Core Values 2023 - Week 1: Transparency

And amen, starting a brand new series today. This is one. This

is a series we do every single year called Core. This is about our

core values, those five things that really just kind of are the guard rails,

the ethos, the DNA of Cornerstone. And we we're gonna go through

those five things this month and and just really bear down because we want you

to not just not necessarily just have the same core values, but understand why

we operate the way we do, why some of the language we use is

the language that we use, but more than that, just so that you

can just understand the place where you fit and serve just a little bit better.

Amen, those invisible principles sometimes that operate down underneath the surface that really

is the life's blood. Now everybody knows the four things, experience God,

walk in freedom, find our place so we can live with purpose. But

these are kind of those non negotiables that we set in place that we don't

violate in order to do those four things. And today we want to talk

about really the one that we feel is the most vital right here at Cornerstone,

really the one that everything else is built upon, and that's transparency.

Transparency is essential for us to operate the way we do because we believe that

in the environment of transparency that hypocrisy runs very low. That when we operate

in an atmosphere of transparency, that it really makes hypocrites feel uncomfortable. And

that's important when we want to create a place where repentance runs high. Come

on, somebody, and we believe that that daily repentance in the life of

the believer is an essential thing. That we shouldn't walk around and feel dirty

and guilty when we stumble and fall and we have to hide those things.

I don't think y'all are with me this morning, and I know it makes

you feel uncomfortable when we talk about these things, because you know, I'm

gonna challenge you in just a little while right to step out of some of

those things you've had a mask over, that you've kept covered. To step

out of those things and lay those things down before the Lord. So we

believe. Let me read this quarterbatue. We believe the human struggle is essential

to our faith journey, and as a result, we brace authenticity and honesty.

In this open and safe environment, hypocrisy runs low, and repentance becomes

a standard element of life. In so many places. We think that the

church is the place we have to come and smile no matter what's happening in

our lives. It's a place where shame pushes us into a place where we

pretend like we have it all together, when church is the one place that

we should be able to bring our brokenness and lay our brokenness open so that

our brokenness is healed. But there is this societal pressure that presses on us

and says, you can't be real. You have to pretend like everything is

okay, because after all, if everything's not okay, there must be something

wrong with my relationship with God. But the reality is we all live life,

and it reigns on the just and the unjust alike that everything happens because

we're alive. And when we start following Jesus, it doesn't all magically become

rainbows and puppy dogs. We still live in the pressure under the pressure of

sin that presses on the world. Whether you're committing sin or not, you

still are subject to the pressure of sin in the world and those repercussions that

it has on our lives, sickness and bad decision. You know, I

could list all of those things, but but we all know our stuff.

Come on, somebody, it's a matter of fact, raise your hand.

If you know your stuff, that you know, it don't take you long

to do self evaluation to find an area that's just not right there. I

can lift both hands because I know those areas where I'm short tempered. I

know those areas where I don't quite love as well as I love in other

areas, those areas where where I have patience in those areas that I don't,

those areas where where my faith is absolute and strong, and the area

is where my faith maybe is not. See I know, as your pastor

that that when you come to the altar and I lay hands on you and

I'm praying for you to be healed, I'm praying for a miracle in your

life, there is there is one hundred percent confidence and assurance, complete faith

that God is going to heal you one hundred percent. But when I go

home and I get to my front door and I'm feeling bad, I do

not have any faith for God to heal me. I know that about myself.

These are areas where the Father and I we talk about all the time,

and sometimes I cry, sometimes I talk. Sometimes I whisper. Sometimes

I yell. It's another issue that I know that I have amen, and

I'm not afraid to tell you these things. I say things sometimes to you

that that I know are gonna make you go. But we're modeling transparency because

we believe that the human struggle is essential not just to our personal faith journey,

but to the people around us their faith journey. If you can see

the deficiencies in my life and that God can still work and move in me

and through me, then certainly you can share that experience and have an increase

in faith for God to work and move and use your life. Listen to

Romans chapter seven, starting in verse fourteen. This is the apot. Let

me put my mother glasses on. This is the Apostle Paul. Romans chapter

seven, verse fourteen. Now, this is the Apostle Paul. This dude

wrote a third of the New Testament. He's like the man everybody knows Paul.

And he wrote this in the Bible. We didn't find it in a

secret memoir somewhere talked away in his private diary. He wrote this for everybody

to read. For we know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal

sold under sin and listen to what he says. For what I am doing,

I do not understand. Man. I take comfort sometimes when somebody else

just don't understand. Amen. Sometimes I wake up and I go about my

day, and I get to the end of the day and I look back

and I just don't understand. While I made the decisions today that I made,

I do not understand and why I did that. Instead of that I

don't, I don't, I just I don't understand. But it goes beyond

that. Listen to what he doesn't understand. For what I will to do

that I do not practice, but what I hate that I do. The

apostle Paust says, I know what I should do, I know what I

want to do, but it's not just as easy as knowing it. I

gotta do it, and I struggle with doing it sometimes. You know.

The reality is that as believers, there is no time during the day where

we can't access great Bible teaching. I mean, you can get it on

YouTube. You can get it on Twitter. I mean you probably can find

it on Twitter. You can find it Instagram quotes. Listen, it's there.

We got audio bibles, we got we got the Bible on our phones,

we've got blogs, we've got listen. But just knowing it doesn't make

you spiritually mature. It's learning to do it, and the reality is everybody

has a hard time doing it. If it was easy to just read it

and then for it to happen, Jesus would not have needed to create the

local church and a community of faith so that we come together to pick one

another up. He wouldn't have had to leave the ninety nine call somebody to

chase after the one. He wouldn't have had to do those things. But

the reality is the Apostle Paul as a model. He realizes that life is

difficult to leave to live about these relatively easy concepts and scripture because our human

nature defies the God nature, the fallen self is always in opposition with the

redeemed self, and that our minds have been subject to so many things that

as we are training the mind, it thinks thoughts allows us to make decisions

that if we were glorified, we would never make. But here's the thing

about transparency. Transparency when we come together and we talk about the struggles that

we have in our lives, like the Apostle Paul and says, Hey,

I don't know why when somebody pulls out in front of me in traffic that

I blow the horn, scream and yell drive by. Right, I'll do

that for y'all again. Let me let me do it the camera, because

I don't know why I do those things. Just like I just I lose

my mind. The apostle says, I don't understand why I do that,

and I don't either. There are times where it may even be you.

I see you coming down your driveway and I get ready just in case you

pull out. Right, I'm already practicing in my mind the face I'm gonna

make. I don't know why, but the reality is that's an area of

my life that I need to grow in because what I what I realize after

I do that. The first thing I realize is, oh, no,

they're gonna show up to church Sunday because I slowed down so they can see

me. They're gonna show up to the church. They're gonna remember me,

right. That's that's the first thing that goes through my mind. The second

thing, immediately after I think, goes through ones I don't know why that

person's distracted and God didn't put me here to be a hornblower and a fist

shaker. He put me here to be a peacemaker and the gospel presenter.

And if I can't fix me, then I can't help them, because it's

never really about us. See, if I thought this thing was about you,

if I thought this thing was about me, I would tell you to

pretend. I would tell you to put your mask on so that your reputation

is not damage, so that nobody has any contrary thought about you. But

the reality is, it's not about you, and it's not about me.

It's about everybody else who's on the other side of the bloodline. It's about

those people who are hurting and broken and that are struggling with the same things

we're struggling with, only they're not quite as far along in the healing curve

as we are. And by living authentically, by living transparently, by having

my life there, people can see God working in me. And if they

can see God working in me, certainly they believe God can work in them.

Because if you know me, there's nothing really special about Steve. For

those of you who really know me, there's nothing special or spectacular when it

comes to ordinary. I am the King of ordinary. I am the most

normal person I know. Now take that, however y'all want to and Second

Corinthians, chapter four, starting in verse seven, it says, but we

have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be

of God and not of us. We want people to know that it's of

God and not of us. I want people to know that it's not me.

It's multifaceted. I want people to know that it's not me. So

when I mess up, I don't get all the blame. And so when

I'm successful, I don't get the credit because the credit for me is more

harmful than the blame because for me, the credit does something on the inside

of me that causes pride to rise up. It's another issue that I have

in my life. So I want to make sure that people know it's God

and not Steve, because I don't want to battle that dragon. So I

live authentically, always pointing to Jesus saying listen, He's the reason for every

success. And when it doesn't work, I got it wrong. But transparency

helps pull other people through the journey. But we have this treasure in earth

and vessels that the kleence of the power may be of God and not of

us. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We're perplexed,

but not in despair persecuted. Let me just go ahead and clear something

up for you. This is this is free, okay. Jesus said in

the last days, persecutions will come. That's that's what Jesus said. If

Jesus said it, it is the truth. The moment he said it,

it became truth. We're living in the last days. I believe some time

ago we passed from end times to the last days. I believe we're living

in those last days, and persecutions will come. So don't be shocked when

you're persecuted for your beliefs. Do not be shocked when you're persecuted, because

Jesus is your savior. Don't let it fool you, because it is coming

now to give a little bright side of that doom and gloom that I just

threw on you. Throughout the history of the Church, every time persecution has

come, so has revival. Every Time God's people are pressed down and persecuted,

the remnant church stands up and revival happens, and lives are transformed,

and there are mass healings, and there are mass gospel presentations, and people

come into the Kingdom like never before, because revival is the offset, it's

the ballast to persecution. And if we live our lives authentically and those persecutions

come, we don't develop a victim mentality. But we share with a group

of people who close themselves in a house and begin to pray about persecution,

and there is a mighty visitation of the Holy Spirit, just like we see

happen every time the Apostles are persecuted in the Book of Acts, persecuted but

not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Always caring about in the body

the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be

manifested in our body carrying the death of Jesus, so that the life of

Jesus may be manifest that these temporary things that happen to me, these temporary

trials and tribulations, these hard things that I have to go through. And

listen, when I say temporary, you may define temporary different. You may

be looking at your life thinking there's nothing than temporary about what I'm going through.

There's nothing temporary about the years of pain I've lived in. There's nothing

temporary about the years of abuse I've suffered. There's nothing temporary about the guilt

I've had. There's nothing temporary about the financial situation I've been in. There's

nothing temporary about those things. But I want you to realize it's not temporary

as we count temporary, as temporary as God counts temporary. Because the reality

is on the timeline of eternity. Our whole lives are just a blip on

the timeline. And the reality about time is that time is just a module

that God created for us to live in. Time is irrelevant to God.

God sits above time. As a matter of fact. When we look at

time, time is a linear constructs for us, in other words, that

it moves like this. But God looks at the timeline much differently. God

turns the timeline and he looks at the timeline from top to bottom. And

everything is happening with God right now in this moment, from the beginning of

creation to the end of eternity. God sees it all in a glance,

and we get to be found in Him one day, experiencing the peace and

the joy that is unimaginable in our human form. The greatest day on Earth

pales in comparison to the worst day with Jesus. So keep that in your

minds as you are thinking about what you're going through and the things that you

are hiding and holding back from everybody else. Let people in because the support

structure around you can help you move through those things. You can you can

be pressed and feel like you're crushed if you don't let people in to breathe

life into your situation. You can you can feel abandoned because you don't allow

people to see the hard times in your life. You can feel completely destitute

with no hope because we shelter our lives and we live isolated so that no

one speaks life into our situation. There's a powerful story in the Old Testament.

The prophets walking along the road and he looks over and he sees an

infant. It's just been born. The umbilical cord is wrapped around the infant's

neck, and the custom of that day is if a child was born with

the umbilical cord wrapped around its neck, it was most likely going to have

some developmental issues, so they would discard the child because of weakness, and

a child meant weakness, and a family they would identify weakness in that child

with some kind of sin or dysfunction in the family. So it was better

to just discard the child at birth. And this child is laying there still

with the umbilical cord wrapped, laying in the field, and the prophet walks

by, and he looks, and he sees the child with the very thing

that was supposed to support it and give it life choking the life from it.

I don't know the pain you've carried. I don't know who hurts you.

I don't know the things that you've been through. But there is no

hurt worse than being hurt by the very thing that is supposed to give you

life. There's no hurt like when your family hurts you. There's no hurt

like when that job that you invested years and years and years and walks out

and abandons you. There's no hurt like the hurt of that best friend that

you did life with. And the prophet walks by and there's this childish it's

laying in a pool of its own blood, and something happens in that moment.

The prophet looks and he walks over to the child and he speaks to

this infant, and this is what he says. He says, you will

live and not die. I say, you will live and not die.

The narrative goes on, and he takes the child, and he nurses the

child to health, and and this child grows into a beautiful young woman who

becomes a royalty, who marries into a into a kingdom and becomes a princess

and is adorned with great robes and jewels. But it was because he saw

the brokenness and the hurt in that child that he was able to speak the

words of life. And the reality is, if you would lay your hurt

and your brokenness in a field for people to say to see, I know

there are people in this community of believers who would come alongside and say live

and not die. I speak life and not death. That that's why transparency

is so important, that shared journey that we have together, so people are

encouraged by our lives. It's why you hear me say so. That's why

you guys can come and get ready. It's why you hear me say so

many times. Listen, don't wait until your testimony is finished, right,

don't wait until your testimony looks all nice and clean with a bowl on it

at the end, so it feels like a story when you're telling it to

somebody. One of the worst things not just bear with me. One of

the worst things that happened in the modern church is when we developed those things

that we call testimony services. And this is why. Because we reduced the

testimony to something that only happened inside the four walls of the church. It

became story time of what happened to me years and years and years ago.

And we learned to tell the things that happened to us back then but are

not happening to us now. And we hid the things that we were going

through right now as we talked about the goodness that happened back then, and

it made it seem like God only did things back then that he doesn't do

anything now. But I want you to know God is just alive and just

as powerful and doing just as many things right now as he did back in

the eighties. He's just as strong and just as powerful right now in Oakwood

as he was in Brownsville. If you don't know what I'm talking about,

that's okay. Some of y'all, do share your testimony. Let people know

what's happening in your life so they can seek odd work through the ugly brokenness

of it. Right now to the deliverance at the end. In Matthew chapter

eleven, verse twenty eight, Jesus gives powerful words, words that encourage people

that are carrying a weight that they shouldn't carry. We're not designed to live

secret lives. We're not designed to live with areas of our life isolated.

Humanity, were heard animals. We're supposed to do life together. And it's

heavy when you carry this weight, this secret on your own. What you

think is embarrassing, what you think is unclean, what you think is whatever.

That's an immense weight to try to carry. But in Matthew chapter eleven,

Jesus says this, come to me, all you who labor and are

heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How many of you are

just sick of being tired, tired of being sick. You're just sick,

tired trying to carry that weight under your own power. And the worst words

you could ever use is I just I just don't want people to worry about

me. First of all, we ain't gonna worry about you. We're gonna

stand in faith. We're gonna believe for your healing, your deliverance. We're

gonna believe for that promotion. We're gonna believe for favor. We're gonna We're

gonna fill the gap of faith that you may be suffering from right now.

That's what living transparent is all about. Well, what if somebody, What

if somebody thinks bad out of me? What if somebody talks about me?

You let me know if somebody's talking about it. We'll fix that too.

This is a place where you get healed. Come to me, all you

who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke

upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls, for your mind, your

will, and your emotions, your souls. I guarantee you there are people

right now in this room who are absolutely exhausted at the soul ish level.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is alive. You know, Jesus

has already shouldered everything that you're dealing with. Two thousand years ago, when

Calgary's crossed, Jesus shouldered the sins of the world, all of the sins

before and all of those sins after him. That weight rested upon his shoulders.

Why are you carrying that weights him? He's already lifted it for you,

he said, Hey, it's finished. Come to me. Living for

me. It's light because if you live for me the way you were designed

to live for me, you don't have to keep secrets and you don't have

to do those things. You can just live free and one day, one

day, this place will be a place where we do live in true transparency.

It may not be today, but even if it kills y'all, we're

gonna get there. We call this important for the hurting and the broken.

It's important for you. It's important for you to know that that hurt,

that guilt and that shame, that addiction, bondage, this sin, that

hurt, that you don't have to do it alone. Everybody's standing with me

all over the room. This is what's about to happen. I'm gonna count

to three. If you've just been living under the weight of life, you

want to lay that down and just feel the freedom and the lightness of Jesus.

When I hit three, you step out from where you are. It

doesn't matter if this is your first time here, a hundredth time here.

But I want you to know what's coming after that. After you come down

here and the Lord sets you free, we're gonna tell you you need to

get in a group. You need to get in a group, because that's

where you walk in the freedom you just got. By surrounding yourself with a

group of people who love you and care about you. Will be your accountability,

who will be your support group? Life is important. But just know

we're not just gonna pray for you and leave you alone. We're gonna surround

you so that you can live out the freedom that Jesus gives you this morning.

So if you're here now, some of y'all just decide that you're not

coming, which really means you're not sick enough, you're not tired enough,

you you're not really ready to be free. On account of three, I

want you to step out and move if you're just looking for freedom, ready

to lay it before the Lord and say here I am take me as I

am one, two, three, step out and move right now. Come

on, come on, tired of living life with a mask on, I'm

tired of living. There's somebody else's terms. I'm tired of just barely barely

keeping my head above water. I need help. I need help. I

need help, I need help. Come on, I'm broken. I don't

know what to do. I'm confused. It just doesn't make sense. Come

on, where are you? Alter Team? Come on? Come on,

Alter Team? Amen Church, the altars are open. Band's gonna sing this

song at any time. If you want to step out and move, there

are people here for you most