Believing in Jesus Really Matters Dr. Steve Walker

Transcription

1 May 3, 2015 Believing in Jesus Really Matters Dr. Steve Walker Amazing worship today. It was awesome to see Matt get baptized. Here, we're celebrating this week, five years of our community ministry with the Food Bank. We just want to keep doing a better job at rejoicing at what God is accomplishing through us as a church. You saw some faces connected to the Food Bank. Let me connect some numbers for you, because I know some of you love numbers. This will bless you, I hope. I need you to know that over the last five years, we've had 18,633 volunteer hours come through the Food Bank. That's a lot of you serving a lot of hours, and I'm so grateful for that. We have had 18,268 visits to the Food Bank from the community, and that's a lot of people in the community who are being affected by this ministry over the last five years. Now what's really cool about that number is that just represents the number of people who actually walked through the door of our Food Bank, but they represent, in many cases, a spouse and children who are at home, who we're actually helping. So when you add all the family members and individuals connected to those who come through the doors, we have impacted 61,169 people in the last five years. That is an amazing accomplishment. Praise God. Now the best number of all is, over the last five years, 122 people have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior through the Food Bank ministry. Let me just tell you something. They don't just come and accept Jesus, but we have an amazing discipleship program that's designed just for them when they're here, so we're discipling them. Many of them are coming through and we're seeing them baptized on Sunday mornings. Many of this 122 have come to the membership class and have started attending. They came looking for food, and they found Jesus, got baptized, found a church family, and they're in the church, they're serving, and it's a joy to watch that whole process happen. Check this out. Over the last five years, you have donated or brought to the church 922,086 pounds of food. That's a boatload of food, right there, that we have brought through the doors of this church through our food drives throughout the year. Now here's the cool number: 895,694 pounds, to the pound, out of 922,000, have been handed out. Canyon Hills Community Church 1

2 I want to tell you we are closing in on one million pounds of food. We are going to hit that target easily by the end of this year, and I think we should give God praise one more time for what he's doing through this ministry. Thank you to all of you who bring the food, donate the food, and volunteer. I want you to hear and see it is pleasing to God and a blessing to many. Let's get our Bibles in our laps now and open to 1 Peter, chapter 2. Let's just remember 1 Peter is written by the great apostle Peter. He did some amazing things in Scripture, but we also know Peter was real. He was a real person. He messed up. I said last week that several of his sins have been plastered all over Scripture for all of eternity, for all to see. Yet that's what we love about Peter. He's real. He struggled in his faith. He doubted. He wondered if Jesus was worth following. He was confused about some things Jesus was saying. So we relate to that a little bit, for sure. That's who's writing 1 Peter. Peter is also writing to some real people, some people who are followers of Jesus. He's writing this letter, they're struggling, suffering, and being persecuted. They're scattered all over the place. They're losing their jobs. It is really tough to be a Christian in this day, in this place. Peter writes this letter. I read it as just a giant encouragement. It's like a counseling letter coming from a compassionate man who understands that they probably are struggling with their faith, because life is really hard for them right now. I don't know how many of you have had really hard times in life, but most likely, a good percentage of us in this room have. It's nice, it's comforting to turn to Scripture knowing it's written by people who understand that and it's written to people who are going through tough times, in many places of the Word, and so we open it confidently. If you were here last week, you'll remember the main idea of the passage right above this, from Peter, was that God doesn't expect us, while we're living in this life, anyway, to reach perfection. Yet all over Scripture, we see that God's Word expects us to be growing, maturing in our faith, and changing. That is absolutely true. The problem is a lot of Christians in the church are suffering from what I called last week a serious spiritual development disorder. That's when a Christian comes to Christ but they're kind of stuck now in spiritual infancy or toddlerhood. They started growing really fast at first, maybe, but they haven't grown for a long time, and so they're stuck. They're not maturing. They're not growing up. One of the things we learn from Peter about that is if we're ever going to keep growing and maturing in our faith, then he calls us to continually be putting away sin, renouncing the sin that is in our life. We can't expect to grow up in our faith and mature in Christ and know the deeper joys of being a follower of Jesus if we're ignoring our sins, those places in our lives that are contrary or in contradiction to God's will for our lives. Canyon Hills Community Church 2

3 We can't be growing. It's a spiritual impossibility. So Peter says, "Listen. Don't forget. Even when life is tough, it is opportunity to take a look inward, repent, and renounce the sins God is showing us are in our lives." Yet he doesn't leave us with just renouncing our sin. Last week, he told us once we do that, then we continually long or crave for the pure spiritual milk of God's Word. You replace the sin with knowing what God has for you in its place. That is the only cure for the spiritual development disorder, and it's what fuels us. It's what gets us excited about God's grace again. Renouncing sin, craving his word, keep growing. Peter is going to continue in that line of encouragement today, but he's going to take us a little deeper. He's going to give us several reasons why believing in Jesus really matters, why it can really, really make a difference. If your Bibles are open, we're at 1 Peter, chapter 2. Let's stand for the reading of his Word. We're going to pick it up in verse 4, right where we left off last week. "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual 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 offense.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do." Father in heaven, we ask, in the name of your risen Son Jesus, and in the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would make these words come alive. God, show us again why believing in Jesus really matters. I pray, God, for those in this room who are struggling in their faith today, who might just feel distant from you, who are questioning whether or not you know them, whether or not you care about them, or whether or not you could possibly still love them. I pray, God, that all of that today would be cleared up and comforted by your Word. God, have your way today. Speak to us. Change us. Empower us. Encourage us, God, as we listen to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Peter wants to give us several reasons why believing in Jesus really makes a difference. Let me see if we can pull them out of this passage for us. Remember, Peter is compassionate. He loves these people. He knew we would be reading it, and it's meant by God to lift us up today. 1. We can come to Jesus every day. In fact, we must come to him every day. Not just on the day we accepted him as our Lord and Savior, not just on Sundays when we come to church, but every other day, Monday through Saturday. That's consistent with what Jesus taught in Luke, chapter Canyon Hills Community Church 3

4 9. You'll remember these familiar words. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Daily That's exactly what Peter is getting at here in verse 4. He writes, if you look closely, "As you come to him " Included in the present tense of this phrase right here is the idea of continually coming to him. Peter is saying, "Keep coming to him. As you keep coming to him every day, even when you're doubting, even when you're scared, even when you're unsure about the future Keep coming to him. Even when you're confused or hurting, and especially even when you've messed things up, keep coming to him every day." That's what our Christian life is about. It's a continuous and daily walk to Jesus for the grace and strength we need to be faithful, and to resist the temptations to sin. We come to Jesus every day and we preach the gospel to ourselves. We remember. We remind ourselves of what he has done for us. I think that's what Peter wants us to do here. As you keep coming to him, remember what he has done for you on the cross. Remember that Jesus lived a sinless life, making himself the only perfectly pure and acceptable sacrifice for our sin. Remember he died in our place, offering his death in exchange for our life, offering his righteousness in exchange for our sin, offering it to God. Remember he redeemed us from death and condemnation, offering us justification before God by faith in him. Remember he has conquered death for us by his resurrection. Remember he has made access to God permanent and forever through him. So Peter is saying here, to you and me today, "Keep coming to Jesus." Yet he gives us some reminders about why we come to Jesus. There are several important things about Jesus that should move us and motivate us to keep coming to him every day. I want you to look at these things. First of all, he says, "As you come to him, a living stone " The application of that is you keep coming to him because he is unmovable and unchanging. Now you'll remember last week, in verse 3, Peter referred to Jesus as our spiritual food. In verse 3, right above verse 4, Peter quotes Psalm 34 and he says, " if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." We were encouraged to feed on the words of Jesus last week, and I think Jesus would be perfectly okay with that, because Jesus referred to himself as the living water, as the daily bread, the food for our souls. So Jesus would be perfectly okay with how Peter wants us to relate to him. Today, in verse 4, Peter says he's the living stone. Some of your Bibles say the "rock." Jesus would be absolutely okay with that as well, because all over in the Old Testament Prophets, they used the idea of a rock or stone as a messianic title for God's coming Messiah. That's what Peter is doing. Canyon Hills Community Church 4

5 He's reminding us of who Jesus is. He is the unmovable, unchanging Messiah, and we can depend on him for every ounce of comfort, hope, love, forgiveness, and peace we don't have and can't create in our own strength. Jesus is our source of emotional and spiritual stability, especially when life feels like we're standing in quicksand. "Keep coming to him," he says. I love what the psalmist prayed in Psalm 91. I want to encourage us for this to become our daily anthem. The psalmist wrote, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'" Now stare at those words for a moment. What would happen if every day, we got up, and when we put our feet on the ground, we declared, we came right to Jesus right away, our unmovable and unchanging Messiah, and we said to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust"? What if that's how we started every day, coming to him with that declaration? I want to give you a little homework today. I want to encourage you to get a 3x5 card and write out that declaration of Psalm 91. Write it out on a 3x5 card and put it right on top of your clock radio, so when that alarm goes off and you hit the snooze button for the fifteenth time and you finally drag your carcass out of bed like I do every morning Have I ever told you how much I hate mornings? I don't know if I've told you that before. When you finally get up and put your feet on the ground, grab that 3x5 card tomorrow and make that declaration for your day. Come to him every day, because he is unmovable, he is unchanging, and he is the source of everything we're going to need for that day. Amen? 2. Jesus is not the people's choice. A very peculiar thought here, but if you look at verse 4 "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men " It's kind of a weird twist to an encouraging passage. It's like, "Hey, come to Jesus every day. He is the unmovable, unchanging Rock. By the way, nobody likes him." Where did that come from? Why is that thought in there? Here's why. I think Peter is gently reminding us and warning us that not everyone in our life is going to agree that Jesus can be our Rock, so if you're needing the approval of people in your life, don't come to Jesus. You'll never be a part of the cool kids' club. Peter is kind of tugging on the robes of the prophets (again, Isaiah), which he'll refer to several more times in this passage. He's wanting us to remember that we know God's Messiah would ultimately be rejected by mankind, especially the Jewish people, but not limited to the Jewish people, and Jesus would endure many sorrows. Peter is just reminding us, "Keep coming to him. He's your Rock, but listen. Not everyone is going to agree with this. It's going to be tough to do this, but we shouldn't be discouraged by the fact that so many people hate Jesus." In fact, Jesus told us if they hated him, they're certainly going to hate us too, so don't let the unbelievers in your life wear you down. Don't let them intimidate you or tempt you to turn to worldly ways in order to cope with the struggles in your life. You come to Jesus. That's right. Canyon Hills Community Church 5

6 Not very many people are going to agree with you or go with you to Jesus, but you go, because he's the living stone. I love how the writer of Hebrews kind of talks about this same idea. He says, to us, "Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." Just remember Jesus absolutely knows what it feels like to be hated, rejected, and betrayed. You come to him. He knows. He sees. He loves you. He understands. You come to him. Immovable, unchanging, rejected by men Peter isn't done telling us about Jesus. 3. Jesus is God's chosen one. "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen " See, Jesus is not some made-up religious superhero to whom naïve Christians just tend to cling, and he's not just some different version of the same old religious leader types. That's what people love to do with Jesus, don't they? They love to say, "Yeah, Jesus! He's cool. I like a lot of things he did and said, but you know, I like Buddha, Muhammad, and Gandhi," and they have a whole list of people to whom they tend to look up to or admire, and they just throw Jesus in with the list. Peter says, "Don't let that nonsense cause you to doubt coming to Jesus. God has chosen him, and that makes him different from all others. That make him different from you and me, and that makes him different from all those other supposed religious leader types everyone likes to compare Jesus to. He is God's chosen one." Let's let the writer of Hebrews, once again, encourage us with that thought. "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our [forefathers] by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." This is all Jesus here. "After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs." Peter is reminding us, as well as the writer of Hebrews, that Jesus is different. He is God's chosen one. God has appointed him the heir of the universe. God created the universe through him, and he is seated, right now, at the right hand of God, in his presence, so Peter says, "You come to him. You come to him every day. He is the chosen one of God, and he is the only way to God and the only way to live forever, so you keep coming to him, especially when life feels like it's falling apart." But Peter is not done bragging about Jesus yet. Canyon Hills Community Church 6

7 4. Jesus is the precious one. Peter is telling us Jesus is not only the chosen one, but he's God's precious one. He says, " come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious " Now I chose to separate those two. I didn't want to lump them together. I like both emphases here. By God raising Jesus from the dead, we can see Jesus' value to God and God's choice of him, and that should cause us to love and trust Jesus even more, because we see who Jesus is in the heart of God. You see, our dependency on Jesus doesn't end on the day of our salvation; it begins. His love and compassion for us doesn't end with the day we were rescued from God's wrath and fury and hell. No, it all begins there. That's where Jesus' compassion starts in our lives. That's why Jesus said these familiar words. Look at these words. You'll remember them right way. In Matthew 11, Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." So Jesus says, "Come to me " Peter says, "As you come to him " Keep coming to Jesus. It's a daily privilege of renewed power and hope. It must be, if believing in him is going to make any difference in our lives. He is alive, and he is well. He is God's chosen and precious one, unmovable and unchangeable, so keep coming to him. Have you heard me say that yet? Keep coming to him. Have you gotten that message yet? When you go to lunch today and they ask you, "What did your preacher talk about?" you can say, "He kept telling me to keep coming to Jesus every day." That's the message, and if you get that this morning, you have what Peter wants you to hear. You have the encouragement. Yet Peter isn't done encouraging us yet. He gives us another reason for believing in Jesus, and why it makes a difference, and why it can and should make a difference every day. 5. In Jesus, we are a living temple of God. When you go to verse 5, you'll notice this is an obvious reference to the Jewish temple. In verse 5, he says, " you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." What in the world is all this about? Spiritual houses, living stones, being built up, priesthood, sacrifices What is he talking about here? Again, it's an obvious reference to what they would be familiar with, the Jewish temple. He's reminding us that the presence of God on earth now is no longer localized to an address of a temple made by man. God's presence is not limited to a geographical location anymore. That has now been replaced by his indwelling of believers in Jesus. You are a living, walking, breathing temple of God. We see that in 1 Corinthians 6, don't we? "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?" We see that Peter is definitely talking to us as individuals. He's saying, "You're like living stones. You are a dwelling place for God on earth." Canyon Hills Community Church 7

8 Yet I think Peter is not focusing on us as individuals here. I believe his focus is on the corporate application for Christians. He is saying, "As we come to Jesus, the living stone, we are all being built up together into a spiritual house. God is building one house out of all of us. He's not building a bunch of individual houses, but together, he is building something unique and special." In order to kind of figure that out a little bit more, you have to move your eyes down. We're going to move ahead to verse 6 a little early. He turns to Scripture to get us to understand this. He says, "For it stands in Scripture: 'Behold '" This is God speaking. "I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious " Peter turns to Isaiah, chapter 28, verse 16, where the Messiah is described as God's foundation or chief cornerstone. Again, Jesus is God's carefully chosen and precious stone. Now this makes a lot of sense in their time and day, when Peter wrote this, and if you've done any construction work, you totally get this imagery. The cornerstone of any huge or beautiful structure was by far the most costly and important part of the whole building. It had to be perfect, and in many cases, depending on how large the buildings were in those days, it would take over a year just to make one cornerstone in a building. Archeologists, in their digs, have located cornerstones in these huge, beautiful edifices in those days that were 69 feet long, 13 feet thick, and 12 feet high. That is one solid stone, chipped and carved out of a mountain. You could imagine the effort that took. When they finally got that stone they thought was ready for the corner of the building, it had to be rigorously inspected, and then it would be perfectly placed. All the walls of that whole building would be tied to this one stone. Peter is taking that Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah 28 and saying God has carefully and perfectly set forth Jesus in Jerusalem. That's the Zion talked about there in verse 6. He has set forth Jesus in Jerusalem as the foundation stone of the new and eternal temple. He's saying to you and me now that believing in Jesus really does matter, because we are united and joined to Jesus, God's cornerstone, by believing in him. Just as importantly, we are belonging to and united to each other as God's building us up into a spiritual dwelling. Together, we are becoming the church, the building of God. I hope you're sitting here saying right now, "Why is that important again? Okay, I get Jesus the cornerstone. We're living stones. We're attached to him. I get that. Why does that make a difference now? I mean, I get it. We're going to heaven. It's eternity. We're God's." If Peter would have just stopped there, we'd be going, "Okay, the whole Old Testament connection was cool, but tomorrow I have to get up. I have to face life again. I have to go to a job (possibly) that is just difficult. I have issues. Tell me, how does this help me?" I hope you're asking that, because Peter answers it. Look back. Verse 5: " you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house " Why? " to be a holy priesthood " Canyon Hills Community Church 8

9 That's the first reason. It's important because we are now all God's priests. It means every Christian has immediate access to God. We can serve him and know him personally. We can minister to others who are hurting. We have something to give that pleases God, and through Jesus, our worship and our serving him are acceptable. Why is that so huge? Here's why. It's because in practically every other religion in the world, there is no personal relationship or contact with God. I believe in every other world religion outside of Christianity, you must go through someone else in order to get to God. In some cases, it's human priests or the like. Sometimes it's man-made altars and shrines. Many times, it's religious rituals that can even seem crazy and demonic. Many times, getting to God means we have to commit suicide or perform self-inflicted harm, like starvation or other self-imposed suffering, to appease our guilt, to appease an angry God Even after all that, there's no guarantee, there's no assurance of God's grace, mercy, and love. We just hope if we do these crazy things, somehow, God is going to notice, and when we die, and there we are with whoever he is, we'll be okay. That's the only hope outside of Jesus. We are a royal, holy priesthood to the God of the universe, which means we have direct access to him in Christ. Yet he doesn't stop there. Do you want to know why all this is so important? We're " a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus " Now we can actually worship God, sacrifice to God, and love God in a way that's a blessing to God. All that other strange stuff that world religions are doing doesn't please our God. It doesn't bless our God, no. So how do we worship God? How do we bless God? Well, let me give you several ways, just really quick as kind of a side note. The first way we bless and please God is through our faith and trust in God. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that it's absolutely impossible to please God without faith, but " whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." We know one of the things we do that is a huge blessing to our huge God is when we trust him, believe in his promises, and surrender to him. We know for a fact that blesses God. It's acceptable to God when we trust him. Secondly, another way we bless God in acceptable ways is through our tithes and our offerings. Paul helps us understand this. When he writes to the Philippians, who gave their offerings to his work, he said, "I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied. The gifts you sent are a fragrant offering " Here it is. " a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." That's why this whole living temple into which we are being built up together makes such a difference. Together, we please God by giving to God's work. Paul just encourages us more. He says, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Supporting the work of the gospel, both here first and ultimately to the ends of the earth, is a blessing and acceptable sacrifice to God. Canyon Hills Community Church 9

10 I just have to commend many of you here this morning. You'll remember that every March or so, we have our Global Outreach emphasis, where we take a couple of Sundays and just remember how much God loves the world. He loves you, he loves me, and he loves Bothell, Woodinville, Lynnwood, Bellevue, and all the places we come from, but he loves the world as well. We remind ourselves of what God is doing around the world. This year, at our Global Outreach Emphasis Week, about a month ago, I challenged all of us to increase our giving to world gospel work through our church. Now here at Canyon Hills, we give over and above our tithes. Our tithes are to fund the work of ministry right here in our own community. Then we give over and above that to spread the gospel to as many people as we can. I am here to tell you that since March, six weeks ago, our giving to missions has doubled, and that pumps me up. Yet do you know whom it pumps up more? Him. It is acceptable and pleasing to sacrifice and worship God that way. I want to encourage many more of you to get on that wagon. Thirdly, we please and sacrifice to God through our sexual purity. Paul says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." When we fight against all the sexual insanity of our culture and we live a sexually moral life, we are worshiping God. We are worshiping God with the very bodies he has given us, and we are honoring sexual relationships within the confines and safety of the covenant of marriage, and that is worshiping God as well. Fourthly, we can please God through our praise and worship. You may be thinking, "Okay, Captain Obvious. I know that," but it's clear in Scripture. "Through him, then " Who's the "him," there? Jesus. Through our being connected, tied, and joined together with Jesus, the chief cornerstone, " let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." That's why we come on Sundays. We don't get here late, because we don't want to miss the worship and sacrifice that pleases God. So we sing, because God is blessed as we declare and acknowledge his name. That's why, this Friday night, we're having another Night of Worship. We're just going to get together this Friday night, right here in this room, for unhurried, uncluttered worship and prayer, and we're going to keep growing and praising God so we can please him more. Fifthly, our good works are acceptable and pleasing to God. Colossians, chapter 1, verse 10: " so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work " When you volunteer, when you use your gifts, when you get involved and you're volunteering in the Children's Ministry or in our Special Needs Ministry on Sunday mornings, or you're serving as a greeter or an usher or in an amazing ministry out in the parking lot, helping people get out of here with their hair in their heads When you're doing those things, when you're leading a Life Group, whatever it is you're doing, when you're coming in here during the week and vacuuming or stuffing these chairs with pens, Canyon Hills Community Church 10

11 or whatever it is you're doing, it's pleasing to God. It is a sacrifice of praise that God receives in a glorious way. Sixthly, in that same verse in Colossians, chapter 1, growing in our knowledge of God is acceptable and pleasing to him. God loves to reveal more and more of himself to us, so as we seek him and we learn about him, God is joyful and blessed by that desire. Together, we are a living temple, a holy priesthood making sacrifices of praise and worship that are acceptable and pleasing to God. 6. We can't lose, believing in Jesus. We can't lose. I love this. In verse 6, we get back to it. "For it stands in Scripture: 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him '" Who's the "him," there? It's the chosen cornerstone, the one who is precious. It is Jesus. " whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." I absolutely love this. The point here is that if we trust in Jesus, God's cornerstone, we will not be disappointed. The stone will not prove faulty. If you build your life on this cornerstone, this rock, your life will not crumble in the storm. You may get knocked around a bit, but like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, "We might be afflicted in many different ways, but we're not crushed. We may get perplexed and confused at what life is throwing at us, but we're not driven to despair. We may get persecuted, but God will never forsake us. We may get struck down, but we can never be destroyed, because we are tied to the living cornerstone. Peter reminds us that God will never be ashamed of us. Do you want to know why believing in Jesus makes a difference? It's because you can know God will never be ashamed of you again. You can know that. Some of you need to hear this, this morning. Some of you are feeling the weight of failure in your lives. Some of you are feeling the weight of discouragement, or maybe it's doubt. You may have some fears. You may be saying to yourself, "I don't even know if God is out there anymore. I'm not sure if he hears me or sees me. Everything in me is upside down and in turmoil." I'm here to tell you Peter is encouraging us today, "You come to Jesus because God is never ashamed of you, even in the midst of the questions, fears, and doubts." Let me say this as well. Even when you blew it again, for the hundredth time, come to him. Keep coming to him. God is not ashamed of you. He sees you covered in the blood of his Son, and he will never turn his back on you. Believing in Jesus makes a difference, because you can't lose. Yet Peter doesn't leave that dangling by itself. He tells us one more reason why it makes a difference. 7. We can't win if we reject Jesus. We can't. He finishes this amazing good news with the contrast to the reality of not coming to Jesus. It's the negative side of unbelief. He quotes Psalm 118 at the end of verse 7. He says, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone " Canyon Hills Community Church 11

12 He's saying not believing in Jesus is like rejecting the stone God has laid as the cornerstone. God sends his perfect Son to the be the main stone in the building of his church, of his people, and some do not trust him. Some will reject him, but Peter quotes Isaiah 8 in verse 8, there, and in essence is portraying all those who don't believe in Jesus and continue to reject him as their Messiah as those who are stumbling and tripping over the Rock. They kick their foot against God's cornerstone, because God will not remove him. He's right there, and although they reject him, Jesus isn't going anywhere. Take that a step farther. Let me let you listen to my favorite When I need clarification on the power of Scripture, there are some people I check into to just see what they thought about that. One of those men in my life is John Piper. I've never met the guy, but he's a preacher out of Minnesota. Some of you have read his books and listened to him. I love this guy, and this is what he said about this idea right here, this stumbling block, this tripping over Jesus, this rejecting Jesus. He says, "Human unbelief does not frustrate or defeat the ultimate purposes of God. If God plans for Jesus to be the chief corner stone, humans can betray him, desert him, deny him, mock him spit on him crown him with thorns crucify him, and bury him but they cannot stop him from being what God destined him to be, the Living Corner Stone of a great and glorious people." That's why we come to him. We can't lose, believing in him, and we will never win, rejecting him. I think Peter is just wanting to assure all of us that all the atheists and agnostics in the world cannot win. In fact, the book of Revelation tells us they've already lost; they just don't know it yet. The living stone has been put in place, in the place of honor and glory forever and ever, as the chief cornerstone. A person can reject him, ignore him, and mock him their whole life, but he is still God's chosen and precious one, and one day, the Bible says, every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. You're either going to do that as a glorious worshiper and lover of Jesus, or you're going to do it like Judas, you're going to do it as a betrayer, but you will do it. You can't win. Look at the last half of verse 8. "They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do." These are those who reject Jesus. This is a shocking statement. I think Peter wants to leave no doubt in the minds of those who proudly and stubbornly refuse to follow and believe in Jesus. These people are tempted to brag that somehow they have chosen their own destiny. They'll say things or think things like, "I'll show God I have the final say and ultimate say of my life. God, if you're there, this whole Jesus thing is a great idea for those Christian types, but do you know what? He's just not my thing. I'll do my thing, and when I stand before you, we'll work it out." Canyon Hills Community Church 12

13 Peter says, "No, you won't. No, you won't at all." God is going to say, "My plans are not your plans. My ways are not your ways," and you'll discover that you never, ever had the last say with God. This is sobering, and this is where my theology of the sovereignty of God connects to Scripture. "They stumble because they disobey the word " They reject the living Word, Jesus. " as they were destined to do." Peter is telling us even unbelievers fulfill God's appointments. Mark this, though. It is your choice to reject Jesus, and that is very real and very crucial, but no mere human can stop the ultimate purposes of God, not by belief or unbelief, so the person who rejects Jesus all the way to their grave, and ultimately to hell, is accountable for their sin of unbelief. They will never be able to stand in the judgment and say, in the presence of God, they blame God for their unbelief, not at all. It's not God's fault. The evil desires of their hearts were carried out just as they chose to. Peter is saying God cannot be defeated. He triumphs even in the rejection of his Son. He wins because it's his glory that's at stake, and he never, ever leaves his glory up to us. So believe in Jesus. Come to him every day. You are a living temple with direct access to God through him. Believing in him, you can't lose. Rejecting him, you can't win. That's good stuff, coming from the apostle Peter. He's just warming up. I can't wait till next week. Let's bow our heads. Father in heaven, I give you great praise. Humbly standing behind this sacred pulpit, God, declaring your goodness and the greatness of your Son, is sometimes too much to handle, but I pray, as we walk from this place, we will know in the depths of our being that you chose Jesus to die for us. God, I pray that every one of us today would commit to coming to him every day. I pray, God, that we would know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are never ashamed of us. I don't understand that, God, when I've been so ashamed of myself. I can only cling, God, to the truth that when you look at me and you look at the rest of us, you see the shed blood of your perfect Son. O God, you are good. Be honored, God, in this church. As we continue to lift up Jesus, draw more and more people to yourself. It's in his name we gather and in his name we pray. It's in his name we worship; it's in his name we'll come back again, amen. I want to say to any of you who have never accepted Jesus as your Savior, if you want to talk to someone about that, if you want to know what it means to surrender and give your heart to Jesus, turn from your sin, and let him save you, we have some people who will be right up here who would love to talk to you about that and give you something to go home with today. Get started in a real relationship with God through his Son. If we can pray with you about anything else in your life that just might be a real struggle right now, we'd love to pray with you about that as well. God bless you. I look so forward to being back together this Friday night at our Night of Worship. I hope you'll come. Canyon Hills Community Church 13