The Cornerstone Vision

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles. This morning to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. I'm gonna, the, our annual meeting is tonight at 6 o'clock, and I, would just plead with all of you, that are members or just consider yourself a part of the Cornerstone family, or you're even considering the possibility of being a part of the Cornerstone family.

To please, please come tonight and, if you've never been to an annual meeting before, please come to this one. If you never come to another annual meeting again, please come to this one. We've got some very important and exciting things to, to bring you into the loop on, just some developments in the elders' thinking as we've come to some. Unanimous points of consensus that has eluded us for years and, and we're, we're finally there, and would like to share some of those things with you.

So that's tonight. And because of just the, the magnitude of some of the things that we're wanting to talk about tonight, that's why two weeks ago, I began laying the foundation for that by talking about our priorities as a church and And what we're going to take with us no matter where we go and continue to prize and this morning I want to continue laying that foundation. for us to set the stage for what we'll be talking about tonight. So if you want to give a title to what we'll talk about this morning, it would be the Cornerstone Vision from Brokenness to wholeness.

And there is an insert that's in your bulletin, that I would encourage you to make use of as we go along, this, this morning. As I put the thoughts together for the message today, in fact, in recent weeks and months, I've been thinking a lot about About a conversation that, that I had about 24 years ago. it was my last day, at the Silk Screen Printing Company where I worked for six years before college, through college, and then the year after I graduated from, from college. And, it was my final day of work and was about to, in a few days, head out to California, to begin studying at the Masters seminary.

And I was sitting down with my boss in his office and just thanking him for the job that I had had for the previous 6 years and what a joy it was to work there. And we talked about my seminary plans and ministry plans beyond that. And near the end of that conversation, one of the final things that he said to me has always stayed with me. He said, Can I ask of you a favor?

He was a Christian man. his name was Larry Green, and from our church, our home church, he said, can I ask a favor of, of you? And I said, sure, what, what is that? And he said, as you go off to seminary, and then into the ministry beyond, Could you find for me the answer to the question, what is church?

What is church? And that question is always stuck with me. It has chased me over the last 24 years in seminary and in the ministry. And you'll know that he didn't ask the question, what is the church?

Because I could have maybe sat there and given him a theological answer to the church universal and the local church, but that's not really what, what he was after. He asked, What is church? If I said to you and said, what is the family? Well, you can give me a definition of that.

But if I said no, no, what is family? That's, that's a different question. It goes to the issue of quality. And he was asking what is church?

And a part of what's embodied in that question is, what is the nature of church? What is the church supposed to be? And how do you do church the way that God wants it to be done? That question.

Is, A question that has shaped my ministry in some significant ways. I think about it frequently over the years. And I have yet to sit down and write a full answer to that question and send it to this man saying, I have the final answer to your question. In fact, I am still seeking the full answer to that question.

And the likelihood is that when I am in heaven, and I see the church and all her glory, I will look at this man and say that's my answer. That's the church right there. because my understanding of what church is and how to do church has been unfolding over the years, and it's been an amazing journey over the last 21 years of discovering the answers, the answer to that question together in community with the congregation here. You guys are phenomenal.

It's been one of the greatest blessings in my life to be a pastor of this congregation. And to explore these things, together with my brothers and sisters here. And I can't think of a better congregation to go on that journey with up to this point than you, and I can't think of a better congregation to continue on that journey with than, than you guys. so thank you for your partnership in that journey as we are seeking practically to answer that question, what church.

Ephesians 4 provides some help for us, in terms of what the church ought to be, how it ought to operate, and all that it can become in Christ design. and we read this passage a couple of weeks ago, and I'd like to read it again, as we begin today., beginning in verse 11, Paul has talked about Christ going up to the right hand of God, and he can now get whatever he wants from the Father and give it to whomever he wants. And we find Jesus obtaining precious gifts from the Father, and then he chooses the church to be the recipient of these amazing gifts.

Indeed, the church is the apple of his eye, the object of his special affection.

And so look at what he gives upon having ascended to the right hand of the Father, verse 11. And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

But speaking the truth and love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. As we observe in this passage, especially in verse 13, Christ's vision for the church, universal and for cornerstone is that we grow. that is His will for us that we grow as a church in unity, that we grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we grow in maturity, speaking of corporate maturity and the way that we operate.

As a community, Christ, wants us to grow out of any klutziness that remains, in the way that we do life and ministry.

And he also wants us to grow in stature. He wants us to be a tall church that is more visible to others, a church that because of its height can see. Are there, a church that because of its height, has a wider breadth of its reach as it, as it brings others into its embrace, and a church because of its height that has a longer stride as it goes out into the world in ministry to do the will of Christ, and to minister his love to broken people and to give them, them hope. Now we have seen two weeks ago that there are priorities that, there's gifts he's given, and instructions that he has given to us that have to be in place if we as the church are going to grow in this way that Paul identifies in verse 13.

And we spent the whole sermon on this a couple of weeks ago. All I'm going to do is just recap to get us grounded once again in these realities, because it serves as a foundation for what, I want us to continue talking about this morning. Here's the priorities that are essential to us growing in unity and knowledge, maturity, and in stature as a church. And we inferred all of this from Ephesians 45 and 6.

number 1, the preaching and the teaching of the scriptures. We learned that the written word of God, according to 2 Timothy 3, is profitable for teaching and for reproving us and correcting us and instructing and training us in the way of righteousness that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. There's a second priority, and that is continuous evangelism, continuous evangelism. And here at Cornerstone, we're passionate about evangelizing not only those who are presently lost, and outside of Christ, but also evangelizing those of us who are saved.

I want to evangelize you who are believers, and I want you to evangelize me, because none of us are done being evangelized. And we are committed to the role of the gospel in the life of the believer from day to day, and in the lives of the lost, because according to Romans one, the gospel is the power of God into the salvation to everyone who believes. And it supplies us with all things needful for life and godliness. There's a 3rd priority, and that is faithful shepherding that we talked about 2 weeks ago.

We learned that where there are faithful shepherds, Christ will send his sheep, pastor shepherd, and care for the saints and do mending and repairing and restoring and resourcing that is necessary to Enable them to do the work of the ministry of building the body of Christ. There is a 4th priority, and that is a congregation of ministers. Christ has given these gifts to the church, to the saints, so that the saints can be equipped to do the work of the ministry of building the body.

And so if you are a member of Cornerstone, we would say welcome to the staff of Cornerstone.

Welcome to the ministry of building Christ's body. Imagine a congregation of 400 plus people who every day are living their lives with gospel intentionality. And just seeking to whatever they do, what can I do that will build up the body of Christ and serve Christ's purposes here on earth? And whatever lesser things are in our lives that we are done with lesser things, and we're living for Jesus Christ, and in service to building his church.

There is another priority, and we call this covenantal community, covenantal community. We have learned that if we're going to grow and flourish spiritually as individuals, then we must be in community with other people. In order to grow, we have to be in community and not just any community, but we have seen that it needs to be covenantal or committed community of people in relationship with one another in a committed way over the long haul. Covenantal relationships in the church provide the richest matrix.

For spiritual growth and, and flourishing. There's another priority, the 6th 1, and that is we'll call this missional households, where everyone is seeing their home as a cornerstone facility, an extension of the cornerstone campus. Everyone is looking at their home, their apartment. their condo, their town home, their house, their dorm room, and, and their disposition towards where they dwell is, I want to make this an outpost for the kingdom of God.

I want to make this a power center for worship and ministry. And outreach and instruction and serving Christ's purposes to where we all basically look at our central campus such as right now the Linden Street campus and wherever else we move from here as simply the front porch. That all of our households share in common. People come onto this front porch here as a first step to being brought into the wholeness, the growth, and the flourishing that is being experienced on an individual and household and care group level.

We need people and households here at Cornerstone. who see their homes not just as a place of retreat, but they look at their homes as being on the front lines of the battle for the souls of men and women. That's, that's what the Church of Jesus Christ needs. And if you read Ephesians, that's what, that's what Paul does.

He gives the gospel in the early chapters and then says, be filled with all of the fullness that I've been talking about. And then almost immediately he starts telling people how to express that fullness in the gospel of Christ by saying, Wives, here's how to be towards your husbands. Husbands, here's how to be toward your wives. Children, here's how to be towards your parents, parents towards your children, household.

servants towards your masters and household masters towards your servants. You look at the space that Paul gives to the household, and applying the gospel to life in the household, and you begin to realize how critical the household is to the church being able to show forth the manifold wisdom of God. To the principalities and powers and to the watching world around us. And so when you think of it this way, you realize that Cornerstone has hundreds of thousands of square footage of facility already.

at her disposal. In fact, since I made that statement a couple of weeks ago, there's been some discussion about, well, what is the square footage. If you, you add up all the homes, dwelling, places here at Cornerstone, where people live, On this sprawling campus that spreads throughout the inland Southern California, what does that add up to? And As you leave this morning, and you may have seen this coming in, there's a table that'll be to your left as you go out of the front doors of the auditorium this morning, and Jeremiah Petsis has made some forms, and here's what we're going to ask, but only if you're comfortable doing so, OK?

There's papers taped to that table so they don't blow away. All we're asking is if you would like to put your last name down. And the square footage of your home. OK, that's all you need to do.

We're not going to give that information to anybody. No agency will receive that information. We will keep it private between us, but we are wanting to do the math and try to figure out what exactly is the square footage that we possess in the way of facilities already, and all of that is not to minimize the role of a central campus, but again, this campus here at Lyndon and wherever we go, we don't ever want to sit back and say, good, now we have a facility. No, we have a facility, a big one, a sprawling campus throughout inland Southern California.

And what we're interested in is, is finding a porch that all of these mission centers, ministry centers can share, that people can come into and be brought into the fullness of what God is doing on the household level. And then finally, the priority we looked at the last 12 weeks ago is our vision for every man a pastor. If this vision for our households being power centers for worship, ministry, instruction, and outreach is going to come to pass, we need men standing before their households and leading their households in the execution of this vision.

And so we say to our men on many occasions, if you are a husband or a father, welcome to the pastorate.

We need you to shepherd your flock within your household. This church depends upon you to do that. And we want to help you and resource you in any way that we can, to equip you and encourage you in your God-given role. We believe that you, men are the most important part Of Cornerstone's Women's ministry.

And youth ministry and children's ministry, we can have gazillions of programs for women, Bible studies for women, and for our youth and children, but if the dads and the husbands, if the men aren't doing what God has called them to do, the likelihood is our church will never rise any higher than its men. And so, we don't want to just pick a few men and encourage them and develop them to be pastors. We, our vision is to see every man functioning as a pastor of his household, shepherding the part of Christ's flock.

That is within his household, and then hopefully even beyond that.

Well, having said all that, that's, that's a quick recap. It went a little longer than I intended. But as I just want us to turn a corner at this point, and, we, we see Christ's vision for Cornerstone, and we also see what our priorities ought to be. But can we maybe narrow our focus down even more and ask ourselves, for what purpose do we have these priorities?

For what purpose do we grow and flourish in the ways that Christ identifies in Ephesians 4:13? What are we doing here? What are we doing here in Riverside? Why is Cornerstone here?

What service do we provide to the people of this community? And let's, let's state it this way. I'm not bucking for this to become our new mission statement necessarily, but just trying to think of how succinctly we could say what it is we're doing here and how we see ourselves. I think we would say it this way.

Here's what we want to be all about helping people. Helping the people of this community journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a community, we want to help people. We want to help anyone that is open to being helped.

We want to help them on a journey. we want as a church to generate by the grace of God, movement in the lives of people, to launch them on a journey and to facilitate that journey from brokenness to ultimate wholeness in the presence of the Lord Jesus. There's brokenness in our world today as we look around, even in the immediately surrounding community, the people you guys work with, the people in our neighborhoods, there is tremendous brokenness. There is despair.

There are people by the tens of thousands right around us who don't even believe that there is such a thing as real, genuine love because they have never seen it. with their own eyes. They have never been the recipient of such committed love. And here we are in this incredible bubble of growing wholeness and flourishing and love that we're experiencing in Jesus, and our burden should be to go to those around us and to bring them into the wholeness that we are tasting of and experiencing here at Cornerstone.

We recognize that our world is broken. We recognize that mankind is broken. In fact, you might want to jot this down. You think about when God created Adam and Eve, he essentially gave to Adam and Eve three mandates, three expectations.

One is be fruitful and multiply. So he creates them in innocence without sin. And he says, be fruitful and multiply. So create a social world.

Have at it. And then he gives them dominion over the earth, basically telling them, I want you to harness the stuff of earth for my glory and for the good of yourselves and your fellow man and service to one another and have at it. And another mandate or expectation was God created Adam and Eve to live in fellowship with Himself so he could walk with them in the cool of the day, and they can enjoy this incredible relationship with Him and revolve around his glory and live and abide in sight of his amazing, generous love for them.

That's why God created mankind, that man would experience the glory of this mandate.

But what did Adam and Eve do? They chose to abide outside of God's love. They partook of the fruit and disobedience to God, and sought to be like God themselves. They abandoned God and went their own way and the choice that they made and that we all made in them.

And we know that's true, because we've all made those kinds of choices throughout our lives to go our own way. And as a result of that, there is brokenness. In this world and brokenness that we experience in our lives. You think of, of the heart of God, like in Genesis 6, it pained him onto all the way to his heart as he saw the wickedness of men.

Men, imagine, marrying a bride, and you exchange vows and have this incredible ceremony, and this new relationship, marriage relationship is formed. And as soon as the ceremony is over, your new bride walks away from you, gets in the car and drives away. And you're like, well, wait a minute, what about us? What about us?

And she's, there is no us. I don't want anything to do with you. I want to live on my own. And you'd be like, well, what about the honeymoon?

I don't even want to go on the honeymoon with you. I don't want anything to do with you. I don't want to live with you. That is what man has done to God.

God creates this world. And with amazing fanfare ceremony just creates a day by day, creates Adam and Eve and gives to them this mandate to harness the stuff of Earth, to create a social world and to enjoy fellowship and relationship with Him and to live in sight of his love. And Adam and Eve turn and walk away from that and go their own way. And as a result of those choices and the choices very similar that we all have made, we have broken this in our lives.

And the people around us have broken this. And what are we doing here? What is Cornerstone doing? We're here to help people to journey from that brokenness to wholeness through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What we'll focus on this morning is Just, 5 critical points of this journey, from brokenness to wholeness. if we're going to help people on this journey, it would be good for us to identify the critical points of that journey because it doesn't happen overnight. And we can identify these points as gospel conversion, gospel orientation, gospel community, gospel mission. And ultimately, finally, gospel glory.

Let's break each of these down and spend a few minutes on each to understand the journey we're all on from brokenness to wholeness and the journey that we are to help other people to be on. First of all, gospel conversion. We come to people and their brokenness who are outside of Christ, they're alienated from God, they don't have the Spirit of God within them, they're spiritually dead, they're bound by the guilt of their sin. enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, they're experiencing brokenness inwardly and in their relationships.

Apart from God in this world, we come to them in their brokenness, and we have good news for them. In fact, we say to them, we have good news, only for broken people. Jesus said, I didn't come for those who were well, but those who were sick. I didn't come for those who think they're already fixed up and whole.

I came for those who know that they are broken. And in need of a savior. I didn't come for the righteous. I came for those who know that they are unrighteous.

I came into the world to save only sinners and those who know that they are broken sinners. And so we go out into the world. We go out into the world to broken people. Who are broken because they've been sinned against.

They're broken because they have made sinful choices. And we help them to see their brokenness, and we give them the gospel in order to give them the courage to face their brokenness honestly. And then we give them the good news. We're not intimidated by their brokenness.

Because there is no brokenness out there for which there is not good news in Christ. Paul says in Romans 1:16, the gospel of Christ is the power of God into salvation to everyone who is believing. We give them the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ and cause people by the grace of God to turn away from trusting in themselves or anyone or anything else, and to put their trust in Jesus. And guys, listen.

The moment that someone puts their trust in Jesus and they're born again, Instantly, their circumstances change in the most profound of ways. Yeah, they may look the same and live in the same house and have the same job and have a lot of the same problems, but think about this, before being converted. They're separated from God under his condemnation and under his guilt. They're in the kingdom of darkness.

They're spiritually dead. They're enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. The moment they turn to Jesus and cry out to Him, in an instant, all of their sins are forgiven. All of them are forgiven.

They receive the grace of God. God looks upon them and renders a verdict about them and declares them forgiven, and declares them righteous and welcomes them into his presence and welcomes them into the kingdom of his beloved Son, and he gives them the Holy Spirit and gives them power for living, and he makes them a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. That's a pretty big change in their circumstances. And yeah, there's still a lot of brokenness and a brand new believer.

There's a lot of brokenness still in all of us, but all the important things have instantly changed within which they can now begin to soar in this journey from brokenness to wholeness. There's a second critical point in this journey from brokenness to wholeness that we're all on and that we're seeking to help other people on, and let's call this second point gospel orientation. Gospel orientation, you see guys here at Cornerstone, we're not just, about getting people converted.

Our passion is to see them converted, and then oriented around the gospel.

It's not enough to be saved by the gospel, but one must then Become grounded in the gospel. Jerry Bridges, speaks of an unfortunate reality in many churches. He says the reality of present day Christendom is that most professing Christians actually know very little of the gospel, let alone understand its implications for their day to day lives. My perception is that most of them know just enough gospel to get inside the door of the kingdom.

They know nothing of the unsearchable riches of Christ. What he's saying is we have churches full of under-evangelized Christians. And there's much of the gospel that they don't understand. And they've not yet learned to be grounded in the gospel oriented around the gospel, and to apply the gospel to all areas of their life.

They've been saved by the gospel, but they not yet learned how to make the gospel, the basic paradigm by which they live their lives, to think gospel and to reason from the gospel, to the relational and ethical. And theological areas of their life. Paul says in Romans 1, the gospel of Christ, look at the literal wording here, is the power of God into literally salvation to everyone who is continuously believing. What he's saying is, it's the good news of the gospel of Christ that gets people into salvation.

And then once they're in, it is the gospel that is the power of God to bring them deeper and deeper into salvation. Does that make sense? Think of it this way, if, if this afternoon I came over to your house and I knocked on your door, you'd come to the door, look through the peephole, see that it's me, and I would hope you would answer the door. Although as a pastor, I will say there have been times where, people have not answered the door because they saw that it was me.

And I remember visiting one lady years ago. I knocked on the door, rang the doorbell. No one answered. I came back to the church office, called the house, and she answered, and I said, I must have missed you.

Just at your house to visit with you and apparently you weren't home and she said, I was home, Pastor Milton, and I was looking out the window at you, but I didn't want to talk to you because I'm angry with you. So thus began a wonderful conversation over the phone. But let's say you answer the door, you open the door, and then you, you, what will you say to me? Come in, right?

Say, come in. And so imagine that I take your invitation, literally. And I'm like, OK, they want me to come in. So the door opens and I step inside your door, and I get just barely in your house, and then I close the door behind me, and I'm leaning with my back against the door.

Technically, I'm in your house, right? But what will you say to me? You will say, No, Pastor Milton, come in. And you will invite me further into your house.

Guys, that's exactly what Jesus does to us. Our journey with Christ is basically him saying, come in, and we come in very gingerly, and sheepishly, and we're barely in and then he's like, no, no, no, come in. And so we take a few more steps and And, and he's there saying, no, come in, and he keeps inviting us more and more deeply into all things that belong to us in the realm of salvation. And Paul is saying, that's the role of the gospel, which means good news.

The good news of Christ. is the power of God that takes us more and more deeply into salvation. To everyone who is believing. So as a believer, I look at the gospel, it doesn't just get me into salvation, but now that I'm saved, it's the gospel that is the power of God to invite me and to take me even further into salvation.

The role of the gospel is critical. We want believers to understand this and not say I'm saved by the gospel, and I can set it aside now and move on to whatever the rules are for living this thing called the Christian life. Colossians 1:23. Paul saying, I've got big dreams for you guys of all that you can become.

But here's a critical ingredient. He says, if indeed you continue in the faith, which is a synonym for the gospel, if indeed you continue in the gospel, firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, you got to be grounded in the gospel. If you're going to become all that God wants you, to be. So if you're a Christian, preach the good news to yourself.

Read Ephesians 12 and 3. There's so much good news for you, as a believer, evangelize your brothers and sisters in Christ. As you evangelize the lost as well. Here's why, at least I personally feel this burden.

I made a professional, profession of faith, my first one that I remember when I was 4.5 years old in Jacksonville, Florida. And I don't know if I was saved then or not because I made hundreds of professions of faith after that. But perhaps I was saved then, I don't know. But I do know this, it wasn't until about 11 years ago, the age of 37, which means yes, I'm 48.

It wasn't until age 37, 10 years into the ministry, That I actually had that aha moment where I began to realize, well, wait a minute, the gospel's like incredible news, and it's for me. As a believer. And I began to see the powerful role that it can play in my life if I'm soaking in the good of this phenomenal news, preaching it to myself and living in the good of it. It was then that my paradigm began to shift and I began to understand the role that the gospel plays in my growth and in my journey as a believer, and it's, it's made a radical difference in just the way I minister to believers.

I began to realize that wait a minute. I need to evangelize my brothers and sisters in Christ. I got to preach to them the same stuff I'm preaching to me. And I began to, in dealing with people realize whatever the counseling issue was that they were coming to me with, I'm like, hmm I wonder what this calls for.

I know gospel. And I had one tool in my toolbox, and that was the gospel. Any issue that people are dealing with generally is the result. of either never knowing some aspect of the gospel or forgetting some aspect of the gospel or failing to reason from the gospel and apply the gospel to some area of their life, their ethics, and their relationships.

And so I'm looking at my life at age 4.5, I'm converted. Perhaps age 37, start getting grounded in the gospel. I don't want that gap for you. That's a lot of wasted years.

And the more narrow that gap can be between conversion and people really getting the gospel and understanding its role in their lives, the smaller that gap can be, the happier we are here at Cornerstone. In fact, I'm jealous of some of you. There are people here you've known the Lord for a year or two, and you're already getting this whole gospel thing. You're like, Man, the gospel is so amazing, and you're just soaking in it, memorizing passages of scripture and preaching the gospel to yourself, and you're understanding the role that it plays in your life from day to day, and I look at you and it's like, man, it would, it would just be awesome if I didn't waste the years that I wasted.

You're going to be light years ahead of where I am. At this point of my journey. So what, we spend a lifetime. Being orient, growing in our orientation around the gospel, but what we want is someone to get saved and then right away, help establish within their thinking this paradigm of the critical role that the gospel is to continue to play in their life from day to day.

There's a 3rd critical point in the journey from brokenness to wholeness, and that is gospel community. Gospel community. guys, if you're a believer in Christ, Christ has given you so much more than just forgiveness and grace and whatever else. He's given you brothers and sisters in Christ in the church, and he has deposited inside of them, the riches of His grace.

And he says, if you really want to walk in the fullness of what I've given to you, In the gospel, go to your brothers and sisters, and live in relationship with them and get from them those deposits of grace that have your name on it, that I put in them so that you can get it from them in relationship with them. Paul in Ephesians one says, I, basically to the Ephesians, I'm praying that you will know the riches of the glory of his inheritance that belongs to you and the saints.

It's in the church that we experience the fullness of God, not living and operating in isolation. from, from others.

and I know that, you may hear that and go, OK, I got, all right, I got, I need community. So I'm going to, add gospel community to my life. I'm gonna look at my schedule and maybe one hour a week, I'll try to insert gospel community because I'm hearing how critical it is. If that's what you do to where community basically becomes one thing you try to fit into your life, and now you're juggling that with everything else, That's actually self-defeating.

I'm going to tell you right now that absolutely will not work. in fact, I Let me read this to you. This is from Tim Chester and Steve Timmas and their book Total Church. Can everyone see that?

No? Really? OK. it's a guy who's juggling things.

I actually, this morning, took my iPhone and took a photograph of the picture in the book and then emailed it to myself and then cut and pasted it into my PowerPoint. proud of, of that. She's good. Thank you.

but anyway, it's a guy who's juggling a bunch of different things, and one of the things he's juggling is church. OK, Listen to what they say. The prevailing view of life today is that of an individual standing on his or her own, heroically juggling various responsibilities family, friendships, career, leisure, chores, decisions, and money. We could also add Social responsibilities like political activities, campaigning organizations, community groups, and school associations.

OK, so that's the prevailing view. And then he says from time to time the pressures overwhelm us and we drop one or more of the balls. All too often church becomes one of the balls that we drop. They then offer.

An alternative view, and that is rather than seeing myself as an individual, I see myself as a person in community. It's just a part of my identity as the body of Christ. It goes to the core of how I see myself as a person in community, and you'll notice in this picture, if you can see it, it's not one person in the middle, it's a group of people. It's a community in the middle.

It's the church and people who see themselves as persons in community. And then there's all these other things around that. And they say this, an alternative model is to view our various activities and responsibilities as spokes of a wheel. At the center or hub of life is not me as an individual, but us as members of the Christian community.

Church is not another ball for me to juggle, but it is that which defines who I am. And gives Christ-like shape to my life. Now I know that's conceptual, and you may be thinking, man, how do you, how do you apply that? All I would suggest is you try to tease out the ramifications of this is try to, try to apply this and work it out together with your brothers and sisters.

and maybe rather than I can't really do community because I'm so busy, is there a way with some of those things that you can invite other people in and say, hey, can you help me with this? And, and then together you're carrying some of these responsibilities and you're doing community at the same time. But at the core, you are a member of the body of Christ. It's who you are.

You are a person in community. At some point along the way, if you're going to grow and flourish and move from brokenness to wholeness, in your journey, you will need to find your way into a community. of covenant relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ and to do life together with them in community. There's a 4th critical step along this journey.

And it's not like these are isolated stops. These all considerably overlap. but the 4th point along the way is what we'll call gospel mission. To where you're not just a recipient anymore of the blessings of the gospel and community in the gospel, but you're like, it's now beginning to take control of your life and govern everything you do.

And you're like, man, I, I, I want to further God's purposes on earth. I want to give this message to other people. I want to be on a mission and live my life with gospel intentionality 24/7. You see Paul's example here and it's just incredible.

By the way, a few months ago, I was reading, there was a book written a number of years ago by Michael Hart called The Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. This guy, to my knowledge, is not a believer, but he's just from a secular point of view, who are the most impactful, influential people in the history of the world. And the apostle Paul ranked 6th. Another site that I was looking at a few months ago, again, nothing religious about the site, just weighing the influence of people in history, just in terms of the impact that they have wielded, and they ranked the apostle Paul the 2nd most influential person in the history of the world.

What, what was the secret to his influence? here we are 2000 years later talking about the guy. We're reading a book that he wrote and we're talking about it. We're trying to pattern our lives after things that this guy said and wrote.

That's enormous influence. what was the secret? To him, Wielding that influence. I'm sure we can make a list of answers, but one of them.

is that Paul, he lived his life from day to day with a razor. sharp focus, a laser focus on the gospel. He says in 1 Corinthians 9, this really says it all, verse 23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel. That so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Paul is saying, everything I do I do for the sake of the gospel. When I'm thinking about any activity, should I do this or not? Should this consume my energies or not? Should I spend my time on this or not?

I always ask myself, will this God's gospel purposes in me, or in the lives of other people. And if the answer is no, this will not serve God's gospel purposes in me, then I don't give it my time or my energies. I'm done with lesser things. Everything gets filtered through this grid.

I do all things for the sake of the gospel to serve God's gospel purposes in me and in other people. Look, look what he says, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. in other words, everything I do, I do to become a deeper participant, partaker in the gospel. But also, I don't want to partake alone.

Everything I do, I do so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. In other words, I don't want to sit at this banquet table by myself. I want to bring other people to the table with me, because I don't want to eat by myself. I want to eat with other people.

And everything I do, I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. That's my life right there. That's everything that I live for. And by the way, it's not too long after this that Paul says to the Corinthians and to us, Hey, be imitators of me.

Be like me. Imagine 400+ people here at Cornerstone, who do all things for the sake of the gospel. Everything gets filtered through that grid. And we just hone our energies and our investment of time, and what we do in our relationships, and we're just asking the question, will this serve God's gospel purposes in me?

If, if this does, then I'm all in. I'm all in. Where do your energies go, young men? I'm not going to get specific, but how much time do you spend?

articles are being written by secular observers over the wasted brain power and hours consumed in computer games and And what else have you? And I said I was not going to get specific, and I'm getting specific and I apologize for that. But guys, just, just receive what I'm saying. Where are your energies going?

So many of our energies just get dissipated in a million different sinful directions and wasteful directions. And we wonder why we make no impact. Imagine, imagine that we get focused and our energies. are put in the direction of serving God's gospel purposes in us.

you take a leaf laying in a yard and, and the rays of the sun, of the sun are, shining on that leaf, maybe the rays coming through and opening that big. Nothing will happen to that leaf other than over days, it'll turn brown and wither. But just the amount of the rays of sun coming through an opening that big, if you take a magnifying glass that bends all of those rays. Toward the center to one focal point.

In a matter of seconds it will burn a hole through that leaf. That's the power of concentration. That's the power of focus, and that's the way Paul lived his life. And that's why we're talking about Paul 2000 years later and reading a book that he wrote.

That's why he has been so significant in shaping Western civilization, perhaps more so than any other person. What difference can we make in this community? Today, if we as a congregation of ministers living with gospel intentionality. are harnessing our energies and our gifts in service to God's gospel purposes in us and in others.

You may say, Pastor Milton, I'm, I've been saved for a while, but I'm still so broken. My marriage is so broken, my relationship with my kids is so broken. I'm inwardly, I'm nowhere near where I should be. I'm way more broken than I ever dreamed that I would be at this point in my journey.

I'm waiting until I'm not so broken before I can go on mission and do the thing you're talking about. I would beg of you, don't, don't wait. In fact, a part of your journey from brokenness to wholeness. is to give yourself to mission in this way.

In fact, I would suggest that there is no more mighty weapon in the hand of God than a broken person on an unfinished journey in Christ reaching out to another broken person with the gospel of Jesus Christ. God loves to use broken people. And gets glory from Himself for Himself in doing so. There's one final point of the journey we'll just touch on this quickly, and that is gospel glory.

This is when we stand before Christ in glory. This is when the church's job is done, when the saints are before Christ in glory. We look forward to the day when the glory of God is revealed in us. We enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

We know that those whom God has called in a saving way, he justifies and those whom he justifies, he will glorify. And, as we're helping people in this journey from brokenness to wholeness, we, we ought to realize, man, they're broke, they were broken, they've been saved, they're still pretty broken and still pretty messed up. But what, I already know what they're going to look like in glory. I love what Paul does to the Thessalonians and 1 Thessalonians 2.

He's basically saying to them, you guys are, you're broken, and I'm writing this letter to deal with some things in your lives right now. but I know what you're going to look like. I know what you're going to look like, and I'm already feeling pretty good about it. Who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation?

Is it not even you in the presence of the Lord Jesus at his coming? You are our glory and joy. Paul says, I'm already looking forward to the day. I'm already preparing for the day in the presence of Jesus, when I see you there to be jumping up and down with exultation.

As I see you in all of your magnificence draped in the glory of Jesus forever. This is when all brokenness is removed and every tear is removed from our eyes. And we stand before Christ and nothing but sheer magnificent beauty. Body, soul, and spirit.

These are the four points of the journey, and that we're all on. And these are the four points of the journey from brokenness to wholeness that we are here in this community to help people. As they journey From brokenness to, to glory. Well, the ramifications of this are pretty significant for us as a church, and tonight we're gonna pick up right here.

As you see on your notes, there's, we didn't get everything done and that's fine because we're gonna pick up right here tonight and get into some very specific, applications of this particular vision for Cornerstone and how the elders are realizing that we want to flesh this out, here, in the Inland Empire. But let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help us to live these things out for His glory. Lord, we thank you for The amazing grace of Christ. Lord, we're not here to play church.

We're not here to Even just enjoy you by yourselves, but you'll put us here to be difference makers for eternity. And I, I, I just, I find myself dreaming about the power that could be wielded if we are living in the good of the gospel, which is the power of God. The ultimate location where God's power resides and does its greatest work. And then all of our energies are harnessed in the direction of being a living embodiment of the gospel and speaking the gospel.

And spreading it near and far. What good can be accomplished, Lord, help us to be done with lesser things. And to give ourselves to these things that will resonate for all of eternity. We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings.

To you at this point in our service, Lord, receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. In His name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.