Did you know that you have been chosen by God?!

1 Peter 1:22-25; 2:1-10

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,

“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,

25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

2 1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

8 and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble

and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. NIV

1. Genuine ______ comes out of a life lived in ___________ and ________.

2. Crave and feed on _______ to rid yourself of ALL ________, ALL ________, ___________, ______, and _________ of every kind as you grow up in your salvation.

3. To _________ or _____ believe in Jesus is our __________ moment.

Romans 9:31–33

31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble

and a rock that makes them fall,

and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” NIV

Colossians 1:24

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. NIV

Luke 20:17–18

17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

“ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?

18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” NIV

4. You have been ________ to be a part of God’s royal ____________, his people who _________ his _________, in a dark and dying world.

1.  Genuine love comes out of a life lived in obedience and purity.

2.  Crave and feed on Jesus in order to rid yourself of ALL malice, ALL deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind as you grow up in your salvation.

3.  To believe or not believe in Jesus is our defining moment.

4.  You have been chosen to be a part of God’s royal priesthood, his people who declare his praises, in a dark and dying world.