Vision Sunday 2024 - We The People

But I want to talk to you today. I want to give you some

vision. I want to do a quick recap and hit the highlights of last

year and just kind of talk about moving forward. It's gonna be different though

today. A lot of times I give you goals and things like that,

but but I'm not doing that today. I believe that God has a different

agenda for twenty twenty four, and that is for us to learn to be

the church. For a long time, we've tried to program everything. I'm

trying to make things happen, but it just listen. The Kingdom is built

organically through people being believers, stepping into their destiny and the call on their

life, and becoming who God wants them to be. So I'm going to

speak to you in just a little while about some things prophetically that I see

happening. And I know you're not used to that from me, but I

really believe the Lord has spoken some things to me and I want to give

you a little bit of that. But first of all, I want to

start out by saying thank you. I talk to a lot of pastors,

and one thing that seems to be common with most of them is that there

is such a sense of loneliness being the lead pastor. But I want you

to know that I have never felt separate from the congregation. It's very it's

very rare when the pastor feels like he's just one of us. Come on,

somebody and I feel like I'm not the pastor, but I am part

of this body, and that is that's important, that that I'm part of

what God's doing. How many of you have been through Engage Praiser and the

rest of you need to go all right. So one of the things that

you heard through and Engage is it's a simple little phrase that that that may

have just snuck by you and you didn't even realize it, And that is

that we don't really think there's a distinction between the people on the platform and

the people that do everyday life in a different kind of job. That there

is no separation between clergy and laity, or because we're all just in this

together and God has called each and every one of us, and our anointings

are just as strong and just as vital. We just have different jobs.

That's the only difference. And I want to thank you for making me always

feel part of the people. And I believe That is what makes this place

so special, is that we view each other in a way where we are

doing this, We are accomplishing something so much bigger than we could individually,

and we're doing it together because see, it's about we the people. See

last year we talked about you were God's plan and you still are amen.

But this year I want us to think in the concept of we the People.

I believe, especially as Americans, that phrase means something to us as

Americans, right We the People. It's on the folst famous document that exists

in our country, We the People, We the People, We the People.

But I believe that that phrase has become somewhat broken in society because I

don't think we are we the people. I think there's some people over there,

and some people over there, and some people over there and people out

there, and we're not we the people anymore. There's no real cohesiveness to

anything that we do. And I believe that as a culture, we've been

programmed to want that, in need that, And I believe that God has

positioned us perfectly for such a time as this right here at Cornerstone Tabernacle,

to be the we that they need to be. The we in a world

of a loneeness to be the we in a place where people just try to

scratch and struggle and have to find something in all the fate that's out there

to hold on to, where here they can just simply find the authenticity and

the acceptance that they're looking for. In Matthew chapter eighteen, starting in verse

eighteen, it says, assuredly, I say to you, hold Lord,

let me put my glasses on so I can be sure what it says to

you. Amen, Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bond on

earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be

loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you

agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them

by my Father in Heaven. That sounds good, but you know it's not

you. It's we, says it's not just one. But when when a

couple or three or four, or two hundred or three hundred get together and

we agree, nothing can stop God. I just don't. I don't want

to go through another year of praying shall be prayers I want to pray.

I mean, I don't want to go through another year of praying. Maybe

prayers I want to go through a year of praying, shall be prayers verse

twenty. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I

am there in the midst of them. Now, let's read out to John

chapter thirteen, verse thirty five. By this all will know that you're my

disciples. If you have love of one for another. Father, thank you

for your word. It's the it's the only change agent on the face of

this planet. And Father, I pray that you change us today. That

if there is one who is skeptical about the authenticity of this place, if

there's one that has stood on the fringe looking inward, that today they would

decide to step in. If there are those that have pressed their face against

the window of life, isolated and watching the destiny of others pass by,

that they would go past that seal and step into the totality of who you

are, because today they were set free. Lord, I love you,

I praise you, and I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. You

know, I tell everybody this is the most amazing group of people on the

face of the planet. And when I say that, I mean it.

Now some of y'all are rascals. But the rest, most of y'all,

Amen, most of y'all are the best people on earth. Now, we

all got our struggles, we've all got our problems, We've all got our

issues, but that doesn't mean that God has up brought us together to be

the we. As a matter of fact, let me give you just a

I want to give you just a couple of quick things about what we the

people did, not about what somebody else did, but we the people did

for twenty twenty three. Total giving in twenty twenty three was four hundred and

six thousand, eight hundred and forty nine dollars, the second highest giving total

under my senior leadership. Ever, what an amazing year. Now, I

want you to look around. Somebody else didn't do that. We did that.

Amen. Nobody mailed a check for four hundred thousand dollars last year.

However, if you're watching, we would love you to be part of the

WII. Four hundred and six thousand dollars given for God's ministry. Out of

that four hundred and six thousand dollars, I think it's gonna blow you away,

blew me away. Over eighty one thousand dollars given to the mission field.

Eighty one thousand dollars saw away from this place into the community. What

a generous group of people we are. Our food ministry, our food bank

served thirty and a half tons of food in twenty twenty three. That's a

lot. That's like more Nyway, thirty and a half tons of food,

almost fifteen hundred families fed because of our generosity. We need a build out

down there. Then we had to do an addition down there. And listen,

I want y'all to know something about Gary Dodson, who leads our our

food bank. He never quits asking for more. I love him, but

he always asks for more because he has a vision to feed him all.

And I believe that one day we won't just have a food pantry, but

we'll have satellite locations and other places where we can distribute food to people in

other places of our county and other places in our area, so that there

can be food distributed there too. And we're making preparation for that now by

making some hard decisions in the infrastructure and the way we run things. So

next week, all of our team leaders, everybody's going to get together and

what we call it all hands next Sunday evening and we're going to unveil the

new twenty twenty four budget to all you guys and listen. I want to

go ahead and tell you right now, all team leaders, look at me

right now. We sat down and we went through this budget, and the

way we decided that we needed to operate was we budgeted off of ninety percent

of this year's giving. Not because we think you're not gonna give like you

always have, because I believe you'll give more. I believe when everybody else

is going to be in need, God's people are going to rise and be

blessed. I believe that. But because we have to create margins so that

we can do things like expand to different locations with our food pantry, so

that we have money on hand, so that we can do things at a

quick pace to be able to meet needs in other places. And that's why

we have to do this. But I want you to know that in order

to do that, it's gonna squeeze this year. Come on, somebody,

it's gonna squeeze. Team leaders, it's gonna squeeze. And I want you

to know when we sat down, we looked at that budget. We sat

down with the people that with our bookkeepers. We sat down with some of

the team when we looked at those things, and I want y'all to know,

every one of y'all. I thought to give y'all more money in your

budget, every one of you. I wanted to give every one of you

the whole budget. But Pastor Clay wouldn't let me. So if you're not

happy with the amount in your budget, it's his fault because I tried to

give you more. Amen. Just so that's settled, I wanted to talk

about it next week. But we believe that there are things that still need

to be achieved in our community to help meet felt needs, because I believe

that Jesus Ministry was an example of meeting felt needs that led to meeting spiritual

needs. But people were hungry. He fed them when they were naked clothed.

He gave them purpose because purpose equals life. We were able to build

a kitchen on that tiny little island off the coast of Honduras where they're feeding

hundreds of people every single week. Out of that kitchen, we're able to

be able to get food into an orphanage on that same little island to people

listen they were trying that. They were trying to feed all of those teenage

boys on less than three hundred dollars a month, not a week a month.

Could you feed one keeenage boy for three hundred dollars a month? No

way. Sitting in a dark place in a dark building because they can't afford

to run the lights one hundred degrees outside one hundred and twenty inside, And

we the people, through generosity, were able to partner with them and send

them enough money every month to be able to increase their food and be able

to get the lights on so that the kids could do homework. We did

that because we the people, can't be stopped. If God's with us,

then we're doing what He's called us to do. You know, our groups

in twenty twenty three took an amazing step. You know, we always want

to look at how many people got into group and how many groups there were,

but it's not that it's group life took an amazing step. The ethos,

the personality, the characteristics of those groups stepped up and did something that

we've been praying for, and it's something that we started dreaming about that this

is group life, this is what it looks like this is what it's supposed

to be. And groups suddenly stepped up and without me even knowing, come

on, somebody, without me even knowing, started reaching out and helping people

that had a need in the group. I'll get reports. We got together

and we we we we put some money together to help so and so.

Go see that they're they're they're sick so and so, and then you know,

we we've sent this over to the hospital to so and so and and

we did a meal for this, and we did a meal for that.

Listen, if you want better pastoral care, if I don't take good care

of you, get in a group. Just get in a group. They

do it better than I do. I know that this pulpit should be the

weakest part of our ministry because y'all are better at what you do than I

am at what I do. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with

that. Groups took that I'm amazing step and it was no longer just people

getting together, but it was almost as if you've got a glimpse and the

reality of what it is to be the family of God. Let's see,

the job of the church is twofold we're the Army of God where we fight

and we go to war over the souls of the lost humanity and the broken

people that don't have purpose. And then duplicitous part of that is that we're

also the family of God, where we love one another and we support one

another and we take care of one another. And when we start doing both

of those, that's when we begin to see the Kingdom momentum that we have

been seeing. And it's starting to happen because we're finally getting there. Come

on, somebody, We're finally getting there. We added two groups and what

we call the freedom section of what we do. We added grief Share,

which is a powerful, powerful ministry. Is there anybody here that's been part

of that grief Share group, Raise your hand and listen. It's transformative.

I'm telling you, it is transformative. And it hasn't just been inside,

but now people are coming from the community to be impacted through the anointing on

that ministry. We added Financial Peace University to help people get out of dead

and be able to live a life of freedom financially. And then this year

we hope to add another freedom group. We hope to add Celebrate recovery.

Something that's been on my heart for a long time is to be able to

resource to celebrate recovery where it's for people. Listen, people that come out

of a lifestyle of dependency. Even when they're free of that, there are

still some mental pathways that have to be rebuilt. See a lot of times

we think we graduate from a program and we're better. But what celebrate recovery

does is it helps come alongside and help you rebuild those mental pathways, those

thought processes, so that when stress gets high, we don't immediately think to

go back to the old way. Come on, somebody, You know that

throughout the Bible when we read, especially with Israel, God brought Israel out

of Egypt instantly, but it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel.

For forty years, they wanted to go back and eat leaks and onion.

Imagine that that's the highlight of your life for somebody to give you a

leak and an onion on a plate. But they were willing to settle for

that instead of the the land flowing with milk and honey. And it took

forty years. So celebrate recovery is about giving people that foundation to be able

to think differently about their lives and see freedom on the horizon, so that

they can be everything that God wants them to be. You know, I

had another example of group life. Ran into to a young lady on Wednesday

night. Hadn't seen her in a while, and just happened to turn the

corner right there, and she came in and hugged her and was so excited

to see her. And this is what she said. She said, I

just had to come to Barry's group tonight. I just had to come to

I just had to come to group tonight. Now, listen, I want

to You may not understand what that means. That means that when she was

ready to make a change and a correction of path, come on, somebody,

she didn't think about coming to church first. She didn't think about coming

to hear another sermon first, another song or two. She thought about coming

to the place where people would surround her with acceptance and love and help her

do life shoulder to shoulder, because that's what groups are all about. And

we're gonna do groups even better this year, not because we have a Listen,

I ain't changing nothing. If y'all want something to change. I ain't

changing nothing. We're just gonna love each other better because we're used to it

a little better now. You know. I don't know if my wife would

agree this or not, but I think I probably love her better now than

I did when we first got together because I understand her a little better now.

I know what those looks mean now. Amen, Like right now,

it's hurry up, lunch is ready. But we'll love each other better because

we understand each other a little better. Groups are the main focus of what

we do. And then you know, order this last year we baptized about

forty three people, and from January through December, and all of the facets

and all the things we did, let's just action that's gonna blow your mind.

Over one hundred people came through Engage. Engages the DNA of who we

are. Engage is the most important piece of the puzzle. If you're trying

to figure out whether you belong and whether you fit and you're still chasing your

purpose, Engage is that piece of the DNA that you're missing. It goes

deep into those four things and how everything works around here. And then Engage

is module one and module two that happens at ten o'clock every Sunday morning.

You just go right over to Room one O two and you plug in and

you go through those things, and then there's a module three where we sit

down and we look at your personality survey and your Spiritual Gifts Survey. We

put those things together and have a deep conversation about, Hey, this is

how God created you and for this season in your life. These are the

things that are pulling you and are attractive to you, and these are the

things that you're going to best find fulfillment in if you'll do these things.

We do that because we believe purpose is life and finding your purpose is everything.

And there's so many more things. And listen, if I didn't do

your thing, if I didn't talk about your thing, I'm sorry. I'm

meant to, but for sake of time, I got to move on.

Those are just some highlights of what we the People accomplished. But this is

just like always. We're gonna we're gonna do some We the People T shirts.

We'd love for you to buy one. We don't make anything off I'm

sure that I'll lose money off of it. We normally lose money on everything

we do. That's why God called me to preach, and I guess not

manage McDonald's. I don't know. But if you want that, there's a

sign up sheet. We're gonna do a pre order for those things, so

you need to pre order those. We're not just gonna because of the way

the budget works. We can't buy a bunch of extra shirts have them laying

around. Come on, somebody use pastor. Clay's already worried. We're like

a few days into two days, already worry. We're not gonna make budget

if he don't work harder, we're not. I hope you can hear that,

buddy. But I go over to the coffee bar, Laurie. You

got to sign up sheet over in the coffee bar. Pay for your shirt.

They're cheap. Do you know how much they are? Ten dollars cheap

T shirt? I mean, it's not a cheap price for a T shirt,

quality T shirt at a discount price. So go over there and order

your shirt and your size, and then there'll be a web form also that

We will post a link to it on the family page this afternoon. So

if you want to go on to that web link and you'll be able to

pay in everything online right there, So just know that that's available to you.

Just check the family page if you have it, and get that link.

Guys, we are headed into twenty twenty four. We are headed into

a place where I believe the Lord speaking to me is saying that things are

going to get harder on people, that we are are moving into a place

and it will be a significant shift in the way people understand life. Let

me say that again, a significant shift in the way people understand life.

Now. I don't say this for you to worry and to be afraid,

because the children of God are always going to be protected and elevated always.

We've never seen children of God forsaken, never seen them begging for bread.

God's got you. But I believe we're headed into a time like we haven't

seen, at least in my lifetime. The Lord can only speak to me

about my lifetime because it's the only one I've experienced. When the Lord speaks,

he normally speaks, especially when he speaks prophetically. He speaks to us

in our frame of reference, in our frame of knowledge. And as we

begin to do that, there is a veil that's being pulled back, a

veil is being pulled back because over the course of years, we have allowed

an institution to step into the place of God in many areas where God was

meant to be in control, and we have become dependent upon government organizations and

government agencies and things like that that have met the needs that God should be

meeting in our lives. We've looked at them for direction, we look to

them for truth, and we looked to them for information. And for the

first time, we're beginning to see that veil pulled back, that we don't

have the true, honest, sincere leadership that we once thought we had,

but that we are under a great orchestration of deception and corruption. And those

sheets are being pulled back, and many people are finding themselves lost and wondering

because they no longer have that guiding light to look to, and there is

a sense of panic and a sense of worrying people as they don't know.

Listen to me, I want you to hear completely what I'm saying that I'm

not talking about a president. I'm talking about the whole thing. I'm talking

about both sides and the isles in the middle. The whole thing is being

pulled back and revealed that we have had a dependency on man and man made

systems rather than on God. And as that they'll continues to be pulled back

and we begin to see those things. Another thing that's going to be revealed.

Listen, Another thing that's going to be revealed is the high level of

insidiousness and evil and sin at the high levels of leadership in our countries and

major organizations. That God is going to reveal that this was never a political

thing. It's always been a spiritual thing, because there is no separation of

the two, and even the Church, we've separated the two, and it's

always about power and control, and that's always a spiritual issue. And as

people begin to look and they begin to worry about what's going to happen and

what's going to be, they're going to look for places of authenticity. They're

going to look for places where they can once again find someone to rely on

and someone to trust. And I believe that we've been practicing for several years

to be a place just like that. And I believe that we don't need

to fight, and we don't need to complain. I believe we need to

live as examples with the banner of Jesus Christ held high in our lives,

so that we truly can be the people of God. We together can be

the solution that people are looking for, because they'll look for men first,

because that's what they've been following. Even the apostle Paul teaches us that people

often look to men before they ever find God. Paul himself says, listen,

imitate me as I imitate Christ. And in the process of finding genuine

authenticity in people, they will come to discover the foundation, the rock of

that authenticity, which is Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, the King

of Kings, the Son of God in all of his redemption. But we

the people have a job to do to build that. In Genesis chapter eleven,

starting in verse four, it's the story of the Tower of Bible.

It's what we call the story, but don't want to point out some things

quickly from it, and also point out what a cautionary tale that it is.

It says, and they said, come, let us build ourselves a

city. Underline that word ourselves. Come let us build ourselves a city and

a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for

ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. But

the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of

man had built. And the Lord said, indeed the people are one.

Indeed, the people have become a we. Indeed the people are one,

and they all have one language. And this is what they begin to do.

Now, listen to what he says about people when they're on the same

page. Now, nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.

This is what he says. He says, when we're a we,

we can do anything. He says, even though their cause wasn't just,

I have to step in and do something because mankind is trying to elevate himself

above God. But when people get together as a we, they are an

unstoppable force. What a scary, horrifying thought that we can build something for

us to the detriment of others. If the we in them is less than

the we and us, come, let us go down and confuse their language,

that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them

abroad from there, over the face of all the earth, and they ceased

building the city. It doesn't matter how hard things get we can build something

great. It doesn't matter what things look like. We can build something great.

And we're not gonna build something for ourselves. We're not gonna build something

for our names. We're building something for Jesus. We're building something for hurting

broken people, a refuge, a tower that they can run to and they

can find that safety because it is the dwelling place of the most High God.

And if the we in us is stronger than the we in them,

we can build something for God that will overshadow everything the enemies try to do

in our community. We can feed every hungry child at night. We can

feed every hungry child. It's an indictment against this church that want out of

every eight children go to bit hungry right here in our county. It's an

indictment against us because the we in us is not big enough yet. We

love each other, but not enough yet. We haven't got selfless enough yet

that drug addicts can have a place where they can get clean and find purpose

in Jesus Christ. We can build that, and we can do that that

we can begin address to address needs that families are feeling all over our community,

Families that are raising children that have needs beyond what the average person knows

how to meet that need. I want to give you a statistic, and

it's another reason why we're budgeting so tight, because I see a future coming

that we have to be ready and capable to meet the need in the future.

That right now, one in eight children are born on the autism scale,

science predicts that by twenty thirty, one in two children born will be

born with autism. Ministry looks different to families with autism than it does to

everybody else, and it's an area that has been neglected in the church.

It's one that we have never rallied to the cause because it's something we've always

just kind of held at an arms length and at a distance. But I

want to tell you that the time is coming where fifty percent of the population

will be dealing with autism, and we better start dreaming about what pastoring looks

like to people with autism. We better start dreaming about what that looks like,

and we better start training people who have an understanding and a deep rooted

compassion for those things because it's coming to our community, and if the Lord

carries we will be held responsible if we don't make plans and we don't dig

in and we don't get ready for what's coming. I'm telling you that we

can do anything. Not the church down the road, although I hope they

do. From the biggest to the smallest, I hope they do. I

hope they all outgrow us. I hope they all baptize more people than we

do. I hope they all have more people say than we do. I

hope they all have more people. Hell band, come and get ready.

I said that right in the middlem my preacher, let me stop because they

made a Missay. Y'all come get ready, Clay, Pastor Clay, I'm

sorry, we got watching football Witch Church Pastor Clay. I hope they all

outgrow us, because that means the kingdom is growing, because I know what's

going to happen here, because you are going to get to be part of

the WI and the we and us is gonna OUTWI the Wei that the Devil's

trying to bring together, and we're going to see the strongholds and the high

places pulled down. We're going to see solutions to things that have vexed to

the Church and God's people, and they're going to come through the dreams of

the people right here in this room, getting together with other people and finding

out how to flesh those things out and make those things become a reality.

Because greater is he who is in you and us than he who is in

the world. Twenty twenty four would be a great year to worry about and

be fearful off. But I want you to know that I plan on putting

my head down and running through every obstacle in every roadblock, and that we

better be with me. For the last two nights, I have dreamed this

recurring dream over and over all night on the last two nights. I'm not

saying it's God, but I am saying that I think I got clarity during

worship about what I was supposed to think about it. Patrick Clavery. Last

two nights I have dreamed over and over again. And it's weird because it

felt like this morning but I was standing here preaching, and I don't know

what happened. I don't even know how it happened. But while I was

preaching, somebody just came up out of the crowd and stabbed me over and

over and over again. Guess what I quit preaching. I'm not gonna tell

you all. And I just kept on preaching. No. I fell on

the ground, I got stabbed, and I was crying and screaming. And

I believe that this is also the year that we'll see the greatest attack against

the Word and the preaching God's word that we've seen in our lifetimes. I

believe that the enemy wants to cancel the truth because he wants the people scattered

like sheep without a shepherd. He wants to see people broken and busted.

But I want to tell you we are going to be there for you.

We are going to stand in the gap for one another. We are going

to be the place where people come back to, where people come back home.

This is the year that y'all will come we and we stand up and

be everything that God has for us. Everybody's staying with me all over the

building. I'm thinking, you know, like this is a vision, something

that's like it's like one of the big Sundays. And I'm just gonna be

honest with you all. I didn't know what we were singing because I looked

at the wrong week on Planning Center. I on here last week, so

I didn't know what everybody's saying. And I just kept saying Clant's leading Clants

League and then Clint is sitting up there and I'm like, what is happening

because I looked at the wrong week. It's what I just figured out.

None but Jesus. We fight for Jesus. We fight for one another.

And if you're here today and you feel isolated and alone, you feel like

you don't have the love and support of a family and community around you,

You're about to go something through, something difficult. Because I just talked to

somebody before church. Husband's about to go through surgery. They got to be

out of work to be with him. Listen, we need to step up

and be there in those situations. But if you're here and you feel lonely,

you're afraid, you feel broken, I want you to find comfort today.

If you're here and you've never asked Jesus to be the lord of your

life, there's sin in your life and there's something between you and his love.

He's calling to you right now because a singular act of a singular man

on a single cross on a single hill and a cunt tree at war,

it was all about we so that you don't have to be alone, that

you can find the acceptance and you can find the salvation from your sin and

the guilt and the shame that you need. So, if you're here today

you've never asked Jesus to be the lord of your life, or if you

hear here feel isolated and alone. I'm going to count to three, and

when I get to three, I want you to step out and make your

way to the front. We want to pray for you. One. Don't

look around to see if anybody's moving. This is about you. You got

to take that first step by yourself to be we. Two three, step

out and move right now. I feel, Pastor, I feel alone.

I want Jesus to forgive me of my sins. Come on, step out,

move, find one of these amazing prayer partners to pray with. Thank

you Jesus, Thank you Jesus. Pastor Clay, let's worship together.