Our House/The Master's House: Reaching & Hope

I don't know that we've ever done this before. But

today we're closing out a series and starting a new

sermon series on the same day. So we're finishing up.

Today's our fifth Sunday of November. In November, we've been

doing our our house series. We've been talking about our

core values at Cornerstone, and we've gone through four of them.

Today we're gonna We're gonna do the last one. And

also it's the first Sunday of Advent, and I don't

know that we've we've ever done so Jeremy has two

slides to manage up there. But we have two series

happening at the same time. We're finishing up one and

starting a new one. But I want to relieve all

of your fears that I'm not preaching two sermons and

I'm not preaching double length sermon because it's two series.

Okay.

Actually, that last core value is the value of reaching,

and the first Sunday of Advent is the Hope Sunday.

When we talk about reaching and we talk about hope.

Those things fit together really well. And wanna I want

to I want to preach you this morning a message

that God's been working on in me over the past

couple of weeks. And maybe maybe this was the the elite,

amazing planning of Chief and I as we put this together,

that these two kind of fell in the same way,

or maybe probably more likely that God in his infinite

wisdom decided for these things to land on the same day.

And I want to really encourage you this morning, and

I want to challenge you this morning. And I believe

God's word does it a really incredible job of both

of those things. So let's begin by reach by reading

our core value of reaching. Our core value of reaching,

it says here at Cornerstone, we believe that selfless acts

of love are the outpouring of our thriving relationship with

the Lord. We will relentlessly reach out to our community

to combat social injustice and bridge the gap between hurting

broken humanity and Jesus. In our first four core values

we talked about those. They have a lot to do

with our internal parts, transparency being that foundation. If you're

not genuine, if you can't be honest, if you can't

be transparent, I don't know that you can do very

much in the Kingdom of God. Joy, the Joy the

Lord is our strength. It's that internal fortitude that comes

from the supernatural keeps us going. Connection being that glue

that binds us together as a community, helps us to

bear one another's burdens and walk together through life. Generosity

being that expression of who that we understand what God

has done in us eternally, and we express that with

generosity of just like He was generous with us. But

reaching goes beyond us. Reaching goes beyond the four walls,

It goes beyond the parking lot, It goes beyond the

internal parts of us.

You know, we could operate in.

Those first four core values and we could have a

really great church. We can have a transparent church, a

joyful church, a generous church, we could have a connected church.

But we could have a really great church with those

first four.

But if we don't do the fifth one, if we

don't reach beyond, we are missing out on some really

crucial parts of the gospel. This chief often says the

most important thing we can do as a church is

have church. And if we just have those first four values,

we could have really great church.

But that would just take care of our church.

And there's so many people who aren't yet connected, they

don't yet know Christ, and they're in need of the

light of the Gospel. Just like that third song we sang,

Jesus brought us from the darkness into glorious light.

He saved our lives. We have to reach you know, Jesus.

To illustrate that Jesus spent most of his time on

earth with twelve there is the disciples. If you read

the gospels, you see that most of his time in

ministry he was with those those twelve dudes, and he

was he was discipling them, he was teaching them, he

was showing them who he was and what and what

the Father had done and what the Father was going

to do. But his final instructions two those twelve to

that inner circle, right before the cross and right before

he ascended into heaven, he gives these final instructions, and

they're all about going beyond, going beyond their fellowship together,

going beyond their expectations, going beyond the borders of their land,

going beyond the scope of even what Christ had already done.

And when we look at at Acts.

Chapter one, I want to I want to, I want

to read this with us together to illustrate that point.

Then Acts chapter one, starting in verse four.

He says, And while staying with them, he ordered them

not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the

promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me.

For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized

with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Verse six.

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord,

will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel.

He said to them, it is not for you to know.

Times are seasons that the Father has fixed by his

own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy

Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my

witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and

to the ends of the earth. And when he had

said these things, as they were looking on, he was

lifted up. So right there before he ascends, the Lord

Jesus says, hey, you're going to receive power. And the

power is not for you to just hide in a hole.

It's not for you to hide in the upper room.

It's not for you to just continue to meet together.

Just y'all. You gotta reach.

So I think our why here is pretty well established.

Why should we reach? I mean, Jesus said, hey, it's

not just about you. You got to go beyond the question.

We're not we're not trying to answer the question of

should we reach this morning, that's pretty clear.

The question is how do we reach?

And maybe you're wondering, maybe you're you're thinking, well, i'd

like I think I'm reaching pretty good. I like to

reach more. Or maybe you're thinking, I don't think I'm

ever reaching at all. I don't even think I'm in

a good enough place personally that I can reach. Maybe

maybe you don't feel like reaching. Anybody feel like doing

things all the time. You feel like you feel like

going beyond your borders. Very often sometimes that's really tough.

Sometimes we just don't have the time or the energy.

It just doesn't fit into our schedule. Maybe that's you

this morning, And if so, I'm glad you're here. And

I'm glad I get to preach this to you, because

me too, I believe the challenge that we all face

with reaching it has to do with this first week

of Advent. So as we step into this new series

called the Master's House, we talk about these these themes

of advent. The first week is about hope and if

we struggle with hope within ourselves, we will find that

we have nothing to reach with. If you do not

have hope, how can you give someone else hope? The

reality is this, And so if you're taken notes, if

you're posting on Facebook or x or wherever you post things,

reality is this. This is a good one to remember

that spiritual hope is both our fuel to reach and

it's the substance with which we reach. You're not going

to feel like reaching until you have spiritual hope, and

you have nothing to reach out with until you understand

spiritual hope. So I think we need to define hope

because it would be a disservice for us to talk

about hope and not explain what that is. And we

tend to use the word hope kind of flippantly, same

way we do love. Right, I hope my team makes

the playoffs. They're not going to they're already done for

the year.

I hope that.

Or maybe we've made plans and we say I hope

it doesn't rain that day. We say things like I

hope we make it on time, as we're already five

minutes late trying to get the kids out the door.

I hope we make it we use that word hope

kind of flippantly, and I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm

not trying to condemn you for that. I do that too.

But I think when we talk about spiritual hope, we

have to redefine it. It's not the same as I

hope we make it on time. It's not the same

as I hope my team makes it to the playoffs.

Because when we say those things, what we're really doing,

what we really mean by hope is wishful thinking. I

hope that happens. I hope we make it. It's wishful thinking.

But biblical spiritual hope is so much more than that.

So our definition for hope this morning is this confident expectation.

Turn with me to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five.

We're going to start in verse one and it will

be on the screen for you. But I think this

is a good one if you if you like to

highlight in your Bible or highlight on your app this

is one I would.

Just highlight the heck out of it.

Romans chapter five, Starting in verse one, Paul writes, Therefore,

since we have been justified by faith, we have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we

have also obtained access by faith into this grace in

which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the

glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in

our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope, confident expectation. Those who put their

faith in Jesus we have peace with God when we

do that, and through this faith, by God's grace, by grace,

through faith, we quote that one a lot. Through this faith,

by God's grace, we're able to rejoice in hope, in

confident expectation.

At all times.

And it makes our temporary sufferings they're no longer just

temporary sufferings.

In fact, it makes them so much more.

When we have hope, we understand that each painful circumstance,

I want you to hear me, Church, each painful circumstance

is meaningful. Hope changes your whole perspective that more than that,

it's productive, doesn't just mean something, It produces something.

And what does it produce?

Endurance, which produces character, which produces more hope, more confident expectation.

So maybe you're thinking pastor what am I expecting? Then?

How do I go beyond wishful thinking? What could I

be confidently expecting? In some all the things that God

has promised, Everything God has promised, you can confidently expect.

We look back at chapter.

Four War of Romans, right before the passage we just

read Paul's He's talking about Abraham, and he's talking about

how God gave the promises to Abraham, and Abraham believed

he had faith, believing those promises would come to pass

because he trusted God, and his faith was counted to

him as righteousness. And the same thing happens when we

put our faith in Jesus. Whoever believes shall not perish,

but have eternal life, everlasting life, whichever your translation says.

The promises of God inform our hope.

If you don't know the promises of God, it's very

hard for you to have confident expectation because you don't

know what to expect. If you haven't if you haven't

read the promises, if you haven't trusted him, if you

haven't tried that and seen him prove himself, it's really

tough for you to share hope with another person.

I don't mean just hoping for heaven.

I mean that's a grand promise, right, eternal life, that

when I die it's not over, that there's a reward.

But I don't just mean hoping for the beyond. I

don't mean just hoping for what's next, hoping for heaven.

And heaven's a reward. Sure, if you go back and listen.

To our supernatural series, I appreachi all about heaven and hell,

incredible reward, terrifying punishment. But let's look at how Jesus

defines eternal life. Turn with me to John chapter seventeen,

because we talk about eternal life a lot, and we

think it's, well, it's when I get there. Now I

suffer through this. Now I go through this tough time.

Now I deal with the troubles and the trials and

the weight of life, and then heaven will be great.

And that's true, Church, that's true. But there's so much

more that we're missing out if we don't look at

Christ's own definition of eternal life. And John chapter seventeen,

it's one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture,

is this last portion of John and some of Jesus'

last words to the disciples before he goes to the

cross and.

He begins this prayer.

In John seventeen, he says, when Jesus had spoken these words,

he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father,

the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the Son

may glorify you, since you have given him authority over

all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you

have given him verse three.

And this is eternal life, How don't you love it?

When the Bible is very clear, when Jesus is very

forward about what he means, and this is eternal life,

that they know you, the one only true God, and

Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, is a clear definition

for eternal life, to know the one True God.

That's different than heaven.

Heaven is a reward that comes by knowing the One

True God, but eternal life is knowing God. There's no

escape from death, hell, the grave besides knowing Him. And

the only way to get to know the Father is

through Jesus. And I struggled with this as I was

preparing this message, but I feel compelled to really drive

this point home that it's only through Jesus. I don't

know about you, but in recent times in recent times

in our world, there's a lot of discussion about how

we get to know God. There's a lot of there

are a lot of suggestions out there that you can

know Him a lot of different ways, through a lot

of different faith, through a lot of different belief systems.

Maybe you've heard those things like sometimes.

Well God is the universe, or the God of Islam

is the same as the God of Christianity, or or

maybe you've heard those oh, well, we believe the same

thing you just the details are just different.

I want to make it crystal clear.

For you here, for online, for anybody that stumbles across

this crystal clear that for your spiritual hope to be

genuine and for us to be able to reach, we

must never back down or shy away from the fact

that the one true God is only made known to

us by Christ the Sun.

And I'm glad, I'm glad that you're clapping. I'm glad

you're excited about that.

But I'm telling you, when we walk out of these

doors and back into the world, there is a lot

less clapping about that than there used to be. Look

how Paul stresses this to the Colossian Church in Colossians

chapter one. He's writing to them, and he says in

verse nine of chapter one, and so from the day

we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you,

asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of

His will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as

to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully

pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and

increasing in the knowledge of God, eternal life, being strengthened

with all power according to His glorious might, for all

endurance and patience, with joy, giving thanks to the Father

who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of

the saints in light verse thirteen. He has delivered us

from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the

kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption,

the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the

invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. So when we're

defining hope, confident expectation, Jesus himself is our hope.

He reveals God to us.

He makes us right with God and will eventually make

all these things right. And in response to what God

has done for us, Paul encourages his readers the Colossians

at the time, but you and me right now. He

encourages us to bear fruit in every good work and

to increase in the knowledge of God. And as we

do that, we are strengthened according to God's might. I

don't know, y'all not it's because it's rain and is cold.

We're strengthened according to God's might, not our might, not

to our maximum potential, to God's maximum potential, which is endless.

According to God's might, you are strengthened for all endurance

and patience with joy. If that sounds.

Familiar, it's in the other core values.

If it sounds familiar, it's in Romans chapter five, where

we started. It's very similar to that encouragement. Our confident expectation,

our hope enables us not only to get through life's challenges,

but to grow through life's challenges. Again, those painful experiences,

they're meaningful and they're productive. When we have real, genuine hope.

Walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing

to him follows It is indeed, to follow his example

is to live and do the things.

What would Jesus do? How would he handle this situation?

It is those things it's the it's the love of

God that compelled him to give us hope in the

first place, and he's proved that love in the manner

in which he has saved us by sending Christ his son.

And so the Lord has delivered us from darkness. Not

only that, but he's given you status in Christ Kingdom.

I don't know what that means to somebody this morning,

but maybe somebody here has been struggling, maybe online, I

don't Maybe you're struggling with your status that you feel

like maybe I'm I'm worthless. I don't have I don't

have anything to offer. Maybe maybe I don't matter if

I was gone. When people miss me, do they need me?

God has given you status in Christ Kingdom. You matter

because God says you do. You can do great things

because because God has called you to them and He's

equipped you to do them. And the enemy gets us

all twisted up and mess up in our heads, and

he uses the circumstances and even the people around us

to discourage our hearts so badly that we do not

have hope. And when we don't have hope, we cannot

reach and we cannot live an abundant life. It's impossible

without hope. We have eternal life because we are now

because of Christ, able to know God. So we talked

about why we should reach. We talked about how we

can reach with hope. Hope is assured. There is no doubt.

I was talking to someone else this morning and they

were talking about how the doubts come back and how

God has done something in the past and we know

it was him, there's no doubt it was him.

But through the day to day struggles.

We forget and so we start to doubt, which is

totally normal and okay, it's human. But it's why coming

back to the word of God is so vital, because

it reminds us that God has been doing miracles, he

has been coming through he's been proving his love for

all time, and if he did it, then he'll do

it again. So our hope is assured. Let's turn back

to Romans five and complete that thought we stopped in

verse four. I want to pick up in verse five.

It says, and hope does not put us to shame

because God's love has been poured into our hearts through

the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Remember

how we began today talking about reaching there's reaching to

be done, and God has redeemed us, and He's given

us this confident expectation as fuel and as that core

value states, when our relationship with God is thriving, when

we under when we're getting to know, when we're increasing

in that understanding and that knowledge of God, When our

relationship with God is thriving, then we truly understand that

knowing Him is eternal life. And then our actions will

prove it. Our actions will prove our love for Him.

And the actions I'm talking about are reaching type actions.

So it's a lot of faith, it's a lot of belief,

it's a lot of doctrine here that we're talking about.

But I want us to translate our hope into practical reaching.

So I'm gonna turn one more scripture Matthew chapter twenty five.

And this is really where I began my study. I

just could not get away from this parable. Maybe you're

not familiar with this parable, maybe really familiar with it.

But Jesus once again speaks so clearly and so plainly

about hope and about reaching in Matthew twenty five here

that it would be almost ridiculous for us to not

even go here and talk about it because we wonder

how we can reach We wonder how okay, eternal life

and hope and knowing God, how does that translate practically

into my life. Let's read from Matthew twenty five. Starting

in verse thirty one, Jesus says, when the Son of

Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him,

then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him

will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate

people one from another, as a shepherd separates sheep from

the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right,

but the goats on his left. Then the King will

say to those on his right, come you, who are

blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you

from the foundation of the world.

For I was.

Hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty and

you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you

welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I

was sick and you visited me. I was in prison

and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord,

when do we see you hungry and feed you or

thirsty and give you drink. And when do we see

you as stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

And when do we see you sick or in prison

and visit you? Verse forty and the King will answer them, truly,

I say to you, as you did it to one

of the least of these my brothers, you did it

to me. That's a good place to clout. It's really exciting,

it is. But Jesus doesn't stop there. Verse forty one.

Then he will say to those on his left, depart

from me, you curse.

It into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and

his angels. For I was.

Hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty

and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger

and you did not welcome me naked, and you did

not clothe me, sick and in prison, and.

You did not visit me.

Then they will also answer, saying, Lord, when did we

see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked,

or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you.

Then he will answer them, saying, truly, I say to you,

as you did not do it to one of the

least of these you did not do it.

To me, and these will go away into.

Eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. I've often

the band can get Ready, Clinton and everybody. I've often

read this parable maybe you have to. I've always been

confused by it, and I thought, Man, why would Jesus

reject people that didn't do some nice things for those

in need? Just a few nice things, right, I mean,

we've all been there where we had an opportunity to

meet a need and we chose not to because we

didn't have time, or we felt we didn't have the resources,

or we weren't moved right, or we had our own

things to worry about. We chose not to meet those needs.

I'm guilty of that. That's it.

We don't do those things and we don't get eternal life.

That's how I've read that parable for most of my life,

maybe until I started preparing the sermon. But now I

see it differently. When you read it that way, it

makes God seem kind of petty, as though God would go, hey,

you know, so and so was sick in the hospital,

and you didn't go, oh, yeah, they got out and

they got better, but you didn't go when they were

in need, so depart. Oh, you know, so and so

was hungry, and you could have you could have prepared

to me, you could have taken it and you could

have met their need. But you were in a hurry,

and so you drove on by and you didn't take

the time. So department me forever, leave me forever into punishment,

eternal punishment. And it just makes God seem like such

a I don't know if I can say that. When

you read it that way, it makes God seem so

like a jerk. And maybe you've heard people say that,

maybe you've had a conversations. I've had conversations, and I've

seen conversations with people online and otherwise where they think,

and your God is such a jerk that he would

he would cause people to go to eternal punishment because

they didn't combat social injustice. But now when I read

the parable, because I know God better than that, because

I've been with him longer than that, I've experienced him

more than that. When I read this parable, now I

understand it. I believe the way Jesus meant it. Those

sent away into eternal punishment, they didn't earn that because

of their inaction.

They're in action.

They're in action came from the fact that they did

not truly know God in the first place.

They did not.

Understand hope, They had no confident expectation, They did not

understand what God had done for them, and.

Thus because of that they did not act.

And I think it's really interesting because when we get

to that second part and those on the left to

ask Jesus and they say Lord, they address him the

correct way, Lord, but they address him in word only,

not indeed, because they did not truly know him at all.

They knew what to call him, they knew how he

should be addressed, but they did not understand who he

really was, because if they did, they would have already

been on the right with the sheep. You see, good

deeds do not purchase your ticket to eternal life.

You cannot do enough. There is not an.

You cannot do enough good to earn eternal life. It's

not about earning it at all. It's not about doing

at all. It's about no. When Jesus came and died

and resurrected and descended, he purchased your ticket to eternal life.

And when we become his those good works they pour

out of our knowledge of Him.

They pour out of that relationship we reach.

Love is proven by service, and that's why reaching is

a core value at this church, and I believe it

should be one in every church.

But I'm not in every church.

I'm in this one and I'm helping lead this one.

And the reason we got together and we talked about

these core values and we decided on these specifically, it's

because we know this that a that a church filled

with true believers, a church filled with true God knowers

Christ Jesus will reach. That church will reach. Those people

will reach because they know him. We illustrate our love

for Him by continuing the work that he started the

same way God illustrated his love for us by sending Jesus.

He gave us the blessed hope. He gave us the

blessed confident expectation that allows.

Us to be who He designed us to be.

Reaching puts the love of Christ on display.

And the more visible his love is, the more people

have the.

Opportunity to come to know Him and love him the

way that we do. And then we all get to

be on the right with the sheep. So as you

stand with me and we head into this time of worship.

I want to encourage you. The Alter team would would

come and get ready. I'm we're gonna sing Holy Forever,

which is a song all about Jesus are Blessed, Hope.

But maybe today you're thinking, well, I'm not reaching, and

maybe I realized it's not just that I'm tired. It's

not just that i'm I'm a little bit lax or lazy,

or maybe I'm not. It's not just because I'm busy.

It's because maybe maybe I don't fully understand Hope. Maybe

I don't fully understand God and what he's done. Maybe

I'm not really getting to know him. And I want

to get to know him because I want to be

found on his right. I want to reach, but I

don't have the fuel and I don't have the substance.

If that's you this morning, I want you to come

as they start to sing, find someone to pray with

you want I'll pray with you if you want to

pray that we might truly know God through his son Jesus,

that we might continue to reach, because when you know Him,

you receive eternal life. Right then, not not in the future,

Right then, Knowing God is eternal life.

And when you have eternal life, you have hope.

And when you have hope, you will walk in love.

And when you walk in love, you will reach by serving.

It just will come out of you. And then more

people come to know Him, and more people receive eternal life,

and we continue the great work that Christ started.

It's who we are.

Maybe you're here today, you don't know about any of

this now. This is maybe your first time hearing about this.

Maybe you're not convinced.

Maybe you feel the tug of.

The Holy Spirit right now, that aching, that pulling that

seems to come from somewhere anew that you can't really

describe where it is the Holy Spirit drawing you. If

that's you this morning, I want to encourage you to

have the boldness and the courage to step out, come,

find someone to pray with, that you may get to

know God truly, that we all may know Him truly,

having confident expectation and reaching to the world beyond