It's good to see you all this morning.
Will you please go with me to prayer as we ask for the Lord's help?
Oh, Lord, we come to you this morning, and we come to your word.
And Lord, I pray this morning that we might tremble at it.
Lord, because it is awesome, because it is majestic, because it tells us truths.
It's, Lord, that we need to know and we need to hear.
God, I pray for our hearts this morning that we would be open to receive.
And Lord, in receiving, Lord, that you would press these truths deep in our hearts.
Lord, I pray for your help this morning.
Lord, in my weakness, Lord, will you give strength.
Lord, will you enable me to proclaim the word as I ought.
Lord, may we together sit under it.
And Lord, in response to it, worship you as truly a great God.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, it's good to see you all this morning.
We are going to continue in our series in 1 Peter.
And we come to the end of the first section of the book, chapter 1-1 through verses 2, 11, and 12.
2, 11, and 12 is kind of a hinge chapter.
And so we're looking at the passage right before that, verses 4 through 12.
And one of the things you see is that this whole section is bracketed by Peter describing the church as exiles.
People who are living as strangers in a land that are not their true home.
And I wonder if you've ever experienced that.
I had the privilege of doing so for a couple years.
I got to live in China.
I remember the first week when we went, Brandy, my late wife, was on bed rest when we had first arrived.
And that was a serious crisis for me because she was one who knew how to speak Chinese.
And I didn't.
And so two days after we landed, I was sent out to get lunch.
And it could have been a movie because I'm sitting there with these transliterated Chinese characters on this piece of paper that my wife gave me trying to say,
can I please have eggplant and pork on rice in Chinese and failing.
And they kept saying, Shema, Shema, what are you saying?
And I would say it again.
They brought me menus that were all in Chinese.
I couldn't.
That didn't help.
It wasn't.
We weren't going to get anywhere doing that.
And it was.
And I felt so out of place, so alone, so helpless.
It was a terror.
Like it was a really hard experience.
And I was supposed to be providing for my wife who was at home on bed rest.
And this was her food, not just mine.
And it was.
I felt like an alien and a stranger in this world.
Maybe you've experienced that in cross-cultural situations.
Maybe you've experienced it because you follow Christ.
Maybe as a high schooler, your friends are full of social media mean tweets and disparaging remarks and comparisons
and some of the more destructive ways in which our culture tends to engage
while you seek to show grace and kindness to those around you.
Maybe in the workplace, you overhear conversations about politics or social issues
and you feel like there's no way to engage in the conversation
to express maybe or share your convictions without being seen as an alien.
An alien either as an invading threat to all that is good and decent in the world
or a hateful bigot promoting oppression and violence.
Maybe you've experienced it in your family.
You came to Christ and you've been seeking to bring redemptive and healthy patterns of relating
to deeply ingrained family dynamics that are destructive.
And you've been responded to with exclusion or anger or laughter.
There are lots of different ways in which we might feel like aliens, foreigners, outsiders in the places that we live.
And I will say this, if you don't feel this way today, I think you will.
I think you will in the coming days as our culture continues to move away from some shared values.
We will continue to feel the dislocation between what we are called to be as Christians in the world that we live in
unless God intervenes with a massive revival in both the church and the society.
And if you've ever felt this way, you know how hard it is.
It's crushing.
It's isolating.
It's a very hard tension.
We don't know where we fit in and we feel like, where do I find my bearings?
We lose our sense of identity and we're disoriented.
And often when we feel that tension, we try to resolve it.
One way we try to resolve that tension is we conform.
I'm going to become like this culture that I'm living in.
We lose our sense of who we are.
Sometimes, instead of conforming, we withdraw.
This happened, I saw this in China.
The expats created their withdrawal community where they didn't want to have anything to do with the local culture and local people.
They just wanted to reproduce their own culture in their own little conclave.
Sometimes, I think, we seek to control.
To resolve this tension, we want to impose upon others our expectations, our values, our ways of going in a way to enforce it on those around us.
We demand that the world affirm and embrace us for who we are.
In light of all of these dynamics, Peter's writing to this church to encourage them and to strengthen them in their Christian faith.
And he has pastoral insight, I believe, to help us think through how do we live as aliens and strangers in this world, as exiles.
So, Peter's writing as a pastor to these churches.
And he tells us two things in this passage that we're about to read.
He tells us about our identity and he tells us about our purpose.
Two places where we can put our feet down and know this is who we are, even as we feel like outsiders.
So, let's look at it together.
1 Peter, chapter 2, verses 4 through 10 is a passage.
It's 953 in the Pew Bible.
And let's read that together.
1 Peter, chapter 2, starting in verse 4.
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.
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.
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.
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 and 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.
Friends, Peter wants to tell us this morning that as we live in this world,
our identity in the world is not from this world, but it is from God to be God's people.
And our place and purpose in this world is for God,
that we would live declaring his greatness in the world.
Structurally, this passage breaks down.
Verses 4 and 5 in some ways are kind of a header statement, a summary statement of these two ideas.
This is who you are and this is why you're here.
And then he defends it with a whole litany of Old Testament quotes and allusions
to fill out our understanding of what this means.
So we're going to look at these two ideas, identity and purpose,
and try to flesh out what Peter is telling us about them.
And then we're going to talk about how that applies to us.
So first of all, God confers to us an identity as God's people based on Christ and distinct in the world.
So what does it mean that we have an identity as God's people based on Christ?
Well, this is the idea that we see in verse 4.
As you come to him, and that is talking about Jesus, you can look back in the context.
Verse 3, having tasted the goodness of the Lord, is referring to Jesus and his salvific work for us.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men.
And then you see as the argument goes on through the passage,
he is this cornerstone that God is laying.
Now, what is a cornerstone?
I'm not an architect nor a builder.
Maybe Antoine could tell you what a cornerstone is.
But from my reading, what a cornerstone is, and particularly in the first century,
it was the first stone that was laid from which all the lines of the building would be defined.
It defined level.
It defined the walls.
It defined the vertical plumbness of what was had.
It was the one that set all of those directions.
And what God says is, here, Peter is saying,
God has laid this cornerstone of a new building.
A new building which is this holy temple that is a living temple.
He's mixing metaphors, so you have to be creative.
But he's saying this is a bunch of living stones being built together into this incredible place.
And he's using, as he explains this idea, there's all this Old Testament richness, right?
Verse 6 is a quote from Isaiah 28, 16.
Where God says,
In the midst of the unfaithfulness of the leaders of Jerusalem as well as the nations around,
in the midst of the suffering that the people are experiencing and the threat of the northern exile,
he says, I'm laying a stone.
I'm laying something that is going to be an unmovable foundation.
So even though you feel so uncertain, hang in there because I have laid a cornerstone in Zion.
And whoever trusts in this will not be put to shame.
Whoever is connected to this cornerstone.
And he goes on and he says,
And this cornerstone is chosen and precious.
This has been God's sovereignty.
It wasn't like in the first century God was wandering around wondering,
Golly, this is a really bad situation.
The people are under the oppression of Rome.
They haven't seen the fulfillment of the promises.
What am I going to do?
Oh, look, here's a guy.
He's born in Galilee.
Maybe he'd be useful.
Just this Jesus guy.
I'll try to make him the savior of the world.
No.
God chose before the foundation of the world that Jesus would come
and to do this work of redemption.
And God chose to bring him in at just the right time
in the process of human history to be the savior.
And as such, and as God's son, the one who came from heaven to do this,
he is precious.
And Peter says, and he's not only chosen, he's not only precious,
but he is a living stone.
Because remember, Peter had seen Jesus.
Raised from the dead.
And this was the thing that made him distinct above all others.
This is, this is the cornerstone.
Peter says, this is the foundation that upon which you,
you, God's new people in the church are being built.
But he's not just a chosen and precious stone,
but he's also, as you see in verse four,
he is rejected by mankind.
He's rejected by humanity.
God's doing this work of redemption,
and yet in the midst of it,
God predicted and expected that there would be this rejection that would come.
Right?
As you look down in the verses that follow where he's defending this,
you see the turn in verse seven.
So the honor is for you who believe,
you who are living stones connected to the cornerstone.
But for the ones who do not believe,
he is the stone that the builders rejected.
And he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
to those who do not believe and who disobey God's word.
The quote is from Psalm 118, 22, that Antoine read earlier.
And you know, this idea resounds throughout the New Testament.
Jesus himself used these verses to describe himself
when he said, you need to recognize this.
He's confronting, particularly in that day,
the religious leadership of the day that was rejecting him
and his claim to be the savior.
He said, you are, I am this stone that is rejected,
but I'm going to be a stumbling stone for you
as you try to live in this world.
You can see that in any of the synoptic gospels,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And he said this actually at the end of the parable of the wicked tenants.
Do you know that parable?
A parable where there was a land
and the master left this land in the purview of some people.
And he went away.
And then the people said, oh, well, we're going to take this and make it our own.
And then he started to send messengers back saying,
no, you've got to do this under me.
And the master's coming and you have to do this.
And they rejected him.
They rejected him.
Finally, he sent his son.
And they killed his son rather than submitting to the master's ownership and leadership.
And it was in the context of this parable that Jesus quoted this verse to say,
I am the one who's come from the father.
I am the son.
And you are going to reject me and kill me.
So this is not a surprise in God's plan that this happened.
But it is a strong dynamic that we see throughout this.
In Acts 4, Peter, the apostle who wrote this letter earlier,
right after the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension
and the beginning of the church, the day of Pentecost,
Jesus identifies, or Peter identifies Jesus as this rejected cornerstone.
But he goes on.
And I want to read these verses to you because it's a powerful connection to this idea.
So in Acts 4, Peter's preaching to the crowd.
And he's talking about Jesus whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead.
By him, this man is standing before you.
Well, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
And then he goes on and he says,
And there is salvation in no one else.
For there is no other name under heaven given among men
by which we must be saved.
So this cornerstone that God is building this new people on
is one who is a dividing stone in the world.
There are some who will believe and reject him
and believe and be connected to him as living stones.
And there are some who will reject him and who will despise him and who will refuse him.
This underlies the way that Jesus is an exclusive savior.
Not in the way where he intentionally is excluding people.
I don't believe that's the picture of him.
But more that he alone is the one who can do the work necessary for our salvation.
He alone, because of his person and his life, death, and resurrection,
he alone can be the savior of the world.
And he presents all people everywhere with this question.
What will you do with Jesus?
Will you accept him?
Will you receive him as he has revealed himself?
Will you believe in him and trust in him for your salvation?
Or will you reject him?
Will you commit yourself instead to another plan of your own self-salvation?
Will you commit yourself to some other way
that you are going to find your identity and purpose in the world?
Peter is writing to this church that's suffering,
that's feeling this dislocation of being an alien in the Roman Empire,
being in exile.
This world isn't my home.
And he's saying,
recognize that's what Jesus experienced,
and if you're going to be connected to him,
you're going to experience it too.
But recognize that when you're connected with him,
what a great privilege that is.
So Ephesians 2, Paul writes this,
so then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure being joined together
grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Church, this is what God says that we are.
We are the living stones connecting to him,
this cornerstone,
chosen by God,
but rejected by men.
And so when we experience that rejection,
we ought not be surprised,
for it's what he experienced for us first.
But then there's a second part of this identity.
If being connected to the cornerstone is the first part,
the second part is that our identity
is to be living as distinctly in the world.
And by distinct,
I don't mean weird intentionally.
I don't mean that we have to dress in a particular,
you know,
we don't have to wear doilies on our heads
or, you know,
dresses that,
or, you know,
suits the whole time
or whatever your image might be
of what,
yeah,
what cultic people
who identify themselves by dress would do.
However you want to fill in that gap.
But instead,
Peter is saying here,
we are called to live
distinctly with this close intimacy with Christ.
In verse five,
he says,
you're being built into a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood.
Nick preached on this two weeks ago.
You should go back and listen to his sermon.
But holy doesn't mean holier than thou
and more pure and self-righteous
and therefore looking down on the rest of us
for our imperfections and weaknesses.
Holy doesn't mean that.
What holy means is set apart.
Just like you might have special china in your house
that you would set apart for a special occasion
but not use commonly every day.
Jesus is saying,
God is saying,
you are set apart from this world
for particular purposes
and to be a particular people in this world
so that you might glorify me.
And he goes on then
and he describes it
and you see this is picked up in verse nine very strongly.
You are a royal priesthood,
a holy nation.
Let's make sure I get this right.
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation.
He picks up this cascade of ideas
to say that we are the special people in the world,
a priesthood that God has set apart.
Now we need to be careful here
because priesthood sometimes could indicate
that what Peter means here
is we are priests mediating between God and the world.
And I don't actually think that's the idea here.
I think the idea here is that priests
had this immense privilege
of serving in the temple in Jerusalem
and having access to the inner courts
and the presence of God
in a way that others didn't.
And what Peter is saying here
is we all now have access to intimacy,
to the presence of God
through the,
in the Holy Spirit.
And this is what he's calling us to.
Why do I say this?
Well, look,
this is a quotation.
Verse nine is a quotation from Exodus 19.
If you remember the story of Exodus,
God has just released the people of Israel
from slavery
after 400 years of oppression in Egypt.
And he's brought them through the Red Sea.
He saved them from the marauding army of Pharaoh.
And he's brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai.
He's about to reveal to them the law.
But God comes to Moses
and he has this sort of clarifying statement
with Moses about,
this is what I'm up to.
So in Exodus 19,
God tells Moses to then say this to the people,
you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians
and how I bore you on eagles' wings
and brought you to myself.
Now, therefore,
if you will indeed obey my voice
and keep my covenant,
you shall be my treasured possession
among all the peoples
for all the earth is mine.
And you shall be to me
a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.
In the broader scope of redemptive history,
remember it was one man, Abraham,
who had the promise,
you will be a great nation,
you will be a blessing.
And through Abraham's descendants,
through Isaac and Jacob,
and then Jacob's children
who moved to Egypt
by God's provision and plan,
this now family line
had become a people.
And God was now bringing this people
out of that place of slavery
into the promised land,
into the place where Jerusalem lay,
into the place where God promised
they would dwell as a nation
to display God's glory in the world.
And Peter is saying,
do you see,
this is who you are,
church in the first century
and church in the 21st century.
This is who you are,
a people distinct.
And the key thing about it,
just like in Exodus,
this God's presence was with them
and he was leading them.
So now the distinctiveness
that we have
is that God's presence
is with us.
God chose us to do this.
Do you know the power of being chosen?
Do you remember being on the playground?
I don't know if they do this anymore.
It probably doesn't happen anymore,
but bear with me in the illustration, right?
The power of being chosen
to be on the kickball team, right?
And you're standing there in the line
and they're the two captains
and they're the cool kids
and you're like,
okay, well,
maybe they'll pick me,
hopefully not last.
And the power of,
when they look at you like,
I want Brian,
I want Brian to be on my team.
It's like, yes,
I'm chosen.
How awesome is that?
Right?
Now it feels terrible
when you're the last kid, right?
So that's part,
but part of it is that
the idea here is that
there's a goodness
about being chosen.
There's a preciousness.
Here's another example
of what it feels like
when someone gets down
on their knee and says,
will you marry me?
Among all the people of the world,
I choose you.
Will you marry me?
And this is what God is saying
to his people,
his chosen people.
I've set my love on you.
Will you marry me?
Will you be mine?
Grounded in his love for us.
And we have to see
that this is based
not on our own worth.
This is where the playground thing
breaks down, right?
Because you do pick
the athletic kids first
and it's the less athletic kids
who get picked last, right?
But God says,
I haven't picked you
because you're a particularly
righteous, attractive,
skillful,
you have potential,
you know, whatever it is.
You have a nice personality.
You know, whatever it is,
God isn't choosing us
for any of those reasons.
In Deuteronomy 7,
it says,
not because you were more in number,
but because I love you.
And this is what we see
throughout Scripture.
In 1 Corinthians 1,
Paul clarifies,
God didn't choose
the wise things
and the rich things
and the powerful things
of the world,
but he chose
the weak things
and the foolish things
and the things that are not
to shame the wise
so that no one may boast
that they were chosen for God
for any merit of their own.
So Paul writes to Titus,
but when the goodness
and loving kindness
of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us,
not because of works
done by us in righteousness,
but according to his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration
and the renewal
in the Holy Spirit.
So there is this great privilege,
but this great privilege
doesn't come with arrogance
or triumphalism,
but it does come with confidence
that the God of the universe
has chosen his church
to be his people.
And Peter wants to say,
as you live in this world
and you feel disoriented
by everything around you,
know this is the identity
that will never change,
that will never be shaken,
that will never be undermined.
In fact, more broadly,
what you see is that
the scriptures are telling us
this identity becomes
our primary identity
under which all of our other identities,
our racial and familial and gender
and all the other identities
that we have,
find their place and their purpose
where they are enriched
and find their proper place
in our lives
under this purpose
that we might be God's people.
that the church would know
who we are
because we know whose we are.
So if you're a college student
or a high schooler,
recognize that your identity
is not based on your friend groups,
not based on your awards,
your achievements,
your GPA, your resume,
not on the approval and praise
of your professors
or your teachers
or your coaches
or even your parents,
for those of us
who are adults,
we just translate those
into different things,
don't we?
The success in our workplace,
whether it be a homework,
work that we do at home
or work in,
out in the workplace.
I think sometimes
even our families,
our roles as sons and daughters,
wives and husbands,
fathers, mothers,
our roles as lots of things,
we look at these things
and we want them
to give us our identity.
Peter says to us,
you are a living member
of the people of God.
This is a greater thing
than any of those
will ever give you.
And when you feel out of step,
when you feel like an exile,
relax into this truth.
you are a chosen people of God.
He has set his love on you
and has called you in salvation
to be a living stone
connected to the cornerstone of Christ
who was rejected by the world
but chosen and precious by God.
This is the honor that is
the churches
to hold humbly
in this world.
I've spent most of the time
on identity
because I think it's most
of what the passage talks about
but it's not just identity
that Peter says,
it's also purpose.
We see this,
this is then my main,
my big second point
if you're taking notes.
Here's my big second point
which is our purpose
is to proclaim
the greatness of God
in our words and actions.
This is what we see
in verse five.
Peter says,
he's called you
as you come to him,
you're being built up
into this temple
in order to present
spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God
through Jesus.
What in the world
does he mean by that?
He's not talking about
going back to a religious ritual
or a sacrificial system.
I think actually verse nine
clarifies and fills out
what he means by that.
Verse nine you see
that Peter is saying,
you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for his own possessions,
for a purpose.
So that,
so that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness
and into his marvelous light.
This is the purpose
we have in this world,
to bear witness
to what God has done,
has done in our lives individually,
in our lives corporately.
He has rescued us from darkness
and brought us into
the kingdom of light
in relationship
to this living cornerstone,
this new eternal kingdom
that he has started.
This is what God is doing
in the world.
And this is our purpose.
And yes,
we may do this
in our workplaces
and in our families
and in our studies
and in our schooling
and in our retirement
and in our recreation.
And we may do it
in lots of different contexts.
But this is our purpose.
To make much of God
in the world.
How do we do this?
Well, the first thing is
we do this through worship.
We do this as we gather
in corporate settings
to declare the goodness of God.
I don't know if you think about
why you come to church.
Maybe it's to connect to friends.
Maybe it's because
you don't want to feel guilty.
There could be all sorts of reasons.
But Peter is giving us
one purpose
that will give you a reason
to get up every Sunday.
I get to go to church
so I can declare
that God is great.
And sometimes I feel like it
and that's really exciting.
And sometimes I'm dragging myself
out of bed
and I'm desperately saying that
because I need to remind myself of it
and I need to be with other people
who are reminding me of it.
But we gather together
to declare
this is what we do
when we sing.
This is what we do
when we preach.
This is what we do
when we pray.
This is what we do
when we share testimonies.
It's so that we would remember
how great God is.
That's why we call this
a worship service.
So we would lift up
the worthiness of God
in our midst.
It's not only here though.
It's also
in our everyday lives.
Romans 12, 1 and 2
offer your bodies
as living sacrifices
to the Lord.
Be not conformed to the world
but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
So recognize that
we are called
to live out this calling
not just as we gather
in the church building
but also as we scatter
into all the places
where we live every day.
And this is what
Peter is addressing
as we live as exiles
in this world
that we're to live
distinctly
in a way that points
people to
the person of God.
He'll say this later
in chapter 3.
He'll say
be ready to give an answer
to all who ask you
about the hope
that's within you.
How do you know
there's that hope?
Well because you live with it.
Because you go out
in the world
and verses 3 through 9
of chapter 1
shape the way
that you approach
your everyday life.
Though you're encountering
various trials
you are living
with hopeful confidence
in what God has done for you
and you're able to have joy
in the midst
of the suffering.
And not only that
but then we're going to live
distinctly
in the world
as he said
in verses 13
and following
that we're going to live
distinctly living
as those
who know
that they have
a heavenly father
who will judge the world
but who has accepted
them in Christ.
We're going to live
as people
who following
in chapter 1
verse 22
and following
we're going to live
as those
who love
one another.
And by this
all men will know
that you are my disciples
because you love
one another.
And so all of these
are acts of worship
spiritual sacrifices
that we offer up
so that people
would know
how great God is.
It's not about us
building our tribe
so that we can be
the conquerors.
It's not about
protecting ourselves
from the world
by withdrawing
away from them.
It's about engaging
as the people of God
being the lights
in the darkness
because God has called us
out of darkness
into light
so that we can
bear witness
to a God
who is here
to rescue
and save
sinners like us.
And we will see
in the weeks to come
what it looks like
to live
as this special
people of God
as we relate
to things like
government
and slavery
and gender roles
in marriage.
Buckle your seatbelts.
We're ready to go.
Two weeks.
We're doing it.
It's going to be great.
God's word is going
to speak to us
and instruct us
and it's going
to be wonderful.
But recognize
that all of this
is couched
in this broad
of how do we
live out this
life of worship
declaring the
greatness of God.
But it's not just that.
It's not just doing that.
It's also specifically
in evangelism.
It's specifically
in making known
the work
and the character
of God
in his salvation
through Jesus Christ.
Maybe many,
some of you
have heard the phrase
that's quoted,
sort of quoted
to Francis of Assisi.
Preach the gospel
and if necessary
use words.
That's not actually
a biblical idea.
It is true
that we need
to live it out.
Our actions
need to be
consistent
with how we live
but the Bible
is consistently
saying that
we are to use
our mouth
and our words
to tell of
the greatness
of God.
To proclaim
him to the world.
This is what you see
this word here
proclaim
or to declare
it's a public
speaking thing.
It's not a private
thing.
It's not something
that I say to myself.
Something that I say
out to others.
And I know
friends,
I know it feels
weird,
doesn't it?
Because we get
caught up with
feeling this.
Aren't you imposing
your beliefs on me?
Aren't you telling me
that I have to agree
to this
or I have to respect?
Isn't it disrespectful
to barge into
my life
with your religious
beliefs?
But Peter here
is helping us
reframe
what we are doing
so that we can
understand what
we are doing
and hopefully
so that it will
have a different
impact on those
around us.
Peter is saying
God is so great.
He has rescued
you from darkness
and into light.
If God is that
great,
how can we not
tell someone
about that?
Okay?
If I get
a new
iPod
that has
cool gadgets
that I've never
seen before
and I get
to start
using it
and it's awesome,
I don't stick
it in my pocket
and never
talk about it.
I usually
like,
hey Nick,
check this out.
Do you know
what this does?
This is really
cool.
That's a very
small,
very mundane
example
of what God
is saying
our purpose
in the world
is.
Because
not that we
have found
God
and that
God is
trying to
sell himself
and that
we are
trying to
sell God
but what
we're saying
is we
have been
called into
a relationship
with this
most amazing
being
who has
called us
out of
darkness
into light
and we
get to
tell you
about it.
How awesome
is that?
Can you
imagine
what it
would be
like for
you to
experience
a God
who loves
you the
way that
God loves
you in
Christ?
evangelism
is not
a duty
for us
nor is
it a
mission
where we
are to
beat people
over the
head
with a
message
that they
don't want
to hear
but it
is an
exuberant
response
to our
salvation.
It is an
overflow
of the
joy and
worship
that we
have
where we
share
with
others
the
amazing
things
that God
has done
and the
amazing
one
that we
have
found
in
Jesus.
And friends
this brings
us to
the end
of our
passage
because in
verse 10
Peter
reminds us
of this
again.
He says
once you
were not
a people
but you
are now
God's
people.
Once you
had not
received
mercy
but now
you have
received
mercy.
This
is a
paraphrase
a
significant
quotation
from the
book of
Hosea.
If you
don't
know the
story of
Hosea
Hosea is
a prophet.
God
tells him
to go
and marry
a woman
who is
going to
be unfaithful
and wayward.
And so
he goes
and he
marries
this woman
and then
this woman
wanders
off.
And it's
this parable
of how
God has
been treated
by his
people and
how God
is responding
to the
waywardness
and unfaithfulness
of his
people with
patient
persevering
pursuing
love
for her.
And this
is a
quote
where
the
children
of this
wayward
woman
are being
given
names
not a
person
or not
my
people
my
people
not
receive
mercy
receiving
mercy
these
names
are
given
and
Peter's
drawing in
this
Old Testament
story
to say
don't
you see
don't
you see
we are
all
everyone
in this
world
are like
the
wayward
woman
we have
all
gone
astray
we all
like
sheep
have
gone
astray
we've
gone
our
own
way
we've
rejected
God
and
chosen
our
own
thing
and
this
is
the
root
of
sin
and
alienation
with
God
but
God
in
his
loving
kindness
has
pursued
us
has
pursued
us
to the
point
of
sending
his
very
own
son
to
die
on
the
cross
for
our
sins
to
take
away
the
penalty
and
the
offense
of
our
sin
so
that
we
might
be
restored
and
reconciled
to a
living
relationship
with
him
forever
this
is
Jesus
for
us
and
what
Peter
says
is
when
we
understand
that
through
that
we
have
become
the
people
of
God
then
declaring
the
greatness
of
this
God
doesn't
seem
that
hard
does
it
doesn't
seem
awkward
it's
going to
be
counter
cultural
it's
going to
be
different
but
it
seems
right
because
of the
greatness
of who
God
is
so
Peter
is
writing
to
this
church
and
writing
to
us
saying
have
confidence
not
in
your
greatness
but
in
the
greatness
of
what
God
has
done
for
you
and
in
the
calling
that
he
has
given
to
you
as
living
as
exiles
awaiting
our
true
home
with
God
in
heaven
but
now
knowing
your
identity
in
Christ
and
living
out
this
purpose
of
declaring
his
greatness
in
the
world
this
is
what
he's
called
us
to
let's
pray
Lord
Jesus
we
confess
how
often
Lord
our
hearts
grow
cold
and
the
wonder
and
awe
of
our
salvation
is
replaced
with
a
lack
of
enthusiasm
Lord
disparagement
Lord
we
diminish
it
in
our
own
hearts
and
Lord
as
we
do
so
we
lose
sight
of
who
we
are
and
why
we
are
here
God
I
pray
this
morning
that
this
passage
would
help
us
Lord
restore
to
us
the
joy
of
our
salvation
that
we
may
know
who
we
are
and
why
we
are
here
we
pray
this
in
Jesus
name
Amen