Living Stones
Notes
Transcript
Welcome everyone!
Announcements
I will be on vacation starting tomorrow
Nick will be teaching on “kindness” this Wednesday (no meal)
Jimmy Stewart will be preaching for me this Sunday
Please come and support them both
Before ministry I always loved guest speakers because you get to hear something different
Trunk-or-Treat Oct 29th.
We will be partnering with first baptist
I am not sure what this will look like, but our plan is the same to decorate our trunk and meet some people in the community
Call to Worship
Psalm 27:1–6 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident. One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple. For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.”
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“Revelation Song”
Words and Music by Phillips Craig & Dean
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord, would you remove all distractions in this room. Clear our minds and our hearts. Help us to not only sing but express the words of these songs as an act of worship and adoration to You. Amen
“Even so come”
Words and Music by Chris Tomlin
“Worthy is the Lamb”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord, Please minister to us through this Word. May we hear this not as the ideas of man, but as the Word of God. May we leave here encouraged, excited, instructed, and equipped to be Your church. Amen!
SERMON
Introduction
I am going to take a break from our series on Joseph for at least a Sunday or two because I want to preach a message on the NT church.
No church has it all together. Even the most solid churches have issues.
But too many churches drift from the the NT model and become a place where everyone comes as spectators rather than participators.
And that was never the way church was designed.
A NT church is to be a place where everyone contributes, where God’s people come together collectively to form ONE supernatural body with a specific goal in mind.
And since we are a church plant, this is essential fore the health and future of this church.
One of the letters Peter wrote is short letter but full of important theological points. And one of those is what a church that is built upon Jesus Christ should look like. And that is what we are going to study today.
1 Peter 2:4
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
“As you come to Him, the living stone”
Who is the Living stone?
It is Jesus.
Jesus is the foundation of the church. If there is no Jesus, there is no church. There is no power. There is no forgiveness. There is no atonement. There is no redemption. There is no hope!
As we come to him (Jesus)
The verb “come” in that clause is a participle
Participles are words ending in “ing”
Running
Swimming
Learning
Growing
Participles communicate an action that is ongoing
The audience that Peter is writing to is to people who are coming to Jesus
They live their lives in pursuit of Jesus
They seek Him in their lives
They want more of Him
They want to serve Him
They are serious about their walk with Him
If that is you this morning, this message is for you
If you are here, and you are not coming to Jesus, then you need to know Jesus is your only hope
You may be completely satisfied with your life, but in the end you will lose it all
“What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul”
“As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house”
What in the world is Peter talking about?
He is using the metaphor of a building to illustrate what a NT church is
And is doing this by comparing it to the OT temple
The temple was constructed of stone
The temple was operated by priests who carried out religious services
The temple is where the sacrifices were offered to God
The temple was often referred to as the “house of God”
Believers are individual stones used to construct the modern day church
Believers are individual stones used to construct the modern day church
(v 5) “you also as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house”
Illustration
Imagine the modern day construction of a building
The first thing you do is lay the foundation
You dig a footer
You pour the footer
You lay the foundation of block
Then you get brick (or stone) and construct the building
God does not build a church with brick and morter, but with living stones
Christ is the foundation that is laid
Without Him, the church will not stand
Then as God calls people to that body of believers, they become the “living stones to construct God’s spiritual house
Application
That means if you are in covenant with Christ, you are one of those living stones
You are to be one who is helping support the weight of that building
You are to be one who is contributing to the whole
You are an essential piece in the blueprint of God’s church
You may not even be on the church’s membership roll, but if you are in Christ you are a part of His church.
And you may be on the church membership roll, yet not really be a member of the church because you have never been born again
We are being built up into a “spiritual house”.
What is a spiritual house?
The OT temple was often referred to as “the house of God”
That doesn’t mean God lived there
But this was the designated place on earth where God met with His people
The temple was the geographical location where you could locate the presence of Yahweh the Israelite God
BUT we do not have temples today
We do not have an alter outside burning sacrifices to God
We are not sprinkling blood on the alter
There is no Ark of the Covenant today
God’s temple today is each believer’s body
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
Instead of a stone building housing the presence of God
God dwells in us through His Holy Spirit
When we come together for corporate worship something supernatural happens
We form a NT church
It doesn’t matter where we are located
It doesn’t matter what the outside building looks like
What makes a “house of God” is the presence of God
And because the Holy Spirit of God lives in us, we together form the church
The picture I want you get in your mind is the part that every stone pays in the construction of a building
What happens when you remove a stone from a building
It begins to crumble
The morter joints crack and sift
And this church plant needs more stones
We need more committed people
We need more workers
We need more people who are willing to step up and be a part of the supernatural gathering every week
So what does that look like?
1 Peter 2:5
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Just like there were OT priests in the temple, so there are NT priests in the NT church
But priests today are not those who have been consecrated and sit in confession booths
Peter says, “You” meaning all of us are priests!
There is not one single born again believer who has been washed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ who is not a priest to God and man!
All of God’s people make up the NT priesthood!
We all have the privilege of coming into the presence of God through Jesus Christ who is the Great High Priest!
This means that our lives should be lived as though we were priests in God’s temple.
What do priests do?
Priests kept the temple running smoothly
They carried out maintenance
They made sure everything flowed smoothly
They made sure all supplies were in stock, the show bread was ready, the candles were lit, the incense was burning
They kept the temple up and running
Application
One of our callings today, you holy priests is to make sure this gathering runs smoothly and efficiently
What often happens in churches today: about 10% of the people do all work
And if that offends you, you can thank me later for it
Every church I have ever been a part of has a handful of people who take care of it all
They Organize
They did the planning
Cleaning
Teaching
discipling
Evangelism
They Train the children
They Prayed
on and on
While the rest simply came as spectators
Now there are always going to be spectators
Because there will always be people who are not in covenant with Christ
But for those who born again, they must be participators
What I am asking you to do is, IF YOU ARE IN COVENANT WITH GOD, to see yourself as a priest of this spiritual house
And this may be all new to you, it was new to the recipients of Peter’s letter
But that verse says, “you are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood”
God is shaping you and molding you, and forming you to fit into His house
Let Him do His work in you
Priests represented God to the people
How? By the holiness that characterizes our lives
We are being built up as a “holy priesthood”
Think about that
How we treat people
How we react when we’ve been mistreated]
How we endure hardships and suffering
How we use our money
How we treat our children
What we say
What we do
How we worship
How we conduct our lives
All these things tell the world what it means to be in Christ
We also do this by what we teach
What we say to the world about who God is
What it mean to be in Christ And since we are priests, we are the ones the world is looking to when they think of coming to Christ
Priests represent people to God
We are a Great Commission church
This world does not need more food stamps, nor does it need more Christmas backpacks, nor does it need more handouts, it desperately needs to be made right with God
EVEN if we met every physical need in this community, it would be in vain because they would still die and go to hell!
We have been given the responsibility to bring people to God through the gospel
And a church that fails to bring people to God is not a church at all!
A church that does not win souls is not worth the ground it sits on!
A church that does not proclaim salvation by the grace of God through faith in Christ may very well have never been saved themselves
Priests offer sacrifices to God
They would slaughter goats, sheep, lambs..
They would take these animals and sacrifice them on the alter for the sins of the people
Peter says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
How do we do this?
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Application
What does this mean?
It means we live every day of our lives as though they belong totally to God
We are to hold nothing back
To offer oneself is to give all of oneself to God
Even if its not something we want to do
Even if its uncomfortable
Even if it causes us to miss out on something else
Do you know what will radically change your life?
When you begin to live this verse out
When you tell God, “I will do anything that you tell me to do…no strings attached”
When you make that kind of commitment to God, and you mean it with all of your heart, God will use you tremendously
He will call you to places that terrify you, and then show His power through your weakness
ILLUSTRATION
When I first came to Christ I knew nothing about the church
I was completely ignorant about everything except I knew you were supposed to come on Sundays and the real spiritual people came on Wednesdays
But when I offered my life on the alter of Salem Baptist 13 years ago, I said, “God You take my life and do with it whatever You want!”
You tell me what to do and I will do it!
And I will do whatever bro Jimmy tells me to do because he knows a whole lot more than I do
And that commitment is exactly what God used
And he put me in front of that church to tell my testimony and I was scared to death!
He brought me down to Louisiana to work with the youth
He placed me in the youth group
He put me into service as a deacon
He had me teach an adult Sunday school
He had me teach on a Wednesday night
And then called me to pastor a church
GOD WILL USE YOU WHEN YOUR LIFE BECOMES A LIVING SACRIFICE!
But if you continue to hold the reigns, you can forget it
Lay your life down, and never look back
Jesus Christ must be the Cornerstone of our spiritual house
Jesus Christ must be the Cornerstone of our spiritual house
For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
What is a corner stone?
A cornerstone formed the base of the foundation of a building
It was the most important stone
It governed the design of the entire building
And upon it all other stones were laid
Jesus is the Cornerstone of the NT church
Everything in the church depends upon Jesus
The direction of the church is dependent upon Jesus
The success of the church is dependent upon Jesus
And we as the individual living stones are dependent upon Jesus
BUT He is not just the Cornerstone, but the “precious cornerstone”
That means that Jesus is of supreme value
He is the great treasure hidden in the field
He is the pearl of great price
He is of infinite value and nothing else in this world can compare
“And He who believes in Him will not be disappointed”
We as a church must trust that Christ will use this church if we build it upon HIM!
People will resort to all kinds of other measures to build a church
They make it look like the world
They entertain people
They do give aways, festivals, parties, and compromise biblical preaching so people will stay
But we are not here to build a club or a group!
We are here to build God’s Spiritual House!
And we must trust in Cornerstone of that building
And we must build upon Jesus Christ!!
Conclusion
Two Questions:
Are you “coming to Him”
Seeking Him every day
Living you life for Him
If so, praise God
If not, maybe God brought you here to begin now
There is nothing better for yourself that you will ever do
Are you living out your priesthood?
Where is your place of service in this church
How are you contributing to God’s spiritual house?
Get involved.
Move from spectator to participator.
~PRAYER~
RESPONSE
PUBLIC INVITATION
“Even so Come”
Words and Music by Chris Tomlin
OFFERING
We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.
BENEDICTION
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’”
God witness to this world is through His spiritual house
He builds it upon the foundation of Christ
He uses every believer as a living stone to form a whole
He is building it so that His name will be proclaimed to all the earth
Where is your place in the church?
Every block in a structure has a purpose
Every brick, every stud, every joist has a purpose
What is your purpose in this church?
If you are part of the church, God has placed you here to give, to serve, to be a part
Find your purpose
Get involved
Be the church
~PRAYER~