As I said earlier, it is a privilege and a delight to be with you this morning. I know it was a wet drive to get here, but I'm grateful for our time together. We're going to be hearing from 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 10, so I'd invite you to turn there. But I just wanted to take a moment of personal privilege and say part of the reason why it's such a joy to worship with you this morning is I feel as though God has, at many of our ministry posts along the years, brought us shoulder to shoulder with folks from Grace Prez, be they covenant children who grew up in this congregation, or former staff members, or just folks who lived in Ocala for a season, and so I have long desired to come and see the place where God has been so faithful and good to his people. I would love to get to know you after the service. If you get a chance, come up, say hi, and would love to get to meet you. As we hear now from God's word, 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 10, what I want us to see this morning is the beauty of Christ, our cornerstone, who calls God's people unto himself. And there is a beautiful redemptive blueprint that we are about to see of God's plan for the redemption of his people through his son, Christ. Hear this word from 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 10. 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 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. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. Let us ask God to prepare our hearts as we hear the preached word this morning. Bow your heads with me. Our God and our Father, we come to your word this morning with expectancy, with excitement, with a little bit of weariness and we ask your spirit to convict us of our rush and our hurry so often to establish our own kingdom. We need to be reconciled this morning by your transforming love. Would you surprise our expectations? Would you clear the cobwebs from our ears? Would you expose the corners of our hearts with your word? We do ask that you would attend now with power the truth and the word preached, that you would awaken our attentions even as we confess our weariness. God, I am a broken vessel, but I pray that you would speak through my words. We want to see Jesus this morning. not just as he so often appears as he is in Scripture. We know that you can do it and we pray that you will and we praise you for this opportunity to experience the power of Christ's transforming love through your word this morning. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Christ our cornerstone. I'd invite you to keep your Bibles open. We're gonna move through the text this morning. But there is this beautiful picture of this blueprint of what God is doing in the lives of his believers and his followers. So often as a church planter, I get one question first and foremost. I don't know if you could guess it, but it is, where is your building? Where will your building be? And so often I get the privilege of being able to tell those people, I don't know. But I know that God is gathering a people unto himself, and where God calls people together in worship, he provides a place for them. When he calls his people into his family, he guides them to the place that he has prepared for them. See, one of the challenges that we face with our text this morning is in a culture where so often cold, individualistic Christianity and deconstructionism is the norm. How are we to approach our God and our Maker and His people who are called by His name? See, Peter wants to show us this beautiful picture of the status that Christians have as the true people of God, and so doing, encourage us to live it out before the world with courage and boldness, where so often criticism is quick to come, that we would live out of our union with Christ. He begins with God and operates out of this assumption that sooner or later, we will have to come to grips, we will have to deal with the God of our universe. Oftentimes, we don't want to face the things that are standing right in front of us. We try to go around them, but Peter acknowledges that how we approach our God and our Father makes all the difference. As I was reading and preparing this week, I was reminded, so I spent 15 years in student ministry, got to work with a lot of teenagers over the years, and one of the things I got to do with them was go backpacking on the Appalachian Trail. And if you ever try to summit a mountain, you will find out what you are made of. And if you take teenagers to summit a mountain, you will find out what they are made of and then what you're made of. And so one particular year, I remember we started at the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. And we would hike for about five to six days. We would filter our own water. We'd sleep on the ground. Very formative trip. And many of our students, after a day's worth of hiking, were absolutely worn out. Blisters on their feet, a cold meal awaiting them at our camp. And we are at the base of Blood Mountain, which is one of the steepest inclines on the southern portion of the Appalachian Trail. And we had to get to the top in order to camp and in order to finish our day and be able to rest and to be able to come to a place together and there was a lot of whining. There was a lot of, well, maybe we could do it tomorrow. But eventually one of our seniors invited the other ones with a skip in his step and a song in his heart and they proceeded to summit straight up. this mountain that we had come to, and it was a reminder to me that so often when we come to the God of the universe, and we come to a holy God who is righteous, so often we come to the end of ourselves. We come to a place where we have to find strength in something beyond our own abilities. That it relies on faith. that even as we think about Christ as our cornerstone, that is the hope, that is the encouragement that we have this morning, that there is a reason for why God has given us this firm foundation, this cornerstone of Christ. There is no going around or pretending that God isn't really there. We must come face to face with this harsh and difficult truth at times. And so often we cower in fear. And so there is this saying that we often teach our children, here's the church and there's the steeple, open the doors and see all the people. This morning, we get to delight in this imagery of the living stones that God has gathered unto himself according to his plan. It says, 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. That is a beautiful picture to a people that Peter wants to encourage. The early church that is scattered across Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, they are rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ but also feeling so isolated. At this time and this location, it was a crossroads of culture, influence, human migration from all the surrounding areas. The nations were coming into their towns. Many followers of Jesus took this opportunity to take advantage of high quality roads, of being able to travel widely and to share the message of the hope of Jesus Christ. Lots of expansion, lots of construction, and people all over the place from every walk of life, every culture, every background. That reminds me of West Ocala. Since we moved about four months ago, we have encountered such a diverse community on the west side of town. Folks from Oregon, from Georgia, from New York State. And it has been a delight to us to get to hear their stories and how God brought them to a place such as this. And that is where we find ourselves in the text this morning. that we have to be mindful of God's holiness in this text. It says, as you come to him, he begins this passage with this assumption that we will come before the God of the universe. It reminds me of Hebrews 4 where there's this invitation to approach with confidence and draw near to the throne of grace so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. There's an invitation to bring your baggage, bring your hurts, bring your anxieties, your doubts, and come before the maker and the God of the universe. Not that we would try to fix ourselves up and try to make ourselves worthy of God's acceptance and affection, but rather that we would come as we are, weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall. that we would not wait or tarry until we're better, or else we would never come at all into the presence of this holy God. With much fear and trepidation would a servant approach the king in his throne room. The truth is, according to Peter, that there is an expectation that we would come expectantly before our God. And this is a God that is living, active. This is not a cold carved stone, but he is alive. Amen? The late Tim Keller wrote this. He said, the only person who dares wake up a king at 3 a.m. for a glass of water is a child. And we have that kind of access. That is the beauty of knowing. our Heavenly Father, and of coming, receiving this invitation. Peter wants these early believers to know that they are beloved of the King no matter where they are geographically. Peter flips this name that was given to him by Christ, where Christ called him Cephas, the rock, and turns the focus back onto Christ. The power of the living God in a world where idolatry and cold, irreverent religion was on the rise. That there is one who stands the test of time. He was before all things, as Colossians 1 says. Not only this, he encourages us that this stone, this living stone of Christ was rejected by men, but in the sight of God was chosen and precious. Do you know what it means to be chosen, to be delighted upon, to be beloved? Or to have someone count you as precious, invaluable, cannot put a price on it. That is the way that Christ comes to us and says, come, follow me. that you yourselves, like living stones, would be built up as a spiritual house, this blueprint that he gives us. Oftentimes, it can be really fun to dream about the what-ifs, right, of our own homes. What might we do with this space? How will we use it? How will we live in it? How will we delight in it, make memories? Oftentimes, this time of year, we're decorating for the holidays. It's so fun to see it come together, but imagine to the next degree, where these stones and these spaces in this spiritual house are not just cold walls, but they're people. where God is building a house unto himself through followers who can testify to the goodness of God, who can bring the promises of the covenant of God into full HD color and say, this is my God and here is how he has been faithful to me. Behold, this is our God, that there is an invitation and a call, and that is the reason why we need a cornerstone, is because Christ, our cornerstone, gives us a blueprint that we can follow, a blueprint for living, that as we are counted as chosen and precious in the sight of God, it is only because of the name of Jesus Christ that we can boast. There is so many different ways to build a foundation. Recently, a few years back, my wife and I got to travel to Manhattan, and it is remarkable to see how these buildings are constructed. These monoliths of granite, they are incredibly high. some of them hundreds of stories tall, and the builders have to drill down deep into the ground and plant these things called piles in order to hold them up, to keep them from falling over. And the only reason that those buildings can stand is because those piles go deep into the ground and they dig into the crust of the earth, that they are rooted and anchored in something that can never be shaken. See, the people of Israel throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament were constantly on the move. They were looking for a home where they could permanently say, I am home. And Peter is reminding them that the people of God have always been a people who are living in a foreign land, but that our eternal home is being built up in the person of Christ. in this cornerstone that God has provided for His people. And that is the beauty. That is the very reason that Christ had to come. He lived a righteous life and He died a sinner's death in my place so that I might have life abundantly. That we would have a reference point upon which in this life we can depend. It can be so hard to know what is the right way to go when we don't have the proper direction and plan in our life. And so often we strive and we yearn for my plan and not God's plan. That God, our Father, would choose to work in and through broken stones that are being honed day by day through the sanctification that comes through Jesus. If you find yourself this morning weary and heavy laden with the concerns of the world, would you receive this invitation to come to Christ, to come to this cornerstone, not trusting in our own ambition or vain conceits, So often the holidays become a little more difficult each year as we feel the weight of loss, of estranged relationships, the pain of regrets and things that we wish we had done or said differently. Maybe your marriage is on shifting sands and you are beginning to see cracks appear. Maybe your college football team came in second yesterday. Maybe you're simply tired of losing or of feeling like your circumstances are not what you wish they were. The invitation is to look to Jesus this morning who is alive, who is a living stone, and he invites his people into this plan of redemption as chosen and precious in his sight. So it's not just the reason, but also the response to Christ as our cornerstone. We see in this passage, verses six through eight, that there is this reality of a stone that is being laid in Zion. We have to ask some questions here. What is Zion? Well, the people of Israel had a theology of this place that God was preparing for them, a holy mountain, a city on a hill that would last the test of time. And they were looking forward to this place because life had gotten so hard. They were scattered, they were struggling, and the believers throughout history have longed for the day when they would see that holy city on a hill. And so Peter recognizes this impulse to, we have to respond to this plan. Either we go with plan A or plan B. God's plan is always the best plan. But oftentimes we struggle with disbelief, with offense, as we evaluate God's plan by worldly standards, which often leads us into disobedience. But in Christ, we see in this passage that there is power and there is honor in his name. As he declares that the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, It is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and they have stumbled because they disobeyed the word. We have to check our hearts this morning at the door. What is our response to this? This is a quotation from Psalm 118, and it reminds the believers that there are going to be those who reject Christ's divinity, that reject Jesus as Savior and Lord. and his resurrection. And his resurrection was one of the fundamental hinge pieces in the early church that they were upholding and inviting others to come and see what God has done for us. And so there's a warning. There's a warning that don't overlook the importance of what God is doing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus came and he died because he had to atone for the sins of God's people. That I would remember that it was my sin that held him there. And so as we are weighted down with this, we're also encouraged by the way in which God uses this sin and this weightiness to remind us of our dependence on Christ. That when we see a foundation laid out before us, the cornerstone is the choice stone. It is the capstone. It is the most important part of the whole project. That it would take far longer for that than oftentimes we think may be necessary. We can start to go to steps three, four, and five before we are certain that our foundation is laid on Christ. that we would repent and believe the gospel and trust in the name of Jesus alone for our hope and our salvation. That in order to know this living stone this morning, we must humble ourselves before the one who was promised in Colossians 1. That he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. That is our Savior, Jesus. That if we would humble ourselves before this living God, that we must first cast aside our arrogant pride, that we can depend on ourselves. That so often this, tendency to stumble comes not from the stones that are in front of us that we can see, but from the most unexpected places, the little rocks, the places where the erosion happens on the trail. And so we must be wise and careful and check our hearts. Where are we placing our trust in things other than Christ this morning? Are we living for our reputation and the approval of others? Do we think that enough of our own planning and preparation can do anything apart from the will of God? One of the greatest reminders for me over the last several months has been, unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain. Even in the midst of church planting and meeting with people and doing all the tasks and checklists that I have, my hope rests in the spirit of God moving, sometimes along with my movements and other times in spite of my failures. That my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and his righteousness. That we can spend all of our days filled with tasks and to-dos and check all the boxes and still stumble through life because we are aiming for the wrong reference point. Or we are still walking in darkness and suddenly step on a Lego. Maybe we turn our eyes to other things, but this morning my invitation is that we would turn our eyes to look at Jesus, who was the light of the world, every day that we would walk with him in the light of his glory, his holiness, and his grace as he leads us onward step by step to a place that he has prepared for those who believe upon him alone. The third and final thing that I want to share with you this morning, verses nine and 10. Our redemption is through our cornerstone. This plan of salvation, this blueprint that is laid out before us, is for a chosen people in God's place. Hear these words from 9 and 10, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 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. Peter closes this passage by rejoicing in the identity of his readers. They are wholly set apart, they're marked by God's love and his mercy for them. And they need to be reminded of these things. That even in the midst of some of the most difficult cultural landscape of their lives, where they are in the thick of it, that they are beloved, that they are a chosen people, that God has called them his own, not because of any merits of their own, but because of his goodness and his love that he laid upon them, that they were a people for his own possession, that he would delight so much in them that he would be their God and they would be his people. And that God would use broken vessels like them and like us to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us. Where are the places in your life right now where you can declare the goodness of God? Where you see God at work? One of my senior pastors over the years always asks us the question on Tuesday morning, where do you see God at work in your life? In the good things. but it's sometimes in the hard things. What is he up to? What is his plan? How is he drawing these blueprints out before us? So that we might see that our redemption comes not by our own hand, but by the work and will of our God and Father in heaven. One author and pastor, Eugene Peterson, puts it this way, and I love it. He says, two commands direct us from the small-minded world of self-help to the large world of God's help. First, come behold the works of the Lord. Take a long, scrutinizing look at what God is doing. This requires patient attentiveness and energetic concentration. Everybody else is noisier than God. The headlines, neon lights, and amplifying systems of the world announce human works, but what of God's works? They are unadvertised, but also inescapable if we simply look. They're everywhere. They are marvelous, but God has no public relations agency. He mounts no publicity campaign to get our attention. He simply invites us to look. The second command, be still and know that I am God. Be still, quit rushing through the streets long enough to become aware that there is more to life than our self-help enterprises. When we're noisy, when we're hurried, we are incapable of intimacy, deep, complex, personal relationships. If God is the living center of redemption, it is essential that we be in touch with and responsive to that will. If God has a will for this world and we want to be in it, we must be still long enough to find out what it is. That's my hope this morning. is that we would be still and know that he is God, that he is laying a foundation that is so much more than just our temporary worries and anxieties, that he cares for us, and that even as he invites us to come, he says, be still and behold. Paul writes in Colossians 1, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and he is the head of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him, Christ, all the fullness of God, was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. This morning, by the blood of Jesus Christ, we can have salvation and redemption. that Jesus, the one who was rejected by the scribes and the Pharisees and the angry mobs that cried out, crucify him, prepared a place for his people. that as Jesus submitted to the master plan of redemption by willingly laying down his life as a sacrifice once and for all for the forgiveness of sins so that his people might follow him from darkness into the holy city where the light of his glory fills the new heavens and the new earth. Until that day, we are invited to come and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, because we have been given a name, beloved, chosen, precious, a family, and a place in his kingdom that shall have no end. So the question this morning is, will you come to him? Will you build your life upon the solid rock where all other ground is shifting sand? That you would repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ, that that is for you this morning, and every morning for the salvation that comes in his name, that we would rest upon Christ alone for salvation. If you're already trusting in Christ for your salvation this morning, here is the word that comes, that we would find ourselves at times stumbling, that the invitation remains the same, to be still and know that he is God, to boldly approach the throne to risk nagging the king at 3 a.m. for a cup of water because he invites us into that level of access, that we would cling to the solid rock in the storms wherever you may find yourself this morning, that we would pray for opportunities to share the hope that we have, the living hope in Jesus Christ with our friends, with our neighbors, and with the nations, and that we would continue the work as a royal priesthood to usher others into the presence of a holy God, where they may find rest for their weary souls. That is my hope, that is my prayer. Would you pray with me as we ask God to do that in our hearts this morning? Father God, as we come to you this morning in prayer, As we get a glimpse of the cosmic blueprints of what you are doing, a spiritual house, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, you amaze us, you humble us. And we are in awe of your son, Jesus Christ, who on the cross laid down his life so that we might have abundant life. We ask that you would forgive us for our haste, for our hurry, for all of our plans that depart from anything that is your will for our lives and for the kingdom, that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done here on earth. Lord Jesus, we confess that we are so apt to grab the reins and we ask that you would take them from us. That we would come to you with nothing, longing, looking expectantly to the Father who has so many greater things and plans than we do. Oftentimes we lack the courage we need to hear the gospel afresh this morning. That we would see Christ as our cornerstone and that you would help us to lay on the foundation that he has prepared for us. That we would not go another moment without knowing the power of your spirit to soften hard hearts like ours. We ask that you would do it in the name of Jesus this morning. Amen. As we have heard the good news from 1 Peter 2, would you stand as we respond in singing In Christ Alone this morning. He is my light, my strength, my song. His form is strong and solid ground. Found through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of fear. is Christ alone who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless pain, His gift of love and righteousness, drawn by the ones He came to save. Till on that cross that Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. Here in the depth of Christ I live. ♪ Around His body lay ♪ ♪ Light of the moon by darkness slain ♪ ♪ And bursting forth in glorious day ♪ ♪ Up from the grave He rose again ♪ ♪ And as He stands in victory ♪ ♪ His curse has lost its grip on me ♪ For I am His, and He is mine, Bought with the precious blood of Christ. No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. From Christ's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man Can ever block me from His hand Till He returns or calls me home Here in the power of Christ I'll stand No scheme of man can ever block me from his head. Till he returns and calls me home, here in the power of Christ, I'll stand. As we prepare to receive God's blessing and benediction as He sends us out to go, would we know that our life is founded on Jesus Christ and Him alone and God and His plan of redemption. Receive now this blessing and benediction from 2 Thessalonians 3.16. Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. Amen. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. you