Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful
that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either
by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray
for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,
I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,
they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will
do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a
non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't
hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the
types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Bow our heads in prayer, remaining standing. Father, you know how easily we get startled and
confused and misunderstand things. And so Father, when that happens to us, we ask that your Holy Spirit
just continue to remind us that shows how much you love us and care for us, that seeing how we stumble
and make mistakes, that you still, you care for us. You don't abandon us, but draw us more to yourself.
So Father, we confess that there are words today that we're going to look at that you meant to provide
great comfort to us, but that we take as troublesome. And so Father, we invite your Holy Spirit to move
and speak deeply within our lives and to bring your word deep within us so that we might receive the
comfort and the hope that you desire us to have and know and to walk in. And we ask this in Jesus's name,
your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.
So I don't know how many of you have ever come to the 8 a.m. service. Sometimes when people come to the 8 a.m. service
after they've just been at this service, they're a bit taken aback. I wear robes and there's no screen.
We have little booklets. And if you'll open up the booklets, a couple of pieces have been removed,
but it's basically the 1662 Book of Common Prayer Service, which is basically the 1552 Book of Common
Prayer Service and has these and those, and it's a bit of a surprise. Some of you who've been at it
will know that I speak a bit differently. I mean, not only is my sermon half the length,
but because I'm not on YouTube, I sometimes say things and I'll tell them, this is one of the
advantages you have of coming at 8. I'm not going to say this at 10 because I'm going to be on YouTube.
And this morning for my sermon, I said that, and I said a couple of things. I had a different way
to opening the sermon than I'm doing right now, actually. But as the service progressed,
I came under conviction that I had to start the service in a different way, which is what I'm
doing now. But I'm going to say, in fact, something similar to what I said at 8 that I wasn't going to
say because I'm on YouTube. And just for those, I think I'm probably fine here, but especially for
those who are online or maybe online downstream, if you just give me mercy for a couple of minutes,
and then you can send me an angry email potentially or do whatever it is that you're going to do.
We're part of the Anglican Network in Canada. We're not part of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Canada and Anglican Network in Canada, the bishops have asked that today would be Pro-Life Sunday,
that in some way we make some type of comment, whether it's in the prayers of the people or in
the sermon about the pro-life issue. And I, you know, I'm not embarrassed about talking about it,
but I wasn't going to particularly talk about it today. But it actually, I realized, this is part of
the whole insight that I had later on that talking about this today is actually a perfect introduction
for the Bible text that Victor read and that I'm going to talk about. And so here's where I just
need a little bit of mercy. I'm a Christian. This is a Christian congregation. We believe that Jesus is
our Savior, and we believe that he is our Lord. And we believe that the Bible is words that ultimately
God wanted written and he spoke to us, and that we're bound by them. And that these words are actually true
words, not just for Christians, but for all people. But we as Christians have a special obligation to believe
them and trust them. And that means that we do not believe that you can kill human life in the womb,
that abortion is wrong. You cannot take innocent life. It's breaking one of the Ten Commandments.
We believe that you cannot kill mentally ill people or elderly people or even people in pain,
because that is taking innocent life. We are to care for the weak and the vulnerable. We are to figure
out how to give them more resources to help them. We are not to kill them. We believe that God created all
human beings and he created human beings with sexuality and sexual knowing in mind.
But his intention in creation was that people would either be chased and celibate in singleness,
or if they were called into marriage, that they would be chased and celibate there, the marriage of one man
to one woman, one biological male to one biological female. And that outside of marriage,
people were not to practice sexual knowing that they were to be celibate. That's what we believe
the Bible teaches. And that means we're going to oppose things like same-sex marriage, amongst other
things. We also believe that since God has created us as male and female, he didn't just create us as
male and female, but we believe the Bible teaches that he's also called us to be for a man to be a male and
a female to be a woman. And that the way towards wholeness is to be at peace in our body. That's
always the way of wholeness. And it's the way of holiness, not just for those who are Christians,
but for all people. And that means we're going to be on an opposite side of a very, very important
cultural issue today, which is talked about and shouted about an awful lot. And we believe these
things because we believe the Bible teaches this, but it's important for you to hear that we do not
believe that any of these things that I've touched on, whether it be abortion, whether it be same-sex
marriage or a whole lot of other issues connected to LGBTQ plus issues, or whether it be euthanasia
or the trans issue, we do not believe that these are us versus them issues. What I need you to
understand is we are not the holy and the pure. We are not the people who have never sinned.
Everybody, not everybody, everybody in this congregation is in fact sexually broken.
We are not perfect in our sexual and your sexual knowing. And in our congregation, both today and in
the past, our people who in fact have had abortions, encouraged abortions, struggle with a wide range of
sexual temptations, have lived non-celibate gay or lesbian lives, and almost undoubtedly struggle with
whether they are in the right gender and feel at peace with their bodies. So for us as Christians,
this is not an us versus them issue. But it doesn't mean that we can be silent about it. Because you see,
in the end of the day, we are very, very similar to what Charles Spurgeon said that all Christians are.
Christians are beggars. We are, I'm one beggar telling another beggar where to find free bread.
I am one sexually broken person telling other sexually broken people where to find the bread of life.
And that's what we are. That's all we are. It's not an us versus them issue.
Now, I mention all of this not only because I'm honoring my denomination and my bishop who said
that we should mention something about pro-life issues this particular Sunday.
I'm also mentioning it because by the providence of God, I'm not smart enough to organize things
like this. I really am not. I don't know what I'm going to be preaching on in three weeks. I can
tell you the scripture text, but I can't tell you what it says. I can tell you, by the way, since I'm on all the
big issues, you could pray for me. Next Sunday, I know many people who are outside the Christian
faith say that one of the reasons they can't be Christians is they believe that Christianity
encourages slavery. I'm going to, the Bible text next week is going to look at slavery.
I also know that many people say they can't be Christians because they believe the Bible oppresses
women. I'm going to look at that two Sundays from now, our scripture text is wives be subject to
your husbands. And there's a whole lot of other commands to the husband as well. If you can pray
that I can do those things well in honoring Christ. But in this particular day, one of the things that
we're going to see, there's like a foreshadowing of what's going to be the issue in a big issue in
the rest of the book, which is that sometimes being a Christian costs you a lot and you're going to suffer.
The topics which I just said, and those of you who are outside of the Christian faith who might be
watching this, you know very well that what I have just said could easily get me canceled in a variety
of careers. In fact, I'm conscious that even saying that I could run into trouble with the group that we
rent this building from. And that's why it's a perfect text for today. Because it's going to start,
this book of first Peter is going to begin to look at issues of rejection and suffering,
suffering in general, by the way, but also rejection and suffering for following Christ.
So let's turn and look and see what it says. It's a foretaste, a foreshadowing of what's going to become
a far bigger theme in the book. And it's a foreshadowing, which is profoundly hopeful. So if you would turn in your
Bibles with me to 1st Peter chapter 2, verse 4, we'll continue this letter that Peter, Peter is the
fellow who was one of Jesus's closest disciples. He spent three years with Jesus, three plus years with
Jesus in his public ministry. He would have been an eyewitness of most of the miracles that Jesus
performed. He was famously denied Jesus on what we now consider to be Maundy Thursday or
yeah, it's no, Good Friday, I guess he denied Jesus. But he is also one of the people who saw Jesus
after he rose from the dead. He saw that the grave was empty. And Peter is writing this to a group of
Christians who came out of pagan backgrounds primarily and become Christians living in what
we now call Turkey. It was a circular letter to be designed to be read to a variety of different
churches. And about a two year, year or two years after this letter is written, Peter will die
because he will maintain that Jesus in fact did rise from the dead, that the grave was empty,
that they actually saw him and he'll die for proclaiming that truth. And here's,
here's what he says. Verse four, as you come to Jesus, 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. Now just sort of pause. Here's the foreshadowing that's coming. Look at verse four
again. As you come to him, that's Jesus, a living stone rejected by human beings, but in the sight of
God chosen and precious. Now this is going to become, you know, it's, it's, we all know this. I, I remember
quite a few years ago talking to a woman who's outside the Christian faith, but a really, really
great woman and she'd had a miscarriage and she was marveling with me that her woman boss was completely
and utterly unsympathetic to her. But her boss, which was a guy, was very sympathetic to her,
even though she just had a miscarriage and she was really, really, really struggling, struggling with
it emotionally and in all sorts of ways. And we all know that, you know, just somehow the way it is
that we can talk to some people who've been through situations similar to ours and they show no compassion
or understanding to us. And sometimes that we can talk to people who haven't experienced anything
that we have, but they just really have a gift of compassion and empathy. And we all know that that's the
case, but there is something very specially precious when you come across somebody who has suffered in
the same way that you have and is also compassionate. You know, there's an extra depth of empathy that you
can come to them as you're dealing and sharing with these issues. And that's what, that's what Peter's
beginning to give a bit of a foretaste. Later on, he's going to be talking about people who suffer for
being a Christian and suffering in general. And he begins that sort of stirring that whole process
by reminding people who are maybe struggling with the fact that they've been rejected from a promotion
or from being in a guild or rejected by their family, but rejected by their parents, rejected by
their children, rejected by their community, now are struggling financially as a result of it,
that when we come to Jesus, we come to one who has been rejected by the human race.
And it's very interesting in the original language. You can see it in English if you read it very
carefully. The language is not as you come to him occasionally, but the implication is, is that as you
come to him in your daily prayers, as you come to him in your daily Bible reading, as you come to him
in your weekly small group, as you come to him on Sunday when you gather in public worship, as you're
coming to him regularly, as you come to him, remember that he was rejected by human beings.
In other words, this is an invitation. Peter's saying, loved my brothers and sisters, my friends,
you can pour out your heart to Jesus about these issues. He understands what it means to be rejected.
He understands. And it's also very hopeful because they're reminding, Peter's reminding them that Jesus
was rejected by humans. But he, look at verse 4, he, in God's eyes, the triune God's eyes,
was chosen and is, is chosen and precious. And then you notice what it says, verse 5,
view yourselves like living stones. And there the idea is that Jesus is portrayed, we'll see why he's
called a living stone in a moment. There's sort of three Old Testament references to this idea of a
stone. And Peter's going to quote all of them. So he's, he's, there's a reason why he uses this
analogy. But when we put our trust and faith in Christ, in a sense, we become like him. And, and,
and, and in other words, like him, we might be rejected. But we are going to see as the text goes
on that we are also chosen and precious to him. And that even if we are being rejected,
even if there is a cost to following Jesus, look at what it says in verse 5,
you yourselves like living stones are being built up. And this is a beautiful image that God is
building us up, you and me up. He's building us up like a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And this is a very, very,
you know, powerful issue. Those of you who've come to the church more than once know that we often pray
for the persecuted church. And that's a very good thing to do in and of itself. But here's the thing,
it doesn't say that he's building spiritual houses. He's not building a spiritual house called Church of
the Messiah, another spiritual house called Calvary Baptist, another spiritual house called the
Metropolitan Bible Church. He's only building one house. And in that house are Christians who've
worshipped today earlier in the day in Korea, and in Saigon, and in Manila, and in, I think of a city
in India, and all of a sudden my mind's gone blank, Chennai, and in Nairobi, and in Laos, and Lagos,
and in Manhattan, and in Ottawa. He's only building one house. And it's the other thing about which is
so needed, but he's only building one house. It also means that in that house is Augustine,
and Athanasius, is Chrysostom. Our friend Steve here did his doctoral dissertation on the short-lived
Spanish Reformation. They're all part of our house too. And he's got ordained while he was in Egypt.
That's all part of the house too. Just one house. Just one house. And this idea of the spiritual worship
and the spiritual house. Spiritual to us as Canadians often means it's something emotional,
or something about affections, or something intellectual. But in the original language
here, it's pneumatikos. And what that means is Holy Spirit empowered. So it's a Holy Spirit directed
building of a house. A Holy Spirit empowered building of a house. And it also means Holy Spirit
inspired sacrifices, which does not mean sacrificing animals. It means sacrificing it in the sense that
money says that I should hold on to as much money as I possibly can. And a pneumatikos, a Holy Spirit
inspired sacrifice is to realize that I am to give part of my money away. That, you know, that I'm to order
my sexuality in one particular way. The Holy Spirit leads us to move towards, you know, chastity and,
you know, repentance when we fail of that. And, you know, in terms of power, the Holy Spirit,
our culture teaches us to use power in particular ways. And the Holy Spirit is leading us to use power
in very different ways. And that's what's being talked about. The Holy Spirit in all of our life
is forming us to live in a different way. See, when you give your life to Christ,
there's all these other things that happen. And one of the things that happens is that the Holy Spirit
now indwells you. You're born again. And that means the Holy Spirit is going to propel you and
empower you and point you in certain types of directions, some of which are very countercultural.
But now, a word of encouragement is often for many Canadians and many Canadian Christians,
a word of discouragement. And we need to look at it. It should be a word of encouragement,
but for many it discourages. Look what happens. Look at verse 6. It says,
4. So he's going to give some Bible text to sort of back up this big claim.
4. It stands in Scripture.
Behold, I am laying in Zion, a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious,
that whoever believes in him, that is the stone, which we now know as Christ,
will not be put to shame. And then it stops the quote, and he has a bit of a comment.
So the honor is for those who believe, but for those who do not believe,
and then this Scripture quote, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,
and a different Scripture text is quoted, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
Now here's the part which is very discouraging. They stumble, and the idea behind this is like a type of eternal stumbling.
It's an image of what they do and of judgment.
They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.
And Canadian Christians go, whoa.
Whoa.
Didn't see that coming.
Now a couple of things I have to walk towards this text.
This is actually a text that's designed to be a profound encouragement to us.
It's both going to be very chastening.
In other words, it's going to be very, make us go, oh, like that's harder news than I expected to have.
The Bible is going to tell you your situation apart from Christ is vastly worse than you ever imagined.
But your situation in Christ is vastly better than you possibly could imagine.
And it's as you know that your situation apart from Christ is vastly worse,
that you have a special ability to then understand how your situation in Christ is vastly better.
So just a couple of things.
The first thing to notice with these images is that if there was a buffet of spirituality and religions,
Jesus is not on the menu.
He's not on the buffet table.
The normal way that Canadians think now about things like religion or worldviews or spirituality or therapies or ideologies
is that it's a little bit like a buffet table.
And so, you know, Steve and I and Stella and Louise, we might be walking along the buffet table
and we, you know, maybe I pile up on one thing and, you know, Steve on another thing
and Stella on another thing and Louise on another thing and we do bits and pieces of this.
And at the end, we sit down and we all have our meal.
We look and maybe say, you know, I was thinking of taking some of that.
What's it taste like, you know?
And so it is today.
You know, take a little bit of Buddhism, maybe take a little bit of Sufism,
take a little bit of Islam.
You know, you take a little bit of Wicca.
You take a little bit of, I don't know, like some crystals and stuff like that.
And then just because, just to show that you're edgy,
a little bit of Christopher Hitchens and, you know, a little bit maybe of depth therapy or psychology
and you throw it all together and it's like a buffet.
And maybe occasionally at a gathering you look and you compare.
Oh, so you've been trying this type of therapy, have you?
Like, how's it working?
Like, you know, from Jordan Peterson, you really got into Jung, yeah.
But you know, I'm more into Buddhism and a little bit of this.
Buddhism and Hitchens, I think they're really neat.
And you have a bit of a conversation about that.
And everybody's very, very cheerful about it.
I guess it could be the same if you're in a country that's been very influenced by Buddhism or Hinduism
and there's many gods and goddesses.
And you don't get into fights about it.
You just sort of may be interested.
Oh, you find this sort of god or goddess very helpful in terms of your walk.
That's who you offer your sacrifices to.
What this text is saying is that Jesus is completely and utterly different than that.
That, in fact, your whole eternal destiny of not just you, but every human being,
turns on how you respond to Jesus.
There's only two ways to respond to Jesus.
You either come across him and then you realize that he is that living stone,
that cornerstone upon which you are to base your entire life in
because he really is God's son and humanity's savior.
He really is the one who will reconcile you to God.
He really is the one who has defeated death and hell and sin and his resurrection.
And he really is the one that you are to build your life on,
imperfect as you might be doing that.
Or you are offended by him and you reject him and you disobey him.
And then the Bible says if that's the case, then you stumble over him
and you're stumbling as an eternal type of stumbling.
And then it adds to our shock, as they, as you, were destined to do.
So what's going on here in this particular text?
How are we to understand it?
Why is it good news and not something that we should be embarrassed about?
Well, the first thing is that this says the word destined, not fated.
Destined, not fated.
That's a very important distinction.
You see, if I'm fated to do something,
you can think of, you know, the story in the Greek myth of Oedipus,
that no matter what he tries to do to avoid his particular fate,
he's still going to, that it's, the gods have determined this.
It doesn't matter how much he tries to fight against the gods
or maneuver or do this or that.
He is fated to do this particular thing
or have this particular tragedy happen to his life.
But destiny is something that comes from within each human being.
It's something, in a sense, that you are building by your habits,
by your thoughts, by the choices that you make,
by the micro choices and the big choices that you make.
It would be, in a sense, to use a very sort of silly example,
that if I had a grandson who dreamed of playing in the NHL at some point in time,
but as he grows older, all he does when he comes home from school
is go immediately to the basement to play video games
and eat copious amounts of potato chips and never exercise whatsoever,
we'd all say that he is not destined to play in the NHL.
That, in fact, he is destined to be overweight
and probably have a whole pile of other heart and other body problems.
And his life, rather than being famous,
might be very short if he continues in that.
And then as he gets older and he can use Uber,
he adds poutine regularly to his diet.
That's destiny.
And the Bible here says,
not that you were fated to it,
but as you were destined to.
The second thing is that
it's not the case that the Bible is saying,
here's George,
I read the Bible,
I'm still married to the same woman,
I have a master's degree,
go on and on and on,
I'm obviously destined for heaven.
You, on the other hand,
or you, on the other hand,
out there,
look at you,
you're obviously destined to eternal.
No, no, no,
that's not what the Bible is saying.
Here's the part which is very sobering.
Before I responded to Christ,
I was destined
to stumble forever.
And so were you.
And you.
There is nobody in this congregation
worshiping here today
that apart from Christ
we're destined to anything other
than to eternally stumble over Christ.
Paul and Romans said,
for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God.
And in a sense,
Peter is saying,
all were destined
to fall
and fall short of the glory of God
unless Christ intervened.
And Christ intervened
in a very, very powerful way.
Could you just skip ahead
to verse 10, Claire?
We'll go back to verse 9 in a moment.
But look at verse 10.
And 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.
The Bible is saying
that the difference isn't between
some of us are destined to hell
and some of us in a sense
are destined towards eternal life.
Not in the way that destined
is used here in this particular case.
But that some of us
have received mercy
and some of us
have refused mercy.
That in a sense,
the difference is
that God in his mercy
called and saved me
out of my destiny.
God in his mercy
called and saved you
out of your destiny.
mercy.
Now what is mercy?
I talked about that
a few weeks ago.
I'm going to talk about it again
very briefly.
Mercy is compassion
to the guilty
and undeserving.
Mercy is compassion
to the guilty
and to the undeserving.
If you are, in fact,
not guilty
mercy,
then you don't deserve mercy.
You deserve justice.
If you are, in fact,
guilty
and therefore undeserving
of any type of
clemency or compassion,
you have no right
to mercy.
If you have a right
to mercy,
it's not mercy
that you have a right to.
You have a right
for some type of favor
to be shown to you
or you have a right
for justice
to be shown to you.
At the same time,
mercy cannot ignore justice.
If mercy ignores justice,
it is not mercy.
It is unjust favoritism.
In a few months' time,
if Biden loses the election
and he gives a whole pile
of people
a pass on their jail sentences
or criminal prosecution
and they're all his buddies,
nobody other than Democrats
will think that justice was done.
We'll all know
that it was unjust favoritism.
And just to show
that I'm nonpartisan,
if by chance Trump wins
and then down
when he finishes
and he does it,
other than some crazed
Trump loyalists,
just like there's
crazed Biden loyalists,
we'll all know
that what he did
was not just,
that it was unjust favoritism.
Mercy is not unjust favoritism.
You see,
that's the beauty
of the gospel.
The beauty of the gospel
is this.
By my natural nature
and by my choices,
there are things
that in me
are very dark.
You see,
on one hand,
this biblical teaching
is something
that offends us,
but we all know
on one level
that it's true.
There are things
in every human being
that are dark.
There are things
inside of us
that desire to roar,
to be ravenous,
and maybe it's
with greed,
maybe it's
with a love of power,
maybe it's
a complete
unwillingness
to forgive,
but in effect
to destroy
or to stomp
or to hoard money
or to hoard power
or to hoard influence
or there's things
within every human being
which are very dark.
There's things
within human beings
that want to reject God.
They want to reject
the triune God.
They are offended
by the triune God.
They say,
God,
how dare you ask me
to obey that?
How dare you ask me
to obey that?
And there are things
in every single one
of us as human beings
which are,
and that describes us.
In fact,
it can describe
even more
the people
who have the custom
and the skills
and the training
and the class background
that they can always
have a very pleasant front
while inwardly
they burn
and rage.
And God,
the Son of God,
comes up beside
George Sinclair
and he says,
George,
you deserve judgment
and you deserve shame
and that's what you deserve.
But George,
you were made in my image
and because you were made
in my image,
I can stand for you
and I will take your place.
I will stand for you.
The shame that you deserve
very justly,
I will have that
fall on my shoulders,
permeate who I am.
The things that you
were done wrong
that are guilty,
the things that you
should have done right
that you didn't do
that deserve punishment,
they deserve public punishment,
I will take those
on myself
for you.
And the demands
of justice
that I cannot meet
without
being unmade
were laid on him.
And he did that
out of mercy
and justice was met.
He looked at me
and he looks at
every one of you
who are in him
and he looks at you
with eyes of compassion.
And that shame
became his,
that guilt
became his,
the punishment
they deserved
became his.
And he offers you
mercy,
new life.
He takes
what you were
destined for.
And when you
take that offer,
you find
on the other side
of that mercy
that now
you are
God's special,
precious,
treasured possession.
the mercy
is great,
the mercy
is deep,
the mercy
is thick,
the mercy
is wide,
the mercy
is high.
And he calls
me
and I respond
to that call.
He helps me
to hear that call
and to respond
to that call
to receive the mercy
from him.
And I want
to say to you
who are here,
those of you
who are online,
if you feel
that tug,
maybe wishing
it was true,
maybe you're even
feeling the tug
still have bothered
and offended
by some of
these aspects,
I want to tell
you that that's
the sign
that Jesus
is calling you
right now.
How do you
respond?
There's really
at the end
of the day,
I mean I could
tell you words
to pray
and all of that,
but it really
goes with that
inner disposition
as you look
to him
and it really
comes with
just doing
this.
I give up.
I surrender.
Take me.
Nothing more
profound than that,
but there is
nothing more
profound than that.
Why did God
show me mercy?
At the end
of the day,
the Bible said
there's nothing
particularly in me,
if there was
something particularly
in me,
that it wouldn't
be mercy,
it would be
some type
of favoritism.
All the Bible
says is that
he chose me
because he loves.
He is love.
And why do I
want to have
something deeper
than love?
What can be
deeper than
God's love?
Like what's
better than that?
Like is me
being able to
say that it's,
I don't know,
my smile or
my wit?
Those things
fade and die.
But God's love
is eternal.
What's deeper
or better than
that?
See, this is why
this is such a
profound encouragement.
That if you have
given your life
to Christ,
it's because he
called you
and saved you.
And now,
well, let's look
what he describes.
When I became
a Christian,
the people I
became a Christian
with gave me
a little piece
of cardboard
on it.
There were a
variety of Bible
passages that
they wanted me
to memorize.
And this was
one of them.
I don't remember
all of them.
I remember that
one of them was
John 3, 16,
for God so loved
the world,
you know,
that whoever
believes in him
will not perish
but have everlasting
life like God
gave his only son.
I remember that.
And another one
was Proverbs 3,
you know,
trust in the Lord
with all your heart
and lean not on
your own understanding
and in all your ways
acknowledge him
and he will
direct your paths.
And another one
was Romans 12,
1 and 2,
about not being
conformed to this
world but being
transformed and
one of them
was this text.
They wanted me
to memorize
verses 9 and 10.
They're a beautiful
text.
This is what happens
as a result of
God's call
out of mercy
to you.
Look at what it
says,
verse 9,
but you are a
chosen race.
I'll tell you
in a moment
what that is
and what it
doesn't mean
and what it
does mean.
You are a
chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a holy people group,
a people for his
own possession.
And in the
original language
this means his
treasured possession,
his precious possession.
That's who you
are in Christ.
And why are you,
what's the point
of all that?
That you may
proclaim the
excellencies of
him who called
you,
who called you
out of darkness,
the darkness of
what you were
destined for.
He called you
out of the
darkness that you
were destined for
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.
See back to my
beginning of the
sermon.
See that's why
this is not an
us versus them
issue.
That is why it
is not the case
that nobody in
this congregation
is sexually
perfect and has
no problems with
feeling at home
with their body
or has never
been involved in
abortion or never
encouraged somebody
to commit, you
know, to do
euthanasia, never
in their entire
life.
No!
We are not
the perfect
destined for
eternity.
We were those
stumbling and
disobedient and
offending against
God and we
stand before God
purely and utterly
because he calls
people who reject
him to himself
and saves them
by what Jesus
has done.
That's who we
are.
So all we can
do is proclaim
that that's what
he does.
That it's not
just for us,
it's for you.
Just in closing,
that beautiful,
but you are a
chosen race.
Some of you
might remember
when I've talked
about racism
that the Bible
doesn't talk about
race and in some
ways this is an
unfortunate translation.
Literally it says,
but you are a
chosen lineage.
Lineage.
That's what's so
beautiful.
Listen, some of us
humanly speaking
have terrible
lineages.
I don't talk
about this very
much.
My dad spent
time in jail
as a pedophile.
I don't have a
great lineage.
Like I don't.
In my flesh.
But that's the
wonder of it.
A person today in
Malaysia who gives
their life to
Christ, me who's
given my life to
Christ, somebody in
Rwanda, somebody in
India, somebody in
Iran, somebody in
Israel, somebody in
Gaza, when we give
our lives to
Christ, we all have
the same lineage.
A new lineage.
Our lineage is from
him.
It is the most
profoundly anti-racist
text you could
possibly imagine.
It is the thing,
we're going to talk
about this a little
bit in next week
when we talk about
slavery.
The ancient mind
could not imagine a
world without
slavery.
This little tiny
virus is eventually
going to blow up
the world.
That and the whole
teaching in Genesis
chapter 1 and 2.
If I owned a slave
and we both become
Christians, we have
the same lineage.
All of a sudden by
grace.
What's our vocation?
To proclaim his
excellencies in word
and deed and how we
spend our time and
how we deal with
power, how we deal
with sexuality, how
we deal with our
money, how we deal
with our families, how
we deal with our
relationships, how we
deal with being
wronged, how we deal
with forgiveness, how
we deal with
reconciliation in all
of life to proclaim
his excellencies to
the ends of the
earth, to every
people group.
That is our vocation.
Please stand.
Bow our heads in
prayer.
Father, we give you
thanks and praise that
when we respond to
your call, your
call, your merciful
call, and we come to
Jesus who saves us,
Father, that we
become this chosen
lineage that we
share in common
with people of
all different, you
know, with
handicapped people
and brilliant
people and physically
gifted people and
poor people and
rich people.
All those things,
Father, and all of
the lineages that
brought them to
those places, those
things, on one
hand, we still have
to live with them
and deal with them,
but Father, that
they fall away, that
by grace, we are
given this whole
brand new lineage
with you, Jesus, the
second Adam, that we
become yours and we
become your precious
possession.
We ask, Father, that
you bring these truths
of our identity deep
within our lives and
may these identities
form us.
And Father, grant us
the courage and the
gentleness and the
ability to proclaim
your excellencies,
proclaim them to our
children and to our
family and our
friends and in our
workplaces and to our
nation and to other
people groups in the
city and other people
groups to the very
end of the age.
And we give you
thanks and praise that
we don't do this all
by ourselves, that
there are Christians
today, Father, in
Nairobi and Seoul,
South Korea, and in
Rwanda and in Iran
and China and India
that are all, Father,
that we are doing this
together because you
just have one house.
You just have one
house and one
lineage, one chosen
lineage.
And Father, we thank
you for grace and
mercy.
Help us to live up to
our vocation.
You know how weak we
are.
We need your help.
We need the Holy
Spirit.
Help us to live in such
a way.
And we ask this in the
name of Jesus and all
God's people said,
Amen.