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CrossPointe Community Church
P O Box 126
Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
SCRIPTURE
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?”
So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Matthew 19:23-30
You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but He was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. What’s more, you are His holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say,
“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor,
and anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced” (Isaiah 28:16).Yes, you who trust Him recognize the honor God has given Him. But for those who reject Him,
“The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22).
And,
“He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall” (Isaiah 8:14).
They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.
“Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy” (Hosea 1:6, 9; 2:23).
I Peter 2:4-10
SERMON
Worth It!
Randy K’Meyer
In July 2010, the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy announced that they had discovered the brightest star that’s ever been found. While the mass of the star is only about 265 times that of our sun, its brightness is disproportionately greater. The star, initially cataloged as R136a1, is not just twice as bright as our sun, it’s not 10 times brighter, it’s not a hundred times brighter, it’s not a thousand times brighter, and it’s not even a million times brighter! R136a1 is a full ten million times brighter than our sun!
When star R136a1 is given a real name, it would be appropriate to name it The Jesus Star, for He is the brightest star in the kingdom of God, which does encompass the entire cosmos! 1
I don’t think Jesus would mind at all for in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, the resurrected and glorified Christ proclaims, “I am the bright morning star!” (22:16).
As we have just heard, one of His disciples by the name of Peter would agree. “He (Jesus) was rejected by people, but He was chosen by God for great honor” (I Peter 2:4). Not just honor, but great honor.
And then two verses later Peter doubles down on that thought: “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor” (2:6a).
But wait, he’s not through yet, for a thrid time in the next verse he writes, “you who trust Him recognize the honor God has given Him. (I Peter 2:7).
Today is a day to recognize the honor God has given Jesus. And we shall do so by considering why, according to Peter, this is so.
Jesus is worthy of great honor first, because He saved us!
In verse nine, Peter reminds us, “He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.”
Before we embraced Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, we were living in darkness. We were blind to the fact that we, all of us, had sinned against a holy God; that we were merrily living our lives our way with no thought about God and how He might feel about that.
Paul says, “We were darkened in our understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that was in us due to the hardening of our hearts” (Ephesians 4:18). In other words, we were spiritually blind.
But then something happened; something wonderful happened. God opened our eyes to see that He is love and that He did for us what we could never do for ourselves in paying the price for our waywardness. And we were saved by grace through our faith in His gracious act of mercy.
“I stand before You Lord and give You all my praise,
Your love is all I need, Jesus You’re all I need.
My life belongs to You, You gave Your life for me,
Your grace is all I need, Jesus You’re all I need.
Now that You’re near, everything is different, everything is different Lord,
I know I’m not the same, my life has changed,
I want to be with You, I want to be with You.”
And so, Jesus, the bright and morning star is worthy of our praise, first Peter says, because He has saved us! Or as Peter reminds us here: “Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy” (I Peter 2:10).
But He’s not through yet!
Secondly, Peter wants us to know that Jesus is worthy of our praise because He has granted us the blessing of being His people.
He did not save us to live out our spiritual lives on our own as independent, individual persons. It is not good for man to be alone. He gave us community, He gave us each other; to be together, to grow together, to accomplish together.
In this passage, Peter says, we are “living stones in God’s spiritual temple” (I Peter 2:5). We are “holy priests” (2:5), God’s “chosen people,” … “royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. (2:9). “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people” (2:10a)
We are the Church!
Jesus is worthy of our praise, not only because He has saved us, but also because He has granted us the blessing of being His own people!
And Peter is not through yet!
He informs us, thirdly, that Jesus is worthy of our praise because He enables us to “offer spiritual sacrifices that please God” (2:5b).
That’s what we have been talking about the last three weeks as we have examined what our Lord has said about putting Him first in our lives. We have talked about our loyalty and commitment to Christ and His Kingdom! And how Jesus is calling us to carry our own cross; that is sacrificing something of who we are to Jesus.
I know, our human condition says, who wants to hear the word sacrifice, right? Sacrifice always costs us something; our time, our talents, our treasure. Those are precious commodities, and we are reluctant to part with them. As I mentioned last week, it’s hard to let go.
But we should be glad to do so. Why? Because Jesus is worth it!
On August 11, 1978, Double Eagle II, a large helium balloon, and her crew of three eased into an almost windless sky about the potato fields of Maine. Their destination: Paris, France. The aerodynamics of ballooning are somewhat complex, but one thing is certain. In order for the balloon to stay afloat as the journey progressed, ballast (that which is used to add weight) had to be dumped overboard. As they approached continental Europe six days later, one of the crew wrote, “We have been expending ballast wisely, but as we neared land, we had to throw over tape recorders, radios, film magazine, sleeping bags, lawn chairs and most of our food, water and the cooler it was in.” 2
And because they did, they were enabled to safely land at their destination, as the first successful transatlantic balloon crossing.
All of us are on a spiritual journey and we are learning as we travel on that by God’s grace we can “offer spiritual sacrifices that please God” (2:5b). And that we are blessed by God when we do.
We are blessed primarily because our sacrifices enable the church to move forward and conquer on behalf of God’s Kingdom.
Many people of the world have understood the necessity of sacrificing, burning bridges, and leaving stuff behind in order to accomplish a worthy goal. When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of England with his well-armed legions, he made a bold and decisive move to guarantee the success of his campaign. He marched his men to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover and ordered them to look down at the ships that had brought them across the channel. Every one of them was ablaze! Caesar himself ordered that they be sacrificed so that there could be no possibility of a pullback. Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but advance and conquer. And that is precisely what they did. 3
Similarly, God wants to use us to advance and conquer on behalf of His Kingdom! I know that you all agree with me that this world is in desperate need, in so many ways, of what God offers.
And what’s true the world over is also true right here in our backyard! There are people living within our sphere of influence who desperately need the Lord in their lives. They need to know that God loves them and wants to set them free from their past by forgiving them. And from there, they need to begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ so that they themselves can be a blessing to others.
On November 1st, The Harvard School of Graduate Education published the results of a study indicating that three out of five young adults, between the ages of 18 and 25 “lack meaning and purpose in their lives.” Another 50% of the same age group report that they have no direction in life. The article goes on to detail how as a result of these feelings, these young people are clinically depressed and suffer from serious anxiety. 4
This past Tuesday at Trunk or Treat, I talked to a young mother of three children, who looked at me with pleading eyes, and said, “I need help.” These young people need what you and I have to offer.
Your gifts of sacrifice and service as you offer God your time, talent, and treasure enables CrossPointe to move God’s Kingdom forward so that we can conquer for Christ, who is so worth the spiritual sacrifices we make!
Moving CrossPointe forward is such an exciting adventure.
Do you ever think in terms like that? That what we are doing here on behalf of Christ is an exciting adventure? We should.
David Murrow caused a stir with his book Why Men Hate Going to Church. He wrote: “Men are treated to Sunday school classes and sermons which are so safe and so nurturing, and they don’t want that. Churches are taming men instead of giving them adventure.” 5
My friends, God has saved us, and God has earmarked us as His very own people and has recruited us into His army if we might use that imagery. And He has given us a mission to accomplish to go into all our neighborhoods to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything He taught. (Matthew 28:19-20).
Why? Because God desires His Kingdom to grow one life at a time. What an exciting adventure!
Paul in his letter to the Philippians, speaking about the adventure of ministry, writes:
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way
or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (3:10-11).
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (3:13-14).
I assure you,” Jesus said, “that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon His glorious throne, you who have been My followers will also sit on twelve thrones. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for My sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:28-30).
Over 100 years ago, an earthquake startled the inhabitants of a Japanese seashore village but because they had grown accustomed to earthquakes, after the tremors settled down they went back to what they were doing. Above the village, on a high plain, an old farmer was watching the sea from his house and noticed the water moving away from the land. The wise old man knew what it meant. His one thought was to want the people of the village below. He called to his grandson, “Bring me a torch!”
In the fields behind him lay his great rice crop piled high in stacks drying and almost ready for market. He hurried out with his torch and in a few moments the stalks were blazing. The big bell in the village began to ring out, warning the villagers of the fire. Up the hill came the people of the village to help this elderly rice farmer. As they reached the top of the hill, the farmer, knowing that his rice crop was already lost, shouted, “Look!” And as they did they could see the rising wave of tsunami that crashed ashore and turned their houses to match sticks.
After the screams of the villagers died down, the old man said, “That is why I set my rice on fire.” His wealth was gone, but his sacrifice saved the lives of over 100 people. 6
That’s what we are about here. As Peter writes, we are “offering spiritual sacrifices that please God” (2:5b) for He alone is worthy.
Many of you have heard the name Dr. David Livingstone, who was a Scottish missionary and explorer who spent thirty-three years in the heart of Africa. He endured much suffering and sacrifice as he sought to reach people for Christ. He once remarked:
People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? It is emphatically no sacrifice; rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left his Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us.” 7
You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God.
Revelation 5:9-10
1 from sermon by Bruce Rzengota, December 30, 2010, Sermon Central
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/wired-for-glory-bruce-rzengota-sermon-on-christmas-153003
2 August 11, 1978: Crossing the Atlantic in a Balloon, Aug 11, 2016
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/august-11-1978-crossing-atlantic-balloon
3 https://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon1/burningyour.htm
4 Feeling Adrift Drives Anxiety, Depression in Young Adults,
by Jessica Blake, November 01, 2023
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/physical-mental-health/2023/11/01/lack-purpose-drives-anxiety-depression-young-adults
5 From a sermon, Why Most Men Hate Going to Church,
by Anthony Ramdass, October 12, 2013.
Why Most Men Hate Going To Church Sermon by Anthony Ramdass, Matthew 16:24-25 – SermonCentral.com
6 Torched His Rice | Bible.org
7 Source: The Life and Labors of David Livingstone, J. E. Chambliss
https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/putting-sacrifices-in-perspective