1 Peter 2 and Brandi-Michelle

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0:00 The rest of us, I'm kind of like I'm walking up to beating the dead horse here, but we're going to keep going on this vocational idea so that by the time we're done with it, you will have thought about it enough. And we have two more weeks on vocation this weekend next week. And remember that the vocation, the idea of vocational thinking isn't just like what's your job, but it's like built on the idea that God works through the world primarily

0:32 through people, that his normal way of working in the world is through stuff. And you see that all through the story of Scripture, we just told the kids the story of creation again and it's crazy that God makes the earth and then puts people in charge of it. It's like you take care of it. And even though they kind of pervert that or mess that up, take from the earth rather than stewarding it, try and make the decisions that are reserved for God rather than rest in being human and letting him handle the big things and they handle their things.

1:05 Even though they mess up in the garden, he takes them out of the garden away from the tree of life in order to preserve an opportunity they might live without death again. But he takes them away. But he leaves the responsibility. He is still responsible to care for the earth. Humanity is still responsible to fill the earth and subdue it. He still trusts humanity with the job from conception through maturation of bringing humanity into the world, perpetuating humanity in the world. He still leaves us in charge of creation.

1:35 And so there is like vocational thinking says that we are like the agents of God in the world. And there's specific things that God wants to accomplish in the world with us and collaboration with us. And it's perhaps most easiest to see in children we were saying this like we're not passive in the creation of children, but we're also not in control of the creation of children. And this weird collaboration with God.

2:06 Now this is true in all of the areas where we are called and we've been saying that the church over the generations has developed this vocational thinking into three arenas. So God is working in the world through us through this like weird mix of collaboration in three main arenas. Family, church and what we're calling like neighborhood, which is your work and what it means to be a good neighbor. Family, church and neighborhood. And this week I want to talk again about church and what God is doing through us with us in

2:40 church. The place I want to look is in first Peter if you want to look there with me. I always remember first Peter my it was one of my first Peter the chapter one. My dad at one time walked me through it said it was his favorite chapter in the Bible. It's not one you read a lot, but when you get into it it feels very timely for us trying to figure out how do we live. And remember who Peter is?

3:15 Peter is like one of the twelve disciples. We're pretty sure he's the oldest of the of the disciples, maybe the kind of the de facto leader. And he emerges at Pentecost as the spokesman for the way of Jesus. He kind of had been the spokesman for the disciples. So then he's the one at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit is given that stands up and preaches and then he's like kind of de facto leader of the church, especially in Jerusalem and

3:45 then in Antioch. And then he has this thing remember there's a famous story where he's like Paul is starting to think about that the way of Jesus can apply to Gentiles not just Jews and Peter has his experience where God tells him in the dream that the way can go to the Gentiles. And so this letter that Peter writes is to the church broadly speaking and part of what he's doing is reminding the Gentiles and then the Jewish followers of Jesus that they are

4:18 called together into one nation of people, one tribe of people that from all corners of the earth God has called together his own and he's talking about what it means and where it ranks in our priorities. So there's a lot that we could go into in 1 Peter but we're not going to go into all of it on the adjust a little bit in chapter 2. We'll start at 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 1.

4:50 Well we get back up just a little bit the end of chapter 1. What did I say? 1 Peter. Yeah so we're going to go right to the end of chapter 1 so like verse 22 of chapter 1. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere and brotherly love loved one another earnestly from a pure heart. Since you have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living

5:21 and abiding word of God for all flesh is like grass and all glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower fails or falls but the word of the Lord remains forever and this a word is the good news that was preached to you. He's like so you've been redeemed so love one another because you receive this word and then the reason we had to read that is because chapter 2 starts with the so or therefore. So he's like made this point and now because the word of the Lord endures forever with

5:52 the word which is preached to you endures forever then he says put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants long for pure spiritual milk that it may that you may grow up to salvation if needed you have tasted that the Lord is good if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

6:22 I was reading just a little bit about this first part of chapter 2 and what the several theologians point out is how emphatic Paul is at the beginning of the things that should be put away. So you notice it shows up even in our English translation how he repeats all several times so he doesn't just say put away malice deceit hypocrisy envy and slander but he says all several times in front of each of them put away all malice all deceit and hypocrisy and

6:58 envy and all slander and what they are suggesting is that there is sometimes amongst people who follow the way of Jesus but might be connected outside of the church in other segments or sectors or sections when they come together they are speaking against one another. So there is deceit and malice and hypocrisy amongst the people of God and as Peter is saying you have been preached this what is the word unending word of God that has redeemed

7:34 you into a life that never fails and has set you as this highest priority so then why do you keep tearing one another down? Why do you continue with hypocrisy slander deceit envy? Those are big words I guess. I don't know like if I think about our little huddle here in the Quonset hut whatever building

8:05 this is in Paramore like we don't have a whole lot of that. I remember I have told people you know it were just far enough away from a covid pandemic where to where you can start to forget how bonkers it was how much we didn't know what was going to happen we are just far enough away where you can kind of forget that and

8:40 it comes up sometimes when I am hanging out with pastors where we are remembering trying to figure out what to do with ourselves you know and when it comes up is how many guys I know that we are trying to pastor churches who were like I could not answer any question correctly in the covid thing anything I tried to do half the people in the room were pissed

9:11 at me you know and these are people most of the people when I would be hanging out with them you know are in different situations than us is a pretty unique career you have to really self select in here but one of the things that I have told people is like even in our little crew I can remember specific conversations where I was having to tell people hey were united on Jesus we can disagree on virus containment policy and still be united

9:46 on Jesus and there are things like that right so you can imagine places where we might go oh those people are not us we are not them we cannot be them and this is where like that this these big words that Paul uses can come in and he's encouraging them not to do that you know in his world it might be Greek or Jew it might be what you eat or don't eat it might be

10:20 whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised it might be where you buy and sell your stuff who you're committed to in business or not these things were coming up as they started to figure out how do we follow the way of Jesus what are we connected to and not connected to and Peter's trying to encourage them to remember what's at the heart of it and I wanted to get to this passage because two weeks ago when we had Carol here and we were talking about church and I had given her a set of questions and one of them was what do we owe each other and she's like that was the hardest one what

10:55 do people in church owe each other she's like that was the hardest one to talk about and so you can start first with the negative we owe each other not deceit hypocrisy slander this would be cool right with each other and then he goes on so don't do all those things and then as you come to him the living stone rejected by men but inside of God chosen and precious you yourselves like living

11:27 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 a in Zion a stone a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame these verses that he quotes from Isaiah are well they're just really cool this one here behold I'm laying in Zion a stone a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him

12:02 will not be put to shame you know the this quote from Isaiah is in Isaiah chapter 28 maybe around verse 12 or 16 thank you on dear yeah so he says therefore here the word of the Lord you scoffers the rule of the people in Jerusalem

12:35 because you have said we have made a covenant with death and with shay old and we have an agreement when the overwhelming whip passes through us it will not come to us for we have made lies our refuge and in falsehood we have taken shelter therefore the says the Lord God behold I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion a stone a tested zone a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation who believe whoever believes will not be in haste and I will make justice the line and righteousness

13:07 the plum line and hail will sweep away the refuge of the lies and the waters will overwhelm the shelter you know the temples were a big deal it's at the time of Isaiah even to the time of Peter they had the big walls with the big stones that they had to quarry and figure out how to get there and the way the builders would set it up is they'd get one stone that was perfectly square right so that they could go off that it was a much bigger stone so you had to create a longer line and it was true on all sides so that then they could build according to that line and get the

13:41 building the way that they wanted and Jesus says he's frustrated when he our God through Isaiah is frustrated that the people of God are saying I'll make my own deal on how to handle all the hard things when it comes he's uses death is the extreme but when I'm dealing with death I'll make my own deal and figure it out I'll have my own plan my own solution to solve the thing and he's using that as a metaphor for all the ways in which they trust the things of themselves and so God

14:12 through Isaiah says I'll set up one cornerstone and the horizontal line that holds everything level will be justice and the plumb line will be righteousness and against that everything will be built I just actually was in Amos this week for a Bible study I did out in Lake Mary and I got a definition for justice and righteousness righteousness was equity among relationships even when people are different so it's right relationships and equity even when people are

14:47 different so we want righteousness with God we could not be more different from God but we want right relationship there and then with everyone else righteousness is equity and relationships even when people are different justice is the action to bring about righteousness and when God says he's setting up the cornerstone for the church he says justice and righteousness will be what we build it off of isn't that cool like he's not like we're gonna set it up and make sure that

15:19 y'all act right like he's not making a list of the sins that you quit doing he's saying justice and righteousness equity between people and action to bring it about and so then when when Peter is talking to the church in the first century and he says y'all are trying to figure out what you owe one another remember the cornerstone that God laid he spoke about it in Isaiah and we see it in

15:53 the person of Jesus behold I'm laying a stone as I am and 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 stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling block and a rock of offense we could go into that longer but I don't want to take the time it's good but they stumble because they disobey the word as though they were as they were destined to do but look at verse 9 but you are a chosen race and a royal priesthood a holy nation

16:31 a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous life once you were not a people but now you are God's people once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain he says to continue to live the life that matches up with the cornerstone I love that he uses this language reminiscent of Sinai

17:08 that says all of you now once you did not belong to a people now you do belong to a people once you were wandering and without a place now you have a place the fullness of this actually comes right before we skipped right over it but it's in starting at verse 4 as you come to him a living stone rejected by men but inside of God chosen and precious you yourselves are living stones being built up into a spiritual house

17:42 this he's pulling from Isaiah chapter 8 Isaiah says for the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me and warned me not to walk in the way of the people saying do not call do not call conspiracy all that the people calls conspiracy and do not fear what they fear nor be in dread but the lord of hosts him you shall regard as holy

18:17 let him be your fear let him be your dread and he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and many shall stumble upon it and they shall fall and be broken what I wanted to get you to is like Peter is trying to reorient the church in the first century to say start out by like be cool to one another no slander or hypocrisy or deceit and then recognize

18:50 what God is doing so that you organize your fear towards him because when we organize our fear meaning our trepidation our respect our priorities in line with God he switches from being a stumbling block to being a sanctuary I that for some reason that like idea of a sanctuary of stone like was really comforting

19:26 like when I read it the image was of hot and dry place and as I'm walking around this hot and dry place the image is like then there's this wall of stone that matches the color of the earth and it is bright and hot and you come in and it is dark and cool with a pointed light on the things that matter I thought of the safe place

20:01 the sanctuary that I come into and Peter says that we are the living stones built into that sanctuary so the great gift of God is that wherever you're from or whoever you've been whatever you've done wherever you'll find yourself you get to be part of this place the sanctuary that we together are the sanctuary of God that not only do you and I have a place that we belong but we create spaces

20:36 where others can belong what are like what a worthwhile thing to invest our time and energy in the sanctuary of God we get to be the welcoming and safe place the place of belonging yes God will do this through you for you and with you not bad let's pray that we could be the sanctuary

21:14 of God together hey Lord thank you for working in us and through us and for us teaches what it means to be your church together this morning in Jesus name we pray amen I did bring Miss Asmus brain and Michelle to be ready to share some thoughts with us this morning what I like about these conversations is like I can be accused rightly of being an idealist and so we could describe something that sounds really pretty but is not connected to reality

21:45 and so now we get to hear from people who get it and so thanks for taking some time and thinking ahead about these questions maybe just for the room so everybody knows say how you got connected to us here or what it means to how you're a part of the church here so I started coming here when Charlie was six-month-old and you were located like a Brookhaven so we used to like ride our bike to the church

22:22 literally across the street yeah that was fun and then we'd bring Charlie and his car seat and he'd sleep in the church well okay here so we've been here for he's almost 13 okay awesome yeah cool do you want me to what do you want to do you want to ask me these questions and me answer you sure or if I don't ask you the right question you can say whatever you want yeah um so one of the questions that we had put down was how do you think of church as a place where God works

23:00 that's funny that Carol had the other one as the challenge this is the most challenging question that I had because I feel like I feel like God wants to the I feel like the Lord wants to use the church and I love the church and but I think it's the church has such a heart history and that people unfortunately use the church in some really hard and horrible ways to justify what they've done yeah and so that's that was a hard question for me but I

23:36 do feel like the Lord wants to work through the church to show love and show wholeness all people can come back to grace and mercy and I think he wants to work through the people of the church in the world so yeah grace and mercy and what did you say wholeness yeah um what else do we have here what do you think oh yeah here you go what do you think church folk owe to one another

24:11 um I think that we owe each other kind of the same things that I feel like we owe the world which is I feel like the Lord gave us all gifts and talents and things like that and we're supposed to be using them for the world for the church specifically but also out in the world so well we owe each other um I think the caring for one another praying for one another um but I think that we're supposed to be doing that too outside the walls of the church as well so to each other

24:47 specifically um but also to everyone else so it's like um turned up the dial in terms of connection people in the church versus the world or no you don't think it is do I think that that's yes because you're like specifically to the church but it's the same thing we should be offering so do you think there's anything different we owe people we're church with then that we owe people that we're not church with maybe that's a hard way to say I think there's a hard way to say it's a hard way to say it's a hard way to say it's a hard way to say

25:22 and I think that there's supposed to be this like there's a central threat that is amongst the people in church of loving Jesus and loving God and wanting to um help one another out so but I so yes it's different it is different I think we're accountable to each other but I also think um from there we're supposed to go out and use those gifts and talents in the world yeah yeah that's cool I like that um how do you engage God through church or in church or as church

26:08 oh you thought ahead about it okay uh how do I engage God uh through like specifically in church I feel like I engage God through singing through listening um to what you're saying and trying to apply that and I think being involved in church has been really significant for me I think it's easy to consume and I try to push beyond that I think there are times in

26:42 life where that's what we need from church is to be you know consuming what the Lord has but I think that we and that maybe goes into what we owe each other is like your presence but also your involvement in church and your engagement in it um whether it's like praying for other people or volunteering or whatever I think that we owe each other that yeah you've been like around lots of different expressions of church yeah and you've like leaned in in each of those

27:21 types of church really right yeah I think that for me I mean everybody's different but when I I've been in church you know since I was a child and my parents were really involved in church and if the doors were open we were there so um for better or for worse like it was it was a good ground for me to know like this is important this is significant and so I was always there um and yeah it's been always like in a little country church growing up but ended up going to like a

27:56 mega church and I was on staff at a mega church and then I came here which is not mega church um but yeah it's I so yeah I've experienced it in a lot of different ways but I feel like the Lord I feel like that's part of it too it's like finding that belonging wherever you are yeah yes and like um do you feel like you there's some engagement with God when you are

28:27 leaning in and doing things like do you think that's connected or does that feel like a chore that you do because you get the blessing or is like is there a connection to God in offering your gifts and leaning in yeah yes I feel like there's a connection to God I think when it becomes non-connection to God and it becomes a chore that you need to step back yeah because that's that's not what I think the Lord wants when he wants you to engage in the church I think that that is part of um our gift to God and God you know giving that gift that blessing back to you so yeah you being part of the ministry

29:06 in the church for some form of loving others within the church should be a blessing yeah I can remember when that switched for me and I was like why does church feel like just a thing I'm going to and then going well I don't want to just go to a thing and then my next thought was oh maybe it's a season of change where now I need to think differently about how I engage church as a place where I can serve and what's been surprising is like that was like 2005 so like 20 something years ago and like I'm

29:48 surprised I was saying this just the other week I'm surprised how much I still like being church and the stuff that I do I'm like helping another guy just getting started and I was like I still like this like I will talk about this with you all day long if you want like and so it still is a place where I come alive as I use my gifts for the sake of the church I guess is what I'm saying and I feel like there's been times when I've when we've there've been seasons where we've stepped back from going to the church but they've always been in smaller increments because I feel I feel

30:22 God's presence in the church and I feel like it's significant to go to church I think that you know in Hebrews when it talks about chapter like 10 it talks about like don't give up meeting together and I think there's some significance in that because you're you know it's like an iron sharpening iron it's the same like thread of people that are like yes I also I'm struggling I need help or I need to learn that right all those different things that

30:58 it's good I mean it feels good for your soul yeah that's good that was the last question kind of was like what over your life has been most effective in drawing you into church or like so you kind of touched on that a little bit anything more else you want to say there I think just the involvement I think engaging even if it's things like asking someone to pray for you or having someone at your house or small little ways you know it

31:30 doesn't have to be that you are you know over anything or whatever but I think that recognizing in yourself where am I not pushing in or where am I not like trying to be really why am I trying to be just on the outskirts of things I think is a it's something to think about why why not want to fully push in and you know maybe maybe if that is how you feel then there's a community that's

32:03 better space or you know yeah yeah no I like that I definitely like the idea of the cross as a safe place where you can come into a room and just hear the gospel and leave so over the years that's been important to me that the cross be that but also it's a good reminder that there is more and part of the way that we are built together as the sanctuary for people is when we all lean in and help create that space of belonging for other people so both are available yeah cool thank you