Our Vocation - Lay Ministry

Following Jesus PART X
Rev Leo Schuster
29 June 2014

1Peter 2:4-10
4As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him--5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering scriptural sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For in Scripture it says:

"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."

7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.  But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,"
8and,
"A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall."

They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for.

9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

BASIS OF THE CHURCH
--Living stones
--We are the church...not just a building.
--God's people are the raw materials of the church.
--We are priests too.
--Serving should reorient our lives.
--All are vocations are sacred and serving God.
--Church people don't consume, but are servants.

BARRIERS OF THE CHURCH
--v.8
--Church can be disillusioning, but we should stick to the ideal.
--Sometimes we edit Jesus to fit us--but the full Jesus is our cornerstone.
--Our hearts and desires can distance us from JC.

BUILDING A CHURCH
--Coming to Him to make us alive is to build His church.
--Trusting in Jesus.
--Allowing mercy of God to change us.
--We can love the church because Jesus did and gave his life for it.