Lectionary: Christ is the Cornerstone May 3, 2026

Well, good morning and welcome to Trinity.

My name is Mike, and I'm one of the pastors here.

And this morning I'd like to invite you to turn your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, please don't hesitate to hop up and grab one from the stack in the back.

You can find 1 Peter 2 on page 953 and 954 in the church Bibles.

1 Peter is often called the Epistle of Hope.

It was written to the most lead Jewish believers in uh scattered throughout Asia Minor, that is, modern-day Turkey.

It's a book that's personal and it's relational.

And it's worth noting that Peter was a fisherman and then a pastor and not a lawyer like Paul.

And so while his letters are practical and pastoral, they are not logical and linear in quite the same way as, say, the book of Romans is.

But first, let's pray.

Gracious God, thank you for this morning for the chance to gather here together to worship, to pray, to hear from your word.

And I pray now that as my words line up with your words, that they would fall on ears and hearts ready to receive them and respond.

And gracious God, if I say anything that isn't from you, I pray that those words would quickly be forgotten.

And I pray all these things through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Paul wrote in Romans 7.15, I do not understand what I do.

For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do.

C.S.

Lewis wrote, There is someone I love, even though I don't approve of what he does.

There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me.

That someone is myself.

Frederick Biekner wrote, We are all of us a little bit double-minded, saying one thing and doing another.

This is the struggle Peter's audience faced.

They had received the good news of Jesus' life and death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.

They had believed it to be true.

And as Peter writes in chapter 1, verse 8, though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

They loved God.

They believed, they rejoiced.

And yet, even as they received and believed and grew in love, they found themselves being pulled in other directions, tempted to live as the world lived, as they once lived.

The pressure began to build.

External pressure to live as their neighbors lived rather than how Christ called them to live.

Societal pressure to turn their backs on the way of Jesus.

Internal pressure and temptation to sin.

They began to experience persecution and slander, and slowly the pressures of the world began to pull them away from the way of Jesus, so that their actions were no longer in alignment with what they said they believed.

Has this ever been true for you?

You believe in Jesus, you've received the gospel as true, and yet you find yourself, surely nobody in this room ever struggling with gossip.

Or envious of your neighbors, or finding your self-worth in your work, shortchanging your work, lying to a loved one, giving in to our culture of outrage, prioritizing status chasing, tempting to hoard money.

I could go on and on, couldn't I?

It's a constant challenge to be sure, to live a life in alignment with what we say we believe.

We're constantly being pulled, at war with our own sinful inclinations, as well as the external expectations of others in a world that would pull us away from the way of Jesus.

It was true for Christians Peter was writing to 2,000 years ago in Asia Minor.

And I think it's safe to say that it's just as true for us today.

And so Peter writes in verse 1 of our reading this morning: put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander.

You've seen the glory of God He's written.

You've believed the gospel.

So put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander.

But how?

If you have a Bible open, you'll see verses 11 and 12, what Peter is asking.

Beloved, he says, 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 then when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

That's the goal, to abstain from all evil and to live lives of such alignment, such good lives, such lives of such integrity, that when the outside world sees our actions, they may glorify God.

But how do we get there?

I mean, I I believe, I really do, but if I'm honest, my thoughts and my deeds don't always line up with what I say I believe.

This is what I believe.

Right?

We saw it in verse chapter one, verse eight.

Okay?

Believe the gospel.

Grow in love.

And I want to live like this.

We see in chapter two, in verses eleven and twelve, abstaining from all evil to the glory of God.

I believe.

And I want to get there.

And yet, more often than not, I find myself getting pulled off track.

I believe, I want to head there, and yet I end up right back over there.

Malice, envy, slander.

I want to live like that.

And so, how do I bring my thoughts and my deeds into alignment with what I say I believe and how I ought to live?

How do I fight against these split identities?

It was Socrates that famously said the unexamined life is not worth living.

And I see three diagnostic questions in Peter's verses today.

Well, really, it's one question from three angles.

Questions we must, we must regularly and honestly ask ourselves if we really and earnestly desire to grow in Christ's likeness.

If you want real spiritual growth, to live a life in alignment, I'd encourage you to honestly and earnestly ask these questions of your life.

Here's the first one.

What do you long for?

What do you long for?

Peter starts the second chapter by writing, So put away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, 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.

I've got three boys, and as they've gotten bigger, there is one thing that is absolutely as true for them as it was for me when I was their age.

They know how to eat.

They wake up in the morning and they start eating, and they don't stop until bedtime.

Now, they can mostly fend for themselves, thank God.

They toast their own bagels, they bake their own frozen pizzas, they pour their own cereal, and when they're hungry, which is all the time, they can solve their own problem.

But when they were newborns, they still wanted to eat.

Basically, anytime they weren't sleeping, but they only wanted Jenny.

I was plenty willing to take the middle of the night shift, but the reality was they didn't want me because I didn't have the one thing they craved.

The one thing they longed for.

I didn't have the milk.

Peter's encouraging, or Peter is encouraging the churches he's writing to to long for the pure spiritual milk like newborn infants.

And let me tell you, one of the easiest ways to diagnose your own spiritual health is to ask yourself the question: what do you long for?

The way a teenage boy longs for a frozen pizza, or a newborn yearns and longs for milk.

What you long for reveals your priorities and speaks to your desires.

Do you long for recognition at work?

For others to think you've made it?

Do you long for the comfort that money might bring?

You long for status to be liked, respected.

Maybe you long for a vacation, pleasures, comfort.

The truth is, I long for all of those things.

And they're not always necessarily bad.

Certainly not all the time.

But when our longings get out of order, then we've got a problem.

A few weeks ago, I realized that any time that I was bored or stressed or wrestling with something, found myself flipping on my phone.

I was longing, distracting myself with scrolling.

I was longing for the.

We long for comfort or status for temporary pleasures or dopamine hits, the way a newborn longs for milk.

When we ought to be longing that way for God and growth in Him, He's the one that ought to be pulling, tugging on our lives and our hearts.

The babies all agree.

Rather than my phone, right?

And when we get pulled this way, we end up out of alignment.

It's the first question.

What do you long for?

Here's the second.

What's your cornerstone?

Look at verse 4.

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 sacrifice 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 the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.

His way often seems upside down.

I mean, how do you gain a life by losing it?

Why would you give yourself away or pursue a life of service?

Why would you store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth?

Or acknowledge somebody else as Lord in a culture that idolizes personal freedom and autonomy.

There's a reason the stone was rejected.

And yet for the Christian, we're to come to the living stone, rejected by men, but precious to God, and not only come to him, but build a life upon him, oriented around him.

Peter exhorts us to build up as a spiritual house and to set the stone that's been rejected, that is Jesus, as the cornerstone.

A few years ago, my brother-in-law Josh and I built several bed frames.

We built two for my house, and then eventually a handful more for my parents' cottage.

Now, Josh is relatively handy.

He grew up in the Midwest on a farm, and I'm not.

I grew up in the suburbs.

But I learned how to build a solid bed frame mostly out of two by fours.

And let me tell you what I learned.

If the corner isn't square, the whole thing is off.

Do you know what I mean by square?

The corners have to be perfect, 90 degree angles.

Otherwise, the whole thing comes out like a trapezoid.

And if it's just a little bit off, if the corners aren't square, then the whole thing will fall apart as soon as you put some weight on it.

If the corners of a bed frame aren't square, as soon as you launch yourself onto the bed, it's gonna crash.

In the ancient world, the cornerstone was like that, and then some.

Just like the corner joists in our homemade bed frame, the cornerstone is what kept the whole building square.

So it kept the building in alignment.

If it was set wrong, the whole house would be built out of whack.

The cornerstone, as the junction of two walls, carries extra structural weight.

If it was weak, the whole house would collapse sooner than it would otherwise.

It was the cornerstone that anchored the building, giving it coherence and strength.

It tied the walls together.

Without it, the walls would slowly separate over time, leaving gaps in the wall, the whole house drafty, and eventually structurally unsound.

It is so easy to center the building of our lives on a cornerstone that can't handle the weight, isn't it?

To set as a reference point something that leaves everything else in our lives slightly askew.

We do this with people.

We set a particular person or relationship as the reference point for everything else in our life.

Sometimes we make our pleasure, pleasure or achievement, status, security our cornerstone, the reference point upon which we base every other decision, in which we build a life.

Sometimes in this day and age, we're tempted to make authenticity our cornerstone.

We base all decisions based on what's true for me and my feelings.

Or we do it with an ideology or our politics or our tribe.

Often we have a stated cornerstone, maybe it's Jesus, and then a practical cornerstone.

We might say, Jesus is my cornerstone, but functionally, when push comes to shove, the reference point for how we lived our lives is the answer to a question like, what will make me happy?

Or what will make me feel safe?

Or what will help me reach X goal?

Friends, what's your cornerstone?

What's the person or idea, the way of thinking or being that serves as reference point for how you make decisions, how you live your life?

That's the second question.

What's your cornerstone?

The pearl you're talking is always welcome in here.

Sound of little ones is such a gift from God, isn't it?

Here's the last question.

To whom do you belong?

So first, we've got, what did I say was the first one?

What do you long for?

Second, what's your cornerstone?

Third, to whom who do you belong?

Look at verse 9.

Your 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 a God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The first question speaks to our desires, the second to our reference point, especially when it comes to decision-making and how we live our lives.

And the last question speaks to relational allegiance.

Paul's audience, Peter's audience, was struggling to remember that they belonged to God and by extension to each other.

You are now God's people, he writes.

Chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

You don't primarily belong any longer to your nation or your family or your coworkers or your friends.

You've got a new tribe, Peter is saying.

Look, I 100% belong to Jenny and she to me.

And I belong to my boys.

But even more than that, we belong to God.

After all, Jesus said, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

That's Matthew 10.

Look, love your spouse.

Serve your kids.

Respect your parents for sure.

But they're not God.

They're not God.

To whom do you belong?

Okay, what's the point?

I've reframed these verses in terms of three diagnostic questions for spiritual health.

What do you long for?

What's your cornerstone, and to whom you belong?

And Peter's pretty clear about what ought to be the answer.

I'm quite certain our kids down in Sunday school could answer it.

What's the answer?

That's right.

Couldn't hear you.

Of course.

Of course, we ought to long for God.

Jesus ought to be our cornerstone.

Because of that, we belong to God and one another.

But why?

Who cares?

See three quick reasons in these last few verses.

Look at verses 9 to 12.

You're 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, now you are a people.

Once you had not received mercy, now you have.

The whole point first is to glorify God for God's sake.

Because we were once lost and now we've been found.

We were sinners, but we've been saved.

Once you had not received mercy.

That's verse 10, but now you have received mercy.

And so, verse 11, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

That's the second thing.

For the good of your soul.

For the good of your soul, for your own well-being, your own good.

Fight for a life that lines up with what God has done for you.

For the good of your soul.

Fight for a life that lines up with what God has done for you.

Not because you need to to keep God happy.

That's not the point.

You don't need to earn something here, but do it so that you're healthy.

And out of love for the one who's loved you.

Lastly, do it for the sake of others.

That's how love operates, for the sake of others.

Look at verse 12.

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

I don't know about you.

I believe.

And I really want to live a life abstaining from all evil.

The glory of God for my own good, for the sake of others.

A man I'm too frequently pulled.

That's why we need to stop and ask these questions.

God, what do I long for?

What's my cornerstone?

To whom do I belong?

Slow down long enough to wrestle with it.

And then by the grace of God, we change direction again.

We reorient our lives again.

This is why every single week when we gather, we confess our sins.

We do it at the beginning of the service.

Almighty God, we pray, would you purify our hearts?

We're gonna do it again in just a second.

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you.

We remember it again at the table.

When we were sinners, far from you, you came to us.

We know.

It's why we gather every week.

We know.

A Christian life is a life of constant repentance, turning back to him over and over and over.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has come and saved us.

And his spirit is constantly calling us back to him.

He always, always welcomes us home again with open arms until he comes again.

Will you stand and pray with me?

Gracious God, this morning I offer to you my longings, myself.

God, I need your help.

And so I pray, come, Holy Spirit, would you do this work in us?

Would you reveal in us our longings, our cornerstones, our relational allegiances, and would you reorient our hearts towards you?

Oh gracious God, we need your help.

So, Holy Spirit, come.

Would you fill us and turn us towards you?

That we might together be a people and long for you.

And it's through Jesus Christ that we pray.

Amen.