Voyage to Eternity
Living like You Have Arrived
1 Peter 2:1-12
Voyage to Eternity
What good is magic if it can’t save a unicorn?
What use is magic if it can’t save a unicorn? - Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
What good is saving time if it won’t help you enjoy living?
What good is money if it can’t buy you happiness?
What good is power if it won’t give you peace?
What good is fame if it won’t bring you security?
What good is magic if it can’t save a unicorn?
Here is the simple truth. God has given us everything we need to be fully and completely alive. We have all we need to be filled with joy that transcends happiness. We have all we need to feel the peace of God and the security of being his child.
So, why do we struggle so?
Maybe, just maybe, we have not been living with the right attitude.
Let’s read the counsel of an old man named Peter. Peter has been around the mulberry bush several times. He’s been in and out of more sticky thickets than just about anybody else who walked with Jesus on the streets of Jerusalem. Listen carefully to his wisdom… (read along in your Bibles)
Voyage to Eternity
“So then, rid yourselves of all evil, all lying, hypocrisy, jealousy, and evil speech. 2 As newborn babies want milk, you should want the pure and simple teaching. By it you can grow up and be saved, 3 because you have already examined and seen how good the Lord is…”
4 Come to the Lord Jesus, the “stone” a that lives. The people of the world did not want this stone, but he was the stone God chose, and he was precious. 5 You also are like living stones, so let yourselves be used to build a spiritual temple—to be holy priests who offer spiritual sacrifices to God. He will accept those sacrifices through Jesus Christ.
6 The Scripture says:
“I will put a stone in the ground in Jerusalem.
Everything will be built on this important and precious rock.
Anyone who trusts in him
will never be disappointed.” Isaiah 28:16
7 This stone is worth much to you who believe. But to the people who do not believe,
“the stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.” Psalm 118:22
8 Also, he is
“a stone that causes people to stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.” Isaiah 8:14
They stumble because they do not obey what God says, which is what God planned to happen to them.
9 But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 At one time you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. In the past you had never received mercy, but now you have received God’s mercy.
Live for God
11 Dear friends, you are like foreigners and strangers in this world. I beg you to avoid the evil things your bodies want to do that fight against your soul. 12 People who do not believe are living all around you and might say that you are doing wrong. Live such good lives that they will see the good things you do and will give glory to God on the day when Christ comes again.
Hetty Green
Have you ever heard of Hetty Green? I doubt it. She lived some years ago and was known as the witch of Wall Street because she always wore a black dress and worked in the vault of Chemical Bank in New York City
Hetty was an interesting and eccentric woman who left 100 million dollars to her two children when she died in 1916. Today that would translate to 17.5 billion dollars. Hetty died the 36th richest person ever in the United States.
Let me tell you a little about how she lived…
Hetty regularly ate cold oatmeal because it cost too much to heat it.
Hetty’s son, Ned, had his leg amputated because she took so long to get him adequate care. She was looking for a free clinic.
It is said that Hetty died in the midst of an argument over milk, she argued that skim was best because it was the cheapest.
She was wealthy but she lived like a pauper. She never enjoyed nor benefited from the riches that were hers.
A second person I heard about lived on the West Coast of America living in poverty until one day he found out that he was the only living heir to a British Nobleman. What do you think this guy did when he found out? Went to the clothing store and bought the best suit he could find, bought a 1st class ticket to London and returned to England in style!
He believed what he had been told was true and he began to live like it was true. We should do the same. And what exactly does that mean? Well! Are you ready?
Here we go…
So, then…
Two very important little words, “so, then…” Because of everything I just got done telling you… Here it is…
“Rid yourself of all evil, all lying, hypocrisy, jealousy, and evil speech…”
We are called to a different kind of living. God has given us new life and has some expectations for us…
We called to live a “good” life. God wants us to all be “good” people. It is his desire that you and I live a life of pure and simple teaching.
Before we talk about what that means let’s talk about what it does not mean.
It does not mean that we must be isolated from the world. God has not called us to be completely separated from the world. No, we are described here as foreigners and strangers IN the world.
Personally, I think that the Quakers, the shakers, the Amish, the puritans before them have all attempted to be Godly and live good pure and simple lives but have missed the point again.
Remember the magic that is useless because it can’t save a unicorn? Well, what good is a good life if you can’t save your friends?
So how do we go about the business of ridding yourself of all evil, lying, hypocrisy, jealousy, and evil speech…” .
Peter gives us a stone to build upon – one stone with several distinct characteristics.
Come to the Lord Jesus… He is…
The Foundation Stone that lives
He is the stone that lives. Can you imagine such a stone? We are to build our lives on the pattern of his life.
STOP! You didn’t hear what I said. We are so used to hearing these words we miss the message of them.
We are to pattern our lives and build them after Jesus Christ. We are to love, serve, and laugh like him.
Our pattern is not a set of rules and characteristics like that of other great men. I once read the autobiography of Ben Franklin in which he describes how he developed a list of virtues he wished to acquire. He made a book and proposed to mark in his book each time he violated or failed to live up the virtue. Each week he would focus on one and then the next week add a virtue until at the end of 13 weeks he would have a book empty of marks.
List of Virtues
1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Now Ben Franklin became a very good man. But he never overcame his faults completely. In particular he complains about struggling with order and pride.
Of Pride he said, “In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
Well, we have a better foundation to build on than a list of virtues. We have a living stone. The foundation for life – Jesus Christ, who is the pattern we follow. And here is the best part – the pieces we struggle with he overcomes for us. He makes the difference in us.
A Precious Stone of importance and value
Jesus is so much more than a layer of granite bedrock that you build tall buildings on top of. He is a gemstone. He is a rock of great value and even greater importance.
Peter describes this stone in terms of trust that is never disappointed. (Isaiah 28:16)
Yet Peter also describes this precious and important stone as one of faith that so many stumble over.
Think of Jesus as a valuable gem that is found in the wild. Unpolished, uncut, and without a setting such a stone to the uninformed, to the casual of careless is easily tossed away as shiny bauble – pretty but worthless.
So many people today see Jesus in exactly this way. Oh, he was maybe a wonderful teacher. He certainly was controversial but let me tell you he didn’t have any real value in my life.
The Cornerstone of a great spiritual temple
The corner stone was perfectly squared off stone that was carefully placed in the first corner of a building. Everything else build was measured against that stone. The horizontal and vertical levels were carefully set according to this stone.
With this as the marker all the rest of the stones are carefully laid and ultimately a great build rises from the ground. Jesus is the corner and foundation stone. The rest of us are parts and pieces of this temple.
We make up the walls, the pillars, the lintels, the doorposts, the headers, joists and beams. Every bit of the physical weight and all of the design elements of this temple ultimately rest on Jesus.
Come to the Lord Jesus… We become…
A Chosen People
We have been chosen, selected, picked out on purpose. That speaks for itself.
One of the hardest part of being a kid is picking teams and not being chosen until last or not at all. Or even worse, to be forced on one team and having everyone sigh and roll their eyes.
I know… so do many of you. In fact, we’ve all been there.
A Royal Priesthood
A priest is one who stands and intercedes in behalf of another. Attorneys are the priests of the legal system. They understand Latin phrases like, “habeas corpus”, “in camera”, “Dura lex, sed lex”, and “ipso facto”. Attorneys cross the bar and speak to the judge on our behalf. They stand with us when we are judged. The only thing they don’t do is go to jail for us when we are convicted.
In the temples it is the priest who crosses over onto holy ground and speaks to God for us. The priest intervenes for us.
Well, we don’t need a priest to enter into the holy places of God and to speak for us. We can enter in ourselves by way of a High Priest named Jesus.
We have the right to stand in presence of God.
A Holy Nation
A People for God’s own Possession
We are God’s people for his possession and his purpose. We are so much more than a club.
Do you remember the question, “What good is magic if it can’t save a unicorn?” Let me ask it again…
What good is a church if it can’t save a soul?
The goal of the Christian life is to tell others about Jesus and to live such good lives
Tell about the wonderful acts of God
Who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, who made you into a people – God’s people, and who have received mercy.
It’s not about money.
It’s not about staff.
It’s not about buildings.
It’s about people – them and us.
The Rich Family in Church
by Eddie Ogan
I’ll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12 and my older sister Darlene was 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.
By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.
When we got home we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1. We made $20 on pot holders.
That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep.
We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20 bill. As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor.
We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our mom and dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor. That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor.
I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed, I didn’t even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor! I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed.
All that week we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money.
What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor. We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day we didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope.
She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering. When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church." Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100." We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again.
I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!
