SPEAKER_00: We want to get right into his word this morning in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God has chosen you, say, chosen me to be a people for his treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, you are his treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I want to speak to you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: His holy treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Can we just lift our hands and our hearts into the Lord and just ask him to bless these words these next few moments?
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, I pray that your spirit, God, will teach us, give us understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Help us understand your direction.
SPEAKER_00: God, you have called me to be here this day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here in this service for this hour.
SPEAKER_00: God, those who are watching online, God, you have put them to hear these words, God, for your purpose, God.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord Jesus, that you will just open our hearts to receive what you have put here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Transform us, renew us, strengthen us, God.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us of who we are and who you have called us to be, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're just so thankful, God, that you will do your work, God, and that people will be saved and will come into your presence through the infilling of your spirit, Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's clap our hands into the Lord and let's just thank him for who he is and what he is already doing in this service this morning.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated today.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Deuteronomy, we see Moses giving farewell messages to the Israelites before they crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land.
SPEAKER_00: And he also gave them warnings, teachings for this new generation of Israelites that were about to enter in the Promised Land.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't remember, remember that these people were in Egypt and they were under the control of Pharaoh, and they were exposed to so many gods and so many different beliefs and that culture that they were living in, even to the point where they have almost forgotten who they were.
SPEAKER_00: So God called Moses from a burning bush that was not consumed to go and to remind them to tell Pharaoh to let them go.
SPEAKER_00: And God performed the miraculous to prove to the people that he was the God over their false gods, that he was in control, that he performed the miraculous, and that he was calling out from among them to be a separate people, holy and pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: Most of this, these in this newer generation, were about to take their first steps into this promised land.
SPEAKER_00: They had very little memory of that first Passover that they celebrated, that tenth and final warning, that plague that killed the firstborn there in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They celebrated that Passover before leaving across to the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: Their parents and their grandparents before them have already, if not all, died off wandering those 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: So very little teaching may or may not have happened, occurred during this time.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses was obligated to remind them who they were and who their God was and how to live and what the promise, what promises God had for them.
SPEAKER_00: It was important for Moses to remind them why God called them and who they were.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God has called us in the same way to be his holy, most treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: The word in the King James is special, and in the Hebrew word is called Sigula, which means peculiar, a jewel, a treasure.
SPEAKER_00: We are his most treasured possessions.
SPEAKER_00: Above all people, when we are called unto his name, when we have his name to put upon us and burial and baptism, when we are filled with the Holy Ghost, we are his most cherished, prized possession.
SPEAKER_00: And I would even say, further than that, when he created us, he had called us to be his most treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: But there's an enemy that is trying to do everything we can to counterculture everything that God has put in his word.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses saw that, and he had to remind them that this is who you are, this is your identity, and this is who God is calling you to be.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This past Wednesday, pastor spoke about some of those heirlooms, some of those treasured items that hold great value in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And God sees us as that great value.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is my items of value do not hold up to the standard as the people of God do.
SPEAKER_00: You have much more of a purpose and much more of a special place in the hands of God than your things that you have in your U-Haul storage or in your home or your vehicles or your money or your bank account.
SPEAKER_00: You are his most treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you like it or not, believe it or not, know it or not, he has called us to be his prize possession.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you're gonna be saying as you walk out the door.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say it many times today.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us here today can look back at our past and think of many reasons why we may not want to fit in this category because we're not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: We've sinned too much.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we have stacked up this count of all these things that we have done in our past, feeling like we're not worthy or we don't know enough about who God is to even be considered his most prized possession.
SPEAKER_00: And many of us may even have forgotten why we're even called in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: There's many times where I have to look back and I have to bring to remembrance my encounter with God and who I was before I was baptized in Jesus' name, who I was before I encountered the Spirit of God and filled me for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: I had to be reminded of that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Moses was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He was telling them, reminding them who they were and what kind of possession they were to God.
SPEAKER_00: Romans tells us in the New Testament, it says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, which is what we talked about in the book of Moses, this Old Testament law.
SPEAKER_00: Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through the faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
SPEAKER_00: For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So that means we have all been placed in that category at some time in our life, maybe in this very moment right now.
SPEAKER_00: If you are, don't tell me.
SPEAKER_00: But it also says that you are justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So that means that regardless of how we feel about it, he purchased us through his own blood while we were still sinners.
SPEAKER_00: We are living in a day that is counterculture to this word.
SPEAKER_00: And just like Moses did for his people, I'm doing for you today, reminding you that Jesus Christ died for you, used his own blood shed on Calvary while you were yet still sinning, while you had no idea who he was or why he died for you, what your purpose is, he still did it.
SPEAKER_00: Because Romans 5, 8 through 10 says, But God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Much more than being unjustified by his blood.
SPEAKER_00: We shall be saved from the wrath through him, because we are sinned, all of us who have sinned, the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: It is upon us to be obligated to die because of the sin that we have committed.
SPEAKER_00: But because he loves us, because we are his most prized possession, he wants us to be a part of what he has for us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: It says, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we were enemies because of what he did.
SPEAKER_00: He reconciled us to him.
SPEAKER_00: When we didn't even know him, because he died on the cross, we're all to reconcile to God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's up to me and to you to be buried with Christ in baptism, raised to newness of life through the washing of his blood and baptism in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have to be reconciled.
SPEAKER_00: He says we shall be saved by his life and how he lived and what he did for us.
SPEAKER_00: We are justified and guilt-free through the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So I have good news for you that you don't have to walk out of this place with guilt.
SPEAKER_00: Because he has now given each and every one of us an opportunity to understand who we are and what he did for us, and that there's a way for us to be born again.
SPEAKER_00: It is now, I'm sorry, with when we understand this way, his way of salvation through the cross, being baptized, being filled with his spirit, this is only the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: This is almost like those Israelites were about to go into their new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: They'd done everything that they needed to do up to this point, and now they're about to start into a new life, a new walk with God, the promise that He had given them into this promised land.
SPEAKER_00: He reminded them of battles that they would have to face.
SPEAKER_00: He reminded them of who they are and how are how they were his most tried possession, and to how to live holy and pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: But it is now in our hands to live according to his holiness because of his work, because of the work of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1 and 4 says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
SPEAKER_00: These Ephesians have already been through the new birth experience.
SPEAKER_00: And this letter from Paul was reminding him to be holy and without blame before him in love.
SPEAKER_00: And whether we like it or not, understand it or not, this was part of his plan to be a separate people.
SPEAKER_00: His sacrifice should prompt us to live holy according to his word.
SPEAKER_00: His love compels us to please him because he has saved us from death.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's so important to understand who we are as the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Because the temple was holy and anointed, as Pastor talked about on Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00: Everything was anointed, everything was touched by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: It says in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, what know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own.
SPEAKER_00: For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, in your spirit, which are God's.
SPEAKER_00: If you are living and breathing in this room, we now have a responsibility to live out the work of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Pastor talked about this morning about the armor of God.
SPEAKER_00: What good is the armor if we do not put it to use?
SPEAKER_00: What good is the armor if we do not put it to work?
SPEAKER_00: What good is being his most tried possession if we don't live out his holiness and goodness in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: The people understood that they have been redeemed, that they have been saved from death.
SPEAKER_00: And they understood that when they were born again, it wasn't just something that we claim or that we say, but it is now something that we have to live out in our daily lives.
SPEAKER_00: We can't say we're his most tried possession and then live and walk and talk and behave however we would like to behave because it's convenient.
SPEAKER_00: If you have been filled with the Spirit, baptized in Jesus' name, we must continue to live a repentant life according to his word and will.
SPEAKER_00: Because in our culture today, we have taken this idea that because we are control of our own bodies, that no one else has to tell us what we can do with it.
SPEAKER_00: We have to let, we have to let, I say it, that this is the way some people think that we have to let the culture determine how we live our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we live counterculture from the word of God, we may feel like we are discriminated against or laughed at or mocked about, or perhaps we may have to ask answer questions because we're living differently and acting differently and behaving differently.
SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes that we have lost the idea, the sting that because we are sinners, our punishment is to live in hell and death, separate from God forever.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we've got it so good that we have forgotten that none of us are worthy to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: But because we are his most prized possession, we are counted as worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Because he said we were from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: When he called out Jeremiah, have I not knit you together in your mother's womb?
SPEAKER_00: I have a plan for you, I have a destiny for you, I have a design for you.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to allow this culture to tell us how to live our lives and how to raise our children and how to think and how to spend our money and who to date and what to watch and how to love and what is right and what is wrong and what your worth is.
SPEAKER_00: Your future does not rest in your job.
SPEAKER_00: It does not rest in your home, it does not rest in your social status.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy is deceiving you that your value rests in only how people view you on the outside, and all the while you are you are here for the applause of the world, and all the while you're hearing the enemy saying, Good job, keep keep doing what you're supposed to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: All this applause and and and all this pat on the back from the world, but inside you are destroyed, and you and the enemy has you right where he wants you.
SPEAKER_00: And just like Moses, he's reminding them that that's not who you once were.
SPEAKER_00: I've called you out to a different place.
SPEAKER_00: I have a possession.
SPEAKER_00: You're my most prized possession.
SPEAKER_00: I've called you for a purpose, a destiny.
SPEAKER_00: Your rest and hope is found in the hands of God.
SPEAKER_00: You are his holy, most prized possession.
SPEAKER_00: And he's calling us to his holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Our culture today has forgotten who put us here in the first place and what purpose we are our bodies have in this kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: We're a most treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: But how can we be that if we treat our bodies based on our culture standards and not on the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: How can we live pleasing to God if we're trying to match what the culture is doing?
SPEAKER_00: We are a blessed people when we obey his word and obey it.
SPEAKER_00: And when we obey it because we love him and we give our lives for him, because he already gave his.
SPEAKER_00: To the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God has chosen you to be a treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, like we read before.
SPEAKER_00: Now get this.
SPEAKER_00: It was not because you are more in number than any other people, then the Lord set his love on you and chose you.
SPEAKER_00: For you were the fewest of people.
SPEAKER_00: But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers.
SPEAKER_00: That the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh the king.
SPEAKER_00: Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love for those who love him, those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations.
SPEAKER_00: And can I say it to you in this plain language here today?
SPEAKER_00: You are his treasured possession, not because you're the most popular.
SPEAKER_00: It's because he loves you and he keeps his promises to the people that he loves.
SPEAKER_00: And he has called to his most tried possession.
SPEAKER_00: He has redeemed you from death through the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He has given you the opportunity to be born again from your past life.
SPEAKER_00: Through repentance, baptism in Jesus' name and being filled with his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says that he has given you all power over the enemy when you are filled with his spirit and baptized in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: No, therefore, because of this, you know that he is your God because of these promises.
SPEAKER_00: Because what he has told you that he is faithful and he keeps his covenant with his people.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the kicker.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: We have to love him back.
SPEAKER_00: We have to keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: We have to love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: We have to love him with every mount of our being.
SPEAKER_00: In the way we think, in the way we speak, in the way we live, in the way we dress, because we are his most treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was reading this, and we can stand this morning.
SPEAKER_00: As I was reading this, I kept thinking that actually Ashley was the one who inspired me to write this last part.
SPEAKER_00: We were talking about this.
SPEAKER_00: But God spoke through her.
SPEAKER_00: And she said it wasn't the land that was his possession.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the promised land that made the people so significant.
SPEAKER_00: He gave them a place where they could be prosperous and grow so he could do his work in that area.
SPEAKER_00: But it was the people.
SPEAKER_00: It was about the people.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives his best for his most treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: He gave the land to his people.
SPEAKER_00: And he gave himself for his people.
SPEAKER_00: He's given you every opportunity to come unto him.
SPEAKER_00: The price paid is for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Be holy, for I am holy.
SPEAKER_00: You are my special people, he says.
SPEAKER_00: You are his treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: And he's calling you unto him, reminding you of who he is, and how important your life is to honor him in holiness and love.
SPEAKER_00: Living your life out so that people can see that your love for God radiates from your life.
SPEAKER_00: And every aspect, the way you think, the way you speak, the way you live, the way you dress, has to glorify him because we are his most treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't really sure how to conclude this morning, but I feel like if we can make this time as a self-examination, wrapping everything that I have said today to understand that we are his most prized possession.