Firm Foundation

Scripture Readings: 1 Peter 2:4-10 | Matthew 7:24-27

Peter talks about Jesus as the cornerstone. This church, and every church, is not founded on individuals, but on Christ alone. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In Matthew 28, Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He calls you to be that disciple. To hear his word, to receive his promises, to repent, to believe. That Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And that by believing you have life in his name. Now here are the good news of Jesus for you. There's something rewarding about building. You see it when someone builds a home with their own hands, or when parents build a family, they raise their children, they raise their family together, and they do that over years and years of faithfulness. You see it when someone starts a new business, or they create a system that helps and operates many different parts of a company. You see it when someone plants a garden and they build that one year and you see it for many, many years. Or you see it when someone helps to establish a church, especially a new church. There's joy when you look at something and you can say, I was part of that. My son, Noah, loves to build Legos. And you can see that. And you hear it whenever he has either built one of the big creations and he's followed all the instructions and he's done everything, you know, down to the T, or when he takes something and he takes all that apart and he builds it from scratch. You hear that. And when he brings it to you and he says, Hey, look, look what I did. I was part of that, I built that. Listen again to these words in 1 Peter. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house. You're being built up. The church, not the building, the people. The church is being built up. Not an institution or a building, not programs or committees or budgets, but people. Living stones. People whom God Himself is gathering together in his church, and he's building them up one by one, by one, by one. And yet, before Peter says anything about the fact that we're being built up together, he starts with something else. He says, as you come to him, to Jesus, the living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. Surprise, surprise, everything begins with Jesus. The church, the people of God, are built up together, and they're built up together on Christ alone. One of the temptations in life is to slowly begin building everything on ourselves instead. We do this all the time. We talk about it like this all the time. Our identity, we built it on our work, our skills, our accomplishments, on what other people think about us. Especially for people who are responsible and hardworking and dependable, people who build things and lead things and organize things and fix things, there's this temptation to believe if I can just do that and I can hold everything together, then things will be okay. That our family's faithfulness depends on us, on me. That our future depends on me. The church depends on me. That if we work hard enough and organize enough and plan everything just right and serve enough and serve in the right ways, then everything's gonna be good. Everything's gonna be great. But life has a way of exposing this fragility to it, the fragility of this kind of a foundation. Jesus says in the gospel, Jesus says that the storms will come. The rain will fall, the rain falls on every house. Storms hit families, storms hit churches, storms hit marriages, storms hit careers, storms hit health, storms hit our faith. And when they do come, when the storm does come, eventually it reveals what it really is that we were building all along. Because no matter how capable you are, no matter how many gifts you have and skills you have, you can't control everything. Children will grow up, and when they do, they make their own decisions and they make decisions that maybe you never expected or intended. Families go through difficult seasons. There's no way to avoid that. Churches face challenges. Sure, there are seasons of growth, but then there are seasons of challenge, of struggle. You change careers, your health changes. And we're not strong enough. All this reveals that we're not strong enough to be the cornerstone. You are not strong enough to be the cornerstone of your own life. And that's humbling. And it's difficult to accept, even. But that job doesn't even belong to you. That job belongs to Jesus. Peter says, Behold, or look, I'm laying in Zion a stone. A cornerstone that's chosen and precious. In the ancient world, the cornerstone was everything. You put the cornerstone in the right place, and that determined the whole structure of how things were going to be and where everything was going to go. And so if the cornerstone was in the wrong place and it wasn't stable and it wasn't put correctly, then the whole building would fail. It would be weak. It wouldn't last. It wouldn't make it. And so Peter is making something very clear that Jesus is the chosen one, he's the precious one, he's the cornerstone. That's how this church started. Beautiful Savior began as a mission plant in 2000. And at that time there were just a few small people, a small group of people. And they had a big vision. They wanted to share Christ's love in this growing community of Powell. And in those early years, worship happened wherever space could be found. Some of you probably remember worshiping in the subway shop, and others remember the Red Barn. Didn't have the grand facilities or all the polished programs. And so people just gathered. They gathered around the word and they trusted that Jesus was doing something. Because he's always doing stuff. And then came the conversations and the decisions. You looked at land. You wondered where God might lead this church in the future. You raised funds. You prayed. You prayed about things that maybe felt impossible at that time. You watched blueprints slowly become walls and then windows and offices and rooms and worship space. And you eventually watched this building rise from the ground. There's something emotional about that because when you help build something, part of your heart gets attached to it. And yet the most important thing that we need to remember is that God was building this. The children that were baptized here, and the families that gathered here on Sundays, and still do gather here on Sundays. And the people who came here and they carried burdens and they were looking for hope and they found that. They found that in Christ. The children who learned about Jesus in Sunday school and our preschool and in our VBS and other ways. And by the way, this is how the church has always grown. It gathers together, it puts its hope and trust in Christ and says, Lord, whatever we're going to do. Can't wait to see it. Perhaps one of the biggest lessons over the years is that many things change. People move away. Some brothers and sisters in Christ depart and they go to be with Jesus. Pastors, they come and they go. Leaders serve faithfully for a season and then they hand things off to others. And yet, through all of that, and this is true, by the way, during this season, but this is true also for every season that will follow this one, that Jesus remains. The same Savior that was preached in the subway shop, the same Savior that was worshipped in the red barn, the same savior that was proclaimed Sunday after Sunday, Christ is still the cornerstone. And that's why the church still stands. Not because of any one pastor, not this one. Not because of any one leader, not because of any one family. But because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And that is exactly what Jesus promises. That's what he promises in the gospel reading today. The storms, he says, they come against the house built on the rock. Again, Christians are not, and churches are not promised a storm-free life. Neither are families. But Jesus says, as that storm comes upon that house, it did not fall. Why? Because it had been founded on the rock. That's the promise. Not that life will never shake. But that Christ will hold. That Christ will hold, the one rejected by men, the one crucified, the one who looked weak and defeated on the cross, and the one who God raised from the dead. That's the gospel at the center of this text. That the church is not built, it's not built on strong people. It's built on a crucified and risen Savior. And that is good news. Because it means your hope does not rest on how impressive your life has been, or how much you've accomplished, or what skills or gifts you have. And they are great, but they're all given by God anyway. But your hope rests on Christ. The one who carried your sin, the one who died for your failures, the one who forgives not only your weaknesses, but also your pride. The one who remains faithful even when you are tired and uncertain. Peter says, whoever believes in him, he will not be put to shame. Why? Because Christ did not fail. And then Peter says something remarkable. He says, You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up. You are being built up. God is building a firm foundation. And how does he do that? He takes ordinary people. People with jobs and responsibilities and weaknesses and regrets and ordinary daily lives, and he builds them together into his church. That also means, by the way, that every person matters. Every gift matters. Some people teach, some people lead, some people serve quietly behind the scenes, some greet people at the door, some pray faithfully, some sing, some fix things, some care for children, prepare meals, give generously, encourage others when they're hurting. Some simply show up week after week and remain faithful. And all that matters because this is how God works. He gathers living stones together and he builds something bigger than any of us could ever build alone. And that's one of the beautiful things about the church. No one person does everything, no matter what they tell you. No one person does everything. No one person carries everything, no one person is the foundation because Jesus already is that. And here's what that does for us that frees us. If I'm not the foundation and you're not the foundation, then it frees us to serve joyfully instead of anxiously and fretting about the things that we need to accomplish. It frees us to use our gifts without requiring people to recognize that we're using our gifts and serving in these ways. It frees us to hand things off to the next generation or to the next leader without fear of what they're going to do with it or how they're going to handle things. It frees us to remember that this church and any church, for that matter, it doesn't ultimately belong to us. It belongs to Jesus. This is his church. He was at work, by the way, when a handful of people gathered years ago with a vision for sharing Christ in Powell. He was the one at work in the subway shop. He was the one at work in the Red Barn. He was the one at work when this building was built. He is the one at work today. And he will still be at work, by the way, long after every one of us is gone. And that requires some humility, it requires thankfulness to be thankful for those who have served and who have given tirelessly and faithfully. But no matter what, this church and every church is sustained not by human effort, but by the crucified and risen Christ. He's the one who forgives sins. He's the one who calls people out of darkness and into this marvelous light. He's the one who gathers his people around his word and sacraments. He's the one who continues to build his church stone upon stone, generation after generation. And what a privilege it is. What a privilege it is that God allows us to be part of that work together. That God allows us to build it together with him. Not because he needs us, but because by his grace he invites us into what he's already doing. And so what do we do? We build. And we build by serving and praying and teaching and giving and encouraging and worshiping. Twenty years from now. The church will look back and prayerfully they'll say the same things that the church isn't built on people like you and me, but it's built on Jesus. But they'll also look back and say, look at all the work that has gone into this, and how wonderful and glorious it is to see the faithfulness of God's people at work. Because those people are doing the same thing that they're gonna be doing in 30 years. We're doing the same thing that they were doing 30 years ago. And it's trusting, trusting that Jesus is the cornerstone. And he's the cornerstone that they tried to tear down, but they couldn't. And they couldn't tear him down because he lives. And because he lives, the church will stand forever. And the church will stand forever no matter what. No matter what Satan throws against it, no matter what the world throws against it, because he's the cornerstone. And because he's the cornerstone and he's firm, he is the firm foundation, everything else will everything else will work out the way that God intends it. And that's true for the church. And it's also true for you, for your life, for your family, for your future, for your eternity.

unknown 17:52

In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Amen.