Chosen Yet Rejected (1 Peter 2:4-10)

"...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house..." "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (1 Pet 2:5, 7; Ps 118:22).

• How does it feel to be chosen by God yet rejected by friends and family (Jn 1:10-11; 15:18)?

1. Do you "come to him [Christ]" (1 Pet 2:4a) just at conversion? Are you more serious in "coming" during troubled times (Isa 55:1; Mt 11:28)? 
2. Why is Jesus "the living Stone” (1 Pet 2:4b, 24; 3:18; 1:3)?
   
3. What does it mean that “living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood” (1 Pet 2:5; Exo 19:5-6; Eph 2:20-22)? 
• Do you live your faith individually, or as part of the whole?
4. What “spiritual sacrifices” can you offer God? How are they different from OT sacrifices (Rom 12:1-2; Heb 13:15-16)?
5. Why is the same “Stone” (Jesus) precious to some (1 Pet 2:6, 7, 8; Isa 28:16; Ps 118:22; Mk 12:10), while making others stumble (Isa 8:14; Rom 9:33; Jn 3:19; 1 Cor 1:23)?
6. 
   What do the four titles for believers mean (1 Pet 2:9; Exo 19:5-6; Hos 2:23)? How do you practically live out being:
1. Chosen (1 Pet 2:10; Lk 9:23; Gal 2:20)?
2. A priest (Eph 6:18; 1 Tim 2:1; Jas 5:16)?
3. Holy (1 Pet 1:15-16, 22; 2:1, 2, 3)?
4. Declare God's praises (Ps 51:15; 34:1; Isa 25:1)?

• Who you are, and how good you become, and whatever good you do as a Christian (1 Pet 2:9) is only because of who Jesus is (Jn 1:14; Col 1:15; 2:9; Heb 1:3) and what He has done (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:10, 24; 3:18).