Cornerstone Christian Center

Dirty Laundry | Messy

• Jason Brown

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What if the most crowded parts of your week are actually the doorway to deeper peace? We step straight into the rush—kid drop-offs, work sprints, grocery runs, weekend marathons—and ask a harder, better question: where is the space for God when every square of the calendar is filled? The answer isn’t to tidy up first. It’s to bring the whole mess—exhaustion, pressure, deadlines, and all—and let God meet you there.

We unpack a simple, strong framework from James 1: count it all joy, let steadfastness grow, ask boldly for wisdom, and pursue righteousness that shows up in everyday choices. Joy in trials sounds impossible until you see what it really is: perspective anchored in promise. Steadfastness isn’t a heroic moment; it’s the daily habit that readies you for the tests you didn’t plan for. Wisdom isn’t scarce; God gives it generously to those who ask. And righteousness isn’t earned; it’s received in Christ, then expressed as being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

To make this real, we walk through imperfect heroes—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samson—people who stumbled and still stepped into God’s purpose. Their stories remind us that failure isn’t final and your past doesn’t get the last word. We get honest about anger and bitterness, how they masquerade as protection but function like chains. Freedom comes when we lay them down and invite the Holy Spirit to form new reflexes. We talk practical rhythms too: putting God first before the phone, building community that keeps you grounded, and creating small, repeatable practices that hold when life gets loud.

If your life feels messy, you’re not disqualified—you’re ready. Listen, share it with a friend who needs the reminder, and subscribe so you never miss a conversation that brings peace into the middle of real life. And if this spoke to you, leave a review with one insight you’re putting into practice this week.

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Sermon Bumper Video:

Life is messy, but God can handle the messy. Life gets busy fast. You've got kid drop-offs and pickups, then you need to figure out how you're going to get all of your work done in between that. After work, you have the kids' practices, the endless grocery runs, helping with homework, and trying to find time to clean. And through all that, you can't forget to squeeze in time for lunch or factor in the morning struggles. And the weekend is no break. Saturday is a 7 a.m. game. Haircuts and two birthday parties. Costco, Target, and a vacuum marathon before we collapse at 10:30 p.m. Then comes Sunday, 8 a.m. service while setting up and teaching, brunch, grocery run, soccer game, and laundry load number one. All before we try to finish working mails at 10 p.m., every hour is spoken for. Every single square is filled. We're running on caffeine and borrowed time, fighting to keep all those balls in the air. But where is the moment to be still? Where is the time to breathe? Where is the space for God? Don't feel like you need to clean up the chaos before you ask for help. Bring the exhaustion, the pressure, the deadlines, and the endless mess. Bring it all. We can't forget to schedule time for God. Life is messy, but God can handle the messy.

Jason Brown:

So messy, our new theme is messy because life is messy. Now, this uh fall season is a beautiful one. How many people enjoy the changing of the leaves color and all that that you see on television, not here, because it doesn't exist. Just our our palm trees get slightly brown. That's all that happens. So, you know, you think about it, it is beautiful. And for those that have got a chance, some people actually get talked into taking the drive and going and seeing the changing of the leaves. It is very beautiful. It's pretty. Uh, but it is the reality of that, if you've ever lived in a place like that, means that suddenly, after all the beauty of the leaves changing color, you have to go and shovel or rake all those leaves and get rid of them. Isn't that right? And I think that's how it works in our lives often is that the very thing that is sometimes beautiful, the change that's happening, often means we also have to clean up the mess of some of that change as well. And I think that's part of the dealing with how life is messy and that we're never going to be perfect in the way that we live this thing out. That's why we're always turning to look towards Jesus. You know, when we would talk about this in a different way, we would talk about, man, we want to put our best face forward and we want to be those that are that are kind of have our countenance towards God, but that doesn't mean that we have everything together. And it also means that we don't want to be those that are plastic and putting on a face that's fake. What we want to be is authentic and we want to live in faith, but also the tension of that what we're going through is not easy and that life can sometimes be messy, but that's okay because God can handle messy. Now, some years ago, we lived in Egypt, and one of the things that we did is we hung our laundry out to dry. And so we didn't have dryers. That wasn't really a thing where we lived there. And you know, it worked good about half the year whenever it was nice and sunny. The other half the year when it was rainy, it meant you put on wet clothes most of the time after it hung outside for a little bit because they never got all the way dry. And one of the things I missed from America was having a dryer where you could pull uh pull a towel out of a dryer. You guys know what I'm talking about, and you embrace the towel, and it's like that, oh you guys know what I'm talking about? You guys haven't done this? If you do that in Egypt and you're like, uh, it's like a brilliant on your face, you're like, it's not the same. And so those are things that you I missed, but there's an art to hanging your clothes outside, especially when you live surrounded like we did in Vertical Village. We were on the 12th story of a floor of a building on top, and we had neighbors hanging their stuff out, and we had people beside us and around us and above us looking down at us, watching us instead of the television. Like, mmm, yes. So you had to watch how you hung your your laundry outside. You had to put like your clothes or your bed sheets on the outside with your unmentionables in the middle of those clothes. How many people were tracking with what I'm saying? Because if not, then all your neighbors are like, oh, especially you gentlemen, when are you getting crazy with those things? Your unmentionables go in the middle of those pieces to protect them from your neighbor's eyes. So that's how it worked. And that's why you hear the term, it's an old term, is airing your dirty laundry. And they talk about this idea of having dirty laundry. And truth be told, all of us have dirty laundry. It means we have things in our lives that aren't put together correctly yet. It means all of us have something that we're working on and the Holy Spirit of God is working on in our lives. That's why whenever I pray for you every week, that you would have no satisfaction except for the things of God. It means that whenever you're coming into this place, as you set foot on any campus, as you turn on any stream, as you do anything that's coming towards God's presence, that you will feel the conviction of God to redirect you towards what he wants you to do. Whether or not I say it from the front or anyone does in a song in all these prayers that we sing, and our our teams do such a great job, and we're so thankful for our media teams and our kids' teams and everybody that helps us, even if we don't say anything that you're going through, the conviction of God can be there and redirect you towards his purpose. Is that true? You know how I know is because whenever I got rebellious and left church and wasn't going to church consistently, when I did go to church, I felt the conviction of God like the preacher was talking right to me about my stuff. He wasn't even on that subject. And I was like, Oh, I feel conviction. We all have dirty laundry. So what we have to understand is that when we walk into a place that none of us is perfect, and since that's true, then whenever we're airing our dirty laundry, meaning other people can see through our facade, guess what? They too have the same thing that they're going through. All of us have dirty laundry, and what we're doing is that we cannot make our own righteousness. It's not possible. It's only through Jesus' righteousness, only through what he has done for us that we're made righteous. So, what we do is we take all of our things that are broken and we give those over to the Lord. And by his grace and mercy and through our obedience to follow him as the Lord of our life, he in turn gives us something brand new. He gives us a brand new heart and a brand new spirit. He calls us a brand new creation. He washes away all that sin and guilt and shame. It's no longer who you are, it is your past and not your future. Friends, we belong to the Lord. And here's the thing: this is the story throughout the Bible. You would see it time and time again. It goes back to the very beginning of your book. If you start in Genesis, you read where the Lord He creates us and breathes his life into us. He makes us in his image, he gives us power and he gives us control over the world of that time, and everything's perfect. And there is no shame and there is no guilt and there is no hunger or anger or anything. Instead, we, even in that place, we decide to go against the very rules that he had given us, the very command he had given us, and break God's heart. And it causes us to have this brokenness in us, this sin nature inside of us. And so even as we are thrown from the Eden and from the garden, so we now toil in this world in trying to do all we can, all the while still being broken a little bit inside of who we are. You think about the great fathers of faith like Abraham. We know Father Abraham, he had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. If you don't know that song, you need to go to kids' church because those guys rock. But Father Abraham, once known Abraham, as we see in Genesis 12, the Lord comes to him and says, That you will leave your father's house and all that you would know, and I will show you a place we'll go, and you will trust me, and I will bless you, and I will curse all that curse you, and I will be with you, and I will make you a multitude. And all these promises that are made to Abraham as he walks connected to the Lord's purposes. And in doing so, he still is not perfect. He doesn't get everything right all the time. And even as they get down into places like Egypt, he comes down there and his wife, who's very beautiful, he starts acting like he's not, she's not his wife because he's afraid they're gonna kill him and steal his wife. So he's like, Oh no, this is my sister. Like, uh, you could yeah, go ahead. Bro, what are you doing? That's your hot wife. What are you doing? But he messed up. And it wasn't the only time, but you guys can get the point. Even our father of our faith messed up. Isaac, in the same way, though, though Abraham goes and he's given Isaac, he first messed up with Ishmael and that whole debacle, which is a whole nother thing. But even in having Isaac, this promised child who will become the multitude, even through him, he decides, Lord, I will not even withhold him, I'll be willing to sacrifice Isaac. And Isaac learns that lesson, and he too has the commitments from the Lord for his behalf, and he too has the promises of God, and the Lord comes and makes a covenant, and you see the continuation. But Isaac himself makes the same mistake that his dad makes, and it's a mess. And then you fast forward a little bit and you see that Jacob and Esau are there, and they're twins that have been wrestling and struggling since birth. And Jacob, he goes in and he steals away his brother's birthright from him. And then he goes and he fakes that he's his brother and lies to his father to get the blessing. This is the guy that they renamed Israel, that the whole place is named after. This is the guy. Remember? But here's the deal: that guy, during his his struggle, he goes and literally struggles with God. He says, wrestles with the Lord and has this moment with God. See, God will take someone who's messy and doesn't have it together, and he'll do dynamic things through their life. Because it doesn't matter where you start, it's where you're going and what he wants to do through you. And you have Moses who he he is rescued from this genocide of children in his day, and and he's rescued by the princess and brought into Pharaoh's home, raised up to rule and understood all the mysteries in that day, but was someone who is Hebrew and knew the ways of God, and and in his anger, he strikes out and kills an Egyptian, and he has to flee for his life. You know, the guy who God would use and call from being a shepherd out in Saudi Arabia. He'll call to him from a fiery bush and tell, Hey, I've anointed you to go save your people from Pharaoh. That's who God chose. He chose an angry murderer. God can use anyone to do great things. He chose a guy who couldn't even, he had a stutter in his talk. He couldn't even speak well to others. He chose that guy to be the mouthpiece of God. See what it means is that the very things from your past that you say that's insurmountable, there's nothing that I can do to overcome them. Friends, that is where God starts and takes it forward in our story. You think about even as Joshua comes and he goes and liberates all of Israel and they establish the tribes there, it's then ruled over by a series of judges. And one of those is famous from the very first moments of his life, and Samson is anointed as set apart unto God. And because of it, he has this radical strength and this tenacity, this ability to fight, and he's set apart unto God. Plus, he has amazing hair like Fabio. Which, for old people like me, we all understand. And young people, I would mean someone who has like really cool hair, bro. You know what I'm talking about? So what's he known for? He's known for his strength, he's known for his tenacity, he's known for his fighting, but all the while, the very thing that kept him empowered was his honoring of God and keeping his commitment, and then he decides to go sleep with the enemy. And the enemy puts a hook in him and starts to draw him in slowly, and draw him in slowly, and draw him in slowly, and before he knows it, his power is gone, his lights are out, and he is no more the man he used to be. But even in the midst of all of that heartbreak, God was not done with Samson's story. And God can even take the depths of despair and the worst situation, and he can use that for his glory. Somebody say amen to that. See, life is messy, but God can handle it. If your life is messy, God can handle it. He can take you from where you are to where he wants you to be if you submit your life to him. We're so thankful we have this opportunity to worship today together today at Cornerstone. We haven't met. My name is Jay. And Celeste and I have such a great opportunity to lead here at Cornerstone. It's a blessing to do so. And we hope that you're here with a friend because they invited you to come to Fall Family Day. We hope that you have friends on the way to come meet you because we want to be able to be those who are connecting to others and we want to build a community of faith that goes and is a light of the gospel wherever we go. We just say amen to that. See, we see ourselves on a journey with Jesus, and none of us being perfect. It means that all of us need to be active and following after him. That's why we use this imagery of Christ walking with the walking with his disciples, is that we have the same ambition. We want to be more like Jesus. So that's why we do what we do. It's why we meet in community, that's why we meet throughout the week, throughout the city and life groups, is that we want to be those that connect and grow and serve. We want to do all these different people pieces because that's our intentionality. We want to love God, we want to make disciples, we want to reach the world. So that's why today, as we take a look at this scripture, we go into this understanding that we are people in need of a savior, following him where he's leading us to go. And so we're walking after his plan and after his purposes. Today, if you have your Bible, your tablet, your phone, we're looking at James 1, starting in verse 2. Encourage you to highlight it in your tablet, your your Bible, your phone today. It says it says this count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Lord, we thank you for your word and we pray over it. Or that you would use it, breathe upon it, make it alive and challenging, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Messy. We know that life is messy. And so we start talking about how life is messy. We start talking about how we encounter these different difficulties that aren't normally on our schedule. I think as we saw the video earlier, it resonates with us, right? How many people live off of a schedule and without it, you'd be in big trouble? How many people just wing it and just like, oh, that's fine, whatever. And so that to me, that's stressful, man. The fact that you're winging it makes me stressed. You know what I mean? But it's true. I think if we're not careful, we can so easily start to prioritize the urgency of whatever's the moment is instead of what's in really important in our lives. And those very things that will sustain us, like our relationship with God, they start to get bumped. And our time with him starts to get bumped. We're talking on a podcast the other day with some friends, and we're saying, hey, what's the first thing you grab in the morning? What's the first thing you do? And so all of us, I had to admit, what we do is we grab our phone first. You know, I wish that all of us would respond like we spend three hours in meditative prayer quietly. You know, it's like, no, we grab the phone and then we're like, we gotta resort it out. Like, what's my priority first? Start the day with the Lord, read first, maybe open my Bible up first on my phone instead of the news or my email or social. And instead be someone that makes a priority of our life with God. Because if we don't and we start to shuffle and he doesn't get put into our priorities, then suddenly he's no longer a priority. And that means that that whenever we start to have things that happen in our life, like it says that trials will come, that's what the scripture just said, then that means that we're gonna go through these trials. That if we go through the trials with God, then we're okay. Because he's with us in the trials. But if we go through the trial and we are the ones that have pushed God away, he's coming towards us. We're the one keeping him at bay, pushing him away. Then we're going through the trial on our own. And so we get battered down and beat down and we're down in despair, and then we cry out to God. I'm gonna try over here where it's probably gonna respond better. So we try it on our own and we get beat down and bit all the way to the ground until we're nothing, and then we cry out to God. And the truth is that's all of us have been there. All of us have done it the wrong way. And so that we instead would turn back to him and towards his purposes, understanding that life is messy, but that we can be intentional to live this life with God because he does not forsake us. He's with us even in the middle of the mess. What does it say? In the valley of the shadow of death. I would say that's a messy, a sticky, a bad situation, but that he's with us even in the midst of that. We pick up here looking back to that scripture and seeing that we count it all joy. Well, that's an interesting perspective, isn't it? To count it all joy whenever trials come to us. See, it's a perspective. And we see here with James, similar to Peter, in that whenever they're writing these ideas, they're going through something significant. There's persecution happening to the church in Jerusalem. People are being dragged off and put in prison or killed. James himself would die for his faith in Jesus. We see the same thing happening as Peter's writing so often. He's writing, Paul is writing, and what are they writing? They're writing from prison, they're writing from being in hiding, they've been stoned and left for dead. All sorts of things have happened. And what do they write? Praise be the God to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We give him praise. What do they have? They have an attitude of praise even in the midst of their terrible circumstances. Their terrible situation, they have an attitude of praise. And friends, that helps us because whenever the testing comes and the testing is coming, right? The things that aren't in the schedule, the emergency's coming, the problem is coming, it will wedge itself into your schedule. And then whenever it does come, that we would be those that are ready for it. Now, we can remember back when we were students. I hope you were like this young student where she's, you know, ready, she's crushing the test, she's doing a great job. But if you've ever been somebody who have walked into a pop quiz or a test and weren't prepared, there is this anxiety that you have to explain that everybody in that circumstance shares. Where they're like, there's a test today? You ever had those words come out of your mouth? And you're like, I don't have a Scantron. Can I borrow a pencil? Can I run out of here? Will they notice? Can I suddenly fake a cough? You know, you're like, oh, um, I need to go to the nurse. Anybody else? So here's the deal you can't get away from it. And so that's why it's such a different thing. And and and many times, whenever we're not ready for something to happen because we're not prepared, then we don't maybe make the right choices. You ever made the wrong choice on a scantron, tried to go back and erase it? You're like scratching it out, trying to choose another option. It doesn't really work in your favor. And that's how we are with some of our choices sometimes, because we make just like those in the Bible, sometimes we make poor choices. We make poor choices, it usually has poor outcomes because those aren't choices that we made in alignment with God. And since that's true, then it means that we're walking in our own choices, which have our own consequences. And that means that things aren't going to plan. Even for people that are planners, even those that are scheduling, it means so often that we get out of sorts. Life gets messy. Life gets a mess. But the good news is, friends, is that we don't have to stay there, that we don't have to be those that that live locked in in this mess, that instead we can turn our hearts to God. He's the one that will wash us away. He was the one that will wash us clean. He will make us a new creation, he will forgive us of our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. It's by his power in our lives that all these things happen. And I could tell you that if we try to do this life without him, friends, it won't go the way we're thinking it's gonna go. Instead, it's gonna be a mess, followed by a bigger mess. I could tell you that whenever I was young, man, the thing I fought with the most was dealing with my unforgiveness that came from my anger. And if I wasn't willing to deal with it, then I never could move forward in loving other people. Because the root of what I was dealing with and I'm not wanting to deal with it made it impossible for me to move forward in my life with God. Because God was kept on challenging me about that thing. And I would come to the altar and I try to do one of these scoop moves, you know, where you scoop that thing behind you like it doesn't exist. And you're like, no, I'm not dealing with that, God. He's like, Really? Because I'm God and you're the reason that I'm the reason you're here. Why are you trying to fake me out about what you're really dealing with? Nobody. Praise the Lord. But here's the thing, whenever we are cleansed of all our unrighteousness and all these things, then we feel ready whenever the next test comes. You can see like this gentleman here, like he's ready, he's locked in, he's ready to go. Because there's nothing shaking him because he was ready for the test. You can imagine it's like whenever these problems arise, and having the Holy Spirit to guide us is much like having an instructor there helping us understand how to navigate a difficult circumstance. Think about it in chemistry. If you were just handed a bunch of random chemicals, you know, you would want someone to instruct you on how you should put these things together. You don't want to just randomly throw them in there. You might make napalm, you might just like nuke the whole place, you know what I mean? But instead, that we would listen to the instruction that's given to us so that we could even safely navigate what would otherwise be a very difficult test. But because we have the insight from the Lord, the things that would otherwise make our life messy are now being able to be accomplished. Would you say amen to that? Looking to the scripture, we pick back up here uh in some three key things that we take away. First is James 1, 4. Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Friends, we're called to be steadfast. What does that mean? It means that we should be those that stay on the path towards God. Means that we need to keep connected to him, keep tenacious after the presence of God, that we would hold on to him because he is our righteousness. It's through him that we see these things accomplished. So he's saying to us as Christ followers, challenging us to be those that hold on to Jesus and not let go. I could tell you that, you know, I've dealt with this from time to time as a pastor, you know, where especially with guys for some reason where they think the church and giving their heart to Christ is some somehow like a sissy thing. And I would tell you the opposite. I would tell you that actually it takes a lot of boldness, a lot of courage to be a man who gives his heart to Jesus and is reformed into Jesus' image. It's actually more of a childish thing to hold on to all your childish ways and my, my, my, me, me, me thought process. Instead of standing up and being a man who takes accountability for himself and for his family and for his community and becomes a man of God who's steadfast in the word. And I can tell you that as a man in process, not as someone who's arrived in any way, but as someone who is walking that out, saying, Lord, help me to be steadfast. Help me to be an example, help me to be the one who lived with your reflection so that I can be someone who steps up whenever the moment comes and has the courage of God to do something about it. It only comes from us being steadfast in the daily, not in the in the special moment, but in the daily, which prepares us for the special moments that may arise. That we be steadfast after his purposes. Continues in James 1, 5. Here we see it, picks up, it says, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. It continues in this thought in ver in verse 12. It says, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Our second takeaway today, friends, is generous, that the Lord is generous. It says he pours out his wisdom and he's generous with it. Doesn't mean he just gives you a little, it means he gives generously to you. And as you draw near to God, it says if you humble yourselves and that you put him first, all the other things will be added. What does that mean? It means that as we are those who are generous in our time with God, that so he will be generous to us in pouring out his perspective, his mindset, his presence upon us. There's something you can't buy, it's called the peace of God. The peace of God that's with us when we walk through the middle of difficult circumstances, the peace of God that's with us when we're in the middle of a messy situation, the peace of God that rests upon us. And that means that what we start to do is reflect his image, that we too become generous with our time and with helping and serving, because we too reflect what is the wisdom that comes from God, which is putting him first. Continues here in James. We pick up in verse 19 and 20, it says, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is available to your souls. The third takeaway today is that righteousness, the righteousness that comes from God, righteous in the image of God. He calls us to be made righteous, to be those who draw near to him, because it's only through his work in our lives that we're made righteous. We talk about how you can't buy your way into the righteousness of God. You can't earn your way into the righteousness of God, but it is an action step. It's obeying what he's asked us to do and be created in his image. What did it say here? It said, Be those who are slow to speak and slow to anger. I can tell you that my number one thing that I battled as a young man was my anger. I did not have it in control. And what happened in my life was that I started even here as a church kid, as a pastor's kid, I would see how the people of God who are broken people, but from my perspective, I was like, well, they have it together. They're people of God. They should treat everybody with love and respect the way the Bible says. Doesn't always go that way. So the people of God in that day, they would say things against my parents and say things to them and about them. And my parents would forgive people, and man, they would just let that stuff roll off their back. But I was angry and I wanted to get even and I hated church people. And I thought they were all hypocrites that would burn with me in hell. So I'll see you later, suckers. I'll see you there. That was my attitude. And even later, when a friend would invite me to like a Bible study, I would be like, Oh, what are you gonna talk about? And he'd be like, Well, I'm gonna use this scripture verse. I was like, That's a good one. You should also add this scripture verse so you look cool in front of people with a cross reference, and then say what's up to Jesus for me, dude. Like anger had become a wedge between me and God. Not that He put there, that I put there. And that wedge of anger had become bitterness and had taken root. And friends, whenever I would just try to shake it loose, it didn't work because I somehow thought it was a safety blanket to keep me at bay from the world around me, and my anger was somehow a gift against this or that. And friends, it's not, it's brokenness that will keep you there as Jesus wants you to go up the mountain. And you can't carry your anger with you, you can't take your bitterness with you up the mountain towards God. It doesn't belong up there. You can't carry it that way. This is a message for someone today that you need to let go of that anger that you're holding in your heart because God wants to do something through your life that's greater than what you're experiencing right now. You need to be free in the name of Jesus Christ. If we're not careful, man, even me resaying it to you right now, if we're not careful, we could pick those hurts right back up. Put them in a basket and try to carry it. I rebuke it in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm free of that stuff. I don't want to live in those chains. That's my prayer for you. That you would have the same freedom in Jesus, that you would be in right standing with him, the righteousness of God. It would emanate off your life that when you walk into a room, people take notice, not by the way you look or what's going on or what you say, but by the presence of God that walks in that room in front of you. Friends, let it be so of us. Because here's the thing. We know where we're at. We know our brokenness. We know our faults and our frailty. We know our mistakes. We know our sin. We know it's a mess. Life is messy. God can handle it. God can handle it. So you can come to God in your mess. You commit your life to him and to his process. And see that he will make you a new creation. Wash that stuff off of you. So you don't have to live with the ramifications of your past. You can live in the promise of your future and what God has for you. Somebody say amen to that. That's the word for us today is that life is messy, but God can handle the messy. Today we have an opportunity to respond to the love of God, and we do so. Each one of us has said yes to Jesus. We've invited Him into our heart and life. That's what makes us a Christ follower, makes us a Christian. And so we each have that question we have to answer is have you embraced Jesus? Maybe you're here and you've never made a commitment to follow Jesus. Today's your day. For us, we see the symbol of the cross of one of profound liberty and freedom. It's the one that where Jesus came and he took all of my sin and all my mistakes and all of my brokenness. He took all of that to the cross. And though he didn't deserve it, he didn't sin at all. He took on all my sin. He took on all of yours. And as he went to the cross and was nailed there, as he gave his life upon the cross, he did so because he loves you so very much. If you would have a relationship with him forever. And it's amazing because what do we have to offer? We can't earn our way in or buy our way in. No, it's not by that. It's the gift, the grace of God that gives us salvation as a gift. We say, Lord, I believe you are who you say you are. I invite you into my heart and life to be the Lord of my life, and I want to live for 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, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes and is justified, with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Friends, today is your day. It's your opportunity to say yes to Jesus. That you would join with others in services today already that have made that commitment to Jesus. I'm gonna ask if you would, if you're here in the room, if you just stand to your feet wherever you're at, if you're online, take a pause from whatever you're doing, listen to what God wants to do in and through your life today. As heads are bowed here in the room and Christians are praying, friends, we've been praying for you that you would respond to God today, that you would invite him into your heart and life, and that you would make that commitment, a new life in Jesus. If that's you, maybe you're making that decision for the first time, or maybe you have made a decision in the past, much like my story. But you are in need of re redeciding to follow Jesus, recommitting your heart to God. If that's you as well, today be included in this prayer. As heads are bowed, if that's you and you want to invite Jesus Christ in your life for the first time, or maybe commitment to him, if you just raise your hand right where you're at. So I want to pray with you, remember you and raising your hand to follow God today. See those that are making decisions to follow Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. See the hand that's there. Others, thank you, Lord, making commitment to follow Jesus. Friends, wherever you are, online, praying with you as well. Praise the Lord. I'm asked if everyone would, if they would 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 that you make a decision to follow Jesus today. Those that raise their hand, praise the Lord. Hey, I want to encourage you in this. Take a moment, take a shot at this QR code. It's the next steps of following Jesus. We want you to get connected. We don't want you to do this life alone. Today, as we come to this altar, we have this song of response, and I want to give you this opportunity to respond to what the Lord has said to us. Maybe you're here, you need more of God's presence, that you would come and make an altar with him and just meet him, asking him for whatever you lack. And maybe you need wisdom in the season you're in that says that if you ask of wisdom, you receive wisdom. Maybe you're dealing with things like anger or words you're speaking, that you come and give those things over to God, that you wouldn't pick them up, and that you'd be free of that in the name of Jesus Christ. Friends, we serve a good God, and he will meet us here whenever we draw near. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for speaking to us. Holy Spirit for making it alive and challenging us, Lord, to become more like you. And so, Lord, today, with hearts open, Lord, we come to this altar. Lord, seeking more of your insight, more of your power, more of your presence, we pray. Lord, that you would give us wisdom where we lack it and provision, Lord, and open doors, we pray. Lord, we pray, Lord, for those that are dealing with anger or with other feelings, Lord, of brokenness. Lord, we just pray that you would take those things from us. We ask for forgiveness from them. Lord, you'd forgive us from any place where we've been uh angry and had bitterness. Lord, we just ask for freedom in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, as we come to this altar, we ask for all these things and more. Lord, asking for more of who you are. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Celeste Brown:

We want to say congratulations again to the Contreras family and dedicate their children. What a blessing. So if you see them after service, just congratulate them and give them a hug. And we are so excited for your journey with your family.

Jason Brown:

We have Fall Family Day immediately following here. I have a few instructions for you if you guys have that map for me. Um, we have a little bit of a map to give you insight into how it's gonna work today. So if you already pre-registered with your kids, then you're good to go. I'd say grab your kids and get back in line. We're actually gonna go through this line to stay indoors in the air conditioning. Praise the Lord. And we're gonna go right through the kitchen out this way, and then all the stuff's gonna be outside. If you want to register, you can use the QR code on the says on events on the side. It's an easy way to do that. Even as an adult, you can be included in our Amazon gift cards. We have we have multiple gift card giveaways today, so you want to be a part of that, and also take part in the chili that's being out there to see which one you would have be the winner. Amen. All right, before we go, we're gonna play 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. 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. Pray all this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Know this. We love you very much, Eric Cornerstone. God bless you. Let's have a great Mall family day.