On Sunday afternoons, my kids get to watch a movie. It’s a real special occasion in our home because we don’t keep a TV upstairs. It’s in the basement and meant to be a bit of a pain to use. So on Sundays, the kids know they get to watch a special movie.

One of their favorites is the classic: Toy Story. Most of us are familiar with that movie but in case you aren’t, Toy Story is a film series that centers around Andy (a boy) and his toys. His toys come alive when Andy isn’t around and get into all sorts of mayhem. In Toy Story 2, we’re introduced to a new character: Jesse. Jesse is a cowgirl who is about to be sold to a museum in Japan, alongside Woody and Stinky Pete because they are super rare toys. When Jesse is first introduced, she seems normal but over time, more of her story is revealed.

Jesse was owned by a little girl who loved her and played with her all the time. She was chosen and precious to this little girl. But over time, that little girl grew and grew – she got into nail polish and all sorts of other things. Eventually, Jesse is left behind by the girl and donated to a local thrift store. Once chosen and precious by that girl, Jesse has been deemed worthless and has been rejected. However, Jesse doesn’t know that’s she actually extremely valuable – so much so that Al from Al’s Toy Barn does all sorts of sketchy things to get Jesse so she can be sold for millions of dollars.

And because of that, she has deep trust issues and deep pain. As the story progresses, Woody works to convince Jesse to join him in going back to Andy and Jesse’s scars come through. She tries to dissuade Woody because of her experiences. She tries to convince him that Andy will abandon Woody eventually. Finally, her true colors shine as she is about to join Woody in being Andy’s toy where she says: “what if Andy doesn’t love me?”

I share Jesse’s character story because it’s relatable to us as followers of Jesus. What did this passage say?

It gave us two verdicts about Jesus. (SLIDE) Two verdicts that are both true at the same time. First, we see that the Living Stone, which is Jesus, was rejected by humans. But at the same time, Jesus is chosen by God and precious to him. Then, this passage goes onto force us into a choice: do we believe in the Living Stone or do we disobey the message? If we believe in it, Jesus becomes precious to us as well but if we don’t believe Jesus, he becomes a stumbling block we trip over instead of trusting in it to hold us up in a bit of a chaotic world.

So, here’s the tension we live in: do we trust in God’s verdict about who Jesus is? Do we trust God’s verdict about who Jesus is enough to completely re-orient our lives around that truth? (SLIDE)

As we live life in this tension, there are two things that we cannot do:

As hard as this is, we can’t force the world to stop rejecting Jesus. Like me, you likely have someone in your life who is outright hostile to Jesus and the Gospel. This is true in our time, Peter’s time, and in the Old Testament time – Peter is quoting from the prophet Isaiah and the Psalms in this passage.

Why is this such a timeless issue? Jesus doesn’t give the world a gray option – this passage in 1 Peter 2 is black and white.

You either view Jesus as precious as your Lord OR you reject him as your Lord. There’s no in-between. 1 Peter 2:8 tells us that those reject Jesus stumble because they disobey the message. And Jesus himself lays this out clearly for us in John 3:19-21 as he’s talking to Nicodemus: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

So, we shouldn’t be surprised that the world rejects Jesus. That may grieve us but it shouldn’t surprise us. We may wish things were different but it shouldn’t surprise us – Jesus came to bring a sword (not for war) but rather his message is inherently offensive and divisive according to Matthew 10:34.

The second thing we can’t do though has to do with us: we can’t conjure up more willpower to trust that God’s verdict about Jesus is right. Most of us can be like Thomas, Jesus’ apostle. Of the remaining 11 after Christ’s death, Thomas was the only who didn’t see Jesus alive in his resurrected body yet. It didn’t matter what his friends were saying. In Thomas’s mind, he couldn’t believe until he actually felt Jesus’ wounds from the cross. He couldn’t grit his teeth and say: “Okay, Lord – I believe in what you said.” It took the resurrected Jesus for Thomas to trust.  

We’re the same way – when we are struggling with some sort of suffering or belief, it’s difficult for us to trust. We may even want to trust but we can’t just conjure that up within ourselves. Why can’t do that?

We tend to treat human judgement as final because it’s what we can see and experience. We trust human judgement more in nearly every area of our life over God’s judgement. Many of you are likely familiar with the old childhood saying of: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” That’s a horrible saying because words will indeed hurt you. Even as I say that, you can likely think back to something that someone said to you that hurt deep (I know I can) and you took it to heart. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you know God’s verdict over you is the verdict that matters. But someone else’s verdict over you – an unkind word, rejection, whatever still holds weight on you.

Why do other people’s verdicts or judgements about us sting so bad when we know the truth? It stings because it’s immediate. It’s a person you know, it’s an unkind text message, or a person avoiding you – it’s right there in your face. God’s verdict is clear through what Jesus has done but our faith only becomes sight when Jesus returns or we die.

In Jesus’ ministry, we see this same thing. (SLIDE) Breaking under the weight of Roman oppression, many Jewish folks of the day placed their hope in a Messiah who would conquer Rome, usher in a golden age for the nation of Israel, and defeat their enemies through war. That was the human judgement at the time.

So imagine with me: Jesus arrives from a non-glamorous area, Nazareth. Instead of conquering Rome, he tells Israel to forgive their enemies and to pray for them. Instead of ushering in a golden age for Israel, Jesus begins healing and ministering to Gentiles. Instead of defeating his enemies through war, Jesus dies for his enemies in a humiliating way through voluntary sacrifice.

After his death, I imagine many people who were interested in Jesus walked away. Human judgement had rendered Jesus as a phony as a blasphemer and the religious authorities working with Rome had him killed. Many people may have thought, “Well, that’s it. Jesus isn’t coming back from this one.”

But, what if human judgement is wrong? Going back to Toy Story, the little girl who owned Jesse from Toy Story was wrong, Jesse was valuable and precious – both to Andy and to Al who wanted to sell her. What about Jesus? Is human judgement about Jesus wrong?

Yes, judgement about Jesus during his life was wrong and judgement about Jesus today has been wrong. The world rejects Jesus but we know that he has been chosen and vindicated by God. How can we know that?

(SLIDE) He’s the Living Stone – not the dying stone. Although he was rejected by humans which caused his death, Jesus Christ did not stay dead. 3 days later, Jesus appeared to some women disciples as alive. Peter and John discovered an empty tomb. And finally, Jesus appeared to his close friends in the upper room and later to over 500 believers.

In Matthew 28:11-15, Matthew reports that the chief priests tried to cover up the resurrection by bribing the Roman guards to say that Jesus’ disciples came in the night and stole Jesus’ body. But, does that seem likely? Something earth-shattering had to have happened if Peter had denied Jesus and then weeks later, during Pentecost, Peter preaches a bold sermon preaching Christ as King and as alive. That transformation only happens through resurrection.

So, the world can say what they want about Jesus but he is alive and he’s the King – whether they like it or not.

You don’t have to conjure up more willpower to believe on your own – you only need to look and experience the Resurrection. When Thomas doubted, what did Jesus do? He didn’t condemn him but invited him to experience the reality of the Risen Jesus. In the same way, that’s what Jesus offers you. Look at the evidence, look at Christ’s wounds, and see his love for you.

God’s verdict about Jesus is the one we can trust. It’s the only one that matters. So if trust God’s verdict about Jesus, verse 7 tells us that Jesus is precious to us. And if that’s true, how should we live our lives?

Verse 5 tells us – it reads: “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.” (SLIDE)

Here’s the thing, my friends: a single stone can’t be a house. And a stone that’s cut off from the Living Stone isn’t alive at all. In verse 5, notice the verb choice. It doesn’t say you’re building a spiritual house for your holy priesthood. It says: “you’re being built into a spiritual house.” That means God is the builder and we are all the stones he uses.

I’d invite you to let yourself be built in to the spiritual house instead of adding yourself on where you want to be added on. That means you’ll need to give up your personal preferences to be part of God’s church. That means you’ll have to have hard conversations and work things out with your sibling in Christ. That means you’ll have to make sacrifices but know that God is pleased with those sacrifices because they’re acceptable through Jesus Christ.

Practically speaking, I’d invite you to consider three ways to allow yourself to be built into the spiritual house: (SLIDE)

1.      Commit to being here, even when life’s busy: my friends, you can’t be built into a spiritual house if gatherings with the family of God only happen when you’re not busy with something else. Whether that’s a Sunday morning or sharing a meal together, commit to being here (vacations are totally fine) so that you can be built into a spiritual house. A house doesn’t get built sporadically – it gets built through steadiness and consistency. Before I trusted Christ, I treated Sunday gatherings here as optional or only if I didn’t have anything better to do. Katlyn would invite me to and I’d often give all sorts of lame excuses – I’m at a friend’s house and they parked me in. My parents are doing something or I have a lot of homework. Once I actually trusted the verdict God had rendered over Jesus — and over me (that I’m not my own, I was bought with a price) — Sunday gatherings stopped being an occasional errand and started being how I understood myself to belong to something.

2.    Commit to serving here, even if it’s unglamorous: I’ve never heard anyone say: “that’s a nice stone in the middle of that wall.” And yet, without that middle stone, the entire wall will just collapse. It’s the same way for serving. There are often unglamorous ways to serve here. These are things you may never get thanked for but you do it anyways, knowing that serving is how you allow yourself to be built into a spiritual house. One way you can do this is:  we could use more volunteers in our Tech Team. It’s unglamorous – you advance slides, adjust audio, and monitor our livestream. Our tech team often only gets noticed if something goes wrong. But, those sacrifices are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. God is looking for servants in his church, not just spectators.

3.    Commit to relationships, even when they cost you something. When stones are placed in a building together, they don’t get to pick what stone is next to them. They don’t get to remove themselves when the other stone is pushing up against them. And it’s actually that pressure and friction that holds the building together. In the same way, you don’t get to pick who’s a part of this church. If you only interact with people in this church who are easy to love or you get along with, you’re not allowing yourself to be built into anything – you’re just settling for a convenient social club. So being built in means you apologize if you need to apologize, you forgive if you need to offer forgiveness, and you speak the truth in love if you need to have hard conversations. Remind yourself what 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 teaches us that we are God’s temple and his Spirit dwells within us. So if that’s true, consider how you’d treat your other brothers and sisters.  

As we get ready to close today, I want us to go back to Jesse’s fear of: “What if Andy doesn’t love me?” That fear was only fixed when Jesse trusted that Andy did indeed love her and began to play with her alongside all the other toys. It was only fixed when she trusted Andy’s verdict about her and when she allowed herself to be used by him. It’s the same way for us in our faith journey. Look to the resurrection.

To help you search your heart, I’d invite you to reflect with these two questions: do I trust God’s verdict about Jesus? If so, am I allowing myself to be built into a spiritual house or am I trying to control the house myself? As we pray together, ask yourself those questions – plead with God. And if you feel something stirring, there are folks able to pray with you in the back.

God made the verdict clear through the resurrection of Christ. God does love you and he wants to use you to build his spiritual house. So, will you trust his verdict or the world’s verdict? Please stand.  Let us pray.