Cornerstone Christian Center
Cornerstone Christian Center
Take One for the Team | Battle for the Family
Preparation is key, both on the field and in life. We dive into the strategies that lead to success, emphasizing the importance of nurturing our character and attitudes through daily practices. Just as athletes prepare for physical challenges, we examine how spiritual readiness can empower us to face life's adversities. Highlighting the value of consistent preparation, we stress that our potential to overcome challenges can be hindered if we only show up for the big moments without having laid the groundwork.
Embracing vulnerability and sacrifice lies at the heart of genuine relationships and community. Reflecting on biblical teachings, we discuss how embodying love and service in our interactions can transform both our personal and spiritual lives. We invite you to consider the power of faith in fostering forgiveness and generosity, and the significance of joining life groups to grow alongside others. As we conclude, we celebrate the strength of community and extend a heartfelt invitation to commit to a life that embodies the love and grace we find through faith.
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Battle for the family. How many of you have been challenged by this one already? Everybody's perfect. Praise God. Go home. It was a good time. We had a good time. Today. Our challenge is this to take one for the team. Take one for the team. This week we had fun.
Speaker 1:Javo and I got a chance to jump midweek and go over to the Phoenix Open. We like golf and it's a fun thing to go and be a part of. But Phoenix Open is pretty wild. It's pretty crazy. We were there before the mayhem began on any part of the week, but still busy and there's lots of people golfing. But we were there during the Pro-Am, which is where the professionals play. But it's mostly, like you know, other kind of famous people and actors and comedians and different people like this, and you have some, uh, some sports stars we saw, like Aaron Rogers and we saw Larry Fitzgerald and people like that, which is pretty amazing. So got a chance to see some cool people.
Speaker 1:Uh and, and it's a scramble format. So, unlike normal golf, normal golf, everybody plays their own ball. It's year out for you. That's how it works. As a scramble format, it's like your team of people. You take the best one that's hit and that's the one that counts. So in scramble format, you do not want to be the worst player, so you don't want to play like me at golf, you want to be better than that. You know what I'm talking about. Because you don't want to have the worst ball, because the worst ball everybody, you know they uh, at this contest they actually boo.
Speaker 1:In most golf, most golf is very kind of polite. Someone hits a good shot, they're like oh, that's great, it's wonderful, but here they're like, and then if you miss, they're like which? If you're in front of like a hundred thousand people, you're getting booed. Man, it does not feel great. You know what I mean? It was hilarious. Someone like you know actor Riggle, he gets up, he hit a putt short and everybody started booing and he just started laughing and he's like oh, I can't hear the boos and everyone's like boo, boo.
Speaker 1:What I loved was we saw this guy pop up. He's an artist. He just released a song with Brandon Lake. His name is Jelly Roll and Jelly Roll like. His voice is great, but he has this great personality man, clearly not a golfer. So he says on the tee box, on the microphone listen y'all, I need grace, which is how we should all enter every single conversation, right, I need grace. And then he proceeds to completely duff the ball into the desert, does not make it on any grass and everybody cheered anyway because he had such a humble spirit about him. So they were like I like that.
Speaker 1:He attempted, yay, yay, and he got up there and he putted and he was terrible. See, I'm getting yays. He got up there and he was terrible. But what is great about it is because he had a humble spirit. Everybody was for him. But the people that were really trying to show out and then they like skied it into the seating on the third level and hit people that were eating. You know, everybody was like, oh, boo, boo, they're like, oh, they get all shook up. So in some cases, you know they were the one that had to take it for the team and be the bad shot.
Speaker 1:But what I think is true is that you don't have to have someone lose in order for your team to be successful. In fact, what I think is that we can be those that are working behind the scenes so that the team is successful, because we're putting in the work beforehand and so when you're taking one for the team it's not really on the moment, but it's in the preparation for the hard thing that's ahead, and I think that's true not just in life and in sport, but in our spiritual life as well that we're gonna be called to difficult circumstances and challenges that the Lord gives us, but he's doing so because we're being prepared to take them on beforehand so that the character of God can shine through Friends, that we would battle for the family and not against the family, and that we would have the character that shines, that we understand that we're broken people, we're in need of a savior, and so we're called to be more like Jesus. That's very much how we see ourselves at Cornerstone. We're thankful that you're with us this morning. If you're our guest, welcome. We're glad that you're here. You know this.
Speaker 1:Today marks a day of signing up for life groups, a new semester of groups, and so we encourage you to get involved, connect with us. It's your opportunity to connect and grow and serve in different types of groups, and so encourage you to do that today. Take advantage of it, be intentional in your walk with God. We see ourselves as not having arrived anywhere, that we're still on a journey where God is leading us to go, and so we use this imagery of Christ walking with his disciples, because that's how we see ourselves, is that we are people who are still following Jesus and his direction for our lives.
Speaker 1:Last week, we talked about this idea of what are you battling for? We talked about our intentionality with this scripture out of Joshua where he says as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And that's a decisive, distinctive thing he's saying because he knows the God that brought him through all the victories and all the circumstances, the one that challenged him to be strong and courageous, and so he knew what it meant to fight for what he believed in. And it's our challenge, too, to fight spiritually for the positive impact. We talked about it in our marriages and with our children, talked about our sphere of influence, our circle, and we talked about in our community, and so that's our challenge still today that we would be those that are intentional in battling for these things, to battle for the family.
Speaker 1:If you have your Bible, your tablet, your phone, I encourage you to highlight this scripture that we're going to go through today. It's John 15. It says this greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends. Lord, I pray over your word today, thanking you for challenging us. Thank you, lord, for being with us. Lord, for providing for us and guiding us, directing us. Lord, we thank you for open doors and closed doors. Lord, we thank you for revealing your word to us and breathing upon it. We pray that you would use it to challenge us today. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Speaker 1:Now, this idea of taking one for the team can be a challenging one, because we think about it. We know that it's a hard challenge that's being given to us. Now. We're all from football world, right, so we all live in football world. Today's the big, super, you know, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious game day. None of our teams are in it, so that's okay. You know, the majority of all the jerseys I've seen today, none of our teams are in football world. That's okay.
Speaker 1:But if you think about football, it's interesting because I just grew up with it. So you know, as you think about all that it is, we just learned it, we played it. We played pickup games. You know, like just hanging out with friends in the grass, it's a good reason to tackle a friend right Now. It's why you know what grass tastes like Anybody else. But we had a fun time and as we moved away to Europe and the Middle East, like friends, had no context of what football was about. They're like I just don't get it. The rules don't make sense and you start and stop all the time.
Speaker 1:But we have a great affection for it. We're like, oh, it's just such hard work and you got to think about the gridiron and how they just like slam into each other. It's awesome and we just love that. We love all the intricacies of it and we think about it and we think about the individual player. We think about how tough they are and the two-a-day practices, the three-a-day practices they put in and all that behind-the-scenes work that you know, the diet and the working out, the rehabilitation of injuries and the tenacity to run through people like a freight train. We're like this is the best. That's why we call people like you know household appliance names like the fridge. You know what I mean. We're like, yeah, the fridge, I love the fridge, you know.
Speaker 1:But this is our, it's our context and it's such a departure from like the European style thing, like we're about strategy. So we always want to have like a game plan. We're drawing up some kind of a plan with some chalk and you know you're going to do this and you're going to do this and they have a giant guy who's over here in the middle who wants to take the giant guy Anybody, anybody, giant guy. You're going to take him and you're like, great, great, I get to take the giant guy in the middle and that's the strategy, the way we play it. It's different than the fluid style of tactics that they use in other sports and so it's a little bit different.
Speaker 1:But we understand that whenever you're given that strong challenge, what it's given to you to take on the hard and difficult task, it means that you need to be able to step up to the occasion. And that means that all that behind the scenes work, that inside battle we talked about last week, that you've been working on that stuff, that you're prepared, that you don't just think you're going to step up on the day and just do it and be the super person, but instead that you know that there's a tenacity of what has already been working, to be prepared for the moment. And I think that's true in everything we put ourselves to do and every kind of team that we work on is that our preparedness will show out in the day, because we put in the work to what has been given us the opportunity. That's also true spiritually, because if we're challenged with something great but that we haven't been working behind the scenes on our but, that we haven't been working behind the scenes on our attitudes, we haven't been working behind the scenes on our character and we haven't been working behind the scenes on our closeness to God and listening to his direction, then when the difficult task comes, then we'll reach back into ourselves for the answer instead of into our spirit for what God wants to do in the circumstance. Does that make sense? We want to be one that takes one for the team, meaning steps up and is able to be the one who stands in the gap for their marriage, for their children, for their sphere of influence, for their community. That we're those who rise to the occasion because it's given to us. Now we think about it from a sports context and I love watching football. I like even the practice idea because what they're doing is they're putting in all that work we talked about. They're running the plays and they're putting into effect what they're trying to do to take on the task of beating the enemy, and there's a lot to that, and that's why there's such a shame in people that skip practice or just try to show up on game day and don't put in the work. And I think that's why it's so much of our life as a Christ follower, as we make that parallel into our spiritual life, is about our daily bread and our daily time with God. If we just show up on game days on the weekend to go to a gathering service like this, it's not quite the same thing whenever we face that obstacle in our life and we're trying to just get powered up from weekend to weekend instead of walking that thing out every day with God. And that's what I'm talking about is being the ones that understand that it's not just you, but that you are also part of a team. That's what I'm talking about is being the ones that understand that it's not just you, but that you are also part of a team that's gonna take on something. So the team relies on you, because if you're a weak link, then everybody knows that right, and that's why we have to be strong, so we can help out our other teammates whenever they're going through it because they're gonna do the same for us. And that's true how we work together as a team, no matter what the circumstances.
Speaker 1:Maybe you work in the medical field, man. This is so important. We realize that there's people that have a difficult job, but everybody has to work together to save a life. Everybody has to work together to see things happen, and no one can do these things by themselves. So it's a working together, a teamwork kind of thing, and everybody has to do their part. They have to be doing it with excellence. Maybe you're in a teamwork situation and working a project and it's a huge project, so no one person can take on all the different attributes. So you're working together with others and you're relying on them to do their part so that you don't have to take on their part. You know what I mean. Anybody worked at a school project with a group member that didn't show up but put their name on the project Anybody. Maybe you guys are feeling guilty. I'm going to move on, okay, but do you guys think the idea is that we want to? We had to realize that we want to come to the team and to be able to do our part, to be a teamwork person and to also be a team player, be someone who's actually involved in what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Whenever I think about things like global soccer man, a lot of their tactics, it's there are very much superstars and people have exceptional talent or ability, but they would be nothing if they didn't have a team around them that would work with them. That's the tactics of passing back and forth and being able to work what they're doing If you're not part of it. It's very clear whenever you have a team member that's not doing their part because the ball comes to them and it gets taken away, or they're not running and giving their all and not going back for defense. And you think about this and it calls us, who are Christ followers, to rise to the occasion with excellence for what God has given us, to do so not just in a thing like sport, but maybe it would be in something that would be like your life and how you work and all those other things. And I think a lot of us we want to put that effort and we go to the extra mile to sacrifice, to do it so that we can show up in those big moments. We do that because we wanna do things with excellence as unto God. We wanna be good stewards of all that he has given us, and I think that's a positive thing, because one of the things that we have to do is emulate Christ, and Christ was about excellence. And so, as we're doing these things, we have to understand the sacrifice is not gonna be one that's seen outside. The sacrifice is gonna be done behind the scenes, and it's only gonna show up in the character, in what we do.
Speaker 1:Whenever we think about these teams coming together to battle each other like we do today, we have these two teams that are squaring off. Everybody's excited. They're saying who's gonna win this way or that way, and some people don't care. They're like, oh, I want the commercials, you know, whatever I'm in it for the snacks, you know, whatever it is that you guys are about. But I think it's one of these things where you know people don't really realize all the sacrifice that was made to get there, and even the most passionate fans that are cheering for somebody, you know they might not get it either and they're excited, they're pumped up and they're certain their team is gonna win. Still, they don't know all that it takes to show up on that day.
Speaker 1:And so sometimes, whenever we think about it from that perspective, we're willing to give the extra and to go the extra mile for something like a project, or maybe for work or for a game day for a team. But mile for something like a project or maybe for work or for a game day for a team. But sometimes we're not willing to do the extra sacrifice when it comes to family, and the reason that we're not willing to do it is because it's personal and because you live that thing out with them every day, and it's not just a once in occasion on a great day or a big day, a game day or a big project day. No, this is an every day, and so it's a lot to it. Because they're the same people that sit alongside you on the couch and cheer with you. They're the ones that celebrate the victories. You guys have those moments together and it's powerful At the same time. They're the ones that boo with you and they jeer with you and they're alongside you. So you know their failures, you know their faults, you know all that stuff, just like they know yours.
Speaker 1:And so when we come back to the scripture in John 15, we start to think about it in context of all those things, greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends, and that's a powerful thing. We see lots of examples of sacrifice, of people who actually go as heroes and go save people. They give their life to do it. Maybe it's in military, maybe it's in first responders, maybe it's in another kind of situation where they've given their all in that big moment to do it. But what if it's more than just a one-time event? What if what this is also talking about is our daily bread, our daily exercise of our faith in God, and that we're willing to lay down our lives every day and pick up our cross and follow Jesus and see, this is a much more challenging thing because you have to be vulnerable with the people in your life, because they know you and it seems that to be more like Christ that means we have to emulate what he calls us to do. It means we have to be proactive, to battle for our family. It means on taking on our own shortcomings, and we all know we have shortcomings. So it means to be proactive, means that we have to be about God's business in dealing what he challenges us to do.
Speaker 1:We're going to move to Matthew 5, and I need you to highlight this piece in your Bible or your tablet, your phone, because it's going to challenge us today. It says this you've heard that it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you. Do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. I feel like I need to re-pray. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Lord, your grace, as we walk through this, as we battle for the family, this first piece, was it talked to us about? It talks to us about turning the other cheek. We know historically, within this context, there was justice that was done an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If someone took your eye, then their eye was taken from them. If they knocked your tooth out, then their tooth was to be knocked out, and a life for a life, and so on and so forth. And so this was justice, and this was justice held across all sorts of cultures back in this day. And so they're speaking about this.
Speaker 1:Jesus starts to challenge them and saying listen, I know what you think is justice, but I'm calling you to something else beyond it. And so when he starts to talk about you, know for your cheek, and someone slaps you in your cheek to turn your face and offer another, that's a big challenge, especially in a shame-based kind of culture where your name and your family's name was on the line. When someone shamed you, they were like slap you. You're like great, you're dead. Everybody you know is dead your family, everyone you came from. We're destroying everybody. And Jesus is saying something else. He's talking about the intentionality of it.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to that scripture. As you look at it, it starts to talk about this Do not resist the one who is evil. But anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn the left also. I think this is the difference that Jesus is talking about. It's not that we're ones who stand for abuse, and let me say this very clearly If you're in a situation where being abused, you need to flee that situation right now. We don't stand for that in the name of Jesus Christ. That is abuse and that is not what I'm talking about here at all. Instead, what we're talking about is being someone who understands their worth, and that your worth is not on trying to get back or get even with somebody, it's not on someone else trying to catch these hands, but instead it's standing in who you are and what you know about your value as a person, as a child of God, that if even someone was to assault you and to slap you in your face, you can still stand in the knowledge of who you are, because this didn't take anything from you, because you exist outside of that, in the worth of who you are, as a child of God. And I know that's such a challenge to us because our natural inclination is to go after the getting even, and most of us want to get, not even, but ahead.
Speaker 1:Can we be honest when someone wants to say they want to assault you with their words and they start to make fun of you or or degregate you in some kind of way? Man, that is not resonating with you? You know the old man, the one that you asked the Lord to forgive. Remember that one. Remember he says he throws it into the depths of the sea will be forgotten. Many of us are pulling on the chain trying to get that stuff back out right. We're like I got some. I got some evil words I'm going to go back at to you right now. Some of us, it's not so far. Maybe it's not in the depths of the sea, maybe it's just parked right here, like what did you say to me? Well, your mama, you know you go like hard at them. And here's the deal.
Speaker 1:And Christ calls us, as Pastor Bridget started the year with, to forgive, as we've been forgiven, to be those that pre-forgive the things that are going to happen, which is hard and I struggle with it. I struggle with it. And God still calls us to be those that are willing to stand in who we are, in him and that, though someone would assault us with their words or even with their hand, that we know this, that our value is not in whether or not we try to get even or ahead with somebody else, but instead ours is in him, and that we can stand to be an example to others of what it means to live as one for Christ, it to take one for the team. It continues on in the scripture here and it talks about giving your cloak. This is a hard thing. It says if anyone to sue you to take your tunic, let them have your cloak as well.
Speaker 1:You think about this and all the effort that went into making a garment. In those days it wasn't just like it printed it off the press. No, they had to hand sew every single piece of garment. And not just that. Your tunic was more of a plain thing. It was close to you but your cloak was something that you wore all the time and it was something that was your outer layer. It protected you. Also would be an inclination of your status. That's why the story of Joseph in the Bible when he gets the coat of many colors. The colors cost a lot of money to have on a garment. So that was meaning he was like he was balling out all the way. Right, he had the Louis Vuitton, gucci, whatever. Everything was all woven together. He was out there shining like a peacock. His brothers are wearing all brown. He's like look at me, I'm glorious. They're like we are gonna kill you, right? And that's why because it declared who he was and it was the outer garment.
Speaker 1:Christ is talking to people about this. They're like listen, someone wants to take you to court. They wanna sue you. They wanna take your tunic. Give them your cloak too.
Speaker 1:This is not talking about justice. What this is talking about is your perspective on where your source comes from, and the reason is because so many times, our status is based on what we have, what things we have, how much money's in our bank account, what kind of things we're wearing or whatever that is. And God is saying no, this doesn't make you who you are. You have value because I created you. You are in my image. You have value. You have a purpose and a plan. Guess what? It is only yours. No one can take that from you. If everything is taken from you, you still have the same value you had yesterday, even if you have all the money tomorrow, same value you had yesterday, because they can't steal that from you, because that is innately yours, because you're a child of God, and so that's what he's trying to talk to us about, and that's the thing that we wrestle with, because, man, we don't want to give up that thing, and that's the thing we worked for. We earned it. It is ours. It's hard work to stitch this thing. No, guess what? I can give you a new one, I can give you a better one, I can give you infinite numbers of these things, says the Lord. Because why? I own a cattle on a thousand hills and beyond. Everything you have is mine to start. It will be mine after you're gone. So, guess what? I am your source, and so you are not valuable because of what you have, so you can give your cloak too.
Speaker 1:It continues on and starts to talk about this in character, in going the extra mile. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. I was thinking about this once as I was thinking about distance in the desert and all the things that had been built out of Dubai, and I was standing at the top of the Burj Khalifa and I was looking out over the city and man, even really tall buildings look small and you know, the cars are tiny and it's just these freeways that stretch in every direction. You can see the curvature of the earth. It's so far and there's just things going everywhere. And I was thinking about the context of this idea.
Speaker 1:He's talking to people in the desert about going the journey in the desert. Right. This isn't a nice walk by a pond in the forest, this is desert journey. And he's saying listen, if somebody needs you to go a mile with them, be those who can go too. That means you have to be willing to be able to go a mile, one to start, and two. That means that you're also compassionate enough to help a person go to where they need to get to. And that means about journeying with someone. That's about being in community with someone. That's about intentionality, because if you're not able to go the mile, then you can't help anybody go that distance either. But if you're someone who's living according to God and you're set up in a place where you're like man I'm actually I have more than what I need. God has given me abundance and guess what? I can go the extra mile. Maybe that's not fiscally, maybe that's just with your time and your energy, maybe it's with the ability that God has given you to go and he wants you to use it for his glory. Maybe it's the testimony that he has in your life that you would be willing to share that and to share it again and to keep on sharing it as an encouragement to those that are going through a difficult place, friends, that we would go the extra mile to whatever he's called us to go, because it's Christ that's leading us there, not ourselves. And whenever Jesus wants us to go the extra mile, that we would say yes and we would keep going where Jesus is leading us to go.
Speaker 1:This last piece of the scripture is talking about being generous and generosity. It starts to challenge us because it's talking about if someone wants to borrow from you, if somebody wants this kind of thing and asks of you to be generous. And this is a difficult thing in his day, because so much was about the money lenders and was about people doing exchange and a sale and all this stuff. And this was a big piece, especially in the Roman world. I mean, they even asked Jesus about taxes and he was looking at the coin and says gives a Caesar unto Caesars. So he's talking about being someone who functions and works in a fiscal world but at the same time lives kingdom values as they do it See, in their day.
Speaker 1:There was this thing that was called the year of Jubilee. In the year Jubilee, people were forgiven of all of their debts. In the year of Jubilee, land was returned back to their family. All sorts of things were restored. So people that were money lenders when it got close to the year of Jubilee, well, they ain't lending no money right now, because maybe you just don't want to pay me back before Jubilee happens. You'd be like you know, I don't got it this year. Maybe next year? Next year's Jubilee, maybe next year what do you think about next year? So people didn't want to be someone who lended. They didn't want to be someone who did that because they thought they couldn't get it back.
Speaker 1:And he's saying listen, as I am your source, so that you can be a source to others. In the same way, you understand where your source comes from. So, in the same way, you are not what you have, the same thing is. The source of what you have comes from him. And as we are good stewards of what he gives us and we watch over those things and we have abundance, so he can give us more as we continue to be good stewards to him. And so we say yes to him and we're generous as we think about it, that it's not just a finite idea, that this is all I have, but instead that just as the Lord provided for me, he will provide for me again and he will provide for me again, and he will provide for me again and he will provide for me again.
Speaker 1:And friends, that we can be those that say yes to God and draw near to him. We see this, these challenges, as pieces that we need to battle for in our family. We need to battle for it in ourselves and we need to battle for it for our family. We need to battle for it in ourselves and we need to battle for it for our family. That we would be those that are willing to do these things, that are willing to take the slap on the cheek and to understand that we can forgive because we have been forgiven much, that we're willing to be those that can give the cloak, because we understand where all this thing comes from and this doesn't give us our value. Our value is in him. That we can be those that go the extra mile with people and we go where God asks us to go because we're obedient to him, and that we will see that we can be a blessing to others and that we could be generous, that we don't have to hold back, but instead that we can be generous because the Lord, as we are good stewards can provide for us in abundance so that we can be a blessing to other people.
Speaker 1:Friends, when we live like this, we start to act like Jesus, and that means, whenever the difficult thing like any one of these are, we step up to it to take one for the team, because we're willing to say yes to the difficult circumstance, because we know who we are in Christ. Not that we can do it of our own character, not that we could do it of our own doings, but as God empowers us to do so, we can live in a different way, and the higher calling that he has for our life Let it be a blessing to us as we battle for the family, that we would be more like Jesus. Friends, today we have this opportunity to respond to him and to answer that question have you embraced Jesus? Today is your opportunity to say yes to him. See for us as Christ followers, as Christians, we've said yes to Jesus. We placed our faith, our trust in him, and what it does is it's saying Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are, that you came into this life and you emptied yourself of all of glory.
Speaker 1:You lived a sinless life and then you took on the sin of the world and paid for it with your life, though it was not your sin, it was mine. And he paid for your sin and my sin upon the cross. And that's why the symbol of the cross for us is so powerful. It's one that's transformative. It's a symbol of grace and love and forgiveness. It's a symbol of all those things, those meant as one is intimidation and death by the Romans. It actually flips on its head because we see where Christ. He took all my mistakes and all my sin to the cross. He took all of yours as well, and, friends, it's a place of freedom, and so it's something that we could not earn. We could not buy our way into the grace of God. What can you offer a holy God? Nothing. So Jesus came as a sacrifice, a holy sacrifice to reconnect that communication, that covenant with God, and we, by faith, can accept his work for us and say Lord, forgive me, invite you into my heart and life. I believe you are who you say you are Lord. I commit my life to you. 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. With the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Speaker 1:Friends, today is your day. It's your day to make a decision to follow Jesus. I'm gonna ask everyone in the room if you would stand to your feet, just bow your head right where you're at. If you're online, wherever you are, you just take a moment, quiet your heart for what God wants to do. This morning we already had several people make a decision to follow Jesus. I wonder if there are others here that would say the same. They want to invite Jesus into their heart and life. Maybe that's you and it's making a decision for the very first time. Or maybe you've made that decision in the past, but you haven't been living it, and so you just want to recommit your heart back to God and ask the Lord to forgive you, to recommit your heart back to him, to live for him. His heads are bowed here in the room. If that's you, you want to make a decision to follow Jesus today. If you just raise your hand right where you're at, invite him into your heart and life today. Thank you, Lord, to see the hand that's there. See the other hand that's there, others making decisions, other hands that are going up. Thank you, jesus, friends online as well. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, lord, friends. Exciting for you today. Thank you, lord. I'm gonna ask if everyone would, if we would just pray this prayer out loud after 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. I pray amen, amen. Friends, we rejoice with you. Make a decision to follow Jesus today.
Speaker 1:Several people in this service raising their hand today it's exciting. Hey, if that was you, connect with us back at the visitor area in the guest services area. I wanna connect with you at the cafe. I wanna put some resources into your hands so you can be successful in living this life after Christ. If you're online, message us. We want to connect with you, so you should not do this life alone. Friends, all of us have this opportunity to respond to him.
Speaker 1:Today, we're going to have this opportunity during this song, to come to this altar and maybe that you just need more of God. You need more of his peace or more of his grace. Maybe there's a certain circumstance. We are asking the Lord to help you to forgive someone else, or to navigate these things that we were just challenged with. But, friends, that all of us would be, those going intentionally to battle for the family, lord, we thank you so much for your word today. We thank you, lord, how you challenge us, lord.
Speaker 1:Lord, we thank you so much for your word today. We thank you, lord, how you challenge us, lord, and you call us to understand who we are in you, lord, that we can be certain that of our value does not depend on the things around us, lord, it doesn't depend on someone assaulting us, lord, or the things that we have being taken away, but instead our value comes from you and our source comes from you. So, all the things that we have, lord, that we can be generous, because we know the guy who gave them to us, which is our loving God, who's our creator, god. So, lord, we stand in that, in who we are in you, asking for more of your spirit. Lord, as we draw near to you at this altar, we do so with hearts, lord, wanting more of you, of your favor, of your hand, of your face, lord, that you would guide and direct us. We pray In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Speaker 2:As you head out, you will see some fun activities for Super Bowl today, and then, the most important is, there's some tables set up for life groups, and so I want you to take a moment. Go, stop by. You'll see a great flyer that looks like this it has everything you could possibly wanna know about the life group on this. It's handy. You can also sign up on the app, but I just want to encourage you to sign up for something this semester. You will not be disappointed and you'll be able to see God move in your life.
Speaker 1:Amen. There's already been really good groups that happened this last week, just beginning to start, and a lot of participation in that. So join with them and be intentional in your walk with God Before we go. Intentional in your walk with God Before we go. I'm going to pray this blessing over us today the Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. We'll lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord. I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. Lord, you empower us 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. God bless you and have a great week.