Living Stones

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

As a rule, men tend to look for their identity where they look for their righteousness. Whether it is men that we associate with or it is our skin color, we tend to look at those things as righteous or not. And likewise, our conception of righteousness goes only so deep, as does our standard of righteousness. And for Christians, of course, we look for our righteousness in another. We know, according to the Gospel, that all men of sinned. We know that no amount of time paying for that sin is enough time to change our status from imperfect to perfect once again. And we literally need the righteousness of another.

And that’s good news because Christ has provided that for us and our identity is in him. To be sure, the issue of identity is front and center today. The cultural conversation is dominated by identity politics. Americans today are pressured to identify with one group or another and if that group with which you associate is an oppressed group, that’s even better, at least in the eyes of some. It may gain you sympathy points, it may gain you victim status, even if it doesn’t actually help you to become a better person or to make the culture itself any stronger. And judging by how many folks in our culture change their identities as quickly as you and I change our socks, the assumption here is that those identifiers that distinguish one group from another are generally thought to be fluid. Ours is in fact a culture that insists that gender, for instance, has been redefined as such, is a social construct having nothing to do with biology. It is something that in fact we determine and not God. What

puzzles me is how that’s in any way comforting or helpful. It takes a profoundly distorted view of the human condition to conclude that our determining our identity is somehow a good thing. I think that’s just giving way too much credit to humanity. Supposing that we actually had that sort of power, how do you think we’d possibly use it well? I’m not talking about just simply identifying with the church body or identifying with the jocks instead of with the nerds in the high school cafeteria. We’ll tend to herd together by our common interests and more, but these things are not the things that actually give us value. If we had the power to determine our own identity, we would do it to the exploitation of one another, to the harm of our neighbors. The Bible teaches us conversely that our value comes from God. The value that humans have is not reserved for humans of a particular skin color. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created male and female created them.

He created them. Our value comes from being made in God’s image. And that is something that is then common to all humans. It’s not unique to those of a particular height or a particular strength category or a particular skin color. It is common to all men, whether African, Asian, European, American, or anything else, and yet men, nevertheless, work to oppress one another and subjugate one another and exploit one another. And so, at the same time, the groups that we choose to identify with do matter. And in the midst of all of this identity coleslaw, if I were suffering, and you would tell me that it is all up to me and how I identify, I’d consider why I was suffering, question whether or not that was actually helpful, and then of course, wish for something more concrete than that, give me something to work with.

If instead, however, if I were suffering, you remind me that God has chosen me for his own and that the sufferings of this life were even a hallmark of that identification and that the inheritance awaiting me was royal, I may just be inclined to move forward with joy or I might find the energy to do so. In the end we do all have value because of God and because of God alone and at the same time some of us have a particular kind of value because a particular grace has been extended to us by God. God extends grace to man commonly and he extends grace to his children particularly and grace by its nature is undeserved. It’s not something we did to earn. We have as much say in the matter as a heap of inglorious rocks that are then converted by a builder into a sturdy and even glorious wall.

In the once lost city of Machu Picchu in Peru, there are a lot of inglorious rocks that are gloriously arranged. There Incan engineers constructed buildings and walls of cut stones so precisely that that you can’t squeeze a knife blade in the cracks. Some of these stones were massive, and yet they were cut with such precision that no mortar was needed. And although they were built over 500 years ago, many of them still stand today. Scholars surmise that these stones were fit together with such custom accuracy by lowering them into place one at a time and where they bumped against a ridge, they would carve away the needed stone until a tight fit was secured.

Each stone was carefully worked by the craftsmen, and the result is that a large portion of a city constructed with crude tools and primitive means stands largely intact after more than 500 years. I bet that if you were to talk to the skilled workers in Machu Picchu some 500 years ago, and tell them that 500 years later, we would be still enjoying their handiwork, they would not be surprised. They would say, of course you will. we’re not building this scene to fall over tomorrow. They knew exactly what they were doing, and they knew exactly how to do it. And I think that’s a helpful illustration for the Christian’s place in the body of Christ, and for a Christian’s identity.

Similarly, believers are a part of something great. Our position is unique. Imagine each of these stones were to represent a Christian. Yeah, there’s 15 of these, so. Yeah, he may be strong on his own, kinda like Nellia right there in the middle, big rock. We’ll be here awhile. And some of you are wondering how I got these names. I’ll let you keep wondering. You get the idea. Each believer is in fact carefully crafted. He’s a work stone fit for the building up of the church.

The sculptor himself is God, and sometimes believers grind together in uncomfortable process making the wall stronger and more stable. Other times God puts hammers and chisels into the hands of our enemies. Chips flake off, rough spots are made smooth, but without that pounding and grinding and the removal of the stones high spots, the seam is compromised along with the integrity of the wall. It may not be able to stand at all and while it is possible that a wall may in fact stand if one of its stones is removed, it may nevertheless crumble. It’s at least dramatically weaker. As the living stones in this room can testify, the process of being fit for the construction of a wall, spiritually speaking, it’s an uncomfortable process. My guess is the stones don’t like it very much all of the time, even if they know that it is something good for them. No doubt that was definitely the case. For the living stones that Peter was addressing in his first epistle, the passage for this evening’s study is 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 10. And many scholars

believe that Peter wrote this in the summer after AD 64 when Rome was burned on Nero’s watch, even potentially on Nero’s command. Others say that the letter was written slightly earlier before the government sanctioned persecution of the Christians, but either way it’s bad. Worse than we can probably imagine. Our conception of persecution wouldn’t show up on the radar of concern for these believers, even in the best times under Nero. Regardless, at least in principle, Peter’s words should prove helpful to us in an age that is increasingly hostile to the gospel. In the middle of the first century, scattered through Asia Minor where the Roman province is of Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, and you can see them on here perhaps, Asia and Bethania Pontius up at the top there.

And the Christians in these provinces were the recipients of this letter. The whole of the letter offers strategies, encouragement, hope to the godly sufferer that will enable him to bear up under trials and live a vibrant, joyful, dynamic Christian life in the face of intense persecution so that those around them will be caused to scratch their heads and ask for a reason for the hope that’s in them. And so whether you believe that this is happening in the in the height of the persecution under Nero or it was written beforehand and it proved probably to be a helpful resource for those suffering Christians it is a fantastic handbook on how to die well on how to how to utilize suffering and unjust persecution strategically and The first time I got to teach through this was just over 10 years ago.

And times have changed some even since then. And we have new opportunities now to represent Christ well. And we have new opportunities now to act in such a way as to cause an unbelieving world to scratch their heads. But from the beginning of the book, Peter is offering this sort of encouragement. He addresses his readers as elect exiles. Yeah, you’re not home. This isn’t your home. are chosen. They’ve been chosen by God and they can enjoy all the accompanying benefits of such treatment. He tells them about their heavenly inheritance in verses 4 and 5. They have a salvation and an inheritance. Shawn talked about this.

They cannot be taken away because they are not physical but spiritual inheritances and because the one who has given them is greater than all. In verses 6 through 9 he reminds them that their grief under trials is but temporary and necessary. Trials and suffering are temporary by nature, by design. At the worst they can last for a lifetime, which in the scheme of things is a small blip on the timeline of eternity for eternal creatures. In chapter 1, verses 10 through 12, he tells us readers that their salvation surpasses the angel’s understanding and experience.

Remember that the elect angels exist to worship God. They would want to worship Him rightly and there are some things that they learn by observations because they cannot learn them from experience. An angel has never been forgiven. There’s no redemption for any angels. There’s a redemption for men in Christ but if they want to understand what forgiveness looks like, what redemption looks like, it is not by experience, it’s by observation. And then when we see when these things are unfolding, the angels long to look into them. He instructs them to set their hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ in chapter 1, verse 13.

Their hope is in Christ and in Him alone. And a hope that is placed in Him is a good investment for our souls, to be sure. They could safely hope in Christ because He would ultimately deliver them from the hands of their enemies, whether in this life or in the next life. We’re accustomed to hoping in men. and to our shame and to our great disappointment. But God will never disappoint. He tells them that they have been, in verses 18 and 19, ransomed by the blood of a loving redeemer. It’s a glorious meditation to think about how we are free to live holy lives because we’ve been ransomed by Christ. We are now free because we’ve been ransomed by Christ.

So, we get back to the wall here and Peter will keep doing this sort of thing the rest of his letter because when their life is hard and when they are deprived of earthly pleasures and joys, it’s helpful for these believers to remember whose they are and what awaits them in heaven. We’ve heard it said before that some men are too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. Well, it seemed that Peter thought that heavenly mindedness was pretty handy in this life. And in our passage for tonight, He is orienting them with regard to their certain identity in Christ. They needed a clear mind and an accurate understanding of their purpose in the wall.

And what awaited them in glory? If they were to endure well with the grueling, shaping process, that’s a major purpose of His letter. So with that as the context of this letter, this passage fits perfectly into that mix. In 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 10 we have a rambling, glorious meditation on who we are in Christ and you can sort of sense the sober excitement on Peter’s part. Remembering our position in Christ is the antidote for sadness related to the trials of life. That was the case for Peter’s readers, that’s the case for us. Also of note in this passage is a shift in Peter’s tone. is more doctrinal, having spent some time offering direction.

So this is more stated declaratively rather than imperatively. Interpreters do debate about whether this passage is, in fact, command-oriented or doctrine-oriented, as apparently it’s kind of hard to tell from the original manuscripts. As most English translations render the paragraph, it’s informational. And I actually think that that fits pretty well with the context and even with the content itself. So as we examine the passage tonight, I would encourage you to think about your own place on the wall, even if I didn’t put your face on a slide, or a name on a slide. And how the other stones depend on you. Think about how together we are part of something that is so much greater than ourselves and that the structure of which we are a part is being held together by none other than Christ himself.

Follow along with me as I read 1 Peter, chapter two, verses four through 10. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, 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. For as 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. 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, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. 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. 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. Because of its meditative nature, next position of this passage is, I’ve found, a bit tricky. His thoughts are excited and so is his writing. And over the course of the seven verses, however, and with each lesson drawing on different parts of the passage, we find three aspects of a Christian’s identity.

They’re the Christian’s model, that’s Christ himself. And remember we talked about, men will look for their righteousness. The same place they look for, they’ll find identity there. Ours is in Christ himself. And a study of Christ is necessary for an understanding of our identity in him. Second, the Christian’s behavior. And then third, the Christian’s identity proper. So this next slide is gonna be a little bit hard to read, but I’m just dumping it all on you right now. So here’s the list. So I’ll be here for a while. But as you can see, we have these three aspects of our identity, and they are drawn from all over the passage.

So they fall into one of three categories, as I’m suggesting tonight. So as I mentioned, any study of a Christian’s identity must start with the one whose likeness we are pursuing. What does Peter say about Christ? And I will go through these fairly quickly. He refers to Christ as a living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. Our status as living stones comes from our being like Christ, a living stone rejected by men.

We are like Him, He is not like us, and nevertheless, this is a sort of a humbling identifier to be animated building material. He is a Savior. The one who believes in Him will not be put to shame, he says in verse 6. This is said quick, the almost impassing by Peter, but it is a significant and a glorious truth about Christ, the cornerstone. He’s our Savior and He can rescue the weak and the weary and the afflicted and for those who identify with Him, we can smile at the days ahead because the outcome is secure. We will reign with Him. We will not be put to shame. He is the cornerstone. Verses 6 and 7 remind us, it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious.

Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. 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. If you know much about stone construction, it is pretty impressive. I’ll fast-forward here to a fun slide. Don’t worry, I’m gonna go back to that one. But there’s a lot of angles here. And the corner ties together to walls. There’s a beautiful illustration in Ephesians chapter two, which we won’t talk about now, but a cornerstone bears the full weight of the wall. The cornerstone was the start of the construction. It was at the bottom of two walls and held them together ensuring that it would be square, straight and true.

The cornerstone bore the full weight of the wall and without the cornerstone it simply would not stand. As without a wall, it’s a retaining wall, it’s a free standing wall. We are as the body of Christ, stones in a structure and the cornerstone of that structure is Christ himself. The passage also teaches us that Christ is a stumbling block. The Christian’s model is a stumbling block. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. We had the opportunity recently to have dinner with an unbeliever who in a rather candid and lucid moment said, my biggest hang up about Christianity is twofold.

I disagree with original sin, and I can’t wrap my mind around Jesus. And I appreciated that. I appreciated that candor. And to the world, when we look at what Christ has done, it is unfathomable. And I’m always telling my students that one of the big takeaways that I want for them to have over the course of their study of a bunch of old books and the great books of Western civilization is we get a lot of looks of what it looks like when men tried to save themselves. Men have forever been conscious that they were eternal creatures and that they were damned, that there was some higher power that they had to deal with who was not pleased.

And so when they tried to save themselves, it’s clunky and it’s unsatisfying. And so clearly the satisfying nature of the gospel comes from the mind of man. but men hate it. Peter’s audience likely needed constant reminders about their position in Christ and their inheritance in Christ because of their suffering. So their suffering would probably cause them to doubt. Such reminders would help them to endure. They were suffering already because of their identification with Christ. And practically, identification with Christ will cost us today almost nothing, even still. Though things have shifted some the last 20 months or so, it still pales compared with what they were experiencing.

But living for him as we should will make the world around us very uncomfortable because Christ is a stumbling block and they hate him. We should not be surprised if the world hates our message because it hates Christ. If the world loves us, it’s very likely that we do not have the love of Christ. He is the cornerstone and we are these misshapen bricks. And the world hates him. The passage also teaches us about the Christians behavior.

And this is overall remember a lesson about identity, so it’s a little surprise that the right column is the longest one, we will get to it. But the Christians behavior, what does this passage teach us about the nature of what Christians do? They come to Him, for one thing, in verse 4, as you come to Him. These are the people of Christ, and they come to Christ. What else could they do? The Levitical priests would have given anything to have had the access to the Father that we have through Christ. We are a holy priesthood and of course we will come to Him. When we talk of somebody being saved, we say that He has come to Christ.

But rather than being a salvific reference, one commentator of this passage mentions the following, The present participle does not refer to an individual’s initial commitment to Christ for salvation, but a voluntary, repeated, or habitual coming of believers to Christ for sustenance and fellowship. So that is to say, he is the well that we draw on. He is the source of living water, and you go to those things. You go again and again to the hope of eternal life, and that’s what Peter thought, and Peter knew that the one to go to repeatedly would have the words of eternal life and be the Holy One of God. Additionally, they offer spiritual sacrifices in verse five.

And Peter doesn’t really go off on this one, he just kind of slips it in. But it is nevertheless very significant and really speaks of the completed work of Christ that we would no longer need to offer futile physical sacrifices any longer that would just temporarily cover sins. but rather that we could offer spiritual sacrifices that are actually acceptable to God through Christ.

The offering of spiritual sacrifices is an act of worship, much like the Christian life. And in fact, Peter also reminds his readers that third, they proclaim Christ’s excellencies. That you may proclaim, he says, the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Peter reminds us here of the importance of worshiping God for all he is in proclaiming loudly what he has done on our behalf. The immediate context makes it clear that we are made with a view to this kind of behavior. This is natural for the believer and this is what we were intended to do as God’s own possession.

Nobody looks at a well-built rock wall and praises the rocks. He praises the builder for his ingenuity for his craftsmanship, even his creativity. The same thing happens with the church. We are rebuilding. Similarly, as God’s people, we are constantly pointing to Him as the builder and the one deserving of the glory. So it is our corporate duty and our delight to proclaim His excellencies. It’s even more fun when we get to do it together. And then third, as promised, we get to the discussion of identity proper. A discussion about what we are in Christ speaks to our position. We talk about a Christian’s identity. It is as having been marked by him. Even when we in baptism identify publicly with Christ, it is as the psalmist said this morning in the Finlandia hymn. I’ve got it right here. I find, I walk, I love, but oh the The whole of love is but my answer, Lord, to thee.

All that we do is at best a response to the one who initiates. And he is the one with whom we identify. So when we do so voluntarily, we do so still responsibly. It is still because he loved us first. To say someone is tall, brown-haired, For the son of Joseph and Mary doesn’t tell you much about his personality necessarily, but it does give you objective data about the person. By the way, that describes Jesus and me. I don’t think of myself as tall necessarily. Jesus is probably taller. But we both had parents named Joseph and Mary. Nevertheless, it is concrete, solid information. It’s objective. It’s verifiable.

Not its position, his standing, what distinguishes him from other people. And even if a son is having a bad day or just in a foul mood, he’s still a son. It’s what he is. Similarly, though we may feel distant from Christ, though we may be wayward even or disobedient, if we are truly his, the fact remains that in Christ we are custom-cut, chiseled, tailored stones for the edification of a spiritual building, the church. The master artisan has shaped and fashioned us with a purpose. And when one of those tailor-made custom-cut stones is removed, it leaves a tailor-made custom-cut hole. This contrasts wildly today with today’s notion of our identity being up to us.

It used to be that we would identify a certain group based on data. Now we do it based on popularity or preference. Peter’s reminding these living stones, other identity in Christ, offered a rock on which to stand, a place to plant themselves. They were stones comprising a spiritual wall that another was building. And that meant that they had been selected by the builder and they were not bound for the gravel quarry to be reduced to rubble, regardless of their spiritual treatment by their enemies. I mean, I do think, just to take the illustration a bit further, just for fun, what about the rocks that didn’t get included in the structures of Machu Picchu?

They’re piled up someplace and they’re not being used. Whereas the ones that are a part of the structures are still working. They still are useful. They’re still being enjoyed and they have a different kind of significance because they were chosen. They were shaped. They were used. If Peter would have simply told his readers to make sure to choose well when making their own decisions regarding with whom they would identify, like how would that have been helpful? He says in verse five of chapter two, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priest. We are living stones first.

As you’ve already seen in some of the walls that were constructed centuries after this letter was written. So, Maju Pichu is like the 15th century and Peter was writing this in the first century. A building is only as strong as its materials. You can put together a straw, like the finest straw, in a strategic fashion, but in the end, your house is still going to be weak if it’s just straw. Whereas if that straw is part of a brick, well then. Peter is drawing in this passage on Isaiah 28, 16, in Psalm 118, 22, and here in verse six, but believers are the stones that construct a particular people and a priesthood.

Christ is the cornerstone and the structure is significant, and strong. But part of why I really like this illustration is that believers are likened to building materials, rocks. Stones are completely inanimate and involuntary objects. Stones heaped in a pile are of little use to anybody. But if they’re worked and shaped and put in the proper places, they can serve a more significant role for a long time. And they are at the mercy of the builder. Stones cannot shape or place themselves. Peter used his passive voice here. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to a holy priesthood, to be a holy priesthood and so on.

The builder is God himself. He is the agent and he’s the one whose people we are. And the structure does say more about the builder than it does about the stones. They’re only actually impressive at all because they are part of the wall. The Bible is full of illustrations like these that point to our dependence on God just as Jesus did in John three when he spoke of being born again. It’s not something you do consciously. It happens to you. A person can no more be born again of himself than a pile of stones can spontaneously fit together like an intricate three-dimensional puzzle. He says additionally, we are a spiritual house.

A spiritual house, also there in verse five. It’s not a physical, earthly house of bricks and mortar or clay that will inevitably crumble. Christians are a part of a spiritual house that cannot be compared with the physical. And it is for a purpose, to be a holy priesthood. He says that right there in verse five as well, the third part of verse five. A priesthood of Christians surpasses the Levitical priesthood. We are spiritual and the Levitical priests were physical. The works of the Levites covered sins, but because of Christ’s real atonement for sins, we can have real contact with the Father through Christ. Every believer is a priest then, as he speaks to the Father because of the work of Christ.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. And now he just starts rattling off these amazing identifiers. Note in this section the striking parallels with Old Testament Israel. This is much of the same language we might hear in the Old Testament to describe God’s people Israel, but in every case the believers position surpasses that of Israel’s. A chosen race. This surpasses Israel’s election as it was unto an eternal inheritance and because they rejected Christ the Messiah. A royal priesthood, emphasized in the priestly status, he introduced in verse five, Peter takes it a step further.

Beyond being a holy priesthood, we are also royalty as co-heirs with Christ. Children of the King of Kings, who have access to the Father, we are a royal priesthood, we’re also a holy nation. The holy ones are like God. It is his requirement that we be holy as he is holy, and we are a nation of believers with our own identity and him being holy because of Christ as well. We are a people for his own possession. Also right there in verse nine. God has selected us to belong to him, chosen us as his own, and the thought of the sovereign creator of the universe selecting a spiritual race of people for himself that would include us, ought to help us cope with life.

All right, since I got this here. You sang this this morning, if you were here. Crown him the Lord of years, the potentate of time, creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime, the cosmos, he’s created the cosmos, all hail Redeemer hail, for thou hast died for me. The cosmos, me. Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity. The thought, I’ll say the last sentence again, of the sovereign creator of the universe, selecting a spiritual race of people for himself that would include us, ought to help us cope with life. That’s part of why I think Peter was including this as helpful reminders for his readers.

He has chosen us to do what he will with us, and he has chosen to give the church as a son, as a gift to his son. Paul teaches that Christ wishes to present the church to himself pure and spotless, and we are his. We are, verse 10, God’s people. Peter says, 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. Again, we have a contrast between their station before Christ when they’re reading the letter, They were once without mercy, and now they have received mercy.

They previously had no identity together, but now they do in Christ. By itself, a stone is nothing. When shaped and placed in a wall, it has identity as a part of something far greater than itself. Now think about the different groups that you would in fact identify with. Whether it’s due to a pastime or a hobby or a common passion, a book club, chess club, your favorite sports team, or your biological family, you’re at a family reunion. You identify with them by last name and by marriage. Can any of those compare with the identification you enjoy with the body of Christ? Not usually. This is a good time to take a step back and look at ourselves.

miss this sometimes but what do we have in common? Ultimately it’s Christ. He gives us our identity as a church body and he’s the one who gives us ultimate obligation and responsibility to one another. For Peter’s audience, they had a corporate identity that the world could not understand and that is the case today. The world would see Christians and ask why if we’re doing it right. That is by God’s design. So as with Peter’s readers we too need regular reminders. of our identity and our position in Christ, if we are to bear up under the trials of life, however big or small. Often our sadness is born out of a focus on our circumstances here and now.

And the antidote for our sadness is to think about our position before God in Christ and thinking of what awaits us in heaven, not simply to take a trendier choice, make a trendier choice when it comes to our identification. Our identity is in Christ or it’s not. We don’t get to invent our parentage, our sex, our skin color, or our number of older siblings. We can suppress the truth, but when we take matters into our own hands, we’re left with as much hope as Peter’s readers would have been if he would have simply told them, that’s life, get used to it. And this is as close to heaven as you’re going to get, because nobody loves you, and there’s no reason why you’re here.

Well, of course, that would not be helpful at all. But is that not what the world is hearing? Left, right, and center, today, apart from their submission to Scripture, to what God has said. No, although this life may be hard, and we may see evils committed by image bearers on other image bearers, we can cling to the reality that we belong to another. And ours is a great inheritance, and our positioning as living stones gives us great purpose and import. We ought to love and realize the importance of our particular places in the wall, and embrace our obligation to the other stones. By God’s grace, may we continue to grind against one another and be reshaped and refined, and to create a stronger structure, knowing all the while that of course, the builder is Christ.

Let’s pray. Father, we do pray that we would meditate regularly on our identification in you. It is not something that we deserve. It is not something that we have manufactured, yet we give you praise. Please give us grace as we do try to walk these things out in clunky fashions and as we do. We are used by you to help shape one another. Give us patience as we do so. And even to be patient with ourselves to a degree, but to be more patient with others. And we are grateful for the promise of the glorious inheritance that awaits us as our salvation is revealed in the days ahead. And we pray this in Christ’s name, amen.