"Your Real Identity"

You have a purpose and an identity. You are a part of a great spiritual house that we call "the church." The cornerstone of this spiritual house is Christ himself, but each of us has a place and a purpose. Let's start being what we were created to be.

Your Real Identity

(1 Pet 2:4-12)

Intro:

A.  I loved Lincoln Logs when I was growing up.  They were wonderful.  I would make forts for my army men and just have a lot of fun.  Wanting to relive my childhood we bought Lincoln Logs when our kids were little.  In fact I have one here.  How well do you think this single piece could be at being a Lincoln Log House?  I know it is a simple answer; it can’t be a house when it is simply one log.  Now if I get a bunch of Lincoln Logs I can build a house or fort.  But to get started, I need one piece that will be my foundation piece.  One piece that will determine what is straight.  In most buildings it would be the cornerstone.  That stone set in the corner, or the capstone, that last stone set in the arch that locks all the other stones in place.  Pennsylvania is called the “keystone” state, the state that locks all the others into place.

B.  The Bible uses several metaphors to describe the church.  We are sometimes talked about as a family.  In fact Peter, talks about how we are to be like newborn babes craving spiritual milk.  In the church family we have lots of brothers and sisters in the faith.  The church sometimes talked about as a kingdom were we are the citizens with Jesus ruling as our king and to whom we are under subjection.  The church is sometimes talked about as a body emphasizing both unity and diversity of each person, how we are all parts of the body and Jesus is the head.  But today, I want to start by looking at the church as a building.  Not a Lincoln Log house made of wood, but a spiritual house where Jesus is both the cornerstone and the capstone.

I.  A Spiritual House (The New Temple)

A.  I would love to have seen what we call Solomon’s Temple.  As you read about it in the OT it must have been absolutely beautiful.  But what you and I are as the church today is the new temple of God.  We are the living stones being built into a spiritual house or temple.  It a house not made by human hands, but as living stones we are a place and people of sacrifice.  No one stone makes the house, but together, with Jesus as a cornerstone we are God’s house.

B.  It is not a new metaphor.  Paul uses a similar wording in Eph. 2:19-22.  In a day and age of where everyone is an island and we communicate by text, computer or phone the idea of a church being a spiritual house, a home, a place where you and I need each other and together gain an even greater glory of the Holy Spirit is foreign.  But that is exactly what Peter and Paul are teaching us.  Each person makes this house a better place.  We are the holy temple in whom the Spirit of God dwells.

C.  Do you know your value to this church?  Do you live out what God desires to do in and through you?  We are not just any building, we a spiritual building, a temple.  The concept would take Jews back to dwelling place of God.  It would take Gentiles back to the temple of Diana or other pagan gods.  But, as Stephen said in Acts 7:48, God does not dwell in temples made with hands.   Rather, he dwells in living stones, a spiritual house.  Collectively we are greater than the sum of our parts.  If that were not the case we would not be called to come together as God’s house and worship him.  Paul said that he planted, Apollos watered but God gave the increase.  In that same passage he called the church in Corinth “God’s building.”  What I want you to see is the joint effort of Paul, Apollos and others in the building of God’s spiritual house.

D.  Paul wrote in I Cor 3:10-11, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  Now listen again to our text in 1 Pet. 2:6-8.

E.  Let me ask us, “What are we building?”  Each week we come together as children of God.  Each week we enter the doors of this physical building to become a spiritual house of God.  Jesus is the cornerstone of this house.  For us a Christians he is everything.  We know him as our savior and our king.  Jesus was chosen as precious and through our belief in him we will not be put to shame.  But there are others, who are not a part of this spiritual building that you and I a part of, who reject Jesus.  They refuse to make him the Lord of their life but they are disobedient.  But I come back to my question.  What are we building?  How important to you is the person who sits on the other side of building today?  Is he or she valuable?

II.  A Purpose for Living

A.  The Taj Mahal is regarded as one of the most beautiful buildings in all the world. What you may not know is how the building of that structure came about. It was begun after the death of the wife of emperor Shah Jahan. He was devastated at her death and resolved to honor her by constructing a temple that would serve as her tomb. Her coffin was placed in the center of a large parcel of land, and construction of the temple began around it. No expense would be spared to make her final resting place magnificent.
B.  This great building is nothing more than a tomb.  We are not a tomb, but living stones built into a living house where serve a living God and brethren, we are far more beautiful than the Taj Mahal.  But we have a danger of treating each other and the church as a whole like a dead tomb.  Instead Peter calls us to a great purpose.  Listen as we close with verses 9-10.

C.  We don’t exist so that people can say, “What a great building this is”. We don’t even exist so that people can say, “What a great bunch of people this is.” We exist so that people can look at us and say, “What a great God!”  “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1a).

D.  Worship is not a part of our life, it is our life.  It is not about church services, it is about serving wholeheartedly.  Everything we do is about praise and glory to God.  That is what this house is about.  It is about you and me being thankful that God has brought us together so that we can do more than you or I could do alone.  It is about proclaiming the freedom that comes when a person realizes they have been chosen, called out darkness into a marvelous light.  It about knowing mercy, when the sin of our lives had cut us off from the blessings of God.  It is about belong to instead of being alone.

Conclusion:

A.  Would you like to be a part of this house?  It is God’s invitation, not mine.  He is calling, you can answer.  He is giving you the opportunity to have a purpose instead of just exist.  Will you come and accept his invitation?  If so, let us welcome you as we stand and sing.