Servangelism
Part 6: Peculiar Treasures
MMin Kevin “Oriyan” Phipps

 This week I will be finishing my series on servangelism with a talk about peculiar treasures. This is the sixth lesson, and if you think there should be seven because seven is a perfect number, go ahead and write one yourself. You won’t hurt my feelings. Honestly, I’m looking forward to getting back to teaching out of the Torah portion, not because it’s tradition, but because Torah is the backbone of our faith, so the better we know it, the better and stronger our faith and our servangelism will be. There are many more concepts found in Torah which relate to sharing God’s love with others, which will only be uncovered as we get back to the weekly Torah portions.

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:And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. [Sh’mot/Exodus 19:5-6]

 I’ve used this passage in my teachings before, but after about 80 lessons, that is bound to happen. We learn partly through repetition, so deal with it. There are a few important truths in these verses relating to Messianic faith. One is that God’s Kingdom is a Kingdom of priests. Theirs is a sense, that all of us who are engrafted into the Kingdom through faith in Messiah are priests, whether male or female. A priest is a representative of the people before God, much like a defense attorney. Our job is not to condemn people, but to educate them about the law and plead their case before the Judge to get them grace and mercy. 

 Another important truth is the one that I want to focus on here. That is the concept of being a peculiar treasure. Typically, Believers are good at being peculiar, but not often that good at being a peculiar treasure. The Hebrew word for this is segullah. This word can be translated as jewel. The picture I get in my mind is that of a miner in a dark cave, digging through rock and dirt, when suddenly he sees a sparkle in the dirt. This not only gets his attention, but he quickly clears away the dirt and rock around the jewel, picks it up, looks at it in the light, and marvels at how beautiful and valuable it is. This is what he has been working for and waiting for. It is not only different from everything else, but is a positive difference. It something he wants to find. 

 The past several weeks, we have been taking Asher to Shriner’s Hospital for his club foot. I never knew much about the Shriners before this and found the whole Arabic theme with the funny red hat thing more than peculiar. However, the hospital is very clean and organized and well designed for children. The people who work there are some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. This put in me a curiosity to find out more about them. This is what I call people being a peculiar treasure. 

 Most people are aware of the lifestyle of Amish people, with their black hat and beards and the buggies they ride into town. In some ways their simple lives are admirable along with their furniture, but as people, they is little to attract me. They typically do not socialize with people outside their community, so where these people are definitely peculiar, I would not call them a peculiar treasure. 

 As I see it, the difference between these two groups is their service to the community and people outside their “group”. When we do things that people appreciate, they won’t care about our peculiarities, they may even like them. They will eventually gain a curiosity that will make them want to know more about us. We will find them coming to us asking what we believe and who we are, which then opens the doors for us to share our faith with them.

Everyone will know that you are my talmidim by the fact that you have love for each other." [Yochanan/John 13:35]
 
 Today, many may not know that our love is of God, unless we tell them, but they will know that what they experience is a positive thing. It is something they appreciate and value. When they find out they are experiencing the love of God, this will be a seed planted in fertile soil, which the Holy Spirit can use to change their life.

 Many people in our culture have had misinformation and negative experiences from the church. The primary complaints I see and hear relate to a difference between what people hear us say and how they see us act, especially toward them. We talk about love and forgiveness, but many experience judgment and condemnation. This is why God gave us His Torah. He told us how to live, so our walk will match our talk. This is one of the biggest problems with the church. They have rejected Torah, but adopted various other rules of life, some of which have nothing to do with Scripture. We also teach people that grace is all they need, implying that it doesn’t matter what we do, God’s grace saves us anyway. One of the biggest problems with this is we end up teaching one thing and living something different. 

 We live in this world, but are not of this world. We live by different standards because we are set apart. This is holiness. We are called to not only act differently, but think differently as well.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. [Romans 12:2]

 In many churches, there is a push to blend in to the world. As we do what the world does, we don’t rock the boat as much and the gospel is theoretically more acceptable to the world. In many ways I think this strategy back-fires because reality is that many of the people we seek to evangelize are unsatisfied with their life and are looking for something different. We elected an almost black president mostly because his very looks represented change. People are looking for that peculiar treasure that will give them hope and a new way of life. These same people look at the church and see nothing different, other than expectations to go to church and tithe,  this isn’t the change they are looking for.

 As we deal with people individually, we will encounter attitudes and thoughts which are often negative based on previous knowledge and prior experiences with other church people. In order to have any chance of breaking those walls, we have to be peculiar in a way that not only gets their attention, but touches them in a positive way. This is what will make us a peculiar treasure. Certainly there will be those who still don’t accept us, because the light of God exposes their evil deeds, but rejection of us ought to be based on our adherence to Torah, not our own works and traditions.

For everyone who does evil things hates the light and avoids it, so that his actions won't be exposed. But everyone who does what is true comes to the light, so that all may see that his actions are accomplished through God." [Yochanan/John 3:20-21]

 We are called to be a light in our world. This is implies that the world is dark and the light is a distinct contrast to the world and something that those who have been called by God to righteousness will be attracted to like a moth to a flame at night. The difference being that the person is saved rather than killed. Technically the old man does die and the work of the Holy Spirit creates a new man in the person. When we live the way God wants us to live, we become a light because His light shines through us and draws others to Him. The real work of evangelism is then not our work, but His. We simply live in obedience to our King and He does the rest.

I will most certainly bless you; and I will most certainly increase your descendants to as many as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the cities of their enemies, and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed — because you obeyed my order." [B’resheet/Genesis 22:17-18]

 Have all the nations been blessed by Isra’el? In the sense that out of Zion came a deliverer not only for them but for the world, at that is Yeshua, yes. In the sense that Isra’el themselves have blessed the world, not to the extent that God had planned, and the reason was their disobedience to Him. We see in Scripture that it was God who gave Isra’el victory over their enemies through their obedience to Him. However, even today they rely on their own strength and their alliance with the United States to defeat their enemies. The state of affairs in Isra’el out to be a testimony for us that when God’s people live their own way, their plans do not succeed. Only through trust in God through adherence to His Word is He able to work on behalf of His people to give them victory and make them a unique peculiar treasure in the world.

 In time I will be finding out what needs there are in the community and what the best way to meet those needs are. I think that we tend to look at common, more superficial needs like clothing and hunger, and ignore many other needs and ways of reaching out to people. In some ways, our efforts to help actually make situations worse overall. We spend money on big events that are over in a day and the effects do not last much longer than that day. I want to find ways of helping people that they may not expect and which gets the best bang for the buck in the long term. Not that doing things that provide short term joy and benefit are bad and we will do those things too, but we need to also find acts of service that help people on the long term.
 As I have gone through this series on Servangelism, the main concept for us to come away with is as we seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, God makes us into the people He needs us to be, with the gifts He needs us to have, to show people His love in ways that He intends to accomplish His work in their life. The work is His and all He needs is willing servants.