God's People

SERMON TITLE:   “God’s People”
SERMON TEXT:    1 Peter 2:1-1-10
PREACHER:           Rev. Kim James
OCCASION:           June 2, 2019, at First UMC
 
  
INTRODUCTION
 
                Well, if you like professional basketball, this is a big week.  On Thursday night, the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors played the first game in their season-ending play-off series.  Toronto won that game 118-109.  Tonight, at 7:00, those two best NBA teams will face off again. 
                The Golden State team will be recognizable in their royal blue and California gold uniforms, with the stylized picture of the east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge within a basketball-shaped circle.  In contrast, the Toronto Raptors’ jerseys are very simple, with just names and numbers.  The Canadian team was organized in 1993, the year that the Jurassic Park movie came out.  So they originally had a dinosaur picture on their logo.  Over time, the dinosaur design became less purple and more red and evolved into a three-fingered paw print over a basketball inside a hoop.  At this point, the Raptors’ uniforms don’t show the paw-print circle.  But you’ll be able to figure out who they are.  The Toronto Raptors will be the ones dressed in red and black and white.
                Teams, troops, and groups of people are known by many traits and symbols—by the songs they sing, by the flags they wave, by the values they hold dear, by the stories they tell.  Those common elements gather, shape, and hold a people together.  Those traits give them encouragement, identity, and promise.  Those uniform experiences and characteristics give meaning to their lives and purpose to their sacrifices and deaths. 
                Because that reality of all social groups is also true for Christians, I invite you this morning to take a look at 1 Peter, chapter 2, with me.  Let’s see what traits identify and describe God’s people.  

Continue reading