August 11, 2025 • 47 mins
The voices of the ancient prophets cut through time with surprising clarity for modern hearts. This message explores how Micah, Amos, Joel, and others challenge us with the same core message we desperately need today: return to God, embrace justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.
"Unless God is just, God is not loving." This statement unlocks a profound understanding of God's character that many struggle to reconcile. God's judgment isn't harsh condemnation but loving correction—an invitation to abandon destructive paths and return to relationship with Him. Like parents who redirect children from danger, God's discipline flows from deep love for His people.
Every believer experiences the internal tension humorously captured by the "half Jesus, half Peter" metaphor—wanting to respond with Christ's perfect love while sometimes reacting with Peter's impulsiveness. This struggle reveals why we need daily spiritual nourishment. Just as the Israelites couldn't store manna overnight, we can't live on yesterday's encounters with God. Fresh connection empowers authentic faith that transforms communities.
The message culminates with powerful testimonies of global mission movements and local community impact through Cornerstone's partnership with Mercy House. These tangible expressions of God's love create pathways for people to encounter Jesus. We witness how small steps of obedience lead to supernatural provision beyond rational explanation.
Are you ready to move beyond lip service to authentic relationship with God? The prophets' ancient call echoes today: return to Him, realign your heart, and discover the life-changing power of walking daily with the living God. What small step of obedience is He calling you to take today?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
AI Video (00:00):
All right, all right, settle down everyone.
For those of you who don't knowme, my name is Micah.
I know what you're thinking.
Oh great, another profit video.
Listen, I've seen the videosHosea, Amos, Jonah You've been
through them all now.
They all did a great job.
I mean, the special effects onJonah's whale video were
(00:21):
top-notch.
But here's the thing.
While I appreciate the effortto make us all social media
stars, I have to break characterfor a second here.
The reason those videos workisn't because we're influencers.
It's because the stuff we weretalking about back then is the
same stuff you're dealing withright now.
Justice, mercy, walking humblywith God these aren't just
(00:46):
catchy slogans for a video.
We wrote them down thousands ofyears ago and they're still
just as true today.
We still see people in powerabuse that power.
We still see leaders buildingon the backs of others, and we
still see people giving emptypraise to idols and calling it
worship.
But the real question isn't forthem, it's for us.
(01:08):
It's a heart issue.
It's about how obedient we areto God.
So if you get anything fromthis series, let it be this.
Read them Really.
Read all of the Minor Prophets.
You'll be surprised how muchstill applies.
It's a story about peopletrying to find their way, just
(01:28):
like you, and, believe me, thewisdom in these pages is way
more valuable than any algorithm.
Also, my book is pretty short,so you've got that going for you
, Unlike Isaiah, who reallyneeded an editor.
I mean, come on 66 chapters.
Jason Brown (01:50):
How are you going to say amen to that, amen?
Hey, we want to say thanks toJeremy for making all these.
You know those are all originalvideos that were made just for
this house.
Can you give some praise to Godfor that?
For him using his gifts andabilities.
Thanks you, man, for that, forhim using his gifts and
abilities.
Thanks you, man.
Today we're talking about thisidea of love and grace and
(02:10):
justice.
Love and grace and justice.
We've been talking about theseminor prophets and it's
interesting as we start towrestle with these concepts, and
how many people have beenthankful for the different
voices we've heard over thesedifferent weeks.
Aren't you thankful for thosemessages?
I have been thankful.
I've been blessed as well, andI want to say thank you, special
thanks to Pastor Angus, sharingabout Jonah Did such a great
(02:32):
job with that message and such agreat job with all that he was
sharing, and also want to saythanks to Tyler and Christina
and to Eddie for their wordsthis last week.
They were a blessing as well.
Great job, you guys, so amazing.
And what's interesting as wetalk about these themes of love
and grace and justice is how somany of the prophets the minor
prophets and even the majorprophets.
(02:53):
They're bringing this wordabout correction that God is
bringing to the children ofIsrael, of ancient Israel, and
it's a word of judgment, andjudgment sounds harsh.
It's definitely not somethingthat we want to encounter, right
?
We just want the gracious sideof God.
We don't want any of this otherstuff, and I can tell you that,
as people wrestle with judgment, it's hard.
But I can tell you, unless Godis just, god is not loving.
(03:17):
Unless God is just, god is notloving, because what he's doing,
he's saying that you can getaway with whatever you want,
there is no consequences, andthat's not a real loving God, is
it?
Because he's going to letwhatever go, whichever way, and
so what's going to happeninstead is he's bringing us into
correction with the way that weshould live for him.
(03:38):
It's the reason why, as parents, that we correct our children,
because we love them and wedon't want them to, like, run
out into traffic, right, or anyother thing that would happen.
We love them.
Therefore, we correct them, andthere's a big difference,
because what he's doing is he'sbringing correction, he's not
bringing condemnation, andcondemnation is when there's an
ultimate decision that's madecondemnation.
(04:00):
You are condemned to die,you're condemned forever.
No, what he does is he gives usthe opportunity to respond.
He gives us the opportunity tosay yes to him and to correct
our path.
That's why he'll come alongsideus and Holy Spirit will nudge
us.
He'll bring conviction,different than condemnation.
He'll convict us of how we'regoing wrong so that we can
(04:22):
correct course.
If not, then we can all just dowhatever we want and say well,
you know, god's okay with whatI'm doing.
Does that sound familiar, soundlike our culture at large today
?
And so that's why so much ofthis challenge that we read out
of the Old Testament.
It's still valid today becauseit's the same thing we're
wrestling with now.
(04:43):
So the word of God, it comes tous, saying that he loves us and
that he has a better way for us,and that his message to us that
we see throughout all theseminor prophets, is return to me,
return back to me.
See, he doesn't want us out,running away from his plan or
his path.
In fact, he's saying returnback your heart to me.
And he does it again and again.
(05:04):
And we see the love of God andhow he loves us and how he even
he set apart Israel, showing him, showing them his ways.
He gave them mercy.
He continually gave themanother chance and another
chance, and another chance.
How many people are thankful forthat, for the mercy of God.
I know I am as well, and man.
(05:25):
Here's the thing we're sothankful for God's mercy.
It's real, it's somethingextends to us.
See, none of us is worthy ofanything.
We can't work our way into it.
We can't earn the grace of God.
What could we wear to approachhis throne room?
Or what good works could weprovide for a good God who
creates everything in its purity?
Friends, we have nothing tooffer him.
(05:45):
It talks about in scripturenone is righteous, no, not one.
In Romans, it talks about howall have fallen short of the
glory of God.
All of us are in need of asavior, and so the Lord is
calling out to his people,saying return to me, return to
my path, return to the ways I'veinstructed you, pastor Celeste.
(06:06):
Some weeks ago, she started usout with Micah, as we just saw
in the video, and the theme thatwe saw there we'll talk about
again today here is to dojustice, to love kindness, to
walk humbly, and for us to walkin these ways means that we have
to be doing so withintentionality, that we have to
be those that are going in andfollowing after him, that we
(06:26):
have to be doing so withintentionality, that we have to
be those that are going andfollowing after him, that we're
praying to the Lord daily, thatit's a connection to him, that
we're saying, lord, I wanna beintentional, I wanna be closer
to you, I wanna draw near toyour presence, our family.
We just got back from a generalcouncil, the Assemblies of God.
It's a conference that happensevery two years.
We're pastors of the network ofthe Assemblies of God across
(06:47):
the states and eveninternationally.
Some of our brothers andsisters come, and they come
together to meet together to dothe business of the church, but
also to worship and to hear whatthe message of the Lord would
come to.
And it was unique this yearbecause what they started to do
is they started to combine.
We have lots of teenagers, anational youth conference
happening as well.
So thousands of teenagers arethere and they're competing in
(07:09):
fine arts or using their giftsand their talents, and they're
going and refining those things,and then they're a part of this
youth conference.
And then, on top of that, youhave all of us who are pastors
and missionaries and leaders ofministries across the US coming
together as well, ministriesacross the US coming together as
well, and the word that wentout was powerful because they
were worshiping together youknow, young and old, everyone in
this place and having acommunion moment.
(07:31):
And then the challenge comeswith the word of God talking
about to the pastors and to theleaders in the room, saying
listen, you are not done yetwith what God has for you.
You need to go and to do whatGod has said.
Don't give up, keep going,because you need to hand this
baton off to these young leadersbehind you.
And there was a moment that wasso powerful because what they
(07:51):
had was they had every studentgo up behind a leader and to
place their hand on the leaderand to pray for them, for an
impartation of the spirit of Godand friends.
This is youth students in alltheir glory.
Some junior hires are stinkingit up because they forgot their
deodorant, but what they'redoing is they have a heart after
(08:14):
God and a purity of spirit andthey're praying.
They're praying for animpartation upon these pastors
and I can tell you, as someonewho had someone pray for me,
that in that moment there wassomething that was happening
where God is saying I'm not,you're not done with what I have
for you.
It's.
You need an anointing for thisnext, this next phase of what
we're going to be doing.
You need to do this thing andguess what?
(08:36):
You need to do this work sothat these guys behind you could
finish the job that I have forthis world and friends.
I could tell you it was such apowerful moment to be in, to see
this next generation of youngleaders stepping up and saying,
hey, we are going to live forGod.
We know what the culture says,we're going to live for God,
(08:59):
that he is greater, and I couldtell you this it was powerful as
well, as we went into somemeetings and got to hear from
the heart of our missionsleaders.
We were there and they startedto talk about this challenge
that went out last fall inNairobi, kenya, and it was the
same meeting that I happened tobe at, because we were invited
by our brother, alberto, who's amissionary pastor.
We served with him in Egypt.
He was in Sudan before the warand was able to escape.
(09:21):
You guys heard that story as hepreached it here in our pulpit
and he invited us to go and tomeet with missionary leaders,
people like Pastor Isai that youguys got to meet or saw the
video of, or Pastor Moses out ofChile and different ones that
were making a dynamic impact,and he started to talk about how
there's a need for a greaterneed of the gospel to go forward
.
And in that meeting, godstarted to speak about how every
(09:44):
nation should be empowered tosend out missionaries, and for
some this was a huge challengebecause they were just receiving
missionaries, they weren'tsending missionaries out, and so
for them, it was very much achallenge to them to step up and
to send out missionaries to theworld.
And what we saw was people likePastor Isai, who now they've
been doing it as a model forothers for 20 years and they've
(10:06):
sent out over 50 missionaries,or like the pastors in Argentina
that, even though their economywent upside down and inflation
by 300%, they've sent outhundreds of missionaries saying
we don't care, we know what themission is, we don't care what
the economy says, we know whatthe mission of God is.
And so they, by boldness, gaveand sacrificed to see the world
(10:28):
reached for the gospel, andpeople began to catch fire of
this, and we believe very muchthat the global South is the
future of missions, as everycountry sends missionaries to
every country and what we wantto do is be a part of that.
Pastor Doug Clay he's the pastorof all the pastors for the
assemblies in the US.
He was there and he started toshare of that.
Pastor Doug Clay he's thepastor of all the pastors for
the assemblies in the US.
He was there and he started toshare with us and he said listen
(10:48):
, this is what God has said tome, that we need to be those
that are doing this initiative,that we need to get behind it
and send out missionariesourselves.
And so the national director,john, he got up and he started
to share with us that we have2,600 missionary units, but they
want to increase that by 1,500units here in the next few years
(11:09):
to send out missionaries to theworld.
And that's an amazing challenge, that's a huge piece, and he
felt like he felt like Goddropped that in his heart.
But as pastors and missionaries,we're like wait, wait, wait.
Where's all this money and thismath and all this stuff coming
from right?
And so.
But he started talking aboutand gave us a history that even
during World War I, even duringWorld War II, even during the
(11:29):
downturn of economics in the 70s, every single year we sent more
missionaries because greater isthe cause than the situation
that we're facing.
And so people gave and theysacrificed and they understood
that guess what?
We can do something.
I know what this says, thecircumstances say, but I have a
faith in someone who's greaterthan my circumstances.
And so they gave to seemissionaries go and take the
(11:51):
gospel message to the world,because every tribe, every
tongue will be before the throneroom of God, every people
worshiping the Lord.
And he challenged us as pastors.
He said to us pastors, Ichallenge you that you would be
people that out of yourcongregations there would be
missionaries raised up.
(12:12):
And I can tell you, friends, assomeone who said yes to God, as
someone who went myself as asingle guy and then as a married
guy with a family, as we saidyes together as we left our
family.
Married guy with a family, aswe said yes together as we left
our family, as we left all ofour stuff we had and moved
across the world in just a fewbins, as we did it again to the
Middle East.
You have to say yes to God inthe small things, to say yes to
(12:37):
God in the big things.
And so my challenge to you andto some in this room I believe
it in my heart that there aremissionaries sitting amongst us
now that will say yes to God andtake the challenge to say I
will go, I will be the one thatsays yes, and you have to be
open in your heart to what hewants.
To put that brokenness in yourheart for the people of God, the
(13:01):
brokenness in your heart forthe people that have yet to say
yes to God.
The brokenness in your heartfor people, people that have yet
to say yes to God.
The brokenness in your heartfor people who are far from God
right now, but that you will goand do something about it.
Friends, I believe there arepeople in this room that will
say yes and will take themessage of the gospel to the
ends of the earth.
(13:24):
The word in Jeremiah says thisthe prophet Jeremiah 1.5,.
It says before I formed you inthe womb, I knew you, and before
you were born, I consecratedyou, I appointed you as a
prophet to the nations.
Friends, that's what he saidabout you as well.
He was speaking specificallyJeremiah, but he's saying it to
you as well is that while youwere in your mother's womb, he
(13:47):
knew who you were, that you havevalue, that you have a future,
that you have a purpose and aplan for your life, that he has
anointed you to do things and sothat we are set apart as unto
do it, and I tell you this, thathe has anointed you to do great
things for him.
And so what you understand isthat you have a value already,
that the God of the universe,the creator, god of all things,
(14:09):
knows who you are, he knows yourname, he knows what he's called
you to do, that you would sayyes to God.
And so, as we stood there, wedrove us forward to the front,
and we were there, together andconnected, listening to this
challenge, and we just said, yes, lord, let it be so.
Lord, we want to see your wordgo forward to the world.
(14:30):
We want to see missionaries sayyes to God, to say I will go,
send me.
Would you say amen to that?
See, friends, it's a small yesthat changes the world.
It's a small step of obediencethat changes the world.
It starts right where you are,in your own heart and life.
Then it starts in your ownfamily, in your own sphere of
(14:52):
influence, with your friends,that you can change the world.
And it's by person, by person,and sharing your faith right
where you're at.
It's by sharing it with yourneighbor, sharing it with your
colleague at work, sharing itwith your friend, and it's the
challenge.
It's not beating someone overthe head with a gospel or a
bullhorn on the corner.
No, it's the opposite.
It's the thing where you, byfaith, being prompted by the
(15:12):
Holy Spirit, use the testimonythat the Lord has given you
about the redemptive power ofthe blood of Jesus Christ that
was shed for you, meaning hetook all of your sin and
mistakes and paid for it withhis life.
And as you share that messagewith others around you, they too
get to encounter the living Godin their heart and life.
We say amen to that.
(15:34):
So we talk about this idea ofprophets and we're thinking
about it as we are the ones alsowalking forward with God.
We use this imagery of Jesuswalking with disciples because
we believe that none of us hasarrived, none of us is perfect.
All of us are in need of asavior.
We're all walking where he'sleading us to go.
That's why we talk about hereat Cornerstone, that we want to
(15:55):
be more like Jesus.
Now, if we haven't met, my nameis Jay and I, like you, am on
that journey with Christ.
We want to be those who aremore like him.
We want to love God.
We want to love God, we want tomake disciples, we want to
reach the world, and we do thatcollectively, because we are
stronger than me always, and sowe work together collectively to
(16:15):
be these people, to be thiscommunity of faith.
And that's why we want you guysto be involved.
We want you to say yes tothings like life groups, because
life groups happen.
They're about to start here inSeptember To get involved, not
do life alone, don't do thisthing isolated, but that you
would connect and grow and servethe Lord, amen.
So, as we look back to theseprophets, we pick up here with
(16:38):
this scripture.
Pastor Celeste was sharing it afew weeks ago in Micah 6, verse
8.
If you have your Bible, yourtablet, your phone, if you'd
open it today and highlight this, I want you to go back and read
it, think over it, mold over itin your heart and your daily
devotion.
This week, micah 6, verse 8,says this he has told you, o man
, what is good, and what doesthe Lord require of you?
(16:59):
But to do justice, to love,kindness and to walk humbly with
your God, lord.
We pray over your word today,holy Spirit, that you would make
it alive and Rhema.
Breathe upon it, lord, that youmove through it, lord.
We pray over your word today,holy Spirit, that you would make
it alive in Rhema.
Breathe upon it, lord, that youmove through it, lord, and that
you would draw us to yourself.
We pray in the name of JesusChrist, amen.
(17:22):
Now we talk about this idea oflove and grace and justice, and
that's who we're called to be.
We're called to be these thingsbecause that's who the Lord is.
We're called to be the love ofChrist, and we talk about that.
You know what does it mean ifyou don't do things with love,
as scripture talks about, you'relike a clanging cymbal or a
gong.
You're making a bunch of noise,but you're no good for anybody,
and so that's why we're calledto be the love of Christ.
We're also to be those who walkof God.
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How many people are verythankful for the grace of God?
And so we should also extendthe grace of God to others
around us.
Now that's hard because weoperate off our intentions and
their actions right, but theopposite is true, that you would
want someone to extend thegrace to you.
So therefore, we are called tobe those extended grace to
others.
And you know, javin, we werehanging out yesterday before our
flight back here and we werewalking through a store and as
(18:12):
we walked in the store, javen'slike hey, did you see this guy's
shirt?
I go nah.
So I walked around and talkedto him.
I go hey, man, and I saw hisshirt.
I was like, oh, can I take apicture of your shirt?
He goes what?
And then I walked away and wewere laughing together after he
was kind of laughing and stuff.
This is what his shirt says.
For those who can't see it, orthose on the podcast, says I am
(18:33):
mixed Half Jesus and half Peter.
Run up and see which one youget which.
I thought the shirt was great.
I was like yes, truth, amen,take it.
You know, take an offering.
No, it was just good.
What I love about it is thatstruggle, the tension that's
very visible in this shirt, isone that we all deal with as
(18:53):
Christ followers, because onehalf of us is exactly that we
want to be, you know, doing thejustice and loving with kindness
and walking humbly.
We want to be the love ofChrist and the grace of Christ
and the justice of Christ.
We want to walk by and you knowjust, I love you, friend Right,
all the time.
And the other half of us islike what'd you say to me?
(19:18):
I got a knife Off, goes yourear.
You know what I'm talking about.
Like Peter Garden of Gethsemane.
Anyway, you guys right, andthere's a piece of that tension
that's in us and man.
That's why we need Holy Spiritevery day to help us walk this
thing out, because we know we'renot perfect, we talk about it.
But to be more like Jesus meansthat we need to be active in
this pursuit.
We need to walk in the tensionand I see so many times I've
(19:40):
been guilty of myself, friendsof mine being guilty around them
as well.
You know you're trying to livefor Christ.
Maybe you make a mistake andpeople are over there.
You know you think you'resaying it on the inside.
Sometimes it verbalizes Anybody.
You start talking to yourself alittle bit and I see friends
when they make a mistake andthey're trying to correct their
mistake, but what they end updoing is like not cussing,
cussing, you know, like rats,rats, right.
(20:03):
They're like Joe Pesci on HomeAlone, right, where he's like
not cussing but cussing for surein his heart and like, because
it's like what Paul says, it'slike I do the things I do not
want to do.
And so what I love about thisis that you're aware that you're
making the mistake and you'retrying to correct it, and so,
friends, that's a good thing, sodon't beat yourself up if
(20:23):
that's you.
But instead we're walking thisthing out to be more like Jesus,
less like Peter, less like me,more like Jesus.
And so that's the tension thatwe walk in.
The tension and the frictionthat we're in is that we want to
listen to him so that we can dobetter, so that we can do
justice, we can love kindness,so we can walk humbly before our
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God.
Now, each of these minorprophets they've been talking
about having a heart after God.
That's been the whole focus ofwhat they've been saying.
They're saying return to God,have a heart after God, draw
near to him, obey him, don'tjust pay him lip service and
then don't do what he says,don't go and live for yourself
and your own frivolousness andnot paying attention to things
(21:05):
he called you to do.
It's also talking about beingthose who walk with the
characteristics of God comingoff of our life.
We would say that in the NewTestament, in Galatians, as the
fruit of the spirit, galatians 5.
And it talks about this becauseit's attributes that come off
of our life.
See, I'm all for.
We believe very much in thegifts of the spirit.
That means the word of God andhaving prophecy and having
(21:29):
interpretation, believing indivine healing, believe in it
for sure.
But what I also believe in bigtime is seeing the fruit of the
Spirit come off of your life aswell.
So it's not just the working ofthe gift of the Spirit, it's
also the fruit of the Spirit inyour life.
It's both.
It's not either, or it's andboth amen.
And so we live with thosecharacteristics of God.
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And that's what it means.
Whenever we start to live thisthing out where we live in our
community is we start to have animpact that's greater than what
we can do by ourselves, becauseit's manifest in the power of
the love of God to other people.
That's why I love a few weeksago, whenever we, as being a
part of Mercy House went andhelped over 700 kids have a good
(22:13):
back to school with backpacksand gear.
That's amazing.
I want to say thank you, guys,for giving your tax donation and
giving of missions.
We give out of our missions,our Kingdom Builders, every
month to Mercy House of givingyourself directly to them and
also giving of your time.
We have teachers in this housethat go and teach, help kids
with their after-school tutoring.
(22:34):
We have people in this housethat's right that go and they
volunteer their time on Tuesdaysand Thursdays for Bible study.
We have people who volunteertheir time so they can get food
at the pantry or clothes at thecloset, and we do that because
we believe that the love of Godcan be tangible as much as the
word of God, and we want to seethem go and draw near, respond
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to what we're doing tangibly sothey can have that message, that
life change that really happensas they embrace Jesus.
I'll tell you as you live thisthing out, it returns back to
you dividends in living thisthing for Christ.
We got a chance this week to seesome friends of ours that were
just giving the testimony of God.
That's the Alvarez crew.
They used to be here, part ofCornerstone for years and years,
(23:17):
debbie and Jorge and theirgirls, and we love them so very
much.
And now for years I teasedJorge.
He's an engineer for GE.
He's a very good job.
Debbie, she works in HR Verygood job, all sorts of things.
I tease him forever.
He's a PK.
We come out of similarbackgrounds Surfer kids, you
know kind of knotheads and stuffthat Jesus had to get a hold of
us a little bit, and so weshare that story and I was
(23:40):
always teasing him Like when areyou going to be a pastor, jorge
?
When are you going to be apastor Jorge?
Like teasing him about it.
Now he's still working but he'svolunteering all his time.
He's an associate pastor at hischurch, punto Amor in Florida,
and they're doing great work.
They launched as aSpanish-speaking church, they're
now going into English and Godis blessing their church.
(24:00):
And they're telling me the storyof the miracle and then the
miracle after that one and themiracle after that one.
And, friends, I was justgetting pumped up, I was just
getting.
I was getting pumped up, I wasgetting excited, because that's
how I see our story too is likeman, the miracle.
This person came to faith andthis person got baptized and
this person had life change andthis person found a job and this
person's marriage got put backtogether.
Somebody and this thinghappened in their life and this
(24:22):
child came back to Jesus.
And the miracle, the miracle,the miracle is happening.
And, friends, I was so excitedbecause that's what it means to
live your love for God out whereyou are, in your community.
Now, each one of these prophetshere are talking about how we
need to be those people ofprayer that are praying the will
of God and drawing near to him,understanding who God is and
(24:46):
what he's called us to do.
We looked at some of thesescriptures that friends have
brought up in their sermonsthese past weeks.
We look first here to Joel 1,14, and it talks about having a
heart after God and beingfocused on it.
It says consecrate a fast call,a solemn assembly, gather the
elders and all the inhabitantsof the land to the house of the
Lord, your God, and cry out tothe Lord.
(25:08):
Friends, it's talking us aboutbeing serious in our heart after
God.
What this is saying is thatthey know that they've messed up
, they know that they've brokenGod's heart, they know that they
have been led astray, and sothey're saying let's make a
concerted effort to draw near toGod.
And that's what God is doing.
He's charged these differentones, these different prophets
(25:28):
and the leaders there, to go andto bring a message.
Many of those messages were ahard message because it's saying
to change, to repent.
Zechariah 1, 3 says therefore,say to them thus declares the
Lord of hosts, return to me.
Says the Lord of hosts, and Iwill return to you.
See, it's the very thing thatwe're talking about charging
them with that message ofrepentance.
(25:52):
It's also a perspective on whoGod is.
In Amos 4, it says for behold,he who forms the mountains and
creates the wind and declaresthe man what is his thought, who
makes the morning darkness andtreads on the heights of the
earth.
The Lord, the God of hosts, ishis name.
Somebody say amen to that.
It's giving a perspective thatlisten, this God that you're
(26:15):
trying to pass and push away, heis the creator God.
There is none like him.
There is no other deity, noother spirit, no other entity
that's even close, because he isalone, our God, and so it's
calling us to him and to arepentance, a return to God.
It's a challenge to us that wewould be those that go and say
(26:38):
yes to what he's calling us todo.
Malachi 2.8 says it like thisbut you have turned aside from
the way, meaning the way of God.
You have caused many to stumbleby your instruction.
You've corrupted the covenantof Levi, says the Lord of hosts.
See, he's coming against theseleaders saying listen, you have
gone another way.
You're not putting intoalignment the things I gave to
(27:00):
you to do.
He's challenging them to comeback to the way of God.
Haggai 1, verse 2, says thisthus says the Lord of hosts
these people say the time hasnot yet come to rebuild the
house of the Lord.
See, they knew what God hadtold them to do.
They didn't want to do it.
You ever had something that youfelt God challenged you to do,
(27:23):
but you didn't want to do it, soyou pushed it off.
See, that's called disobedience, and I could tell you, because
I've been there and where God islike hey, I want you to do this
.
I'm like God, I'm already beinggood, I'm already a pastor over
here.
Look at me.
He's like cool, I told you todo this.
Like it's not time for that.
(27:45):
Yet God, he's like really, I'mGod.
Who are you?
I don't know you Like.
It's not time for that.
Yet God he's like really I'mGod, who are you?
I don't know you.
Anybody getting it yet?
Me too, me too, the challengeto us to adjust what we're doing
.
See, he wants us to speak toculture.
We know this culture that we'rein.
It's a fallen world.
We're broken people, we makemistakes because that's our
(28:06):
nature.
But what he wants us to do isrun against that and be the life
and the love of Christ, lightin the dark places, spiritually.
The word of God says this inAmos 5,.
It says seek good and not evilthat you may live, and so the
Lord, the God of hosts, will bewith you.
As you have said, hate evil andlove good and establish justice
(28:26):
in the gate.
It may be that the Lord, theGod of hosts, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.
Friends, that's what we'retalking about is that we would
be those that are good and notevil, that where we live in our
community and what we putourselves to do, that we would
be in alignment with those whoare Christ followers and not
fallen people.
(28:48):
That's why so often and I couldtell you as a pastor's kid
growing up in church, I hatedchurch people because church
people were hypocrites, and Iwas one of them too.
Now, I didn't judge myself as ahypocrite because I had
intention to be good, but was Ibeing good?
No, no, no, it was not beinggood, but I meant to be good.
(29:13):
But I saw other people doingexactly what I was doing and I
judged them.
Because can you believe theycall themselves a Christian and
do that?
Don't we?
Don't we?
But, friends, here's the thing,what we realize all of us have
fallen short of the glory of God.
None is righteous no, not one.
(29:35):
So all of us are in need of asavior.
All of us are not perfect.
All of us are trying to livefor Jesus.
All of us are trying to dobetter every day, and that's why
the challenge is for everysingle one of us to change what
we're doing and come intoalignment with God.
Friends, my word for you and Ido this humbly my word for you
(30:01):
is to change what you're doingand go after the things of God.
Each one of us, before we setfoot in this room or under the
sound of my voice on a video, weknow what he's talking to us
about doing and what we have notdone.
(30:21):
We know where he's challengingus to step out in faith or be
obedient in something, and wehave not done it.
Friends, change what you'redoing and return to God the
thing, the answer you're lookingfor, the best thing that you're
trying to buy a self-help bookfor, and all the other things
that we try to fix ourselves indoing.
(30:42):
If you return it to God, thealignment with all those things
will start to get set into placeand we walk in the will of God
and the things of God, so thatwe don't have to be corrected,
we don't have to be slappedaside our head spiritually, but
that we walk in the way and inthe will of God and we'll
experience the peace of God thatpasses all understanding.
(31:06):
Now, these prophets, as theyspeak to us, it's something
that's you know.
I can relate with them.
They're very much people thatare bringing a message that
they're heartbroken.
What God's saying is going tobring judgment on their people,
on Judah, on Israel.
He's going to bring in Babylonor Assyria to take them away.
They're heartbroken from themoment and you can understand,
you can connect with them andsay, wow, I too would be
(31:28):
heartbroken if I knew there wasgoing to be this imminent danger
, this imminent destruction thathappens to my homeland, that
happens to my neighborhood, thathappens to my people.
At the same time, you haveothers that they're there and
they're complaining.
They're complaining becausethey don't want to go and tell
the people the bad news.
Right, you have some of this,different ones that are
(31:49):
complaining to God.
They're like God of this.
You, different ones that arecomplaining to God.
They're like God, right, andnone of us ever say it like that
, right.
We say oh God, when we shouldbe saying oh God, see, it's all
in your voice on whether or notyou're complaining.
Any of you guys complain to God.
Only a couple of us that arebeing honest.
Lord, you see the hands thatare there as I step back from
(32:11):
the lightning.
No, I'm just joking.
I'm with you guys, but that'sthe thing.
Is that man?
So many times we're complainingoh God.
Why am I here?
Why are you letting this happen?
He's like did you do what Itold you to do?
Are you being what I called youto be?
Are you making wise decisionsthat I've guided you to do?
Why did I give you the HolySpirit?
(32:35):
If you're not listening,anybody Somebody Online you guys
know what I'm talking about.
Praise the Lord, friends thatwe would change our complaining
into a cry of Lord, help me,instead of Lord.
Why are you doing this?
No, lord, oh Lord, my God, helpme.
And you see the other side ofthis.
With some of the prophets evenas Pastor Angus gave a good
example of this with Jonah theywere just outright disobedient
to God.
You know, he told them hey, goand talk to Nineveh.
(32:57):
He hated the Ninevites, so hewas like I'm not talking to them
.
He took the fastest andfurthest boat away to get away
from what God called him to do.
And so you know it'sinteresting because you can
connect with that idea how it's,like man, there are people that
they have been called by God,they've been given a mission and
they run away from what God hascalled them to do.
Hi, I'm Jay, I'm one of thosepeople.
(33:19):
Good to meet you, hi there,good to meet you.
And God calls them back andbrings them back by all sorts of
circumstances to get him backinto alignment.
And what I could tell you aboutthis, friends, is that the God
of the universe, he will see toit that these ones that have
that installation of the word ofGod in their heart.
They won't be happy in theworld because they know where
the real source of happinesscomes from.
(33:40):
It's only from the Lord, god,and they won't have any
satisfaction in the things thatthey accomplish, even though
they're very successful.
It'll be very empty because weare praying the prayer of no
satisfaction of the things ofthe world over their life.
We want them to be called backinto relationship with God
because he is the only eternalsource of happiness.
(34:01):
Absolutely.
Would you say yes to that?
And so we believe for the sonsand daughters to be brought back
in as prodigals, back to afaith in God.
Somebody say yes to that, andso what we talk about is
believing the same thing, thatwe would not be disobedient.
Be obedient to what God has forus.
You see, some of these guys.
(34:21):
They're actually just confusedon what God had them to do.
Some of them need to act outbizarre scenes and kind of give
a demonstration.
Another one of the prophets hewas called to go and marry an
unfaithful woman and keepbringing her back, pay for her
debts, even though she wasunfaithful, because this was
what God was giving is justdemonstration of how he is with
(34:41):
the children of Israel.
We talked last week.
Tyler shared with us about theemo, the emo prophets that were
emotional and whiny and kind ofwas like oh, kind of rock in the
you know mid 2000s, you knowscreaming infidelities.
You guys get the idea Veryemotional.
Meanwhile you have some that aregoing in there and have to
(35:04):
stand with resolve and face thevery flames that if you don't
give up then you're going to dieand there'd be like, if God
doesn't save us, that's okay,we're going to still stand for
God alone and that the Lord, herescues them from the flames.
Again, daniel, he has to facethe lions.
They said we're going to throwyou in the lions if you don't
stop praying to your God.
He's like I'm praying to my God, that's the only one I'm
(35:26):
praying to, and I'll face thelions and the Lord shut the
lion's mouths.
We see that there's so many.
One after another, afteranother.
They face difficult things andI can tell you that this is the
same challenge that each one ofus has is that we too are called
to face difficult things,because greater is he that's in
us than he that's in the world.
(35:47):
And we are not alone when weface difficult things.
And there's such a great wordthat came from Pastor Aaron
Burke.
He pastors a church calledRadiant in Florida.
He was sharing with us at achurch multiplication network
conference dinner that we hadand he's sharing with us about
this concept that he's beenworking really hard and he felt
like man I have this plan, I'mworking my plan.
And God had been blessing theirchurch, their multi-site,
(36:09):
thousands of people, peoplehaving life change, people
getting baptized.
It's awesome, great things.
And he's like man, I'm planning, I'm planning, I'm like if I
get to this marker, then I canjust coast and I can just retire
and kick back.
And he felt like he got slappedby the Holy Spirit.
Because the Holy Spirit hassaid to him why do you think
(36:30):
that you go and you're putthrough, or that you have to
walk through difficult things?
Why do you think that is?
It's because I'm refining youin the process for things in the
future, and not just that.
But you think that now you'vebeen through some difficult
things, now you're a survivor ofit by my hand and power in your
life.
What do you think I need you todo in the future?
(36:53):
I need you to do even moredifficult things Because,
friends, it's not about now,it's about eternity with him and
it's about people knowing theliving God and it's about being
after his work and his business.
He said guess what?
We are those who go throughdifficult things because greater
is he that's in us than hethat's in the world that we are
(37:14):
overcomers in the living God.
We are sons and daughters ofthe most high God.
So that means in yourcircumstances and in mine, when
he has not left us alone in thevalley of the shadow of death,
when he has walked with us allthe way, even carried us as you
see in your grandma's bathroomfootprints in the sand.
He's taking us to this nextplace as a refinement because he
(37:41):
wants to do greater things withyou in the future, not lesser
things, greater things.
He wants to work some of thisstuff out, that's in your life,
so that you can do the nextthing and he can elevate that
platform and give you morerapport with other people.
He can bring up another set ofpeople in behind you because now
they're learning from yourmistakes and not having to make
those mistakes themselves.
(38:02):
The Lord, help us to be thosewho trust him and return to God.
Today we look at this idea andwe understand the first thing
that starts returning to God isin our core.
It's inside who we are.
We have to get it down deepthat you have to say I am going
to live for God, for me.
Not I give lip service to it orI just look like I am on the
(38:26):
outside to my church friends.
No, I am going to live for Godand his purposes.
As for me and my house, we willserve the Lord when we make
that decision.
Well, guess what?
Now we get to be an impact inculture.
We get to be the love of Godwhere we go.
We get to challenge thingsbecause we're living against a
fallen culture.
We get to live for God andstand up with boldness and I
(38:47):
don't mean bombastically, I meanstand up with boldness because
we know it's the right thing todo, live justly and not just
that.
But we don't do it one day, wedo it with consistency.
And when we start to do it withconsistency, it means every day
.
Any one of us can do it for aday, but to do it every day
(39:10):
means you have to be walkingwith God and the power of God to
live for him.
And that's why that prayer thatwe pray every day is give us
today our daily bread.
It's our daily bread.
It's the same thing we learnedabout whenever the Lord
liberated the children of Israelout of Egypt and through the
Red Sea and did all the miracles.
They were out in the desertwith no food and he gave them
(39:33):
manna from heaven.
It only lasted for the day.
Only on the Sabbath would itlast for more than one.
They could gather it up.
It would spoil.
Why?
Because we can't live onyesterday's experience with God.
We can't live on yesterday'sexperience, last week's
experience.
Our good life group that we'rea part of.
We can't live on yesterday'sexperience, last week's
experience.
(39:53):
Our good life group that we'rea part of, we can't live off
that either.
Guess what we have to have thedaily bread, the daily time with
God, an impartation of hisspirit so that we really can be
these things, so we can dojustice, love, kindness, walk
humbly before our God Friends.
That's what it means to be thelove, grace and justice of God.
(40:15):
That's what it means for us toembrace it as well, and it all
starts with repentance, itstarts with returning to him.
When we repent of all thesethings, we say, lord, if there's
anything in my life thatseparates me from you, lord.
I want to change it.
Lord, I want to draw near toyou.
I want to do what you've calledme to do.
I want to go public with myfaith.
(40:35):
I want to use my testimony forothers.
You'll see, what happens is,whenever you're obedient to be
that one and to be the repentant, to be more like Jesus, the
provision of God will outpaceyou in a way that is not even
rational because it'ssupernatural, and that's what we
see so often Today, as we cometo this altar.
(40:56):
We do so, and my challenge toyou is this that if you're
someone here and you need moreof the spirit of God to live
successfully for him, if you'resomeone here that needs guidance
, needs direction, if you'resomeone here that needs a
provision of God, you needguidance in your relationship,
you need help at your work.
If you're someone here that hassomething separating you from
(41:18):
the Lord, that you would comeand you would make an altar with
God, that you would come anddraw near to him, because each
one of us, we're called tosomething greater.
We're anointed for somethinggreater.
We are set apart for the thingshe has called for, but we have
to be those that first return toGod and draw near to him.
(41:42):
Today we have this opportunityas well to invite Christ into
our heart and life.
Maybe you're here and you'venever made a decision to follow
Jesus.
You're seeing people go publicwith their faith and you're like
, wow, these people are serious.
And you're hearing thischallenge that comes from the
minor prophets and you're like,man, there's really a better way
to live.
Today is your opportunity toinvite Christ into your heart
(42:05):
and life.
You have to answer thatquestion of have you embraced
Jesus?
So each one of us has had tomake that decision for ourselves
.
No one can make it for you notyour friend, your neighbor, your
spouse, your mama.
It's yours and that's why wesee the symbol of the cross is
so powerful.
The symbol of the cross iswhere Jesus came and he took all
(42:27):
the sin of the world.
Though he didn't sin, he tookall of our sin, all of our
mistakes, all of our brokenness.
He took it upon himself andwhen he did, he paid for all of
our sin upon the cross with hislife.
And as he was nailed to thecross, that sin was nailed there
and it died there as he died.
The amazing thing about Jesusis that he is not dead, he is
(42:52):
alive, and that's why we have aliving relationship with the
living God.
It's not some ancient deitythat we're worshiping and trying
to follow some rules.
No, friends, we are in anactive relationship with the
living God and that's why we sayJesus, I believe you are who
you say you are Lord.
I invite you into my life.
I ask you to forgive me of mysin.
Lord, I want to belong to you.
(43:13):
I want to be more like you.
The Apostle Paul.
He writes to the church at Rome.
He says it like this because ifyou confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord and believein your heart that God raised
Friends, today is your day.
It's your opportunity to sayyes to Jesus, to invite him into
(43:43):
your heart and life and tofollow him for the rest of your
life.
I'm going to ask everyone inthe room if you would stand to
your feet, bow your heads.
Where you're at, as Christiansare praying, people are making
decisions to follow Jesus.
Many hands in the first servicemaking decision to follow Jesus
today.
So very thankful.
Friends online, wherever youare under the sound of my voice,
(44:05):
you're at work, you'retraveling, you're out and about,
take a moment to what God wantsto do and just respond to Him
today.
It says you're about here inthe room.
If that's you, you say Pastor,that's me.
I want to make a decision tofollow Jesus today.
I want to invite Him into myheart and life, maybe for the
(44:27):
very first time, or maybe evenliving away from him, and you
just need to come back to him,recommit back to him.
If that's you, if you justraise your hand right where
you're at and say Pastor, that'sme.
I just want to make a decisionto follow Christ.
We see the hands that are here,hands.
That's Thank you, jesus.
Others make a decision to followJesus.
Thank you, lord.
Thank you, lord.
His hands are raised.
(44:47):
Thank you, god.
Thank you, god.
You put your hands down.
I'm going to ask if everyonewould they pray this prayer out
loud after me.
Lord, thank you for loving me.
Thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
(45:09):
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 youmaking a decision to follow
Jesus today.
Those that raised their handtoday amazing, amazing, hey,
(45:30):
connect with us.
We want to be able to putmaterials into your hands so
you'd be successful, living forJesus.
If you're online, hey, messageus.
We don't want you to live thislife alone.
Today, as we respond to thisaltar, we do so with a heart
after God.
We draw near to him.
If so, with a heart after God,we draw near to him.
If there's anything whereyou're just like Lord, I need
more of you.
I need more of you in my life.
I need more of your spirit,more of your provision direction
(45:56):
.
I need you in my family.
I need you in my workplace.
If that's you or maybe you'resomeone saying you know, there's
been something separating mefrom God I just need to come and
to make that altar with God.
We open up this altar to you.
I challenge you today thateveryone would come and make an
altar with God.
Lord, we thank you for thisword.
We thank you, lord, forspeaking to us through your
prophets and Lord, speaking tous through our word and making
it alive in us.
Lord, we thank you that youchallenge us, lord, not to stay
(46:16):
still, but, lord, that you loveus enough to bring justice.
You love us enough, lord, tobring correction to us, lord, so
we can walk in your way, lord,so we're not condemned for
eternity away from you, butinstead, lord, that we walk in
step with you, in a livingrelationship with you.
Lord, that we come today forour daily bread, lord, for our
daily impartation of your Spirit.
(46:37):
Lord, as you pour yourself outso richly upon us, lord, we come
and we make an altar with you,lord, today.
Thank you for your peace andyour provision, for your
anointing Lord in your hand uponus as we come.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Celeste Brown (46:51):
What a great Sunday.
I want to invite you.
We're having party with thepastor immediately following
this service.
So if you are new or you'vebeen coming for the last several
weeks and we have not gotten tomeet you, our team will be in
there.
It's on the east side of thebuilding.
There's a hallway and aconference room.
Come and join us.
It's very informal.
We just want to put a face anda name together.
If you have children, Iencourage you to go and grab
them first and then come andjoin us.
Jason Brown (47:13):
Amen.
There's lots and lots of goodthings happening, so I want to
encourage you to get involvedwith those things and be a part
of them.
Amen, before we go, I want topray this blessing over us the
Lord bless you and keep you.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
(47:34):
Lord, lift up his countenanceupon you and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
Lord, do empower us by yourspirit to live your love out to
those around us.
I pray all this in the powerfulname that is Jesus Christ.
Amen, amen.
Know this.
We love you very much here atCornerstone.
God bless you and have a greatweek.
All right, all right, settle down everyone.
For those of you who don't knowme, my name is Micah.
I know what you're thinking.
Oh great, another profit video.
Listen, I've seen the videosHosea, Amos, Jonah You've been
through them all now.
They all did a great job.
I mean, the special effects onJonah's whale video were
(00:21):
top-notch.
But here's the thing.
While I appreciate the effortto make us all social media
stars, I have to break characterfor a second here.
The reason those videos workisn't because we're influencers.
It's because the stuff we weretalking about back then is the
same stuff you're dealing withright now.
Justice, mercy, walking humblywith God these aren't just
(00:46):
catchy slogans for a video.
We wrote them down thousands ofyears ago and they're still
just as true today.
We still see people in powerabuse that power.
We still see leaders buildingon the backs of others, and we
still see people giving emptypraise to idols and calling it
worship.
But the real question isn't forthem, it's for us.
(01:08):
It's a heart issue.
It's about how obedient we areto God.
So if you get anything fromthis series, let it be this.
Read them Really.
Read all of the Minor Prophets.
You'll be surprised how muchstill applies.
It's a story about peopletrying to find their way, just
(01:28):
like you, and, believe me, thewisdom in these pages is way
more valuable than any algorithm.
Also, my book is pretty short,so you've got that going for you
, Unlike Isaiah, who reallyneeded an editor.
I mean, come on 66 chapters.
Jason Brown (01:50):
How are you going to say amen to that, amen?
Hey, we want to say thanks toJeremy for making all these.
You know those are all originalvideos that were made just for
this house.
Can you give some praise to Godfor that?
For him using his gifts andabilities.
Thanks you, man, for that, forhim using his gifts and
abilities.
Thanks you, man.
Today we're talking about thisidea of love and grace and
(02:10):
justice.
Love and grace and justice.
We've been talking about theseminor prophets and it's
interesting as we start towrestle with these concepts, and
how many people have beenthankful for the different
voices we've heard over thesedifferent weeks.
Aren't you thankful for thosemessages?
I have been thankful.
I've been blessed as well, andI want to say thank you, special
thanks to Pastor Angus, sharingabout Jonah Did such a great
(02:32):
job with that message and such agreat job with all that he was
sharing, and also want to saythanks to Tyler and Christina
and to Eddie for their wordsthis last week.
They were a blessing as well.
Great job, you guys, so amazing.
And what's interesting as wetalk about these themes of love
and grace and justice is how somany of the prophets the minor
prophets and even the majorprophets.
(02:53):
They're bringing this wordabout correction that God is
bringing to the children ofIsrael, of ancient Israel, and
it's a word of judgment, andjudgment sounds harsh.
It's definitely not somethingthat we want to encounter, right
?
We just want the gracious sideof God.
We don't want any of this otherstuff, and I can tell you that,
as people wrestle with judgment, it's hard.
But I can tell you, unless Godis just, god is not loving.
(03:17):
Unless God is just, god is notloving, because what he's doing,
he's saying that you can getaway with whatever you want,
there is no consequences, andthat's not a real loving God, is
it?
Because he's going to letwhatever go, whichever way, and
so what's going to happeninstead is he's bringing us into
correction with the way that weshould live for him.
(03:38):
It's the reason why, as parents, that we correct our children,
because we love them and wedon't want them to, like, run
out into traffic, right, or anyother thing that would happen.
We love them.
Therefore, we correct them, andthere's a big difference,
because what he's doing is he'sbringing correction, he's not
bringing condemnation, andcondemnation is when there's an
ultimate decision that's madecondemnation.
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You are condemned to die,you're condemned forever.
No, what he does is he gives usthe opportunity to respond.
He gives us the opportunity tosay yes to him and to correct
our path.
That's why he'll come alongsideus and Holy Spirit will nudge
us.
He'll bring conviction,different than condemnation.
He'll convict us of how we'regoing wrong so that we can
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correct course.
If not, then we can all just dowhatever we want and say well,
you know, god's okay with whatI'm doing.
Does that sound familiar, soundlike our culture at large today
?
And so that's why so much ofthis challenge that we read out
of the Old Testament.
It's still valid today becauseit's the same thing we're
wrestling with now.
(04:43):
So the word of God, it comes tous, saying that he loves us and
that he has a better way for us,and that his message to us that
we see throughout all theseminor prophets, is return to me,
return back to me.
See, he doesn't want us out,running away from his plan or
his path.
In fact, he's saying returnback your heart to me.
And he does it again and again.
(05:04):
And we see the love of God andhow he loves us and how he even
he set apart Israel, showing him, showing them his ways.
He gave them mercy.
He continually gave themanother chance and another
chance, and another chance.
How many people are thankful forthat, for the mercy of God.
I know I am as well, and man.
(05:25):
Here's the thing we're sothankful for God's mercy.
It's real, it's somethingextends to us.
See, none of us is worthy ofanything.
We can't work our way into it.
We can't earn the grace of God.
What could we wear to approachhis throne room?
Or what good works could weprovide for a good God who
creates everything in its purity?
Friends, we have nothing tooffer him.
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It talks about in scripturenone is righteous, no, not one.
In Romans, it talks about howall have fallen short of the
glory of God.
All of us are in need of asavior, and so the Lord is
calling out to his people,saying return to me, return to
my path, return to the ways I'veinstructed you, pastor Celeste.
(06:06):
Some weeks ago, she started usout with Micah, as we just saw
in the video, and the theme thatwe saw there we'll talk about
again today here is to dojustice, to love kindness, to
walk humbly, and for us to walkin these ways means that we have
to be doing so withintentionality, that we have to
be those that are going in andfollowing after him, that we
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have to be doing so withintentionality, that we have to
be those that are going andfollowing after him, that we're
praying to the Lord daily, thatit's a connection to him, that
we're saying, lord, I wanna beintentional, I wanna be closer
to you, I wanna draw near toyour presence, our family.
We just got back from a generalcouncil, the Assemblies of God.
It's a conference that happensevery two years.
We're pastors of the network ofthe Assemblies of God across
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the states and eveninternationally.
Some of our brothers andsisters come, and they come
together to meet together to dothe business of the church, but
also to worship and to hear whatthe message of the Lord would
come to.
And it was unique this yearbecause what they started to do
is they started to combine.
We have lots of teenagers, anational youth conference
happening as well.
So thousands of teenagers arethere and they're competing in
(07:09):
fine arts or using their giftsand their talents, and they're
going and refining those things,and then they're a part of this
youth conference.
And then, on top of that, youhave all of us who are pastors
and missionaries and leaders ofministries across the US coming
together as well, ministriesacross the US coming together as
well, and the word that wentout was powerful because they
were worshiping together youknow, young and old, everyone in
this place and having acommunion moment.
(07:31):
And then the challenge comeswith the word of God talking
about to the pastors and to theleaders in the room, saying
listen, you are not done yetwith what God has for you.
You need to go and to do whatGod has said.
Don't give up, keep going,because you need to hand this
baton off to these young leadersbehind you.
And there was a moment that wasso powerful because what they
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had was they had every studentgo up behind a leader and to
place their hand on the leaderand to pray for them, for an
impartation of the spirit of Godand friends.
This is youth students in alltheir glory.
Some junior hires are stinkingit up because they forgot their
deodorant, but what they'redoing is they have a heart after
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God and a purity of spirit andthey're praying.
They're praying for animpartation upon these pastors
and I can tell you, as someonewho had someone pray for me,
that in that moment there wassomething that was happening
where God is saying I'm not,you're not done with what I have
for you.
It's.
You need an anointing for thisnext, this next phase of what
we're going to be doing.
You need to do this thing andguess what?
(08:36):
You need to do this work sothat these guys behind you could
finish the job that I have forthis world and friends.
I could tell you it was such apowerful moment to be in, to see
this next generation of youngleaders stepping up and saying,
hey, we are going to live forGod.
We know what the culture says,we're going to live for God,
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that he is greater, and I couldtell you this it was powerful as
well, as we went into somemeetings and got to hear from
the heart of our missionsleaders.
We were there and they startedto talk about this challenge
that went out last fall inNairobi, kenya, and it was the
same meeting that I happened tobe at, because we were invited
by our brother, alberto, who's amissionary pastor.
We served with him in Egypt.
He was in Sudan before the warand was able to escape.
(09:21):
You guys heard that story as hepreached it here in our pulpit
and he invited us to go and tomeet with missionary leaders,
people like Pastor Isai that youguys got to meet or saw the
video of, or Pastor Moses out ofChile and different ones that
were making a dynamic impact,and he started to talk about how
there's a need for a greaterneed of the gospel to go forward
.
And in that meeting, godstarted to speak about how every
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nation should be empowered tosend out missionaries, and for
some this was a huge challengebecause they were just receiving
missionaries, they weren'tsending missionaries out, and so
for them, it was very much achallenge to them to step up and
to send out missionaries to theworld.
And what we saw was people likePastor Isai, who now they've
been doing it as a model forothers for 20 years and they've
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sent out over 50 missionaries,or like the pastors in Argentina
that, even though their economywent upside down and inflation
by 300%, they've sent outhundreds of missionaries saying
we don't care, we know what themission is, we don't care what
the economy says, we know whatthe mission of God is.
And so they, by boldness, gaveand sacrificed to see the world
(10:28):
reached for the gospel, andpeople began to catch fire of
this, and we believe very muchthat the global South is the
future of missions, as everycountry sends missionaries to
every country and what we wantto do is be a part of that.
Pastor Doug Clay he's the pastorof all the pastors for the
assemblies in the US.
He was there and he started toshare of that.
Pastor Doug Clay he's thepastor of all the pastors for
the assemblies in the US.
He was there and he started toshare with us and he said listen
(10:48):
, this is what God has said tome, that we need to be those
that are doing this initiative,that we need to get behind it
and send out missionariesourselves.
And so the national director,john, he got up and he started
to share with us that we have2,600 missionary units, but they
want to increase that by 1,500units here in the next few years
(11:09):
to send out missionaries to theworld.
And that's an amazing challenge, that's a huge piece, and he
felt like he felt like Goddropped that in his heart.
But as pastors and missionaries,we're like wait, wait, wait.
Where's all this money and thismath and all this stuff coming
from right?
And so.
But he started talking aboutand gave us a history that even
during World War I, even duringWorld War II, even during the
(11:29):
downturn of economics in the 70s, every single year we sent more
missionaries because greater isthe cause than the situation
that we're facing.
And so people gave and theysacrificed and they understood
that guess what?
We can do something.
I know what this says, thecircumstances say, but I have a
faith in someone who's greaterthan my circumstances.
And so they gave to seemissionaries go and take the
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gospel message to the world,because every tribe, every
tongue will be before the throneroom of God, every people
worshiping the Lord.
And he challenged us as pastors.
He said to us pastors, Ichallenge you that you would be
people that out of yourcongregations there would be
missionaries raised up.
(12:12):
And I can tell you, friends, assomeone who said yes to God, as
someone who went myself as asingle guy and then as a married
guy with a family, as we saidyes together as we left our
family.
Married guy with a family, aswe said yes together as we left
our family, as we left all ofour stuff we had and moved
across the world in just a fewbins, as we did it again to the
Middle East.
You have to say yes to God inthe small things, to say yes to
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God in the big things.
And so my challenge to you andto some in this room I believe
it in my heart that there aremissionaries sitting amongst us
now that will say yes to God andtake the challenge to say I
will go, I will be the one thatsays yes, and you have to be
open in your heart to what hewants.
To put that brokenness in yourheart for the people of God, the
(13:01):
brokenness in your heart forthe people that have yet to say
yes to God.
The brokenness in your heartfor people, people that have yet
to say yes to God.
The brokenness in your heartfor people who are far from God
right now, but that you will goand do something about it.
Friends, I believe there arepeople in this room that will
say yes and will take themessage of the gospel to the
ends of the earth.
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The word in Jeremiah says thisthe prophet Jeremiah 1.5,.
It says before I formed you inthe womb, I knew you, and before
you were born, I consecratedyou, I appointed you as a
prophet to the nations.
Friends, that's what he saidabout you as well.
He was speaking specificallyJeremiah, but he's saying it to
you as well is that while youwere in your mother's womb, he
(13:47):
knew who you were, that you havevalue, that you have a future,
that you have a purpose and aplan for your life, that he has
anointed you to do things and sothat we are set apart as unto
do it, and I tell you this, thathe has anointed you to do great
things for him.
And so what you understand isthat you have a value already,
that the God of the universe,the creator, god of all things,
(14:09):
knows who you are, he knows yourname, he knows what he's called
you to do, that you would sayyes to God.
And so, as we stood there, wedrove us forward to the front,
and we were there, together andconnected, listening to this
challenge, and we just said, yes, lord, let it be so.
Lord, we want to see your wordgo forward to the world.
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We want to see missionaries sayyes to God, to say I will go,
send me.
Would you say amen to that?
See, friends, it's a small yesthat changes the world.
It's a small step of obediencethat changes the world.
It starts right where you are,in your own heart and life.
Then it starts in your ownfamily, in your own sphere of
(14:52):
influence, with your friends,that you can change the world.
And it's by person, by person,and sharing your faith right
where you're at.
It's by sharing it with yourneighbor, sharing it with your
colleague at work, sharing itwith your friend, and it's the
challenge.
It's not beating someone overthe head with a gospel or a
bullhorn on the corner.
No, it's the opposite.
It's the thing where you, byfaith, being prompted by the
(15:12):
Holy Spirit, use the testimonythat the Lord has given you
about the redemptive power ofthe blood of Jesus Christ that
was shed for you, meaning hetook all of your sin and
mistakes and paid for it withhis life.
And as you share that messagewith others around you, they too
get to encounter the living Godin their heart and life.
We say amen to that.
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So we talk about this idea ofprophets and we're thinking
about it as we are the ones alsowalking forward with God.
We use this imagery of Jesuswalking with disciples because
we believe that none of us hasarrived, none of us is perfect.
All of us are in need of asavior.
We're all walking where he'sleading us to go.
That's why we talk about hereat Cornerstone, that we want to
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be more like Jesus.
Now, if we haven't met, my nameis Jay and I, like you, am on
that journey with Christ.
We want to be those who aremore like him.
We want to love God.
We want to love God, we want tomake disciples, we want to
reach the world, and we do thatcollectively, because we are
stronger than me always, and sowe work together collectively to
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be these people, to be thiscommunity of faith.
And that's why we want you guysto be involved.
We want you to say yes tothings like life groups, because
life groups happen.
They're about to start here inSeptember To get involved, not
do life alone, don't do thisthing isolated, but that you
would connect and grow and servethe Lord, amen.
So, as we look back to theseprophets, we pick up here with
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this scripture.
Pastor Celeste was sharing it afew weeks ago in Micah 6, verse
8.
If you have your Bible, yourtablet, your phone, if you'd
open it today and highlight this, I want you to go back and read
it, think over it, mold over itin your heart and your daily
devotion.
This week, micah 6, verse 8,says this he has told you, o man
, what is good, and what doesthe Lord require of you?
(16:59):
But to do justice, to love,kindness and to walk humbly with
your God, lord.
We pray over your word today,holy Spirit, that you would make
it alive and Rhema.
Breathe upon it, lord, that youmove through it, lord.
We pray over your word today,holy Spirit, that you would make
it alive in Rhema.
Breathe upon it, lord, that youmove through it, lord, and that
you would draw us to yourself.
We pray in the name of JesusChrist, amen.
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Now we talk about this idea oflove and grace and justice, and
that's who we're called to be.
We're called to be these thingsbecause that's who the Lord is.
We're called to be the love ofChrist, and we talk about that.
You know what does it mean ifyou don't do things with love,
as scripture talks about, you'relike a clanging cymbal or a
gong.
You're making a bunch of noise,but you're no good for anybody,
and so that's why we're calledto be the love of Christ.
We're also to be those who walkof God.
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How many people are verythankful for the grace of God?
And so we should also extendthe grace of God to others
around us.
Now that's hard because weoperate off our intentions and
their actions right, but theopposite is true, that you would
want someone to extend thegrace to you.
So therefore, we are called tobe those extended grace to
others.
And you know, javin, we werehanging out yesterday before our
flight back here and we werewalking through a store and as
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we walked in the store, javen'slike hey, did you see this guy's
shirt?
I go nah.
So I walked around and talkedto him.
I go hey, man, and I saw hisshirt.
I was like, oh, can I take apicture of your shirt?
He goes what?
And then I walked away and wewere laughing together after he
was kind of laughing and stuff.
This is what his shirt says.
For those who can't see it, orthose on the podcast, says I am
(18:33):
mixed Half Jesus and half Peter.
Run up and see which one youget which.
I thought the shirt was great.
I was like yes, truth, amen,take it.
You know, take an offering.
No, it was just good.
What I love about it is thatstruggle, the tension that's
very visible in this shirt, isone that we all deal with as
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Christ followers, because onehalf of us is exactly that we
want to be, you know, doing thejustice and loving with kindness
and walking humbly.
We want to be the love ofChrist and the grace of Christ
and the justice of Christ.
We want to walk by and you knowjust, I love you, friend Right,
all the time.
And the other half of us islike what'd you say to me?
(19:18):
I got a knife Off, goes yourear.
You know what I'm talking about.
Like Peter Garden of Gethsemane.
Anyway, you guys right, andthere's a piece of that tension
that's in us and man.
That's why we need Holy Spiritevery day to help us walk this
thing out, because we know we'renot perfect, we talk about it.
But to be more like Jesus meansthat we need to be active in
this pursuit.
We need to walk in the tensionand I see so many times I've
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been guilty of myself, friendsof mine being guilty around them
as well.
You know you're trying to livefor Christ.
Maybe you make a mistake andpeople are over there.
You know you think you'resaying it on the inside.
Sometimes it verbalizes Anybody.
You start talking to yourself alittle bit and I see friends
when they make a mistake andthey're trying to correct their
mistake, but what they end updoing is like not cussing,
cussing, you know, like rats,rats, right.
(20:03):
They're like Joe Pesci on HomeAlone, right, where he's like
not cussing but cussing for surein his heart and like, because
it's like what Paul says, it'slike I do the things I do not
want to do.
And so what I love about thisis that you're aware that you're
making the mistake and you'retrying to correct it, and so,
friends, that's a good thing, sodon't beat yourself up if
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that's you.
But instead we're walking thisthing out to be more like Jesus,
less like Peter, less like me,more like Jesus.
And so that's the tension thatwe walk in.
The tension and the frictionthat we're in is that we want to
listen to him so that we can dobetter, so that we can do
justice, we can love kindness,so we can walk humbly before our
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God.
Now, each of these minorprophets they've been talking
about having a heart after God.
That's been the whole focus ofwhat they've been saying.
They're saying return to God,have a heart after God, draw
near to him, obey him, don'tjust pay him lip service and
then don't do what he says,don't go and live for yourself
and your own frivolousness andnot paying attention to things
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he called you to do.
It's also talking about beingthose who walk with the
characteristics of God comingoff of our life.
We would say that in the NewTestament, in Galatians, as the
fruit of the spirit, galatians 5.
And it talks about this becauseit's attributes that come off
of our life.
See, I'm all for.
We believe very much in thegifts of the spirit.
That means the word of God andhaving prophecy and having
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interpretation, believing indivine healing, believe in it
for sure.
But what I also believe in bigtime is seeing the fruit of the
Spirit come off of your life aswell.
So it's not just the working ofthe gift of the Spirit, it's
also the fruit of the Spirit inyour life.
It's both.
It's not either, or it's andboth amen.
And so we live with thosecharacteristics of God.
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And that's what it means.
Whenever we start to live thisthing out where we live in our
community is we start to have animpact that's greater than what
we can do by ourselves, becauseit's manifest in the power of
the love of God to other people.
That's why I love a few weeksago, whenever we, as being a
part of Mercy House went andhelped over 700 kids have a good
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back to school with backpacksand gear.
That's amazing.
I want to say thank you, guys,for giving your tax donation and
giving of missions.
We give out of our missions,our Kingdom Builders, every
month to Mercy House of givingyourself directly to them and
also giving of your time.
We have teachers in this housethat go and teach, help kids
with their after-school tutoring.
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We have people in this housethat's right that go and they
volunteer their time on Tuesdaysand Thursdays for Bible study.
We have people who volunteertheir time so they can get food
at the pantry or clothes at thecloset, and we do that because
we believe that the love of Godcan be tangible as much as the
word of God, and we want to seethem go and draw near, respond
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to what we're doing tangibly sothey can have that message, that
life change that really happensas they embrace Jesus.
I'll tell you as you live thisthing out, it returns back to
you dividends in living thisthing for Christ.
We got a chance this week to seesome friends of ours that were
just giving the testimony of God.
That's the Alvarez crew.
They used to be here, part ofCornerstone for years and years,
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debbie and Jorge and theirgirls, and we love them so very
much.
And now for years I teasedJorge.
He's an engineer for GE.
He's a very good job.
Debbie, she works in HR Verygood job, all sorts of things.
I tease him forever.
He's a PK.
We come out of similarbackgrounds Surfer kids, you
know kind of knotheads and stuffthat Jesus had to get a hold of
us a little bit, and so weshare that story and I was
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always teasing him Like when areyou going to be a pastor, jorge
?
When are you going to be apastor Jorge?
Like teasing him about it.
Now he's still working but he'svolunteering all his time.
He's an associate pastor at hischurch, punto Amor in Florida,
and they're doing great work.
They launched as aSpanish-speaking church, they're
now going into English and Godis blessing their church.
(24:00):
And they're telling me the storyof the miracle and then the
miracle after that one and themiracle after that one.
And, friends, I was justgetting pumped up, I was just
getting.
I was getting pumped up, I wasgetting excited, because that's
how I see our story too is likeman, the miracle.
This person came to faith andthis person got baptized and
this person had life change andthis person found a job and this
person's marriage got put backtogether.
Somebody and this thinghappened in their life and this
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child came back to Jesus.
And the miracle, the miracle,the miracle is happening.
And, friends, I was so excitedbecause that's what it means to
live your love for God out whereyou are, in your community.
Now, each one of these prophetshere are talking about how we
need to be those people ofprayer that are praying the will
of God and drawing near to him,understanding who God is and
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what he's called us to do.
We looked at some of thesescriptures that friends have
brought up in their sermonsthese past weeks.
We look first here to Joel 1,14, and it talks about having a
heart after God and beingfocused on it.
It says consecrate a fast call,a solemn assembly, gather the
elders and all the inhabitantsof the land to the house of the
Lord, your God, and cry out tothe Lord.
(25:08):
Friends, it's talking us aboutbeing serious in our heart after
God.
What this is saying is thatthey know that they've messed up
, they know that they've brokenGod's heart, they know that they
have been led astray, and sothey're saying let's make a
concerted effort to draw near toGod.
And that's what God is doing.
He's charged these differentones, these different prophets
(25:28):
and the leaders there, to go andto bring a message.
Many of those messages were ahard message because it's saying
to change, to repent.
Zechariah 1, 3 says therefore,say to them thus declares the
Lord of hosts, return to me.
Says the Lord of hosts, and Iwill return to you.
See, it's the very thing thatwe're talking about charging
them with that message ofrepentance.
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It's also a perspective on whoGod is.
In Amos 4, it says for behold,he who forms the mountains and
creates the wind and declaresthe man what is his thought, who
makes the morning darkness andtreads on the heights of the
earth.
The Lord, the God of hosts, ishis name.
Somebody say amen to that.
It's giving a perspective thatlisten, this God that you're
(26:15):
trying to pass and push away, heis the creator God.
There is none like him.
There is no other deity, noother spirit, no other entity
that's even close, because he isalone, our God, and so it's
calling us to him and to arepentance, a return to God.
It's a challenge to us that wewould be those that go and say
(26:38):
yes to what he's calling us todo.
Malachi 2.8 says it like thisbut you have turned aside from
the way, meaning the way of God.
You have caused many to stumbleby your instruction.
You've corrupted the covenantof Levi, says the Lord of hosts.
See, he's coming against theseleaders saying listen, you have
gone another way.
You're not putting intoalignment the things I gave to
(27:00):
you to do.
He's challenging them to comeback to the way of God.
Haggai 1, verse 2, says thisthus says the Lord of hosts
these people say the time hasnot yet come to rebuild the
house of the Lord.
See, they knew what God hadtold them to do.
They didn't want to do it.
You ever had something that youfelt God challenged you to do,
(27:23):
but you didn't want to do it, soyou pushed it off.
See, that's called disobedience, and I could tell you, because
I've been there and where God islike hey, I want you to do this
.
I'm like God, I'm already beinggood, I'm already a pastor over
here.
Look at me.
He's like cool, I told you todo this.
Like it's not time for that.
(27:45):
Yet God, he's like really, I'mGod.
Who are you?
I don't know you Like.
It's not time for that.
Yet God he's like really I'mGod, who are you?
I don't know you.
Anybody getting it yet?
Me too, me too, the challengeto us to adjust what we're doing
.
See, he wants us to speak toculture.
We know this culture that we'rein.
It's a fallen world.
We're broken people, we makemistakes because that's our
(28:06):
nature.
But what he wants us to do isrun against that and be the life
and the love of Christ, lightin the dark places, spiritually.
The word of God says this inAmos 5,.
It says seek good and not evilthat you may live, and so the
Lord, the God of hosts, will bewith you.
As you have said, hate evil andlove good and establish justice
(28:26):
in the gate.
It may be that the Lord, theGod of hosts, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.
Friends, that's what we'retalking about is that we would
be those that are good and notevil, that where we live in our
community and what we putourselves to do, that we would
be in alignment with those whoare Christ followers and not
fallen people.
(28:48):
That's why so often and I couldtell you as a pastor's kid
growing up in church, I hatedchurch people because church
people were hypocrites, and Iwas one of them too.
Now, I didn't judge myself as ahypocrite because I had
intention to be good, but was Ibeing good?
No, no, no, it was not beinggood, but I meant to be good.
(29:13):
But I saw other people doingexactly what I was doing and I
judged them.
Because can you believe theycall themselves a Christian and
do that?
Don't we?
Don't we?
But, friends, here's the thing,what we realize all of us have
fallen short of the glory of God.
None is righteous no, not one.
(29:35):
So all of us are in need of asavior.
All of us are not perfect.
All of us are trying to livefor Jesus.
All of us are trying to dobetter every day, and that's why
the challenge is for everysingle one of us to change what
we're doing and come intoalignment with God.
Friends, my word for you and Ido this humbly my word for you
(30:01):
is to change what you're doingand go after the things of God.
Each one of us, before we setfoot in this room or under the
sound of my voice on a video, weknow what he's talking to us
about doing and what we have notdone.
(30:21):
We know where he's challengingus to step out in faith or be
obedient in something, and wehave not done it.
Friends, change what you'redoing and return to God the
thing, the answer you're lookingfor, the best thing that you're
trying to buy a self-help bookfor, and all the other things
that we try to fix ourselves indoing.
(30:42):
If you return it to God, thealignment with all those things
will start to get set into placeand we walk in the will of God
and the things of God, so thatwe don't have to be corrected,
we don't have to be slappedaside our head spiritually, but
that we walk in the way and inthe will of God and we'll
experience the peace of God thatpasses all understanding.
(31:06):
Now, these prophets, as theyspeak to us, it's something
that's you know.
I can relate with them.
They're very much people thatare bringing a message that
they're heartbroken.
What God's saying is going tobring judgment on their people,
on Judah, on Israel.
He's going to bring in Babylonor Assyria to take them away.
They're heartbroken from themoment and you can understand,
you can connect with them andsay, wow, I too would be
(31:28):
heartbroken if I knew there wasgoing to be this imminent danger
, this imminent destruction thathappens to my homeland, that
happens to my neighborhood, thathappens to my people.
At the same time, you haveothers that they're there and
they're complaining.
They're complaining becausethey don't want to go and tell
the people the bad news.
Right, you have some of this,different ones that are
(31:49):
complaining to God.
They're like God of this.
You, different ones that arecomplaining to God.
They're like God, right, andnone of us ever say it like that
, right.
We say oh God, when we shouldbe saying oh God, see, it's all
in your voice on whether or notyou're complaining.
Any of you guys complain to God.
Only a couple of us that arebeing honest.
Lord, you see the hands thatare there as I step back from
(32:11):
the lightning.
No, I'm just joking.
I'm with you guys, but that'sthe thing.
Is that man?
So many times we're complainingoh God.
Why am I here?
Why are you letting this happen?
He's like did you do what Itold you to do?
Are you being what I called youto be?
Are you making wise decisionsthat I've guided you to do?
Why did I give you the HolySpirit?
(32:35):
If you're not listening,anybody Somebody Online you guys
know what I'm talking about.
Praise the Lord, friends thatwe would change our complaining
into a cry of Lord, help me,instead of Lord.
Why are you doing this?
No, lord, oh Lord, my God, helpme.
And you see the other side ofthis.
With some of the prophets evenas Pastor Angus gave a good
example of this with Jonah theywere just outright disobedient
to God.
You know, he told them hey, goand talk to Nineveh.
(32:57):
He hated the Ninevites, so hewas like I'm not talking to them
.
He took the fastest andfurthest boat away to get away
from what God called him to do.
And so you know it'sinteresting because you can
connect with that idea how it's,like man, there are people that
they have been called by God,they've been given a mission and
they run away from what God hascalled them to do.
Hi, I'm Jay, I'm one of thosepeople.
(33:19):
Good to meet you, hi there,good to meet you.
And God calls them back andbrings them back by all sorts of
circumstances to get him backinto alignment.
And what I could tell you aboutthis, friends, is that the God
of the universe, he will see toit that these ones that have
that installation of the word ofGod in their heart.
They won't be happy in theworld because they know where
the real source of happinesscomes from.
(33:40):
It's only from the Lord, god,and they won't have any
satisfaction in the things thatthey accomplish, even though
they're very successful.
It'll be very empty because weare praying the prayer of no
satisfaction of the things ofthe world over their life.
We want them to be called backinto relationship with God
because he is the only eternalsource of happiness.
(34:01):
Absolutely.
Would you say yes to that?
And so we believe for the sonsand daughters to be brought back
in as prodigals, back to afaith in God.
Somebody say yes to that, andso what we talk about is
believing the same thing, thatwe would not be disobedient.
Be obedient to what God has forus.
You see, some of these guys.
(34:21):
They're actually just confusedon what God had them to do.
Some of them need to act outbizarre scenes and kind of give
a demonstration.
Another one of the prophets hewas called to go and marry an
unfaithful woman and keepbringing her back, pay for her
debts, even though she wasunfaithful, because this was
what God was giving is justdemonstration of how he is with
(34:41):
the children of Israel.
We talked last week.
Tyler shared with us about theemo, the emo prophets that were
emotional and whiny and kind ofwas like oh, kind of rock in the
you know mid 2000s, you knowscreaming infidelities.
You guys get the idea Veryemotional.
Meanwhile you have some that aregoing in there and have to
(35:04):
stand with resolve and face thevery flames that if you don't
give up then you're going to dieand there'd be like, if God
doesn't save us, that's okay,we're going to still stand for
God alone and that the Lord, herescues them from the flames.
Again, daniel, he has to facethe lions.
They said we're going to throwyou in the lions if you don't
stop praying to your God.
He's like I'm praying to my God, that's the only one I'm
(35:26):
praying to, and I'll face thelions and the Lord shut the
lion's mouths.
We see that there's so many.
One after another, afteranother.
They face difficult things andI can tell you that this is the
same challenge that each one ofus has is that we too are called
to face difficult things,because greater is he that's in
us than he that's in the world.
(35:47):
And we are not alone when weface difficult things.
And there's such a great wordthat came from Pastor Aaron
Burke.
He pastors a church calledRadiant in Florida.
He was sharing with us at achurch multiplication network
conference dinner that we hadand he's sharing with us about
this concept that he's beenworking really hard and he felt
like man I have this plan, I'mworking my plan.
And God had been blessing theirchurch, their multi-site,
(36:09):
thousands of people, peoplehaving life change, people
getting baptized.
It's awesome, great things.
And he's like man, I'm planning, I'm planning, I'm like if I
get to this marker, then I canjust coast and I can just retire
and kick back.
And he felt like he got slappedby the Holy Spirit.
Because the Holy Spirit hassaid to him why do you think
(36:30):
that you go and you're putthrough, or that you have to
walk through difficult things?
Why do you think that is?
It's because I'm refining youin the process for things in the
future, and not just that.
But you think that now you'vebeen through some difficult
things, now you're a survivor ofit by my hand and power in your
life.
What do you think I need you todo in the future?
(36:53):
I need you to do even moredifficult things Because,
friends, it's not about now,it's about eternity with him and
it's about people knowing theliving God and it's about being
after his work and his business.
He said guess what?
We are those who go throughdifficult things because greater
is he that's in us than hethat's in the world that we are
(37:14):
overcomers in the living God.
We are sons and daughters ofthe most high God.
So that means in yourcircumstances and in mine, when
he has not left us alone in thevalley of the shadow of death,
when he has walked with us allthe way, even carried us as you
see in your grandma's bathroomfootprints in the sand.
He's taking us to this nextplace as a refinement because he
(37:41):
wants to do greater things withyou in the future, not lesser
things, greater things.
He wants to work some of thisstuff out, that's in your life,
so that you can do the nextthing and he can elevate that
platform and give you morerapport with other people.
He can bring up another set ofpeople in behind you because now
they're learning from yourmistakes and not having to make
those mistakes themselves.
(38:02):
The Lord, help us to be thosewho trust him and return to God.
Today we look at this idea andwe understand the first thing
that starts returning to God isin our core.
It's inside who we are.
We have to get it down deepthat you have to say I am going
to live for God, for me.
Not I give lip service to it orI just look like I am on the
(38:26):
outside to my church friends.
No, I am going to live for Godand his purposes.
As for me and my house, we willserve the Lord when we make
that decision.
Well, guess what?
Now we get to be an impact inculture.
We get to be the love of Godwhere we go.
We get to challenge thingsbecause we're living against a
fallen culture.
We get to live for God andstand up with boldness and I
(38:47):
don't mean bombastically, I meanstand up with boldness because
we know it's the right thing todo, live justly and not just
that.
But we don't do it one day, wedo it with consistency.
And when we start to do it withconsistency, it means every day
.
Any one of us can do it for aday, but to do it every day
(39:10):
means you have to be walkingwith God and the power of God to
live for him.
And that's why that prayer thatwe pray every day is give us
today our daily bread.
It's our daily bread.
It's the same thing we learnedabout whenever the Lord
liberated the children of Israelout of Egypt and through the
Red Sea and did all the miracles.
They were out in the desertwith no food and he gave them
(39:33):
manna from heaven.
It only lasted for the day.
Only on the Sabbath would itlast for more than one.
They could gather it up.
It would spoil.
Why?
Because we can't live onyesterday's experience with God.
We can't live on yesterday'sexperience, last week's
experience.
Our good life group that we'rea part of.
We can't live on yesterday'sexperience, last week's
experience.
(39:53):
Our good life group that we'rea part of, we can't live off
that either.
Guess what we have to have thedaily bread, the daily time with
God, an impartation of hisspirit so that we really can be
these things, so we can dojustice, love, kindness, walk
humbly before our God Friends.
That's what it means to be thelove, grace and justice of God.
(40:15):
That's what it means for us toembrace it as well, and it all
starts with repentance, itstarts with returning to him.
When we repent of all thesethings, we say, lord, if there's
anything in my life thatseparates me from you, lord.
I want to change it.
Lord, I want to draw near toyou.
I want to do what you've calledme to do.
I want to go public with myfaith.
(40:35):
I want to use my testimony forothers.
You'll see, what happens is,whenever you're obedient to be
that one and to be the repentant, to be more like Jesus, the
provision of God will outpaceyou in a way that is not even
rational because it'ssupernatural, and that's what we
see so often Today, as we cometo this altar.
(40:56):
We do so, and my challenge toyou is this that if you're
someone here and you need moreof the spirit of God to live
successfully for him, if you'resomeone here that needs guidance
, needs direction, if you'resomeone here that needs a
provision of God, you needguidance in your relationship,
you need help at your work.
If you're someone here that hassomething separating you from
(41:18):
the Lord, that you would comeand you would make an altar with
God, that you would come anddraw near to him, because each
one of us, we're called tosomething greater.
We're anointed for somethinggreater.
We are set apart for the thingshe has called for, but we have
to be those that first return toGod and draw near to him.
(41:42):
Today we have this opportunityas well to invite Christ into
our heart and life.
Maybe you're here and you'venever made a decision to follow
Jesus.
You're seeing people go publicwith their faith and you're like
, wow, these people are serious.
And you're hearing thischallenge that comes from the
minor prophets and you're like,man, there's really a better way
to live.
Today is your opportunity toinvite Christ into your heart
(42:05):
and life.
You have to answer thatquestion of have you embraced
Jesus?
So each one of us has had tomake that decision for ourselves
.
No one can make it for you notyour friend, your neighbor, your
spouse, your mama.
It's yours and that's why wesee the symbol of the cross is
so powerful.
The symbol of the cross iswhere Jesus came and he took all
(42:27):
the sin of the world.
Though he didn't sin, he tookall of our sin, all of our
mistakes, all of our brokenness.
He took it upon himself andwhen he did, he paid for all of
our sin upon the cross with hislife.
And as he was nailed to thecross, that sin was nailed there
and it died there as he died.
The amazing thing about Jesusis that he is not dead, he is
(42:52):
alive, and that's why we have aliving relationship with the
living God.
It's not some ancient deitythat we're worshiping and trying
to follow some rules.
No, friends, we are in anactive relationship with the
living God and that's why we sayJesus, I believe you are who
you say you are Lord.
I invite you into my life.
I ask you to forgive me of mysin.
Lord, I want to belong to you.
(43:13):
I want to be more like you.
The Apostle Paul.
He writes to the church at Rome.
He says it like this because ifyou confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord and believein your heart that God raised
Friends, today is your day.
It's your opportunity to sayyes to Jesus, to invite him into
(43:43):
your heart and life and tofollow him for the rest of your
life.
I'm going to ask everyone inthe room if you would stand to
your feet, bow your heads.
Where you're at, as Christiansare praying, people are making
decisions to follow Jesus.
Many hands in the first servicemaking decision to follow Jesus
today.
So very thankful.
Friends online, wherever youare under the sound of my voice,
(44:05):
you're at work, you'retraveling, you're out and about,
take a moment to what God wantsto do and just respond to Him
today.
It says you're about here inthe room.
If that's you, you say Pastor,that's me.
I want to make a decision tofollow Jesus today.
I want to invite Him into myheart and life, maybe for the
(44:27):
very first time, or maybe evenliving away from him, and you
just need to come back to him,recommit back to him.
If that's you, if you justraise your hand right where
you're at and say Pastor, that'sme.
I just want to make a decisionto follow Christ.
We see the hands that are here,hands.
That's Thank you, jesus.
Others make a decision to followJesus.
Thank you, lord.
Thank you, lord.
His hands are raised.
(44:47):
Thank you, god.
Thank you, god.
You put your hands down.
I'm going to ask if everyonewould they pray this prayer out
loud after me.
Lord, thank you for loving me.
Thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
(45:09):
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 youmaking a decision to follow
Jesus today.
Those that raised their handtoday amazing, amazing, hey,
(45:30):
connect with us.
We want to be able to putmaterials into your hands so
you'd be successful, living forJesus.
If you're online, hey, messageus.
We don't want you to live thislife alone.
Today, as we respond to thisaltar, we do so with a heart
after God.
We draw near to him.
If so, with a heart after God,we draw near to him.
If there's anything whereyou're just like Lord, I need
more of you.
I need more of you in my life.
I need more of your spirit,more of your provision direction
(45:56):
.
I need you in my family.
I need you in my workplace.
If that's you or maybe you'resomeone saying you know, there's
been something separating mefrom God I just need to come and
to make that altar with God.
We open up this altar to you.
I challenge you today thateveryone would come and make an
altar with God.
Lord, we thank you for thisword.
We thank you, lord, forspeaking to us through your
prophets and Lord, speaking tous through our word and making
it alive in us.
Lord, we thank you that youchallenge us, lord, not to stay
(46:16):
still, but, lord, that you loveus enough to bring justice.
You love us enough, lord, tobring correction to us, lord, so
we can walk in your way, lord,so we're not condemned for
eternity away from you, butinstead, lord, that we walk in
step with you, in a livingrelationship with you.
Lord, that we come today forour daily bread, lord, for our
daily impartation of your Spirit.
(46:37):
Lord, as you pour yourself outso richly upon us, lord, we come
and we make an altar with you,lord, today.
Thank you for your peace andyour provision, for your
anointing Lord in your hand uponus as we come.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Celeste Brown (46:51):
What a great Sunday.
I want to invite you.
We're having party with thepastor immediately following
this service.
So if you are new or you'vebeen coming for the last several
weeks and we have not gotten tomeet you, our team will be in
there.
It's on the east side of thebuilding.
There's a hallway and aconference room.
Come and join us.
It's very informal.
We just want to put a face anda name together.
If you have children, Iencourage you to go and grab
them first and then come andjoin us.
Jason Brown (47:13):
Amen.
There's lots and lots of goodthings happening, so I want to
encourage you to get involvedwith those things and be a part
of them.
Amen, before we go, I want topray this blessing over us the
Lord bless you and keep you.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
(47:34):
Lord, lift up his countenanceupon you and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
Lord, do empower us by yourspirit to live your love out to
those around us.
I pray all this in the powerfulname that is Jesus Christ.
Amen, amen.
Know this.
We love you very much here atCornerstone.
God bless you and have a greatweek.
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