Having recited God's truth, I pray that only the truth would be spoken and only the truth would be heard.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I invite you to be seated.
It's funny when you've been doing things the same way for 40 years,
trying to remember that now the creed goes just after the sermon is a little bit difficult.
So we've been kind of following the evangelical practice for the last, well, at least we understand.
Amy and I have been doing ministry elsewhere for about the last month and a half.
But we've been going, taking a verse or two verses and expositing those particular verses.
There's a number of ways that we can go when we preach in the evangelical mode, the reform mode,
expository preaching.
You can go through entire books of the Bible, which I think is probably one of the most valuable ways to do it.
But also one of the ways we can do it, which is also very valuable to kind of switch to,
we want to switch stuff every now and then, is just to focus on one scripture.
And really dig down deep, drill down deep and say, okay, what is the Holy Spirit saying through these passages
that we all kind of know, they all kind of sit in our hearts, but maybe we can see them in a new way.
And so the passage that I'm going to be focusing on, if you want to turn to it in your Bibles,
is 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10.
I keep on saying 2 Peter, but 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10.
So it's a section, just two verses out of the epistle that we had read this morning.
Now, recently I read about a phenomenon that I was not aware of,
which is kind of funny because I grew up in the bush, as I like to mention.
And this phenomenon has to do with tree roots.
I was not aware that when trees come together and their roots actually touch,
there's a kind of fungus, in most cases, that grows on the tree roots
that actually limits the amount of competition between those two trees.
And not only does it limit competition, but it actually binds the trees together
and links them together so they'll share resources back and forth.
And you can, they physically link together.
This actually happens even with trees of different species.
So you can have an evergreen and a maple tree, and they'll come together
and they'll actually link their roots together.
And this substance, this fungus that grows there, what happens is, in many cases,
when one tree has access to light, and another tree has access to water,
perhaps just a little bit over there, and another has access to some sort of
the nutrients that are in the ground, a special kind of nutrients,
the trees will actually share, underneath the earth where you can't see,
share these things back and forth.
And you'll have entire forests, entire forests, that are linked together
and are sharing these resources.
So I always wondered, how can a short little tree last in these big, huge forests?
It's because these big trees are actually sharing the sunlight,
what they get from the sunlight.
Now, I'm not a scientist, so someone here could probably tell you what that is.
But they're sharing, they're sharing sunlight, let's just say,
underneath in their roots.
And I like this image, because to me, it's a good image for how the New Testament
speaks about the church.
Now, we all see, you know, the surface here.
But the way the New Testament talks about, and when Peter talks about this,
this new vision of God's people, somehow, underneath, where it's really important
in our lives as a church and as individuals, we are linked together
and sharing resources back and forth that we're not even aware of.
That's how God in the New Testament wants us to see the church.
Biblically, we're a network linked together, and under the surface,
we're sharing back and forth.
Christians need one another.
Now, I don't usually like the term need.
Okay, when you preach and you use the term need all the time,
the term need all the time, it can become very legalistic.
But I think the Bible makes it very clear.
Jesus himself walked in community.
Okay, Christians need one another.
I want to talk about that this morning.
Our catechism, to be a Christian, and I speak about this quite a bit
because I was actually very moved by the catechism, the network catechism.
One of the reasons I made the jump over to this denomination
was I prayed my way through the catechism.
If you haven't read it or prayed your way through it, I strongly recommend it.
And when the catechism, our catechism, talks about the church,
it says this, to be a Christian, says,
the New Testament teaches me to view the church as God's covenant people and a family,
as the body and bride of Christ,
and as the temple where God in Christ dwells by his spirit.
It's a little bit different than the bad press that you'll read about the church.
God's covenant people and family,
the very body and bride of Christ,
and the temple where God in Christ dwells by his spirit.
And when to be a Christian says that,
it actually highlights 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10
as key passage that helps us understand what the church is.
And so I'm going to ask, if you haven't already,
that's where we're going to turn to.
And as was read this morning, I just want to reiterate it,
but you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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.
So, it's very,
we're as a church used to reading from Paul.
And reading from Peter,
we have to get ourselves in a different mindset
when we're reading anything from Peter
than if we're reading from Paul.
Paul does things what we would say properly.
He starts with an idea,
and he's very linear.
He'll start with that idea,
then he'll just flush that idea out.
Anybody who's read Romans,
like he takes an idea,
and then he just beats that horse till it's dead,
then he moves on to the next idea,
and he does it again.
And that's how Paul does it.
But when we read Peter,
completely different.
He's not this highly educated guy like Paul was.
For Peter, he exhorts,
and in the middle of that exhortation,
he'll stop,
and he'll start talking about something else,
then he'll kind of come back to that exhortation,
and he's just back and forth,
and he's all over the place.
What you catch in Peter is the spirit,
and the excitement with which he's talking about,
and the urgency of the message
that he's trying to get to his people.
And so,
he's a lot of exhortation.
Now, that's a big Bible word.
That's kind of a big theology term that we use.
When he's exhorting,
it's kind of like,
it's like a mother at a football game,
or Amy at a soccer game with the kids,
urging their kids on,
exhorting their child
to do well in what they're doing.
And so, what we get is Peter
is actually exhorting his children
in our passage.
Our passage is interesting.
It's actually,
our passage is an exhortation,
which is a departure
from another exhortation that Peter's having.
So, that's why we stop
and we focus on just 2, 9, and 10,
because there's a whole lot
of other stuff going on,
but he says something really important
within this kind of departure
that it is that he's taken.
Now, outside sources confirm
that Peter wrote this in Rome.
Oh, my arrow did show up.
Look at that.
Do I have a thing?
There we go.
Up in Rome there.
Okay?
And it's probably
two to three years before he's martyred
is when Peter wrote this.
We know Paul saw the end coming.
Right?
And they were martyred around this.
They were killed around the same time
by the Emperor Nero.
So, I'm pretty sure,
we can be pretty sure,
Peter saw the end coming too.
And so, when Peter's writing his letter
as he is here
to a people who are themselves oppressed,
you've got a guy who knows
the end's probably coming,
and he's writing
how to be a Christian
when you're under persecution.
That's what he's writing to.
It gives weight to us
when he speaks about faithfulness
in tough times.
And as it's highlighted here,
he's writing the letter
to what's called Asia Minor,
which is right across here.
This is modern-day Turkey.
That's the Black Sea right there.
And he calls this a dispersion.
Okay?
And the reason that is
what they find
in 62-63 AD
when Peter writes this,
I'm probably going to do that
about four or five times,
when Peter writes this,
he's actually writing
to Jewish and Gentile Christians
who are spread
right across that region.
Now, the reason
that there's so many
Jewish and Gentile Christians there
is because they have fled
other areas to get there.
They have been persecuted
in other areas,
and this mixed bag of people
is coming together
in Asia Minor,
right across into Asia,
and they've come together,
and they're trying
to be the church,
all these different people,
in the midst of oppression
they've had,
oppression that's having,
and oppression
they can see coming,
because Nero is nuts.
That's the context
within which Peter
is actually writing to them.
The letter's destined for there.
And he's speaking directly
into their situation
of suffering.
And what 1 and 2 Peter are
is they're basically
just stripped down,
super practical letters
on what it means
to be a Christian.
Because when you're writing
to people who are
in persecution,
they don't want fluff.
When I'm talking
with my soldiers,
and they've just come
out of a foxhole,
when they've just come
out of Afghanistan,
and they've seen the reality
of the situation of war,
they don't want fluff from me.
They want the real deal.
And so that's what it is
that Peter is speaking
to these people,
to his churches
that are there.
And he gives stripped down
practical advice.
This entire chapter,
chapter 2,
if you read the entire chapter,
this part is about
what it means
to be a Christian.
What is the Christian life?
In our passage,
for our purposes
this morning,
we want to note
that even though
he's talking to a mixed bag
of people along here,
he's using,
in particular,
very Jewish terms
for the church
throughout the chapter 2.
He talks about
Rome
as the new Babylon.
He talks about
the church
as God's
new covenant people.
When he does this
throughout the second chapter,
I'm not going to bore you
with it,
but he uses direct quotes
from Exodus.
He uses quotes
from Hosea within there
that are kind of
hidden in there.
And what he does
when he talks about
the church
as the new Jerusalem
and Rome
as the new Babylon,
which is exactly
where he is,
he's using terms
from Isaiah.
He's using terms
from Isaiah
and he's trying to
get them into
the mindset
of Isaiah itself.
And in particular,
we need to highlight
the fact that he calls
the church
the new Jerusalem.
In verses 2,
9,
and 10,
that we are in,
what I just read to you,
are kind of
that central passage,
that central moment
when he's talking
about church
as this new Israel,
as this new people.
And what he's saying
to this super diverse group
along here,
what he says
is that the more
we become rooted
in our identity
as that royal priesthood,
the more we become rooted
as God's chosen race,
a holy nation,
the more we glorify God.
The more we become
rooted in our identity
together as a people,
the more we glorify God
and that fulfills
our very purpose
for living.
That's kind of the center
of what Peter's message is.
Now,
this matters.
I think I've missed
a whole bunch of slides.
Nope.
I get rolling
and I forget to
switch the slides
when I go.
This matters
because we have trouble
in our individualistic context
understanding what it is
that Peter's saying.
Oftentimes,
when I hear,
and I know I've done this too,
when I read this passage
or when I hear people
read this passage,
they'll read it like this.
They'll look at it and go,
you know,
isn't this great?
I am chosen.
I am royal.
I am holy.
And Peter's
kind of saying,
well,
yeah,
I guess,
but no,
it's more that
we are chosen.
We are holy.
We are a royal priesthood.
When he says that,
there's a cultural dissonance,
I want to say,
with this verse for us.
When the ancients read the verse,
when these folks read this verse,
they saw everything in life,
not just the Bible
or not just these letters
from the apostles.
In the ancient world,
they saw everything
through the lens of community.
They saw everything
through the lens of their family
or through the lens
of their community at large.
whereas,
what do we see everything through?
What's in it for me?
We're all about I,
whereas they were more about community.
And so that's the lens
through which this letter
was meant to be written.
God's chosen race,
when Peter says,
you are a chosen race,
they saw right away
their community.
Because the last time I checked,
there's no such thing
as a one-person race.
There's no such thing
as a one-person people.
It's pretty obvious
when you read it,
but for some reason,
we just focus on the big eye
when we read this passage.
Romans said that we're grafted together
into the vine.
Now, I think it's pretty obvious
that race is somehow
innately important to us
as people,
as human beings.
That, you know,
we've always been in our history
aware of race,
oftentimes with pretty awful results.
We've been like,
okay, race is important.
It's a spiritual need we have
to be grafted into this race.
But if we don't know Jesus,
then we start focusing on race
like my race is better
than your race.
Or my nation is better
than your nation.
We end up with wars
over races.
We end up with segregation.
We end up with things like slavery
around the world.
We know that race
is very important.
And in this blind,
leading the blind world now,
I really don't think
things are getting better.
We see people on all ends
of the political spectrum
leveraging race
for their own ends.
And it's just,
it's disintegrating.
It feels like,
maybe not so much here in Canada,
but around the world.
I think it's disintegrating
even more.
Because the world knows
that there's this spiritual need
to be a part of the race.
But of course,
without Jesus,
you just try to fill it
in whatever way that you can.
Race is important.
It's an important need
in our hearts,
but not in the way
that the world sees it.
Part of the depth
of our spirituality
is realizing
that we have been
grafted together,
the Bible says this
in a number of places,
into a new race.
Both Peter and Paul
hammer away at that point.
We're grafted together
into a new race.
And this has consequences
for our spiritual formation.
I'm from a place
called Halliburton.
Anybody know
where Halliburton is?
Well, you do now
because I just put
a map up there.
So if you go where Muskoka,
everybody knows Muskoka
for some reason,
and you go kind of
a Bancroft area
or the valley,
there's this void
in between
that no one really knows
about called Halliburton.
I grew up right about there
in the middle of that void.
Now,
we're a special
country bumpkin
kind of people.
I was going to say
we're not a race.
Amy said,
you are a race.
You're family.
My family all lives
within about 15 minutes
of each other.
I'm the only one
that kind of moved out
and got away from there.
It's a very special
kind of person.
I'll put quotes around that.
That comes from Halliburton.
Okay?
Now,
I haven't lived there
for 20 years.
I joined the Army.
I've been in the Army
for 12 years now.
You know,
being from Halliburton
is not so much
a part of my identity anymore.
It's just kind of
one thing
that makes up
who I am.
And the reason
I mention this
is
I think
that's really
how the world
wants us
to see our faith.
You know,
kind of like
we're free runners here
and then there's
all these different things
that kind of make up
who we are.
Our ideas,
our work,
you know,
our friendship,
obviously social media.
And being a Christian
is kind of over here
somewhere.
Right?
It's just one little
small thing.
Just keep it over there,
not up front,
right out of the scene
and don't make it
too important.
You're going to become
one of those crazies.
Right?
That's how the world
wants us to see
our faith.
Kind of like me
being from Halliburton
or you being
from wherever
you're from.
Just kind of
one of those things
that make up
who we are.
But the New Testament
shows us
and talks about
the fact
that
the New Testament
faith is that
faith becomes
the integrating factor.
The ultimate
integrating factor
in our lives.
Faith,
when you come to
faith in Jesus,
if you don't know
Jesus and you're
feeling really
kind of messed up
right now,
there's a reason
for that.
Faith is that
ultimate integrating
factor that sifts
and sorts
all of these
things here.
Prioritizes them
according to
God's design
for us.
That's how God
wants us to see
faith.
And that sorting
and sifting
is something,
friends,
that happens
together.
That's what
1 Peter is
talking about to us.
Now,
Peter uses terms
a royal priesthood
in a holy nation.
Again,
plural.
He's actually
returning to an idea.
If you look in your
Bible there,
you can see it here.
2 Peter 2.5.
So he's just,
he's made a point
here where he said,
let me read it from here.
I'm going to hurt my neck
if I keep doing that.
You yourselves,
like living stones,
are being built up
as a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood.
So he said that,
then he kind of goes,
he's come back
to this idea again.
He's,
oh,
wait a minute,
I have to flush out
that idea a little bit.
Now,
this is from the ESV,
which is a translation
we use here at the Messiah.
When it comes to this verse,
I actually prefer
what the NEB says,
and it says that
we are being built
into a spiritual temple.
This term,
spiritual house,
oikos,
when you read it
within the popular context
of the ancient world,
it just means house.
Within the Bible context,
it almost always
has to do with God's house.
It almost always
has to do
with the temple.
And so,
Peter is saying there
that you and I
are being built together
into a spiritual temple,
and into God's new temple,
which was the focus
of worship
at that time.
And the,
it's not built
out of stones
and beautiful jewels
and all kinds of gold.
It's built out of the beauty
of Christians' lives.
faith-filled,
spirit-fueled lives.
That is what
God's new temple
is built out of.
God glorifies,
and that,
just like the temple itself,
when we are built together,
that glorifies God.
And so,
why is that important?
Well,
our verse,
2b,
goes on,
2, 9b,
goes on,
says that we are built together
for this reason,
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light.
This term,
proclaim,
that he uses for proclaim here,
doesn't happen again
in the New Testament,
but in the Psalms,
this same term
is talked about
to be glorifying God.
It talks about worshiping.
It's not so much evangelism here,
that's part of it,
but really,
it has to do with worship
and glorifying God.
And the old English reformers
said that this,
said that the main purpose of man
is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever.
So,
when we are built together
into a spiritual house,
we glorify God,
which helps us fulfill
our chief end.
I want you to recite this with me.
I'm going to ask,
what is the chief end of man?
And you're going to say,
man's chief end
is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever.
What is the chief end of man?
Man's chief end
is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever.
Man's chief end
is to what?
Glorify God.
And?
To enjoy him forever.
Wow,
look at that.
I checked off
on good preaching
to get you involved
with what's going on.
You know,
according,
this is super important.
According to Peter,
again,
when we give up
of ourselves
and we join the church,
we glorify God,
which ends up fulfilling
our chief end
as individuals
and as a community.
So we're not just
giving up ourselves
for some weird sort of reason.
It's to fulfill
what God has created us to do.
The community of faith,
the community of faith
is a spiritual vehicle
that allows us
to meet our purpose.
I'm going to say that again.
The church
is the chief vehicle
when it's spirit-powered
that allows us
to meet our chief end
in God's purpose
of glorifying God.
I just like this quote.
The catechism says
that man's chief end
is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever,
but we shall
then know
that these are the same thing.
Fully to enjoy
is to glorify.
C.S. Lewis.
The more rooted, then,
friends,
that we become together
in these identities
that he talks about,
priesthood,
chosen race,
a holy nation,
the more we glorify God
and fulfill our purpose.
And so this leaves us
with something to do.
I have a spiritual practice,
a couple of spiritual practices
for us to practice this week,
okay,
while you're enjoying the beach
or whatever you do
during the summer.
Richard Foster said something
I thought was really amazing.
He said, you know,
the biggest need in the world
and the biggest need
in the church right now
is not for more talented people.
God doesn't need more,
more, you know,
amazing people
with jazz hands up front.
What God needs
is deeper people.
God, friends,
is calling us deeper
as individuals
and as a community
to invest more
and to become more,
more engaged
with our spiritual purpose.
So our to-do,
that deepness happens
within community,
the Bible teaches us that,
our to-do is,
I really want you
to ask yourself
a question this week.
What are the ways
that my individualism,
that's the water we live,
we swim within,
is our individualism.
What is the way
that my individualism
is keeping me
from fully engaging
with Jesus?
What are the ways
that my individualism
are keeping me
from fully engaging
with the body of Jesus,
which is his church?
That's your spiritual question
for meditation this week.
We're living stones
and our beauty comes
when we're together.
So I'm going to leave you
with that item
for prayer and meditation.
Just with a couple
of examples of this.
When Amy and I moved
to Petawawa,
as I mentioned,
my military chaplain,
we get posted
all over the place.
It becomes difficult sometimes,
you know,
moving from church to church.
And one of the things
that when I was
a new chaplain
and we were posted
at Petawawa
that I really started
to enjoy a little too much
was church shopping.
Because you can go in,
you can enjoy the worship
and all that.
But you know,
when people started
to kind of get on your nerves,
you just moved on
to the next one.
But then I found out,
he says,
as a chaplain,
wherever you go,
you always run into people.
And after a while,
we spent years
church shopping
when we were up there.
You'd be amazed
at how many churches
you can find
when you really look hard.
And we never really invested.
Now,
if I want you to think about,
that's 2008,
2009.
Afghanistan's going on.
I'm a chaplain
in Petawawa.
Do you think maybe
a few important things
were going on?
Maybe some stressful stuff
was happening
as an army chaplain
in Petawawa?
I really think
during that time,
I suffered,
my family suffered,
we suffered spiritually
because we weren't
plugged in
to a church.
It wasn't until
we became plugged in
to a church
and were welcomed,
Archdeacon Tim's church,
St. Luke's,
that we really
started to remember
how important it is
to be actually
plugged into a church.
So when Amy and I
came here to Ottawa
and the bishop said,
okay,
which church
are you going to choose?
We come here,
heard George preach,
met all of you,
and said,
we're going to invest
in this church.
And we've been amazed
that the,
just the big ways
and the small ways
that the Lord
has opened up
ministry opportunities
for us,
community opportunities
for us,
just being plugged in
right away,
just diving in.
Because no church
is perfect,
friends,
because we're in it.
And we need to learn
to dive in
where we are
and where God
has placed us.
That's the lesson
that both Amy
and I learned.
God blessed
that opportunity
to serve.
So that's a way
that my own individualism,
my desire to shop
and find the church
that I wanted,
was getting in the way
of my relationship
with Jesus.
More in general,
something that happens
within our lives,
you know,
in this me first world
that we live within,
is our constant need
to be first.
Like we live in a world,
I mean I drove here,
there's hardly anybody
on the highway,
but people are still
just all over each other.
In the cars,
on the highway,
in there,
I'm not going to say
I wasn't one of them,
but we're just all over
the place.
We live in a world
where we hate
to line up.
It's a very me first.
And one of the
spiritual practices
that was recommended
to me
was actually fasting
from the need
to be first.
A spiritual practice
we can do
is actually fast
from the need
to be first.
You know,
Jesus commented
in our gospel
in the context
of me focus
that the first
and the last,
the last are going
to be first.
Those who put
themselves forward
are going to end up
at the end
of the line.
And so a spiritual
practice is actually
putting those words
of Jesus
into action.
You know,
I've tried this
in my own feeble way
and I'm going to admit
a very feeble way.
I remember being
on the road
to work one day
and,
oh,
I missed that one.
That's a nice picture
of the church.
There we are.
And OC Transpo
one day did what
OC Transpo does best.
The bus broke down.
Right about carling
and I was on my way
into the downtown core
here.
So we got off
to the side
and I remembered
for some reason
it was by the grace
of God
because usually
when I remember
I'm fasting
about something
it's halfway
through the chocolate bar
and it's Lent.
Like,
oh yeah,
I'm fasting
from chocolate.
I never know.
Should I finish
the chocolate bar
and just go whole hog?
Or anyways.
But I remembered
this time.
I was at the back
of the bus.
Like I usually,
everybody fights
for those back seats.
I was at the back
of the bus
and I remembered,
hold on,
you're fasting
from being first.
So,
and I'm a chaplain
so I can explain
that to my boss
when I'm late.
So,
I'm just going to sit here
and I'm going to observe.
And there was this other guy
that was kind of sitting beside me.
I think we just kind of gave,
he gave up
and was just going to wait.
But I observed
when the bus pulled over
and limped itself
into the next stop,
everybody got up
and started jostling
for position.
Like,
and I mean jostling.
And you could see
some people
who were a little further back
and they were just,
they were just on the edge.
They were just about ready
to lose their minds.
And when those doors opened
it was like the cattle,
like who let the dogs out?
Everybody went out
and people were jostling
one another
and I'm like,
I just realized
that would have been me.
I'm not saying I'm any better
because it was by the grace of God
that that wasn't me.
And then I watched,
I kind of came on after
and I watched as,
you know,
the bus that was waiting for us
was already like 90% full
because in the morning
there's never a bus
that's not 90% full.
People were just cramming themselves,
yelling at each other
to get on like,
like loudly talking to each other
to try to get on this bus.
Literally bodies up against the window
like that.
The doors closed
and I,
but for me,
this is the point.
I saw myself.
I saw my love for my neighbor
and I saw my Christian witness
get on that bus
because the me first attitude
pervades my life
just like it pervades yours.
It's the water within which we swim.
And this is how fasting
and spiritual practices can work.
Jesus meets us
and shows us
and walks beside
and I can just say,
man,
Lord,
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry that that's,
I'm not judging anybody
like the Pharisee there.
I'm saying,
Lord,
have mercy.
By your grace,
that's not me
doing that to my neighbor.
Now,
the interesting end of the story
is just as those doors closed,
another bus rolled up
which miraculously
was only about like half full.
And the five of us
that were left
kind of sauntered onto the bus
and sat down.
I'm like,
okay,
thanks,
Lord.
That's a good lesson.
Sometimes,
sometimes God does that for us.
You know,
put yourself first.
What is it that,
what is it that you're reaping
when we sow that?
What is it that I'm reaping
when I sow that?
Simple little practices like that,
offering little things to God,
help us walk with him
and see throughout our day
and then to allow Jesus' forgiveness
to overwhelm us
and to empower us.
So,
I'm going to ask you again,
what are the ways
that individualism
is keeping you
from fully engaging
with your faith
and will you walk
with Jesus this week
to allow him
to show you
and to make you
into that beautiful creature
that he wants us
to be together?
Especially,
friends,
as pertains to this church.
Emails are going out
with opportunities
to engage in this church
every week.
I see them as well
as you do
and I've been convicted
this week.
I need to dive in.
I need to be more involved
and to struggle with Jesus.
The more rooted
we become together
in our identity
as a royal priesthood,
as a chosen race,
as God's people,
a holy nation,
the more we glorify God,
friends,
and we fulfill
our purposes together.
Big finish.
Okay?
This is the end
of the sermon.
In World War II,
the enemy conducted
experiments on POWs,
prisoners of war,
to find out
what is the best way
to get someone to talk.
They found
that the best way
to get a soldier
to talk
or get anybody
to talk
was solitary confinement.
You put someone alone
for three to five days,
they lose their community,
they lose their sense
of identity
with others,
and they spew
like you wouldn't believe.
all because
they've been removed
from their community.
Any soldier
will pretty much
tell anything.
Most men
will tell anything.
We need fellowship
and we need community
at a spiritual level.
That's why
we need the body
of Christ.
We need our fellow believers
because without it,
when we become
very easy prey
for temptation,
which is everywhere,
around every corner,
in the abandonment
of our values.
Together,
and then we become
formed into the image
of the world
and the powers
of the world.
Whereas what Christ
wants for you,
what Jesus wants
for me,
is to become formed
into his likeness
together.
Let's pray.
Loving God,
you call us
to be
a royal priesthood.
you call us
to be
a chosen race
and a holy nation.
Help us,
Lord God,
to fully engage
with one another.
Help us to engage
in our community
and in worship
and in praise
and acts of service
together
so we can glorify you,
enjoy you forever,
together as a people.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.