He's called us to—

A reading from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, verse 13 and following:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

But what about you? He asked, "Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will never overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

And then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Let's pray together.

Father, we love you and thank you for most assuredly that you are a God who reveals; that the mysteries that remain mysteries are not that they're unknowable, but that they shall forever remain unknowable until you reveal them. And the content of your word is not unknowable. We can actually know it because of who you are. You're a God who reveals truth. You're a God who reveals everything we need to know, maybe not everything we'd like to know.

And so, Father, we're thankful that that's who you are, because Jesus said to Peter, "Peter, you would have never known that had my Father not revealed it to you." He knew it before the crucifixion. He knew it before the resurrection. And so, you're that God.

And we pray this day that you would reveal to us what we need to see from that passage and from the continuing story recorded in 1 Peter.

Father, we love you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, we pray to you. Amen.

Well, it is not my goal to make you terribly uncomfortable in the first five minutes of this message, but I have a feeling that I just might. So, just, I'm fine with it, though. I really am.

Because it's not hard in 2025 to make people, you know, uncomfortable. It's very—you can do it very quickly, you know, and just start talking about the differences between people, and people get really, really uncomfortable, as if those differences don't really exist.

You know, if you ask the question, are there differences between a black person and a white person, most people will be, "Oh, hey, stop, Greg, no, no, no, there aren't." And that's just sheer stupidity. Of course, there are. And you should embrace that reality because there are such beautiful differences, and we get so uptight when it's like, "No, I don't want to talk about the differences." Well, there are there.

Now, are we both equally human beings created by the very same God? Absolutely. But it doesn't mean there aren't differences. There's wonderful differences.

Oh, my gosh, how about, are there differences between Republicans and Democrats? Would you like me to outline them for you? Right? I mean, goodness gracious.

And people get so uncomfortable with the differences that we're at a place now that we can't discuss them. All we can do is argue about them. Very, very, very few people argue about issues anymore. It's a constant assault on character and just irrational beliefs about the other side that, like, let's just embrace this truth. They're two very different political opinions, but they refuse to discuss. They don't come together and discuss, even in the areas where we completely agree.

Right? It's like, "No, I can't discuss that with you. It's just, we don't discuss politics in this house." I'm like, whatever.

Right? Is there a difference between being a follower of Christ and not a follower of Christ? Yes. Dramatic.

And I tend to think at times that is a more uncomfortable difference for followers than race and politics, because it seems to be the last thing we want to talk about.

Because we are under the impression, for some reason, that silence is better because it won't create all kinds of chaos and confusion. But, you know, silence in the race categories, it is. It creates ongoing, an unnecessary uncomfortability that can be eliminated through wonderful embracement of one another, clear differences of cultures and all of that. But we're not getting there.

Obviously, the benefit of talking politically would be immeasurable. But we're not getting there. We're reaping the consequences.

But the consequences of us not being willing to speak and confront the differences leaves those who are different than us condemned to hell. And we've got to get over that discomfort. We must get over that discomfort.

Are people who know Christ different than people who don't? Are people who don't know Christ different than people who don't? Absolutely.

Is the God of Islam the God of Abraham? Absolutely not. No. Don't buy into that, okay? That is absolutely not true.

Is the God of Mormonism, the Christ of Mormonism, the same as the God and Christ of the Bible? Absolutely not. Not even remotely close, okay? And we don't have to be arrogant, we don't have to be argumentative, but we've got to be prepared.

Is the God of materialism different than the God of humility of the Bible? Absolutely. Okay?

And what Peter knew was that in his age and what was going on, the differences were unbelievably stark. And the church was paying an extremely high price.

I mean, you talk about discomfort. Wait till you see what I read from Tacitus in just a moment, the rich and incredibly competent and reliable Roman historian.

Yes, the church is different, but there's a reason why we're different, okay? And there's a purpose to our differences that if we do not muster up the courage to become a little bit more involved and vocal in those differences, the consequences are grave for us? No.

And Tacitus wrote, he was born in 56, so he's about maybe 20 years after the ascension of Christ. He is born, and then, early in his life, it's believed, probably even teenage to late teenage, early 20s, he becomes a historian. He begins to catalog the events of the Roman Empire, 25 to 35 years removed, which some people think, "Well, that's a long way," but not really, because if someone began to write today about what happened on 9-11, I think they're still very close to the events to give an accurate portrayal. We still write about World War II. We still write about the revolution, you know?

So, he was so contextually close to what had actually happened with Christ and what was going on in Rome. His writings are considered the most authoritative history of the Roman Empire ever.

And he writes this in response to the fire I spoke of week one that Nero set.

But all human efforts by Nero, all the lavish gifts of the emperor and the propitiation, these sacrificial offerings to gods that did not exist, did not banish this sinister belief that the fire was going to happen.

And he writes this in response to the fire I spoke of week one that the fire was the result of an order. He was trying to cover it up, doing everything he can to cover up the fact that he ordered the fire in order to increase his popularity.

But four out of 14 districts were the only four remaining. Like I told you, about two-thirds of the entire city was burned to the ground.

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero began to fasten the guilt upon this most exquisite class, and he inflicted these exquisite tortures on a class of hated people for their abominations.

And they were called Christians by the populace. Christos, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of the procurators, Pontius Pilate.

And a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out, not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pled guilty. Then upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, but of hatred against mankind.

Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn apart by dogs and perished, or they were nailed to crosses themselves, or some were doomed to the flames and burned to death.

And they were called Christians by the populace. And they were called Christians burned to serve as the nightly illumination when daylight had expired.

As early as the church history began, there were obvious, tremendous, stark differences. And those differences ended up in horrible circumstances.

The differences today will not so much affect us as they will affect the lost.

While we're probably not going to be dragged into court in our lifetimes, to plead guilty or not guilty, knowing the penalty of death will follow your guilty plea that you are a follower of Christ, there are still grave consequences from silence.

And Peter knew the people of Turkey, like he needed to explain what was going on because they couldn't understand why is there so much animosity? Why is there so much hatred and hostility in the world?

But what we need to understand today is we chose to be different.

You chose to be different when you accepted Christ. That was your decision, and praise God for it.

And then we are empowered to live like it. You really are different.

You've got to stop thinking that, "No, I still sin. I'm just like everybody else." No, you're not like everybody else. You're absolutely not.

Because that's what it means to be holy, to be distinctively set apart by God for a purpose, for a reason.

And we're going to see that reason today. And we're going to see that reason today.

And so Peter, in this chapter two, he's going to talk about us, then he's going to talk about them. Then he's going to talk about us, and then he's going to talk about them, laying out the differences and the purposes for why we got to understand it.

Peter writes:

As you come to him, the living stone, who is rejected by humans, but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.

So there's a great oxymoron in that Christ is the living stone, right? Stones aren't alive, but he is the living foundation of what's going on in this world.

And this, as you come to him, is this ongoing, not just the moment that you came to him, as you continue.

This is much like telling someone, as you breathe and keep on breathing, there will never be a moment that we can't, couldn't, or shouldn't come to him.

And as we continue, the people of God, to come to this living stone, he was rejected by humans.

There has been a willful decision not to have embraced him.

That immediately creates a difference between you who have accepted him and those who have willfully rejected him.

You cannot, should not deny that difference.

Chosen by God, and he's precious to God. Not like a baby where you'd be like, "Oh, isn't that precious?" Of inordinate, immeasurable value.

He can't—the difference that he can make cannot be measured.

And you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.

Now, for the Turkish environment, the people who were trying to understand the history, if you will, of this incredible God and his previous people, and now we're also his people, and how do we integrate all these things together?

Peter needed to tell them what is actually going on.

And that we're being built into something that God has been building, if you will, since Abraham.

He's been choosing a people to build a nation so that from that nation, one person would come.

And from that one person, every nation, every tribe, and every tongue would come to know the Father.

And this has always been his plan.

And this is true for us too. We're being built into something that God has been building.

And we're being built into something that God has that is very different than what the world builds.

It's a spiritual house, okay?

So, the purpose of it though, was that this spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

And when you say priesthood, and again, here's your word holy, a different set apart priest.

The priests have always been set apart, but this is a very different one, okay?

In the Old Testament, there were many Levitical priests, but ultimately, each year, one individual priest would be chosen on the Day of Atonement to go in and offer the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of Israel for that last year.

And you and I are just not very familiar with the ministry of the priesthood, okay?

If you were born and raised like I was in the Catholic faith, you have some familiarity with a priesthood.

Maybe you were Episcopalian, and there's some priesthood in that as well.

But this priesthood is of all people. We're all priests, okay?

If you're in Christ, you are much like what God did with Aaron, and what he did with the Levitical priests.

He set apart a group of people, a specific group of people, to be different in order to make a difference.

And the primary role of a priest was to stand between man and God in order to offer sacrifices on behalf of people because of the sin of the world.

And so, the priesthood is of all people. We're all priests, okay?

If you're born and raised like I was in the Catholic faith, you have some familiarity with the sins that they committed.

So, you are a go-between almost. You're a represent.

The prophets represent God before man. So, they speak. They speak to people and be like, "This is what God said. This is what God said. This is what God said."

Priests speak to God on behalf of the people.

And we have to embrace that difference because that role is so significant.

Like, who is speaking to God on behalf of the lost if it is us?

If we're not fulfilling the very distinctive, different role that God's spiritual house is being built into, then who is beckoning the mercies of God on behalf of the people you know that don't know Christ?

You don't want to have a conversation with them, and yet that's the most important thing you can do because then we can speak to God on their behalf.

We are intermediaries. We are also ambassadors that Peter said.

So, you chose to be a priest when you accepted the high priest, Jesus Christ.

And this is a role that is unbelievably significant.

It was in Peter's day, and you'll see at the end of today's message, and it absolutely is in this day.

For in the scripture, Peter says, this is from Isaiah chapter 8:

See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.

The reason I read Matthew 16 is because I believe Peter is being influenced, okay, by what Jesus said to him.

Your confession has changed you, Peter.

You're now, Peter is Petros, which means little stone, okay?

And Jesus said, "And then upon this rock," this huge stone, "I shall build my church."

So, the little rock is being built into something that is on the big rock.

And Peter just takes from Isaiah, because this is temple language, this concept into our era as well.

Now, you got to understand what a cornerstone is.

And there are cornerstones that have been uncovered and excavated that go back all the way back to somewhere between 4,500 and 5,500 years ago in Turkey.

And the cornerstone is that foundational stone that holds the greatest amount of the burden of any building, okay?

This building has four cornerstones in the corner, but it only has one cornerstone, that corner, okay?

And you got to have a cornerstone, because from there, all the other stones are laid according to where it is.

Without one cornerstone, the most solid stone, you'll never get a square wall.

It is that which you use to measure everything else you're going to do.

The cornerstone also in an engineered building like this is the primary, not the only, but the primary stone that handles building load.

So, when winds blow from the outside, the reason this roof doesn't blow off is because it's been structured in such a way that the primary effects are grounded in that cornerstone.

Also, the cornerstone helps keep the walls from blowing out if there were ever too much pressure from within.

So, it's this specific stone that holds the building load.

And it's the primary stone that holds the building load.

That takes on the burden of keeping the roof on and keeping your guts in.

You're never going to blow your top with Christ as your cornerstone, and you're not going to explode from within.

He's that to us.

And what you and I have to understand is, the world is not building on that cornerstone.

That's very different.

They're building on a cornerstone that is not that reliable.

They're building on a cornerstone that will never be able to help them build a life.

If you don't have a cornerstone, so when you're building on a cornerstone, you're not going to—

That is square in its corners.

That is measured properly.

Has the same capacities as your life.

An unsafe person does not have the capacity to handle, like we talked about in I'm Fine, the same way you do.

We don't have to worry about the pressures of this world collapsing the church.

It's never going to happen.

What did he tell Peter?

"Upon this big rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell will never prevail against it."

And he's just telling these people in Turkey who have the oldest building structure ever uncovered is in Turkey.

So, he knows they know how to build.

And what he's telling them is, you are different because your lives are being built upon that.

And here's the good news.

You'll never be put to shame.

Your life is not coming down.

The church is not going to be put to shame.

You're not going to be put to shame.

You're not going to collapse.

The pressures of this world that Peter has just, you know, is experiencing himself is not going to blow the roof off this place.

There's no amount of pressure that Rome can apply, the Romes of this world, to make the roof blow off.

Not happening.

And even if wolves in sheep's clothing come from within, you're not going to knock the walls down.

Nothing can.

And not only is that true, if you think corporately for the body of Christ, it's true for you as well.

So, the chosen, as we've discussed before, are the ones who have been chosen by God, but also choose God.

The chosen are being built into something that is on top of someone that can be fully trusted.

That is very different than any other worldview, any other methodology of trying to make life work.

It's extremely different than what you and I are doing with the body of Christ.

It's extremely different than what you and I are doing with the Bible and with the Holy Spirit.

Stop thinking it, okay?

There's a dramatic difference between the two.

Didn't Christ say that in the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7, when he said, "Those of you who put my words into practice are like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. The storms came and battered that house, but it didn't collapse."

Now, the foolish man built a very nice house as well, but the problem was, he didn't build it on the rock, he built it on the sand.

And when the storms came, it completely crushed and crashed that house into the waters.

What was the difference?

One guy didn't build a good house?

No, he built a great house.

Jesus doesn't even acknowledge any difference between the two houses.

What's the difference?

The foundation upon which we build.

And that's the difference for us.

We're building life on a very different foundation, one that can never be rocked, rattled, or ruined.

You chose that, and that's a good thing.

Now, to you who believe, the stone is, again, precious.

Now, he's going to talk about them.

It's an us and them passage.

But to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected, okay, the builders rejected it, has become the cornerstone, a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

So, here's the truth that Isaiah 8 is saying.

When you go to the rock quarry then, you know, back in Peter's day, they went and they see this massive rock.

They're like, "I'll take it for the cornerstone. That's the church."

Now, this whole group of other builders, the them builders, they went to the quarry and looked at that big cornerstone and said, "Nah, I don't want that one. We'll take this smaller one."

"No, no, dude, that's got to be—"

"Well, I don't care if it's better or not. I don't want to have to lug that sucker around and get it back there. This one's adequate."

I reject this stone. I'll take that stone.

Now, what do you think our opinion would have been if Scott Murphy and Daniel and Josh Morrison, who's sitting right over there, said to the church, "You know what? We really do know the best way to build this building is on that cornerstone. But what we think is in this corner, we're going to cut corners."

You're like, "Dude, do not reject general engineering principles and practices. It has been drawn up this way. Do it that way."

"No, no, we're going to build it anyway."

Well, then who's responsible when the building comes down?

The one who rejected the original design.

That's the world.

They look at the cornerstone of Christ.

They're like, "I ain't lugging that. I'll take that."

And guess who's doing this?

Not the farmers.

The builders.

Right?

Like, if I went in the quarry and looked at it and be like, "I don't, choose whatever one you want."

But a builder knows better, don't they?

In other words, man knows exactly what he's rejecting because the heavens declare the glory of God.

Paul says in Romans chapter one that all men are without excuse because God has made himself known to them.

So they are different.

They, they choose not to believe the complete opposite of what you did.

You chose to believe.

You looked at the two cornerstones and thought, "I think I'd rather build my life in eternity on that one rather than that one."

That is such a good choice.

It's a great choice.

But they chose not to believe.

And then they willfully chose to reject it.

And now that stone, the cornerstone becomes a stone.

Why?

Because between every other stone that's available in the quarry and you is the cornerstone.

And the only way to get to every other stone is to climb over top of the cornerstone.

And the problem is, every time somebody tries, they trip, they fumble, stumble, and they fall.

It's not like that.

You can't get around it.

You can only trip over it.

Right?

So, and you'll see what Peter's thinking.

This is not condemnatory.

This is like, "Church, church, wake up. Hey, Turkey, wake up. You are different. It's okay. It's okay."

Yeah.

But this difference is causing people their lives.

I know that was then.

That difference today is costing people their lives because we don't know.

And we're too uncomfortable with the differences to even talk about them.

Let's start with just this truth.

If you're in Christ, you are different than those who are not.

They stumble because they disobey.

Okay.

Unbelief always leads to disobedience, period.

You want to know why people disobey God?

Because they don't fully believe in who he is and what he's capable of.

That's why they do it.

We disobey.

Whoops.

Did I go too far?

Did I go backwards?

Sorry about that.

They stumble because they disobey the message, which is also what they, and this really means to be assigned for.

Okay.

And we know it's not like they were eternally assigned for this.

We know it.

How did they get assigned for disobedience?

Through their willful rejection and lack of willing to believe.

So the real difference between us and them is truly this simple.

The decision we and they have made.

The decision.

That's what separates those who are holy and those who are not.

We truly are undeniably unbelieving.

We truly are.

We truly are.

We truly are.

We truly are.

We truly are.

We truly are.

But what does God want us to do with that difference?

What is the whole point of choosing an Abraham and nobody from nowhere who brought absolutely nothing to the table and setting him apart?

What was that about?

And why Moses, the murderer, to choose him and his brother Aaron to create this Aaronic priesthood, which once they move into the promised land, it becomes the priesthood of the Levites?

Why is he doing all of that?

Why is he doing all of that?

Why is he doing—

Well, that's what Peter's getting at.

But you, you are a chosen people because we know why.

We have willingly chosen God.

We chose that cornerstone over every other possible choice.

We're a royal priesthood.

Last time it was holy.

Now we're a holy nation, God's special possession.

And this is what God's always wanted.

This wasn't just because of Christ.

This was the eternal plan of God.

This is all the way back in Deuteronomy chapter seven, probably a thousand years before Christ came.

God says to Moses to write this down, to the people of Israel:

"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

The Lord did not set his affection on you though, or choose you because you were the most numerous than all the other peoples.

For in fact, you were the fewest of all peoples.

But it was because the Lord loved you."

Hey Israel, when God looked down, he'd only say, "You know what, I need the biggest number of people because I need the biggest army. I need the most influential people on the planet."

He chose Abraham, he was a nobody up to that point.

From absolutely nowhere, who brought absolutely nothing.

He was a Canaanite worshiper, a Chaldean from Ur.

And when God looked around, he's like, "All right, who can I start this whole thing with that no matter how long this thing runs, nobody will ever have to take credit for what happens. Abraham, you bring nothing. Come on buddy, I can use you."

How did you become God's special person?

How did you become God's special person?

He loved you.

And why did he do it?

That you may declare.

He made you different to define that difference.

He made us different to make a difference.

And to be silent about that difference does not fulfill the purposes for which God made us different.

That you and I may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.

We praise him.

We praise him before people.

We declare the distinctive differences of our precious, almighty God.

We declare to people the true power of his mercy and his grace.

We define how good and almighty and self-sufficient he is.

That he's a providential God.

That he's always out ahead of us.

Always, always prepared to provide us what we need before we ever even know we need it.

The God who will never leave us nor forsake us.

That's the God we speak of.

Do we want to be argumentative?

No, don't waste your breath on arguments.

Declare who he is.

And what's funny is, I was telling the last service, I cannot remember the last time I had an, if you will, an argument or discussion with a lost person.

They don't want to argue.

They don't want to argue.

It's saved people who want to argue.

Saved people who want to argue.

People want to lay down their doctrinal stance and fight with it.

I get all kinds of, again, thankfully, it's a little slow right now.

But all kinds of crazy, like, "I don't agree with how y'all baptize."

Fine, leave us alone.

The lost don't seem to care.

Right, they don't care.

They just want to be saved and baptized.

And, you know, "Well, I fairly don't agree with your doctrinal position."

We're Calvinists.

Fine, leave me alone.

Go talk amongst yourselves.

You really think the lost care whether or not you're a Calvinist or not?

We're not here to declare the practices of the church.

We're not here to declare our doctrinal positions.

We're here to declare the praises of him.

I have strong opinions.

I know that shocks you.

But at the end of the day, it's nothing compared to my praises of him.

If a lost person wants to talk about Calvinism, all day long, I'd love to.

But that ain't ever gonna happen.

Because I say John Calvin, they're like, "Does he make jeans?"

No, that's Calvin Klein.

Oh, was it his brother?

No, it's not his brother.

He lived in the 1600s.

So, right?

See, we've got to have this willingness to simply enter into conversations when presented and declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness and into his wonderful life.

That's why we're different.

Because we have a declaration.

Once, you were nothing.

Not a people.

But now you are the people of God.

Once, you had not received mercy.

But now you have.

You realize he's talking to us again?

Like, this is what God's always wanted.

We just read it.

It's what God said to Abraham.

Read Genesis 12 this week.

Read it.

Go back to the final message from my summer series.

And I can't even remember the name of it.

Where all things begin, where it all began.

I don't even remember what the name of it is.

But it's week 12.

Listen to it.

It's all about Abraham.

And no, that's 11.

Week 12.

Listen to it.

It's all about Abraham.

No, that's 11.

Week 12 is about Babel or vice versa.

I don't know.

Just go find it.

It's there.

Okay?

And know the heart of God.

And it's even in the garden.

If he didn't want people, he wouldn't have grabbed a pile of dirt.

God has always wanted a people.

And there was a point in time when we were not a people.

But now you are the people of God.

And this had to resonate deeply with the Christians of the Turkey region.

Because they were not Jewish.

They didn't understand the nature of this God.

And we were Gentiles.

And we just, we weren't connected at all.

We were orphans.

And now you are.

Once you hadn't received mercy, but now you have.

And I do believe to the core of who I am, the reception of God's mercy should be the greatest motivation for everything we do and don't do.

Romans 12:1:

Therefore, in view of God's mercy, offer yourselves to God as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord.

This is your spiritual act of worship.

It's a view of his mercy.

The view that he cared so much, had so much compassion to offer you and me an opportunity to build a life on the one and only cornerstone.

And he did that because of his mercy.

We've got something to declare, okay?

So we are something.

Believe it, this is so hard to believe.

We are something in this world.

We are something.

We went from nothing to something in order to declare everything God has done.

We are something in order to declare everything God has done.

We are something.

We really are in order to declare God's done everything.

And you know how you became that something?

You chose to.

You chose.

So how does somebody who's still a nothing become a something?

They got to choose.

And that's why we got to declare the praises.

We got to get over the uncomfortability.

And the consequences, you know what Peter's talking about.

When they opened their mouth, they opened the lion's den.

When they opened their mouth, they lit them on fire.

And I'm not saying we need to be braver.

We just need to understand, opening your mouth always comes with uncomfortability.

There's going to be a natural tension when we want to talk about the fact that we are different people.

We really are.

We're not better, we're different.

Because we are new creations.

In Christ Jesus.

We no longer worship our creator as God.

We worship him as Father.

And if we're no different than anyone else in the world, then what an atrocity it was for God the Father to crush the Lord Jesus Christ for our iniquities.

If we could all just be the same, why'd he kill Jesus?

But we were made different because we chose to be different so that we could make a difference by declaring the praises of him.

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage against your soul.

You see, the first part of two, as it's coming to an end, Peter's talking about all those pressures on the outside that cause us to really feel the winds of this world.

But we trust that it's not ever gonna blow the roof off.

Because we know we're building on the cornerstone, the cornerstone, the cornerstone, the cornerstone.

Remember what I told you about internal pressures?

You gotta handle both in a building like this.

Those walls are longing to push out, but they won't.

Because that stress has been buried in that cornerstone.

And he's wise to know that the only war we face—I mean, it's not that we're gonna only face one war.

There's two, it's two battlefronts.

And we've got to contain that from within.

You've got to abstain.

Abstain from sinful desires because they are waging war against your soul.

And of all people to know of the consequences of blatant inconsistency, it would be Peter.

It's not hypocrisy.

It's blatant inconsistency.

And that war is waging and waging.

So what we have to do is monitor our practices by abstaining from not desire, but—

Desire is beautiful.

Every desire you have, God gave you.

It's how we fulfill that desire.

Don't fulfill your desires in sinful ways.

Do it a godly way.

Because when you do it sinfully, what's going on around you ain't nothing compared to what's going on within you.

Because you know how uncomfortable it gets to try and declare the praises of God when we are kind of willfully disobeying him in private.

And he doesn't want us destroyed by our choices because that eliminates God's purpose.

He made you different to make a difference.

So keep your eye on your soul.

Live such good lives among, among, among, among, among.

We can live a really good life in here on Sunday, but you got six days outside here and you got to live that good life among them.

There's got to be a demonstration which often precedes your opportunity for declaration.

Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits.

And hopefully they will glorify God when he visits because they've accepted Christ.

But Philippians tells us that on that day, every knee will bow, every tongue confess to the glory of the Father that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Our hope is that you take that knee now before Christ comes and force it.

He's going to bring you to your knees because he will.

And our greatest defense, our greatest offense is how we live our lives among them.

And surely you're wise enough to know that we, we, we take our shots.

It's okay.

It's okay.

The things that are said about, and I don't really care about us and about me.

It's all fine.

And, and because they like, all you got to do is say, "How about Crossland Christmas Give? Y'all do so much good."

There's very little out there.

Anybody who wants to argue with us, because we're getting ready to adopt, sponsor, we're not going to adopt 600 kids.

We're going to sponsor 600 kids again this Christmas.

And you know, we'll go out and spend thousands and you'll spend thousands of your dollars to make sure every child from the school system that we get is going to make, we're going to make sure that they experience the sense of God's love on the Christmas.

Christmas morning.

What about backpack to school?

Like I would love for somebody to go to one of the resource officers in this entire district, Warren County and Bowling Green, and say, "You know, that Crossland Community Church, you're just a bunch of self-righteous, arrogant people who think they're different."

Cause I know what they're going to say.

"Well, they make a whole lot more difference in this school than you do. A whole lot more difference."

How about curbside?

I was called a racist about three weeks ago.

I know it's funny to me too.

They don't know me.

They don't know my life.

Like I could line up easily, easily 200 former African-American athletes who played football at Western Kentucky University who would laugh so loud at that.

Right?

I no time.

Hey, when's the last time you were at Lee Point?

Well, I don't go to Lee Point.

That's my point.

Right?

When's the last time you went into a prison?

Right?

That's my point.

You're an idiot.

You know what I mean?

I don't even blink when you hear that.

What about what you've done this year?

We opened a fully licensed counseling center.

You don't care about the homeless.

You don't care about mental illness.

Oh, wait a minute.

The church spent $150,000 to get it off the ground.

Your money, you're giving.

150 grand to make sure we could create an environment where theology and psychology integrate into creating true wellness.

What did we do post COVID?

We opened a daycare.

Oh, I'm telling you, man.

It is the hardest thing we ever did as a church.

And you know what?

You spent that year, 150 grand.

We couldn't even budget it.

We didn't even know.

We thought we got this.

Yeah.

In November, we're like, we got nothing.

But you know what?

The next year, we were under 30.

This year, we'll more than break even.

We might be a thousand dollars or two on the plus side.

All because I swore for 18 years.

We would never do it.

Never, never do it.

But post COVID we watched and so many stayed closed.

And we had had 80 plus children every day of the school teachers who still had to be in school and the kids couldn't be.

So, we brought them in here of every age.

And then we opened it up to anybody who was a healthcare provider at the two hospitals.

We were packed with kids of all ages.

It was like, it was crazy.

And you know, the old way, how do I get it, you know?

Older kids coming in, like the little ones are fine, but the old kids coming in with their Mac, their, well, it's not a MacBook, Google Chromebook or something.

Say, "Greg, I need you to help me do my homework online."

I'm like, "Yeah, I got this."

Oh my good God.

How do you, like, can we do this with a pencil?

He's like, "No, you got to do it right here."

I'm like, "Well, how do you get on?"

He said, "Well, I was hoping you'd tell me."

I said, "Dude, this is truly the blind leading the blind."

But Greg, I'm in sixth grade.

I'm like, "Yeah, I know. I got a doctorate. I don't know what to tell you."

And then the second grader comes over and he's like, "You do this."

I'm like, "Holy cow."

Hello.

I would encourage you go talk to the principal at Greenwood High School.

He'll never forget what you did.

I was with him about a month ago and he came to tears when he thought back about when they were closing their daycare, where were they going to send those 25 families?

And before we had ever opened it up to anybody, he was talking to one of our elders, Andy Barker.

Andy called me and said, "Andy, tell him we'll take every one of them."

He's like, "Are you sure?"

I said, "Andy, we'll take every one of them."

He's like, "You're going to give first dibs to our members, aren't you?"

No, actually we're not.

Listen, it's given us an opportunity to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness and into the light.

Do you know what finally brought the Roman empire to its knees?

Two global plagues.

Listen to this.

He made it a powerful witness that converted many people to faith, ultimately contributing to Christianity's rise and influence.

During the Antonine Plague from 165 to 180, it is thought that it was smallpox.

Christians, by contrast to the famous physician, Galen, he fled the capital.

Many Roman families abandoned their own sick relatives and threw them to the streets so that they would die.

But Christians, they followed the golden rule and their theology of love organized systems of care that provided basic needs like food and water to the sick, whether they were Christians or not.

And the plague of Cyprian in 251, this was a viral hemorrhaging disease, and people were bleeding to death on the inside.

Over a thousand people a day, in Rome, were bleeding to death, just in the city of Rome, bleeding to death every day from this horrible plague.

Thousands and thousands died daily.

Pagans once again fled their loved ones in terror.

The widespread death left many people without hope in the traditional gods they had previously worshipped.

But church leaders like Bishop Cyprian of Carthage called on the church to stay in the city and care for all the city's sick and even burying the dead, including the abandoned pagans who were thrown to the street.

Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria described how many Christians actually died themselves after selflessly nursing the afflicted.

And in less than a hundred years, the entire empire of Rome would be changed.

We've got to be prepared to see more, more, more.

Even better than what the beginning of the world seemed to be.

Now, let's do just this.

Okay, it's a big job.

Let's do this.

Let's get to it.

Let's get to this!

Let's go.

Let's go.

Let's go.

For we pray.

Father, we pray that you will show us a blessing in our future.

We pray that you will give us the power to be the Son will be in us.

We pray that you will show us a blessing in our future.

You have all the power.

As I say, show us a blessing, and we will show you a blessing.

That we're trying to declare to.

They're the reason we exist.

We're not trying to declare that we're right and they're wrong.

We're trying to declare that you're good, that you're righteous, that you're always receiving people who come with a repentant heart.

We're declaring your mercies.

We're praising who you are, not who we are.

And I hope that they heard about who you are today, that you want them to be different so that then they can make a difference.

So I pray for them.

I hope and know, Father, that we are living such good lives that one day, maybe today, someone would declare Jesus Christ as Lord.

For is that not the reason we do what we do?

We love you and thank you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

And all of God's people said, Amen.

Let's give God a hand clap of praise in his house today.

All right, you fine people, go have a wonderful day.

May God richly bless you.

We'll see you again next week.

Subject: Built on the Cornerstone: Embracing Our God-Given Differences

Dear Crossland Community Church,

I hope you are reflecting on the powerful truth that we are different because we chose to be different, built on the unshakable cornerstone of Christ.

Last Sunday, we explored how Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ is the foundation upon which God builds His church—a spiritual house made up of living stones, set apart to make a difference in a world that often rejects the true cornerstone. We saw that being a follower of Christ means embracing the reality of our distinctiveness, not as a point of arrogance, but as a calling to live holy lives and declare the praises of God who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. The message reminded us that silence about these differences has grave consequences for those who don’t know Christ, and that our role as a royal priesthood is to live well among others and boldly speak on their behalf before God.

So, I challenge you this week to stop shrinking back from the discomfort of difference and to live fully into your identity as a chosen, holy people. Don’t let fear or silence keep you from declaring the mercy and grace that have made you new. Remember, we are not just different for the sake of being different—we are different to make a difference, standing firm on the cornerstone that will never fail or be shaken.

Blessings,
Crossland Community Church Team