In this passionate sermon, Sharon Otts delves into modern self-obsession, referencing Romans and other scriptures to draw a line between worldly conformity and spiritual transformation. She calls on believers to become living stones, built upon the foundation of Christ, and to resist the age of the selfie. Sharon reminds us of the significance of choosing an intelligent consecration as opposed to mindlessly following the empty patterns of the world.
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Otts, thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I believe you will be intrigued by today’s message, Are You a Brick or a Stone? When I asked this question of Christians I know in preparation for preaching this message, I was surprised by how many said brick. Sounds reasonable, I guess, since bricks are used to build strong buildings. But find out what God says about it in Are You a Brick or a Stone? How many know that’s the spirit of the age? It’s a spirit of godlessness. And it’s a spirit of self-promotion. Amen? It’s a spirit of self-promotion. My God, I don’t know. Every 10 years they name the decade. I guess I think they ought to name this one the age of the selfie. Honestly, have you ever seen so many people take so many selfies of themselves all day long, every day, as if we really want to see your picture 20 times a day? I’m sorry, but it just amazes me. How many know I’m telling the truth? It’s the age of the selfie. And I heard a celebrity, honest to goodness, last night on one of the news channels, and she actually said it, and she said it so nonchalantly because to her it was perfectly respectable to say this. She said, I am self-possessed. Now she was beautiful, very beautiful. And I forgot what, I don’t know what she did. But anyway, she was very beautiful. And she says, I am self-possessed. So in other words, that makes it okay for her to take endless selfies of herself and plaster them all over social media for everybody to see it. And that’s fine. And we’ve got all these young girls coming up. And that’s what they see. That’s the spirit of the agents out there. Amen. And that’s all there is. I even see it, honestly, I even see it in little ones, little girls, three and four years old. You will see pictures of them. Not one or two saying, oh, that’s really cute. She’s cute. Okay. Oh, yeah, she really is cute. Yeah, she’s cute. Okay, this is about the tenth picture today. How many times am I going to say she is cute? Amen. And the little girl, she is cute, for honestly, she is, but she’s standing there going, and then, and all these things, I’m thinking, my God, what is she going to be like by the time she’s 13? You will not be able to live with her. And I’m thinking to myself, does this child ever get dirty? Does she ever just play? Does she ever just play something and get dirty? I don’t know, but we’re living in the age of the selfie. And so you’ve got to be careful that you do not let the world make you one of its bricks. God said he made you to be a living stone. Not a worldly brick. Amen? And that’s what we’ve got to be on guard against and what we’ve got to fight against. And I know you know these scriptures, and I’m going to say them anyway. Romans the 12th chapter, verse 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a what? A living sacrifice. Holy. Holy is what? Acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not… conformed to this world, but be ye transformed, how? By the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul says, I beseech you. And I always think of that word as meaning a very strong plea. I’m pleading with you. But I took the time, instead of assuming that that’s what it meant, because most of the time that is what it means, I took the time to read this, look this up in Greek. And when I was reading these verses in Greek, I saw where it said, I beseech you is the Greek word parakaleo. Paracleo, does that sound familiar? Does that sound like paracletus? Paracletus, who’s the paracletus? The Holy Spirit is the paracletus. The word para means alongside. Anything para is alongside. And cletus is to call. So paracletus is to call alongside. And that’s what we see in the book of John. The English says comforter, when the comforter has come. And of course, what does he do? He comes alongside you to comfort you. He comes alongside you to anoint you, to support you, to help you pray, to help you intercede, as we’re told later in Romans, the eighth chapter. But that same word that is for the Holy Spirit, comforter, paraclete, kaleo, is right here. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God. You know what that says to me? Paul, the apostle, Paul, the man of God, on the outside is beseeching them and calling to them. But the Holy Ghost on the inside is rising up strong. And he also is calling us. And he’s saying, don’t be conformed to this world. If you truly have the Holy Spirit on the inside, he will shout it. In your spirit. And when you begin to draw away and you begin to have more of an ear for the world and you begin to get more in front of the television or more on social media and the worldly parts of it, the Holy Spirit on the inside of you begins to deal with you. And he’s saying, watch out. Be careful that you’re not being conformed. And you know what that word conformed means? It means to put something in a mold. Put something in a mold. And that’s how they make bricks. How many know how they make bricks? They’ve got big molds and they put that dirt in there and then they get it in the shape. It’s like cement, like you want to pour a sidewalk. What do you have to do? You can’t just go out there and pour a bunch of cement on the ground. and it’s going to be a nice sidewalk, somebody’s got to get out there and put a mold there so that when you pour the cement, it won’t go beyond the mold. And when it dries and you take that wood off, you’ve got a perfectly straight, nice sidewalk. How many of you moms and maybe some of you young kids ever made jello in a mold? You just pour that liquid in. The mold might be a fish. It might be the shape of a heart. And you pour that liquid in there, and you just get it in that mold, and it sets, and it congeals, and it gels, and then you turn it over, and there it is. It’s the perfect shaped heart. That’s what this word means. Don’t let the world put you in its mold. Amen? but presents your bodies a living sacrifice. And you know this word here where it says, I beseech you. It also has a military definition to it. That word was used to give the troops who were getting ready to go into battle, to give them their pep talk, amen, about the dangers that they were about to face. Presents your bodies a living sacrifice. Saints, we are living stones. We are not worldly bricks. Amen. Amen. Present means you lay it down on the altar. You bring your body as a living sacrifice. Don’t you see it’s antithetical to the dead sacrifices of the cows and the goats and the sheep that they brought into the house of God. God said we don’t have that anymore. I want you. I want your body. I want your body a living sacrifice. I want your body holy. That’s acceptable to me. not being conformed to this world. Amen? A living sacrifice. And you know, saints, sometimes we, in the spirit, if we could look in the spirit and we look around in the house of God, we see missing stones. Don’t we? A lot of times we see missing stones, people that God has raised up to be a living stone, but they’re missing. And how many know if you’ve got something made out of stone and one stone falls out, the whole thing’s not going to collapse. It’ll be all right. And you can be okay with a couple missing stones, one here and one there and whatever, but if you start getting a lot of missing stones… Amen? Especially if they’re all together in the same area. You got a lot of missing stones in the Sunday school department, maybe. The Sunday school department is going to collapse. You’ve got missing stones up on the choir. Up here, they’re supposed to be living stones offering up a holy sacrifice. Psalms and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody unto the Lord in your hearts. Singing unto the Lord from your hearts. Amen? But if they begin to get slack, then you’ve got missing stones. You’ve got missing stones here and missing stones there. And sometimes you can tell it when they go to sing a song and they don’t have enough sopranos to hit the high notes. Missing stones. They don’t have enough men to hit the low parts. You got missing stones. Sometimes they got to get a few altos to help the men because there’s too many missing stones or whatever the case may be. Wherever there are missing stones, the things are going to begin to fall apart and collapse. So you not only got to be a living stone, you got to present. You got to show up. You got to come and bring your sacrifice and take your place In the temple of God. And fill the place where your stone fits. Amen? And if everyone will be in their place, then we have a temple of God. And he says, I’m telling you that this is your reasonable service. Reasonable service. Reasonable, reasonable. What does that mean, reasonable? You know, we want to say, well, it’s… It’s only fair. It’s only what we should do in light of what God’s done for us. It’s only reasonable that we should do that for him. Sometimes we think that way. I’m not going to say that’s the wrong way to think it, but that’s not what it means. It means with intelligent consecration. In other words, you of your own volition with understanding, you make an intelligent consecration to God. You say, God, I’m a living stone. You say, Lord, here I am. I surrender all to you. I am devoted to your service. Where do I fit in your temple? Where do you want me to be? I realize I’ve got to count the cost. Jesus said if a man tries to build a building and he doesn’t sit down first and figure what supplies he needs and how much it’s going to cost him, he might get partway through and run out of money and just leave it like it is. He says don’t even start until you count the cost. But God is saying, what is your reasonable service? Sit down and with an intelligent consecration, say, Lord, here am I. If I say I’m going to be on the choir, I’m going to be on the choir. If I say I’m going to help in the Sunday school department, I’m going to do it. If I say I tell them I’m going on street meeting, I’m going on street meeting. I’m going to the jail. I’m going to the rehab. I’m just going to be here in the body of Christ. I’m going to be a living stone and a present stone. I’m going to present. How many know back in elementary school when they called your name, you said present? Well, God’s calling you tonight. He’s calling your name tonight. And He wants to hear you say present. Here am I, Lord, I’m present. Amen. because he’s called us to be living stones in this building of God. So you have to make a choice. You’ve got to think about it. If you are building for the temporary pleasures of this world and worldly gain, use bricks. If that’s what your goal is for this life, use bricks. But if you are building for eternal treasures, You need to use stones. Amen? You need that which has been wrought by the hand of God and not the hand of man. If you’re building a holy habitation unto him, then you’ve got to use holy stones. Amen? Don’t be conformed to this world. I told you it means to form or mold something to a pattern. The actual Greek word from it, we get our English word schematic. How many knows what a schematic is? Especially if you buy something you’ve got to put together. You know how you get that bright idea to buy that child that certain toy? Or you’re going to buy that swing for your wife and put it together out on the porch and you empty that box out and it’s 50,000 pieces. Screws and nuts and who knows what. And they’re all over the place and they give you this piece of paper. and they say figure 125, and figure 299, and got arrows pointing to some little screw, and you’re supposed to do all that and put it, that’s a schematic. And it gets real hairy when you get into electronics. Amen? That’s the word that’s here. That is the very word that we get our English word schematics. Amen? That’s the word that’s being used, that God has called us to be, that we are to. Don’t be conformed to this world. That’s what the word conformed is. Don’t let the devil put you together according to the world’s schematics. You can tell. You can tell on the outside what’s going on in the inside. Just look at the schematic. Look on the outside how it’s put together, what’s coming out of the mouth, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and you’ll know whose schematic it is, whether it’s the Holy Spirit’s schematic or whether it’s the world’s schematic. Amen? All right, we’re running out of time, so I’m going to start giving some of these quicker to you. Peter said in 1 Peter 13, 16, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance. In your ignorance, when you didn’t know any better, you fashioned yourself according to the world. But as he who which has called you is holy, then be ye holy. So he’s saying do not fashion yourselves like the world’s bricks. but be transformed. Now, what the word transformed, you all know this well. You’ve heard it preached through the years by Brother Hardy, myself, and other people, metamorphosis. You even learned it in high school science. When you learned about the caterpillar turning into a butterfly, it went through a metamorphosis, meta, after, morph, form, after form, meaning it changed from one form to another, and it always and generally most always takes place from the inside out. Amen? From the inside out. And so it’s the innermost part of our nature. He says, be you transformed. Now, how is that going to happen? The best scriptures I can give you for that. After Romans 12, 1 and 2, I’ll give you the references, Ephesians 4, 22 through 24, and Colossians 3, 9 through 10. These are some of my favorite verses. Paul talks about putting off the old man that’s corrupt according to the deceitful lust and being renewed in the spirit of your mind, putting on the new man that’s created after him in true holiness and true righteousness. There is a bridge, if you notice, there is a bridge between putting off the old and putting on the new. How many heard that bridge? How many didn’t get it? No hands went up either time. You don’t have to be afraid. I am not going to make you look foolish, okay? Let me say the scripture again. Putting off the old man that’s corrupt according to the deceitful lust. Being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Putting on the new man who’s created after him in true holiness and righteousness. What is the bridge? Being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Thank you. Put on your thinking caps and leave them on now. You see why you need to be renewed in the spirit of your mind? You just illustrated the sermon. You just illustrated it. I couldn’t have asked for a better illustration. So thank you. See, it hinges on you being renewed in the spirit of your mind. C.S. Lewis, some of you have heard of him. He said the difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind. See, some people say, I’m going to stop being so worldly. I’m going to stop being so worldly. I’m going to get away from being worldly. Don’t even try that. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. Instead of saying, I’m not going to be so worldly. Say, I’m going to be more godly. I’m going to be more spiritual. I’m going to hunger and thirst after righteousness. I’m going to get in God’s word. I’m going to meditate on scripture. You can try all the time not to be so worldly, not to be so carnal, not to be caught up in all of that, and it’s not going to change. You’ve got to get your mind renewed. And let me, while I’m at it, say to you, it’s important in the Greek, it’s in the present tense. Why do I care about that? Because it means it’s habitual. It means it’s perpetual. It means you’re always, every day, all the time, being renewed in the spirit of your mind. That is the only way to prevent yourself from becoming a brick. and to become a holy stone. A worldly brick, a holy stone. What’s the bridge? Being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Amen? And that’s the thing. And when I, in my own personal life, see that I need, you know, I’m starting to get more distracted, I’ll use that word, more distracted by the things of the world, then I know I’ve got to get renewed in the spirit of my mind. And I read my Bible every day, but I know then I need to get in there and really meditate on Scripture. And I will even go on a, you know, getting… parts of scripture just to memorize them, to meditate on them, even though I already know them, can tell you what they mean, but I’ve got to keep my mind renewed. Amen? Because I want to be a holy stone in the house of God. So the last one I’ll give you for referral is 2 Corinthians 6, and you all know this so well. He says, you know, be not unequally yoked. with unbelievers. Amen? Because he says, what agreement has the temple of God with idols? So we already established from the get-go that we’re living stones in the temple of God. That was the first scripture we read. And he says, so what agreement do you have with the world? I won’t read it all, but he goes on to say that you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I will walk in them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. Verse 17, wherefore come out from among them? Amen. And be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. So I’m hurrying along. God is saying, I want to dwell in you, but I’m only going to dwell in you if you’re a living stone, if you’re a holy stone. We saw God would have nothing to do with an altar or brick. We saw that God said sacrifices made on an altar of brick was a stench in his nose. So if we want God to dwell in us and we want to be the temple of the living God, Amen? And if you look up the Greek word, it doesn’t just mean the outer part. It means the inner part. The holy of holies. If we want to be that, we’ve got to be a holy stone. We’ve got to be a living stone. And we’ve got to come out from amongst the infidels and the darkness and the idol worshipers. So I’m asking you tonight, right now, are you a brick or are you a stone? How many will say I’m a stone? Let me tell you something about stones and how they’re created. How many have ever heard of Pebble Beach, California? Famous place. Tourists come from all over to go to Pebble Beach, California. I’ve never been there. I’ve never been to California. But I have heard about it. And they come there from everywhere, even outside of America, tourists come because strewn on the sands of Pebble Beach, California, are these beautiful, beautiful stones. There are many shapes and sizes, but they’re all smooth and polished and beautiful and round. And nature did this. How did this occur? It’s because of the surf of the ocean, the thundering, the roaring, the beating, the slapping of the surf of the ocean, relentlessly, night and day and day and night, against the jagged cliffs along the shore. And it hits those broken pieces that break off. And there’s no mercy. When that surf comes in, it picks those stones up and it throws them up in the air and they fall down. And they crash against one another. And they grind against one another. And this goes on and on. But the result of it are these beautiful, round, polished stones that people come from all around to gather those stones. It’s the friction, it’s the grinding, it’s the beating, it’s the exposure to the winds and the waves and the elements that causes those stones to be so beautiful. You can go up the coast a little way and there’s a very beautiful, quiet cove. It’s peaceful, it’s still, it’s quiet. It’s protected from the surf. It’s protected from storms and the sun is always shining on it. Its sands are also strewn with stones and pebbles. But nobody wants them and nobody goes there to collect them because they’re jagged and they’re rough and they’re ugly. They’re devoid of all beauty. You see, they were in a peaceful, quiet place. But it’s the friction, it’s the winds, it’s the storms, it’s the things that come against us in life that make us a polished stone. If you want something polished, you’re going to have to add pressure to it. Amen. And God wants to make us his living stones. Amen. And so in your life, you are going to have pressures. Jesus said, get ready. If the world hated me, it’s going to hate you. He said, if you were of this world, the world would love you. But since you’re not of the world, it’s going to hate you. Because I have chosen you out of the world. I don’t want you to be a worldly brick. I want you to be a living stone. And I want to beautify you with my salvation. And though the storms and the winds and things come in your life that are hard to endure, they serve a purpose. Because you’re a living stone in the temple of God. And God’s house is beautiful. And God’s stones are beautiful. And the things that come against us in life, and get ready, there’s going to be more persecution. Jesus said men are going to hate you and revile you and persecute you. And the nearer we get to the coming of the Lord, the worse it’s going to be. It’s going to get ramped up. It’s going to be a whole lot worse. Amen? But Jesus said… Rejoice because great is your reward in heaven. Amen. God is making of you and me living stones, but we’re going to have to sometimes sit still under the pressure. Amen. And when things come against us, we’re going to have to see the bigger picture and know that God is making something beautiful out of us. He is beautifying us. Amen? I’m going to close with this last verse. You know it well. Matthew 16 and 18. And Jesus and the disciples were up near Caesarea. And Jesus called the disciples around him and he said, I want to ask you guys something. I want you to tell me, who do all the people say that I am? And they said, well, some say that you’re Elijah. Some say that you’re Jeremiah. Some say that you’re that prophet. And that refers to the prophet that Moses said would come. And Jesus said, okay, but whom do you say that I am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ. Thou art the Messiah, the Son, the living God. And Jesus said, wow. Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my Father in heaven, and I also say unto you. And that word also is very important because Jesus is putting himself on a parallel with God. He’s making himself equal with his Father in heaven. My Father in heaven said this. He revealed this to you, and I also… I’m going to reveal something to you. You are Peter. He probably said you are Kephas because Jesus spoke Aramaic. And what does that mean? It means a stone. You are a stone. The Greek word is petros, and it’s a masculine noun. We don’t have masculine and feminine in English, but they do in Greek. It’s a masculine noun. Petros, a stone, a chip off of a big, huge rock. That’s what you are, Peter. You’re a stone. Who do we start off quoting tonight? Peter said, you’re living stones. And why did he say that? Because Jesus said, Peter, you’re a stone. You’re a stone. You’re one stone. He could have turned around and said, so are you, Matthew, and so are you, James and John and Bartholomew. You’re all stones. But I say unto you that upon this rock, Petra, Petra, now it’s a feminine noun, and Petra means a huge mountainside. I say unto you upon this rock, I shall build my church. Ecclesia, another feminine noun. Amen. I shall build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So Jesus didn’t say upon Peter, I’ll build my church. Peter’s not big enough. You can’t build a church on one stone. He didn’t say on you, Peter. He said upon this rock, upon this confession, upon this foundational truth, it all boils down to this. I am the Christ, the Son of God. Upon this truth, upon this declaration, upon this confession, I will build my church. I’m a stone. How many got your stones? Are you a stone? Upon this church of living stones, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Will it come against it? Absolutely. Will it come against us? Oh yes. We will be in a battle. The gates of hell will come against us. But it shall not prevail. It cannot overtake us. And if you’re a living stone in the temple of God. And if you’re not a missing stone. But a living stone. You make up the house of God. And you’re not standing all by yourself. You’re on the foundation that no other foundation can be laid. 2 Corinthians 3. But that which is also laid, which is Christ Jesus. Remember we read when we started out? He’s the chief stone of the foundation. And you and I are stones that were built on it. Amen. What an intriguing and eye-opening message. Are you a brick or a stone? Perhaps you think a brick because they are used to build strong buildings. The first brick maker in recorded history was Nimrod, great grandson of Noah. His name meant, I said, get down. And he was the brick bully of Babel. In rebellion against God, he hunted men to be his slaves, to make bricks, to build his kingdom and the infamous Tower of Babel, to reach into the heavens. until god intervened and disunited the people by confounding their languages and thereby scattering them abroad on the earth now later god delivered the seed of abraham out of egypt’s bondage where pharaoh had enslaved them to make bricks to build his monuments But when God gave Moses his blueprint for worship in the wilderness, he commanded that his altars were not to be of man-made bricks, but of unhewn stones. You see, man makes bricks, but God makes stones, unique and unspoiled by the world. Bricks are all alike, cast into the same mold. And today the world is casting people in the mold and spirit of Nimrod, a spirit of rebellion against God and his word. Nimrod was the first prototype of what the Antichrist will be. And we see his spirit already at work, John said in his epistle. The Apostle Paul declared in Romans 12, 2, Be not conformed to this world. Don’t let the world put you in its mold and make you one of its bricks. And Apostle Peter said, you are living stones built up as a holy habitation for God. Ask yourself, am I a worldly brick or a holy stone? If you would like to receive this message on CD, send a love gift of $10 or more to help us with the cost of airtime to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203 and request SK171 at That’s SK171. Or you may go online to rghardy.org, where you can also order on MP3. But to receive Are You a Brick or a Stone by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
In this passionate sermon, Sharon Otts delves into modern self-obsession, referencing Romans and other scriptures to draw a line between worldly conformity and spiritual transformation. She calls on believers to become living stones, built upon the foundation of Christ, and to resist the age of the selfie. Sharon reminds us of the significance of choosing an intelligent consecration as opposed to mindlessly following the empty patterns of the world.
