1 Peter: Blessed Assurance (His Timeless Church)

All right.

Well, if you look around this morning, you will see a lot of blue shirts.

And so, what this is, this is a serve team here at Real Life Church.

A couple of weeks ago, we actually came together as one big church and we served our community.

And so we're going to talk more about that, but just to kind of give you an idea of some of the things that went on over that entire week from Monday all the way to Saturday of us serving.

Check out this video.

And so what I would like to do really quick, just to celebrate some of the things that went on through this past week, is really kind of show you what we did, not just through pictures, but you're talking to the administrative pastors.

So you get stats today.

One of those stats is we had 103 people join to make a difference.

That means 103 of us came together to serve the community, which meant we got to serve 16 nursing home residents.

They got to love, be loved on through that entire time.

I don't know if you guys saw the video, but one of my favorites is where we actually got to sit and pray with those residents.

And there was our student life, they actually go to that nursing home frequently.

And so one of the things that they've been asking, hey, can we get more people to come?

That's one of the nursing home residents.

And I wasn't there for this serve, but what I got to hear from the feedback is when everybody walked into serve, their eyes just lit up.

They were so thankful that we were there.

We got to serve the brass community here with 20 women and 15 children.

They were fed and they received gifts.

We had over$1,000 worth of donations made to Serve Week.

That includes both monetary and actual physical things.

We had 63 college students fed.

I was there for that one.

That was an absolute blast.

Where our uh our empty nesters group got to go to CSF here at Western and they got to feed them.

We have 40 blessing bags for the homeless made, which all this means 242 lives were impacted.

Absolutely.

That's something to worship.

So so thank you guys.

Thank you so much.

That 242, that's all these people, plus the ones who served.

When we get to give back and we get to serve, there's a blessing that comes along with that.

Sometimes we get to seat on this side of heaven.

Sometimes it's just the Holy Spirit gets to work through us and we get to be used as that vessel.

So thank you guys.

Now, if you did not get to participate for whatever reason, that's okay.

You can get a shirt next year because next year we already have it on the books to do a full week of serve again.

And so be on the lookout for that next year.

So be sure if you want a free t-shirt, you want to serve the community together, let's get after it, okay?

But if you will, go ahead and turn in your Bibles.

We're gonna be back in the book of First Peter this morning as we jump into God's word.

And so if you've been with us, we have been talking about this blessed assurance that we have in Jesus Christ.

And so to kind of give reorient everybody of where we have been over the past several weeks, I want to give some reminders of some context, because context in the Bible matters.

And so we're gonna be in 1 Peter, we're gonna be in chapter two.

Some context here, some things to remember.

This book is written to, or it's a letter, it's written to a people, not a singular person.

So this matters because the word of God cannot mean for us what it did not mean for the original recipients.

And so we have to remember who was this written to?

Well, it was written to a people, not a singular person.

The emperor at the time is a guy named Nero.

He is not known to be a nice fellow.

He is not known to take the throne by by normal means.

He actually, it's it's rumored and legend has it that he actually murdered his his mother and his brother to just be sure that he got the throne.

He is not a fan of Christians either.

Uh, and so at this point in time, to kind of give some some reference, the church at this time is more of a nuisance.

We're not necessarily changing a lot of things, we're more of an annoyance, which is actually a great relation to where we are in America today.

And then what type of literature are we reading with this book of the Bible?

So this m this matters here.

This is called a didactic literature, which simply means instruction, education, or moral guidance.

So what's important for us to remember, some books are poetic, some are apocalyptic.

There's all different types of genres out there.

Didactic is the fancy word of saying, instruction, education, and moral guidance.

So we can look at this book and think, okay, this is a we can take these principles and actually apply them literally to our life.

That matters for where we're going.

So let's get into God's word here.

First Peter chapter 2, verse 1 says, So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, and yearn like newborn infants for pure spiritual milk, so that it by you may you may grow up to salvation.

1 Peter 2:1

If you have experienced the Lord's kindness, so as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but chosen and priceless in God's sight, you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, and to offer spiritual sacrifice that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it says in Scripture, look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.

So you who believe see his value.

But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stumbling stone, and a rock to trip over.

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 of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who has uh called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

You once were not a people, but now you are God's people.

You were shown no mercy, but you have received no mercy.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, thank you.

Thank you for this day.

Thank you for some time to enter into your house and simply worship you.

Lord, we thank you for the time that we have been able to get in the fight and get in spiritual warfare through worshiping your name and song.

And now, God, use us.

Speak to us through your word.

We trust you in all things that you're doing, in all ways that you're moving.

We thank you for your word.

We thank you that you love us enough to now leave us where we're at.

God, we we trust you in this place.

We acknowledge your spirit.

Now, Lord, we listen to you in your holy name.

Amen and amen.

So if I had to take this passage, these 10 verses, which I could easily take, just these first three verses and sit in those.

But for the sake of time and to not spend two years like we did in Matthew and not spend that in 1 Peter, or we're gonna take this and we're gonna look at the blessed assurance for his timeless church.

The blessed assurance for his timeless church.

Now, I want to, before we jump into all the points and all the subpoints, I want to define church really quick.

The church here is not an organization, it's not a building, it's a people.

And so when we're we're looking at the word church as we're unpacking this, I want you to remember, hey, we're talking about the overall church, the big sea church, us as God's chosen people.

It actually puts dispensationalists to shame when we actually look at that.

So so we are the the covenant, uh, the covenant promise that God made all the way back to Abraham is still being carried out to us today, and that's the church that we get to see today.

And so we see very clearly some things actually happening inside the church, and what what Peter, through through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is calling the church into.

So let's look at this.

Let's start in verse one.

I want to just slowly unpack each of these verses.

Verse one says, So get rid of all evil behavior, be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.

Now remember, this is being written to the church, a people, not a singular person.

But we can take these principles that Peter's talking about and sending to the church, and we can apply them to our lives.

So very clearly he says, So get rid of all evil behavior.

Stop sinning.

Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.

That's amazing that the word of God just simply tells us exactly what to do.

It's a lot harder to do sometimes, right?

It's easy to know, but it's sometimes harder to put in practice.

Let's keep reading.

Verse 2 says, like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into full experience of salvation.

Now, this full spiritual milk that the word of God's talking about is his word.

And so when I heard that, I initially just thought, okay, I've heard of spiritual milk before, but where have I heard that?

Well, in Hebrews chapter 5, it says, this is starting in verse 11.

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

It says, There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to uh explain.

Whoop.

I don't know what just happened there.

I'll fix that.

It's okay.

Because this stuff matters.

Here we go, we back.

Hey, we're back.

Okay, good deal.

It says, You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.

Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word.

You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.

Now, when I first heard this, it actually kind of sounded like uh we're we're we got a little bit of a contradiction here, because first Peter's telling us to be on the spiritual milk, but then the writer of Hebrews is telling us to be beyond the spiritual milk and now eating meat.

So, so does this mean there's a contradiction?

No.

We always want to use the word of God to interpret and understand God's word.

And so there's actually this process of maturation happening.

So let's look at this.

The first thing we see of the timeless church is that it actually matures.

The church, the people, we mature.

And so, what does maturation look like?

Well, maturation often starts with this a little baby.

For the record, you're about to see the five most beautiful human beings to ever walk the earth, okay?

This is slightly, slightly subjective.

All right, this is our uh mine and Katie's baby girl named Charlie.

Uh, this is when she was first born.

It's such a pretty sight.

So, us as believers, when we become new believers, we start out as babies, and and here's what happens we start getting fed.

We we we are taking a bottle, it's it's spiritual milk, and so as we're taking in the spiritual milk, here's what happens.

We get surprised.

Like, oh my goodness, this is awesome.

But then there's a not so awesome part because what happens is we start realizing what we're doing is inappropriate.

This is actually down in Nashville, these are three of our oldest kids.

We have five kids, and this is our three oldest.

And there's this little Matt here.

Who here remembers whoopie cushions?

Yeah, so what's happening?

Whenever they jump on this thing that says whoopee, it makes a fart sound.

Uh, they thought it was hilarious, slightly inappropriate.

But when we start reading God's word, we start seeing, oh, we're doing some inappropriate things.

But then we think, I know better.

Like, I don't know about that.

Since Charlie at two years old, she still has that face today.

Hey, but we don't know.

Like, no, no, I know better than what God's word says.

So I can start living it out.

And then when we start living out what we say instead of God's word, we start thinking this.

We realize we're a train wreck.

We don't know anything.

And so what happens?

We start getting back in God's word and we start saying, okay, well, I'm gonna do as you have called.

And so therefore, we start looking a little more like this, like just happy to be here.

Yes, this is amazing.

Again, that's Charlie, she's the expressive one of the family.

And then when we have that joy that's gone by the the Bible, we start to realize I know nothing and I'm just happy to be here.

Right?

That's it's our true middle child posture right there with a bucket on his head.

Just happy to be there.

Happy to be a part of it.

And then when we start really listening to God's word, we start looking a little more like this, where we just got it all together.

Like we we got our rain jacket on a rainy day, we got our sippy cup, we got our baby doll.

We're ready to rock and roll.

We start looking a little more like, okay, we got it, got it put together.

And then about that time, we start thinking a little more like this like I'm ready to get in the fight.

That's what we're doing.

As Christians, as we mature, we don't just sit where we are, we continue to mature, and then we get in the fight.

We we don't just stand back.

But but what we realize when we start fighting, we realize we need a team.

We need a team to start building our blocks and getting in the fight together.

That's what it looks like.

And then when we start looking at that, well, we start putting people around us.

I don't know about you, but people are very people y.

We have differences of opinions, we have different ways of doing things.

But when we start getting in the fight and we start walking a little more like this, where there's unity, yeah, all where there's unity, when we start putting away all evil, we start putting away deceit, putting away hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.

When we start doing that, though we may have different ways of doing things, we can fight the enemy.

You know why?

Because we are the church that God built.

It's not about us, it's about Him.

But we have to mature.

We don't get to stay where we just accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and then sit back and coast.

There's actually biblically, I can't find anything that would uh back that up.

Rather, the alternative where God tells us to continue growing, to continue maturing, that's what we're called to do.

And so we get to see that the church matures.

Us as a people, we mature.

Who here was anybody here the first like two years of RLC's existence?

Anybody?

We have a couple.

I know I see a couple others around here.

Yeah, Ellie, you don't count.

You're you're a you're a pastor's kid, right?

But if if you saw RLC the way it was the first 12 years in existence to where it is today, guess what?

We matured.

One thing I love about RLC, we exist to make disciples.

We do that by knowing God, growing in freedom, and sharing Christ with everyone.

Well, there's a key in there.

Everyone.

If you look around this room, this is one thing I absolutely love about RLC, and I raved on it even when I wasn't here.

That if you look around this room, there's different cultures, there's different demographics, there's different walks of life.

We are all over the place, there's different religious backgrounds.

We are a melting pot because we share Christ with everyone, not a specific group, not a specific people.

That's why we exist.

But but as we continue to grow, we mature and we start maturing together.

Because here's what's great.

When we have all these different backgrounds and all these different walks of life, we start to understand life in a different way.

We can start seeing life through a different lens.

There's been a big uh phrase in my head lately of everybody is the way they are for a reason.

Right?

If you haven't heard it around here, everybody has a private battle that nobody else knows about.

But God.

God can fix that.

He can walk with you through that battle.

And then he also puts people in place to walk with us through those.

We mature together.

Let's keep digging in.

Uh, starting in verse 3, it says, Now that you have tasted the Lord's goodness, you are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple.

He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.

What's more, you are his holy priest.

Through the meditation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.

As the scriptures say, I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.

Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him.

But for those who reject him, the stone that the builders rejected and now become the cornerstone.

And he is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock who makes people fall.

We get to see very quickly that as long as Christ is the foundation, his church will always exist.

And you can even add, thrive.

As long as Christ is the cornerstone, he will continue to reign.

So what's a cornerstone?

We hear we hear that sometimes.

And if you've been around church and you've heard this message unpacked and this passage unpacked, you've probably heard a little bit about what a cornerstone is.

Well, I actually have a couple of buddies who do construction, and I ask them, hey, what's the point of the cornerstone?

Like, what why why does God's word actually talk about that?

He's like, well, it's very practical because the cornerstone is the very first piece of foundation that you actually lay, and everything's going to be built on.

And so if you don't have the proper cornerstone, the foundation can crumble.

Oh, so you're telling me that God's word actually is taking a very normal, practical thing that even back in historical times would make sense and it applies today.

He's like, yes, exactly.

God's word's amazing like that.

And so when Christ becomes the cornerstone, that foundation cannot be broken.

Now, now here's my question: is why is Christ the cornerstone?

Well, many, many, many years ago, there was this man who walked the earth.

His name's Jesus Christ.

Jesus of Nazareth is what he would be more known for.

He lived a completely perfect life, and he began a ministry around 30 years old.

And he spent about three years walking through and telling people who he is, that he is the savior of the world.

He's God's Son, He's perfectly sinless, and He has come to save the world.

And then about the end of that three years, the leaders of the time of the Jewish nation, they did not like Jesus because of what he is saying they would actually call blasphemous.

Could have even been some some uh selfish desires in there.

And so what they do is they they plot to kill him.

So what happens?

Well, they they catch Jesus in a garden.

And you have this guy named Peter, which is actually the writer of this letter.

He is a terrible swordsman because he tries to actually, I think he's trying to stab the guy.

Instead, he cuts off his ears.

Like, dude, how bad of a swordsman are you?

Like, don't put him next to me in the fight.

And Jesus heals this guy who's here to to capture him and and to arrest him and then to kill him.

Jesus knows all this.

And so Jesus then, out of submission to God's will, he goes before uh the councils and before the emperor of the time, and and he he's found guilty in the eyes of the Jewish nation.

And so he then dies on a cross.

There's no there's no historical evidence that would actually show that he doesn't die because the Romans were very good at what they did in crucifixion.

There is zero room for error because not only does Jesus get nailed to a cross, put a crown of thorns on him, uh, but and his lungs are collapsing, he dies.

Not only that, just for safe measure, they take a spear, jab him in the side to puncture his heart.

Zero chance that Jesus doesn't die.

But if that's not good enough, they take him and they put him in a tomb and they roll this, roll this about two-ton cylindrical uh stone in front of the tomb.

Two tons.

And then there's some theories about how did Jesus actually raise to life?

Where did his body go?

Well, here's one of the theories that these jokers of the disciples who are, mind you, hiding in a room while all this is happening, they decide a couple of them decide, hey, we can move this two-ton stone, uh two-ton stone, flip up, there we go.

Two ton stone, whoo, two-ton stone out of the way, take Jesus' body and disappear.

But then the disciples are still around.

So that theory is trash.

Not only that, there is tons of guards around the tomb.

So these disciples, mind you, Peter cut a guy's ear off instead of stabbing him.

Not good with a sword.

In theory, you would have to say that the disciples were able to overcome the Roman soldiers that are sitting there at the tomb.

Well, that doesn't work either.

And then we hear of Jesus actually going to his place, uh headed to a place called Emmaus, and he meets these two guys.

Well, Emmaus is about seven-ish miles from the tomb.

So you're telling me very clearly that that Jesus, who punctured likely put to death, let's let's say, for sake of argument, he didn't die.

He moved a two-ton stone on his own, and then he took about a seven-mile jog down the road to start talking to these two guys about the Old Testament.

Rather, the truth being that Jesus Christ died on the cross, buried in a tomb, through the power, because he's both fully God and fully human, resurrects, raises himself to life, meaning overcoming death, won that battle, moved a stone out of the way, was able to walk and talk with his disciples, and then be seen, physically seen, by many other people.

What makes more sense?

Well, the latter, right?

Jesus conquers death for us.

That's why he gets to be the cornerstone.

That's why everything that we do in our lives, not necessarily in a church building, but in our lives, that's why he is the point.

He is the reason why we live.

The point of humanity is to give God glory, not the other way around.

Not for God to give glory to us, but for us to give glory to God.

That's the point of humanity.

That's why he gets to be the foundation.

We have to remember who's the point.

Who is the point of what we do?

Because because the reason our motive matters.

Our motive matters for serving people to go out into the community.

Our our goal, yes, we want to serve those people, absolutely, and for the goodness from our hearts.

But without Christ, what good does that even matter?

We're talking about eternity.

We're not talking about right here, right now.

If our if our purpose of humanity is to simply live among the earth, walk among the earth, make life better for the next generation.

I'm gonna tell you, I don't get the point.

But something that's meant for more, meant to bring others and get to walk with others into eternity.

That's the purpose of the church.

That's why he has to be the foundation, because if he is the foundation, nothing can overcome his church.

We've been around since the beginning of time.

Starting with the the Jewish nation.

And then after the Jewish nation comes on, because Jesus steps on into the scene and he fulfills all the law, we actually, as the church, Jews and Gentiles, because I'm not Jewish nation, I'm not of Jewish descent descent, but as a Gentile, because of Christ, we can walk in harmony with him.

And then we get to step into that for the rest of history.

If he's the point.

What happens if he's not the point?

Well, the foundation crumbles.

You look at all of cultural existence, what's happened through time historically, and we see if if Christ is not the the the center of it, it eventually crumbles.

The rise and roll of the Roman Empire great example.

Easily throughout history, the most powerful uh empire to walk the world.

You can maybe give an argument to the Mongolians, maybe.

But the Romans had a longer time span.

And so this great, great nation crumbles.

Can I tell you?

United States of America.

We're still in diapers compared to the Roman Empire.

Right?

Does that make sense?

We're we we're we're we are not nearly close to how long that the Roman Empire reigned.

We take Christ out of it.

What's happening?

We're starting to see evidence of failures.

Right now, I don't I don't know if you know this.

President Trump just talked about sending off uh uh troops over to Portland, and then there's conflict in there.

Now, whether right or wrong, that's another conversation.

That's a political conversation we can talk out in the the parking lot.

But we can see that that it's starting to crumble.

We're starting to hurt because we've taken Christ out of the center of it.

Now, if you know me, you know I'm not not big on politics.

Uh, you know, I I I get the point of politics, and I and I'm for I think Christians need to be in politics, okay?

But but here's my thing: what I am for, I'm for the Bible, less than politics.

And so when when politics start trying to pull in morality in the Bible, that's when I like to step in.

You want to talk the Second Amendment?

We can talk out in the parking lot.

That's not a biblical uh conversation.

You want to talk about the lives of unborn children?

That's a biblical conversation.

We'll talk about that all day.

Because he is the foundation.

What God has talked about, what God has set forth, that's the foundation on which we have to grow.

So we see that the church matures.

We see that that the Christ is the foundation.

And as long as he's the foundation, he the church will exist.

Now, now here's a very interesting thing that God's word actually points out.

Obedience combats stumbling.

Obedience combats stumbling.

In verse 8, it says, and he is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.

They stumble because they do not obey God's word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.

They stumble because they do not know God's word.

And so here's here's a very interesting thing to think about.

We uh firmly believe in reading the Bible.

Absolutely.

You hear it all the time.

If you need a Bible reading plan, if you need something to follow, text RLC Bible to 94,000.

You will get a text message every day about a chapter to read in the Bible.

And then we uh Pastor Brandon goes as far, I love this.

He has what's called the Bible breakdown.

It's a video essentially, or a podcast, if that's your jam, that it walks through, hey, what is happening in the Bible here.

But here's the thing Bible breakdown is not the end-all be-all.

That is not to take the place of you studying God's word.

And so, what I want to do really quick, we have two methods uh that we kind of use through through interpreting and understanding God's word.

The first one is the soap Bible reading plan, scripture, observation, application, and prayer.

And so, if you want more information on that, you can stop at the Welcome Center.

They have little pamphlets for it uh and explaining exactly what it is.

But what I want to do today, I want you to walk with you through some of the things that I'm learning, this big fancy word called hermeneutics.

Say hermeneutics.

Hermeneutics.

Hey, that was pretty good.

PB's done that one before, okay?

Hermeneutics, simply meaning interpreting and understanding God's word.

And so here's the acronym I want you to remember: A-O-I-M-A.

When looking at God's word, we walk through these steps to truly understand what God's word is saying, because God's word cannot mean for us what it did not mean for the original recipients.

So that means us as a church, we have to truly understand God's word.

We don't get to decide what God's word means.

God's word means what it is, and then application.

We take the application of what God's word's saying.

And so one of the phrases I can't stand, and I've said it.

Uh, it was taught to me when I was a kid is what does this verse mean to you?

That is garbage.

No, what does the word verse mean?

And then how do you apply that verse?

That's what we mean by that.

You don't get to decide.

So here's how we can work through hermeneutically interpreting God's word.

This is how we can actually walk through this.

The first step is to analyze.

Exactly what we did this morning.

The very first thing we did.

Hey, what's going on?

Who wrote the Bible wrote this book of the Bible?

What's going on in culture?

Who's the leader?

Why do all these things matter?

Because context matters.

When we take a scripture out of context, we we take that meaning of what it could mean.

And we throw it in the trash for a moment.

We set it on the shelf.

No, no, you got to know contextually what God's Word's saying.

And what's beautiful here in the United States of America, we have a standardized reading, meaning most everybody that is mentally capable has the ability to read.

We also have access to the internet.

So if you don't know what's happening in God's Word at this time, you can look at uh gotquestions.org.

You can look at Pastor Brandon's actual, he has a blog that he puts into uh some commentaries on.

You can look into actual commentaries, blue letter Bible.

Don't just put into Chat GPT, Chat GPT may lie to you, so be sure to do your own research.

But figure out what is God's word saying at this time.

The next thing we do is is we observe.

We we read God's word.

Okay, what is it that God's trying to say?

And so on this one, they stumble because they do not know God's word.

Well, how do you then know God's word?

You you observe.

Then you interpret what exactly is God's word saying?

So interpretation would be, okay, we we see that he's stumbling, that somebody's stumbling.

Well, what are they stumbling with?

Well, they're stumbling with sin.

Okay, then how do you combat stumbling with sin?

You know God's word.

You combat sin with God's word, just as Jesus did.

Jesus fights temptation.

He's in the desert for 40 days.

He's fasting.

And I don't know if you've ever fasted, I've uh fasted food for like three days, I think is the longest full food fast I've ever done.

I'm dying in three days.

Jesus is 40 days in.

I'd be delusional.

And so the the devil himself comes to then tempt Jesus in the desert.

And what does Jesus do?

He combats that temptation with God's word.

Well, better example.

We have to understand that.

And then meaning, what does God's word mean?

What is the principle that God's word is laying out here?

And then application, applying it to our lives.

That's where we hermeneutically understand the Bible.

And then you can take this and you can go soap.

You can journal about it.

You can write down a singular scripture that stood out to you in that passage, and then you can make an observation about it.

And then you can write out, hey, how does this apply to my life and how am I going to apply to that?

And then actually journal out a prayer to God.

There's science that shows when we actually write something down, physically write it, not type it, but physically write it, it gets into our memory more.

What are steps that we are taking to be able to understand God's word?

Because we're his time with church.

We're maturing.

Our foundation is Christ, and then we're also walking in obedience to keep from stumbling.

Now I want to be very clear here.

Obedience to keep from stumbling does not mean that you will not fight temptation.

You're gonna have to fight temptation.

There's a difference in being tempted and struggling with temptation than giving in to it.

There's a difference in celebrating sin and living in sin rather than struggling and stumbling in sin.

Because here's the thing, guys, we're all gonna sin.

Myself, Pastor Brandon, everybody in this room, you're going to sin.

But here's the great thing.

We have the grace of Jesus Christ that wipes that clean before God.

But we don't get to just continue living in that sin.

Paul actually tells us there's a passage that says, hey, so we then go to sinning on once more.

No, but because of the grace of God, we walk in freedom of that sin.

That's what we get to do.

But it's only by the grace of God.

So you're going to sin.

This is why we're we're a timeless church that has Christ as the foundation.

I will tell you right now, Pastor Brandon, I love that man.

He's one of my closest friends.

But he is going to fail me.

My bride, Katie, wherever she may be, I don't see her in here right now.

I love that woman, but she is going to fail me.

They cannot be the center.

They cannot be the foundation of which my faith is built on.

Rather, Christ has to be that faith.

He has to be that foundation.

Because when he is that foundation, when somebody fails, we can look at them and go, that stinks.

What can I do to help walk with them and bring them up?

But also, hey, I'm I'm steady.

COVID hit around 2019, 2020, around these parts.

And it looked a little different for each and every person.

But I know several people who quote unquote walked away from the faith during that time.

You know why?

Because their faith was built on a human or human institution rather than Christ.

Christ has to be that sinner.

He has to be that foundation.

And by Christ, we don't stumble anymore.

So here's here's the kind of closing portion of his time with church.

The church that carries on is God's chosen people.

And this is one of the most encouraging portions of the entire Bible to me.

Starting back in verse 9.

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people.

You are a royal priest, a holy nation, God's very own possession.

As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness and into his wonderful wonderful light.

Once you had no identity as a people, now you are God's people.

Once you received no mercy, mercy, now you have received God's mercy.

Guys, I don't know about you.

That is one of the most encouraging passages in all of the Bible to me.

Because we get to see that because of the promise that God made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis, we actually get to walk as his chosen people, his royal priesthood.

You realize he is talking to the whole church here.

He is not talking to a pastor, he is talking to the whole church.

Therefore, you are a royal priesthood.

What does a royal priesthood do?

They go out, they teach, they bring others to Christ, and they walk with people.

That's what we get to do.

We are a royal priesthood, a chosen nation.

Meaning we are chosen, he will never let us go.

Do we walk in that freedom?

Do we walk in the freedom knowing that, hey, no matter what conversation I'm gonna have, no matter what I'm dealing with in my life, but because I'm my identity is found in Christ, therefore I am his chosen people, he will never let me go.

Guys, I don't I don't know about you, but that's encouraging.

Because honesty, I'm a weak person.

One of my biggest uh fears that I have to f face in life is the fear of failure.

Meaning sometimes I won't do something because I'm afraid of failing at it.

I'm less worried about what somebody will think about me.

I'm more worried about am I going to succeed or fail?

Well, there's a couple of things wrong with that uh that view.

First of all, when I am looking at fear of failure and I'm allowing it to cripple me and make me stagnant, I am first of all not putting my identity in Christ because identity in Christ means that, hey, that fear may exist.

There that it does, fear exists, but actually, we don't have a spirit of fear, but rather we have a spirit of power, of courage, and confidence, and we can go forward and tell somebody about Christ.

We can go forward and stand with people and walk with them, even though we may get it wrong, because you know what the rate of success is?

The rate of success is a step in faithfulness.

It's one step and then another step, and then another step.

That's how we measure success.

Not rather somebody converted, or not because we put on an awesome worship set, or because we made a lot of money at work.

No.

It's that simple step of faithfulness.

As we we get ready to close, I want to close with just simply reading a psalm.

Psalm 3 is is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament.

And to give some context of what's happening, David's writing this song or a psalm, and while he's he's writing it, he's actually being hunted by one of his sons.

His name's Absalom.

And David, who who was was the the king of Israel and this great warrior, he goes into hiding from his son.

And here's what actually h this is what what David writes in Psalm chapter 3 says, Oh Lord, I have so many enemies, so many are against me, so many are saying, God will never rescue him.

Psalms 3 · chapter mention

But you, O Lord, are a shield around me.

You are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy mountain.

I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the Lord was watching over me.

I am not afraid of 10,000 enemies who surround me on every side.

Arise, O Lord, rescue me, my God, slap all my enemies in the face, shatter the teeth of the wicked.

Victory comes from you, O Lord.

May you bless your people.

I don't care what you're fighting, I don't care what you're walking through, the Lord is with you if you're his.

He never leaves us, he never separates us.

David, who's being hunted for his life, steps back and says, Slap them in the face, crush their teeth, because the victory is yours, O God.

Is that the posture that we take when we're in the fight?

At any given time, we're in a spiritual battle.

Right?

If I I said it uh several weeks ago that if you don't realize you're in a fight, you're probably losing that fight.

We're in a fight.

You know why I love worshiping in songs so much?

Because it's fighting back on the enemy.

You know what God's word actually says to men?

And I'm gonna talk to men for just a second.

Holy men, raise your hands in worship.

It has nothing to do with you.

We don't sing songs that we like, we sing songs that are worshipful to the king.

And so if you don't like that song, I love you and I love you enough to tell you I might not like it either.

But we ain't singing to you.

We're singing to Jesus.

We don't sing boyfriend Jesus songs around here.

We we sing songs that are worshipful to the king.

So, men, raise your hands because reality is where the men go, the family follow.

And you may disagree with that.

Talk outside.

I'd love to have a conversation with you.

Men, raise your hands and worship because our king is alive.

Like that's that's who we are, that's the foundation of who we are.

And so, therefore, no matter what feelings we're dealing with in the moment, no matter what we're struggling with in life, because of Christ, it is overcome.

That's what we get to live in.

So, here in just a minute, we're gonna sing another song.

And maybe your time of response, if you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, can I tell you that's your first step?

Your life will be a wreck until you do that.

But if you've accepted Christ as your King and as your Savior, as your Lord, worship.

Because we're pushing back darkness.

We crush evil when we worship.

There's nothing you can say or do to crush evil, but rather worship Christ.

That's the power that's inside of us.

So how are we living?

Maybe you need to lay down something.

And and is this technically an altar?

No, but but there's some pads on the side if your knees get hurt and they the concrete floor hurts.

I get it.

We live in America, we're used to comfort and convenience.

There's padding on the side if you need to grab one, come kneel before the Lord.

Maybe you just need to come kneel and lay it all down.

Maybe you need to go back to the prayer team.

There's a massive blue sign if you don't know where the prayer team is.

Go back there and they would love to walk with you and pray with you.

If you don't know Christ and you have questions or you want to walk through a prayer that's on the back of that worship of the connect card, you go back to that prayer stand and they would love and be honored to walk in prayer with you because we fight together, we don't fight by ourselves.

We are the church.

We are the church of today and we're the church of tomorrow, and we're gonna keep living because of Christ.

Let's pray.

Our Father, God, thank you.

Thank you for these people.

God, I pray if you will just continue to move, continue to speak.

Holy Spirit, I don't know what everybody is walking through in this moment.

But what I do know is you got us.

You'll walk with us, you'll never leave us.

And Lord, we worship you for that.

We give you all glory for that.

No matter what you do, no matter how hard things hurt, God, we worship you for who you are, not for what you do.

But we get the privilege to do the things.

God, use us, speak to us, and move through us.

And Lord, if there is somebody right now that is wrestling with you, Lord, I pray for that they will submit.

They'll submit to your word, they'll submit to your will.

Because God, we we see all through the Bible, we see all through history that your will is greater than our own.

Holy God, be with us.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

If you would all across the room, go ahead and stand to your feet.

And this is a time the altar's open, you can pray, you can go back to the prayer stand, you can pray from your seat.

But whatever you do, raise your hands and let's worship Christ today.