The Risen Cornerstone

Amen. Thank you, Emily. Well, good morning, Ripple Church. Just kidding. It's an inside joke for those who get our emails each week. I did a little April Fools and changed the name and mission and vision of our church and um it was all a joke.

But good morning, District Church. Uh once again, happy Easter. I want to welcome you again. My name is Dwayne, one of the pastors here if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet. Uh the mission of our church is to treasure Jesus and help others follow him. We keep it simple.

We keep it specific. And we don't ever change it. That's the mission. That's why we're here. That's why we exist is to treasure Jesus above all. We don't want to treasure anything else.

We want to treasure him. And then we want to help others follow him. That's the mission that he's given to the church is to make sure that we are not just keeping it to ourselves, but helping others come to know, come to follow, and come to treasure Jesus. And because of that, we have some goals. We have some lofty goals. We want to be able to send out 31 people by the end of 2030 who are taking the gospel to the unreached, who are taking the gospel into places that need more churches.

And the way that we do that is by multiplying everyone every year, everywhere. That's what we want to do. We want to multiply everyone every year, everywhere. And the way that we do that, where really where the rubber meets the road, is we do that by opening the Bible to learn and we open our lives to love. That's how we do this. That's how we make disciples.

We open the Bible to be able to see exactly what God has revealed to us in his entire redemptive plan from Genesis to Revelation. It's not just a collection of stories. It's a story that Jesus has authored and that through him his life, his death and his resurrection, everything from Genesis to Revelation is pointing to this person. This person who we measure time by this person who more books have been written than any other person in history. Jesus is the reason why we're here today. And so I've got one big question that I want to ask you that I want you to answer by the end.

And this question is for every single person in this room. Do you accept Jesus or do you reject him? Do you reject Jesus or do you accept Jesus? That's the question I want everyone to think about and know the answer before you leave today. Even if you already know the answer, you're like, I accept Jesus. I accept him every single day.

He is my greatest treasure. like I don't want to go a day without him. And if you're on the other side of the aisle, I'm here out of politeness for my friend who won't stop asking me to come to church with them. I want you to have an answer, an honest answer to this question because the famous author C. Lewis who was once an atheist who became a Christian famously said if this story is true if Christianity is true then it is of infinite importance and if it's false it's of no importance but what it cannot be is moderately important. You cannot be indifferent to this message.

You cannot be indifferent to the person of Jesus. You can't be here and say, "Well, that's good for you. That's good for others. I'm just not going to think about it. Tim Keller, who pastored in Manhattan for three decades, in the same vein, he once said, "If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said." If he rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said.

And if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? Again, Easter is the Sunday that commemorates the greatest event of all time, the resurrection of Jesus. You may not have ever thought about the legitimacy of that claim. But again, biblical testimony, which is not just one book authored by one person. It's authored by more than 40 people over the span of 1600 years on the course of three different continents um with three different languages. and it doesn't contradict itself.

Instead, there's over 40,000 cross references pointing to the fact that this whole thing is authored by one person who inspired all these 40 authors to tell one story. And so, the Bible is testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. In addition, there's eyewitness testimony. over 500 people saw the risen Jesus that he appeared to. In addition to that, even non-biblical first century Jewish historians and sources all say that Jesus was a man, that he died to death by Roman crucifixion and the tomb that was sealed became empty. They don't know what to do with that.

Again, unsolved mystery in their minds. But even the historians who didn't believe in Jesus could not deny at the very least he was crucified, died, and somehow his movement did not die with him. It multiplied. It went viral before viral was a thing. And his body was never found. And for the Christian, we know what happened.

But for the unbelieving world, it's the greatest unsolved mystery. And so what I want you to do, I want you to think about that question because whether you want to or not, you have to answer it. You have to answer the question. Do you accept Jesus or reject Jesus? Or to put it another way, Bla1 Pascal, who's a French mathematician, theologian, I that's a guy you want to sit around a fire with at some point. He once said this, "You must wager.

It's not optional. you are embarked. In other words, you're already in the game. You don't get to opt out. Not choosing is still choosing. But before you answer it, here's what I'm praying for.

I'm praying for the Holy Spirit to do a work on us today. I'm praying the Holy Spirit does a work on us today. I don't have to convince you of anything. That's actually not my job. My job is to just tell the story. and then pray that the work of God does something in your heart and minds this morning.

The way God reveals himself to us is through the preaching of his word. 1 Corinthians 1:20 through25 lets us in on a little secret. You don't have to turn there. It'll be on the screens. He says, "Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" In other words, what he's saying there is we as humans love to be wise in our own eyes. We love to come up with our own debates. We love to come up with our own ideologies, our own world views. We love to we love to think that we are incredibly intelligent and smart and wise.

And here he's saying, where are they? Where is the wisdom of the world? Here's how God works. Verse 21 says, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, what we think is right, how we try to make sense of the world, how we develop it through evolutionary theories." He says, "No, no, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach." Because what we preach sounds foolish to the world.

How could you believe in a God who would step out of heaven into earth in the form of a baby in a manger? That's foolish. No god would do that. No god would humble themselves. No god would publicly display themselves in humility naked on a cross. No god would do that.

Christianity is the only religion in all of the world that centers its whole claim on the humility of its God. None others do that. So it's foolish to the world around us. But it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs. In other words, they want to see Jesus be more like David Blaine.

Do some magic for me. Do some miracles for me. And the Greeks seek wisdom. That's why when he gets to Athens, Paul gets to Athens and they go up on the Aropagus and they just talk about all these different types of theories. Essentially, it's it's it's it's our Instagram, it's our Tik Tok reels, it's YouTube, it's it's all of the things that we talk about in order to try to sound good. It's TED talks.

The Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. We preach Good Friday, which is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. In other words, we preach the story of Jesus. That sounds crazy and yet God uses it.

The power of God uses it to save those who believe in it. So, you have to do something with Jesus when we preach him. You have to do something with him. You'll either conclude Jesus is a stumbling block or foolish or he's the power of God who can forgive you of your sins and redeem you. redeem you. And speaking of a stumbling block, I want you to turn with me to our main passage for today.

1 Peter chapter 2. As a church, we're walking through the letter that Peter wrote to exiled Christians who were spread all throughout Asia Minor, the Roman Empire. and he's writing to them in order to encourage them to hang on to Jesus, to treasure Jesus and help others around you find him as well. And I want you to see how this plays out for us this morning in answering that question on whether or not you reject Jesus or accept him. Starting in verse one of chapter 2, he says this. So, and I want you just to either underline, highlight, make a mental note of that word.

So, because it's not like just like so, so it's like it's it's so it's there for a reason. Okay? Just make a mental note of that. 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 by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. What I want to do here for a minute with these three verses is just do a little bit of self-reflection here.

I want to unpack this with an honest question. I'm like I said, I'm gonna ask you a lot of questions today. Here's the first question I want you to ask. What do you not like about yourself? What do you not like about yourself? It's rhetorical.

You don't have to answer it out loud. You can think about it in your mind. But I want to give you at least three categories of some things that you probably don't like about yourself. The first category is here. He mentions malice. Malice here is the motive here is that it's evil intention.

That there's evil intention within us. Evil intention is similar to Satan's motive in John 10:10 where he says, "The thief comes only." And when I read this verse, I read it in my uh my natural dialect which is southern. And so it's hard for me to annunciate steal, kill, and destroy because that's how it comes out in my head. But the thief comes to only steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

This motive of malice is similar to Satan's. And here's the thing is he's telling us that we need to put this away, which means it's within us. We're all born with malice in us where we want to steal, we want to kill, we want to destroy. When things don't go our way, we don't like it. And when someone else has something that we don't, we don't like it. Which is why I think he jumps into these two other categories.

Deceit, hypocrisy, and envy and slander. When it comes to deceit and hypocrisy, we got to realize that we're lying to ourselves to our we're lying to ourselves in two different ways. One, you're pretending you're something you are not. You're pretending that you are something you are not. For example, we pretend we're good people. And Romans 3:23 is very, very important.

All have fallen short of the glory of God. It goes on to say, there's no one good. So if you ever meet someone who says, I'm a good person, just simply say, I've only ever known of one good person, and it ain't you. There's only one good person who's ever lived, and his name is Jesus Christ. because he's the only person who's ever lived without any malice, without any deceit, without any hypocrisy. He's the only person who's ever thought every thought with pure and holy motive.

He's never had one wrong action. He's never done one wrong deed. He's never done one white lie. When you ask him, "Does this look good on me?" He's only ever spoken truth. And so we pretend we're something that we're not.

Here's the other thing. We pretend you're not something you are. We say things like, "I'm not a liar. I just lie sometimes." That means you're a liar. A broken clock that is right twice a day is still a broken clock.

And that's just the reality. So when it comes to deceit and hypocrisy, we pretend you're something you are not. And we also pretend you're not something you are either way. You're wrong, right? You're deceitful. You're lying to yourself.

No one lies to yourself more than you do. Period. And then when it's not focusing on yourself and you start thinking about others, that's where envy and slander come into play. We pretend that others uh we deserve what others have. I work harder than them. Why didn't I get the promotion?

They didn't deserve it. And that's why we determine that they don't deserve what they have. So envy is when we want something that they have and we believe we deserved it and that they don't. And that's when we move into slander is we start talking bad about them and saying they shouldn't get to have this because we're better than them. At the end of the day, it's all revealing the fact that there's malice present. There's malice present.

And he's calling for us to put it away, to cast it away. All of us struggle with some of those, if not all of those, if we're actually honest with ourselves. If we're honest with ourselves. And if right now you're thinking about the person next to you, that good thing you're not as bad as them, then you just slandered them in your heart. And so, welcome to the club. And unfortunately, the prognosis from the doctor is not good for us, for anyone who lands in these categories.

And if you're wondering whether or not you do, you do. The prognosis from the doctor is that we're sick, we're dying, and we're going to hell. You're like, I thought this was Easter, man. And you got to know the bad news before you know the good news. You got to know the bad news before you know the good news. That's why it's called good news.

In order for it to be good, you got to know the bad. And here's the reality. Galatians 5:1 19-21 puts it this way. The works of the flesh, which the flesh is representing as who you are. The works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and if he missed anything, things like these big category there.

He says, "I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. They're sick. And if you're thinking, fine, if I don't get the kingdom of God here on earth, then what do I get? Well, Romans 6:23 is very clear that the wages, so like wages, like you know, if you work a job, you work and then you receive wages for it. The wages of these things that we do, that we participate in, what we receive for it is death. according to Romans 6:23 is death.

So, you're sick and you're dying. Well, death ain't so bad. I'll still go to some version of paradise that I have made up in my mind. Well, I want you to hold that thought for just a second because Matthew 24:50-51 describes it this way. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. Remember the malice, deceit and hypocrites.

This is that category of people. In that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. All right, maybe I don't want to go to that place then. I don't want to go where there's weeping and nashing of teeth after being cut into pieces. What place is this that he's talking about? Matthew 23:33, he says this.

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Right now in our culture, people are trying to erase hell as fast as they possibly can. And I think it's more because they don't want to accept the reality that it exists. And so it's just better to live in ignorance and denial that it actually is a place that God will judge and send people who do not put away all this malice. All right, pastor. I'm sick, dying, and going to hell.

Then what's the remedy, right? What's the good news? Well, here's what I want to do with a remedy. I want to give you two comparisons. I want to compare the world's remedy and then I want to give you God's remedy. Because here's the reality is that in our culture, everyone realizes that something's wrong and are trying to fix it.

Everyone's trying to do that. Everyone's trying to fix it. The difference is is that there's a secular way to do it and then there's God's way of doing it. And I want to provide for you the secular way so that we can begin to see the foolishness of it even though they claim that it's wise and then start to see the wisdom of God that the world claims to be foolish. First thing I want you to see here in the world's remedy is self-improvement. Do more, think more, feel more.

Self-improvement. This is pragmatism, intellectualism, and emotionalism. The assumption is that you're not fundamentally broken. The problem is is that you're just undeveloped. So, you just need to be smarter. You need to do more.

And you need to feel more. You need to raise your EQ, as they call it. The problem is it puts the burden back on the same person who's already the problem. They're the problem and it's putting a greater burden on them to fix their problem. I want to give it an analogy as we kind of walk through this an illustration. Imagine a river flowing like a rushing river and on one side is heaven and on the other side is you and your whole life is you trying to swim across the river but you can't swim.

you can't swim. And so as you're trying to work your way in fixing the problem to get to the other side, you're drowning. And what secular culture via self-improvement would try is telling you, hey, just swim harder, right? Do more. Pragmatism, swim harder. Or intellectualism.

Hey, here's a YouTube video you can watch while you're drowning or emotionalism while you're drowning. They'll just say, "H how does it make you feel?" Right? How does it make you feel? It doesn't feel great. And if that doesn't work, they're like, "Okay, well then there's the different issue that we'll jump into.

Self-acceptance. You need to love yourself as you are. You're enough. Don't be so hard on yourself. The assumption here is that the real issue isn't sin. It's just low self-esteem.

You just need to boost yourself up a little bit. You need a little pep talk. You need a little encouragement in your own self. And so what you need to do, the reason why you're drowning is because you haven't accepted yourself. So secular culture would tell you while you are drowning, hey, you were born to swim, right? So believe in yourself.

Don't think about what you can't do. Think about what you can do. Well, it's really hard to think I can swim while I'm proving I can't. But let me try it anyway. Self-acceptance is not going to work. It's going to fall short, too.

So, then we move into self-expression. Be your authentic self. Speak your truth. You do you. The assumption here is that freedom comes from expressing what's inside, not changing it. The problem is what's inside is broken.

Expressing it just magnifies the damage. It magnifies the damage. And so, coming back to our swimmer, secular culture would say, as soon as you embrace and express your real identity, you'll then be able to swim. If I'm drowning, it's because what I am is what's wrong, and I need to be something that can swim. So, you start asking questions. Well, what swims?

A fish. A fish swims. Well, my doctor ascribed to me at birth that I was a human, but really, I'm a fish. He was wrong. So, I just need to be a fish and then I'll be able to swim. That's stupid.

According to the Yale School of Public Health, a medical journal was published on the cross comparison of the mental state and health of transgender versus cisgender individuals. Cisgender being those who are born male and female and stay that way. In this large population study, transgender individuals experience dramatically higher rates of mental health struggles than cisgender individuals. Six times higher for anxiety and depression, three times higher for medication use, and six times higher in suicide attempts. In other words, the swimmer can think they them are a fish, but they are still drowning. They're still drowning.

It changes nothing. And so if that doesn't work, then we move into blameshifting. Blameshifting. We see this in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve did this. Your upbringing is the problem.

Your child trauma is to blame. Society because they're rich, you're poor. That's the blame. We we shift the blame to others. And when we come back to our swimmers still fighting for their life, still drowning, the reason why they are drowning is not their problem, but it's everyone else's fault. Well, my dad never taught me how to swim.

I watched Jaws as a child and developed a fear of large bodies of water. I never learned how to swim because other kids signed up for swim lessons. It's a victim mentality. And even right now like in our psychological world they actually have a term for this called virtuous victim signaling. It involves using one status as a victim whether real, exaggerated or fabricated to acquire moral elitism where the individual claims superior moral standing because of their suffering. So in other words, the drowning swimmer makes an identity out of their inability to swim in order to promote that they are better than those who can swim.

All it actually does is make your death more public and more popular. That's it. The last one here that the world does is coping mechanisms. And if we're honest, this one's probably the one that we all land in the most. Coping mechanisms, entertainment, success, busyiness, scrolling, whatever, escapism to numb the soul. The assumption is that if you can't fix it, find a way to ignore it.

If you can't fix it, find a way to ignore it. Find a way to enjoy it or just simply find a way to disbelieve that it's true. This is like when the engine starts making a knocking sound in your car. You just turn the radio up. Fix the problem. Our poor swimmer.

This guy, this is the guy who says in denial, "I'm not drowning in despair. Throw me a six-ack of beer while I'm going under." in depravity. Maybe he's watching Titanic while he's drowning. What you need to know at the end of the day is there's no self-improvement, no self-acceptance, no self-expression, no shifting blame, and no escapism will help you swim and get to the other side. None of it's going to work.

So then, what's the remedy? What saves the swimmer from drowning? What's God's remedy? I want you to see in Matthew 14:25-30, there's this famous story of Jesus walking on water in the midst of a storm where he's sent his disciples in a boat ahead. He's goes off to the side to pray for a little bit and as they're going across the waters, they hit a massive storm. So massive that fishermen in the boat are terrified for their lives.

Like this is their thing and they're terrified for their lives. Verse 25 says, ' In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and they said, "It's a ghost." And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take heart. It is I.

Do not be afraid." And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water." And Jesus said to him, "Come." And so Peter got out of the boat and he walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me." In that moment, Peter does not try the secular tactics.

He doesn't do, think, or feel his way back on track to Jesus. He doesn't stop and think, "You are Peter and on this rock rock sink. That's not going to work." He doesn't even think, "I'm a fisherman. I've literally built my career on the water." He doesn't shift blame.

Jesus, you put me in this situation. He doesn't self-medicate. Hey Jesus, you think you could turn all this into wine so I can get drunk on the way down? He does none of those things. He cries out one thing. Lord, save me.

Lord, save me. And that same Peter in our main text of First Peter 2 says, "The remedy for what you don't like about yourself, the remedy for what's broken in your life, the remedy for why you are drowning is this. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. Notice Peter's remedy is not to put away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, but to also long for the pure spiritual milk. It's not enough to just stop. Behavioral modification never works.

Right now, everyone's getting their lawnmowers out, right? We're starting to mow the grass. and you're realizing because you didn't fertilize that there's a lot of weeds and grass and when you mow it for that first day or two, it all looks good, but then the weeds start coming back as well and they start exposing. That's behavioral modification. You actually never get to the root of the problem if all you're doing is just putting it away. You also have to realize that there's something else that has to heal you, that has to forgive you, that has to root out the weeds of your life.

You have to do something else that remedies the soul other than just avoiding sin because that's not going to work. A murderer who is put behind bars is still a murderer who just doesn't have the opportunity anymore. Something has to happen in the heart. And so, listen to this. The remedy is to taste that the Lord is good. When you've exhausted all the options the world has to offer, you come to the end of your rope and you cry out, "Lord, save me.

Lord, save me." That's the remedy. Now, remember the so at the beginning, so put away all malice. Peter says so and if for those who have already tasted that the Lord is good. The so is similar to the word therefore and it's always connected to what came before it. And I believe Peter is connecting this passage to chapter one which talks about the new birth in Christ.

If you don't have the new birth in Christ, you'll never be able to put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. You'll never long for the pure spiritual milk like an infant if you've not been born again. If you've not had an actual new birth. And that's why he says in 1 Peter 1:3, this is huge. This may be the most important thing you hear today. Here's why Peter said so.

1 Peter 1:3 says this, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ." So he's already directing attention to Jesus according to his great mercy, not yours, not your mercy, not the government's mercy. When you're drowning in the river, the government's not going to bail you out. No stimulus checks going to help you in that situation. No tax refund's going to get you to the other side. No politicians going to jump in with you and move you to the other side.

None of that's going to happen according to his great mercy. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope. Remember what we were? We were sick, dying, and going to hell. Now a living hope reveals that we are healthy and living towards a future inheritance through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There's your happy Easter.

All of this is only possible because of exactly what Jesus Christ did 2,000 years ago. Period. And so if you ask the question, how do I get in on that? How do I be one of the ones that's considered born again? Well, first, it's according to God's great mercy. And secondly, you cry out, "Lord, save me.

Lord, save me." Peter is clear in chapter 1:es 8-9 where he says, "Though you have not seen him," and that's all of us in this room right now. "You've not seen Jesus. You've not seen him." Peter's writing here to basically second generation disciples who were not present at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So they're going based on the testimony of the apostles and the letters that are being written about them or from them that are being sent out to the churches.

So they didn't walk with Jesus. They didn't see him get buried. They didn't see him resurrect on the third day. They didn't see him when he appeared to 500 witnesses during his 40 days before he ascended. They didn't even get to see the ascension of Jesus when he went up into heaven. So, who he's writing to are people who are in the exact same boat as every single one of us in this room.

We've not seen him yet. You believe in him and you rejoice with joy that is inexpressable and filled with glory. obtaining. And so look at this again, verses 8-9. Though you have not seen him, you love him. You treasure Jesus.

And though you do not now see him, you believe in him. And when you love him and believe in him, what that does is it obtains the outcome of faith, which is the salvation of your souls, the salvation of your souls. So it doesn't come through any of the secular things. You don't have to read your Bible a certain amount of times in order to accept Jesus. You don't have to pray a certain amount of hours in order to accept Jesus. Jesus did all the work for you.

That's why when he's on the cross, there's a word that he says, it's a phrase to telly. And what that means is it's finished. It is finished. All of the work necessary for your salvation is done. And then by his great mercy, he applies it to your life. It would be like if you want to say, "I want to retire, but I need $50 million in order to do so."

Jesus comes to you and says, "I'm going to deposit $50 million into your account." We all want to get to the other side of whatever the heaven and paradise is going to be like. And Jesus is saying, "I'm going to deposit to your account the ability to swim so that you can actually get to the other side." He's the swimmer that rescues us when we cry out, "Lord, save me." So because of the great mercy of God and because you love him and believe in him and who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for you in saving you from your drowning in your sin, put away all malice. Stop being what you hate about yourself and start being the person God designed you to be.

And here's where I want to start landing the plane on this. I want to ask you another question. Why was Jesus willing to die? Why was Jesus willing to die? Because all other world religions don't have this in their system. I want you to look back at verses 4 through8 of our main passage, 1 Peter 2.

Peter says, "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 that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone that is 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 for them, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. You can see here why I'm saying you have to make a decision on whether or not you reject Jesus or accept Jesus. Because here's the two realities.

For the ones who accept Jesus or those who believe in him and for them it is honor. And for those who reject him, the stone becomes for them a stumbling block. And here's what this means for us. Jesus had to be the rejected stone. It says as you come to him, verse four, a living stone that was rejected by men. Jesus was rejected.

He was mocked. He was beaten. He was crucified. The world looked at him and said, "He's not the one that we want. He's not the king that we were looking for. He's not the political giant that we were wanting to vote in.

He's not worth building your life on. They didn't accept him. They rejected him. And instead of praising him, they inflicted pain on him. But in that in that, God was working a play behind the scenes the people were not seeing or expecting. I want to give you a little bit of theology 101 here.

Jesus had to be rejected by men so that God would not reject you. That's what's going on on Good Friday. Jesus had to be rejected by men so that God could use that instrument of pain and torture on Jesus in order to put your sins on him and then use all of that evil and malice that was towards Jesus as the wrath of God towards your sin so that God does not reject you as a sinner but instead receives you as a saint because your penalty Your death has been paid in full. Which is why Jesus says, "It is finished. It is finished." Jesus had to be rejected.

In other words, Jesus drowned so that you could swim. He drowned so that you could swim. And here's the second thing I want you to see in this. Jesus's death was not final. It was not final. Here's what they didn't realize.

You can reject the stone. You can roll the stone in front of a tomb, but you cannot stop the stone God has chosen. You can't stop the stone that God has chosen. You can try and define Jesus all you want. Doesn't make you right. People wanted to say like Jesus is my homeboy.

Jesus is just a good teacher. Jesus was a good rabbi, good man 2,000 years ago. You can make up all your different versions of Jesus as you want. He was a good prophet. Doesn't make you right. They defined Jesus how they wanted to define Jesus.

And they thought they put an end to him. But death could not hold him. And he rose from the grave because Jesus is God. Jesus is God. He's God. And therefore, we cannot look at him with indifference.

We got to have an answer for who he is because he is the son of God. He's the author of life and death. Jesus is Lord and Christ is king. He is the chief shepherd of God's sheep and he's the head of the church. He's the cornerstone of the household of God. He's the risen stone.

Which is the third thing I want you to see here in verse six. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone that is chosen and precious. He is the resin stone that becomes the cornerstone of the church. A cornerstone is is literally the most important stone in the construction of a building. It sets the direction for what the rest of the building is going to be shaped after. It holds everything together.

If the cornerstone is off, everything else is off. And Jesus being the cornerstone of the church means he's the first fruit of it. Essentially, he's the first one resurrected. And so, as we are drowning in our sin because he defeated sin and Satan and death and evil, we then get to be resurrected out of our drowning because he was resurrected. And he applies the exact same power to anybody who calls on him as Lord and declares, "Lord, save me. Save me.

Help me. I need you. As you see here in verse five, you yourselves like living stones are being built up. Jesus didn't just rise to prove a point. He rose to build a people for his own possession. This is what's amazing is that he your relationship with Jesus is not just my personal relationship.

It's not a relationship with Jesus 10 minutes a day. It's not just behind the scenes. It's not just something that you attach to your bio on your Instagram page. Your relationship with Jesus is a public relationship that's a part of a community of faith. If you don't profess Jesus before man, he's not going to profess you before God. It's public and it shapes everything about your life because you're a part of a community, a church.

You're no longer isolated stones laying in the dirt. You are living stones being built up into a spiritual house. And you want to know why it references a spiritual house simple similar to a temple or a synagogue? Is because that's where the presence of God dwells. The presence of God continues to dwell here on earth through the church of Jesus Christ. That's where he is.

That's where his presence, that's where his power is. That's where his transforming presence that goes into a community actually shapes it. And so if you're not a part of a church, what you're choosing to do is declare, I don't want to be a part of the presence of God. I don't want to be a part of where the power is. I don't want to be a part of the community that is being shaped and transformed by Jesus Christ every single day. I don't want to be a part of the ones who are actually being rescued from their drowning.

and getting to the other side. And so there's only two responses that we have in regards to this. The honor is for those who believe, but for those who do not believe, it becomes a stone of stumbling. The same Jesus is either your foundation or he's your obstacle. You'll build your life on him or you'll end up just tripping over him on the way to hell. That's the reality.

That's why I say you have to have an answer to the question, do you reject Jesus or do you accept Jesus? Because if you accept Jesus, you're saying, "Lord, save me." And he will. He will He will grab you. He will lift you up just like he did Peter in that water. And he will save you.

And he will bring you to the other side. He seals you in the Holy Spirit. He protects you in regards to that. and he will satisfy your soul. All those other self-help things that we're trying to to to do in order to make our lives better, this is why we say we treasure Jesus here because Jesus is our greatest treasure. He's our greatest treasure.

There is nothing else in the world like him. Nothing else in the world like him. And because of that, you're not trying to expect your spouse to be a savior for you. You're not trying to expect your work to be a savior for you. You're not trying to expect your children to be little saviors for you because none of that those things were ever meant to be in the place of God. They will literally fall under the weight of your worship every single time.

And so when you treasure Jesus, what it actually does is it aligns you with the person that he's created you to be. And then you start to get to focus outwardly towards the interest of others. And you get to become the man that God created you to be. You get to be the husband that you that he created you to be. You get to be the father that he created you to be. And you get to do those things because Jesus is your greatest treasure.

And he has a specific design for you. You don't find identity in those things. You're those things because God designed you that way. But ultimately you are a child of his because when he saves you, he doesn't just pardon you of your sin and forgive you. He adopts you and brings you home and brings you home. And the same thing he said to Jesus when he bapti when he was baptized.

This is my son in whom I'm well pleased is the same thing he says to us. Well done. I've been pleased with you from the moment you said, "Lord, save me. Lord, save me." And so, I want you to honestly answer that question right now. Every person in this room, I want you to answer that question.

Do you reject Jesus or do you accept Jesus? Because he is who he says he is and he did what he said he did. And it's foolishness to reject it. It's wisdom of God and the power of God to accept it. Let's bow our heads in a room like this. I I absolutely believe there are people in the there are people here today who may have known about Jesus, may have even gone to church before, may have they may know the bullet points about who Jesus is, but the reality is is that they've actually their lives do not reflect the fact that they actually follow him.

And right now you might even there might even be a little bit of embarrassment in your heart that how could I claim to be a Christian yet my life actually doesn't reflect it at all. And what I'm telling you right now is God is not beating you over the head. The Bible's not beating you over the head. That feeling that you're feeling is the conviction of the Holy Spirit to say right now cry out, "Lord, save me. Lord save me. I'm a sinner and I need forgiveness.

And God is so good and so gracious and so merciful that he will forgive you if you simply just call out on him right now. Lord, save me. If there's anyone in the room right now who feels the Holy Spirit working on their hearts and want to ask him, "Lord, save me." Would you lift up your hand right now, please? Just lift up your hand and say, "Lord, I need you, Jesus. I need you to save me.

I'm embarrassed that I've not been following you. trusting in you, giving my whole life to you, surrendering to you. If that is you and you just still could not be able to make that choice today, it doesn't mean when you walk out of this place that it's too late either. I pray the Holy Spirit keeps working on your heart, keeps convicting that mind and that heart to be able to see that, man, I've got to stop trying to swim myself. I've got to trust Jesus to get me to the other side and to save me. Father, we love you so much.

We're so thankful for your son Jesus and the life that he lived that we could not live. The death that he died in our place for our sins and that he rose from the grave three days later defeating death, defeating sin, defeating Satan, defeating evil, paying the penalty in our place, satisfying the wrath of God. do our sins. Thank you, Jesus, for all that you have accomplished for us. Thank you that the work is finished. May we rest in the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's in his name we pray. Amen.