7 Precious Things

I just appreciate y'all tuning in tonight, and I know we're hungry for the word of God.

Let's get right into it tonight.

I was inspired.

First of all, our title tonight is Seven Precious Things.

Precious Things I don't normally use that word.

It reminds me, you know, sometimes it's looked down upon or overused.

But precious is something that is rare and valuable, and without price, even, and highly esteemed.

And so you know, we're supposed to meditate on things that are good and noble, and so tonight is just a meditation of things that are precious and good, so that the devil can never make you think that you are less than, that you have not enough or whatever.

We're going to just come against all those thoughts of insufficiency and just focus on the valuable things that we do have and that God has already given us.

And I'm inspired because, you know, my dad recently preached a message called the important things, which is close to this right, and he was inspired because the Buffalo Bills player, damar Hamlin, who had a heart attack on the field and literally died, and then how the nation was unified in praying for him.

And then, and now I read now today that he's been released to rehab.

So, praise God, he's making a full recovery.

Our prayer for him is that he will make a full recovery.

But just how something so trivial as a football game could turn into something so serious, and it really made the contrast of those two ideas made everyone really stop and evaluate things that are important.

So tonight we're going to talk about precious things.

I'm going to start with 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 2,.

2 Peter 1:2

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord, as his divine power has given us, to us all, things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which you have been given, which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises.

Everybody say precious promises.

These promises of God, this word of God that we read is so valuable and priceless, and I would contrast it with Psalm 119, verse 37 says Lord, turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way.

Psalms 119:37

Sometimes our eyes are diverted.

There's a distraction.

There's such a heavy spirit of distraction trying to pull away the saints in the last days, trying to make us look away from the glory of God, to make us look on things that are worthless, that are temporary, that are passing away.

That is a terrible spirit and it's really attacking us and we've got to focus on purpose, on things that are of true value and are precious.

So I want to first talk about just the precious promises that we just read about here in 2 Peter.

The word of God is so precious, you know.

So in each of these things tonight we're going to think about what does it really cost?

What did it cost?

What did the word of God cost?

And all of the writers of the word of God, the prophets who were killed for having written these words, these are precious to us, no-transcript.

And even just I'm going to tell you the story tonight of William Tyndale, because he was a pioneer and his story is so relevant today because we see that same spirit of Antichrist trying to squelch the word, trying to put out the word, trying to take away the great and precious promises that we have and take them away from us.

And William Tyndale was a 16th century scholar and he is the reason why about 90% of the King James Bible that we read came from.

They are his words.

He is the first person to translate the English Bible, the Greek Bible.

He took the Greek Bible and it was his life's work to translate it into common English so that every person, you and I, could actually read the Bible in our language.

And he said it's my desire, it's God's desire, that every person, every nation, tribe and tongue across the world would have a Bible in their language.

And so, but it cost him something, it was precious to him, it was his life's work.

Because who didn't like it?

The priests of the Holy Roman Empire, the leaders of the church of that day, because the church of that day, much like some of the church of this day, was corrupted, was turned against the true gospel, and they did not want the common people to be able to read the Bible.

They didn't want that.

And yet one time there was a famous story about William Tyndale and he was walking through a field and he came upon a priest.

He said he told that priest, that high and mighty priest who thought he was the only one who should be able to read the Bible and tell it to the people the way he thought, and they shouldn't be able to really know for themselves or read or understand it, because God wouldn't talk to the peasants, he would only talk to the important people.

And so William Tyndale said if God spares my life air many years past, I will cause a boy that drive at the plow shall know more of the scriptures than thou dost.

In other words, now the high and mighty will be accountable to the people, because everybody will have the same word of God.

And William Tyndale said you can be saved by grace through faith.

You don't have to pray to the saints, you don't have to believe in some of these side doctrines of the Catholic church that don't line up with this.

Now you can read it for yourself.

And the power of God was released.

But you know what?

William Tyndale was arrested.

He had to do much of his work in secret in hiding.

For nine years.

He had to be on the run in other countries and finally the Holy Roman Empire chased him down, arrested him and found him guilty of treason.

They strangled him.

They tied him to a stake with his Bible that he had carefully translated, and they strangled him.

And then they burned his body at that stake, and it cost him something.

And with his final words he said in a loud voice Lord, open the king of England's eyes.

And so with that, within about three years.

King Henry VIII had his Bible, had William Tyndale's Bible translated into English and began to release that to the people, and so his prayer was heard.

But I'm telling you what a cost A cost through the generation and he's just one man.

There are many, many, many great and brave saints who have put their lives on the line so that we could have the privilege of reading these promises that God wrote, that the Holy Spirit gave us, and they're precious and they'll cost you something.

They will cost you.

They're free, they don't cost any money.

They will cost you your obedience, your human pride.

They will cost you, and yet they are precious because they are so valuable and worth it.

They are worth everything you would give up to gain these promises.

God has poured them out on us.

Now let's talk about the precious blood of Jesus.

That's the second precious thing tonight, the precious blood of Jesus.

We're going to be heavily in the book of I and II Peter tonight, because Peter was the person who used the word precious more than anybody else in the Bible by a mile, and you'll see that.

But in I Peter 1.19, let's just turn there.

Well, I was just there.

It says let's get verse 17, if you call on the Father.

And if you call on the Father without partiality who, without partiality, judges according to each one's work conduct yourselves throughout this time of your stay here Like we're just passing through the earth.

Right, we are not here to stay, we're just like staying in a hotel.

We're sojourners, we're pilgrims, we're passing through briefly here on this earth.

And he said do that here with an attitude of fear of God, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct.

Received them by the tradition of your fathers and in other words Peter's talking to Jewish people here.

So the law was passed down to them and they had all of these traditions and things that were extra and sidelined from the word of God.

And he said you know you've been redeemed out of that, but you weren't.

It didn't happen by gold and silver, it happened by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.

That blood of Jesus is so precious.

There was one man in all of human history who was all God and all man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, whose blood alone contained the DNA of Adam and the DNA of God himself.

For that one man to give his blood as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, to not only cover our sins but to wipe them out completely, to obliterate them and throw them in the sea of forgetfulness.

That is precious blood.

It is highly to be esteemed.

It is beyond all cost.

It cost Jesus something and it didn't cost us anything because he gave it freely on our behalf.

It only costs our willingness to make him our Lord.

It is precious blood of Jesus.

If we have been redeemed by that blood, if he paid that price for you and I, what are we now worth?

What are you worth to him that he was willing to do that for you?

I want to remind you tonight never, never devalue the gift of God on your life.

Never, never devalue.

Do not let yourself be devalued because of any sin of your past.

You can have that completely obliterated still by the blood of Jesus.

You can confess your sin and he's faithful and just to forgive it and cleanse you.

But he doesn't want us to be degraded or debased by the things of this world.

In the Old Testament book of Lamentations, the word lament means to mourn.

The Jews had a tradition of mourning.

When someone would die or when something bad would happen.

They would sit on the ground.

They would wear the itchiest, most terrible cloth known to man's sack cloth, which I think is like burlap, where you would put a bunch of potatoes in a potato sack.

They would wear that itchy clothing and they would throw dust on their heads and they would rock back and forth and they would mourn and weep for the loss that it was so.

Lamentations is not a happy book.

It's not a happy book.

But so I'm here to give you a contrast.

Tonight we have these precious blood of Jesus.

He's bought us and paid for us, and here we're.

And he loved the people.

He loved the people of Israel.

He had a covenant with them and it cost him something.

And so in Lamentations 4-2, he's lamenting here the precious sons of Zion.

Here it says the precious sons of Zion, valuable as fine gold, but how they are regarded as clay pots, the work of the hands of the potter.

In other words, they were so debased in the because of their idolatry, because they had stepped away from God, because they had chosen any other path besides God's perfect will for them.

They had debased themselves, they had devalued themselves, and that was a lament that was worth putting dust on your head over.

And so, man, don't.

We don't want God to have to put dust on his head when he thinks about us.

He has paid such a high price for us.

We want to live and walk worthy into all pleasing from him, because the blood of Jesus is so precious and we value it so much.

So we have precious promises.

Number two we have precious blood of Jesus.

And then and there's another word, this is curious, I could not skip this Y'all.

I couldn't skip it.

I was tempted to skip it because I'm not sure I live up to this.

But, ladies, I want to again make this comparison.

A lot of men preach up here in this pulpit, but they might not be able to say this.

To the same way, a woman can say this.

But there is something else that Peter calls precious, and you have to turn to 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 4.

1 Peter 3:4

It said well, let's start in verse 1.

Wives likewise, be submissive to your own husbands.

And so this is the context you know that your chaste conduct will win him, even if he's not a believer.

And then it says, verse 3, do not take your adornment merely.

Do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair and wearing gold or putting on fine apparel.

Rather, let it be of the hidden person, of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God.

Precious in the sight of God.

So there's a precious thing when there is a wife who is fully submitted to her husband, in a gentle way, in a quiet way, not that she does not have a will, not that she does not exert the influence for good that she has.

She should always do that, but she should be fully submitted and meek before her husband, and that is an inner.

It talks about the hidden person of the heart, and so I remember.

So this weekend I took my daughter to the museum.

That's what she wanted to.

She wanted to go to the museum.

So we went to the Museum of Natural Science, used to Museum of Natural Science, and in the entryway there, between the main entrance and the parking garage, there's another entrance and you may have noticed there if you've been there, there is a giant geode, it's an amethyst, it's a giant rock that is hollow on the inside and on the outside it looks like a normal rock and on the inside and it's probably like the, the specimen they have on display.

There is probably about the size of a smart car.

It is so huge you could climb inside of this.

But inside of this hollow rock are all of these beautiful purple amethyst crystals sparkling in their.

It's just, they're perfect and they're resplendent.

And so I want you to, lee, will you show the outside of the rock first?

I want people to see this.

So how many times do people?

Probably, if you pass by a rock like that, you would say, hmm, there's nothing special at that rock, I'm gonna leave that, I'm just gonna leave that there and um, and I'm going to leave that alone.

And it reminded me of 1 Samuel where God said of David you know, he told Samuel the prophet, man looks on the outside.

And that's true, man does look on the outside.

So I don't want to really look like that rock on the outside.

If I look like that rock, I'm going to take a little bit of care to polish myself up.

I am going to put on a little jewelry, I am going to make myself a little bit nicer, but on the inside is where I need to care the most.

And, lee, can you flip that back to where the inside of that rock looks like this.

And that's the way our heart.

I mean we're focused on beautifying with the word, beautifying with the spirit, the things that are on the inside of us, with eternal truth from God, by living the word, by doing the word.

That is where our focus is primarily.

And it's not wrong to do the other things on the outside to put a little rock polish on, it's not wrong.

It's just not our main focus.

Our main focus should be doing the word.

And then you say well, claire, I'm not a woman, I'm a man.

You know, I don't need to listen to that.

I'm, yes, you do, because we're all the bride of Christ, right?

And so all these wife scriptures, these submissive wife scriptures, now apply to the entire church.

Man we want to be, we want to be focused on what's inside, what's eternal, and we want to be completely submitted to God, gentle before Him, malleable and soft and gentle and quiet before Him, but speaking up and standing up for His truth in the world.

Amen.

And so that is an analogy that came to me when I was, when I read that scripture.

God looks at the heart and then.

So that's number three, the, the.

There's something precious about an incorruptible inner beauty of a submissive wife.

Okay, and we're all working on that.

Right, james, I'm working on it, I'm getting better and better.

Number four the fourth precious thing mentioned a lot in the Bible the precious oil of unity.

It's actually mentioned one time, but we're going to.

We're going to go there to Psalm 133.

Some of you can quote it Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

It is like the oil on the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edges of his garments.

And then later it says there that the Lord has commanded the blessing.

He's commanded the blessing over unity, and that is precious to God.

It's like the precious oil.

The precious oil, the.

What does oil remind you of?

When you hear about oil in the Bible?

It is always a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

It is always a symbol of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, because the Aaron was a priest.

Who's the beard of Aaron?

Why do I care about his garments and his beard and the oil on his head?

Why do I care about this?

Because Aaron was a priest.

He is a type and shadow of you.

You are a holy priesthood and today you are God's priest and his representative on the earth.

And why are we anointed?

Because Jesus, the head of the church, is anointed with oil on his head and it flows down his beard and it gets all over his body and we are the body of Christ.

We're anointed with the same Holy Spirit that Jesus himself had and it is flowing down all over us and it brings unity to the body of Christ.

You know, one of the coolest things I love no matter where you go in the world, if somebody loves Jesus, they are your brother and your sister and there is a palpable feeling that we share.

I am more a brother and sister of my Christian believers in the Philippines than I am of the next door neighbor that hates God.

It doesn't matter where in the world they live, but there's a unity because they've all been anointed by the Holy One and we have unity of the Spirit.

And we may not have unity of culture, our language might be different, but we have a unity of the Spirit.

And what is that unity centered on?

It is, and how do we?

What does it cost us?

So, when all of these things are precious?

Because it costs something, it costs.

It costs something.

It costs something, to be unified with the whole body of Christ, and it will not cost you money, but it will cost you your human pride, and it will.

Here's one thing it will never cost you.

It will not cost you the truth, because we have to unify based on truth.

If the Holy Spirit is anointing us and he is unifying us, who is also called the Holy Spirit is also called the spirit of truth, the Spirit of truth, and he's anointing these believers over there and the believers over there and the believers over here, and we're all anointed with the spirit of truth, then we will be, we believe.

Therefore, we spoke, we will be speaking the same thing, we will be, we will be doing, we will be in lockstep, together doing, pulling the same load, working in the same direction, building the kingdom of God together, because the oil of unity is comes from the Holy Spirit.

Amen, and that's our human pride, but it's precious and it's worth it.

All right, all right, okay.

Now we're going to go back to Peter for the duration.

No well, okay, mostly, but first let's just go straight to 1, peter, chapter 2.

Now, and we're going to talk about the precious cornerstone, we're at number five.

There's only two more after this, the number five the precious cornerstone.

Jesus is the precious cornerstone and let's read the context of that.

It says we should come to him, verse four, as to a living stone, rejected, indeed, by men, but chosen by God and precious.

So, in other words, here's Peter.

Again, he's talking to a group of Jewish believers, but they are used to embracing tradition.

They are used to embracing their beautiful temple that they heard about.

Well, no, it's still there, actually, at this point.

Their temple is still there.

Their temple is beautiful.

It is the envy of the whole earth.

It is.

There are things inlaid with gold.

It is just the most impressive structure, and just looking at it inspires people to think about the glory of God.

And Peter's asking them to lay aside that earthly temple and he's saying I want you to follow Jesus Christ, and we've got a better temple than that.

He's no longer in that temple.

Now he's.

He is Christ the cornerstone, he is the living temple of God, he is the cornerstone of it, and he's building all of you people as bricks in this living temple.

And so I'm asking you to give up something that you had before for something way better.

And now and we don't have a bunch of priests.

Like you know, you've seen the priesthood, you've grown up with all of this entire system of priesthood in Judaism.

And now Peter is asking them to say hey, now you're the priests, now everyone who believes in the Lord, jesus Christ, is a priest.

And your offerings, sacrifices.

They don't look like bulls and goats, but they're still acceptable to God.

And behold, I legans, I am a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes in him will by no means be put to shame.

Don't be proud of your temple Now, be proud of the temple God is building and you will not be put to shame.

And then it says, therefore, to you who believe that precious cornerstone he is precious.

But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, a stone, a stumbling and a rock of offense.

They're going to trip on him bad, but if you will believe on him, he'll be precious to you, you'll value him, you'll put him in the very corner where everybody walking by will see him and you will be so proud to build everything and align it on this side and align it on that side with the cornerstone, to be sure everything aligns with that thing that you value and treasure the most in his Jesus, the precious cornerstone.

The world rejects him, the world still rejects him, the world doesn't see his value, but God looks, he has a different way of evaluating and we're going to have his mindset when we evaluate and we're going to love and value Jesus and his people.

So that's Jesus, the precious cornerstone.

Okay, number six precious thing is in 2 Peter 1, 1.

So actually we're going to turn forward a little bit and it talks about in Peter says he's talking to those who obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of God and our Savior and our of our God and Savior, jesus Christ.

So, in other words, like precious faith is number six.

Like precious faith when we have our faith and when my faith and your faith and our agreement this is tied into the unity we just talked about then there's something powerful, there's something precious and rare.

When we have agreement, we have it, our faith is precious, it.

It costs you something, it costs me something and we share it together.

And and what will it cost?

What will your faith really cost you?

If you really live it out?

It'll change what you say, because I believe.

Therefore, I spoke, the Bible said so.

It's gonna change everything that you say, what you believe, your faith, what you really believe, will come out of your mouth, and so if what's coming out of your mouth doesn't line up with this, then you need to adjust your faith on the inside.

That's that you got to put more of this in there, and then, more of this that goes in there, the stronger your faith will be, the More it will come out of your mouth, and so so.

So faith comes out of your mouth, and Then your faith also is in your actions, because James says faith without works is dead, though, in other words, if you have faith, it's gonna also show in what you do.

Your actions will show your faith.

You'll want to obey the word of God, you'll want to do things that align your life to what his promises have said we could have, and so your your precious, your faith is precious, and and in first Peter 1, 6 is I like this.

It says in this you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while, if need be, you have Been grieved by various trials.

I Mean you know, living our faith does cost us something, and it's usually just persecution from other people around us, and we have to be willing to bear that, because why that?

The genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, maybe found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ?

So your faith is gonna be tested.

We know that in every generation, in every believer, there is no great faith without a great test.

It will be tested.

So don't be, don't be surprised.

Think it not strange, brother.

And concerning this fiery trial, it says but just just know that that's coming, but you can rest.

That that's what faith is.

Faith knows down on the inside that when you come through on the other side, it's gonna work out for your good.

Romans 828.

All things work together for good to those who love God or called according to his purpose.

So your fletcher faith Come out in your words and are in your actions.

It's a precious faith and it will cost you something, but it's worth it.

It is worth it for all of eternity.

The things that we're living right now are so short and Eternity is so long, and our faith is so precious and valuable.

It cannot even be stated in words.

And Then finally, number seven the seventh precious thing is the precious fruit of the earth, and I found that in James, chapter 5, verse 7, all these other things.

James 5:7

There are things that we have, that God's given us, that we can have and we can have.

But the precious fruit of the earth belongs to God and, and, and he wants us focused on things that are precious to him.

And so in James 5, 7, it says therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer, and God's the farmer, see how he waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain, though God is a really good farmer, and what is he growing here?

What is his main crop?

Souls for the kingdom of God.

People.

People are the reason he sent Jesus to the earth.

People are the reason he sent Jesus to the cross.

People, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

People are the heartbeat of God.

People are the apple of his eye, even when they were yet sinners.

If Ephesians 2, christ died for them, he died for us when we were yet sinners, so that we are the precious fruit of the earth.

You and I, we've already been reaped.

Praise God, we're in the barn, but there are a lot there's.

Look under the field.

Jesus said they're white with harvest.

There is precious fruit of the earth still remaining and God wants us to value it, to treasure it.

It's precious to him and so it should be precious to us.

So those are the seven precious things we that we meditated on tonight, don't you, aren't you?

Don't you feel more?

Do you just feel richer now because you have these valuable things that you're supposed to be?

Seven precious things?

And then they make the things of this world look so worthless in comparison.

And that is the whole idea of what we want to meditate in our mind on things that are precious and valuable and awesome.

And and then and then it's easier to take all these little potshots.

In closing, I heard a Leadership Seminar person one time not a believer yet, though he's been prayed for many times, but he did have some wisdom.

He he said you know, if your life is like a jar and you've got, you've got a whole bunch of rocks, you want to fit in this jar and then you've got a whole bunch of sand, you know, the rocks are the big things of your life that really matter and the sand is the worthless stuff that you know can just go anywhere.

If you put all the sand in your jar first and Then you try to oh wait, I forgot to put in my big rock over here.

I put out.

I forgot to read my Bible.

I've got to do this important thing.

I forgot to spend time with my kids today.

I just oh, I've been been playing Candy Crush on my phone or whatever.

If you did all the sand first and you filled up your time with sand, now you don't have room for the rocks in your jar jars full of sand and so what you got to do is you got to put your rocks in one rocket at a time and then, if you pour your sand on top of the rocks, the sand can fit in there, you can have some Sand, you can enjoy life a little bit, a lot, and the effect is more enjoyable to and to have value in your life than it is to have a jar full of sand.

Amen, I