The Church Of Saint Who Series

“The Church of Saint Who”

PRAYER FOR CHURCH BODY

Now as we are praying. I want to ask us also to pray for our church. Pray that we as a people will learn to love God with all our hearts. Lord make us desperate for You.

Pray that each of us will learn to love one another as Christ loves us.

Pray that God will create in each of our hearts a sincere love for those who have not yet embraced God’s grace and goodness. Ask God to create in each of us a love for the lost.

Pray that God will touch the hearts of those in this room who have been simply wearing a uniform of a believer but have never been transformed through a personal relationship with Christ. Pray that they will lay aside their pride and embrace Jesus today.

Pray for those who are not living in obedience to Christ, in whatever area, that God will speak to them today and give them to courage to take a step of obedience.

Pray for those who have harbored bitterness or strife for others, that God will give them the grace to forgive.

IN Jesus Name, AMEN

SERMON

A real saint, lives a life “set apart” to obey Jesus Christ. That’s the definition of a saint. As we continue this look at 1 Peter and a look at Saint Who, which is anyone who has placed their trust in Jesus Christ, I want to make sure that I clearly communicate what it means to be a saint, what is means to a Christian.

God loves you. But you are separated from God’s love by sin. There are only two options in this world.

You are either separated from God by sin.

Or

You are set apart by God to obey Jesus Christ.

You can only come to God through personally placing your faith in Jesus Christ and the merit of His sacrifice on the cross. We are not saved by out efforts, because our efforts cannot affect our true identity.

Anything else is just a uniform. It is a pretense, and sooner or later the uniform will come off, and you will stand before God either in your own sinful identity and be condemned,

Or you will Stand before God in Jesus identity and be embraced as His child.

Is your faith real, or are you just wearing a uniform that looks good on the outside but is farce on the inside.

If you are trying to obey Jesus without ever surrendering to His Lordship and embracing Him as Savior, its just a uniform.

Likewise if you are a Christian and you are trying to obey God in your own strength, trying to look the part, instead of abiding in Him and allowing His life to flow through you, you’ll be saved but your life will be one of great frustration.

Being a Christian is not something we do. Being a Christian must be who we are, and whose we are.

Turn in your bibles to 1 Peter, and we will conclude our look at the life of Saint Who, by finishing the chapter today.

Passage to explore: I Peter 2:

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.

What is a living Stone?

Try to place yourself in the world of the first century. To peer into a mystery that is as yet undiscovered. The Word describes the Church as Christ’s body. What would a living stone, or building block be in the body of Christ?

A living Stone is a Cell. Built upon the foundation of DNA the blueprint of life.

Jesus Christ is our foundation through the new birth He has given us His spiritual DNA and we are being built together in Him as His body of which He is the not on the foundation but the Head.