is where it's sitting. But tonight we're going to be looking at the authentic church, the
authentic church. And one of the things I just maybe want to hit on tonight before we really
delve into the lesson is that since the Russians started their attack on Ukraine, you realize
there's been over almost 500 churches that have been destroyed, churches, seminaries,
those type things. But what's really more amazing than that is that even though throughout
all the centuries empires have destroyed buildings all over the world, the thing that we have
to remember is that the church has not been destroyed. The church has not stopped. And
they're saying they can't hear me in the back. You cannot hear, okay, can I have, oh there
are you, we've got volume now. Okay, can you hear me now? That's better, okay. I won't start
over, I'll just continue on from where I'm at. So basically we're just a little bit high
because I get a little bit of ringing. Yeah, I got just a little bit of ringing, testing,
yeah. That's better, good. So but the body, the church has not been destroyed. No matter
what Satan has tried to do, it has always been there. So that's one of the things we
have to hold on to. Everything in the church centers around Jesus Christ. Amen. Now here's
what I want to throw out tonight, questions you can't answer. Mike, okay, tell me a food
that is advertised that when you get that food served to you, it is not what you ordered
or not the quality of what you ordered. Burger King. Skyline chili, okay. I'm not going to
go Burger King. We're on, we're live, so I'm not going to go Burger King. But Skyline,
Skyline chili is just as bad. What about Skyline chili? It was horrible. Okay. Yes. Okay. Two
more, two more quickly. Did you have one? Did you just cross your hands like I'm not
going to say what I'm going to say. Yes, ma'am. Did you have one? You didn't? What about this?
Have you ever gone someplace to get crab cakes? How many of you like crab cakes? Oh, but when
you get your crab cakes, there's a lot of breading and not much crab. But if there is crab, it's
imitation crab. And that's just one of the things that really gets to me is when you
sit there and you go and I enjoy crab cakes, but when you get there and it's just breading
and imitation. So that's not true to really what it is, is it? But you had an answer.
What was your answer? Raising Canes. Raising Canes. Because the food was when I went there,
the one time I went there was pretty good. However, the menu is like tiny. It's like a tiny selection.
It's like even though the food was pretty good, I would never want to go back. They're good at what they did.
They're not nearly the variety of like say chicken fillets or leech chicken. Okay.
I was thinking the whole swallow was not sweet. The whole swallow was not sweet at all.
If you're listening tonight, yes, sir. I like all food.
Well, I will say this. I can go with anything except for the ketchup burger. That probably beats all of them.
Jesus is the main ingredient in our church. Jesus is the main ingredient. He is the reason that we're here tonight and that we're coming together.
And so we go there. It's not going to work. Okay. All right. Well, I'll just go from memory and from the scripture.
I'll just do it that way. I'll exegete from here rather than from there.
So basically, if you would open your Bibles with me to set a first Peter chapter two, first Peter chapter two.
There won't be a video or there won't be any of the things that normally always bring. And I've got a ton of stuff that won't open.
So that's just kind of one of those, one of those sad things that happen in the world in which we live.
You live by electronics. They'll be your downfall. Okay.
All right. Why don't we go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll start our study tonight.
Father God, we love you and we praise you and we give you the glory and the honor for who you are.
How you have orchestrated this world, how you've orchestrated our lives, how you're sovereign and that you've got a plan for all of us.
Father, we just pray more than anything else that you will reveal your plan to us. Make yourself real.
Let the spirit of God lead us in such a way that we can see and feel and know that our hope is in you and you only.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay. So we'll be getting in first Peter chapter two verses one through five.
And I'm going to open up to chapter one and I want to read two verses and try to kind of set the stage for who we're going to be looking at tonight.
Because what we see is Paul is letting us know about the grace of God in holiness and in fear and then also in love.
And that's in chapter one verse 24 and 25.
For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass, the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
And so as we look at our text tonight and that's where we I want to set that up because in chapter one, we enter into chapter two and chapter two says where for laying aside all malice,
and hypocrisy, and in these and all evil speaking. I want to stop there for just a second because malice is the idea of the desire to harm another person.
Someone is filled with malice, they would say, and through their malice, they would do something evil against someone else.
And so he is saying, Peter is writing here, he said, lay aside malice, all guile.
And that's just outright guile is to lie to someone outright.
Have you ever had someone look at you right in your eyes and lie to you?
Oh boy. And what do you want to do to him?
Remember your Christians.
Washed their mouth out with soap, Dave says.
But this whole idea of deliberately misleading someone.
And then there's he also then mentions hypocrisies and this hypocrisies.
Since I don't have my PowerPoint tonight, I'll just do that like that and turn it off.
Hypocrisies and in these and all evil speaking. Let's take a look at each of these because in the is wanting what someone else has.
I envy.
My brother Eugene.
Lucas Michael.
As one other person, they can play a musical instrument.
And I can't. And I'm in the same bloodline as they are.
And I when I was taking piano lessons, my teacher told me.
I only started when I was 28.
She said, you know, I'm going to stop taking your money.
Am I that bad? She says, yes, you are.
At 28, I stopped piano lessons.
I probably should have started early, but I stopped taking piano lessons.
But she was honest, truthful.
She could have just told me, you're doing okay.
And just continue to make money because I was coming faithfully every week.
But I just couldn't.
I could get the right hand to play and the left hand to play.
But I couldn't put them together.
It just it was something in my brain just wouldn't work right.
There I was trying to toil with that.
But envy, wanting what belongs to someone else.
And then lastly, evil speaking or slander.
And that's destroying a person's reputation.
It's really easy to destroy reputation in the era in which we live.
Because we can transfer data about someone else so quickly.
It's amazing.
So how do you unfollow someone on Facebook?
You delete them.
Okay.
How do you open Facebook?
I don't even know.
I don't even use Facebook, but we can block them.
You can friend them.
You can unfriend them.
You can say all manner of things about them while on there.
And so what Peter is saying is that we are to lay aside.
And it's basically we're to take our robe and lay it away from us.
Lay that aside.
All those things that we used to be.
I now am going to place those away from me.
I don't want that on me.
I don't want the smell of it.
I don't want the look of it.
I want all that away from me and as far as I possibly can.
And so he's asking us to do that, to put those kind of things away from us.
And especially all evil speaking.
Now, as newborn babes, how many of you,
when I was a nurse, there was a lady her name.
Oh, what was her name?
I can't remember her name, but she told me one time, she says, oh, Michael, when you do your rotation through nursery, it's going to be something else.
She said, I had a baby in there that was so ugly, only a mother could love it.
And I thought to myself, well, that's kind of cold.
When I saw that child, I'm just teasing.
Only a mother could love it.
Now, for those of you who are tennis smart, what is it about a baby's cheek that if you brush it, an infant, if you do that, what do they do?
They turn to the finger.
Why?
Is it hunger or is it there's nerves that are in place?
That slowly stop working as the child gets older, but touching a baby's face right there, they turn for it.
As if that's the feel of the nipple.
And so they're looking for, hey, it's time to eat.
As newborn babes, what are some things that are really clear about babies?
Okay, I want three things.
Why do they cry?
They want something.
Do they know what they want?
Sometimes they do.
If they're hungry or babies hungry all the time, or babies hungry all the time.
Listen to your mom.
She said, yes, yes.
Babies are just always hungry.
Unless they're sleeping.
What else do babies do?
They sometimes they smile, but even more important than that.
They cry, but more important than that.
They wet and they, yeah, they do that.
Babies whole desire is to survive.
They don't realize it.
It's like, I'm hungry.
I'm wet.
I'm poopy.
I'm uncomfortable.
And it's up to the parent, the guardian or whoever to interpret the conditions of what's around that child to give them what they need to stop them from crying, to stop to promote their growth and to make them feel safe.
When I was working in the nursery, when I was going through my nursing rotation, I can remember grabbing babies like this and they had two of them.
And they're just crying up a storm.
And I finally figured out a way to keep those rascals from crying.
I turned them the other way and put my hand between their necks and hold them like that.
And they put their stomachs right there.
They stopped crying.
Cool.
Up and down.
I got mine quiet.
But instinctively, they know those things that help them.
Now, Peter says this to us.
He says, as they desire the sincere milk.
And this word desire means a longing and they can't understand why they want milk, but it's the thing that satisfies.
And boy, have you ever, have you ever fed a baby and then right on the middle of their back and then what happens?
Bird.
Oh, that, and they just feel so good.
It's like, oh, I can have a little bit more now.
So they desire that and that desire is so strong that they can't explain it.
They can't tell you what's going on, but give me more milk and then give me a bath and let me sleep.
But let's stick with what Peter says here.
The sincere milk of the word, the milk of the word, the elementary things of the faith that God is a creator of heaven and earth.
That he sent his son, he died, he rose again and he's coming back again.
Those are the facts.
That that is the milk of the word that is that portion of the word that can bring anyone from being lost into his glorious light.
It's just sincere milk.
But when you get that milk and when you have it, then there's there is something that should happen.
You should be able to what?
Grow.
It's, it would be unnatural if all of a sudden the baby didn't want to drink milk.
Like, nope, nope, nope, nope.
I want Gatorade.
I want something else.
It's unnatural.
It's like a believer when they come to Christ, it's unnatural for us to go, I don't really need to know anymore about God.
I know enough about God.
I'm saved and I got it made.
I'm going to heaven.
But there is so much more beyond the milk of the word that just gets me to the door, to the precipice to being able to look over into the land of rest, the abundant life and all the other great things that God has to offer us.
But more than anything else, God wants to answer and offer us answers to the questions that's the longings in our soul.
He put some questions and longings in us that we can't pull it together, but we know he put it there and only he can satisfy.
And when he satisfies, then we have that peace that the Bible talks about.
Okay, let's move on.
Now that we may grow thereby, and if I don't hurry, ooh, I've only gotten two verses.
If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious to taste when they used to do in the circumcision of little boys, occasionally in the dedication of babies, the Jewish priest, the rabbi would take ground fig.
And put it in the roof of the mouth of the baby.
And they would concentrate on that while they went through the motions of the ceremony.
Give them that taste of something good and sweet and nutritious.
And so God wants to give us those things that we're going to need also.
Now, moving along.
We've tasted that the Lord is gracious for by grace, so you say through faith.
Okay, not of works.
Nobody can brag about, huh, I'm good.
There's some people that can sing.
There's some people that can preach.
There's some people that can do some wonderful things.
But no matter how wonderful they are, they're never good enough to say that what I've done allows me to walk into the kingdom of God.
There is a door there and the only way you can get through that door is the door that Jesus is knocking on.
And if you answer that door, he'll come in, he'll dine with you, he'll sup with you, he'll fellowship with you.
Now, moving along.
To whom coming as into a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and, he says, precious.
Peter uses that word.
Peter the rugged fisherman likes to use that word precious and other soft words like that.
And I think it's really interesting how he does that because we are chosen of God and precious.
And so the Greek term means to be selected.
God through his infinite wisdom before Harvey Lee and Oscar Gentry even knew each other already had a plan for me.
And he was working out that plan even before I got here.
And he's working out a plan for all of mankind.
What is that plan that he would lay out a path for the redemption of man and that he would be able to go to the marketplace of sin and utilize that plan to redeem man,
to buy him, to purchase him from that wretched place of sin and bring him into the state of righteousness.
And that is what God is able to do for you and for I.
So it says here that chosen of God and precious.
How many of you knew that I was precious?
I got one lady in the back go, yes, I know two people.
I'll give you your $5 after this is over.
I'm pre, you want five too?
10.
I'm righteous. You know what else I am?
I'm righteous.
I'm redeemed.
I'm blessed.
And I tell my wife to call me Lord.
I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm working on it.
All the promises of God or yes through Christ Jesus and that yes through Christ Jesus is who I serve.
All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus.
Jesus who lives in me through his Holy Spirit has made me joint airs.
I am joint airs with Christ.
Think about that joint airs with Christ.
I didn't have to suffer.
I didn't have to live the life on earth and do the things that Christ went through.
But he did.
Think about what Dr. Luke wrote when he said Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was driven into the wilderness.
He was full.
But after the temptation, he came back in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That dunamis power that allows me to lay aside all those things, the malice, the envy, the evil speaking.
I can lay all that aside because of what he's done.
It's just almost mind blowing when you think about being a joint air with Christ and the life that he's allowed us to be able to partake of.
Now verse 5,
It's also a lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
When I look at that, we, the people of faith, have become lively or living stones.
I'm part of that makeup of what God is building on the earth.
He takes you, but you here, he takes you, but you here.
Everybody's got a place and a responsibility just like the body.
Where are all my feet people?
I got to place them in the right spot.
Where are all my people who have compassion?
I need to put them in this spot.
All those people who have the gift of administration put them in that part.
And then through the spirit of God, all those parts begin to operate and function together into such a way that they bring honor to the God who has made us those lively living stones.
I'm not a stone out there.
Just think about a stone out by itself.
There's another way over there by itself way over here.
God is able to go beyond the restraints of prejudice, of hate, of mistrust, and all the other things you could think of.
And he can bring a people who were no people together in him to sing his praises.
All those who were at one time estranged and lost, he is able to bring in.
Think about the people that come and worship here on a given Sunday morning.
Here's a blessing.
I want to tell you guys, here's a blessing.
I get a chance to stand right here.
And every Sunday I get to look out and see the people.
And Miss Laurie, I did this the other Sunday.
I went, man, I don't know who those people are on that side.
There's some new people over there too.
And before I can get done and get out, many of them have moved on.
But God is bringing together a group of people that is just mind blowing.
It's amazing.
We had four African gentlemen come in Sunday and they sat right there.
Typically on Wednesday night, there's an Indian or Bangladeshi family that sits over there.
I spoke with Dr. Luke, who is Vietnamese, and he said to me, I saw you sing at church.
Okay, I thought to myself, I only met him at work.
He said, my wife goes there a lot.
I think so.
Wow.
How is he able to bring people who don't know, don't like, don't want to raise this way together,
but can bring us together to worship him in spirit and in truth?
God is not a black thing.
He's not a white thing either.
But God is a God thing.
Isn't that amazing?
God's a God thing.
And he doesn't bend to looks, colors, shapes, sizes, ages, all that stuff.
But he loves me just as much as he loves Mike.
There's no difference between us.
Now, Mike is suffering from lack of pigment.
I'm sorry.
But my God can look beyond that.
Isn't that wonderful?
Oh my goodness gracious.
It's, now where am I?
Anyway, so we've done that.
We've talked about the lively stones.
Now, who are we?
Let me go to verse okay.
You therefore which believe he is precious unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the bill is disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.
Verse, let me go back up to verse six.
Wherefore also it is contained in Scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone elect precious and he that believe in him shall not be confounded.
God will never disappoint.
He has the power to achieve.
He has the discretion and sovereignty to lead and to be what man needs him to be so that we can become just like Jesus Christ.
So we look at this and we move on and we try to understand that he said he lays a stone, a chief corner stone in Zion.
And we won't be confounded.
Then verse seven.
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the bill is disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.
He's precious to those who believe he's a rose of charen.
He's a bright morning star.
The book of Psalms speaks of so many wonderful things about our savior, but he was also despised and rejected.
So he understands where we are and what we have to go through.
But that same one that the that many rejected now the same has become the head of the corner.
Now verse eight is a is an interesting verse.
Let's get into it just real quickly.
And a stone of stumbling.
A stone of stumbling.
And so as we look at this whole idea of a stone of stumbling.
I had this one slide.
Let me let me ask you a question.
Have you ever seen someone walking and they go?
What is the second thing they do?
They look around.
Why?
Let's see if anybody's looking.
The same has become a stumbling stone.
We live in an era when people will say anything about Jesus, anything about God, they will blaspheme his name unmercifully.
And they kick against the stone.
And no matter how hard they kick, the stone doesn't move, but they get bruised.
Look at the protests that are going on right now.
Would you ever would have believed in your life that people in America would protest against Israel?
Whoa.
Those who curse you, I will curse.
Those who bless you, I will bless.
And yet we're living in a time where people are just kicking that stone and they're not getting anywhere with it.
And it's going to always and will continue to be that way.
In characters with Christ, the stone, the rock, separate those who believe in him from those who refuse to believe in him.
The truth of Christ, what he represents, the truth of Christ and what he did, the wisdom of Christ and how he will reign,
the beauty of Christ and how he is so gracious, all comes to a head.
And many today are saying that I won't believe in a Jesus.
I have nothing and he has nothing for me.
I refuse to believe what he wants to do.
So what is our role?
There was a phase or an era where people utilize lifestyle evangelism.
And basically you didn't go out and tell anyone to confront them about their faith.
You just live your life in such a way that hopefully they would see it in you.
Now, it has some merit to it, but there's still something about going to someone and saying to them,
years ago I came to a point in my life when I realized that everything I was trying was falling apart.
And I realized that some guy told me something about sin and I couldn't understand really what he meant,
but then he said that for God so of the world that he gave his only begotten son,
that whoever believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
I don't know if my life is going anywhere because it's just looked like a dead end street.
But I crossed over and I came to accept what Christ did for me on the cross and it's made me a new person.
That testimony miraculously helps another person go,
I need Christ as my Savior.
And if he can be his Savior and be my Savior, he can be her Savior and he can be their Savior.
And sure, my lifestyle evangelism is following me and people are watching me.
Someone's always watching Christians, amen.
They're looking to see that dead Curtis.
You know her? She says she's a Christian.
They're always looking. They're always watching.
And poor Marie.
All the God we serve is unfathomable how he is and what he's able to do in the lives of his people.
And here's a crown of what we're getting at tonight.
He says in verse nine, and this is just great,
but ye are a chosen generation.
God said, I want you Michael Gentry.
And he said it before the foundations of the world.
And when I was born, he said, I want you Michael Gentry.
And as I grew up, he still said, I want you Michael Gentry.
And he made things and he brought about things in my life so that Michael Gentry heard enough about him
that he was convicted and at 10 years old said, I need Jesus as my Savior.
And he came into my life and saved me.
I was chosen a long time ago to bring forth his praises and his glory right now.
And he's working in lives of people that you know,
wanting to have you usher in the truth to their lives so that they can understand
and they can accept and they can embrace the love of God that he has.
So I'm chosen.
I'm a chosen part of the priesthood.
I don't need, and I'm going to say this for as reverently as I can,
but I don't need Pastor Ben to pray for me because I can pray also.
Now it's a privilege and it's a responsibility on his end to pray for me,
but I don't have to say, well, God, until Pastor Ben prays for me, I guess I'm kind of stuck here.
Oh, wouldn't that be bad?
Because what if Pastor Ben forgot?
What if I forgot to pray for you?
So I can go to God myself.
And you know what I like more than anything else?
I can confess my sin and nobody else has to know.
See, I heard this a long time ago.
This is good.
Sacred sins on earth are an open scandal in heaven.
Ouch!
Don't think about that, Amy.
Wow, I'm chosen.
I'm part of a priesthood of believers.
I can go to God myself and I can have a relationship with him apart from anyone else,
but because I have a relationship with him and you have a relationship with him,
we have a relationship with each other.
And I am to cultivate that relationship.
And cultivate that relationship.
Now, everyone would cultivate, look at the blessings and the strength that would come to the body of believers.
Okay, so, but more than that, I'm a holy nation.
It means that we as believers belong to God.
You are not your own, but you've been bought with a price.
I'm not my own.
I don't get to choose and dictate how, when, where and what.
I can try, but ultimately God gets his way.
It's amazing.
Now, I'm a...
This is so true about me.
Verse 9 says here, let me read it out loud because some of you
don't laugh when I read it, but just listen.
It says, but you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar.
I think I am peculiar because sometimes I smile when many others are not smiling
and sometimes I cry when others are not crying.
And sometimes I care when others don't care and sometimes I hurt when many forget
because of a God who lives in me through his spirit makes me that peculiar, strange person
that they look and go, why, why don't, why won't you fight back?
Why won't you do to them what they did to you?
Why?
It's because of the spirit that lives within driving and holding me accountable
and convicting me to make me the kind of peculiar person that I am to be.
And so he called me.
Have you ever heard God?
There have been times in my life when I've heard people say,
I've never been one of those where the Lord came to me and said, Michael,
this is what I want you to go do.
I just never have.
But I do know this.
There's been a calmness and a still small voice that I know is from the Lord.
And I can sense it and I know it and it's confirmed in his word.
And then what's really, really, really interesting is sometimes when he's confirmed it in his word
and you know it in your heart, somebody else, like what Pastor Jennings did to me about three weeks ago,
asked me about the same thing.
And I just thank you, Lord.
His word was confirmed.
I didn't go telling him what was going on in my life, but he came to me and he asked me.
And I was like, oh, I'm struggling with this.
How did he know?
It's the spirit of God.
Isn't that amazing?
God is just too good to be true.
But thank goodness he is.
Thank goodness he is.
So we're not a people, but we're the people of God.
So this designation refers to Christians who through Christ have been reconciled to God.
I'm going to speed along here just real quickly.
Which in times past were not a people, but are now people of God, which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstained from fleshly lust,
which war against the soul.
Having your lifestyle, having your conversation, having the way you carry yourself,
having the way you answer, having the way you write, having the things that you do
and the things that you think about, having all those things where the Gentiles,
we want to have an honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoer,
they may be by your good works, which they shall behold.
Glorify God in the day of visitation.
It's going to come a day when all of this is going to all come together.
In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ are going to what?
Rise.
Now, I don't know if there will have, I don't know, Pastor, how that, will that rising be in the physical,
regenerated body, will it be something we can see if a God was blown up in World War I?
Do all those pieces come back together?
I don't know how that happens, but we're going to see it happen.
And then we that remain after we see that spectacle are going to be caught up.
We're going to be caught up.
And there will be forever with the Lord.
No, you're not that some of you will be judges doing the Merlinner or Reina Christ.
You know, heaven and glory is not going to be, well, okay, we made it.
What do we do now?
There's banquets, there's judging, there's seeing all the things take place.
There's going to be so much going on in heaven, it's kind of hard to wrap our minds around it, but it's going to take place.
Peter said, lay aside all that stuff.
I can lay it there.
I can lay it at the feet of Cross.
I can come with a brother and sister and say, help me pray with me.
Help me and hold me accountable.
Help me be this.
And I'll do the same for you.
Oh my goodness.
And then we, what will happen all that?
He will get the praise, the glory and the honor for all that we do.
That's pretty awesome.
And it's because Christ gave his life for the sins of the world and granted us the privilege to be a part of his church.
I'm a part of the body of Christ.
The church is a building, the church is an organization that does good things, the church is all these other things.
But what the world misses is that the central part of our faith and the central part of the church is Jesus Christ.
And he is going to reign, rule and have a just a magnificent time overcoming the evil that is in the world.
I wish I could take another 15 minutes and talk about what hell is going to be like for the devil and his many angels.
And for those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ and for those who have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and will not be a part of the book of life.
What is going to be in store for them is unfathomable.
And we should really be concerned.
I think Jude says something about snatching them out.
The very fire, the very hell that they are almost condemned to be.
It's going to be amazing.
Father God, we love you and we praise you for this night.
And for what we see and what we have experienced because of your word and because of the life that you lived here on this earth.
Lord, as we leave this place tonight, I just pray that you will just allow one thing to stick real clearly in the minds of everyone tonight.
That we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood.
And that there are some wonderful things that you have in store for us as it is in heaven, so on earth.
Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name.
Let us all say, let us all say, let us all say, amen.
Amen. God bless you.