1 Peter: Hope and Our Identity

Good morning.

Wow, it's beautiful.

Almost times like that with the, before the Lord and just listening and worshiping,

you just want to almost just keep it going, right?

Keep focusing on Him and why we're here.

If you're here for the first time, my name is Tobin Miller.

I'm one of the staff here.

I'm one of the pastors here at Watermark.

We're really glad that you're here visiting with us for this time of worshiping the Lord.

I have a confession to make.

So my wife and my family are back, and I figured I'd better confess in front of a lot of people

instead of just her.

That way I won't get in too much trouble.

She'll give me more grace that way.

You know, this summer I just realized, I realized that I was getting old.

I just did that.

There was something in my mind that designated youth in old age,

and that something was Wheel of Fortune.

Wheel of Fortune is this game show, and they spin a wheel, and you get money,

and you have this word up there, and you're trying to guess what the word is

and calling out numbers, and you get points and all this stuff.

And in my mind, I always felt like that was what old people did when they had nothing else to do.

They watched Wheel of Fortune.

Now, if you love Wheel of Fortune, please, I'm not picking on you.

It's okay to like Wheel of Fortune.

But I realized that it was 6.30 on a Monday night back in Texas,

and I found myself sitting down watching Wheel of Fortune.

Not only did I watch it, I remembered when it was going to be on

because my father-in-law was watching it with me.

And in the middle of watching Wheel of Fortune saying,

no bankrupt, no bankrupt, 2,000, 2,000,

oh, you've got to be able to see that.

That word is so easy.

What's wrong with you?

Everyone knows it's this.

I looked at myself and said,

I'm old.

I'm getting old.

Now, I realized I was kind of getting old when I was 40,

and I had to get these reading glasses.

It actually happened on the trip back from Dallas to Hong Kong,

and about halfway through the flight, I was 40 years old,

and I'm reading this article, and all of a sudden I'm like,

I can't.

I can't see.

It's going to happen if you're not 40.

Just wait.

It will happen if you're normal.

And I always prided myself on great eyes,

but I just couldn't see, and I was like, oh, my gosh,

I need some glasses.

And so I got these glasses.

But last year, I started losing my memory.

And this is the thing I want to confess.

So Christina was back in Dallas helping her mom go through chemo,

and we were here for church on Sunday,

and I forgot a kid.

I mean, I have, we have four kids, right?

That's the last time I counted, we have four kids.

And church ended, and everything was perfect,

and so I grabbed the kids, and we got in the car,

and we drove home, and we got home,

and we were walking through the house,

and all of a sudden my phone rang,

and it's, hello?

I said, Dad, where are you?

And I'm counting, one, two, three.

One, two, three.

Where are you?

She goes, well, I'm back at church.

I'm like, oh, okay, yeah.

Okay, well, just come walking back, you know.

And I realized that I'm getting old.

I'm forgetting important things.

I'm forgetting important people in my life, you know.

I remember growing up, I read this story,

and it stuck with me.

I think I must have been about 13 or 14,

because I loved history, and I was reading this book,

and it was a story of in the 1600s,

how this very famous emperor, this ruler,

his wife died in childbirth.

And he was so grieved that he committed to build this amazing mausoleum and tomb to her,

to which he went straight to work,

and he ordered the famous, the most famous marble and stone and workers and woodcutters,

and he just got totally into this project,

and this project went on.

So he had his wife and his body in her casket,

and he put the casket in the middle of the room,

where they were going to build this big temple around her.

And he just got totally absorbed into this building project,

and 10 years passed, and 11 years passed, and 12 years passed.

And then one day, he was walking around,

and he was surveying everything that he was building,

and all this great monument,

and he bumped into these old dusty boxes that were in the way,

and they were just causing trouble.

And he asked his guys to take the boxes out,

and to throw them out to make more room,

because they needed to continue the project.

They needed to continue to work.

They needed to build this amazing tomb, this mausoleum.

They needed all these dirty boxes out of the way.

And 20 years after the project,

20 years later when the project was completed,

he didn't realize that what he had actually done was

he threw his wife out.

His wife's body was in that casket,

in those dirty boxes.

Everything that he was focusing his life on,

his whole project,

everything that he was sacrificing for,

20 years of his life,

he was building this huge monument

that was supposed to have his wife at the center of it,

and he forgot who he was building it for.

And he threw her away.

So if you go to the Taj Mahal today,

his wife isn't there.

She was thrown out with the trash.

There's a fake tomb there.

He's there.

But the wife he built it for isn't there.

And I thought about that in my life,

growing old and forgetting things,

and I realized that sometimes we do that,

don't we?

Sometimes we forget why we're doing what we're doing.

Sometimes we forget who's at the center

of what we're building.

Sometimes we become so enamored,

so entwined,

so focused on things

that we forget

who's at the center of the thing.

Sometimes we become too busy,

and our businesses become overwhelming,

and our families become overwhelming,

and our pathway becomes overwhelming,

and busy,

and our life becomes overwhelming,

and sometimes as Christians,

often as Christians,

we forget about Christ.

We forget why we're doing it.

We forget what the purpose of the building is.

We forget what the purpose of our life is for.

And this is what Peter is writing to for

in 1 Peter 2.

I mean, it's the same thing.

He's writing to Christians in Turkey,

Asia Minor,

who've lost their focus.

They've lost their meaning.

They've lost the stone.

They've lost why they do everything.

But he's also writing to us

because sometimes we just lose it

because we get busy.

They're losing it

because they're being persecuted for their faith,

and they're being killed

because they're Christians.

But in either side,

Peter wants us to know

why we're building our life,

and why we're building stuff,

and what we're doing it for.

And so very briefly today,

because we're going to have a special,

hopefully a reflection time on this,

I want to talk about

who we are as God's people.

Now if you're here

and you're not in the family of God,

listen and ask questions

because this is a teaching moment for you

just as much as it's a teaching moment for us.

I want to talk about who we are,

and then I want to talk about what we do,

and I want to talk about why we do it.

So who we are as God's people,

what we do as God's people,

and why are we doing it?

What is the purpose behind it?

And remember Peter's talking

to these Christians

who are being scattered,

and they're being beat up,

and they're being persecuted,

and he said here,

as he said in previous weeks,

that when we become God's people,

when you and I invite Christ into our life,

when we repent of our sin,

we see our neediness,

we see our brokenness,

when we do that,

the Bible says that the Holy Spirit

comes into us,

and God's Spirit comes into us,

and God's Spirit,

the Holy Spirit,

the third person of the Trinity,

God,

he begins to,

he changes us.

Peter says,

and the rest of the scripture says,

that when that happens,

we start to think differently.

We start to act differently.

We start to talk differently.

We start to walk differently.

We start to value different things.

We become different

than the people around us

who don't know Christ,

those who aren't yet

in the family of God.

We think differently

than the culture,

and he says that

when we start thinking differently

than the culture,

then we're going to experience tension,

that when we live out our faith,

we live out who we are

as God's people,

we will feel tension.

We're going to rub against each other.

We're going to rub against our bosses.

We're going to rub against society.

We're going to rub against everything

because we're different,

and God's spirit continues to change us

and to make us different.

And Peter shares with us

some ideas of how we're different now

than what we were before.

Well, he says it in verse nine.

He says the first thing we do

is that we've become a royal priesthood.

Royal, it means holy.

It means above.

It means set aside for a perfect purpose.

And when he said this,

people went, whoa.

Because the priesthood in Jesus' day

and the priesthood in Peter's day,

it was everything.

I mean, the priest served in the temple.

The priest kept the sacrifices.

The priest did the sacrifices.

The priest brought the people to God.

The priest's job was to reconcile

broken people to a holy God.

I mean, in the Old Testament,

it says you were born into the priesthood.

You didn't become a priest.

Even if you wanted to be a priest,

you couldn't be a priest

because you were born into it

because out of the 12 tribes,

there was one tribe, Levi.

And out of that Levi tribe,

there was about 14 different families in it.

But out of those 14 families,

there was only about four of them

served in the temple.

And everybody wanted to be a part

of those four families,

but they couldn't

because you had to be born into it.

And what Peter says to us now

is that as God's people,

don't forget,

because before you weren't priests,

before you needed help,

but now you're royal,

you're set aside,

and you're the priest.

You're God's priest.

Your job is to bring people to him.

The word in Latin is very interesting.

One of the words for priest

actually means bridge builder.

Ponticut.

It means you're a bridge builder.

And so what Peter is saying here

is that you and I,

as God's people,

with God's spirit in us,

changing us,

we're bridge builders.

We're building bridges

between the world that doesn't know God,

the world that doesn't not yet know God,

to God.

He says as priests,

we use our time,

we use our talents,

we use our gifts,

we use our resources,

and our main focus is to build bridges.

Did you know that?

As God's people,

one of your main purposes,

and you're always talking about

what's my purpose in life,

why does God have me here,

what am I supposed to be doing?

Here are the passages.

This passage tells us

what our purpose is.

He says our main purpose

is to build bridges.

We build bridges to people

who don't know God

and bring them to the Savior.

Peter goes on

and he describes in verse nine,

he says you're a holy nation.

Now remember before

we weren't a holy nation.

We were unholy.

We were walking in darkness.

We didn't want to even know God.

But here he says holy.

Remember last week we said

that word holy.

It means you belong to God.

When God calls us his holy people,

it means that above all else,

it means we belong to him.

And so what he's saying now

is that we're no longer Americans

or Australians or Germans

or Hong Kongese or Chinese or Texans.

We're no longer those things.

Now we're a holy people,

a holy nation.

That when you look at our passport,

it doesn't say whatever country

yours thinks you say,

but what it says as God's people

is heaven.

And when you go to the embassy,

you don't go to a consul,

you don't go to the embassy,

but you go to God.

God.

And what he's saying here

is that now as God's holy nation,

there's nothing that can come through to you

unless it first goes through

to your representative.

It means that God is the leader.

He's the head.

He's the figure.

He's standing over your nation.

He's watching you.

He's guarding you.

He's protecting you.

And there's nothing today

that's going to happen in your life

that God does not allow to happen

if you're hitting his people.

Does that make sense?

I mean, that was really comforting

for the people in Peter's day

because they were being killed

for their faith.

And he says,

there's nothing today

that can happen to you

that God does not vent that out,

that God does not stop,

that God says,

okay, yes, they can handle this.

Okay, they need this.

Okay, this can happen.

He's our representative.

We're his people.

Our passport says heaven.

Remember, our passport says heaven.

Hong Kong is not our home.

Australia is not our home.

Canada is not our home.

As much as most of you wish

that Texas was your home,

Texas is not your home.

Heaven's our home.

And Peter wants us to remember

that we're new people,

that we're different,

that we're a royal priesthood,

that we're a holy nation,

that we're bridge builders.

And finally, he uses this word,

and it's a very powerful word.

And it would probably take me

three sermons to unpack it.

It starts in verse four.

It goes to verse five,

and then it talks about it.

And he says,

what we are is we're living stones.

But each one of us in here,

we're living stones.

And do you notice

what he's been saying

in this passage?

He doesn't say,

Tobin you,

Tobin this,

Tobin this,

but he's talking about community.

He's talking about

a group of people.

He's not talking about

God changing us

as individuals.

What he's doing is

he's talking about

God changing us

as a family.

I mean, Peter

and all of the gospels

talk about how we change,

how we grow closer to God,

how all that takes place

is it takes place

in a community,

takes place in a family.

It doesn't take place

by yourself.

I mean,

they wouldn't have

all those commandments

about be nice to each other

and take care of each other

and shed off all these things

and get rid of malice

and deceit

and hypocrisy

and envy and slander.

All of those things

are things that break community.

All of those things

are focused on yourself.

And Peter says,

no,

we are called now

as living stones

and we've been brought together

as these living stones

and these living stones

huddle together

and living stones

are rough

and they're different

and they rub each other

and they hurt each other

but God allows that to happen

because he's shaping us.

And it's like this big monolith

that's there,

Christ and he's this living stone

and the imagery goes way back

to the Old Testament

and it means that Jesus

is personal,

that he cares for you,

he's alive,

he's spiritual,

he's a solid foundation

that he can take care of you,

he's true,

he never changes,

he's holy,

we can depend upon him.

That he's bringing us to him

so that we as his people

can rest on him.

And the imagery

that he uses here

is this idea

of this foundation,

this stone,

this is my son's,

this is the best I could get,

but if you go to Israel

with us in two years,

you're going to the temple

and when you go

underneath the temple

and these tunnels,

you see this foundation stone

that Jesus was talking about.

And this stone was like

30 feet wide

and like 80 feet long

and about 20 feet tall

and it was the capstone,

it was the cornerstone,

it was the most perfect stone,

it weighed like 500 tons.

And you look at it

because all the rest

of the temple

rested on that

and you're wondering

how in the heck

did they cut that?

How did they get that there?

What's going on there?

And what Peter is saying

is there's even

a much greater stone

that we rest on.

And that stone is Christ.

And not only is that stone

the center of our lives,

but he says it's also

the foundation that

he builds us

on top of each other.

Now the imagery is scary,

the imagery is powerful,

but the imagery

of the cornerstone

is this thing

that basically says

Jesus is the most perfect stone,

it's the biggest stone,

it's the true stone,

it's the holy stone,

it's a never changing stone,

the cornerstone

was the most important thing

in a building.

It was the most precious,

the most precise,

it was the thing

that determined your building.

If you had a crappy cornerstone,

you had a crappy building.

It was made out of sandstone,

it fell apart.

But usually you wanted

a great, amazing structure.

You had the best material.

It was the straightest piece of rock.

It determined how you built.

If the cornerstone was crooked,

your house was crooked.

If the cornerstone was straight,

your house would be going to be great

and it determined everything.

And what Peter is saying here

is that Jesus now

is this cornerstone

in our lives.

He's this cornerstone

in our church.

And he says,

if you build on this stone,

you'll never need

to be ashamed.

If you build on the stone

of Christ in your life,

in his word,

you're never going to have

to come back and go,

oh, I just messed up.

Oh, wow,

I shouldn't have done that.

He's saying,

if you build on this cornerstone,

if you lay your life

on Christ,

your life will always

turn out straight

and right.

So here's a question for us

as God's living stones.

What cornerstone

are we building on?

If you're going to draw

out a map of your life

and your life is this house

you're building,

what's that foundation

in your life?

What's that foundation

that you're building on?

If you go to San Jose,

there's an amazing house there.

It's the Winchester house,

Elizabeth Winchester.

Her husband died

like in 1880.

I mean,

it's a crazy,

crazy house.

It's like a crazy person house.

And so she received

about $20 million

part of the Winchester,

or I just know this

because I'm a hunter,

the gun factory.

So she received

$20 million

as her inheritance

from her husband

and then she received

which would have been

like hundreds of millions

of dollars today

and then she received

$1,000 a day

as her salary

which would be

about $50,000 a day today.

So this was her salary.

So she went to San Jose

and she built this,

she bought this

six bedroom house

and she just started

building on it.

And she hired

like two or three groups

of laborers

and constructioners

and architects

and if you go there

it's amazing.

It'll take you forever

to go through it.

I mean,

it costs you like $30

but it's worth the $30

if you have a good tour guide.

But it's like,

it's like she just kept

building for 30 years.

For 30 years

she's built on this house

and there's just

no rhyme or reason.

There's like

160 bedrooms.

There's like 500 rooms.

There's like 58 bathrooms

which is great

if you're a woman

but as a guy.

there's like 60 staircases.

There's three elevators.

There's two that are,

they go up,

you know,

what do you call that?

Horizontally.

But there's actually

one elevator,

the first of its kind

ever in America

that goes vertically.

It's kind of like

Willy Wonka, right?

I've always wanted to see

that horizontal, vertical.

Right, right, okay.

My wife is going.

I'm so glad you're back.

So, you know,

so she builds this house

and you go there

and you're like,

wow, this is,

you know,

it's seven stories tall

and it's out of control.

47 fireplaces

and 60 stairwells

and it's just crazy

and you look at her house

and you say,

what was she thinking?

You know,

sometimes that's

like some of our lives.

If we're honest

and we look at the map

that we're building

and the house

that we're building

and we have somebody

who loves us

and cares enough

enough about us

to come alongside of us,

they look at our lives

and say,

what were you thinking?

You cannot find

the cornerstone

in the Winchester house

because there's not one

because it's this craziness

and the hard thing

is that sometimes

for us

as God's children,

it's the same thing.

We started off

with the cornerstone,

Jesus,

but then we just started

building our own little kingdom

and our world

and things that we want

and things that are

important to us

and no one ever said,

well,

how does that fit into

the house that God

has you building

and we didn't even

think about that,

we just kept building.

Peter says,

if you build on Jesus,

this amazing,

precious cornerstone,

you'll never be ashamed.

You know,

the scary thing,

I think,

for me about this passage

and for us

is that he talks about it

in the plural.

He says,

we and we and we

and what he's saying

over and over

is it's a community,

it's a church,

it's what he has planned for us.

We live through the church

and his people

and you know,

my experience in Hong Kong

is most people think of church

just like another club.

I remember before

when we moved to Hong Kong,

Christina's dad grew up here

and lived here in his 60s

and I said,

so what's your experience

of Hong Kong?

And he said,

well,

Hong Kong is a place

you can get clubbed to death

and what he meant was,

think about it,

you know,

there's clubs everywhere

and I think that it's true,

we can get clubbed to death

and sometimes we live life

in the Christian life

in Hong Kong

and we think that church

is just like a club.

We do it and we leave

but what Peter says is no,

he says no,

you are the church.

And if God wants us

to fix the brokenness

in each other

and in Hong Kong

and the world,

he doesn't do it

through one person,

he does it through

the stones coming together

and resting on him.

I mean,

we as priests,

he says here,

and the idea is,

to me it's scary

because what he's saying

is that each one of us

in here

is unique,

different,

gifted,

talented

and that God

has brought all of us

here together

as his church

for the purpose

of verse five,

offering up

spiritual sacrifices.

So what Peter here

is saying,

now listen to me

because I'm going

to offend you

because I offend myself

because it's taken me

a long time

to get around this.

What he's saying here

is that you and I,

everyone in this room,

if you're within

the family of God,

that it's no mistake

that God brought you

here today.

It's no mistake

that you're sitting here

in this church

because the passage

says that God

brings us

his living stones

to the cornerstone

because he has something

he wants to do

in us

and he has something

he wants to do

through us.

It means that

every one of us

in here,

if we're God's people,

we're called to serve,

we're called to pray,

we're called to give

and tithe,

we're called to invest

our life

and the people around us

and build bridges

to bring them

to God's family.

And if you walk in here

and you don't do that,

what that means

is there's a piece

of God's church

that's not functioning.

And if there's a piece

of the church

that's not functioning,

it means the church

isn't functioning.

It means the church

isn't what God

meant for it to be.

I'm a Calvinist

when it comes

to God's sovereignty

and God has us here

and if you're here

as his people,

it means he's calling you

to a community

to pray,

to serve,

to give,

and to build bridges to.

And that if you don't

do that,

if you just come

and go

and walk away,

you don't do these things

and the church

misses out on you serving,

the church misses out

on you teaching,

the church misses out

on you praying,

the church misses out

on you volunteering,

the church misses out

on you giving,

the church misses out

and there's all these

little pieces in this church

that aren't going to be

the way they should be

and what that means

is the rest of us here,

we're worse off

because we're dependent

upon each other.

And I think that's

the scary thing

about church for us

because we're type A people,

we're motivated,

we're getting it done,

let's get it going on

and we don't want

to be dependent

upon anybody,

we just want to do it,

do it,

do it,

but what Peter here

is saying is that

he's brought us together

because we need each other.

And if we just come and go,

then the rest of the body

of Christ is hurt

and the church is hurt

and the church can't do

all the things that God

has in store for it

because not all the pieces

are working together.

Does that make sense?

You know,

when we started the church,

we had 33 people

and we had 33 people

and they signed a covenant.

We are looking at these passages

like 1 Peter 2

and we're looking at this idea

of coming together

as living stones

and being built upon

the living stone

and giving up

our spiritual sacrifices

and building on the capstone

and when these 33 people

came together,

we said,

okay,

we're a priest,

we're living stones,

we're a new nation,

God has called us

to come here

and what we said is

when we came in,

we signed this agreement,

this covenant,

33 of us

and we said,

hey,

God has called us all

to pray

and we all wrote

that we have to do that.

Then we said,

hey,

God has called us all

to give

and we realized

we had to do that too

because of course,

Hong Kong is an expensive place

and just even to make our rent here,

we had to give

and do these things

and it's something we had to do.

We said,

God has called us all

to serve.

You know,

we realized that was going to happen

because we were just 33 people,

we didn't have hundreds of people,

we didn't have the people

we have today

but we just knew

each one of us here,

we had to serve

because we're the priest,

we're the living stones,

we're the temple.

Then we said,

God has called us to invest

and invite

because we knew

that's what we were called to do.

We're called to be bridge builders.

Now we might not be totally gifted

in sharing our faith

but it doesn't take a lot

to invite people

to a community group

or to a church

or to be nice to people

or to care for him.

This is what God has called us to do

when we started.

And I realized

that it's easy for us

to come into Watermark

and we look at everything

and we go,

wow, this church,

you know,

we're only four years old.

We get four years old

in three weeks.

So we're only four years old

but for me,

it seems like a lot of neat things

are happening

with the sharing

and the outreach

and all the things

that God's bringing into our midst

and people are saying,

let's make that happen,

let's do that thing

and I realize

it's easy for you

to come in here

and say,

well,

they don't need me

because it's already happening.

I mean,

they don't need me.

They don't need me to,

they don't need me to pray,

you know.

But you know that

every Sunday

we don't even know

where we're going to meet for sure.

I mean,

the fact that you guys

are sitting right here

is a huge answer prayer for us.

We don't know

if Cyberport's going to have

a wine convention

or a convention of lawyers

or a wedding

and they're going to pay

a lot more than we're going to pay

because they're giving us a discount.

You know,

we're doing outreaches

in Hong Kong U right now

and we need to see people praying.

We have people praying

for offices

and businesses

and things like that

but it's easy to come in

and say,

well,

you don't need me.

Give.

I mean,

it's easy when you come

into a church like this

and you go,

well,

they're doing pretty good.

They have a white guy

with four kids,

you know,

or there's a pastor

or they have the staff

and they don't need,

but you know,

it's,

unless we all give,

it doesn't work.

If you're not

in the family of God here,

you can clog your ears

right now,

but just to share with you,

you know,

the last four months,

we haven't even had half

come in

of tithing

that we need

to even survive

and so the staff

are coming together

and go,

okay,

what are we going to do?

We have all these

outreach planned.

We have all these things

we need to do.

Are we going to stop them?

And by faith,

we said,

no,

no,

we're going to keep doing it.

But the family needs to know

that we haven't been giving

the way

that the church needs,

but the rents are increasing

and the costs are increasing.

Do things are increasing,

so we need people to give,

serve.

When you walk in here

and it looks really organized

and there's signs everywhere,

but you know,

it takes 30 to 50 people

every Sunday to serve,

to be teachers

and make things happen.

It doesn't just happen,

but before you come in here

there's been people

who have been praying,

giving,

and serving

and thinking through everything.

And if we as a body

don't do that,

then the family doesn't work.

Invest and invite.

I mean,

if you walk out of here

and you don't do that,

there are people

in your office space

that I'll never have

a chance to talk to.

There are people

when I walk up to them

and they learn

that I'm a pastor,

they go,

oh,

but you can go

up to them and say,

hey,

I'm working with you

every day

and yeah,

I go to church.

And if you don't do that

like the saints

are called to do,

like the rocks

are called to do,

like the new nation

is called to do,

then we're not,

we're not the church.

We're not being

who God has called us

to be.

We're not living out

His glory.

We're not making

His name great.

When it says

proclaim His excellencies

in verse 9,

what it says

is to retort,

to evangelize

His excellencies,

all that is good,

all that is wonderful,

all that is true,

all that is beautiful,

all that is faithful

of God,

we as a church

are called

to do that.

Now,

I know what you're thinking

because there's so many

who are going to go,

ah,

and you're going to walk

out here and go,

I can't do that.

I'm just too busy.

I can't do any

of those things

and yeah,

I like coming on Sunday

but I just can't,

I can't be the church,

I can't be the living stone,

I can't be the priesthood,

I can't lay on the foundation

with these other rocks,

I'd rather just do it

by myself.

You know what Peter says?

He says the church

is worse off

because of that.

You know what I say?

I say that the things

we're trying to do

in Hong Kong and beyond

are worse off

because your gifts

and your talents

aren't being used

and helping us

and there's some things

you guys see

that we don't even see

and you're going,

hey,

we need to fix this

and all of a sudden

we see it,

we go,

yeah,

you're right,

we need to fix this

but if you just come

and go,

we'll never see

those things.

As your friend,

what I want to say to you

is ultimately

you're worse off.

I have the incredible privilege

of counseling people

in this church

and in Hong Kong

probably more

than I want to

and one of the things

I realize,

especially as I counsel

Christians,

that there's a lot

of Christians

that feel dissatisfied

and purposeless

and not doing

what they feel like

God has called them to do.

And what always

comes back to me

is there's a realization

that they have been

building their lives

on a capstone,

on a cornerstone,

on a hope,

on a truth

that isn't Christ.

And all of a sudden,

20 years into their career

or their marriage

or their life,

they look back

at their life

and the house

that's being built

and they feel

very, very, very sad

and disappointed.

What Peter says here

is the reason for that

is because

we've become so busy

we forgot who we're

building upon,

who we are,

what we do,

why we do it.

Why we do it's real easy.

It's in the last part

of the passage.

It says this,

you were once

not a people,

but now

you are the people

of God.

You once had no mercy,

but now

God has given you

mercy.

Why do we do

what we do?

Because Jesus

was his cornerstone

and the passage says

that he was deemed

unworthy

so people threw him away.

They hung him on a cross.

He died

for you and me

so that we might

lay on this foundation

and receive life.

That's why we do it.

We do it because

we have a Savior

who is deemed

unworthy,

unlovable,

not good.

He was discarded

and in his discarding

he brings us life.

He brings us hope.

Hope when we get old.

Hope when we become

nearsighted.

Hope when we lose

our memory.

Hope in whatever

happens in our life.

That's why we're

God's people.