tonight's teaching text is first peter chapter one verse 14 to 15 chapter two verses four to five and nine to

twelve as obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance

but just as he who called you is holy so be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy.

As you come to him the living stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him,

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.

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. 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.

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires

which wage war against your soul.

Live such good lives among the pagans that though

they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

This is the word of the Lord. Good evening church. My name is Susie. I'm the teaching pastor here,

and it's a joy to be with you tonight.

Tonight we are in the middle of our series Making Sense of the Church, as we just saw in that video about Jason's artwork.

And over the last few weeks, we looked at different metaphors that describe what the followers of Jesus are meant to form together and what the church is.

And we started this idea of the flock and God is our shepherd and then moved on to the bride

and God is our groom or beloved and the family and God is the father and us as his children.

And then we shifted towards, these are all, you know, languages of words of intimacy.

But then we moved towards this idea of God and the church as the people of God. And then last

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