Steady and Stabile
Notes
Transcript
Destabilized
Destabilized
Things that destabilize you
Earthquakes
When the ground is moving all you want to do is hang on to something stabile
Vertigo
Happened to me once. I got up, out of bed, and my body made a hard left turn into the wall.
I couldn’t walk, sit up, I could barely crawl w/out falling over. Everything was spinning.
Please make the room stop spinning.
Whatever was going on in my ear and it was doing crazy things to my brain.
Get off a cruise ship
Or even a small fishing boat.
You get used to the rocking while you’re on the boat.
We’ve has some rocky cruises where we couldn’t walk a straight line down the hall.
The guitar players in the band couldn’t use their pedals. Which affects the music.
Then when you’re on dry land you catch yourself still rocking.
Is the room moving or is it just me?
These things will mess with you.
Not prepared.
When you were in school and it’s time for a big exam and you stare at it and realize you studied the wrong material.
GPA, scholarship, extra-curricular eligibility
Hearing the doctor say ‘cancer’
Immediately your mortality comes into focus.
You’ve got plans for next year. Your plans just changed.
Then it’s like the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon, “Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.”
It could be easy to treat or really bad. But you won’t hear anything after the first time the doctor says cancer.
We’ve been down that road.
When you get a phone call from a good friend who tells you her husband is having an affair. He’s also a good friend.
My rel w/ him is based on trust. We need ea other.
I needed him to stand strong, be faithful so that if I ever get into a rough patch in marriage I can draw strength from him.
That opportunity is gone. And it shook all of our friends.
My sister and I can tell you how it will unsettle you when your parents divorce.
Kids are naive, idealistic. Then, it’s gone.
It can mess w/ you the rest of your life.
Raised by a single mother
Dad was completely out of the picture and it had an impact on both of us.
When you go thru the process of the end of your parent’s life.
My mom passed 4 years ago. Those last few months were hard on all of us.
When she passed we were busy w/ arrangements, the memorial, meeting w/ the attorney, and getting things going w/ her estate.
But, the drive home I realized there is no one under me. I’m the foundation of my family now.
Whatever my relationship was like w/ my mom, she’s gone now.
NOT ON VIDEO!
We’re going thru it w/ Sara’s parents right now.
It’s tough and it’s rocking her world.
Emotionally, it’s hard.
It’s affecting her physically.
Mentally she’s drained.
The first time my14-year old son woke me up in the middle of the night saying he couldn’t get suicidal thoughts out of his mind.
Turns out it was a side effect of a med he was prescribed for his ADHD.
But, at the time, wondering can I ever leave him alone?
Some of the experiences that Sara and I have had and that I know a number of you can relate to.
Real life.
On the surface, stabile. Everything looks good.
But beneath, our foundation has been rocked a number of times.
You think you’re prepared and you can handle anything. Then, your world get rocked, the foundation can crack, and what had seemed t/b a perfectly stabile life now is rocking like a ship in a violent storm.
Can we stop the ship long enough for me to get off?
Who of us was not caught off guard by the fragile nature of our society and what a small, but deadly germ can do?
Who of us realized the turmoil bubbling under the surface of our racially diverse cities around the country.
So much has been lost, trust of law-enforcement, innocence, money in the stock market, inventory and life-savings in businesses that burned, and lives (esp in nursing homes and retirement communities).
Good grief, pastor, this is depressing! What are you doing to us?
But it’s real.
I’m trying to help you understand the situation the ppl were in that Peter wrote to.
The stress was real. Just like stress now, stress then would have broken up marriages, led children down bad paths. They lost their homes, businesses, and many lost loved ones to the persecution brought by the Roman gov’t.
Did God have an answer? Does He have an answer today, for the stuff we go thru that destabilizes us and rocks our world?
Emotionally?
Psychologically?
Financially?
Physically?
Spiritually?
God has provided a stabilizer for our lives in the most tumultuous times. Jesus is the anchor for our ship in a violent storm. Jesus is the solid foundation for our feet in a massive earthquake.
Jesus is the rock, the cornerstone that we can hug and hold w/ all our might while our world shakes uncontrollably around us. And we will not only be safe in that storm. We will be able to stand strong after the storm.
This is Peter’s message in 1 Peter 2:4-10. B/C his readers lives had been turned upside down. What had be sure, firm, stabile; had been ripped up and torn down.
And, now they need to know if God has an answer for the instability that defined their entire lives at that time.
They needed an anchor. They needed a solid foundation.
What God provided was a Cornerstone.
Stones
Stones
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. For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
What an interesting picture Peter drew here w/ his words.
We think of stones as inanimate. But, this one is alive.
So, the picture is of strength, stability, solid.
Today, we might use steel girders buried deep into bedrock. If you’ve ever seen a high-rise being built. Maybe you remember the pictures of the new World Trade Center when it was built.
Or, if you visited Chick-Fil-A in Flagstaff, went thru the drive thru and saw the new construction next door to the north.
They tore down a hotel and now are building a much larger, probably, apartment building. And, they dug deep to establish a solid foundation on bedrock.
When they built a building in c.1 the first thing they would do is set the cornerstone.
It was a larger, heavy stone, set deep in the ground. It would be much deeper than the rest of the foundation stones but would appear to be same height as the rest.
Then they would cement stones to the cornerstone. But, that one was the most important creating the necessary stability for the rest of the building.
Otherwise, it would just be a stack of rocks like a house of cards. One stiff wind and it would be a pile or rocks.
Then, One living stone gives birth to other living stones. That’s us when we come to believe in the Cornerstone God provided.
There are times in our life when we may feel like a pane of glass. We feel like we are one false move from our entire lives shattering.
But, we are stones. We may get chipped by life.
But, we are as solid as the Cornerstone b/c we are now new creations in His image, made of His substance.
And, we are the stones that have been cemented to the Cornerstone being built into a house.
We help provide stability for each other. That’s why if one falls, it affects all of us.
But, the Cornerstone never gives way. And the cement can fill the cracks that we create restoring the stability and strength of the structure.
We all know the story of the 3 little pigs and the houses they built.
The Big Bad Wolf huffed, and puffed and blew 2 of the houses down.
The straw house and stick house didn’t stand a chance.
But, the stone house wasn’t affected.
Jesus told Peter the church would be built on rock and the gates of hell cannot harm it.
Stability, encouragement, we are part of an organization that will never fail.
Individual churches, Christians will fall.
But, the organization has already won.
So much was failing and falling apart around them.
Businesses may be failing due to the COVID crisis. Marriages may be failing apart around us. But, the international org that is the church has already won.
And God is producing real, healthy life-changes in individuals who surrender and cement themselves to the cornerstone.
We won. We are just waiting for the rest of the world to realize it.
And, there is a lot new about this organization and the c.1 church, it’s really just a new branch of a very old tree w/ a solid root system.
Apparently, there is a new country in the middle of downtown Seattle.
Some of you may be in support of this.
Others, may see this an exercise in ridiculous futility.
Either way, the leadership of CHAZ or CHOP is discovering how difficult it is to start brand new country w/ little or no historical foundation.
Our founding fathers understood this. There had never been a country established on such individual freedom before. It was an experiment.
The US, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but still the best nation in the history of the world. Needs work.
What’s the future for CHOP?
What was the future for this new sect, this new branch of the old tree?
The old tree provided a stabile root system for the branch to be healthy and grow.
Peter affirms this by quoting the OT and pointing out this is new healthy growth from that old established trunk.
So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
will never be stricken with panic.
Never panic or put to shame.
That doesn’t ppl won’t try.
Remember Noah. Ridiculed and shamed by ppl who didn’t believe the message.
It had never rained before the flood. So, when he tried to warn them that God was going to make it rain. They mocked him.
So, how did that whole mocking shaming thing work out for everybody else?
In the end, who was shamed?
8 ppl survived and 2 of every animal.
So, did they really shame him during the construction of the ark? They certainly tried.
PPL may try to mock you for your belief in the Cornerstone. It may hurt. But, who will be right in the end?
Then he quotes Psalm 118:22
The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
Builders rejected him.
Specifically, the religious leaders rejected Jesus. But, so does everybody else who is trying to build and stabile structure to find security in an unstable life.
That is the first 2 pigs using straw and sticks.
The Big Bad Wolf comes along in the form of a bad diagnosis and blows away whatever they thought would protect them.
You think you have financial security? Them comes a COVID crisis and your portfolio tanks.
We are all trying to find something that will stand up to the storms of life. We save for it, educate ourselves for it, get a job to pay for it, build it, insure it, then something comes along completely unforeseen and blows it all away.
And God provided a stone that will never get blown away. All we have to do is accept Him, not reject Him.
Then Peter quoted Isaiah 8:14
He will be a holy place;
for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
It is a uniquely American or western idea that all gods and religions are the same.
This week we’ll let A Christian open congress w/ a prayer. Next week a Muslim can. The next week a Satanist can. They’re all the same, right.
Jesus is a stumbling block to everyone who refuses to believe that He is the only way to get to heaven.
Tolerance, believing in everything is really believing in nothing.
So, to reject Jesus as the only, is to reject the Cornerstone and fend for yourself.
It’s only a matter of time before the instability of your structure is exposed and blown away.
We are living stones. Strong, solid part of a sound structure. We are re-created in the image of The Cornerstone. Jesus gives us a new ID when we come believe in Him.
Peter gives us a clearer picture of how our new stability affects us as we live our lives in a relatively unstable world.
There are benefits and opportunities for us b/c Jesus gives us a new ID, one that is just like his.
The ID of a Stone
The ID of a Stone
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
He lists 5 characteristics our new ID
1st, We are A Chosen People
We are chosen to declare to whomever will listen of all the good that God has done.
For Israel, they could talk about how he miraculously brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
For us, we can talk about how He miraculously brought us out of slavery to bad habits and instability.
And the positive life-changes that He brings to us.
Who else should declare what good God has done but those who have directly benefited.
And, we can focus on praise. We legitimately have things to praise God for even when life is tumultuous.
There is always a bright side. No hope destabilizes us. But we are filled w/ hope for the future b/c we can focus on what good God has done in the past.
2nd, We are Priests
In the OT, the priests were the only ones who were able to go directly into the presence of God.
Once they were there they made things right for all the things the ppl did wrong.
That keeps the relationship close.
They already had, we already have, the relationship. The sacrifices don’t establish it or earn it. They keep it close.
They keep us close to God. And most important thing we have is the presence of God. Everything good flows from God’s presence into our life.
We maintain our stability by maintaining a close presence w/ God.
3rd, We are A Holy Nation
Set apart to be different. We know we shouldn’t and we don’t have to participate in ungodly behavior.
These are the activities that tear ppl down and break relationships up.
We know what to do and what to avoid and we have the strength and courage to do it.
We don’t have to do things that destabilize.
4th, we are God’s Special Possession
And, as His special possession He gives us special power and abilities.
The very power that raised Jesus from the dead resides inside of us. And we have gifts that combine with the power allow us to have a significant role in the lives of those around us.
Not only is your life meaningful, we all have a meaningful role in the lives of the ppl we care about and can have a positive influence.
5th, we get God’s Mercy
It’s his game, his rules. He gets to decide what is a foul And, He gets to decides what the punishment is for the foul.
But, we don’t have to live in anxiety waiting for God to drop the hammer on us for committing fouls in His game.
Mercy means we are not punished when we deserve it.
There is nothing hanging over our heads to destabilize us.
If anybody understood the value of this it’s Peter who denied even knowing Jesus when He was arrested Immediately after promising to stand by Jesus to the end and die w/ Him if called for.
And, Jesus mercifully restored Him to his full position of leader to the disciples after Jesus was gone.
There is nothing we can do that will cause Jesus to DQ us from the relationship we have w/ Him.
No fear or anxiety of being rejected by God b/c there is nothing we can do to make Him reject us.
In a world full of destabilizing events and activities, where our insecurities can take over and dominate our lives we don’t have to be afraid or anxious b/c our Stabilizer is greater than the destabilizers of the world.
We are part of a house that is anchored by a Cornerstone that we can hug w/ all our might and nothing can unsettle our footing causing us to stumble and fall.
The ground around us may quake but ours won’t.
Our ship is anchored and secure.
There is not spiritual vertigo.
God will never divorce us or anyone close to us.
Cancer may take us from this life but that just means we’re about t/b delivered to the next. And, there is no hate or hurt there.
God has provided a stabilizer for us. Whether the ground around us is shaking, or our knees are knocking, we can stand firm in the most tumultuous times.
We don’t need to be afraid that our lives will shatter like a pane of glass.
We are solid as the stones that were given their strength by the One Living Stone.
Applications
Applications
Rejected?
Rejected?
Is there anything that you are expecting to keep you stabilized that is not Jesus?
Is there a straw house or stick house you are building?
These may be good things, important things, but they are not the most important things to find your security and stability in.
Finances, health, church activities, family, all good things but they will break down.
Self-medicating, affair, addictions these are bad things but are the straw houses people build to find stability.
Is there something in your life that you are looking to stabilize you but is really destabilizing you?
Wolf
Wolf
What is the Big Bad Wolf in your life? And, you need to recognize it as such knowing it’s not going to blow your house down.
As long as you stay close, in the presence of Jesus, no big bad wolf can hurt you or shame you. You have already won.
Tell the big bag of wind to go away.
Dads
Dads
Show your kids what it looks like to live out the ID you’ve been given by Jesus.
Of the 5 characteristics of your new ID, what do your kids or grand kids need to see in you?
Give them a positive example to follow.
And finish strong.
God has provided a stabilizer for our lives in the most tumultuous times. Jesus is the anchor for our ship in a violent storm. Jesus is the solid foundation for our feet in a massive earthquake.
Jesus is the rock, the cornerstone that we can hug and hold w/ all our might while our world shakes uncontrollably around us. And we will not only be safe in that storm. We will be able to stand strong after the storm.