Walk This Way - Week 1

We're starting a brand new series today called Walk This Way. We do four

things here, Experience God, walk in freedom, find our place so we

can live with purpose. I want to spend just the next couple three weeks

talking about walking in freedom, Walking in freedom? What does that mean,

what does that look like? And how do we achieve that? So,

if you got a Bible, I want to I want to read a passage

of scripture that should be pretty familiar to you if you've been through engage.

I pray this passage of scripture over you each and every day as individuals corporately.

This is a passage that's in my heart that I pray over you every

single day. Ephesians Chapter one, verses seventeen and eighteen. It says,

I keep asking that the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Glorious

Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you

may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be

enlightened, literally, that your heart may be set free, in order that

you may know the hope to which He has called you the richest of his

glorious inheritance in his Holy people. Father, we thank you for your word,

that it is a lamp unto our feet, that it is a path

to kingdom success, that it is our go to for wisdom, that it

is the buffer against the enemy. Your word is the only change agent on

the face of the planet. And I pray that today, Lord, we

see a little more clearly what you have for us in this name. Amen.

Amen, and amen. You know the Lord desires to enlighten our hearts

or to set our hearts free from the bondages that we walk in a lot

of times, especially here in the Bible Belt the South, where everybody knows

the Good Lord, right, I mean, everybody knows the Good Lord.

Everybody's grandmama is on the side of a pew somewhere. Amen. And I

think that that when we talk about those things and we live in the proximity

to the Gospel, that we do, although statistics tell us that lots and

lots and lots of people still have not heard about Jesus right here within a

five mile circle around our church. But most of us, you know,

we know that Sunday morning is the day you go to church. We know

that, you know the stores open later on Sundays because it's church day.

We we know those things, and we live in that awareness. We live

in that context, and when we talk about things like bondage, we have

a familiarity enough that we think we mean bad things that other people do.

Come on somebody, not that I do, but bad things other people do.

That's bondage. That's But literally, there is bondages that exist that we

don't acknowledge as sin, that we don't acknowledge as bondage because they're just so

cultural, culturally prevalent that nobody looks down upon those things, just simply like

the ideology that there can be more for my life than I have right now,

that I don't have to be locked into the role that I'm in right

now. That literally walking in freedom is walking in life and life more abundant

life that the average person doesn't see or experience, but something that is set

apart for believers. And we look in the context in which this is said,

it's said in very difficult times for those who are following Christ, they're

suffering, suffering persecution. Christians are being put to death, they can't openly

worship because of the persecution that's coming against them. But yet they talk about

this freedom in Christ and this liberty and being free of bondage. So it's

not something natural, that something that happens at the spirit level of a man

that allows us to be free even when it doesn't look like we're free.

It allows us to have a piece and a confidence even when everything seems a

little shaky around us. You know. I remember when I was when I

was just I was actually a junior in high school going for my junior to

senior year. We went fishing. I went fishing with my uncle down at

Saint George's Island, and we got on this boat and we went to this

place called the Cut where they cut the island in half so that the shrip

boats could come through so they didn't have to go all the way around the

island. So we're out there fishing, and man, we're catching sharks as

fast as we could catch. It's not what we were fishing for, but

we just we were catching little hammerhead sharks about this long, as fast as

we could read them in, and they were too long for the cooler,

and we didn't want to go home empty handed. Come on, somebody,

Sometimes you just catch things and you keep them because you don't want to go

home empty handed. We wanted to say we ate something right, so we

would ril those sharks. It had a little hatchet. We'd cut them in

half and throw them in that cooler. There was blood everywhere, not the

blood of Jesus either, The blood of sharks smell bad. And we looked

up and there was this storm. No, have you ever been fishing on

the ocean. Now you can see forever and you can see that storm coming

and started getting a little rough. So just as we were getting ready to

leave, somebody hung something that seemed like a monster and he foughted and foughted

and fought it for about forty five minutes, got up to the edge of

the boat. It was a steam road cut and so we're racing this storm

back in and we didn't make it. We got caught in the storm and

the waves got about eight feet high. We were in an eighteen foot bass

boat. We'd go over one and bam, hid in between it, and

then go over another one. Bam. Well we went, we went bam,

and we went bam. The water went push. Two waves met on

top offs and turned the boat over. We're about two miles out from shore

and we have successfully chummed the water come on, somebody. There's pieces of

shark floating everywhere. I mean, there's blood. One of the guys is

back there where the gas is coming out of the boat's leaking out of the

boat, and he's treading water. He said, sharks don't light gas.

He's treading water and gas. And I'm like, you're a dummy. And

I remember the thought in my mind was, if we're gonna get eaten by

shark, please let me be first, because I can't stand the thought of

being next. Come on, somebody. That really went through my mind.

And I'm uneasy. And you know, I look at my uncle. He's

just hanging out there. You know, he's just he said, everything's gonna

be okay. And I said, you know something. You must know something

I don't because it does not look like everything's okay. He said, just

be ca. He said, I tell you what. Somebody needs to swim

to shore. And it probably needs to be the small At the time,

I was the smallest. Probably needs to be the smallest one. I said,

ah, bad plan. But he never panicked, and after two hours

of treading water, the oldest man living on Saint George's Island on an air

conditioning company, and he saw us bobbing up and down in the water and

came out and picked us up in his boat. And we got on that

boat and my heart was and I was scared. And he looked at me.

He said, I told you not to worry, but everything was gonna

be okay. I said, how did you know that? How did you

know that? He said, because when the boat turned over and I went

underwater, in my mind, I just said, Lord protect us. And

I just felt like he said, okay, I wasn't saved or anything.

Then I didn't have that assurance. But he had something that I didn't have.

He had this thing called freedom, this peace that passes all human understanding,

that allowed him to cope with the situation that I couldn't cope with.

That's what it is when we talk about our hearts being enlightened and having the

freedom of Christ, and every single one of us are designed uniquely and different.

I think that if you could see a thirty thousand foot view of the

invisible makeup of this church, it would be a fingerprint of God that's unlike

any other fingerprint anywhere in the world, specifically and uniquely made for such a

time as the this in such a place as this, and in order to

walk in freedom, we need to understand that freedom doesn't feel and look the

same way to everybody. Some of y'all just blew your minds. A lot

of it is our personal makeup and how we're designed is what freedom looks like,

and how we experience God isn't the same. Some people feel God in

here, some people feel God back here. Some people hear an audible voice.

Some people don't hear an audible voice. Some people God speaks specifically and

only through his words. Some other people, in those times of prayer,

they feel that deep connection in God's voice just radiate through their spirit. God

speaks to us as He created us, and we're individuals and uniquely made.

And the way church has existed for a long time is that we throw a

bunch of people from different backgrounds and different makeups, and God created them differently

in a big room together, and we task the pastor with having the right

word at the right time for everybody. That's tough. There's people that got

saved a month ago and people that got saved almost a century ago. There's

people that have been on the mission field and people that have never even shared

their faith one time, and we try to meet the needs of the masses

from a singular pulpit. Now, I want to tell you that God's word

is anointed, and God has the ability to speak into your heart the thing

that you need in that moment. There are multiple times, really multiple times

per week sometimes that I will shake hands and hug people as y'all are leaving,

and y'all will say something. Lord. I want to tell paston,

boy, you really touched me when you said that and your spirit And I've

been thinking about Quinn smoking this whole time, and I'm thinking, what I'm

gonna have to go back and listen because I don't remember talking about that.

But it's what the Holy Spirit did with those words in your life. And

He has the ability to challenge you, meet you at your point of need,

to bring you to an encounter with Him so that you experienced that moment

where that burden is lifted and you experience that freedom and then the uniqueness of

us leave the place after we had that encounter with God, and by the

time we get to the parking lot, the kids have lost their mind.

Come on, somebody, you got a text from your mama or your daddy.

Amen, you just remembered, Oh, yeah, we don't have enough

money to get McDonald's, And that moment begins to melt away, and the

heaviness of life begins to creep in. And I'm not holding you to blame

for those things, because life is difficult and we're all at different places in

the journey. That's why we believe that groups help you walk in freedom,

that groups take that moment that you have and surround people that are surround you

with people that are like minded enough to have compassion. You know, I

talked to Antoinette about something this morning because I know she has compassion in the

same area, and I know that she has faith to match up with a

specific need that I was talking to were about. And I knew that because

I spent time with her. Now I know those life issues that go on,

and we must bring ourselves into affiliation with people that can see things the

way we see them and to create an opportunity for others to connect. Listen

to the words of the apostle Paul in First Corinthians, Chapter nine, verse

nineteen. It says, for though I am free from all men, I

have made myself a servant to all that I might win the more listen to

this list, he goes through, and to the Jews. I became as

a Jew, that I might win Jews, to those who were under the

law, as under the law, that I might win those who were under

the law, to those who were without law, as without law, not

being without law toward God, but under the law toward Christ. That I

might win those who were without law. To the week I became weak,

that I might win the week I became all things to all men, that

I might be all means save some. Now this I do for the Gospel's

sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you. Paul says,

there's a diversity of people and needs, and I changed myself to be

able to meet all of those. But let me propose something to you that

what if I didn't have to do it all? But we harness the anointing

and the the power that's in each, every each and every individual, and

allow this church to be all things to all people, that we may reach

some, that those people who have a compassion for like minded women to get

together in a group designed for women, for those that have a design to

study scripture and pray for one another, to be involved in a Sunday morning

small group that's about the Word and finding those fundamentals in the faith, or

a place for men where they can talk about men things, or a place

for people that are struggling and that they don't really know how to process through

grief. A group created for people that are trapped in the bondage of grief.

See. Groups create that place for us to connect. And it's not

just in those felt needs, but groups go beyond that because sometimes somebody isn't

ready to connect at the felt need level. They need to create that.

They need to connect at an activity level. So maybe they have a desire

to to knit or to cross ditch, and you know what, we got

a group for that. And they come and they knit and they cross ditch

and they're surrounded by people who care about them, who are there, who

show up that they can depend upon, and then suddenly those felt needs begin

to spill out because groups allowed to be what the Kingdom desires for our church

to be. See, walking in freedom is something that we don't ever or

we haven't accomplished well in the history of the church. We have moments of

freedom come on somebody. But to walk on the cutting edge of our experience

with God is something that has eluded the church until we've gone back to the

beginning and understood that this is the way the early Church did it, that

the mass gathering was a place of celebration, and that groups were where life

was done and where real, true, deep ministry happened in the lives of

people. See, when we learn to walk that way, when we learn

to walk through, when we walk in freedom, it becomes a testimony to

the world around us because they see that we experience life differently, that we

experienced the challenges differently. You know, one of my favorite moments from last

year, it's not one of Daniel's favorite moments. One of my favorite moments

from last year is took some guys from the men's group and we went over

to Daniel's house after he had his car wreck. He was in the bed

and we just went over just to say we love you and spend time with

it. And then listen, his little girl came in and drug her mattress

into the bedroom and threw it down. She said, this is where I

sleep. She grabbed me an she said, come in here to help me

brush my teeth. I said, I don't do that, sweetheart. Pastor

got drawn a line somewhere. You need to talk to mama. But you

know what, we got to do life, all of us in that room

together, like we don't get to do it here in the sanctuary. We

got to be there for one another. And that's what our faith is all

about. See if you are, if you're a member of Cornerstone, the

gathering may be the most important, but if you truly desire a walk of

faith, doing life is what's important. Now. Our church is pretty extraordinary,

not because of me, but because of you. Our our food ministry

has multiple people from multiple churches that show up on Saturdays and they all serve

together because it's not about the name brand that we put on it. It's

about the life that we want to extend in the life. We want to

help people experience a life walking in freedom. And you are the key component

to that. You are the key component to that. That you get involved

in group life, or that hey, you decide I've kind of set in

the shadows as long as I can. I want to start. I want

to start my own group. I want to lead a group. I wanta

okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna challenge you with qualifications here. I want y'all

be honest. How many of y'all have ever had anybody over to the house?

Raise your hand. I don't mean from church, I just mean you

ever had anybody come over to your house, you know, Mama and them,

cousins, neighbors. You're qualified to lead a group. We want you

not to just find something to do a group about. We want you to

continue doing what you do in life and invite people along on the journey.

That's all group leadership is about. It's about inviting other people in your journey

so that you all can experience God and be accountability partners and lift one another

up and pray for one another so that life does it get so hard and

so lonely because people are doing it with your shoulder to shoulder, day after

day, hour after hour. So maybe it's a it's a group. You

know, we got a we we got a group that's gonna be starting this

year that I'm really excited about. We're gonna have a group where where families

that that deal with special needs children and adults and anybody that that that has

that in their lives because life looks different and it's a little harder, a

little more complicated. Come on, somebody, We're gonna have a group where

people can come together and be there as a resource for one another and do

life together. And I'm so excited because it's an area of great need and

somebody said, hey, I see that need. I want to step up

and meet that need. And that's what group life is all about. That

we just look around us and say, hey, there's a bunch of lonely

people. Why don't we just have a group where everybody gets together on Tuesday

evenings and go eat. I'm just spitballing. I'm just trying to take the

words of Paul and move them into modern day oak Wood. Come on,

somebody, and what would Paul say. Paul would say, Hey, to

the rednecks, I became a redneck. Amen to the first responders. I

became a first responder. To the school teachers. I became a school teacher

because I want to help you do life right where you are and navigate the

challenges and the troubles that face us. Off. Wow, to the retired,

this is what I'm thinking about working on right here. To the retired,

I became retired. If anybody like me to like to help me accomplish

that, I'll give you my bank account number. Come on, somebody,

just why are that retirement fund right in there? See? The purpose of

groups is first of all, to help people connect. The second purpose is

for us to protect. That we protect one another, and then that we

grow together. And when you hear a pastor say grow together, the immediate

thing you think of is learn more scripture. But here's the reality. You

need to learn the principles behind the scriptures and how they apply to your lives.

It's one thing to know by your stripes he was healed. Come on,

somebody, but how does that apply to my life? How does faith

without works is dead? How does that apply to my life? How does

love your neighbor as yourself? How do I actually do that? What is

the principle behind that? And why would he say that? Because my neighbors

are important and groups are where those principles come to life and we grow and

we experience God in everyday life together. Now, should you learn scripture?

Yes, memorize the whole Bible. Quiz you on it next week. But

that is often just knowledge. We want you to move beyond knowledge and into

wisdom. Wisdom is the application of the knowledge that you learned. And we

should be master appliers of God's word because we do life together. In John

chapter eight, verse thirty one, it says, then Jesus said to those

Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my

disciples. Indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall

make you free. If you're my disciples, you'll abide in my word.

You're gonna be together and the truth will set you free. How do I

experience the truth in conjunction with other people? Listen, if you're inside my

life and you know what's going on in my life, and God works in

my life, and you see God show up and do miracle in my life.

Because we're doing that life together, because we have an open an open

pathway of communication, we have joint experience. It may not have happened to

you, but we experienced it together. You saw the story unfold. Rather

than waiting for my testimony and me get at wordsmith just right and tell you

a story, you get to experience the messy parts of the testimony and see

that you can make it too. Because God's no respector of persons. And

I saw him work in Steve, and I experience how he works in Steve,

he certainly can work in me like that too, because it doesn't look

like a finished product. Now it's an instruction book on how to get there.

Come on, somebody, if you're struggling being a parent, find some

folks that you think are good parents and hang out with them. It's gonna

do two things. Number one, it's gonna encourage you that you're not as

bad of a parent as you thought you were, because we all mess it

up. And number two, you're gonna learn some tricks of the trade along

with the way. And you're gonna have some people that will pray for you

and help you get through those hard times. If you just got married,

find some people that have made it. Let's e raise your hand. If

you've been married thirty years or more forty fifty fifty years, those are your

marriage professionals right there, the forty years. They're like vps of marriage.

Amen. Find out the tricks of the trade. Talk with them, now,

listen. They may give you the advice. Best thing you can do

is just stay in opposite rooms. Probably not the best advice. But hey,

che you up to meet and spit out the bones. All right,

It's what group life is all about. It's not about just learning another bit

of information. It's about navigating life. And you shall know the truth,

and the truth shall make you free, they answered him. Now, I

want you to listen closely to these words. They answered him. We are

Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say

you'll be made free? They were in bondage when they said it. They

were living under military occupation when they said it. He said, We've never

been in bondage to anybody. How can you say it'll make us free?

Groups will help you see the reality that you don't have to live the way

you've been living. There is another way to experience it and another way to

get through it. You may find out you're in bondage and you don't even

know you're in bonded. You think you're living in freedom, but suddenly,

bam, Now I know I'm wearing glasses again because I got older and my

eyes got worse. But I had Lasik surgery and when I was a lot

younger, and it was a crazy experience because I didn't know how bad my

eyes were. I just knew that I didn't see evidently as clearly as everybody

right. But I thought I could read road signs. I thought I could

see traffic lights. I couldn't. I just made some good educated guesses along

the way. Go in this chair and I sit down, and they say,

you see that clock? And I said, what clock? Point to

it? They said, that clock right there? Can you read it?

I said, I don't even see a clock. Said so you can't read

that clock. I said no. So they lay me back. They've burned

inside of my eyebass, cut stuff open, and you know, it was

just like, now that I think about it, why did I do that?

But then they sat me up. And when they sat me up,

that immediate they said, can you see that clock? I said yeah,

and I could read the numbers on it. I went from not knowing I

couldn't see to experiencing clear sight just like that. And that's what group life

can do for you. It can wake you up to the possibility that I

just thought I was free, but now I really am free. Now I

can see some things in my life that are holding me back just a little

bit. Say men, if you're following me, They said, listen,

we've never been in bondage. How can you say that we'll be free?

Clay, Come on, Jesus answered most assuredly, I say to you,

whoever commits a sin as slave a sin, and a slave does not abide

in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the

sun makes you free, you shall be free. Indeed, said the sun

shows up and makes you free in just a moment. We'll give you an

opportunity. If you didn't come to your thisy moment, We're gonna give you

an opportunity to come and experience that touch of freedom. You're bound by an

addiction, You you got problems you can't solve you. You're stressed out over

money, you you're depressed, you're you have anxiety, you're sick, you're

whatever. Give you an opportunity to experience that that freedom. But Jesus says,

it's not just for the moment. That is for every day life.

That grief that's holding you, it doesn't have to hold you. There's there's

more freedom than just that moment. When you come down and pray about whatever

it is, there's there there's there's longer lasting freedom than that if you're surrounded

by a group of people who do life with you, shoulder to shoulder.

I love watching the Animal Channel, Animal Planet, whatever it is channel with

all the animals on it. I really really really like those shows, like

of the Serengetti planes where there's just thousands prong horn out there. There's thousands

of antelope and gazelle whatever it is. They're all out there eating, and

it's always that guy with that cool voice. See the other roaming on the

planes. Look one is having a baby, and then the music changes.

It drops down a key and look a lioness and she's hunting with her pride.

And they're crawling through the grass and they wait until one gets by itself,

and as soon as they see that one singled out by itself, they

pounce and all of them, that one little gazelle, four or five lions

jump on it, and then of course they cut away because they can't show

that on TV, right, but we know what happens. It breaks my

heart to think that you're doing life alone because the enemy is a roaring lion

seeking whom he may devour, and he's not gonna run into the middle of

your group, but he'll pick you off. If you're by yourself, he

won't pounce on you right here. But man, when you start out of

the parking lot, all those thoughts, all those doubts, they'll run right

back in. But you don't have to live in those doubts, because where

two or three are gathered in his name, he's there in the midst of

them. And it's not just in the saint where it's also in group.

If you're here today, this next week group day, next week, just

so happens. I preach it about groups, and next week is group day.

I ain't really an accident. We plan that. What's the chance for

you to find a place to find a group, find three or four and

move around until you find the one that fits the best. And always have

this conversation with somebody that goes to the tribes Bruce for the very first time

they try a group, and then I say, what group you I'm in

four from zero to four? Great, So why are you in four?

Well? I just I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, so I just

keep going to all off. It is against the rules for group leaders feelings

to be hurt when you stop coming to their group. We want you to

find the place, find the place where you experience life together and walk in

freedom. Everybody's standing with me all over the room. You know I'm talking

about walking in freedom. But there may be somebody here today. There may

be someone here today that you're like walking in freedom. I just want to

experience some with a freedom. I want to know what it's like for thirty

seconds not to be stressed out and depressed and sad and alone. I just

want to I just want a glimpse. And this is your moment. If

you'll step out of the insecurities and fear that have held you in place,

You'll give you that moment of freedom. You'll taste and see that He is

good, and you'll want to walk in that freedom. And you'll find a

place to plug in so you can experience that on a daily basis. But

if you're here today, you say, pastor, I just I'm just stressed

out and lonely. I'm tired, I'm sick, I'm broke. I have

I have anxiety attacks four times a day, and I don't know why.

I just find myself afraid and tied up in nods and crying and I don't

want I don't know why I don't. This is your moment. Authors team,

come back real quick. You may even doubt whether God can do it

for you or not. I will tell you with assurance if you don't ever

attest him, it won't happen. At least you have got a chance if

you bring it to him. It's on the count of three. If you

hear and you just want to you just want to experience that fret. I

just don't want to feel by myself anymore. On the count of three,

I want you to step out. I want you to move one h two

three, step out and move right now. Where are you, amen,

Patrick Clay, Let's see Jesus. Jesus h