Living Stones | Pr Dr Daniel Kong

You're listening to a message to go from X Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

What I want to share is that I also feel

that we need to get our house in order. But

before I begin, let me just start with a question. Okay,

one question. If we couldn't meet in this building or

in this space the next Sunday, would X Church still

be a church? It's not a trick question. are we

still the church or are we still a church if

we can't meet here next week? And the answer, of course.

You know, it's not, you know, what we do in

the four walls here. And this is why a free plug,

a free plug into what's to come. We might change

the venue in a few weeks' time. On the 1st

of November, we're doing worship at homes. Okay. And what

that simply means is that we're doing, we're bringing your

Sunday service to a small group level. in cell groups

and what we call homes here. Why we do this

every year, once a year? We're also trying to prepare

the global church in terms of times that may change.

Remember the pandemic, right? We were all forced to do

things a bit differently. And fortunately, we did well. Or,

you know, you can think about the context, you know,

what if the government policies changes with the way we

can practice church? What if we close the buildings? Like

I said earlier, what if this is a place that

we can't do? So this is the reason why I feel, well,

we feel that we ought to be ready to prepare because,

you know, the world is a crazy place. Sometimes things

that you think will not happen does happen. So I

think it's better to be ready and to also be

resilient in that sense. Okay. So we need to be

able to stand on our own. we need to be

able to raise different ones, different leaders as well, to

be able to continue to survive in, you know, unique times,

just as the New Testament church has survived in many years, right?

And we want believers to be able to worship, care

for one another, continue making disciples, continue sharing the good

news wherever you are. And that's why I said earlier,

it doesn't really matter if we can't meet up in

this physical space, the church will still thrive and carry on, okay? Now,

second question. How many of you have actually done a

small project, like a renovation project before? Any house owners here?

Got it, right? Yeah. Most of the time, you'll see

people will start with some small little project. Now, as

an engineer, I'm an engineer, by the way, civil engineer,

I can tell you that by ordering materials or building

materials and getting it delivered to your house doesn't actually

mean that things will get built. or things will get fixed, etc.

It's just, yeah, you have the resources too, the items,

but nothing gets built, right? And the contractor can't tell

the owner, oh, you know, everything's already there, you know,

it's there already. You fix it, you figure it out, right?

Because materials can't fit itself together, right? And this is

how I want to start off the message today, that

the the church, you know, as a whole, God is

also doing something similar with us. We are like materials.

Just because we are all gathered together in a space

waiting for new growth or building or even different phases

of life, etc., it doesn't mean that we will naturally,

you know, fit things together itself or continue to build itself.

Something needs to happen, right? But, Why am I saying this?

Because we are all saved, right? But he also wants

to build us together. Because otherwise you're just a plank,

a nail, can't think of other materials at the moment,

a brick, etc. And it's not really a complete picture

of how God intended it. So that's how I want

to start off. And the message today, I've titled it

Living Stones. not a person's surname, okay? And it will

make a bit more sense at the end of it, okay?

But I'm also going to start off this series on

the Holy Spirit because actually our whole church is going

through a new, it's like a new series on the

Holy Spirit. So the spiritual temple of the Holy Spirit

is what Living Stones is all about. And again, it

will make sense at the end, all right? So are

you ready? As per usual, I will start at one

main point. Okay, my first main point. Through Jesus, God

is building... us together as living stones. Purposely highlight the

word living stones. A home for His Holy Spirit. Okay?

So as I say, as we begin this series, this

is the main point. So if you don't catch anything,

just write this down. Hopefully you'll be blessed. But I'm

going to share a little bit about how it is

to build the spiritual temple of the Holy Spirit. That means...

Or in simple English, it simply means that we need

to draw near to God together, right? Take our place

because God actually intended us to take that place. And

I felt this is very important to start this framework

before we talk about, you know, who the Holy Spirit

is or what the Holy Spirit can do for you

about deliverance and all that kind of things. I think

all those are good things, but the foundation of this

is important. And if we do not understand where and

why who we are and why the Holy Spirit lives

among us and God's desire to dwell in His people

or with His people, then I think we cannot maximize

our potential as God intended it. Everybody okay so far?

Let's look at text, okay? Let's look at Scripture. I

promise you today's word is going to be very short

because we have a long segment earlier and it's meant

to be a family-friendly service. All right, so let's start.

John 2. And let's read the scriptures up on the screen.

The words in green is something else I put in there.

I'll explain what they are in a bit. But let's

read in John 2. It says here, Jesus has just

challenged the people there. What is actually happening in the temple?

So the religious leader at that time asked him for

a sign of his authority. And this is what he answered.

Let's read John 2. All right. Jesus replied, destroy this temple.

Very strong words, you know. Destroy the temple, you must understand.

What would the people think when they heard Jesus say

destroy the temple? It's exactly what they think, right? What?

They exclaimed, what? And destroy this temple, Naos, not Naomi's

short form, okay? And in three days, I will raise

it up. Just in case you do not know, Naomi

has this short N-A-O-Z, I think. Something like that, okay?

That's a short form, but this is something else. This

is actually a Greek word, all right? And John actually

uses two Greek words. Let me finish reading first, okay?

Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise

it up. And they say, what? They exclaim, right? It

has taken 46 years to build this temple. Again, the

word being used here is naos, okay? And you can

rebuild it in three days? Question mark, all right? But

then Jesus said, this temple, he meant his own body.

So very simple scripture. Can be quite deep if you

go deep. So let me just go into my teaching

mode a little bit. Anyway, so the two Greek words

that John has used in describing the temple in this

chapter is two words. One is already shown on the screen.

Second one is actually Hieron. H-I-E-R-O-N is a Greek word. Now,

this is the wider temple complex. And I'll show you

what the temple looks like later on. But naos refers

to the sanctuary or the temple itself, the smallest subset.

So Jesus uses the word naos in the original text.

And it's very clear, at least for us, that Jesus

was speaking about his own body Right? That's why he

says he meant his own body when he talks about

the temple. Right? And we'll draw some similarities later. But obviously,

when we read verse 20, the people there were confused.

The leaders were confused during that time, right? They thought

about the building, the physical temple itself, which they rightfully said,

it took 46 years, you know, to build. It's not

easy or it's not, you know, something that can be

easily reconstructed in three days. What take 40... How many...

Someone who's good at math, 46 multiplied by 365, how

many days is that? Versus three days. One, six, seven,

you know, so many numbers, okay? 5,000 something, okay, anyway.

So when Jesus was talking about it, he was referring

to his resurrected body, right? Not so much the, you know,

the physical temple itself. And he was talking about his

death and his resurrection that we already know. He would destroy, quote-unquote,

his body, the temple. But in three days later, he

will rise again. The new temple will rise again. Now,

so this is where the whole thing begins, right? That

God is trying to illustrate or... rather show the people

that is all centered around jesus himself and to understand

this a bit deeper of course i have some photographs

so they can see so this is what the temple

looks like okay herod's temple or sometimes called the second

temple complex You know, there's many gates. I've just named

some of the more famous gates. So if you don't

know who Herod is, that is sometimes called Herod the Great.

He greatly expanded the temple grounds. Let's just call it

temple grounds for political reasons. Sorry, this thing is flinging

around a little bit. It's a bit heavy. Yeah, so...

because he was actually the ruler of that time, but

he's somewhat not the rightful or the illegitimate leader or

ruler of that time. So he did this to impress

the people that he's ruling, the Jews. So there's this

massive complex to justify his position, or to show off

his position as a Roman ruler over the Jews. So

you look at this temple. It's amazing, right? 46 years

to build, right? But I want to draw your attention

to the temple that has these very unique characteristics, okay?

Do you realize that there's so many walls or divisions

or sections, okay? So one of the things that is

purposely designed for this particular temple is also to have

compartments or to encourage segregation. You know what segregation is, right? Things,

you know, you divide, okay, this category, that category. Of course,

I'm talking about people here. They are all divided based

on different backgrounds, different cultures, gender, etc., The most simple

one is Jews and Gentiles, right? Jews are one place

they can gather. The Gentiles or the Dan-Lion-Lion is another place, okay?

Next slide will give you a better picture. So there's

many sections over there, 1 to 11. Of course, there's

more than that. But I want to draw your attention

to this section here, the Gentiles' courtyard, the one that's outside.

So there's an outer boundary, there's an inner boundary, And

then inside here is exclusive to certain people group, okay?

So access to the inner courts, the inner area, or

the sanctuary is restricted, okay? The Gentiles, like I said,

the others, the non-Jews, were only allowed to hang out

in the Gentiles' courtyard on the outside, okay? They were

not allowed to enter the inner courts, okay? And as

you can see, they have a kind of a wall

on the outside. If you look through scriptures, you can

look through also in Galatians and also in Acts, okay?

You can read through it. But this little barrier, the

little wall that prevents the Gentiles to move in, is

only about 1.3, 1.5 meters tall. Not very tall. A

bit shorter than my height, okay? But It is a

low stone barrier, but it's enough of a barrier to

prevent people from moving to the area they're not supposed

to be in. It's like having little skittles or cones, barriers,

when there is an, I don't know, there's an accident

or you want to channel people to one place. You

know those barriers that cars cannot go in? Yeah, it's

just that high. It's not like massive tall. But people

couldn't cross over. They know not to do that. And

it's just a place that marks, this is where you're

not supposed to be, etc. So the temple, again, Neos,

that I mentioned earlier, is actually confined or they only

allowed Jews to go in. And then there were other things,

some more weird things. You see there, women's courtyard number nine.

I'm so sorry, it's very small, but here. This is

the women's courtyard. So gender, even when you get in,

only certain specific people can go further in. So there's

the distinction between male and female. There were, if you

look carefully, number five over there is actually the lepers,

what do you call it, the lepers, the chamber of lepers.

You know what lepers are? It's a disease during that time,

all right? So the unclean or the outcast, they hang

around number five area, all right? And only one person,

the holy priest, goes to number one. They call it

the holy place or sometimes called the most holy place.

And they go in there once a year. Once a year.

So everybody, that line definitely nowhere close. Those different, let's

just say hierarchy will get closer, but only one goes

to the holy place. place. Okay? So just want to

paint the picture. Because sometimes when we read the scripture,

we're like, oh, you know, a temple, you know, tear

down the temple, destroy the temple rather, and then rebuild

the temple. We don't really see all this different perspective

and aspects of it. I encourage you to go deeper

if you wanted to. But essentially, the temple itself reminded

people that God was holy. That's one. And sinful people

cannot just stroll into His presence. Even if you are clean,

if you are of a different gender, you cannot stroll

into His presence also. And even if you are of

the correct gender and you are not a leper and

then you are higher ranking, you still cannot go into

His presence fully because only one person can do it.

That was what it's like in the past. And this is...

But you must understand our God, what's His desire? He

desires for us to dwell with Him. So how is

this to happen with all this quote-unquote red tape, different barriers?

F1 just started, I mean, just happened a few days ago.

There's some people who can go to the box and

some people are just like in the rain outside, etc. Yeah,

there's all these different compartments. So this is what Jesus

was encountering when he came, right? By the time he

came in the first century, the Jewish traditions or the system,

let's just call it loosely speaking like the Jewish religious system,

has evolved to this. Has evolved to this where I

don't think it was God's intended initial plan, but it's

come to this.

Okay?

Okay? So you must understand what he has to, quote-unquote,

battle as well. Because right from the beginning, even in

the tabernacle of Moses, it started to become a bit

more exclusive like this. And that for people to have

a close relationship with Jesus or with God, it takes

a lot. It takes a lot. All right? So, of course,

as with any systems, corruption will creep in. you can

also buy your way or buy your access into certain things.

And we've seen that in the biblical sense, a lot

of corruption of power, you know, also allowing people to

bypass certain, you know, certain protocols, etc. So Jesus came,

uses the strong word destroy because he wanted to destroy

this entire system and almost like reset, reset what he wanted.

And When I say destroying the physical temple, people are like,

you just sent a nuke to bomb it. No, no, no.

It's not just that. He is referring to his own body,

his death. It represents the current. And three days later,

he will rise up again and rebuild through the resurrection

a new temple. What is this temple? This temple is

not a physical temple per se. It is a spiritual temple.

Everybody okay so far? Okay. Too deep? No? Actually, okay, right? Can, right? Can, right? Okay.

All right. So, why and how did he do that?

Or why did he do that? Because Jesus, number one,

he's our great priest. I'll read the scriptures later. And two,

he's actually creating this spiritual temple by offering himself for

our sins. And Hebrews, which is the scripture I'll read

after this, explains this very beautifully. So if you'd like

to take notes, you can. Christ as the eternal high

priest is the next point. And then it will also

be a once and for all kind of sacrifice. Now

let's look at Hebrews 10. Let's read this. Under the

old covenant, the priests... and saints and ministers before the

altar after a day offering the same sacrifices again and again,

which can never take away sins. So here it tells you, right,

even though the ritual is like so, it still cannot

take away wash away all sins or take away all sins.

Number 12, verse 12. Our high priest, this is Jesus

that they're referring to, offered himself to God. I want

you to focus on this word as a single sacrifice

for sins. Good for all time. Single, one sacrifice and

good for all time. All right. Then he sat down

in the place of honour at God's right hand. There

he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a

footstool under his feet. For by that, again, one offering, singular,

he forever made perfect. I'll explain what the original word

is being used. Those who are being made holy. So

before I go into... describe all those words, notice the contrast.

You notice the contrast? Under the old covenant, the priest,

as we described earlier, stood and offered sacrifices again and

again and again and again and again until the end

of time. Right? Then Jesus, our high priest, offered himself once. Sekali, once. Okay?

And then he sat down, you know, at God's right hand.

That's it. The sacrifice doesn't have to be repeated. Once

is sufficient. So powerful. Once, right? So, I draw your

attention to 14, Hebrews 14. For by that one offering,

He forever made perfect those who are being made holy. Now,

the word perfect in our English language is very limited.

And that's why I'm going to teach you a new word.

It's called T-E-L-E-I-O-O. Okay. Now, how you pronounce that, I've

looked it up. How do you think it's pronounced? T-E-L-E-I-O, right? No, no, no, no, no.

It's not. It's pronounced T-E-L-E-I-O-O. You say O-O twice. Yeah. O-H-O-H. Twice.

But the first part is correct. T-E-L-E-I-O-O. Okay. Which means,

in its original language, it means bring to completion. Meaning,

it is finished. It is made complete. Sometimes our word

made perfect is very limited. Completion and perfect is different.

But sometimes you read perfect or high score 99.9 over 100,

that's almost perfect. But notice completion completion. Okay? In other words,

it is done. Just like we read earlier, it is done.

Once and for all, done. And that's why once is enough.

Because done is done, right? You cannot do things that's

already done again. And that's why sometimes we need to

go to the original word to understand why it is

perfect in a sense. Because it is done. It's done, guys.

It does not have to be repeated. Again and again

in the temple, where the high priest, you know, go

once in a year and do his thing, all the

rituals and all that. No, no, no, no. You don't

have to do that to enter His presence anymore. It's

already done. But of course, we also have to remind ourselves, okay,

it doesn't mean that Christians will never sin from here on.

We no longer need to grow, you know, oh, we're

done already, you know, like He's finished it for us.

So therefore, I can... waste my life away or whatever

it is, you know. It's not. You must understand, it's not. Why?

Because the second part is important. So that we are

continuously made holy. Job is done, yes, but we still

have to do our part. That's why the next verse

is important. That means we are continually changing. We are

continually also, quote-unquote, doing our part, okay? And that's a reminder. Why?

Because we are being made holy, right? His sacrifice is complete.

And this is why in the next verse, we read

about how we are to do it. And the next

verse actually talks about the Holy Spirit, right? Sometimes you

think the Holy Spirit is like, it's like an airy-fairy

kind of a thing, you know, the chills. No, no, no.

Holy Spirit is a person. He was sent for us today.

to continue to change us, right? And that's why in

verse 15, I'll read the scripture here, okay? And the

Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. So the

Holy Spirit is agreeing. Yes, I agree. Yes, right? Well,

he says here, this is the new covenant I will

make with my people. On that day, says the Lord,

I will put my laws in their hearts. I will

write them on their minds. Then he says, I will

never again remember their sins and lawless deeds. Okay? So,

the Spirit testifies. God promises to write His laws on

the people's hearts, right? And forgive their sins. And the

Spirit testifies. And verse 18, it concludes by saying that

sins have been forgiven. It says here, when sins have

been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifice.

So essentially, the Holy Spirit is saying, I concur. I agree.

What's done is done. Don't need to have additional. And

that's why, back to what we read earlier, one, cukup, enough, complete, completion. Perfect, okay?

Why is this important? Because sometimes we think, oh, we

can get busier with what we do, whether it is

even doing God's work, and thinking that that would help us,

you know, reach, you know, what we're supposed to reach. No.

He already said this here. It's already done. It's already done.

We cannot already add. If I can say this, we

cannot already add to what has already been completed. Perfect.

Nothing you can do to add to this. It's finished.

So this is actually a beautiful picture. It's not all

doom and gloom. It's actually a beautiful picture. Why? Because

it's also a picture of the whole triune. the Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit working together, right? They're all in agreement.

Why did I say that? It's because Jesus, the Son

of God, was offered by Father God as the perfect sacrifice,

as we've read. At the same time, He shed His blood, right?

And of course, He then becomes the eternal High Priest, right? Eternal,

the key word. It means forever and ever. Not just

the one person once a year kind of thing. And

he offered this sacrifice in the very presence of God

the Father. It's not just simply offering to nobody. It's

actually God the Father. Right? And then we see the

Holy Spirit right here coming in and say, I testify.

What does it actually mean? He... Essentially, He is reinstating,

the Holy Spirit is reinstating the original design with a

new covenant. What's the original design? God wants to dwell

with us. He wants to, that's the Holy Spirit, wants

to restore this. When it says He here, right, it's

actually the Holy Spirit saying, you know, not Jesus, not

Father God, the Holy Spirit is saying, let's start a

new covenant. You see how powerful this is? Sometimes we

just don't really... See this. So yes, Jesus offered a

sufficient sacrifice to complete what he has to complete. But

our obedience still matters, guys. Still matters, right? Because it

is our response to that grace. Because we know grace

cannot be purchased, right? And this is why we want

to continue to serve. We want to continue to do

what we do because we've received grace. from God. We

don't serve to persuade Him. We serve because it's already

complete anyway, but we still want to be obedient because

God has received us.

Amen?

Okay. Too heavy?

Okay.

Let's move on. Hebrews 10. Let's read the other verses. 19.

I'll probably stop at verse 20, okay? Let's read on.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter

heaven's most holy place. This is the one, if you

saw the picture earlier, it's the exclusive place up in

the mountain, not the mountain top, but the very top

of the temple. because of the blood of Jesus. And

verse 26 says, by his death, Jesus opened, let me

read this, a new and life-giving way through the curtain

into the most holy place. Now, this is actually an invitation, right?

Because of the blood of Jesus, we can then boldly

enter confidently enter. Enter where? Into His presence. Now we

sung entering His presence, we can boldly and confidently enter

His presence. Why? Because of the blood. Jesus opened a

new life-giving way. Remember this word curtain here, what does

it actually represent? Right? Remember the curtain that was separating

the holy place, the most holy place, You can look

it up in Matthew 27. It tells us that when

Jesus died, the curtain tore. Remember that curtain? This is

the same curtain. It was torn in two. That means

it signifies that when that happens, the segregation or the

division to actually enter to the presence is gone. So

it's already pre-empting what is to happen. So Hebrews here

is alignment. It points us to the excess of to

Christ that we have through His death. So our confidence

really lies on the blood of Jesus. We don't have

to wait to feel that we have enough. We don't

have to be spiritually, some people will say, oh, I

need to do this and that. And a lot of,

maybe perhaps, very loosely using this expression, a lot of

religions teach you that you can do a lot of

things before you can. be accepted. But no, he says here,

you're spiritually enough to come to him. That is the

grace that he's talking about. So let's read on. 21.

And since we have a great high priest who rules

over God's house, let us go right into the presence

of God with sincere hearts, trusting him, fully trusting him

for our guilt Sorry, for our guilty conscience have been

sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean and our

bodies have been washed with pure water. So what does

God ask us to do? The instructions are in verses

21 to 22. We are to what? Draw near. Simple

English is draw near. Come close. Come. With what? Again,

highlighted all the words already. With sincere hearts. What is

sincere hearts? Just full trust. Fully trusting you. And again,

this is important because sometimes perhaps you came here today

and you're thinking, man, I failed again. I dropped the

ball again. And therefore, I should keep my distance from

the Lord. No. No. Church, we fail all the time.

Myself included. But we need to come to God with honesty.

Of course, confess our sins and then trust His mercy.

Trust His grace. Hiding won't make us clean, by the way.

You think that because you cannot face Him, because you sin,

then you hide. That doesn't do anything. Right? Hiding doesn't

solve anything. But understand and recognize that Jesus can. And

that's why in verse 22, you see verse 22 is

so powerful. It says, sprinkled with Christ's blood. Just a sprinkle. Again,

it doesn't mean that the sins will be all gone.

but you are liberated, your conscience is clear. You don't

feel guilty anymore. Sometimes I think the sin itself, of

course it can be bad, but the guilt that follows

that sin makes it even worse. That means you live

feeling ashamed, feeling that you can't do this just because

of the boo-boo that you did. So actually that's why

it's important, the guilty conscience is actually more important that

you're liberated from it. Yes, what's done is done. But

your guilt will be okay. Just a sprinkle of the blood.

A little bit. Enough. It's just like MSG. Elevate, right?

I'm not condoning MSG, but anyway. Yeah. But grace does

not mean, again, you no longer have to make choices

in life anymore. Right? No longer that we autopilot, okay,

I'm a robot now. Yeah. I'm saved. No. No. It

just reminds us that we can stop hiding, just come forward,

respond to Him with an honest heart, and that's it.

The Spirit will do His thing, will help us change.

So this afternoon, right, really is an invitation from this

perspective that as a spiritual temple of the Holy Spirit,

of course, God is saying, come. Come. Draw near to Him.

Draw near to Him. And you're coming to the Father

through His Son. And you can go right and sit

on His lap. Literally. Right? Draw. Because you can be

really going to His presence. And that's very powerful. And

all it takes is just a sincere heart. No... Yeah.

And it's beautiful because... Why sincere hearts? Because God is

after our hearts, right? He's not after our mind. Sometimes

you think He's after our mind. He wants to intellectually

convert you. No. He's after the heart. And so sometimes

I feel that some people when they are, maybe those

people who think too much, not saying thinking is not good,

but think with your heart also. Yeah. Okay. Just trust

me in that, okay? But yeah, it's after our hearts.

Because it's the heart that you can give over to Jesus.

Why is it important? Because then, only then, He can

fulfill the purposes He has for you. And what we're

doing here, we're continually building the spiritual temple. Not the

physical temple, but the spiritual temple. So my next point is,

the church can act as a spiritual temple of the

Holy Spirit And when I say church, again, not these

four walls. Every one of us is the church. The

people is the church. Let's move on to Paul, okay?

He takes this a bit further. Let's read 1 Corinthians.

Everybody okay so far? Right? In 1 Corinthians 3.16, it

says here, Don't you realize that all of you together

are the temple of God? See, same reference. All of you.

and that the Spirit of God lives in you. This

is the Holy Spirit. 17. God will destroy anyone who

destroys this temple, for God's temple is holy and you

are that temple. Again, this is a reminder that we

are that spiritual temple. Not church, not 130 service, not

X church, not the church next door, not the churches

in Malaysia. No, you are the spiritual temple. And notice

these words here. Let me just add some more colour

to it. The words all together is addressing the church.

Paul's addressing the church. And the you here is plural.

All of you.

You, you, you, you, you.

I think about 60, 70, 80 of us here. Yeah, you.

You are the church and you make that one singular temple.

And that's important. And that's why we have this unity.

As believers, we are united as one. Many people make

one temple, collectively. Right? So the church has the spirit

temple of the Holy Spirit. And this is amazing if

you think about it, right? Because in the historical temple,

it's only one geographical temple. Now it's everywhere. Amazing, right?

So what Jesus did, right, was like, So that means

the person next to you is also part of God

building the one temple, the one spiritual temple. Yeah? So

we cannot celebrate by being God's temple by treating your

neighbour as this guy, not important. Because that person is

also part of the temple. And that's what verse 17

warns us. A serious warning. If you destroy God's temple...

It's akin to like, yeah, this guy cannot, not part

of it, not part of the plan. No. He reminds us,

Paul reminds us that this community belongs to God and

therefore is holy. So yes, I know disagreements and all that,

that's all fine. But understand, we are all part of

this quote-unquote building project. Okay?

Why?

Because the Spirit dwells in us. It's among His people.

It's among you, you, everybody is named. It's not only

when Pastor Kenneth is here or some leader, he said, no, no, no,

every one of you carries that. So again, as I

started earlier, we're not a building. We are not a collection.

We thank God for a community, yes, but the Spirit

dwells in the people, you and I. So even as

we gather in homes or gather and serve together in

the church, in your workplace, in your schools, in your colleges,

in your pickleball community, I don't know, whatever. Remember. You know,

venue is not important. The different demographics are not important,

but you are important. Okay? So, coming to 1st November,

that's why it's okay to meet together in a smaller setting. Again,

free plug, huh? Alright, last point and then I'll end here. Alright?

Living stones and a royal priesthood is my last point.

So as we move on, let's read 1 Peter 2, 4-5.

I'm reading from an NLT version. Peter, he gives us

a different picture. Alright? The title is Living Stones for

God's House and that's why this title of this message

is Living Stones, okay? You are coming to Christ who

is the living cornerstone. I think I shared about cornerstone before, right?

But Just to understand that it's not just any cornerstone,

it's a living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected

by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour.

Verse 5, And you are living stones that God is

building into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are his

holy priests. Through meditation of Jesus, you offer spiritual sacrifices

that please God. So again, Peter gives a different perspective. First,

we come to Christ, the living cornerstone, right? And then

God builds us. He said the materials are ordered. They

may come from different suppliers. They come together in the

one place. But the living stones are the ones that

need to be put together to shape the big overarching

living spiritual temple. Jesus is a cornerstone, guys. He determines

the shape of the building, yes. We belong to him,

and that's why it's important to understand our identity in him.

Before we can find our place in a team, in

a small group, in a dream team, etc., we need

to understand that the cornerstone is there. I shared once

that last time I tried to be a carpenter, I

tried to fix a fence. I started off here, then I...

Like that. In Australia, everything is expensive, so we just

have to do things our own now. My wife came out,

how come the thing like that? Because I started off correct,

but I forgot to look at the cornerstone. Over time,

my fence was crooked. It's always important to check back, guys.

Sometimes we go autopilot, right? And we forget. So, what

am I trying to say here? We are living stones.

God made us alive in Christ. He's fitting us together, yes.

And a stone lying by itself, right, cannot be a house.

You catch that? A brick, a wood, a plank, a

nail on its own is not a house. In the

same way, we also need relationships to grow. That's why, yes,

church is messy, life is messy, etc. But we know

when we receive care, when we grow, when we encourage

each other, that is part of building. If you do

bigger projects, like some of us, bigger construction, it's always

going to be messy. Yeah. Nothing goes according to plan. Delays, deliveries.

Like I said, let's be living stones, right? Not rolling stones.

Different generation. Just in case for those, the reference for

those who are younger, the Rolling Stones is a band

in the 60s, I think, a UK band. I think

you might know Mick Jagger, right? Yeah, that's the Rolling Stones. Okay,

little joke there, but Yeah, I'm not inviting you to

become Rolling Stones. Okay, anyway. Don't spend your whole Christian

life waiting for the perfect church. That's what I'm trying

to say here. There will be no such thing. No

perfect church. Every church has imperfect people, us included, right?

But this is probably what I want to challenge you.

Maybe you need to ask God, is He providing you

an opportunity right now to be a living stone? where

your place. Again, the products are all there already. Just

got to work together all this to make it work.

Yeah.

And you know what, guys? Church, like I said, it's messy, but,

you know, commitment gives us chance to learn from each other.

Once you say yes, you decide, you commit. I think

you talked about commitment, right, Charles, or rather saying, boldly

saying yes, right? Commitment actually gives opportunity to learn patience.

God is teaching you patience, right? Um, working through disagreements

is also part of growing. Loving people that is less

difficult to love, right, is also, or loving people that

is different from us is also part of, you know,

putting stones together, living stones together. And let me just

quickly say that it doesn't mean that you need to

tolerate abuse, right? We say that if you're in an

abusive kind of relationship, even in the church, come and

talk to me. Let's straighten that out. But it doesn't

mean that you just give up straight away. If that hurts, yes,

we can talk about it. But let's continue to decide

to want to grow together. Because actually it takes courage

to commit.

Right?

You know, many years ago when our church is going

to this whole let's grow small to grow big kind

of thing, people don't like that. Why? Because when we're small,

we have to commit.

Right?

Because, yeah, just like how I always illustrate this at home,

when my wife is away, less one person, then the

three of us have to then do the job of four.

Right?

So, therefore, sometimes the kids leave some things unwashed because

I'll be doing other things. Yeah. So, things like that,

you just need to understand you have to commit to it.

And this is my last point, right? Why do I

say it takes courage to commit? Why? Because it's next slide.

For you are a chosen people. 1 Peter 2.9 says,

you are a royal priesthood. Let me just highlight the

word royal. King. Priesthood. A holy nation. God's very own possession.

Peter calls us a royal priesthood, guys. So, a bit

of background. As you know, in the Old Testament, there

was a lot of lineage, right? You know, the lineage

of the priests. Let's use the word priest, right? The

original lineage traced to Levi and Aaron, the high priests.

Do you know that Jesus didn't come from that lineage? Right? Surprise! Yeah.

He didn't come from the tribe of Levi. Right? He

came from the tribe of Judah. Judah. In other words, God,

through Jesus Christ, has now created a new ability or

a new priesthood that is perfect. The word perfect is

complete again. That once and for all, let's say that

everybody has success. So through Jesus, every believer now has

a part to play. in the spiritual sacrifice that pleases God. So,

it doesn't mean that, oh, just because somebody else is

doing it, I'm done. No, we are all part of it.

We are all called to be as a royal priesthood.

And I'm inviting you to be royal priests. Take up

that royal priesthood. What does it mean? Don't be a

spectator lah. Very easy to comment, right? Hey, how come

the guy cannot kick the ball properly? Cannot kick the

ball straight, you know? Don't be that, you know? Don't

be an observer, right? You are a kingly priest, guys.

kingly priest royal priest I don't know King Charles kind

of material I don't know yeah but that's who you

are a kingly priest sometimes you forget that and we

behave like slavely priest I don't know you know Because

we come to church, sometimes thinking, I'll just watch and observe. Yeah. Yeah.

But hey guys, you're living stones, guys. Not rolling stones.

Living stones. Right? And what does it mean? We offer praise.

We offer prayer. We serve one another. We tell people

what God has done through the Spirit. This is a calling.

not just for the select few, it's a calling for all.

You read the scriptures today, right? All of you, plural.

Not just a select few. Not just the guy holding

the microphone and just babbling away over here. Everybody is involved.

Think about where God has placed you during the week,

outside of Sunday, right? You are that royal priest. Your workplace,

your family, your neighbourhood, your schools, your colleges, etc., etc.

You have to work through His people because you are

placed by Him and also you are working together by

His Spirit. So depend on that Spirit. Depend on that power, right?

Because you are carefully fitted into that spiritual temple. And again,

keyword is living. Not like a material, like it has

no life. Living. Living means dynamic. This whole year, we

talked about revival. If you are previously a dead stone,

let's make sure you remember you're a living stone. Right?

Not static. Not static at all. And then God is

able to do exceedingly, more abundantly through us as long

as we Remember where we are, what we are and

who we are. And as I said earlier just now,

you remember the old model? When Christ was around, it

was quite limiting actually, you think about it. Again, not

saying that it was not powerful. It's quite limiting.

Why?

Because Jesus himself was confined to a one specific geographical location,

that physical church. He primarily ministered in that region in

the Middle East. That's it. But now, through the Holy Spirit,

He has actually created a spiritual temple that consists of

all of us living, whether you are in Africa, whether

you are in North America, whether you are in Indonesia, wherever.

It doesn't matter. All those who are living, you have access,

you have influence. As I said earlier, your schools, your

pickleball clubs, whatever. The impact is so much greater than

even Jesus' influence. again, can do. I'm not downplaying what

Jesus can do, but it was limited by physical tempo.

So yeah, if you didn't catch all that, yeah, it's

more than just being an observer. Okay, let's do our part.

So the question is, how will we respond? And I'm

ending here already. Next slide I have. Rolling stones, not

rolling stones. But firstly, to keep you guys awake, all right,

let's bring it home. All right. Some of us may

need to receive Christ's gift of grace. We do not

maybe fully understand what that gift is. Some of us

may need to take a step towards belonging and serving

so that we can continuously or collectively build this spiritual temple,

which is not bound by geography or location. Or some

of us may need to draw close to him again

because that's his desire. That's why he started this whole

big plan, right? So that he can draw to cut

all the red tape. Perhaps you think I'm not qualified.

Not there yet. Maybe I don't have the experience. Some

people are like, oh, I know I cannot do this

because I have no experience. Hey, remember, let me think.

I was a graduate many years ago, meaning you're also

a graduate, right? Once you graduate, what happens after you

finish your degree? You have the qualification to be an accountant,

to be an engineer, etc. But maybe there's still much

to learn. You have no experience yet. But you can

go on with that qualification to do. And church is

a little bit like that as well. Yeah, you download

a little bit, but the experience comes from the learning,

the trying, the serving. It's a life of service. You

can't get experience by just, you know, don't get me wrong,

reading the word is good, but yeah, serve. Do your part.

You gain experience by participating. You train or you learn

on the job. Parents as well, you know. You can

read all you want. I'm still learning. After, you know,

I've got a teenager now, 15. Still learning. Right? Just participate.

What I'm trying to say is that you do not

need to know everything before you take the first step.

Take that first step. Of course, there'll be guidance, there'll

be training, there'll be growth along the way. There will

be different ones that will support you to grow in

that maturity, yes. But ultimately, you have to want to

step forward. Right? Remember, we're not trying to earn a

place in God's house. That's why you're compelled to do it.

You want to do it because you have been given access.

You've been given that grace first. The price is already paid, guys.

It's like waltzing in with a free... You know, free

box seats on a big plan. You just got to

revive yourself. Remember you're a royal priesthood. Remember you're a

living stone. I'm done, guys. Done. The ball is on

your court.

Really.

I'm going to invite the band to come up right now.

But yeah, just remember you are His chosen people. Chosen.

Will you choose is the question here. Take up that priesthood.

Learn to live in His household. First, let me just

extend this invitation. If you've never, ever received Jesus in

your life before, Maybe perhaps this is your first time

hearing all this, whoa, you know, what does this mean?

What does it mean I'm good enough for God? The

good news is Jesus already done, completed. It's perfect, right?

He died for our sins. He rose again, rebuilt everything again.

He also offered forgiveness. the liberty, the gift is already

given to you. But maybe perhaps you have not responded

and say, yes, I want to wholeheartedly trust Him. If

that's you, hey, I've got good news for you. Today

can be the day. All it takes is just an

honest prayer.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

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is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.