“Being in the WE with Christ”

            1 Peter 2:2–10 ²Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵you 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.

            What would you say is a spiritual sacrifice?  Jesus sacrificed His life suffering pain and humiliation for our sake.  Jesus made a physical and spiritual sacrifice as He was nailed and died on a cross.  What would you say your spiritual sacrifice is? And, what would you say our spiritual sacrifice is here at Peace? What would a spirit filled Body of Christ (church) look like?  And, what would the Lord taste like that is good?  What then would a spiritual sacrifice that is acceptable to God look like too?

            These are questions WE need to answer so that WE can be a spiritual house built up by God.  There are good things to do in life and there are spiritual things to do in life too.  It is certainly good to be kind to one another and even help one another.  God commands us to love one another in Mark 12:31 and other places in scripture.  This is good that WE obey the mechanics of God’s great commands Mark 12:30-31.  But what of spiritual love, taking the time to not only help your neighbor but to pray with them as well.

            It is certainly good to spend time in social gathering and even in worship.  Again WE do well in the mechanics of being with one another.  But what of spiritual gathering outside of the worship time when WE can interact with one another and share in prayer and outward actions of worship.  It is always good to seek enjoyment for ourselves, but what of love for our God and seeking enjoyment in Him? 

            Anita and I just came back from a five day retreat on wellness.  It was a fantastic week as Anita and I discovered more of what WE means in our lives with each other and our Lord Jesus Christ.  WE also learned what it means to be a WE with you the congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ.  When the WE shows up in any relationship the relationship is strengthened.  When the WE includes our Lord Jesus Christ the relationship becomes a living stone, solid in every way, precious and unbreakable.  With Christ WE are built up to be a Spiritual House.  Christ justifies us so WE can receive our salvation, and through the Holy Spirit working through the Holy Scriptures WE are sanctified into being a Spiritual House.

            Sanctification again comes from the Holy Spirit through the Holy Scripture along with our working through the Holy Scriptures.  Sanctification is actually our spiritual works not just the mechanics but the actual sharing in God’s word and Holy Spirit.  The sacrifice that is acceptable to God is the one that comes from the heart that realizes the gifts of God received. 

            When you read through the many types of sacrifices the Hebrews made to God one thing should stand out and that is they are mostly a mechanical means to receive God’s gift that needs to be repeated over and over.  However if you look at Christ’s sacrifice you see an ongoing spiritual action of God’s love for us.

            1 Peter 2:2–10 ⁶For it 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.”

⁷So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” ⁸and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

            If you don’t study it you can’t know what it’s about.  When you went to school, even the smartest of you had to study in order to pass the test.  For those of us who might have struggled with the study, it might have been a great time to have a WE moment and had someone to help us in our study.  WE have that relationship now, WE have the WE moment available to us to study the Holy Word of God and pass the race WE are running.  WE just need to use our WE to get things growing.

            WE are a chosen race, chosen by our God and He calls us great, a “Royal Priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession.”

            1 Peter 2:2–10 ⁹But 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. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

            Christ died for the community of saints, which is the chosen race.  He does not expect us to be perfect, but He does expect us to participate in His Body and Blood, that is, The Body of Christ, which is the Church.  What is the Church?  It is the means that God disperses His mercy upon all of us because the church is Christ, the Body of Christ.

            Our Father in Heaven sacrificed everything putting His only begotten Son on a criminal’s cross and letting Him die for our sin.  Christ hung in obedience to His Father and our Father in heaven to assure that WE are adopted back into the love of God.  Our God who loves us dearly wants us to be in the WE with Him forever and ever.  Amen.

            John 17:20-24 ²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  Amen, Amen, Amen.