Speaker: Well, deciding to pray.
Deciding to do that is one of about 35,000 decisions that you
make on average every single day.
Some of you make about 20 to 30 of those before getting outta bed based on how
many times you hit the snooze button.
But think about it, once you get outta bed, then you are going to brush your
teeth, hopefully, and then you are going to go about the rest of your
morning routine, which I'm, I'm sure assumes a lot of other decisions
that are kind of on autopilot.
And you stumble out to the coffee pot, you make sure that the coffee's going
and ready for you in the morning.
You sit down, you grab your Bible, you open up, you maybe decide
to do your daily Bible reading.
You decide to pray, uh, and then you're gonna decide what to wear for the day.
And you're gonna decide, you know, if you're gonna worry about matching
your socks that day, or if it's, it's a day that you're not meeting with
anybody, it doesn't really matter.
You, you're making all kinds of just super small decisions all the time.
35,000 on average a day.
But some of those decisions that you make are pretty significant.
Some of those decisions are big.
Uh, for example, you have a date night and you ask your wife, Hey,
where do you wanna go to dinner?
And she says, I don't know.
Where do you want to go to dinner?
Right.
That's a, a normal conversation I know in our household and
we have to decide on that.
But there are more significant decisions than where you're gonna go eat.
Uh, for example, when you have kids, you give them a name, do have you ever thought
about how significant of a choice that is?
And we make it based on like, well, do I like the way that sounds?
Like that kid is gonna respond to that sound for the rest of their life?
I was almost named Bromley Bromley.
It's okay.
The chuckles are fine unless you're here named Bromley.
And then we'll talk afterwards.
We can commiserate.
Uh, yeah, I was almost named Bromley, but by, by God's grace and my dad's wisdom.
Um, my mom c-section emergency, C-section situation.
She wasn't in a state to be able to give a name.
And the, the doc said, what's his name?
And my dad said.
The thing that he knew how to say, which was his name.
Uh, and so I am named after my dad.
And so Peter Frederick Burner ii, which is a mouthful, and that's
why I go by pj, uh, Peter Jr.
Some of y'all have have asked that question.
Is it Peter James?
Peter, John?
No.
It's Peter Jr.
Uh, and so I go by pj.
Uh, but a name, that's a significant decision that we make for our kids.
There's other big decisions like where to go to school, who to marry, what
to do for a career, where to move.
Where to go to church, but there's one decision that every single
person makes that is the most profound decision that anyone will
ever make in their entire lives.
And again, it's a decision that every single person makes, and that is the
decision about what to do with Jesus.
That is the most decision and the most, most important decision and the most
profound decision with the longest lasting implications for anyone who has
ever walked to the face of the planet.
What to do with Jesus.
It's one of those 35,000 decisions that you made on the day that you came to
faith in Christ, decided to repent from your sins and put your trust in Jesus
as God opened your eyes to the beauty of the gospel, to your need for a savior.
It's the most important decision that you ever make in your life, in large
part because of the implications for it from that time forward.
And that's what we're gonna see in our text today in First Peter
chapter one or first Peter, chapter two verses four through five.
One Peter chapter two, verses four and five.
Uh, actually we're gonna be four through eight for the whole thing,
but we'll start here in four through five says this as you come to him, A
living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.
You yourselves, like living stones are being built up as a spiritual
house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ.
He begins as you come to him.
As you come to him and he's gonna define that him as Jesus, and, and
as you come to him implies that he's building on an argument that he's
been making and that is indeed true.
If you look back up in verse three, we are coming to the one that we have tasted
and seen it, that, that he is good.
He said this, we will do if we've tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
And so Peter's telling us that the Lord is Jesus.
That that Jesus is the one that he's been talking about.
And here it's as we come to him, as we approach him.
In the, the Greek, it's a, it's a continual approaching and so what
Peter has in mind here is coming to him not just at the moment of salvation,
that's the beginning of it, but, but then for the rest of our lives.
As Christians every single day, we are coming to Jesus.
We are approaching him.
We are entering into His presence.
We are setting our course by him.
We are aiming our lives at him every single day.
And he's gonna stay in verse five in order for the purpose of offering
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.
And we'll get there in just a second.
Uh, but I want us to think a little bit more as the one that we about,
the one that we are, are coming to.
And, and Peter describes him as a, a living stone as you
come to him, a, a living stone.
This tells us a couple of things right away.
First, that Peter is moving into metaphorical language here.
Uh, stones are not alive.
If you look at the stones that are on the facade of this building,
they're, they're not alive.
There's no pulse, there's no breath in that stone.
If you think of Peter's day, the temple was still in existence.
This temple, temple was still standing in Jerusalem, and so perhaps the readers
would've even thought of the temple.
In contrast to what Peter is talking about here with Jesus,
that Jesus is a living stone.
But beyond just the temple and, and actual stones, uh, Peter's also setting
up a contrast between the living Jesus and the, the dead and empty and
futile false gods that were all around these exiles that were living in.
What's modern day?
Turkey?
Uh, Asian minor at the time.
Remember they had been exiled, resettled, probably politically at the time,
but the spiritual persecution was, was ramping up against them as well.
And there was emperor worship and there was a lot of other
pressures upon this church to bow the need of these false gods.
And, and Peter is reminding them, even in this subtle way of saying,
as you come to him, the living stone.
Well here he proceeds in his metaphor and he says, this is a living
stone who has been rejected by men.
But in the sight of God is chosen and precious, rejected by men,
but in the sight of God chosen and precious and in our, our.
Church saturated minds, we, we immediately go to the idea of the
cross and the rejection of Jesus.
And, and yet God declare that he has chosen and precious God has highly
exalted him and given the him the name that is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord of the glory of the Father.
And that's here, but also so is the metaphor.
Continuing here.
Because the living stone, as we're gonna see, develop further in verses
six through eight, is not just any stone, but it's the cornerstone.
It's, it's the stone that, in ancient times for a building was the most
important, the most significant stone in the entire edifice.
The cornerstone had to be 100% plum.
The cornerstone had to be perfect, and so as the builders would consider the various
stones that were brought to them to be candidates for the cornerstone, they would
reject many before they settled on one.
They would look at one and say, this isn't perfectly plumb.
If we use this one, the walls aren't gonna me measure up.
They're not gonna, they're not gonna line up and the building
won't be structurally sound.
Until eventually they found one that they said, this is the
one, this is the chosen one.
This is the precious cornerstone.
This is the one that we're going to use.
And that stone became a stone of honor because that was the most significant
stone in the entire building.
This is what Peter is setting up to tell us Is, is who Jesus is.
And yes, he was rejected by men.
He came to his own John one, but his own did not receive him.
Yes.
That rejection was the cross.
Yes.
It was that the, the Jewish leaders and the religious leaders of the day
did not see him as chosen and precious by God, but rather rejected him and
despised him and considered him of no value to the point that they nailed
him to the cross and killed him.
And Peter says, yet, yet this one.
This living stone that we're coming to as Christians in faith, and
then every single day, he's the one that is chosen and precious By God,
mankind may have rejected Jesus, but the Father has said this is the one.
He is holy.
He's chosen and he's precious.
As you come to him, as you come to this one.
This is the Christian life.
Y'all coming to Jesus perpetually coming to Jesus day after day, aiming
our life at Jesus, like we talked about last week, always wanting more
of Jesus, never being satisfied, but always saying, I want more of Jesus.
And now Peter's developing this idea even further by making the inseparable
connection as we're about to see here between our pursuit of Christ
and our place in the body of Christ.
This is a corporate address that he gives.
It says in, in the English as you come to him.
This is not individual, this is corporate.
In other words, if we go to the Texas standard version, the TSV, right?
This is as y'all come to him, as y'all come to him, not as, as you,
as an individual come to Jesus, but as y'all corporately come to Jesus.
See what we're gonna develop here, y'all is as Christians, we
come to Christ, but not alone.
We come to worship Christ in community.
We come to serve and worship him together.
Our life in Christ can't be a lone ranger.
Pursuit our life in Christ is, is not.
Let me just be a Christian on my own in, in all, be fine.
I don't need the bride of Christ.
In fact, let me make it stronger.
We're about to see.
That as we come to him to offer acceptable sacrifices to God through him, that
we can't come to him to offer these sacrifices apart from the body of Christ.
What we're doing this morning by being here together is the most significant
thing you will do all week long.
And I say that unapologetically.
This is the, as I read in Ephesians chapter three, this is the place
that the manifold wisdom of God has displayed to all of creation and to
the spiritual forces in this world.
When you think about this room and those that are in this room,
there's nothing else that would bond all of us together other than
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
This is far more significant than coming together to watch a Cowboys game.
This is far more significant than your PTA school event.
This is far more significant than your HOA event.
And if I can step on some toes, this is far more significant
than your family devotions are.
There's nothing more significant than what we are doing this morning.
And along those lines, as we think about what we do with Jesus being the
most important decision we make in our entire lives, we need to decide
to be fully committed to Jesus by being fully committed to his church.
Point number one this morning, double down on your commitment to Jesus by doubling
down on your commitment to his church.
This is the most wordy point I will ever give you.
Double down on your commitment to Jesus by doubling down on
your commitment to his church.
It doesn't say by doubling down on your commitment to his church there.
I don't know how that happened.
I thought I fixed 'em all.
I didn't.
The other ones will say that you can just insert doubling down in there.
Right?
Okay.
But again, I want you to, to see in the text that you are coming to
Jesus has an effect and look at what the effect is as you come to him.
Okay?
The living stone, right.
Rejected by men, but chosen impressions in God.
Look what happens as you come to him.
You yourselves like living stones.
So just like him.
We're not the living stone, we're not the cornerstone, but we are
living stones in what's happening.
We are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.
We are being built up as a spiritual house.
Notice y'all, it doesn't say as spiritual houses, God's not
building a track home community.
He's building a house and he's building the house that is the church.
And I, let me anticipate maybe the objection that's out there, and you
might say, okay, but isn't the church bigger than just the local church?
It is, but it's not less than,
it's at least the local church.
We can think of the church in two different ways.
You can think of the Invisible Church or the Universal church, right?
Church Capital C.
That's, that's the church that is made up of every single Christian
that has ever lived or ever will live.
And, and that's the invisible church because it, it's not visible in
a way that is tangibly expressed here on earth, outside of the
visible church or the local church.
The argument I'm part of the Universal Church and not the local church,
doesn't work in, in fact, you can't be part of the Invisible church if
you're not part of the visible church.
You can't be part of the universal church if you're not part of the local church.
It doesn't work.
It doesn't work the next level down to say, well then I'm gonna
be part of the local church by just being a part of my church home.
Just in my family.
My family is gonna stay home and have church together.
Y'all, as we read the New Testament, if we're honest with ourselves,
what we see is that we are called into a community with one another
to the degree that we need each other that, that we can't get
through this life apart from this.
And if you read the one another commands, those are meant to be lived out in
community, to weep with those who weep to rejoice with those who rejoice
to love one another, to not neglect meeting together, but to stir one
another up towards love and good deeds.
These are things that we do together as a body of Christ.
So we can't say, I, I, Jesus, I want you, but I don't want your bride.
Jesus, I want you, but I don't want your, your church.
The church is, as we read about it in the New Testament set apart as a, a body
of believers, a body of of Christians shepherded by pastors, and this body meets
for faith and fellowship and to carry out the ordinances of communion and baptism.
That's the church.
The church is a body of believers, shepherded by pastors who gather
together for faith and fellowship and also to carry out the
ordinances of baptism and communion.
People will often come and, and say to us as, as pastors, Hey,
will, will you do our wedding?
Sure, we'll do your wedding.
A hundred percent.
Hey, I'd like to do communion in my wedding.
Full transparency.
My wife and I had communion in our wedding, so this is not like an
anathema thing, but we will often say, in fact, we'll always say,
uh, we'll do your wedding, but we won't do communion at your wedding.
Why 'cause communion's for the church and your wedding's, not the church?
Same thing with baptisms, right?
This is why when somebody gets saved in a home, we don't just say, Hey dad, why
don't you just go out in the backyard, in the pool and and dunk your kid?
Because it's meant to be the church.
It's a part of what makes the church.
And so you can't do Christianity.
You can't effectively come to Jesus without being a part of the church.
And so if you wanna double down in your commitment to Jesus, which I trust we
all do, double down in your commitment to his church, the church that is realized
through the gathering of the local church.
Another reason why we want to do that.
Not only because it's a byproduct of our coming to Jesus, but it also
is part of our worship, and that's what he goes on, and he says, you're
being built together as living stones.
He says, to be a holy priesthood, to be a holy priesthood.
We're not only the the spiritual house of God, but we are also the spiritual priests
as we corporately come together to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.
This again, is why this is the most significant thing we do all week when we
gather together as the church, when we sing these songs together as the church,
when we sit under the preaching of the word together as the church, when we pray
together as the church, when we hear the scriptures read together as the church,
this is the corporate spiritual sacrifices that we bring and offer, and they're
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
What are some of these spiritual sacrifices that exist here
within the body of Christ?
You've got your spiritual gifts, right?
God has given each person a gift that's good for the edification, the
building up of the body of Christ, and we come together as the church
to employ those, to use those.
But beyond that, I mentioned worship and song, the, the hearing of the word.
Y'all can I just encourage you be here on time for worship.
As soon as we start singing, it's, it's so crucial for the overall
health of the body of Christ.
We need you.
We need your voices here, right?
This is a victory parade.
Every single Sunday we gather together.
Back when the Rangers used to be good at baseball, they won the World Series.
Right.
And then afterwards they had a victory parade.
I didn't go, 'cause I don't really like big crowds of people, but I
watched a, a lot of the, the footage of it and there were thousands
upon thousands of people there.
And what were they all doing?
They were all celebrating.
Right.
And, and it was different for me because I wasn't with them.
If I'm not with them, my celebration isn't as tangible.
It's not as as vital.
It's not as as significant as being with them.
Right.
I can't sit say that I was there and, and I was testifying to everybody
watching that, that, hey, the Rangers have won the World Series.
When we're not here, we're missing out on, on a victory parade every single Sunday.
This is a celebration every single Sunday of the victory
that Christ has won on the cross.
And so we gather together, and whether you like the songs or
not is neither here nor there.
If they're theologically right and true, which is our aim, then you should
be here and you should lift your voice and make a joyful noise to the Lord
with us, and declare to the powers and the rulers and authorities, as we read
in Ephesians chapter three earlier, that Jesus has won and they've lost.
We do that most effectively when we do that here in community.
And so let me just urge you and encourage you, church, be here on time when you're
not here on a Sunday morning, when you're not here, even on time, on a
Sunday morning, man, it, it, it matters.
There's a sense of loss even that comes with that.
We're being built up as living stones to offer these spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God.
Uh.
Sam Alberry wrote a book called Why Bother with the Church, and, and I
think he, he gives a really helpful description of why gathering together
with the saints is so significant to us.
Here it is.
It's up on the screen here.
It says, when God's people gather, the spiritual world is watching.
Though you can't see it when you meet this Sunday.
The spiritual powers, both those loyal to God and those who oppose him are gonna
look on and they won't be struck by the stage in the sound system in the parking
lots and the band, or the broken heating and the peeling paint and the weak orange
juice and the struggling organ, that's not what they're paying attention to.
They're gonna be struck instead by who is meeting there that such diverse
people are sitting together loving each other because they know that the Lord
Jesus loves them and died for them.
The church is the way in which God showcases his wisdom
to the spiritual realms.
It's how he demonstrates the power and the beauty of the gospel.
That's why this is so significant.
This is what the, the, the world is watching.
This is what the spiritual forces are watching when we
gather together for the victory.
Pray every single Sunday and say, look what Jesus did.
Look what Jesus did.
Look, I understand y'all, that there's gonna be times when you're not
gonna be able to make it to church.
I do.
I get that.
You're gonna have to Ms.
Church for sickness.
You've got sick kids or you get sick, you're gonna Ms.
Church because of vacation.
I would encourage you to, to go to church somewhere that you're on vacation,
but maybe you're, you're gonna Ms.
Church for a, a work trip 'cause you can't be here 'cause work calls you away.
Or maybe just an unexpected emergency comes up.
You can't be there.
Y'all as graciously and lovingly as I can say this outside of that, can
I tell you if I am your pastor and that's an important qualification,
but if I'm your pastor, I expect you to be here on Sunday mornings
and not out of some legalistic obligation, but because this is what it is to be
a part of the church, this is what it is to love Jesus is to be a part
of his bride, and we need you here.
We need you to be here.
We need your voice.
We need your singing.
We need your, your, your presence.
We need your fellowship.
So prioritize this.
This is more significant than anything else that you will do all week long
is what we do in here this morning.
What we do on here is different than what happens at the soccer fields over by
Prosper High School with all the thousands of kids that are out there every weekend.
What we do is different than the HOA event that your neighborhood
is planning this week.
What you're, what we do here is different than what happens at at t stadium
because we're celebrating wins here,
not ties or losses.
Listen, it is different than your family reunion, and I said earlier it's
different than your family devotions too.
I will unapologetically say this is the most significant
thing we do all week long.
The gathering of the body of Christ.
Something spiritually significant takes place here where the manifold
wisdom of God is on display.
Through this event,
Charles Spurgeon understood that Charles Spurgeon said this.
He said, nothing in the world is dearer to God's heart than his church.
Therefore, being his let us also belong to it, that by our prayers, our gifts and our
labors, we may support and strengthen it.
Hear me say this as well.
I'm not telling you don't do family devotions.
I'm not saying don't pursue Christ individually when you are
at home and wanted to pick up your Bible and read and pray.
I'm not saying don't do that.
I'm just saying understand this is when we come together.
That's the culmination of all of that.
This is the celebration.
This is the victory parade every single Sunday.
One takeaway from this practically is just coming prepared every week.
Like I said, being here on time is part of that, but showing up prepared, showing up
ready, having read the word of God, that we're gonna be preaching on that week.
In fact, we post that online.
There's an email that goes out each week that, that tells you what the
scripture passage is gonna be as well.
Reading that, coming in prepared, knowing where the, the, the sermon
is, is headed in a general idea.
Having checked out our, our worship set that Pastor Raha
updates every single week.
You can go on and follow that playlist on Spotify familiarize, familiarizing
yourself with the songs that we're gonna be singing, having prayed
for the every facet of the service.
We, we need that covet your prayers in that you, if we do that, we're,
we will thrive, we will grow, we will be blessed by the Lord.
We're gonna be one of those churches, visitors show up
at and don't want to leave.
They can't wait to come back.
If we take the church as seriously as Christ takes the church, as
we come to Christ in this life, we come to him in community.
If you wanna double down on your commitment to Christ, double
down on your commitment to this, to the bride of Christ.
The reason why we double down in our commitment to Christ though
to begin with, is because of how precious he is in the set of God.
And that's where Peter continues to go.
Look at verses six and seven.
Peter says, for it stands in scripture.
Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and
precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
So the honor is for you who believe.
So the honors for you who believe, we'll keep going in verse seven in the next
point, but, uh, come on a field trip with me back to the Old Testament for a second.
Because Peter, what he does here is he quotes from Isaiah 28,
Isaiah 28 16, and he quotes this.
He says, therefore, thus says the Lord God.
Behold, I am the one who is laid a foundation in Zion.
A stone tested, a precious cornerstone of a shore foundation, whoever
believes will not be in haste.
Peter said, whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
And so in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 28, what's happening?
Well, Assyria is, is threatening the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.
Isaiah is speaking to and saying, Hey, listen, don't be afraid of Assyria.
Don't.
Try to make an alliance with Assyria.
Don't go to Egypt.
Don't trust in these false gods.
Here's what you need to do.
You need to trust in God for deliverance, trust in Yahweh, trust
in the cornerstone for deliverance.
And Peter then takes that and says that that cornerstone, that that God
was talking about, that Yahweh was talking about in the Old Testament.
Is now understood as Jesus Christ.
And so God is saying to Israel and Isaiah 28, and to Judah and Isaiah
28, don't trust in other sources for deliverance, trust in me for deliverance.
And now in the New Testament, Peter takes this and applies it
to Jesus and says, don't trust in other sources for deliverance.
Don't look other places.
Don't look to self-righteousness.
Don't look to other religions for deliverance.
Look instead to the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone for deliverance.
Look to Jesus for deliverance.
This is why we come to Jesus to be built together and do a spiritual house.
This is why our worship is acceptable to God when it's offered to us.
When it's offered to him through Jesus.
It's because he is the chosen and precious cornerstone of our faith.
And Peter says, if we maintain our faith in him, if we hold fast, our faith
in Him, we will not be put to shame.
Point number two, this morning is this double down in holding fast to Jesus,
double down in holding fast to Jesus.
Notice Peter says, so the honor is for you who believe.
What is he talking about there?
Well, there's another honor that Peter mentioned in First Peter
chapter one verses six and seven.
By the way, I know in your mind you're saying six seven.
I've said six, seven twice now.
And so we'll just throw it out there.
I that people are laughing about it in inReach.
I hate, I hate this world.
And what has become
one Peter one verse six.
Verse seven.
We read this.
He says, in this, you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary,
you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of
your faith more precious than gold.
The parishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found a result in
praise and glory and what honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And, and so now when Peter says, so the honor is for you who believe this is
the same honor that he's talking about.
He's saying that the The Honor will be ours at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Hey, if you hold fast to Christ, you will be delivered, is what he's saying.
Just like he was telling Judah, Hey, if you trust the cornerstone, and even back
in that day, they were anticipating that this was some future Messianic ruler.
Peter says, this is Jesus.
I I, if you trust Jesus, you will be delivered That honor that he talked about
in one Peter one, seven, that's gonna be yours at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So here we are now and our job is to hold fast to Christ until we get there.
It's like playing tag.
Growing up you had base, right?
And, and, and maybe you played the version of Tag where you'd get tagged.
And when you got tagged, you had to be taken back to a jail.
Well, as long as you were on base, you were safe.
So somebody came up and tagged you and tried to take you to
back to their, their jail.
You said, you can't take me.
I'm on base.
I'm safe here.
I'm holding fast to base.
I'm safe.
That's what holding fast to Jesus is in this life.
The the world is gonna try to, to grab you and take you captive.
The world is gonna try to get you away from base.
The world is gonna try to get you away from Jesus.
And yet you need to hold fast to the precious cornerstone.
And if you hold fast to him, you will not be put to shame.
You will have in the end this honor that is gonna be yours for you who believe
when you are ultimately delivered.
And again, think about Peter's audience at the time, their political exiles.
They've been resettled, they're away from home, they're
facing spiritual persecution.
As that's ratcheting up right now, Nero is waiting in the wings of the emperor
throne of of Rome, and yet Peter's writing to them saying, hold fast to Jesus.
Remember the cornerstone.
Don't waver.
Don't, don't, uh, hit the eject button.
Don't fade.
Don't abandon.
What is your, your hope for deliverance?
Peter reminds them that their union with Christ, their corporate solidarity with
one another as the church is going to result in their ultimate deliverance.
And that's why I think Peter said at the very beginning of this, that
Christ was rejected by men, but chosen and precious in the sight of God.
If the living stone, the ultimate living stone, was rejected by men, then we
as living stones should also not be surprised when the world rejects us.
We just need to hold fast to the one that God has declared is chosen and precious.
So I want you to ask yourself right now this morning, you're not a political
exile, but what is it right now that makes you feel most like an exile in this life?
What causes you most to waiver in your faith that the honor is gonna be yours
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Is it politics, geopolitics?
Is it family?
Is it your marriage?
Is it your health?
Is it your job?
Uncertainty?
Is it your kids?
Is it singleness?
I mean, what is it right now that causes you to think, man, I don't know what's
gonna happen if this shifts in my life.
Let's play that game for a second.
'cause that's fun, right?
Worst case scenario game.
What would change about your hope in Christ?
Nothing.
Listen, I, I, if, if China takes over the United States.
Or if, if, if the Democrats regain every political institution,
impact the Supreme Court.
If your family cuts off ties with you, if you come home one day to find that
your spouse has emptied out their closet and taken the car and they're gone,
if your kids abandon you, if you never find Mr.
Or Mrs.
Wright, what changes about the praise and honor and glory that's gonna be
yours at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Nothing, nothing.
That goes back to verse five of one, Peter, chapter one, right?
You're being guarded by God's power through faith for salvation, ready
to be revealed in the last times.
Nothing can take that away from you.
And so we hold fast to Christ because he's the cornerstone, and in the end we
will find that we will receive the honor.
I'm not saying church that we should welcome any of that.
But I'm saying that we need to be willing to walk through any of that with our faith
in Christ intact, and that means that our faith has to be cultivated because
that kind of faith doesn't show up.
It's not manufactured in the doctor's office when the doctor says you've got
terminal cancer and there's no hope.
That faith is not worked up when you come home and find that your spouse
has left and you don't know where they went and if they're coming back.
That faith is not just grabbed outta thin air when you get notified
that you're gonna be part of the next round of layoffs at work.
That faith ha faith has to be cultivated daily as you come to him every single day.
And remember, that's part of coming to him within the context of
community, of the bride of Christ.
And that's where this point connects back to point number one, y'all.
Your faith is going to be strengthened more and more the more
you lean into your church family.
The more you walk in this life as a community, as a a, a bride of Christ, as,
as the body of Christ, the more you will see that your faith is strengthened and
bolstered, and those times where you find it difficult to hold onto your faith,
you're gonna have somebody to turn to and say, will you pray for me right now?
Will you encourage me right now?
Will you remind me of the truth of scripture right now?
Because it's dark in my life and I can't find the hope that I normally have y'all.
That's why if, if you're just giving us two hours a week on Sunday.
You're not giving anyone a chance to be there for you
when you're walking through it.
This is why God is building us up into a spiritual house.
It is a grace and mercy of God that he didn't save us and say, why don't
you just go and and be a church by yourself or just with your family?
But he said, Hey, I'm gonna save you and put you into a much bigger family, and
they're gonna help you hold onto Jesus.
It's like the Fernando Ortega song.
Give me Jesus.
The chorus of that song says, you can have all the world, but give me Jesus.
That's the fate that we're talking about here in this second point.
Holding fast to Jesus, the cornerstone considering him to be as God the father
did, precious and chosen to say, I want you can have everything else.
God, just gimme Jesus.
If I have Jesus, I have everything I need.
To have that kind of faith.
And we as brothers and sisters in Christ can encourage each other that way.
He's the cornerstone.
He's our only hope for deliverance.
So the honor is for you who believe, but Peter says in verse seven and
eight, that unfortunately there's gonna be those that don't believe as well.
Look, verse seven again, the second half.
But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has
become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling in a rock of offense.
They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.
Lemme start with that last phrase there.
I'm not gonna major on that in this point, but I do want to call our attention to it.
It's important to see it.
Peter says that there are gonna be those that are destined not to
come in faith to faith in Jesus.
The question is begged destined by who?
Well, who is the one that is sovereign over that God is?
And so as difficult as this verse is for us to read, it is keeping with other
passages that we read in scripture.
For example, in Romans nine, when Paul talks about the fact that
there are vessels made for wrath and vessels made for mercy, and God
is the one that decides Earlier in that context, he said that God's
purpose of election might be realized.
He said to Jacob, Jacob, I love you to Issa Issa.
I've hated.
In fact, Paul says, God made that decision before any of them were even born yet.
And so there's something that we need to understand here and to, to sit in,
in awe of and to admit that it, it's not our favorite doctrine, but it is a
doctrine that we need to embrace because it's biblical, that God is sovereign
over the state of mankind, whether or not there are gonna be saved or not.
And that can make us feel pretty powerless, undoubtedly.
Yet, what I'd like to focus on in the rest of the time that we have this
morning is, is what we can do about that.
Because one thing that is the greatest mercy of God that I can think of, at
least up there, maybe not the greatest mercies, the cross is the greatest mercy.
But another amazing mercy of God is that he didn't tell us
who's destined and who's not.
That would be one of the worst and most painful existences that we could
possibly have to walk around and, and look at people and say, that person's
never gonna believe this person will.
Can you imagine having kids that you could look at your kids and say, maybe
you've got three kids, and you would look at them and say, two of them are
gonna be saved and one of them's not.
That'd be soul crushing.
I think it's God and his immense wisdom and grace didn't tell us that,
and that's huge for us in how we can respond to what Peter's gonna say here.
'cause Peter says, yeah, there there's gonna be some who don't believe.
And for them, he's quoting from Psalm one 18 verse 22, the stone
that the builders rejected.
That one has become the cornerstone.
So some are not gonna believe, and Peter's making that point saying this.
There's those that are gonna reject the stone.
He goes back to Psalm one 18 there and then he goes in quotes again from Isaiah.
This time Isaiah chapter eight, verses 13 and 14.
He says, in a a stone of stumbling, in a rock of offense.
And, and that comes from Isaiah eight 13 and 14.
The Lord of hosts him, you shall honor, let him be your fear and let him be your
dread, and he will become a sanctuary in a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling
to both the houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And Isaiah eight, he's again talking about the context of deliverance, telling
them don't trust in other nations and other gods trust in the cornerstone.
But here he expounds further.
And what, that's what Peter's doing here.
He's saying, if you don't trust in the the cornerstone, then that cornerstone
is going to become a rock of offense.
It's gonna become the trap and a snare to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem that choose to reject God.
Peter takes that now and applies it to Jesus.
He says, this is about Christ.
This is about him.
And so as we think about those in, in our lives that, that don't know
Jesus, again, we are left to say there may be some that don't know Jesus,
that never will come to know Jesus.
People that we love, people that we care about.
Some of you know those people, their faces are in your minds right now,
and yet the mercy of God that we don't know who that is, allows us to pursue
everyone as though they can choose to put their faith and trust in Jesus.
I said at the very beginning, the most important decision anyone in this world
will make is what to do with Jesus.
And everyone in this world will decide what to do with Jesus.
There's no neutrality when it comes to Christ.
There's no middle ground.
You are either his or you are against him.
And so that means every time that we share the gospel, every person that
we share the gospel with will make a decision one way or the other.
Whether they reject or whether they choose to believe, we may not be able to bring
about that response of faith from the lost people God has placed in our lives, but
we can make sure they've had every chance possible to put their trust in Jesus.
Our final point this morning is this double down in your pursuit of those who
don't know Jesus, double down in your pursuit of those who don't know Jesus, we
can be frustrated over the fact that God is sovereign over the state of the lost.
And we'll waste a lot of time frustrated over that.
Or we can say, okay, so how has he sovereignly seen fit to bring
salvation to those that are lost?
Well, Paul says in Romans 10, how are they gonna believe?
Unless they hear?
How are they gonna hear?
Unless someone preaches?
How are they gonna preach unless they're sent?
Jesus said in Matthew 28, therefore.
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you.
Jesus told his disciples before his ascension in Acts one hate.
He said this to his disciples.
He said, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Sumaria
and to the ends of the earth.
And so church, God is sovereign and yet he is sovereignly
gonna use us to bring him out.
The salvation of the lost.
If you think back to the moment that you put your trust in, in, in faith,
in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that didn't happen in a vacuum.
The the, it wasn't as though you were sitting somewhere and had no outside
influences telling you anything about the gospel or anything about God, and all of
a sudden you just decided, you know what?
I think I'll give this Jesus thing a try.
Instead, what happened?
God sovereignly brought someone in your life who loved you to the degree that
they were willing to say, Hey, I wanna have a hard conversation with you.
You need Jesus.
And, and that's how God works.
That's how he sovereignly, brings life to dead people, is he uses
people that he's given life to, to go out and give the message of life to
other people that need the, the life.
And, and so you and I can can sit here and we can be frustrated over the fact
that God is sovereign and, and debate about that and get angry about that.
Or we can say this, Hey, you know what?
I don't know who's sovereign, who's gonna be saved and who's not.
So what am I gonna do?
I'm gonna go out and tell other people about Jesus.
And we do that because we love him.
We do that because we've tasted and seen that he's good.
We do that because we come to him and we're built up into the church.
We do that because we hold fast to him because we see that deliverance
is only to be found in him, and so we want other people to get there too.
I was at a dinner on, on Friday night and they had some food out
and uh, there was these grapes that are called teardrop grapes.
Have you guys ever seen teardrop grapes?
I didn't know they were a thing until Friday night.
They're the least appetizing grape you could ever imagine.
They look like fingers or like my daughter described one as a sausage, never looked
at a grape and thought, you know what I, I wish it looked like a sausage.
I've never looked at a sausage and thought, I hope this tastes like a grape.
And yet, there they are.
And there they were.
And my daughter was intent on getting me to eat one of these teardrop grapes.
She kept putting it in my face over and over again.
I was like, honor your father right now.
No, I don't.
I don't want that.
But she, she was doing it because she, she had tasted and seen that the
grape was good, I guess, I don't know.
I ne I didn't give in.
I was like, no, I'm, I'm stubborn enough not to.
But she had tasted and seen that this grape was good and, and so she wanted
me to have that same experience.
Why?
Because she loves her dad.
And how much more should we want people to, to follow Jesus?
And, and again, let, let's not just be mad because God's sovereign here.
Here's the other thing, y'all.
If, if you're sitting out there and you're discouraged because you're like,
ah, they've already rejected the gospel.
When I share the gospel to them,
they, you should expect that probably more often than not.
Why?
Because the gospel is inherently offensive in its content, right?
Not, not in its delivery.
If we're offending people on how we're sharing the gospel, that's on us.
The content's inherently offensive.
Think about it.
You're telling people you're a sinner and, uh, you're under the wrath of
God and, and hell is in front of you.
Now, you're not gonna say it that way.
I, I, I get that.
But that's the gist of what you're communicating.
You're also communicating to people that who have lost loved ones
that never came to faith, that their loved ones are now in hell.
And you're telling people that the gods that they've been
following are faults and powerless.
And you're telling people that they need to repent from the
world's system and submit to the Lordship of Christ with their life.
That's why we should expect the majority of time that we share the gospel.
The, the shocking thing is when somebody says, sign me up,
that's when God has done a work.
And so y'all, if you're discouraged out there because somebody, people
have rejected the gospel, the answer is not to change the gospel.
It's not to compromise.
It's not to alter or tamper the message.
The answer is to say, okay, let's get on our knees.
Let's be praying, let's be going again, and, and looking for every
opportunity to go back and, and get the gospel before them again.
Keep at it.
Y'all think about your own testimony, and you'll talk about this in, in
your community groups this week.
How many times does someone have to share the gospel with
you before you find the Got it.
I know for me, I, I grew up in the church and I didn't get saved
until I was a junior going into my senior year of high school.
How many countless times did I hear the gospel?
How many countless times was I stubborn before God finally broke through with me?
And so if you're sharing the gospel with somebody and, and they say no,
or they reject it, it doesn't mean the gospel failed or you failed.
It may mean that they're gonna say yes the next time they hear it.
And maybe it's not gonna be you who shares it with them, but somebody
else will share it with them.
But don't grow discouraged.
Don't write them off because they said no thanks, and I'm,
I'm not interested in that.
Don't give up.
Don't abandon hope.
Why?
Because what does Paul write in Romans one 16?
I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
For it is the power of God.
It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the
Jew first and also to the Greek.
Why?
Because he's the cornerstone.
And if we put our trust in him, we will not be put to shame.
And so we want as many people to put their trust in him as the cornerstone
rather than to stumble over him.
As the stone of offense and judgment.
So keep putting the gospel out there.
Keep sharing Christ.
Keep living a life that causes people to say, why are you so hopeful and joyful?
Keep praying.
Praying and praying.
Christ is our cornerstone for every person who's ever lived.
The question will be, what did you do with Jesus?
It's the most important decision anyone ever makes.
What to do with Jesus?
That's what everything comes down to.
And the most significant part of that is what we are about to observe together, and
that is what do we do with Jesus' death?
See, Jesus had to die for our sins and in dying for our sins.
He died for our sins because there was no other way for us to be forgiven.
We talked about being brought into the family of God, brought
into the household of God.
There's no access into the household of God other than through the cross.
We can't be good enough people.
We can't show up at church enough.
We can't clean ourselves up, clean ourselves up enough.
We can't stop sinning enough for God then to say, okay, come on into the church.
The only access point to the church is the cross.
The only access point to the church is realizing I can't be good enough.
The only access point of the church is saying, I can't obey enough.
I can't repent enough.
I can't clean myself up enough.
I need to put my trust in Jesus in his full righteousness.
The cross is the most important decision that we make.
This is the beginning of us coming to Jesus that launches us
into a life of coming to Jesus.
And so this is what we are about to remember.
But I do wanna provide a couple of warnings for first before the
elements are passed, and that is this three Cs, if I can put it that way
First, beware with the passing of the elements of a lack of conversion.
Communion.
What we're doing together right now is for Christians, and so if you're
here this morning and you're an unbeliever, we're glad that you're here,
but please let these elements pass.
The Bible talks about drinking judgment and eating judgment upon
ourselves when we take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner.
So this is for Christians, so make sure that you have examined your heart, that
you are confident in your standing before the Lord, before you take these elements.
The second is beware of a lack of confession.
A lack of confession.
This is the time for us to remember why the cross is the cross, because
this is, uh, the, the good news that we as Christians can come before him and
confess our sins before him, and know that our sins have been forgiven, our
sins have been paid for at the cross.
And then the third is the lack of concentration to beware not just to go
through the motions here, not just to, to go through this flippantly, distantly,
not thinking about what we're doing and the significance of these elements.
The elements that are passed in just a, it's a little wafer and it's a
cup of, of grape juice, and that's all it will ever be this morning.
Nothing changes about it.
It's just a wafer of, of matsa bread from Kroger and a cup of grape
juice from, I guess Kroger too.
This isn't about these becoming something magical or mystical.
What it is, is it's about us looking at them and remembering what they stand for.
Which is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins so that we
can be forgiven, so that we can come in as part of the family of God.
So the elements will be passed, musical play.
I'll come back up and we'll take these together in just a moment.
Normally hear me at this point, just jump straight into, um, Paul's instructions,
what I receive from the Lord.
I also delivered to you, but in light of the context of our message, I wanna
back up and just set the context of.
The Lord's Supper here in one Corinthians.
Paul's writing it at the church in Corinth, and he says this, but in the
following instructions, I do not commend you because when you come together, it's
not for the better, but for the worse.
For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there
are divisions among you and I believe it in part for there must be factions
among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
When you come together, it's the third time there.
It is not the Lord's supper that you eat.
For an eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.
One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
What do you not have houses to eat in and drink in?
Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?
What shall I say to you?
Shall I commend you for this?
No, I will not.
And then he says, for I receive from the Lord what I also delivered.
So notice the context is that communion is meant to be the community.
The church coming together, we again don't, we don't baptize in
our backyard and we don't take communion at our kitchen table.
The design is the church coming together to remember the significance of the
death of Christ and what it has done.
The living stone, when he was rejected by men, enabled us to now
be living stones who are being built together into a spiritual house.
And so we gather here as a testimony of the manifold wisdom of God on display
through all of us being gathered here this morning for the same purpose, to
worship the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And that's why Paul goes on and says this, for I received from the Lord
what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was
betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Let's eat together.
In the same way.
Also, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death until he comes.
And that's what we're here to do, church to gather together week in and
week out, to proclaim the Lord's death and his resurrection until he returns.
Let's pray together.
Father God, we thank you immensely for the gift of the church.
We thank you for your kindness and saving us in bringing us into a family.
A family of brothers and sisters who love each other as we've been called
to, even as we heard a couple of weeks ago, as such a natural byproduct of
the gospel that we would love one another earnestly from pure hearts.
God, I pray that you would knit us together as a church.
I pray for our church to be guarded against and and protected
against division divisiveness.
Lord, I pray that this would never become a church that's about a personality,
that's about a brand, that's about a kingdom other than the kingdom of Jesus.
And so God make us a body of believers who love gathering together, who love
celebrating the victory of Christ every single Sunday, who love coming together
and testifying to the, the watching spiritual forces that are out there.
The, the, the elect and also the unelect.
Also, those that are, are opposed to you that look at the church
and, and hate what we stand for.
Because what we stand for is their certain doom, because the certain
victory of our Lord and Savior Lord.
In the meantime, we're here to declare that every single week
until you come back for your bride.
For the ultimate celebration of being with you, the wedding supper of the
lamb, and then stepping into eternity with you, Lord, how sweet that will be.
In the meantime, here we are.
I pray that we'd be found faithful, Lord, that we would love your
bride as you've called us to, and we pray this all in Jesus' name.
Amen.