Town Hall - September 2024

Amen, Amen, and amen. Now, uh, let me go ahead

and uh.

For those of you, for some of you that have

been here before when we've done this, you know what

to expect. But lots of people have have come since

the last time we did a town hall meeting, and uh,

this is probably gonna look a lot different than what

you may be used to because it's not your typical

I'm gonna preach a.

Message and make an alter call.

Town hall is all about you asking questions and us

answering those questions right here live from the stage.

What are those questions?

It can be life leadership, Bible theology, church ministry, really

whatever question you have, we want to answer that today.

And we have a bunch of questions that have already

come in online. So we're gonna go ahead and uh

and start with one of those. Now listen, I will

tell you Pastor Clay is sitting up here on a stool,

so that means he's fair game.

Amen. The question doesn't have to be for me. He's

he's up here.

He chose to sit on the stage with me and

take up my space, and so he's fair game.

Uh.

So if you have a question for him, like why

don't you ever cut your hair.

I mean, that would be a great This.

Is a great time, you know, to ask that that

that that question.

I just I just want everybody to know this is

not notes. There's no teleprompter. This is all from the hip.

So it's from the spirit, brother, not from the hip.

Come on, that's where I keep my sword, brother.

Okay, okay, all right.

So we'll start with we'll start with a question from

from the the online and then if you if you

have a question that you want to ask, if you'll

stand up, Uh, Alan and Jeremy are both board members

here and they're gonna come around. They're going to give

you a microphone for you to be able to ask

your questions because we want the online audience to be

able to hear your question as well.

So all right, pastor Clay, start wherever you want.

To sure, all right, let's start with uh, let's start

with the good one here came in online via the

online form. It says, how do I protect God's word

in my heart and not let the enemy steal it away?

Wow? That's a great question. You know.

One thing is when we when we read that story

of the Parable of the Souler, the Seed that was

sown on rocky ground, the birds of the air came

and stole it away. And then when Jesus is responding

to that parable, he says, hey, pray for the Holy

Spirit to seal your heart lest the birds of the

air come and steal it. So the covering of the

Holy Spirit is the most powerful way that we that

we maintain what God is doing in our hearts.

But also we overcome those.

Things by the blood of the Lamb and the word

of our testimony.

And let me remind you.

I say this all the time and you're like, well, yeah,

I don't really have testimony, you do.

What is God doing in your life? Most of the

time we.

Wanted to be clean and perfect, like a beautifully polished

story with a bowl on the top, but that's really

not onboard.

People into the mess of your story.

Come on somebody right in the middle of your testimony,

so they can experience God with you through that testimony,

and it's not just a put together story at the end,

but they can see God work and they can see

that experience in your life. So a great question. Whoever

asked that, jeremy.

First question, are you ever going to come back with

in the Gray. I miss it, and when you don't

live in the Gray, I get a lot of questions.

Yes, my intention is to come back within the gray.

Here's the reality, you know when you when you try

to do something eight o'clock in the evening. I also

have a family and we've been very busy over this

last season. Things do seem to be slowing down. My

youngest daughter's in college now, so there's not a big

time demand and commitment there. But yes, in the Gray

will come back probably this fall. Okay, Yeah, if you

don't know what in the Gray is? In the Gray

is this only it's a live social media.

I experience just like this.

So it's live on Facebook, live on YouTube and twitch. Yeah,

so it's whatever a twitch is. We're on there and

so it's live there and you can actually go on

and you can just type your questions right there in

the comments and we answer them live and we usually

do that on Tuesday nights at eight pm. And that's

probably the place that we'll go back to.

Okay, first question, first, Corinth thens three point fifteen. If

anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer less through

now though he himself will be saved but only as

through fire.

Can you explain that?

Yeah, I think so, you know, I think that basically

when we look at that scripture and it's talking about

salvation and we are protected, the person is protected. But

all of those good works, all of those things that

we do, those things are say, get myself in trouble

when I say things like this from the stage. Our

actions are much less consequential than who we are in

our hearts, and the things we do don't really change

how God feels about us. See, the enemy makes us

think that. The enemy makes us think I'm not doing enough,

or I need to do more. I didn't read enough Bible,

I didn't pray enough.

I did and do those things.

Now should we do those things, yes, absolutely, But there

is no condemnation for those who.

Are in Christ Jesus.

And when we feel those things and it lifts us up,

that's conviction.

Okay. So when you experience those things and.

It lifts us up, it motivates us, it pushes us ahead,

that's the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But when those

things pull us down, that's condemnation. That's heaviness from the enemy.

So we say, listen, we're saved out of the fire.

But those things that we do, good or bad, they're

burned away and we're purified, and we begin to understand

who we are in Christ. Not what the things are

in Christ, but who we are in Christ. You know,

every time I have a meeting with somebody and you

guys think that you've done something terrible, I always start

that out by saying, all right, here's the ground rules.

There's nothing you can do that will ever change the

way I feel about you, because I believe that's how

Jesus looks at it too, that he loves us unconditionally.

Now he doesn't. He wonders why we lose our mind

to do the things we do sometimes right, but it

doesn't affect how much he loves us. Amen, we're gonna

go here and then we're gonna come back. So we're

gonna go bi bit.

Bit Okay, here we go. When we are praying for

help and guidance on what to do to help God

with our needs, how do we know what path he

wants us to take? I keep trying different ways, and

I'm just not sure if I'm doing what he wants

me to do.

Yeah, I live my life this way. I always want

to hear an audible voice, right. I always want to

hear God speak from heaven and tell me exactly what

to do. But that's not the way God operates most

of the time. Most of the time, when I come

to a crossroads, I look down both roads, and if

I don't have complete clarity, then I start down one path,

and if I don't have the peace of God on

that path, I turned around, make my way back to

the fork in the road, and I take the other fork.

I always, one hundred percent of the time I want

to be led by God's peace. Now, that doesn't mean

there won't be struggles. It doesn't mean there won't be obstacles.

What that means is that God will give me peace

through all of those things.

Amen. Amen, Jeremy got right here.

We actually got one from Facebook. Okay, says good morning,

Pastor Steve and Pastor Clay. How can you lead your

child to Christ when they're not taking interest? As a parent,

It's terrifying.

That is a terrifying place to be. And I will

say that the first thing you must do is commit

to intense prayer. You know, we don't know we're lost

until we know we're lost. That moment that the prodigal

son has he has to come to He or she

has to come to themselves before they can come to Christ.

If we're just living with no restraints and we're just

out there and we're just basically surviving and going through

the motions, that's the most dangerous place for us to be.

So we pray for clarity, we pray for conviction, we

pray for those things, We fast if we need to,

and then we live the life in front of them

each and every day, and we don't just always preach

about it, but we live the life and we let

them experience. So when they lay down in the still

of the night, Holy Spirit can speak and say, hey,

did you notice Mom?

Did you notice Dad? That They didn't.

They didn't try to preach you into anything today. They

just showed you the path. Because he's faithful, he'll come

along side us until help in every situation, in every circumstance.

Could I say one thing, Yeah, I'm a new parent,

but I I've noticed that this kind of just comes out.

I think it's the Holy Spirit speak to your children

about who they are, not to what they're doing, but

to who they are and who you know them to be.

In Christ.

One of the things.

Anytime where, anytime there's an issue, anytime we have to discipline,

I always end that discipline with that's not who you are.

Who you are is this. Who you are is a

child of God. Who you are is an honest person.

Who you are is and speak identity. That's how God

speaks to us. And so I think it's important just

as an addendum. Everything is great, but speak life in

that way, speak to their identity, who they really are,

who you know they can be, and watch God do

do powerful things in speaking that life.

Yeah, let me chase this rabbit for just one second.

You're not you weren't just talking about positive affirmation, But

there is. Positive affirmation is a scriptural process. We try

to shy away from it, those of us who are

not completely over in the Prosperity Gospel movement. But the

reality is is that our words have power, and that

when we speak things, those things move in the spiritual world,

in the invisible world. And by speaking who your child is,

or speaking who you are, and you speak those things

out loud, it really does set an atmosphere for the

Holy Spirit to move and operate and work in those situations.

Okay, if we could go back to the last one

day you have on there. I think that one was

actually mind I still have the last one I asked, no,

the one before about when you've been praying about which

path to take?

Oh yeah, okay, yeah, okay.

So you said, if it didn't feel like it was

the direction God, yeah, yeah, turn around and go the

other direction. How do you know that it's not that

it's not being anointed by God, or if it's just

your own fears and it's the devil putting that in

your mind. Because that's where I struggle, is sure, you

just don't know which path to go to get to

where I want to go. Because I know what I

pray for, it needs to be followed up with some action.

I can't just pray and do nothing correct. I need

to pray and do something correct. There could be five

things I could do.

But yeah, so we start.

So going back to my answer, start down that path, right,

and you will know if you have the peace of God.

That's something that you cannot mistake. The peace of God

is that thing that keeps you in the midst of

all that turmoil that normally turns you upside down.

But it doesn't.

But you can also test those things initially by saying, hey,

is this if I go down this path, is this

something that's in accordance with the character and nature of God?

In other words, it's this even scriptural for me to

go down this path. God's never going to lead you

down a path that is contrary to His character and

nature because that's sin. And God will never lead us

down that path. So that's the first question we asked.

And I shouldn't have started where I start. I should

have started there. But you asked that question. And then

if you get into it and things get tough, but

you're not responding the way you normally respond when things

get tough, that could be the peace of God leading

you on and pressing through that. So just I will

promise you this, when you have the peace of God,

you will know it beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Amen.

All right, A juicy one.

Chief.

I like our church the way it is. Why do

things keep changing? This one's all yours?

So first of all, stop looking around to see who

figured who submitted that question?

Right? You know? I here's the thing.

I think a lot of times, let's pull the veil

back a little bit. I think a lot of times

people think that as pastors, and sometimes this is true,

that we try to build what we want, that we

try to build what we like.

But the reality is.

I know, in my case, that's not at all true,

because if I built a worship experience, if I built

a church that was the way I liked it. Sorry, band, sorry,

but we wouldn't even have music. I mean we would

and I think you know that, you know. Uh, we

would come in, I would share message and then we

would open the floor up and we would talk about

it just like this, and then we would go home,

and then I would see y'all next Sunday.

That's what I would prefer. Uh.

That's that's that's how my spiritual growth works, right, But

that's not how your spiritual growth works. And that's not

God's plan for what he wants. So as we build

what God wants, it continuously makes us all uncomfortable, especially

when you're a church like us that's built seeing community

first and then inside, you know, we always have our

eyes on those those those people that have not yet

come here, those people that are still far from Christ.

That's where our eyes are first.

It's why we do it's the filter that we run

everything through first. And as a result of that, because

that keeps changing out there, things changing. Here, everything moves

and is shaped by the pulse of what's happening. We

do four things here. We experience God, walking, freedom, find

our place, and those three things lead to the fourth.

So we can live with purpose because we believe purpose

equals life.

And when you have imagined those four things.

As a tire with four spokes, and when you begin

to see God working on experience, you know, okay, we

want you to push this over here, create things for

experience God, it swells that part of the tire up

and you don't roll smoothly, So then you have to

make adjustments in other places too to keep the tire

rolling smoothly. And that's why it feels like things change.

But the reality is other than Culturally, we haven't changed

anything in two years. I mean, we still do. We

do the same four things. We haven't changed that in

six years. But you know that's uh So when you

say change, I don't know that I really.

Know what that means.

But I will say this too, is that there will

come a day in my life where God is done

with me. Here in other words, one of two things.

Either God is carrying me somewhere else, or my leadership

can no longer carry us to whatever's next, whatever season

is next. When we reach that point, it's time for

me to go somewhere else. And it's possible that that

same thing happens in your life as well, That you

have served your purpose at Cornerstone, that you have done

and completed what's here, or that God has given you

such a powerful piece of the DNA that there is

another church somewhere that needs that peace that you really

have deep down in your heart, and you can go

there and expand and grow the Kingdom of God.

And we bless that. Here's the thing.

We don't try to hold on to everybody because we're

only a tiny little piece of the Kingdom of God.

We're just a little bitty molecule, an atom, a cell

in the Kingdom of God. And if you leave here

and go somewhere and the Kingdom of God grows, that's

a success from Cornerstone. And that's the way we see

it because I'm not trying to build a kingdom.

I'm trying to build the Kingdom.

So you know, if if you feel like that and

you wrestle like that for a long time. I think

maybe you should say, Hey, what is it that I

like so much?

What is it that I'm gravitated towards.

Maybe that that's the anointing and the call of God

on my life, and I need to go help that

grow somewhere. That is the reality for every believer, that

God is progressive and is always working in our lives. Amen,

And that's what we want the best for you. So

that's the best I can do with that. That question becose,

let me Steve.

I'm gonna add to that. Yeah.

Go.

And so, as as a board member, I agree with

absolutely everything he says. But I think that we all

know that if there is no change, and I want

to say change, small change, it's easy to become complacent,

all right. So in my mind I think that change

is good, not huge change, but small change. And as Christians,

we should be growing every day. So that means we

should be changing every day because we are growing.

So I just wanted to add that, Amen, I was good.

I didn't pay him to say that. No, right back here?

Yeah, ye yep, Brandy, Okay, all right, so uh kind

of tying to your last question, I want you to talk

about the calling, the calling for the Lord, whether it

is ministry or whether it is something in our lives.

How does that work?

What it may be better if you could share an

example of that time where God was speaking to you

about something, How to interact with that, how that works,

what to do there?

So okay, sure you know, first of all, we're all

at different places in our walk with God, in our

spiritual maturity, in the discipleship process, right. So our peace

to help you start that process is engage. So we have.

What we call Engage.

It's a place where you go and you you get

a deep understanding of those four things that I talked about,

experience God, walking, freedom, find your place, live with purpose,

get a deep understanding of those things. And you also

in that engage process you receive a spiritual gifts test

which will show you your spiritual giftings as well as

a personality survey, because our personality is how God wires

us and then God and then spiritual gifts are how

God gifts us and how those things work together. The

intersection of how those things work together, it's where purpose

is born. So that engage process is the piece that

we help you do that, but then once you start

walking in it and you feel this pull. I'll give

you a perfect example of it. Pastor Clay grew up

in our church and I've from early middle school until now,

he's been part of cornerstone in my life specifically. So

he went to Bible College. And when he went to

Bible College, you know, the whole time, in the back

of your mind, you're thinking, he's gonna expect a job.

You know, you just kind of figure that that, you know,

he's going to ask me for a job. And when

he went to school, he was not doing music at

all other than rapping. If you've not experienced Pastor Clay's

early formative rap years, you need to experience that.

But he wasn't doing music at all.

So it was like your senior year in college where

you actually came and said, Hey, this is what I

think I want to be. They're going to be a

worship leader. And in my mind, I'm thinking, Bro, you

can't play or sing. I'm just being honest with you.

So in that moment, I had to really get along

with God and say, God, is.

This your plan for our church?

Because this can either be great or terrible, Because he's

so entrenched in the culture of the church that if

you hire him and fire him, that hurts right that

that that that creates some some trouble. So in that moment,

I just had to really say, God, I trust you

to lead me with your peace, and I got peace

about it, and I began to to process through that,

and in the process of processing, it became yet, not

only can this happen, but you need to make this

happen because it's going to carry you to the next level.

Once it became not I'm okay with it, but you

need to make this happen because it's part of the

next level. That's when it became a call. So it's

not just I'm doing what I'm doing and it's okay,

but I need to make this happen. I need to

put legs behind this and I need to walk in

front of it by faith to make it happen. That's

when it became the call. Because the call is never easy.

The call is always going to have friction. It's always

going to be a press, it's always going to be

a push. It's always going to pull us out of

our comfort zone. So that's the call of God.

Does that help. Amen, Nope, nope, right here first and

then back there. Yep.

If God doesn't give up on me, how can I

not give up on someone very close to me? When

there's kids involved, and when it's the time that I

need to just give up. I always say, God doesn't

give up on me. Why do I have to give

up on you?

It's a great question. God never gives up on us.

First of all, never ever, let me say it again,

God never ever gives up on you. I think there's

somebody here right now that you feel like God has

given up on you. And God has never given up

on you. He never will give up on you. He

will always be for you. But we're not God, and

it's hard. Sometimes it's hard to love the unlovable.

Amen.

I think we've all encountered people in our lives that

they refuse to be loved, They refuse to allow us

to be part of their lives.

But we just continue to do that.

Now, there is also the situation, and I don't know which,

because I can read when you people ask questions, I

see multiple sides to the question. Right, So we're always there,

we're always pouring in, we're always there supporting, but there

also becomes that time where we're being pulled across those

energy lines and we have those relationships that leave us exhausted. Amen,

those those times where it's like there's no progress being made,

there's no nothing being made. But we never get to

withdraw our witness to people. We never get to withdraw

our prayers for people. But there does come a time

where we where we have to separate the relational investment

from the spiritual investment. And what I mean by that

is in the relational part of that thing, what it

looked like was if somebody calls, If this person calls

at two o'clock in the morning, I'm answering the phone.

I'm going to talk to four o'clock in the morning.

I gotta be at work at five o'clock in the morning.

And that happens night after night after night, and I'm

I'm my job is suffering, my family's suffering, and I

have to make a distinction.

See, that's the relational aspect of it.

So I can pull back from the relational aspect and

still be very present on the spiritual side and the

supernatural side where I'm continuing to pray and live that

witness in front of people and do those things. So

you just have to know and manage your life so

you can tell whether that relationship is becoming detrimental to

your spiritual walk. Amen, and then you can pull back

the relational side of it, but still put forth the

witness and the spiritual side of it.

Does that help about you?

Well? I guess this is like a two part question

because a lot of people know that you know, me

and Glenn. We work together and it's a very stressful

job sometimes. But I've actually had people at work they

find out that we go to church here, and of

course I get a lot of heat from them because

they think, oh, you're one them Christians. So what I

do since I don't have my Bible with me, I

usually can't. I guess it's like a two part question.

One is I'll pull up on my cell phone some

of my Bible apps and I'll start showing to them,

because I mean, they're coming to me first, and they're saying, Okay,

you don't want we're not this Christian time. But we're

curious about what y'all believe, what y'all do, because it

seems really intriguing because of the website that our church

has but then at one hand, on the other hand,

they wind up turn it into a political debate and

it really they kind of it's like I'm really offending them.

So I guess my question was, I'm using the Bible.

I'm trying to use the Word of God, the only

resources I know, plus what we have here as a

volunteer to try to not I'm not trying to sell

them anything, but I'm trying to convince them. So I'm thinking, Okay,

what am I doing wrong? And if and then the

sycon question is what else can I do? Because I

don't want it to be a debate whether or not

you know what you're wrong. I'm right, and that's all

why there is to it. But I just want you

to at least be exposed. You came to me, so

at least let me share what I believe. And so

I guess that was really like a two part question.

You know, what else can I do? And what am

I doing wrong? Because I'm you know, my involvement with

my family here because to me, this church is a family.

And what you know?

And I guess that's right the a two in one question.

Sure, First of all, I'm going to answer this question

and when I start answering, don't pack up and run

out and think I'm a heretic. Okay, let me get

to the end of my answer, because I you know,

when when you are when you are engaging people that

are that are far from Christ, when you're engaging people.

That are far from Christ.

As Christians, our go to our thing is that we

immediately want to go to the Bible and start quoting scripture.

But they don't understand scripture. Scripture tells us that the

world doesn't understand scripture, that that's the wisdom of God hidden.

Had they known the truth, they wouldn't have crucified the

King of Glory. So we because, okay, the event of

the cross, the event of the cross, Jesus dying.

On the cross is for the lost. Let me say

that again.

Jesus dying on the cross, he did that for the lost,

and then he gave us his word to disciple us

and help us become more like him. So the best

thing you can do is not have the argument, but

live the life and pray and love and point them

to Jesus that whatever the question is, Oh, how can

you say, how can you say women shouldn't speak in church,

or how come you say women can't speak in church

when the Bible says women can't speak in church. And

you're like, hey, you know what, Jesus died for the

sins of the world, and he died for you. And

we're trying to split hairs before we even get the

head in the room. We're trying to we're trying to

make mountains out of out of molehills, because the only

mountain when it comes to the gospel.

Is that Jesus died for our sins and he rose

again and he finished the work.

And now he's seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he's praying for you. Whether you're saved or whether

you lost, Jesus is praying for you. He is your advocate,

and he wants the best for you. So you know that,

because I'm gonna be honest.

With you, Joe.

In my life experience, when somebody asked me specific when

somebody far from Christ asks me specific questions about scripture,

they're looking for an argument, not for Jesus. They're looking

for an argument not Jesus. Yeah, let me get one

of these and then we'll come there.

Sure, let's go.

If you get saved and go back to your old

ways further down the line, leave God behind. In all

the teaching example, you get back into drugs, alcohol, whatever.

I feel like I would go to hell. What do

you think?

First of all, I don't make I don't make the

determination of who goes to hell in heaven, right, I

don't do that.

I can't see inside your heart.

You can look like a perfect example of a believer

on the outside, but not be on the inside. So

fortunately I don't have to make those decisions. But when

we get saved and we come out of stuff, remember

that doesn't mean that stuff came out of us, all right.

When when God.

Delivered Israel out of Egypt, it took a lot longer

for Egypt to be delivered.

Out of Israel.

They kept looking back, wanting to go back, wanting those leaks,

wanting those onions.

I just want to think about I want you to

think about that. They leaks and onions.

It's what they kept talking about, an onion and a leak.

It's why they were willing to go back into bondage.

An onion and a leak. And they were willing to

go back into bondage.

For things that you've got to put with something else

for it to even taste good.

But it took a while for that to work out.

So when we come to Christ and those things start

coming back in, first of all, you need to be

in a group. Need to be in a group, because

that's a support structure around you that keeps you from

sliding back into those things, and if you make a mistake,

stops those things from getting a hold on you again.

So you need to be in a group first and foremost,

you need to be in a group, and.

That protects you the moment, the moment you come.

To the place though, where you have repented of God.

So the way we come into the Kingdom, as we

repent of our sin, Jesus covers us with our grace.

He calls us part makes us a new creation. The

moment we get back to the place where we repent

of God, we have negated our end of the salvation covenant.

Because we're saved by grace through faith. There's always the

faith component to our salvation, and the moment we repent

of God, and that faith is no longer present our

part and it's a very small part, but it's still

our part of the salvation. Covenant is not there, and

you have reached the place where you're lost.

Now, first of all, I.

Want to tell you that this is the question that

has been debated for thousands of years, and I do

not intend on solving all of the problems that you

have with it in your heart from this stage right

now in thirty seconds. Okay, So those are things we

carry to the Lord. That's one of those things. Work

out your salvation with fear and trembling that you get

along with the God, because there's that There is just

as many people in this room right now that probably

believe you can't lose your salvation as there are that

people that say you can. And I just happen to

fall in the camp that you can. In the Book

of Jude, there's spots in your love feast, their clouds

blown about by the wind. Twice dead, pulled up by

the roots, is what it says in the Book of Jude.

Twice dead, And this is the scripture that keeps me

from believing in eternal salvation, eternal security. That's it, that

scripture in the Book of Jude, Because how can you

be twice dead if you weren't first made alive? So

we're born dead, we're made alive, then we find ourselves

twice dead. And that's what keeps me from because I

want to believe in eternal security. I want to believe

that every person I lead to the Lord right here,

or that I lead to the Lord in the grocery store,

that I lead to the Lord wherever I am, that

those people are are they've got it now. Chances are

that's probably not the reality, because there people will come

to a place where they Now you can get lost

in sin, still have the Salvation Covenant active in your life.

Two more, two more.

I didn't just necessarily mean from you either. I mean

I just meant two more in general. You showed me

that book. It's got like forty pages.

Yeah, okay, I have to do the one question. This

is a question that was given to you on Facebook. Okay,

I want to know how much wood.

Can wood chuck? Chuck?

If a wood chuck.

All of chuck? What all of it? Chuck all of it? Okay.

My real question is last week you talked about Guide

chose us. We didn't choose him, all right, the kind

of fights with God giving us free will because we

chose him? So are you meaning that God chose us

by having his Sunday on the cross. Yes, okay, and

this gave us salvation. Yes, okay, that was my question.

Yeah, we don't have the we don't have the capacity

to bridge the gap.

That chasm between us and God on our own.

We don't have the ability to get across that chasm.

We gotta have Jesus there. He chose us, and then

we receive his choosing. We received because He chooses everybody.

Then we receive his choosing in our lives.

Back here somebody, and we're gonna take one more.

We're gonna do this one. Then we're gonna take one

more there, and then we'll be done.

Okay.

When God talked about heart and hearts, do you think

that sometimes it begins with our heart heartening towards humanity.

Yeah? It can.

Yeah, yeah, and most certainly can you know? The thing

is when we look at when we look at you know,

the the great commandment, love the Lord your God with

all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Second is like it,

love your neighbor as yourself. Those things work.

Together. A vertical really, I.

Mean, a horizontal relationship will never be right until my

vertical relationship is right, And I can't have proper vertical

relationship without having proper horizontal relationships either.

So when we begin.

To look at at those things, yes, certainly, when we've

been hurt, when we have been traumatized, when we're just

sick and tired of people, because following the Lord will

never be sick and tired of people, then it certainly

can cause us to see God in a diminished or

a different.

Capacity, cause our hearts to grow hard for sure. Yeah,

good question right here we have we haven't answered very

many of those.

So okay, okay, even though I have a career of

family and a place in our community, I still struggle

with time.

It's my sense of purpose.

What can I do when I feel like I'm not

living up to it even though my life is already

crazy busy, So.

That, okay, this is a This is another one of

those I kind of read into that question is if

there's guilt, and.

The reality is that's probably condemnation from the enemy.

Because we talk about purpose all the time here, you know,

that's our big thing is we want you to find purpose.

So the enemy will make you feel guilty when you

don't feel like you are living in a perfect expression

of purpose. But purpose is a journey as well, and

there are different seasons of life.

So your purpose, chasing.

Your purpose and living out your purpose looks very different

as say a mom and dad of teenagers than it

does as someone who's children are out living on their

own and you know that they're not dependent on you

in any way. And also if you've got you know,

twin babies and two toddlers, those are all different different

seasons of life and the time we have. Because here's

the thing, Our purpose is this, right, our purpose is this,

But there are also scriptural obligations that are true for

every person. So it is your responsibility if you have children,

to prioritize the raising and upbringing of those children. But

it may not fit beautifully into what we consider purpose, right,

but as a parent, that's your spiritual scriptural obligation. Same

if you're married, your scriptural spiritual obligation is to fulfill

your partner, to believe in their dreams, to help their

dreams become reality, to do those things. And that might

not line up completely with purpose, but the reality is

we do. We pursue our purpose and we do the

things we can and the season of life that we're

in in order to pursue purpose. It is the pursuit

of purpose that are tracks the spirit of God to

our lives. Jesus said to himself, the spirit of the

Lord is upon me because he has anointed me too.

And then he listed his purpose. He listed his job description.

That job description is the thing that attracts the spirit

of God. And when the spirit of God there, there's freedom,

there's peace, there's all of those things that come with

the presence of God. So stop feeling guilty about not

try not being on purpose, and start pursuing purpose, and

you'll have that peace and that joy back in your

life again because the enemies convinced you that you're not enough,

and you are enough. Okay, we're gonna take one more.

This is it right here, because I've already kept y'all. Well, no,

if I was making an altar call, we would be

going longer.

So we'll go ahead.

Steve kind of bouncing off of what Kayla said, and

you answered some of it, just saining and sees the

whity doest people harden their heart and get misled. Well,

sometimes life, life gets in the way. Things happen, Tragedy happens,

and when those things come into life, it opens the

door for the devil to stick his foot in there,

and he magnifies all of that to get your attention

to turn from what God is really trying to show you.

And you've got to look deeper, and you've got to

look beyond that, because even in the midst of all

of that, God is still working. He never left you.

But in the world that we live in, people that

are not close to God, they don't mean to do it,

but they use a tragedy and they talk to you

about it to keep it fresh in your mind to

build that wall, and it keeps letting the devil try

to creep in, to block you off and to harden

your heart. And that's you know, in my life, I've

went through several things. But with what she asked and

what that you said, am I right in looking at

it in that aspect?

Yeah, for sure, And I'm gonna go a step further

to Yeah, you're right and looking at that. The enemy

will use any tool he can to distract us from

our purpose, especially people close to us. Oh, if the

enemy can use somebody close to you to derail your purpose,

he's gonna use that person because that's the best tool

that he has. So I'm gonna tell you how to

stay on track. How about that by doing the most

spiritual thing I ever taught you.

Write it down.

When I say, the most spiritual thing I can ever

teach you is to write it down.

What's it it, whatever it is, write it down.

If it's something you're battling, write it down with purpose,

write that purpose. Write it down. Keep it in front

of you so your eyes see it. Put it on

your dash, put it on your bathroom mirror. Put it

on the refriger I mean, if you eat as much

as I do, put on the refrigerator. You'll see that

twenty times a day. I mean, you know, So you

put it on the refrigerator and you keep it in

front of you so that the purpose is there. Bam

bam bam. This purpose is purpose. So this distraction comes

in and listen. I may do this, but then when

I see my purpose again, I can then quickly readjust

and get back into alignment. The problem is is that

we let something move us two tore and it takes

a long time to realize we're not living on purpose

because at two degrees the separation doesn't get very wide

until way down there. So as long as we keep

it in front of us and we keep pulling ourselves

back to purpose.

Then we can live that life on purpose and we

can do it intentionally. Amen. Amen, So, uh, guys, y'all

do one more for you? Yeah? Oh okay, yeah, okay.

In today's world, we have a lot of the social

media and stuff. Being a parent with kid, it's not

going to necessarily go read the Bible. He's going to

look on YouTube and stuff like that. With all the

different religions and all the different books there's out there,

how do you how do you let them know what

to listen to and what not to listen to?

Does that make sense? Oh? Yeah, it makes perfect sense.

I am a personal believer that you should be intrusive

into everything your kid does. I believe that you should

know what they watch on YouTube, that you should you

should know what they're doing on Instagram that uh, And

to be honest with you, you know, probably like Twitter, I

would say they need to be a much more mature

person before they before you even let them have a

Twitter account, and you know, you need to know what

they watch.

And then here's the thing, though, it's easy to just.

Say, okay, well I'm not going to let them blanket statement.

But it's much better parenting is if you get involved

in that with them, and then you parent them and

coach them through it. So in other words, I'm not

going now, I'm not talking about sin. I'm not talking

about stuff that's sin. But I'm talking about you know,

whatever show it is. I don't know, The Bachelor, I

don't know. I just I saw a commercial for it

last night, The Bachelor. So hey, you know your kids like, oh,

everybody's school is watching the back that they don't.

By the way, if.

You're a middle schooler said everybody's watching The Bachelor, they're lying,

oh yeah. So you sit down with them and you

watch the show, and then you're telling them, hey, you know,

this is not real life. Those people are getting paid.

They pulled them aside and they told them what to say.

This is not the way love is. This is not

real life, this is not the way relationships are developed.

As a matter of fact, this is the way a relationship.

And you parent them through those things, right, rather than

just trying to let them go and then fix it later,

get involved in the process and parent them through those

things and be hands on through every situation. And hey,

you know you just need to have that policy in

your home.

But look at me in your home. Eighteen the number.

Eighteen, the age eighteen is a legal number, not a

spiritual number. You never stop being your child's parent. And

if they're living at home, you living in my house.

As for me and all my folks, were gonna serve

the Lord.

Amen.

And I'm gonna be involved at any point I can.

My daughter's in college eighteen years old. I say, baby,

I want to see your phone.

She'll let me.

Doesn't have those things to hide, and I'll go through

a text message if I want to, just because I

am her first level of spiritual authority and defense.

So get involved.

If they say, oh, well, my friends parents don't do that,

you look at them, and this is what you say, exactly,

word for word, saying I can't help it that your

friends' parents don't.

Love them the way I love you.

Because love's hard sometimes, amen, And I love y'all. That's

why we have to have hard conversations sometimes.

Amen. But uh, it's a good stopping point, all right.

Well, listen, I know this is not what most people

expect when they come to church. But we like to

do this once maybe twice a year, and we usually

pick honestly, we usually pick holiday weekends because we know

people are going to be gone on vacation and all

of those things.

But thank you so much for being here and being

part of this.

If you continue to have questions, if something stirred a

question on the inside of you, you can go to

Sea Stone. That's the letter see word Stone sea Stone

dot church slash town Hall and you can submit questions

anytime you have them right there. And when in the

Gray comes back in the fall, I'll start by answering

all those questions that come in right there at the

town Hall web portal. So can I pray for everybody? Father,

I thank you for your mercy and your grace, and

I thank you for times like this. Lord, Sometimes we

sit down and it's a designed meal where everything goes together,

and sometimes like today, it's a smorgasboard. It's a little

bit of this and a little bit of that. And

I thank you for these opportunities because we know when

you get involved at the issues that we're living in

right now, we see spikes in our spiritual growth. And Lord,

we thank you that you've come alongside people, and you've

helped them. See you've helped them grow today. Now Lord,

we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen,

Amen and Amen. Group day, next Sunday, eat tacos.

It's going to be