Unified in Handling God's Provision

, let me invite you to go ahead and turn in your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter. 5, and I, I do want to, strongly encourage you guys, to stick around after this service and to attend the, adult equiping school, seminar session that Mike Barry will be, teaching. There's a blue insert that's in your bulletin regarding, what, the basic tenor of the teaching is going to be, through the month of December, both from the pulpit and in our, breakout sessions.

And, as you look on the back of that, that insert, today, Downstairs, Mike Barry's going to be teaching on a biblical overview of the places of God's provision. What we're focusing on. is orienting ourselves towards the place of God's provision, whatever that may be, and just how to think about that and to learn some lessons from scripture that can help us at this pivotal time in our journey as a church. And I've gone through Mike Barry's PowerPoint and his notes and really wish I could be down there.

for, his session. So, stick around after the, the service here, go downstairs to, the, the breakout session and, just be prepared to be blessed and have a tremendous amount to think about that will enrich your capacity to be a blessing to this church body, to your brothers and sisters at, at this point of our journey as, as a church. also, just want to let that, tonight, at 6 o'clock right here in this room is our special, business meeting. Where we're going to be, having a vote on a question that is before the congregation.

And if you'll look at the green insert that is in your bulletin, this is the last Sunday that this will be in here. This is a memo from the, the elders, but in June of this year, we made the decision to begin the journey to the Bornes Technology Center. and with that decision we upped the, the investment of time and energy in searching out in greater detail what all the cost would be in making such a move and after finding out through the developments and discoveries that followed in the ensuing months, we elders a couple of weeks ago at our elders retreat had answers to.

the important questions that we were asking and at our elders retreat on November 23rd, we reaffirmed, our decision to go to Bourne's, but we also decided at that retreat that we did not want to make that decision unilaterally, but we wanted to make it in community with you, the, the congregation, and so we called this special, business meeting and, For, tonight, and, we want to encourage you to be here tonight for this.

You'll see at the bottom of this, insert, this green insert that the question that will be before the congregation tonight is, do you agree with the elders that Cornerstone should make a move to the Burns Technology Center in 2000. And 14. so this is what the elders, have expressed that they would like to do, how they believe the Lord is leading them, but we want you to join us in that decision. we have a lot of trust in the Holy Spirit and confidence in you.

That if the Lord is truly in this and he's leading us to make this move, then he will be faithful to tell you the same thing, to lead the congregation in the same way, and that we can be unified leadership and congregation in this next step of our journey as a church. So that's tonight at 6 o'clock. And we, we gave you a letter a couple of weeks ago. There's additional copies on the table in the lobby that you can pick up if you've not read it yet, but we, in that eight page letter just tried to put all the information that we had available in your hands prior to the December 8th meeting, so that you could see what the elders are looking at, what our thinking process has been, what has led us to, to this decision, the vision behind it.

And our goal in getting that letter out and that information into your hands was to begin a conversation. We didn't want the conversation to start the evening of December 8th. We wanted to put that into your hands so that if you had any thoughts or questions or concerns or anything, any input at all, that you would be able to come to us. We've tried to make ourselves available as elders, as leaders to you, and we've invited you into a conversation with us over these past couple of weeks.

The goal is that as many questions as possible are answered prior to tonight. And so we made that letter available. Tonight we'll be making a decision and having a vote on this question that we'll be putting before you. And one other measure that we want to take this afternoon is having an open house over at the Burnes facility.

many of you were there. In fact, how many of you were at the Burnes facility for our May twenty-sixth evening service? OK. The number, number of you were not, apparently able to be there.

So you'll have a chance today to, to go over to Bornes. Just go to this intersection right here at Iowa and Lyndon, turn left and go about 1.5 mile down the road to Columbia and it's right. right there on, Columbia. and so it's from 12:30 to 20, we're gonna have some staff and elders over there who'll be happy to answer whatever questions that you might have and, any thoughts, any input that you might have.

We hope that that'll be an opportunity for conversation. We know that, many of you are hungry at that time of day, so we've got a ton of pizzas that will be available if that's a help, so you can have lunch at, at the same time. Even if you were at the meeting on May 26th, I would encourage you to come by anyway. I've been over at the Bornes facility a number of times over this past year.

And every time I go over there, it's, I'm, I'm thinking to myself it's really good to be here and to just see with my own eyes, even what's happened here when we had our May 20th service that one part of the ceiling where we met had been raised by 6 ft. Since that time, another section of the ceiling of the auditorium space, a larger section, has been raised in the same way. So, come by this afternoon and talk with us and you can walk through and see the space that we'll, we're interested in leasing from them and making use of, once this move is, is complete and enjoy some pizza in the process, OK?

well, we're gonna be talking along these lines all day, including this morning, and if you want to give a title to what we're gonna talk about this morning, it would be unified in handling God's provision.

Unified in handling God's provision. And I'd like for us to begin. Our journey this morning in, in Luke chapter 5. There's an interesting incident that takes place that is recorded in Luke's Gospel, and I wanna just draw out just a couple of really quick points from this story.

and look at what happens. Jesus has been teaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It says, and when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep water and let your nets down for a catch. And Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at your bidding, I will let down the nets.

we've been letting our nets down all night. We caught nothing, but what, because you're telling us, To do this we will obey and do this. Verse 6, and when they had done this, They enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break. This may indicate that their nets just weren't strong enough to hold the fish, period, but it also could be an indication that there just weren't enough hands, men who were hauling the fish in to be able to do that without the nets tearing.

There were too few hands, and so the men that were pulling on the nets, it was putting a lot of strain on just a part of the. The net and what they needed was more hands pulling on that net to get the fish into the boat so that the strain on the different parts of the net would be more evenly distributed. And so look what happens. The nets are beginning to break verse 7.

And so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them, and they came. And filled both of the boats so that they, the boats, began to sink. These disciples are having a facility problem. Their, their nets are breaking and then even with the haul of fish that they are bringing in, the boats themselves are beginning to sink and they have to rush the boats to land.

When Simon Peter saw this, that had happened, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken, and so also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And lest the disciples think that this is a nice little fish miracle. Jesus wants them to know that there's something deeper that's going on here.

These fish that have been caught are simply a metaphor for a greater reality that still lies in the disciples' future. What is that reality? Jesus said to Simon, do not fear, from now on, you will be catching. People.

These fish that you have just caught in abundance, Peter. are metaphors for the people that you are going to catch. In the months and the years to come. At the very least, here's what Jesus is conveying to them.

He's saying to them, I will bless you with the ability to catch in the best of ways, to catch many people, to draw them to yourself, through the gospel. This catch of people will create problems and will strain the limits of your capacity to handle. Jesus does this amazing miracle, providing so many fish and then lets the disciples struggle with how to bring it in, and their nets are tearing and their boats are sinking, and Can't handle this by themselves, and they've got to reach out to their other brothers and call to them to come over and help them and then they team up and they're able to bring in this hall.

And so another thing that Jesus is teaching them is this you will need in the days to come.

You will need to come together and work together in order to deal with the challenges involved in handling all of the people that I am going to give you. OK, you're gonna catch men, many, it's gonna create hassles and problems and strain the limits of your ability to handle and you're going to have to come together. With your fellow apostles, with your comrades in ministry. And team up in order to handle the people that I am going to give you.

What's interesting. is that that's exactly what happened. Luke records this incident for us in Luke 5. Luke also writes the book of Acts, and in the book of Acts, we find the church in Jerusalem and then in Antioch and beyond.

We find many, many men and women coming to faith in Jesus Christ and becoming a part of the body of Christ, and with that came challenges. that required that the leaders of churches come together in order to work together in figuring out how to deal with the challenges that God's provision of people presented them with. And what I want to do is try to look at 4 occasions when the early Christians in the book of Acts come together to address the challenges that came along with a growing ministry of God, adding to their numbers and providing them, men and women.

Who were coming to faith in Jesus.

The first occasion is in Acts 6 where we see them coming together to figure out how to better provide for their increasing numbers. Look at this in Acts 6:1. Now, at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, we know that 3000 were saved on the day of Pentecost. There were thousands more.

beyond that, when you read the narrative of the Book of Acts in the early chapters, and we see here in verse one that the number of the disciples was continuing to increase. And while the disciples were increasing in number, a problem arose, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in literally the daily serving. It could be the daily serving of food or the daily dispensing of funds to the widows who were in need.

But obviously, the early church had a ministry, an Agape fund, benevolent ministry where they assume responsibility for caring for and providing for the widows in the church, and as the church grew, whatever their old structure was for handling that became woefully inadequate and a complaint arose because people were falling through the cracks.

So what happens? Does the text say, And fire from heaven came down from heaven against those who were complaining? Does it say that? No, it's not always bad to complain.

There was something wrong. There were people that were falling through the cracks and so they voiced a complaint because, some Hellenistic Jews were being overlooked. and the Hebrew Jewish widows, their needs were being met, but there was an observation that, what, these widows over here who are Hellenistic Jews, Jews of a slightly different sort, they're the ones who are getting overlooked, so they voice a complaint. So here's a problem that emerges from this growing congregation.

Verse 2, so how, how does the church respond? Does it drive them apart? Do they say, what, you Hellenistic Jews, you go your way? And us Hebrews will go our way.

No. Instead of driving them apart, it drove them together, it says. And the 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples. The leaders of the church called a meeting and asked for all of the members of the congregation in the Jerusalem church to show up.

They summoned the congregation of the disciples, and they spoke to the congregation. And they said it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables, but, and now they give a responsibility to the congregation. Select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Verse 5, and the statement found approval with the whole congregation.

They must have had some way to discern the fact that the whole congregation liked what the apostles had said. Their statement found approval with the congregation. There's a symbiotic relationship between the leadership and the congregation. They're working together on this.

The apostles call a meeting. They speak. The congregation approves of what the leadership is saying. And then the congregation chooses, and then we have listed here the different individuals, the seven individuals of high standing and strong faith and integrity that were chosen, and after they chose them, it says they brought these they brought before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

You see the working relationship between the leadership and the congregation. They come together, they solve this problem. Verse 7, and the word of God kept on spreading and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. So, the church is growing, God's providing more and more people that creates some strains and some challenges.

The congregation comes together, they solve the problem, and now their ability to reach people has been expanded. There's another occasion where we see the early Christians coming together to Address the challenges that come from a growing congregation and that is this, they, in, in chapter 11 of the Book of Acts, we see them coming together to make sure that they were bringing in the right people. if you read Acts 10, Peter is minding his own business. He's praying one day on someone's roof, and the Lord basically said, Peter, I want you to go to some Gentiles and preach the gospel to them.

Peter's like, I don't want to do that. And the Lord said, Do it. Peter said, I don't want to do it. And the Lord said, Do it.

And so, The Lord kept persisting and so Peter finally agreed to do it and some men show up right at that moment and they take him to the home of a Gentile named Cornelius and Cornelius is there at his house with all these people that he's gathered who are all Gentiles. Peter starts talking to them and how's this for an introduction? He's like, you guys know you're Gentiles. I'm a Jew.

Normally, I would never want anything to do with you. But God has insisted that I come here and that He's no respecter of persons, and I'm learning that God wants me to reach out to you and basically share the gospel with you. So he does, and they believe and the Spirit falls on them and they begin speaking in tongues and to Peter this looks an awful lot like Pentecost when 120 of us believing Jews were also speaking in tongues, and he's like, what, I guess this is of the Lord.

Well, Peter returns to Jerusalem.

carrying his catch of fish, as it were. Gentile fish. And this is a very new thing for the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, and they don't like what Peter has caught in this fishing. Expedition.

When I was a kid, we, We were fishing one day in South Carolina and normally when you fish you catch a fish, but on one occasion we reeled something in and it was an eel, a slimy, disgusting looking eel. It was all curled up and as kids our first thought is that's an electric eel and we can't touch it or it will electrocute us. And so we didn't even want to bother taking it off the hook, like touching it or anything, so we just decided we're just going to cut the line. But we were fascinated, so we, we brought it to shore and there was a coffee can that had some water in it, and we dropped the eel hanging from the line into that can and then we just cut the line.

but then after doing that, we were like, well, we've got to dispose of this thing, but we don't want to touch the can because we might get electrocuted and die. And so one of the guys that was with my dad, he said, well, go ahead and just, just touch it. And And so idiot that I was, I, I reached out and I was so, like, I was very slow, I was very intimidated. What's gonna happen?

And right as I was like, just barely touching that tin can, this friend of my dad's, who was right behind me, grabbed me and yelled at the top of his lungs. And I, I thought I was dead. But this thing was ugly. It was disgusting.

It's not what we wanted to catch. We didn't know what to do with it. We didn't want to touch it. We weren't even sure how to dispose of this thing lest we get electrocuted.

Well, there's a sense in which Peter shows up from this fishing expedition carrying a bag load of eels saying, Look what I caught. Well, the saints in Jerusalem aren't so happy about that. It says, It says now the apostles in Acts 11 and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue.

With him. Saying you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them and you just got to understand that was a scandalous thing for Peter to do here. And Peter could have easily just separated himself from these people. Like how dare you talk to me this way?

I'm an apostle, and, I'm, get out of my face. I don't even owe you any explanation. I know what God told me to do and, and I did what he told me to do, get over it. He could have done that.

But he doesn't. It says, but Peter began speaking to those who were taking issue with him, and he proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying, And then he tells them, let me, I want to tell you the story of I didn't want to go. God showed up and he kept telling me to go and I resisted, but finally I relented and I went and I preached and they believed and the Spirit fell on them just like he did on us on the day of Pentecost, verse 17. If God therefore gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I?

Let me ask you guys a question. So he's inviting them into this. He's tell me, who am I that I could stand in God's way? So they take issue with him.

He doesn't turn away from them. He says, let me tell you the story and end with a question. And, and then to their credit, those who took issue with him, look how they respond. And when they heard this, so there's back and forth, and they, they hear when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.

God apparently wants more people in his church than just Jewish fish. He even takes eels. And blowfish and other strange creatures of this world. God receives them all if they believe in His Son.

And now the church is all the wiser because of this coming together and this exchange that has taken place. There's a third occasion where we see them coming together to address issues that come with a growing ministry and a growing vision, an enlarging vision. And that is in Acts 13 where we see them coming together to send out missionaries to reach even more people. It's like originally the Christians were clustered in Jerusalem.

God sent persecution to drive them out. They went everywhere preaching the word. Some who went out basically preached only to Jews, but then others started preaching to Gentiles. And so Gentiles started getting saved and And so almost somewhat reluctantly, slowly, the church is awakening to this larger vision and so Gentiles are getting saved and churches are sprouting up in different parts of the Roman Empire and even now in this church at Antioch, a predominantly Gentile church, probably they're also beginning to think beyond themselves and And look at this in verse 1 of Acts 13.

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was their prophets and teachers. These were the leaders in the church, Barnabas and Simeon, who was also called *** and Lucius of Cyrene. And Meean, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch and Saul. These men were leading the charge in this church at Antioch.

Verse 2, and while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. Luke is so unbelievably succinct here, and yet in the way that he succinctly tells the story, there's little doubt about what was happening between the lines. Go back to verse 2.

To what the Holy Spirit says. The Spirit is speaking to these leaders, and he said, set apart from me right now, set apart. In other words, let go, let loose of, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which he's not saying to which I am calling them right now. To the work To which I have already past tense called them.

So what we learn here is that at some prior point to this occasion, the Holy Spirit had spoken to Saul and Barnabas and called them. To a work beyond the church in Antioch. They had already received the call, right? And now the spirit is simply telling the leadership, let them go to the work that I have at a prior point already called them to.

So here's the really cool thing in the sequence of events. The spirit would have first called Barnabas and Saul to a special work that took them beyond the church of Antioch. Barnabas and Saul would have informed the leadership of this call. they could have said, man, we're high ranking members of this church and the spirit's called us to go and so we're just gonna gather the leadership and the congregation together and say the Spirit of God has told us to go, so here's our two week notice and we're going.

But they didn't do that. They actually seem to have submitted that call to the leadership of the church, trusting that if the Spirit of God is really telling us to go to this new work, he will tell the leadership of the church the same thing. So they inform the leadership of this call. The leadership here is fasting, and they're praying and they're worshiping God together and in that context of worship and fasting and prayer, the Spirit speaks to the leadership and says, let them go to the work that I have already called them to.

And so the leadership then prays. lays their hands on Barnabas and Saul and sends them out. And now a decision. Now this is a hard thing for two members of the leadership of this church to, to go.

These are prize leaders in the church that are a great blessing to the church, and this is a hard and difficult thing. This is a challenge that comes with a growing ministry and a growing vision. And Barnabas and Saul no doubt were excited by this vision and at the same time saddened by it, but the spirit seems to be telling us this. We're going to submit it to the leadership and trust that if God is really telling us this, He's going to tell the leadership the same thing.

The leadership is probably half excited and half like, Man, we're going to be sorry to lose these guys, but we've got to make sure this is of the Lord. So they're praying and fasting and worshiping and the Spirit of God, sure enough, speaks to them and says, Yes, I have indeed called them, called them, let them go. And so they let them go and affirm them and lay their hands on them and send Them out. Paul and Saul and Barnabas, as they go on their ministry, you can read the narrative from there.

They face many, many challenges, a lot of persecution when you put the pieces together. Paul falls very ill, probably when he's in the region of Pamphylia. John Mark abandons them. There were discouraging moments that lay ahead of them.

And you can bet in those low moments that Saul and Barnabas were very blessed to know this decision was bigger to go on this ministry tour. This decision was much bigger than just us. This decision was us and the leadership of the church. It's a decision that we made in community with the leadership of the church, and that would have braced them during those difficult, challenging.

times, but again, as this vision is growing for reaching more people, it creates this challenge that sometimes people need to be separated and sent out, but they came together to figure that out and then to do the sending out. And a 4th and final occasion where we see the church coming together to deal with these challenges of a growing ministry and a growing vision for reaching more people is in Acts 15 where we see the early Christians coming together to ensure that they were properly directing their people.

understand that, just imagine in these churches, you've got Jews who have been following the Old Testament regulations all their life. This is the word of God.

It's all they had and they've been following it, believing that they're pleasing God in, in, in doing so. And then they come to believe in Jesus, but they continue to practice a lot of the Old Testament regulations and instructions, the ceremonial ones included. But then in the same church, there's these, and they feel good about that. It feels right, it feels spiritual.

and, and then there's these Gentiles who've been living in total paganism all their life, and they hear the gospel and say, I want to believe in Jesus, and they come flying to Jesus and believing in him, and they're saved, and now they have equal standing with these Jews who have been living this lifestyle all their life. And there were some who observed that, so these Gentiles can just believe in Jesus and they're saved and they've never been circumcised. That's, that was so scandalous to them, that now God's people includes uncircumcised people when that ritual has been required all along throughout.

Israel's history that was scandalous to them.

So some are like, no, they're not really saved yet until they are circumcised. And then even to a lesser degree there were people that just found this whole mix of Jew and Gentile challenging, and here we are at church potlucks and And Jews, there's, there's food that they've never eaten in their life and they would never dare to eat, and then these Gentiles that are bringing pork and all this other stuff to the potlucks that's just scandalizing their Jewish, brothers in the church.

It, because God had cast the net so wide to include Gentiles and brought in this great blessing of Gentile believers. It created challenges and confusion, and the church had to figure out what do we do with this blessing and the challenges that it poses.

So look what happens and some men came down from Judea to Antioch, the church in Antioch, and began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. So that's heresy. and what do you think Paul thought of that? he didn't like it, neither did Barnabas.

Look at this verse 2. And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning the issue. what? We got to get this solved.

We're not going to just solve it on our own. Let's, let's go to Jerusalem. And let's talk about this. And so verse 6, and the apostles and the elders came together.

To look into this matter. And we're not gonna unpack everything that happens, but we know in verse 7, there was much debate. Peter spoke, Barnabas and Paul spoke. James, a key leader in the Jerusalem church, spoke and as James speaks, he says, it's my judgment after hearing everything that has been said that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write a letter to them.

We need to write him a letter and here's what we need to say. So he makes that recommendation. Look at verse 22. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church.

So they're all working together on figuring out how to address this problem, and they agree, agree upon a letter that should be written providing proper direction to the Gentile believers, and you can read the contents of this letter. but like, look inside the letter, look at verse 25. In the letter, they say, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind. We've come to a place where we know how to handle this.

This is the apostles and elders and congregation and we, we, we've come to one mind on this. And so as we speak to you on this, we speak from that position of one mindedness on this matter. And even as they're inside the letter, they say things like it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. You just see these believers working together with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit working through community.

As they're interacting with one another, coming to one mind, and then being able to provide sufficient direction for these Gentiles, and as the narrative unfolds, the letter gets delivered and read, and these Gentile believers are so encouraged they're left rejoicing because of the encouragement that is contained in this letter that has come to them as a byproduct. Of the leaders, the elders, the apostles, and the congregation in Jerusalem coming to one mind on this issue. We can learn a lot of things from these four occasions.

At the very least, we observed that it's good for Christians to come together.

To solve problems and to seek to agree on how to move forward. We see this modeled in the book of Acts. We see that it's good to make decisions in community with with one another. This is one of the reasons why in our church's constitution as an elder board, we, we only make decisions unanimously.

We want every elder to be on board. If one elder is like, I disagree with this, then we don't do it. And if it takes time to wait for that unanimity, then we will take that time to wait for that unanimity. It is good to make decisions in community with one another.

Cornerstone is not a church where one man makes the decisions and everyone else just falls into lockstep with that. This is a church where what I love about our elder board is God gives to each of us pieces of wisdom. And we come into our elders' meetings and each is sharing whatever wisdom God has given to him, and we all look forward to hearing what everybody's contribution is and then seeing the mind of God as it gets pieced together. With no one elder acting as if he has all of God's wisdom.

And even in the book of Acts, we, we not only find this amongst the leadership, but even in the relationship between the leadership and the congregation where there were times where leadership and congregation come together to address issues and to gain direction for going forward. That is essentially, guys, what we're wanting to do tonight. We're wanting to come together as leaders and as a congregation. The elders are unanimous about this decision to move to Bournes at some point in 2014, probably during the month of July.

but we believe that if God is really telling us this, then he will tell you the same thing. and so, Again, I, I just want to invite you to this meeting tonight so that you can participate in what, what really is a dramatic moment in the history of Cornerstone where we're gonna be making one of the most momentous decisions that we've, we've ever made. So be a part of this, and, and I would encourage you with this thought. This is a challenge and an encouragement.

If you are a member of this church and you are physically able to be here. I know some people are out of town and they, they have totally legitimate reasons why they can't be here tonight. If you're a member of the church and you can be here tonight, it is your duty to be here tonight. To participate in one of the biggest decisions that we have ever made, and you may say, well, what if I disagree with the elders' decision?

You need to be here tonight and you need to register that opinion as we converse together and as we vote on this matter. We want everybody who is a member of the church to be here tonight to participate in this decision. And also, if you're a non-member but you consider Cornerstone to be your church home. This is the first time we've ever done this, but given the magnitude of the decision, like we're going to give blue official ballots to our members, and that's the vote that will count in the official vote tally that is binding, but we're going to give another a white sheet to our non-members who consider Cornerstone to be their church home for you to also register your opinion.

on this question that is before the congregation. Your, your vote won't count in the official binding vote tally, but we did want to provide you an opportunity to let your voice be heard. We would value hearing from, from you on this. So even if you're a nonmember, please come tonight.

We would love to have you here so you can hear our heart and hear what God has done to lead us to this point in our journey and for you to even register your thoughts on this question that is before the congregation. so that's what we're doing tonight is we're coming together, but I, I, I want to go with the time that we have left and, and, and unpack something else, and that is that we're not just coming together tonight. We're coming together tonight and we're at the point where we are tonight.

Because we've already come together as a congregation on multiple occasions, and where we're at today in our journey is the byproduct of community and of many comings together, that we've experienced as a congregation.

Let me just try to briefly narrate the story for you. back in 2000, near the end of 2010, We're, we're seeing the catch of fish, the provision of people, of souls that God is bringing to Cornerstone. And as leaders we need to be thinking 2 and 3 and 4 years ahead of time and to realize that we're straining at the limits of the capacity of this campus right now to address our growing congregation. We've done so many things over the years from going to two services, reconfiguring Sunday school, changing service times to get a more even distribution of attendance in both services to give us breathing room to grow.

and the modular that runs parallel to to our auditorium. We installed that to enlarge our capacity to reach people, so we've taken a number of steps along the way to give us breathing room to grow here at Linden Street and to be able to show hospitality to the numbers of people that God has been bringing to us, but we realized a couple of years ago we're reaching the breaking point and if things continue in the direction that they're going, things are not going to get easier, they're only going to get tighter.

And so 2 years ago, the elders were contemplating like what do we do with this, and we considered everything. We had considered a merger with EFC.

I, the chairman of their elder board, I was over at his house with like 30 members of EFC a few years ago making the case just to ask them, would you guys even be open to us becoming one congregation and And they prayed about it and considered it and then gave us the polite reply, no, we're not, we're not interested. We love you and we love you being here. We love the relationship that we have, but it's just not going to work. But we had considered that, that didn't work.

We thought maybe we can pursue purchasing this campus. We tried that, that did not work. and we considered at that point, what about a church plant from, from here. We decided that we're not at that place at that time, at this time to, to want to do that.

We saw that as later down the road. We thought about the mobile church idea possibly using North and then officing somewhere else and a lot of research was done and that, we just decided against that. we also contemplated leaving Linden Street and maybe we'll go lease another place like we're leasing here, we'll lease another place that's bigger and enables us to, reach, more people. We contemplated leaving Linden Street and pursuing a purchase.

of some property or a building. All of these things were in front of us. We did due diligence and research on all of these, and some of them became clear that yeah, this really isn't the time for us to do this, and we're nowhere near ready financially to take a particular step. But all in all, the elders were like, we don't know what to do.

And at that 0.2 years ago, We decided to follow the advice of our friend John Piper, who said, when godly leaders don't know what to do, they know what to do about not knowing what to do, they pray. And so we decided to pray and not just to pray but to call the congregation together so that the elders and the congregation can go to God together and pray, and we did that the last Sunday nights of the in 2012, on most of those nights we came together, we had microphones down here.

We opened up the floor and just gave anyone that felt led the opportunity to pray. We started those prayer nights just confessing to God, Lord, we don't know what to do.

In fact, we don't even know how to pray. as we should. We made that admission in every one of those prayer nights, and we ask God, Lord, in the next hour or so, teach us to pray, help us to think your thoughts after you. And then we sought to pray responsibly to the leading of the Holy Spirit, praying in the Spirit.

And our goal was that through these nights of prayer, As we pray as we're led and as we hear our brothers and sisters praying as they feel led, and a lot of scriptures were being read as they were praying, that our goal was that perhaps in the context of praying together, we might be able to discern the plan of God for Cornerstone. You remember this quote from Charles Spurgeon. He says, our prayers are indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence, believing supplications are forecasts of the future.

He who prays in faith is like the seer or the prophet of old.

He sees that which is to be. Prayer prompted by the Holy Spirit is the footfall of the divine decree. You remember what footfall means? A footfall is the sound of approaching footsteps.

And our goal was, we're gonna pray together, we're gonna try to pray in the spirit, Lord, teach us to pray in the next hour or so, we're just, we're gonna try to pray as you lead us to pray, read scriptures as you lead us to read scriptures. Have your way with us, may you reveal your heart to us. And maybe, Lord, as we pray together in all humility before you, together with one another, we might be able to press our ear close to your heart and begin to hear your heartbeat. And perhaps in the context of praying together in this way, we might be able to discern the sounds of the approaching footsteps of God's plan.

For Cornerstone. And every one of those prayer nights, I sat on this front row. I listened to so many of you pray and read, and I'm taking copious notes. Just Lord, what are you saying?

What are you saying to this brother, through this sister that is praying and, and I'm searching for the heart of God as it's expressed through you guys. That's what all of us as elders were doing, and I even made a list of all the things that I was learning from those prayer times and And we made that available to you, the congregation, and so we did that for a whole year, just not knowing what to do. And let's get together and admit we don't know what to do. And let's just pray and see if God won't reveal his plan for Cornerstone.

The other thing we realized is That we need to pray because we don't know what to do. We also realize we don't have funds to do whatever God might tell us to do. So we made known to you two years ago that all of the options we're weighing require capital that we do not presently have. Until we have more capital on hand, all of these doors are closed to us.

Our desire is to establish a fund. That will help us to begin to grow our capital to the point where options that are now closed to us become open. We want to be in a position of financial readiness to follow the Lord however he leads us to address our present and future growth. And so in January of 2012, almost 2 years ago, we established The Capital Growth Fund and told you that all monies given to this fund will go toward our effort to accommodate present and future growth and or toward executing a facility plan for Cornerstone's future as the Lord directs.

That fund started with a zero balance. I believe after last week, we were at 394,000. So, we're in a very different place than we were two years ago as a result of the prayers of God's people and what we have in the Capital Growth Fund now. God began answering prayers.

There was a rush of insight that the elders began to experience about a year after we began our praying as we should nights. We experienced clarity and needing to leave Linden Street. We at our elders' retreat almost exactly a year ago. It was a powerful moment.

All of us as elders basically in a circle. And all of us did this toward the center of the room, thumbs up, we're leaving Lyndon Street within the next 3 years. When we announced that to you guys, many of you were like, well, what's the big deal? we've, we've been there all along.

welcome, welcome aboard. But, but it was a powerful moment where the elders became calibrated and the needles all registered in the same spot. And, I had chills. in that moment, as my own thumb went out and seeing the other elders in agreement, so that I, I see that moment as God beginning to reveal his plan for Cornerstone.

they're also, just for sake of, well, I'll tell you real quick, what, what fed into that decision was the fact that EFC was wanting to move their service time. From 12:40, which it is now, down to a time where it's concurrent with our second service. they wanted to do it pretty quickly, but they said we'll wait 3 years, for you guys to, figure out, some other arrangement. And in addition to that, EFC was showing no indication at that point of, of remotely being able to build out their annex modular building behind the fellowship hall.

and so that's another fact we were staring at a year ago. And so for them to do a concurrent service, what they were going to say, what they were saying to us is they would use the fellowship hall. And we would use the auditorium, but that would mean we lose the use of the fellowship hall for overflow. So what we realized a year ago is this campus is going to be growing smaller at a time when we needed to be growing larger.

So that's what was staring us in the face in that moment. But then the Lord also began at that very retreat, giving us a vision. not just facts here at Linden Street and EFC that were driving our decision to leave Linden Street in 3 years. He began to give us clarity, and a vision, and we've communicated this with you, and that is to, leading us to This burden, this drive to want to reach considerably more people in our Sunday services than we're reaching now and to obtain the use of a facility that enables us to accomplish this and that we would view such a facility as the front porch that all of our care groups and our homes share in common, that whole way of thinking came out of that elders retreat after almost a year of us as a congregation praying together.

And we also have communicated back in January to the congregation by finding a larger facility in which to house our worship services we're wanting to enlarge the wide end of the funnel so that we can receive more people, show hospitality to more people, and get them launched in their journey from brokenness to wholeness. And that, by the way, is another thing that God began to show us. He began to give us a greater precision and clarity in our vision. And our purpose, which is to help people to journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Lord began helping us to identify critical points in that journey that we want to engineer our ministry here at Cornerstone around.

Helping people to journey into and through conversion, and then a full-on gospel orientation, gospel community, a life of gospel mission, and then on to gospel glory when they stand before Christ. so the Lord was, there was like an explosion of insight that happened at that point of our journey last year. We also gained clarity on The fact that we were not ready to buy. Another property, but we need to lease.

We came to this conclusion last February and are praying as we should tonight. We announced that to you, and it was in that meeting that we also said we're zeroing in on bournes. We've got a lot to learn and there's a lot of things that need to evolve. We're not even sure what we think of this, but we're going to lock in and pursue this.

And in the months that followed. I wish we could share every detail of the journey, ups and downs, moments of excitement and discouragement, moments where we were hopeless and then there would be a breakthrough. We so relished and treasured the working relationship with Gordon Borns and his team. they never stopped thinking about this option and how they could possibly make it work for Cornerstone.

And in June of this year, The elders made their decision. We need to, we want to begin the journey to Bornes, but there's a lot more we still need to discover and the process of discovery began in earnest, and at the end of that, for a few months, the elders a couple of weeks ago locked in on that decision, and now tonight, we're coming to you. But I just want to say that we're coming to you tonight with this. as a product.

Of what's already happened in community. We're where we are now because I believe we have come together. As a congregation. And I know that throughout this whole process, I know I've always been thinking this.

I know the other elders have always been thinking this, that at every turn we're asking, is this what God wants for Cornerstone? And also, is this, is this, is this what I think is right for Cornerstone? Is this what the other elders think is right for Cornerstone? And at every step of the way, we've been asking, is this what the congregation would think is right for Cornerstone?

We've had you in mind every step of the way. And what we're coming to you with tonight is a vision. And a way of moving forward that is a product of community, that your imprint, your prayers, your reading of scripture, your heart as it was expressed in those prayer nights is all over. It's all over this vision.

And the decision that we're putting before you tonight, and so it's only fitting that it culminates tonight with us coming together again. To in community with one another. Leadership and congregation to make this decision final together. So come tonight, 6 o'clock, right here, we'll do some worship.

And, and then we'll, we've got some more to present to you in the way of some details and then we want to make this decision together. And again, you're totally welcome. We would invite you and encourage you after the second service to just go down the street to Bourne's. There's an open house there from 12:30 to 2 o'clock, pick up some pizza and, do a walkthrough, and any questions that you have, we would absolutely be thrilled to talk with you and address those questions, OK?

well, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, you're a good God. We thank you for your hand, that's just been all over. Us in this journey.

I'm so blessed to be here at this church and to be amongst these brothers and sisters and Fellow elders The journey is just as important as the destination. And the lessons that have been learned, the sanctification that has occurred, over the last two years, as we have journeyed to this point, I wouldn't trade it for anything, Lord. So, thank you for the privilege of journeying together wherever we're going as a congregation, as a church, we want to get there together, all of us together.

And so just keep us humble before you, united, even tonight or this afternoon, any further dialogue, Lord, just open our hearts not only to you but to one another that we would, have the conversations that we need to have so that we're just ready tonight to come and And seal this thing.

And be able to celebrate this culminating moment. In our journey. You're a good God. Thank you for all the ways you have loved us as a body.

We thank you for the opportunity, Lord, to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds, and, and do much with them, do much with them for the glory. Of Jesus and the spread of his gospel, both in this community and around the world. It's in your name we pray, and all God's people said,