And ceo of a company that runs over 20 successful businesses in the heart of New York City, as well as food chains across the country. You might have heard of shake shack and some of the other ones. But Danny Meyer and his early beginnings in the restaurant industry, I was frustrated with his first restaurant, the Union Cafe and he couldn't quite get things right, he couldn't quite set the culture the way he wanted it. And so he had a meeting with his mentor and his mentor said okay, Danny cleared the table, clear the table of everything, all the plates and the napkins, everything except for the salt shaker. And so he handed Danny the salt shaker and said Danny, I want you to place it in the center of the table. And so he takes the salt shaker and just carefully meticulously sets it right here. Now, as soon as he does that, his mentor immediately takes it, moves it to the edge, he says put it back so he takes it can give us a weird look like you're giving me right now, puts it back in the center immediately joe and moves it. Let's put it back. So he starts to put it in the center, lose it over, puts it in the center, it was at the other side, and he starts to wonder, okay, is this a mr Miyagi moment right now, like what's going on? And so after a few times of doing this, the mentor looked Danny in the eyes and he said, the salt shaker represents your team values and your vision and your heartbeat for your business and that as a leader, your job as a leader is to daily place what's important back in the center. Now there's gonna be some people that you face that deliberately move it, they're kind of annoying now they're gonna be other people who don't know where it's supposed to go and just kinda without knowing, put it to the side. one of your core jobs as a leader of an organization is to daily routinely put it in that center and then as soon as you stop putting what's important in this center and it's your time to move on as a leader. Now while this illustration was used to describe team culture and vision and values of what's important in the restaurant industry, I want to make it a little more personal and ask you the question this morning, what is at the center of your table? What is it that you have to routinely place back in the middle and that people circumstances maybe sometimes your own choices or even distractions will move, what's important. But my challenge to you is to every day, make a personal choice to place christ in the center of your table, that the world is going to come at you, the world is going to try to move shift your priorities is going to put something on the edge or maybe your table feels like it's leaning a little bit and it just starts to slide or drift, but one of your jobs as a christian, as a believer, it's the daily remind yourself that jesus himself are living hope should be the center of our lives. Now, what are some obstacles that come from keeping you from placing christ in the center of your table, I believe too, that Peter talks about, we're walking through The Letter of 1st Peter And he's gonna talk about two obstacles that keep people from placing Christ in the center. The first one is rejection by the world to be a follower of jesus, means that you are not following the world and if you're not following the world, they get upset at that. But secondly, it can be our own desires or the desires of the flesh. Sometimes without thinking, we actually move jesus off the middle and we place personal desires, finances popularity, we turn good things and the bad things, we turn love into lust. We took, we take stewardship and resources and agreed, we take a godly conscious and we turn it into guilt. So whatever it is that causes you to move christ off the centerpiece in your life, we're going to share how you can routinely place it back if you have your bibles open up to first Peter, 1st Peter Chapter one and we shared last week that Peter is a great person to write about facing difficulties because Peter is the apostle of hope, who's the roller coaster Disciple, meaning one minute he's standing me called the rock the next minute he's disobeying jesus and being referred to as satan. So he's he's walking on water and then he's denying jesus three times, so he's all over the map, but ultimately jesus reinstates Peter and empowers him with the holy spirit to start the church Fast forward about 30 to 40 years. And he's writing to a group of exiled christians, christians who are persecuted, spread out through five different provinces of modern day Turkey, who are experiencing extreme persecution and he offers them living hope because jesus is alive, our faith is alive and if our faith is alive we are alive and it gives us the strength to fight for another day. And we shared how ultimately last week that hope inspires action that we have the living hope which then cause us to live holy and to love others. And he ends Chapter one referring to the power of the living word, the scripture, the bible And the transitions in the now chapter two when they when they wrote these letters, they were not chapter and verse, it was one continuous letter, but for ease of reference Later on, they put in the numbers so that we can refer back to them. And so we're gonna pick it up and what's seen as first Peter chapter two verse 1 and so turn in your bibles or onto your digital devices and we're also gonna have the verses on the screen, we're gonna pick up this story, how Peter is offering encouragement and how based off our illustration here that can place christ back in the center. Okay, he writes this. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Now here he is saying in light of a living hope, In light of a living word because God has given you hope that it's for your real life right now. What he's saying here in Verse one is to put away the things that break relationship, malice means an ill will deceit means to be deliberately dishonest hypocrisy. It means pretending to be holy envy is is a resentful nous or jealousy that comes when you don't have what you want. And then slander is purposely spreading lies. Now when we hear things that say put away the sins of the world, we think that well, you can't tell me what to do. That's in a very american way of doing things right, that we want everything our way, customize how we want it on our time. And so how dare someone tells me to do anything or set anything aside, except when you look at those five things no one wants that in their relationship, think about your marriage. Think about work. Think about friendships. If someone said, describe your relationship with your best friend, you would not want it described as deceitful filled with malice hypocrisy envy and slander. You know, if you're thinking of someone right now, you can just shoot him an encouraging text. Hey, I read first peter chapter two verse one Thought of you today. Just don't tell him what it means. Yeah. So what he's saying here in light of the living word, in light of hope, put away the things that break your relationship with jesus. Then he continues on. Now in verse two, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk. That by it, you may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. I love this picture because this analogy of an infant craving milk is still just as valid 2000 years later. Because if you have a small child or you've seen one, you've all seen that little face with the with the little baby going like the baby doesn't know exactly where to find it, but it's just just craving that nutrient that nourishment in the same way. Do you crave the nourishment from God that God can actually fill your soul Because then he I love that verse verse three. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. That's what we're saying about this morning, isn't it? So it continues on verse four as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men. But in the sight of God chosen and precious. So we have the living hope given through the living word. And now we have the living stone were just saying about jesus as the cornerstone and jesus is that cornerstone, but he is alive. We do not worship a dead profit, but rather a living savior. And it shows here that he has been rejected by men, but chosen by God. The same is true about you. And for me it says you yourselves like living stones are being built as a spiritual house to be Holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through jesus. For it stands in scripture behold I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. You know, a cornerstone can be the foundation of a building or a tripping hazard if you're not trying to build something. So that's what he's saying there. That christ can be the cornerstone of your life or a stumbling block. If you're trying to live or build your own facility says they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of your flesh, which wage war against your soul. That's what's at stake here. It's your soul, he says, keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable. So that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God. On the day of visitation we shared last week that Nero the roman emperor was trying to unite and and and really hold his fist of power. And so he did that and united the provinces by giving a common enemy. And so if something bad happened, he would blame the christians. And so what Peter is telling this group of christians and believers is that if you follow God and love him and love others the way that God has loved you, I mean, you treat others with honor, so that when they speak poorly of you, that your actions will ultimately prove otherwise improve the genuineness of your faith and that others will come to find what's meaningful in their soul. And so he gives this incredible picture of Jesus as the cornerstone. The Livingstone Paul writes about this as well in Ephesians 2 20 and and he gives this picture and then calls us if jesus is the cornerstone, we are like living stones. So we're being built, there's a story of some contractors who were building a house and they built the and they framed out the first floor and everything was great. But when they tried to frame out and build the second level, nothing was fitting. Nothing was the right dimensions and nothing was working. And after a while they looked down and realized that they were trying to build a house with two different blueprints and so one floor a team was building on one blueprint and on the other floor they were using a completely different blueprint. It's no wonder those things didn't match in the same way. How many of you are trying to build your lives with two different sets of blueprints for your life. You see the word of God and you're trying to follow it maybe one day a week here or two or three days a week here, but on the other days you're trying to follow your own blueprint as the world value says, no do this, say this, go here, act this way, pursue this. And if you use two different sets of blueprints, you're not going to get the house that you want. You know, separately one stone by itself is not a lot, but collectively can build an amazing structure, legos are really awful things to step on their little line landmines at home and some of you might have said a few words you're not proud of by walking through the hallway in your kid's room. If they left leg goes out and a little lego piece seems insignificant until you go to the theme park Legoland and you see these massive structures that are all built from these little pieces and you're like, wow, Personal favorite was the Star Wars section of Legoland, but just just throwing that out there. But the idea is that something small in and of itself when placed with others can build something significant is the picture that peter is painting here. I have some friends that I was on staff at a church in Florida for about five years and our church would take routine trips to Haiti. Well, we had one team that was there and some friends of mine were there if you remember a few years ago when there was that big Haitian earthquake And so some friends of mine were there when the earthquake happened. In fact, one of my buddies was thrown 5-10 ft in the air like the the ground swelled and the floor he was on threw him into the air. It was like, it was like nothing he'd ever experienced or imagined. No, he was safe. The team was safe and they made it back okay. But as they were leaving buildings, entire buildings were in rubble and in fact the country of Haiti is still trying to rebuild from the damage that happened a decade ago and if it's not necessarily an earthquake, maybe it's a tornado or a hurricane or or a number of natural disasters where after you see come through just devastation in the wake. Have you ever noticed that following a hurricane or an earthquake or tornado is just complete chaos and rubble and devastation? I've never once seen an earthquake or a tornado or a hurricane come through and then build a skyscraper in the process, chaos leads to chaos. I think it's one of the strongest arguments to be honest with you. In terms of creation, the creation points to a creator art points to an artist. Music points to a musician. Design points to a designer. We have been wonderfully made, we have been given purpose. And so the idea of being called a living stone is that your life is not rubble, but your life is being built and that God builds our lives brick by brick, relationship by relationship. And I love when the bible includes butts in the bible and I say that because being a youth pastor every time I said the word, but kids giggle, but also is that there's this huge transition. You see Peter quotes three passages. He quotes the psalms twice and then from Isaiah. So he quotes passages that were written 700 1000 years prior to the coming of jesus and says, hey, the coming of jesus is this picture of the cornerstone, the person that we've been longing for, who you've been hoping for is here and he says, people will stumble over this. They will try to live their own lives. They will live in envy and in slander and in pain and they will search and pursue the meaninglessness of the world. But you are different. And he gives them a new identity. Picture of this group of people that have been spread out. Some of them are in hiding there in five different providence is they've probably been, their land has been taken, they don't have authority. It's in an area where they're wealthy or getting more wealthy and the poor are getting everything taken and he comes in and says, no, you a royal priesthood, priests in that day were the only ones that had access to God. The high priest was someone who would go and declare and bring sacrifices for the people once a year and go into the holy of holies. And it was so intense that they would literally tie a rope around the priests ankle because if he was not right with God, God would strike him dead in the temple. And so then how do you go and pull out someone that's struck dead because they're not wholly in the temple where you're not allowed to go. So they literally would have a rope. And if something didn't go, well pull them out. I mean that's an extreme picture, but now think about how extreme that is to then be called a royal priesthood that now you and everybody who calls themselves a christian has direct access to who God is. Your life might feel like it's in rubble but it's not you are being built as living stones into the temple and the building and the body of christ. You might feel like you are separated from God but you are a royal priesthood that then you are called to guess what's called in romans 12 1 and two you're called to offer what as a priest a living sacrifice. And so we've been given living hope through the living word as we worship the living stone that now our lives are the sacrifice that we choose to deny ourselves and to pursue what's better here. You have a group of people who lost all power. They're being attacked and how incredible is it to be called a chosen citizen of heaven? Imagine being in a war torn country and being under attack and the ability to go to an embassy or as an ambassador to have secured freedom that while you're in enemy territory that you can come and because you are a citizen of this nation in the same way when those are being persecuted that this is not our home but you were called as an ambassador of christ. And so your stones of a living building your priest of a living temple that your citizens of a holy nation, you are not once not a people but now you are now you have a team. Now you have an identity and it's in that identity that God calls us to act. People are going to routinely try to move around or knock over even your identity. But your job as a christian is to routinely remember, remember, remember. And so how is it that we as christians can continually set christ in the center of our tables because our culture seems to be going completely opposite. But the beauty of being surrounded by darkness is the purity of the light when you find it and that the darker the night, the brighter the light shines in that. And so as christians, we have been given the light and we can shine with what we say and what we do and how we treat people. And so how do you set christ in the center of your life? I believe Peter gives us four things from this passage number one, set aside the things that break relationship. It's a filter. It's a mindset, other places, it says put to death since, but we always view that as a negative. But when you think of it in the context of relationship, you understand that jesus wants you. I have many feelings as a father and times I mess up and don't do that. But one thing is I try to instill in my kids and I've shared this before, but some of you haven't been in the room when I've shared this before. And so that most nights when I took my kiddos in bed? I'll say if daddy could line up all the little kids in the world And he could pick three kids to be his Children who would daddy pick. And then together at Kiddo say Jackson carter Khloe, he said I want you to know that I would choose you above anybody else because I love you of course being a brother Jackson, somebody says, well you wouldn't pick carter. I said okay out of all the little Children, the world, I will pick two. No, I'm just kidding. Um but most nights I say that, why do I say that? Because I want my kids to feel that they've been chosen and they've been chosen because they are loved. And this is what this passage says that here they are afraid for their lives coming from a guy Peter who's messed up time and time and time and time again. And so he can speak with authority because he was close to jesus. And yet he denied jesus to his face. But yet he could come on the other side and says, no God loves me and God loves you and God chose you. You are chosen. And because you are chosen. You can set aside the things that break relationship. So what are the things that are keeping you from relationship with jesus? What's pushing it aside? What addiction are you battling? What worries have you not given up to him? What personal desires have you just refused to turn over? If you set those aside, your relationship is going to get stronger. But secondly, adore jesus whole heartedly adore jesus whole heartedly and these go hand in hand because some of you might be thinking, but john I am really battling something. Well, the key to defeating sin is the pursuit of jesus. Now, in some cases it might you might need to take some extreme measures. You might need some counseling or some help or support or group and take that. It's worth it. But here the key to a good defense is actually offense because if I sit here and I tell you repeatedly, whatever you do, do not picture a blue elephant right now, don't think of a blue elephant. I am not gonna think of a blue elephant, I'm gonna go far away and never mention a blue elephant again. Well, what are you thinking of right now? A blue elephant? I think someone say a green elephant, okay, thanks smarty pants. But that's how we treat. Since like, okay, don't send don't send, don't send don't sin. And so we have this edge. If this is the edge where okay, I'm not gonna send God, I'm not gonna sin, I'm not gonna sin, I'm not gonna cross the line. You see, I'm still good? Oh man, what happened? So in Galatians 5 16 paul writes, he says that those who walk in the spirit will not gratify the desires of the flesh and it's this picture of this idea that as you pursue the spirit, you will do the things of the spirit. And so it's actually adoring jesus, that gives you the power of the Holy Spirit to free you from the strongholds that are binding. When you understand that sin and addiction are like chains, keeping you back from being free, it changes the perspective. No one says man, I love just being chained and in prison. Oh it's great. No, you long to be free, but you have to view them as chains. And so as you pursue jesus and jesus power, his Holy Spirit is the one who removes them and adoring jesus, worshiping jesus with your whole heart, gives the Holy Spirit power to work in your life and actually frees you from those battles. So you set aside the things that break relationship, you adore jesus wholeheartedly. And then third, you look for ways to proclaim jesus goodness. Like, imagine, okay, imagine being at a birthday party and I can say this because my little girls turned into four and so later today we're gonna have a little birthday party now, Chloe is gonna be on her birthday party, she's excited. Now imagine that's a parent, I said Chloe open your presents, you know what that is, that's actually a command, but no child is going to fight you on opening a present. No, I don't want to press it. We were like Children. I want you to eat cake and dessert and to play. No, this is what God is saying here, we we act like obedience is the worst thing of all time. What he's inviting us into is say, no taste and see that the Lord is good. What I'm giving you is really a gift. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And I'm going to give that to you, compare that first list and second or first peter chapter two verse one with the fruit of the spirit. Love, patience, peace, kindness, joy, self control. All of those things are things that we look for and long for. And that's part of tapping into the spirit. So, as you experience God, as you adore him wholeheartedly, you look for ways to proclaim his goodness. We talk about what we love. Okay, that's why I always talk about my kids. That's why I make jokes in sports and some of you who I always rag on michigan and other teams there and you push back and I love that because you have a team and you're passionate about that. And so it's not difficult for me to talk about sports or activities that I love or the people that I love. And so the question if you're not sharing your faith, my question to you is do you truly know? And love jesus because we're not talking about him, Why look for ways to proclaim him And think about this picture for a second. He's telling them in verse 11 he's saying as exiles abstain against the passion of flesh that wage against your soul, keep your conduct among the gentiles, honorable. So that when they speak against you as evil Doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day visitation. This idea is that man, when someone has everything going right and they're like, man, God is good. Do you get a little bit of snickering in in your heart? A little bit? At least I do. Well, of course life is good. You have blah, blah blah, boom, boom. And you you have an explanation. But the testimonies that amaze me are people that have walked through the difficulties of life and come through that on the other side and said, God is good. Have you ever met someone who they walk through such a difficult circumstance? And yet their faith is so strong and you're like, how do you do that? How is that possible? What's possible? Because they have not chosen to be a victim? They've chosen to be victorious. And even if their circumstances difficult as Peter says, even though you don't see him right now, You love him, even though you do not see him, You believe in him and you rejoice and it's those testimonies, the people that can proclaim the goodness of God, even when things are not going well, those are the testimonies that impact and radically transform the world. And so if you're going through a difficult time, lean into that, I'm not saying you have to be all rosy Romans. eight talks about how God works all things for good. Not that all things are good, but if God works all things for good in the end, that means if it's not good, it's not the end. And so you can keep persevering, persevering and moving forward so that you can proclaim the goodness of God. Why? Because you have tasted forgiveness, you have tasted hope and freedom and joy so that even though you're struggling right now, even though you're battling and you have questions to God, I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen. I I can't believe this is going on. I have, I have cancer, I have a family member who's struggling. This relationship is broken. My job is at a loss. I don't know what's gonna happen, God, but you are the living hope, which means I'm gonna trust you and that when I lean in on you, I know I don't know the future, but I know you hold my future and so it's in that I'm going to trust because when people see that kind of faith, that kind of hope, wow, I want that. So the last thing is to treat others with honor, treat others with honor, respect is earned. But honor is given. That's why in the commandments were called to honor our parents. Maybe you have not had a great circumstance but honor is something you choose to do or treat someone in light of who God sees them to be, not who you see them to be. And then when you treat people with honor, even when you were attacked the honor is not the same thing as enabling. Okay be smart, be wise but when you honor those around you it's different. So as the band comes up on stage I just want to ask where are you today? Where's the shaker? Somebody like it's not even on the table, let's start there, you can pray to receive him today some of you it's just like so some of you have been like this for a long time now like it hasn't moved that much wherever you are. I want to encourage you to put christ in the center and so how do we do that? Set aside the things that break relationship adore christ wholeheartedly look for ways to proclaim him and then treat others with honor S. A. L. T. Salt. If you do those four things you're going to put the salt shaker in the back of the center of the table and christ is going to be first in your life, let's pray dear heavenly father, we thank you, we thank you that you are a cornerstone and that God you've called us to be living stones to be a chosen people. A royal priesthood. God, we cannot make it to heaven on our own. But God, we pray and lift you up. God. We want to put you in the center of our lives so that you can build our lives. God help us to set aside the things that break our relationship. God help us to adore you wholeheartedly. God help us to look for ways to proclaim that you are good and help us to treat others with honor so that we can place you in the center of our lives. God we love you, it's in your son's name. We pray. Amen.