Our House - Week 1: Transparency

A men, A men, and Amen.

Hey, we're starting a brand new series today called Our House.

We are continuing in this year long theme of building

that great house. And today Our House is about those

core values, those things that those guiding principles that we

have here at Cornerstone, and these are the this is

These are the principles behind the four things. And if

you've been here very long, you've heard us talk about

the four things. Experience God, walk in freedom, find your

place so we can live with purpose. But underneath those

there's a set of values, because those things get a

little wild if you don't have any guiding principles around them.

Amen. You know you can.

You can start out with something good, but if you

don't have anything to navigate by, you can end up

in a bad place.

And our core values are what holds.

Us in that linear place, moving towards our vision, moving

towards our purpose. And I want to start today the

same place we start every core value you series with

what I believe is our foundational core value.

And that's transparency.

You know, I believe that God wants everything done in

the light as He is in the light.

Amen. And a lot of.

Times we think that that applies to the organization, but

I want you to understand that we must live our

individual lives with transparency as well.

Let me give you this core value.

We believe that the human struggle is essential to our

faith journey. Now, Lizzie, I know y'all don't shout very

much when I say that, but the human struggle is

essential to our faith journey.

You know, a lot of times.

We think that once we get saved, it's all puppy

dogs and roses, but it's not. As a matter of fact,

you stir up an adversary that is set and his

whole purpose is bringing disruption into your life when you

really give your life to Jesus, he says. We believe

that the human struggle is essential to our faith journey

in it as a result, we embrace authenticity and honesty.

And here's why, in this open and safe environment, hypocrisy

runs low and repentance becomes a standard element of life.

The reason we embrace transparency is because we believe that

when we live our lives open and connected to one another,

that the enemy can't manipulate those mistakes, those struggles, those insecurities,

those fears, those things that we have and double down

on them and make them worse.

Amen.

That's why I tell you, listen, I'm still a work

in progress too when I'm preaching to you.

The reason I'm preaching to.

You is because it's what God called me to do.

God called me to preach to you. I don't have

it all figured out yet, Amen, I still get aggravated.

I feel so bad because I got aggravated with my

daughter because she had a migraine for ten days. She

couldn't shake it, and it was just, you know, laying

on the couch and whiny. And I'm telling you the

way I perceived it right, transparency and whiny and get

me this.

And I feel bad. I can't do that.

And every time I would just get madder and madder

and more aggravated and more aggravated. And I'm thinking I

wake up every day and I heard too, until she

ended up in the emergency room she was so sick,

and then I felt.

About that big. Amen.

The reality is is I don't have it figured out.

I don't have parenting figured out. I don't have everything

that I preached to you figured out.

I'm just a.

Work in progress like you, and together we are figuring

this kingdom.

Thing out together. Amen. Amen.

That's why transparency is important, because I don't have to

stand up here and try to convince you that I

know everything and that.

I've got everything figured out.

Because when I try to convince you of that, and

maybe some of you I would convince of that, the

first time you see me not have it figured out, the.

Enemy's gonna tell you.

See, he's just a hypocrite and a fake, and you

need to go somewhere else, you know what.

The reality is that maybe you do, maybe you don't.

Maybe you're gonna be mad this week and happy next week,

and happier the next week and upset again the next week.

But if we base everything on feelings rather than on

our spiritual growth, we're never going to find a place

to plant and to grow and to mature and build

towards our purpose and our destiny.

Amen.

So that's why we talk about transparency a whole lot here,

because we don't want to give a place for the

enemy to manipulate you. And when you live your life

wide open, that's the way it works. In the back

at chapter two, starting in verse four, it says, behold

the proud, his soul is not upright in him. But

the just shall live by his faith. See, the pride

is the main reason that we don't live in transparency.

Pride because we don't want anybody to think that there's

anything wrong. We don't want anybody to see a crack

in the armor. We don't want anybody to think that, oh, well,

they're not as good as they thought they were. How

many of you have ever had the thought, if they

knew the real.

Me, go ahead and raise your hand.

I mean, let's let's be transparent, right, If they knew

the real me, if they knew who I really was,

if they knew the thoughts that really went through my mind.

Listen, some of y'all, some of y'all.

If y'all knew what I thought when y'all started talking

to me, y'all would never talk to me again. There's

times where I think, oh, here we go again. Tayla's

shaking her head because.

She knows, she knows. You know.

Pastor clay Man, You know, I love Pastor clay And

growing up, Pastor clay was he was always in pursuit

of a female companionship. He that was like, you know,

he and I would tell him. I would say Listen,

you don't need to date anybody until you figure out

who you are. And guess what he would go date.

He would go date people anyway, and he would come

in a few weeks and say, oh, my heart, I

told you so. That was our castle in session. I

would look at him deep in his eyes and I

would say, I told you so.

I told you.

Oh, because I love you enough right just to not play,

because where we are and where we're going is too important.

And the Bible says that it's not about pride, it's

about faith. And if we're living by faith, faith is

not the assurance.

Listen.

Faith is not having the assurance that everything is going

to work out. Faith is that I'm going to trust

him and even if it looks like failure, I'm still

going to trust him. Is it really faith if you

know you're going to get what you want.

No.

Faith is I'm going to follow.

God even if it's uncomfortable, even if it looks different,

even if it feels backwards, even if I fall on

my face, I'm still going to trust him because if

he brings me to my knees, but it lifts somebody

else up, that's okay.

Because we are here for his pleasure and his.

Purpose, and transparency allows us to live our lives in

that way. In Proverbs chapter sixteen, verse eighteen, that says,

pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit, before fall.

Pride goes before destruction. All of those things that you're

trying to hide, they just build up a little bit

every single day.

Every one of those hidden sins, that.

That addiction, that that habit, that whatever you want to

call it, they just build up day after day after

day after day, and like a wedge that divides you

a little bit more away from the presence of God

and his purpose and his people and all of the

things that God has put around you to bring you

close to Him, to give you that stick totiveness to

be able to press through in the kingdom. And day

after day after day of prideful living, we get closer

and closer to destruction.

Because if we had just.

Repented, if we had just been honest when it was

a little baby thing.

Amen, you had just handled it when it was.

A little baby thing, It's much easier than when it

grows into a full grown giant. But for some reason,

we think that the church is made for and designed

for people that have it all together. We come in

and we see these people that you know, they're always

smiling man, and they're lifting their hands and they're praising.

You know why they do that because they have been

broken and now they're restored. It's not because they're perfect

and they've got it all together. They know the goodness

of God. They've tasted and seen that He is good.

And most of those people that you think have it

all together come from some dark, hurting, broken places. And

if you'll ask them, they'll tell you where they've been from,

to tell you what they've been through. You know, you

can tell people who embrace this core value of transparency

because you don't have to be be around them very

long and they start talking.

About what they used to be.

And they begin to glorify God because they're not that anymore.

You know. Some of our.

Some of the most some of the most broken people

in our church are now our board members.

Amen.

Because if we're going to go where God is calling

us to go as a church, where God is calling

us to lead you as individuals, I need people that

understand what brokenness is. I need people that understand what

the bottom feels life where you can't dig any deeper

because the hole just won't go any deeper.

People that have been.

There and have seen the light and have crawled out

by the grace of God and him throwing a ladder.

And that's where we are as a body of believers,

And that's where you need to be. Understanding that you're

not trapped where you are right now. It's as easy

as just opening your life. In Genesis chapter three, verse seven,

it says, then the eyes of that Now, let me

set this up because because you may not know where

we're at, this is we're in the garden of Eden.

Snakes just showed up.

Uh, he has started talking to even for some reason,

she didn't freak out and run.

I don't want to let let me, let me. Let

me give you a life lesson here. This is free.

If a snake shows up and starts talking to you, run.

Run.

Don't look for don't look for a shovel to chop

his head.

Just run.

Just run, because that's not natural, that's not normal. But anyway,

the snake has talked to her, he's convinced her he's

he's he's used those psychological triggers, he's pulled all those

levers that the enemy's good.

Oh you're gonna be like God.

Oh it's good to eat it's beautiful fruit.

You won't do this. And they they've eaten. And now

this is where we find them.

In chapter and verse seven of chapter three of Genesis,

it says, then the eyes of both of them were opened,

and they knew that they were naked.

Let me stopped right there.

They were already naked when they hit the when they it,

when they ate the apple, it didn't blow their clothes off.

They ate the apple naked. They finished eating the apple,

they were still naked. But because the enemy was involved,

nakedness now looks and feels different. God already sees your heart.

Everybody, look at me.

God already sees your heart. He knows what's in your heart.

He knows what you do under the cover of darkness.

He knows those things that you ponder.

In your mind.

He knows those proclivities. He knows the things that you

desire to do. He already knows those things. So why

are you continuing to keep them from him?

They found themselves in the garden.

They were naked, and the first thing they did is

they started sewing fig leaves, together and made themselves coverings.

The moment they picked the fig leaf, it began to die.

Because anything you do, who cover any inadequacy and security,

any fear, any sin in your life, the moment you

use it as a cover, it begins to wither. And

they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the

garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and

his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord

God among the trees of the garden.

Then the Lord God God called to Adam and said

where are you?

So he said, now you got to I want you

to picture this God standing in the garden same place

he had met Adam and Eve every day. He knew

where they were. It's the loneliest statement in all of

scripture that for the first time God God calls to

humanity and says, where are you? I built a perfect

thing for you. Now, where are you? And from somewhere

over to me. I don't know why I think this,

but in my mind, they've always been hiding behind one

of those elephant ear bushes, you know what I'm talking about,

Those things that people grow on the corner of their

porch with a big leaves. They're over there hiding, and

God says, where are you can Adam says, well, God,

we're hiding because we heard your voice. We heard your voice,

and we were afraid because we're naked. And God said,

who told you? Who told you you were naked? Who

told you you weren't good enough? Who told you you

were no good told you you were a failure. Who

told you you weren't a good parent. Who told you

you don't make enough money, Who told you you're not

smart enough. Who told you that you're never going to

make anything out of your life. Who told you that

you are filling the blank? Who told you that? It

wasn't God that told you that. Because we hold on

to those things and we bury those things in our heart,

and we're not transparent about those things. We walk through

life hiding behind a bush every time we hear God,

every time God moves. Maybe you don't feel God in

worship because you were hiding, because you don't live your

life in a transparent way. Because transparency will allow.

You to repent.

Because the struggle is not dirty anymore. The struggle is

natural to.

The human condition.

And you come, I'm in here broken every week, and

God receives you in your brokenness, and he.

Forgives you, and he calls you up, and.

He loves you, and he puts his arms around you,

and he brings other broken people around you that have

been there and gotten over it.

Man, if we would just be real people all the time.

You know, the devil keeps a ledger. He keeps a

piece of paper. This one's I typed out about Jeremy,

and this is all the things that Jeremy's done wrong.

It's not that long, but it is front and back.

And every time Jeremy misses the mark, the enemy adds

another line.

And it doesn't matter what's on this piece of paper.

It doesn't matter matter if there's one thing or if

there's a hundred things.

It all equals shame and guilt. And when we live

our lives.

In a way that keeps everything secret and pressed down

and hidden, then there's no freedom from the ledger. We

always feel like we owe somebody something.

But Jesus comes along and he says, hey, you know.

What, there really is no ledger. See, I don't keep

up with those things. As a matter of fact, as

soon as you confess your sin, I wash it clean

with my blood and I cast it away, and I

don't ever remember it again. Listen, the enemy has convinced

some of you guys are not living in freedom because

the enemy has convinced you that when you get to heaven,

God's gonna play a film of all the bad things

you did, and you're gonna be embarrassed in front of

all the saints. He forgot it, He don't have a tape,

he doesn't remember it. He's not gonna bring it up

because it's gone. As a matter of fact, he just

takes the ledger and he rips it up, and it

can't be restored, and it can't be put back together.

Because repentance takes care of those things in our lives.

Living a transparent life doesn't just help you get through things,

but it helps other people get through things as well.

In First John, chapter one, verse seven, it says, but

if we walk in the light, if we walk in

the light, if we let everything be seen, if we're

not afraid to stand before God completely naked, with no excuse,

if we walk in.

The light as He is in the light, we have

fellowship with one another.

If we walk in the light as He is in

the light, we.

Have fellowship with one another. That sounds like groups. It

sounds like if.

We are willing to be in the light, then we

can build those close personal connections with one another and

onboard people into our story and into our life.

To help us with our struggles.

You think they're gonna think you're weird, they think you

think they think you're gonna be a freak. You think

they're gonna think you're dirty. But what they're going to

think is that you're in the same place they were

last week, and God brought them through it, and they want.

To see you come through it too.

So walk in the light and learn to walk transparently

so that other people can be part of your life

and help you shoulder the load.

I don't know. I don't know what my girls.

One of the only things I've ever done right in

my life, I think is my kids.

They're pretty exceptional. I don't know how to take that.

I don't know if that my kids are good or

if you mean I failed everything else. I mean, because

you can read that either way, right, I'm just kidding.

The uh.

But if other people happen to come alongside, if other

people had to come alongside and helped, if there happen

to have been golf coaches like Corey Bays. If there

happen to have been other people in Madison's life, those

teachers and those group leaders and those youth pastors and

all those people that poured into her life, she wouldn't

be the exceptional kid if I hadn't had help, if

I hadn't had people that came into my life and

partnered with me, and the same with Lexi I. If

Coach Glenn hadn't have been in Lexi's life to teach

her accountability, if she hadn't have gone through those Bible

classes with mister Steys and he taught her the things

and challenged her in her faith. Because it's easy to

just believe what one person tells you, but when you're

challenged in your beliefs, that you can still believe it.

And that's what it's all about.

And all of those things contributed together because we onboard

people into our lives, into our troubles, into our brokenness,

to help us through it. Why aren't you onboarding people

into your life. Let go of those hidden things and

open your life up. Stop worrying about whether your house

is too dirty to invite somebody over. Quit worrying about

whether somebody's gonna think you don't have enough money. If

your group is going out to the movies, ask somebody

if you don't have the money to go to the

movie Jesus see if they won't pay for it. Stop

allowing the enemy to convince you to get behind the elephant,

ear and hide from God, He says, Listen, walk in.

The light as he is in the light. And then

we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, and the blood of

Jesus Christ, his son.

Cleanses us from all sin. Let me read that again.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us

from all sin. You know it's funny though, if you do,

if you do a deep dive to do a deep

Greek word study on that line right there, put that

back up.

On that line right there.

It says, and he cleanses us from all sin. That

word all in the original language. When you really bear

down and you look at that word all in the

original language, you know what it means, all, every one

of them.

There's no exceptions.

Doesn't matter how doesn't matter how bad you think it is,

doesn't matter, doesn't matter how many people.

It's hurt, doesn't matter the level of destruction.

The blood of Jesus can only wash it away all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive

ourselves and the truth is not in us. In other words,

quit acting like you perfect. We all sin and fall

short of the glory of God. Every single one of us,

You and me, and these people on the stage, and

Matt and every single body.

Everybody falls short. So why not just lean into it

and admit it.

And say, Jesus, I'm sorry that I've been carrying myself

like something I'm not. I'm sorry that I've got these

troubles and these problems, and I haven't invited you into

my life to help. I hadn't invited other people into

my life to help. I know there's people around me.

Let me just let me just show you something. How

many people in here you've been married for at least

thirty years? Raise your end, everybody, look around, forty?

We got any fifty? All right?

I want you you can put your hands down now.

I mean, y'all been married for fifty years. You've probably

already exhausted from holding it up anyway you saw old.

But nothingtheless, I.

Mean, if you're struggling in your marriage, find one of

those hands.

Because they figured something out.

How many of you have raised kids that I mean

lives to adulthood.

Raise your hand?

How many of you I mean, keep your hand up

if you think they're fairly decent kids. Some of y'all

have raised them higher because they're watching. If you're just

trying to figure out how to parent, find one of

those hands.

Get let's think a little more, let's think a little deeper.

How many you are you are you're raising children with

additional needs special needs children, and you don't know how

to figure it out, and you feel guilty every day

trying to pair it. You feel guilty every day because

of the pressure. Find one of these hands, now help

you walk through it, and they will show you that

the enemy is a liar. How many of you you've

ever struggled financially? But now you somewhat got it figured

out and you're not just you're not begging for bread anymore.

If you're struggling financially, find one of these hands. But

you know what, you can't do it if you won't

be transparent about your life. You can't do it. If

you want if you won't live your life in such

a way that you receive the safe environment that we

try to create.

The truth is not in us. If we confess our sins.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You know, you may be here.

Today and you've been living under the guilt and shame.

Or maybe the fear of somebody finding out about the

sin in your life.

You know there's things in your life that you've done

that displease God, and you're not living a life of

freedom because of it.

Now is your moment. I want everybody to stand to

your feet all over the building. If you're here.

Today and you need to bring your sin to the Lord,

a thing that's holding you in bondage, a thing that

makes you feel dirty and unclean, that that thing that

makes you feel ashamed and guilty.

I will guarantee you two things.

The people that are gathered in this building today.

Will only be happy for you if you come.

And that you're going to meet the God of mercy,

and he will wash that sin away and make you

brand new. But if you're here and you're ready to

lay those things down, bring them to the Lord to

be cleansed of all unrighteousness. I'm gonna count to three.

When I count to three, I want you to step

out and make your way to the front. The band's

gonna sing, and you're gonna worship. If you don't come,

you're gonna worship. I'm gonna meet you right down here

in the front. I'm gonna pray for you because I

believe God's got.

Something special for somebody today.

So on the counter of three, if that's you, if

you're ready to lay down your sin and bring it

to the Lord to be washed clean. On the count

of three, I'm gonna ask you to step out and

move one, two, three, step out and move right now. Pastor,

I just want to m H. I'm gonna turn my

life over to Jesus. H want him to wash me

and make me clean. I'm tired of the guilt and

the shame, all of those things that I feel.

Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen. When you get your lift your

hands and begin to worship. H H.

There's others I'm gonna I'm gonna give you just another,

just just another moment, because I know God's not done.

He's that that the reason your heart is beating a

little fast. The reason you feel like that on the

inside is because that's the Holy Spirit drawing you.

He's pulling you, He's he's inviting you to come. Could

just get through that last little bit of pride.

M hm m hm h m hmm.

Our last little bit of pride is robbing you from freedom.

Yeah, m hm.

Step out, come amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

M h m hm m m m m mmmmmmmm.

Come on, come on, come on. You're not gonna stand

here by yourself. Somebody's gonna be here to pray with you.

Somebody's gonna be here to pray with you.

Amen. Listen as the band sings, the altar is still open.

H h.

M m hmm.

Don't allow the enemy to imprison you.

And what you think anymore, because the truth and what

you think they're not the same thing.

God has so much more for you, mister Clayton. Thank you, Jesus,

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus.