A Praising People

This morning we're coming to the last week in our Arise Stewardship of Life sermon series.

We're reading from 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

If this sounds familiar, if you're thinking, didn't Tom preach from this not that long ago?

You've got a good memory.

It was last in September as we kicked off our series, our theme for the new year, the coming year, A Kingdom of Priests.

This is the text I preached from.

And we're coming back sort of full circle because I think it really has a lot of relevance to what we're going to be looking at this morning as well.

The Apostle Peter writing, so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

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 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.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

This is the reading of God's holy, perfect, precious word.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you again that we are your temple, that you dwell within us by your spirit, and so we ask, Holy Spirit, clear the temple.

Throw out this morning whatever is cluttering the temple, just as your son did on earth.

Cleanse our temples anew this morning.

Wash us again with your word.

God, may your grace be sweet to us this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So I said this is the fifth and last week on our Arise Stewardship of Life sermon series.

If this is your first Sunday, you picked a good Sunday to come.

We've never had a Sunday like this before in the history of this church.

This is a Sunday where we're going to commit our tithes and our free will offerings to God, and we're asking God to give us all that we need to build a new building, a new church home on 1302 West Braddock Road, just a mile from here.

This is a gift that God gave to us four years ago.

A true gift, a great location, the future home of Alexandria Presbyterian Church.

But this sermon series has not been about money, has it?

One sermon was on money.

It's not about money, it's about our hearts.

It's about gospel transformation.

We are alive because Christ is alive.

We saw that in the first week.

Jesus is alive, He's with us.

We're asking God to show us how to strip off our ornaments.

I've been so encouraged by so many conversations with so many of you as you've talked to me and perhaps others about what that looks like in your life, to strip off your ornaments.

We've come alive in Christ.

Ephesians chapter 2, week two.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

God not only raised Jesus from the dead, but God raised you from the dead spiritually.

He raised me from the dead.

And then week three, we looked at the gospel not only saves us and regenerates us, but the gospel renews us.

Because sometimes we just fall off the path, don't we?

Sometimes we drift.

Sometimes we go through barren times in our life.

We go through storms and ways that test us.

But the Spirit renews us.

The Spirit has a way of reaching our hearts like no one else can.

And then last week we looked at, we're a generous people because we thank God for that indescribable gift that He gave to us.

This capital campaign, none of us are going to take a bow.

None of us are going to be congratulated.

What did Paul say at the end of that chapter where he appealed to the Corinthians that they would give generously?

And by the way, did you notice that there was a commitment in Corinth?

In case you're wondering, is it, you know, is this something that God is pleased with?

Paul had been there before and they said, yes, we're going to give.

We're going to give to the church of Jerusalem.

We're going to give.

And they weren't following through.

And so in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul has to go back and nudge them.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

Remember, you made a commitment.

Now, please excel in the grace of giving and follow through on your commitment because the body of Christ is going to be blessed as you do.

But today, I'm going back to the vision banquet back in November.

Many of you, most of you were there.

Remember the testimonies that night?

Do you remember our brother and sister who testified about finding Jesus Christ through this ministry?

The testimonies since then?

I think I counted about a dozen testimonies that we've heard since November.

If you were here last Sunday night in the sanctuary, you were blessed, weren't you?

Were you blessed?

As we heard from a man who found Christ just recently and growing in the gospel, as we heard about a couple on a journey of faith, as we heard about a man who is just really seeing God do amazing things in his body through his cancer.

They don't find the cancer now.

We've heard testimony after testimony.

It's clear that the gospel continues to convert the lost, the gospel continues to renew the saved.

We are watching with our own eyes and listening with our own ears.

And how many times have I heard it?

I heard it last Sunday after church here downstairs at a fellowship hall.

A man came up to me and he said, Tom, this is not about money.

I know, I get it.

This is about gospel transformation.

He said, I was in a church once where it really was about the money, and it felt like it was about the money, but this is different because this is about gospel transformation, changing your heart, changing my heart.

None of us have arrived.

We're still growing.

We're still asking God to do a deeper work in us.

Arise, get up.

Where are you spiritually?

Get up.

And God told us to build a new tabernacle, a new temple.

And he gave us that land.

God's people have met for worship and tabernacles and temples and church buildings for a long, long time.

But let's go back to the vision banquet.

There's two pillars that hold this church up as far as I'm concerned, what God does in us and through us.

It's gospel truth, but it's also gospel community.

Right?

It's both.

This gospel truth that's going in you is intended to be lived out through you in community, not alone.

No lone rangers in the kingdom of God.

This tabernacle that we're going to build by God's grace is a new gospel hub.

It'll be a new worship center.

It'll be a new training center, but it'll be a launching pad where gospel truth continues to work its way into our heads and our hearts, where the whole body comes together on Sundays to worship, and then, like leaven, works its way through the batch of dough throughout the week wherever you go.

In your neighborhood, in your workplace.

This is such a traveling city.

It just, every week I ask God to remind me to pray for those of you that are traveling, taking this gospel throughout the world because this is a traveling church.

I'm well aware that whatever is preached here on Sunday is likely going to end up in another continent that week.

This gospel was made to go somewhere.

Gospel truth working its way in us, through us, throughout Alexandria, Washington, D.C., and the world.

The subtitle of our Arise logo.

Do you remember that subtitle?

Arise, what was underneath it?

Touching hearts, touching the world.

We have sent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people throughout the world.

Train them, equip them.

Some of them were saved here, taking this gospel in other parts of the world with gospel joy, knowing the joy of forgiveness and a new life.

Tonight we're going to finish our sonship course and we're going to end with an hour of dinner and testimonies.

And once again, my heart is going to be overflowing because I'm going to hear lots of people just talk about how the gospel has become new to them again through sonship and through what God's doing in their lives.

And so I ask you, is Jesus becoming bigger to you these days?

Is the gospel becoming more real to you these days?

I'm going to go back to the C.S.

Lewis Prince Caspian.

Remember, Lucy hadn't seen Aslan, the representative, the type of Christ.

Well, Aslan, the lion.

And she sees him and she says, Aslan, you're bigger.

He says, That's because you're older, little one.

Not because you're bigger.

No, I'm not bigger.

But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.

That's such a great word picture for what happens when you're growing in the gospel.

He does look bigger.

He does look more impressive.

As you get bigger, as your heart grows, as I grow.

Are you coming alive in new ways these last six months?

Spiritually?

Is the cross getting bigger?

Let me ask you, are you in gospel community?

Again, I want to go back to the vision banquet last November.

You remember that chart that Pastor Josh has been working on, and we've been looking in covenant fellowship groups, the tabernacle of the Old Testament, and you remember the 12 tribes of Israel surrounding the tabernacle?

That's the way it all is supposed to be today.

Just like then.

The people of God meet in community groups and we work out the gospel in our lives with each other throughout the week.

We encourage each other.

We pray with each other.

We confess our sins with each other.

We help each other move, whatever it is that life is.

And so I'm going to ask you again this morning: are you in a tribe?

Or are you still going it alone?

Are you in a tribe?

Are you in a coveted fellowship group?

Are you in some small group where you're walking together with other brothers and sisters in Christ?

That's where the action is.

1 Peter chapter 2, verse 4 and 5, as we read.

1 Peter 2:4

Are you a living stone in Jesus' temple?

Living stones.

Stones, a temple.

Again, a beautiful structure, edifice.

I've seen some beautiful ones.

Sharon and I, when we've had the opportunity to travel some, I can't tell you how many hours we've just sat on a bench.

A few of those in Italy just sit on a bench and look at the Duomo.

Or look at these other temples, these cathedrals.

We can just look at it for hours.

And I want you to hear me.

That's nothing.

As far as God's concerned when he looks at you.

Are you believing that more?

That you are beautiful to God.

How could you not be beautiful to God if you're his temple, Christian?

Living stones connected to each other.

You don't build a temple by putting a stone over there and putting a stone over there.

When you build a church, when you build a cathedral, the stones are affixed together.

They're cemented together.

Because if you don't do that, you're not going to be protected from the elements.

You're not going to be protected from the cold and the wind.

If you need protection, they offer you the stones united, connected, offer protection.

They offer warmth.

They offer community.

Living stones.

This is the real building program.

Please remember that.

It's going to be exciting when they start building that new building on Braddock Road.

It's going to be exciting.

But that's not the real building.

When you go by, when you drive by and you look at it periodically to see the progress, or you walk by it and you see it, I want you to remember this.

That's not the real church.

I'm a living stone.

Can you do that?

Will you remember that?

Thank God for the building.

We need a building.

But can you remember and say, God, thank you, that I am your living stone?

Peter says, as you come to Jesus, the cornerstone of this temple.

And I really think Peter gets this.

Like obviously I'm trying to emphasize.

In the Greek, he says, you yourselves, for emphasis, you.

He could have just said, you are the temple, you are the living stone.

Why didn't he just say, you are a living stone in God's temple?

Why did he feel it necessary to say you yourselves?

You know why.

It's hard to believe.

Really?

Me?

Yes, you, Christian.

We are being built up as a spiritual house, a kingdom of priests where every member of this church who is looking to Christ as you come to him, you are a priest.

You are a priest just as much as me.

Doesn't matter that you didn't go to seminary.

What matters is, are you indwelt by the Spirit of God?

Have your sins been cleansed?

Have your sins been washed by the blood of Jesus?

Is God your Father and is the Holy Spirit in you?

Then you are every bit as much a priest as me.

These living stones, Peter says, are chosen by God.

These living stones are precious to God.

The delight that the Father has for his own son is given to us.

And that's why we sing like we do at APC.

The gospel was meant to be sung.

Peter's just describing our status.

And I'm not going to go into this a lot of depth like I did last fall, but he gives a great description in verse 9.

We are God's own possession.

We are a chosen race.

We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

That's our status.

That's who we are by the grace of God.

And it's really hard to live the Christian life if you don't know that.

Or if you forget that.

And if you forget that, then you're going to think it's about what you do.

You're going to think it's about trying harder.

You're going to think it's about mustering up some effort.

You're going to think it's about checking the box.

That's not the way it works.

That's why, even in the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, the prologue in Exodus chapter 20, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery, out of the house of bondage.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

God is always reminding his people who he is, but also what?

Who you are.

Before he gives commandments, he always gives us a reminder of how gracious he is.

Check it out.

New Testament as well.

Paul's epistles.

All the time.

Dear friends, may I remind you who you are?

You are the chosen, you are the royal priesthood.

You're a holy nation.

God's own possession.

If that's our status, our ministry calling is to proclaim and declare the excellencies of God, to praise him well.

Praise is adoring our great God for who he is as well as what he has done for us.

And there are different ways that we proclaim his excellencies.

It's not just singing, although singing is such an appropriate expression of our praise.

The gospel was intended to be sung.

Where else do you sing like you sing in church?

All right, some of you do the karaoke thing.

All right.

Where else during the week do you stand up and sing from your heart in loud voice with hundreds of other people about how God has blessed you and how God has saved you.

This is kind of unusual what we Christians do.

The world doesn't do this.

Because we are human temples, temples of the Holy Spirit.

I want to give you just three closing comments on what temples do.

Human temples, not earth, not brick and mortar temples.

Human temples.

First of all, the temple is a holy place.

Paul said that in the, or excuse me, Peter said that in the text.

A temple is a holy place.

The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, do you not know that your body Is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit is not outside of you, he's within you.

Whom you have from God.

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God with your body.

The Holy Spirit is likened to a fire in Scripture.

Fire purges, fire burns away impurities.

Anything that is combustible, fire will take.

It's the Holy Spirit working in us that enables us to take off our ornaments.

You'll never take off an ornament unless the Holy Spirit is showing you and giving you grace to take off that ornament.

Otherwise, it's moral reform.

We are set apart, dear ones.

We are consecrated to a holy God.

His name is the Holy Spirit.

Not only because he is holy, but because his job is to make you holy.

Holier and holier.

In the last six months, I have confessed new sins to my wife.

She knows.

I've confessed new sins to my friends, my small group in sonship.

That shouldn't be unusual.

That's what growing in grace looks like.

You just become more vulnerable.

You become more transparent.

Because you just believe that it's not about your record.

It's not about your image.

It's not about your reputation.

Tom, you must have believed that.

I believe that you believed it.

Good for you.

Are you confessing new sins?

Not just to God, but are you believing this gospel in new ways?

Are you taking gospel risk?

Secondly, the temple is a sacrificing place.

And we're going to continue a little bit with the theme of the first point, but the temple is a sacrificing place.

Yes, sacrifices of praise.

1 Peter 2 9.

Declaring God's excellencies and the songs that we sing talk about the character of God, the attributes of God, his holiness, his mercy, his faithfulness.

But David talked about in Psalm 51, verse 17, that there are other sacrifices again.

Psalms 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God.

God cannot resist a broken and contrite heart.

God is drawn to a broken heart.

He finds it irresistible.

Grace pours downhill.

Faith and repentance.

So a few days ago, this week, a woman came into my office, and she basically said, Tom, I'm here just to tell you that I feel like I'm a new person.

And for 30 minutes she cried in my office.

She said, I grew up in a PCA church.

I've taught Sunday school.

I've been active in the church in many ways.

And she literally cried for 30 minutes.

She said, God's been showing me, God has been showing me my sin.

And it's not pretty, but boy, I'm glad he's showing me my sin.

And she talked about how she's just feeling freed up in new ways because she's being honest with God in new ways.

What she's seeing, she's responding to God.

And I'm pretty sure she's got more joy than she's ever had.

And a growing heart of gratitude.

The temple of God is a sacrificing place.

It's a place where sacrifices take place.

Not only the sacrifices of songs of praise, but just as much the sacrifices of repentance.

Thirdly, the temple is a growing place.

Living stones are being added to Christ's temple around the world, but they're also being added to the temple in Alexandria, Presbyterian Church.

Ben's up in the sound booth.

You've seen the temple grow, right?

We used to meet in a building a lot smaller than this.

We used to set up chairs every Sunday.

The temple's growing.

Because the gospel's growing.

Because the gospel's growing in you.

Because the gospel's growing in me.

The temple is growing, and that's what it's supposed to do.

That's why we need a bigger building than what we have over there right now.

As living stones are being added to Christ's temple.

Let me start winding down here.

When that new building is built on West Braddock Road, and hey, you've seen the plans, right?

You've only seen some of them.

The elders have seen more of them.

And it's going to be a beautiful building.

It's going to be a nice building.

Not extravagant.

Nobody's going to say it's an extravagant building.

But it's going to suit us well.

But here's my point: when you see that building, rather than saying, wow, what a gorgeous building.

How about this?

Wow.

Look at the temple growing.

As you offer tears of repentance in your life in new ways, as you praise God with a full heart Sunday mornings, as you grow in intimacy with other Christians, as you grow in transparency and vulnerability, as your prayer life continues to grow, as you see God save more people, as you see God renewing you and other people that you know, say, wow, that is a beautiful temple.

Can you do that?

Can you do that the next few years?

I'm going to close with the same illustration I closed with last week because I think it applies just as much for this.

Mike Fance, the creative director for Disney Studios years ago at the dedication of Disneyland.

Walt was not there.

Remember what that guy said to him?

Boy, it's a shame that Walt's not here to see it.

Remember what Mike said?

He did see it.

That's why it's here.

That building is going to be there, and that building is going to serve generations.

Look, there are going to be a lot of other pastors in Tom Holliday.

But here's the deal.

We're going to make sure that they preach the gospel.

Right?

You're going to make sure.

Because you're going to elect.

You're going to vote.

That's why it's good for you kids to be in this room.

You kids are going to be voting for new pastors.

You're going to make sure that it's a gospel pastor.

And hundreds and hundreds of other people are going to come to Saving Faith in Jesus Christ for that ministry.

And probably thousands of other people are going to be renewed by the gospel in that building.

Because you saw it.

But I'm not talking about the building, just the building.

Because you have a vision for your own life of what you're going to look like as you continue to grow in the gospel in the coming years.

Because you're going to see it in your mind's eye.

That's why this gospel life, as you go to glory, as you pass into glory, as I pass into glory, that we are temples that we're dedicated to declaring God's excellencies.

And we've experienced, we haven't just talked about gospel transformation, we've lived it.

And we've experienced it.

And maybe you'll be able to say about your spouse or your kids or your grandkids or your friends.

Yeah, they saw it.

They saw it and they believed it.

So, fellow priests, this morning we're going to bring our sacrifices, we're going to bring our tithes, and we're going to bring our offerings, our free will offerings to our great God, because that's what priests do.

And I'm going to pray right now.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would please open, continue to speak to us by your Spirit through your word this morning.

Continue to speak to us.

Open up our minds and our hearts and our emotions.

Father, free us.

We could be so bound by so many things.

Free us.

Change us.

You know, Holy Spirit, what you want to do in each part of your temple this morning.

Would we get out of the way?

Would we open up?

Would we offer ourselves to you, Father, because of what the Spirit will be doing even now?

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.