Do you ever feel like you don't quite belong?

Only 2% of Christians get paid to be Christians, did you know that? And yet we’ve created a culture in our current Christian environment that only recognizes the people on stage as the superstars. I don’t look at you as bleachers seats waiting for me to perform. You are my ministry.

And when I started working here I left the ministry for the Bible says that it is the 98% of you who operate out there somewhere, with the gifts and abilities God has given you to impact and influence culture, you’re the ones with the real ministry. The only ministry that I have is to empower you. But “YOU are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

In the old King James version, this verse read in a very intriguing and fascinating way. “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation a PECULIAR people belonging to our God…” Isn’t that interesting that when God was deciding what to call you so that when asked you would know how to identify yourself and classify your character, He called you peculiar?

I went to the dictionary. I looked up several definitions of the word peculiar. You are a strange people… queer… odd… uncommon… unusual… distinctive in character or nature from others… belonging characteristically… belonging exclusively to some person, group, or thing. That’s the kind of person that you are.

Here’s the main point I want to get across to you today. God isn’t going to use your life because you are just like everybody else. The thing that makes you unique is the thing that makes you powerful.

That’s very difficult for us to comprehend because we live in a culture of carbon copy. And frankly, there is a fine line between peculiar people and weird Christians. I want to address that for a moment. I’m not trying to justify or motivate you towards being weirder. Most of us do not need help with that.

There are crazy, weird Christians out there. One time I was talking with some guys about the Superbowl and they had asked me who I was rooting for. I just explained to them I could care less, I’m just in it for the commercials, but then this dude next to me is like “I don’t waste my time on such mindless drivel. That’s time I could be spending in the Spirit seeking the Lord.”

At that point, I wasn’t even a Christian, but I’m thinking “Dude, really? Even if you don’t watch the Superbowl, that’s fine. But why do you need to project you peculiarity onto someone else just to prove how spiritual you are.” There are people out there that get so spiritually minded that they are no earthly good, and that’s not what we want to shoot for.

What we are talking about is a distinctive character that sets you apart and causes you to stand out in this dark world where all the pressure is forcing you to fit in. We’re not trying to fit in, we’re intended to stand out. Peculiar people, remarkable people, exceptional people.

We have this problem in our culture today where we glorify certain personalities and you have to sing well or speak well to be used by God. Let me say something to those of you who are shy, quiet, don’t say much, but you faithfully love Jesus and you serve Him and you pray and you live with integrity, to embrace your uniqueness.

Because the thing that makes you unique is the thing that makes you powerful. And God might use some of you shy and quiet people to listen to someone who is on the verge of committing suicide and you may save their life just by virtue of keeping your mouth shut and by listening and praying. What makes you unique is what makes you useful in the hands of God.

Peculiar people. The stone that the builders rejected, Peter says, became the foundation of our salvation. Let me tell you something; Mediocrity is mass-produced, destiny is custom-designed.

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