Core Values 2024 - Week 5: Reaching

Uh, we're gonna finish up our We gonna finish up

our series today on core values. Today we were finishing

and you know a lot of times we we we

talk about these things like they are in an order

of importance, but really they're just our five core values.

It's that defining ethos that makes us who we are.

It's it's what allows those four things that we do experience,

God walking, freedom, find our place so we can live

with purpose. It's what makes those things possible. Those core values,

those underlying beliefs that allow those things to actually come

to life. So we're gonna be talking about that that

last core value today, which we just simply call you know,

we we like to title things really creatively around here,

and we just called this last one reaching because we

believe we're called to reach. We believe we're called to

reach as far and we can possibly reach. We believe

that selfless acts of love or the outpouring of our

thriving relationship with the Lord.

Let me read that to you again.

We believe that selfless acts of love are the outpouring

of our thriving relationship with the Lord. I think a

third time is appropriate. We believe that The selfless acts

of love are the outpouring of our thriving relationship with

the Lord. If you have a thriving relationship with the Lord,

you can't help but reach out. You can't help but

reach out and be generous. You can't help, but reach

out and make time for somebody. Come on, now, that's

what happens when you fall in love with Jesus. He

makes you fall in love with humanity. He changes the

way you see humanity. We will relentlessly reach out to

our to our community to combat injustice and bridge the

gap between hurting broken humanity and Jesus.

Father, thank you.

That you've called us to reach, and thank you that

you have planted people at Cornerstone Tabernacle who were passionate

about reaching.

Lord.

I love you, and I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen,

Amen and amen. Mark sixteen, verse fifteen. Mark Chapter sixteen,

verse fifteen. It's it's one of those famous passages of scripture.

Come on, somebody. It's one of those that we give

a name.

You know, there's some scriptures we give a name to,

like you know we have. We give some about the

Great commandment. Amen, someone, we give the great commission. This

is one of the greats in Matthew chapter in Matthew

chapter sixteen, verse fifteen, and he said to them, going

to the world, Go into all the world and preach

the gospel to every creature. He who believes in his

baptized will be saved. But he who does not believe

will be condemned. And these signs shall follow. Those who

believe in my name. They'll cast out demons, they'll speak

with new tongues, they'll take up service. If they drink

anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They

will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Now lest I'm not preaching about all those things. There's

a whole lot of things there, but I just want

to encourage you not to go.

Drink draino today. Amen. Yeah.

Yeah, So there's some contexts that we need to look

into there, so yeah, that's not And do not bring

a snake. You know. One time, one time we had

somebody that visited our church and they left and they

told a bunch of people that we handled snakes, that

we put them in these bags, and we passed these

bags around and everybody was sticking their hand in and

petting the snakes. And somebody came to me and asked

me about that, and I'm like, well, obviously they didn't give.

In the offering because those were our offering bags.

No snakes, bunch of dollar bills, not many tens, but

there are no snakes in there.

Amen, Amen, but you know those.

The overarching principle in this scripture is that when people

get saved, they do something that when true conversion happens,

people do something that we're shaken out of our stupor

and our slumber and just the ability to embrace the

status quo and no longer is the status quo good anymore,

that we move into the supernatural place where things happen

in our lives as we go, and we do now

I when I ask you, does your life reflect that?

Does your life reflect going and doing and action and

things happening in the supernatural following your life?

Or do you just embrace it as insurance against hell?

Because the reality is we never truly grasp the ability

to reach until we realize the benefits and the glorious

covenant of salvation. We have reduced it to just simply

missing Hell and making it to Heaven.

But salvation is so much more.

Salvation is yes, the sweet by and by and the

ability to go to heaven and live with Jesus forever,

but also it is the ability to tap into that destiny,

that that thing that God has created us for right

here today. See, there's a plan for your life right now.

He has more for you than just going through the motions.

And when we embrace the totality of what it means

means to go and reach, then we have to realize

that there's more for me and a greater responsibility for me.

See, that's one of the things we believe that that.

You have to take the personal responsibility to share your story,

that you take the personal responsibility to share your personal

story in a personal relationship and then praying a prayer

with that person.

That's that's it.

In a nutshell, that's that's that's that's experiencing God. That's

literally if you go through engage, that's what you hear

is That's one of the ways that we want people

to experience God is through your life out in the world.

Reaching is about telling people who have never had a

grace collision with Jesus that there is a better way

to live. But it's more than that because a lot

of times we just get hung up on that whole

go and tell and pray the prayer, but then we

forget that. You know, that's not the totality of the

Great Commission. As a matter of fact, in Matthew twenty eight,

we hear the same thing, but there's a little bit different.

Slant to it.

In Matthew chapter twenty eight, verse eighteen, it says in

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, all authority has

been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go

therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

things that I've commanded you, and low I'm always with you,

even to the end of the age.

Amen. You know, the reason we do the things that

we do is.

Because of this particular core value. The reason we structure

and build things the way we do. We're always looking

out to the community first and then inside Secondly. It's

why we we do some of the weird things that

we do. I mean that maybe you deem weird. I

don't deem them weird. They've just become natural to me.

But uh, you know, it's why we turn the lights

download your in worship so that people feel comfortable to

raise their hands or maybe you know, depending on what

stage of your faith you're in, you know, maybe giving

a little holy ghost sway, come on now, you know,

lift your hands, you know, if you get really put

a costal, you know, when you sway, you pick your

feet up. We turn the lights down so that so

that you are comfortable to express yourself in worship. We

turn the music up loud enough so that you can

sing and you don't have to worry about your neighbor

knowing how bad of a singer you are, because it

sounds good to Jesus, but it may not sound good

to them.

Amen, And we know you're self conscious about that, but listen.

We give away free coffee and all of those things

and all that labor that Laura does because it's amazing

that a three hundred pounds man can hide behind a

cup of coffee. Because when people come in and they

don't know what to expect, they don't know what to

do with their hands. So we want to take that

pressure away. See, we're intentional about looking to the community first,

and when we program things, we program things to look

to the community first. And I want to go ahead

and you know, dispel some beliefs that are here that

you know, everybody thinks that our church is the way

it is because this is the way I want it

to be. But the reality is that's not the case

at all. As a matter of fact, if our church

looked like the way I wanted it to look, if

it was up to me, we would come in. I

would preach for about twenty minutes. You would given the offering,

would all go home. I'm not particularly fond of music.

I don't like coffee. Come on, somebody. I'm just at

home on my couch by myself, as I am with

all of y'all. But the reality is God has called

us to something bigger and it makes me uncomfortable.

Come on, somebody.

It makes me uncomfortable the things that God calls us

to sometimes. And if I'm willing to be uncomfortable, sometimes

you have to be a little uncomfortable too, because it's

not just about reaching the laws, but it's also discipling people.

It's moving people from that grace collision to an experience

like engage where they understand what experiencing God, walking in freedom,

finding your place, and living with purposes. Because we believe

if you can catch purpose, you catch life and life

more abundantly. So we design this place so that we

can disciple and so that that challenge comes forth every

single Sunday so someone can experience the Lord and have

a grace collision. But none of those things matter if

we're not actively reaching as the church, and you're thinking, well, hey,

let's plan an outreach, That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the church you. I'm talking about the church,

the individuals, the people. You are the church. This building

is not the church. This building is a building. And

mean listen, if somebody rolled up here offered me, I

don't know, I'm going to throw out a number that

would get it done. In case you're watching online, if

somebody rolled it here and said I'll give you five

million dollars for the building and the property, I would say, yeah,

we'll be mobile until we can build a building.

Amen, because it's a building. You were the church.

Jesus didn't die for a building. Jesus died for the church.

He died for individuals. He died for the kinetic church,

those people that are supposed to be reaching, and he

died for the potential church. Those people that are still

out there wandering in the loss, that need a grace

collision because they don't know how to make ends meet. Listen,

I've heard a lot leading up to what's gonna happen

in just over just over a week from now. You

know that big thing, that election thing, And and I

hear this all the time.

I hear people say it's.

The most consequential election in the history of America. And

I do believe that it is a consequential thing that's

happening for America.

I don't diminish that. But when I hear.

Believers say it, I wonder why you don't realize that

this afternoon, when you go to lunch and your waitress

comes to the table, that that is the most consequential

moment in the entire history of that person. And you

can either have a great impact and a witness, or

you can turn those people off to the Kingdom of

God forever, that when you get ready for work tomorrow,

that you don't see that it's the most consequential day

in the history of my life. Because this is the

day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice

and be glad in it and reach and touch every

single person that I can reach and touch, because that's

what God has called me to. Next week we're gonna

start a series and I'm gonna deal with some election things.

So listen, if you've got people that are hot and

heavy political, you need to get them here. Next week, Amenna,

we're gonna position ourselves.

To Uh.

I don't know what we're gonna do. Probably gonna make

some people mad, but that's all right.

Listen.

Why we do what we do is because we know

God's called us to reach. If we weren't called to

reach the lost, if we stop reaching the community, if

we stop doing that, then we may as well turn

this over to somebody who will, because that is the.

Ultimate mandate of Christ on our lives.

In First Corinthians, chapter twelve, verse twenty seven, it says,

now you are the body of Christ and members individually.

Who no not be you while you have me too.

You are the body of Christ and members individually. And

God has appointed these in the church first apostles, second prophets,

third teachers. After that, miracles than gifts of healings, helps administrations.

Varieties of tongues.

Are all apostles, or all prophets, or all teachers, are

all workers of miracles, to all have the gift of healing,

to all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but earnestly

desire the best gifts.

And yet I show you.

A more excellent way this teaching is that God has

created a diversity of people and gifts and offices because

it takes everybody to fulfill the mandate of God.

That it's not just an apostle.

As a matter of fact, Paul could have rolled into

any city anywhere and set up a tent and started

preaching and had a minimum impact. Y'all don't want to

hear that, but that is the truth. It was the

team that went with him. It was the people gifted

in administration. Was the people gifted with those inner personal

qualities to be able to go and speak to people

and compel them to come and hear the word. It's

the giftedness and the anointing that's in you that sets

a church apart.

It's not the messages that are preached or the music.

Now, I do agree that Christian shop for a new

church the way they shop for a new car. They

want the sleekest, fastest thing, with the best say system

and the easiest shocks. But we're not in the business

of Christian shopping. To be where we are, we listen.

If you're already a believer, I don't care where you

go to church. We will lost people to experience God.

That's what reaching is all about.

It's not transferring, transferring from one pond to another pond.

It's about having people transformed by the grace of Jesus.

And he says, we are all individuals, and we all

have a giftedness, and it takes every single one of

us to get the job done. In Ephesians chapter four,

it's this this whole concept of the body again, and

it says from whom the whole body joined and knit

together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective

working by which every part does it share causes growth

of the body for the yetifying.

Of itself and love. He says, we're joined together, We're

knit together.

I want to just I want to just give you

just a simple illustration about reaching. Let's just say that

that because this is the pulpit and this is where

my notes are right, that this is the source of

the word that this is the It's not by the

way Jesus decentralized the pulpit. Jesus said, listen, there's going

to come a day. It's going to come a day

where you know, you can worship on that mountain, you

can go into the city wherever. It doesn't matter, as

long as you worship Him in spirit and in truth.

In other words, every single person should have a pulpit

in their life somewhere.

Everybody should have a pulpit. Everybody should have an altar. Amen.

Let's just say for this illustration that this is the point. Like,

if we can get people in connection right here, their

lives are transformed. Now, I want to show you something.

I went all the way around that bad boy. I

didn't reach anybody in my individual reach. I didn't reach

a single person.

Did I come here?

Alan, I wish you would get excited and in a

hurry about reaching.

Put it in hold my hand right here, right just

that which is read as far as you can reach.

Don't pull me down.

You know, Allan and I together, wouldn't y'all agree that

he is an incredible keyboard player. Listen, those little chubby

fingers can just go. I'm telling you, it's amazing. Alietik Yarmount,

you're reaching anybody we see, Oh what is happening?

Tell her? Are you reaching anybody?

Yeah? And huh, but you know we're just reaching the

front row. I you know, I didn't even have to

do this first of all. I just I just want

to point out that I'm just glad this is actually

where my message was leading. Yeah, because yeah, but I mean,

the Holy Spirit knows what he's doing right now, hold

on just a second.

I wanna, I wanna.

I want to explain something else here, because so far

we've reached to the back road. So we've got that

whole go and make disciples part down fairly well, because

the people that are in here are pretty being pretty

well discipled.

But after all, just I just want you to say.

Amen, if you feel that you're a little further along

in your faith than you were when you first came

to Cornerstone, just say amen. Yeah, you know that whole

discipleship thing. But but you know, we're not just called

to reach inside here. We need to get to the

road we need to get We need to get to

that brand new neighborhood that was built across the street

over there. We need to get past that neighborhood. We

need to get You know, if we could make it

all the way to Kurts, I could eat breakfast and

reach at the same time. I'm just saying. And then

if we Hey, if we could make it to publics,

then we could buy groceries and reach people at the

same time.

Why stop there? Hey?

What if what if we could reach to I don't

what if we could reach the linear Tech? What if

we could reach the lanear Tech. That's that's a lot,

That's that's a big reach. But you know, what if

we could reach up there? Man, we we we could

reach some people. What if we could reach I don't know.

What if we could reach the Honduras? What if we

what if we could reach.

The Hong Kong? What if? What if?

I'm just saying, what if? What if we could reach

I don't know.

What if we could reach.

To the Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D C. What if

we could reach to the Kremlin? What if we could

reach Beijing? What would happen if we got so fired

up and contagious about reaching that there was no end

to the chain.

What if?

Because see every time we add a member, every time

we add a joint, every time we connect another person,

our reach gets a little bit farther. Every time our

reach gets a little bit farther, we have the opportunity

to add another piece to the chain.

Because the reality is, this is what reaching is.

Reaching is us reaching out and grabbing each other in

an attempt to get somewhere we can't get by ourselves.

Reaching is our ability to connect, which is the purpose

of the church, that each member supplies nourishment to the other,

that we supply nourishment to each other. Because you know what,

as we're reaching, you know, Wendy may have a bad day.

She had a bad day the other day, came home

from school throwing up, and listen, I was so proud

of my wife. I was so proud of my wife

because Wendy was sick. You know, we just lived right

down the road and she got that prayer request and

she said, hey, you know what, I'm gonna go walk

the dog.

For Wendy because she's sick.

I was so proud of my wife because she don't

like walking dogs.

And Dexter's crazy. He's a lunatic. That's the dog. That's

the dog. But you know what it was.

On that bad day that one member, that one joint

supplied nourishment to another so that the chain didn't fall,

so we could keep reaching. See, the local church is

designed because the local church has the ability to connect people,

to reach further than any other organization in the world,

because it's not just about conversion, it's also about discipleship,

and the local church is really the only place that

is designed and equipped to do both. Reaching is as

simple as what we see right here, right now, just

by getting a little bit further down the road and

look at the reach we had. Now, if we stretched

it out, we would be pretty close to the road

if we got circled around. But I know y'all didn't

want to go reach out in the heat, So hopefully,

hopefully you'll be able to witness in the air conditioning, amen,

because I wouldn't want the heat.

To discourage you.

But see, church, that's what that core value of reaching is.

And in the real world, what that looks like is

that I noticed that somebody at the grocery stores having

a bad day, and instead of going down the other

aisle to avoid them, I.

Go down that aisle.

Listen if they don't make eye contact. I'm just saying,

I'm giving you evangelistic strategies.

Push it down there.

When you get beside their buggy, just pop their buggy

with your buggy just a little bit so they look

at you. I'm not talking about AsSalt. I'm just talking

about attention grabbing. And when they look at you, just say,

you know what, the Lord, the Lord just put you

when I came around the corner, The Lord puts you

on my heart. I want you to know everything's gonna

be okay. Can I pray for you? You know, there's

one thing that I learned early in life. I learned

it from Pastor Gary, is that when somebody asked you

to pray, just do it right then. Yeah, and listen,

if you ask me to pray, if we're at the

movie theater, we praying right, then, it doesn't matter where

we are. We're gonna grab hands and we're gonna pray,

because I believe that is a great testimony of the

Church of who God created us to be. Reaching is

the prime purpose. If we get the rest of it wrong,

but we get that right, we're okay. And if we

set our sights to reach our neighbor and we fall short,

we've reached nobody. But if we set our sites to

reach the world and we fall short, at least we

reach our neighbor. If you keep waiting for one day,

everything is going to line up. You know, one day,

I'm gonna be able to get my boss over, you know,

to the side, and I'm gonna be able to share

my faith.

Make tomorrow be that day.

Go in their office, lay hands on their chair, and

pray that the Lord would drive them crazy until they

accept him as Lord and savior. Listen, if you work

in a district imbution center, I don't know what you're destroyed,

whatever you're distributing. Before you send anything out, lay your

hands on it and pray over it that conviction would come.

And just use this as a point of contact. Paul

literally took handkerchiefs from his body and sent them out,

and miracles happened as a result of the point of contact.

Why not a Coca Cola as you're unloaded off the truck.

Why not break pads if you're working at.

The autoparts store, Or.

What about those papers teachers that you're grading that you

send home with those children that you pray peace, that

you pray comfort, that you pray conviction over those papers.

So when that they roll in and they're excited. Now listen,

don't give them a nay if they don't deserve it.

But when they get home and they give that paper

that says a and they hand it to their alcoholic, broken,

busted mother who doesn't think there's any hope, who sleeps

all the time and is given up on the world,

and they hand that paper because you prayed over it,

and there's a point of contact that something's.

Sparked on the inside.

Maybe see reaching is the way we see the world.

It's about changing our attitude and stop pretending that we're

the star of the movie. Jesus is the star of

the movie and we're just coactors. We're just the supporting

cast to make him more famous. And when we live

our lives that way, we'll put ourselves in some uncomfortable

positions because Jesus put himself in the ultimate uncomfortable position

for us. Clay, you guys can come and get ready.

You know, when we fear in that moment rejection, we're

rejected because Jesus was rejected. The world hates what we

believe because they hate Jesus. All of the ire is

towards him. You're just a facilitator of grace. And he

walked through the most horrific death you could imagine because

he thought you were worth it.

You know. I believe that as he stood there and

Pilot asked.

Him those questions, I believe he looked into this room

and if he was ever tempted to say, yeah, you

know what, let's just don't do this. Whatever you say, Pilot,

just I'm okay with it, I believe he looked into

this room and said, you know what, I could avoid

death right now, but Josh. I could avoid death right now,

but Jada, I could avoid all the pain. I could

avoid all those things. But Taylor, see, I don't have

to suffer the things. I'm still the son of God.

I'm still I'm still the King of glory. But fill

in your name, and if you're here today, this is

what Jesus did for you. He was found innocent of

all charges against him, but yet turned over to a

radical bunch of people.

Who wanted his.

Life, and they beat him beyond human recognition. They tore

the flesh from his body and crowned him with thorns,

then they put the instrument of his death, that old cross,

across his shoulders, and he carried it through those dusty

cobblestone streets of Jerusalem, up Calvaries and Clyde and he

laid himself down on that cross. They pounded nails through

his hands and his feet because that cross was lifted

into place and flooded to the bottom of that hole.

His body, shocked with pain, was his first thought. Father,

forgive them, because they don't know what they're doing. Because see,

it wasn't the soldiers that did it, it was me.

It was you.

Our sin nailed him to that cross, And in the

midst of his pain, he said, forgive them.

And then he died.

For you.

Here's the remarkable thing, though.

A love never seemed like this before or since, that

he was so in love with you that he didn't

just die for you. He came back to life for

you so that you could have new life, spend eternity

with him forever. In June chapter one, verse twenty two,

it says, and on some have compassion, making a distinction,

but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.

Hating even the garment. The filed by flesh.

You're not here by accident today. You're here because you're

called to reach. You're not here by accident today because

Jesus gave his life for you. His desire is to

lift you up above your situation and your circumstance, and

to fill with you with.

Life and life more abundantly. Want everybody to stay with me.

All over the building, every head and bowed, every eye closed.

If you're here today, and you'd say, pastor Steve, I

want to give my life to Jesus today. I'm not

sure if I died right now that I would go

to heaven, but I want to leave this place knowing

that I will.

If that's you, just slip your hand up and say

that's me. I want to give you my life. Amen.

So anybody else, just slip your hand up really high

and just slip it up and put it right back down.

Now.

Maybe you're here today you say I feel an overwhelming draw.

To start reaching.

I don't feel like I've done enough for the kingdom.

I don't know if I've done enough for the Lord.

So I just today something has touched.

My heart and I want to reach.

I'm gonna start living my life a different way from

this moment. If that's you lift over your hand and said,

that's my pastor, I'm going to reach Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen,

hands all over the place. We're building a chain. We're

building a life chain.

Amen. We're built. Listen.

That's that's that's that's a rescue that's a rescue vehicle.

That with that we're building right there. Amen, everybody open

your eyes. I want to just a couple of our

of our Alter team to come, just a couple of

our Alter Team.

We have some people that raise their head and said,

don't want to trust Jesus. So it doesn't matter which

couple of you come, but come.

I want somebody here to pray for anybody that comes

to accept Christ as their Lord and savior.

Amen.

And it's on the count of three. If you raised

your head and said, I want to ask Jesus to

be my lord. I want to ask him to for

giving me my sins, to be my savior. I want

to give in my life. If that's you, I want

you to come to one of these Altar workers, these

Alter Team members that are standing right here, So go

to them. They want to pray a very special prayer

with you, and something supernatural is going to happen in

your life.

And for the rest of you. If you said it's

time for me to reach, I'm going to count to three.

And when I get to three, If you raised your

head and said I'm going to start reaching and go

to live my life a different way, I want you

to not look around and see if everybody else is moving.

I want you to step out, and I want you

to come and I want to pray a prayer over

you when you get here, commission you into ministry to

do God's work. So on the count of three, you're

just moving. If you need to push somebody out of

the way, push them out of the way, our ushers.

If you're not coming to the altar, you're gonna go

ahead and get communion ready to go for.

Us back there. And as a matter of.

Fact, when you get it back in here, you can

go ahead and start serving. On the count of three, one, two, three,

step out and move right now, come on, come on,

come on.

If you raise your.

Hand and say, hey, I want to reach, I'm gonna

live my life different, gonna be a vehicle of change.

I'm gonna be an instrument of change. Come on, don't

stay in your place. Don't stay in your place. Don't

stay in your place. If you raise your hands and

I want to give my life to Jesus, come find

an alter team worker, find an altar worker right now.

Find somebody to pray with you. Find somebody to pray

with you. Amen, Amen, Hey, become with That's four or

five more people that raise their hand.

Come on, come on.

Don't let the enemy. Don't don't let the enemy talk

you out of it.

Now.

Trust me, you want to build the faith to get

in front of somebody right now, in this moment, rather

than try to do it out there for the first

time in a hostile environment.

This is an easy environment to step out. Thank you, Jesus,

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, Thank you Jesus, Thank

you Jesus Father.

For every man, every woman, every boy, every girl that's

in this altar right now, Lord, I pray for an anointing.

In their lives. What I pray for us for an

anointing to reach.

To be part of what God is doing and is

about to do. As he escalates the Kingdom of God

and his purpose, as he collapses time frames, as he

awakens people and we begin to see late that last

great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the face of

this planet. Lord, I pray that you awaken every sensitivity

to the Holy Spirit in them, give them kingdom connections

with people Lord that desperately need a grace collision with you. Father,

I'm asking right now for this anointing of reaching to

supersede every instinct of rejection and fear and insecurity that

they have, and that boldness would grip their lives, and

that they would literally turn their places in the community

upside down.

With the grace of Jesus. Now, Lord, I give.

You glory and honor and praise and Jesus Mighty, mighty name. Amen, Amen,

and amen. If you're down here, look at me, everybody,

look at me. The way you do it is to

do it you open your mouth the very first time

and you tell somebody about Jesus. That's the way it works.

You can't have a second time until you do it

the first time. You're never going You're never going to

get over the insecurity of sharing your faith and telling

your story until you get over the insecurity of telling

your story and sharing your faith. By doing it, Father,

right now, every person a deeper love for humanity in

Jesus's

Name, Amen Amen,