Chosen & Precious

Good morning Trinity, it's always a joy to be here with you

on Sunday morning. My daughter Isabel has joined us

for the early car ride and she's making the the long commitment

to Sunday school and 2nd service as well.

Maybe lunch afterwards, we'll see how she does bring you

greetings from my congregation, Grace Covenant in Bloomington.

I, I think this is the maybe the fifth time that I preached at

Trinity. So it's, it's good to recognize

many faces now as I come in. I, I also have a, another

connection that I, I hope will warm your hearts, which is that

I was recently in Cambodia where I got to spend some time both

with Katie Jacobson and also with Brennan and Becca

McCafferty. Becca is a daughter of this

congregation. So that was, that was a joy

during the Sunday school hour. I'll be sharing a little bit

about the work that I do with Training Leaders International.

And as part of that, I'll, I'll say some things about our time

in Cambodia. So stay tuned, but but not now.

For now, I'd like us to go to First Peter.

First Peter is a a book that is written to the church, to book

to the church, written by the apostle Peter, of course, and

written to a group of churches. These are named the very

beginning of the first chapter group of churches that are

located sort of in West Asia over around modern day Turkey,

something like that. And although he he writes to

believers who are in a very specific place and at a very

specific time. This is also a letter that is

written to the church more broadly, and indeed even to us.

For although these are churches in West Asia that he's writing

to, he is also addressing them specifically as what he calls

elect exiles. And then as we'll see in the

passage that we're going to read together, he calls them as well

sojourners and exiles. That is, those who are not at

home, those who are still looking for a home, waiting for

their home, as the author to Hebrews would say, those who are

looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, that's them.

That's us as well. And so while this is a specific

letter written to a specific church at a specific time, it's

also a book for all Christians, all of those who are living

between the times, who are looking for something more in

their lives, even as they, as Peter says, undergo various

trials in this age here and now. So let's hear from the Apostle

Peter. We're going to turn to chapter

2, and I'll read the first 12 verses Peter writes.

So put away all malice, and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy

and all slander, like newborn infants long for the pure

spiritual milk that buy it. You may grow up into salvation,

if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good as you come to

Him. A living stone rejected by men.

But in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves,

like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to

be a holy priesthood. Offer spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for it stands in

scripture. Behold, I am laying in Zion a

stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes

in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who

believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the

builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of

stumbling and a rock of offence. They stumble because they

disobey the Word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the

excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into his

marvelous light. Once you are not a people, but

now you are God's people. Once you have not received

mercy, but now you have received mercy well, that I urge you as

sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the

flesh which wage war against your souls.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when

they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good

deeds and glorify God. On the day of visitation, as

First Peter reminds us, the grass Withers, the flowers fade,

but the word of the Lord remains forever.

Let's ask God for His blessing, this word.

Amen. Father, we do pray that You

would shine the light of your Spirit upon us, that You would

give U.S. Open ears, that You would give

us fertile minds and hearts to be able to receive the Word that

you have given to us in first Peter.

Help us, Lord, to receive this living and imperishable seed,

and we pray that as You water it, it would burst forth into

new life in each one of our hearts as we are conformed to

the image of your Son. He sings, we pray in his name.

Amen. Sometimes I find that it's

helpful to begin a sermon by being a little bit

controversial, stirring up a little bit of discord and

dissent. I I find that people sit up a

little bit further in their seats, sometimes scooting

forward a little bit, paying a little bit closer attention.

And so in that spirit, I thought I'd begin today by mentioning

Tom Brady. Tom Brady doesn't stir up quite

the the controversy that he did a few years ago.

And that I think is actually on point.

Whatever you think of Tom Brady as an athlete or a person,

according to Wikipedia he is quote widely regarded as the

greatest quarterback of all time.

And so that settles the matter in 2005, after Brady and the

Patriots had won, if you don't care about National Football

League, that's OK. This is this is still going to

work. After he had won his his third

Super Bowl by the age of 27, remarkable.

He he sat down with Steve Croft, journalist for 60 minutes and he

recorded what is now a famous interview.

If you if you've never seen this or listened to it, you, you

might take the moment to do so. It's, it's, it's really

something in that interview. At one point, Croft asked Brady

to reflect upon the work that he put in and what he had

accomplished. And Brady, ever the word Smith,

responded in this way. In part.

I said, why do I have 3 Super Bowl rings and still think

there's something greater out there for me?

I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey, man, this is

what it's about. I reached my goal, my dream, my

life. And me.

I think, God, it's got to be more than this.

I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.

I mean, I've done it. I'm 27.

What else is there for me? Well, that's a really good

question. What else is there for me?

Well, for Tom Brady, how about 23 seasons in the NFL?

Not 3, but seven Super Bowl rings?

How about a supermodel for a wife?

But all these things come to an end.

Tom and Giselle broke up. She married a Brazilian jujitsu

instructor last year. Tom's not going to get any more

rings. That's it.

And while he had remarkable physical longevity on the field,

Tom Brady is on the the slow slope towards death and

obscurity. In a few years, he will be the

answer to a trivia question, not a matter of controversy.

In that interview, Brady said that one thing scared him.

One thing. Retirement, he said Seven months

of the year I'm on the field and I know what I'm for.

And then the offseason comes and I don't have a purpose anymore.

So retirement is like the offseason but without an end.

And that scared him because he had no purpose.

Now we know that's not true, right?

As Christians, we know that we we do have a purpose offseason

or on to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

But maybe sometimes when we are asking that question that why am

I here question, we're not so much asking the existential

question as we are asking the question, why am I here now?

What am I supposed to do now, here, in this place, at this

moment in my life? What we're really asking is what

we're supposed to be doing here, not here.

Maybe that's even what Tom Brady meant, given the benefit of the

doubt. What am I supposed to be doing

with these remarkable skills and gifts that I've been given?

What are they for right now? And ask this in a in a different

sort of way, we could, we could ask the question if, if God

loves you in Christ, God loves you in Christ, why doesn't he

just take you to heaven? What are you doing here?

Why doesn't God take you to heaven where Christ is?

Or better yet, why doesn't Christ come to earth instead of

us spending all this time seemingly spinning our wheels,

not knowing to do with, not knowing what to do with the

little that we have care so much?

Why has God left us as sojourners and exiles?

Well, today I want you to see two things from first, Peter.

I want you to see first of all, that he has left you in this

world because you are chosen and precious to him.

That's why he has left you in this world.

The second thing I want you to see is that God has left you in

this world so that you live and speak the transforming power of

the gospel to others. Those two things are really the

heart of what I'd like to say today.

The first word in our passage is.

So this means that this chapter builds upon what came before.

The word so indicates that what's coming next is a result

of what came before. So what came before?

Well, and first Peter chapter 1, Peter explains that Christians

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

have been chosen by God before the world's foundation, that

they are, as he says, elect exiles, chosen exiles living in

this world and in them the seed of the word of God.

The preaching of the gospel has taken root.

Didn't used to be the case, but then they heard the word of God

and that seed took root within them.

As a result, Peter tells us in verse 3 of chapter 1 they have

been born again. We think of that as a as a John

phrase, but it's actually a Peter phrase.

Just as much that hope, that hope that they have because of

the seed in them is that as their Savior lives, so will they

live, that they will one day join him for all of those who

are in Christ. Peter uses the language of a

building to describe this. He says as Jesus is the

cornerstone, so we are all built up with him like living stones

into a spiritual temple. All of those who are in him who

are connected to Jesus have hope that on account of Christ's

sacrifice, if we, if we trust in Him alone, if we rest ourselves

upon Him, that we will be justified, declared righteous

and acceptable to God, received into his fellowship.

But more than that, not just justified, but adopted, brought

into his family and made children of God.

And as children of God heirs as well, that we have a hope for

the future and inheritance that will be ours in the heavenly

places. And yet these rich blessings,

rich as they are, and yeah, we don't, we don't experience the

fullness of them right now, do we?

It's it's like Paul says that we we don't get them face to face

quite yet. Right now we get them.

King James Version calls it a glass.

Darkly right, a foggy mirror. We only experienced these in a

in a tenuated, limited sort of way.

Why? Well, because we're sojourners

and exiles, as 2/11 puts it. We're not home yet.

We're waiting. We have a future hope that

someday we will experience fuller, richer, deeper

fellowship with God. But according to Peter, as we

endure the time of our exile, we are in transition.

An important part of what this time is about, this time between

the times between our being born again and our receiving that

heavenly inheritance, a large part of what that time is about

is actually our becoming more like God.

Peter says that because he is holy, we should be holy.

I want you to. I want you to notice what that

means. Notice the logic that lies

behind that. It means that there is a gap

between who God says we are in Jesus and what we actually do on

a day-to-day basis. There's a gap between those two

things, who God says we are and what we actually do, how we

live. Peter says that we are a chosen

race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own children.

And yet the very Christians to whom Peter is writing struggle

with all kinds of sins. Look, in verse 1 of chapter 2,

he mentions the sins of malice, of deceit, of hypocrisy, of

envy, slander. These churches must been a must

been a mess with people like that in them.

You know what the 17th century Puritan preacher and author John

Owen said? Owen said be killing sin or sin

will be killing you right there. There's no middle ground,

there's no Armistice, there's no alliance with sin where you live

and let live. And Peter isn't pulling punches

either. He says if you are in Christ,

you need to get rid of those old habits and you need to put on

Christ more and more. So here we are at the beginning

of a new year, first Sunday in 2026.

This is a great day to commit yourself to putting off sin and

putting on Christ more and more. In a second letter, Peter will

encourage, exhort his readers quote to make every effort to

supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge

and knowledge with self-control and self-control with

steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness, godliness with

brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love.

That's what a church should look like.

That's what it looks like to be holy, because he is holy.

And I hope that we can all acknowledge every single one of

us in this room, that we are still growing up, that that gap

exists for us between what we are called to be like and what

we are actually like. We are still growing up.

We are still being built up into the salvation we've been given

in Christ. We are, as Peter says, like

newborn infants, and that means that there's a gap, a gap

between God, between what God says we are and what we do.

And I'm going to call this the sanctification gap.

So that's our language, the sanctification gap.

Do you know that word sanctification?

Sanctification is the process whereby the Spirit of God works

in the hearts and lives of the people of God in order to make

them more and more, bit by bit, slowly and progressively more

and more like Christ in every area of their lives.

That's the process of sanctification.

God sanctifies our minds so that we have a true biblical

understanding of who He is and who we are in relationship to

Him. He sanctifies our hearts so that

we learn to order our loves correctly, to love the right

things in the right way. He orders he, He sanctifies our

our tongues, our our hands, our feet, so that what we believe

rightly and what we love correctly issues forth in deeds

and in words, ultimately in love.

And all the sanctification happens downstream of the Word

of God, because we are born again by the living and abiding

Word of God. 123 says that we are made more and more like

Christ as we receive the spiritual milk of God's Word.

That's 22 in our passage today. And over time that

sanctification gap shrinks. It becomes smaller and smaller,

but in this life it never completely disappears.

We are always in the process of becoming holy as He is holy.

And I hope that you feel that in your life.

If you think that you have made it, you are deeply mistaken

about who you are. Even Tom Brady could see that as

much as he had accomplished, there was more.

He just didn't know what that more was.

We should always feel that distinction in the

sanctification gap. We should feel the process

working out in US. In other words, God says that he

has adopted us as his children. But even the best of us fail to

live up to our identity. We don't always conform to the

image of our elder brother, our chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

And and Peter's readers, perhaps us too, might sometimes draw a

false conclusion from this. We might make an error as we

reflect upon what this all means.

We might think, wow, God's love for me must be just a little bit

iffy, a little bit uncertain. Clearly, he's left me here to

prove that I'm worthy of being part of his family, of receiving

that heavenly inheritance that we talked about earlier.

And of course, sure as shooting that sort of thinking leads to

another area, it leads to an error that says God must be

disappointed in me. God sure must be disappointed in

me. Look at how often I fail to live

up to that high calling. Look at how much malice and

deceit and envy actually characterize my life instead of

brotherly affection and love. You must look down on me.

You must see an embarrassment because I don't measure up.

Christian, I want you to understand that the fact that

God has left you in this world is a sovereign or in exile.

It's not a sign that he's displeased with you.

It doesn't indicate any lack of love towards you.

It doesn't mean that you're embarrassing or shameful or

disgraceful. In fact, it's just the opposite.

If you are in Christ, then you are chosen.

You are precious to God. He loves you and He delights in

you just as much and to the same extent as He loves and delights

in His Son, Jesus Christ. God isn't ashamed of you.

He doesn't avoid you. He runs towards you like the

Father in the story of the prodigal son.

He wraps his arms around you. Listen to the promise of God.

Whoever believes in him, whoever believes in Christ will not be

put to shame. That's verse 6.

Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame, Dishonour,

shame, embarrassment. Those are qualities that

actually mark out those who deny their need for a saviour, who

say I've got everything under control, I don't need anything

more. Not from you, not from God, not

from anyone. I'm in control.

God isn't ashamed of you, Christian.

He's not waiting to see if you measure up.

You want to know why He hasn't taken you out of this sinful,

broken world? Why He hasn't completed that

process of sanctification in you yet?

It's because you are so precious to Him.

Because you are so precious to Him, He has actually honoured

you in a special way. He is making you His chosen

instrument to proclaim His excellencies, to bring glory to

His name to those around you. To those around you.

He's using you to bring glory to His name as those around you see

you. This isn't an honour that He

gives to any other creature. Only to you, Christian, does

this honour belong. Just as he called us out of

darkness, he calls us to call others out of darkness and into

the marvellous light of Christ. How do we do this?

How do we fulfill this, this amazing honor?

How do we, how do we participate in the process of proclaiming

Christ's excellencies? Peter tells us to do it in two

ways. He tells us to do it in Word and

in deed. in Word, He says we speak God's good news to one

another and to non Christians. Note, however, we don't come up

with the message that we speak. It's not our message about who

God is and what He's doing. We don't imagine the glories of

God and tell the story that we find in our own heart.

No, First, we are fed upon, shaped by the word of God, that

spiritual milk of God's word, and as a result we learn to

speak who God is. We learn the message from the

Word of God. Look at look at verse 9 in our

passage right down towards the end of that verse.

It's our proclamation of God's excellencies, but that

proclamation is response to God's call to us.

God speaks 1st, and our proclamation is a response to

his word to us. So we we speak in Word God's

excellencies, but we also act in deed.

More and more as we are shaped by that word, as we're conformed

to the image of Christ, we behave in a way that matches who

God says that we are. The sanctification gap shrinks

and people see that even the process of confessing our sins,

of repenting for wrongs done, of approaching a brother or sister

or even a non Christian and saying to them, I did something

wrong, I don't want to confess that to you.

Even that is part of the process of proclaiming the excellencies

of Christ in Word and in deed. We learn to love one another

earnestly from a pure heart. We learn to behave honourably

even towards those who hate us. That's actually where Peter goes

after this passage in the rest of chapter 2 and in chapter 3.

In those hard relationships, he says that's where you need to

press in with the gospel of Christ and show the way that

Christ is transforming you. This brings us back to that

sanctification gap. Why has God left his children in

this world as sojourners and exiles?

And specifically in this unfinished state, this weird way

in which we are neither fish nor fowl, living in between the

times, born again but not yet having fully inherited our hope.

Why did he put us on display as unfinished works of art?

Especially given that the world is filled with harsh, mean

spirited and bitter art critics ready to criticize us every time

they see an imperfection We remember.

Of course, the God wasn't under orders to begin our Christian

lives at a point of immaturity. He didn't have to regenerate us

as newborn infants who grow up more and more toward maturity

but never fully achieve it in this life.

What if he had regenerated us as complete masterpieces?

Van Gogh's or Picasso's walking around for everyone to see.

Why not just start us at a point of perfect holiness?

Wouldn't that be a way to shut the mouths of the critics?

I think, I think This is why. I think it's because God is

displaying his grace and power, His goodness, his kindness, his

mercy. He's displaying all these things

by letting people around us see how He makes you and me more and

more like Jesus Christ. As we are slowly conformed to

the image of Christ, people around us learn something about

who God is and what He is about in this world.

Look at look at the beginning of our passage, verses 1 and 2.

Peter says so Put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy

and envy and all slander, like newborn infants.

Long for the spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into

salvation. There are two commands here.

Put away and long for. Put away and long for it says

Put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy, all envy and

slander. Put them away.

These are all, these are all communal sins.

You can't envy if there's no one to envy.

You can't slander if there's no one to slander or no one to

slander them to. These are all communal sins,

Peter says. They don't have any place in

God's family. Instead, He calls us to live

together as a holy royal nation that is aligned with the

cornerstone. Why does He do that?

If you drop down to the end of our passage to verse 12, I think

you see it there. It says keep your conduct among

the Gentiles honorable so that you get that that's a

consequence, right? So that when they speak against

you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God

on the day of visitation. God uses the conduct of

Christians to lead others to glorify God and when Christ

returns on the day of visitation, there will be people

who have trusted in Christ because they saw God working in

your life and bringing you more and more to maturity in Christ

as you engage in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called life together.

The life of God's people is a display case for God's glory for

all the mean spirited art critics of the world who

sometimes will see it and recognize the beauty of the one

who is at work in this mess. When the Church Father

Tertullian in the 2nd century explained why it was the case

that Christians were turning away, excuse me, that that that

pagans were turning away from paganism and running towards

Christ. He explained it by saying it's

the way that Christians treat each other.

He put these words in the mouth of those pagans.

He said they say see how they love one another, See how they

love one another. That was the testimony that

turned people away from paganism towards Christ.

It's still the testimony that in this neo Pagan world that we

live in now turns people away from error and towards the truth

of Christ. So brothers and sisters, put

away your evil deeds, and especially your evil deeds

towards your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Kill those sins, as Owen reminds us, Crush them.

This is what we've been called to.

And since you can't do that on your own, ask God for help to do

it. Brothers and sisters love one

another. Don't treat each other as

objects to fulfill your desires, but as those who are precious to

God and who therefore must be precious to you as well.

What's the first command? Put away?

The second command is long for long for says specifically to

long for spiritual milk. Now that's the word of God.

It's very clear in the context what Peter is talking about.

So if put away is a command to get rid of sin, then long for

spiritual milk is a command to add something to your life,

specifically to add the Word of God to it.

God's Word is the essential tool for shrinking that

sanctification gap. It's not just enough to get rid

of bad things. You must also add things that

glorify God. And you can't do this without

God's Spirit working through His Word.

The Word has the power of taking your eyes off of yourself.

That's where Tom Brady's eyes were at.

The Word is the power of taking your eyes off yourself and

putting them on Jesus. When we listen to the Word with

ears of faith, the love of God shines in our hearts.

He gives us what Paul calls the knowledge of the glory of God in

the face of Jesus Christ. The 19th century Scottish

Presbyterian preacher of Dundee, a man named Robert Murray

McShane. McShane, who had a way of saying

profound things in simple ways, said for every one glance at

yourself, take 10 glances at Jesus and we say, yeah, I know,

preacher, I know. But think about that.

For every 10, for every one glance at yourself, 10 glances

at Jesus. That's about the right ratio.

We spend far too much time thinking about ourselves,

looking about ourselves, reflecting upon ourselves, and

not nearly enough time looking at Jesus.

So, brothers and sisters, look at Jesus.

As Peter puts it, come to him so that you may be built up.

And when you struggle to put away your sin, go to the

spiritual milk of God's word and look at Jesus.

Look at him because he's beautiful.

He is captivating in a way that nothing else is.

The more that you come to him, the more that you look at him,

the more you want to be like him.

And friends, if you're here today and you've never looked to

Jesus, whether you came here kicking and screaming because

your mother-in-law made you or because you're genuinely curious

about what Christianity is and what life in Christ is like,

well, here's what I have to say. Jesus is unlike any other

addiction. The more that you have of him

instead of becoming enslaved, the more that you have of him,

the healthier, the freer, the the more yourself you actually

become. Tom Brady.

Come back to the beginning here at the end, at least at the time

that he gave his interview, I'll be charitable.

He was a man who did not understand what he was for.

He didn't understand why he was here.

His vision of life was one in which his identity was primarily

focused upon himself and therefore primarily

characterized by enslavement to football.

During the seven months each year when he was playing, he had

a goal, he said. You've got something you're

trying to accomplish, and when that's done, you don't have

80,000 people screaming your name.

You know what's it going to be. I've heard of a lot of

astronauts go to the moon and come back and they're so

depressed because there's nothing they can do in their

lives that can ever fill them up in the way that that does.

Start of a new year is a great time to reorient your mind and

heart and actions, to remind yourself of what's true and to

live it out. Here's what's true.

There are no longer 80,000 people screaming Tom Brady's

name. He's sliding towards death and

obscurity. But in Christ we are being built

up as a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices.

That is an eternal purpose. It's one that promises to get

better and better as we move toward and then beyond the day

of visitation. Jesus came to save us

absolutely. If you place your faith in Him,

all your sins will be forgiven and God will declare you

righteous. He will accept you into His

family. He promises you full fellowship

with Him for eternity. Jesus also came to sanctify us.

And if you, if you turn to Christ because you are chosen

and precious in him, he will make you, He is making you more

and more like his Father, working in your life so that you

may glorify God on the day of visitation.

So here's my final word of exhortation to you.

To you who are chosen and precious to God.

Behave in a way that fits who you are.

Put away your sins long for the spiritual milk of God's word.

Why should you do that? Not so that God will love and

honour and accept you. He already does.

He already does. But do it instead.

Because God has loved you, He has loved you with an eternal

and inexhaustible love. Amen.

Oh Lord, we pray that you would help us to receive that love

which you have offered and extended towards us in Christ.

Help us, Lord, in response to put off all of the sins which

entangle us and instead to put on Christ more and more to long

for that spiritual milk. And as we do, oh Lord, I pray

that you would use the life of Christians, especially the life

of Christians together in order to draw attention to the

excellencies of your name, to your glory, that others might

see and believe and come to confess him.

We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.