Untitled Sermon (7)

Announcements

Prayer of invitation

Call to worship (Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19)

Tithes and offerings

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Benediction

Unity

Rid yourselves, but of what?

Community destroying vices

Malice/ ill-will, all things that destroy fellowship

Deceit and hypocrisy- speaking with ulterior, self-serving motives

Jealousy- focused on the self

Not always just selfish, but party focused

“If one has the mind of Christ that seeks the good of other, envy would be an impossible contradiction”

Slander often accompanies envy

Often in disguise as a “prayer request” or “concern

Built on Christ

If we rid ourselves of all these things, what are we left with?

Peter urges us not to rely on our own virtues, but towards dependence on God

As “newborn babies”, Perhaps Peter remembered Jesus’s words that we must “become like children”

Other places talk about moving from “milk” to “solid food”, as if milk were bad.

We must mature, but what Peter means here is that there is always a foundational source of sustenance that Christians must turn to, “honest spiritual milk”

Honest:Deceitful; “spiritual”:λογικος; this milk is the word, the good news preached to us

Since we’ve tasted the Lord is good, we will always want more of him

“Grow into salvation”; Salvation is present in one sense, but future in another

The Stone in Our Path

“Growing into salvation”, therefore, means making a choice about the stone in our path.

A stone that divides the road in two: we can go right or we can go left, but we cannot remain still. We must make a choice concerning the stone

The path to the right is to be set in place by the stone. Our lives become fixed, aligned, and in accordance with the stone, so that we too become “living stones”.

Not individual stones, but stones as part of a temple

To be a follower of Christ is to become like Christ

On the other hand, this stone can become a source of stumbling and offense for those who do not accept it

God has set it up as such that those who do not accept the stone stumble over it

Proclamation

Our transformation calls us towards proclamation.