Grow Up

We are in a series called Together We Endure. It's a study through Peter's first letter to the church. So if you've got a Bible, why don't you grab it and turn there. If you don't have one, run to the other room right now and get it.

I'll make meaningless small talk until you get back. Peter's first letter in the New Testament is written to a church in distress. And Peter encourages them by pointing to a common hope and a common power that is at work among them that binds them together. Last week, to illustrate the theme of 1 Peter, I borrowed an illustration from my gym coach who explained that when cows encounter a storm, they tend to run away from it and scatter as they go, leaving themselves exposed to it. But Buffalo, by contrast, instead of running away from the storm, they actually gather together. They turn toward the storm and they walk into it.

Not only does that shorten the duration of the storm because they're literally walking through it, but it also allows them protection of being together as they combine their strength into one. And that's a little bit of what Peter is trying to do here. He's trying to say, don't be like the cows, be like the Buffalo. Come together.

You are a body of Christ, even when you are scattered and celebrate that common hope and press into the promises of God together. Well, today, in the first 10 verses of chapter two, we're going to find the command that Peter gives to us. And then he gives us an explanation for how to accomplish that command. What's the command?

Well, very simple. The command is grow up. Look at chapter two, verse one. Therefore rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word so that by it you may, there are those words, grow up into your salvation. Now, Peter does not phrase this as an imperative here, but, but this is clearly his desire for these believers. He is concerned because some of these believers don't appear to have gotten past the baby stage, the infant stage in Jesus.

And he fears that if they remain as spiritual toddlers, they're not going to be able to endure the persecution or the ups and downs that Peter believes are coming their way. And could I just ask you, are you a little bit like that? Are you the kind of person who is spiritually hot on fire for God one day, but then cold the next? You go to, if you're a high school student, you go to camp or you go to a Christian event or maybe you spend some time with a spiritual friend, you hear a sermon, you listen to a great worship CD and things are spiritually hot in you, but, but then it just kind of, kind of fades. One minute you're really confident in your faith and the next you're filled with questions and doubts.

One minute you're praying fervently that the next you're unsure if any of this is even true. Peter says, if that's true, it's because you haven't grown up yet. I've always thought Peter's analogy here with young children, with infants is really helpful. I mean, think for a minute about young children. Young children can be unstable in their emotions, right? I mean, young children can go from the, from the heights of exaltation to the depths of despair in a matter of seconds. When my kids were young, if somebody took a toy from them or mom left the room, they would go into travail of soul. But if you go over to them, you gave them a lollipop or you poked them in the tummy, they just start giggling.

They go from one extreme to the other really, really fast. Sometimes the emotions are even mixed together. They're, they're laughing and crying at the same time. Like, you're like, I'm not even sure. Are you laughing or crying or which one is that?

We'll see. A lot of Christians are like that also. They can be on top of the world spiritually, overflowing with the love of God and then the slightest thing and just kind of on a dime, a little financial trouble, a relational breakdown, a spiritual setback. It upsets them. It makes them question everything. Most adults aren't like that.

Adults are more steady in their emotional stamina. Kids, kids can sometimes be insecure. Kids need constant reassurance that their parents care about them and, and that they aren't going anywhere. When my son, Adam, was, was really young, he always had a real attachment to his mom to the point that if she was not around, he'd constantly ask, where's mom? Where's mom? Like every two or three minutes, dad was trash, but my mom was where it was at. Once when he was about three years old, she left to go to the grocery store and after about five minutes, he asked where she was just really, really worried. And I was kind of annoyed to be honest with you. So I said, well, she left forever. Now to his credit, he seemed to know that I was kidding, but my five-year-old who was also in the room, um, she overheard me say that and she wrinkled up her face and she was like, what?

She's gone forever. Uh, baby Christians can be like that. They're insecure about the goodness and the promises of God. Something bad happens and they're like, why God, why have you forsaken me?

Where are you? Uh, when we're on a trip and if I tell my kids, especially when they were younger, that we were going to stop and get ice cream on the way home, they would ask me like a hundred times, dad, we're going to stop and get ice cream. Are we going to stop here and get ice cream? Baby Christians can be like that. Like God, if you don't fulfill this promise right now, if you don't do this miracle right now, I assume that you're not real or, or you don't really love me. Baby Christians need constant miracles and miraculous manifestations and warm fuzzies to feel like God it's real, which is why, by the way, many of them, many baby Christians flock to churches where, where they're promised those things.

How about this one? Sometimes young kids can be gullible, excessively gullible. Kids will believe pretty much anything. When I was a young kid, my dad used to tell me that he had a button in his car that could control the red light, green light. What he learned to do is just watch the, you know, the, the light go in the other direction, the crossroad. And when it turned yellow, he knew he had about four seconds. So he'd always see that and he'd say, okay, here we go.

Three, two, one. And then you press this button and the light would turn and I was like, whoa, my dad is the most powerful man in the world, right? Kids tend to be a little bit gullible. The apostle Paul says a lot of, a lot of baby Christians are like that also. In Ephesians 4, 14, Paul says to the Ephesians, for example, he's like, you're like children, you get blown about by every different wind of doctrine. A lot of Christians, a lot of young Christians are suckers for a powerful speaker or a miracle story or, or the latest bestselling book.

You'll believe just about any teacher with slick production and a, and a good worship band. You know, I used to get really depressed when I would hear of somebody who had been a part of our church, moved to another city and, and they would start going to a church that was just really different, believed and taught different things than we do. They don't, they didn't really preach the gospel and, and they were about this deep spiritually, but, but they had good music and they had fancy camera equipment. And so this former member would tell me, oh, I found the church here in the city, just like the summit church.

I learned that, that what they meant was I found the church with good music, with young, good looking people in the, in the pews and a preacher who tells funny stories. And because they're still immature spiritually, that's about all they can discern. They're still, they're still infants and, and young children tend to be, to be gullible and led along a little too easily.

Here's one more. Kids can be possessive, right? I mean, every parent knows that one word declaration that defines arguments between young siblings.

It's intended to settle disagreements by, by Fiat. What's that word? One word, mine. I hold tightly to what I want because my happiness depends on possessing and holding that thing. If my kids, especially when they were younger, if they wanted something, the other one had, they felt like the quality of their lives from that point forward, depended on whether they had that doll or that Lego piece right now. I got to have that one.

Now I know there are 217 others right here, but I need that one. We see immature Christians can be like that. And when they, when they're like that, that leads us to the, to the list that Peter opened the chapter with chapter two, verse one, when Peter tells us to rid ourselves of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander, those things come from a, from a childish and insecure, a possessive way of looking at the world that, that isn't content with the promises of God.

It needs things in its hands right now. A few years ago, I was, I was flying back from Dallas with one of our church planters, um, Andrew Hopper and the two guys in the, in the seat in front of us get into this like elbow wrestling match over the armrest. And Andrew and I are looking at each other while this is going down.

Cause it's, it's escalating. And we were both like, is this really happening? Well, the flight attendant comes back and she's trying to resolve the situations and they're complaining about each other. And so finally the flight attendant looks at me and, and Louis and Andrew actually says, do you mind switching with this guy because they obviously can't get along. So Andrew gets up and switches places and this guy gets back and he sits down next to me.

So immediately I put my arm there on the armrest to make sure that he just knew, you know, where he was sitting down. But the point is these grown men were acting like children. I need that.

That's mine. Many Christians, Peter, Peter, Peter laments, many Christians are unstable in their emotions. They're insecure, they're gullible and, and they're really possessive with their stuff. They're just not content with the promises and the hope that Peter is talking about.

And Peter just tells them you need to grow up. Now, why is that so important? Well, because, because living in a harsh world requires a grown up hope, not warm fuzzies or, or the constant need for a stream of signs and wonders. In fact, needing warm fuzzies and needing constant miracles is not a sign of spiritual hunger. It's a sign of spiritual immaturity. You need a grown up unwavering faith that is built on the solid rock hope of the empty tomb.

Okay. That's the command. Well, next he tells you how to obey the command. One thing I love about the apostle Peter, I told you the first week is that he doesn't just smack you upside the head. He gives you, he gives you practical ways to obey it. He's going to give you four practical ways that you can grow up.

Here they are. It's imbibe the word, establish your foundation, embrace your identity, and then number four, excel at your purpose. Let's take those one at a time. Number one, he says, imbibe the word verse two, like newborn infants desire. He says the pure milk of the word so that by it, you may grow up into your salvation. And in that word, he says, if you have tasted indeed that the Lord is good. A quote from Psalm 34 eight babies of course, grow by drinking milk, lots of it several times a day, not one glass on Sunday and another glass next Sunday, but all day, every day, several times a day. That's what Christians need to do. Peter says with the word, imagine if a mother only fed her baby one day a week, what would happen to that baby?

Well, if it even survived, it would likely grow up malnourished with perhaps serious growth defects. The same thing happens with a Christian that is not nourished continually and often on the word. I'm Peter in these verses is going to give you three qualities of the word that explain why the word is so necessary to our lives. First, he says the word is imperishable.

That was actually at the end of the last chapter. Verse 23, Peter says you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. And then he continues, all flesh is like grass and all of its glory, like the flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower fails, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Everything else in the world, Peter says is temporary, but God's word is forever. If you build your life on anything else, the approval of people, the strength of your family ties, the love of your spouse, your financial security, well then you'll constantly feel insecure and, and continually anxious, whatever it is, whatever you build your life on eventually will fade. And so if your life is built on that thing that fades, then you along with that will fade also.

And the result will be anxiety and constant insecurity. I remember a poem that we read in literature class in high school. I don't remember much about my literature class, but there were two things I loved about this poem. Number one, it was really short.

You could read the whole thing in less than 30 seconds. Number two, the imagery was really striking. The poem was by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and it was called Ozymandias. Shelley talks in that poem about the discovery of a buried monument that was corroded and covered by sand, forgotten by history, but it had the really faint words etched on that monument.

My name is Ozymandias, the King of Kings. Look on my works, all you mighty in despair. Shelley's point was, was that what seems humongous and incongruable and permanent in one generation is, is completely forgotten or mocked in the next. You know, if you go to the Dean Smith Center and watch a UNC Chapel Hill basketball game, there are jerseys hanging up that, that in their day were larger than life. They were like gods walking around the campus. Everybody knew who they were, that today's students wouldn't even recognize their name.

In fact, as much as I hate to say this, there is a group of high school students growing up now that knows not Michael Jordan. What seems rock solid and permanent in one generation is gone and completely forgotten by the next. The only way, Peter says, to find permanence in your life is to build it on something permanent and that's the imperishable word of God. Second thing he says is, is the word is living. The Bible is not just a book of, of knowledge, of doctrine, of theological truths.

It's a, it's the living, breathing voice of God. In this book, you encounter his very voice, the same voice that created the stars, that healed lepers, that gave sight to the blind, raised the dead. The scripture is not just about learning ancient truths. It is that everything in it is true. It's all the word of God, but the scripture is, is about God speaking to you in real time with real direction and putting that kind of life into your soul.

Without that voice of God in your life, your soul will shrivel and die. Third, Peter says, the word gives you confidence. Go back to verse three in chapter two. You see where he says, in the word you have tasted that the Lord is good. Let me give you a little interpretive tip to help you read First Peter. Throughout the book of First Peter, Peter interchanges the word of God and the person of Jesus rather seamlessly. For example, at the end of chapter one, Peter's talking about building our lives on the word.

And then in chapter two, he just shifts to the rock we build on being Jesus. For Peter, the word and Jesus are the same. In the word of the gospel, you meet Jesus, the person who gives you a taste of the goodness of God and teaches you that in all things, you can trust him because in him, you know that the Lord is good. For example, in Jesus, you see that at your worst moment, Jesus still loved them, pursued you, and you know that if he loved you then, he will never leave or forsake you now. So Peter says, you got to, you got to nourish yourself constantly on that imperishable living good gospel word.

Drink it like the milk of baby drinks to survive and without which that baby will remain severely undernourished. For some of you, I'm sad to say, the only Bible that you get is from, is from me. In fact, let me just, let me just ask, do you do a quiet time? Do you have a daily time that you pour the word into you? If not, I can guarantee you that you are shriveling up spiritually. I don't care how long you've been a Christian or how many facts you know, how many books you read or, or what, if you're not hearing the voice of God on a regular basis through his word, your soul is shriveling. You need the constant intake of the imperishable life-giving word of God. Listen, 10% of everything Jesus has recorded as saying in the Bible was a quotation of previous scripture. 10%.

He was saturated in scripture, just flowed out of him. Is that true of you also? Are you looking for something to celebrate these days? Well, see right here, you got it, right? It's right on your nightstand. This good news is even better than anything that, that John Krasinski from the office can bring to you. So imbibe the word.

Listen, before we go on to number two, let's do real talk for just a minute. What if you just don't feel it? What if you're sitting there right now and say, I don't want to crave the word, but, but I, but I don't, I don't desire it the way a newborn infant desires milk. Here's a little prayer I learned from John Piper that I found helpful when I feel like that.

And that's true. Sometimes he calls it praying the IOUs. These phrases are all taken directly from the Psalms and, and they're great things to pray when you feel dry spiritually. I, incline my heart to your understanding. Oh, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things out of your word. You, unite my heart to fear your name. S, satisfy me this morning with your unfailing love.

In fact, what if we stopped right now and we did just that? What if you prayed those four things there, whether you're by yourself in front of a computer in your living room, stop and just take a minute and just pray those things directly out of scripture that God would give you the heart of a newborn infant desiring the word. So number two, after we imbibe the word, Peter tells us, establish your foundation. He's talking about on Jesus verses five and six, you yourselves, he says, you yourselves as living stones, a spiritual house, or being built to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it stands in scripture. See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame. A quote from Isaiah 28, part of imbibing the word is establishing your foundation. The foundation of course, is what you build the rest of your life on. A key word to underline in these verses is that word cornerstone. Now I'm not a builder.

I will freely admit that, but I do know this. The cornerstone is the most important stone, the foundation stone in the whole building. The cornerstone holds together all the other stones. All of them eventually tie back into that cornerstone. And if the cornerstone is stable, then the rest of the building is going to be okay. Martin Luther commenting on this passage said that for each of us, our lives have a cornerstone. Your cornerstone, he said, is whatever you build the rest of your life on. It's your anchor.

It's your foundation. It's what you turn back to when other parts of life crumble around you. In other words, when life falls apart for you, what do you retreat into? Where's your heart go to tell yourself that things are going to be okay in the future? Do you find yourself, for example, thinking, well, I still got plenty of money, so I'll probably be okay. Well, if that's what you think, then the money is probably your cornerstone. Do you find your heart thinking, well, at least I have a strong family and if we're together, we can get through anything. Well, if that's the case, then marriage and family are likely your cornerstone. Or maybe is it I'm talented and people like me and I can always rebuild, right?

Or maybe I'm a good person and we all know good guys eventually win. Well, if that's the case, then your goodness is your cornerstone. Peter tells us that if your cornerstone is anything else except for Jesus, then your life is going to be characterized by instability. It's going to be manifested in all those things Peter listed out in verse one, malice and hatred and envy and jealousy of others and deceit, lying to make yourself look better, hypocrisy, slander, codependency and many other things.

Look at what he says, in fact, in verse seven. So honor, which means longevity and legacy and success, that'll come to you who believe and make Jesus your cornerstone. But for the unbelieving, well, the stone that the builders rejected, Jesus, that one has been made the chief cornerstone. A quote from Psalm 118, Jesus will be, verse eight, a stone you either build your life on or one that becomes a stone that you stumble over a rock to trip over. In other words, either you build your life on Jesus or the kingship of Jesus ultimately will crush you.

Now we'll come back to that, but you know, I just feel like we ought to take a minute and just celebrate, celebrate the confidence that we have in Jesus, our rock. So, so let's sing Christ alone, cornerstone weak made strong and the father's love. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest phrase, but wholly trust in Jesus' name.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest rain, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone, the weak made strong, and the savior's love through the storm.

He is the Lord, Lord of all. When darkness seems to hide his face, I rest, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every heart, in every heart and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

Yes, it will. My anchor holds within the veil. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong, and the savior's love through the storm. He is the Lord, Lord of all. He is Lord, yes, my Jesus. He is Lord of all. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong, and the savior's love through the storm. He is the Lord, Lord of all.

One more time, sing. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong, and the savior's love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all. Yes, yes, he is Lord through every sorrow, every joy, every trial. He is Lord.

He shall come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, for less to stand before the throne. Number three, after you imbibe the word and after you establish your foundation, number three, you embrace your identity.

That's verse nine. But you are, Peter says, this is who you are now. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for his possession. Establishing your foundation is going to lead you to embracing this new identity. I want to talk for just a moment about this massively important concept of identity, self-identity. Identity simply defined is the self-definition you live with of who you are, what your value is, and the role that you're here to play. I've always found Clayton King's definition of identity really helpful. Identity, he says, is what the most important person and the most important people in your life think about you.

Let me say that again. Your identity is what the most important person or people in your life, what they think about you. That is your identity. The question is, who is that for you?

Who is the person or group of people that what they think about you is your identity? Most of us live our whole lives plagued with the question, am I enough? Am I enough for those people?

And trying to prove to ourselves and to others that we are enough. Am I man enough? Am I strong enough?

Am I smart enough? Pretty enough? Skinny enough?

Good enough? And we live in a culture that seems designed to tell us that we're not enough and then to make money off of us because we feel like we're not enough. The point of just about every advertisement that you see on TV is that you're not enough.

You're not a good enough mom unless you use this brand. You're not good enough unless whatever they convince you that you need to buy so that you can line their pockets with your money so that they will have enough, right? Whatever it is, you're not enough.

We hear it all day every day. You're not blank enough. When she cheats, it's because you weren't a good enough man or husband. When he looks at porn, it's because you weren't good enough. When the kids ruin their lives, it's because you didn't do well enough.

And even if you feel like you are enough right now, you live with the fear that one day you won't be. Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player of his generation, but one day, one day he will be surpassed and forgotten. Michael Phelps was the greatest swimmer, but that's not going to last forever. My family loves the movie The Greatest Showman. It's the fictional account of P.T. Barnum's rise to success. There's this really moving scene where his prospective father-in-law tells him he will never be good enough for his daughter. He says she'll see that, and one day she'll come back.

She'll grow tired of the poor, miserable life that you're going to give her. Well, see, that played to a very deep insecurity that P.T. Barnum had, one that really we all have. So no matter how successful Barnum was, he never really felt satisfied.

His wife begged him to realize that he was good enough, but he just couldn't shake it. The American College Health Association has noted the rising anxiety in this generation of students that is entering college. And they say it's because the primary message children receive now is that they better be the best at everything or they're just not going to make it.

It's made exponentially worse by social media, Instagram, because everybody on those platforms creates a fake best version of themselves to compete with everybody else's fake version, and everybody's afraid to reveal their inadequacies and their insecurities. Peter tells us that we can stop this frantic race to the top. He says because Jesus is our foundation, you've got a new identity, right? You're a chosen race, he says. God chose you to be in his family. What greater place of privilege is there than that?

Here's what's more. He says you're a royal priesthood. In Israel, the chosen people, there was a specially chosen line of royalty, the line of Judah. They were the chosen within the chosen. And there was another separate specially chosen line of priesthood.

That was the line of Levi. Peter says that in Jesus, you're actually both of those. You're the chosen of the chosen of the chosen, right?

You can't get into a higher place of privilege. He continues you're a people for his own possession. You're a value possession that Jesus purchased with his blood of all the things that he wanted. He shed his blood to get you.

The King of Kings has set his affection on you, and he has a plan for you. Friend, what more do you need to feel like you are enough? You are not enough because you're more remarkable than somebody else, or because you got to the top faster, or because you're better. You're enough because of who loves you, because of who stands behind you, and because of who has put you into service. Listen, especially you kids and high school students, you will never win enough to feel like you are enough. The good news is that you don't need to. Jesus won for you. He values you and promises he has a plan to use you for good, and that is enough. Let me show you this real quick.

This really helped me. You got to choose where you're going to build your identity, and maybe it's out here in this external sphere. It's because you're smart enough, or pretty enough, or strong enough, athletic, popular, rich, righteous enough, whatever.

You got something that says I'm enough. Well, if that is the case, you're always going to be insecure and fearful of who is more than you on these things, but if you build your identity in here because you are in Christ, you will be secure. Build your identity on the outer circle. You will always be insecure.

Build it on the inner circle, and you'll become a rock that can weather any storm and who makes a positive contribution to the world because you become a living stone built up in his temple, channeling the life and the purposes of God in you and for you. Listen, let me say this before we move on to our last point, because I think some of you may desperately need to hear this. You need to release yourself from the self-imposed obligation to be enough for others. You're never going to be wise enough to save him, man.

You can't be husband enough to keep her home at night. Sons, you can't be son enough to make your insecure daddy proud. Ladies, you won't ever be daughter enough to please your pride-filled parents. You can't be their savior.

They need Jesus to fill that insecurity in their lives. You just need to be who God made you to be and fulfill his purpose in your life and let his affirmation and approval be your identity. That'll be enough. Before we move on to our last point, could we celebrate this also through a song? In fact, let's sing. It's one of my favorites, I Am Who You Say I Am. Who am I that the highest king would welcome me? I was lost but he brought me in, oh, his love for me, oh, his love for me. Whom the Son sets free, oh, is free indeed. I'm a child of God, yes, I am. Free at last he has ransomed me, his grace runs deep. While I was a slave to sin, Jesus died for me, yes, he died for me. Whom the Son sets free, oh, is free indeed. I'm a child of God, yes, I am.

In my Father's house there's a place for me. I'm a child of God, yes, I am. I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am. You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am.

You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. I am who you say I am. Who the Son sets free, oh, is free indeed. I'm a child of God, yes, I am. In my Father's house there's a place for me. I'm a child of God, yes, I am.

In my Father's house there's a place for me. I'm a child of God, yes, I am. I am my end. I am loved. I am redeemed.

I am restored. I am healed. I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am.

You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am. Yes, Lord, you are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am.

You are for me, not against me. I am who you say I am. Oh, I am who you say I am. Yes, I am who you say I am.

Oh, Lord, I am who you say I am. Number four, Peter says, Excel at your purpose. This is at the end of verse nine. So that you may, he says, proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Once you imbibe the word, once you establish your foundation and then embrace your identity, well then you're ready to live out, to excel at your purpose. Our job, Peter says, our role is to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us from darkness to light.

I love Peter's imagery here. In Genesis, God created the world. The Latin phrase is ex nihilo, means out of nothing. There was nothing, and then God spoke and created everything. Nothing, everything. Peter says that's what happened to you in salvation.

You were completely unrighteous. You were spiritually dead. And then God spoke and made you righteous and alive, just like there was darkness and there became light. So you were unrighteous and God made you righteous and alive. You are to proclaim that. In fact, whenever you sing a song like we just sang, I am who you say I am, you are declaring that you were here in this world to declare his excellency. He's not your own. He reminds him in verse 11. He's like, we're just sojourners and exiles.

You're just passing through. So of course we don't care how many people know our name, we're just passing through. We only care about how many people know his name. Many of you know that last week a beloved saint and brother here at the Summit Church ended a long battle with cancer and he went to be with Jesus. He was one of the original 300 that was here when I came to lead the Summit Church in 2002. He was a man whose faith and sacrifice helped create this movement, this place. After being a leader here in our church for many years as a lay capacity, he joined our staff a few years ago to help administer benevolence and share the love of Jesus with people in our community who were in a tough place. His name was David Baber and David was a guy that everybody knew was wholly focused on one thing and that is pointing people to Jesus.

In fact, until his dying breath, one of our pastors, Josh Navy, oversees our kids ministry here. He was with him just a few days before he died and David told him, he said, my nurse here is named and he said the name. He said, I asked this guy if he was a believer when I arrived and he said no.

He said he believed it was a higher power but nothing more. He said, so I'm convinced I still have a few days left here on earth because I think I'm here to make sure he knows about Jesus. I got a few days left to let people know the excellencies of him who called me from darkness to light.

You see, that's the role for all of us in whatever days we have left. In fact, David Baber shows us that the measure of our lives is not how many people knew your name. The measure of our lives is how many people you cause to know his name. That's what Peter says.

Let me close with Peter's warning here. Peter says that this word, this hope, this new identity is offered to you freely in Jesus the cornerstone if you'll just receive it. He's ready for all who would receive him but if you don't receive him, that cornerstone, Peter warns you, he turns into the rock that crushes you.

It's like C.S. Lewis used to say, there are only two categories of people. There are those who become insanely happy in Jesus and then those who find Jesus to be their worst enemy. Here's how Charles Spurgeon said that to his congregation in 1856 and with this I close. He who would place himself in front of a fast-moving railway car will be crushed and will be just as foolish as you who are opposing the gospel. If the gospel is true, remember the truth is mighty and must prevail. Who are you to attempt to stand against it?

You will be crushed and let me tell you, when the railway car runs over you, the will will not be raised even an inch by your size for what are you? A tiny gnat, a creeping worm which that will will crush to less than nothing and not leave you even a name as having ever been an opponent of the gospel. Let all the infidels in the world know assuredly that the gospel will win its way, whatever they may do.

Poor creatures, their efforts to oppose the gospel are not even worthy of our notice and we need not fear that they can stop the truth. They're like a gnat who thinks he can quench the sun. Go tiny insect and do it if you can. You will only burn your wings and die. Likewise, there may be a fly who thinks it could drink the ocean dry. Drink the ocean if you can, old fly.

More likely you will sink in it and it will drink you. Peter says you have a choice. You come to the rock who is Jesus and he will establish your life and give you eternal happiness forever or you oppose him and he becomes the rock that crushes you.

Which category are you in? Are you in that category of those who have found security and identity in him and are you learning to be insanely happy in him or have you made yourself his enemy? Have you surrendered your life to Christ and his purposes?

If not, you could do so right now. You can pray with me right now with heads bowed and eyes closed. Lord Jesus, I know, I know that you are God. I surrender to you. Say it to him from your heart and I receive you as my savior. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Amen. Hey, if you prayed that prayer, we would love for you to let us know. You can just say it right there in the comments, let us know, or you could send an email to prayer at summitrdu.com.