God's Great Building Project - 1 Peter 2 - 05032026

Without that profession of faith, without acknowledging who Jesus is, unless until you get to that point in your life where you acknowledge that he is the Christ, that he is the son of God, that he came to Earth, and that he put on flesh, that he lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross to pay the full atonement of your sin, that he was dead, and he was buried, and he rose again on the third day until you have that settled in your heart. There is no forgiveness. [00:06:10] (29 seconds)  #FaithForForgiveness

Who do you say that Jesus is? We came to understand, and we confessed it with our mouth that he is the Christ, the son of the living God. He is my savior. He is my lord. He died and rose again. It's at the heart of each and every profession of faith. You and I cannot gain access to god unless we acknowledge who Jesus is. It is the first step to our faith. It is the first step to our reconciliation. [00:05:30] (28 seconds)  #DeclareJesusFirst

Why is Jesus a stumbling stone? Is it because he asks us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him? Is it because he said to us, turn the other cheek, don't respond in anger? When he said to us, forgive 70 times seven, don't hold grudges, forgive the person who has hurt you. When he says, let he who has no sin cast the first stone when you very well want to be the one to throw that stone. When he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father except through me? [00:26:17] (37 seconds)  #JesusTheStumblingStone

Why living stones? Because dead stones form lifeless buildings. Regular old brick and mortar form lifeless buildings. There isn't any life in a building or in a church that is built with dead stones. There's no life, no heart, no spirit, no passion, no zeal, no devotion, and no conviction in a lifeless form, in a lifeless body. But when you have been made alive, when God's church is built with something that is living, you have quite the opposite. [00:11:18] (47 seconds)  #LivingStonesAlive

Jesus has gone to the store, and he has purchased every single piece, every single stone, every single nail, every single piece of plywood, every roll of carpet, everything that was necessary, and brought it on-site and built his church. And, of course, I'm talking about each and every one of us. Different walks of life, different personalities, different ways of doing things, different techniques, different opinions, and yet we've all been purchased by God and brought together on-site and put together to be his church. [00:17:02] (44 seconds)  #PurchasedAndPlaced

It is the foundation upon which the church of god is built. It is the Petra on which our faith is built. It comes by no other means, no other measures, nothing you could else you can do, no amount of good that you can do. There's no amount of rules that you could check off of your list. There's no amount of money that you could give. There's no buy in to this. It is a 100% absolute confession of faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. [00:06:48] (31 seconds)  #FaithNotWorksFoundation

There's a fairy tale story about Sparta where a king boasted to a visiting king about Sparta's mighty walls. And that king looked around, and he said, I don't see any mighty walls around here. And the king of Sparta pointed out his army, and he pointed at each of them, and he said, that is my wall. And in a similar way, we build up that wall. We are the living stones that comprise the walls of God's true church. [00:12:06] (36 seconds)  #WeAreGodsWall

He has fit you right into place. Some may even say, you know, I I don't belong. Some might even say, I don't deserve. Some may even say, how can it be possible that a person like me, I don't deserve this. I've I've heard this said when we were talking to men in the church about becoming deacons. I don't deserve to be a deacon. No. God puts you right into place in this church for the purpose of seeing him glorified. [00:24:19] (38 seconds)  #PlacedByGod