4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—5 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. 9 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.
Leader: 5 In your relationships with one another,
have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
ALL: 6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
Leader: 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
ALL: he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Leader: 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
ALL: 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord!
ALL: 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Leader: In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
ALL: 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
Leader: This inheritance is kept in heaven for you… 6a In all this you greatly rejoice!
Leader: 11a Remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth … 12 you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
ALL: 14 For He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations.
Leader: His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16a and in one Body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross…
ALL: 18 For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Leader: 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
ALL: 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In Him we are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
Leader: From every nation, in every language, we lift our voices together:
ALL: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!
Leader: Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving!
ALL: Honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever!
Hallelujah! Amen!