Episode 1319: Living Stones

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,319 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Jeff Wald: I'm Jeff Wald. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to focus on how your work impacts the world is key.

[00:00:28] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:42] Scott Maderer: I dunno if you've ever seen a rock that's been carved into a beautiful statue, but it's like that. When you look at the raw stone, it doesn't have that beauty. But then when it's been carved, that beauty comes out and I think that's Peter calling for us to be [00:01:00] living stones. And B, the statues, the living stones to each other to call each other out and help each other on the walk.

[00:01:09] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you'll learn to invest in yourself.

[00:01:28] Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:39] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk with you about one Peter chapter two, verse two through 10. I share how we have moments that build us just like stones build cathedrals. I also talked about why we are called to be living stones to each other. First Peter, chapter two verses two [00:02:00] through 10 says, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk.

[00:02:06] So that by it you may grow into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, come to him. A living stone, though rejected by mortals, yet chosen and precious and God's sight. And like living stones, let yourself be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

[00:02:30] For it stands in scriptures. See, I am laying in Zion Stone. A cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame to you then who believe he is precious. But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner. And a stone that makes them stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

[00:02:53] They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a [00:03:00] royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, an order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

[00:03:14] Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. We often have moments in our lives that stand as rocks that we look back on as moments of energy, moments that were meaningful, moments that we were looking forward to for years. Whether it's the birth of a child, your marriage, graduation day, or the graduation day of a child.

[00:03:42] We have these moments that come and just like that, they're gone. Hard to believe they're weighing us down in some way. Sometimes a moment of sadness, sometimes a moment of joy, but then sadness because it's gone and it disappears and it moves on [00:04:00] like ripples in a pond. They may be good days, they may be bright sun, shiny days.

[00:04:06] There may be days where you were proud and happy, but yet then they move on. They cross into the past. They become part of the rocks that make up the road of our lives. They make up stones on the path that we were on. Sometimes those are stones that cause us to trip and fall that cause us to stumble and bruise ourselves.

[00:04:29] And other times they're the smooth stones of the journey into the future. But there are stones that we keep moving forward on. And this passage from Peter is all about stones and rocks. It seems to be stones that dominate these verses. A calling to come to the stone, to be a stone and to live inside those stones.

[00:04:56] Peter is called the rock. He [00:05:00] was changed his name from Simon to Peter by Jesus. And Peter or Petros means rock. And maybe some of the reason he's calling out these stones is to return the favor of him being called a stone or a rock. And he's calling others to become living stone.

[00:05:19] He's calling others to let Jesus build you up into the house that he's trying to build to be a cornerstone, a living stone, to be a stone, to build up others, to become part of the foundation, part of the structure. Part of the temple to be a sanctuary where worship can take place, make worship part of your life, make it something that can take place in you.

[00:05:47] We're both the structure and the activity that takes place inside of that structure. We're the building the church, but we're also the inhabitants that worship and join together inside [00:06:00] that building. And this is that living stone that Peter seems to be talking about. Psalm 31 is also used as a scripture lesson this week, and it talks a lot about refuge.

[00:06:15] And do not let me Lord ever be put in your shame, but deliver me, rescue me speedily. If I've ever done anything that was wrong, deliver me from that. And that echo in the psalmist is also one of refuge, something being their rock, their fortress, their salvation, and commending yourself to that. And yes, that is not just a hiding place, not just a fortress that you can duck into, but it's also something that it says in the psalm, take me out of this.

[00:06:55] I've fallen into a trap or a net and I need saving. Does [00:07:00] it matter whether it's my fault or the fault of my enemies? But I need help. I need saving. I need deliverance. And sometimes I think that's the attitude or the recognition that we have about the rock and the refuge as well. We look that we could sit back and just be rescued, but Peter's saying no it's not a get out of the way and let God work.

[00:07:23] He also wants us to work with him. We're in partnership with God. Not an equal partnership to be sure, but still a partnership of consent where we have to say, yes, we want it, we need it, we need to allow it. We need to seek it out, and we need to work beside God. We have to invite the spirit to use us. We have to invite the spirit inside of us.

[00:07:49] Become a royal priesthood, a holy nation, but the spirit waits on us. For our consent, the spirit waits for us to be [00:08:00] willing participants in the building of the kingdom or the kingdom, the construction of a community, of faith. And Peter is calling out and saying, let yourself be built. Let yourself not decide for yourself, but let yourself.

[00:08:18] Let yourself be the one that says, I'm gonna be holding up this wall. I'm gonna frame that window. I'm gonna be the rock on this path. Not to cause others to stumble, but to make the path smooth so that they can find their own journey to God. We're not in charge, we're rocks. We're not the architect, but we're the building material and we're being called to be that building material to be built up into something greater than we ever believed we could be.

[00:08:49] I don't know if you've ever seen a rock that's been carved into a beautiful statue, but it's like that. When you look at the raw stone, it doesn't have that beauty. [00:09:00] But then when it's been carved, that beauty comes out. And I think that's Peter calling for us to be living stones and be the statues, the living stones to each other, to call each other out and help each other on the walk to God and not be a stone that causes others to stumble, but being the stone that lifts others up.

[00:09:25] Thanks for listening.

[00:09:32] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired.

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[00:10:20] Develop your influence and impact the world.