December 30, 2024 • 49 mins
As we bid farewell to 2024, we turn our gaze inward, embracing self-examination and reflection. What truths has the past year revealed about who we are, and how do we break free from cycles of sin and shame? Listen in as we share personal stories of redemption through Christ and the healing power of seeing ourselves through God's forgiving eyes. With 2025 on the horizon, we hold a mirror to our identities, inviting gratitude and optimism as we redefine success and welcome a year brimming with hope, grace, and divine possibilities.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, I am just so thankful for our media team.
They do such a great job andyou know I know that.
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you, media team.
You know I know that afterChristmas you've got that haze
from the holidays and you wannado absolutely nothing.
But our media team, they rollout of bed on the weekend that
(00:21):
nobody wants to come to churchand they get here early so they
can get everything set up andface all of the challenges and
then have church afterwards withhaving all those challenges and
things, and I'm just, I'm sothankful for you guys.
So thank you very much, mediateam.
So you know they're a very busygroup of people and so you know
(00:45):
this is a really busy church.
We've got a lot of stuff thatgoes on throughout the year, and
if you're just joining us,maybe this balcony back here is
not new to you, but it's new tous.
And so in that process of thisyear, we had a lot of fun
stories, a lot of challengesthat happened, and so I wanted
(01:07):
to tell you, as we're reflectingon the year I just wanted to
tell you about this one timethat I was an amateur
electrician and so what wasgoing on was we were having this
video projection or the videowall going in at the same time
that the power for the videowall was going on.
So we were installing this butwe didn't have any way to turn
(01:28):
it on.
At the same time, they weredemolishing all of this stuff up
here in the balcony and theconstruction workers came to us
and said, hey, you've got abunch of switches up there that
need to be terminated.
So there were nine sliderswitches, boxes that were up
there that controlled all of thelights for these, the
(01:48):
auditorium lights.
And I said, cool, well, ourelectrician's busy.
And they said we don't doelectrical.
Okay, we don't do electrical.
Oh, that's good, because I do,I do electrical, you see.
So I decided or well, pastorJay asked me if I would
(02:09):
terminate those things.
So I went and I talked to ourelectrician.
I said, okay, harvey, so I justcut these, wrap them and do
this right.
And I made sure that I wasgoing to be safe.
We turned the power off and Iproceeded to do it.
And so when you cut nineswitches of power, it ends up
looking like this Um, and thiswas the bouquet that I sent my
(02:29):
wife.
Um, it happened to be on ouranniversary and so she didn't
get flowers.
She got this picture instead.
Now, if you know my wife,you'll know that she actually
appreciates this far more than abouquet of roses, because we
didn't have a lot of money earlyon in our marriage, so when if
I were to spend money on flowers, that would have not actually
(02:50):
been a good thing, and soapologies, and I love you's are
much more free than a dozenroses.
So when I sent her this, shewas.
She took that as ouranniversary gift and I showed
Pastor Jay and he goes okay, butwe need to make it look a
little nicer in case the fireguy shows up.
So I went to go put it into theboxes, but the wire nuts would
(03:17):
not fit into the power boxes, soI had to then take undo
everything that I had just done,put them into power boxes and
then redo everything that I hadjust done.
It took me all day because oftrips to Home Depot and you guys
know the thing First thing nextday I get a picture of Harvey,
our electrician the next morning, fixing everything that I did
(03:42):
all day the day before.
You see, what happened was whenwe turned off the lights, they
wouldn't turn back on and wedidn't know because we hadn't
used those switches, so wedidn't think they did anything.
Well, they did.
They still controlled all thelights and it took them about
three days to untangle the messthat I did and we finally
(04:06):
obviously got power back to thelights and everything.
But during that it was afrustrating time.
But now it's kind of funny andI look back and there's a lot of
things that happened throughoutour year that are just like
that, and so today we're goingto be talking about reflection
(04:26):
and we're going to reflect justa little bit on our year here at
Cornerstone and as individuals.
But if we haven't met first off,my name is Pastor Angus.
I'm the family pastor here.
I get to work with the kids andour volunteers and it's so
amazing.
I have got my dream job.
It's fantastic, and so we wantto welcome you here to
(04:47):
Cornerstone and thank you forjoining us today.
We hope that this will becomeyour church home, because this
is just a fantastic place.
This has been our home sinceour firstborn was born 14 years
ago.
But here at Cornerstone, if youwant to know what we're all
about here, it can be boileddown to be more like Jesus.
(05:09):
That's our goal here is to bemore like Jesus, as the people
of Cornerstone, because what werecognize is that we are all on
a journey, we are all in process.
None of us have arrived, noneof us are perfect.
We are all imperfect peoplefollowing after a perfect Savior
.
And so, with that in mind, weuse this image of walking with
(05:30):
Jesus, and it symbolizes usbeing not perfect, walking with
him, trying to do just a littlebit better every day.
And the way we do that here isby loving God, making disciples
and reaching the world.
That's just a simple way for usto be more like Jesus, and if
you don't know how to do thosethings, if you don't know
exactly how to love God or makedisciples, you certainly don't
(05:53):
know how to reach the world.
That's what our life groups arefor, and I wanna invite you.
We've got a semester our nextsemester of life groups is
coming up.
There's all kinds of thingswhere you can connect, grow and
serve.
We've got some groups that arejust about connection.
It's entirely fun Men's brunchand the senior brunch.
And then we've got grow groups,where that is intentionally
(06:15):
made.
They're Bible-type studies,they're curriculum-based.
It's meant to grow you as aperson and as a Christian and
then to serve.
The next step is, once youbegin to bear fruit, you want to
share that fruit with what Godis doing in your life.
You want to share that withother people and there is a
place here for you to serve.
You just have to find it and wewill help you find that.
(06:36):
And we've got that processthrough next steps.
But today I want to jump offinto our first scripture.
It's found in Psalm 139, verse23 and 24.
Search me, o God, and know myheart, try me and know my
thoughts and see if there be anygrievous way in me and lead me
(06:59):
in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139, 23 and 24.
Lord, we thank you so much foryour word.
We thank you for the ability totake time and reflect on what
it is that you have done andwant to do in our lives.
Lord, I've got the notes, butyou have the message.
Holy Spirit, I just ask thatyou would come and breathe life
(07:20):
and that you would take thismessage that's designed to hit
everybody and make it personalto each and every one of us.
We pray this in the mighty nameof Jesus Christ, amen.
So reflection what we want to dofirst is look at the year in
review.
So if you're just joining us oryou didn't join us at the
(07:41):
beginning of the year, here is alist and I'm gonna go through
some of our sermon series sothat if you're like, oh that
sounds really interesting, youcan go back, check out our
YouTube and you can check outthe messages.
Or maybe you were here and yougo I didn't really practice that
one as much as I should have orI really could use a refresher
(08:02):
as I talk about some of thesethings.
Maybe really could use arefresher as I talk about some
of these things.
Maybe you bookmark or go backto those places on YouTube and
see about revisiting some ofthose principles.
So last year we started off theyear with prayer and fasting,
which we do every year.
We'll be doing that again in acouple of weeks here and I want
to challenge you that if youhave not fasted before, or if
(08:23):
you haven't gotten a lot out offasting, that this year is the
year to before, or if youhaven't gotten a lot out of
fasting, that this year's theyear to change that.
If you haven't gotten a lot outof fasting, really that's your
fault, because fasting is a timefor you to set aside something
that you really love.
See, I love food, I love tocook food, I love to make food,
(08:44):
I love to give food out.
But when I stop eating and Iput that away because I say,
lord, I want you more than Iwant to eat, it's got no choice
but to draw you closer to theLord, because he becomes your
nourishment, he becomes thatthing that you need.
And so if you've said I can'tdo that, if you've already said
(09:07):
you can't fast this or thatbecause of a mental thing, start
getting that out now, becausethe reality is is I can do all
things in Christ, whostrengthens me.
Okay, so really, over thesenext couple of weeks, begin to
prepare yourself mentally andemotionally, spiritually, for
fasting.
And I wanna challenge you totake your fast to the next level
(09:29):
.
If you fasted, maybe a Danielfast, try a water only.
If you did three days wateronly, do seven days water only.
Take it to the next level andsee if your relationship doesn't
go to the next level with theLord.
So, from the prayer and fasting,we ended up doing a sermon
series called the Way of Wisdom,where we walked through the
(09:50):
books of Proverbs, ecclesiastes,song of Songs and Job, and we
learned about a properrelationship with the Lord,
because it's wise to have aproper relationship with the one
in charge.
Would you agree, like there's acertain way you approach the
boss because if you don'tapproach him the right way,
you're looking for a new boss,right?
(10:11):
Similarly, but thankfully verydifferent, with the Lord,
there's a right way to come toGod and there's a wrong way, and
it's not smart to come to himthe wrong way.
So that's why, again, if you'relike I'm not exactly sure how I
should even come to the Lord,go revisit the way of wisdom.
After that, we moved on toproclaim, where we proclaimed
(10:32):
the roles of Jesus in our livesas prophet, priest, king and
Messiah.
Then, from proclaim, we endedup at Easter, which Easter is an
incredible time, and I actuallylearned this Christmas season.
I love research and I lovehistory and things like that,
and I actually learned that.
(10:53):
Did you know that Easter used toactually be the big holiday in
this country?
It wasn't Christmas, it wasEaster.
Easter had all of the focus,but it was back early, early on,
when Coke's winter sales weredown.
They were trying to figure outa way to market more Coke and so
they invented Santa and broughthim into the mix and from there
(11:18):
the focus became about that andshifted away from Easter.
I thought that was reallyinteresting, came about that and
shifted away from Easter.
I thought that was reallyinteresting, and so it really
put something in me personallythat I need to straighten that
out in my house and in my familyand in our relationship with
the Lord, because Easter reallyis the important one.
Christmas is great because itannounces the coming, but the
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whole reason he came was forEaster the coming, but the whole
reason he came was for Easter.
And so I want to just challengeyou again that as we are moving
through this year and as weapproach Easter, put more focus
on Jesus and less on the bunnyand let's try and make Easter
this year a little bit more thanit's been in the past.
(12:03):
From Easter we went into thissermon series of stretch, and I
love that series becausestretching is it's that
uncomfortable place where Godwill take you to someplace new.
And so in my family I've beentrying to get them familiar with
this concept of beingcomfortable with being
uncomfortable, or to getcomfortable with being
(12:25):
uncomfortable, because if youcan be comfortable with being
uncomfortable, that's wheregrowth happens in all areas of
life physically, mentally,emotionally, spiritually.
When God takes you to thatplace where you're stretching
just out, where you can reach,you discover you can go a little
bit further than you thoughtyou did you could.
You discover you can go alittle bit further than you
thought you did you could.
(12:46):
And so that stretch was just awonderful way for us to look and
see how far we can gophysically, spiritually,
relationally and financiallywith the Lord.
Then from there we moved intoKingdom Builders.
Kingdom Builders is what we usedto call Missions Convention.
That's where we focus ourmissions dollars out towards the
world, which we do year round.
(13:06):
But what it is is it's a timefor us to.
What we do is every year wetell the missionaries how much
we can support, based on whatyou all say we can, what you all
want to give, and then itbasically goes into a bucket
called kingdom builders, and thebigger the bucket, the more we
can help.
So once we've dedicated howmuch money goes to the
(13:28):
missionaries, that's a setnumber to them.
But if we've got more moneyleft over in the bucket, then we
can take on other projects.
We can bless missionaries, wecan do other projects.
When disaster strikes, we cando convoy of hope and things
like that, because the bucketfor kingdom builders is full.
So that's what kingdom buildersis, and so I challenge you in
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this year also to really seewhat God can do when you start
being a vessel for him to beable to move resource.
Then we come into Mother's Day,and Mother's Day we honor all
mothers, those who havephysically given birth, but
those who are spiritual mothers,who are mothers in place of a
(14:15):
physical mom, and we honor ourmoms in that way.
Then Pentecost so I can neverchoose between prayer and
fasting is my favorite, orPentecost so I can never choose
between prayer and fasting as myfavorite or Pentecost.
These two are my top two,because Pentecost is what makes
us different, you guys, that'swhat makes us who we are, that's
what makes us different thanother churches down the street,
(14:37):
is that we believe.
We don't just believe in theexistence of the Holy Spirit,
but we believe in the power andpresence that he's working in us
today and through us today.
And so this is one thing Iwanna tell you is if you are
here and you call yourself aPentecostal, but you haven't
been baptized in the Holy Spirit, what are you doing?
(14:58):
I wanna really consider that upuntil Pentecost and in these
few weeks coming up to there,because if you're a Pentecostal
and you don't have the power ofthe Holy Spirit, it's kind of
like having a Tesla without acharging cord or a Porsche
(15:22):
without any gas.
It's great, it looks awesome,but you can't go anywhere, you
can't do anything with it.
So, with us as Christians, it'sgreat to have the relationship
with Jesus, but see, the powerof the Holy Spirit is what gives
us that energy, the power, theguidance to be able to live that
life for Christ.
(15:44):
Then we moved into a seriescalled Holy, which was basically
a way for us to understand whatit meant to be filled with the
Spirit and what our anointingwas for, and find out what it
was.
What are we praying for?
Do our prayers line up withwhat the Lord would have us pray
?
Then, from there, we went into12 weeks of Romans.
We walked through the book ofRomans, where we got to hear
(16:06):
from many voices, people who areon staff and people who are in
ministry, who are seekingcredentials and who are
credentialed, got to speakthroughout that series and I am
just.
I'm so thankful for Pastor Jaythat he allows other voices to
come across the pulpit, becauseespecially when it's other
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brothers and sisters in here,because what it does is it
really shows what God has beendoing.
You see, I'm up here now, but14 years ago I was in that back
row smelling like alcohol fromthe night before and God has,
little by little, taken me tobeing up here where I can share,
and it is just so cool to watchthe people who've been on this
(16:49):
journey alongside with me to beable to be up here and sharing
too.
So I thank you, pastor Jay, forthat.
And then during that Romanseries was Father's Day, where I
got to check off one of mybucket lists which was preaching
a Father's Day message thatlined up with Romans and talked
about forgiveness.
(17:11):
Then we celebrated theanniversary of Cornerstone.
It is amazing to me, and thereare times when the building is
dark and there's nobody here,and when I walk through I
contemplate and think about thefact that I am standing in a yes
that Pastor Rich and PastorCindy.
They heard from the Lord.
(17:33):
They got a dream that wasbigger than themselves and then
they said yes to it.
And every Sunday we come and wesit and we learn and we grow as
a result of.
Yes, it's just incredible andI'm so thankful, and so our
anniversary is a wonderful timeto remember that.
(17:54):
Then, as we're thinking aboutwho we are as a church, we moved
into a series called the sevenC's, and in the seven C's we
talked about who we are here atCornerstone as a people.
What is it that we are about?
And so those seven C's arecommitment, community
communication, competence,creativity, compassion and
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celebration, and all of thosethings are things that we try to
do and we strive to do withexcellence here, and so if you
want to know a little bit moreabout who we are and what we
strive for, the 7 C's serieswill take you a little more in
depth on who we are as believersand people here at Cornerstone.
Next, we moved into a seriescalled Dwell, where we tackled
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this idea of going deeper inyour relationship with the Lord,
not just having a surface level.
Hey, what's up God, how's itgoing?
Oh, hey, could you help me outthis week with my bills?
You know it's going past thatgoing deeper, dwelling with the
Lord, like you would dwell witha spouse or with a loved one,
(19:07):
because the relationship changeswhen you spend time with them,
and it's amazing to me how fastthe year goes, because that
brings us all the way up toThanksgiving, which was just a
few weeks ago.
There was a lot of content inthis last year and a lot of
things to give thanks for, andI'm so thankful that I get to be
here and do life and familywith each and every one of you.
(19:28):
And then we just finished itoff and closed it out the
Christmas Advent season, whichis a phenomenal time around here
and again, we really try andfocus and put the emphasis on
Jesus and our role as Christiansin showing the light of Christ
in our dark world, especially atAdvent, when people are
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listening.
And that brings us to the lastmessage of 2024, reflection.
Let's reflect a little bit,shall we so with this message
now?
If you know me, I have ADD andmy mind wanders occasionally and
(20:11):
you guys get to hear about it,but what I'd like today is for
the message to be I would likeyou to stay tethered to the
message, but I want you to allowyour mind to wander and
investigate some of the thingsthat we're talking about.
I want you to reallycontemplate and think deeply on
some of these things Because, asI was talking to someone in
(20:32):
between services, we realizedthat life is so fast, especially
during this time of year.
You get to today and most peopleare at home catching their
breath watching us onlinebecause they're like I just
can't.
I can't do one more publicthing, right.
And so for those of youintroverts who are here today,
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we love you.
We love you so much because weknow the struggle.
My wife is an introvert, so Iknow the struggle.
But the thing is is, when wecome to a time of reflection,
your mind can wander and getlost.
So that's why I want you tostay tethered, but I want you to
(21:17):
think about some of the thingsthat we're talking about.
So my question to you is inthis last year, what has the
Lord done in your life In thelast year?
What has the Lord done in yourlife Positive?
Has he allowed some negativethings?
I want you to start thinkingabout those because, as we think
(21:41):
about it, I wanna tell youabout mirrors.
Mirrors are so cool.
I love mirrors.
How many of you played inmirrors?
How many of you like to checkyourself out in mirrors?
How many of you play in mirrors?
Any of you, just okay, a few ofyou, that's okay, and we won't
call you vain or anything likethat.
I played in the mirror a lotbecause I was in theater and so
(22:01):
I had to know what my face wasdoing, and so you guys all know
that I love to bring youinformation that you may not
necessarily need to know, butyou like to know it because it's
interesting.
So I did some research onmirrors.
Now, mirrors started off as likepolished rocks, and then
(22:22):
polished metal and things andwent on to becoming what we know
as mirrors today.
But it used to be that only theultra wealthy even had mirrors
or were allowed to have mirrors,and so it was such a guarded
secret because Venetian glasswas one of the best glasses and
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types of glass in the world.
Venetian glass makers were notallowed to travel outside of the
city without accompaniment.
They had to have guards andthey had to have people with
them because, for a few reasons,one to protect them.
But the government was soconcerned about the secret of
(23:04):
Venetian glass getting out thatthey would send assassins to
kill their glassmakers if theythought that they were defecting
.
It was pretty incredible.
These glassmakers were soimportant.
They were allowed to marrynoblemen, which you know that's
a no-no Like you're royal oryou're not.
You know that's a no-no, likeyou're royal or you're not.
But these people were soskilled and it was such an
(23:27):
incredible skill to master thatthey could marry into royalty
Pretty cool.
So in where was it?
In Geneva, the citizens wereonly allowed.
It was law that you could onlyhave one mirror per room, and
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that mirror couldn't be anylarger than 32 inches.
I don't know why one mirror perroom or why the length.
My guess is probably.
So the rich people could say wegot bigger mirrors, but I don't
know that for sure, see, butwhen you think about mirrors, I
like to ruminate on things.
(24:10):
You guys know that wordruminate.
It means to go over in the mindrepeatedly, and often casually
or slowly.
So another use for the wordruminate is how cows chew.
So they chew the cud and thenthey swallow it and then they
bring it back up and chew itagain.
And so I like to ruminate.
I go over and over and over andover again in my mind on
(24:33):
thoughts, and I came across thisthought that was really
interesting.
There's this one historian whosaid that the idea of
individuality, the idea ofindividuality arose because of
mirrors.
Let me walk you through that.
Before mirrors, we all sawourselves as part of a group in
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relation to other groups.
You're a fisherman inrelationship to tax collectors
and carpenters or whatever,right, because you belonged to a
group and as a part of thatgroup you saw yourself I'm not
as rich as the tax collectors orthis or that, and so you saw
your group in comparison toother groups.
(25:17):
It wasn't until mirrors came andpeople were able to see the
differences between themselvesand other people.
Because fishermen dress thesame.
It's kind of like a uniform.
You're not going to wear thesame thing collecting taxes as
you do fishing, right, and viceversa.
So when you're wearing thatstuff, you begin to look like
(25:37):
the people around you.
So you associate, you thinkabout yourself just like
everybody else.
Because yourself, just likeeverybody else, because you look
like everybody else, you wearthe same kind of clothes, you
live in the same kind of house.
But it's not until you begin tosee the difference in your own
face, your own features, thatyou realize I'm different than
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this person, what makes medifferent than them.
It's not just the physicalfeatures, because we all know
that, but it's once you can seeyou, once you can see who you
are in relation to everybodyelse.
You're not just a pair, a setof clothing, you're not just an
occupation.
You become a person, you becomean individual.
(26:21):
How cool is that?
So, if you think about it, likeeven back in those days,
thinking about this idea ofindividuality, only the rich
people who knew who they were.
Poor, had no identity outsideof their own experience.
That's why it's so importantthat we find our identity in
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Christ, and that why, beforemirrors, that scripture was so
important, is that we find ouridentity in Christ.
That wasn't in my notes, I justput that together right here on
the stage.
It was see, shared it with you.
(27:03):
So mirrors are.
They provide a lot of things,but mirrors are fun.
I love mirrors.
Like I said, I grew up intheater and so I had to.
What I do when we talk withyoung actors or any speaker is
before you're going to present,go do it in front of a mirror,
because filming it's great, butthat comes after the fact.
When you do it in front of themirror, you get real, real-time
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feedback.
You go oh, I didn't know that.
My face looked like that when Isaid that Because sometimes we
are very unaware of what ourface is doing Anybody.
Sometimes my face says thingsthat my mind wasn't supposed to
let out.
My mind wasn't supposed to letout.
See, they're a lot of fun.
(27:46):
But you notice things inmirrors, right?
You notice different things.
Now, I don't know about you.
I found out and I looked it upMost Americans look at
themselves in the mirror onaverage eight times a day.
So see where you fall on thataverage.
But when we look in the mirroron average eight times a day, so
see where you fall on thataverage.
But when we look in the mirror,it's.
(28:08):
I equate it to kind of likeguys shopping.
Okay, when guys go shopping,they know what they need, they
go in, they get it and they goaway.
They don't stay and enjoy thestore and the atmosphere.
No, they just go get it doneand they go home, right.
Similarly, with our appearance,we get and we're so busy that
(28:28):
we go, we trim and we fluff andwe do all that and we go.
We don't sit and take time toenjoy the supermarket, enjoy the
creation.
When was the last time that yousat and looked at yourself in
the mirror without an agenda,without doing makeup or hair or
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primping or preening or any ofthat stuff.
When was the last time you sat?
Guys, it's awkward.
I'd try it.
Set a timer for a minute and gostare at yourself for a minute.
It's the longest minute.
It's almost as long as when youtell somebody to pray for a
minute.
Those minutes stretch out intoeternity.
But do it.
(29:16):
Sit there and see how long youcan stare at yourself.
If you can't make it a minute,ask yourself why, why this part
hurts.
Stare at yourself.
If you can't make it a minute,ask yourself why, why this part
hurts.
See a lot of times, the thingsthat we notice when we look in
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the mirror.
We see the things that otherpeople have said about us.
We see the things that we'vesaid about us and so we don't
want to look past.
Okay, I'm good, I'm presentable.
Because if you look at yourself, you might find out you're not
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as presentable as you thoughtyou were.
And it her.
And as a husband, as a father,especially of girls, the mirror
can be a big source of pain inmy life.
See, because when my wife isgetting ready and she asks how I
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look, and I tell her she looksgreat.
She can believe me or she canbelieve what she sees, and what
she sees goes along witheverything.
Everybody has said everythingthat she's said and you know I
see that struggle that I've hadand I know it's not just my way,
I know it's everybody here.
(30:39):
When you struggle, and how do Ilook?
You look great, yeah, butyou're lying.
You have to say that becausedeath ensues if you give me the
other answer, right?
So you feel like you never geta real answer and we live in a
really tough and difficult worldand I'm not looking forward to
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that for my kids and I'm notlooking forward to that for my
kids.
I want my girls, when they'remarried, to be able to say how
do I look?
And their husbands say you lookamazing and they go yep, he's
right.
You know how amazing that wouldfeel as a husband, because you
know what that means.
You've got good taste.
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When you say you look good andthis is just a side note but
when you say you look good andyou don't believe the guy who
says it, kind of call him a liar.
Tell him he doesn't have goodtaste because what's appealing
to him isn't appealing to you.
But if beauty is in the eye ofthe beholder.
Okay, we'll move on.
(31:48):
In 2 Corinthians 13.5, it saysexamine yourselves to see
whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves, or do you notrealize this about yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you?
This about yourselves thatJesus Christ is in you, unless
indeed, you fail to meet thetest.
(32:09):
See, the Lord calls us toevaluate ourselves so that other
people don't have to, so thatwe can be ready and we've been
evaluated.
We've taken care of thebehavior before we ever get up
there.
And we can talk about it in thepast tense with the Lord
because you don't want to get upthere.
And we can talk about it in thepast tense with the Lord
Because you don't want to get upthere with current tense
situations.
Why are you still doing this?
Why'd you do that?
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You went past it.
I'm so glad you had victoryover this.
Look what we accomplishedtogether.
See, another thing mirrors dois they're serious.
They reveal serious things tous.
They reveal shame, and I wantto explain to you how shame
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works.
This is how I've seen it workin my life and in the lives of
people who go to this church.
So what happens is you start offwith some sort of a pain or an
incident.
Something happens to you whereyou hurt or you have a bad
attitude about something, and sowhat happens is you medicate
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that incident.
You medicate that with sin.
Okay, now, sin is like apharmaceutical it was never
designed to heal anything.
Pharmaceuticals do a great jobat taking care of symptoms and
bringing relief, but it wasnever designed to heal you of
anything.
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Similarly, sin may make youfeel better for a while, but it
will not heal the pain while.
But it will not heal the pain.
It will not take away thatincident.
It will medicate it so that youdon't feel it, so that you
continue on through life.
But the problem with that, withany pharmaceutical is
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eventually they're not strongenough.
Now I speak to this personallybecause I was addicted to
opiates as a result of a quadaccident, and so I know that
just a little bit of Percocetturns into morphine down the
road and that's not fun becauseit just gets more and more and
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more.
And then what happens is you'remedicating it with sin and then,
because of the sin, you feelshame and the enemy hands you
this shame stick and starts tobeat you with it.
I can't believe you did that.
I thought you said you were aChristian, whatever it is and
(34:42):
starts to you start to beatyourself with it.
And then what happens is,because you've got all these
bruises from beating yourselfwith a shame stick, you start to
medicate the shame stick, startto medicate the shame, you
medicate that, and so now you'renot even treating the initial
problem.
You're not dealing with any ofthat stuff Now, you're just
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medicating the medication and itjust continues and continues
and continues.
And then so you medicate theshame, you feel worse and then
you beat yourself up.
And this is what upsets me somuch about this situation, you
guys.
Oh, it gets me so angry.
(35:28):
The enemy doesn't even have todedicate a demon to you in this
process.
He has to have a broken persondo something to you so that you
have an attitude that you beginto medicate.
And then, once you're in thesystem, all he does is hand you
the stick and walks away.
And then you beat and youmedicate, and you beat and you
(35:51):
medicate, and it puts you onautopilot and just leaves you
there in that cycle until youget out of it with Christ or
until you're his forever.
I mean, that's the reality ofit.
(36:13):
So what do we do about that?
It says I'm gonna skip downhere to Isaiah 1.18.
And it says come now, let ussettle the matter, says the Lord
.
Though your sins are likescarlet, they shall be as white
as snow.
They are red as crimson.
(36:34):
They shall be like wool.
So what does this scripture sayto us?
It says that God already knowswe're not perfect.
God already knows all of thoseimperfections that we see.
He's seen them, some of them,he's allowed to be there and
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because of that we don't have tobe ashamed.
See, when you're carryingaround this shame stick and
you're beating yourself becauseyou're in that sin cycle, if
you're carrying this around, youare only half as effective out
in life because you've only gotone hand to do anything with.
The other hand is so busybeating you up that you can't be
(37:19):
effective.
The Lord doesn't want that.
Lay it down, Because the lastthing that I want to share with
you is that your reflection canshow you your future.
Now, I don't want to be weirdand I'm not meaning aside from
showing you who the fairest inthe land is, it can show you
(37:43):
your future, not in a weird way,but what I mean by that is,
when you look in the mirror.
How you respond to thatreflection determines how you
walk through life.
When you look at that person inthe mirror, if you see somebody
who is shameful, who isworthless, who's been told they
(38:07):
were stupid or whatever it is,that will affect you.
I've worked in education andyou can only call a kid stupid.
So long before they become astupid kid they will live up to
the words that you give them.
We all do.
And so you can take that shame.
(38:28):
You can take all the labels,everything that's been put on
you, and when you go, you cansay, yeah, I'm kind of a loser,
I don't have much purpose,because what use would God have
for a loser like this?
And so you don't go out andpursue anything, but see the
same things, that same pain,that same instance that got you
(38:51):
into the sin cycle.
If you deal with it properly,if you say, lord, this happened,
it sucked, and I need you tohelp me, help me to forgive,
help me to let go of this, helpme to do whatever it is that you
need to do for that situation,then what happens is those scars
are still there.
The scars don't change, but thestory about it does, and so
(39:16):
that's what we have to do.
We have to take our story, wehave to take all that stuff.
We've got to defeat that sincycle.
Say Lord, show me my future.
What is it?
Say Lord, show me my future,what is it?
So I missed this in the lastservice, but I wanted to throw
out just some extra verses herefor you.
This is the Reflection Tour2024.
(39:40):
It kind of looked like a showshirt to me, so I put it that
way.
But here's some scriptures.
You can screenshot it or visitit back on YouTube.
And this is just a few guys.
There's a ton of scriptures.
The Lord really talks a lotabout self-examination Examine
yourself, do it.
(40:01):
So I don't have to.
It's kind of what he saysthroughout the Bible Check your
behavior.
So I don't have to do it,because good kids don't get
yelled at Right.
Good kids get good consequences, bad kids, bad consequences.
And if we're God's kids, okay,check out some of these
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scriptures.
They're very convicting.
They'll challenge you.
I'm gonna ask the worship teamif they would come.
Come now, let us settle thematter, says the Lord.
Though your sins are likescarlet, they shall be white as
snow.
Though they are red as crimson,they shall be like wool.
(40:52):
See, today you may be here andyou're going.
Well, that's exciting, but Ihaven't even started the process
.
See, the cross is like anothertype of mirror.
When we look at the cross, wecan see the reflection of our
sin.
We can see the stuff that weshould have paid for and that,
(41:19):
if we don't confess it, we willpay for.
That mirror shows you thatyou're valuable, that somebody
not just somebody the Lord ofcreation left his comfortable,
(41:40):
very comfortable living room andcame down to be poor, live a
sinless life.
I don't know if you've tried it, but living a sinless life is
kind of hard.
He did all that so that hecould die for me.
And you know, when I look at itthrough this lens, when I put
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the reflection of my sin infront of that cross man, it's
humbling, it'll quiet you down.
But see, maybe you're heretoday and you go.
I've never seen my reflectionin the face of the cross, I've
never seen Jesus.
So that's my question to youtoday is have you embraced Jesus
(42:26):
?
Because if you haven't, you cantoday.
There's nothing magical aboutit, it's a position of the heart
, and in just a moment I'll showyou how to come into
relationship with him.
Psalm 139,.
Search me, o God, and know myheart.
Try me and know my thoughts andsee if there be any grievous
(42:51):
way in me and lead me in the wayeverlasting.
I'm going to ask if you wouldstand as we get ready to close.
We're in a time right now it'sthe end of the year Because of
the way the world works, we allhave at least one situation that
(43:13):
isn't solved or that we haven'ttied a bow in yet.
That's what this altar is for,or any of the other stuff too.
But if you've got somethingthat you need to deal with maybe
you're in that cycle, you goLord that you need to deal with.
Maybe you're in that cycle andyou go, lord.
I need to break it, but I don'teven know how I got into the
(43:34):
cycle.
Show me what that offendingincident was.
Help me to deal with it.
Take some time and hopefully youdid what I asked at the
beginning of the message andkind of let your mind wander to
your personal situation whilestaying tethered.
Hopefully the Lord's talked toyou about a situation.
(43:56):
Maybe he's just talked to youabout you, because my prayer for
you is my prayer for all of usis that when we look in the
mirror, we would see ourselvesthrough God's eyes.
So if you have a hard timelooking at your reflection, if
you have a hard time thinkingabout looking at your reflection
(44:18):
, this altar's for you.
Take some time and say Lord,help me to see myself through
your eyes, help me to see myselfthrough your eyes, help me to
see you, help me to see me theway you see me.
Because here's the thing God'sgot such a different opinion of
(44:39):
you than you do, and it's such abetter one and it's more
accurate.
But my prayer is that you wouldsee yourself the way and it's
more accurate.
But my prayer is that you wouldsee yourself the way that God
sees you and, as he speaks toyou, who you are.
Until you believe it, justlisten to the Lord and lean on
(45:06):
him.
For that, see yourself throughyour eyes until you can see him.
See you through yours.
You see.
It says in Romans, verse nineand 10, or verse 10, nine and 10
.
But if you confess with yourmouth that Jesus is Lord and
(45:27):
believe in your heart that Godraised him from the dead, you
will be saved.
For with the heart one believesand is justified, and with the
mouth one confesses and is saved.
So maybe you're here today andthat's you.
You've never seen yourself inthe reflection of the cross.
Or maybe you did and you weresaved at one point, but you've
(45:49):
walked away With all heads bowedand all eyes closed.
I'm just going to ask, ifthat's you, go ahead and raise
your hand, slip your hand up, soI know how to pray with you,
and we're just going to pray aprayer to help bring you into
relationship with the Lord.
We won't single you out.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Thank you, lord.
So if you would pray thisprayer with me.
Lord, thank you for loving me.
Thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
I believe he rose again.
Forgive me of my sins.
I surrender my life to you InChrist's name, amen, amen.
(46:52):
Well, brothers and sisters, ifthat's you, congratulations.
We are so excited.
Today is your birthday, yourspiritual birthday, and we wanna
invite you.
We've got a prayer banner backhere where we've got some
resources to help you getstarted on this journey of faith
.
And the other thing I want toencourage you, if that's you,
get involved in a life group,see how life is done with other
(47:17):
believers.
But for the rest of us, as weopen this altar, it's for what
you need.
Come spend some time with theLord.
Let him talk to you about you.
Let him talk to you about yoursituation.
Talk to him about somesituations.
(47:38):
Take some time and reflect thisweek.
Take some time and reflect andthen go and deal with those
situations so you can have abetter future.
Lord, I thank you so much forthis time that we've had.
I thank you for the truth thatyou've spoken.
God, I just ask that, as weopen this altar that you would
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reveal to us exactly what it isthat we, as individuals, need to
deal with, and I thank you,lord, that nobody knows what the
business is that you're dealingwith, but us.
Lord, I ask that you would helpus to examine ourselves so that
you don't have to do it.
We pray all these things in themighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
What a great word to start 2025 with.
God just wants us to seeourselves through his eyes, so
good.
Will you stand with us as weget ready for the blessing.
We say goodbye to 2024 and wesay hello to all the
possibilities of 2025.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Once again, we are so thankful that you came today,
that you got out of bed and madeit to church.
But before we go, I want toread this blessing, or I want to
pray this blessing over us theLord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
(49:04):
you peace.
Lord, we pray this prayer overyour people, your church.
We ask that you would be withus as we go forward today and
this week.
Lord, help us to redefine whata great year looks like in 2025.
We pray this in the mighty nameof Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Thank you, all we love you.
(49:25):
Have a great and happy new year.
Man, I am just so thankful for our media team.
They do such a great job andyou know I know that.
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you, media team.
You know I know that afterChristmas you've got that haze
from the holidays and you wannado absolutely nothing.
But our media team, they rollout of bed on the weekend that
(00:21):
nobody wants to come to churchand they get here early so they
can get everything set up andface all of the challenges and
then have church afterwards withhaving all those challenges and
things, and I'm just, I'm sothankful for you guys.
So thank you very much, mediateam.
So you know they're a very busygroup of people and so you know
(00:45):
this is a really busy church.
We've got a lot of stuff thatgoes on throughout the year, and
if you're just joining us,maybe this balcony back here is
not new to you, but it's new tous.
And so in that process of thisyear, we had a lot of fun
stories, a lot of challengesthat happened, and so I wanted
(01:07):
to tell you, as we're reflectingon the year I just wanted to
tell you about this one timethat I was an amateur
electrician and so what wasgoing on was we were having this
video projection or the videowall going in at the same time
that the power for the videowall was going on.
So we were installing this butwe didn't have any way to turn
(01:28):
it on.
At the same time, they weredemolishing all of this stuff up
here in the balcony and theconstruction workers came to us
and said, hey, you've got abunch of switches up there that
need to be terminated.
So there were nine sliderswitches, boxes that were up
there that controlled all of thelights for these, the
(01:48):
auditorium lights.
And I said, cool, well, ourelectrician's busy.
And they said we don't doelectrical.
Okay, we don't do electrical.
Oh, that's good, because I do,I do electrical, you see.
So I decided or well, pastorJay asked me if I would
(02:09):
terminate those things.
So I went and I talked to ourelectrician.
I said, okay, harvey, so I justcut these, wrap them and do
this right.
And I made sure that I wasgoing to be safe.
We turned the power off and Iproceeded to do it.
And so when you cut nineswitches of power, it ends up
looking like this Um, and thiswas the bouquet that I sent my
(02:29):
wife.
Um, it happened to be on ouranniversary and so she didn't
get flowers.
She got this picture instead.
Now, if you know my wife,you'll know that she actually
appreciates this far more than abouquet of roses, because we
didn't have a lot of money earlyon in our marriage, so when if
I were to spend money on flowers, that would have not actually
(02:50):
been a good thing, and soapologies, and I love you's are
much more free than a dozenroses.
So when I sent her this, shewas.
She took that as ouranniversary gift and I showed
Pastor Jay and he goes okay, butwe need to make it look a
little nicer in case the fireguy shows up.
So I went to go put it into theboxes, but the wire nuts would
(03:17):
not fit into the power boxes, soI had to then take undo
everything that I had just done,put them into power boxes and
then redo everything that I hadjust done.
It took me all day because oftrips to Home Depot and you guys
know the thing First thing nextday I get a picture of Harvey,
our electrician the next morning, fixing everything that I did
(03:42):
all day the day before.
You see, what happened was whenwe turned off the lights, they
wouldn't turn back on and wedidn't know because we hadn't
used those switches, so wedidn't think they did anything.
Well, they did.
They still controlled all thelights and it took them about
three days to untangle the messthat I did and we finally
(04:06):
obviously got power back to thelights and everything.
But during that it was afrustrating time.
But now it's kind of funny andI look back and there's a lot of
things that happened throughoutour year that are just like
that, and so today we're goingto be talking about reflection
(04:26):
and we're going to reflect justa little bit on our year here at
Cornerstone and as individuals.
But if we haven't met first off,my name is Pastor Angus.
I'm the family pastor here.
I get to work with the kids andour volunteers and it's so
amazing.
I have got my dream job.
It's fantastic, and so we wantto welcome you here to
(04:47):
Cornerstone and thank you forjoining us today.
We hope that this will becomeyour church home, because this
is just a fantastic place.
This has been our home sinceour firstborn was born 14 years
ago.
But here at Cornerstone, if youwant to know what we're all
about here, it can be boileddown to be more like Jesus.
(05:09):
That's our goal here is to bemore like Jesus, as the people
of Cornerstone, because what werecognize is that we are all on
a journey, we are all in process.
None of us have arrived, noneof us are perfect.
We are all imperfect peoplefollowing after a perfect Savior
.
And so, with that in mind, weuse this image of walking with
(05:30):
Jesus, and it symbolizes usbeing not perfect, walking with
him, trying to do just a littlebit better every day.
And the way we do that here isby loving God, making disciples
and reaching the world.
That's just a simple way for usto be more like Jesus, and if
you don't know how to do thosethings, if you don't know
exactly how to love God or makedisciples, you certainly don't
(05:53):
know how to reach the world.
That's what our life groups arefor, and I wanna invite you.
We've got a semester our nextsemester of life groups is
coming up.
There's all kinds of thingswhere you can connect, grow and
serve.
We've got some groups that arejust about connection.
It's entirely fun Men's brunchand the senior brunch.
And then we've got grow groups,where that is intentionally
(06:15):
made.
They're Bible-type studies,they're curriculum-based.
It's meant to grow you as aperson and as a Christian and
then to serve.
The next step is, once youbegin to bear fruit, you want to
share that fruit with what Godis doing in your life.
You want to share that withother people and there is a
place here for you to serve.
You just have to find it and wewill help you find that.
(06:36):
And we've got that processthrough next steps.
But today I want to jump offinto our first scripture.
It's found in Psalm 139, verse23 and 24.
Search me, o God, and know myheart, try me and know my
thoughts and see if there be anygrievous way in me and lead me
(06:59):
in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139, 23 and 24.
Lord, we thank you so much foryour word.
We thank you for the ability totake time and reflect on what
it is that you have done andwant to do in our lives.
Lord, I've got the notes, butyou have the message.
Holy Spirit, I just ask thatyou would come and breathe life
(07:20):
and that you would take thismessage that's designed to hit
everybody and make it personalto each and every one of us.
We pray this in the mighty nameof Jesus Christ, amen.
So reflection what we want to dofirst is look at the year in
review.
So if you're just joining us oryou didn't join us at the
(07:41):
beginning of the year, here is alist and I'm gonna go through
some of our sermon series sothat if you're like, oh that
sounds really interesting, youcan go back, check out our
YouTube and you can check outthe messages.
Or maybe you were here and yougo I didn't really practice that
one as much as I should have orI really could use a refresher
(08:02):
as I talk about some of thesethings.
Maybe really could use arefresher as I talk about some
of these things.
Maybe you bookmark or go backto those places on YouTube and
see about revisiting some ofthose principles.
So last year we started off theyear with prayer and fasting,
which we do every year.
We'll be doing that again in acouple of weeks here and I want
to challenge you that if youhave not fasted before, or if
(08:23):
you haven't gotten a lot out offasting, that this year is the
year to before, or if youhaven't gotten a lot out of
fasting, that this year's theyear to change that.
If you haven't gotten a lot outof fasting, really that's your
fault, because fasting is a timefor you to set aside something
that you really love.
See, I love food, I love tocook food, I love to make food,
(08:44):
I love to give food out.
But when I stop eating and Iput that away because I say,
lord, I want you more than Iwant to eat, it's got no choice
but to draw you closer to theLord, because he becomes your
nourishment, he becomes thatthing that you need.
And so if you've said I can'tdo that, if you've already said
(09:07):
you can't fast this or thatbecause of a mental thing, start
getting that out now, becausethe reality is is I can do all
things in Christ, whostrengthens me.
Okay, so really, over thesenext couple of weeks, begin to
prepare yourself mentally andemotionally, spiritually, for
fasting.
And I wanna challenge you totake your fast to the next level
(09:29):
.
If you fasted, maybe a Danielfast, try a water only.
If you did three days wateronly, do seven days water only.
Take it to the next level andsee if your relationship doesn't
go to the next level with theLord.
So, from the prayer and fasting,we ended up doing a sermon
series called the Way of Wisdom,where we walked through the
(09:50):
books of Proverbs, ecclesiastes,song of Songs and Job, and we
learned about a properrelationship with the Lord,
because it's wise to have aproper relationship with the one
in charge.
Would you agree, like there's acertain way you approach the
boss because if you don'tapproach him the right way,
you're looking for a new boss,right?
(10:11):
Similarly, but thankfully verydifferent, with the Lord,
there's a right way to come toGod and there's a wrong way, and
it's not smart to come to himthe wrong way.
So that's why, again, if you'relike I'm not exactly sure how I
should even come to the Lord,go revisit the way of wisdom.
After that, we moved on toproclaim, where we proclaimed
(10:32):
the roles of Jesus in our livesas prophet, priest, king and
Messiah.
Then, from proclaim, we endedup at Easter, which Easter is an
incredible time, and I actuallylearned this Christmas season.
I love research and I lovehistory and things like that,
and I actually learned that.
(10:53):
Did you know that Easter used toactually be the big holiday in
this country?
It wasn't Christmas, it wasEaster.
Easter had all of the focus,but it was back early, early on,
when Coke's winter sales weredown.
They were trying to figure outa way to market more Coke and so
they invented Santa and broughthim into the mix and from there
(11:18):
the focus became about that andshifted away from Easter.
I thought that was reallyinteresting, came about that and
shifted away from Easter.
I thought that was reallyinteresting, and so it really
put something in me personallythat I need to straighten that
out in my house and in my familyand in our relationship with
the Lord, because Easter reallyis the important one.
Christmas is great because itannounces the coming, but the
(11:42):
whole reason he came was forEaster the coming, but the whole
reason he came was for Easter.
And so I want to just challengeyou again that as we are moving
through this year and as weapproach Easter, put more focus
on Jesus and less on the bunnyand let's try and make Easter
this year a little bit more thanit's been in the past.
(12:03):
From Easter we went into thissermon series of stretch, and I
love that series becausestretching is it's that
uncomfortable place where Godwill take you to someplace new.
And so in my family I've beentrying to get them familiar with
this concept of beingcomfortable with being
uncomfortable, or to getcomfortable with being
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uncomfortable, because if youcan be comfortable with being
uncomfortable, that's wheregrowth happens in all areas of
life physically, mentally,emotionally, spiritually.
When God takes you to thatplace where you're stretching
just out, where you can reach,you discover you can go a little
bit further than you thoughtyou did you could.
You discover you can go alittle bit further than you
thought you did you could.
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And so that stretch was just awonderful way for us to look and
see how far we can gophysically, spiritually,
relationally and financiallywith the Lord.
Then from there we moved intoKingdom Builders.
Kingdom Builders is what we usedto call Missions Convention.
That's where we focus ourmissions dollars out towards the
world, which we do year round.
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But what it is is it's a timefor us to.
What we do is every year wetell the missionaries how much
we can support, based on whatyou all say we can, what you all
want to give, and then itbasically goes into a bucket
called kingdom builders, and thebigger the bucket, the more we
can help.
So once we've dedicated howmuch money goes to the
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missionaries, that's a setnumber to them.
But if we've got more moneyleft over in the bucket, then we
can take on other projects.
We can bless missionaries, wecan do other projects.
When disaster strikes, we cando convoy of hope and things
like that, because the bucketfor kingdom builders is full.
So that's what kingdom buildersis, and so I challenge you in
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this year also to really seewhat God can do when you start
being a vessel for him to beable to move resource.
Then we come into Mother's Day,and Mother's Day we honor all
mothers, those who havephysically given birth, but
those who are spiritual mothers,who are mothers in place of a
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physical mom, and we honor ourmoms in that way.
Then Pentecost so I can neverchoose between prayer and
fasting is my favorite, orPentecost so I can never choose
between prayer and fasting as myfavorite or Pentecost.
These two are my top two,because Pentecost is what makes
us different, you guys, that'swhat makes us who we are, that's
what makes us different thanother churches down the street,
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is that we believe.
We don't just believe in theexistence of the Holy Spirit,
but we believe in the power andpresence that he's working in us
today and through us today.
And so this is one thing Iwanna tell you is if you are
here and you call yourself aPentecostal, but you haven't
been baptized in the Holy Spirit, what are you doing?
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I wanna really consider that upuntil Pentecost and in these
few weeks coming up to there,because if you're a Pentecostal
and you don't have the power ofthe Holy Spirit, it's kind of
like having a Tesla without acharging cord or a Porsche
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without any gas.
It's great, it looks awesome,but you can't go anywhere, you
can't do anything with it.
So, with us as Christians, it'sgreat to have the relationship
with Jesus, but see, the powerof the Holy Spirit is what gives
us that energy, the power, theguidance to be able to live that
life for Christ.
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Then we moved into a seriescalled Holy, which was basically
a way for us to understand whatit meant to be filled with the
Spirit and what our anointingwas for, and find out what it
was.
What are we praying for?
Do our prayers line up withwhat the Lord would have us pray
?
Then, from there, we went into12 weeks of Romans.
We walked through the book ofRomans, where we got to hear
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from many voices, people who areon staff and people who are in
ministry, who are seekingcredentials and who are
credentialed, got to speakthroughout that series and I am
just.
I'm so thankful for Pastor Jaythat he allows other voices to
come across the pulpit, becauseespecially when it's other
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brothers and sisters in here,because what it does is it
really shows what God has beendoing.
You see, I'm up here now, but14 years ago I was in that back
row smelling like alcohol fromthe night before and God has,
little by little, taken me tobeing up here where I can share,
and it is just so cool to watchthe people who've been on this
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journey alongside with me to beable to be up here and sharing
too.
So I thank you, pastor Jay, forthat.
And then during that Romanseries was Father's Day, where I
got to check off one of mybucket lists which was preaching
a Father's Day message thatlined up with Romans and talked
about forgiveness.
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Then we celebrated theanniversary of Cornerstone.
It is amazing to me, and thereare times when the building is
dark and there's nobody here,and when I walk through I
contemplate and think about thefact that I am standing in a yes
that Pastor Rich and PastorCindy.
They heard from the Lord.
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They got a dream that wasbigger than themselves and then
they said yes to it.
And every Sunday we come and wesit and we learn and we grow as
a result of.
Yes, it's just incredible andI'm so thankful, and so our
anniversary is a wonderful timeto remember that.
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Then, as we're thinking aboutwho we are as a church, we moved
into a series called the sevenC's, and in the seven C's we
talked about who we are here atCornerstone as a people.
What is it that we are about?
And so those seven C's arecommitment, community
communication, competence,creativity, compassion and
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celebration, and all of thosethings are things that we try to
do and we strive to do withexcellence here, and so if you
want to know a little bit moreabout who we are and what we
strive for, the 7 C's serieswill take you a little more in
depth on who we are as believersand people here at Cornerstone.
Next, we moved into a seriescalled Dwell, where we tackled
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this idea of going deeper inyour relationship with the Lord,
not just having a surface level.
Hey, what's up God, how's itgoing?
Oh, hey, could you help me outthis week with my bills?
You know it's going past thatgoing deeper, dwelling with the
Lord, like you would dwell witha spouse or with a loved one,
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because the relationship changeswhen you spend time with them,
and it's amazing to me how fastthe year goes, because that
brings us all the way up toThanksgiving, which was just a
few weeks ago.
There was a lot of content inthis last year and a lot of
things to give thanks for, andI'm so thankful that I get to be
here and do life and familywith each and every one of you.
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And then we just finished itoff and closed it out the
Christmas Advent season, whichis a phenomenal time around here
and again, we really try andfocus and put the emphasis on
Jesus and our role as Christiansin showing the light of Christ
in our dark world, especially atAdvent, when people are
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listening.
And that brings us to the lastmessage of 2024, reflection.
Let's reflect a little bit,shall we so with this message
now?
If you know me, I have ADD andmy mind wanders occasionally and
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you guys get to hear about it,but what I'd like today is for
the message to be I would likeyou to stay tethered to the
message, but I want you to allowyour mind to wander and
investigate some of the thingsthat we're talking about.
I want you to reallycontemplate and think deeply on
some of these things Because, asI was talking to someone in
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between services, we realizedthat life is so fast, especially
during this time of year.
You get to today and most peopleare at home catching their
breath watching us onlinebecause they're like I just
can't.
I can't do one more publicthing, right.
And so for those of youintroverts who are here today,
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we love you.
We love you so much because weknow the struggle.
My wife is an introvert, so Iknow the struggle.
But the thing is is, when wecome to a time of reflection,
your mind can wander and getlost.
So that's why I want you tostay tethered, but I want you to
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think about some of the thingsthat we're talking about.
So my question to you is inthis last year, what has the
Lord done in your life In thelast year?
What has the Lord done in yourlife Positive?
Has he allowed some negativethings?
I want you to start thinkingabout those because, as we think
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about it, I wanna tell youabout mirrors.
Mirrors are so cool.
I love mirrors.
How many of you played inmirrors?
How many of you like to checkyourself out in mirrors?
How many of you play in mirrors?
Any of you, just okay, a few ofyou, that's okay, and we won't
call you vain or anything likethat.
I played in the mirror a lotbecause I was in theater and so
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I had to know what my face wasdoing, and so you guys all know
that I love to bring youinformation that you may not
necessarily need to know, butyou like to know it because it's
interesting.
So I did some research onmirrors.
Now, mirrors started off as likepolished rocks, and then
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polished metal and things andwent on to becoming what we know
as mirrors today.
But it used to be that only theultra wealthy even had mirrors
or were allowed to have mirrors,and so it was such a guarded
secret because Venetian glasswas one of the best glasses and
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types of glass in the world.
Venetian glass makers were notallowed to travel outside of the
city without accompaniment.
They had to have guards andthey had to have people with
them because, for a few reasons,one to protect them.
But the government was soconcerned about the secret of
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Venetian glass getting out thatthey would send assassins to
kill their glassmakers if theythought that they were defecting
.
It was pretty incredible.
These glassmakers were soimportant.
They were allowed to marrynoblemen, which you know that's
a no-no Like you're royal oryou're not.
You know that's a no-no, likeyou're royal or you're not.
But these people were soskilled and it was such an
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incredible skill to master thatthey could marry into royalty
Pretty cool.
So in where was it?
In Geneva, the citizens wereonly allowed.
It was law that you could onlyhave one mirror per room, and
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that mirror couldn't be anylarger than 32 inches.
I don't know why one mirror perroom or why the length.
My guess is probably.
So the rich people could say wegot bigger mirrors, but I don't
know that for sure, see, butwhen you think about mirrors, I
like to ruminate on things.
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You guys know that wordruminate.
It means to go over in the mindrepeatedly, and often casually
or slowly.
So another use for the wordruminate is how cows chew.
So they chew the cud and thenthey swallow it and then they
bring it back up and chew itagain.
And so I like to ruminate.
I go over and over and over andover again in my mind on
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thoughts, and I came across thisthought that was really
interesting.
There's this one historian whosaid that the idea of
individuality, the idea ofindividuality arose because of
mirrors.
Let me walk you through that.
Before mirrors, we all sawourselves as part of a group in
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relation to other groups.
You're a fisherman inrelationship to tax collectors
and carpenters or whatever,right, because you belonged to a
group and as a part of thatgroup you saw yourself I'm not
as rich as the tax collectors orthis or that, and so you saw
your group in comparison toother groups.
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It wasn't until mirrors came andpeople were able to see the
differences between themselvesand other people.
Because fishermen dress thesame.
It's kind of like a uniform.
You're not going to wear thesame thing collecting taxes as
you do fishing, right, and viceversa.
So when you're wearing thatstuff, you begin to look like
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the people around you.
So you associate, you thinkabout yourself just like
everybody else.
Because yourself, just likeeverybody else, because you look
like everybody else, you wearthe same kind of clothes, you
live in the same kind of house.
But it's not until you begin tosee the difference in your own
face, your own features, thatyou realize I'm different than
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this person, what makes medifferent than them.
It's not just the physicalfeatures, because we all know
that, but it's once you can seeyou, once you can see who you
are in relation to everybodyelse.
You're not just a pair, a setof clothing, you're not just an
occupation.
You become a person, you becomean individual.
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How cool is that?
So, if you think about it, likeeven back in those days,
thinking about this idea ofindividuality, only the rich
people who knew who they were.
Poor, had no identity outsideof their own experience.
That's why it's so importantthat we find our identity in
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Christ, and that why, beforemirrors, that scripture was so
important, is that we find ouridentity in Christ.
That wasn't in my notes, I justput that together right here on
the stage.
It was see, shared it with you.
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So mirrors are.
They provide a lot of things,but mirrors are fun.
I love mirrors.
Like I said, I grew up intheater and so I had to.
What I do when we talk withyoung actors or any speaker is
before you're going to present,go do it in front of a mirror,
because filming it's great, butthat comes after the fact.
When you do it in front of themirror, you get real, real-time
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feedback.
You go oh, I didn't know that.
My face looked like that when Isaid that Because sometimes we
are very unaware of what ourface is doing Anybody.
Sometimes my face says thingsthat my mind wasn't supposed to
let out.
My mind wasn't supposed to letout.
See, they're a lot of fun.
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But you notice things inmirrors, right?
You notice different things.
Now, I don't know about you.
I found out and I looked it upMost Americans look at
themselves in the mirror onaverage eight times a day.
So see where you fall on thataverage.
But when we look in the mirroron average eight times a day, so
see where you fall on thataverage.
But when we look in the mirror,it's.
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I equate it to kind of likeguys shopping.
Okay, when guys go shopping,they know what they need, they
go in, they get it and they goaway.
They don't stay and enjoy thestore and the atmosphere.
No, they just go get it doneand they go home, right.
Similarly, with our appearance,we get and we're so busy that
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we go, we trim and we fluff andwe do all that and we go.
We don't sit and take time toenjoy the supermarket, enjoy the
creation.
When was the last time that yousat and looked at yourself in
the mirror without an agenda,without doing makeup or hair or
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primping or preening or any ofthat stuff.
When was the last time you sat?
Guys, it's awkward.
I'd try it.
Set a timer for a minute and gostare at yourself for a minute.
It's the longest minute.
It's almost as long as when youtell somebody to pray for a
minute.
Those minutes stretch out intoeternity.
But do it.
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Sit there and see how long youcan stare at yourself.
If you can't make it a minute,ask yourself why, why this part
hurts.
Stare at yourself.
If you can't make it a minute,ask yourself why, why this part
hurts.
See a lot of times, the thingsthat we notice when we look in
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the mirror.
We see the things that otherpeople have said about us.
We see the things that we'vesaid about us and so we don't
want to look past.
Okay, I'm good, I'm presentable.
Because if you look at yourself, you might find out you're not
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as presentable as you thoughtyou were.
And it her.
And as a husband, as a father,especially of girls, the mirror
can be a big source of pain inmy life.
See, because when my wife isgetting ready and she asks how I
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look, and I tell her she looksgreat.
She can believe me or she canbelieve what she sees, and what
she sees goes along witheverything.
Everybody has said everythingthat she's said and you know I
see that struggle that I've hadand I know it's not just my way,
I know it's everybody here.
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When you struggle, and how do Ilook?
You look great, yeah, butyou're lying.
You have to say that becausedeath ensues if you give me the
other answer, right?
So you feel like you never geta real answer and we live in a
really tough and difficult worldand I'm not looking forward to
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that for my kids and I'm notlooking forward to that for my
kids.
I want my girls, when they'remarried, to be able to say how
do I look?
And their husbands say you lookamazing and they go yep, he's
right.
You know how amazing that wouldfeel as a husband, because you
know what that means.
You've got good taste.
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When you say you look good andthis is just a side note but
when you say you look good andyou don't believe the guy who
says it, kind of call him a liar.
Tell him he doesn't have goodtaste because what's appealing
to him isn't appealing to you.
But if beauty is in the eye ofthe beholder.
Okay, we'll move on.
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In 2 Corinthians 13.5, it saysexamine yourselves to see
whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves, or do you notrealize this about yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you?
This about yourselves thatJesus Christ is in you, unless
indeed, you fail to meet thetest.
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See, the Lord calls us toevaluate ourselves so that other
people don't have to, so thatwe can be ready and we've been
evaluated.
We've taken care of thebehavior before we ever get up
there.
And we can talk about it in thepast tense with the Lord
because you don't want to get upthere.
And we can talk about it in thepast tense with the Lord
Because you don't want to get upthere with current tense
situations.
Why are you still doing this?
Why'd you do that?
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You went past it.
I'm so glad you had victoryover this.
Look what we accomplishedtogether.
See, another thing mirrors dois they're serious.
They reveal serious things tous.
They reveal shame, and I wantto explain to you how shame
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works.
This is how I've seen it workin my life and in the lives of
people who go to this church.
So what happens is you start offwith some sort of a pain or an
incident.
Something happens to you whereyou hurt or you have a bad
attitude about something, and sowhat happens is you medicate
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that incident.
You medicate that with sin.
Okay, now, sin is like apharmaceutical it was never
designed to heal anything.
Pharmaceuticals do a great jobat taking care of symptoms and
bringing relief, but it wasnever designed to heal you of
anything.
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Similarly, sin may make youfeel better for a while, but it
will not heal the pain while.
But it will not heal the pain.
It will not take away thatincident.
It will medicate it so that youdon't feel it, so that you
continue on through life.
But the problem with that, withany pharmaceutical is
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eventually they're not strongenough.
Now I speak to this personallybecause I was addicted to
opiates as a result of a quadaccident, and so I know that
just a little bit of Percocetturns into morphine down the
road and that's not fun becauseit just gets more and more and
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more.
And then what happens is you'remedicating it with sin and then,
because of the sin, you feelshame and the enemy hands you
this shame stick and starts tobeat you with it.
I can't believe you did that.
I thought you said you were aChristian, whatever it is and
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starts to you start to beatyourself with it.
And then what happens is,because you've got all these
bruises from beating yourselfwith a shame stick, you start to
medicate the shame stick, startto medicate the shame, you
medicate that, and so now you'renot even treating the initial
problem.
You're not dealing with any ofthat stuff Now, you're just
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medicating the medication and itjust continues and continues
and continues.
And then so you medicate theshame, you feel worse and then
you beat yourself up.
And this is what upsets me somuch about this situation, you
guys.
Oh, it gets me so angry.
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The enemy doesn't even have todedicate a demon to you in this
process.
He has to have a broken persondo something to you so that you
have an attitude that you beginto medicate.
And then, once you're in thesystem, all he does is hand you
the stick and walks away.
And then you beat and youmedicate, and you beat and you
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medicate, and it puts you onautopilot and just leaves you
there in that cycle until youget out of it with Christ or
until you're his forever.
I mean, that's the reality ofit.
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So what do we do about that?
It says I'm gonna skip downhere to Isaiah 1.18.
And it says come now, let ussettle the matter, says the Lord
.
Though your sins are likescarlet, they shall be as white
as snow.
They are red as crimson.
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They shall be like wool.
So what does this scripture sayto us?
It says that God already knowswe're not perfect.
God already knows all of thoseimperfections that we see.
He's seen them, some of them,he's allowed to be there and
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because of that we don't have tobe ashamed.
See, when you're carryingaround this shame stick and
you're beating yourself becauseyou're in that sin cycle, if
you're carrying this around, youare only half as effective out
in life because you've only gotone hand to do anything with.
The other hand is so busybeating you up that you can't be
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effective.
The Lord doesn't want that.
Lay it down, Because the lastthing that I want to share with
you is that your reflection canshow you your future.
Now, I don't want to be weirdand I'm not meaning aside from
showing you who the fairest inthe land is, it can show you
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your future, not in a weird way,but what I mean by that is,
when you look in the mirror.
How you respond to thatreflection determines how you
walk through life.
When you look at that person inthe mirror, if you see somebody
who is shameful, who isworthless, who's been told they
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were stupid or whatever it is,that will affect you.
I've worked in education andyou can only call a kid stupid.
So long before they become astupid kid they will live up to
the words that you give them.
We all do.
And so you can take that shame.
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You can take all the labels,everything that's been put on
you, and when you go, you cansay, yeah, I'm kind of a loser,
I don't have much purpose,because what use would God have
for a loser like this?
And so you don't go out andpursue anything, but see the
same things, that same pain,that same instance that got you
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into the sin cycle.
If you deal with it properly,if you say, lord, this happened,
it sucked, and I need you tohelp me, help me to forgive,
help me to let go of this, helpme to do whatever it is that you
need to do for that situation,then what happens is those scars
are still there.
The scars don't change, but thestory about it does, and so
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that's what we have to do.
We have to take our story, wehave to take all that stuff.
We've got to defeat that sincycle.
Say Lord, show me my future.
What is it?
Say Lord, show me my future,what is it?
So I missed this in the lastservice, but I wanted to throw
out just some extra verses herefor you.
This is the Reflection Tour2024.
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It kind of looked like a showshirt to me, so I put it that
way.
But here's some scriptures.
You can screenshot it or visitit back on YouTube.
And this is just a few guys.
There's a ton of scriptures.
The Lord really talks a lotabout self-examination Examine
yourself, do it.
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So I don't have to.
It's kind of what he saysthroughout the Bible Check your
behavior.
So I don't have to do it,because good kids don't get
yelled at Right.
Good kids get good consequences, bad kids, bad consequences.
And if we're God's kids, okay,check out some of these
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scriptures.
They're very convicting.
They'll challenge you.
I'm gonna ask the worship teamif they would come.
Come now, let us settle thematter, says the Lord.
Though your sins are likescarlet, they shall be white as
snow.
Though they are red as crimson,they shall be like wool.
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See, today you may be here andyou're going.
Well, that's exciting, but Ihaven't even started the process
.
See, the cross is like anothertype of mirror.
When we look at the cross, wecan see the reflection of our
sin.
We can see the stuff that weshould have paid for and that,
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if we don't confess it, we willpay for.
That mirror shows you thatyou're valuable, that somebody
not just somebody the Lord ofcreation left his comfortable,
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very comfortable living room andcame down to be poor, live a
sinless life.
I don't know if you've tried it, but living a sinless life is
kind of hard.
He did all that so that hecould die for me.
And you know, when I look at itthrough this lens, when I put
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the reflection of my sin infront of that cross man, it's
humbling, it'll quiet you down.
But see, maybe you're heretoday and you go.
I've never seen my reflectionin the face of the cross, I've
never seen Jesus.
So that's my question to youtoday is have you embraced Jesus
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?
Because if you haven't, you cantoday.
There's nothing magical aboutit, it's a position of the heart
, and in just a moment I'll showyou how to come into
relationship with him.
Psalm 139,.
Search me, o God, and know myheart.
Try me and know my thoughts andsee if there be any grievous
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way in me and lead me in the wayeverlasting.
I'm going to ask if you wouldstand as we get ready to close.
We're in a time right now it'sthe end of the year Because of
the way the world works, we allhave at least one situation that
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isn't solved or that we haven'ttied a bow in yet.
That's what this altar is for,or any of the other stuff too.
But if you've got somethingthat you need to deal with maybe
you're in that cycle, you goLord that you need to deal with.
Maybe you're in that cycle andyou go, lord.
I need to break it, but I don'teven know how I got into the
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cycle.
Show me what that offendingincident was.
Help me to deal with it.
Take some time and hopefully youdid what I asked at the
beginning of the message andkind of let your mind wander to
your personal situation whilestaying tethered.
Hopefully the Lord's talked toyou about a situation.
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Maybe he's just talked to youabout you, because my prayer for
you is my prayer for all of usis that when we look in the
mirror, we would see ourselvesthrough God's eyes.
So if you have a hard timelooking at your reflection, if
you have a hard time thinkingabout looking at your reflection
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, this altar's for you.
Take some time and say Lord,help me to see myself through
your eyes, help me to see myselfthrough your eyes, help me to
see you, help me to see me theway you see me.
Because here's the thing God'sgot such a different opinion of
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you than you do, and it's such abetter one and it's more
accurate.
But my prayer is that you wouldsee yourself the way and it's
more accurate.
But my prayer is that you wouldsee yourself the way that God
sees you and, as he speaks toyou, who you are.
Until you believe it, justlisten to the Lord and lean on
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him.
For that, see yourself throughyour eyes until you can see him.
See you through yours.
You see.
It says in Romans, verse nineand 10, or verse 10, nine and 10
.
But if you confess with yourmouth that Jesus is Lord and
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believe in your heart that Godraised him from the dead, you
will be saved.
For with the heart one believesand is justified, and with the
mouth one confesses and is saved.
So maybe you're here today andthat's you.
You've never seen yourself inthe reflection of the cross.
Or maybe you did and you weresaved at one point, but you've
(45:49):
walked away With all heads bowedand all eyes closed.
I'm just going to ask, ifthat's you, go ahead and raise
your hand, slip your hand up, soI know how to pray with you,
and we're just going to pray aprayer to help bring you into
relationship with the Lord.
We won't single you out.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Thank you, lord.
So if you would pray thisprayer with me.
Lord, thank you for loving me.
Thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
I believe he rose again.
Forgive me of my sins.
I surrender my life to you InChrist's name, amen, amen.
(46:52):
Well, brothers and sisters, ifthat's you, congratulations.
We are so excited.
Today is your birthday, yourspiritual birthday, and we wanna
invite you.
We've got a prayer banner backhere where we've got some
resources to help you getstarted on this journey of faith
.
And the other thing I want toencourage you, if that's you,
get involved in a life group,see how life is done with other
(47:17):
believers.
But for the rest of us, as weopen this altar, it's for what
you need.
Come spend some time with theLord.
Let him talk to you about you.
Let him talk to you about yoursituation.
Talk to him about somesituations.
(47:38):
Take some time and reflect thisweek.
Take some time and reflect andthen go and deal with those
situations so you can have abetter future.
Lord, I thank you so much forthis time that we've had.
I thank you for the truth thatyou've spoken.
God, I just ask that, as weopen this altar that you would
(47:59):
reveal to us exactly what it isthat we, as individuals, need to
deal with, and I thank you,lord, that nobody knows what the
business is that you're dealingwith, but us.
Lord, I ask that you would helpus to examine ourselves so that
you don't have to do it.
We pray all these things in themighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
What a great word to start 2025 with.
God just wants us to seeourselves through his eyes, so
good.
Will you stand with us as weget ready for the blessing.
We say goodbye to 2024 and wesay hello to all the
possibilities of 2025.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Once again, we are so thankful that you came today,
that you got out of bed and madeit to church.
But before we go, I want toread this blessing, or I want to
pray this blessing over us theLord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
(49:04):
you peace.
Lord, we pray this prayer overyour people, your church.
We ask that you would be withus as we go forward today and
this week.
Lord, help us to redefine whata great year looks like in 2025.
We pray this in the mighty nameof Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Thank you, all we love you.
(49:25):
Have a great and happy new year.
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