The Church: the Temple of Living Stones

Good morning.

Sometimes we all need an object lesson, even as adults.

I've already been challenged by being here this morning, and, uh, the Sunday school lesson, uh, was a real encouragement. The title of the message this morning is "The Church: A Temple of Living Stones." But before we go to, uh, 1 Peter, I'd like you to turn to Daniel chapter 2, uh, Daniel chapter 2. Might be Daniel chapter 1.

Daniel chapter 2. In this, uh, chapter, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. This dream caused him, uh, to be troubled. So he called for all his magicians and his astrologers and his sorcerers, and he asked them, he said, "I want you to tell me the dream and then what it means."

Uh, and they said, "Well, I mean, how is this possible? How can we possibly tell you the meaning of the dream if we don't know what the dream is?" And, uh, it seems as if Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make sure that they weren't just pulling something out of their hat, uh, to satisfy him. And so Nebuchadnezzar became very angry. He started killing off, uh, all his wise men, and Daniel and his friends were on the list.

So Daniel and his friends met together, and they prayed, and God revealed the dream and its meaning to Daniel. And I'd like to read verses 26 to 45.

And just pay special attention to the rock. "Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said to him, 'Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.' Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him, 'I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known the king the interpretation.' The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, 'Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?' Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, 'The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king.

But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dreams and the vision of your head upon your bed were these. As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this, and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living. But for our sakes, who make known the interpretation to the king, that you may know the thoughts of your heart. You, O king, were watching, and behold, a great image.

This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you, and its form was awesome. The image's head was one of fine gold, and its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, or king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, insomuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything. And like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.

Whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.

And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to another people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. And as much as you saw the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the kingdom will come to pass after this.

This dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."

So he has this dream about the statue: a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, thighs of bronze, and legs of iron mixed with clay, feet of iron mixed with clay. And Daniel clearly says that he, Nebuchadnezzar, was the head of gold. Babylon was the head of gold. And most people don't—there's not much disagreement that the arms of silver were the Medo-Persian Empire, the thighs of bronze, Greece, and finally the legs and feet of iron Rome.

And this stone, it says it was cut without hands, came out of the mountain, and it struck the image, and it shattered the image. Everything collapsed. And it says that stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

It says there was going to be a kingdom established that would last forever, that would stand forever. And I guess I was thinking about what great event took place during the time of the Roman Empire. I turned to Luke chapter 1. I guess what I'm trying to do maybe here this morning is connect some dots in our minds. Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 33.

The Romans were in power. They were the people, the dominant world power. "Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, 'Rejoice, highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.' But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and she'll call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.'" When we think about a kingdom, we think about one of the aspects of a kingdom is the temple. So I'd like to just switch our thinking just a little bit and think about a temple.

Oftentimes the temple sort of defined the culture that it was that they were in. So the Babylonians, they had many temples, but they were these immense ziggurats that they worshipped in. Then we had the Persians. They were Zoroastrians, so they didn't really have physical temples, but they worshipped what they called in-fire temples. They were sacred fires in the open air. And then, of course, we had the Greeks come in, and there's still remnants of those temples today if you visit Athens and so on.

And then we have the children of Israel, who initially God had instituted the whole tabernacle. And then we know how Solomon came along and actually built a magnificent physical temple.

That temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and then was rebuilt during the time of Zerubbabel by the captives that came back from Babylon. And then in the time of Jesus, we had Herod who come along and sort of tried to, in some measure, establish a little bit of the former glory that was there.

"Earth has witnessed few scenes more sublime, none in which all the elements of outward magnificent were more strikingly blended with those of deep religious reverence and all than that which was presented by the temple of Solomon on the day of its dedication. The holy and beautiful house crowning with its fresh undimmed splendor, the terrace steep of Moriah, the vast congregation of worshippers that filled its courts and colonnades, the rich and solemn swell of choral melody when minstrels and singers joined in the exalting hallelujah, the great altar in the open court with the brazen platform in front of it on which the youthful prince kneeled down upon his knees in sight of that breathless multitude and spread forth his hands to heaven and the fire descending in answer to his prayer and consuming the sacrifice, and the cloud of glory filling the house so that the priests could not stand to minister.

Nothing is wanting to complete the solemn impressiveness of this spectacle. And on that day, they sacrificed 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep."

So in a sense, there was this a a a great awe, a great splendor with this temple that was Solomon's temple. And this temple was extremely important to the Jewish people. And when it was destroyed and they came back and rebuilt it under Zerubbabel, the people wept because they said, "It's just not like it was before."

Many centuries had gone by, and the temple still stood after many changes and manifestations in something like its earliest grandeur. And on its ancient site, when Jerusalem, the holy city, witnessed another and different scene—so now just shift a little bit—"In some humble dwelling, in one of its obscure streets, a little company of worshippers was gathered together in an upper room.

There were no outward splendor there to attract the eye, no imposing rites, no stately ceremonial, no altar, no priests, no ringing bursts of melody, a few devoted men and women joining in fervent supplication. Nothing more, when suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind, and cloven tongues of fire were seen hovering over each of them. And in this baptism of fire, every heart was kindled with holy love and zeal, every voice birthed forth in accents of adoring wonder and praise. In this outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, in fulfillment of the Savior's promise, and in token of his divine and almighty power, we see the dedication of that spiritual temple, which he founded on this earth.

We behold the beginning of that church, which is not for one nation, but for all people, which is not in its essential features outward and visible but inward, set up in all believing, loving, and obedient hearts, which is not to continue for a season and pass away, but is to endure forever as a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy."

And it's precisely this thing that we want to look at this morning a little deeper. So turn to First Peter chapter 2.

I think maybe we've sometimes been programmed to maybe think about the church in a wrong way. We teach our children, "Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open it up, and there's all the people." And so sometimes I think we become maybe a little bit in the mindset that the church is some kind of a building physically, that we come to church. And I would like us to look at what Peter has to say. So we have this stone that was not cut with hands that came out of the mountain that destroyed those civilizations. And it says that it became a mountain that filled the whole earth and instituted a kingdom that has no end.

And it's to this kingdom that we're invited here this morning. Peter extends this invitation.

First Peter 2, verse 4: "Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in this scripture: 'Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. And he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builder rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word to the which they also were appointed.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation."

You know, one of the things that Peter—it was sort of his according to Galatians 2:7—Paul says that Peter was sort of called to minister to the Jews. His focus was the circumcised. And again, as we look at the—and think about the Jews, in their mind, the priesthood, the the the temple was all very, very, very important to him, to them. And so Peter seems to be coming to them, and he wants to change their mindset from the physical to a spiritual house. And he's inviting them and says, "I'm not doing away with all that. I'm inviting you to come and participate into something that's much, much greater than the physical temple could ever be." And he says in verse 4, he says, "Come to the living stone," an invitation to participate in something much greater than Solomon's temple.

And it's for Jew and Gentile, all who put their trust in him. Peter said in Acts—in the sermon after he spoke to the Sanhedrin after they healed the man, and he says that, "Haven't you heard about this cornerstone, this chief cornerstone, that if you don't respond to it, it's going to grind you to powder?"

So Jesus became the foundation stone of this temple for a holy temple not made with hands. If we go to First Corinthians, some familiar verses there—First Corinthians chapter 3, verses 9 to 16: "For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are God's building. According to the grace of God, which is given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so is through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For you are the temple—for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

So that brings us then to what Peter says. He says in verse 5: "You also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house."

Living stones are being built up together into a spiritual house. And this is the furthest thing from from the lone ranger Christianity that's so that's so prevalent in our world today. To claim Jesus as the cornerstone, to be part of a building, and then not to participate in the church and be part of the wall, so to speak, as living stones, it makes no sense at all. A stone alone doesn't make a temple.

And so he says that coming to him, the living stone, you also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. We're blocks in the church. We're not only building blocks, but we're also priests, part of a holy priesthood that's set apart to minister, be ministers of grace in the new covenant to the world. You know, that veil was torn down in the temple.

An entrance was given into the Holy of Holies through the resurrection of Christ. Revelation 1, verses 5 and 6 says: "From Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

And our job is to offer sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. He says, "To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Romans 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

But then in verses 6 through 8, he shares with us a sobering reality. And the reality is this: either Jesus is your precious cornerstone, or else he's a stumbling stone.

I think there's a lot of people that try to have maybe another way somehow. That he's not really my stumbling stone, but they don't really hold Jesus as very precious.

What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. And that's what I see here in this part. He says, "I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. It's elect. It's precious. And he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame.

Therefore to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense."

So how do we know if Jesus is our cornerstone? If we hold him precious? Well, he says here that if we're disobedient, if we're disobedient, that's proof that we're not holding Jesus to his rightful place. And he says, "It becomes a stumbling stone." I had an experience this past week.

I was going into a walk with my heavy toolbox in my hand, and in the walk, they had this like a stone step. And I was—it was a day it was really nice outside, and I was, I don't know, paying attention to something else. And I didn't lift my feet far enough, and I stumbled at that stone and went down on my knees, both knees.

My toolbox almost flew out of my hands, and I looked up in time to see that the homeowner was actually sitting on his porch and saw the whole thing. And I have two big black and blue marks on my knees as a souvenir of that. And let's just say it wasn't a very graceful entrance at all. And I had that picture, you know, a stumbling stone.

And if we're disobedient, we constantly find ourselves up against that rock. It's a stone of stumbling.

And you know, it's ironic as we look out—I think I mentioned this here before—but Jesus does create in people—like they have to respond to him in some way or the other. And many people who are not believers, they curse by Jesus. They take his name in vain. You don't ever hear people cursing in the name of Muhammad or some Hindu God, Shiva or something. It's always in the name of Jesus. So they're stumbling over that.

Jesus is the chief cornerstone. What does that mean? Well, it means that he is the stone by which the whole building is oriented. And one of the things that—the little bit of building that I've done is in Chile when we were getting ready to put a house and put a foundation in—somehow you had to orient. You had to decide just where the thing was. And so you would—when you're building with wood, you often put stakes in the ground or whatever, and you finally come and you find one corner, and then everything goes off of that. And that's what Jesus is. He's of this temple that he wants to build, of his church. He is the—he orients it.

He's the one that gives it its direction. He gives it its foundation. The word cornerstone in verse 7 then is sometimes translated capstone. If you look, it is two different words. And the capstone has the idea of sort of the crowning part, like the keystone in a bridge or the top part. So I really like that picture that Jesus is the—he's the foundation. He's also the capstone.

He's the Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end. It's all wrapped up in him. The Washington Monument, if you've ever visited there, it's probably one of the most best examples of like huge pieces of stone, and you see how they're all put together. But the capstone of the Washington Monument is actually a little pyramid of aluminum. And it was—at the time, it was in 1884, aluminum was very difficult. It was actually about as valuable as silver. And on that capstone, it says, "Laos Deo," which means "Praise be to God." Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. He's the cornerstone. He's the capstone. From the bottom to top, it's all about him. And he's inviting us to participate in that wonderful, wonderful building.

We need to accept authority of Christ in our lives. And the question that we need to ask is, "Is he Lord? Is he Lord?" If we claim that he's our cornerstone and that we're going to be obedient to what he says, then we have to allow him to be Lord of our life. Turn to Matthew 21.

Matthew 21:33 to 45.

"Hear another parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge about it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers that they might receive its fruits. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent another servant, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all, he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.'

So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers? They said to him, 'He will destroy those wicked men miserably and lease his vineyard to another vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their season.' Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone? This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.'" Again, very sobering warning to us that we cannot claim to be part of this building, part of these living stones, and then ignore the things that he says and not give Jesus his rightful place.

Then he says, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

I guess the thing that I want to really impress upon us is the privilege that we have this morning to be a part of that kingdom that was established that Daniel talked about so many thousands of years ago that says, "This kingdom is going to come, and there's not going to be any end to it. It's going to fill the whole earth." And it's our choice this morning whether we want to participate in that. And he's allowing us, he's giving us the privilege to actually be a part of this kingdom and be actually a part of this beautiful temple that all the world can see how great his kingdom is.

He says, "We're his chosen generation." Think about that. He has chosen us. You know, there's something really special about ownership. Ownership instills value in something. You know, we can take something incredibly ordinary, and because of who owned it, it becomes extremely, extremely valuable.

Babe Ruth's jersey from the 1932 World Series just sold here in 2024 for $24.12 million for a shirt, an ordinary shirt. And it had nothing to do with the shirt. It had all to do with the person who owned it. And I just want us to think about that. We are his special people. He owns us. And because of that, there's a tremendous value. He holds us in tremendous value.

We are his royal priesthood. We read that he made us kings and priests. Kings and priests. We're a holy nation, his own special people. And I think I know in my own life, too often I take that kind of take it for granted of what a tremendous privilege we have to be a part of his kingdom.

And

our job then, what's our responsibility as members of his kingdom, as building stones, living stones in the kingdom of God? What's our responsibility? It's to proclaim the praises of him who's called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. When we realize what we've been saved from and the fact that we were living in darkness and were lost, and he has called us now his own special people and made a way for us to be a part of his kingdom, our job is then to just proclaim the praise of him who's called us from darkness into light.

Isaiah 43:21, "This people I have formed for myself, they shall declare my praise." I think Peter had Hosea in mind when he wrote these last verses where he says, "They were once not a people but now are a people of God who once had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

You know, in Hosea, God told Hosea as an object lesson to take a wife of harlotry, and he had three children. The first one was Jezreel, named Jezreel. It means "God scatters." The second was a daughter named Lo-Rahuana. It means "unloved."

But I'd like to read a couple verses in Hosea chapter 1.

He had a third... they had a third child, a son. And God said in verse 8, "And when she had weaned Lo-Rahuana, she conceived and bare a son. Then God said, 'Call his name Lo-Ami, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.'" And then if we go to chapter 2, verses 16 to 23.

Oops, I lost my place here.

Hosea chapter 2

speaks of the mercy, the mercy of God.

2:16 to 23. "And it shall be in that day," says the Lord, "that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master. For I will take from her mouth the names of Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground.

Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer," says the Lord, "I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. And the earth shall answer with grain and with new wine and with oil. They shall answer Jezreel. Then I will sow for her myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Then I will say to those who were not my people, 'You are my people.'

And they shall say, 'You are my God.'" And Peter had that in mind, and he says, "You were once... you once were not a people. You once didn't have mercy, and now you've obtained mercy." So in the context of being a living stone in the church of Christ, a temple glorious for all the world to see, I guess the question is, what are they seeing in you? Are you proclaiming his majesty and his glory?

And then he finishes up this little section in 2 Peter.

1 Peter chapter 2. In verse 11, he says, "Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation."

And I'd just like you to note the emotion that I sense in Peter. "Beloved, I beg you."

We're supposed to portray... our job is to portray this marvelous temple, the church, the church of God, to the people around us. And he says, "I'm begging you, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, which give the people outside their reason to blaspheme the Lord God. That mar the temple, mar the glory of God if we indulge in fleshly lusts." He says, "Let your conduct be honorable to those who look on." And you know, much damage has been done by those who claim to be a part of this living temple and then give reason for the enemies of God to cheer.

On the contrary, he says, "that they may by your good works which they observe." People out there are watching. The church is to be the apple of... it's the apple of God's eye. And people are watching. And what are they seeing in the church? Are they glorifying God because of the good works that they see in the day of visitation? There's some verses in Ephesians 4 that are so familiar that we almost sometimes think they're overread. But I'm going to read them again.

Ephesians 4, verse 11, "And he gave himself... and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness and deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by whatever joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

And I think that's what Peter's talking about there. "Let your good works be seen so that those looking on can can stand back in awe." Just like there was a sense of awe when they looked at Solomon's temple, I think God desires that that same sense of awe when when people looking on view view the church.

You know, the building goes on. There was a cathedral in Cologne, Germany. The construction began in 1248 and didn't end until 1880. 632 years it was being built. It was under construction.

You know, from that moment in the upper room till this morning, March 9th, 2025, the building is still going on. And Jesus promised Peter that it would be successful. He says in Matthew, he says, "Peter, you're on this rock I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

So I guess the question that I would like to leave with us, the challenge I would like to leave with us this morning, is Christ your cornerstone or is he a stumbling stone to you?

I really don't think there's another way.

And if he's your cornerstone, that means he's precious to you. That means you're going to be obedient to the things he says. That means that we're going to work at our relationships one with another. If we're a living stone in a temple, that means we're in close proximity to each other. And it goes back to our devotional this morning about relationships.

So important. Someone said building with living stones is like trying to build a wall out of bananas. Pretty hard to... we don't... it's not always nice and neat and tidy. But the question is, is Christ our cornerstone? Are you trying to live your Christian life as a lone ranger, as a single stone out there somehow trying to do it? Are you part of that wonderful picture of the kingdom of God that Daniel prophesied about? I'm going to end with a poem. "Have you heard the Golden City mentioned in the legends old? Everlasting light shines o'er it. Wondrous tales of it are told. Only righteous men and women dwell within its gleaming wall. Wrong is banished from its borders.

Justice reigns supreme o'er all. We are builders of that city. All our joys and all our groans help to rear its shining ramparts. All our lives are building stones. But a few brief years we labor, soon our earthly day is o'er. Other builders take our places, and our place knows us no more. But the work which we have builded, oft with bleeding hands and tears and in error and in anguish, will not perish with the years. It will last and shine transfigured in the final rain of right. It will merge into the splendors of the city of the light." And that's my goal this morning, and I want to be a part of that wonderful temple.

I want to be a living stone. I want Jesus to be my precious cornerstone and be a part of that kingdom that has no end. Anyone have any comments before we close?