Cornerstone Christian Center
Cornerstone Christian Center
Be Ready | Everyday Carry
What are you carrying that's weighing you down? In this powerful message on spiritual readiness, we explore the concept of "everyday carry" from a biblical perspective. While some of us meticulously prepare go-bags and survival kits for physical emergencies, we often neglect the more essential preparation of our hearts and minds.
The challenge many of us face isn't about lacking equipment but operating from a place of fear rather than faith. When fear motivates our preparation, we miss the freedom God intends. Through personal stories and scriptural truth, we discover how Jesus calls us to carry our cross daily – not as a burden, but as an alignment with His purposes that brings unexpected freedom.
Drawing from Philippians 4, we unpack Paul's powerful declaration: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." This isn't about superhuman abilities but about finding supernatural contentment and strength regardless of circumstances. The beloved words of Psalm 23 remind us that even in the valley of death's shadow, God's presence transforms our experience entirely.
Many of us are carrying stones of past mistakes, broken promises, painful words spoken over us, and recurring sins. These weigh us down unnecessarily when Christ offers something much lighter: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." True spiritual readiness means trading our heavy rocks for His light burden and walking in the freedom only Jesus provides.
Ready to lighten your load? Join us for this life-changing journey toward carrying what truly matters. Whether you're a longtime follower or just exploring faith, you'll discover practical ways to be spiritually prepared for whatever comes your way.
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Amen. Are you prepared, be ready? Today we're talking about this theme of everyday carry and we're talking about this idea of being ready because it's one of the things that I think that God challenges us to be. One of the things that I grew up with is my dad was an outdoorsman and so he was somebody who you know. Even whenever they were first married him and my mom they were just crazy. They were like 19, 20 when they got married. So they would just like go and pack up at the end of the work week. He'd work these crazy hours, all this stuff. At the end of the work week, they just throw the bags in the truck and head out to the mountains or go fishing or go hunting, do something like that. It was before they had me, you know. So I was a blessing, I came later, but you, I was a blessing, I came later, but you can see how they would be. You know they were able to do whatever. They just said go and go for it. So they had gear that they bought whenever they were young, and my dad still, to this day, has some of that gear. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Because you buy it once you cry, once you have it for a long, long time. And so, growing up, I would you know, we would be out having an adventure somewhere and doing those type of things, and I would ask my dad hey dad, where's this thing? I'd be asking for a specific item and he would be like, oh, it's here in this bag, in this pocket, in this place. How many people know what I'm talking about? We have everything in its place. And that was him. He was ready for anything or anything that was coming, and if you're ready, then you don't have to worry about whenever there's a problem, because you have what it takes to overcome the situation. And so that's definitely what we're talking about today in this idea of be ready.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm a kind of a gearhead. I like that type of stuff and one of the things that I see that's popular, something I got into when I was young was this idea of a bailout bag or a bug out bag or a get home bag, and it's this concept that if you got to go, you grab this one bag, a go bag, and you head out and it's like, hey, what's this going to do? It's going to help you with all this stuff. And so you got to think about what's in that bag. And so you can kind of think about the bag and how you would put your bag together. What is your bag going to look like? Is it super tactical? You're going to look like you're on a SEAL team? Are you going to be like more of a knapsack, so you kind of blend in like a student or something? So you know, it's all these thought processes on what you might need and what that looks like and how, what you would go into this bag to help you survive and not just survive but thrive. And so you think about that and I know I would get into it and be like well, I need this in this pocket. Do I have enough pockets on this bag? You know, because anything could happen. It's like how do I get a gas mask? You know, I'm like thinking crazy stuff, trying to put things together, and in reality it's really like, hey, you do want to be ready.
Speaker 1:But I think a lot of my motivating factor besides the fact that I like gear and trinkets, was that a lot of it had to do with this fear of what could happen. And I was motivated by fear, not by preparedness to be ready and it had shifted gear somewhere. That that was the motivating factor that was driving me forward in this idea. And so I really had to challenge that. Because when God started talking to us about going to missions, you know I was somebody who I carried a lot of stuff on my person we talked about every day. Carry, I carried like some personal protection on my person. You guys get what I meant. You're here in Arizona and so in order to go live in Europe, you don't get to bring that with you.
Speaker 1:And I had to really wrestle with Lord. What do I do? You call me to be protector, provider, all these things. What do I do? And he said to me I am more than enough for you so you can walk with me and I am with you and friends. That's the message that he would have for us today is that he is more than enough for us.
Speaker 1:And so that means that whenever we even move to a crazy city like Cairo, where it's 25 million people in the city and it's absolutely sprawling, it takes hours to get through traffic, even a few miles. And you start to think about that. It's like, how do we get up and out of here? And it was different, because we walked those streets all the time and our heart, our focus, was actually the other way. It was one where, hey, we're caring about the person that's here in this neighborhood, I care about this person. I didn't see them as a they, I saw it as an us.
Speaker 1:How do we thrive together? And see, it'll change your perspective, because we're called to be those that are ready in season and out of season. Say stay vigilant. It means be prepared, be ready, it means be awake, like in scripture it says awake, oh sleeper, don't be sleeping on what God has for you, but instead being right and ready to go with the right mindset, the mind of Christ. And so you can have a whole bag full of stuff, but if you don't know how to use that stuff or you have the wrong stuff in that bag, it doesn't matter. You have to have the right mindset to thrive.
Speaker 1:And so, spiritually speaking, whenever we talk about what are we going to be prepared, with what are we going into, see, we don't have to operate out of fear. In fact, we actually operate the other way. We operate out of love. And since we're operating out of love, we have to do that through the mind of Christ, because we, as broken people, we know we'll operate first out of fear. But in order to get to where he wants us to be, to be ready, then we have to be those who are being transformed into the image of Jesus. So, friends, that's a challenge to you and to me today, that we would be ready for what God wants to do. That's what it means to every day carry Now if we haven't met.
Speaker 1:My name is Jay. I'm so thankful that we had this opportunity to worship together here today. We use this imagery here at Cornerstone of Jesus walking with his disciples, and we do so because we realize that none of us is perfect, none of us have arrived anywhere, that we're all on a journey following Jesus, where he's leading us to go. And so what? Our ambition, both personally and corporately, as a group, is that we want to be more like Jesus, and so in doing so, that means that we're gonna love God and make disciples and reach the world. It's why we give to things like Kingdom Builders. It's why we give to things like Mercy House and all these other pieces is so that we can be the love, the hands and feet of Christ to others, and it's also why we're intentional in our relationship with God. So we're just about to start a new semester of life groups, today as a day to sign up for those life groups. So we encourage you to get involved. I know this. Last Saturday we had a women's event and it was a real blessing. How many ladies were in the women's event, man, what a blessing. And that's what it's about. It's about making those connections with each other, because we want to be those that connect and grow and serve the Lord. Amen.
Speaker 1:So, every day, carry. We're talking about this concept, about, as Christ followers, how we're called to be those that carry our cross every day, just as Jesus has told us to do. And so, as we looked at the scripture, we looked at Luke 9 and he said to all if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. And so our challenge in our everyday carry is to carry your cross, or identify what Christ is doing in your heart and in your life Ephesians 6. We said, okay, how do we do that? What does it look like to carry your cross? And we talked about it in Ephesians 6, what the scripture says to us. It says finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. And so we talked about last week how we put on the armor of God and how we pray over those things for us and for our life, and it prepares us for what God wants to do in and through us and how he wants to utilize us for his glory.
Speaker 1:Today, we continue in this series, everyday, carry, and we're talking about the mindset that we should have with us. What should be in our spiritual bailout bag, what should we be walking around with, being prepared with? If you have your Bible, your tablet, your phone? We're looking to Philippians 4, a very famous piece of scripture. Let me encourage you to highlight it if you already have it in your Bible. It says this I can do all things through him. Who strengthens me, lord? We pray today over your word, asking you to make it alive, to challenge us, lord, to use it for your glory. We pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen. Hey, what's in your pockets? What's your everyday? Carry my keys, one of the keys? Yep, flashlight my authority, okay, yep, yep, and my personal computer. Yes, excellent, very good, I think that helps you get by. Yeah, yeah, very good, man Victor, what's up, man, what's up, hey, hey. What's in your pockets? What's your everyday carry?
Speaker 3:oh no, it's kind of like everybody right, they got a phone of Yep. I do carry a bunch of keys.
Speaker 1:That's a bunch of keys.
Speaker 3:And I carry my utility knife.
Speaker 2:Which one you got.
Speaker 1:Oh, let's go, Nice Very nice, anything else.
Speaker 2:Anything else Aside from that, just my wallet.
Speaker 1:I like that you got the big wallet.
Speaker 2:Oh, the thin wallet.
Speaker 1:Okay, not too bad. Not too bad, it's my leather wallet.
Speaker 2:It's still holding up.
Speaker 1:I like that. I like that. That's awesome man. Thanks very much Everyday carry.
Speaker 3:Hey, Pastor Angus, what do you have in your pockets?
Speaker 2:Pick me on the right day, bro. I got my little pet worm with me. Always gotta carry some hydration. American flag, gotta have it with you. A little bottle of maple syrup, of course, the keys, my phone. Let's see what else do we have? Oh, pocket watch, in case the Apple watch breaks down. Got my trusty pocket knife here for bigger jobs. We got that Just in case I need to do a little workout midday. Honey, just in case I decide I need something else. Oh, we got the hymns of glorious praise, let's see. Oh, just a little door hanger for Botswana Prayer shawl. Never know when you're going to be praying for somebody. You know I always like to carry a little helper with me. You never, ever want to forget your Bible.
Speaker 1:That's right. Be like Pastor Angus and carry your Bible. So we're talking about everyday carry and we have some of these examples of the different carries that we have and how that might apply to you somehow. First, carry a light with you. No, we have some setups. This is some of my personal junk so you guys can see what it looks like. But maybe you're somebody. This is like your everyday carry. Maybe you have like a tech bag or a work bag, and this is kind of some of the stuff we carry. And what I love now is how, even if you're not one who wants to carry a lot of books, how you can have your Bible on your iPad or you can have it on a tablet or on your phone and be able to use it as a study tool, even if you have a coffee break or you have a lunchtime, and you could get into the word of God and connect in that way, and so I think it'd be a real blessing in that way. Or maybe you're more traditional, like these two setups. Maybe you do wanna carry a paper Bible, maybe you have some different tools that you carry in your bag or something there, or maybe it's more of an international flair. So you need a different translation of your Bible, something like that, or you want a reminder of some of the things that we have there, reminding to pray for different missionaries around the world. See, all of it is about to be those who are ready for what God wants us to do, so that means that we have to be connected to him Earlier, just a few weeks ago. I want to give thanks to Steve, who leads our safety team, to Tyler, who leads our men's team, to Serena, our kids' team we have a hand for all of those guys, for Ms Barb as well, for the women's team.
Speaker 1:They did an event called Stop the Bleed, and so you can see it here, where they were learning how to keep a person from bleeding and what happens if something were to happen, how to jump in there. This was also a mother-in-law getting all the truth out of her daughter-in-law. You can see there. And then also, this is called couples therapy. See couples therapy, where you have to be nice because she's going to do it back to you, so you better be prepared for what's going to happen, which is a really good thing. No, but these guys jumped in and it was really cool because they're learning about something that they hope never happens that someone is bleeding and they got to stop it. But what they're doing is they're learning the skills you can see in this next image. It reminds us to be nice to Dave because he's prepared, he's got gloves and so you got it, but they're learning how to do the different pieces of what that meant, and so it was cool because a whole bunch of teams came together and learned how to go. You can see this next image of them being prepared and learning about it and what that might entail. And so to be prepared. Then you don't have to be as stressed out about what's going on, because you've already taken the steps to be prepared and, spiritually speaking, it's the exact same way.
Speaker 1:So for us at the Mercy House, we as a church, we sponsor an Easter event at Mercy House and it was amazing. We had over 200, I think it was 225, 230 people that were a part of it. It was an amazing time and it was focused on the idea of Christ and there was an egg hunt, so the kids got candy and food and things like that, but it was focused on the story of Jesus, and so we were praying over that event and preparing for that event so that we can share the love of Christ with these kids in the community. And I love how Mika was sharing it. And I love how Mika was sharing it. And I love how Victor was sharing and sharing in a very tangible way, a very simple but very solid way, about the love of God and how God loves them and how he's available to them to have a relationship with him. And it was amazing to see kids even on that day, in the midst of all the fun things they were doing, to be those that raised their hand to ask Jesus into their heart and life, which is an amazing thing. So we're very thankful for that. Thank you for praying for Mercy House, thank you for giving and for serving at Mercy House, for being a part of Kingdom Builders, which helps fund Mercy House.
Speaker 1:It is a blessing that together we can be ready. Say it with me be ready. We're looking in our scripture today, picking up first in 2 Corinthians 10, and it just kind of reframes that stuff for us that we talked about earlier last week about this fight is not a physical fight, it's not one where we're looking to try to fight somebody else, but instead it's actually a spiritual fight. It's the thing that we're talking about, spiritually speaking. What do you want to keep on you, what do you want to be ready with? And so, if we think about that and thinking about having a spiritual backpack, so to speak, what is it that you're carrying with you every day?
Speaker 1:And so, as we get into the word in 2 Corinthians 10, you can kind of see what it's talking about here. It says for the weapons of our warfare are not the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. And so you can see, the challenge that's here in front of us is that, to be ready, we need to be those who are having the mind of Christ and taking every thought captive. That means the lies from your past about who you are, that you're not good enough or that you're never gonna make it. We take those thoughts captive and we put them against the word of God.
Speaker 1:And the word of God says differently. He says that we're a child of God and that we have a future that's brighter in God than our past, and that those things are broken off of us in the name of Jesus Christ and the work in our lives, amen. And so that's what we start to say is they take the word of God and use it as a weapon against these things. And we can only do that if it's inside of us and we're having that mind of Christ. It's very much in alignment with what we read last week in Ephesians 6, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. So what we understand is that this fight that we have on our hands is not one that's physical. It's the brokenness that we have within us and within others is what actually causes all this tension and all this friction, all this strife and all this pain. And because that's how we are, then what we need to do, as those who are Christ followers, is take our brokenness first and foremost to the cross, and we need to be those that are taking those things to him every day. And that's what it means to pick up your cross is to go to him and say Lord, I identify with what you've done on my behalf and today I ask you to help me, see and that might be a challenge to some, but I challenge all of us to start our day with even simple prayers to the Lord, to say, lord, that you would have, that I would walk in you, that you would have all of me, that you would guide me and direct me today, lord, that I would walk with your wisdom ahead of me. And that's a challenge.
Speaker 1:I'm a night owl person. I'm like you know, I'm the nighttime person, right, celeste is the one in the morning. The birds are chirping, they're coming down, they're landing. I'm like throwing rocks at the birds. Go away, Boo, you know whatever. So I'm like I'm still up. When you guys, early people go to work, I'm still up, you know. But the thing is it doesn't matter. All of us need to start our day being those that say Lord, you first today. Help me today, lord, that I would be one, pick up my cross and follow you, because I want to be ready. Say it with me, be ready.
Speaker 1:So we look here to our scripture and we talk about this a little bit further, because what happens is that when we go into this piece of Philippians it's so very famous it starts out actually in a very different place. Philippians 4.11 says not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I've gone through the whole gamut, up and down, and every roller coaster of experience, but what I've realized is that I can be okay. And the reason is the next sentence I can do all things through him. Who strengthens me. Just say amen to that. See, that's what it means. It says you could do all things through him. Who strengthens you.
Speaker 1:And that challenge is that he will empower you to do all sorts of amazing stuff, especially if you're in alignment with him. Now he's not going to go do his bless the chaos that we make outside of his will. Does that make sense? Why? Because he doesn't want to make you superpowered to go off and make a superpowered mess, anybody. You know it's like giving sugar and red dye, whatever to toddlers and be like go for it, and then they just run out into traffic and you're like I supercharged them into traffic. Terrible decision, right.
Speaker 1:And so instead, what we want to do is we want to be those that are being called back into him. That's what the Holy Spirit does to us, like hey, hey, what are you doing? What are you doing? Come back over here, come back into alignment with what I have for you. Listen, I have great things for you and I'm going to give you the strength to do these things that I want you to do. And so that's the challenge that we have is that we would be obedient to the Lord, that we would have that mindset that he has for us, that we say Lord, with you, I can do everything and so I don't need anything else. Lord, I have you. And that's that mind of Christ, that's that powerful thing that we can walk in, because when we're in alignment with him, that everything else is different. That's why, whenever we read Psalm 23, it's so profound to us.
Speaker 1:The psalmist is singing from their heart about who the Lord is. It says here the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not. Some translations say be in want. I shall not be a person who's in want, because he is going to provide for me. Just say amen. See, he is more than enough for us. He's going to provide for us. What does it say? It says he makes me lie down in green pastures and think about this, it says he makes me lie down in green pastures.
Speaker 1:I think about how often we pray for the provision of God and then we sprint past it in our lives, our busy lives, and he's like no, no, no wait, I had provision for you. Remember how you were praying for provision. I have the provision for you here. Why are you running past my plan for you? Why are you running past the very thing I have for you?
Speaker 1:I could be very honest, man, like we went to a conference this last week. It was so encouraging to hear about the churches in Arizona. Man, so many people came to Jesus on Easter. It was amazing, Thousands of people making a decision for Christ. But last week you guys, you guys weren't here and I missed you so very much. It's like where are they? There's so many people here on Easter. And then the next week, as the pastor, I was like, oh, I was like a balloon getting a little air let out of it. Like you know, can I be real transparent? That's how I felt and the thing was like you know, god is like Jay, you have all these plans, like you're sprinting through this place and I have this green pasture for you that you need to come and listen. I have something to talk to you about, to reframe your mindset about what you're doing and how it's gonna get done.
Speaker 1:See, the thing first is that we draw near to him. We don't just get the plan and then run the plan. No, no, no, no. We go near to him and we stay near to him as we walk the path, and so that's whenever he makes us lay down in green pastures. That's what it means. It says he leads me beside still waters. It's not beside the turbulent, rocky part of the river, no, the still waters where we can go and be refreshed. It says he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness.
Speaker 1:For whose namesake? For his namesake. And the reason is this it says that he leads us in the righteous way. It's because the only way he knows to lead us is in righteousness. That's who he is. He's holy and he's righteous, and that means that he only knows how to be a righteous God. He only knows how to be a good father, he only knows how to give good gifts, because that's who he is, that is his character. And so when we start to respond to God. We start to do so. We understand our brokenness and we might act broken sometimes towards him, but what he's challenging us to do is to get in alignment with him, because he wants to provide for us. And that's what goes on to this next piece that's so very famous.
Speaker 1:I encourage you to highlight it in your Bible, your tablet, your phone. Psalm 23, 4 says even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me and friends. I love this because he's talking about even in the midst of the darkest places, you are not alone, you are not by yourself. I am with you, I am for you. I have not left you on your own Friends. I am with you through the whole process, even in the darkest days, I am here for you.
Speaker 1:And because of that, the person praying that prayer says I will fear no evil. And that's so often, is what motivates us the most is the fear that we have in our lives. And what's amazing about this is that if we understand that, even if we punch out today and we go into eternity today, if our heart is right with God, then we have nothing to fear because we're going to eternal reward forever. And so it's in a different alignment, because you can be in a very scary situation or a place that you're like I don't know what's going on. But what I do know is that God is true, I know what he says about me and that I'm going to be okay on the backside of this terrible thing. And if we take that into alignment, then it changes our perspective. It lifts our head up from looking at our feet and our circumstance and it lifts us up to what he has for us. And this last part of it is probably really hard, because it says that your rod and your staff, they comfort me. And that's tough because, see, he is the good shepherd and the good shepherd looks out for the sheep. So that means that he's going to be with us even in the midst of the terrible places. It means that he's going to keep the wolves, the bears, the lions at bay with the club right. Your rod and the staff is for us. That's how he corrects us and gets us back into alignment.
Speaker 1:You ever had like a Holy Ghost whiplash, where you're doing the wrong thing and the Holy Ghost just grabs you around the neck. You're like anybody, like you know, especially when you're running your mouth at somebody. You shouldn't be running your mouth at you like, oh yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and the Holy Spirit's like slap, and you're right. You're right, holy Spirit. I shouldn't say that because I love Jesus and they know that. And I shouldn't be saying things that are cutting people down, even if it makes me feel good, because guess what? That's not who we are. We are people that build people up and not tear them down. And that's whenever he starts to correct us. That's what that staff is about, it's how he's correcting us, and what that does is that starts to bring a comfort, because then we start living in the alignment with what he has for us.
Speaker 1:Now here's the deal All of us, most of us, if not all of us have ran off and been in the valley of the shadow of death without Jesus. We've gone to that place, we've chosen to go into that place Anybody. And what that means is what I love in scripture is how he gives the analogy of the good shepherd leaving the 99 to go get the one that's in the pit. So, friends, even in the midst of our terrible decision-making, he is a God of mercy who will still go and get us, even there, so that he can bring us back to himself, so that we can be back with the people of God, with the flock of God, and we can walk in alignment with what he has for us. Amen.
Speaker 1:Here it continues, and it's this idea of challenge for us. He says it to Joshua and it's a little scary because the thing he says to Joshua is Joshua, you're taking over from Moses. Moses is the one who was the liberator. He brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. He's the one who saw the plagues happen, the miracles happen. He's the one that went and split the Red Sea. They walked across by the power of God. It's the one where the sea closed in on all of the Egyptians behind him. It's the one where they split the rock and there was water. There's manna from heaven. You got to follow that guy. And Joshua's like cool, cool story. Thanks for choosing me. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:What I love is that in the beginning of Joshua you can read it for yourself, highlight it. I have it highlighted in all my Bibles is one of these things that he starts to talk to me. He says have I not commanded you Be strong and courageous, do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go. See, I love that. He's saying be strong, not in just your own self, yeah, be strong in character, be strong in who you are. Understand what that means. Don't be a pushover, don't be easy. But the thing is not strong in you, be strong in me, be strong in me, says the Lord. If you're strong in me, then guess what? That you'll stand in the winning side, because I will always win. That's what God's word is for you is that he is always going to win, and what he's always saying.
Speaker 1:He's also saying is to be courageous. To be courageous means you have to take on something that's scary, it means to be brave, and what it means is that there are going to be circumstances that happen that aren't the easiest circumstance, but that he hasn't forgotten you, that he is with you in the midst of those circumstances too. And if you're strong and courageous, then you will see his word be fulfilled for your life, and you will see the promises of God be fulfilled, and you will see the trust that you have in him is not shaken, but instead is fulfilled and reinforced, because he has not left you in the valley of the shadow of death. He has not left you in your difficult circumstance. No, he is for you and you are victorious in him because you're courageous to believe. He is who he says he is.
Speaker 1:The word of God comes to the prophet, isaiah, saying a very similar thing. He says here fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed. I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Friends, he's saying that he will fight on your behalf, that he is for you and that he will be the one that brings you up and gives you the strength to make you lie down by green pastures, to rejuvenate your life. If you draw near to him, friends, I want you to live this best life in Jesus, and so I want you to be ready. Say it with me, be ready Now.
Speaker 1:This last pit is this you know we think about all the things we carry around, and I'm giving you these different pieces spiritually to put into your spiritual rucksack, but what happens is so many times we start carrying around stuff in our life that actually weighs us down and we're walking our way around with all this stuff. That's actually a mess. It's actually super heavy and it's things that maybe people said over you when you were young. Maybe it's what they said about you that you'll never amount to anything. Or maybe it's something that they said about your family oh, that's just how it is in our family. And you're carrying these things around, this weight upon you, that, oh man, you'll never be successful in your relationships, and you start to believe these lies and you start carrying them around. But see, christ doesn't ask us to do that. In fact, he comes that we would be free of all those things.
Speaker 1:So you see this woman that she's putting together her rock and you can see how the things inside of her rock. It's like she's trying to put good things in. But what happens if you have a bunch of stones that you're carrying? You're carrying all this weight around, all this brokenness around. Maybe it's commitments that you said in the past like I promise I'll never do this, and you made these kind of promises and these kind of things where it's like you're saying it to your young self, but it's kept you at a distance from everyone because of the pain you felt when you were young, or maybe you've made the same mistake over and over and you haven't had victory yet over it. So you're like, oh man, I'm just a mistake, I'll never get freedom over this.
Speaker 1:Friends, that's just a rock you're carrying around in your sack and God doesn't want that for you. He wants you to take that stuff out of the sack and give it to him. He wants you to take all this brokenness and all this weight that's holding you down, all these things that are lies from the enemy, and he wants you to take them out of the sack, because what he has for you is very light. What he has for you is spiritual preparedness. What he has for you is a lighter preparedness, something that doesn't weigh you down but is actually from him, so that you don't have to live with all that brokenness anymore. The scripture says it like this in Matthew 11, verse 28. It says come to me all who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. See, what he says to us today is that he wants you to be comforted as much as he wants you to be ready. He also wants you to be comforted. He wants you to come to him because he's the one that will give you rest. When you think about getting rest from God, that's actually the rest for your soul. It's beyond just taking a nap, though that is right in the scripture, by the way is go eat something and take a nap. You'll feel better. But it's also this that you're going to get the rest of God it's the peace of God in difficult circumstances, so that you can feel the peace of God to walk where he's having you to go.
Speaker 1:We come back to that same scripture. It's a theme for us. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Friends, we're called today to be ready, ready for what he wants to do in us. So that means we need to be those that come to him, that give him all this brokenness and all these rocks that are weighing us down, so we can be free to be rejuvenated, to do the things he wants us to do. You say amen to that. Amen, friends. Let's be ready for Jesus In the same way we look today to the cross, because the cross is the place where Christ took all of our sin and all of our brokenness upon himself.
Speaker 1:It's the one that's transformative for us. It's the answer for all that we've been looking for. It's the very bridge of relationship between us and the Holy Father. And in doing so, that's when Christ, he took all of our sin and all the brokenness upon himself and he paid for it upon the cross, once and for all. And that's why the question you have to answer is have you embraced Jesus? Maybe you're here and you've never made that commitment to embrace him. Today is your opportunity to do so. Let me challenge you that you would make a commitment to follow Christ today. See, for us, we believe he is who he says he is, that he came and he emptied himself of all glory in heaven to live in this creation that he made, and he lived a sinless life so that he could be the holy sacrifice that was needed to pay the price for all of our brokenness and all of our sin. It's what allows us to be in relationship with God. It's not what we have done. It's what Jesus has done for us, and we know this because we're broken people. We can tell you all the mistakes we've made. And so what do we have to offer a holy God? We have nothing, but what he asks of us is our heart. He asks us to believe he is who he says he is and to make that commitment to follow him, to be in relationship with him. He asks us to be those who are repentant, to turn away from our sin, to ask him to forgive us. It says that he's just and faithful to forgive us of our sin, cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Speaker 1:The apostle Paul. He writes to the church in 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. Friends, today is your day. It's your day to make a decision to follow Jesus. There's already been people. Make a decision to follow Jesus today. Encourage you to make the same decision that you too would make, that decision to have a relationship with him. I'm going to ask everybody in the room if you'd stand to your feet right where you're at, bow your head for what God wants to do. If you're online, you would just prepare your heart for what God wants to do, wherever you are. Just take a moment and listen to what he's saying.
Speaker 1:As Christians are praying, people are making decisions today. As Christians are praying, people are making decisions today. That's you, You'd say, pastor. I want to be included in that prayer today. I want to make a decision to follow Jesus. I saw these people go public with their faith after you and baptism today, and I want that to be me too. I want to have that relationship where you are my strength and you are the answer. You are more than enough for me. If that's you today and you want that to be me too, I want to have that relationship where you are my strength and you are the answer. You are more than enough for me. If that's you today and you want to make that decision to follow Jesus or maybe you have, in the past, made a decision like this, but you haven't been living it out it's an opportunity to recommit your life to God. If that's you today, as heads are bowed here in the room, people are praying. If you just raise your hand right where you're at, say, pastor, that's me, I wanna be included in this prayer today to invite Jesus into my heart and life. We see the hand that's here, your hand that's there. Thank you, jesus.
Speaker 1:Other people making decisions, friends online as well, praise the Lord Friends. I'm gonna ask everyone to 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. People make a decision to follow Jesus today, powerful. We encourage you if that was you, that you would connect with us before you leave today. Let us know of your decision you made. We want to put materials in your hand so you can be successful back here, in the back or at the cafe or, if you're online, message us so that we can connect with you. We've had many people make a decision online to follow Jesus in these recent weeks and we want to connect with you so that you're not doing this life alone. Amen.
Speaker 1:As we come to this altar, we do so with intentionality that all of us, even as Christ followers, many times we start picking up these things that God has freed us from, and all of us, even as Christ followers.
Speaker 1:Many times we start picking up these things that God has freed us from and we have this opportunity to go and take them back and lay them back down and say, lord, this is not from you. I want to be free of these things in the name of Jesus Christ. And so we open up this altar to you today. For you who just want more of God, if you need freedom from what's going on in your life, or you just want inside direction, we're going to pray with you to open up this altar to you today, lord. We thank you so much this opportunity, lord, just to pray, lord, and to thank you for your word. Thank you, lord, for challenging us, lord, and as we come to this altar, do we do so with intentionality, lord, so we can be free of these things that are holding us back. Lord, that we don't need to carry this stuff. Lord, you say your burden is light and so, lord, we want to walk with that, with your mindset, with your heart, with your preparedness, so that we would be ready for what you want to do in us. Lord, we thank you for all these things and we come to your altar, lord, to draw near to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Do you guys know that Mother's Day is next week? Hey, I want to challenge you to bring your mama to church next week. Bring your mama, bring your mama's mama, bring your baby's mama, bring anybody and their mama to church next week. It's going to be a great day because this woman is preaching next week. It's going to be great.
Speaker 3:Yes, next week is Mother's Day and I can tell you just as a mom, probably one of the best gifts is just to be with your family. So please don't ever underestimate your presence with your mom. So please be with your mom, bring your mom and then celebrate with her for the day. It's going to be a great Sunday next week. Also, we are having party with the pastor right after this. If we have not had the chance to meet you or you haven't met our team, we want to get to know you, we want to hear from you, get to know who, who you are, what brought you here? Um, so you can meet us. If you have children, grab them first and then come to the east side of the building. There is a room over here. It's just going to be really quick, really informal, but we want to say hi and get to know you for a little bit today starts life groups to jump in and be intentional before we go over us.
Speaker 1:The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lord, 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.