When The Music Fades - Week 5

I'm on now. Lord, we thank you for your grace. Who listen,

I gotta I got a word for somebody today. Your purpose is not

dead. Your purpose is not dead. You feel like the time has passed,

but the Lord wants you to know. I don't know who you are.

Your purpose is not dead, fool, because we're gonna be finishing up

our series when the music fades. Today. I've really, really, really

enjoyed this series. I hope you have. If you missed any of it,

you can always go to YouTube or Facebook or any of those platforms and

they're all archived there so you can get them there. And UM, I

just want you to know that that I appreciate your service here. You are

what makes this a great church. Um. It's not music, it's not

preaching, it's not systems, it's not processes. It's you that makes Cornerstone

the great play that it is. So stay plugged in. Listen. I

know, summer's hard, summer's hard. I mean, somebody's got to go

to the beach, right, I mean you gotta just power through it and

struggle and suffer, and you know, go to Europe, go, you

know, wherever it is that you have to go, but watch online.

You can go to the beach where your bikini and watch service online. Amen.

Amen, gives you one hour to get sunburned and you won't even think

about it. Matthew, Chapter six. Matthew, Chapter six. We're gonna

start in verse one. Matthew, Chapter six, Verse one. If you

dare, say amen. If you're not, oh my, you oh my's

follow along on the screens. Matthew six, Verse one. Take heed that

you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.

Otherwise you have no reward from your father in heaven. Therefore, when you

do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the

hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have, that

they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they

have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let

your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That your charitable deed

may be in secret, and your father, who sees in secret, will

himself reward you openly. Now let me let me let me address this for

just a second. This is not talking about giving, is not talking about

the offering. That's not what it's talking about. Giving in the offering is

not charity. Come on, somebody. Giving in the offering is praise or

worship depending on the slant of our heart. That's not charity. Now.

I know that our government calls it charitable giving on your on your tax forms,

but that's not charity. Charity is when we give to someone that we

feel needs a helping hand and needs to be lifted up. And when we

give to the Church, we're not giving to give a helping hand. We're

giving as homage and honor and worship to the Lord. So this is not

talking about giving, Come on, somebody. But what it is talking about

is is those moments that we want to be rewarded for an action that we've

done. And he says, listen, if you want your reward to be

finite, to be limited by that moment and that feeling you get, do

it openly. But if you want, if you want your reward to come

from the Father, listen, you just do it because that's who I am

and who I am working through you. Come on, somebody, and then

the Father will bring a blessing to you, and the Father will elevate you

and the Father will will make those things manifest. But we do those things.

We do those things just because it's the right thing to do, not

because we want somebody to brag on us. I appreciate every Sunday when you

guys leave and you pat me on the back. It's a great message pastor

whether it was or not. Amen. But I don't do it for pats

on the back. I do it because this is what God has called me

to do, and it just happens to be that this is the peace of

the kingdom that I feel. But maybe for you it's a twenty dollar bill

and a handshake. Come on, somebody. Maybe it's just a smile to

somebody that looks devastated. Or maybe it's that person you've been praying for and

they don't know you're praying for them, but you just keep praying because you

feel attached to them in some way and that you share the pain that they're

going through. Or maybe it's whatever. But he says, listen, there's

some things we do privately. There's something things we do openly. And today

in this message, um, we're talking about those things that we don't do

openly because there are some blessings associated with understanding the time and the place for

the things in which we do. Let's keep reading. In verse five,

it says, and when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites,

for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of

the street, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say

to you, they have their reward, But you when you pray, say

me, but you when you pray, When, when when you are spending

your time, when you're talking to the father, not not when you're interceding,

not not, none of those things. Not listen. And it's not

saying you shouldn't pray in church either, But when you pray. The emphasis

here is on that private time with the Father. But when you pray,

don't make a spectacle of it, like the hypocrites do, because they want

to pat on the back and a reward from n But when you pray,

go into your room, and when you've shut your door private, go into

your room, shut the door and pray to your father, who is in

the secret place. And your father, who sees in secret, will reward

you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the

heathen do, where they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Father, we thank you for your word. What we have before us,

in your word is the only change agent on the face of the planet.

And I pray today you would bring revelation, that you would speak to

the very fabric of our being, to the soulish part of who we are,

and bring transformation in Jesus name. Amen. So he says, listen

when the music fades, when the event is gone, when the event has

passed, on Monday morning, come on, somebody on Monday morning when you

pray, don't be like the hypocrites, but go into your room and shut

the door and spend a little time with the Father in private. Because the

reality is when we pray, when we go before the Father in private,

our goal should always be to create a place for him to speak to us.

If your whole prayer life is you talking to God, Come on now,

If everything you call prayer is you talking to God, and you don't

ever create space for him to speak back to you, that's one way conversation.

Now listen. I don't know, but I'm sure that if if every

time my wife and I were together. I did all the talking and she

did all the listener. Well, I'm sure she would get tired of that

pretty quick. She's told me a time or two that she gets tired of

that pretty quick. Amen, because I'm good at talking. Really, the

Lord called me to preach because it's the only skill I have. Had the

Lord not called me to preach, I would have starved to death because all

I can do is talk. That's it. But the Lord says, hey,

I want to have communication with you. I will this to be a

private thing so that you can just simply wait on me for me to speak

to you. And let's spend some time together. Let's spend some time together,

because when we spend time together, he can bring us to the place

where we really get transparent. Before him, he says, Listen, you

don't want to be on the street corner. You don't want to be you

don't want to have a microphone in your face when you come to that moment

where you realize that I'm trying to do something deep inside you, So you

don't want to be holding the microphone when you have that realization that there's something

broken deep on the inside of me, and I need some help with it.

You don't want to You don't want to be in public when you have

that revelation that I've messed up and and because I've messed up, other people

have been hurt, and I've I've left a wake of hurt behind me and

the process of getting to where I am right now. And you don't want

you want to be in a private place when you have those conversations with the

Father. Come on, somebody, see that's what our that's what our private

time. That's what that personal worship time is about. It's it's about us

spending time with him so that he can bring us to the place of brokenness,

so that we can pour ourselves out. Because once we've poured ourselves out,

he can mend us and heal us and bring resurrection to our lives.

So he says, listen, I want you to go in and I want

you to just get bare and clean, and you don't have to be somebody

else. I want to show a hands, how many of you wish that

we could just live in a world where you never have to try to be

somebody else where there's no political correctness. Come on, somebody, where there's

no I have to watch what I say. I well, some of y'all

do need to watch what you say all the time. But you know what

I mean. We live in a world where there's these outside pressures for us

to conform, even if it is to little things, and we need that

private time with the Lord where we can just be who we are and he

can draw us into those places that he wants us to be. In Isaiah,

after six, we see this picture of the prophet before he's really the

prophet, his cousin, King Yuziah, had just died. He was in

a place of brokenness. The context of this is basically Isaiah had his position

through nepotism because he was the cousin of the king, and the king put

the spotlight on him, not God. So he's dealing with the death of

this larger than life, instrumental, relational figure in his life. And he's

also dealing with the fact that, hey, I may lose my job,

I may not be that anymore. He's dealing with a lot of stuff.

So he goes into the temple and he finds himself there along with the Lord.

So we pick up in verse one. It says in the year that

King Yuziah died. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted

up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood

saraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face,

and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And

one cried to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the

Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now,

let me just stop right, because so many times we get sidetracked by what's

really happening in scripture. Come on, somebody, because a lot of times

when we read passages of this, we actually forget that the Lord is speaking

to our soul and we get caught up with Now I wonder what that thing

looked like, all the wings and hands and covering up and talking or singing

or what was it doing? And oh, well, I need to get

all of me google Seraphim six weeks. Let me, let me, let

me just I just want to see what this thing LOOTA. That's not the

point of the story. It's not the point of what's happening here. The

point of what's happening here is this man is having an incredible supernatural experience with

God and We need to get past the distractions of the mind, and let

us speak to our hearts to pass the filter that that wants to sketch this

thing out and put it on a T shirt. Come on, somebody and

get deep to the point of what is happening. In verse four, and

the post of the door was shaken by the voice of him who cried out,

and the house was filled with smoke. He's alone, he's in his

room. The doors are shut. He's having an experience with God. And

look at his response. It wasn't that he felt good and warm. So

many times when we haven't experienced with God, we wanted to be a warm,

fuzzy feeling. Amen. As a matter of fact, how many of

you you've gotten to that place in worship where you just felt like there was

no care in the world and you were just warm and fuzzy, and the

goose bumps were all in the right place. That's not where you stop.

You pressed through that, and you pressed through to the place of transformation.

So I said, woe is me, for I am undone literally translated,

he knows everything. I'm having this experience and God sees me and he knows

everything. He has He has seemed to the very center of my being,

and he knows it all. Woe is me for I am undone, because

I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of

a people of unclean lips. Don't know what he's saying. I'm just like

everybody else. Well, let's chase that for just a second. I'm not

doing anything that everybody else is not doing. I look an act just like

everybody else looks an acts. But God has not called us to look an

act like everybody else looks and acts. He's called us to stand out.

As a matter of fact, you can follow the world and always fit in,

or you can follow Jesus and always stand out. He says. I

look and sound just like everybody else. But God says, take a step

up, because I've called you to be a little different. It's a matter

of fact, a little peculiar. There should be something different about the way

you are. Now. When we see those words, we think that's bad.

But being a little different is not bad. After all. What if

every single thing you ate tasted like Brussels sprouts. Just think about it.

Dwell deep on that RIBI steak Brussels sprout Cay Siberia, this beautiful taco with

all this grease and cheese and sautemp bite at Brussels, sprout little differences are

good. Come on, somebody, And he says, listen, I understand

that I'm just like everybody else. And that's the problem. The problem that

that Isaiah sees with his self is not that he is this rank center running

around taking advantage and manipulating and stealing and killing and doing all. He says,

I'm just like everybody else. From my eyes have seen the King,

the Lord of Hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having

in his hand alive cold which he had taken with tongs from the altar,

and he touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched

your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. And I

heard the voice, the voice of the Lord, saying whom shall I send

and who will go for us? Then I said, here, I am

send to me. He says, I I'm just like everybody else. But

I realize I shouldn't be just like everybody else, because I've seen the King.

And because I've seen the King, there's something transformational in that moment,

that moment of contact, that moment when I'm in his presence and I have

spent enough time with him, and I've shut the door and the distractions are

gone, and and and I know there's there's something wrong because I look like

everybody else. Lord, do something transformed me? And then here's the here's

the thing that that that gets me is the angel picks up the cold he

flies over and he touches his lips, and then he told him he did

it. I don't know about y'all, but when I bite into something hot

and it burns, nobody has to tell me it happened. I have a

pizza oven and on the back deck, and we occasionally make our own homemade

pizza. And listen, that thing gets nine hundred degrees on the inside.

I mean, it's hot. You put the pizza in there, you have

to spin it around or it burns immediately. But listen, it tastes amazing

when you get out. But the only problem is you take it out and

it's just the bubbly cheese and little brown spots where you know, I mean,

the crust point. It's just it's beautiful. And you put it on

the counter earning, and when you cut it, it just came out of

a nine hundred degree of and right. But it looks so good. You

know that's trouble, but it's good trouble. You pick it up and you

bite it, and the roof of your mouth just peels off. The Angel

said, listen, you have had an experience. Your sin has been purged.

This is what has happened to you. So many times we come and

we have an experience, but we don't listen for the Lord to tell us

what the experience is. We make an assumption about what happened to us.

But when these experiences, when we moved them from an altar and we moved

them into a room with the door shut so that we have time to spend

with the Lord, then he can explain to us what just happened to us.

He said, listen, your sins gone. You're not the same anymore.

And then God asks the question that lets us know that change happened,

that transformation. Now he says, who are we going to send? And

Isaiah just screamed, send me. There was a logical step mist in our

logical thinking. There was a step mist in that conversation God says, who

should I send? The next question should be in a logical mind, Well,

where where where do I? Where? Where do you want somebody to

go? Because if it's the right place, I mean, if it's Chicago,

I'm probably out. If it's Bahamas, I'm probably in. Come on

somebody. But do you realize when we have a transformational experience with God,

the where doesn't matter. It's only the fact that he has an opportunity,

and the transformation brings us to the place where we know we can trust him

about the destination because every good, imperfect gift comes from above. And now

I've spent enough time with the Lord to know if he's opened the door,

I want to walk through it. It doesn't matter where it is. Send

me, Lord, don't send somebody else. I don't want to miss this

opportunity because this has been my life changed and I want to step into us

next. That's the powerful thing about really knowing the Lord. But we only

come to that place when we become transparent and bare before him, when the

music of the event fades and it's just us and Him in a room together,

when we read that incredible narrative of creation, as God creates Adam and

Eve, man and woman. He places them in the garden, and it

says that every day that God would come and walk in the garden and they

had these these beautiful interactions with God. He would come and he would visit

them every every evening, and they would walk together and they would talk together.

And they were completely bare. They were completely naked, and there was

no shame. There was nothing between them and the Lord. It was perfect

communion. They weren't trying to hide anything. There was no guilt, there

was no brokenness, there was no hurt, there was nothing. It's just

open dialogue and communication. But the moment it changed, the moment they realized

their brokenness. You know, God wants everything from us. He wants everything

from us. And when I say that, you think I'm calling you to

the place of sacrifice. But that's not what I'm talking about today. Maybe

I'll do that next week. He doesn't just want you to admit that you're

a lost rank center because you may not be. The reality is, you

may be a pretty righteous person in this room today and you don't really have

anything that it's big an epic to lay down because you try to live your

life in a holy way, but he's still calling to you, saying,

Hey, it's not just that. I also want you're hurt. I want

your loneliness, I want your brokenness, I want your pain, I want

your insecurity, I want your fear, I want your depression, I want

your anxiety. I want all of those things too, because those things also

come between me and you, and I want those things. I want you

to lay them down. I want you to come to me in that still

moment, in that quiet moment, and I want you to be bared before

me and lay those things down as well. Play you guys can come and

get ready if you want to. The band can get ready. I want

you to lay those things down. And because really it's all about transparency,

and it's all about you being you and me being me, and in that

beautiful collision of grace when you're you and he's him, and that grace collision

that brings transformation. The moment they realize their brokenness, the first thing they

did is they put things between them and God. They took fig leaves,

and the moment they pull that leaf off of the vine, it started to

die. Their strongest attempt to cover themselves began to wither. The instant they

put that in place, and God shows up. Because I know you may

be thinking, listen, I don't have time to go in the room and

shut the door. I don't I don't have I don't have twenty seconds to

be able to do that. Bull. You may not want to do it,

but you can do it. Because we all do the things we want

to do. We make room for the things we want to do. A

matter of fact, we we purchase our wants and finance our needs, different

sermon series for different months. The moment they put those things together began to

die, and then they hid themselves and God came and they said, I

believe these are the most lonely words in all of Scripture. Clay he said,

where are you? Where are you? I'm here? Where are you?

And we spend so much time asking where is God? God? Where

were you when this happened? Where were you when that happened? He was

in the room waiting for you to close the door. It's the same place

he's always been. He was there waiting on your brokenness so that he could

heal it. Throughout Scripture, we see all these people that we still call

by their label old blind Bardemus blind. Bardemus came to Jesus and Jesus healed

him. He's not blind anymore. We still call him now, but he's

not blind. The woman with the issue of blood, we call her that,

But she came to Jesus and she fell before Jesus and she had an

intimate encounter with the Lord where she touched him and she didn't care what anybody

else said, and he healed her. And some of us, we're those

people. We came before the Lord with our issue, with our hurt,

our broken us, our insecurity, our fears, our doubts. We came

before him. We were transparent, and he healed us. And whether you

still identify with that label in your life or not, that's up to you.

But I believe there's more of us, like the rich Young Ruler.

See we still call him the rich young Ruler, and we think that that's

good because we're Americans. We all want to be rich. But see the

rich young Ruler, he came to Jesus and he was challenged by Jesus.

He said, I want to transform you, but I want you to come

and be with me. That's the conversation that's happened go tell everything that you

have given to the poor, and come follow me, Come be with me,

Come sit and camp with us at night around the fire, and spend

time with me. He's still the rich young ruler to this day because he

wasn't willing to come to Jesus, and Jesus left him where he was.

Whoever you are, whatever you're going through, doesn't matter. I'm not even

talking about sin. You're still a victim because they did that to you back

then. You don't see yourself the way God sees you because somebody told you

you would never amount to anything. You struggle with having an interaction with with

your heavenly father because your earthly father was the way he was. God couldn't

possibly love me because of all the people I heard back then, fig leaves

rational fig leaves Today, Jesus is calling you right where you are, in

the midst of your trauma, your hurt, your pain, your loneliness,

even your sin. If last night you perpetrated the most despicable thing you could

ever think of, this morning, Jesus is here waiting on you with open

arms, saying, come to me. You don't have to be shamed,

you don't have to feel guilt. You don't have to do those things.

My arms are open wide. Come to me and I will cleanse you,

and I will transform you, and you will leave this place saying here I

am send me Lord. Everybody's standing with me all over the building. Our

authar team would go ahead and get ready. Listen. If you're here today,

you've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins to be the lord

of your life. But today you want to lay all that behind you.

You want to lay that down and meet transformational Jesus so that you can be

brand new and clean as you stand before him. On the count of three,

I want you to step out, and I want you to make your

way down to the front. One of these incredible people going to pray with

you. Help you meet the Lord. If you're here today, you're wrestling

was sickness year, wrestling with anxiety and depression, have guilt because you've hurt

people in the past. You you're not over that trauma. You're not over

that pain. You're broken it and you know you're broken deep inside yourself.

Today come to him and there's healing. This altar call is for you too.

On the count of three, I want you to step out and make

your way to the front. And maybe you're here and one time you prayed

and you ask Jesus to forgive you. But you've allowed just the busyness of

life and the pressure of life and self medicating that hurt and that pain that

we've talked about. You've allowed sin to come into your life. And today

you want to ask him to set you free and forgive you. And you

want to make up a new declaration of your relationship to the Lord. It

doesn't matter any of those three things. When I count to three, I

want you to step out and I want you to move. Don't look around

see if anybody else is moving, because that's popularity. That's not faith.

Faith is what changes things. So on the count of three, step out

of your hurt, your sickness, you're brokenness, your guilt, your shame,

your sin, and step out and make your way to the front.

One, two, three, step out and move right now, Come on,

where are you. I don't want to leave the way that I came.

I don't want to leave hurt and sick and press down. Amen,

there's others. Come on. It's the most difficult, but the most fulfilling

step you'll ever take in your entire life. Up out and move Right now,

Father, right now, search our hearts, search our lives. Do

what only you can do. Lord be God in this moment in Jesus name,

Amen, these altars are open. We're waiting on you. Pastor Clayless worshiped together