Reshaped Stones

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I want to show you something that I bought while all this was going on. I told somebody last week that I think there’s been a lot of boredom shopping at my house during the pandemic, and Amazon is just great, but I bought this new cup. And I don’t know if you can appreciate from back there the magnitude and the grandeur of this cup.

It’s one of the Yeti-style tumblers, double-wall vacuum seal that keeps stuff cold for multiple days. Okay, you’ve probably seen me walk around with one of these before. But this one, see, I’m a heavy drinker when it comes to iced tea, okay, not other things.

But I get tired of running out of tea, and so I needed a bigger one. This one is 64 ounces, or as we call it in America, a half-gallon. When it’s full, it weighs six pounds.

it’s amazing I had to buy I had to buy a special handle because they didn’t make one the company that makes this doesn’t make a handle big enough to hold this so I bought this and it was wonderful but I realized it’s very unwieldy to try to tip it to drink out of so I had to order a straw because none of the straws I had for the other cups were big enough to fit in there I had to order this thing that can also double as a weapon okay love this thing but the problem is when it came the hole that you drink out of is too small for it to to go through so I said this is not going to work this has been an ongoing project at my house do a do a few modifications and then check amazon again and eventually we’re going to get this to work I had to take out my little dremel rotary tool thing and I had to sand off and reshape the opening that you drink out of so that the straw will fit.

This is empty by the way. He’s just flailing that around up there. Now the straw will fit because it was useless before.

The straw, it wouldn’t fit. The lid wasn’t right. I couldn’t drink out of it and so I had to totally reshape the lid in order to make this something useful, in order to make this something that I can use.

And, you know, we do that all the time with things. We’ll buy them, we’ll reshape them, we’ll modify them in order to make them useful. You know, I was in the lumber department at Lowe’s a little bit ago, right after they started opening things back up, because one of the other things I did was when you couldn’t go anywhere, I built projects and I was running out of lumber that I already had stockpiled at the house, so I needed more.

Nobody goes and buys lumber to build whatever project it is and just builds with the lumber as is, do we? We cut it into the shape and the size we need it. We cut it, we drill it, we plane it, we carve it, we sand it, we do all this stuff to make the lumber something useful.

Because if you just took the 2x4s as is or whatever sheet of plywood as is, our houses would all be lopsided, right? We’d have extra plywood hanging off of them at the end, and the hanger that I built for Charlie’s bird feeder would be 10 feet tall, and I wouldn’t be tall enough to get up there and refill it with bird seed for them, or for them, not her. We understand the concept of shaping and reshaping things, and oftentimes people have to be reshaped.

We have to be reshaped so that we’re useful for a particular purpose. You know, I think about my own career before pastoring, or sometimes simultaneously with pastoring. I think I’ve told you before, my career goal before God called me into the ministry was to get a teaching degree, teach high school French, a few years later run for the State House of Representatives, and eventually be governor.

That was my career goal. God took some of that away from me, and I’m thankful especially in this day and age that He did take some of it. I don’t want to be governor now. whether you agree with him or not nobody’s been nice to the governor this in the last few months I don’t want to be that anymore but I did end up teaching school I did end up teaching school for a while I expected though that I’d be teaching school right out of college at 22 that’s not what happened I didn’t start teaching school until I was 28 and I realized that in that six years as I had had a couple of children of my own and God had forced me to learn a little bit of patience that I probably would have killed some of those children at 22 if I’d gone and tried to teach them.

I did not have the patience. God was reshaping me in those six years to make me useful to deal with those teenagers. It took six years of reshaping before I could be useful in that role.

Sometimes God reshapes us and The Bible tells us that God reshapes us so that we will be useful to him. All right. It tells us, the Bible tells us that we start out as self-centered.

We start out as self-willed. We start out as sinful. Generally, people who are not very useful to his purposes and plans.

We start out that way. But if you’re a Christian, if you’re somebody who has consciously and purposely made that decision to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, then this morning you need to understand that He is making you, He is reshaping you, whether you realize it or not, because it may be at times such a gradual process. He is reshaping you even this morning into somebody that He can use for His purposes and for His glory.

And the Apostle Peter told us about this process. If you’ll turn with me this morning to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2, and we’re going to start in verse 4.

We’ve been going through 1 Peter the last few weeks on this, reading what he has to say about this subject of holiness. And part of this process of us becoming holy is God reshaping us into what he wants us to be so that we will be useful for his purposes. Now, 1 Peter chapter 2, starting in verse 4.

It says, Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. It’s describing Jesus there. You also, that’s us, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame.

Therefore, to you who believe he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. Now, this passage, this passage where he’s talking about Jesus being a living stone and us then as living stones being reshaped, this passage is very heavy on temple imagery.

Something that a lot of these people would have understood because the temple was still standing. The imagery of the temple in Jerusalem, you’ve got this idea of the spiritual house, the holy priesthood, the spiritual sacrifices all spelled out there in verse 5. The temple was considered to be the house of God.

Now, Paul makes it clear in Acts 17 that God can’t be contained by some temple built with human hands. God is not limited to a physical temple. And yet, there’s something sacred about that temple that it was set apart as a house for God.

It was a place where God would meet with His people. So the temple was a holy place of meeting. And then he describes these living stones.

He describes us not only as being a holy temple, but he describes us as a holy priesthood. And the priesthood was a holy group of people. And I had to stop and think about that phrase before I said it.

A holy group of people, because we know not all the priests were holy. They were supposed to be. The priesthood was a holy group of people, but not always a group of holy people, if you understand the distinction.

But as a group, they were set aside to God, and they were set aside for the purpose of serving him, of representing him to the people and representing the people to him, but they were dedicated to serving God. And then you’ve got the sacrifices. These were holy offerings.

These were precious offerings, offerings without blemish, offerings without defect that the people would bring to God as an offering. And the point of all this imagery from the temple, from the temple itself to the priesthood that worked there, to the sacrifices that were offered there, the point of all of these images is that God in us is building something holy, something that is acceptable according to verse 5, something that is acceptable to Him, and we are the living stones that He’s using to construct that. God is building a temple.

God in former times had a temple built with stone quarried out of the ground, and He had this priesthood that was off in the distance, and he had these sacrifices that were offered at a specific time. But now God is working with living stones. He’s working with us to build a temple where we are in constant contact with God.

A priesthood that we’re a part of and sacrifices that we ourselves are those living sacrifices. So all this stuff that in the age of the physical temple was a connection with God, but it was still a connection at arm’s length. God is now working in us to build a temple and build a connection that’s always right there.

That we can always be with Him and where we can be holy and where we can serve Him. We are the living stones in verse 5 that He’s constructing something new out of. But we see in this passage that Jesus is the focus of all of this.

The focus really isn’t on the temple. The focus is on Jesus. As God is shaping us into something holy that can be used for his purposes, Jesus is at the very center of what he’s doing.

This is not just about making us better people. This is about Jesus being at the center of everything God’s doing. Because you see, even as God calls us living stones in verse 5, Jesus is the living stone in verse 4.

He’s the living stone that comes before all these other living stones. He’s the living stone that we’re patterned after. He was the one rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious in verse 4.

He’s the stone that no matter how his people looked at him and said, that’s worthless, we don’t want it. He’s the stone that God looked at and said, it doesn’t matter. He’s the center of my plans.

And he has been at the center of the Father’s plans from eternity past. He’s the reason why we can become acceptable to God in the first place. He’s the only reason why we can ever be considered holy by God. Because you see, verse 5 tells us that it’s through Him that we’re acceptable to God.

It says acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Those living stones are only acceptable to God because of Jesus Christ. He’s the chief cornerstone in verses 6 and 7, which means He’s the basis for God’s work in our lives. We’re all just, as God’s building this temple, we’re all just the little stones. We’re all just the little pebbles in the wall.

Jesus is the cornerstone. Everything else is based on the cornerstone. Everything else is measured against the cornerstone.

If it’s out of alignment with the cornerstone, it’s in the wrong spot. And so everything that God is doing in our lives to make us holy is centered on Jesus and based on Jesus and who He is. So don’t ever think holiness means, oh, I’m better than everybody else.

No, holiness means we’re getting in line with Jesus. It’s not about our goodness. it’s about the goodness of Jesus Christ and coming into line with him we folks we are being reshaped even this morning we are if you’re a Christian if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ you are being reshaped as we speak to reflect who Jesus is and we are being put into place with him as the foundation so where do how do I know where I fit in God’s plans the only God’s plans is on the foundation of Jesus.

Anything that God is going to do in our lives is going to be built on that foundation of Jesus. There’s no wall. There’s no wall to the temple without that chief cornerstone.

And so we see the end result of what He’s doing in us through Jesus. We see this biblical call to holiness that I’ve talked about so much through 1 Peter is really a call to be more like Jesus. So if you think about what perfect holiness looks like, you’re probably going to imagine Jesus.

This biblical call to holiness is a call to be more like Jesus. And so as we’re reshaped, as we’re reshaped as these living stones to be more like the living stone, Jesus is also going to become more precious to us. He says in verse 7 that to those who believe, He is precious.

He’s going to be as precious to us as He is to the Father. We’re going to grow to see Jesus as more and more precious. We’re going to grow to see Jesus as more and more the thing we want our lives to be patterned after.

And our joy, as God makes us holy, we’re going to desire even more holiness. We’re going to desire the things of the world less and less because Jesus is going to be in our sights. We’re going to desire holiness more and more.

and our joy is going to be found increasingly in our formation and our foundation on Jesus Christ and our place in God’s plans. Our joy is going to come more from who we are in Christ than our plans for our lives. Certainly those plans aren’t going to matter as much as who God has called us to be in Jesus Christ. And He is going to be the one to help us not to stumble in disobedience like those who’ve rejected him.

Those who’ve rejected Jesus Christ can never be fully obedient to the will of God. Now, may they at times do things that are obedient? Yeah.

It’s like that old saying, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Sometimes somebody who’s rejected Christ can still stumble his way into doing what God expected him to do. I’m telling you, we can never be fully obedient to God if we’ve rejected Jesus Christ. That first step of obedience is to the gospel itself, to repent and believe.

To those who’ve rejected him, they’re disobedient, but to those who believe he is precious and he’ll keep us from stumbling into that disobedience as a lifestyle. Does that mean we’ll never sin? No.

I think the Bible is pretty clear that we will still sin, we will still struggle with temptation, but we’re not going to fall into it as a lifestyle. We’re not going to go back to the old way of living. And so as I’ve been preaching about holiness from 1 Peter, I’ve tried to make it clear that we cannot do anything to make ourselves holy.

It is not your job to make yourself holy. If I sound like I’m mad at you, I’m not. I’m just trying to make sure I’m heard over the little people.

We cannot make ourselves holy. It’s not our job. And it’s outside of our capability.

We cannot make ourselves holy. It’s God’s job to reshape us. It’s God’s job to make us who he wants us to be.

But if you’re a Christian, it is your job to embrace what God is doing. It’s your job to embrace the work of holiness that God’s doing inside of you. Meaning, don’t do things that work against what he’s doing.

Meaning the old sinful habits and patterns and lifestyles. Don’t go back and flirt with those. Don’t play footsie with those under the table.

Work in the same direction as what God is doing. Embrace the work of holiness that God is doing within you because as a Christian you should want to be more like Jesus. Now, I would imagine if a stone could feel things as a sculptor is chiseling pieces of the stone away to carve it and make it into what he wants to be or as a mason is reshaping the stone.

I would imagine if a stone could feel things then that sensation of having part of you chipped away and reshaped is not always pleasant. And we know that for us it doesn’t always feel pleasant in the moment when God is reshaping us when he’s chipping those things away. But as Christians our desire should be more for what God is doing on the other side than for this moment of pain to stop.

As Christians it’s our job to embrace the work that God’s doing because we want to be more like Jesus. We don’t necessarily enjoy the reshaping, but we look forward to, we anticipate what is on the other side of the reshaping. We want to be more like Jesus.

And so I would ask you this morning, do you want to be more like Jesus today? You don’t have to answer that out loud, but do you as a living stone want to be more like the living stone are you ready and willing or do you embrace that process of God reshaping you as a living stone to be more like the living stone so that you become useful in his temple and his priesthood and his sacrifices let me tell you this morning if you want to be more like Jesus if you say yeah that doesn’t necessarily sound like fun it doesn’t sound like it’s an easy journey, but I know it’s what I want. I know it’s what I was created for and it’s what I want.

I want to be more like Jesus. If you want to be more like Jesus, let me tell you this morning, ask for it. Ask for it.

Pray for it. Praying in God’s will means he’ll say yes. And I’m here to tell you God’s word says that his will is for us to be more like Jesus.

The apostle Paul wrote, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. That means being more like Jesus. If you ask the Father, make me more like Jesus, he’s going to.

That’s one of those requests that we can ask knowing it’s his will. And if we ask it in his will, he’s going to say yes to it. The Bible also tells us that we have not because we ask not.

If you want to be more like Jesus, ask for it. My challenge to you this morning is ask God to change you. Listen to this.

Ask God to change you however he wants so that He can use you wherever He wants. If you want to be like Jesus, let this be your prayer. Ask God to change you however He wants so that He can use you wherever He wants.

Let that be the focus of your prayer instead of just asking for stuff. And there’s nothing wrong with asking for stuff. But when we ask God, when we ask the Father, make me more like Jesus, and we mean it, and we mean it for His glory, that prayer will change our lives.

Don’t you think God will answer that? Can you imagine asking God, help me be more like Jesus and the Father saying, no, I don’t think so. Not really feeling it today.

Are you kidding? That’s a request the Father would be delighted to answer. Make me more like Jesus.

That’s His will for us anyway. And from my experience, God will answer that. He will answer that and He will say yes.

Again, I’m not saying that because Jared said so. The Bible tells us if we pray anything according to His will, He will answer. And it tells us that our sanctification or being more like Jesus is His will.

You put those together, two and two make four. You ask Him to make you more like Jesus, He will. And I’ve seen it in my own experience.

I ask Him every day to make me more like Jesus, to make me who He wants me to be, to make me a better follower of Jesus, to make me a better husband, to make me a better daddy, to make me a better pastor, all these hats that I wear, because I see how far short I fall. I see how much I’m not like Jesus. And so I ask Him to do that.

I ask Him to change me. And He does a few things when I ask Him that. There are a few things that He does.

He shows me things. When I start asking Him, make me more like Jesus, He starts showing me things in my heart that need to change. He starts showing me what ugliness is there that needs to change if I’m going to be more like Jesus.

I don’t always like what I see there, but he shows it to me. He convicts me. I find that he changes my heart.

I find that more often than him changing my circumstances, he changes my heart about the circumstances. And when I in the flesh want to tell somebody off, or when I in the flesh want to prove that I’m right, or I just want to be mad, I find God has this habit of changing my heart and softening my heart. It’s not always what I want in the moment, but I’m thankful that He does that.

And this is probably the least fun, but He puts me in situations that give me opportunities for that growth. Now this is where we have the old saying, don’t ever pray for patience. Because He’ll put you in a situation where you have to grow some patience.

When you ask for God to make you more like Jesus, He’s going to put you in situations where it’s a challenge, where it’s stretching you and growing you, but He’ll answer it. I’m far from perfect, as my wife can tell you all about after the service. I’m far from perfect, but I can attest to you from God’s Word and from personal experience that if you pray for God to change you and use you and make you more like Jesus, that He will do it.

It’s His will anyway. It’s just you getting on board with what He’s wanting to do. It’s just you embracing the work of holiness that He’s doing in you, and believers should want that.

As a believer, you should want that this morning. Now, if you have no desire for that, if you say, that sounds awful. Now, I understand, as a believer, you may be saying, the process doesn’t sound fun, but I definitely want what’s on the other side so much that I’m willing to go through it.

I get that. I get that. We can think that being chiseled and shaped doesn’t sound like fun and still want to do it.

But if you’re sitting there and you’re saying, I have no desire for that whatsoever. I have no desire for God to make me more like Jesus. I have no desire to stop doing what I want to do.

I have no desire for anything to change for me to go through any of that. Are you crazy? If you have no desire to be more like Jesus, no desire to embrace God’s work of holiness in your life, you have no desire to ask him to change you, And one possible reason for that is that you may not be in Christ as one of these living stones.

You have no desire for the things of God. Check your heart because it could be evidence that you’re not in Christ. You don’t belong to Him. Because the transformation that Peter was writing about here starts with the relationship between the living stone and all the little living stones.

These little living stones don’t become living stones apart from the relationship with the living stone. he’s what gives us the new life and we need that we need that relationship with jesus we need to approach the father through jesus before we can ever be acceptable to him we can’t come to the father on our own and be acceptable in our sins and we have all sin god created us to enjoy perfect fellowship with him and somewhere along the way we messed it up through something called sin which is disobedience. Any time that we disobey God in our actions, our attitudes, our words, our thoughts, that sin destroyed the relationship with God.

It separates us from Him even today. We’re all sinners and we’re all separated from God. And you and I could never do anything to change that.

As I said, as I’ve said many times through this message, we can never make ourselves holy and acceptable to God. That can only happen through Jesus Christ. Because no matter how much good we try to do, it doesn’t erase the wrong that we’ve done. It doesn’t erase the sin that’s on our account.

So the only option was for Jesus to come to earth, live a perfect sinless life with no sin of His own, and take responsibility for my sins and yours, be nailed to the cross where He shed His blood and died, to pay for our sins in full, to take every bit of our punishment, and then for him to rise again to prove it. And because he’s done that, now God offers forgiveness and he offers salvation. He offers to make us holy.

He offers to give us new life. He offers to have a relationship with us. Not because of any good we can ever do, but because Jesus Christ suffered, bled and died to pay for it and rose again.

So this morning, if you say, well, I don’t have a desire for these things and I know it’s because I’m separated from God. I don’t know how to fix that. I don’t know how to get right with God, cry out to God today.

Deal with God today. Out loud, talk to Him in your heart. Just deal with God today.

Cry out to Him. Admit that you’re a sinner and that you know your sin is wrong. Agree with Him about your sin.

Acknowledge to Him that Jesus, acknowledge that you believe in Jesus as your one and only Savior, your only hope, who died to pay for your sins in full and rose again. Tell God you believe that. And then ask God to forgive your sins because of what Jesus Christ did.

Not because you’re good, not because you deserve it, but just because Jesus Christ died for you. Because if you genuinely repent toward God, meaning you change your mind about that sin, you change your mind about God, you repent toward God and you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, God promises in His Word to save you and to forgive you and to change you.