PM 1 Peter 2:1-10

[0:00] to worship whenever we gather as his people. And his call to worship, most frequently found in the Psalms, are not only an invitation, but a bit of a prompt for us to find satisfaction that is only met when we praise him.

[0:23] It's not that he has such a large ego that he's saying praise me, but he knows that we, his creatures, even his sons and daughters through Christ, that there's a completion when we praise him and thank him, not only for what he's done, but for who he is.

[0:42] And so this call to worship tells us who he is, and our response this evening is worship. This is out of Psalm 59.

[0:53] But I will sing of your strength. I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

[1:10] Oh, my strength, I will sing praises to you. For you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

[1:24] Let's respond by singing in our Psalters Psalm 8. And we'll stand as we sing verses 3 through 6. It's found on page 8.

[1:35] Page 8 in your Psalter Psalm 8, verses 3 through 6. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand.

[2:14] Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand.

[2:35] Let's stand. Thank you.

[3:06] Thank you.

[3:36] Thank you.

[4:07] There's going to come a point in this prayer where I give, and I'll introduce it, just a time of silence. It won't be more than a minute at most, 60 seconds.

[4:18] But that's for you to pray, for you to pray silently, to fill in the blanks so that we're praying as a church family together tonight, and you're praying also individually and personally as well to your God and Christ.

[4:36] Let's pray.

[5:06] Thank you, Father.

[5:36] It's family.

[6:06] We struggle at times with persevering and obedience. You know, the sins that, like an unwelcome dark guest, haunt us, even search us out, and we succumb.

[6:22] You know, Father, where we find ourselves ill-prepared for temptation, and we cave. We give in again, we give in again, but you don't turn away.

[6:42] You invite us to come, and we come with boldness, but we come with boldness, knowing that yours is a steadfast love.

[6:57] It's non-ending, and that we're meeting with God, and that we're meeting with God, and that we're meeting with you, not as a judge, but as a father. And at your right hand is Jesus Christ, whoever lives to intercede.

[7:08] So right now, Lord, we want to give you those things that we would count as offenses or sin, or those things that we would seek to be more faithful.

[7:25] We would seek to be faithful, we would seek to be faithful, and that obedience flowing not from fear, but out of wonder at your steadfast love.

[7:37] And so, Father, now we take just a moment to give them to you, as we do business with you, right now. Heavenly Father, some of us have repented now of things that are deep and dark, shameful.

[8:22] But some of us have also repented of our goodness. Our goodness that holds you at arm length. Our goodness that separates us from you and approaching you.

[8:43] Lord, we know that you are quick to forgive. That you are called the lifter of heads. That your work of forgiveness is a work, it's a forever work.

[8:59] That we not only have come to be saved from our sins, but we are being saved from our sins, and we will be saved on the final day of judgment.

[9:11] The promise of the gospel is such good news. It frees us to be a repentant people. Father, we thank you for this church. We thank you that this church is indeed a family.

[9:26] That this church is not simply a gathering of members or even friends. But in this church, we have one another that we call brother, sister.

[9:43] Father, we thank you that you're our Father and Jesus Christ, that you're our older brother. As well as our Savior and our Lord.

[9:54] We thank you for every member. And were I able, I would raise up every member by name. That we might be able to recite just how precious, how loved everyone is by you and by us.

[10:16] We thank you for our church. We ask that you would bless her mission. We ask that you would strengthen her, encourage her, equip her, resource her, nurture her in health.

[10:28] That she might be a vibrant witness of worship and faith and life with you to all of the citizens in Dumfries and the surrounding region.

[10:40] We ask your blessings with wisdom for those that are making decisions tonight. For peace with those that are troubled in mind or heart.

[10:52] For healing for those that know physical trials. We ask, Father, you, Holy Spirit, to enlarge and grow our faith.

[11:06] And Jesus, to grow our prayers and our confidence in your grace and your forgiveness.

[11:16] So now, Father, we ask that you receive our worship this evening. We ask that you would speak to us soon from your word. And that when we leave, we might be able to thank you for this Sabbath day.

[11:32] Along with the psalmist who said, It was good. It was sweet. To gather together in this fellowship at Dumfries in the house of the Lord for worship.

[11:50] Receive our prayer as we make this our prayer. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. I want to invite you to turn once again in your psalter, this time to page 14.

[12:04] And there we're going to stand and sing Psalm 13, verses 1 through 6. Psalm 13, verses 1 through 6 on page 14.

[12:18] Let's stand. Please. Please. Cuba. CAN you mulling?

[12:30] Will you forget?待f' resources για Chu Não av'They لم they sono casa e mad ecc ül aqueles Insteadistas How long was I, he sadly shamed, and pondered pain to live?

[13:08] How long will my abominent standing die out over me?

[13:25] O Lord my God, consider me and give me your reply.

[13:43] Light up my eyes, or I will see the sea of those who die.

[14:01] Then would my enemy defer, and thus I made him whole.

[14:19] And so I chose to sing for joy, to see my overthrow.

[14:33] But still I trust, your constant love, you save and set me free.

[14:53] With joy I will extol the Lord, who has been good to me.

[15:08] The scripture that we're going to be looking at this evening is found in the epistle of 1 Peter, chapter 2.

[15:28] And I'm going to read verses 1 through 10. This morning I spoke about, from chapter 1, and then a portion of chapter 2, about our identity.

[15:43] Our identity in this world is as exiles. We're not citizens of this world. We have a homeland where God, our Father, has destined us, even the new heaven and the new earth.

[15:58] But we're not without purpose. We don't isolate ourselves. But He gives us meaning, even sharing His glory with us, to serve Him on mission.

[16:11] The mission of the church. And we're going to look at that this evening about, what are we doing? If we know our identity, what's our purpose?

[16:23] What's our mission? Beginning with verse 1 of 1 Peter 2. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

[16:40] Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

[16:52] 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 be a holy priesthood.

[17:17] For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.

[17:32] 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 and a rock of offense.

[17:48] They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

[18:12] 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.

[18:23] This is God's word and may He this evening bless us with a rich understanding of this, His holy word. We're going to remain seated now and I would encourage you as you listen to this hymn, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds, that you would meditate on its truth.

[18:47] Even consider turning your meditation into a prayer. Let's listen to the hymn, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds. Joseph's Bill based on its words.

[19:01] ... How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds, How DegrassOb gaining &izin�, He spreads His words, He spreads His words, Beh Ιelts his words, And diamonds away his procent.

[19:17] is He. It brings the Lord and Spirit home, and comes the troubled rest.

[19:31] Tisna to the hungry soul, and to the weary rest. Dear people, Lord, on which I build my shield and hiding place.

[19:54] I bear the failing tread filled with other souls of grace.

[20:07] Jesus, I share a brother, a friend, I prophet, peace, and king. I love my life, my grave, my end, accept the praise I bring.

[20:32] Weak is He ever, of my heart, and cold, my warmest thought. heart.

[20:42] But when I see Thee as heart, I praise Thee as I ought.

[20:56] To the Lord, I love me, with everything for healing Guiness.

[21:11] Thee will love get its blood, opening32,..., hands, heal, in the phase.

[21:22] There's so-called words. There's so-called prayer in now I aş and the COVID restrictions, and particularly lockdown taught me anything.

[21:35] It taught me two things. The first thing that it taught me is there are a lot of programs on TV that I've been missing. And that with the lockdown restrictions and the time at home that I found myself with, Wendy and I joining me, we did a lot of binge watching.

[21:58] Now, we share similar tastes and so our binge watching is not so much adventure series that we've been missing or detective programs as much as it is home restoration or home repair.

[22:13] And one show that we binge watch to every episode and now they continue to have seasons so it must be popular is Escape to the Chateau.

[22:26] Your hosts for this show are Dick and Angel, Strawbridge with bright orange hair. I don't think it's red. I think it's dyed orange.

[22:36] They bought, they purchased this dilapidated large French chateau and program by program they set to restore it.

[22:50] And they've made so much progress. They work tirelessly. And each episode, they normally have a couple, more than one, projects. A project that Angel wants Dick to undertake.

[23:02] A project that is something crafty and artsy that she herself has undertook. And something very physical that Dick has undertook.

[23:14] Well, this particular show, Angel and Dick's Together Project, she contributed the idea and he all the brawn. She wanted to connect two rooms with an archway.

[23:26] Now this is a very, I don't know how old, but it's over a century old chateau. She wanted to simply knock a hole in the wall, make it into an archway in order to connect the two.

[23:41] Dick said it's not as easy as all that. For you see, that wall, there's stone upon stone. And so when we knock a hole in the wall, all the stones above will tumble down through that hole.

[23:59] Well, what are we going to do? And so, Dick explained to her, they need to put in something called a lentil. And a lentil is a larger piece of masonry or a stone that as they make a hole into this stone wall, they put in the lentil and all the stones in that wall will rest upon that lentil.

[24:27] Everything above will rest on that lentil. And you can have an archway. The second thing that I've learned during the restrictions and lockdown, particularly for the church, is that many of us were unable for a season to assemble physically together.

[24:45] We might meet through Zoom or through other ways or not meet at all. But those who met in the cyber world through Zoom, they came to see that though it wasn't the same, that a church is more than a building.

[25:04] In fact, a church is not a building at all. A church is people. And it's family.

[25:17] As my pastor in Glasgow often says, a church is not a building that we come to, but it's a family that we belong to. And if you miss everything else that I have to say, connect those two lessons.

[25:34] A wall. Stone upon stone. But that wall has integrity because it rests on a larger stone. Even Jesus Christ is our foundation.

[25:47] That connects us as we're connected to Him. And that a church is so connected as a family. We're connected, you and I.

[26:02] We're connected like living stones. And so the big idea is that if you're a Christian tonight, or if you would become a Christian, understand, you're going to be joined to one another even as you're joined to Jesus Christ.

[26:23] There's no exception to that. If you break that rule or change it in any way, we cease to be a church family. Our connection to Christ, our union with Christ, brings us into union with one another.

[26:40] Weak, strong, small in faith, full of doubts, we're still in union with you. And you're in union with us and all the messes that we bring.

[26:54] It's a family. But it's a family that is based on the grace, the steadfast love of Jesus, and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit.

[27:08] Now, I want to approach this with an outline of four points. I want you to imagine that we're building a house.

[27:19] We're building a building. And there are four steps. And the first step is you've got to prepare the construction site. Look at verse 1.

[27:31] Verse 1 says that we're to put away some things. Malice, which is, I would call malice more like a brooding hidden anger.

[27:42] Deceit. Hypocrisy. In fact, some of your Bibles will have that in plural. Hypocrisies. You know, counterfeit religion or counterfeit friendships.

[27:54] Saying one thing, doing another. Pretending. Phony. Envy. And then slander. That's the rubbish on this job site.

[28:06] Or, we might say that this is a job site that we're getting rid of those unworthy laborers. My dad, for a number of years, before he went to be an independent electrician and work on his own, he worked for a large construction company as a manager of a crew.

[28:30] And on his hard hat, because he grew so weary of spectators coming into this construction site, who were not laborers, on his hard hat, he had written, just another tourist.

[28:49] Well, this is getting rid of the tourists. This is saying, if we're serious about building a church, if we're serious about Dumb Freeze being a church family on mission to serve Christ in our community, if I'm serious about belonging in this family, serving in this family, and that on Christ, I need to get rid of this rubbish in my life.

[29:15] I need to, I think a lot of it's captured in that word, slander. There's a principle in relationships called the character attribution factor.

[29:30] I won't explain it except to tell you a good example of it. If you're driving, now I'm American and so I know that I don't do roundabouts as well as you do, but if I'm in a roundabout and you make a mistake, I'm going to look at you and I'm going to say, look at that idiot.

[29:55] They're in the wrong lane. If you go into the roundabout and you're in the wrong lane, you're going to say about yourself, it's the circumstances.

[30:08] I was crowded out. I couldn't get into the correct lane. So with you, it's based on defending yourself with circumstances, but when I look at you, I judge your character.

[30:20] Clearing away the ruptures. If we want to build a church family, we can't be that way to one another. We've got to see every one of us through the eyes of Christ with grace and love, family, brother, and sister.

[30:36] And in that way, we find that he tells us that we're going to constantly grow in verse 2 and I can't expand upon this tonight because of time, but he says, one way to recognize it's like this construction site.

[30:49] Once we're clearing all this rubbish, there's some refreshments on the site. I would say cold water, but here, staying with what Peter says, it's refreshing milk.

[31:02] And this milk is God's Word and it's a milk that builds us up, he says, it grows us up into salvation. And that's a little cryptic, but what he's saying is it grows us in the Gospel.

[31:13] It grows us being mindful of what I was saved from, how I was saved, it was all of grace and you were too. And so, the rubbish sites, I mean, the building site is prepared now.

[31:30] The second thing is identify a good foundation. And I do mean identify, spot it out. Identify a good foundation. Identify what we're going to build this church family upon.

[31:45] Now, I know I'm talking to the choir and that you've built this church, Dumfries, upon Jesus Christ and His acceptance by putting His love upon you that He would die for you.

[32:00] You have built this church on that truth. But the language in verse 4, and I hope that you're finding it, this is a bit of a Bible study sermon, but I hope that you've got your finger in this text in front of you but in verse 4 it says, as you come to Him.

[32:19] Now, I'm not a Greek scholar, but you can't miss this one. This is a, the language here is called a present participle, which means it's a continuous action.

[32:34] So in other words, it means as you keep coming to Him. So it's this idea of coming to Christ or coming back to Christ.

[32:48] And what are we doing? We're coming again and again to spot Christ as the very foundation that not only my church family needs, but I need.

[33:02] It's continually coming to Christ. Not to begin my salvation again, but it's continuing to look at Him and to see, He's the right foundation. I made the right decision.

[33:12] Thank you, God, for leading me, opening my eyes. And it's when we have doubts to look again and yes, count the cost and saying, is He the correct one to build my whole life upon?

[33:27] Are my hopes well founded in Him? Has He treated me and taken care of me like a good shepherd? And the answer, of course, is yes.

[33:39] What happens is, as we keep coming to Him, we'll see that in God's sight, it says in verse 4, He is God's chosen and He's precious.

[33:53] And that's what you're looking for. Keep coming to Christ. Both as a church, but now I'm thinking more individually. Keep coming to Christ and asking yourself, do I see two things?

[34:08] In my sight, is He a chosen foundation by God? Yes. God long promised that it's Christ who will be the Messiah.

[34:22] He's the one that we can build our life upon. He's the one that will save us. He is our rightful Lord. So we keep coming to Him and saying, yes, He is God's choice.

[34:39] But keep coming to Christ and then I ask you the question, in your sight, tonight, is Christ precious? Another term for precious is beautiful, radiant.

[34:55] Jonathan Edwards, the great American theologian, said that we can look at our Christian life and ask the question, is Jesus Christ beautiful to me or is He simply useful?

[35:17] So, we've cleaned the rubbish off our sight. We've identified the foundation that we're going to build this church, we're going to build our life upon. It is Jesus.

[35:29] He is God's man. He is God's choice. He is the shepherd. He is the promised Messiah. He is the Savior and He is beautiful.

[35:42] He is worth giving my life to. He is worth building my life upon and building this church upon. Third thing is, let's get the building materials onto the site. Let's identify the building materials.

[35:54] And there's two. The primary building material, it says in verse 5, is, you. You're the building materials. You're living stones.

[36:06] Now, I like what Matthew Henry says here. He says, all Christians have in them this principle of spiritual life. He communicated to them life from their union to Christ.

[36:25] Let me say it a different way and much more elementary. when your life comes into contact with Jesus Christ's life, when your dead life comes into contact with a living, resurrected, life-giving force, life-giver himself, creator of all life, Jesus Christ, life is communicated to you.

[36:50] I would dare say that you separate, you break that union, you begin to once again experience spiritual death. But spiritual life comes into us.

[37:01] We come as dead, inanimate stones. but now we become living stones. A strange, strange paradox is an organic stone.

[37:14] This building becomes an organic building. It's constantly growing and it's growing by all those who are now alive because they've come into contact with a living Christ.

[37:28] They've come into union with Him because of their faith. And so, that's the building material, but then He says you're being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.

[37:39] And this is where the metaphor begins to, it begins to change a little bit, but He's saying this house is composed of priesthood. Not just males, men, women, not just clergy, but every Christian.

[37:55] Those with little knowledge, those with a lot. And He says, this priesthood is a live priesthood. It's not just a historic priesthood that wears a robe or a hat or a ministerial badge.

[38:10] They actually do something. They work in this house. This house, these walls, this material is living material. It's nuclear. It's growing.

[38:21] It's active. The church is this house. and you're a part of very valuable living stone as building material in this and you function not just the minister, not just the elders, not just our teachers, but you have a role as a priest in the priesthood.

[38:45] Let me just tell you before I leave this point what a priest does. Just to remind you, some of these things, you're doing them already. Others you might need to consider doing them.

[38:58] First of all, He says in verse 5, priests offer spiritual sacrifices. What is that? Well, the great sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has already been made and will never be made or need to be made again.

[39:17] God's wrath to me and my sin is satisfied. And the gospel says that now not only is God not angry, but there's no more wrath.

[39:32] He can't be mad at me ever again because the Christ has been, because Christ is so acceptable. Completely so. On the cross, Jesus says, it's finished and there is no more cross.

[39:45] There is no future sacrifice. Not mine, not for Christ. So what is my sacrifice? Well, I think this is where Paul is helpful and I won't take the time to turn tonight, but Paul is so helpful in his epistles in talking about our body life with one another.

[40:05] How it shouldn't be a me first attitude at Dumfries. It should be a you first. It shouldn't be serve me and my needs. It should be how can I serve you?

[40:20] And that is always a sacrifice. One of the greatest sacrifices that you'll make is to forgive someone. This is back to verse 1. That malice, that hypocrisy of saying, oh, the Lord bless you and the whole time saying that idiot.

[40:34] It's, it's, it's loving. It's forgiving. It's sacrificing. It's spiritual because it's not innate with us.

[40:48] Oh Lord, I, I mean, even my kids knew growing up that dad had a top 10 hit list. And if there were such thing as spiritual hit men, I would have hired them to take them out.

[41:01] I had one or two elders that stayed on my list for quite a few years. But what did I do? I prayed. The Lord never did change those, those tough, stubborn guys.

[41:18] But I took them off my list because the Lord changed me. Oh, the Lord changed me. A spiritual sacrifice is saying, I don't need you to change to love you.

[41:35] I need to change to love you. And you can't love another person. You can't make that sacrifice unless you know that that's the degree that Christ loved you.

[41:48] That He was willing to sacrifice that you might experience that love. And now we just love others out of the overflow. A second priestly work is found over in verse 9.

[42:01] Verse 9, he says, you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. Just a little note to self. All those are plural.

[42:13] When God looks at us, He does not see you separate from this church. And not just this church, but harken back to this morning.

[42:24] The universal church. You're a part, you're a living stone, not just in the wall of Dumfries, but you're connected in the great, great wall that surround New Zion, Jerusalem.

[42:39] In other words, you're a part of Glasgow City Free Church where I'm affiliated. You're a part of our wall. And we're a part of your wall. We're told that in Revelation chapter 21 that John gives this vision of a wall that surrounds the new Jerusalem, Zion, God's dwelling place, His spiritual house.

[43:02] And that that wall is probably not a physical wall. That wall, brick by brick, stone by stone, is the church. It's Christians. God sees us that way already, right now.

[43:17] We're in the plural. He doesn't just see us individually, but He sees me in relationship to you and you in relationship to me. So I need to be mindful of how I treat my brothers and sisters.

[43:29] But, I digress. Priests, a priesthood, this royal priesthood, proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

[43:43] There was a day that Peter experienced this firsthand. He was in a dark prison cell. And the prison cell there in His darkness was illuminated.

[43:56] Charles Wesley wrote a hymn about it. My chains fell off and I, you know, I was free and I went forth and followed Thee.

[44:10] Peter had this experience, but so have every one of us. We proclaim God's excellency. We proclaim how beautiful, how wonderful He is every worship service and I hope for your individual private devotions when we sing.

[44:33] The praise items are carefully selected in order for you to be able to proclaim. That's what's so challenging and horrible about being in our zone in Glasgow.

[44:46] We still can't sing behind our mask yet. We can't fulfill verse 9. Can I tell you before I leave this as a priesthood here at Dumfries, don't slip into avoiding this.

[45:03] And the way you can avoid this is by not, I mean you're always going to sing in your worship service, but don't count it as just a preliminary run up to the preaching.

[45:15] Okay? Our praise may be more important than even the preaching of the Word. Chew on that. Now I'll debate you on that.

[45:25] That's a good conversation to have. But it's not just, it's not just you know appetizers for the main menu of God's Word. That's not how God sees it.

[45:36] We're proclaiming. We're proclaiming the Gospel. And then lastly the work of a priest. It says in verse 10, once you are not a people, this is a call as a priesthood to never ever forget.

[45:52] My son, one of my sons, we've got four adult children, three sons and a daughter. He has a tattoo on his wrist. He was a son that I would say had a number of prodigal years.

[46:07] We actually, there was a point where physically he was completely lost to us. He wound up borrowing money calling us from a bus station where he was living in the brush four states away.

[46:24] I mean, he was far away from home. But he came to faith in Christ and he got a tattoo on his wrist and he got it in Hebrew.

[46:37] I don't read Hebrew that well and I asked him what it meant and he said, Dad, it means a son never forgets. A son never forgets.

[46:49] And I would say that as sons and daughters, here in verse 10, he's saying, once you are not a people, remember that. Remember what it was like to be in the dark.

[47:01] Remember what it was like to be like an orphan. No son, no daughter, you. You had to fend for yourself. Every day you would wake up, I've got to make it. Nobody's looking after me.

[47:12] I don't have a father. I don't have a shepherd. It's me. I am not a people. I'm not a part of the community. And looking back, that will shape our testimony and our story.

[47:28] I told you this morning that exiles have exile stories and that's a part of what our testimony is. And it's a testimony not of, oh, I was so smart, I was so good, I was such a good person that it was only natural that I join a church or that I come to faith in Christ.

[47:46] No. You were messed up. You were a pagan. You were lost. You were an orphan.

[48:00] You were a sinner. I'm humbled by that. But it shapes my testimony to not only be humble but also to be bold and say, but I'm a people now.

[48:14] I've got a family. I've got a family that's even larger than Dumfries. And that family is an eternal family. I'm telling you, if you have this testimony, if you're willing to humbly take opportunity to share what a wreck you were without God as your Father through Jesus Christ and that now it's the great delight, the church is not something that you look at and say, ah, church, well, it's just something we just attend.

[48:46] that the church becomes, like Charles Spurgeon said, the dearest place on earth. You're my people. Is there anything that I could confess up here and tell you that I'm seeking assurance or pardon from Jesus Christ that you would not come up and put your arm around me and say, let me reassure you that nobody's too far from forgiveness and fresh grace?

[49:15] Or would I shock you and send you running? No. Church is family. We don't desert one another. Your testimony of being once a messed up person but now being in Christ is going to be very winsome particularly to the degree that other people are in deep darkness.

[49:35] I, one of the things that I do is I work with pastors and working with pastors they have a great focus on how to grow their church and not necessarily even numerically but grow it to be a healthy vibrant church and one of the things that I suggest is a discipleship plan where everybody in the congregation is not only growing deeper in understanding of God and his kingdom and Jesus and the working of the Holy Spirit but that we're actually taking a priesthood role and we're discipling others.

[50:20] A discipleship plan can be found in a book called The Trellis and the Vine. You build a structure in your church and then the vine is organic. We are at work.

[50:32] We are growing and we're growing others. But the watchword in the Trellis and the Vine of this plan of discipleship a strap line if you would is move one person one step to the right.

[50:51] You've got on one side complete darkness. Don't know Christ. You've got ultimately the greatest of all lights the very throne room of heaven the courts of the Lord.

[51:07] We're all somewhere along and about in the midpoint is the cross where we come to salvation. Think about relationships that you have even with one another.

[51:20] How can you move one person wherever you find them just one step closer to God? That's discipleship and that's the work of a royal priesthood.

[51:33] That's a work of a people that look back. We once were so far from God but now I'm nearer to Him. You're farther away I can help you by serving you.

[51:48] And then lastly and briefly we've cleared the rubble we've picked out a good foundation to build this church upon.

[52:01] We've got our materials it's us we're going into this building and we're alive in Christ built on Christ He's the cornerstone chosen and He's precious to us we're not leaving and we've got brothers and sisters in this we need one final thing we need somebody to put it together we need a master builder who has a glorious plan we need an architect who better than God Himself I mean He designed the world and He made the world He designed heaven and will design and build the new heaven and the new earth it says in verse 5 that you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house well who's doing the building is it your minister is it your elders is it people that are more mature are they the ones building you up to some degree but they're not the master builder what about you are you in charge you're going to build your faith you're going to grow in the

[53:06] Lord you're not adequate it's God it says in verse 6 behold I am laying in Zion a stone now stay with me I need to connect these dots because it's so subtle that you can miss it behold I'm laying in Zion a stone so this master builder God lays Jesus Christ as the foundation for all life and all our spiritual life our forever life is to be built on this corner stone God laid that stone now it says in verse 6 whoever believes in him that is Jesus will not be put to shame so in other words you're backing the right man you've put your faith in the object of your affection is Jesus and it's the correct one you'll never be embarrassed you'll never be proven wrong you'll never be put to shame that you made the wrong choice verse 7 so verse 6 is

[54:24] God's laying the foundation he lays the stone we've identified it but God lays it he is saying if you believe in him you're not going to be put to shame you're going to be built if you believe in him you're going to be built on him so I'm putting the materials together verse 7 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 he becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of fence the first words of verse 7 so the honor is for you who believe it's connected to shame and here's what Peter's trying to say because you're built a rock is built upon this precious chosen cornerstone you become precious and chosen all the honor everything that is true of

[55:29] Jesus Christ now becomes true of you the master builder has this plan that says I want to build a spiritual house it says in verse 5 not temple I want a place that I can live in that I can reside in I can dwell and I want verse 9 a people for my own possession out of the nations that will be mine that will be a part of this house that will be a part of this house is very walls and I will inhabit this house with my people forever that's the plan it's not simply building a house but it's filling it and that's the gospel the gospel is that God has not only made a plan to build his church and to put his church forward in this world but the gospel is that all along he's been building his house to include you as his son and daughter and his family even

[56:38] Dumfries you might look at your directory or roles and say we're not that large in number it's not the way that God sees it he sees you as part of something much much bigger and grander and glorious and it is to his glory perhaps we need to see our church like God sees it be a little proud not boasting in ourself but boasting in what he's doing and what he's done well Dick and Angel they are tireless I mean they exhaust me and Dick if you've ever seen the show he's a larger man but he just with a walrus mustache he just keeps moving and moving and Angel is just one idea after the other non-stop but they seemingly at the end of every episode get things done and the next episode take his equally grand projects on they're tireless and not only that they're joyful

[57:46] I mean they're just laughing and happy and they encounter problems but they just continue to go so in one program they were interviewed and they were asked okay is it about the money they said no not really it's it's not about money well what's your motivation and they said well you need to know our motivation is not to simply build a building or even a house our motivation is everything we do here we build it as our home we live here and we're raising our kids here and we're going to live here always well I don't know that they're believers in Christ so they won't live there always I don't think but what they were saying is we look at everything that we do in service of this place and our work and our labors here not because we're simply building an institution but we're building a home that we live in this is our family and that's

[58:59] Dumfries isn't it aren't we proud of our church and what God is the Lord is doing and aren't we willing to continue to sacrifice and serve this church that is dear to us this is a dear place to us and aren't we willing to yet labor on not complain as much not grouse as much and find opportunities for further sacrifices and additional work and serve our community so that people in our surrounding region will look at us and hopefully come to learn that we're people that love the church we love this church because God has put us together in this place not as a house or a building but it's our family let's pray Heavenly Father I thank you for your word and I thank you for the time that we've had this evening in it and I pray that you would allow us to take these things to heart none of these things are things that you're asking for dutiful obedience you're simply asking us to see the church your bride your people a people of your own possessions as you see it precious and chosen in

[60:17] Jesus Christ who we have built our life upon we thank you that we are your people and that through Christ and we ask that you would strengthen our union and our faith in him even as you strengthen our faith and our confidence in the work of your beautiful bride Dumfries Free Church so we thank you again for this opportunity to look into your word as we pray in Christ name Amen we're going to conclude with Psalm 130 singing verses 1-8 as we stand and sing it's found in your Psalter on page 173 page 173 Psalm 130 verses 1-8 please stand Lord from the death I call to you Lord hear me call on high and give attention to

[61:31] IQ 297 and Z through tongues how Those goin' Alright B GRACE HAD HAD glad The death of His mercy is with you, that He may fear you, Lord.

[62:22] I made my soul rich for the Lord, my hope in His word.

[62:41] For man that was shall wait for God, my soul waits for the Lord.

[63:01] O Israel, Israel, your holy God, for mercy is with Him.

[63:22] But who redemption pro-existes his people here?

[63:38] Now receive the blessing from your Lord. May you know the love of God as your Father.

[63:54] And may you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And may you know the abiding presence and peace and fellowship of the Holy Spirit both tonight and forever.

[64:12] Amen.