Jesus is the Cornerstone

A single misstep by the pool becomes a spiritual gut-check: when life blindsides you, do you stumble over Jesus or step onto him? We open 1 Peter 2 and keep coming back to one anchor statement that clarifies everything: Jesus is the cornerstone. Not a helpful add-on. Not one option among many. The fixed point that lets a fractured life finally line up straight.

We talk about the stories we tell ourselves, the “main character” motivation that quietly drives our choices, and why small everyday decisions carry more weight than we want to admit. Then we sit with Peter’s hard, hopeful contrast: the same Christ can be a rock of offense or a foundation of rescue. We also get painfully practical about shame, how it forms identity, why it leaks into our words, and how faith in Jesus breaks the cycle. Along the way we connect Isaiah, Romans, and the early church’s struggle with works versus grace, landing on the clear gospel: we can’t earn righteousness, we receive it by faith.

From there, we zoom out to what a cornerstone life produces: a spiritual house built together, a church community that values discipleship, and a mission shaped by the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. We share Cornerstone Church’s 40-year story of obedience, the call to choose Jesus over self, and tangible next steps through life groups, serving, and a culture marked by commitment, compassion, and celebration.

If this message challenged you, help someone else find it: subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review. What’s one area where you need Jesus to be your stepping stone today?

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Transcript

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Jesus The Cornerstone Scripture

Jason Brown 0:00

Praise the Lord, 40 years of cornerstone. Today, if you have your Bible, your tablet, your phone, we're looking at 1 Peter 2. Jesus is the cornerstone. Say it with me. Jesus is the cornerstone. It picks up here, 1 Peter 2, it says, As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Friends, Jesus is the cornerstone. You know, so often we think about these stories, and many of us, all of us, have a narrative. And in that narrative, we are the key character. We are the broken protagonist. We are the person that is that is on this journey that's following after what God would have for us. And for some, it's not even there yet. They're still seeking to know God personally. Well, with that person being the protagonist, it starts to think about it from that perspective of character. You know, the kids today, they might say that they have main character energy. You guys know what I'm talking about? For all those that have J High and high schoolers, understand what I'm saying. In fact, you guys have that video of her, you might see this uh this image of her, which is uh is, you know, she has that main character energy. She's got some vibes to her. You guys got that? Yeah, there she is. She has all the likes, she has everything that's going on for her. She is at the center of the story. But it's interesting because each one of us has this in a in a way, and it's, you know, it feels like it might be just someone who's popular, special, or something. But each and every one of us is that person that is a broken protagonist. Each one of us has that motivation that gets us going. And maybe in her case, maybe it's a whole bunch of acceptance or likes or shares or whatever that looked like. Maybe her whole world, if it's a perfect, be like this next image where it's all a bunch of likes. Her whole world is correct by everything she does is surrounded by likes. Now, I know if if every if everybody lived that life, that none of us would do anything ever controversial. We'd never do anything that would be, you know, significant. Why? Because we'd be worried about being liked the whole time. Our children would probably be terrible. Why? Because we've never corrected them because we want to be liked. Right? And in the end, you know that what that ends up being is that everybody's spoiled rotten and everybody doesn't want to do anything, and then we're all for not. And so what happens is we start to start to motivate, see the understanding of this narrative that we're on and how we live our life in this journey.

Main Character Energy And Motivation

Jason Brown 2:50

And then as Christ followers, how we live this journey after Christ. If we're to think of every single person as that person that needs to know God, then we start to think about their motivation. You know, from a from a perspective like this, we might start to ask those big questions: the who, what, where, how, why type of questions. The thing that starts to drill down on a person and starts to understand who they are. And see, so many of us, what we've come to understand is that there's a character arc to our life after God, and that we want to see our lives change dramatically from how we were before. That we don't want to stay where we were. Because if we stay where we were, then we're gonna get the results of what we had. But instead, we need to have a change that happens in our life so we can become what He's asked us to be, which is so much better than what we have for ourselves. And when we start to really understand that, that means that the big decisions that we make, the everyday decisions that we make, they have to have so much more weight to them. Because why? Because then it starts to understand that these small decisions, they add up to the larger decisions. And those larger decisions really do on what they decide on how we're gonna live our life. In fact, we're gonna talk about that coming up in a series called Decisions Determine Your Destiny. But as we look at this idea, we start to see that every single one of us are brought to the understanding, the thought process of what this says. And as Peter starts to write to us about Jesus as being the chief cornerstone, then we have to decide are we gonna build our lives in alignment with Jesus or are we gonna do our own thing? Continuation of that scripture picks up in verse 7. It says, So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become a cornerstone and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. And so it's an interesting thing because for each and every one of us that are those broken people, none of us are perfect. We all understand that since we're broken, then we have to come to this understanding that when we come to the idea of Jesus, is he gonna become someone that's a stumbling block, or is he gonna become a stepping stone? See, for those that he becomes a stepping stone, it means taking that step next to what he has for us to put our foot on the rock that is Christ Jesus to pull us out of the mess, out of the quicksand, out of all the disaster that we cannot take ourselves from. It's only he that can take ourselves from it. Or are we going to stumble over who he is and who he calls us to be as people greater than our own ambition in the character of God? Friends, that's what I'm talking to you about today is that when those big decisions happen, when that chaos hits you, what are you gonna decide to do? Are you going to align with Jesus as a stepping stone, as the cornerstone for our lives? Or are you going to be someone who trips on him and falls into calamity?

Stumbling Block Or Stepping Stone

Jason Brown 6:02

Now, yesterday I had a very real uh experience in being an example to us today, and that was that I was by my pool and I was cleaning up a bunch of stuff. Now, it was it's bulk trash day in my neighborhood, so I was out front trimming the trees and blowing all the stuff around and getting all the dust into my nose because that's what I needed. I needed more dust into my nose. And as we was cleaning up all this stuff, I'm going through the backyard and I'm trying to decide if there's anything back here that needs to go out and bulk trash. And I pick up a towel that somehow got wet and I'm like, and I'm not really thinking very much. And as I'm doing stuff, I walk by the edge of my pool, and I've done that a thousand times, and I decide to step into the oblivion that there is no concrete under my foot. And as I do that, I turn to try to balance and save myself from it, and immediately slam onto the concrete with everything I have on my on my elbow, my chest, my hand, my left hand, my knees all scraped up, and slammed super hard onto it, carrying a full glass of ice water and one of those big Yeti cups like this. So my hand feels great. Feels great, you know, just getting slammed on the concrete. And as I slam onto the concrete, I fell into the pool. Now I'm telling you this embarrassing story because I'm gonna show you the video. No, there is a video, you don't get to see it. I'm sorry. No, I'm not showing it. I watched it and I was like, nah, we're not showing the video. But I'll tell you this as I hit, I made some kind of a sound that was like you know, like it was a great sound. It was a very masculine sound, strong, strong sound, actually, strong. And immediately as I fell backwards, I wasn't sure what I hit because it hit, it was like all of a sudden, you know what I mean? It was like one of those things is like a freight train, bang. And so I didn't know what happened. So as I as I was about to go under the water, I just cried out to Jesus. I'm dead serious. It sounds ridiculous because I'm falling to three and a half feet of water in a pool. But I called out to Jesus, why? Because if I slammed it, hit my head and I go out, guess what? Bye, Jay. You guys would be having a nice memorial for me. He'd be like, You remember Pastor Jay? Do you remember him? He had the nose. You guys remember. And so I literally, I was like, Jesus. It was like I went under the water. And as I kind of like got my bearings underneath me and my knees hurt and everything hurt because I'm old. And so, you know, I got up as I slammed and I was like, oh. And immediately my notes flashed in my head as like stumbling block or stepping stone. And I was like, okay, I got it. I got it. Jesus is the cornerstone. Say it with me. Jesus is the cornerstone. See, when those decisions start to happen, wherever we get blindsided by life, we can decide how we're going to react. We can decide what we're going to do. We're going to decide who we're going to call out to. And I think for us as Christ followers, what we have decided is that our, we're going to place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ because he's eternal. In our own narrative, each and every one of us, we know we're broken. We know we're in need of a savior. And since that's true, then we're going to look to him as our source. And you know he's a miracle worker because I'm standing in front of you upright today, and I'm in my forties. So there you go.

A Painful Poolside Lesson

Jason Brown 9:22

Going back to that scripture, it says this, as you come to him a living stone rejected by men. It starts to talk about this narrative of who the Christ would be and who Jesus came and fulfilled as the Christ. And in doing so, it talks about how we, as the children of God, as those who are co-heirs with Christ before the Father, how we are called to be those same people that are a living stone, someone that is built into the spiritual house of God. That negates all the things where people say, I can live for God and do it on my own. I can do it out without coming being a part of church. It's like, friends, this talks about being a part of a community of faith. Whatever that looks like, whether it's formal like this or in a in a in a in a church home uh meeting kind of in China or other places, and you'd see whatever that looks like, that's connected together, the spiritual house of God. And in doing so, what we want to do is be those that align with him. And it talks about how he has made us like the priests of old who would go and worship the Lord, would bring the sacrifice before God. Now it's not possible on our own, on our own to do. We can't make ourselves holy. It's his righteousness that makes us holy. And so in doing so, it starts to challenge us, saying, This is who Jesus is. He is this stone, he's the cornerstone, he's the one that you have to decide upon. Whenever you encounter him, you're gonna have to make a decision one way or another. Are you going to accept Jesus and walk in the way of Jesus as a stepping stone? Are you gonna be someone that stumbles over what he calls you to be? And I can tell you, friends, in my journey, I've experienced both. I've experienced both things that have done. Even as a Christ follower, there have been times where he's calling me to a step of faith. What does it say? We talked about today. Pastor Celeste talked about it this morning when we first greeted us about it. We have faith to believe. And are we going to be those that take the step of faith as a stepping stone? Or are we going to stumble over what he's called us to do time and time and time again? Now, friends, I could tell you we might be able to survive a slam like I took yesterday, but I don't want to do it every day. I definitely don't want to do it spiritually every day. And see, if we get that into our head, it's like Jay almost dying in a pool. What a terrible thing to die in. You know what I'm saying? Like to go into for as a grown man to die that way. I've been around the world. I could have gone all those other cool ways. You're like, how did he die? Shark attack. I've been like, oh, okay, that's a cool story. It's like, how did he die? He tripped on a pool on a towel and then fell in a pool. They're like, oh, that's a bad way. It's bad. It's a bad look. You see what I'm saying? For us to think about that spiritually and apply it in that way, then it starts to, it starts to change our perspective. That you know what, I don't want to trap, I don't want to trip and fall and crash out every single day, spiritually speaking. I want to be someone who aligns myself with God. I want to be someone who walks in the way that He's called us to be. And in doing so, it says right here in that scripture in 1 Peter 2, 4 through 6, the end of it says, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

Shame And The Weight Of Decisions

Jason Brown 12:30

Friends, so much of our motivating factor is trying to negate the shame that we feel in our lives. The shame that we have from our bad decisions, the shame that we have from the way that maybe someone has treated us, the shame that we have and the way maybe we've treated others, the shame that can so honestly become our identity if we don't give it over to God. We're faced with that idea of a stumbling block or a stepping stone. I'll give you an example. It's that question of our motivation going back to that character and the who, what, where, why, how, how, and why. It's why do you say such hurtful things? There's a great example. Why do you say such hurtful things? Maybe your internal thing says, oh, I think tearing others down, it makes me look better. Maybe that's your answer today. Is I think tearing others down makes me look better. Maybe your answer is that I feel like they hurt me and they did not receive justice. Or maybe the reason that you're saying hurtful things is not that at all. Maybe it's I'm jealous of who they are, I'm jealous of what they do, I'm jealous of what they have. You can see this is just one example of motivation. When we start to talk about those questions of why do you do what you do? It brings us back to that heart of motivation about our lives with Jesus. And are we gonna align and follow after Jesus or are we gonna do our own thing and suffer the consequences? See, friends, Jesus is the cornerstone. Say it with me. Jesus is the cornerstone. In Isaiah 8, it starts to speak

Faith Not Works Jesus The Way

Jason Brown 14:19

to this. This is where uh you see Paul, you see Peter are referencing Isaiah, they're referencing this scripture. And it's in a time where the children of Israel are turning against God. And so Isaiah comes to correct, he comes to challenge them, he's showing them who they are, saying, Listen, you have left the God who gave you freedom. You have left the God who is of the miracle worker of provision and who fed you in the desert, and who gave you the promised land, all these things he has done for you, and you have rejected him. And so he's telling them that it is this very way that you have to accept the way of God. It says, But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread. Remember, we talked about the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And we're not talking about in a way that they're worried for smiting, though that was happening in their day. The concept is that we understand that he is the true God. There is no other God. And so we're gonna live for him, there we're gonna live for him and him alone, that there is no other way. And it talks about all these things that he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel. Why? Because they weren't living after God. And so that's what they're saying is that this is who the Messiah is, is that he will become all these things. He will be a stumbling block, he will be the stepping stone, he'll be all of that and more. And he's talking about how they will see Jesus and they will reject him. That's what the scripture said. Friends, for us, as we see Jesus, he is the cornerstone. He is not a way to the Father, he's the way. He is the way. There is no other way to God except through Christ. And the reason that we know this is that you can't earn your way into his grace. It even says in Romans 9, it says, What shall we say then the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it? That is a righteousness that is by faith. But that Israel who perceived the law would lead to righteousness did not succeed it in and succeed in reaching the law? Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but it is if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone. See, we all want to go to God the way we want to go to God. We don't want anyone else to tell us how we can live our life and what we should do. And that from one person to another, that's true. It's very hard to be like, well, this is what it is and this is what it is. And we're just opinions versus opinions. But for us, as those who've us who have placed our faith and trust in Jesus, it's not my opinion versus your opinion. It's I've accepted Jesus and say he's of the way, and you have to decide for yourself. And my hope for every single person from every tribe, from every tongue, from every nation, is that every single person makes the same decision. And they accept Christ into their life. Why? Because we accept him by faith. We place our faith and trust in him. It's that step, the stepping stone, the step of faith, saying, Lord, I believe and place my faith and trust in you. That you are who you say you are, that you took on all of the sin of the world, all of the brokenness of who we are. You took it on yourself. Though you didn't do it, you didn't have to do any of those things. You took it for me. You took my shame. And as you died on the cross, that shame is dead. That sin is dead. All of those things are gone. And that's why the scripture can say that he's the one that will not put you to shame. Because he has already paid for your shame. And so it's saying here that why can these Gentiles who were not born Jewish, you've got to remember this is a big argument in the early church back in the day, did you have to become Jewish first in order to accept Jesus? And Paul is saying, no, it's by faith that we accept Christ. So we don't have to go and become someone who is following all of the rules of Judaism in order to become someone who's following Jesus. No, we're following Jesus by faith. Now we align in all the moral laws, but all the ritual laws, those things are fulfilled by Jesus. He came and did all of those things and fulfilled the law perfectly. He's the only one to do it, and that's why it says that they're trying to earn their way into God's favor by following every bit of the law, but none of us can, all of us fall short. In Romans it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so as we see that, we accept it, we understand it, we start to wrestle with this concept. Are we gonna be those that go and align with Christ who has paved the way for us, who has already overcome death, hell, and the grave, who has taken all of our sin and all of our shame and all of our brokenness upon himself. He's paid for it once and for all. Are we gonna align with him or are we gonna try to do it ourselves? Stumbling block or stepping stone. Each and every one of us has to choose how are we going to live this life? How are we going to follow after Jesus? Friends, my heart for you is not that you would have to spiritually slam every day the way I did yesterday, but that instead you would be someone who says, Lord, I believe you are who you say you are. And for today, for today, I'm gonna take the step of faith. I'm gonna align myself with you. I know it's not easy. I'm in a difficult season, maybe, maybe it's difficult, maybe this is all the energy I have, but Lord, I'm gonna place my faith and trust in you. And today, I'm gonna place my faith and I'm gonna take that step after you and what you're calling me to do. Friends, Jesus is the cornerstone and you can build your life off of Jesus Christ. Somebody say amen to

Cornerstone’s 40 Year Story

Jason Brown 20:17

that. Hey, if we haven't met, my name is Jay. It's a blessing to be at Cornerstone with you today. And we have been talking about this idea of following Jesus for a very long time. We've celebrated 40 years, and as we look to this teaching today and we talk about it, it's by faith that we accept what he's doing. You know, for 40 years, it's a long time for a church to exist. This church started in the home of our founding pastors, Pastor Rich and Cidney Brown. And as they did so, the reason that they did what they did is that they were motivated, and their motivation was that every single pure person that they come in contact with would know Jesus. And so they wanted to make a difference, and God called them to take a step of faith. And I can tell you that they would have done financially better if they didn't do it. Why? Because that's my parents, right? My parents, my dad was he's a pipe fitter welder, had like 13 certifications, some crazy number. It's in doing so, he started to rise up the ranks in his jobs really quickly. And God saw the leadership that was in him was recognized and recognized and recognized, and he was living for God, and the favor of God was on his life, and he began to excel. And in doing so, he got to a place where he was getting recruited to be over massive jobs and whole sections of the country was the next step. And so they would have made a decision to not been here in the West Valley. They would have probably moved back to Arkansas where his family's from, and we would have had a big bunch of trees and a bunch of deer to eat. You know what I'm talking about? Instead, we're out here in the desert. I grew up with dirt in my teeth all the time. This is what it is. No, but you know what they did is they made they decided, they made a decision based on their motivation that they're gonna say, I'm gonna lie in my life with Christ. Christ. And it's better for me to have the obedience of God than it is for me to make out better with more dollars in my pocket. And in the short-term version of things, it doesn't make any sense. Because it's like, man, you got this big opportunity in front of you with all this money. It's guaranteed. What you doing? What you doing? And at the same time, they were listening to the heart of the father saying, listen, I know what your plan is, but I have a greater plan that will impact more people if you trust me and say yes to what I'm saying to you. And so their real true motivation came out in their actions. Why? Because you can say you're motivated to do something and talk about it all day, but unless you do it, then what does it matter? And we've all been guilty of that in some way or another. So the Lord help us to back up what we say we're going to do. And in living for Jesus, it's the exact same. And so if that's what we're going to do, then we have to say, Lord, my motivation, the reason behind what I'm doing is going to be that Jesus is the cornerstone. And so I'm going to place my faith and trust in you. I'm going to trust you and I'm going to step out in faith today that it's going to be the stepping stone, not the stumbling block. Jesus is the cornerstone. Say it with me. Jesus is the cornerstone. When they looked for this piece of property, we were meeting over at Littleton Elementary in Cachon. And that's where my mom, she grew up in that area in Littleton and went to Tollson Union High School. I grew up swimming in that pool back in the day. And it was amazing to see as they started to think about how we would plant a home, like a church facility for us to have here. It came to this understanding that they were looking, and my dad looked at all these places. You heard the video about it last week. And he searched and he searched and he searched, looking for the right home for it. And every one of those looked like a better opportunity. And the Lord led him here to this location in which we're speaking from today. And in doing so, this wasn't ever meant to exist. He had to take the plans, the skill set God gave him, and he redrew this whole section so they could sell this piece of property to the church. And then he used that skill set to build the building that we're in today, with the vision to see it expand and to go forward and to see other people reached with the gospel message. Man, one of the highlights from my heart was seeing something my dad had talked about forever, which was when we first built this building, we didn't have any of these outlying buildings where our kids are today for our children in our nursery facilities. We didn't have those buildings. We didn't have that 10,000 square feet. So everything was in this building. So all the classrooms behind here where we walk in the building now today, that was all classes. And everything upstairs was all classes, and there wasn't seating like that we needed from time to time for different for different meetings like this. And instead, we we built it later. And he said, we're gonna build these out and then we're gonna do these things. He had step, he had a vision of what it would be. And what I love about that is that the vision that he had was motivated by his yes for Jesus. And why? Because we want to make room for some people. That's why we'll sacrifice and we'll build the next thing. Why are we gonna do it? Because our motivation is Jesus, and we want more people to know Jesus. So we're gonna be willing to do without these classrooms and build another classroom building. That's what we're gonna do. And he started take the step and take the step and take the step. And he was talking about we're gonna build out the balcony, and there are gonna be people with life change that happens in the balcony. And he talked about it for so long. And what was amazing a few years ago is this very picture is as he got up to the balcony and we cut the balcony open and we had done the stage project two years ago. He saw it with his eyes, the thing he had seen with his eyes for years was that this is going to exist because the Lord has put it in my heart and the Lord is faithful. And then as we open it up and we make seating for people to sit in the balcony, they are going to hear the gospel message. It's gonna change their life and why. It's because I said yes all the way back at the start when the decision was about money or faithfulness,

Go For Jesus Not Yourself

Jason Brown 26:09

when it was about obedience or doing what you want to do. Friends, there's someone who needs to hear this today. They are on the precipice of making a major life change. Go for Jesus, don't go for yourself. Go for Jesus, don't go for yourself. Friends, I can tell you I had the same situation parameters. I could have chased money and chased this or that. Go for Jesus, don't go for yourself. Yourself is so hollow, it's so frail, it's so dependent on what you have in your title. All of that is gonna melt away. It's only gonna be about your eternity with God. Friends, get it down inside your heart that someday you'll look back at your life and you'll say, The obedient thing I did has made a way for people to know Jesus. It's better than me having more money in my pocket or prestige or whatever thing you're chasing. His vision, his heart for you is greater than your own for your own life. For us as Cornerstone, we want to be a multicultural, multi-generational, multi-campus movement. That's how we see ourselves as a community of faith. And so we operate like that already. We have people from all different walks of life and all different nationality backgrounds, and we all come together and we lift up the name of Jesus Christ. And so that is our heart that we would reflect what heaven is going to look like. It's made up of everybody. And so that's what we want to be. We see that we are a people that is the church, not a building. And since that's true, then we can function in many places, and that's why we have things like the mercy house. That's why we have things like life groups, that's why we have these things that we do that are so beyond where we are here. They are a function of who we are as the church. And so we want to function in that way and in our heart to plant more of these locations so that we can see the church grow and reach even more people. Friends, the church, as much as we love the weekend experiences, and we love that we we work a lot of hours to come and to bring something excellent. How many people appreciate it for all of our team that helps serve on a Sunday? I know I am. We see a picture of it here. You just experienced the idea of having a room where you can come and gather to be with the Lord, be online with us and worship the Lord together. All of it comes back to that motivation. Why do you do what you do? Friends, the reason we do what we do is because Jesus is the cornerstone. Say it with me. Jesus is the cornerstone. The reason we use this picture of Jesus walking with his disciples every week. I was gonna say sometimes. That's not accurate. Every week is that we want to see ourselves in this position. That we're walking with Christ where he's leading us to go. That we haven't arrived anywhere, that we're still following Jesus. That doesn't matter how many years we've been doing it. Man, I've followed Jesus, and we've been able to be a part of churches and three continents. You know what I mean? Like all over the place. What we know is that we're not arrived anywhere. We're still following after Jesus. And since that's true, then our heart is to be more like Jesus. And so that's what we talk about be more like Jesus, because that's our motivation. When we go all the way back to a motivating factor, what motivates you? What are you doing? Why are you living your life the way you are? Because I want to be more like Jesus. The reason I excel at my work is because I want to do things with excellence as unto the Lord. It's because I want to be more like Jesus. It's not about my title or this or that. That's not where I put my my identity, is not in these things. No, it's because I do those things as unto God. And you know what happens is as you do things unto God is that he will lift you up. Because we humble ourselves, he will lift you up. If you get your about yourself, he will hold his hand against you to help you. That's the reason why. To help you so that you don't have the pride that comes before the fall. But that all of us are the ones that have to go and emotionally slam, but instead that we walk with the stepping stone, not the stumbling block. Friends, our heart, the what motivates us is the great commission. It's why we have our values and our mission, our vision the way we do. The great commission, you've seen it in Scripture, which speaks to us today. If you don't have this highlighted in your Bible, your tablet, your phone today, highlight this. Put this to memory. This is something that helps should motivate you in your life as well. Matthew 28 says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. He calls us to go and to share with all nations. Friends, that starts right here in our own sphere of influence. Living for God with our friends and family, with those closest to us. And then beyond that, and living our faith in God to others. And then going and telling and taking the world to the nations. All of that still being connected back to Jesus, still being connected back to what he calls us to do. The other motivating factor for us is the great commandment. So the great commission, the great commandment. Matthew 22, verse 36 says this and ask you to highlight this as well. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Think about this. This is everything we do. It's our motivating factor is that we should love God with every part of who we are, with our heart, our soul, our mind, with all that we have, and we shall love our neighbor the way we love ourselves. And you know what? We're pretty good at loving ourselves. That's that pride thing we were just talking about. And since that's true, then we need to be those that love our neighbor and think of them the way we would think about ourselves. That's why whenever we bring that down into kind of a statement, we say that we should love God, we should make disciples, and we should reach the world. That is what those things are, is that we want to be those that go and do what he told us to do and the motivation of why he told us to do it. We're called to those that love God with everything, with all part of who we are. We're called to be those that make disciples the way he charged us to do. And that's we're called to do that not just here, but across the world. Friends, the reason that we do church beyond just the weekend gatherings is that we want to see people be able to grow in their relationship with God.

Life Groups Serving And Stewardship

Jason Brown 33:06

It's why we're about to kick off a new semester of life groups here in just a little bit. In fact, we have life group leader orientation that's coming up this week. I want to encourage you that if you're interested in doing a life group, that you contact us, get in touch with us. We want to see you thrive. But it is those very things that we have those elements of groups that we do connect. It's an opportunity to build a relationship with somebody. I can tell you, there's so many of us in this room that we came to faith first in seeing it in the life of somebody else before we made a decision for Jesus. And that came from living in connection with them, having a relationship with them. The second area is grow groups. It's things that help us in our life after God. It's going after that next level in Him, that step towards Jesus to more of a relationship with Him. Maybe it's a step of faith in some aspect of your walk with God. And that's why grow groups are so pivotal. We encourage you, challenge you to be a part of a grow group. The same is with those serve groups. We know that if you get, if you are someone who serves, you will naturally be someone who does these other things. Why? Because you have given your time for something. How do people know what I'm talking about? Man, we're in the age of DoorDash and every other thing Uber eats across the world. You know, we're in Asia, they use Grab and these other apps. We're in China, use Alibaba and different stuff. And it's like, man, you can get anything to your doorstep pretty quick. And they just green light more drones for DoorDash. So good luck, everybody. All the sky is gonna be taken up with everybody not wanting to go get a burger and have the burger come to their house. And the reason is why, because we understand that it's time. Oh, I don't want to go do that. Oh, I don't want to go do this. Oh, I don't have time for that. When we start start talking about our stewardship with God, we start talking about his priority, it starts to change. And so that's why we want to see us be those who go and serve the Lord with our time as much as we do with our other elements of our stewardship. Amen. Jesus is the cornerstone for our cornerstone

Values That Shape Cornerstone Culture

Jason Brown 35:08

culture. We talk about these seven C statements, and it's things that help guide us, it's what motivates us, it's the way we want to do things. We want to be those with commitment and living in community. We want to be those that are communicating the gospel. We do it with communication, we do it with competence. We want to do stuff where we understand it and do it with a level of excellence. We want to do things with creativity. We want to reach people where they are. And we know God is a creative God. We want to live with that same kind of imagery He's given us as He spoke us into existence with that same creativity. We want to be those motivated by compassion. We want to have a heart to reach those who are in difficult spots. And we do that so many places. We do that through Mercy House, through clothes, uh, through clothing and food at Tia Mika's pantry. We do that through things like Convoy of Hope. We do that through things like OCJ Kids, all of those things and more in being a compassion to those around us. The last is celebration. We want to celebrate with those that are having a celebration. It says the celebrate with those who celebrate, mourn with those who mourn. And friends, we want to be those that that we want to celebrate with the wins of others. We want to celebrate with them and say, Lord, have your way, that you would be victorious in all of our stories. And so when someone has that moment of celebration, let's celebrate with them together. Let's let that be something that resonates with us. And so that's why you see the new signage that we have as you come in. It looks like this next, this next uh frame where it has the different words that are there behind us. And as you walk into the gatherings, whenever you come in the per in the building, you can take a look at these this list and say, wow, Lord, I see how you're doing this in my life. Or Lord, I see how you're doing this in my life. I see where this is active in my life. Lord, help me with this area, or Lord, help me with that area. Friends, all of these things are motivating factors that point us back to that same question about our motivation in God. If we are called to be those who walk in the way of God, then we need to be motivated in Him. When we answer the question, why do you do what you do? We have to decide. Is Jesus going to become a stumbling block or a stepping stone? Friends, Jesus is the cornerstone. Say it with me. Jesus is the cornerstone.

Say Yes To Jesus Today

Jason Brown 37:33

Today we've had this opportunity to look to the scripture and to speak over what Christ has said to us. But there is a question for some in the room that they have to answer, which is have you embraced Jesus? All of us have had to come and to answer this question for ourselves. No one can answer it for you. And since that's true, then each of us has to come to that place of decision with placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The symbol of the cross is so profound, as we talked about earlier, because it's the place where Jesus took all of our sin and all of our shame and all of our brokenness. He took it upon himself and he paid for it once and for all. And in doing so, he became the one that is the holy sacrifice of God. He's the way that we're able to reconnect to the Father. Why? Because we can't earn our way in, we can't do enough good works, we can't do it by following the law. Why? Because we all fall short. So it's only by faith in Jesus Christ and his work for us that we are made in right standing with the Father. So, friends, I would challenge you today that you would accept his sacrifice for you and you would invite him into your heart and life. The scripture says this, Paul writing to the church at Rome, he says, 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 day. It's your opportunity to say yes to Jesus. I'm gonna ask if you're here in the room, if you just stand to your feet and bow your head right where you're at. Friends online, wherever you are, take a moment for what God wants to do in your story. Maybe you're here in the room and you say, Pastor, that's me. I want to make a decision to follow Jesus today. Friends, we're excited with you. And you have had a relationship with Jesus, but you've walked away from living for him. It's become a bunch of stumbling blocks. Friends, instead, let's turn back to Jesus. Invite him back into your heart and life, make him the Lord of your life to live for Jesus. That he would be the stepping stone that he was always supposed to be in your life. As you're here, as Christians are praying, if that's you and you say, Pastor, that's me. I just want to be included in that prayer today. Just raise your hand right where you're at and just say, That's me. I want to invite Christ into my heart and life. I want to make a decision to follow Jesus today. See a hand that's there. Are there others? Are there others? Thank you, Jesus. As people making a decision to follow Jesus, thank you, Lord. Friends online, wherever you are, we know that in the last few weeks people have been making a decision online to make a decision for Jesus. Thank you, Lord. I'm gonna ask if 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 who made a decision for Jesus today. Praise God. Hey, take a moment. If that was you, take a snap of this QR code and follow the next steps. We want you to get involved. We don't want you to do this life alone. We're so excited for those that made a decision in Christ today. Friends, for all of us, we open up this altar to us today that we would come and we'd say, Lord, I need more of you in my life. I need to be in alignment with you. Lord, I need more of your spirit so that I would be obedient and taking that step of faith and whatever you called me to. Oh Lord, I don't want to be someone who slams spiritually. Instead, I want to step up in the step of faith toward what you've called me to do. I want to walk in obedience. All of us need more of his spirit to walk in obedience every day. We all need that to be more like Jesus. So we're going to open up this altar. I challenge every single person. Come and make an altar with God. Draw near to him during this song. Let him speak to you, pour out his spirit upon you. Lord, we thank you so much for this word. And Lord, we thank you how you speak to our hearts. Lord, as we come to the altar today, we do so, Lord, that with you at the corner of our lives and which we build our life off of. That you are the cornerstone, Lord Jesus. And so, Lord, we come with open hearts. Lord, asking for Holy Spirit, you to pour yourself out upon us that we would have an empowerment from God to live for you. Lord, to take that step of faith in what you called us to do. Lord, we are so very thankful. And we pray this name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Next Steps And Final Blessing

Celeste Brown 42:29

If you are interested in leading a life group, we're having a life group orientation tomorrow night. It's going to be online. You can get the Zoom link by signing up through the app. Even if you're interested, just maybe you want to know what it takes to lead a life group. Just join our meeting. It's not committing you to leading one this semester, but maybe it'll give you a thought for next semester. But we're excited about a new season of life groups. So please join us tomorrow night for that meeting.

Jason Brown 42:55

Before we go, we're going 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. Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. Lord, you would empower us by your Spirit to live your love out to those around us. 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.