Speaker: There's some interesting credit card perks that are out there.
I'm not here to endorse credit cards, so if you're worried about
that, I'm not, not here to say one thing, good or bad about them.
I'm just saying there's interesting perks that are out there, and I, I
came across some of 'em this week.
Uh, bank of America, apparently if you get one of their credit cards,
you have access to over 220 museums that you can get into for free on the
first full weekend of every month.
So if you can sort all that out in your head, uh, there's 220 museums out there
that if you have a Bank of America credit card you can get into for free, uh, on
the first full weekend of every month.
Uh, Citi uh, Citibank, they, they have a credit card that with their
prestige travel credit card, you get free limousine access with that, which
I was trying to remember the last time I saw a limousine on the road.
I, I remember growing up it was the status symbol.
As a kid, I was like, I just want to ride in a limousine.
I got to, in my, uh, my senior year, we took one to prom, uh, because why
not waste money on something like that?
Um, so we did, and it was fun, whatever.
We were in a limousine, but I can't remember the last time I
actually saw a limo on the road.
But if you've got a city card with the prestige travel level, you get a free one.
Uh, not to own, but to, to ride in from time to time and, and then, uh, discover.
And, and this is unfortunate for our, our students in the room because
this has been discontinued, but for a while they had a perk that they
would offer 20 bucks a year for up to five years if you maintained a 3.0
GPA or above or in school.
They don't do that anymore.
And then I know the card everybody has in the room, which is the
tractor supply credit card.
Somebody out there has it.
I know you do.
We, we live close enough to the country that somebody out,
there's like, yep, I got that.
I, I don't know why you're laughing.
It's great.
Uh, if you've got a tractor supply credit card, you get 3% back on veterinary
services, which makes a whole lot of sense when you think about it.
And so if you have to have the vet out to, to take a look at your horses and cows and
stuff, if you got the tractor supply card, you're gonna get 3% back on that one.
Perks are funny, aren't they?
Um, but, but why do credit card companies offer perks?
They, they do it because they want people to be willing to commit to them
in exchange for what they're offering.
They're saying, Hey, we're gonna show that we're better by what we're gonna offer
you as far as the perks are concerned, so that you commit to us instead of Visa or
MasterCard or this other one across the street when it comes to the church y'all.
Have you ever wondered what are the perks to belonging to Jesus?
What are the perks to committing to Christ?
We may think, okay, well, well, number one is eternal life.
Okay?
Yes.
That is the first and foremost.
That is the greatest perk that we have in our commitment to Jesus Christ.
Bar none, but it's not the only one that we have.
Last week, we focused on how essential it is for us to be part of the church.
This week I want us to focus on how good it is to be involved in the church.
In the church, we get to experience these benefits, these perks
that God gives us as his people.
And so this week we're gonna find that belonging to Christ.
Being a part of his church is not only essential, but it comes with
massive benefits for the believer.
No perk or benefit from any other earthly commitment can
rival what we have in Christ.
And so if you'll take your Bibles and open up to one Peter chapter.
Two, we're gonna be in verses nine and 10.
One Peter chapter two verses nine and 10.
Before we get headlong into our text, though, I do want to,
uh, stop and, and direct your attention, at least in your mind.
You don't have to turn there to Romans chapter 11 in Romans nine through 11.
Paul is dealing with there the relationship between
Israel and the church.
And Paul's answering the question.
Okay.
So what about Israel?
Since Paul has been all about talking about the glories of the church
and, and the gospel and how good it is and everything else, and, and
even, uh, an apostle being sent to the Gentiles, Paul's dealing with,
okay, but what about the church?
What about Israel?
Uh, what about what God's doing still with Israel?
And in Romans nine through 11?
Uh, Paul really establishes the, the reality that, uh, there
is still a future for Israel.
That in the current amount of time, the current dispensation that we find
ourselves in, God has set Israel to the side in order to focus on the church in.
In fact, he says in Romans chapter 11 that the church has been grafted into,
okay, so the church is not replacing, the church is not a new plant by itself, but
rather the church in this dispensation has been grafted into the promises that
God has made for Israel specifically.
I think the promise that God made to Abraham that in you will all the
families of the Earth be blessed.
And so the church had been grafted into that, but that doesn't mean
that the church has replaced Israel.
Okay?
That doesn't mean that all the promises that God made to Israel
have been fulfilled in the church.
We have a partial fulfillment of a lot of them.
But we believe that there's still a future for Israel, that there's
still something that God's going to do with his chosen people, the
people of Israel in the future.
But right now he's focused on the church.
You say, well, why did you bring that up?
When we're studying First Peter chapter two?
Because as we get into verse nine and verse 10, you're gonna notice
a lot of language that Peter uses here, that God used in the Old
Testament to apply to the church.
And so when we, or to apply to Israel.
Sorry.
So when we read these, the temptation can be, okay, so then is Israel done?
Has the church fully replaced Israel?
And and that's where we have to interpret one passage of scripture within the,
the full context of the entire Bible.
And when we look at the breadth of scripture, I think we see clearly
attested that God's not done with Israel.
Rather because God is immutable.
His purposes for his people in the Old Testament continue to be his purposes
for his people in the New Testament.
And his people right now in this dis dispensation is the church.
It's the local church, and so as we get into our passage, we read
this, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
and a people for his own possession.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and
a people for his own possession.
These are titles and we'll unpack them as we go on that indicate a
special status that we have with God.
Uh, these are our, our titles that indicate that he has
set his affection on us.
And we even read about that early on in one peter, according to the
foreknowledge of God, that he set his affection on us and, and he
has made us to be these things.
And as I mentioned to each of these titles, we can see connections back
to the Old Testament and how God had plans for Israel at that time.
And so we're gonna interpret these things in light of that, in, in what his
plans are for us as the church today.
But as we get into these perks of the church, right, what is it?
What are the benefits that I get to being a part of God's people?
It's important to note number one, that, that we have these perks and,
and they're ours to be enjoyed.
Uh, if you think about perks that you get in, in credit cards or travel or
things like that, you, you don't ignore those and think, well, yeah, I've got
all these multiple tens of thousands of credit card points that I've got over
here, but I don't use them because it's wrong to really want to use the perks.
I should just want the credit card for the sake of the credit
card, not the perks, right?
It's okay for us to want Jesus and to love the perks that we get in
being a part of the church as well.
Point number one along those lines is this, enjoy the perks
of being part of God's church.
Enjoy these things.
And you say, well, what things?
Yeah, we're gonna get there.
Enjoy these things.
This, this status that you have in the church as the, the chosen race in
the royal priesthood as a holy nation, as a people for his own possession.
This is a status that's unique to the church today, and we're gonna unpack
what these things look like, but I, I, I don't know who you are when it
comes to air travel, but I'm a, a two hours before boarding time kind of a
guy in the airport, not pulling into the rental car lot two hours before,
not pulling into the parking lot at the terminal, two hours before.
No.
Sitting at my gate two hours before, right?
I'm through security.
At my gate ready to go just in case the plane's there two hours
early and we're all ready to hop on the plane and get outta town.
But unfortunately, I have traveled with people that are TSA precheck.
Yeah.
You guys know who you are out there.
I love you, but I'm not, and, and so you guys are not two hours
early to the airport type people.
You're 30 minutes early to the airport type people and, and, and you're, you're
just there and you've got your status as TSA precheck and, and you drop me
off at the back of the security line.
With my heart rate going up and taking years off of my life as I'm worried about
getting through and trying to untie my shoes and get my laptops outta my bag.
And, and you're just waltzing right through.
No belt off, no shoes off, no bags out.
And welcome.
Hi, would you like a martini as you go through the, the security line here?
Welcome to our luxurious lounge here.
And, and why do you get to do that?
Because you've got the status, so you enjoy the perks that come with the status.
Or maybe you've traveled with somebody who's a, a lounge access person.
Uh, I, I've traveled with that person too.
It's the same person in this case.
Same person.
And, and, and you get through and, and then he disappears into the
airport lounge and just leaves you outside and you go, wait a minute.
And he comes back out with snacks and a diet soda and he's
just, you know, living life.
And you're going, where's mine?
You don't have it.
Why?
But you don't have the status.
So you don't get the perks.
So we understand in life that, that there are benefits that come with a status.
And so as part of the spiritual house of God that, that God is building
that we looked at last week, there are benefits, there are perks that we
get as being a part of God's church.
We've already seen some of these in, in fact, back in verse 10 of in
verse 11 of First Peter, chapter one, uh, we found that the, the prophets
searched to know what we know.
Okay?
So we have a perk that, that we know something that the prophets didn't know.
That's a perk of being a part of God's church.
Or how about the verse 12, that the angels longed to know what we know?
I mean, that's another benefit that we have is being a part of God's church.
We understand the gospel, something that the angels don't even understand.
Or if we go to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 40, so Hebrews chapter 11 is
the hall of faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, and,
and, and he even runs outta room.
He's like, I, I don't even have time to tell you about all the
other people I could tell you about.
Right.
Amazing stories.
You've got Abraham, you've got Moses, you've got all of these amazing figures
of the faith from the Old Testament and, and then he says in verse 40 of
chapter 11, but we have something better.
And that's a perk of being a part of the church, that we have
something better than Moses had.
We have something better than that than Daniel had.
Right.
And, and, and so we see that there's a chronological perk that
we have just in the fact that we've been born in this time.
We have the fullness of the scriptures.
We can understand the Old Testament, new Testament.
We can read it together, we can understand the gospel.
We know these things.
That's a benefit that we exist, that we have as we exist as the church today.
But there's more than that.
There's this elite status that we have.
It's not just a, a special status.
Now we're, we're taking it up a notch to this elite status that we have,
that God has said of us as the church.
Not just do we enjoy a chronological privilege, but
he's given us special privileges.
That he's called us a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation
of people for his own possession.
This would've been a, a stark contrast to the status that the
original audience of Peter's letter enjoyed in the world at the time.
Remember, they were political exiles.
Uh, they were, uh, driven away from their homes.
They were despised, they were rejected.
They were persecuted at this time.
And, and so these titles, there was nothing about them that would've
been considered chosen or royal or holy or significant in any way.
In fact, they were.
Thought of as just the opposite.
And, and the thing is, we have to probably work a little bit harder than they did.
But the same is true for us today.
Your status in the world by contrast to what your status is with God.
It, there's, you couldn't find a sharper contrast there.
The, the world in which we live it, it hates our savior.
Right?
Jesus said that to his disciples, they hated me.
They're gonna hate you.
The world in which we live it, it despises our faith in the
hope that we have in eternity.
The world in which we live rejects the exclusivity of Christ and the fact that
we would say that there's salvation in no one other than Jesus Christ.
We may not be facing persecution the way that Peter's audience
was about to, at least not yet, but I wonder how far away it is.
There's a current case in the Supreme Court right now where a Christian
counselor in Colorado is being sued for trying to counsel a, a young person
to leave their same sex attracted lifestyle and to pursue the biblical
precepts for gender and sexual identity.
That's at the Supreme Court right now.
And what hangs in the balance of that decision is whether or not there's
gonna be Christian counselors all over our nation that are now all
of a sudden gonna face lawsuits for counseling people according to
the biblical precepts in scripture.
That's in the United States of America, by the way.
And and so will we be persecuted in our lifetimes more and more?
It, it's very possible.
Who knows?
Nonetheless, our identity regardless is that we are exiles in this world.
As we talked about earlier in this series, and the contrast between our
status in the world and our status in God's eyes is something that is sharp
and stark, and we should rejoice that God considers us to be a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession, that we have
that status with the God of the universe.
So let's unpack these terms.
First, he says that we are a chosen race.
A chosen race.
The, the word race there may make you uncomfortable, uh, but he
doesn't mean race the way that Hitler meant race, a superior race.
The word race here that, that Peter uses, it's a word that actually means
offspring or descendants, or even seed.
It's a word that we see represented in Deuteronomy 10 15.
Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose
their offspring after you.
Or Genesis 15, five.
We see here God's promise to Abraham.
He brought him outside and said, look towards the heaven and number the
stars if you're able to number them.
Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.
See, what Peter is saying to us is the church that we are a chosen race.
I think he's connecting us to the promise that God made to Abraham.
In fact, Paul's gonna say in Galatians chapter three, that is, it's those who
are of faith that are the sons of Abraham.
I mentioned earlier that the church has been grafted into God's
promises that he made to Israel.
We've been made partial beneficiaries of, of those, those
promises that he made to Israel.
And I think that's what Peter's saying here, that we are a chosen race.
We are now part of the offspring that God promised to Abraham, that we are part
of the, the fulfillment of that promise to Abraham, that his offspring will be
as numerous as the stars of the Heaven.
And so we're talking about enjoying the perks.
What's the perk of the chosen race?
The perk is this, God has brought you into the family.
And brought you into the blessings of the covenant he made with Abraham,
that in Abraham, will all the families of the Earth be blessed?
And you and I in Christ are now a chosen race.
We're part of that.
We're that offspring.
We're spiritual offspring of Abraham through faith.
We're not just a chosen race, though.
He also goes on.
He says, we are a royal priesthood.
A royal priesthood.
Exodus chapter 19, verse six.
God says, through Moses, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests In a holy
nation, these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
You shall be.
To me, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, is not to be
understood as though you and I are king, priest and queen priests, but
rather we are priests of the king.
We are priests of the king.
In the Old Testament, the office of priest and King we're separate.
Uh, the, the priest was unique and the, the king was unique in Christ.
Those two identities, those two roles, those two offices are united
together in him, and so we serve as his priest, priests of the
king and the job of the priest.
If you think back to the Old Testament, it's still the same today in the
context of some other religions, is to mediate between the deity and people
to stand between the god and humanity and represent one to the other.
And so here you have God telling all of Israel you are to be,
to me, a kingdom of priests.
And yet there was only one tribe that would serve in that capacity formally,
and that was the tribe of Levi.
And, and so what did God mean in calling all of Israel a kingdom of priests?
Well, it meant that all of Israel was to be that mediator between the God of
the universe and the rest of the world.
That God was telling Israel, I have a job for you and it's a job of privilege.
It's a job of status.
You should mediate, you should be my representatives
to the world all around you.
You are a kingdom of priests.
But the other thing a priest does is the priest serves
the deity that he represents.
And so again, Israel was to be the servants of Yahweh, the servants
of the, the God of the universe.
He's drawing them and saying, I'm giving you the privilege of serving me as well.
And so now we as the church are a kingdom of priest.
We are a royal priesthood.
The perk here in this one is that God has chosen us to be a servant
and representatives to his world.
He's chosen us for that privilege.
Second Corinthians, chapter five, Paul says, we have received a ministry of
reconciliation that we might go and and see other people be reconciled
to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
That is a massive privilege that we have as the church.
To be a light to the nations around us.
I wanna make a, a quick comment here.
Uh, Luther, Martin Luther looked at this verse and drew from
this verse, the principle of the priesthood of all believers, right?
And that may be something that you've heard of before and, and, uh, I
think it's, it's a good principle.
I think it's a good concept.
And that is that, that all believers in this essence are individually
priests now Peter's right corporately to the church here.
Okay, I'll come back to that in just a second.
But Luther once said this, he said, we are all equally priests.
That is to say we have the same power in respect to the word and sacraments.
Now, I want to give the caveat, some have, have taken that to then pit
the, the laity in the church against the, the pastors in the church.
Okay.
As though the, there's a a tension that should exist there because the priest of
all believers, but that's not what Luther had in mind, and we know that because the
very next thing that Luther said right after he said, we have the same power
in respect to the word and sacraments.
Luther said this, however, no one may make use of this power except
by the consent of the community or by the call of the superior.
And so Luther understood the priesthood of all believers to be
lived out within the community of the body of Christ, in other words.
And so in more recent times, Vadi Baam has, has championed the idea of, of
the i, the, the man of the, the house being his, the priest of his home.
And he said that the man should be the priest, the prophet, the
provider, and the protector.
Amen.
I say amen to that, and I agree with that.
And we need strong godly men leading their homes.
100%.
I agree with that, and I will never disagree with that.
But I would also give this caveat, I I I would say this, if if the your
spiritual leadership of your home is leading your family away from the
church, then there's something wrong with your leadership of your home.
And I'm not saying that the church is a perfect place, and I'm not saying
every church is a perfect place.
I'm not saying that at all, but I am saying the church is the bride of Christ.
And if we're gonna be priest of our home, we need to lead our families
to be a part of the body of Christ.
As we think about this context though, if I can also challenge,
I, I don't think Peter had.
The priest of all believers as individuals in mind in this passage,
and I only say that because again, our context is that of the church.
Remember from last week, as you come to him, you are being
built up as a spiritual house.
So he's talking about the corporate existence.
In fact, all of the pronouns that Peter uses in this passage are plural pronouns.
He's still talking about our identity as believers together.
And so I, I think what Peter's after here is this idea that we now together
as the church, get to serve as the priests to the God of creation.
That was once Israel's role and now in this dispensation, it's become our role.
We are a royal priesthood and that is a blessing and a perk that we get to enjoy.
Third, though we are holy nation, holy for you are Deuteronomy seven, six.
You are a people.
Holy to the Lord your God.
We talked about holiness a handful of weeks ago in one Peter chapter one,
verses 14 through 16, where Peter said there that we should not be conformed to
the former passions of our, our flesh, but as he who called you as holy, you
also be holy in all your conduct to be holy means to be set apart, to be
consecrated, to be useful to the Lord.
And so here he's applying that to the church saying, Hey church,
you are set apart, consecrated for the use of the Lord.
As Israel had been set apart to be used by Yahweh and to enjoy his presence.
So now the church has been set apart to be used by the Lord
and to enjoy his presence.
The per inness is that we can grow in holiness, that we might enjoy
more and more of the presence of God.
We are a holy nation.
The Word nation there doesn't mean nation as far as the nation
of the United States of America.
It doesn't mean a nation like Mexico or Canada.
Rather it's, it goes back to that idea of the race.
We are the, the spiritual offspring of Abraham.
We have a identity before him as a distinct people.
We are a consecrated people set apart for him.
And so he is set his affection on us towards that end.
Remember we talked about that in that sermon on holiness, that God
desires our holiness because he wants us, and that's true of the church.
He desires us to be a holy church because he wants us to be an effective church.
Final perk that we see here is a people for his own possession.
Uh, people for his own possession.
Exodus 19 five were called the Lord's Treasured Possession in Isaiah
43, 21, uh, Isaiah writes there, the people whom I formed, the word
formed there is the verbal form of the word possessed or possession.
So it's the people whom I possessed for myself in order
that they may declare my praise.
And so out of all the nations and the peoples at that time, God chose Israel.
And so the perk here is that God has set his affection on us now as
the church in the same sense that we are his special possession in
this dispensation, in this era.
God loves us and he's called us and we are His.
And that's a perk that we have, that no other institution, no other religion,
no other people get to enjoy church.
Jesus bought you with his blood to be part of his bride, and the
perks don't stop with redemption.
There's blessings and benefits that are exclusively ours as part of God's church.
A lot of the titles that we just unpacked though convey not only our status, but
also a, a task of role or responsibility.
You can think about it this way.
When you get married, you receive a new title, just like we looked at the titles
there that, that Peter laid out for us.
When you get married, you get a new title, right?
When I got married, I became a husband.
I was not a husband before I got married.
But getting married, I became a husband, and with that title
comes roles and responsibilities.
There are blessings, there are perks, there are benefits to
being a husband, and, and, and yet there are also responsibilities.
There are things that I need to be doing as a husband because I am a husband.
Does that make sense?
There are roles and responsibilities when you become a parent the first time
that you become a dad or a mom, right?
That's a great blessing and a great privilege, but
there's also responsibilities.
There's roles, there's things that you have to do for that child
now that are yours because of the title that you've received.
And so because of our status that we have in in Christ, now that we
are a chosen race and we are a royal priesthood and we are a holy nation
and people for his own possession, now we have a response responsibility.
Now we have something that, that God is gonna call us to do, and that's
in the second half of verse nine.
He says, we are all of these things that we may proclaim the excellencies
of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous lights.
Every one of those titles that we looked at implies a readiness to serve Christ.
We are his chosen race chosen.
Just like in the Old Testament, God chose Israel to be useful to him.
We are his royal priesthood.
A a priest job again was, was to mediate and to serve the deity.
We are a holy nation.
To be holy is to be set apart for use by God, and we are a
people for his own possession.
Like Isaiah said, that we may declare his excellencies.
God expects the role that the titles that we have, the status, that we
have to be translated into something that we're gonna do now as the church.
And that's why Peter proceeds to, to say that we may proclaim
the excellencies of him.
This has been our job from the garden in Genesis chapter one.
God created Adam, Adam and Eve, and when he created them, he said,
let us create man in our own image.
So man's job from the very outset, has been to image God.
To the world and, and yet what happened?
Well, the fall happened, sin happened.
And so after that, that that ability to image God was, was marred.
It was broken.
And what we needed was we needed something to be able to restore that,
and that's what we have in Christ, because Christ has brought us out of
darkness into his marvelous light.
Now, our ability to image him, though not perfect yet, has been restored
enough to the fact that we can do this.
We can declare his excellencies.
This was the very plan of God from the very beginning.
It was also his plan for Israel.
I read Isaiah 43 1 earlier, but again, let me go back to that verse.
It says this, God says, the people whom I formed for myself that
they may declare my praise, Israel was to be a light to the nations.
Israel was to be a representative of God's greatness in his glory to the nations.
That would cause the nations to say, I want the God that you serve.
That's always been God's design for his people.
And now Peter says, for us that our job is to proclaim his excellencies.
To proclaim means that we would not only announce and use our, our, our
words, but it's a word that actually means to reveal, to uncover, and, and
we're proclaiming the excellencies.
That is the, the moral goodness, the praiseworthy character of God.
For Ancient Israel, that meant recounting his faithfulness as God would tell them.
Tell generation after generation of all the good things I've done for you.
Tell them about the exodus and deliverance outta there.
Tell them about when I raised up good judges for you.
Tell them about King David and King Solomon.
Tell them about when I brought you back from exile.
For us, man, there's no doubt that the main thrust behind proclaiming
his excellencies has to do with us opening our mouths to tell
others about how God has saved us.
That said, while it's not less than that, I think it's not limited to that either.
Peter's still addressing.
Remember the church corporately here, and if there's one thing the church should
be known for, it is exalting Christ.
And yes, we do that through preaching the gospel and sharing the gospel.
And we do that when we join our voices together in worship.
And we do that as we serve one another joyfully.
And we do it as we pray for and with one another.
And we do it as we stand to honor the reading of the word of God.
And we do it as we give generously from all the resources that
the Lord has given to us.
See, all of us proclaim, play a part in proclaiming the excellencies
of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And it's not just when we're sharing the gospel, it's also when we're
here, when we're gathered together, when we're a part of the church.
Second point this morning is this, play your part in the
testimony of God's church.
Play your part in the testimony of God's church.
From the very outset of the church plant, as Pastor Rod and I were, were
thinking through everything back in California, even, we said, man, we
wanna be a church where Christ is exalted, where Christ is exalted.
And for that to happen, man, that takes all of us living
life together as the church.
Do me a favor.
Take your Bibles and flip over to Romas chapter 12.
Flip over to Romas chapter 12.
Keep your finger in, in one Peter, or, or put a bookmark there 'cause we'll be back.
But Romans chapter 12, see, proclaiming the excellencies of him who called us
out of darkness into his marvelous light.
It it, it's going to involve two facets of that, the, the external,
which we'll get to in just a minute.
And that's the one we most often think of.
That's when we're sharing the gospel with someone.
But then there's an internal component of declaring the excellencies
of him who called us outta darkness into his marvelous light.
That is what it is to be a part of the body of Christ.
And Paul unpacks for us, as I read during our scripture reading, and I wanna just
put our eyes on, on the, the text, again, Paul unpacks for us what it looks like
to be a church that's living that out.
What it looks like for us to be a church that's been so impacted by Christ,
that when people are around us, they're gonna say, man, they, they love Jesus.
Here.
Christ is being exalted.
I can tell that the people here have been transformed by God.
And so we see this unpacked in Romans chapter 12.
Uh, let's jump in.
Let's just start in verse nine.
Paul writes here, let love be genuine.
Ab whore what is evil, and hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection.
Pastor Rod preached on that from one Peter not long ago.
Outdo one another in showing honor, right?
If there's gonna be competition in the church, let's make it that.
How can I honor somebody the most?
I'll do one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit, man.
Have a passion for Christ.
Have a passion for the Lord.
Worship, as we were talking about earlier, celebrating God through our applause
after a song or, or through the amen or through whatever it may be for you.
But man, we, we, we don't wanna be the frozen chosen, right?
We want to be excited about what God has done in our, in our lives and through us.
Be fervent in spirit.
Serve the Lord, rejoice in hope.
Be patient in tribulation.
Be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
These are things that we need one another for.
They're gonna be times where I walk in and I'm gonna need you to come alongside me
and say, Hey, pastor pj, it looks like you could use some encouragement this morning.
It looks like you could be encouraged to rejoice in hope this morning.
Or, or there's gonna be something that's gonna happen in your life.
You're gonna get the diagnosis or whatever, and rather than just white
knuckling it by yourselves, you're gonna need your church body to
come alongside you and love you and support you and care for you, and
meet tangible needs that you have.
Food rides to appointments, things like that, right?
The, the body of Christ being the body of Christ.
Verse 14, bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Notice even that, right?
I, I, I have to know you well enough to be able to rejoice
with you and weep with you.
I have to know what you're joyful about.
I have to know what you're troubled by.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live
in harmony with one another.
Y'all, if there's one thing that, that God has been putting on my heart more and
more and more, that I'm jealous for, for this body of Christ, it's the unity of
the church that we would remain united together as the the body of Christ.
That we would love one another, that we would let love cover a multitude
of offenses, that we would understand those things that are tier one issues
versus tier two issues versus tier three issues that we would be charitable in our
disagreements with each other, that we would live in harmony with one another,
that we would not be haughty, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
Never be wise in your own sight, repay no one evil for evil, but get thought to
do what is honorable in the sight of all.
And here this, how about this if, if possible, so far as it depends
on you live peaceably with everyone.
I love that, that mentality man.
If, if, if it's within my power to maintain peace in the body of
Christ, I'm, I'm gonna do that y'all.
When we live this kind of a, a body life out, we are testifying.
To the excellencies of the one that called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light.
Whether it's with an unbeliever in our midst who walks away from this
place thinking to themselves, what in the world is wrong with those people?
Or whether it's the spiritual world that watches what we're doing and
thinks to themselves, what in the world is wrong with those people
We know nothing is wrong with this.
We've come to faith in Jesus.
Jesus has brought us out of darkness, into his marvelous light,
and now we are the body of Christ.
We are together in that, and we get to have fellowship with one another.
As, as John says, talking about light in one John chapter one, verses five
and seven, he says this, this is the message that we have heard from him
and proclaimed to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we
lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another.
Notice that one another.
And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
And so to, to live out being part of the church, being part of the body
of Christ, this is to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out
of darkness into his marvelous light.
And let me just tell you all I love you.
I love this church.
I've, I've served in, uh, uh, multiple different churches.
I'm getting to the age where I can't remember them all, but I have, I've, I've
served as a, a pastor in, in different churches and, and I can tell you 100%
without reservation, I love this body more than I've loved any other body.
And it's not just because I'm the guy that preaches every weekend is because of you.
There's a common thing that happens, uh, with us as a staff.
We will often be texting one another and we'll be recounting
stories of our people in the church.
And so many times, it's almost like a weekly thing that happens that one
of us will say, I love our church.
And we do, we love this place.
We love you.
And so I'm, I'm, I'm here not to say, Hey, be better.
I'm here to say, I think you guys are doing such a good job at this.
Let's keep going.
Let's excel.
Excel still more.
Let's, let's, let's make the spiritual forces angry at us as a church.
Right.
I mean, we don't want targets on our back from, from too
many people, but you know what?
If the demons put targets on our back, I'm, I'm happy with that.
That means we're doing something right.
And so church, lets love each other even more.
And, and again, you guys are doing so well on this, but I found myself thinking this
week, man, what if church became illegal?
How would my, how would my view of what we do here on Sunday morning change?
I came from, um, California and, and we were there during COVID.
Uh, man, that was crazy.
I know things all over the, the country were bad, but it was, it
was, it was crazy when we were there.
And so there was a time that we were driven outside and we, we
had to meet outside as a church and, you know, it was fine.
We were in southern California, so it's not like we were suffering that hard for
Jesus being outside and 75 degree weather.
But it, it, there was something that was missing.
And I remember just thinking to myself all the time that we were meeting outside,
man, what, what, why, what's missing?
Like, we're here and, and yet there was the, the, the distancing.
And there some people had masks and there was a general, like there
was a tenuous approach to people.
Could, can I shake your hand?
Do, do you want me to, to stand away from you?
And then everything else about it, we were outside.
So when we sang together, the voices just kind of disappeared
into the ether of the atmosphere.
And, and I didn't realize what I missed until we went back inside.
And when we went back inside for the first time and, and we had church
and we lifted our voices and it was contained within the, the room.
And you could hear your, your brothers and sisters singing and, and you could
hug your brothers and sisters in Christ.
And, and we, it just, I was, oh man, this is what I missed.
I missed being the church together.
And so I started to think myself this week, man, what, what would
change if all of a sudden it became illegal to be at church?
How, how would my approach on Sunday morning change.
What would I talk about when I gathered?
How would I worship?
How would my prayer time be during the week, and how would I be pursuing
other people during the week?
I think that's a, a good thing for us to, to think about right now.
Church is not illegal right now.
Praise God.
It's not, uh, and I don't want it to become, but I'm just
thinking what would change?
Again, you guys are doing such a, a, a, a good job.
In fact, it was just yesterday, there was a team of y'all that showed up at
our, our storage unit down in Frisco to load up a, a truck and bring all of
our stuff from our storage unit down in Frisco, up to our storage unit up
here in Frisco or, uh, in Prosper.
That's declaring the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light.
And, and we had a, a text thread on our staff text thread here, just
pictures of you guys that were there and we were all just chiming in.
We love our church, we love our church.
We love our church.
And so church don't grow weary in doing good.
As Paul said, let that love that we have for one another abound more and
more excel still more as we do this.
So that's, that's the, the, the first way, that's the internal way that
we can declare the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness
in, into his marvelous light.
But there's also an external component to this as well.
And, and this is going out and, and letting the world know
that something is different.
There's a picture for the New York Yankees.
Named Cam Schidler.
Schidler.
You gotta be careful with that name.
And he made his debut, his major league debut, right, two weeks ago
and pitched eight innings, gave up no runs, and struck out 12 batters.
Okay, that's amazing.
Also, it was the playoffs also, it was against the Boston Red Sox, which happened
to be the team that he grew up rooting for and that his family grew up cheering for.
And in the stands decked out in Yankee's gear was his mom
and his dad and his siblings.
These Yankee fans that were there in the stands had up until that moment
for their whole lives been Boston fans.
If you know anything about baseball, Boston fans and Yankee
fans, they don't like each other.
Okay.
They don't get along with each other, and so a Boston fan's never gonna
be caught dead in a Yankees uniform.
What changed for his parents?
The one that they love identified with a new team, and so for them, they're
like, okay, this is the team because this is where our allegiance lies.
This is where our affection lies.
His mom was getting death threats on social media.
We're messed up as a nation.
Like we need to not be threatening somebody's mom because they're
pitching for a team that is, is uh, not our favorite team.
Speaker 2: But
Speaker: the people noticed a shift in his parents, all that to say, and they started
saying, you're not one of us anymore.
You're not a Boston fan anymore.
And in reality, they're right.
But what it drew is the iron, the hatred of the Boston fans.
What gear?
Whose gear rather are you repping out in the world?
You've had a change in your allegiance.
I'm not saying the Boston Red Sox are the world and the Yankees are heaven.
Please don't hear me say that, but there's been a change in
your allegiance, nonetheless.
More dramatic than that.
More unexpected than that.
When you step foot out of this door, when you go out into the world throughout
your week, when you're at your local coffee shop, when you're with your
neighbors, whose gear are you repping?
Can they tell that there's been a difference?
Are you even drawing some of the ire of the world in such a way that you would
say, okay, they see that I'm with Jesus.
We need to be like that because that's the external way that we declare the
excellences of him who called us outta darkness and into his marvelous light.
I've been praying this week for this sermon, and as I've been praying for this
sermon, I've been praying for you guys, and I've been praying that you would
each, all of the, the Christians that are in this room, have an opportunity this
week to share the gospel with somebody.
And so I, I'm, I'm still praying that, and so let me just encourage you,
ha, have your radars sharp this week.
I don't even know what that analogy means.
Ha, have your ears attentive this week.
Look for the opportunities, because I believe that God
delights to answer those prayers.
And so I'm praying for you that you will have a chance to share the
gospel, whether that's a neighbor or a coworker, or a family member,
or somebody in line at Starbucks.
I, I, I, I want us to have these opportunities to say, Hey, I, I
want to take advantage of this to declare the excellencies of the
one that called me outta darkness in, into his marvelous light.
And so I'm praying for that this week.
Church, this, this is what we do.
Our, our part in the testimony of God's church is that internal body
life that we talked about in Romans 12, but it's also the, the going out
into the world and, and pointing to the, the, the world to Jesus Christ,
the one who has done so much for us.
But all of this, the foundation of all of this, the perks that we have
as part of God's church and the role that we play as part of his church
is, is only possible because of the glorious truth that we find in verse 10.
Look down at verse 10 with me as we wrap up here.
It says this, once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Old Testament is echoing in the background.
Here again, this time it's Hosea.
Hosea, chapter one in Hosea chapter one, Hosea and Gomer, his wife.
They have these two children and one of the children is named, not my people,
and the other child is named No mercy.
And, and the reason God gave them those names was because he was
indicating in a, a problem in the current state of the people of Israel
saying, you are going to be set aside.
You are going to be rejected.
This is, is is God's message to his people and he's telling them,
you have have failed and what I've called you informed you to be.
And so you are not my people.
You have not received mercy.
But later in the book, during a, a prophetic section of the book, God
says, it will be said of not my people.
You are my people.
It will be set of no mercy.
I have shown them mercy.
And so again, there's this future that is going to be full for Israel, and yet now
Peter's saying that we get to participate in some of that too as the church.
Again, we've been grafted into some of this.
So, so we get to be made part of, of God's promise here and what he's doing.
And, and so God has taken us now as the church Peter saying, who
once were not a people and he's made us his people and he's taken
us who once had not received mercy.
And he's shown us mercy.
In fact, maybe it's even more stark as the, the church.
Noticeable as the church because as you think about our backgrounds, man,
we've, we've, we're, we're not tied by genetics the way that Israelites were.
We've got all kinds of different backgrounds, nationalities, everything
else, and, and yet God has brought us together to form us as the church for Him.
We are the recipients of his special affection.
And, and Peter highlights here, specifically his mercy as we're thinking
about this last verse here, that he's taken us who were not a people and made us
a people, and he's shown us great mercy.
The word that kept coming to mind this week as I was looking
at this is the word love.
And so our final point this morning, along those lines is this, remember,
the greatest perk is God's love.
Remember, the greatest perk of all is God's love.
The specific facet of that love that Peter emphasizes here is the mercy of God.
Mercy and grace are often used synonymously and conflated, although
they do have different meanings and it's important for us to notice that.
See, grace is we often think of it as a gift.
And that's what it is.
Grace is to receive something, whereas Mercy is not to receive something.
So you can think about it this way.
Grace is getting something from God that we don't deserve.
Grace is getting justification.
Grace is getting redemption.
Grace is getting eternal life.
It's getting what we don't deserve.
Mercy is not getting from God something that we do deserve, and that is
his wrath, his judgment against us.
So Grace May be after a long day, the kids go to bed and my
wife and I wake them up and throw them in the, we don't throw them.
We get them in the back of the van and we drive to Target to get joyride candy
because we love doing that as a family.
And so it's a surprise they didn't, they didn't earn that.
They didn't merit it.
It's just something that, Hey, we love you.
It's Grace.
Mercy is not given the spanking when the spanking is deserved,
but taking that moment in that instance to say, Hey, you know what?
You do deserve a spanking.
You do deserve the discipline.
All of us do for our sin.
And yet God is merciful to us in that He has not given us what we deserve
to help teach them what mercy is.
So grace and mercy, they're different things.
And, and, and the Bible magnifies both.
But, but Peter focuses specifically on the mercy that we have from God.
And I think the reason is, is because what a mercy the church really is.
Because God didn't leave us out here as strangers and aliens from himself.
He didn't leave us out here on our own, but brought us together
corporately to do life together.
We didn't deserve what he gave us.
What we deserved instead is to try to just white knuckle it through to
try to just be good enough so that when we die, he'll look at us and
say, okay, yeah, did your good weeds way deeds outweigh your bad deeds.
And the problem is that's never gonna work.
Instead by his mercy, he brought us into this body, brought us into this,
this group, and, and, and gave us the, the relationship with brothers and
sisters in Christ that we have here.
And he gave us the righteousness of Jesus.
And so his mercy and grace are related here.
And his mercy, it's not stopped yet.
He's continuing to show us his mercy.
He gave us another 24 hours to serve him.
Right?
That's an act of mercy.
He gave us a new day to repent from our sin and pursue him instead of
just wrapping it up and taking me out.
God is is kind and merciful to give me a wife who loves me and supports me and
is patient with me instead of a wife who may have given up on me a long time ago.
And God is merciful and kind to gimme friends who will pray for
me, encourage me and confront me.
Instead of friends who are content just to keep things at the surface level.
See, I still need God's mercy, and so often God's mercy is found in the instead
ofs and the rather thans that accompany the blessings we have in this life,
the gifts that God has given you.
If you think about what would've happened if you hadn't received
that gift, there's mercy,
God's mercy.
Is the fuel for the praise that we need to declare his excellencies, right?
God's mercy is the motivation that we need to go out to the lost person and
say, Hey, when can we talk about Jesus?
God's mercy is the foundation of our status as those that are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession.
Without his mercy.
We don't have any of that without his love, we don't have any of that.
And so that's why this love is the greatest perk of all,
and it's ours within the context here of the, the body of Christ, our identity as
a chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for God's own possession,
and the privilege that we have to proclaim his excellences, our ours because he's
called us out of darkness into his marvelous light because he did that by
his mercy, by his grace in our lives.
Committing to Jesus and his church is not only essential like we talked
about last week, but I hope this week we've seen that it's good.
It's so good to be a part of the church and I'm biased, but it's so
good to be a part of this church.
Um, and you guys are the reason why.
So I, I pray, I, I hope you've made that first step this morning in
committing to Christ, repenting from your sins and putting your trust
in Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
And if you have, I, I pray that this was a good reminder this morning and
encouragement to you this morning that what we have here is such a good thing.
It's different from anything else that you're gonna find in this world.
You won't find the perks anywhere else that you're gonna find here.
You won't find the blessings anywhere else that you're gonna find here
that is in the bride of Christ.
And God has saved us to be a part of this.
What a gracious and merciful thing that is.
Let's pray together, Lord God, we love.
Bride, we love your plan.
For us as the church, we love your mercies that are new every morning.
We love the fact that you have not given us what we deserve, even what we continue
deserve to deserve as we live our lives.
But instead, you've shown us your mercy in forgiving us.
You've shown us your mercy in sparing us the full wrath, but instead poured
out on Christ in our place, which is whereby your grace you gave us.
Righteousness.
You gave us forgiveness.
You gave us a standing with you that is not just brought back to a level playing
field, but you've given us the full righteousness of Christ in our accounts.
And God help us to be people that are, are so grateful of.
For that help us to be people that want to proclaim the excellencies of, of the
good news, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Lord, we love you so much for the goodness and the kindness that you've shown us
for your love that you've showered on us.
And so we pray for a great week in front of us, a week where we would declare
your excellencies both internally as the church body and externally.
Externally as well as we go out into the the world around us.
I reiterate my prayer, God, that you'd bring gospel opportunities
into all of our lives this week.
Lord, and that you would save people even this week as a result of those
that are here testifying to what you have done as you've called us out of
darkness and into your marvelous light.
We thank you so much for that reality.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.