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Speaker 2Good morning, church family. How are you? It's good to see everybody. It's a gorgeous day. Would you agree?
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We have reason to praise. How about we stand up? We'll sing together. This is amazing grace. This is why we are here.
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Alright. Let's sing. Who breaks the power?
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Speaker 1This morning. Hey, that's Chris Darren. Is there an announcement that goes with that one? We'll see. Oh, yeah.
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Here it is. Truth Podcast. If y'all actually have have y'all, we don't usually do this but Chris is doing a Christian podcast and it's really, really good and it's called truce. You know, there's a whole lot of from both sides but he's calling the truce and saying, let's examine Christianity and biblical underpinnings of it and orthodoxy and go for it. So, truce, that's Chris there and that guy right there in the shadow.
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He's doing a podcast. Thank you. That has worked its way in there. Monday nights at first B is happening tomorrow night. What's happening?
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Speaker 2Yep. We're on tomorrow. Ray is taking care of the meal. He's doing steak and lobster. Yeah.
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Just kidding. I'm just kidding. Yeah. I I I don't know what he's gonna do. But we're in Luke 22 where Jesus on trial.
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His innocent life for the life of the guilty. Please, know the door is open for you on Monday nights at six. Meal music message.
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Speaker 1That's at six. Also, for the first time this school year, Awana is happening. It starts in this room right here. You'll see the big Awana Circle down tomorrow night for game time, and it's the kickoff. And it is a countdown.
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It is twenty hours and thirty four minutes from now. Okay? Maybe that's not right. That's not right. Dog gone it.
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I tried. Anyway, it's a long time. From the 09:00 service at 09:07, let me think. It is thirty two hours and forty minutes. There and you can register today in the foyer after church or beforehand tomorrow night but if you want to get a jump on it, start today.
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Thirty two hours and thirty something minutes from now is when I want to start, alright? We're excited about it. Glad to see that kicking off. Youth group is happening on Tuesday. Don't ask me the math on that one.
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Six thirty to eight is youth group with Mike, Dee, and our volunteer youth workers is great are great too. Precept study, Thursdays from nine to 11:30. Bring your colored pencils. Have em sharp and ready. Jane Kranenberger is lead leading that for a long time.
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It's going to be a study of Acts. Jesus is witnesses empowered by his Holy Spirit. That starts on Thursdays, nine to 11:30. Community Bible study started last week. It's continuing on this week.
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They're studying Hebrews on Wednesday evenings. Wednesday evenings is a coed class at 06:30 and then Monday will be the first one. That's tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, 09:30 to 11:30 in the fellowship hall, community Bible study, study in Hebrews. So Monday morning, women's class, 09:30 to 11:30 in the fellowship hall.
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If there are, and there are a bunch of studies in the bulletin, the trusty little bulletin right here. If you didn't get one on the way in, grab one on the way out. This bulletin has tons of information in it, and it's in a fairly easy arrangement to get to it. So, please, you'll know all the Bible studies and all the happenings, prayer requests, and all that if you read your bulletin. So, there's another announcement for the bulletin.
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If you would, grab one on your way out so you know what's going on. Did I miss anything? Feel like I missed something. Surf and turf, Yeah. Felix and Guadalupe are cooking next week.
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So, I didn't want to go after. No, I'm just kidding. Felix and Guadalupe are cooking next week. That's true but I I saw a gap. If you ever see a sign up sheet around here and there's a blank, there's a blank spot.
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Really stop for just a second and pray about it and go, can I fill that blank? Can I, should I, would I, might I do that? And that's actually what I did this week. It was a blank and I thought, you know what? I could I could do that.
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So, I ain't promising steak and lobster, but anyway, would y'all stand and greet one another? The band will bring you back together with a song. Welcome and glad you're here.
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Speaker 2Let's sing that chorus again. Let's pray on that. God, I we come before you as a church body to say thank you for your mercy. Just reading about you in in the gospel of John and showing your mercy toward a woman that was going to be potentially stoned and saying, but he was the first sin. That that he who hasn't sinned cast the first stone, and everybody leaves, and you don't condemn them either.
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That that's mercy. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for grace. Thank you for being full of truth and life, and thank you for imparting that truth and life onto your people, onto your church. That is why we're here today because we have absolute hope and confidence in you.
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Would you increase our faith? If our faith right now is just feeling blah, would you increase our faith and help us to exercise the faith that you have given? In Jesus' name. Amen. Again, let's pray.
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God, thank you for a new identity in you that, you call us and you gather us as your children, as sons and daughters adopted into your kingdom. Thank you for spiritual rebirth, and we all need it. That's that's that's part of our faith, a new a calling calling into your kingdom out of darkness and into light. Your spirit fills us in there, and we're walking with you. So thank you for that.
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Thank you for being the cornerstone of our faith, that anyone who listens to your teaching and follows it is wise like a person who builds their house on solid rock. Amen. Let's sing that chorus in Christ Amen. You can be seated and I'll invite the the frontline team to to come forward and Ray, would you would you pray this morning?
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Speaker 1God, thank you for this this weekend, this beautiful weekend. I I love to see a whole community together in this church every Sunday. Lord, we gather but to see the whole community yesterday gathered out. Just thought of what a special place this is and so God, I pray that we would devote ourselves to serve in this community as a church, as your church, Triumphant, capital C Church. I pray that the Christians in this community, lord, would seek to bless this community.
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Just bless their socks off. And so in Jesus name, lord, we come to you this morning recognizing what you've given. Last week's sermon pursued a lot of us including me and lord, choose choosing to follow after you and lay aside all of our own sin and guilt lord and recognize your holiness and righteousness and want sincerely to introduce others to you. I pray lord that you'd use the offerings and the gifts, resources, the donations, whatever people want to call em that go in these plates, lord, that you would use that and you would advance your good gospel into this community, into the community over on the other side of the Tetons. Lord, that you'd start from this epicenter and that you would reverberate to the ends of the Earth.
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Thank you for bringing us into your family that we didn't deserve it and I pray lord that we would be making introductions for people to you. In Jesus name, lord, I pray that you'd use this in order to advance your gospel. In Jesus name, lord, I pray. Amen.
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Speaker 2Sins. The punishment that brought us lies was upon him. By his wounds by his wounds we
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Speaker 1Amen. And is it this week? It is this week. I didn't announce it. Peak Children's Church starts right now.
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Trump along. That's great. Feel like we're back in a groove here. Very nice. Alright.
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Well, good morning. How are y'all? We are up to first Peter two four through 12. That's where we are in our study. Chronologically, I know how this goes.
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Most of it and we're getting back to where there are more of us here than there are the other people here. Have you all noticed? You notice the traffic is starting to diminish, that we're starting to be mostly home folks around. We're thankful for every visitor that comes in for sure but I like having folks that when I look out, I see and I know. I really, really like that.
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First Peter two forty two. Before we get to that, I want to read something from John. This is the little snippet John includes in his very first chapter of his gospel. He talks about when his new disciples were met and brought in kind of to the family. Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus and as he walked and said, behold, the lamb of God, the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what do you seek?
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And they said to him, rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? And he said, come and you will see. So, come and see. First of all, so they came and they saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, was Simon Peter's brother.
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He found his first, his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah. Now, this is something that people have been looking forward to for thousands of years, right? And so they're listening to John the Baptist and he's got an unusual message, a wild looking guy and he's got this message and so people are starting to pay attention. He's getting a lot of press, getting a lot of attention from the Pharisees especially. He found first his own brother.
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So, Andrew, after he had seen Jesus and heard him speak and stayed with him a while, he went and found his own brother and he said, we have found the Messiah which translated means the Christ, the anointed one, the chosen one. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and he said, you are Simon, the son of John, and you shall be called Cephas. Cephas is Aramaic which is translated Peter, Cephas, and Peter both mean rock or stone. It's a rock, okay?
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And so, it's interesting today when we get to this passage, we're going to go into right here, first Peter two four through 12. It starts off like this. Now, continuation from last week, if you're here last week and you knew about it, I stopped it in the middle of a presentation basically where he said, being that you are already Christians, being that you are already saved, you've already tasted, you already know this, put aside malice, put aside envy, put aside slander, put aside like five things. Put put these things aside. Long for the pure spiritual milk of the word of God.
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By this, you'll grow in your salvation. You won't just be saved but you'll be sanct ified. You'll begin to understand how to submit your will to God and so here we go further and coming to him, that's Jesus, capital H. One of the reason I used the New American Standard for this particular study is because it really matters whether you pick up that it's him to some old some old guy or him, capital H. I got tired of changing em in the ESB.
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I'm changing em not here. They're right there and coming to him. That's Jesus. As to a living stone. Now, the references and the the metaphors that they use in the first century might not be exactly the same thing that you would use today but this is what he says.
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Come into him as a living stone. It'll make more sense in just a minute. Come into him, Jesus, as to a living stone. It's living. This is post resurrection.
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Peter has seen him. He knows that he's not just some dead religion. It is someone that he had a relationship with, was crucified, dead, buried. He knew all this to be true and then after the resurrection, though incredulous, he did accept it when he met him face to face. He knew that Jesus was living.
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So, coming to him as a living stone. Which has been rejected by men. They rejected him. They crucified him. Outrightly, the religious leaders, the government was complicit.
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He's rejected. Coming to him as a living stone which was rejected or has been rejected by men. I I I have to go back to John for this too. We talked about the word last week. The word of God, they all that endures forever.
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That's Jesus. That's his word, his the Bible. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him.
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He's the agent of creation and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it because they didn't comprehend it. They did not accept it as light and they rejected him outright, crucified him. So, as we start this morning, that's what it is.
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And coming to him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men but his choice and precious in the sight of God. If you seek to align yourself with God, if you want to be on God's side or you want God on your side, if you want to be on God's side, God sees Jesus, this living stone, as choice and precious in his sight. Hebrews 10. I've been I've been diving in. I hadn't been to CBS yet but I'm getting there.
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I had I was triple booked. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time and time after time the sacrifices which can never take away sins. This is old covenant stuff. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he, Jesus, sat down at the right hand of God. Waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.
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No man knows the hour, right? And that's going to happen. For by one offering, that's Jesus. He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. He is doing this.
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Christ is doing this. And because of this, because Jesus is precious in his sight, no matter whether he was rejected by men or not. You can come to him. You come to him as the first, the preeminent one, the as a living stone and then he says, you also as living stone. Now, this is Peter.
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This is Rocky, okay? Stony, Rocky. Jesus said to him, Simon, your son of John, that's where you came from but you will be Peter and when he's the apostle in the New Testament throughout Acts, what does he go by? Peter, what Jesus call him most? Just wonder.
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During the pre resurrection, pre crucifixion, Jesus called him Simon all the time. He occasionally would throw in Peter. John calls him Peter a lot because he wants you to know who he's talking about because post resurrection, he was Peter. He changed him. He changed him.
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He transformed him and Peter actually took that on. It's not a statement of ego to say, I am Rocky. Jesus said, I would be. I'm trusting him to do what he says. You also then as living stones.
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So, Peter, the rock, is saying, y'all have some rocky in you too. Does that make sense? Come to him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men but it's choice and precious in the sight of God. You also as living stones, you are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood. Now, in our day, most of us do not think of temples and places as being the church.
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Praise God. We don't. But he's saying that you are the living stones that make up this temple. That will bring others in. It'll be a hospital for sinners.
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It'll bring others into the family of God. You also, you're living stones and you're being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood. My one little point of grammar this week, I think. Made my I may hit another one. Is a verb.
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It is a present indicative middle passive second person plural. Aren't you all excited about that? So it's interesting because this is an ambiguous form. When I say middle or passive, generally things are are active or subjunctive or whatever, but middle and passive looks exactly the same in the Greek. Okay, are you with me?
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Middle and passive. The passive translation is you as living stones are being built up. It's a divine passive. Meaning, God is the actor and he is acting on his church. Jesus said, I will build my church.
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By the way, everybody says Jesus was a carpenter. Jesus was a builder. They didn't build nearly as much out of wood as we do and so he was probably more likely a stone guy. And so for Peter, the rock, to use this analogy for Jesus, the guy who was building out of rock and stone. It's like, it's a real vivid, vivid thing for us.
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He's more, I I say stone guy instead of mason. I don't think he's a free mason. Okay, but he was a stone guy. He's building up his church. You are being built up.
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He's already said, coming to him as a living stone. Now, his metaphors might be getting mixed in your mind but he'll clear that up in a minute. The middle part of this is what's interesting. The passive part is, you are being built up and that is true because Christ is building his church but I love it when the peculiarities of a particular language and this is the language he gave us the Bible in. The peculiarities of this language, the middle also works.
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You as living stones are building yourselves up. Can you think about that for just a minute? God is doing it, but he's doing it through you. I like it when those quirks make it work, you know? Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.
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Be ye let God transform you. But he's saying, no, y'all be doing this. Get together and do this in my name, under my power, under the direction of my Holy Spirit. I love that. You are building yourselves up and he's calling us to holiness.
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If you feel like, well, I'll make God, I'll let God make me holy but I'm not going do anything. Put some feet with those prayers. He's saying both. It's you are building yourselves up or better yet, y'all are building yourselves up. It's plural.
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It's not just individual and as Americans, we tend to think individualistically, would you agree with? Yeah. So, you y'all are building yourselves up. Here it is. Into what?
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Into a spiritual house. Is it an actual dwelling place? Is it an actual temple that's brick and mortar that we can knock on that we can go in? It is a spiritual house. It's a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.
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This is pointing to the priesthood of every believer. Everyone who trust in Jesus has a direct line relationship with God. It's not that you have to go through an intermediary. Jesus is the one mediator. Once you have connected to God through Jesus, you are in the family of God, joint heirs with Jesus as you travel the side as the song says.
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Being built up into a spiritual house. Y'all are being built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood. Those to offer up spiritual sacrifices because the physical sacrifices have all been made. There was one final one. That's why I read that from Hebrews.
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One sacrifice ended all of that old covenant and the new covenant has begun. You're being built up into or you're building yourselves up into a spiritual house or a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God. The only way they're acceptable to God is through Jesus Christ. Amen. And then he goes and does a few old testament quotes about a time where they were forecasting exactly what has come to pass.
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For this is contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone. I lay in God's land, a choice stone, a precious cornerstone. So, the choice stone and corner, actually the stone, whenever you see something in italics in the New American Standard, it means they added it to make sense in English. The cornerstone is the corner.
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It is the corner. Does that make sense? It is the one upon which everything else is based. When we typically think of cornerstones, oftentimes, we'll think of an old brick building that has one marble stone and it's engraved with something. And it's just another stone, really, but it is there ceremonially.
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No. Jesus is the cornerstone. He is the one that is the objective standard for what is plumb and what is level and what is straight and if you fall in line with him, then you're straight and if you're out of line with him, you're not straight. Does that make sense? But he makes you right.
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Trusting in that cornerstone is what makes you right. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone. It's one that was exactly chosen. Messiah, Christ, anointed one, chosen one, a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him, capital H, he, that person, men or woman, who believes, puts their trust in Jesus, will not be disappointed. Amen.
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So, this is an old testament passage. He's quoting Isaiah twenty eight sixteen, which says exactly that. Depending on your translation, it's really, really close to that. I like one of the translations that said, he will not be put to fear. He will not scurry away.
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Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. When we were in Mexico, we built most of our things out of concrete. Almost everything we built was out of concrete. And I have not laid tons and tons and tons. Well, literally, I probably have laid tons of of block, literally.
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But I haven't done it as much as Matt Lutzelman or some of the other folks in this church, I'm sure. But when you are laying block, you set your corner first. Make sure that your corner is right. Make sure it's exactly 90 degrees. You know exactly it's straight up and down, and then you take a string, hook it to that block after it's nice and dry, and you pull a masonry line from there and it follows directly in line with the corner of that block.
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And when I was teaching volunteers every week how to lay, Tanya was the mix master, like literally mix, get the mud right because it's not gonna be any good if you don't get the mud right. And I was the one that was teaching them how to lay block. And so you get the string exactly where it should be, and then I would tell all the volunteers at one time, the string is like scripture. Do not monkey with my string. Okay?
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If you lay a block and it's half an inch off of that string and you think, he said it has to be right next to the string. The corner has to be right there touching the string. And then you look, nobody's looking, you move the string over closer and hold it with something, you have monkeyed with the string. Okay? And then everybody else around you is off.
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Does that make sense? Oh my goodness. It's so perfect that he's the cornerstone. It's exactly like that. Everything goes by him.
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And the cornerstone of the temple, the ones they would have been familiar with rather than a little piece of marble like we're used to. The cornerstone that they're used to, some of them were 11 feet thick. So, a foot higher than that and just as wide and from here to about Jill Schmidt in the back, back there. Alright? Raise your hand.
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Right there. Okay? That's the way that they're thinking a cornerstone. It's something profound. It has weight.
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It is not going to move. It's not going to be moved. Okay? So that's what we're basing it on, a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in it won't be disappointed. If if I came back around and I was looking and somebody had done the dollar trick, you know what the dollar trick is?
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Usually you take a piece of cement bag, you take it and you fold it around the string when the winds blowing real bad, fold it around the string, you put it right on top of the block, put another block on top of it, holds the string fast. Exactly where it was, you don't move it exactly where it was. But that's where people would go and move it over and it messes everybody else up. If I came back and I saw somebody did the dollar trick, oh my goodness. And their block was not in line with the cornerstone, I was like, ah.
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Now there's plenty of grace in the stucco that we put on the outside of that to cover that. There's another analogy in there. But it's so much stronger. If you just stay in line with the cornerstone, okay? Alright.
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So, this precious value then, this is for you who believe. Those of you who believe in Christ and he's already written this letter and said he was writing into Christians who are scattered in these far flung provinces of the Roman Empire. This precious value then is for you who believe but for those who disbelieve, consider them for a moment. For those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected this became the very cornerstone. So, he's saying, consider it.
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If you don't believe it, consider it. It was rejected by men but the ones who fall in line with him will not be disappointed. They will not have to scurry away. They will not be damned as it were. The stone which the builders rejected became the very cornerstone and that is from Psalm one seventeen twenty two, another messianic Psalm point towards Jesus and he's become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense because if you hit up against Jesus and you don't trust him, he will make you fall.
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Does that make sense? If you hit up against him and you trust him, you fall in line with him, you won't be disappointed, not at all but if you hit up against him, if you should cross that path and you reject it, you will fall. It's a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and there are plenty of people are offended by the message of the gospel. It is either the aroma of Christ or it is the stench of death and they hate it and in this time, there are plenty who said Christians were atheist because they didn't worship emperor and they didn't worship the other gods and they blamed every famine, pestilence, everything was blamed on the Christians because they wouldn't worship the gods of Rome. That's from Isaiah by the way.
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Eight fourteen. There are a lot of Old Testament quotes. Peter listened in Sunday school. Saturday school, sorry. For they stumble because they are disobedient to the word.
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They stumble because they're disobedient to the word and the word actually that helps preach to you is the gospel. Every time that he mentions that through here, it's the gospel. It is Jesus. It's the Bible's forecast of Jesus. It is his gospel.
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The good news that he would live a perfect life. He would die a perfect sacrificial death and he would be raised again by God. They stumble because they're disobedient to that word and to this and they added this but I think it's a true and good word. It's perfect actually and to this doom, doom. They were also appointed.
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What you do with the gospel matters? Either you are a living stone following after the exact string line from that cornerstone, that living stone. Or you are doomed. And it literally says that. But you are.
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But right here, you are, and he gives four labels right here. And as I was looking at these labels and trying to consider our current context and bridging the gap between first century and twenty first century, I'm looking at it thinking, of these four labels, four individualistic Americans, how many of these really resonate for us? And so I want to try to get you to consider it like I've been considered. First one is you are a chosen race. Oh my goodness, we know that all men are created equal, right?
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They're endowed by their creators. Great. All that's really good and that's very American but these folks hearing that saying, you're a chosen race. Well, Peter knew certainly, he knew that he was a chosen race because he had been brought up as a Jew, God's chosen people but when he's speaking to these not just Jewish background Christians but Gentile background Christians and he's spreading this out and saying, you're a chosen race. That resonated with them.
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It resonated with them because they're in these far flung things and they are being persecuted. We'll get to that in a minute too. You're a chosen race. It might not feel like it right now but you are, who was Christ? Christ means chosen one, anointed one, Messiah, the chosen one, and then he says, you, because of your belief in him are a chosen race.
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You're a different and distinct people. You are a royal priesthood. Now, for most Americans like King George, who cares about a royal wedding? I tell you what, they turn out for royal weddings and Britain still even though in in the post, you know, internet world where there's plenty of people talking bad about em too, royalty is something I don't think that we get as easily as people who've lived under a benevolent monarchy. Do you agree?
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A royal. And then it says, priesthood. We're baptist for crying out loud. How many y'all care about being priesthood? I don't like priesthood.
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That's a priest is someone who mediates between people who cannot approach God and God. So, when I do a wedding and I'm saying, by the authority invested in me, I don't just say by the state of Wyoming, I say, by God, as a minister of his good gospel, right? That is in a way a mediation point. Now, whether they know Jesus or not, I am acting as an intermediary. Now, I'm Baptist.
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So, I I try my best to make sure that those two know Jesus and they're acting directly and for the most part, it is for the state because they know God and they know him together. He's brought him together but it's still one of those points. Priesthood is a is a a real privilege and we probably ought to see it that way rather than putting down the priest. Oh, I don't have to talk to a priest about nothing. Nope, you don't.
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Jesus is your inner Mary but talk to him about everything. For those who don't know and he's already asked us to consider them, for those who do not believe you may be the only Bible they ever read and you may be the only one that knows the answers to the questions that they seek the answers for, okay? So, you're a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood Americans There are few others here. Anybody live under benevolent monarchy anywhere before? Probably not.
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Not many of us. A holy nation. This one is one that can be a little bit confusing too if you take your own present circumstance into geographic imaginary lines on this big blue ball and you go nation is a geopolitical state and so a holy nation is those people who live within that boundary. But this is not what he's talking about. You are a group of people who are gathered together under the name of Christ, the church triumphant.
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If you believe in Jesus, you are part of this holy nation and it is not. It is not a Christian nation the way that we usually think about it, okay? It is Christ followers, living stones, being gathered together, and built up into a spiritual house. It's not something that is seen except in the actions and the attitudes of these royal priests. These chosen people of this chosen race, a holy nation and then he says, and really kind of in contrast is the way I look at it.
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To a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. So, that puts us in the position of being slaves. We're owned by God. If we have put ourselves into his family by our belief or he's brought us in to his family by our belief, our faith, his grace. We're people for God's own possession.
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So, that and I love this too. Preachers love so that because it tells us exactly why we are those four things. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into marvelous light. You chosen race. Royal priesthood, holy nation, a people for God's own possession be telling how excellent God is.
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Be glorifying him forever. For once, you are not a people but now, you are the people of God. Do you get that you don't deserve it and when you get that you don't deserve it and you ask him for it anyway and he he accepts that and accepts you. You have you who had not received mercy. Now, you have received mercy.
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Amen. This reminded me of Hosea, kind of an obscure book, 14 chapters, Isaiah and the very opening lines of Isaiah said, go and marry a harlot to his prophet. Go and marry a harlot. Someone who's going to cheat on you repeatedly. And then after all of that, towards the end of the book, well, this is just second chapter but it it it's restorative.
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It's a metaphor for how God's chosen people, the Israelites, had acted towards him. They had played the harlot with many other gods. They had gone after other things. They pursued other things and then, Hosea, this is a forecast in chapter two. It says, and I will sow her for myself in the land and I will also have compassion on her.
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Who had not obeyed, who have not obtained compassion, and I will say to those who were not my people, you are my people and they will say, you are my God. You're my people and then you're my God. So, this is hopscotch pumpkin pie. That is a lion faced boutique bunny. It is ridiculous looking on the screen right now and he is ridiculous looking in person.
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Hopscotch pumpkin pie is a 9.5 year old lion faced bunny. He was not my bunny. Are you with me? When I was in seminary, I had a friend that had three kids. I'm gonna exaggerate just a little bit here.
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They were wild, absolutely wild children. There were two boys and a girl. The boys fought all the time. The girl tried to be sweet, it's really hard. Okay?
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They had a no pets policy, a very strict no pets policy. And then the husband of that family in one week went from having no pets to having five pets because he caved on the no pets policy. And so the first one they got was hopscotch pumpkin pie and then they got a turtle and then they got a dog and the dog did not really appreciate hopscotch pumpkin pie. The dog was after him all the time and the kids were after him all the time and he really doesn't like being loved. He really doesn't.
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He doesn't like people. He doesn't like the situation he was in and he's a little aggressive, quite honestly. Not very nice, kind of mean, still. He was supposed to live three to five years, they said. I'm serious, he's 9.5.
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He was not my bunny, but now he's my bunny. And he's been my bunny for a long time, and I really do care for this bunny. And so does Pascal and so does Tanya. This bunny has been welcomed into our family. Getting a little emotional.
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He's still not nice. He's still not friendly. He has been protected and he's been provided for and we've given him all of the good things that one could and if in a silent moment, there's only one of us in the house and it looks like we might be still for a while. He might hop out and get in our lap and show us a little bit of love. He was not my bunny.
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He is my bunny. Regardless of how he loves me. He's mine. I've called him mine. He's going to be mine.
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Until he dies. And if I could keep him, I'd keep him on into the incorruptible hope. I don't know how that possible that is. But he was not my bunny. He's now my bunny.
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By the way, every time that I've mentioned old Bills, I've mentioned like two or three of the same charities. Carrie Boynton sitting right here, I overlooked her, you know, overlooked her. The animal adoption center, there she is. Animal adoption center yesterday out there, I saw her and I thought, I just overlooked that. She's a Christian doing what God has called her to do.
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So not your whatever might be over there to be your whatever, okay? Come see her. Go talk to her. A people who are not even a people. They were many different people.
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Oh my goodness. From many, one. From many, one. You were once, you were not a people. You were not a people.
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You're a bunch of different kinds, different places, different cultures, different backgrounds, different races but now, you're the people of God. You had not received mercy but now, you've received mercy. Beloved, and it makes you beloved because you've been accepted. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers and do you feel like an alien and a stranger in your current situation, your current culture? It's very different than the culture of a spiritual house that's being built up by living stones.
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It's very different. I urge you as aliens and strangers. This is another call to holiness. To abstain from fleshly lust. Don't act like the culture around you.
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Don't act like the culture you came out of. It wages against your soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles and when he says Gentiles, he means everybody outside of the chosen people of God. Everybody outside of that spiritual house. Call them all in.
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Bring them all in. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles. Why? Another so that. So that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers.
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In that time, maybe it was because you wouldn't worship the emperor but now, it maybe because you are against certain things in our society that are wrong, ungodly, unconscionable, unjust, so that in the things in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them. It's not because they hear about em, okay? As they observe em, as they see you doing whatever it is that you do in Christ name. As they see and observe them, that they may glorify God in the day of visitation. It is an open invitation to bring in those who do not believe in Jesus, to believe in him, to be built up into the same spiritual house that we do not belong.
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Except by the cornerstone and by God's decree. He has said, this is the way that it will be and when we fall in the line with him, we will not be disappointed. Would you stand? Pray with me really quickly. Carl's got the band getting up here for one more song.
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God, I pray that we would understand this, that we would live it out. A very last slide today was from another I'll I'll just read it at the end. I pray that those who are wise just listen. Don't monkey with the string. Don't monkey with scripture.
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Hear what it says and fall in line with it and in the places where you're not in line with it. Trust that the spiritual house around you can help you get in line with the string. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. This was prepared as a benediction for the day.
1:04:02
Whoever is wise, let him understand these things and whoever is discerning, let him know them for the ways of the Lord are right. I've I've read several articles this week where people said, I fought and I fought and I fought and I fought to have my way and then I realized that if God is right and I align my will with his will, If I align myself with him, I will be right too. That makes sense. For the ways of the Lord are right and the righteous will walk in them but transgressors will stumble in them. Don't let it cause you to stumble.
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Don't let it cause others to stumble. Love em. Love em. Love em. Also though, one more thing.
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This fellow here at the piano, usually he's over there on the guitar but Eugene is going up for youth discipleship training series with Youth with a Mission up near Kalispell. Would you come on over here, please? He feels more comfortable behind the piano or with a guitar, but come on over here. We love him. And Carl and I went to lunch with him six years and a couple of months ago and just said, Hey man, would you play bass in the band?
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And he started the next Sunday playing bass in the band and then he would tell me, he'd go, hey, I think when I was trying to play the electric guitar, I think but if you and I was like, here, you do this and let me do that and so for the last five years and about ten months, he has been playing guitar. He's been on stage as much, if not more than I have. So 48 Sundays a year for the last six years. We're not these musicians are not paid, and he's just been steady going after it and if you ever have been here during the week, he's probably been here with somebody praying or just living life and bringing people in. So, I just wanted to appreciate him and pray and I'd like for y'all all collectively for us to pray a blessing over Eugene as we send him out into whatever field the Lord has.
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Would you start? Oh, I'll mic it up. Yeah, for sure. God almighty, I thank you for bringing Eugene here from Michigan and other parts all around the world. Lord, I thank you for bringing what he has brought to the the platform up here so that we might lead others in worship and I thank you lord that you've called him into step of obedience which he has undertaken and lord, I pray that you'd bless him, that you would bless others through him, and that he would be exactly what that discipleship training school needs.
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Lord, as a student, that he'd be attentive to have fertile ground in his heart and his life so that your word may flourish and grow and that as a an a mentor, a leader, a non traditional student and age. I pray that he'd be someone that other people look up to and in Jesus name, I just pray that you'd bless him. Musically, scripturally, physically, emotionally. I pray that you'd be always on his side and that through any doubt or fear, lord, your word and your promises would come true and through to him. In Jesus name, lord, we as a church, bless this young man as he heads out.
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Amen. Amen. Amen. May God make his face to shine upon you and give you peace.
