1 Peter 2:4–10 (ESV)
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 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.” 7 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,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 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 into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
My house is full of Legos. By full I mean, we have all the Legos we will ever need. We have loose Legos in crates, we have special Legos in organizational bins, and even completed Lego sets sitting on shelves for display. And then of course, we have stray Legos that randomly pop up around the house. These, of course, are the Legos that give all the other Legos a bad rap. Not only are they treacherous for our feet, they also represent the aspect of Legos that drives me nuts.
Maybe I’m the only one, but I’m going to invite you to follow my thinking here. You see, no one seems to buy random Legos anymore. Instead,, Legos are almost exclusively sold in sets. The cost of Lego sets ranges from expensive $$, to ridiculous $$$, to insane $$$$. And what tends to happen in our house is Dad helps put the Lego sets together. The completed Lego sets are then admired and played with for a few hours. Inevitably, in the midst of play, the Legos fall apart, pieces are lost, and the remains get thrown into the crates and bins with all the other Lego set casualties. Sadly, our creative investment is diluted as the pieces from the new special set flood the bin and blend with all the others. To make ourselves feel better, we keep the instructions “just in case” we want to dig through the thousands of other Legos to put the set back together again someday. And of course, that “someday” never comes.
But here’s the deal, that stray Lego represents so much more to me than a foot bruise and the craziness mentioned above. It also represents the time I got to spend with my son putting it together. It represents his face when we completed the set it belongs to. Listen, my house is full of Legos. Those Legos absolutely drive me crazy. But they also remind me of how much I love my sons.
You know, in the text above, Peter calls us ‘Living Stones.” In a way we are like spiritual Lego blocks that God is constructing into an incredible Spiritual house. And unlike my house, the Lord has no stray blocks. He loves every piece and knows exactly where it goes. And as the text says, He’s assembling and growing us to be a people who praise His name and proclaim His excellencies. Take a look at the passage above and as you do, I’d love for you to notice how God invites us to build with Him. And this week we will dig into His word to study the directions of how it’s done.
Here’s the worship set to help you prepare as well!
Building the Church with you,
Jerry Lingenfelter
Senior Pastor |
