Sermon Tone Analysis

Like living stones...

Let’s start by reading our passage this morning, and then we can dive in and see how it applies to us today.

As you come to Him...

In these verses, Peter is not speaking to conversion, he’s speaking to those who have already come to faith in Jesus Christ, those who have believed that He died for their sins.

As you come to HIm...

How are we to come?

With full assurance...

With confidence...

In the Old Testament when Esther came into King Xerxes throne room, he had the authority to have her put to death.

She came pleading for her people, the Jews because a wicked man, named Haman wanted to see the Jewish race exterminated.

If King Xerxes extended his sceptre, she was safe, but if he wasn’t in the mood or if he was bothered by her, she would be punished.

When we come into God’s presence, He isn’t bothered.

He has invited us to come into His presence.

With thanksgiving...

With humility...

Sometimes, we can fall into the trap that God is busy like we are.

Maybe as children, we got the impression that our parents were too busy, or we might tell our kids to wait, but God is never too busy.

Next week I want to look at Jesus as the living Stone - rejected by humans but chosen by God.

Like living stones...

My Uncle and Aunt have been living in a stone house since about 1963.

I loved going there and admiring the house and barn.

Each stone was picked.

It one had to fit to make the house and the barn.

Maybe they had to be cut so that they would fit in place, but each building needed to have the stone which started the foundation.

Our Stone is Christ.

Stones and mortar made for strong structures that would last a long time.

In this part of the country, we live in an area that doesn’t have a lot of old structures.

If you were to go to Eastern Canada, you’d see buildings that might be hundreds of years old.

In Europe and Asia, you will see structures that are thousands of years old.

I used to pick stones by hand, but later I used a stone picker.

I had a neighbour that picked hundreds and hundreds of loads and he used to say that the stones that he picked were chosen and precious because they were all hand picked.

You are living stones...

You are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.

Together, we are part of this temple not built with hands.

In Ephesians two, Paul goes on to explain how God has brought Jews and Gentiles together as one in Christ, and he says this,

God builds a spiritual house through Jesus Christ

Have you ever shopped at Home Depot?

Lowes?

Or some other home repair-improvement type store?

If you have you've inevitably seen the piles of lumber tossed aside that are broken, cracked, warped, crooked, or just plain look bad.

These piles of lumber go ignored as faithful builders go for the 'perfect' building materials.

After all, who in their right mind would ever use "bad" materials to build a house?

You just don't do that - you don't start with a bad foundation because you know it won't last.

So it's funny that Jesus builds a very different way.

He uses the crooked sticks, the broken sticks, the lame lumber, the stuff that everyone else is looking past and in many cases tosses aside.

It's almost like he DELIGHTS in using materials that everyone else thinks are 'useless'.

It's almost like he's loading up his proverbial cart with all the crooked, broken, and warped wood that he can and he's parading it around - inviting others to question his decision making.

"How are you going to build a house with THAT!?!"

"Are you blind?

That wood is warped, you'll never pass inspection!"

"There is a huge pile of perfectly good material over there, use that."

You can almost hear Jesus' voice, "No, I'm going to build my house.

And nothing is going to stop me."... "These crooked, warped, broken pieces of wood are perfect and they're are all mine."

And off he goes, building the spiritual house, one broken stick at a time.

One warped 2x4 at a time.

One rotten floor joist at a time.

And believe me, IN CHRIST we will all pass the inspection as we stand redeemed and justified in HIM alone.

What a beautiful picture of the grace of God through the redemption of His son.

"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." - 1 Peter 2:4-5 (Sermon Central, Matthew Redder)

A holy priesthood...

This is what we call the priesthood of all believers.

Each and everyone of us has this calling.

Each of us can come into the presence of Almighty God through the blood of Jesus.

In Exodus 19:6

This is what God said to all Israel, not just to Aaron and his children, not just to the tribe of Levi, but to all the children of Israel.

Through Jesus, we have been grafted in to the family of Abraham.

This is what Galatians 3:26-29 says,

Offering spiritual sacrifices...

These offerings are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

You may have heard of the first two brothers mentioned in the Bible: Cain and Abel.

God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but He rejected Cain’s.

Our’s is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Our bodies...

Walk in love...

As we follow God’s example, we lay down our lives for others.

Our generosity...

When we give to those in need, it pleases God.

Paul the apostle commended the believers in Philippi because they gave to him in his time of need.

This is what he said,

Even if nobody else sees what you do, the Lord sees and He will see to it that He blesses you.

How will He bless you?

Is it always money?

Not necessarily, but God is able to bless you in ways that you can’t even begin to imagine.

If you ever come to the place where you wonder if God has blessed you, just take a few minutes and write it down.

I’m sure that you’ll be surprised.

To close, our purpose as these living stones is to bring glory and honour to God.

Chiseling away… Davon Huss

All our lives God works on us, chiseling away those parts of our life that hinder us from fitting into His eternal temple.

Our Christian life is a work in progress.

Jesus Christ is changing us from a useless stone to a useful one.

Before Michelangelo created the masterpiece we know simply as “David,” Agostino d’ Antonio had worked diligently but unsuccessfully on a large piece of marble.

He gave up his effort and said, “I can do nothing with it.”

Some others tried after him but failed.

This piece of marble was laid in a rubbish heap for 40 years.

Out strolling one day Michelangelo saw the stone and believed that it had great possibilities.

We know what happened.

From that seemingly worthless stone was carved one of the world’s masterpieces of sculpture- David.

For Michelangelo, the job of the sculptor was to free the forms that were already inside the stone.

He believed every stone had a sculpture within it, and the work of sculpting was simply a matter of chipping away all that was not a part of the statue.

When Jesus looks at us, He sees not a rough piece of rock but He sees inside of us the potential to be a beautiful dressed stone useful in his temple.