the King James Bible. People that make fun of the new IP churches, it's because they didn't go. If they go, they would notice, oh, wow, this is actually a lot of nice people. Oh, wow. These people actually know the Bible. Oh, wow. There's actually a lot of good things here. People that make fun of homeschooling say it's peculiar. Now, I'll be honest, when I grew up, I thought homeschoolers are weird. Sometimes it's true, though. But I remember thinking to myself like homeschooling is weird. And who would ever do that? And I would never want to do this. This is what I thought. Okay. And I'm just being honest and confessing my fault with you. Okay. But then I remember later growing up and actually having children like I hadn't had them yet. But we're like pregnant and I'm thinking about it. I started thinking about everything that happened to me in public school. And I was like, homeschooling doesn't sound that bad. All the things that I learned and I did in public school. I don't know if I want my kids to do all of that. And I started actually thinking about it. I was like, this actually makes a lot of sense. And that was 2014. Every year, homeschooling sounds way better than the year before. I mean, it's just getting infinitely better. I mean, at this point, I mean, I don't understand how anybody could argue for going to public school. I mean, it's just so weird. That's the weird is the public school today. And it doesn't even line up with the Bible because the Bible is instructing the parents to diligently teach their children. It kind of makes no sense when you think about it that your parents are the ones that teach you nothing. Just strangers teach you everything. Oh, you know, we have to have the woman go get a job. But isn't pretty much every public school teacher a woman? So I'm not even saying like women are going to teach my children. It's just a strange woman. Why is it more logical to pick a bunch of strange women to teach my children that don't really care versus my wife who actually loves my children? That's not peculiar. That's special. That's unique. That's you know, a better one on one ratio from a parent teacher ratio. They're always talking about parent teacher ratios. You know, the public schools like 30 to one, we only have five. I mean, that's a lot better ratio when you think about it than these public school systems. And you know what, she has a better principal. So that's that's definitely a bonus. But I mean, you know, to the world having a large family is weird, isn't it? They think it's bizarre. But see, every point that I'm bringing up to you so far, I think a lot of you have already you've already done it. And you actually realize that it's not weird. It's actually way better. It's actually a treasure. You know, if you actually have a large family, you know that it's a special treasure. People that don't have a lot of kids, they don't know the special treasure that tons of kids are. And they'll think that it's weird. They'll think it's bizarre. I mean, the world's trying to get people to stop having children and murder their children or to basically just not even get married. Never have a child. Save the planet. They're not going to save anything. Okay. I mean, have you seen how much lands out here? They're always talking about overpopulated. I mean, drive around in Georgia for a while. It's just land everywhere. Okay. Yeah. Maybe when you're in the city and they're building apartments on top of apartments on top of apartments or whatever, but you actually drive outside of the city and you see there's land everywhere. God wanted us to be fruitful and multiply. That's literally his first commandment. I mean, you want to find the first commandment instruction. Genesis chapter number one, when he's talking to the man and the woman, he says, be fruitful and multiply. I mean, I think it's pretty important. Yet the world today will say, no, kill your children. Destroy your family. The foolish woman is destroying her house. Okay. The wise woman's building her house and no one can understand how special children are until they have them. And each one of them, you know, or even just like breastfeeding. That's something that I think some people have thought is kind of weird. I saw on the news, there's like a shortage for formula right now. Like there's this massive shortage for formula and you know, that sucks for people that really need it, but I'm just thinking like breastfeeding for the win again, you know, our formula is I just feed my wife and she makes all the nourishment we need for our family. And you know, my wife growing up, she was kind of taught in a culture that breastfeeding is kind of this weird thing. It's archaic. You know, it's old like the King James bio. We got to get up with the Toms or whatever. But you know what? After actually breastfeeding, my wife realized it's a special treasure under and she loves it. She thinks it's special the time she gets with her children and she loves it. It's not this horrible burden. It's not something that's weird. It's natural. You know, ladies wearing dresses and skirts in our culture seems weird. But here's the thing. It's more attractive. Period. I mean, you just ask every unsaved guy, a bunch of girls in a dyke suit versus a bunch of dresses. We already know. And every single one of these women on their wedding day is going to wear a dress. Why? Because that's the most feminine. It's the most beautiful thing that a woman could wear. And so they'll look at you and say, Oh, you guys only wear dresses and skirts. And it's like, yeah, we look more attractive than you all the time. You know, the women in this world always want to look attractive and it's like they're doing themselves a disservice by not even wearing the dresses and the skirts. Because it doesn't even look as good, my friend. And you know what, whenever they try to make these seductive ads, as long as the woman's not naked, she's wearing a dress or a skirt. Because that's what's more attractive. And to the world they say, Oh, you're weird. But actually everything we do is normal. Everything we do is a special that's found in the Word of God. How about just door knocking? You know, I think that, you know, for people that have never gotten soul winning, door knocking seems kind of weird or seems kind of odd. Like I don't want to be a Jehovah's Witness. You know, I don't want to be a Mormon or I don't want to be like these street preachers or something like that. Well, don't be like the street preacher, number one. But you know, if you've actually gone and knocked the door and you got someone saved, you realize that door knocking and soul winning is a special treasure. It's wonderful. You know, it's not weird to you anymore. You're thinking like, I get it. You have a large family and you're fine. I get it. You do the breastfeeding, you get it. You read the King James Bible, you get it. It's like these light bulbs just keep going off in your head. And what I'm telling you is, maybe you've already got everything on this checklist so far. But what you've seen is every time you've been challenged by the Bible to do something that's peculiar to the world, you realize actually it's better. It's a blessing. It's special. It's not odd. It's not weird. It's special. It's a treasure. So whenever you hear something else in the Bible that seems a little weird to you, but it's clear what the Bible is saying, it's clear what the pastor is saying, what you need to do is just say, hey, I've already got all these other blessings. Why don't I get another one? You know, how about like moving for a church? Some people think that that's weird. In fact, the whole world thinks that's bizarre. Because you know, you only move for what? Work. Or you only move for some kind of, you know, opportunity or move for the politics, right? Some people are moving to go to Florida for DeSantis. It's like, okay, yeah, is he better than Gavin Newsom? Probably. Okay. Heck, he's probably better than Brian Kemp. He's definitely better than Stacey Abrams. But here's the thing. It's stupid to move to an area for politics. Because politics could change tomorrow. And all these people are fake anyways. And as soon the wind will blow and shift and it'll change and you'll be stuck with some other weird politician or some nonsense. I mean, the politicians are not someone to be excited about. These people are wicked. I mean, to me, it'd be like getting excited about the kings of Israel. It's like, you know, it's like, oh, sweet, we got Ahab. You know, it's like, why are you excited about Ahab? It's like, they're just wicked. I mean, DeSantis is a Catholic. Why am I excited about a Catholic? You know, or Greg Abbott in Texas, you know, Catholic. It's like, where am I going to find the fundamental Baptist politician? You're not. But that's a bad reason to move. You know, it's a bad reason to move for the carnal, for the physical, for all these things. You know, the right move is spiritual move. And this is consistent in the Old Testament. I mean, if you wanted to worship God, you had to go to Jerusalem. I mean, you had to go where God's people were. Often, I mean, you start out the beginning of the Old Testament and what does God tell Abram? Move. I mean, even Jesus Christ himself moved, didn't he? Didn't he have to move into Egypt for a while? Wasn't for the politics, you know. I mean, I guess he was avoiding a pretty bad politician to Herod. But Egypt, that's not like that great. I guess that's what it's like, you know. That's your De Santis, okay, Pharaoh. Herod is like your Newsome and De Santis is your Pharaoh. But you know what, he moved back, okay, to a different part of the country. But consistently, you see God's people having to make moves. What was a bad move? For money. How about in the book of Ruth? When they decide to move, what are they moving? Because there's famine in the land or because it's hard there. But here's the thing. I would rather be in a hard place economically with a great church than a place that's thriving with a bad church. How about Sodom and Gomorrah? Oh, let's move because it's a well-watered plain. Let's go to San Francisco. No, thank you. I mean, it's better to go where God's people are to make the spiritual decision than to make some kind of a carnal decision. And people say that you're peculiar for doing it. Your family won't get it. In fact, I had a family member tell me, I was planning on moving to Faith Board Baptist Church and I told my family, and I kid you not, my family member looked at me in the face and said, this is the worst decision you've made in your entire life. Someone very close to me. And I'm just thinking like, I don't believe that. And you know what, standing here today, I know that it's not the worst decision I've ever made in my entire life. In fact, it's probably in the top 10 best decisions I've ever made. Why? Because when you go there, you realize it's a peculiar treasure. It's not some horrible thing. But to the world, it's horrible. To the world, it's horrible to serve God or to go and to do things for the Lord or to go into an old-fashioned church or to spend your life knocking doors. How's that going to advance your career? Well, you know what? I'm earning a lot of wages but they're spiritual wages. And it's a peculiar treasure. It's a special treasure because when you stand before Jesus Christ, guess what? All your wood, hay and stubble is going to burn up, but your gold, silver and precious stone is going to stand the fire. And all those people that were naysayers, everything's going to burn up for them. And then we'll see what really mattered. Then we'll see what really… But you know, we know that it's special. We know that it's the right decision. You know, how about just making church your whole life? That's a really hard decision for some people because they want to live for themselves rather than for the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'm telling you, the people that start making church their whole life, they start realizing the special treasure that church is. And when I say church, I'm not talking about a building. I'm talking about the people. You know, we're a group of people that… You know, I've had to have a lot of church services lately where I didn't have a building. But let me tell you something. We still have church. And you know what? It's great when you sacrifice for the church, which means other people, because that's what's going to bring you true happiness in this life. You know, when I think about special people in the Bible, I think about someone like the Apostle John. He's the disciple in whom Jesus loved. You know, he's peculiar. But you know what? He's peculiar in a good way. And what do you think about John? He's always there for Jesus. You know, when everybody else has run away, well, John's still here. And we can't find all the other people. Here's John. John's not giving up. You know, why do you think Jesus picked John to watch his mother? You know, to be in charge of his mother? Because he's unique, because he's special. And let me tell you something. When you plug into church, you become special to those other people in church. You become special to your pastor. You know, those that say, hey, you know what? I want to be a furor. I want to just plug into the church and just help the man of God. You know, you become a special treasure unto the man of God. You know, Pastor Burzins is not the church. He's a body part, because we're all members of the body of Christ. And he needs other body parts in order to thrive. You know, you could have the greatest arm in the world, but if you don't have any legs to carry it on, what use is it? You have the greatest eyes, but if you have no head, what is that going to do? You know, you've got to have all the parts of the body in order to function properly. And you know what? Some people would look at a person that's just dedicating themselves to serving churches. Oh, what are you going to get out of that? Happiness is what you're going to get out of it. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 18. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 18. You know, in America, you have this idea that the vision of America is basically the pursuit of happiness. You know, American dream, freedom, right? And have the pursuit of happiness. But here's the problem with the American dream, is they're going about it the wrong way. They think that happiness comes with doing good on yourself, having your own business and enriching yourself, and having a name for yourself, and having all these accolades, and then finally I'll have happiness. But here's the thing, you're not going to get that happiness that you so desire from trying to build yourself up. You get the true happiness from serving other people. When the Queen of Sheba came to prove Solomon with hard questions, she was saying, you know, this is better than they told me. And one of the praises she gave to Solomon, she says, happy are thy servants. Happy are thy servants. You know, it's perplexing to her, how can someone not be the king and be happy? Because to most people that are selfish, they can only be happy if they're the king. They can only be happy if they're at the top. They can only be happy if basically they have other people serving them. And in fact, I think that this is what most people think and the world thinks. You know, I'd be happy, I'd be satisfied if I could get a few more people to serve me. If I just had a few more people doing things for me and helping me, then I would be happier. Then I would have a better life. But here's the thing, happiness comes from serving, not from being served. And there was a person that was all about just serving himself. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 18 verse 18. Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar which is in the king's delve where he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. And he called the pillar after his own name and it is called unto this day Absalom's place. So there's a guy in the Bible, his whole pursuit was himself, lifting up himself, elevating himself, stealing all these people unto himself. He didn't actually care about the children of Israel. He wanted them to just basically serve him. You know, Absalom always found 50 men to run before him as the Bible describes it. And we have to realize is that in this life you're not going to get happiness from trying to build yourself up. Because even once you have the pillar, it's still going to be unsatisfying. It's still never going to be enough. You can never have enough for yourself. You know, when you just serve others and you build up others, you can have satisfaction in this life. Notice he didn't have any son for himself. You know, a lot of people are killing their children and they're going to be really disappointed when they're older and they have nothing. So they just have to build stuff after themselves and name things after themselves. You know, the rich of this world are constantly naming stuff after themselves. You go up and down downtown and you drive down Kennedy Boulevard, Martin Luther King Boulevard. You know, you drive down all these places named after themselves. But here's the thing, that's going to rot and perish. Eventually nobody's going to care about them. But you know, when you get into heaven, all the people that you helped and you served and you built up, they're going to be there with you and they're going to be thankful for all the work that you did with them. And that's going to give you true happiness in your life is when you're just serving God. You know, why am I being a peculiar person? It's not about me being special. It's about God being pleased. It's not about me being lifted up or to say, hey, look how unique I am or how special I am. No, it's about how special God is and how unique God is. But we want to separate ourselves from the world and be a peculiar treasure unto Him. You know, we shouldn't look like the world, act like the world, talk like the world. The world might think that you're weird and strange. They think it's strange that you're not running with them to the same excess of riot. But here's the thing. I'm not here to please the world. I'm here to please God. And if you say, hey, I want true happiness in this life. Quit worrying about what the world thinks. When is the, when is the world ever been happy? When is celebrities ever been happy? When is the politicians of this world ever been happy? You don't find any happiness doing the things that the way they do them. You know, the people that find happiness are the peculiar people, the ones that serve God, the ones that are following all of His commandments. And I challenge you with this. Maybe a lot of things I've said you've already done. And that's the point. The point is to bring up all the things you've already realized are special so that when you hear something that you're not doing, hey, there's another special privilege I have, another opportunity I have to be even more pleasing to God and have more satisfaction in my life. I mean, if I said, hey, I'm going to take away the King James Bible from you. I'm going to take away your large family from you. I'm going to take away your church from you. You guys would be like, this is awful. Right? You would never want to lose these things. They're precious unto you now. But I'm telling you, there's other things in your life that you haven't plugged into church yet to realize that they're precious too. And the more you plug in, the more you follow God's commandments, the more they're going to seem precious unto you. And you can ultimately fulfill what Pastor Jimenez was saying as, you know, a high view of God. If you have that high view of God, you've got to realize God's people need to have a high view for themselves, have a high goal for themselves, have a high standard for themselves. If you say, I look just like the world, act like the world, talk like the world, you know, you're not, you're not accomplishing everything that Jesus did for you when He died on the cross. Because He wants to purify us to be that peculiar people. Let's close in prayer this evening. Thank you Heavenly Father for the Word of God. Thank you for the Gospel, what your Son did on the cross for us, purging us from all of our sins so that we wouldn't have the taste of death, we wouldn't have to go to hell. But I pray that we would not just take that for granted, but we'd realize that you have a special calling for every one of us to be a peculiar person, to follow all of your commandments, to be zealous for good works. And I pray that we'd realize that this world has nothing good to offer us. All the good things come from above, all the good things come from the Word of God. I pray that as we're challenged in our lives, from the Bible, from the preacher, from church, to do more for God, to serve more, to be more zealous, to get more plugged in, that we'd realize it's a peculiar treasure that's being offered to us and that we would take it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.