October 20, 2025 • 56 mins
What if the most liberating truth you could hear is also the simplest: Jesus is Lord. We revisit the five solas through a fresh lens and zoom in on Solus Christus—Christ alone—as the pulse of the gospel that still frees captives, steadies anxious hearts, and sends ordinary people into extraordinary mission.
We share updates from the field: a new English-speaking campus launching in Koh Samui, a learning center designed to help refugee kids reach higher education, and courageous anti‑trafficking work that brings rescue, restoration, and dignity to survivors. These stories aren’t statistics; they are living proof that when the church trusts grace over grind, faith over fear, and Scripture over tradition, real people meet a real Savior. You’ll hear of an 11-year-old exploited and now on a path toward healing, and a Pakistani couple who found a Bible, found Christ, and found the courage to start again.
Then we dig into Romans 5:1–2 and unpack three anchors that hold in any storm: justification by faith, reconciliation with God, and bold access to the throne of grace. We confront legalism that suffocates and hyper‑grace that excuses, and we point to the better way where obedience springs from love. Along the way, we trace Jesus through all 66 books of Scripture and remember why the early church’s original creed still changes lives: Jesus is Lord. If you’ve felt unworthy, anxious, or far from God, this conversation opens the door to mercy, peace, and confidence in prayer.
Join us, share it with a friend who needs hope, and help us keep this work moving. If this encouraged you, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: where have you seen Christ alone make the difference?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
AI Video (00:00):
500 years ago, a monk named Martin Luther ignited a
fire that would reshapeChristianity forever.
His stand against theprevailing doctrines of his day
wasn't just a protest, it was acall to return to the
foundational truths of thefaith.
This pivotal moment of theProtestant Reformation wasn't
about creating a new religion,but about rediscovering the
(00:21):
gospel.
At the heart of thisrediscovery were five core
principles, Latin phrases thatbecame the rallying cry for
reform.
These are the five solas, solascriptura, scripture alone.
The Bible, not tradition orhuman authority, is our ultimate
and infallible guide for faithand life.
It's the final word, thehighest court.
(00:42):
Sola fide, faith alone.
We're justified, declaredrighteous in God's sight, by
faith alone, not by our works.
We trust solely in Christ'sfinished work on the cross, sola
gratia, grace alone.
Salvation is an earn, it's agift from God.
It's his unmerited favor thatsaves us.
Nothing we do can ever deserveit.
Solace Christus, Christ alone.
(01:04):
Jesus Christ is the onlymediator between God and
humanity.
He is the one and only way tosalvation, our one true King,
and our sole redeemer.
Solideo Gloria, to the glory ofGod alone.
The ultimate purpose ofeverything, including our
salvation, is to bring glory toGod.
Our lives are to be lived forhis praise, not our own.
(01:26):
These aren't just historicalslogans, they're living truths
that anchor our faith.
Jason Brown (01:31):
Amen.
The five solas is what we weretalking about, is the theme for
us here at Cornerstone.
It's those five statements aswe talked about sola scriptura,
scripture alone, sola fide,faith alone, sola gratia, grace
alone, solus Christus Christalone, and solidia gloria, glory
to God alone.
It's those five statements thatdrive us, and we've talked
(01:54):
about over these weeks intalking about who we are and
whose we are in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
If you're a guest of ours atCornerstone, welcome home today.
We're glad to have you.
We're glad you're a part ofwhat we're doing, and glad to be
able to worship with you.
You know, we see ourselves verymuch as imperfect people, and
all of us are in need of asavior.
None of us have figured it outyet.
(02:14):
And so, because of that, we arewalking after him because it's
only by his redemption that weare known in the Father.
And that's what it means for usto be walking with Jesus.
And that's why we use thisimagery of Christ walking with
his disciples, because that'show we view ourselves as people
who are following after wherehe's leading us to go.
Our ambition, both perpersonally and corporately, is
(02:36):
that we want to be more likeJesus.
And so that's why we meet witheach other throughout the week,
throughout the city and lifegroups, so that we can be
intentional in living that lifefor Christ, that we can connect,
we can build thoserelationships with each other,
so we can grow, we can be thosethat learn more about what the
word says and apply it to ourlives, and that we can serve, we
(02:57):
can use the abilities that Godhas given us for him and for his
purposes.
That collectively we would loveGod, we would make disciples,
and we would reach the world.
So in these last few weeks,we've been talking about these
different attributes anddifferent pieces of what it
means to see the five solosrealized.
And we talked about how MartinLuther over 500 years ago he
(03:17):
came and he he nailed those 95thesis to his church door.
And in doing so, it was astatement about wanting to
return back to the coreprinciples of faith, not about
other things or praying tosaints or to doing these other
traditions, but instead the coreprinciples of who we are and
what we believe.
We talked about how scripturealone, it comes from 2 Timothy
(03:40):
3, all scripture is breathed outby God and profitable for
teaching, and how it is the wordof God that is the truth that
we align our lives with.
So as we walk into thescripture of God daily and it
washes over us, it becomessomething transformational and
it becomes something that we seethe Holy Spirit breathing upon
daily, making the scripturebecome alive and applicable to
(04:02):
our lives as we live it.
We also talked about how it'sonly by faith that we are able
to do these things, our faith inChrist, in Christ alone.
For by grace you have beensaved through faith.
It's not of your own doing, itis the gift of God, not a result
of works, so that no one mayboast.
We talked about it's we can'tearn our way into the presence
(04:25):
of God.
It is his gift to us, and it'sby his grace, sola gratia, that
we can receive it.
Today we get to continue inthat process talking about solus
Christus, Christ alone.
Our speakers are some heroesand mentors of myself and
Celeste.
They are missionary pastors uhand very much those who we
(04:47):
admire.
They've spoken to this housesome powerful words, and today I
want to welcome our speakers,pastors Dana and Bridget
Metcalf.
Please welcome them as theycome today.
Dana Metcalf (05:04):
Thank you.
Bridgette Metcalf (05:04):
Wow, what an honor and a joy to be able to be
with you today.
And I truly love this seriesthat you are on right now.
And solos Christos is thereason why we're able to do what
we do, because in Christ alone,he gives us the strength and
the power and the wisdom to beable to go into some of the
darkest corners of Thailand andbe able to share the gospel of
(05:27):
Jesus Christ.
I want to say to you, church,you are an amazing church and
you have amazing pastors.
It's Pastor Appreciation.
Can we show some appreciationto these wonderful pastors?
They're very dear to our heart,um, Pastor Jay and Celeste.
We actually, uh Celeste was ourmissions pastor uh before she
(05:48):
got married to Jay, and it was ajoy and such a pleasure to have
her in our home, lived with usfor two years, uh, put up with
my sons.
So we were little rascals atthe time.
And we just got our oldest sonmarried, and he is just married
this last weekend.
And so we are rejoicing.
(06:09):
God gave him a wonderful,wonderful wife and blessed us
with a wonderful daughter.
And so uh what a joy it is tobe home and to be able to
celebrate that union.
But also, I just want to giveyou just a little reflection of
what God is doing through yourmissions, dollars, and your
prayers.
And I just want to say thankyou to you because November 30th
(06:31):
of 2025, we're gonna belaunching our third campus in
Kosamui.
It'll be the first time thatthis province, which is a state,
uh, has over a million peoplethat live in it, will have this
English-speaking church in thisarea.
It's revolutionary.
And we feel overjoyed that weget to partner with you and be
(06:55):
your hands and feet extended andto see this work happen.
So we'll please be prayingNovember 30th.
And then in January 2026, we'relaunching something that's been
dear to my heart for the lastfour years.
We've been trying to figure outa way that we can minister to
our refugee families.
We have 32 young individualchildren that cannot go to
(07:16):
school, and they're begging.
Every time I pray for them, Isay, What can I pray for you
about?
And they say, I want to go toschool.
And so we're creating a what wecall learning center, not
really a school, but a learningcenter that will provide the
education, get their GED, andget them off to college.
And we're actually praying forsome advanced uh schooling as
(07:36):
well.
So that will happen January2026.
And I just want to say thankyou, church, to you for all that
you've done to make thatpossible.
And we'll be launching at thattime.
And then lastly, I just want tosay thank you for supporting
Sealed Ministry and ProjectRescue Thailand.
It is an anti-traffickingorganization that I run.
(07:57):
And uh, we go into the highwaysand the byways and some of the
darkest corners, prisons,everywhere you can think, to be
able to rescue, restore, love,and value uh these men, women,
children from this dark web ofreally modern-day slavery.
Um, two days before I wasleaving for the USA, um, I got a
(08:20):
call asking for a desperate cryfor a young lady.
At the age of 11, she went intoprostitution um because her
grandparents had been sick, hermom and dad had no money, and
she thought, I need to dosomething.
And so her neighbor um said,Well, I I can help you with
that, and started prostitutingthis young girl at age 11 for 10
(08:45):
baht a trick, which isequivalent to about 35 cents.
And at age 15, she said, I Ireally feel like I need to be
done with this.
And she went to this neighborand said, I I can't do this
anymore.
I need to do something else.
And he goes, Just one more,just one more trick, and you're
(09:06):
done.
And so he she went to thishouse of his, and little did she
know, he had 17 men awaitingfor her, and she was multiply
raped, gang raped by these men.
And so I got this phone callsaying, Is there any place you
can put her?
Is there anything that you cando?
There's a cry.
She's been in this slavery,really, for four years, and so
(09:29):
uh trying to find the housingand the place and the proper
discipleship for this young ladywho's just been completely
ravaged by sin and for theeffects of mankind.
And so I just want to ask youto continue to pray for us as we
are getting her in a home rightnow and uh trying to bring back
(09:50):
life into her and sharing thegospel of Jesus Christ.
There's a dark world out there,and they need solos Christus,
Christ alone.
Because when they enter intothis world and they understand
that there is a Christ outthere, there's a savior, there's
a redeemer that can rescue themfrom the sin and the bondage of
(10:13):
hell and bring them into lifeand grace and mercy, it is just
remarkable what God can do.
So if you think about it,please pray for us every day and
just pray for the wisdom andthe strength and the guidance
and for the people that theywill come to the knowledge of
Jesus Christ and especially thisyoung lady to pray for her.
(10:37):
I believe that God will enterinto her situation and she will
literally from her captivity,she will be rescued, and that
she will live her life for JesusChrist and come to healing and
fullness in Christ.
Amen.
Thank you, church, for yourprayers and your love.
Dana Metcalf (10:56):
Thank you.
Praise the Lord.
Thank you so much.
What an honor uh to be with youagain.
We're home for a quick trip forour son's wedding, but we are
so honored that Pastor Jay andPastor Celeste have invited us
to come to share with you thismorning.
You are a church who haspartnered with us for many
years.
(11:16):
And uh your prayers and supporthave been so significant.
We want to thank uh each one ofyou uh for the world vision
that you carry here atCornerstone.
Obviously, Pastor Jay andPastor Celeste have a heart for
the world and world missions,and I just want to say thank
you, Pastor Jay and Celeste, uh,for believing in us, partnering
(11:38):
with us, serving with us.
He's been with me in Thailand,Laos, Nepal, in these various
places where we ministertogether.
Uh we have minister together,laugh together, and I can just
say it's just a pure joy to haveyour pastor uh come and be with
us.
Um, he reminds me still of uhlike a youth pastor because he
(12:00):
just makes me laugh, and it's sofun to be with him, and uh, but
yet he has such a powerfulanointing on his life to present
the word of God, and so we arejust so grateful to be here
today.
You know, in every generationthroughout the ages, there is
always a remnant, and it'susually young people who say
(12:24):
that I I'm I don't want justreligious fanfare, I don't want
just religious things in thechurch, but I I want to have a
true encounter with the livingGod.
Every generation, there's asegment of people, it's just
like I I I don't want to just goto church and I or anything
like that, but I really want tohave a true encounter with
(12:47):
Jesus.
There's no exception to that.
Even in this generation, we'reseeing a movement of young
people in America now that theythey really want to have a true
encounter, they want to know thetruth, even if the truth is
painful.
And uh, I think especially inthe millennial generation, which
my sons are millennials, it'slike I just want the truth.
(13:07):
My family is interestingbecause in my great-grandmother,
uh, and I'm fourth generationuh Pentecostal, but my
great-grandmother, and I nevermet her, but my grandmother
would tell me stories that shewas a part of the early movement
of the assemblies of God, aPentecostal movement in the
early 1900s, where it was formedin Arkansas, and that's where
(13:30):
she lived.
And this is the time where thatgeneration that goes way back
in the early 1900s, they theywanted to have an encounter with
the true and the living God.
They wanted to know that Jesuswas real and that he would
manifest his power in theirlives.
And this was a day when thechurch uh literally was on the
(13:52):
other side of the tracks.
How many have heard thatexpression?
Oh, that's the church on theother side of the tracks.
Those are the holy rollers, theones that swing from the
chandeliers, although I don'tthink that ever happened.
And she was a part of that.
And in those encounters, inthose all-night prayer meetings
and praying for um, not just thechurch there, but praying for
(14:13):
the world, praying for thenations, as this movement was
formed, not to be just atraditional denomination, but
really it was formed to be ableto send missionaries out around
the world and to take the gospelof Jesus Christ to every
nation.
That is still the passion andthe mission of the movement that
we are a part of, is thateverybody would hear, that every
(14:36):
nation would have apresentation of the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
That is the goal, that is themindset of our movement.
I'm thankful to be here todayas a fourth generation and to
part of this movement, and to beable to continue to take the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
When Bridget and I firstarrived in Thailand years ago,
(14:57):
we were invited to speak in justa pastor's conference in
northern Myanmar, which isformerly Burma, up by the
Chinese border.
I was astounded to see thenumber of pastors and churches
in that area.
It's a very remote area ofMyanmar.
It was very restrictive.
The government officials wereconstantly watching us.
You have to stay in a certainhotel up there.
(15:20):
You can't even talk about Jesusor Christianity publicly.
You could be arrested.
We had to be really, reallycareful.
But I was astounded to seethese tribal pastors come from
different tribes of northernMyanmar, not traditional Burmese
really, but tribal peoplegroups.
And we uh Bridget did the firstwomen's section.
They brought their wives andhad the well group for the
(15:42):
teaching, the women in theconference.
And I was told the story thathow the gospel came into that
area, and I thought, how didthis happen?
There's not many places uh inthe world that it's like this,
and I think very few people knewabout what is happening up
there.
And they said that a mission, aPentecostal missionary, got a
heart and a call from God tocross the border out of China
(16:04):
into northern Myanmar and tobring the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
And he preached this message,and the church began to grow,
and the gospel, it spread likefire.
Literally, it was the fire ofGod that was being manifested in
northern Myanmar, and to thisday now, this was back in the
1930s, and now we're here almosta hundred years later.
(16:25):
The church is growing, it'sprolific.
Myanmar is closed to us now.
We can't get back in.
We've pulled out all of ourmissionaries out of the country,
but the church there isthriving.
And Gandhi said it well inIndia.
Why do you keep persecuting theChristians?
Don't you know from churchhistory?
The more you persecute them,the more the church will grow.
We've seen persecution, andwe're seeing it more here, even
(16:48):
in the United States of America.
People that are persecuted forsharing their faith and speaking
the truth, but yet the blood ofthe martyrs is you know the
seed of the church.
And we're seeing that, we'veseen it all around the world,
and we're thankful for what Godis doing.
Solus Christus, Christ alone.
(17:11):
The Reformation was animportant part of the church,
and with that really theProtestant movement was born out
of the Reformation, and we hadthe Catholic Church at that
time, but the Protestant, whichcomes from the word protest
simply, you see the wordProtestant, we're a Protestant
church, but protest is in thatword Protestant, it's not by
(17:33):
mistake.
It was a protest against thetraditions of the church that
were not biblical, that wereliterally leading people astray.
Imagine being in a generation,a time period over 500 years
ago, before the printing pressexisted.
Nobody had a copy of the Biblein their own hands.
(17:53):
It was only the leaders in thechurch that had copies of the
scripture in Latin that wasinterpreting it and teaching it,
but nobody had a Bible in theirhands.
The Pope was literally like theauthority in the church, not
the word of God itself.
And there was so muchcorruption that was lingering in
the church.
The same things they did backthen, it happens even today.
(18:15):
They were marketing the gospelwhere people in the 16th century
would go and they would paymoney to get it like a
certificate saying, Your sinsare forgiven.
They're marketing the gospel.
There was that kind ofcorruption, and Martin Luther
was appalled by it.
And the 95 thesis that henailed on the door in 1517 was
(18:36):
considered the beginning of theReformation, the protest against
this corruption in the church.
And he began to understand ashe read the scripture that it
was completely opposite, andthis is where the solaces came
about during this time, and thegrace and the redemption and all
justification by faith and Godin all of these areas.
(18:59):
They weren't questioning theperson of Christ, but they were
questioning the work of Christ.
And there's a difference, andthat's what we're going to speak
about this morning.
The original creed in the earlychurch is Jesus is Lord.
Jesus is Lord.
That's the original creed.
(19:19):
That was the statement offaith.
That one phrase, those threewords, Jesus is Lord.
That was the creed of the firstcentury church.
That's all that needed to besaid in the statement of faith.
And I think this is so powerfuland so important for us to look
back at church history and tounderstand this.
(19:40):
That in the 1500s, beforeMartin Luther got a revelation,
it says that he believed, evenpersonally, that God gives grace
to those who do their best.
How many, when you were growingup, had a coach or a parent or
a teacher?
It's like all you have to do isjust go out there and do your
best.
How many have ever heard that?
I mean, I've heard it a milliontimes, you know, just do your
(20:03):
best.
And Martin Luther even believedthis before God really gave him
a revelation that if you justdo your best, that God, you
know, will give you grace, thatthere'll be forgiveness if you
can just do your best.
It was self-effort, it waspride, it was
self-righteousness, that eventoday in many movements and
(20:23):
churches, it's all about works,it's all about what you do.
And I'm here to tell you heretoday, it has nothing to do with
your works because the Biblesays that our righteousness is
as filthy rags in God's sight inthe book of Isaiah.
Nothing you can do, nothing canmake you righteous.
And Martin Luther began torealize this.
(20:43):
We look in Romans 1:17.
The good news tells us how Godmakes us right in his sight.
This is accomplished from startto finish by faith.
As the scripture says, it isthrough faith that a righteous
person has life.
This was the first seed of theReformation in Martin Luther's
(21:06):
own heart, was Romans 1:17.
He realized that God doesn'task people to acquire their own
righteousness through personalefforts.
It was a tremendous revelation.
And so, contrary to the churchat that time, and it and this is
where he created that 95thesis, he is a God who declares
(21:26):
sinners who believe in him willbe clothed with the
righteousness of Christ.
Martin Luther, the father ofthe Reformation, received a
revelation that would helprestore doctrinal purity back to
the church over 500 years ago.
And this is what we teach andwalk in today.
When he received thisrevelation, it's interesting.
(21:49):
And when you look at churchhistory, there is a story and a
quote about him.
He wrote this.
He says, I felt as if I hadentered paradise itself through
open gates.
I felt as I had been born againbecause of this revelation of a
gracious God who allows sinnersto be righteous, not because of
(22:11):
how they've done, but becauseof how Jesus and his
all-sufficient salvation, solusChristus, that's what this is.
Imagine that.
I felt like I came intoparadise itself and I was a born
again at this revelation.
I say this all the time withthe different people groups that
we minister to.
In fact, we had our pray tonations, which we do every
(22:33):
August, and people that want torepresent their nation, they
come out on the stage and theplatform with a sign holding the
name of the nation that they'refrom.
And we celebrate all of thenations.
We value all of the nations inour church.
I mean, it's calledInternational Sunday.
It's one of the most beautifulSundays of the year.
And last year we had 42 nationsrepresented, 42 nationalities.
(22:57):
And this year, shockingly, wehad 55 nations represented that
Sunday morning, just in the lastcouple of months.
55 nations that are attendingthe church.
It's truly a picture of heavensometimes to see that many
nations coming together.
But what I always say is, youhave to come to a place at the
end of yourself, at the end ofyour rope where you say, Jesus,
(23:20):
I don't know what to do.
I know I cannot save myself.
That's the revelation that hasto occur in the hearts of those
who don't know Christ is Savior.
Maybe people who have beenreligious in their backgrounds
have to come to a place, Icannot save myself.
This is what Martin Lutherunderstood.
This was the revelation.
(23:41):
And when I tell our people,when you come to the place, you
say, I cannot save myself, onlyJesus, solus Christos, Christ
alone, can save me.
Somebody say amen.
This is the beautiful story ofthe gospel.
This is why Jesus came to thisworld.
This is why God so loved theworld that he gave his only
begotten son.
Because when he looked atmankind, he thought they cannot
(24:04):
save themselves.
They're captured by this lifeof sin, that this door that has
been opened, and only my son cancome.
And through the his work inministry can they be saved?
And we put our faith in thattoday.
It's so simple, but yet it'sprofound that many people have a
hard time really grasping itbecause it just seems almost too
(24:26):
good to be true.
Is it really that's yes, it'sfaith.
Faith in his grace, openingyour heart and life.
There is a condition.
Like with every promise in theBible, they say there's over
6,000 promises, but everypromise has a condition.
And I would venture to say thatnot even half those promises
(24:47):
have come to play in my lifebecause I probably haven't met
the condition.
But salvation, the condition isrepentance, um, you know, and
confession of faith in JesusChrist.
We meet that condition and werepent of our sins, we confess
Christ as Savior, then thepromise and the gift of
salvation becomes ours, and ourname is written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, and we haveeternal life through Jesus
(25:10):
Christ our Lord.
That's it.
And it's interesting that herealizes this.
And in Romans chapter 5 is thebasis, this is the foundation.
These two verses in Romans 5,verses 1 and 2, that I want to
give you just three quick pointsthis morning that hopefully
(25:30):
will just inspire you becausedoctrine is foundational in the
church.
Doctrine is foundational inyour life.
And so oftentimes, because wedon't have an understanding of
doctrine in the Bible, that wereally don't know what we stand
on.
We really don't know what webelieve.
My mom used to say, if youdon't believe in something, you
fall for anything.
You gotta know what you believein and why you believe it.
(25:53):
And Romans 5, 1 and 2 gives usthree things.
It says, Therefore, having beenjustified by faith, here's
justification, just if you neversinned.
We have peace with God throughour Lord Jesus Christ.
That's reconciliation.
And how many know that when youdon't have peace and in a
relationship, when there's alack of reconciliation, it's a
(26:13):
horrible place to be, thoughwhom also we have access by
faith in his grace, I which westand and rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God.
We all have access into thepresence of God.
That's hard to grasp.
That's hard to understand thatyour access that you have to God
is it because you're a goodperson or you do good works or
(26:36):
anything like that.
You have free access by hisgrace, and very few people
utilize the access that theyhave to the throne of grace
today.
We're going to talk about thatthis morning.
First of all, we see threethings here happen
justification, reconciliation,and access in Christ alone.
(26:56):
Solus Christus.
In Christ alone.
All three of these arefundamental.
They're foundational that wewalk and understand, that we
fully celebrate and appreciate.
The Phi Solus was not a debateabout the person of Christ, but
it's about the work of Christ.
Solous Christus.
Let's look at number onejustification by faith in Jesus
(27:18):
Christ or Christ alone.
Justification, according toHerman Babinek, is the doctrine
on which the church stands orfalls.
Either we must do something tobe saved, or our salvation in
purely a gift of grace.
That's what we that's what thechurch stands on or falls on.
(27:39):
We don't have to do anything tobe saved.
It's by grace alone in that.
Romans 5:1 says it like this.
Therefore, having beenjustified by faith, that we're
literally justified by ourfaith.
Now, faith is a concept thathas been taught.
There's series, there's books,there's commentaries, there's
opinions, there's perspectiveson this whole concept of faith.
(28:03):
And the writer of Hebrews says,faith is a substance of things
to hope for, the evidence ofthings not seen.
I hope for something.
I have an expectation.
All of us sitting here thismorning have hopes and dreams
and desires and expectationsabout your life.
And you wonder sometimes, willI ever get to the place where
(28:25):
you know I actually will haveenough faith to believe that
that's going to happen for me,maybe for somebody else, but not
for me.
And sometimes hope just kind ofsits there and hope deferred,
it says in Proverbs, makes theheart sick when our hope is
deferred.
But hope needs to be releasedinto an action of faith and into
a work of faith.
(28:46):
And uh they say that hope isthe distance between our head
and our heart.
You know, that that distancehere with 20 inches or whatever
that is, that's faith.
You don't need faith for whatyou can do.
Now, all of us sitting here cando things, and and I don't do a
lot of things well like mywife, but I I can do some
(29:08):
things.
I don't need faith to docertain things.
But the things that I cannotdo, the things that I hope for,
the things that I expect and anddream about sometimes, it's
like this is where faith comesin, and God will intentionally
bring you into a place whereyou're you're standing upon
hope.
Hope for somebody to be saved,hope for somebody to be healed,
(29:29):
or hope for your own life.
And he puts us in that positionwhere it's like, Lord, I don't
know what to do.
I'm at the end of my rope here,I don't know what the next step
is.
And the Lord smiles upon thatbecause this is where it's like
he says, Okay, now you begin towalk in faith.
You begin to work in faith.
Now allow that hope to bringyou into a place of faith.
You don't need hope for whatyou or faith, what you can do,
(29:52):
but what you cannot do.
Salvation, you can't saveyourself, and God understood
that, and that's why it It's byfaith alone in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we've been justifiedby faith.
Romans 3.28, we are made rightwith God through faith and not
by obeying the law.
(30:12):
They say that legalism in thechurch, which during the
Reformation, this is what MartinLuther was fighting against, he
was protesting against, is thelegalistic uh atmosphere that
was in the church on that day,that your self-righteous actions
and obeying rules andregulations or obeying the law
(30:33):
was going to save you.
That's what he protested.
They say that if you're aparent and you implement, which
every home, every parent hasrules and regulations and things
in the home like that.
But rules without relationshipwill almost always result in
rebellion.
We need to hear that becausewith God, when he said Jesus, it
(30:56):
was he's relational, he wantsrelationship with us, he wants
an intimate relationship, not ata distance, but when he gives
us his law, when he gives us hisword, because I'm in a
relationship with Jesus, that IJesus says, if you love me,
you'll obey my commandments.
Now, when I obeyed my parents,and there's the rules that we
(31:19):
had growing up that I didn'tlike or I didn't agree with, but
deep within my heart, becauseof the love and the intimacy and
the relationship that I hadwith my parents, I did not want
to disappoint them.
I didn't want to disobey them.
So I submitted myself to thosethings growing up, most of the
time, not all of the time, therewas regrets, regretful,
sometimes I didn't.
(31:40):
But rules without relationshipsometimes always result in
rebellion.
But when you're in arelationship with God, when you
see what he has done, you seethe love that he has poured out,
then you realize that I can putmy faith in what Jesus did.
It's not about obeying the law.
Justification is a heavenlypardon from God Himself, which
(32:01):
declares the penalty of your sinwill not be held against you.
Aren't you glad if you're abeliever in Jesus, you have been
pardoned?
Now, when I come home and I'mnot really connected to a lot of
the politics in America whileI'm gone in Thailand, I don't
stay up to date too much.
But when I come home, I canfeel the division.
(32:23):
I can feel the politicaltension when I come home.
Those topics already have comeup with some of my family
members, and it just feels youcan feel the tension that's
going on here with that.
And um I was thinking aboutthis, that I read an article
(32:43):
just recently that PresidentTrump pardoned somebody who was
in prison.
I don't remember the name orwhat he did, but I I read
something that he quoted.
I think he put it out on um hispost or whatever.
He pardoned this guy recentlythat was in prison.
Basically, now it's just likehe never committed the crime.
He's released.
And he said in the quote, Ithought this is interesting, now
(33:06):
go out and have a good lifeafter you pardon him.
Go out and have a good life.
And that's exactly when I readthat, I thought that's exactly
what the Lord is saying to thechurch, what he's saying to you
when he pardoned you.
Now I want you to go out andhave a good life.
Jesus says, I came that youwould have life and have it more
abundantly.
(33:27):
Have it more abundantly.
Go out and have a good life.
I pardon you.
It's not going to be heldagainst you any longer.
And God has that ability, thatpower spiritually to pardon us,
and that's exactly whatjustification is.
We have been pardoned by JesusHimself.
It's so powerful.
And in Thailand, I have had todeal with a doctrine, an
(33:52):
erroneous doctrine, that Ireally wasn't that aware of
until I got there.
But supposedly in a church inSingapore, there was a movement
called the hyper-grace movement.
I won't say the name of thepastor that kind of birthed it,
but you would know his name if Isaid it.
But I've got Singaporeans inour church that were kind of
living out this hyper gracemovement.
(34:14):
They were living ungodly livesafter becoming a believer, after
being baptized.
It's like, what are youthinking?
You know, what are you doing?
And they said, well, we've beentaught, Pastor, in our home
church by our pastor and thehyper grace is that the grace
covers everything of your past,which it does, present and even
future.
So if I go out in the futureand I'm, you know, sleeping with
(34:36):
some other woman other than mywife or doing this or that, it's
already covered.
I don't have to worry about it.
And I just, I'm shaking my headlike, where did this come from?
I had to do a whole series ongrace, basically implementing
Paul's teaching on that, that itdoesn't give you a license just
to go out and sin and do whatyou want to do.
There's there's boundariesthere, and we had to go through
(34:58):
steps in that, even in thechurch.
But justification is a heavenlypardon, justification by faith.
Number two, reconciliationthrough Jesus Christ.
Romans 5, 1 says, we have peacewith God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
A language that they didn'thave their own Bible.
(35:25):
It's the first time the Bibleis going to be translated in
this language.
And one of the national leadershe was with at the time, they
were waiting for disappointment,somebody who committed to be
there and to come into thecountry.
And for whatever reason, thisperson didn't show up.
And this national leader was soupset because he invested
(35:47):
resources and time for this tohappen, and it just didn't
happen.
And he was disturbed by it.
He was angry by it.
And he kept making thestatement, I don't have my
peace.
I've lost my peace.
I've lost my peace.
And the missionary said, youknow, I was looking for a word
in this language for peace, butI just couldn't find the word.
(36:09):
And they didn't have atraditional word for peace as
he's translating the Bible.
But he said, but he kept sayingthis, I, you know, I've lost
this, I've lost this.
And he began to understand.
But what he was really sayingis that the relationship is
broken.
He's upset, and thatrelationship is severed now with
that individual, and it was areconciliatory type of a
(36:31):
statement.
And he began to understand,I've lost my peace.
Basically, I'm not reconciledwith my brother.
And that's a horrible place tobe.
If you're sitting here todayand you could say that I really
don't know Jesus and I'm notfully reconciled with God, you
haven't truly found real peaceyet in this world.
(36:53):
Only as we become reconciledwith the Savior do we really
know and understand what truepeace is.
He is the Prince of Peace.
Charles Spurgeon says, therecould be no peace between you
and Christ while there is peacebetween you and sin.
There could be no peace.
My mentor, when he discipled meyears ago when I was a college
(37:17):
student, going to college atASU, and I went to his church,
he taught me about the doctrineof sin, which I never
understood.
You won't find many books orcommentaries on the doctrine of
sin.
But he said this to me (37:27):
he said, Sin is not your biggest
problem, Dana.
It's your only problem.
It's not your biggest problem,it's your only problem.
This is the core of the issuethat we've been separated from
God when Adam and Eve firstsinned in the garden and the
Lord came down, it says to walkwith him and fellowship with
them.
They weren't there, theyweren't in that meeting place.
(37:49):
He's yelling out in the garden,Adam, where are you?
Eve, where are you?
Where are you?
They were hiding in the bushesbecause of their shame.
And this is what sin does isthat the shame and the
condemnation and the guilt thatwe feel from that.
We make that statement even toour children, oftentimes, and I
remember teachers even saying itin the classroom, shame on you
(38:12):
for what you did, shame on you.
But Jesus came to this worldnot to say, shame on you, but
shame off of you.
That's what he does.
Shame off of you.
Sin is our fundamental problem,and this is why Jesus came.
It's like you can't deal withthe sin.
You can't pardon yourselfthrough good works and through
(38:33):
self-righteousness.
Only I can pardon you.
And he had to shed his blood onthe cross and in provision so
that he can pardon you throughhis sacrificial death on the
cross, and he gave his lifefreely for that.
That's how we're pardoned.
We put our faith in the graceof Jesus Christ.
That's where we find peace.
That's where we're reconciledto God.
(38:53):
Romans 5, 10 and 11.
It says, when we were enemies,we were reconciled to God
through the death of his son.
Much more, having beenreconciled, we shall be saved by
his life.
And not only that, we alsorejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom wenow have received
(39:14):
reconciliation.
Praise God.
We've been justified, and nowthat we've been justified, we've
been reconciled to God throughthe Lord Jesus Christ.
Nothing that we've done, buteverything that He did on the
cross.
Now we're in reconciled.
We have our peace now, thepeace that passes all
(39:34):
understanding.
Philippians 4 4, Paul says,Don't be anxious about anything,
don't worry about anything.
Oswald Chamber, in hisdevotional book, that's a
classic that everybody shouldhave, probably next to their
Bible, my utmost for hishighest, he says in a passage in
there that worrying, anxiety,worrying is simply calculating
(39:56):
without God.
We're calculating in our mindwithout God when we worry in the
anxiety.
And Paul says, Don't be anxiousfor anything, don't worry about
anything, but bring everythingto Jesus Christ.
Bring your supplications andprayer requests to him with
thanksgiving, thanking God inadvance that he's going to give
(40:16):
breakthrough and answers.
That's faith.
And it says, and the peace ofGod that surpasses all human
understanding and intellect, itwill guard your heart, it will
guard your mind in Christ Jesus.
That's the secret to peace.
Relationship with Jesus.
Putting our trust in Him, ourfaith in the work that He has
(40:40):
done, and that is fundamental.
Number three is access to Godthrough Jesus Christ.
Access.
This is one that if we couldmaster this idea, this concept,
that you could be driving downthe road, you can be, you know,
in your house or at work.
We have instant access to thethrone of grace with God.
(41:04):
I I have a hard time fullyunderstanding this, but I just
know that when I call upon thename of Jesus and I can access
his presence, that it is one ofthe most powerful concepts that
has brought redemption andbreakthrough and answers to
prayer in my life when I realizethat I can access to the Lord
(41:25):
and not allow shame or guilt orcondemnation, not allowing
thoughts in your mind to thinkI'm not worthy to go into God's
presence, but we can go in withboldness, the Bible says,
access.
Romans 5, 2, through we alsohave access by faith into his
grace in which we stand and werejoice in the hope of the glory
(41:45):
of God.
Have access.
David writes it in the Psalmsthat there's fullness of joy in
the presence of the Lord.
This is the yearning, this isthe cry of even this young
generation in America andcountries around the world that
(42:10):
they want to have a trueencounter with Jesus Christ.
They want to have a trueencounter with God.
And when they begin toexperience His presence, that's
the fullness of joy.
That's the encounter thatthey're looking for.
That's the solution to theproblem.
That's the experience they'relonging for that changes
everything in their life, is byhaving an encounter in His
(42:32):
presence.
Hebrews 4.16 says, Let ustherefore come boldly or with
confidence to the throne ofgrace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in timeof need.
We have a new family fromPakistan that came some months
(42:56):
ago, just this year.
They're a highly trained andeducated couple with two sons,
and they're from a very umstrict sect of Islam in
Pakistan.
Incredible story.
Somehow she found a Bible, andno doubt it was just the
(43:18):
province of God that ithappened.
She finds a Bible she had neverread before.
She knew very little aboutChristianity, other than
Christians are infidels.
She began to read this Bible.
How many know the Word of Godis powerful?
She began to read it just outof curiosity.
And the Holy Spirit began to doa work in her heart, and
(43:40):
through just reading thescripture, nobody sharing with
her, saying anything, she gaveher life to Jesus Christ.
It was an amazing miracle thathappened.
She shares with her husband.
He comes to Christ and in thatregard.
And then when their familyfound out, they found out at the
mosque, they wanted to killthem.
In fact, he came, his leg wasall battered and wounded.
(44:03):
He was attacked by his ownbrother that says, We're going
to kill you for converting toChristianity.
It's a very real thing inplaces like this.
And they fled to Bangkok Cityand they found themselves in our
church.
They speak not really goodEnglish, but enough to
communicate with them andthey're sharing the story.
(44:24):
And they said, We're living ingreat fear.
And even this sect, myPakistani pastor said, This is
real, Pastor.
They will look for them even inBangkok City.
Even when if they leave thecountry, it doesn't solve the
problem.
They'll pursue and trying tofind out where they're at and
they'll try to kill them.
And so they were in hiding.
They lived in several differentplaces so they wouldn't be
(44:45):
found.
And ultimately they werebaptized in our church this
year, sharing this powerfultestimony of what God had done
in their life.
And just about a month ago, shewas in labor, their third child
and everything, and went to thehospital to pray with her
before they took her in todeliver this baby.
(45:06):
And they told me it's going tobe a little girl, and they were
excited because they have twosons.
And they said, Pastor, we wantyou to uh to name this child.
He says, You're my father.
I said, No, I'm not yourfather.
He's your father.
No, you're my father.
And he says, I want you to namethe child.
And I could sense there wassome cultural things going on
here.
I didn't want to dishonor him.
(45:28):
And I thought, well, I justdon't want to pull a name out of
a hat, you know.
And I went back and I said,Lord, give me perspective.
If I'm going to name this childfor this family, and I looked
up, the word mercy came to mymind because I looked at this
family.
I every time I see him, I wouldjust see the mercy of God.
(45:48):
The mercy of God that deliveredthem from this situation of a
life-threatening situation.
God's mercy.
And I looked it up in theHebrew and it showed a picture
of a pregnant woman, and thatthey would use that Hebrew word
that God has shown that mothermercy by the pregnancy, and she
(46:09):
the child is in her womb.
It reveals the mercy of God.
And I went back and I said,We're going to name her mercy.
And he said, Okay.
She was in church just a fewweeks ago.
This beautiful little Pakistanigirl.
God's presence.
God's throne is a throne ofgrace and mercy.
(46:35):
J.C.
Ryle said all men ought tothink of Christ because of the
office Christ fills between Godand man.
He is the eternal Son of God,through whom alone the Father
can be known, approached andserved.
He is the appointed mediatorbetween God and man, through
whom alone we can be reconciledwith God, hardened, justified,
(46:58):
and saved.
First Timothy 2 5 says, Thereis one God and one mediator
between God and men, the manJesus Christ.
The man Jesus Christ.
He's the mediator.
I'm going to close with this.
It's not a revelation on mypart.
(47:19):
You can Google this and see it.
But I want to close theservice.
Jesus alone.
In every book of the Bible, all66 books of the Bible, you see
this creed.
You see this statement of faiththat Jesus is Lord.
(47:41):
In the book of Genesis, Jesusis the seed of the woman.
In Exodus, he is the Passoverlamb.
In Leviticus, he is our greathigh priest.
In numbers, he's the pillar ofcloud by day and the pillar of
fire by night.
In Deuteronomy, he's theprophet like unto Moses.
In Joshua, he's the commanderof the Lord's army.
In judges, he's the judge, ourjudge and deliverer.
(48:03):
In the book of Ruth, he is ourkinsman, redeemer.
In Samuel, he's our Ebenezerand stone of help.
In the book of Kings andChronicles, he's our eternal
king and the seed of David.
In Ezra, he is our faithfulscribe and restorer.
In Nehemiah, he's the rebuilderof the broken down walls of
human life.
In Esther, he is our Mordecaiand our advocate.
(48:27):
In Job, he's our ever-livingredeemer.
In Psalms, he is our shepherd.
In Proverbs, he is our wisdom.
In Ecclesiastes, he is ourmeaning for life.
In the Song of Solomon, he'sour loving bridegroom.
In Isaiah, he's our prince ofpeace.
In Jeremiah, he is ourrighteous branch.
In Lamentations, he's theweeping prophet.
(48:48):
In Ezekiel, he's the watchmanon the wall.
In Daniel, he's the fourth manin the fiery furnace.
Somebody say man.
Hallelujah.
In Hosea, he's our faithfulhusband.
In Joel, he's the outpourer ofthe Holy Spirit.
In Amos, he is our burdenbearer.
In Obadiah, he's our judge andsavior.
In Jonah, he's the greatmissionary sent by God.
(49:09):
In Nahom, he's the strongholdin the day of trouble.
And Habakkuk, he is the Lord inhis holy temple.
In Zephaniah, he is the mightyone to save.
In Haggai, he is the desire ofthe nations.
In Zechariah, he's the branchof David, the one who was
pierced for us.
In Malachi, he's the son ofrighteousness, rising with
(49:30):
healing in his wings.
In the book of Matthew, he'sthe king of kings, the king of
the Jews, the Messiah and theChrist.
In the book of Mark, he's theservant and the miracle worker.
In Luke, he's the son of manwho walked in your shoes and
feels what you feel.
In John, he's the son of God,the living word, the way, the
truth, and the life.
In Acts, he is the savior ofthe world, the ascended Lord.
(49:53):
In Romans, he's our justifierand the righteousness of God.
In Corinthians, he's ourall-sufficient giver of grace.
In Galatians, he's our redeemerfrom the curse of the law.
In Ephesians, he is the head ofthe church.
In Philippians, he is the joyof our life.
In Colossians, he's thecompleteness and the glue that
holds our world together.
(50:14):
In Thessalonians, he is oursoon and coming king.
In Timothy, he is the mediatorbetween God and man.
In Philemon, he's the one whopaid our debts.
In Titus, he is our blessedhope.
In Hebrews, he is the authorand the finisher of our faith.
In James, he is our greatphysician and healer.
In Peter, he's our chiefshepherd and the chief
(50:36):
cornerstone.
Hallelujah.
In John, he is the God in theflesh.
In Jude, he is the foundationof our faith and our eternal
security.
In the book of Revelation, heis the King of Kings.
He is the Lord of Lords and theone who is coming again.
Hallelujah.
That's our Jesus.
Jesus alone.
(51:00):
That's Jesus.
And the Lord has given suchclarity and understanding for us
here today.
He is the way, the truth, andthe life.
Would you bow your hearts andanswer with me today?
Thank you, Lord.
(51:20):
I want to give an invitation.
If you're here today and say,Pastor Dana, I want this to be
the creed and the statement ofmy life.
Jesus is Lord.
I want him to be the Lord of mylife.
Well, you're in the right placetoday, if that's you.
(51:42):
You're not here by accident.
But God has brought you intothis place for this moment that
will change your life for all ofeternity.
And as our heads are bowedtogether here today, if you're
here today, you say, Pastor, I Iwant to take a stand for Jesus.
I want him to be the Lord of mylife.
(52:04):
Solus Christos, I want you tostand right where you're at
right now.
Just stand up.
And we're gonna, I'm gonna leadyou into prayer right where
you're standing this morning.
And we're gonna pray a prayerand become the Lord of your life
here today.
And just take a moment forthose to stand in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Praise God.
(52:25):
Thank you, Lord.
Anybody else?
Please follow me in this prayerand join in with those who have
stood today.
It's the most importantdecision that you will ever
make.
Jesus came for you.
He loves you so much.
He knows your name.
He knows where you live and allabout your life.
(52:46):
Follow me in this prayer tosay, dear Lord Jesus, I want you
to be the Lord of my life.
I confess that you are Lord.
I believe that you died on thecross for my sin.
(53:08):
And I ask you to forgive me andbecome my Lord and Savior.
I give my life to you.
Because you gave your life tome.
I believe that you were raisedfrom the dead by the power of
(53:31):
the Holy Spirit.
And that you will raise me upin newness of life.
I declare you today, Lord andSavior of my life.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
(53:51):
Thank you, Jesus.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
Jason Brown (53:58):
We have a hand of the Lord for the ministry of
Pastors Dan and Bridget today.
Thank you guys so very much.
I'm asking to actually ask youto stand as we're going to head
into a song and a response hereto the Lord.
We're going to open up thisaltar and make it available to
you.
Maybe you're someone that justwants to come and just have more
(54:18):
of God's presence.
Just ask him to meet you andheal your body, to heal your
circumstances for provision, forwisdom, for guidance.
We're going to have people thatcome and join with you in
prayer.
Just agree with you for whatGod wants to do.
Maybe you're here and you'veheard this passion this couple
has and the team that they havethat serve with them and that
all of God is doing in throughtheir ministry.
(54:40):
If you want to give to themspecifically today, you can do
so through the QR codes or theboxes at the back and just mark
right on their missions.
Anything that comes in todaywill go to them in that way.
And we're just blessed to beable to partner with them in
what God is doing.
But we know that God ispowerful and He is on the move,
and He wants to do that in yourlife as well.
So as we come to this altar, weopen up our hearts to Him that
(55:03):
we would respond.
That it's only through Jesusthat any of this is possible.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you so much, Lord,for this opportunity to hear
your word.
Thank you, Lord, for speakingto us through Dana, Lord, just a
powerful message about yourlove, Lord, your reconciliation,
how we are made in rightstanding and justified, Lord, by
you and through you alone.
Lord, that we would be able tohave access to the living God,
(55:27):
the creator, God, the God of theuniverse.
Lord, in who you are.
Lord, we are so thankful forthe power that is in your name,
Lord, and it's by your name thatwe come today to this altar to
just have a meeting place withyou.
Lord, pray for healing and forrestoration.
We pray for guidance and wisdomfor all that anyone would need
as they come today.
Lord, you meet us right wherewe are.
(55:47):
As you are a good father whogood gives good gives good gifts
to us.
We pray all this in theirpowerful name that is Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
Celeste Brown (55:55):
Our fall family day is two weeks away.
And so we want you to invitesomebody, invite your neighbors,
your colleagues, your friends.
Um, also, if you want tovolunteer, there's a sign-up
sheet in the lobby, or you cando it online.
And I don't want you to forgetthat there's a chili cook-off
involved.
So if you think that you'regood, then I want you to submit
something and we will test itout and let you know.
(56:17):
Um, but it's gonna be fun, andso we're two weeks away.
Jason Brown (56:20):
Before we go, I'm gonna pray his blessing over us.
The Lord bless you and keepyou.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
Or lift up his countenance uponyou and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
(56:42):
Lord, you can empower us byyour spirit to live your love
out to those around us.
Pray all this in the powerfulname that is Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Amen.
Know this.
We love you very much, EricCornerstone.
God bless you, and have a greatweek.
500 years ago, a monk named Martin Luther ignited a
fire that would reshapeChristianity forever.
His stand against theprevailing doctrines of his day
wasn't just a protest, it was acall to return to the
foundational truths of thefaith.
This pivotal moment of theProtestant Reformation wasn't
about creating a new religion,but about rediscovering the
(00:21):
gospel.
At the heart of thisrediscovery were five core
principles, Latin phrases thatbecame the rallying cry for
reform.
These are the five solas, solascriptura, scripture alone.
The Bible, not tradition orhuman authority, is our ultimate
and infallible guide for faithand life.
It's the final word, thehighest court.
(00:42):
Sola fide, faith alone.
We're justified, declaredrighteous in God's sight, by
faith alone, not by our works.
We trust solely in Christ'sfinished work on the cross, sola
gratia, grace alone.
Salvation is an earn, it's agift from God.
It's his unmerited favor thatsaves us.
Nothing we do can ever deserveit.
Solace Christus, Christ alone.
(01:04):
Jesus Christ is the onlymediator between God and
humanity.
He is the one and only way tosalvation, our one true King,
and our sole redeemer.
Solideo Gloria, to the glory ofGod alone.
The ultimate purpose ofeverything, including our
salvation, is to bring glory toGod.
Our lives are to be lived forhis praise, not our own.
(01:26):
These aren't just historicalslogans, they're living truths
that anchor our faith.
Jason Brown (01:31):
Amen.
The five solas is what we weretalking about, is the theme for
us here at Cornerstone.
It's those five statements aswe talked about sola scriptura,
scripture alone, sola fide,faith alone, sola gratia, grace
alone, solus Christus Christalone, and solidia gloria, glory
to God alone.
It's those five statements thatdrive us, and we've talked
(01:54):
about over these weeks intalking about who we are and
whose we are in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
If you're a guest of ours atCornerstone, welcome home today.
We're glad to have you.
We're glad you're a part ofwhat we're doing, and glad to be
able to worship with you.
You know, we see ourselves verymuch as imperfect people, and
all of us are in need of asavior.
None of us have figured it outyet.
(02:14):
And so, because of that, we arewalking after him because it's
only by his redemption that weare known in the Father.
And that's what it means for usto be walking with Jesus.
And that's why we use thisimagery of Christ walking with
his disciples, because that'show we view ourselves as people
who are following after wherehe's leading us to go.
Our ambition, both perpersonally and corporately, is
(02:36):
that we want to be more likeJesus.
And so that's why we meet witheach other throughout the week,
throughout the city and lifegroups, so that we can be
intentional in living that lifefor Christ, that we can connect,
we can build thoserelationships with each other,
so we can grow, we can be thosethat learn more about what the
word says and apply it to ourlives, and that we can serve, we
(02:57):
can use the abilities that Godhas given us for him and for his
purposes.
That collectively we would loveGod, we would make disciples,
and we would reach the world.
So in these last few weeks,we've been talking about these
different attributes anddifferent pieces of what it
means to see the five solosrealized.
And we talked about how MartinLuther over 500 years ago he
(03:17):
came and he he nailed those 95thesis to his church door.
And in doing so, it was astatement about wanting to
return back to the coreprinciples of faith, not about
other things or praying tosaints or to doing these other
traditions, but instead the coreprinciples of who we are and
what we believe.
We talked about how scripturealone, it comes from 2 Timothy
(03:40):
3, all scripture is breathed outby God and profitable for
teaching, and how it is the wordof God that is the truth that
we align our lives with.
So as we walk into thescripture of God daily and it
washes over us, it becomessomething transformational and
it becomes something that we seethe Holy Spirit breathing upon
daily, making the scripturebecome alive and applicable to
(04:02):
our lives as we live it.
We also talked about how it'sonly by faith that we are able
to do these things, our faith inChrist, in Christ alone.
For by grace you have beensaved through faith.
It's not of your own doing, itis the gift of God, not a result
of works, so that no one mayboast.
We talked about it's we can'tearn our way into the presence
(04:25):
of God.
It is his gift to us, and it'sby his grace, sola gratia, that
we can receive it.
Today we get to continue inthat process talking about solus
Christus, Christ alone.
Our speakers are some heroesand mentors of myself and
Celeste.
They are missionary pastors uhand very much those who we
(04:47):
admire.
They've spoken to this housesome powerful words, and today I
want to welcome our speakers,pastors Dana and Bridget
Metcalf.
Please welcome them as theycome today.
Dana Metcalf (05:04):
Thank you.
Bridgette Metcalf (05:04):
Wow, what an honor and a joy to be able to be
with you today.
And I truly love this seriesthat you are on right now.
And solos Christos is thereason why we're able to do what
we do, because in Christ alone,he gives us the strength and
the power and the wisdom to beable to go into some of the
darkest corners of Thailand andbe able to share the gospel of
(05:27):
Jesus Christ.
I want to say to you, church,you are an amazing church and
you have amazing pastors.
It's Pastor Appreciation.
Can we show some appreciationto these wonderful pastors?
They're very dear to our heart,um, Pastor Jay and Celeste.
We actually, uh Celeste was ourmissions pastor uh before she
(05:48):
got married to Jay, and it was ajoy and such a pleasure to have
her in our home, lived with usfor two years, uh, put up with
my sons.
So we were little rascals atthe time.
And we just got our oldest sonmarried, and he is just married
this last weekend.
And so we are rejoicing.
(06:09):
God gave him a wonderful,wonderful wife and blessed us
with a wonderful daughter.
And so uh what a joy it is tobe home and to be able to
celebrate that union.
But also, I just want to giveyou just a little reflection of
what God is doing through yourmissions, dollars, and your
prayers.
And I just want to say thankyou to you because November 30th
(06:31):
of 2025, we're gonna belaunching our third campus in
Kosamui.
It'll be the first time thatthis province, which is a state,
uh, has over a million peoplethat live in it, will have this
English-speaking church in thisarea.
It's revolutionary.
And we feel overjoyed that weget to partner with you and be
(06:55):
your hands and feet extended andto see this work happen.
So we'll please be prayingNovember 30th.
And then in January 2026, we'relaunching something that's been
dear to my heart for the lastfour years.
We've been trying to figure outa way that we can minister to
our refugee families.
We have 32 young individualchildren that cannot go to
(07:16):
school, and they're begging.
Every time I pray for them, Isay, What can I pray for you
about?
And they say, I want to go toschool.
And so we're creating a what wecall learning center, not
really a school, but a learningcenter that will provide the
education, get their GED, andget them off to college.
And we're actually praying forsome advanced uh schooling as
(07:36):
well.
So that will happen January2026.
And I just want to say thankyou, church, to you for all that
you've done to make thatpossible.
And we'll be launching at thattime.
And then lastly, I just want tosay thank you for supporting
Sealed Ministry and ProjectRescue Thailand.
It is an anti-traffickingorganization that I run.
(07:57):
And uh, we go into the highwaysand the byways and some of the
darkest corners, prisons,everywhere you can think, to be
able to rescue, restore, love,and value uh these men, women,
children from this dark web ofreally modern-day slavery.
Um, two days before I wasleaving for the USA, um, I got a
(08:20):
call asking for a desperate cryfor a young lady.
At the age of 11, she went intoprostitution um because her
grandparents had been sick, hermom and dad had no money, and
she thought, I need to dosomething.
And so her neighbor um said,Well, I I can help you with
that, and started prostitutingthis young girl at age 11 for 10
(08:45):
baht a trick, which isequivalent to about 35 cents.
And at age 15, she said, I Ireally feel like I need to be
done with this.
And she went to this neighborand said, I I can't do this
anymore.
I need to do something else.
And he goes, Just one more,just one more trick, and you're
(09:06):
done.
And so he she went to thishouse of his, and little did she
know, he had 17 men awaitingfor her, and she was multiply
raped, gang raped by these men.
And so I got this phone callsaying, Is there any place you
can put her?
Is there anything that you cando?
There's a cry.
She's been in this slavery,really, for four years, and so
(09:29):
uh trying to find the housingand the place and the proper
discipleship for this young ladywho's just been completely
ravaged by sin and for theeffects of mankind.
And so I just want to ask youto continue to pray for us as we
are getting her in a home rightnow and uh trying to bring back
(09:50):
life into her and sharing thegospel of Jesus Christ.
There's a dark world out there,and they need solos Christus,
Christ alone.
Because when they enter intothis world and they understand
that there is a Christ outthere, there's a savior, there's
a redeemer that can rescue themfrom the sin and the bondage of
(10:13):
hell and bring them into lifeand grace and mercy, it is just
remarkable what God can do.
So if you think about it,please pray for us every day and
just pray for the wisdom andthe strength and the guidance
and for the people that theywill come to the knowledge of
Jesus Christ and especially thisyoung lady to pray for her.
(10:37):
I believe that God will enterinto her situation and she will
literally from her captivity,she will be rescued, and that
she will live her life for JesusChrist and come to healing and
fullness in Christ.
Amen.
Thank you, church, for yourprayers and your love.
Dana Metcalf (10:56):
Thank you.
Praise the Lord.
Thank you so much.
What an honor uh to be with youagain.
We're home for a quick trip forour son's wedding, but we are
so honored that Pastor Jay andPastor Celeste have invited us
to come to share with you thismorning.
You are a church who haspartnered with us for many
years.
(11:16):
And uh your prayers and supporthave been so significant.
We want to thank uh each one ofyou uh for the world vision
that you carry here atCornerstone.
Obviously, Pastor Jay andPastor Celeste have a heart for
the world and world missions,and I just want to say thank
you, Pastor Jay and Celeste, uh,for believing in us, partnering
(11:38):
with us, serving with us.
He's been with me in Thailand,Laos, Nepal, in these various
places where we ministertogether.
Uh we have minister together,laugh together, and I can just
say it's just a pure joy to haveyour pastor uh come and be with
us.
Um, he reminds me still of uhlike a youth pastor because he
(12:00):
just makes me laugh, and it's sofun to be with him, and uh, but
yet he has such a powerfulanointing on his life to present
the word of God, and so we arejust so grateful to be here
today.
You know, in every generationthroughout the ages, there is
always a remnant, and it'susually young people who say
(12:24):
that I I'm I don't want justreligious fanfare, I don't want
just religious things in thechurch, but I I want to have a
true encounter with the livingGod.
Every generation, there's asegment of people, it's just
like I I I don't want to just goto church and I or anything
like that, but I really want tohave a true encounter with
(12:47):
Jesus.
There's no exception to that.
Even in this generation, we'reseeing a movement of young
people in America now that theythey really want to have a true
encounter, they want to know thetruth, even if the truth is
painful.
And uh, I think especially inthe millennial generation, which
my sons are millennials, it'slike I just want the truth.
(13:07):
My family is interestingbecause in my great-grandmother,
uh, and I'm fourth generationuh Pentecostal, but my
great-grandmother, and I nevermet her, but my grandmother
would tell me stories that shewas a part of the early movement
of the assemblies of God, aPentecostal movement in the
early 1900s, where it was formedin Arkansas, and that's where
(13:30):
she lived.
And this is the time where thatgeneration that goes way back
in the early 1900s, they theywanted to have an encounter with
the true and the living God.
They wanted to know that Jesuswas real and that he would
manifest his power in theirlives.
And this was a day when thechurch uh literally was on the
(13:52):
other side of the tracks.
How many have heard thatexpression?
Oh, that's the church on theother side of the tracks.
Those are the holy rollers, theones that swing from the
chandeliers, although I don'tthink that ever happened.
And she was a part of that.
And in those encounters, inthose all-night prayer meetings
and praying for um, not just thechurch there, but praying for
(14:13):
the world, praying for thenations, as this movement was
formed, not to be just atraditional denomination, but
really it was formed to be ableto send missionaries out around
the world and to take the gospelof Jesus Christ to every
nation.
That is still the passion andthe mission of the movement that
we are a part of, is thateverybody would hear, that every
(14:36):
nation would have apresentation of the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
That is the goal, that is themindset of our movement.
I'm thankful to be here todayas a fourth generation and to
part of this movement, and to beable to continue to take the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
When Bridget and I firstarrived in Thailand years ago,
(14:57):
we were invited to speak in justa pastor's conference in
northern Myanmar, which isformerly Burma, up by the
Chinese border.
I was astounded to see thenumber of pastors and churches
in that area.
It's a very remote area ofMyanmar.
It was very restrictive.
The government officials wereconstantly watching us.
You have to stay in a certainhotel up there.
(15:20):
You can't even talk about Jesusor Christianity publicly.
You could be arrested.
We had to be really, reallycareful.
But I was astounded to seethese tribal pastors come from
different tribes of northernMyanmar, not traditional Burmese
really, but tribal peoplegroups.
And we uh Bridget did the firstwomen's section.
They brought their wives andhad the well group for the
(15:42):
teaching, the women in theconference.
And I was told the story thathow the gospel came into that
area, and I thought, how didthis happen?
There's not many places uh inthe world that it's like this,
and I think very few people knewabout what is happening up
there.
And they said that a mission, aPentecostal missionary, got a
heart and a call from God tocross the border out of China
(16:04):
into northern Myanmar and tobring the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
And he preached this message,and the church began to grow,
and the gospel, it spread likefire.
Literally, it was the fire ofGod that was being manifested in
northern Myanmar, and to thisday now, this was back in the
1930s, and now we're here almosta hundred years later.
(16:25):
The church is growing, it'sprolific.
Myanmar is closed to us now.
We can't get back in.
We've pulled out all of ourmissionaries out of the country,
but the church there isthriving.
And Gandhi said it well inIndia.
Why do you keep persecuting theChristians?
Don't you know from churchhistory?
The more you persecute them,the more the church will grow.
We've seen persecution, andwe're seeing it more here, even
(16:48):
in the United States of America.
People that are persecuted forsharing their faith and speaking
the truth, but yet the blood ofthe martyrs is you know the
seed of the church.
And we're seeing that, we'veseen it all around the world,
and we're thankful for what Godis doing.
Solus Christus, Christ alone.
(17:11):
The Reformation was animportant part of the church,
and with that really theProtestant movement was born out
of the Reformation, and we hadthe Catholic Church at that
time, but the Protestant, whichcomes from the word protest
simply, you see the wordProtestant, we're a Protestant
church, but protest is in thatword Protestant, it's not by
(17:33):
mistake.
It was a protest against thetraditions of the church that
were not biblical, that wereliterally leading people astray.
Imagine being in a generation,a time period over 500 years
ago, before the printing pressexisted.
Nobody had a copy of the Biblein their own hands.
(17:53):
It was only the leaders in thechurch that had copies of the
scripture in Latin that wasinterpreting it and teaching it,
but nobody had a Bible in theirhands.
The Pope was literally like theauthority in the church, not
the word of God itself.
And there was so muchcorruption that was lingering in
the church.
The same things they did backthen, it happens even today.
(18:15):
They were marketing the gospelwhere people in the 16th century
would go and they would paymoney to get it like a
certificate saying, Your sinsare forgiven.
They're marketing the gospel.
There was that kind ofcorruption, and Martin Luther
was appalled by it.
And the 95 thesis that henailed on the door in 1517 was
(18:36):
considered the beginning of theReformation, the protest against
this corruption in the church.
And he began to understand ashe read the scripture that it
was completely opposite, andthis is where the solaces came
about during this time, and thegrace and the redemption and all
justification by faith and Godin all of these areas.
(18:59):
They weren't questioning theperson of Christ, but they were
questioning the work of Christ.
And there's a difference, andthat's what we're going to speak
about this morning.
The original creed in the earlychurch is Jesus is Lord.
Jesus is Lord.
That's the original creed.
(19:19):
That was the statement offaith.
That one phrase, those threewords, Jesus is Lord.
That was the creed of the firstcentury church.
That's all that needed to besaid in the statement of faith.
And I think this is so powerfuland so important for us to look
back at church history and tounderstand this.
(19:40):
That in the 1500s, beforeMartin Luther got a revelation,
it says that he believed, evenpersonally, that God gives grace
to those who do their best.
How many, when you were growingup, had a coach or a parent or
a teacher?
It's like all you have to do isjust go out there and do your
best.
How many have ever heard that?
I mean, I've heard it a milliontimes, you know, just do your
(20:03):
best.
And Martin Luther even believedthis before God really gave him
a revelation that if you justdo your best, that God, you
know, will give you grace, thatthere'll be forgiveness if you
can just do your best.
It was self-effort, it waspride, it was
self-righteousness, that eventoday in many movements and
(20:23):
churches, it's all about works,it's all about what you do.
And I'm here to tell you heretoday, it has nothing to do with
your works because the Biblesays that our righteousness is
as filthy rags in God's sight inthe book of Isaiah.
Nothing you can do, nothing canmake you righteous.
And Martin Luther began torealize this.
(20:43):
We look in Romans 1:17.
The good news tells us how Godmakes us right in his sight.
This is accomplished from startto finish by faith.
As the scripture says, it isthrough faith that a righteous
person has life.
This was the first seed of theReformation in Martin Luther's
(21:06):
own heart, was Romans 1:17.
He realized that God doesn'task people to acquire their own
righteousness through personalefforts.
It was a tremendous revelation.
And so, contrary to the churchat that time, and it and this is
where he created that 95thesis, he is a God who declares
(21:26):
sinners who believe in him willbe clothed with the
righteousness of Christ.
Martin Luther, the father ofthe Reformation, received a
revelation that would helprestore doctrinal purity back to
the church over 500 years ago.
And this is what we teach andwalk in today.
When he received thisrevelation, it's interesting.
(21:49):
And when you look at churchhistory, there is a story and a
quote about him.
He wrote this.
He says, I felt as if I hadentered paradise itself through
open gates.
I felt as I had been born againbecause of this revelation of a
gracious God who allows sinnersto be righteous, not because of
(22:11):
how they've done, but becauseof how Jesus and his
all-sufficient salvation, solusChristus, that's what this is.
Imagine that.
I felt like I came intoparadise itself and I was a born
again at this revelation.
I say this all the time withthe different people groups that
we minister to.
In fact, we had our pray tonations, which we do every
(22:33):
August, and people that want torepresent their nation, they
come out on the stage and theplatform with a sign holding the
name of the nation that they'refrom.
And we celebrate all of thenations.
We value all of the nations inour church.
I mean, it's calledInternational Sunday.
It's one of the most beautifulSundays of the year.
And last year we had 42 nationsrepresented, 42 nationalities.
(22:57):
And this year, shockingly, wehad 55 nations represented that
Sunday morning, just in the lastcouple of months.
55 nations that are attendingthe church.
It's truly a picture of heavensometimes to see that many
nations coming together.
But what I always say is, youhave to come to a place at the
end of yourself, at the end ofyour rope where you say, Jesus,
(23:20):
I don't know what to do.
I know I cannot save myself.
That's the revelation that hasto occur in the hearts of those
who don't know Christ is Savior.
Maybe people who have beenreligious in their backgrounds
have to come to a place, Icannot save myself.
This is what Martin Lutherunderstood.
This was the revelation.
(23:41):
And when I tell our people,when you come to the place, you
say, I cannot save myself, onlyJesus, solus Christos, Christ
alone, can save me.
Somebody say amen.
This is the beautiful story ofthe gospel.
This is why Jesus came to thisworld.
This is why God so loved theworld that he gave his only
begotten son.
Because when he looked atmankind, he thought they cannot
(24:04):
save themselves.
They're captured by this lifeof sin, that this door that has
been opened, and only my son cancome.
And through the his work inministry can they be saved?
And we put our faith in thattoday.
It's so simple, but yet it'sprofound that many people have a
hard time really grasping itbecause it just seems almost too
(24:26):
good to be true.
Is it really that's yes, it'sfaith.
Faith in his grace, openingyour heart and life.
There is a condition.
Like with every promise in theBible, they say there's over
6,000 promises, but everypromise has a condition.
And I would venture to say thatnot even half those promises
(24:47):
have come to play in my lifebecause I probably haven't met
the condition.
But salvation, the condition isrepentance, um, you know, and
confession of faith in JesusChrist.
We meet that condition and werepent of our sins, we confess
Christ as Savior, then thepromise and the gift of
salvation becomes ours, and ourname is written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, and we haveeternal life through Jesus
(25:10):
Christ our Lord.
That's it.
And it's interesting that herealizes this.
And in Romans chapter 5 is thebasis, this is the foundation.
These two verses in Romans 5,verses 1 and 2, that I want to
give you just three quick pointsthis morning that hopefully
(25:30):
will just inspire you becausedoctrine is foundational in the
church.
Doctrine is foundational inyour life.
And so oftentimes, because wedon't have an understanding of
doctrine in the Bible, that wereally don't know what we stand
on.
We really don't know what webelieve.
My mom used to say, if youdon't believe in something, you
fall for anything.
You gotta know what you believein and why you believe it.
(25:53):
And Romans 5, 1 and 2 gives usthree things.
It says, Therefore, having beenjustified by faith, here's
justification, just if you neversinned.
We have peace with God throughour Lord Jesus Christ.
That's reconciliation.
And how many know that when youdon't have peace and in a
relationship, when there's alack of reconciliation, it's a
(26:13):
horrible place to be, thoughwhom also we have access by
faith in his grace, I which westand and rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God.
We all have access into thepresence of God.
That's hard to grasp.
That's hard to understand thatyour access that you have to God
is it because you're a goodperson or you do good works or
(26:36):
anything like that.
You have free access by hisgrace, and very few people
utilize the access that theyhave to the throne of grace
today.
We're going to talk about thatthis morning.
First of all, we see threethings here happen
justification, reconciliation,and access in Christ alone.
(26:56):
Solus Christus.
In Christ alone.
All three of these arefundamental.
They're foundational that wewalk and understand, that we
fully celebrate and appreciate.
The Phi Solus was not a debateabout the person of Christ, but
it's about the work of Christ.
Solous Christus.
Let's look at number onejustification by faith in Jesus
(27:18):
Christ or Christ alone.
Justification, according toHerman Babinek, is the doctrine
on which the church stands orfalls.
Either we must do something tobe saved, or our salvation in
purely a gift of grace.
That's what we that's what thechurch stands on or falls on.
(27:39):
We don't have to do anything tobe saved.
It's by grace alone in that.
Romans 5:1 says it like this.
Therefore, having beenjustified by faith, that we're
literally justified by ourfaith.
Now, faith is a concept thathas been taught.
There's series, there's books,there's commentaries, there's
opinions, there's perspectiveson this whole concept of faith.
(28:03):
And the writer of Hebrews says,faith is a substance of things
to hope for, the evidence ofthings not seen.
I hope for something.
I have an expectation.
All of us sitting here thismorning have hopes and dreams
and desires and expectationsabout your life.
And you wonder sometimes, willI ever get to the place where
(28:25):
you know I actually will haveenough faith to believe that
that's going to happen for me,maybe for somebody else, but not
for me.
And sometimes hope just kind ofsits there and hope deferred,
it says in Proverbs, makes theheart sick when our hope is
deferred.
But hope needs to be releasedinto an action of faith and into
a work of faith.
(28:46):
And uh they say that hope isthe distance between our head
and our heart.
You know, that that distancehere with 20 inches or whatever
that is, that's faith.
You don't need faith for whatyou can do.
Now, all of us sitting here cando things, and and I don't do a
lot of things well like mywife, but I I can do some
(29:08):
things.
I don't need faith to docertain things.
But the things that I cannotdo, the things that I hope for,
the things that I expect and anddream about sometimes, it's
like this is where faith comesin, and God will intentionally
bring you into a place whereyou're you're standing upon
hope.
Hope for somebody to be saved,hope for somebody to be healed,
(29:29):
or hope for your own life.
And he puts us in that positionwhere it's like, Lord, I don't
know what to do.
I'm at the end of my rope here,I don't know what the next step
is.
And the Lord smiles upon thatbecause this is where it's like
he says, Okay, now you begin towalk in faith.
You begin to work in faith.
Now allow that hope to bringyou into a place of faith.
You don't need hope for whatyou or faith, what you can do,
(29:52):
but what you cannot do.
Salvation, you can't saveyourself, and God understood
that, and that's why it It's byfaith alone in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we've been justifiedby faith.
Romans 3.28, we are made rightwith God through faith and not
by obeying the law.
(30:12):
They say that legalism in thechurch, which during the
Reformation, this is what MartinLuther was fighting against, he
was protesting against, is thelegalistic uh atmosphere that
was in the church on that day,that your self-righteous actions
and obeying rules andregulations or obeying the law
(30:33):
was going to save you.
That's what he protested.
They say that if you're aparent and you implement, which
every home, every parent hasrules and regulations and things
in the home like that.
But rules without relationshipwill almost always result in
rebellion.
We need to hear that becausewith God, when he said Jesus, it
(30:56):
was he's relational, he wantsrelationship with us, he wants
an intimate relationship, not ata distance, but when he gives
us his law, when he gives us hisword, because I'm in a
relationship with Jesus, that IJesus says, if you love me,
you'll obey my commandments.
Now, when I obeyed my parents,and there's the rules that we
(31:19):
had growing up that I didn'tlike or I didn't agree with, but
deep within my heart, becauseof the love and the intimacy and
the relationship that I hadwith my parents, I did not want
to disappoint them.
I didn't want to disobey them.
So I submitted myself to thosethings growing up, most of the
time, not all of the time, therewas regrets, regretful,
sometimes I didn't.
(31:40):
But rules without relationshipsometimes always result in
rebellion.
But when you're in arelationship with God, when you
see what he has done, you seethe love that he has poured out,
then you realize that I can putmy faith in what Jesus did.
It's not about obeying the law.
Justification is a heavenlypardon from God Himself, which
(32:01):
declares the penalty of your sinwill not be held against you.
Aren't you glad if you're abeliever in Jesus, you have been
pardoned?
Now, when I come home and I'mnot really connected to a lot of
the politics in America whileI'm gone in Thailand, I don't
stay up to date too much.
But when I come home, I canfeel the division.
(32:23):
I can feel the politicaltension when I come home.
Those topics already have comeup with some of my family
members, and it just feels youcan feel the tension that's
going on here with that.
And um I was thinking aboutthis, that I read an article
(32:43):
just recently that PresidentTrump pardoned somebody who was
in prison.
I don't remember the name orwhat he did, but I I read
something that he quoted.
I think he put it out on um hispost or whatever.
He pardoned this guy recentlythat was in prison.
Basically, now it's just likehe never committed the crime.
He's released.
And he said in the quote, Ithought this is interesting, now
(33:06):
go out and have a good lifeafter you pardon him.
Go out and have a good life.
And that's exactly when I readthat, I thought that's exactly
what the Lord is saying to thechurch, what he's saying to you
when he pardoned you.
Now I want you to go out andhave a good life.
Jesus says, I came that youwould have life and have it more
abundantly.
(33:27):
Have it more abundantly.
Go out and have a good life.
I pardon you.
It's not going to be heldagainst you any longer.
And God has that ability, thatpower spiritually to pardon us,
and that's exactly whatjustification is.
We have been pardoned by JesusHimself.
It's so powerful.
And in Thailand, I have had todeal with a doctrine, an
(33:52):
erroneous doctrine, that Ireally wasn't that aware of
until I got there.
But supposedly in a church inSingapore, there was a movement
called the hyper-grace movement.
I won't say the name of thepastor that kind of birthed it,
but you would know his name if Isaid it.
But I've got Singaporeans inour church that were kind of
living out this hyper gracemovement.
(34:14):
They were living ungodly livesafter becoming a believer, after
being baptized.
It's like, what are youthinking?
You know, what are you doing?
And they said, well, we've beentaught, Pastor, in our home
church by our pastor and thehyper grace is that the grace
covers everything of your past,which it does, present and even
future.
So if I go out in the futureand I'm, you know, sleeping with
(34:36):
some other woman other than mywife or doing this or that, it's
already covered.
I don't have to worry about it.
And I just, I'm shaking my headlike, where did this come from?
I had to do a whole series ongrace, basically implementing
Paul's teaching on that, that itdoesn't give you a license just
to go out and sin and do whatyou want to do.
There's there's boundariesthere, and we had to go through
(34:58):
steps in that, even in thechurch.
But justification is a heavenlypardon, justification by faith.
Number two, reconciliationthrough Jesus Christ.
Romans 5, 1 says, we have peacewith God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
A language that they didn'thave their own Bible.
(35:25):
It's the first time the Bibleis going to be translated in
this language.
And one of the national leadershe was with at the time, they
were waiting for disappointment,somebody who committed to be
there and to come into thecountry.
And for whatever reason, thisperson didn't show up.
And this national leader was soupset because he invested
(35:47):
resources and time for this tohappen, and it just didn't
happen.
And he was disturbed by it.
He was angry by it.
And he kept making thestatement, I don't have my
peace.
I've lost my peace.
I've lost my peace.
And the missionary said, youknow, I was looking for a word
in this language for peace, butI just couldn't find the word.
(36:09):
And they didn't have atraditional word for peace as
he's translating the Bible.
But he said, but he kept sayingthis, I, you know, I've lost
this, I've lost this.
And he began to understand.
But what he was really sayingis that the relationship is
broken.
He's upset, and thatrelationship is severed now with
that individual, and it was areconciliatory type of a
(36:31):
statement.
And he began to understand,I've lost my peace.
Basically, I'm not reconciledwith my brother.
And that's a horrible place tobe.
If you're sitting here todayand you could say that I really
don't know Jesus and I'm notfully reconciled with God, you
haven't truly found real peaceyet in this world.
(36:53):
Only as we become reconciledwith the Savior do we really
know and understand what truepeace is.
He is the Prince of Peace.
Charles Spurgeon says, therecould be no peace between you
and Christ while there is peacebetween you and sin.
There could be no peace.
My mentor, when he discipled meyears ago when I was a college
(37:17):
student, going to college atASU, and I went to his church,
he taught me about the doctrineof sin, which I never
understood.
You won't find many books orcommentaries on the doctrine of
sin.
But he said this to me (37:27):
he said, Sin is not your biggest
problem, Dana.
It's your only problem.
It's not your biggest problem,it's your only problem.
This is the core of the issuethat we've been separated from
God when Adam and Eve firstsinned in the garden and the
Lord came down, it says to walkwith him and fellowship with
them.
They weren't there, theyweren't in that meeting place.
(37:49):
He's yelling out in the garden,Adam, where are you?
Eve, where are you?
Where are you?
They were hiding in the bushesbecause of their shame.
And this is what sin does isthat the shame and the
condemnation and the guilt thatwe feel from that.
We make that statement even toour children, oftentimes, and I
remember teachers even saying itin the classroom, shame on you
(38:12):
for what you did, shame on you.
But Jesus came to this worldnot to say, shame on you, but
shame off of you.
That's what he does.
Shame off of you.
Sin is our fundamental problem,and this is why Jesus came.
It's like you can't deal withthe sin.
You can't pardon yourselfthrough good works and through
(38:33):
self-righteousness.
Only I can pardon you.
And he had to shed his blood onthe cross and in provision so
that he can pardon you throughhis sacrificial death on the
cross, and he gave his lifefreely for that.
That's how we're pardoned.
We put our faith in the graceof Jesus Christ.
That's where we find peace.
That's where we're reconciledto God.
(38:53):
Romans 5, 10 and 11.
It says, when we were enemies,we were reconciled to God
through the death of his son.
Much more, having beenreconciled, we shall be saved by
his life.
And not only that, we alsorejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom wenow have received
(39:14):
reconciliation.
Praise God.
We've been justified, and nowthat we've been justified, we've
been reconciled to God throughthe Lord Jesus Christ.
Nothing that we've done, buteverything that He did on the
cross.
Now we're in reconciled.
We have our peace now, thepeace that passes all
(39:34):
understanding.
Philippians 4 4, Paul says,Don't be anxious about anything,
don't worry about anything.
Oswald Chamber, in hisdevotional book, that's a
classic that everybody shouldhave, probably next to their
Bible, my utmost for hishighest, he says in a passage in
there that worrying, anxiety,worrying is simply calculating
(39:56):
without God.
We're calculating in our mindwithout God when we worry in the
anxiety.
And Paul says, Don't be anxiousfor anything, don't worry about
anything, but bring everythingto Jesus Christ.
Bring your supplications andprayer requests to him with
thanksgiving, thanking God inadvance that he's going to give
(40:16):
breakthrough and answers.
That's faith.
And it says, and the peace ofGod that surpasses all human
understanding and intellect, itwill guard your heart, it will
guard your mind in Christ Jesus.
That's the secret to peace.
Relationship with Jesus.
Putting our trust in Him, ourfaith in the work that He has
(40:40):
done, and that is fundamental.
Number three is access to Godthrough Jesus Christ.
Access.
This is one that if we couldmaster this idea, this concept,
that you could be driving downthe road, you can be, you know,
in your house or at work.
We have instant access to thethrone of grace with God.
(41:04):
I I have a hard time fullyunderstanding this, but I just
know that when I call upon thename of Jesus and I can access
his presence, that it is one ofthe most powerful concepts that
has brought redemption andbreakthrough and answers to
prayer in my life when I realizethat I can access to the Lord
(41:25):
and not allow shame or guilt orcondemnation, not allowing
thoughts in your mind to thinkI'm not worthy to go into God's
presence, but we can go in withboldness, the Bible says,
access.
Romans 5, 2, through we alsohave access by faith into his
grace in which we stand and werejoice in the hope of the glory
(41:45):
of God.
Have access.
David writes it in the Psalmsthat there's fullness of joy in
the presence of the Lord.
This is the yearning, this isthe cry of even this young
generation in America andcountries around the world that
(42:10):
they want to have a trueencounter with Jesus Christ.
They want to have a trueencounter with God.
And when they begin toexperience His presence, that's
the fullness of joy.
That's the encounter thatthey're looking for.
That's the solution to theproblem.
That's the experience they'relonging for that changes
everything in their life, is byhaving an encounter in His
(42:32):
presence.
Hebrews 4.16 says, Let ustherefore come boldly or with
confidence to the throne ofgrace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in timeof need.
We have a new family fromPakistan that came some months
(42:56):
ago, just this year.
They're a highly trained andeducated couple with two sons,
and they're from a very umstrict sect of Islam in
Pakistan.
Incredible story.
Somehow she found a Bible, andno doubt it was just the
(43:18):
province of God that ithappened.
She finds a Bible she had neverread before.
She knew very little aboutChristianity, other than
Christians are infidels.
She began to read this Bible.
How many know the Word of Godis powerful?
She began to read it just outof curiosity.
And the Holy Spirit began to doa work in her heart, and
(43:40):
through just reading thescripture, nobody sharing with
her, saying anything, she gaveher life to Jesus Christ.
It was an amazing miracle thathappened.
She shares with her husband.
He comes to Christ and in thatregard.
And then when their familyfound out, they found out at the
mosque, they wanted to killthem.
In fact, he came, his leg wasall battered and wounded.
(44:03):
He was attacked by his ownbrother that says, We're going
to kill you for converting toChristianity.
It's a very real thing inplaces like this.
And they fled to Bangkok Cityand they found themselves in our
church.
They speak not really goodEnglish, but enough to
communicate with them andthey're sharing the story.
(44:24):
And they said, We're living ingreat fear.
And even this sect, myPakistani pastor said, This is
real, Pastor.
They will look for them even inBangkok City.
Even when if they leave thecountry, it doesn't solve the
problem.
They'll pursue and trying tofind out where they're at and
they'll try to kill them.
And so they were in hiding.
They lived in several differentplaces so they wouldn't be
(44:45):
found.
And ultimately they werebaptized in our church this
year, sharing this powerfultestimony of what God had done
in their life.
And just about a month ago, shewas in labor, their third child
and everything, and went to thehospital to pray with her
before they took her in todeliver this baby.
(45:06):
And they told me it's going tobe a little girl, and they were
excited because they have twosons.
And they said, Pastor, we wantyou to uh to name this child.
He says, You're my father.
I said, No, I'm not yourfather.
He's your father.
No, you're my father.
And he says, I want you to namethe child.
And I could sense there wassome cultural things going on
here.
I didn't want to dishonor him.
(45:28):
And I thought, well, I justdon't want to pull a name out of
a hat, you know.
And I went back and I said,Lord, give me perspective.
If I'm going to name this childfor this family, and I looked
up, the word mercy came to mymind because I looked at this
family.
I every time I see him, I wouldjust see the mercy of God.
(45:48):
The mercy of God that deliveredthem from this situation of a
life-threatening situation.
God's mercy.
And I looked it up in theHebrew and it showed a picture
of a pregnant woman, and thatthey would use that Hebrew word
that God has shown that mothermercy by the pregnancy, and she
(46:09):
the child is in her womb.
It reveals the mercy of God.
And I went back and I said,We're going to name her mercy.
And he said, Okay.
She was in church just a fewweeks ago.
This beautiful little Pakistanigirl.
God's presence.
God's throne is a throne ofgrace and mercy.
(46:35):
J.C.
Ryle said all men ought tothink of Christ because of the
office Christ fills between Godand man.
He is the eternal Son of God,through whom alone the Father
can be known, approached andserved.
He is the appointed mediatorbetween God and man, through
whom alone we can be reconciledwith God, hardened, justified,
(46:58):
and saved.
First Timothy 2 5 says, Thereis one God and one mediator
between God and men, the manJesus Christ.
The man Jesus Christ.
He's the mediator.
I'm going to close with this.
It's not a revelation on mypart.
(47:19):
You can Google this and see it.
But I want to close theservice.
Jesus alone.
In every book of the Bible, all66 books of the Bible, you see
this creed.
You see this statement of faiththat Jesus is Lord.
(47:41):
In the book of Genesis, Jesusis the seed of the woman.
In Exodus, he is the Passoverlamb.
In Leviticus, he is our greathigh priest.
In numbers, he's the pillar ofcloud by day and the pillar of
fire by night.
In Deuteronomy, he's theprophet like unto Moses.
In Joshua, he's the commanderof the Lord's army.
In judges, he's the judge, ourjudge and deliverer.
(48:03):
In the book of Ruth, he is ourkinsman, redeemer.
In Samuel, he's our Ebenezerand stone of help.
In the book of Kings andChronicles, he's our eternal
king and the seed of David.
In Ezra, he is our faithfulscribe and restorer.
In Nehemiah, he's the rebuilderof the broken down walls of
human life.
In Esther, he is our Mordecaiand our advocate.
(48:27):
In Job, he's our ever-livingredeemer.
In Psalms, he is our shepherd.
In Proverbs, he is our wisdom.
In Ecclesiastes, he is ourmeaning for life.
In the Song of Solomon, he'sour loving bridegroom.
In Isaiah, he's our prince ofpeace.
In Jeremiah, he is ourrighteous branch.
In Lamentations, he's theweeping prophet.
(48:48):
In Ezekiel, he's the watchmanon the wall.
In Daniel, he's the fourth manin the fiery furnace.
Somebody say man.
Hallelujah.
In Hosea, he's our faithfulhusband.
In Joel, he's the outpourer ofthe Holy Spirit.
In Amos, he is our burdenbearer.
In Obadiah, he's our judge andsavior.
In Jonah, he's the greatmissionary sent by God.
(49:09):
In Nahom, he's the strongholdin the day of trouble.
And Habakkuk, he is the Lord inhis holy temple.
In Zephaniah, he is the mightyone to save.
In Haggai, he is the desire ofthe nations.
In Zechariah, he's the branchof David, the one who was
pierced for us.
In Malachi, he's the son ofrighteousness, rising with
(49:30):
healing in his wings.
In the book of Matthew, he'sthe king of kings, the king of
the Jews, the Messiah and theChrist.
In the book of Mark, he's theservant and the miracle worker.
In Luke, he's the son of manwho walked in your shoes and
feels what you feel.
In John, he's the son of God,the living word, the way, the
truth, and the life.
In Acts, he is the savior ofthe world, the ascended Lord.
(49:53):
In Romans, he's our justifierand the righteousness of God.
In Corinthians, he's ourall-sufficient giver of grace.
In Galatians, he's our redeemerfrom the curse of the law.
In Ephesians, he is the head ofthe church.
In Philippians, he is the joyof our life.
In Colossians, he's thecompleteness and the glue that
holds our world together.
(50:14):
In Thessalonians, he is oursoon and coming king.
In Timothy, he is the mediatorbetween God and man.
In Philemon, he's the one whopaid our debts.
In Titus, he is our blessedhope.
In Hebrews, he is the authorand the finisher of our faith.
In James, he is our greatphysician and healer.
In Peter, he's our chiefshepherd and the chief
(50:36):
cornerstone.
Hallelujah.
In John, he is the God in theflesh.
In Jude, he is the foundationof our faith and our eternal
security.
In the book of Revelation, heis the King of Kings.
He is the Lord of Lords and theone who is coming again.
Hallelujah.
That's our Jesus.
Jesus alone.
(51:00):
That's Jesus.
And the Lord has given suchclarity and understanding for us
here today.
He is the way, the truth, andthe life.
Would you bow your hearts andanswer with me today?
Thank you, Lord.
(51:20):
I want to give an invitation.
If you're here today and say,Pastor Dana, I want this to be
the creed and the statement ofmy life.
Jesus is Lord.
I want him to be the Lord of mylife.
Well, you're in the right placetoday, if that's you.
(51:42):
You're not here by accident.
But God has brought you intothis place for this moment that
will change your life for all ofeternity.
And as our heads are bowedtogether here today, if you're
here today, you say, Pastor, I Iwant to take a stand for Jesus.
I want him to be the Lord of mylife.
(52:04):
Solus Christos, I want you tostand right where you're at
right now.
Just stand up.
And we're gonna, I'm gonna leadyou into prayer right where
you're standing this morning.
And we're gonna pray a prayerand become the Lord of your life
here today.
And just take a moment forthose to stand in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Praise God.
(52:25):
Thank you, Lord.
Anybody else?
Please follow me in this prayerand join in with those who have
stood today.
It's the most importantdecision that you will ever
make.
Jesus came for you.
He loves you so much.
He knows your name.
He knows where you live and allabout your life.
(52:46):
Follow me in this prayer tosay, dear Lord Jesus, I want you
to be the Lord of my life.
I confess that you are Lord.
I believe that you died on thecross for my sin.
(53:08):
And I ask you to forgive me andbecome my Lord and Savior.
I give my life to you.
Because you gave your life tome.
I believe that you were raisedfrom the dead by the power of
(53:31):
the Holy Spirit.
And that you will raise me upin newness of life.
I declare you today, Lord andSavior of my life.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
(53:51):
Thank you, Jesus.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
Jason Brown (53:58):
We have a hand of the Lord for the ministry of
Pastors Dan and Bridget today.
Thank you guys so very much.
I'm asking to actually ask youto stand as we're going to head
into a song and a response hereto the Lord.
We're going to open up thisaltar and make it available to
you.
Maybe you're someone that justwants to come and just have more
(54:18):
of God's presence.
Just ask him to meet you andheal your body, to heal your
circumstances for provision, forwisdom, for guidance.
We're going to have people thatcome and join with you in
prayer.
Just agree with you for whatGod wants to do.
Maybe you're here and you'veheard this passion this couple
has and the team that they havethat serve with them and that
all of God is doing in throughtheir ministry.
(54:40):
If you want to give to themspecifically today, you can do
so through the QR codes or theboxes at the back and just mark
right on their missions.
Anything that comes in todaywill go to them in that way.
And we're just blessed to beable to partner with them in
what God is doing.
But we know that God ispowerful and He is on the move,
and He wants to do that in yourlife as well.
So as we come to this altar, weopen up our hearts to Him that
(55:03):
we would respond.
That it's only through Jesusthat any of this is possible.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you so much, Lord,for this opportunity to hear
your word.
Thank you, Lord, for speakingto us through Dana, Lord, just a
powerful message about yourlove, Lord, your reconciliation,
how we are made in rightstanding and justified, Lord, by
you and through you alone.
Lord, that we would be able tohave access to the living God,
(55:27):
the creator, God, the God of theuniverse.
Lord, in who you are.
Lord, we are so thankful forthe power that is in your name,
Lord, and it's by your name thatwe come today to this altar to
just have a meeting place withyou.
Lord, pray for healing and forrestoration.
We pray for guidance and wisdomfor all that anyone would need
as they come today.
Lord, you meet us right wherewe are.
(55:47):
As you are a good father whogood gives good gives good gifts
to us.
We pray all this in theirpowerful name that is Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
Celeste Brown (55:55):
Our fall family day is two weeks away.
And so we want you to invitesomebody, invite your neighbors,
your colleagues, your friends.
Um, also, if you want tovolunteer, there's a sign-up
sheet in the lobby, or you cando it online.
And I don't want you to forgetthat there's a chili cook-off
involved.
So if you think that you'regood, then I want you to submit
something and we will test itout and let you know.
(56:17):
Um, but it's gonna be fun, andso we're two weeks away.
Jason Brown (56:20):
Before we go, I'm gonna pray his blessing over us.
The Lord bless you and keepyou.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
Or lift up his countenance uponyou and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
(56:42):
Lord, you can empower us byyour spirit to live your love
out to those around us.
Pray all this in the powerfulname that is Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Amen.
Know this.
We love you very much, EricCornerstone.
God bless you, and have a greatweek.
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