Stone is the last place you'd expect to find life. Yet Peter says that Jesus is a living stone, and that those who come to him are also living stones. What does this mean? For one thing, the Spirit has given us life, replacing our stone hearts, which were dead in sin, with living hearts of flesh. We are also building material. Just as Jesus is the cornerstone, we are stones being used to make a dwelling place for God. "Living Stones" is the eighth sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

On February 14, 2017, the Presbytery of the Siouxlands ordained Rev. J. Mark Bertrand and installed him as the pastor of Grace. At the service, Rev. Luke Le Duc, senior pastor of Wheatland Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, PA, preached this sermon.

Medicine may not taste good, but it is good for you. Is that how we should think about the Gospel? Sure, it leads us to turn our backs on a lot of things we'd rather keep doing. In the end, this renunciation is for the best. Fortunately, Jesus is better than strong medicine. "Taste and see," the psalmist says, "that the Lord is good!" We do not follow him from delight, not duty. "Taste and See" is the seventh sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

The essence of the Christian life is summed up in a single word: love. But how can we feel "brotherly love" toward people who are not our brothers and sisters? Jesus causes us to be born again into a spiritual family, an imperishable bond. It is established through the power of God's unfailing Word, and is therefore stronger than the bonds of the flesh. "The Imperishable Seed" is the sixth sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

To "do" Christianity, you have to know it, first. Our way of life flows out of our knowledge that Christ gave his life as a ransom for us. Peter may have been a practical man, a fisherman by trade, but he understood that there was no separating the Christian life from Christian truth. As he teaches us how to live, he also reveals the way we should think about our lives. "His Wounds Have Paid My Ransom" is the fifth sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

There's no glory without suffering, Peter says. But he did not always believe that. No one fought harder against Christ's suffering than Peter. When Jesus said he would have to die, Peter said, "Far be it from you!" This was not comfort, though; it was temptation. And when the suffering came, Peter was entirely unprepared. Now he speaks with the voice of experience. Humiliation is the path to glorification. "Suffering and Glory" is the fourth sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

Peter says your faith is on trial -- but only for a little while, and only if necessary. Don't get too excited: by "little while" he means this mortal life! The pressing question is, how could trials possibly be necessary? What is the meaning behind them? We're accustoming to thinking that pain and suffering have no meaning. They are pointless absurdities. The apostle says otherwise. "Faith On Trial" is the third sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

Peter has already told us who we are: chosen exiles. Now he tells us where we are: between the Already and the Not Yet. Christ's kingdom is already established, but not yet fully realized. Our own salvation is already accomplished and applied but not yet fully revealed. Being sojourners and pilgrims in this world does not make us rootless wanderers. It does mean, however, that we live in hope of the future, never at peace with the spirit of the age. As the old song says, we are wayfaring strangers. "Already and Not Yet" is the second sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

The apostle Peter calls believers "elect exiles." These days we are reclaiming the idea of Christians as exiles, putting our hope in Christ's kingdom instead of political saviors. But we are a long way from recovering the first part of that phrase: elect. The word alone makes us uncomfortable. But maybe that's a good thing. To understand who we are, we have to come to terms not just with being exiles, but also with being chosen. "Despised Yet Chosen" is the first sermon in God's Chosen Exiles, a study of the apostle Peter's letters to the church. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.

Just as the apostle Paul at Mars Hill proclaimed the identity of the "unknown God" people had worshiped in ignorance, in the final servant song, the prophet Isaiah reveals an Unknown Gift. We have received the gift, but do not realize it, because it isn't the gift we looked for. It's the gift we needed. "The Unknown Gift" is the fourth sermon in Servant Songs, a four-part series for Advent on the Servant Songs of Isaiah 42-53, finding Jesus in the prophets. Visit us online at www.graceforsiouxfalls.org.