Proclaim - Prophet | Week 1

 We delve into the attributes of Christ as seen in Luke 4, inviting you to consider what you are proclaiming with your life and how to follow Jesus' exemplary resistance to temptation.

Navigating through scripture and personal stories, we unveil the roles of Jesus as prophet, priest, king, and Messiah, exploring how His teachings call us to repentance and a renewed closeness with God. Discover the profound legacy of prophecy from Moses to the Messiah, and how this connects to the bedrock of our faith. Our conversations also shine a light on the Shema—an essential Jewish prayer—as we contemplate the impact of aligning our hearts with God's commandments, learning that careful listening can be an act of worship and obedience in itself.

Concluding with a blessing prayed over our community, this episode is a heartfelt invocation for protection, grace, and peace. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, be inspired to share and embody the love of Christ, carrying this love into the world with intention and purpose. We leave you with a reminder that we are all called to live out our faith, to proclaim the good news, liberty, and the year of the Lord's favor. Tune in for an episode that is not only a spiritual touchstone but an encouragement to engage with the world around us through the lens of Christ's love. Amen.

CCC Social links

Cornerstone
https://www.cornerstoneaz.org/

Follow Jesus
https://www.cornerstoneaz.org/follow-jesus

Life Groups 
https://www.cornerstoneaz.org/life-groups

Giving 
https://cornerstoneaz.churchcenter.com/giving

Church Center App - Download then add Cornerstone Christian Center in Avondale, AZ

iOS
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-church-center/id1357742931?mt=8&ls=1&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Android 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ministrycentered.churchcenter

----

Instagram 
https://www.instagram.com/cornerstoneaz

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/cornerstoneaz.org

Twitter
https://twitter.com/cornerstoneaz.org

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What are you proclaiming Now? It's already springtime. How many people are enjoying springtime? It's amazing. It's amazing. It's the moment here, right before your face melts. So we're excited for that. No, but it's spring training here in Arizona, where we're located, and it's an amazing time. We're so happy to have spring training here. All the extra traffic is so welcome, so thankful for that. No, we really enjoyed it. It's fun. I'm happy to see all these teams and support your team and go out.

Speaker 1: 0:31

And I got a chance to go, celeste and I got a chance to go with Javen and we were cheering on the Diamondbacks and it was an amazing thing because one of our players he had a couple of runners on base. It was an exciting hit and he hits it and he doesn't give up running. He just goes for it, expecting that he was probably going to get it caught, but the guy made an error and as he made an error, he drops the ball. He rounds first, he heads into. Second, the guy overthrows. Second, he heads to third, they overthrow. Third, he runs and slides home in the park. Home run on errors Amazing, it was so great. We're cheering, we're going for it. It was an amazing, amazing moment and it was fun to be in that atmosphere, cheering for something, being together in that moment. It was so fun and at the same time.

Speaker 1: 1:17

A few days ago I was at a conference and at the end of the conference they challenged you to go in to have a moment with God on a mountainside. And so you go up the mountain. At the base of the mountain everyone was worshiping together and it was the sound of a worship to God coming up the mountain and going out over the city. And as I went from that place I kind of hiked a little further up to the highest peak that was available and I spent some time there praying, praying in the spirit, praying over you, praying over your family, praying over everyone that you're in community with. That you would be a light wherever you are, praying for my family, for my kids or for my wife and for the future, and just asking the Lord to have His way in my life, in my heart, in our hearts, collectively, that we would be the light of the gospel wherever we go. And it was such an interesting definition and change between the two, how one was this group of people and we're all cheering for something At the same time. I'm having this sweet moment with God, by myself on the mountain and see.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Both of those things are a good thing. Neither of them are negative. But you can't live in one or the other. You have to have both. You have to have those moments of ourselves together. You have to have that cheering moment. That's a good thing. But that's not where you're going to go closest to God. Where you're going to be closest to God is in those moments with you and Him. And that doesn't have to be on a mountainside. It can be at your house, besides your bed, as you do your devotions. It can be in your cubicle at work, during your lunch break. It could be wherever you want it to be. It's where you draw near to Him and have that moment with God, him speaking to your heart, drawing close to Him. But when we think about these things, it's not to live on the mountain, it's not to live down in the valley. It's to have those moments together, no matter where we go, to be full of the presence of the living God. That what we're living with our life is echoed in our actions. It's echoed in our relationship with God, that we're proclaiming who he is to us. Amen.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Today we're going to be starting a new series called Proclaim and we're asking that question what are you proclaiming? Now, if you're new to Cornerstone, we're so glad you're here. We're supposed to be with us together. My name is Jay and Celeste and I have the great opportunity of being a part of leading the team here, and we're very blessed because we see ourselves very much as people following after Jesus. None of us has arrived. All of us are following Him where he is going. We're broken people in need of a Savior, and so we see ourselves on that journey, following Jesus, and our ambition is to be more like Him, to be more like Jesus, and so that's who we are and that's what we're about. We want to love God, make disciples reach the world, and we do that beyond our weekend gatherings. We do it throughout the week, throughout the city and life groups. So I encourage you and challenge you to be intentional with your walk with God, that you would be someone who connects, grows and serves, that you would get involved with others. Let it be a blessing to your life, amen. Now we're excited because we're coming into this new series called Proclaim and we're talking about these different attributes of who Christ is. We're gonna pick it up with Scripture today in Luke 4, your tablet, your Bible, your phone, if you would, if you'd highlight it. We're gonna be coming back to it over these next few weeks looking at who Christ is to us.

Speaker 1: 4:40

He picks up here in Luke 4, verse 16, and says and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up as was his custom. He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's adnoided me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blunt, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and all the eyes of the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, lord. We thank you for your word. We pray over it today, that you would breathe upon it, make it alive and rena to us, lord, that you would use it, lord, to encourage us, transform us into who you are. We pray. This is the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Speaker 1: 5:50

Now we're talking about this idea of proclaim, and we see Christ as many things and he fulfills these roles of prophet, priest, king and Messiah. He is not just a prophet, nor is he just the high priest, nor is he just a king, but he is the Messiah, and he is all these things and more. He is the true God, the only one who could become the sacrifice for us. And as we head towards Easter, we're gonna be looking at these different attributes, these different parts of who Christ is. As he comes to earth, as he is the prophetic voice of turn back to God, as he is the high priest making sacrifice for us, as he is the holy and righteous king, the one who we have allegiance to, and he is our Messiah. We're looking at all these things in this theme called proclaim. So we use that idea to say what are you proclaiming? What are you doing with your life?

Speaker 1: 6:41

Now, as we come to this idea as a prophet and Jesus in the role of prophet, we kind of pick up in this story with him here at the beginning of Luke four. It finds him in the desert and he's out in the desert and he's there before he starts his ministry, having this time with God, fasting and praying. And it says, in his weakened state, that the enemy of our soul, satan, comes to him and starts to tempt him with these different things and he starts to tempt him in his physical body, starts to tempt him with glory or riches or power. He starts to tempt him in all these different ways and he's physically he's in a place of weakness, but spiritually he's in strength, and so he stands and uses the word of God to fight against these enemy, to fight against the evil one. So, at every turn, at every place, whenever he would come and say something to him, he would tempt him with something, he would use the word of God to fight the enemy. And see, that's the same thing for us. You know, jesus was in this desert place. He's brought up to these high places to look over places and he's saying look at this and look at this and look at this.

Speaker 1: 7:45

And Jesus uses the word of God to fight the enemy. See, you too, all of us here in this room and even beyond, we too are in the physical, there's a literal desert, and you might have the enemy of your soul come and say things to you, things like you're not worthy or you're not worth anything, or you know what mistakes you've made and you're a mistake yourself. All sorts of lies, all sorts of things to malign you as a child of God. We know who we belong to, we know who we are, we know what value we have. So we can use the word of God to address those attacks to the enemy and say no, no, no, I'm not who I was. I'm a new creation. I'm dead to sin. I'm alive in God. I'm gonna have a future. That's with him, not what you say it is. I'm with him. You have punishment coming. I'm with him forever. And so we can stand and use the word of God to be victorious against the enemy. And so this is what Jesus does. He becomes victorious and from that moment forward, he establishes his ministry.

Speaker 1: 8:41

What is the word that comes from him? Well, it picks up here, and it starts to talk about it that he goes to Matthew 4, verse 17. It says from that time, jesus began to preach, saying repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, often we might reference the things that Jesus does, we often might reference what he does and what he teaches about, but we forget so often that what he led with all the time was to repent and turn back to God All the time. Repent and turn back to God. When he would come and he would address someplace, he would challenge them, saying to change from what they're doing and repent or turn away from and turn back to the ways of God.

Speaker 1: 9:25

That's what repent means. It means to not just to stop what you're doing, but also to make it right to come back into making it right to actually going beyond that feeling sorry. Not you're sorry because you got caught, but you're sorry for what you did. I know people know the difference. I know people got caught doing something. You're like I'm sorry. They're like you ain't sorry, you're gonna be sorry. You know what I'm talking about. There's a big difference between that and you're like I'm so sorry and you're really feeling it. That's the difference that we see here.

Speaker 1: 10:00

That's what it means to repent, and so the role of prophet was to bring forth the truth of God, the message of God, and to give it to the people of God, and so we see this being established with Moses and the law. We see all these things being given to us as a dividing line of what is right and the line of what is wrong. And so he gives us the law, what is right and what is wrong. And as we talk about the law, we wanna be in right standing of it. You guys can go back, go back to the right standing of the law and what it means for us. And as we stand in the law, we stand aligned with God. Now, here's the thing are any of us holy? No, not one. So what we know is that we have to be made holy by God, because God is holy. So for us to be in a line with him, we have to come out of our state of sin, our state of destruction. We have to be aligned with God. There has to be something to get us past this divide. Well, god gives us something in called sacrifice.

Speaker 1: 11:01

So in the, in the Pentateuch in the Old Testament, it starts talking about these series of laws, of all the things, the way to live for God. And that's what makes you in alignment with God. It makes you holy. But to get there, we're gonna make mistakes. How many people made mistakes. There we go. If you didn't raise your hand, I'm praying for you. And the reason I'm praying for you is because if we try to put one foot in holiness and one foot in our own desires, we're straddling the fence and walking forward. There's gonna be a problem, you're gonna experience some pain and really you're not gonna stay holy because you're gonna fall over into destruction anyway. How many people know what I'm talking about?

Speaker 1: 11:40

And so often this is the fight, this is the control is that we're fighting God for the controls of our life, and so often that's why we keep on going into destruction. And so we see the holiness that he has said for us and we understand there has to be a sacrifice. And in order for that sacrifice to come, something had to die. And so God uses an innocent animal and the sin goes on the animal from the person. The animal dies, the person is made righteous, so an innocent animal takes on the sin of the person, so this person can be made right with God.

Speaker 1: 12:16

And that's what the law set up was the series of ways to live for God, both morally and also ritualistically, to be set apart as unto God, not to be mixed in any way, and so he gave all sorts of delineations to set them apart, different from the people around them. He's saying the clothing you wear needs to be of one fabric, not mixed. When you sew your field, it needs to be of one seed, not mixed. Whenever you do this, he was giving a very delineated thing to be set apart and holy, not trying to do your own thing the way you want to do it. And so he gives us these laws, and we realize very quickly how we fall short of those things. And so that's why we need an ultimate sacrifice, and that is in the personhood of Jesus Christ. He becomes the ultimate sacrifice for all people, for all time. He becomes the sacrifice he's the innocent lamb, as the scripture says, that takes on the sin of the world, from all of us on this side. He takes on our sin so that we can be put back into relationship with God and we come to Him as Christ followers.

Speaker 1: 13:27

When we make a mistake. We don't just stay over here in destruction. No, we come to the Lord and we say Lord, forgive me of where I've fallen short. I ask you to forgive me, I don't want to live like this. It says that if we ask to forgive, he'll be just to forgive us of our sin, cleanse us from all unrighteousness and we're put back into a right standing with God. It's interesting because so often we'll be over here and we'll wonder and we'll blame God for the things happening to our life. Over here, in destruction, we'll be like man I made my own decisions. I didn't listen to what God said. I'm not aligned with what God's saying, but I'm gonna blame God for what's happening to me. Nobody else, just me. Praise God. Okay, so you can understand why so often this is.

Speaker 1: 14:12

The fight in our life is to fight control of our life, where we say, god, you are Lord of my life. It means you have control of my life, that you're gonna steer me into righteousness, to live for you. But whenever I fight Him on things, it's gonna pull me into destruction and I'm gonna get what I, what I sowed, right. You reap what you sow. And so we see this so often in the fruit of our life and the fruit of what we do.

Speaker 1: 14:36

And this is the fight, the struggle that's there with the law. That's why, when the Lord gives the law to Moses, he gives us these top 10, he gives us the 10 commandments. It's a basic guideline. So many more things he gives in the law, but it's a good thing. It starts to understand of what we're doing, the baseline by which we're working. It says what no other gods before me to have no grave and enemies, no idols either. To keep God's name holy, not to profane it. To keep the Sabbath, to honor our parents, our father and mother, no murder, no adultery, no theft, no lying, no coveting anything. And there's a whole list that's there and this is the basic 10 and there's so many things that come from it.

Speaker 1: 15:14

But you think about how often these basic 10 are broken, maybe even by you, and so often we in our culture here in America, even internationally, think about our cultures and how we so often put these things as gods ahead of ourselves, ahead of God. Now, it could be money or sex or power, it could be the sports teams we were talking about, these other things we set up as a little G, god ahead of Him. And maybe it's not a graven image, but it might as well be because we're bowing down our time and our talent and our money towards it. We're treating it like it is. You see, so many times where people profane the name of God. Why? Because they're not using my name, because my name doesn't have the power. They use the name of Jesus or they use God's name because they're. They know the power that's there and they're trying to make a point with it and they profane His name day in and day out.

Speaker 1: 16:11

And in our culture we work hard. That's something that's a good thing. God gives us that to work hard and to reap the benefit of working hard, that's a good thing. And we're stewards of those things. He talks about being a good steward of it. If you're a good steward, more comes to you. But it's not about the stuff, it's not about the gain. In fact, we in our culture start to do the thing that breaks the Sabbath where we're workaholics and that becomes our God and we don't take a break. And then, when we burn out, we wonder why? And he's like hey, remember the Sabbath? I wrote it on a big stone rock and gave it to you. Do you remember? We're like um Sabbath, sabbath, sabbath.

Speaker 1: 16:54

You probably did okay, with the no murder part, hopefully, the no adultery part, hopefully Staying to staying devoted to your spouse. Hopefully You're not stealing people's stuff, you're not doing these things, you're not lying. You're letting your yes be yes, your no be no. You're not coveting, looking at this person's stuff and that person's oh, if I could just add their stuff. This is just the 10, just the 10. There's a whole bunch of other ones. I don't even need to get into my beard situation, the side of my hair situation, the clothing. This is a poly blend. You guys, I could never wear this jacket. In the Old Testament you get the idea. It goes on and on.

Speaker 1: 17:37

And the reason was is to separate and to make us separate as the people of God, the ancient Israel at that time, and us the same way, in we living the moral side of that law. Jesus says I did not come to abolish the law, I come to fulfill the law, I come to make it together, to bring it to one. And so that's what happens. And so often he's trying to prevent us from judgment. The role of the prophet was to declare to people hey, turn away from what you're doing, because judgment is going to happen.

Speaker 1: 18:08

One of the prophets we see this is Malachi and many others. He says behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, with all the arrogant and evil doers will be stubble, and the day that is coming shall be set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts. So we'll leave them neither root nor branch. But if you fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise, with healing in his wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. What a powerful thing.

Speaker 1: 18:45

You think about the difference between those two options. It's talking about hey, if you're an evil doer, guess what? The day of the Lord is coming. His holiness is like a refining fire. It says in Scripture. It's going to come, and if you're not holy which you're not because you can't make yourself holy then it's going to burn you up to ashes. Or if you live with the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, then we live a different way. It says something else is going to come. What's going to happen? Righteousness is going to rise in your life, the wings of his covering are going to be over you and he's going to pump you up. So full of joy You're going to be like a little cow that's excited to get out there.

Speaker 1: 19:24

Now, when thinking about the options between these two and doing a smart goal analysis, you can see hmm, fire, ashes, destruction, blessing. I don't know. I think I'm going to choose destruction. You guys, I'm going to do what I want Destruction, everybody. Why is our culture choosing destruction? Why are you choosing destruction? Why am I and this is the fight in between us is that we go back and forth and back and forth in the fight that happens to be there and we see where it comes down to trying to follow laws versus not follow laws.

Speaker 1: 20:03

But that's not what it was intended to be. It was supposed to be a matter of the heart. In fact, that's what Christ's letter says, but it's first given to us here by Moses. The Lord gives us to Moses, and it's this, the shema, the prayer that all the Jews would daily pray. It says it like this and I'm going to ask us all to read it together. Let's read it here oh Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. You say amen to that and you can see how this prayer becomes a powerful statement. It's saying these are the things I believe that the Lord alone, he is God, he alone is God. He is the one true God. I will love him with everything I am, with all the parts of who I am.

Speaker 1: 20:55

It doesn't say obey just the laws and keep the laws, because the laws are the rules. No one says what I'm going to love God and out of relationship. I'm going to do it with everything I am, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my might or my strength, and we see that be a reflection. That's there and interesting, because the word shema actually means to listen or to hear. But it's different than the way we think about it nowadays. You know I was talking about how many times people will say something and you'd be like I heard you but didn't listen to you, right? And it's like talking to teenagers, like at a far distance in the house. You're like, hey, little teenager. And then you tell them something and all you sound is like the Charlie Brown teacher and they're like, well, and then later you're like, hey, did you do what I asked you to do? Like I didn't hear you.

Speaker 1: 21:46

You didn't hear me, we do this as adults too. Right, and you think about the difference between it? Because in this writing there's not a differentiation between here and listen. It's just one word. It means to listen and obey. So whenever it says, it says listen and obey and this is the prayer that the Lord alone is God, that he is the one I'll worship with all that I am. It says to take action on these words, the shema. And so when we pray that it's talking about an alignment of our heart, so it's no longer about the rules and being on this side of the line or that side of line. It's not that at all. It's about being your heart aligned with God, and that's the same thing that we see with Christ speaking to us so often.

Speaker 1: 22:35

The word that would come back to the prophet he would challenge the children of Israel and they would. They would reject or neglect what the prophet is saying and he would declare that they have no ears for obedience but they're not listening to what God is saying. But see the prophet in that day, the prophet as Jesus came and was in the prophetic role. The prophet, even now, is the word of truth to us, the role of the gospel, the word of God, is to speak truth to Culture and that's not a political thing. The right or wrong people want to balance these things know it's in the word of God. So it's over here in the righteousness, whether we like it or not, and just like in that day whenever they would say things like hey, don't sacrifice your children to idols. You're trying to take this baby and sacrifice it to please this little God. We have the same thing today and pleasing ourselves with abortion and killing of children in the womb, when it's our literal Future and God sees you from the time he gives you breath of conception and has a plan and a purpose for your life. And that's why we go against that and we say no, this is a person. We value them. It's not politics, it's scripture, and I don't care if you have an opinion over here. I can have the same opinion as you and we both be wrong because we're not the scripture. So we have to align ourselves with what their scripture says. Man, I can tell you you want to do whatever you want. You're gonna do and sleep with anybody you want and do whatever you want and Frivously spend these things on on on nothingness, your sexuality and with who you are. And God has a plan and a purpose for your life. He says I give you sex to celebrate inside of marriage between a man and a woman. It's a great thing, it's a blessing, but we're over here fighting them for it and riding into destruction, doing whatever we want and See it's seen as oh man, you're making a rule. You're trying to make a rule on me.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Listen, unless you understand that it's a heart of God that loves you and he's doing this to correct and to love you, drawing near to you, who wants to speak life to you, not death. He understands that at the end of that is holoness and destruction. What you don't realize, what you're doing, is you're worshiping something else. By doing that, you're worshiping death and destruction. You're worshiping holoness and taking something sacred he gave you and you're spending it, throwing it to swine. But instead we speak truth to culture in Love, not bombastically, not on the speaker box, telling someone they're gonna, they're gonna burn. That's not gonna help them, not gonna embrace it, but instead that they would know the love of God that comes to them in a way they can understand Through a conversation of love and not in a plank eye situation Christ follower, or we're picking out the speck in their eye with the plank in our own Means. That we need to live this thing for real Before we go telling someone else to do the same, myself included. That the Lord help us, that we would live in righteousness, live aligned with the power of the spirit of God, live aligned with what he has for us and not in destruction.

Speaker 1: 25:40

Now, as we look and continue here in the good news, it says exactly what he came to do. He came to give us good news. The good news is that he had arrived. He was the fulfillment of scripture. And so as he starts to read this, it's out of Isaiah 61,. It says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

Speaker 1: 26:02

Now we might be thinking well to the poor, that's great. I'm not broke. What about them? Or maybe good news. I am broke, it's for me. But actually all of us are broke because it's the poor in spirit, the poor in spirit, and the poor in spirit means all of those who are in need of a savior, that's all of us. None of us is righteous, no, not one. And since it's to the poor in spirit. That means he's brought good news to everyone, that there's a relationship available to make you in right standing with God. That's what it means. And so he's saying hey, listen, I'm anointed to do these things.

Speaker 1: 26:37

It is a fulfillment of the word of Isaiah, as Jesus reads it. He is saying I am the Messiah, I am the one that's here. I've come to proclaim good news for you that you're not left in destruction, you're not left in your past, you are not those things anymore. You are a new creation, you are a new thing in God. That the good news is here for you and it's a powerful thing, it's an amazing thing as you start to think about it.

Speaker 1: 27:03

It's interesting because Christ would come and he would preach these things, telling people to repent, telling them to turn back to God. And it said that he would go and have those moments recharging with the Father. He'd go off to the lonely place he picks up in Luke 4, 42,. It says and when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place and people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. And he said to them I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose and he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Speaker 1: 27:40

You can imagine, as you see that scape in front of them, I mean a beautiful thing at the edge of the wilderness, and you can see Jesus just spending that time with the Father, recharging his spirit, recharging what he was experiencing, having that moment. But they were needing the Jesus. So they're looking for Jesus and they're like I found out where Jesus is. I was gonna find him and they went in. They got him and they were out there in the wilderness. I'm sure they were like Jesus, let's just stay right here together. Look at the view. We'll stay right here. We found you. We found you. They didn't find you. Tough luck for them.

Speaker 1: 28:12

He said that's not what I'm about. Listen, we can't stay here. We have to go and reach everyone with this message, the gospel message. It's for everyone. You can imagine, even here in our own state of Arizona, the United States, we have the Grand Canyon. It's this beautiful, amazing expanse and we could have this moment with God at the edge of the Grand Canyon and we could just, oh man, this is such a good moment, we should just stay right here, have this right here, don't do anything else.

Speaker 1: 28:40

But that's not what he calls us to do. He calls us to recharge with him, that one-on-one moment. But then what he wants? To use it for a purpose. He wants to serve the people. That's the reason you're getting recharged. He wants to pump you up full of his joy, full of his spirit, so that you can be used as a tool in his hand to show the gospel message, the love of God, to other people. And that's what it's really about to proclaim the good news. So good news is you're already in the desert. You don't have to go to another lonely place, so that's good.

Speaker 1: 29:13

So all of it means is that you need to spend that time with the Lord, draw near to him and ask for an impartation of the spirit of God in your life, that you would experience that new level of what he has for you and that it would go deep, not just for you, but that through you, other people would experience blessing. See, when we're aligned with the blessing of God, when we're not living for ourselves, then other people can be blessed as well, because we're in alignment and in step with what he's doing when we're over here fighting God for control. We can't be a blessing to anybody else because we're already out of alignment with what God is doing. But instead, let's not do that. Let's understand where we've gone wrong. We actually repent, not. Oh, I'm sorry I got caught, but, lord, I'm really sorry. I understand what this attitude I had, or this unforgiveness I had, or this thing I was doing wrong. Forgive me that I would be made right and be in right standing with you. I wanna be aligned with you. I want to be someone who's close to you and that through that relationship that others might also experience your love.

Speaker 1: 30:20

What are you proclaiming? Proclaim the good news. Friends, today, as we come to this altar, we do so intentionally, understanding that we are those who are continuing on in what Christ has called us to do. He said the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set out liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Friends, we asked, answered that question what are you proclaiming? We know that we must be those who proclaim the good news and as we do so, we're being intentional. But maybe you're here and you don't have that relationship with Christ. We ask that question have you embraced Jesus? You haven't embraced him yet. Today is your opportunity to do so. It's your opportunity to embrace Christ and invite him into your heart and life.

Speaker 1: 31:20

To us, the symbol of the cross is one of transformation. It is so because it's the symbol of where Christ took the sin of the world and paid for it once and for all. As we said, he became the only one that could be the holy sacrifice to reconnect us in relationship to a holy Father God. And when he did so, he took on the sin of the world. He took on my sin, my mistakes, he took on yours and he paid for it once and for all, for all of us. He took on the sin of the world and he took it to the cross and he paid for it. And he didn't stay dead, but he came alive again and it's because of that that we can have a relationship with him. And it's saying Lord, I believe you are who you say you are. Forgive me on my sin. I invite you into my life to be the Lord of my life. I'm not going to fight you for the control. I want to walk in step with who you are to be, those who are proclaiming the good news of the gospel For us. When we see this, we look to Apostle Paul. He writes to the church at Rome. He says it like this because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Friends, today is your day of opportunity. It's your day to make a decision to follow Jesus. I'm going to ask everyone that's here in the room if you just stand right where you're at, just bow your head. If you're online, you prepare your heart for what God wants to do. I've been praying for you today that you make a decision to follow Jesus. If that's you you're here in the room If you just raise your hand right where you're at, say Pastor, remember me today, I want to make that decision to follow Jesus. If that's you, just raise your hand right where you're at. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.

Speaker 1: 33:20

These people are making decisions today online, making decisions today. Thank you, lord. Thank you, lord. I'm going to ask if everyone would. They would just follow after me in this prayer. Repeat after me. It goes like this Lord, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you. In Christ's name. I pray Amen. Amen.

Speaker 1: 34:02

Friends, we rejoice that you make a decision to follow Jesus today. What a powerful, powerful thing. It's amazing, as we come to this altar, we do so with an intention that we'd have nothing separating us in our relationship from Christ and, secondly, that we would be empowered, full of the joy of the Lord, pumped up, ready to do what he wants us to do to take the good news to other people. So I'm going to challenge you with this that you would come forward, make an altar with God, get full of his spirit so you can take the good news to others. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you, lord, how you speak to us from your word and you make it alive in us and challenge us, lord, just as you did, lord, in the role of profit, in telling people to turn back to the way of the Lord, so we do today, lord, that we would have nothing between us and you.

Speaker 1: 34:51

Lord, you would forgive us of any area where we've gone wrong. Forgive us of any place where we have sinned. Forgive us of any bad intentions that we've ever had. Lord, we want to be in alignment with you. Lord, we forgive, just as we have been forgiven. Lord, we thank you when we ask for an empowerment by your spirit. Holy Spirit, come, have your way in us. We want to be overfilled with your spirit so that we can be the love of God to people around us and bring them the good news. We pray all this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen.

Speaker 2: 35:23

Well, as we heard a fantastic word this morning on proclaim, I want to encourage you. We are leading up to Easter and invite someone. If there's somebody that's near you in your life a co-worker, a neighbor, a family member, a friend just begin to pray for them and just give them that invitation to come. Tell them you're going to save a seat for them here at service. It is amazing what happens when people are just invited. They come just out of curiosity. Maybe they come because they've been wanting to know more about church. But just take that step. We're going to pray with you and believe with you for just a great harvest in this part of Phoenix.

Speaker 1: 35:58

Amen. I also want to let you know that this Saturday, we're going to have a celebration of life for one of our long-term members, hal Dubois, who went to be with the Lord recently, and we get a chance to celebrate him and remember him and just cherish with him and being the presence of the Lord now, so I encourage you to come and be a part of that. Information is online. You can find out more about that. Let me pray this blessing over us before we go today. The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, or lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. God, give you an empowers by your spirit to live your love out to those around us. We pray all this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen, amen. Know this we love you very much here at Cornerstone, amen.