and he hasn't failed us because
he can't fail. So what do we do? We rejoice
and be glad. How often some of those things
become cliche, but even when it becomes
just habit of culture, it's still true. No matter the intention,
Like Paul talks about those who sought to do him harm when he
was imprisoned by capitalizing on his imprisonment to make themselves
look good and to gain their own ministries. But what does he
say? Don't worry about them. No matter
their pretense, no matter their intentions, they're actually
saying the right thing. Let them do it. Let them do it. We're in chapter two of 1 Peter, and I know this is very redundant,
but it needs to be, because the way in which we deal with the
teaching of scripture as a people, just culturally, we piece it
out so much that we think that that's how it's supposed to be
understood, one verse every 10 days. when it's supposed to be
understood collectively together at all times. Just like we eat a meal, we eat
our meals this week one meal at a time, each meal one bite
at a time. Sometimes on schedule, sometimes not. Sometimes more
than we should, sometimes not enough. The same is true with
the Word of God. That's why you see it, the metaphor
of it being like bread, like milk. And we as consumers, of
these foods, we just sang that prayer. Think about what we just
asked God to do in song. To renew our minds, to teach
us truth, to remind us of who He is, of who we are in Him,
to empower us through that which is His alone to give, empower
us through that which is His alone to give, Are we mindful? That wouldn't
be a problem. We could get along with that program, especially
if there was sausage or bacon, eggs and milk and good stuff. I don't want no fruit bowl for
breakfast. Give me something good. But some of us are like,
I just don't want to eat all day. And sometimes we think,
and I know for myself, I've found the hobby of theology. the hobby
of church history, the hobby of historical theology. And these
things have been good for me and prudent for my spiritual
growth. And so I wrongly assume that everybody with that love
and that passion for these things did it for the sole purpose of
just experiencing a different approach to the table. That's not always the case, is
it? Sometimes it's a crutch. Sometimes it's something that
we've decided. This is how I know that I'm really
a child of God. This is how I know that I'm really
doing well in the faith. This is how I know that God is
working on me. I've been singing that since
VBS since first grade. He's still working on me, right? And you're thinking, what are
you talking about? the same thing I said last week, the same thing
I said the week before, the same thing I've said probably every
week that I've stood on this little platform. Put away malice,
put away deceit, put away hypocrisy, put away envy, put away slander,
and like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk that
by it you may grow into salvation, if indeed you've tasted and seen
that the Lord is good. And see, we can frame that and
create a system like I talked about last week, and we can imagine
ourselves walking amazingly with God, being spiritual and do all
the right things, but ultimately what we're doing is we're holding
ourselves up by that which we've accomplished, by that which we
can see in the mirror of our filtered mirror, to judge ourselves
from ourselves yesterday, or judge ourselves by someone else
that we can remember what they look like. when really Christ is the example,
Christ is perfection, Christ is the righteousness of God.
And now we are the righteousness of God because God's grace declared
us so in the justice of the death of Jesus. So our doing and being,
our obeying the Lord has nothing to do with earning salvation. And in the way I look at it,
it has nothing to do with proving salvation. because unbelievers
can obey also, but it has everything to do with revealing the transformation
of salvation. More importantly, it reveals
the mind and the person of Christ. Some examples, Jesus, the God
of glory, becoming a human being. I don't know what kind of divine
work that took for an infant, a toddler, a boy, a teenager
and a young man to walk through life as God and human. I don't know what that took and
it's not for us to understand. But for me all I want to know
is what you're thinking about when you're in the cradle. Nothing. Because he was fully human in
the cradle. See, what? We can't. We can't grasp it. So we think, OK, that's that's
that's pretty humble, that's weird. Then what about when Jesus
as God and knowing fully who he was doing the work that the
father had sent him to do, preaching the the message that the father
had sent him to preach, proving himself by the work of creation,
by his word and the miracles and the healing and the resurrections
And yet he was loved not, received not, he was despised, but yet
spoke not a word. And the Bible tells us in Hebrews
chapter four that Jesus has felt every pain that any one of us
collectively in the whole world and all of time has ever felt.
And that he has been tempted in every way that any human being,
all human beings collectively have ever been tempted. Yet he
never sinned. So he spoke not a word to defend
himself. See, that's the example. He didn't
have to justify who he was because he knew who he was. He didn't
have to prove his message. It was the truth. You see how weak our countenance
can be in living out the faith when it's not by faith in the
one who is faithful? We will work ourselves to death.
We will tell others to work themselves to death, emotionally, mentally,
spiritually, in every way. Do, do, be, be, do, be, do. But
really being in Christ is resting at His feet. It is taking a year's
salary and pouring it over His feet and wiping it with our hair. Don't lose sight of this. Don't
get up from here today and go, I'm going to be a stone for Christ. I'm going to be a warrior for
Christ. I'm going to live boldly for Christ. Because, you know,
we like those little texts too, right? 1 and 2 Timothy. We deny Him before men, He will
deny us before the Father. It's a setup to a reality that
there's no way to lose ourselves in the love of God. Paul says
it as well in Romans 8. But when we are faithless, Paul
says to Timothy, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. So when we get these instructions
to live, to hunger, to walk, to love, and that's what it all
boils down to. Everything in the New Testament
teaches us to do what we do because of who we are and whose we are,
because of who Christ is, so that we could love one another
purely. That's all that matters. And that love is not in rebuke
and keeping it real. That love is not in these things.
That has a place, but it is through a positive correction. It is
through a positive teaching. It is through, hey, this is not
right, but here is what is right, and here is why, and here's what
it does for you. I cannot count. It's almost I'm
almost worn out with even trying to formulate an answer. So I
don't answer it anymore. I just ask more questions. And
I say to my I say to these people when they come, do you think
it's sinful for me to X? You think it's simple for me
to think why? You think it's simple for for Z? I don't know. What does that
mean to you? What are you talking about? Unpack
it a little bit more. And it always boils down to the
fact that our culture has created a mindset that's no different
than the first century, that everything that we do is under
scrutiny by God. And we are going to be in trouble. We are going to find Issues we're
going to have problems And yeah, when we willfully do bad things
sinful things evil things that hurt other people There's consequences Because
the Bible says that God corrects disciplines grows matures helps
encourages builds those he loves so that proves our legitimacy
as children and We don't have the right to tell other parents
how they ought to parent their children when we see them in
public. We want to. We want to. And if all the kids born in the
70s, I'm not even going to say that. A
fly flap and a flip flop could make the world go around back
then. But God is not looking at us
that way. We are not walking in this way because this creates
fear. And John says that love cast
out fear. Because fear has to do with punishment,
but love has to do with what? Adoption and redemption and affection
and intimacy. But what I'm saying right now
hurts the conscience of so many evangelicals, especially in our
part of the world, because it sounds antinomian. What that
means is, oh, you just do what you want to do. You don't have
to obey any rules. Well, the reality is you don't have to
do anything. You should want to do some things. But a better way of framing that
is this. You get to live a certain way because you're a believer.
You get to live this way. You get to have the mind of Christ.
You're enabled and empowered to walk in a man worthy of the
calling. And you're not going to do it well. We are going to
mess up. We're going to mess up. Try not
to mess up. We're going to mess up in the
perfection that we think is right. We are going to be wrong in the
way we love others, even when everybody around us goes, oh,
you're the role model. Because it doesn't count. Because
it's not perfect. But we are perfect in Christ
Jesus. We are declared perfect in Christ
Jesus. If you did not hear the sermon
from last week, please listen to it because I really brought
this home. We put away these things not
because we're striving for a earthly perfection, but because we've
been declared eternally perfect with Christ from this point forward.
And I would even say from the cross forward. And that declaration
was before there was time, right? Let there be light so that the
redemptive glory of God would be obvious in declaring a people
righteous who in no time and no way could be. I have a psychological condition,
a disorder. It's called obsessive compulsive
personality disorder, not OCD, they're completely different. And there are a lot of things
that come with that. But imagine sitting in a parking
lot and someone comes and while you're about to crank up your
car and they take a cinder block and they throw it through your
windshield and they reach in there and they snatch out your
air freshener. Because they wanted it. No real
harm came to you, but it was traumatic. Instead of just tapping
on the window, hey, hey, where'd you get that air freshener? I'll
go buy one for five cents or however much they cost. Probably
$500. They smashed your windshield,
put you in a hole and got glass all over you. Now you got to
clean the car and everything. So they could take that and they
ran off. The next time you sit in a parking lot, you're going
to be a little upset. You're going to be a little nervous. You're going
to be a little scared. You're going to have a little bit of a trauma. You're
not going to hang another air freshener. You're going to put
it under the seat. Because you don't want to lure
any other brick masons to come and take that thing. Just bathe,
man. Don't be robbing me like this. That's how I've lived my life. Real tiny, small, insignificant
things that mean nothing become so important that it's like throwing
a brick through a windshield. And it created a sense of perfectionism
that I was not aware of, that created a sense of stubbornness
that I could not see, that established a foundation of obstinance that
ruined relationships around me, all in the name of love. Because
disorder and things not going my way wasn't just me wanting
my way, it was like devastating to the world. And so when we live in that state
of thinking, people will always say, James, you know, you have
just mastered so many things. No, I have perfected things for
a very long time before you even know about them. You can't see the training. I
just wake up, oh my gosh, he can speak three languages. How'd
that happen? 20 years of not doing it. Why? Because the same fear that
you would have when you're sitting in your parking lot with an air
freshener on your window, that a block of bricks is going to
come through, is the same emotion and anxiety and level of insecurity
that I've had by not being perfect and didn't even know it. And that carried heavy weight
in my faith, heavy weight in my ministry, heavy weight in
my home. What's this got to do with everything?
We all live in a state of like. Obsession about doing what is
right and hoping that God is not upset with us, and even when
we know and can articulate the the the gospel and the doctrines
of grace, we just still we fight this. Well, what if God? I read
a book yesterday by somebody who wasn't a Christian. Am I
going to go to hell? I mean, so we're not going there, but
we feel like something's wrong. Should I drink a glass of wine?
One sip, two sip, three sips? Can I buy it or have to go all
the way to Chatham County to buy it so nobody sees me? Because,
you know, don't want to hurt people's conscience. Put away malice, put away deceit.
You know, I confess to you last week that I've actually been
able to say I hate people. And God works that in me. And
then I begin to pray for them. So in effect, I begin to love
them actually. I know this is heavy, I know
that's hard to put in an applicable way, but it really is a mindset. Why? Let's listen to the word.
In chapter 1, verse 13, therefore, preparing your mind, preparing
the way you think, preparing what you consider, preparing
what you meditate on. Prepare your mental state, prepare
your mindset for action. And being sober-minded in that,
realistic, honest, authentic, set your hope where you put your
focus, your emotional, mental, spiritual eyes fully on the grace
that will be brought to you at the revelation of Christ. So
then as obedient children, don't be conformed to the passions,
your affections, the things that you dwell on, the things that
you want, the things that you in your mind constantly consider
good and profitable for you to satisfy a need to help you cope,
whether it be good or bad. Do not be conformed to the passions
of your former ignorance. In the context here with these
people, their former ignorance and their passions was zeal for
the law. I want you to hear that again. Their passions of their former
ignorance was zeal for the law, of walking in such a state to
be able to say like Paul in his spiritual resume, according to
the law, blameless. I'm the greatest example of what
a good Jewish person was, Paul said. Not only that, I rose to
the ranks of Pharisee. I rose to the point that when
I, against the authority of Rome, laid my judgment against a man, the elders and the men, young
and old, of this great city laid their coats at my feet and stoned
Stephen to death." That's pretty good. And he was justified under
the law and the interpretation of the law. Absolutely, 100%.
There are a lot of us who still live that way in the economy
of grace wondering why our checks are bouncing. Wondering why when we put a dollar
of Under the law on the table of joy, it doesn't give us joy
in return. Because it's not supposed to. But in your conduct, be set apart,
be holy, be different. Don't be like everybody else. Because I'm holy, so you're going
to be holy. That's what the Bible says. Conduct yourself with awe and
reverence, knowing throughout the time of your exile that you
were ransomed from the worthless ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things, but
with the precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ. who was known before the foundation
of the world, who was made manifest in last times for the sake of
you, who through him are believers in God. Now he's referring now
back to, he wants his reader to see, it's not one verse every
10 days. He's just said that the prophets
knew that this salvation that they prophesied for, about, and
the grace that was to be yours, they searched carefully. They
knew it wasn't for them, it was for you. and that the angels
intently look to see God's glory and to worship him because of
his salvation, because of his declaration of righteousness.
So all of these things, this world and every spiritual act
we do will fade away like the grass. Remember John, or not
John, remember Nicodemus in John's account? When he meets Jesus
at night, Jesus tells him, Whoever believes in the Son is
not condemned, but whoever is not believing is condemned already
because he is not believing in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment. The light, he, has come into
the world. And the people love the darkness
rather than the light because their works, Nicodemus, your
works, your spiritual works, your obedience, your law-keeping,
were evil. because they weren't good enough. See, we don't get a pass for
trying, do we? I mean, even in exams, you might get a retake,
but you still got to pay the fee. And there's some time that
has to pass. You don't get a pass for trying. I mean, the whole world, medical
world, the professional world, the legal world, there's a lot
of people in there that barely made it. And there's some people
that excelled. Friends, there's nobody going
to stand before God that barely made it. Because they barely made it,
because we all would barely make it. Christ made it. He paved the whole way. For everyone
who does wicked things hates the light. Why? Because they
don't want to be seen. They don't want to come to the light unless his works would be exposed.
But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it
may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. So it's about Christ. It's about
obedience to the truth. It's about obedience to grace.
It's about following By faith, the spiritual reality that we
have been given the disposition to trust in Him because He alone
is able, He alone is worthy, He alone is the point. It is
for His purposes. So, verse chapter 2. This gospel
that was preached to you, this word of God who is God, remember
we made the distinction, I considered even doing a little thing on
that, I might do it before I get into chapter, before I get over
into verse 13 of this chapter. I might do an Old Testament review
of how the word is God, not just, it doesn't mean just the written
paper. But here, God is the news that
was preached to you. God has done something, God has
accomplished something, God has secured something. And what is
that? You, who are being guarded through faith by God's power
for a salvation that will be revealed to everyone in the time. So now you rejoice, even though
for a little while you're gonna feel frustration, you're gonna
have fear, there's gonna be some bricks coming through your windows.
And you're going to have trepidation. You're going to feel like you're
not with God anymore. You're going to feel as if he's
not with you. You're going to feel like you're not worthy or
worse. You're going to feel like you've really accomplished it.
You know, I got no dust on my shoulders. I'm good. Follow me. But because of who God is and
his promises to his people, we are able to now understand that
we shouldn't have malice and deceit and hypocrisy, envy and
slander, because that's something that we put on every day on top
of our righteousness. Take it off and be real. Get to the root of who you really
are in Christ. Beloved, this is the pandemic
of emotional instability in the world, is that no one knows who
they really are, and they posture and find ways and find ideologies
and find platforms and find opportunities and find jobs and practices and
hobbies and interests and spiritual things that can establish in
them a way for them to say, this is who I am, this is what I do,
this is me, instead of just resting. and sitting and clearly knowing
that they are indeed in Christ alone. And it changes everything. And I think verse 2 in chapter
2 is really the power behind it. Because the question comes
is, now what am I supposed to do then? How do I put off malice?
By being reminded of who you are and who Christ is in the
gospel and the grace. and righteousness, being reminded of what God has
done for you, what He's accomplished. When Jesus says it is finished,
it is over, it is complete, there's nothing left to do. Well, how
do I do that? Long like a baby for the milk
you need to live. What's the milk? The Word of
God. What's the Word of God? God Himself. How do I get with
God? The Bible. How else? In the mind. Be mindful. You know how easy it is for me
to shut my Christian brain off? You know how easy that is? I
don't even know where the switch is, but I bump it so much, I
know it's close. It's like, where'd the lights
go? Where'd my faith go? I mean,
you might think, well, you don't believe? No, I'm way beyond the
I don't believe anymore. When I say where'd my faith go,
I mean, it's just like it's not even around, it's not even filtering.
When does that happen? Somebody makes me mad. When I feel threatened, when
my identity or my core values are in question, when my character
is in question, maybe it's, I don't know, maybe it's on the bottom
of both of my feet and every time I step it turns it on and
the next step it turns it off. I don't know. If I find it, I'm
gonna, like the switch on the lawnmower that you stand up and
it goes away, it shuts off, I'm gonna take that switch off. How
do I do that? You can't. So I've got to put the switch
in my brain to not only be in the word of
God, and it doesn't mean you have to read everything all the
time. If you can only read a little bit every day, then think about
that every day. But beloved, the more you do,
the more you want, the more you want, the more you will. And
it will make a difference. It will make a difference. I
promise you it will make a difference. And so what I have to do is be
reminded, but it's quick. And the Spirit of God, with the
Word of God in our minds, will remind us, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, you're being judgmental here, just relax, just pull back,
just breathe a minute. Of course, God doesn't say that,
that's a little condescending, but if we're having a spiritual
anxiety attack, I guess that does work. And then He goes, remember who
you are. And what do we say to ourselves
when we hear that? I'm just a sinner. No, you're not. You're my child. You're a child of the king of
all kings. You're a child of the God of glory. You're an adopted,
grafted, redeemed, beloved righteousness. And then we go, well, how did
I get that? By the love that I gave you. So love that knucklehead
that's right there in front of you. Love that knucklehead that's
across. Love that knucklehead on that
stage. Love that knucklehead wherever they may be. Because if it weren't for me,
that'd be you. That's when you know you've tasted
that the Lord is good. Verse 4, chapter 2. 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. 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. But for those who do not believe,
the scripture says the stone that the builders rejected has
become the cornerstone. And a stone of stumbling and
a rock. Of offense. They stumble because
they disobey the word, they disobey the Lord, they disobey the gospel,
they disobey grace as they were destined to do. Verse nine, but
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies
of him who called you out of darkness into the marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but
now you are God's people. Once you have not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy. So therefore, beloved, I urge
you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions
of the flesh, which wage war against your soul, against your
mind, and against your joy, and then keep your conducts amongst
the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as
evildoers, they will see your good deeds and glorify God on
the day of visitation. And I'm not gonna get through
all that. I've almost preached verses 4 and 5 already. We ask ourselves, you know, what
does that mean? Well, here we are. We know who we are and we
have a mission and that mission is to reflect who we are. That
mission is to live who we are. Pastor Jonathan and I had our
first ever long overdue discussion this past week. one of my channels,
we put the table up here and we recorded it. And the way we do evangelism, the
whole historical essence of missions, all this stuff is just so, it's
just not right. It's never been right. The idea
that we think about what a church ought to be doing and having
and creating, it's just not a right mindset. It doesn't mean that
the things can't be used. It's just the mindset is wrong.
It's broken. And we've been talking about it for years. And last
week we had a conversation and just basically rebuked one another
on the phone. Well, how much longer are we going to talk about
these things versus just doing them? See, when we write creatively,
we don't tell people what we're doing. We don't tell people about
what we want them to know. We show them. There's no narration in a painting. It's not annotations. It's just
painting. And the beholder gets to look
at it and see different things at different times. And we need
to live our lives that way. One surefire way that a man is
not doing what he should be doing is he's talking about it. That's just boasting. I will. I will. I won't. Just be. Be a believer. So we've
come to Him. The cornerstone. The cornerstone. What does that even mean? What does it mean to be the cornerstone?
The cornerstone is the stone that's put there in the right
place so that everything else that's built around that structure
is correct, is right. Paul talks about it in Corinthians.
I come along and do this, and Apollos comes along and does
this, and somebody else comes along and does this, and we plant
and water, whatever, but God gives the growth. Why? Because
the cornerstone is the foundation of the gospel. Because anything
else we build that's not of the same material of the cornerstone,
of the foundation, when it's tested by fire, it's going to
be destroyed, so it doesn't matter. It will be worthless. And we
know that the context of Paul's teaching to the Corinthian church
is that those are people in our lives. Some of the seminars that
I do with senior adults, I talk about being a living legacy,
not leaving something behind for your family, but living a
legacy. How does that work? Conversation. There's no other way. A conversation
that results in action, a conversation that results in application,
a conversation that results in meditation, a conversation that
cares and God's having a conversation with us. I mean, wouldn't it
be much more impressive and much more movie worthy if the Holy
Spirit of God just like shook us up in the middle of the night
and decided to save us by bringing us up to the ceiling and spinning
us around next to the fan and light entering the house and
the whole neighborhood glowing and poof and all this kind of
stuff. Smoke fills the house and God says, you are mine. No,
we'd be calling the Ghostbusters. But what he chose to do is use
the mouth of men and women and children to speak words in a conversation
for his people to hear. Yet we spend most of our lives
outside of a conversation trying to avoid intimacy. And as God's
people, we are missing out on nearly the entire promise of
God in this life for our joy and for our purpose. We've come to Him a living stone. So what I'm saying now, a lot
of people, well, I just don't want to do that. That's fine. That's your
choice. But you're choosing to reject, not Christ, beloved,
you're choosing to reject the promises. Because this letter
was written not so that these people in the exile, in the dispersion,
would understand a few things and have a road map to walk by.
This is a very short letter. It doesn't take but just a few
minutes to read it. Maybe not even three minutes to read it. And so I don't know. What was it written for? So that
these people could get with each other and do so in the name of
Christ, no matter what was going on. With intention. With care and with joy. Christ is the living stone. He was rejected by humanity.
He was rejected by his own people. But he is precious and chosen
by God as the foundation of our eternal life, the foundation
of our faith, and more importantly, as important rather, the foundation
of our spiritual family, of the congregation, of the assembly. Psalm 118. somewhere in there is where we
see the fact to see some of these references. The stone that the
builders rejected has become the cornerstone. It's also alluded
to in Acts chapter four. But despite being rejected by
the very religious leaders who held the oracles that he is,
think about that. They held the scroll who is Christ,
the word of God in their hands, and they read from it. Jesus is the cornerstone of the
church, not the pastor, not the people,
not the denomination, not the organization, nothing. And this sometimes we go, Oh,
well, you know, this sounds, I mean, this sounds like sort
of like Judaism or what? No, because Paul says the same
thing to the people of Colossae. He says the exact same thing
to the people of Galatia. He says the exact same thing.
He even tells the people of Galatia, the people who are born of Abraham
are not the sons of Abraham. The people who are in Christ
are the sons of Abraham, no matter who they are. That's the picture. That's the
point. Without the cornerstone, the
building falls down or the walls don't meet. You tear it over,
tear it out and you start over. But then look at verse 5, but
you, you yourselves like living stones. And you know, this is
all imagery, right? I mean, we're not bricks. We're
not pillars. We're not roofs. We're not foundations. It's a metaphor, a picture. are being built up as a spiritual
house. So Jesus Christ as a cornerstone. Now, where are the bricks that
are being laid around to build the house? And it's not about
the local church in its organization. It's about the local church as
an organism. As a spiritual family, a people,
not a place. A purpose, not a proposition. So we who are united with Christ
by the spirit of God, gifted faith, the disposition of repentance
that we may know and rest in him, we are going to war in this
new person. But we are being collectively
called to live in a way that depicts him. How does that work?
We walk in a manner that shows that we are lining up with the
cornerstone. The wall's not way out here,
the wall's here. So we find ourselves walking
in the wrong direction. We go, this is not who I am.
I am built on the foundation with Christ as my cornerstone.
This is the wrong way. I don't wanna go this way. Here's
the better thing, I don't have to go this way. I was taught
that as a child, and I never really understood it well until
you go through fire. You don't have to be like that.
You don't have to think like that. You don't have to. See
how much difference that makes? Rather than saying, don't you
dare think like that. Don't you dare go that way. You
know what my flesh wants to do? Watch me. I'm Gen X. I don't want anything but to
be left alone and go something. I don't rebel under my own purpose.
I want to rebel into nothingness. Leave me alone. You see? We've got no cause. Just let me go. But we are living stones. Ephesians
2, in him the whole structure being joined together grows into
a holy temple in the Lord. How does that look? How do we
know? When we're doing what we do to
reflect the gospel, to reflect the nature of Christ, the mind
of Christ, that means we're doing what we do that we might love
each other. That's why malice and envy and
slander and deceit and hypocrisy and all of that doesn't fit.
It doesn't match. The blueprint for that is not
like... I mean, it's not even here. It's
not over here. It doesn't fit. It's not about
being in trouble. It's not about disappointing
God. It's not about being scared to death. It's not you. Why are you doing it? I love roses. You all probably
know that. And I saw a shirt last year about
this time on the rack at TJ Maxx. And I'd never seen a shirt like
this before. And I'm like, this is awesome. I'm going to buy
it. And it's a solid black shirt with bright red roses all over
it. And I get it home. And I mean,
it is something that Superfly wouldn't wear. I mean, I need
a hat about this big with a feather in it to get away from that.
And I love the way the shirt looks, but not on me. And I thought, maybe it's just
me. I put it on and walk out there. And Robin goes, don't
ever leave the house with that shirt. You know, no. I mean,
even my kids are like, Daddy, please. Please. It doesn't work for me. But I
love the pattern. I love the way it looks. I should
give it to one of you. See if you can pull it. Yeah, Trey might
wear it. Now I'm going to have to wear
it so you can see it, right? I'll put a blazer over it so you won't
be able to tell. No, it doesn't fit. So when we're
not walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, it doesn't work
for us. And we need to get that mindset
that we've come to Christ, the cornerstone, our salvation is
secure, we have a direction in life, and when we veer from it,
we're not gonna be kicked into the ditch and stepped on, we're
gonna be gently guided back to it. And that is the reason that
we're here today. According to Paul, to the letter
to the Ephesians, in the letter to the Ephesians, we're supposed
to, as overseers, gently and carefully guide all of us, ourselves
included, into the right direction. Not be busybodies and spiritual
police officers to get into everybody's business and find out who's doing
what, who's watching what, who's smelling what, who's stinking
what, who's wearing what, but just to say, hey, here's our
joy, here's the path, we'll walk together. Christ and the mind
of Christ and the body of Christ at the forefront of it all. And I don't know why God wouldn't
allow me to see that so simply, that my identity wasn't in the
perfection of my ministry, of my life, of my house, of my clothes,
of my whatever. But I had that trepidation of
that brick coming through my window, not because anybody threw
a brick in front of my window. It's just how I saw it. Why? I don't know. Gen Xers, we weren't even allowed
to come in the house in the summertime. About the Taj Mahal in there.
Why? Because nobody lived in there but Mama. I mean, she'd have to go to the
store. She'd lock the deadbolt and take the keys. We'd be out on the carport.
See y'all back in about 30 minutes. I'm going to buy groceries. And you just thought, okay, well,
I'm not supposed to get dirt on the bottom of my shoes. I'm
not supposed to feel anger. I'm not supposed to doubt the
Lord. I'm not supposed to hate somebody.
So I'll work all that out until I get it right, and then I'll
walk. Okay, how do I do that? It's a nightmare. We've come to the cornerstone.
Our path is set. We're being built into a spiritual
house, a holy priesthood. Why? To offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. How does that work? Romans
12, renew our mind on the glory of God every single day and meditate
on these things to the point that when we are who we are,
when we are who we are, it just happens naturally. When you're learning a language,
I mentioned that earlier, when you know you learn the language,
when you're not thinking in your natural language, When you hear
that other language, you respond to that language without even
knowing the translation in your head. You just do it. Same thing with
reading. When you read Greek, you just
know it. You don't go, well, that word means this and that. You
just know it. You know it. When we're living authentically
as believers, we just do it. Yes, at first we go, wait a minute,
that's not who I really am. I'm a walk this way. But after
a while, we mature in that. That's what the Sunday service
begins. we may walk. That's where I was
going, that the pastors, when we teach and then when the congregation
teaches each other, we all have that responsibility, beloved. We do so so that we may what
grow up into him who is the head, that we may serve one another,
that we may learn and be equipped to do the work of the ministry,
which is to administer to one another the grace of God every
single day and to walk together in a way that exudes the love
of Christ. It's not easy because we're living
stones. What does it mean to be a holy
priesthood? We're dedicated to that end. The priests, they were locked
in forever. There was nothing else they could
do. They couldn't own land. They couldn't do anything. They
were just there. And they had to do the work that was prescribed
for them. The whole tribe of Levi. We're a royal priesthood
in that we are dedicated spiritually. to the work of the Lord. That's
what it means to be holy. We're set apart. We're different. We're
not like everybody else. But not being like everybody else
doesn't mean that we only eat at Chick-fil-A and shop at this
place over here that sells Bible verses. Not being like everybody else
means that we have a mission and an identity that nobody else
can really fathom until the Spirit of God changes them. And so that
we can speak into every circumstance in life with great authority
and great humility, but more importantly, with great power.
I've really been on this lately, is that without conversations
fueled by the Word of God and infused by the Spirit of God
in our knowledge and understanding of who we are, we're not really
changing lives at all. We're just talking into the air.
We're talking at people rather than speaking into them. And
I know that sounds a little mystical because the Word of God is mystical.
It's like a dual-edged sword. It cuts not just bone and marrow
all the way down, but it cuts soul, conscience, and mind. And
God would say about His Word, about Himself when He speaks,
even if it's through a prophet or through a pastor or through
a parent or through a child. Couldn't come to the P there. It doesn't fail. It does exactly
what it's supposed to do. So today, unpacking this this
way, all this entirety of this section of 1 Peter this way,
will not return to God void. Peter further explains it. He further explains it by going
to Isaiah 28. I'm laying in Zion a foundation
stone, a cornerstone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone
of a sure foundation. So Christ is the cornerstone
is the foundation for believers, like I've already just described
and laid out. It's our path. It's where we
are. We know and we walk in that way,
but it's also a stumbling block. And when we're walking I'm just going to let this sit
as it goes instead of trying to give an example that I want
to beat the drum on. As we're walking in this world
and people say, well, we're rejected because of our faith. We're not
rejected because of our faith when we are haughty and doing
things publicly. Look, this is what I do. This
is how I stand. This is what I believe in. This is where I
go. These are the people I'm part of. That is not of Christ and
it's never been of Christ ever in the history of humanity whatsoever. And you make the application
of where that fits in the sphere of your lives. Because I know
where it fits in mine. And if you want to talk about
that off record, I'm happy to give you some application. here's a little taste as it gets
closer to November, we might see it. Be careful. Christ is our cornerstone, not
the United States, not our community, not our job, Christ. And so when we are rejected like
Christ is rejected, we're rejected for a sober-minded hope that's
unshakable, that results in loving the very ones who hate us, without hubris. That's what put coals on the
head of our enemies. When we're all on fire, nobody's
godly. And as Christians, we should
be immovable. We should not have anxiety, but we will, but we
can do something with it. We should not have joylessness,
but we do, but we can do something with it. Believers, we are honored being
in the cornerstone, even when the path looks so weird to the
world. And I'll tell you now, the Christian
path often looks extremely different than the Christian culture. That was a misspeak. The Christian
path always looks starkly different than the Christian culture. I
was a little too weak on that. So if the Christians on social
media are doing it, it's probably not the right path. If the mainstream
churches are doing it, it's probably on the wrong path. If someone
out there in La La Land's doing it in the name of Christ, it's
usually headed for destruction. The resolve, the focus, the established
reality of honoring the cornerstone. We will face rejection and difficulty. Because of their disobedience,
whose religious people, Christian culture, mainline church. It's
not some of my best friends are atheists. I love them dearly. They can come to my house anytime
they want. You know who is on the banned list? Everybody on
the banned list in my house is a professional Christian. Persona non grata. Cornerstone of the stumbling
block reveals to us there's going to be a division between those
who know Christ and live as he lived and those who reject his
lifestyle because they think their way is his way. That's why we must be in worship,
beloved. We must be in worship truly. We must consider how we and our
lives are going to be reaching out, how we're going to strengthen
our communities, how we're going to engage. One of the things
Jonathan and I talked about is it's going to be real stressful
for some people in their view of me, which could reflect on you. When
instead of trying to have a Grace Truth Church food drive, why
don't we just go across the street to the food pantry? If someone's getting clothes
together for people in need, why do we have to do it on our
own? Why can't we just partner with them? Well, they don't believe
the gospel and neither does the pastor down the street. Neither
does the reverend across the branch. And in their estimation,
I don't. That's not a prerequisite for
doing what's required of us as loving people, even in our own
fellowship. We shouldn't be in the business
of filtering people before we love them. We are called to be living stones
in God's spiritual house because we are united with Christ. And
our lives should be dedicated to offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God. As we focus on who we are and
who He is and what we're called to, and that call is absolutely
to be lovers of people. There are droves of people who
I believe are born of the Spirit who have no spiritual home. There are droves of people who
are so fearful that the church is going to throw a brick through
their front window just to change the scent on their
rearview mirror because that's not the Jesus scent. We need to be a people who invite, who encourage and who embrace
people who are looking for safety and peace and hope. And it's
not just on the assembly side. It's out there in our lives.
So beloved, I'm ramping this message up to our communities. I pray we're ready. Because only
the Lord knows who he's going to assemble together. How is that possible? Because
of the body and the blood of Jesus. Let's pray. We thank you,
Father, that you've given us the resting faith to hold fast
to Christ. And Lord, that no matter what
I've brought here today, you've used your word in spite of me.
but at the same time you've reminded me that I am your child. And you've charged me with reminding
everyone that we are your children, and that we are in Christ, and
that we have a calling and a path that's divine, not of this world,
So as we intersect, as we engage, as we expand, as we experience
life, Lord, I pray that you would guide us. You say that you will,
but guide us in humility and guide us to wisdom and guide
us to love. Help us with these hard feelings.
Help us with these hurts. Help us to make amends where
we need to, Lord, and to forgive where it's required. so that
we can be free, so that we can live as a people for your glory,
by your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.