So the reading is from 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 4 to 12.
And it says this,
As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by humans,
but chosen by God and precious to him,
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For in the scripture it says,
See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious,
but to those who do not believe,
the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,
and a stone that causes people to stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.
They'll stumble because they disobey message,
which is also what they were destined for.
But you are a chosen people,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
God's special possession,
that you may declare the praises of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are the people of God.
Once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
Dear friends,
I urge you,
as foreigners and exiles,
to abstain from the sinful desires
which wage war against your soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans,
that though they accuse you of doing wrong,
they may see your good deeds
and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Amen.
Thanks, Yvonne.
Over the last few weeks,
I don't know whether you've been with us,
but over the last six weeks,
I've been trying to build really a sort of a foundation
for our church family.
The sort of theological foundations for us as a church.
What is it that's going to be important to us
as we move forwards?
So you might remember at the beginning of July,
we started with this idea
that our church is to be centered
on the cross of Jesus Christ.
That the message of the cross of Christ,
which is the message of the whole Bible,
it's right at the center of the scriptures,
is to be at the center of our church life.
It's the message of the cross which makes the church.
It's the preaching of the message of Jesus Christ
in God's word that makes us the people of God.
That's where we started.
We then went on to say that as a church,
we rely absolutely on the Spirit.
We know that we are absolutely powerless in ourselves
to convert anybody, to change people,
or to equip one another for the Christian life.
There is nothing that we can do on our own
to open blind eyes to the truth of the gospel.
If our church is going to be revitalized,
if our church is going to grow by people coming to know
and love and trust the Lord Jesus,
it's going to be because God does it by his Spirit,
not because we do it in our strength.
Following on from that, then you might remember
that we said that we were going to be a local church
that are committed to corporate prayer.
We were startled by the book of Acts
just how many times the local church
gathers together to pray.
It's like breathing for them.
They can't live without it.
We know that in a way that we don't really fully understand,
God, in his sovereign power,
chooses to work through the prayers of his people.
Then we thought next about diversity, didn't we?
The fact that God is bringing us together.
He hasn't made us all the same.
In fact, God is glorified by stitching together
a group of people who are very different to one another,
both in the gifts that they have,
but also that the cultures that they're from,
the languages that they speak.
And so we found that God is stitching together
something that is beautiful and glorious
because of our difference.
Our fifth foundation, which we were looking at last week,
was then discipleship.
And you might remember this.
It's only last week, so I'm hoping that you might.
That our single biggest contribution
to the life of the church is what?
To grow as a Christian.
That's the biggest contribution that we make.
It doesn't matter whether we give thousands of pounds
or hundreds of volunteer hours.
If we are not growing as Christians,
if we're not growing in our love of the Lord
and our Christ-likeness and our eagerness to live for him,
we will fundamentally be damaging the church,
not blessing the church,
because the greatest contribution we can make
is to grow in Christ-likeness.
And now that brings us to this week,
and that is this one, engaged in evangelism.
And that means we've got one more to go,
which I'm going to do when we get back from holiday.
And you might know what that is,
but if you don't,
I'm going to leave it as a surprise for you
for when I come back from holiday.
So this week, we're thinking about evangelism,
telling others about Jesus.
This is the idea that our church exists
not just for itself,
but to be a witness to the world about the gospel.
We want to grow, don't we,
as a church, numerically,
not from stealing people from other churches,
but from people coming from our friends
and our families, our community,
to know Jesus for themselves.
So we're a church that engages in evangelism,
telling people about Jesus.
Now, to tackle that subject,
I want, if I can, to draw your attention
to just a single phrase
in the reading that we've just had.
If I were an old-fashioned preacher,
I would say this is my text for this morning.
Do you remember when you used to go to church
and they used to announce the text for the morning?
Well, that's what we're doing this morning.
We're just looking at a single phrase.
It's there in the second half of verse nine
that we read with the children earlier.
It's this,
that you may declare the praises of him
who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light.
Now, before we get to all of the detail of this,
I want you to notice that that phrase
is essentially a purpose statement.
It's a purpose statement.
It starts, isn't it,
with that you may.
In other words,
that statement is the outworking
of something that's gone before.
The declaration of the praises of God
is the purpose of what precedes it.
So like a delivery driver
is given a van full of parcels
that she might deliver them
or a student is given an exam paper
that they might answer the questions
or at least try to answer the questions.
So here we see that
the declaration of the praises of God
is the result of something
that has been given or done.
So the declaration of the praises of God
in our passage
are what comes from what comes before it,
which is being a chosen people,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
God's special possession.
Now Peter's point is that
the church is like the new Israel
and I would love to,
we don't have time to do it,
but to go into all the ways
that this reflects Old Testament passages.
But Peter's point essentially
is that when you read Israel
in the Old Testament,
now you're looking at church
in the New Testament,
the chosen people of God,
people selected by him
to be his servants,
a royal priesthood,
people who have access
to God's presence,
a holy nation,
people with special status,
before God,
his special possession,
people who are cared for
and protected by God.
They are all of those things,
says Peter,
that they may declare my praises,
praises of God in the world.
Now that means,
and again,
listen,
this is just,
I'm just showing you obvious stuff here,
but it's worth stating this clearly.
It means that the church
is the church
not because they declare
the praises of God.
You get that?
It's not the church
becomes the church
as it declares the praises of God.
It's the other way around,
isn't it?
They declare the praises of God
because they have been made
the church by God.
God makes the church,
not us.
You don't become the church
by coming and declaring
the praises of God.
You become the church
by God being at work in us.
And then he gives us a purpose.
A purpose which,
if you notice,
the purpose of the church then
is not really so much
about me or you.
The purpose of the church
is not that we make cups of tea
for one another,
that we might feel nice about life.
The church's purpose
isn't even about self-help
or self-improvement.
God hasn't made us
a chosen people
and a holy nation
so that we might
get better versions of ourselves.
It's not that, is it?
It's not even that
we might look down our noses
at everybody else.
Oh, I'm God's chosen
and special people,
not like you.
It's not that either, is it?
It's not so that
we might have a nice club
where everyone is like us
and we feel normal.
No, the that of church life,
the so that of church life
is so that you might declare
the praises of him,
of God.
That's why we're here.
That's why God has saved us.
It's about him
and his glory and not us.
Let me try and say this carefully,
but I want to kind of land
this practically for us
if I can.
I want to suggest
that one of the reasons
that you and I struggle
so much with church life,
one of the reasons
why we get so easily upset
and diverted into conflict
with one another
is because we have missed
the point of church life.
Church exists not so much
for the comfort
of the people who come
or belong.
it's not existing
to give them an opportunity
to express themselves.
The church exists
for the glory of God.
Now that's not to mean
that comfort
or opportunity to contribute
are not important.
I'm not saying that,
but rather that they flow
from the glory of God.
The point is,
if you come to church
thinking mostly about
your own feelings
or mostly about
what you need
and not about
the glory of God,
you will leave disappointed
because the gatherings
of the church
are about the glory of God.
Church exists
for the glory of God
so that we might
declare his praises.
Now, there's one other thing
to notice as well here
before we move on,
and that is that
this is circular.
So, let me try
and explain this
if I can.
So, God here
makes the church
to new Israel
that she might declare
the praises of God.
But think about it.
What are God's praises?
What does it mean
to declare his praises?
It's a very Christian phrase,
isn't it?
We might think
we know what it means,
but what does it actually mean?
Well, Peter again
is borrowing a phrase
from the Old Testament,
and the idea is
that this is declaring
what God has already done.
When we praise God,
we are not adding to God
something that's lacking from him.
Do you understand that?
It's not the idea
that we are adding something
to God who would be less
if we weren't doing it.
Rather, we are articulating
something in our praises
that's already true.
God is not like that
year seven child
who just needs lots of encouragement
to get on with their work.
Maybe you were like that
year seven child.
I think I probably was a bit.
Oh, you're doing a great job.
Carry on, won't you?
Oh, look at that.
You've done some great work,
haven't you?
Keep going.
That's not how
we're to talk to God.
That's not what
praising God means.
Rather, here,
the sense is that
the praises of God
are something
that already belong to him
because of who he is.
So declaring his praises
isn't making up
for something lacking in God
so much as it is
saying aloud
who God is
and what he's done.
Listen, this is what God is like.
He is praiseworthy
in his being.
Look at what he's done.
Which, if you notice this,
this is then a giant circle
because if you look down
at our little phrase,
how is it that the church
become the church
to declare the praises of God?
How is it that they become the church?
How do we become a chosen people,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation?
Well, God did it through choosing.
And how did he choose?
Well, he called, notice,
he called us out of darkness
into his wonderful light.
In other words,
God speaks
and calls out his people.
So he speaks the gospel
and calls his people
out of the world,
out of darkness
and into light.
People who are living
in the darkness
of their own sin
and lostness,
people who are ignorant of God,
the God who made them,
estranged from the purpose
of our existence.
God calls those people
through what he says
in verse 8
is a message.
What is the message?
Well, the message
is the praiseworthy deeds
of God.
You get it?
God calls his people
into existence
as they hear
the declaration
of his praiseworthy deeds.
So, let me try
and put it on the slide.
The deeds
of the praiseworthy God
are declared.
You hear them
and it calls out
God's people.
Oh, God is the God
who saves his people.
He's saving me.
And as he calls you,
you then become somebody
who declares
the praises of God,
which does what?
It calls out
the other people of God.
So in this giant circle,
generation upon generation,
declaring the praiseworthy deeds
of God,
calling out the people of God
who will declare
the praises of God,
which will call out
the people of God,
which will declare
the praises of God,
which will call out
the people of God,
which will declare,
and it goes on
from generation
to generation,
from city to city,
from nation to nation.
The message has been heard
and God's people
have been called out.
Here's the thing.
Jesus says that
that circle is so solid
and unbreakable
that the gates of hell
will not prevail against it.
No one will be able
to stop it
from generation
to generation.
Now, put all of that
together for a moment,
and I think the point
of our text is this,
that hearing the message
of Christ creates
a church who exists
to declare the message
of Christ.
I'll say that again.
Hearing the message
of Christ creates
a church who exists
to declare the message
of Christ.
That's how God
gets glory in the world.
Now, there are literally
thousands and thousands
of implications of that
for us this morning,
but I'm going to be kind
to you.
I'm going on holiday
tomorrow,
and so I don't still want
to be here on Monday morning,
and so I'm going to give you
three rather than a thousand.
Let me show you three ways
this particularly relates
to evangelism,
particularly relates
to our evangelism.
First one is this.
Evangelism is leaky worship.
In other words, evangelism,
this idea of telling other people
about Jesus,
is what happens
because we are unable
to keep the gospel
to ourselves.
Churches quite often,
I think,
will nag their church members
into doing evangelism,
won't they?
Say, listen,
if you're not going
to share the gospel,
then you're not really
a proper Christian.
If you're not going
to tell other people
about Jesus,
you're not a proper Christian.
You need to sign up
to be involved
in this evangelistic crusade.
You need to give out leaflets
with me on this street corner.
But our text this morning
shows us that that approach
is not quite right,
not because evangelism
and telling others
about Jesus is not important,
or because handing out
leaflets is wrong.
Of course it's not,
but rather because it's
putting things
the wrong way around,
isn't it?
The cart before the horse.
Our text this morning
reminds us that the purpose
of the Christian life
is not evangelism
so much as it is
praising God
for who he really is.
And Peter's point here
is that praising God
for who he really is
leaks into evangelism.
It pours out of us
in lots of different ways.
It spills over.
Look down at verse 11.
What does he say?
Dear friends,
I urge you as foreigners
and exiles
to abstain from sinful desires
which wage war
against your soul.
Live such good lives
among the pagans
that though they accuse you
of doing wrong,
they may see your good deeds
and glorify you on the day
when God visits us.
You see, the idea is
that they are spilling over
into the world.
Read across in chapter 3,
verse 15.
He says it again there,
doesn't he?
But in your hearts
revere Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared
to give an answer
to everyone who asks you
to give a reason
for the hope that you have.
How do you prepare
to give an answer
for the hope that you have?
Not simply by swatting up,
but by what?
Revering Christ as Lord
in your heart.
Christ will spill out.
This is what I was trying
to illustrate with the kids
this morning.
As our Christian lives
are full to the brim
with the glory of God
and the goodness
of the Lord Jesus,
we are spilling it
all over the place.
You know, declaring
the praises of God,
you'll spill it out
at work,
in your family,
you'll spill it out
with the people
who live in your block,
on your social media posts,
at your mates at uni
or at school.
Because this worship of God,
this amazement
at the greatness of God
and his works in Christ,
he doesn't switch off
when you walk out
those doors at the back.
He's there all the time.
Now, let me try and suggest
this means there's
a principle at work.
It's at work in us corporately,
but it's at work in us
individually as well.
So this is at work
in you and me this morning,
if we're a Christian
this morning.
And that is
our evangelistic usefulness,
our effectiveness
at telling other people
about Jesus
is a direct function
of how excited I am
by what the Lord Jesus
has done for me.
Do you get that?
My effectiveness
in evangelism,
sharing the gospel
with my friends,
my family
who don't know Christ,
is directly related
to how encouraged I am
or how enthusiastic I am
or how excited I am
about what Jesus
has done for me.
And that means
that for us as a church,
we don't encourage evangelism
so much by starting
new activities
as we do by reminding
one another
of the greatness
of the Lord Jesus
and making sure
that we are all excited
by what Christ
has done for us.
Because if we are excited
by Christ,
it will spill out
all over the place
and you won't be able
to stop it.
Let me try,
if I can this morning,
to try and motivate us
for evangelism
in the way that Peter's
trying to get it
to happen.
Look down at verse 9
and let's just
have a think about it
with me.
Let me ask you,
if you're a Christian
this morning,
have you really reckoned
with this idea
that together
we are God's chosen people?
Just ponder on that
for a moment.
God has chosen us.
Not because there's
something worthy in us,
not because he saw
that we were good people.
That's the great
stumbling block
of the previous verses
that Yvonne read to us.
That's why hell
will be full of
religious people
who relied on
their own efforts
and thought they were
better than other people.
That is not the gospel,
is it?
The gospel is that
God has chosen us
because God
in himself
loves.
He loves us
because of his own
loveliness,
not ours.
And he has chosen us
out of the world
to belong to him
as his people
for a reason
that we cannot explain.
A people who then
get described
as a royal priesthood.
People who have
access to God's
very presence
through the work
of Christ's cross.
So much so that
if you're a Christian
this morning,
at any time,
any of us
in any place
can call out to God,
the God who made us,
the God who rules
and governs the world,
and know
that that God
hears us.
We have access to him
like a child
has access to a parent.
And then we find,
what does he say next?
That we're a holy nation.
That means that we are
outside of the condemnation
that our world faces
for its sinful rebellion
against the God
who made us.
We are free
from the fear of hell.
Death has no claim on us
because through the action
of the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross,
God has made us
despite our sin
holy,
perfect,
justified,
and sanctified.
But I wonder
if maybe best of all
is the next phrase,
isn't it?
What does he say?
You are God's
special possession.
His treasure.
I don't know,
if you're a young Christian
or maybe you're
a new Christian,
it's easy to think
that maybe the blessings
of being a Christian
are the stuff
that God gives you.
Maybe you think
the blessings
of the Christian life
are mostly things
that God might give you.
Maybe he might give you
good health
or a nice family
or a nice job
or whatever it is.
Actually,
the blessing of the gospel
is that God
gives you himself
and calls you
his treasured possession.
You're mine.
You belong to me.
Of all the things
that I have,
says God,
and God owns everything,
right?
Of all the things
that God has,
you are my treasured
possession,
he says.
Can you imagine that?
I'm not going to let you go.
I'm not going to let
anything snatch you
out of my hand.
I want you to know,
says God,
that there's nothing
that can separate you
from my love.
There's no height,
nor depth,
no trouble,
no hardship,
no persecution,
no poverty,
no danger,
no sword,
nothing in all creation,
even angels or demons
that can separate you
from my love
in Christ Jesus.
And listen,
if you're a Christian
this morning,
that's true for you,
right?
That's true of you.
And I defy you
to keep it to yourself
if you understand it.
You just won't be able to.
I bet you.
If you really get this,
you won't be able
to stop talking about it.
You'll be like a new parent
who just can't shut up
about their child
or the colleague
who's returned
from that fantastic
holiday of a lifetime
and is just constantly
showing you photos
on their phone
of, oh,
did I show you this one?
Oh, what about this one?
What about that one?
Or the guy on the bus
who's just won 100 pounds
on a scratch card
and is going around
high-fiving everyone
on the bus?
You'll be like that guy.
Let me tell you,
I'm God's special possession.
He loves me.
He gave his son for me.
I'm holy.
I'm free from the condemnation
that the world faces.
God loves me.
It will leak out of you
all over the place.
Right, second implication.
We need to move
a little bit faster.
Evangelism requires the church.
Now, I think this could
be misunderstood here,
so I want to be very careful
and you need to listen carefully.
I'm not saying
that individuals
cannot engage
in evangelism,
nor am I saying
that all you need to do
is drag your
non-Christian friends
to church
and I will do the rest.
That's not right.
If you're a non-Christian friend
this morning,
you've been dragged here,
I'm very sorry.
That is not our intention.
I can only apologize.
The truth is,
as individuals,
we do need to make
the most of the opportunities
that God gives us
to share the gospel.
You know,
whether that's
over the dinner table
with an unbelieving spouse
or walking to school
with a child
or on the bus
with a stranger.
But I think the point
of our text this morning
is that there is a sense
in which the most
evangelistically effective
thing that we have,
or, if you like,
our sharpest tool
for gospel declaration,
if you like,
is our life together.
Yeah?
The church itself,
the church corporate,
is evangelistic
in its leaky worship.
In other words,
the evangelistic strategy
of our church
can't just be,
hey, listen,
go and tell as many people
as you can about Jesus.
Take the gospel out there,
convert the nations,
and when they're converted,
bring them here.
Rather,
we must go out and tell,
mustn't we?
That's really clear
in the Bible.
But also,
as we go out and tell,
we are also saying,
come and see.
Come and see.
Come and see
what God is doing.
He's choosing a people
for himself.
Let me introduce you to them.
He's got a royal priesthood.
Let me show you
where they are
so that you can engage with them.
He's got a group of people
whose very purpose
is to declare
the praiseworthy deeds of God.
Come and listen
to what they're saying.
So this is for you
if you're here this morning
and not a Christian.
It's brilliant
that you're here this morning.
So glad you've come this morning
if you're not a Christian.
Because I think,
not only do we want
to welcome you,
but also I think
this is the best place
for you to understand
what being a Christian
is about.
Being a Christian
is not just
a private belief
in a set of historical facts
about a man called Jesus.
It does involve that.
But being a Christian
is about more than that.
Being a Christian
is about coming
to realize and love
and give yourself
to the God
who made you
and who is now
making a new humanity.
A people who love
their maker,
who know him personally,
who worship him
in all of life
and who praise him together.
A new humanity
who are forgiven
of their sins,
cleared of future judgment
by the atoning work
of Christ on the cross.
A group of people
who are now gathered
into local churches
before one day
being gathered all together
with all of God's people
from all history
and all geography.
Now it might be
this morning,
if you're not a Christian,
that you've got loads
of questions about that
and I'd love to speak
to you about them.
Please come and find me
at the end.
But there is a sense
in which right now,
in this moment,
in this place,
you are getting
the clearest glimpse
of who God is
and what he's doing.
And if you are
a Christian this morning,
if you're a member
of the church here,
then let me say to you
that your personal evangelism,
your own sharing
of the gospel,
must at some stage
include an invitation
to church
and exposure
to the family
of the church.
If you look over
at verse 12 again,
you can see that
Peter's assumption
is that the corporate
life of the church
is seen and witnessed.
Yeah?
When he says,
live such good lives
among the pagans,
his assumption is
that the pagans,
i.e. people in the world
who don't believe in Jesus,
they will see your life.
How are they going
to see your life
if you are hiding it
or you're only living
it among Christians?
You see,
there are two mistakes,
aren't there,
what you can make here.
One is to think,
oh, all I have to do
is just drag people
to church
and Steve will do
the evangelism for me.
Or the other mistake
to make is to think
that the most evangelistically
effective thing
that we do
is outside of church,
you know,
talking to people
at Hyde Park
or in the open air,
when the truth is
that it's the corporate
life of the church,
seen in the gatherings
of the church,
experienced in the
relationships of the church,
which is the witness
to the truth
of the gospel.
If you like,
evangelism,
a team sport,
something we're doing
together.
Oh, you've got lots
of questions about that,
have you?
I've got a friend
at church who's really
good at answering
those questions,
why don't you come
and meet them?
Actually, we're really
good friends,
we're totally different,
but we're really good
friends.
Actually, we call each
other brother and sister.
So here's the two-pronged
evangelistic strategy
for us as a church.
One, if you're a member
of the church here,
you go and build
friendships and talk
to as many people
as the Lord gives you
opportunity to speak
to about Jesus.
Don't spend all your
time in a Christian
bubble.
Go make friends with
people.
Tell them about Jesus.
And secondly,
we're going to organise
our church life,
our friendships,
our socialising,
our formal gatherings
in such a way
as their accessible,
clear witness
to the good news
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so that you can
bring your friends
to any of them.
That's what we're
going to do.
And if we do that,
and if the Lord
blesses us,
then the normal
testimony of someone
coming to faith
and getting baptised
in our church
will be something
like this.
Oh, I met Clifford.
I met David.
I met Jeff.
I met Joe.
And they were
chatting to me.
And they talked
to me about Jesus.
And they brought me
around for a meal.
And there were other
people from the church
there.
And I got to meet them.
And there was something
about the way
that they related
and spoke to one another
and loved one another.
I'd never seen that before.
And then I came to church
and week in,
week out,
I heard the message
of Jesus who died
for me to forgive me
of my sins,
that I might belong to him.
And I found that actually
my heart was moving
to trust in Jesus
for myself.
That's the testimony
that we long for,
isn't it?
Let's pray that God
does that for his glory.
Finally, evangelism
is about God's glory.
I think essentially
what the text
is telling us here
is that evangelism
in the life of the church,
if you like,
is a subset
of something
over the top of it.
In other words,
our great passion
in taking the Gospels
to the nations,
to the lost members
of our family,
is not so much
a passion for evangelism
as it is a passion
for God's glory.
You see,
the tragedy in unbelief
is not so much
that people are missing out
on the blessings
of the Gospel
for themselves,
but that they're missing out
on the glory of God.
John Piper has a brilliant,
brilliant book on mission.
It's called
Let the Nations Be Glad,
and he puts it this way
in the very first paragraph
of his book.
It's this.
He says,
missions,
or evangelism,
telling other people
about Jesus,
is not the ultimate goal
of the church.
Worship is.
Missions exist
because worship doesn't.
Worship is ultimate,
not missions,
because God is ultimate,
not man.
When this age is over
and the countless millions
of the redeemed
fall on their faces
before the throne of God,
missions will be no more.
It's a temporary necessity,
but worship abides forever.
Now, I know,
because we've said this
over and over
in these Sundays together,
that we are absolutely
reliant on the work of God
to open people's hearts
to the Gospel.
But I want to suggest to you
that he does that
as we make the Gospel clear.
And I can't help but wonder
if at times we share
the Gospel in a really unclear way,
because we are unclear
about this primacy
of the glory of God.
I don't know about you,
but I think often
I can tend to share
the Gospel something like this.
Do you know what?
You and I, we're sinners.
We've done stuff wrong.
And because of that,
we're going to hell
to be judged by God
for eternity.
But Jesus came to die
on the cross
to forgive us of our sins
so that we can get
eternal life when we die.
And that's how we share
the Gospel, isn't it?
Something like that.
And that's true.
None of that's wrong.
But it's wrong in its emphasis
because it's very human-centered.
It makes the Gospel
as being the means
that God achieves something
for us that we really want,
rather than the Gospel
being something about
who God is
and what God really wants
in the world.
Actually, the Gospel
is about the glory of God
first and foremost,
before it's about anything else.
And when most of our friends
hear the Gospel
as we present it about them,
quite often they say,
well, I don't really feel sinful.
I don't really feel
as if my life
is missing something.
I'm not that bothered
about God and His glory.
I don't see the importance
of what you're talking about.
But Peter's point
is that the Gospel
isn't really about us like that.
It's about God and His glory.
We're better off sharing
the Gospel
or something like this,
saying, listen,
have you thought about this?
Do you realize
that you exist,
you live on a ball
that is spinning
at thousands of miles an hour
around another ball of fire?
Actually, your existence itself
is a miracle.
And you are being sustained
in every moment
by the God who made you.
Have you thought about that?
That even the breath
that we have
that we use to deny God
is the breath
that He has given us
in that moment.
Have you thought about that?
Can you imagine
that God
as the sustaining creator
of all things
is just offended
by the fact
that you use
the life that He's given you
on this amazing spinning ball
around a ball of fire,
the breath that He's given you,
you use that to deny Him,
to live as if you've
worked it out yourself,
as if this life
is all about you?
Well, let me tell you
what I've discovered
about God
through His Word, the Bible.
I've discovered
that God is not just
the creator,
but He's also
the loving Savior.
And He's come into this world
in the person of the Son
to defeat our ignorance
and unbelief,
but not with a sword
or a gun,
but by dying in our place
and bearing our judgment
and rising to new resurrection life.
So that now,
through the Son,
you and I get to live life
for God's glory.
The glory not only of a creator,
but of a lover.
So that God gets glory
and we get joy.
A joy that stretches
through the ups and downs
of life
and into resurrection,
eternal life
that the Son of God
has started already.
Doesn't that sound pretty good?
That's the glory of God.
That's what calls people
to Himself,
to be a chosen people,
a holy nation,
a royal priesthood,
His special possession,
who live their lives
to declare His praises.
Let me close in prayer.
Let's just take a moment.
You can think through
and ponder on
the wonder of what God
has done for us
that we might
declare His praises together.
Heavenly Father,
we thank you so much
that you are passionately committed
to your own glory
and that that's the right thing
for you to be.
It's the right way
for you to be.
It's the right thing
for us to acknowledge
that you are glorious
and wonderful.
And we pray, please,
that as a church family
we might be leaky
in our worship of you,
that it might spill out of us
into the people around us
wherever you put us tomorrow,
that people might hear from us
the good news of the Lord Jesus
because it's just spilling out
from us at every turn.
So you pray, please, Lord,
that you would do this work
in our hearts
for the sake of your name
and for the good
of the lost around us
that they might hear of Jesus
and come and trust in Him
for themselves.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.