Cornerstone Christian Center
Cornerstone Christian Center
Reflection | 2024 Year in Review
As we bid farewell to 2024, we turn our gaze inward, embracing self-examination and reflection. What truths has the past year revealed about who we are, and how do we break free from cycles of sin and shame? Listen in as we share personal stories of redemption through Christ and the healing power of seeing ourselves through God's forgiving eyes. With 2025 on the horizon, we hold a mirror to our identities, inviting gratitude and optimism as we redefine success and welcome a year brimming with hope, grace, and divine possibilities.
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Man, I am just so thankful for our media team. They do such a great job and you know I know that. Yes, absolutely. Thank you, media team. You know I know that after Christmas you've got that haze from the holidays and you wanna do absolutely nothing. But our media team, they roll out of bed on the weekend that nobody wants to come to church and they get here early so they can get everything set up and face all of the challenges and then have church afterwards with having all those challenges and things, and I'm just, I'm so thankful for you guys. So thank you very much, media team. So you know they're a very busy group of people and so you know this is a really busy church.
Speaker 1:We've got a lot of stuff that goes on throughout the year, and if you're just joining us, maybe this balcony back here is not new to you, but it's new to us. And so in that process of this year, we had a lot of fun stories, a lot of challenges that happened, and so I wanted to tell you, as we're reflecting on the year I just wanted to tell you about this one time that I was an amateur electrician and so what was going on was we were having this video projection or the video wall going in at the same time that the power for the video wall was going on. So we were installing this but we didn't have any way to turn it on. At the same time, they were demolishing all of this stuff up here in the balcony and the construction workers came to us and said, hey, you've got a bunch of switches up there that need to be terminated. So there were nine slider switches, boxes that were up there that controlled all of the lights for these, the auditorium lights. And I said, cool, well, our electrician's busy. And they said we don't do electrical. Okay, we don't do electrical. Oh, that's good, because I do, I do electrical, you see. So I decided or well, pastor Jay asked me if I would terminate those things. So I went and I talked to our electrician. I said, okay, harvey, so I just cut these, wrap them and do this right. And I made sure that I was going to be safe. We turned the power off and I proceeded to do it. And so when you cut nine switches of power, it ends up looking like this Um, and this was the bouquet that I sent my wife.
Speaker 1:Um, it happened to be on our anniversary and so she didn't get flowers. She got this picture instead. Now, if you know my wife, you'll know that she actually appreciates this far more than a bouquet of roses, because we didn't have a lot of money early on in our marriage, so when if I were to spend money on flowers, that would have not actually been a good thing, and so apologies, and I love you's are much more free than a dozen roses. So when I sent her this, she was. She took that as our anniversary gift and I showed Pastor Jay and he goes okay, but we need to make it look a little nicer in case the fire guy shows up.
Speaker 1:So I went to go put it into the boxes, but the wire nuts would not fit into the power boxes, so I had to then take undo everything that I had just done, put them into power boxes and then redo everything that I had just done. It took me all day because of trips to Home Depot and you guys know the thing First thing next day I get a picture of Harvey, our electrician the next morning, fixing everything that I did all day the day before. You see, what happened was when we turned off the lights, they wouldn't turn back on and we didn't know because we hadn't used those switches, so we didn't think they did anything. Well, they did. They still controlled all the lights and it took them about three days to untangle the mess that I did and we finally obviously got power back to the lights and everything. But during that it was a frustrating time. But now it's kind of funny and I look back and there's a lot of things that happened throughout our year that are just like that, and so today we're going to be talking about reflection and we're going to reflect just a little bit on our year here at Cornerstone and as individuals.
Speaker 1:But if we haven't met first off, my name is Pastor Angus. I'm the family pastor here. I get to work with the kids and our volunteers and it's so amazing. I have got my dream job. It's fantastic, and so we want to welcome you here to Cornerstone and thank you for joining us today. We hope that this will become your church home, because this is just a fantastic place. This has been our home since our firstborn was born 14 years ago.
Speaker 1:But here at Cornerstone, if you want to know what we're all about here, it can be boiled down to be more like Jesus. That's our goal here is to be more like Jesus, as the people of Cornerstone, because what we recognize is that we are all on a journey, we are all in process. None of us have arrived, none of us are perfect. We are all imperfect people following after a perfect Savior. And so, with that in mind, we use this image of walking with Jesus, and it symbolizes us being not perfect, walking with him, trying to do just a little bit better every day. And the way we do that here is by loving God, making disciples and reaching the world. That's just a simple way for us to be more like Jesus, and if you don't know how to do those things, if you don't know exactly how to love God or make disciples, you certainly don't know how to reach the world. That's what our life groups are for, and I wanna invite you. We've got a semester our next semester of life groups is coming up.
Speaker 1:There's all kinds of things where you can connect, grow and serve. We've got some groups that are just about connection. It's entirely fun Men's brunch and the senior brunch. And then we've got grow groups, where that is intentionally made. They're Bible-type studies, they're curriculum-based. It's meant to grow you as a person and as a Christian and then to serve. The next step is, once you begin to bear fruit, you want to share that fruit with what God is doing in your life. You want to share that with other people and there is a place here for you to serve. You just have to find it and we will help you find that. And we've got that process through next steps.
Speaker 1:But today I want to jump off into our first scripture. It's found in Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24. Search me, o God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139, 23 and 24. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the ability to take time and reflect on what it is that you have done and want to do in our lives. Lord, I've got the notes, but you have the message. Holy Spirit, I just ask that you would come and breathe life and that you would take this message that's designed to hit everybody and make it personal to each and every one of us. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Speaker 1:So reflection what we want to do first is look at the year in review. So if you're just joining us or you didn't join us at the beginning of the year, here is a list and I'm gonna go through some of our sermon series so that if you're like, oh that sounds really interesting, you can go back, check out our YouTube and you can check out the messages. Or maybe you were here and you go I didn't really practice that one as much as I should have or I really could use a refresher as I talk about some of these things. Maybe really could use a refresher as I talk about some of these things. Maybe you bookmark or go back to those places on YouTube and see about revisiting some of those principles. So last year we started off the year with prayer and fasting, which we do every year. We'll be doing that again in a couple of weeks here and I want to challenge you that if you have not fasted before, or if you haven't gotten a lot out of fasting, that this year is the year to before, or if you haven't gotten a lot out of fasting, that this year's the year to change that.
Speaker 1:If you haven't gotten a lot out of fasting, really that's your fault, because fasting is a time for you to set aside something that you really love. See, I love food, I love to cook food, I love to make food, I love to give food out. But when I stop eating and I put that away because I say, lord, I want you more than I want to eat, it's got no choice but to draw you closer to the Lord, because he becomes your nourishment, he becomes that thing that you need. And so if you've said I can't do that, if you've already said you can't fast this or that because of a mental thing, start getting that out now, because the reality is is I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me. Okay, so really, over these next couple of weeks, begin to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally, spiritually, for fasting. And I wanna challenge you to take your fast to the next level. If you fasted, maybe a Daniel fast, try a water only. If you did three days water only, do seven days water only. Take it to the next level and see if your relationship doesn't go to the next level with the Lord.
Speaker 1:So, from the prayer and fasting, we ended up doing a sermon series called the Way of Wisdom, where we walked through the books of Proverbs, ecclesiastes, song of Songs and Job, and we learned about a proper relationship with the Lord, because it's wise to have a proper relationship with the one in charge. Would you agree, like there's a certain way you approach the boss because if you don't approach him the right way, you're looking for a new boss, right? Similarly, but thankfully very different, with the Lord, there's a right way to come to God and there's a wrong way, and it's not smart to come to him the wrong way. So that's why, again, if you're like I'm not exactly sure how I should even come to the Lord, go revisit the way of wisdom. After that, we moved on to proclaim, where we proclaimed the roles of Jesus in our lives as prophet, priest, king and Messiah. Then, from proclaim, we ended up at Easter, which Easter is an incredible time, and I actually learned this Christmas season. I love research and I love history and things like that, and I actually learned that.
Speaker 1:Did you know that Easter used to actually be the big holiday in this country? It wasn't Christmas, it was Easter. Easter had all of the focus, but it was back early, early on, when Coke's winter sales were down. They were trying to figure out a way to market more Coke and so they invented Santa and brought him into the mix and from there the focus became about that and shifted away from Easter. I thought that was really interesting, came about that and shifted away from Easter. I thought that was really interesting, and so it really put something in me personally that I need to straighten that out in my house and in my family and in our relationship with the Lord, because Easter really is the important one. Christmas is great because it announces the coming, but the whole reason he came was for Easter the coming, but the whole reason he came was for Easter. And so I want to just challenge you again that as we are moving through this year and as we approach Easter, put more focus on Jesus and less on the bunny and let's try and make Easter this year a little bit more than it's been in the past.
Speaker 1:From Easter we went into this sermon series of stretch, and I love that series because stretching is it's that uncomfortable place where God will take you to someplace new. And so in my family I've been trying to get them familiar with this concept of being comfortable with being uncomfortable, or to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, because if you can be comfortable with being uncomfortable, that's where growth happens in all areas of life physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. When God takes you to that place where you're stretching just out, where you can reach, you discover you can go a little bit further than you thought you did you could. You discover you can go a little bit further than you thought you did you could. And so that stretch was just a wonderful way for us to look and see how far we can go physically, spiritually, relationally and financially with the Lord. Then from there we moved into Kingdom Builders.
Speaker 1:Kingdom Builders is what we used to call Missions Convention. That's where we focus our missions dollars out towards the world, which we do year round. But what it is is it's a time for us to. What we do is every year we tell the missionaries how much we can support, based on what you all say we can, what you all want to give, and then it basically goes into a bucket called kingdom builders, and the bigger the bucket, the more we can help. So once we've dedicated how much money goes to the missionaries, that's a set number to them. But if we've got more money left over in the bucket, then we can take on other projects. We can bless missionaries, we can do other projects. When disaster strikes, we can do convoy of hope and things like that, because the bucket for kingdom builders is full. So that's what kingdom builders is, and so I challenge you in this year also to really see what God can do when you start being a vessel for him to be able to move resource.
Speaker 1:Then we come into Mother's Day, and Mother's Day we honor all mothers, those who have physically given birth, but those who are spiritual mothers, who are mothers in place of a physical mom, and we honor our moms in that way. Then Pentecost so I can never choose between prayer and fasting is my favorite, or Pentecost so I can never choose between prayer and fasting as my favorite or Pentecost. These two are my top two, because Pentecost is what makes us different, you guys, that's what makes us who we are, that's what makes us different than other churches down the street, is that we believe. We don't just believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit, but we believe in the power and presence that he's working in us today and through us today. And so this is one thing I wanna tell you is if you are here and you call yourself a Pentecostal, but you haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit, what are you doing? I wanna really consider that up until Pentecost and in these few weeks coming up to there, because if you're a Pentecostal and you don't have the power of the Holy Spirit, it's kind of like having a Tesla without a charging cord or a Porsche without any gas. It's great, it looks awesome, but you can't go anywhere, you can't do anything with it. So, with us as Christians, it's great to have the relationship with Jesus, but see, the power of the Holy Spirit is what gives us that energy, the power, the guidance to be able to live that life for Christ.
Speaker 1:Then we moved into a series called Holy, which was basically a way for us to understand what it meant to be filled with the Spirit and what our anointing was for, and find out what it was. What are we praying for? Do our prayers line up with what the Lord would have us pray? Then, from there, we went into 12 weeks of Romans. We walked through the book of Romans, where we got to hear from many voices, people who are on staff and people who are in ministry, who are seeking credentials and who are credentialed, got to speak throughout that series and I am just. I'm so thankful for Pastor Jay that he allows other voices to come across the pulpit, because especially when it's other brothers and sisters in here, because what it does is it really shows what God has been doing. You see, I'm up here now, but 14 years ago I was in that back row smelling like alcohol from the night before and God has, little by little, taken me to being up here where I can share, and it is just so cool to watch the people who've been on this journey alongside with me to be able to be up here and sharing too. So I thank you, pastor Jay, for that. And then during that Roman series was Father's Day, where I got to check off one of my bucket lists which was preaching a Father's Day message that lined up with Romans and talked about forgiveness.
Speaker 1:Then we celebrated the anniversary of Cornerstone. It is amazing to me, and there are times when the building is dark and there's nobody here, and when I walk through I contemplate and think about the fact that I am standing in a yes that Pastor Rich and Pastor Cindy. They heard from the Lord. They got a dream that was bigger than themselves and then they said yes to it. And every Sunday we come and we sit and we learn and we grow as a result of. Yes, it's just incredible and I'm so thankful, and so our anniversary is a wonderful time to remember that.
Speaker 1:Then, as we're thinking about who we are as a church, we moved into a series called the seven C's, and in the seven C's we talked about who we are here at Cornerstone as a people. What is it that we are about? And so those seven C's are commitment, community communication, competence, creativity, compassion and celebration, and all of those things are things that we try to do and we strive to do with excellence here, and so if you want to know a little bit more about who we are and what we strive for, the 7 C's series will take you a little more in depth on who we are as believers and people here at Cornerstone. Next, we moved into a series called Dwell, where we tackled this idea of going deeper in your relationship with the Lord, not just having a surface level. Hey, what's up God, how's it going? Oh, hey, could you help me out this week with my bills? You know it's going past that going deeper, dwelling with the Lord, like you would dwell with a spouse or with a loved one, because the relationship changes when you spend time with them, and it's amazing to me how fast the year goes, because that brings us all the way up to Thanksgiving, which was just a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of content in this last year and a lot of things to give thanks for, and I'm so thankful that I get to be here and do life and family with each and every one of you. And then we just finished it off and closed it out the Christmas Advent season, which is a phenomenal time around here and again, we really try and focus and put the emphasis on Jesus and our role as Christians in showing the light of Christ in our dark world, especially at Advent, when people are listening. And that brings us to the last message of 2024, reflection. Let's reflect a little bit, shall we so with this message now? If you know me, I have ADD and my mind wanders occasionally and you guys get to hear about it, but what I'd like today is for the message to be I would like you to stay tethered to the message, but I want you to allow your mind to wander and investigate some of the things that we're talking about. I want you to really contemplate and think deeply on some of these things Because, as I was talking to someone in between services, we realized that life is so fast, especially during this time of year.
Speaker 1:You get to today and most people are at home catching their breath watching us online because they're like I just can't. I can't do one more public thing, right. And so for those of you introverts who are here today, we love you. We love you so much because we know the struggle. My wife is an introvert, so I know the struggle. But the thing is is, when we come to a time of reflection, your mind can wander and get lost. So that's why I want you to stay tethered, but I want you to think about some of the things that we're talking about. So my question to you is in this last year, what has the Lord done in your life In the last year? What has the Lord done in your life Positive? Has he allowed some negative things?
Speaker 1:I want you to start thinking about those because, as we think about it, I wanna tell you about mirrors. Mirrors are so cool. I love mirrors. How many of you played in mirrors? How many of you like to check yourself out in mirrors? How many of you play in mirrors? Any of you, just okay, a few of you, that's okay, and we won't call you vain or anything like that. I played in the mirror a lot because I was in theater and so I had to know what my face was doing, and so you guys all know that I love to bring you information that you may not necessarily need to know, but you like to know it because it's interesting. So I did some research on mirrors.
Speaker 1:Now, mirrors started off as like polished rocks, and then polished metal and things and went on to becoming what we know as mirrors today. But it used to be that only the ultra wealthy even had mirrors or were allowed to have mirrors, and so it was such a guarded secret because Venetian glass was one of the best glasses and types of glass in the world. Venetian glass makers were not allowed to travel outside of the city without accompaniment. They had to have guards and they had to have people with them because, for a few reasons, one to protect them. But the government was so concerned about the secret of Venetian glass getting out that they would send assassins to kill their glassmakers if they thought that they were defecting. It was pretty incredible. These glassmakers were so important. They were allowed to marry noblemen, which you know that's a no-no Like you're royal or you're not. You know that's a no-no, like you're royal or you're not. But these people were so skilled and it was such an incredible skill to master that they could marry into royalty Pretty cool. So in where was it? In Geneva, the citizens were only allowed.
Speaker 1:It was law that you could only have one mirror per room, and that mirror couldn't be any larger than 32 inches. I don't know why one mirror per room or why the length. My guess is probably. So the rich people could say we got bigger mirrors, but I don't know that for sure, see, but when you think about mirrors, I like to ruminate on things. You guys know that word ruminate. It means to go over in the mind repeatedly, and often casually or slowly. So another use for the word ruminate is how cows chew. So they chew the cud and then they swallow it and then they bring it back up and chew it again. And so I like to ruminate. I go over and over and over and over again in my mind on thoughts, and I came across this thought that was really interesting.
Speaker 1:There's this one historian who said that the idea of individuality, the idea of individuality arose because of mirrors. Let me walk you through that. Before mirrors, we all saw ourselves as part of a group in relation to other groups. You're a fisherman in relationship to tax collectors and carpenters or whatever, right, because you belonged to a group and as a part of that group you saw yourself I'm not as rich as the tax collectors or this or that, and so you saw your group in comparison to other groups.
Speaker 1:It wasn't until mirrors came and people were able to see the differences between themselves and other people. Because fishermen dress the same. It's kind of like a uniform. You're not going to wear the same thing collecting taxes as you do fishing, right, and vice versa. So when you're wearing that stuff, you begin to look like the people around you. So you associate, you think about yourself just like everybody else. Because yourself, just like everybody else, because you look like everybody else, you wear the same kind of clothes, you live in the same kind of house.
Speaker 1:But it's not until you begin to see the difference in your own face, your own features, that you realize I'm different than this person, what makes me different than them. It's not just the physical features, because we all know that, but it's once you can see you, once you can see who you are in relation to everybody else. You're not just a pair, a set of clothing, you're not just an occupation. You become a person, you become an individual. How cool is that? So, if you think about it, like even back in those days, thinking about this idea of individuality, only the rich people who knew who they were. Poor, had no identity outside of their own experience. That's why it's so important that we find our identity in Christ, and that why, before mirrors, that scripture was so important, is that we find our identity in Christ. That wasn't in my notes, I just put that together right here on the stage. It was see, shared it with you.
Speaker 1:So mirrors are. They provide a lot of things, but mirrors are fun. I love mirrors. Like I said, I grew up in theater and so I had to. What I do when we talk with young actors or any speaker is before you're going to present, go do it in front of a mirror, because filming it's great, but that comes after the fact. When you do it in front of the mirror, you get real, real-time feedback. You go oh, I didn't know that. My face looked like that when I said that Because sometimes we are very unaware of what our face is doing Anybody. Sometimes my face says things that my mind wasn't supposed to let out. My mind wasn't supposed to let out. See, they're a lot of fun. But you notice things in mirrors, right? You notice different things. Now, I don't know about you. I found out and I looked it up Most Americans look at themselves in the mirror on average eight times a day.
Speaker 1:So see where you fall on that average. But when we look in the mirror on average eight times a day, so see where you fall on that average. But when we look in the mirror, it's. I equate it to kind of like guys shopping. Okay, when guys go shopping, they know what they need, they go in, they get it and they go away. They don't stay and enjoy the store and the atmosphere. No, they just go get it done and they go home, right. Similarly, with our appearance, we get and we're so busy that we go, we trim and we fluff and we do all that and we go. We don't sit and take time to enjoy the supermarket, enjoy the creation.
Speaker 1:When was the last time that you sat and looked at yourself in the mirror without an agenda, without doing makeup or hair or primping or preening or any of that stuff. When was the last time you sat? Guys, it's awkward. I'd try it. Set a timer for a minute and go stare at yourself for a minute. It's the longest minute. It's almost as long as when you tell somebody to pray for a minute. Those minutes stretch out into eternity. But do it. Sit there and see how long you can stare at yourself. If you can't make it a minute, ask yourself why, why this part hurts. Stare at yourself. If you can't make it a minute, ask yourself why, why this part hurts.
Speaker 1:See a lot of times, the things that we notice when we look in the mirror. We see the things that other people have said about us. We see the things that we've said about us and so we don't want to look past. Okay, I'm good, I'm presentable. Because if you look at yourself, you might find out you're not as presentable as you thought you were. And it her.
Speaker 1:And as a husband, as a father, especially of girls, the mirror can be a big source of pain in my life. See, because when my wife is getting ready and she asks how I look, and I tell her she looks great. She can believe me or she can believe what she sees, and what she sees goes along with everything. Everybody has said everything that she's said and you know I see that struggle that I've had and I know it's not just my way, I know it's everybody here. When you struggle, and how do I look? You look great, yeah, but you're lying. You have to say that because death ensues if you give me the other answer, right? So you feel like you never get a real answer and we live in a really tough and difficult world and I'm not looking forward to that for my kids and I'm not looking forward to that for my kids. I want my girls, when they're married, to be able to say how do I look? And their husbands say you look amazing and they go yep, he's right. You know how amazing that would feel as a husband, because you know what that means. You've got good taste. When you say you look good and this is just a side note but when you say you look good and you don't believe the guy who says it, kind of call him a liar. Tell him he doesn't have good taste because what's appealing to him isn't appealing to you. But if beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Okay, we'll move on.
Speaker 1:In 2 Corinthians 13.5, it says examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? This about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed, you fail to meet the test. See, the Lord calls us to evaluate ourselves so that other people don't have to, so that we can be ready and we've been evaluated. We've taken care of the behavior before we ever get up there. And we can talk about it in the past tense with the Lord because you don't want to get up there. And we can talk about it in the past tense with the Lord Because you don't want to get up there with current tense situations. Why are you still doing this? Why'd you do that? You went past it. I'm so glad you had victory over this. Look what we accomplished together. See, another thing mirrors do is they're serious. They reveal serious things to us. They reveal shame, and I want to explain to you how shame works. This is how I've seen it work in my life and in the lives of people who go to this church.
Speaker 1:So what happens is you start off with some sort of a pain or an incident. Something happens to you where you hurt or you have a bad attitude about something, and so what happens is you medicate that incident. You medicate that with sin. Okay, now, sin is like a pharmaceutical it was never designed to heal anything. Pharmaceuticals do a great job at taking care of symptoms and bringing relief, but it was never designed to heal you of anything. Similarly, sin may make you feel better for a while, but it will not heal the pain while. But it will not heal the pain. It will not take away that incident. It will medicate it so that you don't feel it, so that you continue on through life. But the problem with that, with any pharmaceutical is eventually they're not strong enough. Now I speak to this personally because I was addicted to opiates as a result of a quad accident, and so I know that just a little bit of Percocet turns into morphine down the road and that's not fun because it just gets more and more and more.
Speaker 1:And then what happens is you're medicating it with sin and then, because of the sin, you feel shame and the enemy hands you this shame stick and starts to beat you with it. I can't believe you did that. I thought you said you were a Christian, whatever it is and starts to you start to beat yourself with it. And then what happens is, because you've got all these bruises from beating yourself with a shame stick, you start to medicate the shame stick, start to medicate the shame, you medicate that, and so now you're not even treating the initial problem. You're not dealing with any of that stuff Now, you're just medicating the medication and it just continues and continues and continues. And then so you medicate the shame, you feel worse and then you beat yourself up. And this is what upsets me so much about this situation, you guys. Oh, it gets me so angry.
Speaker 1:The enemy doesn't even have to dedicate a demon to you in this process. He has to have a broken person do something to you so that you have an attitude that you begin to medicate. And then, once you're in the system, all he does is hand you the stick and walks away. And then you beat and you medicate, and you beat and you medicate, and it puts you on autopilot and just leaves you there in that cycle until you get out of it with Christ or until you're his forever. I mean, that's the reality of it.
Speaker 1:So what do we do about that? It says I'm gonna skip down here to Isaiah 1.18. And it says come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. They are red as crimson. They shall be like wool.
Speaker 1:So what does this scripture say to us? It says that God already knows we're not perfect. God already knows all of those imperfections that we see. He's seen them, some of them, he's allowed to be there and because of that we don't have to be ashamed. See, when you're carrying around this shame stick and you're beating yourself because you're in that sin cycle, if you're carrying this around, you are only half as effective out in life because you've only got one hand to do anything with. The other hand is so busy beating you up that you can't be effective. The Lord doesn't want that. Lay it down, Because the last thing that I want to share with you is that your reflection can show you your future.
Speaker 1:Now, I don't want to be weird and I'm not meaning aside from showing you who the fairest in the land is, it can show you your future, not in a weird way, but what I mean by that is, when you look in the mirror. How you respond to that reflection determines how you walk through life. When you look at that person in the mirror, if you see somebody who is shameful, who is worthless, who's been told they were stupid or whatever it is, that will affect you. I've worked in education and you can only call a kid stupid. So long before they become a stupid kid they will live up to the words that you give them. We all do.
Speaker 1:And so you can take that shame. You can take all the labels, everything that's been put on you, and when you go, you can say, yeah, I'm kind of a loser, I don't have much purpose, because what use would God have for a loser like this? And so you don't go out and pursue anything, but see the same things, that same pain, that same instance that got you into the sin cycle. If you deal with it properly, if you say, lord, this happened, it sucked, and I need you to help me, help me to forgive, help me to let go of this, help me to do whatever it is that you need to do for that situation, then what happens is those scars are still there. The scars don't change, but the story about it does, and so that's what we have to do. We have to take our story, we have to take all that stuff. We've got to defeat that sin cycle. Say Lord, show me my future. What is it? Say Lord, show me my future, what is it?
Speaker 1:So I missed this in the last service, but I wanted to throw out just some extra verses here for you. This is the Reflection Tour 2024. It kind of looked like a show shirt to me, so I put it that way. But here's some scriptures. You can screenshot it or visit it back on YouTube. And this is just a few guys. There's a ton of scriptures.
Speaker 1:The Lord really talks a lot about self-examination Examine yourself, do it. So I don't have to. It's kind of what he says throughout the Bible Check your behavior. So I don't have to do it, because good kids don't get yelled at Right. Good kids get good consequences, bad kids, bad consequences. And if we're God's kids, okay, check out some of these scriptures. They're very convicting. They'll challenge you. I'm gonna ask the worship team if they would come. Come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. See, today you may be here and you're going. Well, that's exciting, but I haven't even started the process.
Speaker 1:See, the cross is like another type of mirror. When we look at the cross, we can see the reflection of our sin. We can see the stuff that we should have paid for and that, if we don't confess it, we will pay for. That mirror shows you that you're valuable, that somebody not just somebody the Lord of creation left his comfortable, very comfortable living room and came down to be poor, live a sinless life. I don't know if you've tried it, but living a sinless life is kind of hard. He did all that so that he could die for me. And you know, when I look at it through this lens, when I put the reflection of my sin in front of that cross man, it's humbling, it'll quiet you down. But see, maybe you're here today and you go. I've never seen my reflection in the face of the cross, I've never seen Jesus. So that's my question to you today is have you embraced Jesus? Because if you haven't, you can today. There's nothing magical about it, it's a position of the heart, and in just a moment I'll show you how to come into relationship with him.
Speaker 1:Psalm 139,. Search me, o God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I'm going to ask if you would stand as we get ready to close. We're in a time right now it's the end of the year Because of the way the world works, we all have at least one situation that isn't solved or that we haven't tied a bow in yet. That's what this altar is for, or any of the other stuff too. But if you've got something that you need to deal with maybe you're in that cycle, you go Lord that you need to deal with. Maybe you're in that cycle and you go, lord. I need to break it, but I don't even know how I got into the cycle. Show me what that offending incident was. Help me to deal with it.
Speaker 1:Take some time and hopefully you did what I asked at the beginning of the message and kind of let your mind wander to your personal situation while staying tethered. Hopefully the Lord's talked to you about a situation. Maybe he's just talked to you about you, because my prayer for you is my prayer for all of us is that when we look in the mirror, we would see ourselves through God's eyes. So if you have a hard time looking at your reflection, if you have a hard time thinking about looking at your reflection, this altar's for you. Take some time and say Lord, help me to see myself through your eyes, help me to see myself through your eyes, help me to see you, help me to see me the way you see me. Because here's the thing God's got such a different opinion of you than you do, and it's such a better one and it's more accurate. But my prayer is that you would see yourself the way and it's more accurate. But my prayer is that you would see yourself the way that God sees you and, as he speaks to you, who you are. Until you believe it, just listen to the Lord and lean on him. For that, see yourself through your eyes until you can see him. See you through yours. You see.
Speaker 1:It says in Romans, verse nine and 10, or verse 10, nine and 10. But 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. So maybe you're here today and that's you. You've never seen yourself in the reflection of the cross. Or maybe you did and you were saved at one point, but you've walked away With all heads bowed and all eyes closed. I'm just going to ask, if that's you, go ahead and raise your hand, slip your hand up, so I know how to pray with you, and we're just going to pray a prayer to help bring you into relationship with the Lord. We won't single you out.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 1:Thank you, lord. So if you would pray this prayer with me. 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, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Well, brothers and sisters, if that's you, congratulations. We are so excited. Today is your birthday, your spiritual birthday, and we wanna invite you. We've got a prayer banner back here where we've got some resources to help you get started on this journey of faith. And the other thing I want to encourage you, if that's you, get involved in a life group, see how life is done with other believers.
Speaker 1:But for the rest of us, as we open this altar, it's for what you need. Come spend some time with the Lord. Let him talk to you about you. Let him talk to you about your situation. Talk to him about some situations. Take some time and reflect this week. Take some time and reflect and then go and deal with those situations so you can have a better future. Lord, I thank you so much for this time that we've had. I thank you for the truth that you've spoken. God, I just ask that, as we open this altar that you would reveal to us exactly what it is that we, as individuals, need to deal with, and I thank you, lord, that nobody knows what the business is that you're dealing with, but us. Lord, I ask that you would help us to examine ourselves so that you don't have to do it. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Speaker 2:What a great word to start 2025 with. God just wants us to see ourselves through his eyes, so good. Will you stand with us as we get ready for the blessing. We say goodbye to 2024 and we say hello to all the possibilities of 2025.
Speaker 1:Once again, we are so thankful that you came today, that you got out of bed and made it to church. But before we go, I want to read this blessing, or I want to pray this blessing over us the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, we pray this prayer over your people, your church. We ask that you would be with us as we go forward today and this week. Lord, help us to redefine what a great year looks like in 2025. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, all we love you. Have a great and happy new year.