Cornerstone Christian Center
Cornerstone Christian Center
Passion | Pure
What are you passionate about—and does your schedule tell the same story? We dig into how a pure heart directs passion toward what matters most to God, from the way we spend our first minutes each morning to how we use our gifts in community. Starting with a relatable look at money, time, and attention, we move into the forming power of Scripture and why putting the Bible before email can quietly rewrite your life’s algorithm. Along the way, we talk about real rhythms that help: prayer, fasting, and joining a life group to connect, grow, and serve so your faith has friends, feedback, and momentum.
Matthew 9 anchors the conversation. Jesus calls Matthew from the tax booth, shares a table with “sinners,” and answers critics with a line that cuts through spiritual performance: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” We explore how Jesus holds conviction and compassion together—meeting people where they are and calling them forward without softening holiness or hardening hearts. That tension is where transformation happens. You’ll hear a vivid story of how a simple serving role reshaped someone’s love for the church and why small acts done faithfully can recalibrate the soul.
We end with a clear, courageous challenge: lead one person to Jesus this year. Use your story. Ask real questions. Pray with names. This kind of mission will drive you deeper into Scripture, back into prayer, and closer to community, because love takes time. Whether you’re restarting a fast, looking for a group, or choosing a new daily pattern, you’re invited to align your passion with God’s priorities and live mercy that looks like Jesus. If this resonates, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help more people find the show.
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The Lord be praised. We've been talking about this idea of pure with the theme to have pure hearts after God. Today we're talking about this question: what are you passionate about? What are you passionate about? Now, passion's an interesting thing because it's talking about a directive that we're motivated to do, this thing that we're passionate about. And I can tell you that it definitely shifts from time to time throughout someone's lifetime and what they're passionate about. But specifically, we're talking about passion for the things of God and an alignment with living for the things of God. Now, how many people they've ever had a passion to do something so much that they'll save up to make sure that they have it possible to do it? You guys ever done that? You start saving for something and putting some money aside. That's how I can tell that you're passionate about it because you'll do without something good for something that you really want to do. Anybody? And that's true. And maybe that's you. Maybe you know, in the past I didn't do that. When I was a young person, I was like, oh, this card they gave me that's plastic is magic. And if you wave it over things, it beeps, and then you get it for free. Until you're in your 30s and they want all their money back, but with a large percentage more. So instead, what we're doing is, you know, we're we're not gonna make that decision. We're not gonna do those kind of things and live as a slave to the money or to the interest. But instead, what we're gonna do is be a good steward of what God gives us and make that hard decision on trading off our time and our talent for what God gives us to have. And so in doing so, it starts to talk about what we're passionate about. And I can tell you that, you know, there's a trade-off as we live for God. We've been talking about having a posture towards God, and we've been talking about having those decisions that are priorities for God and putting the right things first. We talked about what it means to have patterns and living for God and what those things mean. And today, as we talk about passion, then we have to talk about being good stewards of what God has given us and how we trade our time and our talent for money, what we do with that, and our time being the most valuable thing because you can't get it back. So as we start to be those that live for God, as we talked about last week, we want to be those who have a hunger for the word of God, for the things of God to go deep down inside of us. And there's something powerful about that because we start to walk in alignment with Him, then something else happens. It challenges us to be those that live for God in a different way. Because now it's not just something that we look up, a reference to, but suddenly the word of God is inside of us. And whenever someone asks us a question, we can respond with the word of God because it's got down deep in our heart. How many people know what I'm talking about? So when you first start memorizing a verse, it doesn't matter what the verse could be John 3, 16. You can maybe memorize the whole beginning chapter of John. Maybe you're doing something else and you want to memorize a proverb or a psalm. But what's powerful about that is it starts to speak over your life because the word of God starts to form us and it starts to reprioritize what we do with our life. Now, how many people know that the algorithm will tell you what you want to do if you listen to it? And it's true because what your algorithms are following you on all your streaming platforms and all your social media and everything that you buy online, and so suddenly it's giving you and it's it's showing you stuff what it thinks that you want, or maybe pushing you towards things that it wants you to do. And that's why, you know, when you have a conversation with your friend, maybe your friend has a dog, you don't have a dog, you talking to your friend about their dog, and suddenly when you go online, you know, it's telling you to buy dog food. Because it's listening and it wants to participate in your life and it wants you to have priorities because it's paying attention to how you spend your time, how you spend your resources. And so when we start talking about our passion, we start talking about those things and the balance between them, and then we come to the word of God. Friends, and whenever we live with a passion for the word of God, suddenly it changes our algorithm in our heart and in our mind. Because suddenly the word of God starts to be the thing that's prompted to us, and we start our day with the word, and we're opening up our Bible app instead of our social media app or our email, and we're getting into the word first instead of jumping right into problem solving and trying to put out the small fires. We're prioritizing something of value over something of immediacy. And it starts to change us and our passions and our priorities therein. Now, how you spend your life is important, and that's why we encourage you to be a part of something called life groups. Now, today is an opportunity to sign up for a new series of life groups. You're going to start this next week, and next week you'll have some tables available to kind of have an offering of what's there, but you can go into them and take a look. We have life groups that function around three different things. First is this idea of connect, and it's literally building a friendship, building connection, community with each other. And the second one of those is to grow. It's opportunities for there to be growth that you can go and get involved in. It's a Bible, a book study, something powerful that's there. The third is serve, and each one of those is opportunities that are there. So we're gonna go back to this idea of connect. And as you look at connect, it's it's an easy way to build a friendship. And so let me encourage you to get involved, to decide today that here for this semester until Easter, then what we're gonna do is I'm gonna be intentional to spend some of my time with God. And in doing so, I'm gonna live in a life group with other people, meaning connect to them. Maybe it's online, maybe it's in person, it could be different things. You see some of the opportunities that are there in the hangouts that they do, and they can do hiking or marksmen or other opportunities to make a connection with another person. And I tell you, that's the real difference. I want you to have a Christ follower who is a friend. The reason is because we want to be not just a light in our community, but we want to live in that community where we can encourage each other in that process. I can tell you it's easy to come to church and blend in. It's harder to just dip out of your faith whenever you have a friend that's checking to see whether or not you've showed up. And I can tell you from the front, it's hard to do that and check in on everybody. That's why all of us have to have those connections with each other, adding one more friend. The second opportunity is to grow, it's to go deeper in our knowledge or our love of God. And one of those that's a really easy one is you can get a part of as a grow group, is something like this in our daily devotion. Jeremy leads this and he just does it online where he makes an opportunity taking the sermons and he breaks it out using the scripture we look at and prompting with some questions each day during the week, Monday through Friday, as an easy way to jump in. So maybe that's a life group that'd be encouraging to you. It's a way to for you to naturally be studying along with what God is speaking to us. Or maybe you're someone that you're, hey, you've been going through something difficult, or you've been going through a season where you want to make a change in your life. We have celebrate recovery. It's an opportunity, both men's and women's groups, you can get involved here on campus or at the Mercy House campus. We encourage you to take a look and see what that means. It's more than just dealing with substance abuse or other things. It could be anything in your life that's been a difficulty to overcome, that you can have those around you who are pulling for you and with you so that you can live this successfully. Amen. The third is this is that we have an opportunity to serve. It means use your talents and your abilities for God. And I could tell you it's something powerful whenever you start to get involved and look and see what's there. You can see photography. You can go and take pictures during service and help us with some of our media and doing promotion for events that are going forward. Maybe you're someone who wants to get involved in in kids' church or in nursery. Man, that's a growing area. I mean, we got to be dedicating babies today. What a powerful thing. That's the church. That's the future of the church, but the church today as well. And to be one of those that gives our time and serves the Lord. I can tell you, before I was ever a pastor when I was still doing corporate sales, I was working 70, 80 hour weeks. And then I would come back when I was in town, I would actually volunteer as a preschool teacher. So I taught the Groms whenever they were little, right? Three, four, five. And it was super fun, man, because that's like when they're like chocked full of sugar. That was when they had red dye and everything. You guys remember red dye? It's luscious. It was wonderful. And they would run around and be crazy. But man, we got to teach them a Bible study. How many people know that you get to learn the Bible study when you have to teach the Bible study? And there was something powerful about that. And man, we'd have this time, and I think of some of these people. Now, all of these people I taught back then, because I'm ancient, they are all now adults. Some of them already through university, some of them with kids, and it's pretty crazy. But I think back to some of them and in those times together, we would do extra stuff. Like we I would be quizzing them on stuff. I'd take a box of crayons, you know, the 64, not the little pack, the big pack. I'd be like, what color is this? They're like blue. I'm like, what shade? Like hairy winkle. I'm like, that's right. That's right. What is this? They're like purple. I'm like, no, what is it? Purple mountain majesty. That's correct. Very good. So it's about getting involved and serving with our life. And there's something powerful about that. Pastor Angus shared with us in staff this week something I had seen, but brought it back to us. Such a good example. Let me share it with you today. Just this guy's story about serving the Lord.
Video:I didn't even really like Christians that much. I used to think of it like a package deal. Like you get Jesus, and so you get the church and Christians thrown. It's just part of the package. And uh there are some bits you like Jesus, some bits you don't like so much, which like the church and Christians um used to find that a bit annoying. But I turned up the church and gave through it, but I didn't really enjoy getting a church. And then one day uh I was at the back of our church in East London, and someone said to me, Oh, we need help to run the coffee team. I was like working like 70, 80 hours a week, and I'm like, what? And they were like, Yeah, we actually need your help running the coffee team on a Sunday. And I was thinking, I'm a parasitor, I'm not a parista, like I've got a job, I don't need another job to run the coffee team. But I just you know, sometimes you I just can't even think of what to say, so I was like, okay, I'll do it, I'll do it, okay. And and I said, I thought, why did I do that? So I turned up the next week, I know I can only get the cups and I probably get the coffee right. As I handed these caps to people, something really changed in me. I found myself as I handed coffee to these people growing in love for that. I was like, these people are amazing. Like, this is this extraordinarily diverse community that's been gathered from across the area. Uh-huh. Probably not another place that looks as diverse and integrated as this. This is a miracle. And then I even people I found a little bit more frustrating and complicated. As I handed them their coffee, I kind of grew in love for them. And I kind of basically fell in love with the church. And then I kind of went back to the person who'd asked me to do it. I said, We need a new coffee machine, we need better beans, we need better monks. Like, we come on, these are amazing people. I want this to be the best coffee that they get. You know, they're coming to church on a Sunday morning. I got more and more passionate. I started to build a team to serve coffee on a Sunday morning. I sometimes say, making coffee changed my life because I fell in love with the church of Jesus Christ. I didn't realize why it was special. I didn't realize why it mattered. And as I made coffee for people, I suddenly realized, oh, the church is like the bride of Jesus Christ. It's like the thing he gave himself. Like the church is God's plan for the salvation of the world. There's no plan B. And God is going to build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So like God is putting all his eggs in the church basket. And I realized over those few weeks there's a beautiful thing here. Yes, it messes up. Yes, it makes mistakes. You'll never find a perfect church. And it's a beautiful thing. And I thought, that's what I want to spend my life building.
Jason Brown:You say amen to that. Such an encouragement. So let me challenge you that you would be someone too that gets involved, that you would explore what the passion of God has for you, and that you would get involved and serve, both and get involved in a way that you can connect and make some friends and grow in your relationship with God, but also serve the Lord. Today we're continuing in that idea of pure, and we as a team have been praying blessing over your family, that you would experience the power of God, that you would experience the anointing of God, that he would be upon you and help you, especially during this time of prayer and fasting, to draw near to him and to hear from him what he'd have for you. And I could tell you that it's it's a powerful thing whenever we start to be people of prayer and fasting. And what that means is doing without something good for something better. So doing without something like maybe food for more time to be in the presence of God. And I tell you that if, you know, we've been two weeks in, we're headed into our final week this week. So maybe if you didn't join in, you can join in today. You can be a part of what God wants to do in prayer and fasting. Let that be a decision you make today to be a part of it. Or maybe you messed up in your prayer and fasting week one, so you quit because you're like, you know, you walked by, suddenly a bunch of tamales jumped into your mouth during lunchtime, and you know, maybe like a liter of, you know, red Kool-Aid or something, and you're like, the Lord has provided for me. But instead, it's one of these things where, okay, maybe I messed up on the fasting part. I'm gonna restart today and have another opportunity because God is gracious to us. And so I'm gonna take another opportunity to say, Lord, I'm gonna fast something this week and draw near to you. In doing so, uh, there's a prayer and fasting guide. You can take a QR code of this. If you don't have it, to pull out your phone right now, take a shot of this, and it'll take you to that guide. It's just a simple PDF that helps us in our prayer points. You can also follow us on our social media accounts that you know that we have. So Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and jump on there. We'll see those prayer points are put up there as well. But it's an opportunity for us to get involved in what God is doing. So let me challenge you to be a part of this fast this week, that you'd finish this week strong and that it'd be something powerful because the Lord is always available. We need to draw near to him to hear from him what he would have us to do. Amen. So we're talking about this idea of pure, and part of that is as we walk according to the ways of God, then that's something that's important to us. It's drawing near to him. And so we want to take that opportunity to say, Lord, have your way in and through my life. So here for just a moment, we want to take that moment and second to search our hearts for what God is speaking to us. Hey, we're glad that we have this opportunity to spend some time together this morning. Welcome to Cornerstone. If you're a guest of ours, welcome home. We're glad that you're a part of what God is doing here, both online and here in the building. You know, we see ourselves very much as people who are in need of a savior, that none of us is perfect, that all of us are following Jesus. And so we have this concept of Christ walking with the disciples, and that's how we see ourselves. That none of us have arrived anywhere, that we're walking after him where he's leading us to go. And so that's our challenge that each one of us would say yes to Jesus and then follow Jesus every day. That it's the decision that we're making daily to follow after Christ. Our ambition, both personally and then corporately, is to be more like Jesus. And so that's why we do what we do with life groups, is because we want to be intentional in living our life after God. That's why we do the connect group. That's why we do the grow group. That's why we do the serve group. Let me encourage you in this that maybe you haven't making the step yet to become a scriptural member of the church. That's okay. You still can get involved in things in serving. Maybe that's in the cafe or the welcome team and some of these areas like this. If you want to take that next step up to these other things, like maybe it's a teaching in the kids' class or helping us do some different things on stage, we encourage you to become a scriptural member. We want to walk in alignment together. Amen. And so, in doing so, what we want to do is we want to be those that love God and make disciples and reach the world. The Lord be praised. And so today we talk about this idea of pure, and we're focusing specifically on being people pure in heart. We talked about it a few weeks ago, looking to Psalm 51. It says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. We talked about our posture with God, that we would not be those who are proud and puffed up, but instead having humility and approaching God, understanding that He is the creator God, and that we should be those that are walking with a fear, a respect of the Lord. And in doing so, that we would be those who also have that posture of purity after him. It said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We talked a bit then again about what it means to have priorities and to be those that arrange the right things and put the first things first about our faith, about our family, about the other pieces that we are responsible for, the focuses that God gives us and in making his priority our priority. In Matthew 6, 21, it says, For where your treasure is, your heart will be also. We also talked about what it means to make patterns in our life, to establish those patterns or those habits that will change us from the inside. And so we've seen this, and we say that it's very much based on our actions is gonna help reinforce our decision making. Why? Because it first starts with the way we think and feel, the way we view things that affects those two things, and the way we think and feel, it it changes how we make decisions. Our decisions have outcomes. And so as we talk about these patterns, we have to first start the pattern on the front end. So I'm gonna spend more time in the word of God and see it transform my heart week after week, day after day. We look to the scripture and it said in Matthew 7, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. How are you guys doing with that? You guys doing good? You know, whenever we prayed that last week, I knew God would give you the opportunity this week to be those people that embrace people and treat them the way you want to be treated, despite the way they treated you. Did it happen to you? It happened to me. And one of the things that we have to realize is that God is giving us an opportunity to respond to the very thing that He we prayed for. And we can be like, okay, the Lord be praised. He's gonna help me in this situation to live the love of God to another person. Today we're talking about this idea of passion and about our passion being after him. We look to you, and if you have your Bible, your tablet, your phone, we're looking at Matthew 9. We're gonna start in verse 13. It says, Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I came to call the, not not to call the righteous, but sinners. Lord, we pray over your word today, Lord, that you would use it for your glory, that you would help us, Lord, illuminate our hearts and our and our our lives, Lord, that we would respond to your message. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. So we're talking about this idea of passion and that question what are you passionate about? And so it comes to this concept that when we're starting to talk about Jesus, he came to the world so that we would know that a God who created us loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. He came all the way to us to live the example of what it means to live like a person who's dedicated to God, the character of God. And he challenged us that we would do the same. And so as we start to look to the scripture, we look to what Jesus was about. And Jesus was about people, about every single one of us having the opportunity to respond to his love. So he was passionate about people and about having that heart that every person would know him. And when he started to call people to follow him, those who would be his disciples, it was different than all the other rabbis of his era. See, the rabbis in his day, they would have chosen from the best and the brightest right whenever they became seen as a man in their society. So, right whenever those boys would be coming into manhood, then they would come and find the best and the brightest, those who could recite the Torah, the other things, and they would take them and they would make them be their followers. That's who Saul was, is that he was somebody who excelled in those things that was brought alongside those key leaders in his day. And so that's why later, whenever he becomes Paul the apostle, it's something amazing. But at the same time, Jesus, the original set that he brought, he it wasn't those from when they were young. In fact, he's going and pulling for men who are established that are in other places. It's fishermen, it's it's doctors, it's these people, and even, yes, tax collectors. And so it picks up here in Matthew 9, 9, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and he followed him. Now that's pretty amazing. Because his obedience, one, that Jesus would even look at the tax collector and say, Follow me, and two, that the tax collector would give up what he's doing to follow Jesus. Now, when we think about the tax collector, if you're here and you work for the Eternal Revenue Service, God bless you, pray that you are favorable to others around you, just as you would want them to be favorable to you. But you can imagine in that day, unlike today, in that day they took a lot of money from people for taxes. And so it was one of those things that they would take money, maybe even some would say more money than they needed to take. And they would do that and they would actually have their hand in your pocket. And this is a person who is a Jew that is working for the Romans who came in and sacked the city and overtook them by power. So they see him as a traitor, they see him as an other. They're like, who is this guy? Not just that, but he's also the one that can get a little extra from you because he knows who makes money and who does what. So he's always trying to get that little bit of extra. And that's why the people in the society, they hated the tax collector because it was somebody who was seen as a thief. And so it's interesting as people would uh, you know, they would avoid him at all costs. He's there in his tax booth waiting for people to come and to give him the taxes. And Jesus sees him and sees something entirely different. He sees a person that has value, and he sees a person that it doesn't matter what they have done or even are doing, he wants them to leave what they're doing and come and follow him. And that's the same thing he speaks to you and speaks to me today is that we would be those that leave what we're doing whenever he calls us to follow him, because he says, follow me. Say it with me. Follow me. So whenever you're worried about, you know, I wonder what God is saying to me in this season. I know what he is saying, he's saying, follow me. And he wants you to follow him because that's what he's called all of us to do is to follow him, to follow his character, to follow his direction, to follow his insight, to be people who develop in the work of the spirit in our lives that it talks about the fruit of the spirit, the characteristics of the living God would come out of our lives to other people. And so it's interesting because Jesus picks these people, these people who would be seen as fringe or outside of the people that would want to be chosen. And he calls them to follow him. He even takes a step further, is that he goes and starts to spend life with them to show them the love of God. It says, And Jesus reclined at the table in the house. Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And here's what I love is that the God of the universe, the creator God, he emptied himself of all glory. Then he came down in the form of his own creation. And as he lived a sinless life, he came and he actually showed us what it means to love others and to be the person that reaches out to somebody with the love of God. It didn't say that he made some big formal occasion of it. No, what did it say? That he lived life alongside them and even went and spent a meal with them. It said he reclined at their table. It means he was chilling out at their table. You can imagine, think about your friend group and the gnarliest set of friends, the craziest set of friends that are away from God, and you can imagine all of them sitting at this table, and Jesus is right there with you. I wonder what your conversation would be like. I wonder how he might challenge you with his presence there. You know that he's with you like that every day. And so as we start to think about him sharing a meal, now it would have been a nice meal like this, probably wouldn't have had the ham on the plate, most likely. I'm just gonna throw it out there. Probably not in his day. We're gonna say probably no. But you can imagine he's spending that meal together. And see, in their day, sharing a meal with somebody was opening up your life to them. It's opening up your heart to them, it's saying that they're they're part of what you're doing. That wasn't what Christ was doing. Christ was showing the love of God to them so that they would repent and not stay in the lifestyle that they were in. And so it's a big difference between what happens in our society is that we either end up on the legalistic side or we end up on this hyper mercy side where we're like, it's all good. You can do whatever you want, Jesus is cool with it. And that's a license to these things against God and friends. That's not what it's talking about. It didn't say that Jesus went out to the club and they were like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, like this guy, he's got vibes, he's dancing, he's dancing, he's dancing. It's not even about that situation, it's about what they're living for in that situation. It's not about the music, not about the light, not about any of that stuff. It's about what they're trying to do that's living away from God. That's not what Jesus did. He didn't say that he went up and did that. No, what it says is that he met people where they were at, and then he asked them to come and follow him out of that lifestyle. And so, friends, let me challenge you today that wherever you're at, whatever life you're in, whatever you're doing, man, God can redeem all of it and use it for his glory. But he asks us to take a different step after him in the ways of God. I continue here in scripture, and it talks about in Matthew 9, 12. When he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no seek, have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And he continues and says, Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Friends, this is something powerful because what Jesus is actually saying to those who are asking the question, he said, Why are you here? Why are you with these people? He said, I'm here because they're all spiritually sick. And friends, all of us, all of us are spiritually sick. All of us are in need of a savior, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. It talks about in Romans, it says, Are any more of us righteous? No, not one. And so what it's meaning is that we would be those that embrace the work of Christ for us because it's only by his grace that we through faith are saved. It's only by his grace and his love for us that we can we can even be brought into the presence of the Most High God, because it's by Jesus making the price paid for us. It's because Jesus took all the weight of the sin and mistakes and brokenness of my choices. And he paid for it upon the cross with his life. And so, whenever he starts talking to us, to be those who go and live the love of God to others that go and give mercy to others, it's because he's given us great mercy first. He's poured out so much mercy upon us that we would live in mercy as well. And it's a tension between the two things, because he wants us to live pure of heart, he wants us to live righteous, but he also wants us to have mercy. And it's both things, it's not either or. So that's why we don't go off here and start doing whatever and saying it's okay, or live over here and bash everybody over the head by what they're not doing. No, instead we walk in the presence and the tension of living for a holy God who has made a way for us and calls us to repentance and calls us to holiness and calls us to a better way, but with mercy with each other, forgiving and walking in forgiveness. He continues here in the scripture, and it shows us where he's quoting that from. It's Hosea 6, 6. He says, I desire steadfast love, mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Why? Because, friends, it is easy for us to come and do the motions. Even in our current climate, in the way that we live church together, it's easy for us to come in and clap or raise our hands to the songs to do the thing and then to go out and live a completely different way. But instead, we're challenged to do something different. We're challenged to live actually the character of God. What has he said? I desire steadfast love. That means that we're making him be a passion, that we are we're passionate about the things of God and living for God. He's saying, not sacrifice, not coming and trying to do these things, but mercy. Living the very thing that you've experienced from God to others. And then the knowledge of God. That's what we talked about by getting in our word that we would have a knowledge of God, that we would draw near to Him and say, Lord, I know who you said you are, so I trust you. I draw near to you. So today, as we look at these highlights and take away these things from us, talking about passion, we look to those elements first. The first passion that we see here is this idea of follow me. Whenever the Lord speaks to you about something, it's not, hey, you when you get around to it, will you do this for me, please? He's saying, No, leave your ambition, leave your process and follow me. Friends, that's the response that we have to him is that we would say, Lord, I'm gonna follow you today. That whenever we get up and we're in the morning, that we say those first things that we're starting those new patterns, Lord, help me to follow you today. Lord, your kingdom come, your will be done. Lord, that you would help me to follow you. The second, that we would be those that live with mercy, as we said, that we would be merciful around people around us, that we would be those who are quick to forgive, that we would be those that model what it means to live the love of Jesus. And that's a hard thing. That's not easy. Because it's easy for us to dip back into our old character and be like, You're gonna catch these hands. You know what I mean? Like it's easy for us to do that. It's much harder for us to forgive. And so the Lord help us by his spirit to be those that as we're following him, that we're merciful as he's been merciful to us. That we also would be those that embrace the steadfast love of God. That we'd embrace it first for ourselves because he's extending that to us. That's what he's forgiven us from so many things, but that we too are steadfast in our love. What does that mean in our character and how we live love to others around us? Lord, help us. That we would be those that bear the light of God, the love of God to those around us. And the last of the things today is a passion to lead one to Jesus. My challenge to you, to every single one of us today, is that we would be those that in this calendar year in 2026, we would lead someone to Jesus. And the reason I say that is because each one of us that have experienced God's forgiveness can use that story, that testimony to share with other people. And we could say, hey, this is the change I've experienced in my life because God forgave me. This is what I've experienced in my life. As I've asked for wisdom, he's given it to me. As I've asked to break these old habits, he's helped me through it. And I have victory in it today because of what he's done in my life. And whenever we start to do that, friends, guess what? It'll help you get in the book more. Because your friend that you're sharing the gospel with, they're gonna have questions. And I could tell you that you don't have all the answers, neither do I. That's why we go to the book and look to the book and pray to the Lord. But as we do, that's a challenge not just for you, that's a challenge for me too. Because, you know, my world can be just Christ followers. I can be a professional Christian and kick back and wait for you to come to a service. But no, that's not what I'm saying, friends. I'm saying that where we live our life with the people that God has given us influence into, that we would live the love of Christ and we'd be willing to share our testimony with somebody this year. So for a moment, just for a moment, think about that person. You ready? Okay, was it the person at work you don't like already? Is that the one? Maybe it was the person that you think is the furthest away from God in your life. Maybe that's the very person that you're supposed to reach out to. You're like, come on, that's not who I want to pick. I can tell you, friends, no one is outside of the reach of God. And that he can reach all the way to them and their circumstance, even as they're living a totally different path, a totally different belief system, a totally different idea of who God is, or even rejecting that he exists. Guess what? No one is outside of the reach of God, he can reach any and every person. And I know it's true because I am that example of a person who was away from God and they were like, nope, not that guy. Uh-uh. I ain't sharing with that guy. That guy mean. That guy made spare amount of fun of my haircut. You know what I mean? Like I was just really vicious. But here's the deal: God can take somebody who's a bonehead like me and turn it around and use them to be a mouthpiece for the glory of God. What could he do in your circumstance? What can he do in your friend group? Each one of us, friends, that we would have that challenge to lead one to Jesus this year. What are you passionate about? What are you passionate about? Let me challenge you. Be passionate about the things of God. Today we look back to the scripture, it's been uh a theme for us for all these weeks of this this theme of pure. Joel 2 says, Yet even now declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, and rend your heart or tear your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster. Today, as we continue this with this last week of focus of fasting and prayers, we draw near to the Lord. Today I challenge every single person that they would come and make an altar with God. They would ask for an empowerment to live the mercy of God to others, the challenge to be a mouthpiece and of his message of the gospel to others and share that message with someone. That each one of us would take that into account and to say yes to God. Today, maybe you're here and you've never made a decision to follow Jesus. The opportunity is yours, friend. We've been praying for you. And there have already been people this morning who've made that decision to follow him. You have to answer the question of have you embraced Jesus? See, for us, the symbol of the cross is one of power. Because Jesus, he took all of our brokenness and all of our sin, all of our mistakes. And as he took it upon himself, it wasn't for what he had done, he was sinless. But he took on the weight of the sin of the world upon himself. And it says that the Father separated himself from Jesus, and Jesus becomes this detestable thing because he has all of the sin upon himself. And as he dies and gives up his spirit, he pays for that sin once and for all. So the sin is dead, the mistakes are gone, the brokenness is over, and that in him all those things are made right. But I have good news for you that Jesus is not dead, he is alive. It says that the grave could not hold him, he overcame death and hell in the grave, and he returned back and ascended to the Father. And so we have an active relationship with the living God. We are not worshiping an ancient deity or some person who was a prophet. No, I am worshiping the living God who took my place. Friends, that you too will make a decision to put your trust in Jesus. The 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. Friends, today is your opportunity to say yes to Jesus. I'm gonna ask if you're here in the room, you just stand to your feet where you're at and bow your head as Christians are praying. Friends, if you're online with us, just take a pause from whatever you're doing. Be open to what God wants to do in your circumstance right now. Friends, we've been praying for you. Today would be the day you make a decision to follow Jesus. Or maybe you've been in a season where you've been away from living for God and you need to make a recommitment to Him. Friends, today's your opportunity to do those things. As heads are bowed here in the room, that was you, and you just need to indicate to me and say, Pastor, that's me. I need to make that prayer today to ask Christ into my heart and life. That's you. You'd raise your hand right where you're at. So I'd indicate those hands that are there. We see hands that are up, hands that are making decisions for Jesus. Others to recommitment to him. Thank you, Jesus. We see those hands that hand, that hand, that hand. Thank you, God. Friends online, wherever you are, if you're raising your hand as well. I'm gonna ask if everyone would if they'd 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. Name I pray. Amen. Amen. Friends, you rejoice with those who made a decision to follow Jesus today. Praise the Lord. Several people here in this service, friends online, wherever you are. Hey, that was you. Take a moment, take a second to take a picture of this QR code and follow it. Just some resources. We want to be able to put them into your hands, that you would be living victoriously after the things of God. Today, as we come to this altar, we do so with an intentionality, saying, Lord, we want more of your presence, more of your anointing, so that we can be passionate about the things of you and that we can be those that use our situation, our sphere of influence to share the love of Christ with one person this year. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. Lord, you speak to us and challenge us. Lord, as we see your words come alive in us by your spirit, Lord, that we are challenged to do the same. Lord, that we would follow you and we would be people of mercy. We would be people that live with your steadfast love. Lord, that we would walk after you and be anointed to be the mouthpiece, Lord, of the gospel message to others around us. Lord, help us, Lord, as we are those who are praying for people today, Lord, that we're going to share the gospel message with this year. Lord, that they're going to come to know you. Lord, that challenge that we take on today. Lord, as we pray, as we fast, as we draw near to you today, Lord, we do so with open hearts. Lord, as each person comes and makes an altar with you today, Lord, we do so asking for an impartation of your spirit. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Celeste Brown:Well, today is the day that life groups signups are open. So I want to encourage you, um, do it right away. Do it today. Before you get home, get on the phone and sign up for some life groups. It is going to be an amazing season.
Jason Brown:Before we go, I want to pray this blessing over us. The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Or lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. We pray 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.