OPENING PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
We come before you today
humbly asking for your guidance and grace
as we strive to become the people of God.
Help us to be more just and loving,
to be a community that cares for the welfare of all people,
both inside and outside of the church.
Give us the courage and strength
to be a beacon of hope and light to those in need.
We thank you for your mercy and grace
and the opportunity to serve you and your people.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
SERMON
POINT: One of the most prominent themes in Scripture is God creating an
1. Exodus 6:7 NRSV - I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians.
2. Ezekiel 34:24 NRSV - And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.
3. Ezekiel 36:28 NRSV - Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
4. Jeremiah 7:23 NRSV - But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.
5. Jeremiah 30:22 NRSV - And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
6. Jeremiah 31:33 NRSV - But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
POINT: Christ is the
1 Peter 2:4-12 NRSV
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
This honor, then, is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”
and
“A stone that makes them stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence 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.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.
REMEMBER, CHURCH: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.