True Religion

Man corner someone. I love you so much. I'm so glad to be

with you here on New Year's Eve, is the last day of twenty twenty

three. I was just talking to James this morning about it. It feels

like it was the longest and shortest year all at the same time. It

almost it almost doesn't make sense that we're at the end here, but it

has been. It's been an incredible year. And like I said, we're

gonna move into Vision Sunday next week, and I don't want you to miss

that. I want you to get everybody you can get here because Chief's gonna

lay out the vision for the coming year and I'm really excited about it.

And it's a it's a big year that we're heading into, a year where

lots of change is going to happen, and I believe, as God's people,

as the Church, I think we have to be prepared for that.

And so I want you to be here for Vision Sunday next week. But

this morning, I want to speak to the message God laid on my heart.

And if you're expecting Pastor Steve this morning, he's he's not feeling well.

He'sn't been feeling well all week, So keep Pastor Steve and the Stewart

family and your prayers as they deal with. There's lots of people sick.

I had it last week. There was one day last week I just thought

it would just be better for me to be with Jesus than on this couch.

That's how bad it was. So if you, I'm sure you guys

have family, friends, lots of people dealing with sickness right now. But

here's what happened. We got all together for Christmas and everybody sang together and

went to candle light and open presence and we shared all the germs and now

here we are. But bless God, he'll bring us through it as he

always has before. So Chief told me on Wednesday to be prepared and then

let me know this morning I actually still wasn't feeling well. He wanted to

be here with you this morning, but just wasn't able to do it.

So keep pastoring your prayers this week especially. But I have a word for

you, and I don't take that lightly. You guys know me, I

take it very serious. When I have the opportunity to speak to you,

and in light of all the good things that have happened, it's been a

it's been an interesting holiday season. If I'm honest with you, I've been

kind of I've been kind of overwhelmed lately, and not not in particular just

being super busy or or or super sick or anything like that, but I've

been overwhelmed with just the way our world is consumed with falsehoods and lies and

false narratives and stories that need to be told that take precedent over the facts

that are the truth. And maybe that resonates with you. I think if

you, if you take time to look anywhere from the political theater and talk

about we're moving into a year of change this election year. Everybody's real excited.

Remember four years ago is a big deal. Lots of change coming,

lots of lots of narrative, lots of stuff to be talked about. A

lot of things are not as they seem, from waging war across the world,

even down to things like inflation. GUYO, two years ago, you

know how much a pack of soda costs. A twelve pack of soda was

like four ninety nine. It's like almost ten dollars now, and you know

the product hasn't improved, it's the exact same coke you bought two years ago

in the exact same can, maybe a thinner can. Actually they've they've made

it thinner, right, so it's cheaper for them and more expensive for you.

Things are not as they seem, even down to something that really means

nothing in the grand scheme, but very close to my heart, even down

to college football. And if you guys thought you were getting away from that

this morning, I have the microphone. We're not getting away from it.

But I don't want to belabor the point here, and I don't want a

debate that we all saw the game yesterday. If you didn't see it,

you're blessed, okay, but that's not the point. The point is four

weeks ago something happened. A team won every game and did everything they were

asked to do, and then a committee of people decided that that was no

longer important and that we had to tell a different story instead of going by

the facts that were proven on the field. Now you can feel about that

however you want to. I know Georgia fans are happy they won big yesterday,

but I think Georgia kind of got messed up too. If you're not

into college football, we don't have to use that. You can use anything.

If you look hard enough in our world today, you can find something

you care about deeply that is being pushed forward by a narrative that's not based

on facts, but it's based on falsehoods. Why because it tells a better

story, or it makes more money, or it benefits those impositions of power,

often to the detriment of those who are not. And if you take

any time in scripture, if you look back, this is the way the

world has always been apart from God. That without God, falsehood's reign.

Because God is truth, and without him we can never get to the truth.

But the harsh reality the Lord revealed to me as I was preparing this

message, is this, as long as it doesn't hurt or inconvenience me,

as long as it doesn't impact my life, or maybe I should say it

this way, as long as it doesn't affect my comfort, I'm generally okay

with the world spinning around with false narratives and falsehoods. The Lord really convicted

me. I'm not goad told. I told Amber this when I was preparing

heard the Lord say to me. I was having a discussion over Christmas with

my parents, my sister and we were talking about college football. We talking

about how that was what was happening there is kind of a microcosm what's happening

on a grand scale across the world that a few get to decide for the

many to do the fuse benefit and the many just have to deal with it.

And I told Amber, as I was preparing, I heard the Lord

say to me. He said, Clay, you you didn't care about that

until it happened to Florida State. They y'all chuckle because it is kind of

funny, except when the Lord's telling you that and revealing a defect in your

heart. That it would have been okay for me if it happened to Bama,

been okay if it happened to Georgia. I've been okay if it happened.

But as soon as it impacted my life, as soon as that narrative

impacted me, then I cared. The Lord really convicted me. And that's

where this message comes from. And that's a sober experience. As a preacher

of the Gospel, I get the amazing opportunity to preach to you a few

times a year, and Chief is so gracious to do that and help me

and allow me to learn and grow. But as a preacher of the Gospel,

as a worship leader, we worship the one True God, I'm okay

with falsehoods. Really threw me for a loop, even more than the snub.

But that what I realized is is this, I'm increasingly okay. And

maybe you're like this too, because it's just so much all the time.

I'm increasingly okay with the erosion and deletion of the concept of truth. As

long as it doesn't hurt me, as long as it doesn't impact me,

as long as I'm not uncomfortable, Well, the world will spend whatever.

But I'm telling you, Church, I think this is becoming more common across

our entire body, not just at Cornerstone, I mean across the whole world.

We're just becoming okay with that because we feel like it's feutile, like

there's nothing we can do. But I believe in these last days, and

on this last day of twenty twenty three, as he has so many times

before, I believe the Lord is calling his people. It's the same message

he's always He's always called us to to remember the truth, to fight for

the truth, and to live by the truth. Turn with me to the

book of Hoseah Hoseiah chapter six, to read this with me. Starting in

verse four, the Lord says this, what shall I do with you,

o Ephraim? What shall I do with you? O Judah? Your love

is like a morning cloud, like a do that goes early away. Therefore

I have hewn them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words

of my mouth. And my judgment goes forth as light verse six. For

I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than the burnt

offerings. But like Adam, they transgress the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly

with me. Let us pray, Father, I pray that you reveal things

to us. But as we talk about your word, as we read more

of it. But I pray that you speak to us, that you rend

our hearts. Lord, that you correct that the defects and the insufficient parts

of us. Lord is this message goes forth. I pray that you'd hide

it in our hearts, do something miraculous within each one of us, that

we may look more like you. In Jesus' name. Amen. See the

prophet Hooaseiah records God's dealings with Israel and Judah, and it's a tumultuous time

in those kingdoms, and they've turned from him. They were God's people,

they were chosen, and they turned from him. And throughout the whole book

of Hoseiah, we see the prophet talking about all the things that they have

done, and God talks about all the things that they have done and the

judgment that they will receive, and then he talks about how He's going to

restore them and the process with which he'll do that. I know we've started

out, maybe on a lower note than you wanted to in the last day

of the year, but I promise you there's always hope that God is always

leading us in a hopeful direction. He's a God of restoration. But you

know, as I read this passage and Hoaseiah six, I just can't help

but think I'm reading about us. And I don't mean necessarily this group of

people here in this room or online, but I mean us as God's people.

That is, in these last days, as things get crazier and crazier,

it's God saying, what am I going to do with you? I

think I'm reading about those who know the truth. But we just allow it

to decay those who've known the path of life. But maybe we've turned from

it to some degree or another because of selfish desires, or maybe more likely,

we've turned from it out of fear, feeling like everything's falling apart.

As if we could find something out there that's better than the Lord Almighty,

something more tangible, something close, or something we could lay our eyes on

and make us feel better, as if there was such a thing. We

go through the motions, and maybe this message is not for you this but

I know it's for me. Sometimes we go through the motions, we follow

a formula, maybe to appease others or to soothe our guilty conscience. I'm

not talking to any real humans this morning. Sometimes we just do some stuff

just to make ourselves feel better. We've lost, we've lost the plot.

We know something's deeply wrong, we know it's wrong in us, and we

know there's something deeply wrong in the world, but we just try to numb

that. If we could just make it through, if we just get to

tomorrow or next week or next year. We try to numb that instead of

fixing the root problem, and the root cause is right there. In verse

seven, and Hoaseiah six. The reality is that many of us have transgressed

the covenant we have with God by trading our faith. I know this is

a hard message. Trust me. We've traded our faith, which it can

only be genuine faith if it's rooted in truth. We've traded it for this

fraudulent religion. We don't like to say that because we like to point that

at other people who worship different gods than us. But if a lot of

us, if we're honest, we have a few gods of our own,

and one of them we dress every morning, and I believe the Lord is

speaking to us. We know things are gonna get worse before the end.

Now, I don't want to preach doom and gloom to you. It's just

reality. We know. If you tall, you spend any time in scripture,

you know things out there, things across the world are just gonna get

steadily more chaotic until Jesus comes and makes it all right. We know that.

But scriptures also clear that God's people stay the course, that we keep

the faith, that we fight the good fight. Just because we know and

it's been prophesied and we see that obviously coming true doesn't mean we get to

check out, doesn't mean we get to opt out of the game just because

it doesn't mean anything to us. We gotta stay locked in. There's no

Bible verse that says, hey, it's gonna get bad, go to your

fallout shelter and hope it gets better. It doesn't say that. I mean

that would be easier, I guess, But it doesn't say that. In

fact, we know the opposite is true. The darker it gets, the

brighter the church is to shine. This next verse bent on my heart.

Just it's come up in worship services. Chief has precied about it online and

in person. Matthew chapter five, Jesus himself says, starting in verse fourteen,

he says, you are the light of the world. A city set

on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put

it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to

all in the house. In the same way, Let your light shine before

others. Why so that they may see your good works and give glory to

your Father who is in heaven. So that they may see your good works

and give glory to your Father in heaven, the salvation of those around us.

It may very well depend on your ability to maintain the faith and maintain

true, undefiled religion. That's on us, that's on our shoulders. As

God's people see salvation itself, we know is not based on our works.

There's nothing you could do to save yourself. It's based on what Jesus did

on the cross, and he already did it. He completed it. It's

done. You just have to accept that and enter that relationship. But though

salvation is not based on works, the way we fulfill our purpose as God's

people out of that salvation because salvation isn't one and done, it's complete.

You're saved, but you got to do something now. So our salvation is

not based on works. But our purpose quite literally is work. If it

wasn't work, why would Christ command let your light shine? That's work,

he says, hey, hands to the plow. No, and then we

do those good works to the benefit of those who can see us. So

we as God's people, we cannot hide though it gets harder, though it

gets crazier, we can't hide away, and we can't be lazy. We

have to work. So what are those works? Because I can hear it,

this was in my mind as I was saying this too, well,

what are you going to ask them to do, Clay, because you just

said about going through the motions and stuff is singing not good in them,

and you're saying really good this morning is really lou and awesome. No,

keep doing that. I'm not asking you to stop. But what are these

works? I'm glad you asked Michaeh. Chapter six. Let's go to another

prophet, Micah, Chapter six. Similar situation here, but Micah says,

starting in verse six, chapter six, with what shall I come before the

Lord and bow myself before God on High? Shall I come to before him

with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased

with a thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I

give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the

sin of my soul? Verse eight? He has told you, oh man,

what is good? And what does the Lord require of you? But

to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

Familiar verse I know, but incredibly powerful. See the answer to our

question, what are those good works? It's very very simple in concept and

very very difficult in practice. I just love the way Micah expresses it.

What does the Lord require of you? But these things simple? And God

has told us what is good? He tells us all across Scripture. If

you're wondering what God thinks about something, we start with scripture. He already

wrote something of it down. He's told us all across Scripture. What is

good? He tells us again and again as we go through things, and

he never leaves, and he never forsakes, and he continues to provide even

when we are unfaithful. He's there. He continues to tell us what is

good. He told us ultimately in the in the life and ministry and offering

of his son. God has told us what is good, Michael says,

what does the Lord require of you? Not sacrifices or burnt offerings. We

sometimes get confused in that language. But Micah's readers would have when he when

he first wrote this, and this first went out, they would have understood

that really well. Because the old way, the old the old system,

was based on these things. You do these sacrifices, and offer these certain

things, and wear these certain clothes, and eat these certain foods at certain

times of the year, and that will kind of help. It was a

broken system, so he completed it with Jesus. So his readers understood that.

Maybe we don't understand that. Maybe that's why we don't get this passage

fully. So let's use some modern examples. Just like God doesn't require burnt

offerings or sacrifices, he also doesn't require perfect attendance at every church function.

Okay, but bear with me for one second, quick aside, This is

not really part of the message. But even though He doesn't require perfect attendants,

more exposure to God's people is good for your life, So it may

not be a bad idea to turn that knob up a little bit in twenty

four. I'm just saying, but God doesn't require it. He also doesn't

require lengthy, impressive prayers, just honesty. He doesn't require perfect pitch when

singing praises Thank God for me. You know, we got pastor Shane and

Clint and an incredible production team who make it sound real good. But God

doesn't require perfect pitch, just genuine praise. He doesn't require certain clothes or

extensive theological knowledge. I thank God for my degrees, but He didn't require

those. And now I'm in a lot of debt. Okay, it doesn't

require this extensive biblical knowledge. You don't need to be able to come up

with some incredible idea. Nor does he require squeaky clean nuclear families with the

house and the white picket fence and the dog. And I'm really glad he

doesn't require that. He's not looking for perfection. He requires only this church,

that you walk with him. Michah puts this in three parts. Do

justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. And the first

two are accomplished. We think about, well, okay, I mean,

how do I do justice? And how do I love kindness? Sometimes I

don't love anything. I get that. But the first two are accomplished.

If we just get that last one right, If we can just walk humbly

with Jesus. The closer we are to him, the more we look like

him, the more we think like him, the more we act like him.

That changes the world. I know this message is not new and it's

not revolutionary. It's the same message that God has been calling his people from

Adam to Israel to the Church until he returns. It's the same message,

and in twenty twenty four, my prayers that we renew our commitment. Maybe

it's been a tough year, maybe you had a great year, maybe really

really grown spiritually, and I hope that you have. If you've been in

groups and you've been in church and you've been involved, I mean I think

you have. But in twenty four I want us to renew that commitment to

true religion, not a counterfeit, not a shell of what we ought to

be, not the motions, not the things that just look right on the

outside, but true, undefiled religion. And it all starts by making the

effort in the relationships closest to us. You don't I say this every time

I'm up here. I know y'are probably tired of it, but it keeps

happening. You don't need to tirade on social media. You don't need to

write paragraphs. Listen, last night after the FSU game, there were some

people saying some crazy stuff on Twitter. I would have loved to type some

paragraphs, but that's not my purpose and what does that accomplish. You don't

need to be on the side of the road every day holding a sign campaigning.

You don't need to craft a sermon. You only need to invest in

your personal relationship with Christ. And then it's two parts. Invest in your

personal relationship with Christ and then invest into those closest relationships around you. And

if you don't, well, pastor I don't have any close relationships, make

some in twenty four because God's called you to that. I like to use

the life of Christ, the ministry of Christ, as a blueprint. I

just figure crazy idea. If Jesus did it this way, probably good enough

for me. Right. Christ began his ministry, and he quickly became popular.

Right, he started to preach, and he started to do miracles,

and he gathered this big crowd and the multitudes would come to hear him.

And then he got to the harder parts of the faith, the parts that

were more difficult to understand and digest, eat my body, drink my blood,

this and remembrance, and lots of people didn't understand that, and so

they left him. His ministry became about his closest friends, and he spent

the rest of that time before his death investing in those relationships. Don't you

think he wanted to go after the multitude? Of course, don't you think

he was disappointed when when they walked away and he was like, man,

that's really what this is all about, and they don't want it. Of

course he was disappointed. He was so he's so in love with with humanity,

with them as he is with you. They walked away. I'm sure

it took everything for him not to run after them and hey, no,

no, you gotta get what I'm saying. But he didn't. He invested

in those that were still with him. He didn't travel to Rome to appeal

to the government. He didn't try to garner an audience those internet then,

but you know, there were ways to get an audience. He didn't try

to do that. Has said. He continued to invest into his closest friends,

knowing that if he could impact those people, just those few, if

he could impact them deeply enough, they would carry his truth to the ends

of the earth. And that's our task. It's the same one. And

look it works, because here we are talking about it. A long time

later, the bank can get ready to Clinton everybody. I'm wrapping up here.

Let's turn to James as we finish this morning. I want to read

this passage. I want to give you a few notes on how to do

this practically. Out of the Book of James, Chapter one, starting in

verse nineteen, we're going through twenty seven, James writes, know this,

my beloved brothers, Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak,

slow to anger, For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness

of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive

with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls verse twenty

two. But be doers of the word, and not hearers, only deceiving

yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,

he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a

mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets

what he looks like. But the one who looks into the perfect law,

the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but

a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing Verse twenty six.

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but

deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and

undefiled before God, the Father is this to visit orphans and widows and their

affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. This is the word

of the Lord. Would you stand with me as we enter into our alter

time. I want to just give you a few notes from this passage here,

and then I want us to sing together, and I want us to

pray together, and then I want us to sing, and then we're gonna

go home, and I hope you have the most incredible New Year of all

time. But a few things from James here that we can take and if

you'll really digest these it again, it's simple things. But if we can

put these things into practice, you know what. You can start this afternoon,

you can start in the morning, if it just helps, to start

on a fresh calendar, whatever you need to do. But if we could

just take these things into twenty twenty four, I believe that we will see

greater revival than we've ever seen. I believe that we'll see more people come

to Christ than we've ever seen. I believe we can slow the role of

the madness and the chaos and the falsehoods and narratives. I believe we can

be that city on a hill, brighter in the darkest of times. I

want to be that. I hope you want to be that. I'll be

honest with you, Church. I've not done my best in twenty three.

I want to do better in twenty four. I really believe. I know

it's a hard message. I know it was hard for me to prepare because

all I can hear is God saying, this is you, buddy. What

will I do with you? O Efriam Clay? What am I going to

do with you? Oh Clay? And I hope that pierces your heart too,

because I think we can always do better. I believe God's calling us

higher. The darker it gets, the brighter we ought to be. So

a few things from James. He says, quick to hear, slow to

speak, meaning that we've got to remain teachable. Hear me. We got

to remain teachable and coachable. Any believer that gets to a certain point and

thinks we've got it all figured out, you are doomed to fail. It

doesn't matter how old you are, how long you've been a believer. If

you get to that point. There's there's one thing Chris campb always says to

me, I say, how you doing? He says growing and learning.

Now, I always chuckle when he says that, because Chris is funny and

we've been friends a long time, and then he just says funny things to

me. But I think that's culture in his life that if I can say

that and believe that I'm always growing and learning, there's always more for me

to experience and to achieve. There's always more. So we got to be

quick to hear, slow to speak, teachable, coachable, slow to anger.

Look, obviously anger was a big deal for James and his readers,

or he wouldn't have put it right there. Anger was a big deal Church.

I don't know about you, but if I spend too much time thinking

about the playoff, if I spend too much time think about the committee.

Let's spend too much time thinking about the wars across the world and the government

send him money and the inflation. If I spend too much time, I

start to get real angry. Slow to anger, because living on that angerness,

that anger of man, doesn't produce the righteousness of God. It's the

opposite. It will cause bitterness to grow. If you become bitter, you

become disconnected, and you become useless. Slow to anger, just put away

filthiness and rapid wickness. That means we actively are working to remove ourselves from

the things that tempt us. You can't even go online anymore, okay.

It is very, very hard to not see some stuff that you don't want

to see. You got to put some processes in place, some systems to

keep you from falling into the temptations. We're all given to things. The

world's constantly pulling us away from God. You've got to actively pull back,

and James says, to receive God's truth and then do something with it,

because it does us no good to hear sermons, to sing songs, to

read books if we don't apply what we're hearing to our lives in the situations

that we're in. If we hear and we fail to do, James says,

we actually lose our identity. We look in the mirror and then we

turn away and we forget. You can never be who God's called you to

be. You can never do what God has called you to do. Unless

you get this right, you will lose your identity. And perseverance is key,

he says. The one who looks into the perfect law, the law

of liberty the truth of Christ and perseveres. You can't give up. I

know you're probably tired. I know you've probably been sick. I know you've

been through the holidays. I know her bank accounts empty, all those things

of mine too. It is what it is, but we cannot stop.

We got to look into the law of liberty, receive it. Our soul

is saved, and then we got to keep pushing. Perseverance is key.

It's vital because the world is getting worse and the enemy is not giving up,

so you better not. We persevere and James wraps this up with another

mention of the unbridled tongue, And I think anger and the unbridled tongue.

I think those things are just so timely for us right now, where everybody's

able to say all of our opinions all the time, endlessly to the whole

world. Our words are important, but our hearts are more important. If

you'll work on your heart rather than working on your words, the words will

fix themselves, maintain that inner integrity, and the outer will follow. And

lastly, James further defines true religion. I want you to take this and

I want you to run with it as hard as you can into twenty four,

James says, to take care of those who are hurting. He says

specifically orphans and widows and their affliction. And I wonder why he used those

because his reader would have understood, those are the people hurting the most right

now in your world. So whatever that looks like for us, the people

that are hurting the most, that is your job to take care of them

and to keep yourself unspotted, free from the disease of the world. To

remain holy is another way to put that. And as it doesn't mean you're

perfect that we talked about that, it doesn't mean that you get all of

everything right all the time. What it means is that you don't dive into

the chaos, that you don't become so angry that you're just involved in it

and you're causing it. But you're not part of the problem, but you're

part of the sure And the reason this is so important, Church is because

this is what God has always done. He's always been holy, and he's

always taken care of those who need him the most. And then he took

care of it and sent his son and he said, Church, he said,

my people, you got to do that too, remain holy and take

care of those who need it. Let's pray together. I want us to

worship, and then we're going to go. Father, implant this word deep

within our souls that from the inside out. Lord, we will begin right

now hearing these familiar scriptures, familiar words of yours and your prophets, God,

scriptures that we may even know by heart. But Lord, may they

be more real to us in this coming year than ever before. That our

religion would not be false, It would not be fake, it would not

be service level. But Lord, it would be deep and honest and true

and genuine. That by our very living out of our faith, the world

would be changed for the better. Help us to be that last bastion of

truth, that we would be brighter. It would provide light for those around

us, that they may come to know You and love you the way we

do. Lord, break our hearts for what breaks yours. God, ignite

within us a new fire, Give us fresh vision and hope for the future,

for we know you are already there. We prayed according to your will

and in the mighty name of Jesus, and the Saint said, Amen and Amen,