On Earth As - Week 2 (Group Day)

Amen. Welcome to Group Day. Listen, let me just let

you know, if you've never been here for Group Day before,

this is the launch of our, I guess, our fall-winter semester.

And this is what we like to do to give

you an opportunity to meet all of our group leaders.

They're going to be down in the annex right after

the worship experience concludes. And we're going to have a

great brunch. Come on, somebody.

Food.

And listen, it's anointed. Listen, we prayed and there's about

a 50-50 chance that the calories have been prayed out

of it. Amen. I mean, I don't know which 50%,

you know, just on your faith, how many calories are

in it. But we want to invite you to come

down and meet all of our group leaders. They're going

to be seated at tables. You can walk around, talk

to them, sit down, get to know them. But we

believe that groups are the lifeblood of what we do

right here at Cornerstone Tabernacle because that's the community that

builds around us. We weren't meant to do life alone.

We were meant to do life in community. And that's

why we believe groups are such an important part of

who we are here. So listen, stick around. Don't just

leave and think, I'm not going down there and hang

out with those people. Maybe you don't like anybody. That's okay.

You might find somebody you like. You might not. But

even if you still don't like anybody when you leave,

at least you got good food. Amen? So come and

be part of that. And we appreciate everything that you

do around here. Pouring down rain yesterday fed 80 families.

What an amazing day. What an amazing day. Let's continue

our series on earth. On earth as in heaven. If

you've got a Bible, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

I want to talk to you today about the love

of God. Amen. I want to talk to you today

about the love of God. And I want to talk

to you about the kingdom-focused love of God. I want

to talk to you about what the Bible actually says

about the love of God, not what we've made the

love of God to be. Oh, it's going to be

a long day. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, starting in verse 15,

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

or only verse 15, or for right now, 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 12:15

chapter 12, verse 15, it says.

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for

your souls. Though the more abundantly I love you, the

less I am loved. Let's pray. Father, we just thank

you for your mercy and your grace. We thank you

for who you are and all that we can be

in you. And I pray that you bless your word,

that you anoint it to pierce our hearts. To be

a catalyst to our souls. The way we think. The

way we act. The way we respond. That we would

be all about the kingdom and the father business. Lord

we love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen, amen,

and amen. The apostle Paul's writing here and he says, hey,

you know, I'm gonna come to you and we need

to deal with some stuff. As a matter of fact,

most of the letters Paul writes, we try to distill

out of those things all the motivational good parts, but

the reason Paul wrote those letters 95% of the time

was for correction, right? When they got a letter in

the mail and they saw the return address was the

Apostle Paul, I don't think everybody said, yeah. I think

they're like, oh no. Because he was always addressing our

need to step up. to be more, to do more,

to understand more deeply, to trust more fully. He was

always trying to call us up into more of the

image of God, to be more like Jesus in everything

that we did. And then he says this really hard

thing right here. He says, listen, the more I love you,

the less you love me. Let me kind of give

it to you in my interpretation. I don't care if

you're my friend, I want the best for you. I

don't care what you think of me because I think

very highly of you. The Apostle Paul says that love

will cause a reaction that's not always a pleasant reaction,

but the way we distill love and we think about

love is that love is something that always makes me

feel warm and fuzzy. It's, you know, I wake up

and I just, it's all puppy dogs and butterflies and it's, whoo, yeah.

How many people are married in the room? Raise your hand.

Raise your hand. How many of you have ever had

a day where love didn't feel like that? Huh? Pastor

Clay's got both hands up and now he's literally getting punched.

Because love calls us to talk about difficult things. And here,

let me put some more context around it. When he

writes these things, he's writing as a parent, heavenly father,

to children, us. He's writing in the context of he's

the parent and he's calling us up and training us.

So when we talk about love, it's the impartation and

the training that he's talking about, keeping us away from

danger and calling us into blessing. How many of you

have ever had to discipline your child? How many of

you ever disciplined your child when they didn't need it?

How many of you should have disciplined your child and

you didn't? Here's the difference between us. This is where

that context is broken. This is where that parallel is broken.

Our father always gets it right. He always steps into

our life and says the hard things and brings hard

things into our lives just in the nick of time,

just in the moment to make sure that we're on

the path that we need to be on. See, when

we talk about love, Bible love, it's focused on redemption, restoration,

and spiritual maturity. Let me say that again. Bible love, redemption, restoration,

spiritual maturity. Redemption for those far from Jesus. Spiritual maturity

for those that are growing and restoration for those who

have just allowed the world to come between their relationship

and Jesus. But the world modern love is all about

social harmony and individual autonomy. Let me say that again.

It's about social harmony. Don't rock the boat. Everything is okay.

Everything is permittable. Just don't rock the boat. Just ignore

it and it'll go away. And personal autonomy. Personal autonomy.

How many of you have heard, and listen, I never

heard this when I was growing up. And I'm not

that old. I mean, I'm old, but I'm not that old.

But we never heard anybody say something like, well, that's

my truth. This is my truth. Listen, if I had

looked at my daddy and said, this is my truth,

he would have knocked my teeth out. Might not be

your truth, but this is my truth. Listen. He would

have been like, duck. But we live in this world

where everything is just ambiguous. Everything is about social norms

and you can't cut against the social norm. And I

want to tell you that it's the church's fault that

that terminology and that ideology is even happening because we've

allowed it to happen. Because we possess the only absolute

truth outside of mathematics. And God created math too. We

possess absolute truth, but we've allowed our absolute truth to

be repressed because And worse, the enemy calls it love

of our neighbor. See, Bible love is rooted in absolute,

unchanging biblical truth. Modern love is rooted in moral relativism,

your truth, my truth, how those things juxtapose. But if

I hang my truth, on the absolute word of God,

my truth has to bend to your truth. And we

think if we don't do that, that somehow we're not

showing love to humanity. If your truth, if it's your truth,

it can't set you free. It can only agree with you.

If the truth is born in you, all it can

ever do is agree with you and you become your

own echo chamber and continue to slide down the hill

towards absolute moral failure. So when you begin to try

to rationalize things the way that you know the Bible's

calling you up, you know what Scripture says, you know

what those things are, and you continue to rationalize it

and say, yeah, but... Let me tell you something. If

you're a yeah, but person, you need to just... Hold

on to your butt and go with God. You just

need to throw that butt away because there are no

butts in the kingdom. There are only children. Yeah, but. See,

here's Bible love. Loving the individual while rejecting their sin. Now,

the world says you can't do that. The world says

that you have to accept my behavior in order to

love me. Now watch this. But you are more than

the sum of your behavior. If you weren't more than

the sum of your behavior, then you're less than if

you don't add up to what I think you should be.

but you hold value to God and the kingdom regardless

of whether you're what I should be or not. He

looks at lost and saved and he sees value in

the soul. He looks at those who were against and

adamantly against the kingdom and he sees value in the soul.

But to reject the behavior is okay because love is

not about tolerance. It's not about acceptance. It's about safety

and calling someone up to the place where God wants

them to be. Y'all are waking up a little bit now.

Modern love says accepting and validating all lifestyle and beliefs

is the only way that we can truly love. So

we have this strange wave across the body of Christ.

And from one place to another, they don't even look

like the same values anymore. No wonder evangelism, especially in America,

is at an all-time low. Because we look so confusing

to the world. Now, we posted our most popular... I

don't know if popular is the word. We posted our

most interacted with video on social media this past week.

Don't clap. and there's not one person that agrees with

what I said in the video. Everything is, you need

to read the Bible. You need more scripture. What about this?

What about that? And listen, 100% of those comments are

from saved people. I mean, I'm guessing they're saved. They

quote scripture. I mean, you know, they talk about those things.

And we're so busy fighting with each other about things

that don't matter. I want the internet to hear this.

Eternal security does not matter. Whether you believe once saved,

always saved, or that you can lose your salvation, that

doesn't matter. I believe once you get saved, you should

always stay saved. I believe that's how we get to heaven.

But if you're just looking for an excuse to stay

spiritually immature, don't find some archaic doctrine one way or

the other. Whether you believe me or believe somebody else,

it doesn't matter to excuse your failure of being shaped

and molded every day into the image of Christ. Because

His desire is for His will to be done on

earth as it is in heaven. And when we get

to heaven, there's no sin. Because it's not tolerated. There

was once... Listen to me. There was one sin in heaven. Pride. Lucifer,

the devil, whatever you want to call him. And God

did not tolerate it. The moment it happened, he threw

him out. His will be done on earth. As it

is in heaven. Listen, my kids didn't do certain things

that they probably wanted to do because they knew had they,

I would have worn them out. Amen? Because there are

consequences to our choices. You get to make the choice,

but you don't get to choose the consequence. And real

love says, I'm going to give you parameters and when

you line up, but y'all are not just listening to me.

when you line up with those parameters, you're safe and favored.

And that's not God being mean or hurtful. That's God

being the God of the Bible. It's been so long

since we have truly looked at and preached about the

God of the Bible. Most of our preaching is humanity first. First.

And when we preach God first, it looks different and

it feels different and it sounds different because it's God

calling us up rather than God coming down to meet us.

And most of my preaching is preaching about God coming

down and meeting you right where you are, but there's

the other side where God wants you to come up

and meet him. God wants you to be molded and

shaped and conformed by the love of God into his

image so that he can set you as a city

on a hill so that you step into everything that

you're entitled to through the contractual agreement he cut on

Calvary's cross. In John chapter 8 verse 31 it says,

John 8:31

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If

you abide in my word, you're my disciples indeed.

Amen.

And you shall know the truth and the truth shall

make you free. They answered him, we're Abraham's descendants and

have never been in bondage. I'm sorry, I just laugh

every time I read that. We're Abraham's descendants that have

never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say

you'll be made free? Jesus answered them, most assuredly I

say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of

sin and a slave does not abide in the house forever,

but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the Son makes

you free, you shall be free indeed. He says, okay, well,

here's the thing. The truth will set you free. And

they look at him and this is, these are the

religious leader's response back to Jesus when he said, truth

will make you free. They look back at him and say,

how dare you tell me that I can be free.

Don't you know I'm a descendant of Abraham and we've

never been in bondage? Egypt, the Philistines, the Babylonians, and

they were currently in bondage when they said it. They

were an occupied territory living under a false, not a false,

under a secular government. When they said that and Jesus

is looking at them and he's saying, listen, the truth

will make you free. But you look at yourselves and

you say, we've never, there's nothing wrong with anything we've

ever done. Every time they went into bondage, it wasn't

because God failed. It was because they did. It was

because they lost their connection with the holy God and

they would not step up when he called them up

so they ended up in bondage and it's the same

thing that happens to us when we don't step up

when his love sets those parameters and it gets uncomfortable

we step across that and we end up in bondage

and many of us live in that bondage unable listen

unable to live in the favor of God, unable to

live and embrace everything that God has for us because

we have areas of our life where we're in bondage.

And we as the church want to look at the

world and we want to point at their bondage, but

ignore ours. We want to embrace the social hot topics.

And listen, they're bad. They're bad. But they're not the

only things that are bad. It's easy to look at

same-sex attraction and say, oh, the Bible teaches against that.

But he also teaches against lying. Transgenderism. No woman should

look like a man. He also teaches against worry. Preach, pastor.

Preach faster. Listen, I told the 10 at 10 what

I was preaching today, I haven't perfected. I'm not standing

here preaching down to you because I'm figuring these things

out too. I want to tell you we're on the

journey together. We are a house full of broken people

trying to get there together. But listen, I'll get there.

I'm about to preach ahead of myself. So stop trying

to find something worse. then your condition to make you

feel better about yourself because love calls you up and

meets you right where you are and says, I have

more for you. I have greater things for you. Come

on up here because the view is great. We've never

climbed the mountain to see the view. So we just

assume it's not very good and I have to give

up some things, but everything you give up. God pays

back time and time and time again. I believe with

all of my heart that the kingdom version of the

church is one that walks in authority and favor and

healing and health and prosperity and all the other things

that the Bible says that we as believers can have. Now,

is there struggle included? Yes.

Yes.

Those things are not opposed to one another. There's ups

and there's downs. We're slaying the 450 prophets. And then

the next thing we know, we're under a tree and

the ravens are feeding us. But the constant is that

God loves us and he provides and he's there. And

the condition that we find ourselves in is no reflection

on him. It's about the testimony and the worship that

we give him. He says, listen, here's the thing. The

truth will set you free. And if I set you free,

you will be free indeed. Freedom. Freedom. You know, I

use this all the time. I'm going to use it again.

You know, if you carry your family to the Grand Canyon,

you've got a four-year-old. You're like, oh, just go and

play and do whatever you want. You know where they're

going to go? They're going to jump off the edge.

That's what they're going to do. They're going to go

down that little mule trail. They'll be at the bottom.

And listen, you can't go down there and get them

and tote them back up. Even if they arrive safely.

That's not freedom. You know what that is? Irresponsibility. Not

on their part. It's on your part. Here's what freedom

looks like. Hey, we're here. Look at this view. We're

going to take some pictures. Look, you see that rail, buddy?

Don't go on the other side of that rail. You

see that trash can down there? Just stay on this

side of that trash can and don't go past that bush.

You just play and do whatever you want to right

here because you're going to be safe. God says, here's

the thing. That's the rail for sin over there. And

that's the rail for sin over there. And that's the

rail of sin over there. And everything right here is

where my covenant is. It's plugged into you. And it's

where favor is. It's where peace is. It's where all

those things are. But we want to go over the

rail because we want a little bit closer view. We

want to get so close to the fire that we

can feel its warmth, but that it doesn't burn us.

When Jesus is saying, if you'll just come to me,

I'm the light of the world and I'll keep you

warm and I will light your path. You don't need

to get close to the fire of hell. You don't

have to get over there because I've got you. Just

come closer to me. The most unloving thing, the most

unloving thing I can do is agree with you all

the way to your grave. The most unloving thing I

can do is just ignore that there is truth that

calls us up and watch you die and spend eternity

in hell. That's why groups are so important. Because we

are entering into life and community with people. And in

the context of relationship, we can trust other people to

speak into our lives and hold us accountable and be

there in our point of need so we don't slip.

Groups are important because it brings a different level of

connection so that people can speak to us and keep

us from going over the rail and slipping down. Because

he wants it to operate on earth as it is

in heaven. We need to start practicing like we're in heaven.

We need to start living by the rules of the

kingdom because the rules of the kingdom are adverse, contrary,

and able to bend the rules of the earth. In

Matthew chapter 22 verse 37, Jesus said to him, you

Matthew 22:37

shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind. He says,

love me. Hold me. Hold me accountable to my word.

When I pray, all the time, I tell God, God,

you said in your word. God, you said in your

word that by your stripes, I'm healed. God, you said

in your word. That I will prosper and be in

health even as my soul prospers. God, you said in

your word. And you know what? He always responds back.

I sure did. I sure did. Because he's okay with

us reminding him of what he said. But we're not

okay with him reminding us of what we said and

what we did. Oh, I gave you a little Pentecostal.

That just happened by reflex. He said, love the Lord

your God with everything that you are. But then he

goes on and he says, the first and great commandment

and the second is like it. You shall love your

neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the

law and the prophets. He says, love others the way

you love me. Hold others in account. Bring others into

remembrance of what I said. Do that, and when we

do those two things, people are growing and maturing, and

we see the kingdom at work in everybody's life. And

then in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13, it says... Till

Ephesians 4:13

we all come to the unity of the faith and

of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a

perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the

fullness of Christ. Who has a mouth full? Let me

read it again. Till we all come to the unity

of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son

of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of

the stature of the fullness of Christ, That we should

no longer be children. Don't let him call you childish.

Toss to and fro. Carried about by every wind of doctrine.

By the trickery of men. In the cunning craftiness of

deceitful plotting. But speaking truth in love. may grow up

in all things into him who is the head, Christ,

from whom the whole body joined and knit together by

what every joint supplies. according to the effective working by

which every part doesn't share causes growth of the body

for the edifying of itself in love he says listen

The way we grow together is by expressing scriptural love

to one another, by calling one another up, by holding

each other accountable, by pushing back what the world says

is true and embracing what God says is true. And

I know you're thinking, well, now that's just not realistic

in the time we lived. In the time we lived,

that's just not realistic. I'll lose my job. I'll die, die, die, die. Yeah,

they got killed when this was written. If you didn't

live it, they just, I mean, if you were defending Christ,

they just stoned you to death. The apostle John was

boiled in oil from the waist down. Then they dug

his eyes out. Then they sent him to the Isle

of Patmos, isolated, with only somebody to take notes for him.

And that's where God gave him the revelation that we

read at the end of the book. You know, Apostle Peter,

they were going to crucify him. He said, no, I

love Jesus so much. I'm not fit to die like him.

So turn me upside down. They faced death. You face

mean comments on Facebook. You face mean comments on Facebook.

Those things are not equal. They're not equal. I checked today,

or not today, I checked this week. I'm just saying.

I drove around and I counted 17. Now just in

our little community right here, I counted 17 help-wanted signs.

17 help-wanted signs. Stop betraying the truth of the gospel

for a paycheck. If you can't express what God is

calling you to express, there are 17 locations looking for

somebody to work for them. Oh, well, pastor, I won't

make as much money. But God will still take care

of you. It may not look like what it looks

like now. And listen. Okay, here's the thing though. I'd

be happy living in a tent regardless because that's just

what I like. But we have to come to the

place where God is calling us up to engage the

kingdom in a different way because that's who he's calling

us to be. And there's going to be times of

prosperity where God sets us as a city on a hill.

There's going to be times where we have to hold

on to him with all of our faith because God

is calling us to set us as a city on

a hill because who he is in us is more

important than the conditions around us. See, God's plan for

you was never comfort. It was the full stature of Christ.

The Americanized version of Scripture says that God wants to

make you comfortable. But God wants you to look like Jesus.

He wants you to walk in that authority. He wants

you to live in that peace and that joy that

when hard things happen, the joy of the Lord rises

up on the inside of you and is your equilibrium.

It's your strength that pushes back against the pressure. So

I don't have to move into worry and I don't

have to move into anxiety and I don't have to

move into those things because Jesus is there and I've

accepted his plan for my life and whatever his plan

is for my life, I'm willing to go there. Man,

you guys can come get ready. In Matthew chapter seven,

let's go ahead and, let's go ahead and, because I mean,

you're going to, this is going to come up. I

guarantee if you start living this way, what I'm about

to talk about is going to come up in your life.

I want to go ahead and overcome an objection for you.

Because when we start loving people, no amens. When you

start loving people, They may not love you back. That's

what the Apostle Paul said. The more I love you,

the less you love me. Matthew chapter 7, verse 1.

Matthew 7:1

Judge not, lest you be judged. How many people, by

show of hands, how many of you have ever heard

the Bible says, the Bible says don't judge. Raise your hand.

The Bible does not say that. Oh, you just read it.

Let's finish. Judge not that you not be judged. Doesn't

say don't judge, but understand that you're going to be

judged back. For with what judgment you judge, you will

be judged. And with the measure you use, it will

be measured back to you. And why do you look

at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not

consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can

you say to your brother, let me remove the speck

from your eye and look, a plank is in your

own eye. Hypocrite. Listen, this is where we miss it

right here. First, remove the plank from your own eye

and we stop right there. See, when somebody gets mad

at us because we're trying to love them, They're like, well,

you got someone so and so and so. Pastor Steve,

you're fat. So you suffer from gluttony. And how can

you tell me anything because you're fat? I agree. I

am fat. I have a mirror. Not denying it. Here's

the reality. You're right, probably. I don't deny that. Like

I told you before, I'm broken just like you are.

So why don't you get the plank out of your

eye before you talk to me about it? That's how

we quote that passage of Scripture, right? You can't tell

me anything because you're not perfect either. None of us are.

There's not one person perfect in this room. My wife's close. Hypocrite,

first remove the plank from your own eye and then

you will see clearly to remove the speck from your

brother's eye. Do not give what is holy to the

dogs nor cast your pearls before swine lest they trample

them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.

He says, here's the thing. This is why you receive

that loving conversation from other people is so that you

can handle it and that you can then help somebody

else with the splinter in their eye. It's not about perfect.

It's about growing. It's about maturity. It's about understanding that

love is hard and it calls me up and it

disciplines me as well as urges me on, as well

as pats me on the back and claps for me.

It does both because love is not exclusively one or

the other. Kingdom love is all about us looking more

like Jesus conformed towards that kingdom picture of And we're

all works in progress. And when we can get it

right with each other, we can begin to see the

world the way that Jesus desires for us to see

the world. And that's what we're going to talk about

next week. We're going to identify the spirit of Antichrist.

We're going to deal with that whole scripture about Those

who hate me. We're going to talk about some of

the things David had to say, like smash their teeth out.

We're going to look at some of those things next week.

But if we can't get things right between me and you,

we'll never get things right out there. Hard love should

be able to happen in this place because we're family.

Because we all have the same goal to look more

like Jesus. Because we all have the same desire that

none would perish but that all would have eternal life. Father,

right now in the name of Jesus, open our eyes.

Open our eyes to see those areas where we don't

measure up. Help us Help us see those areas that

we've held on to, we tried to rationalize away, that

we tried to explain away, that we've ignored, that we've

compared to others. Help us become accountable to the things

in our life that don't please you. Because we want

life and life more abundantly. Help us, Jesus. Our altar

team would come.

You know, I believe right now in this room, there

are people who have.

Sin that they've been holding on to. We've explained it

away because it's not those cultural hot buttons. It's not

those big ones. Come on somebody, the big ones. But

we have those areas that we've built in our mind,

those Those fantasies and those escapes from reality, where we go,

those things that are not governed by God because they

live in our imagination and we need to turn those

things over to the Lord. We've got those things that

we've hidden and nobody knows about. We've got those areas

that other people do know about, but we've always just

said they're not a big deal. Now is the moment

where we turn those things over to God. where we

don't come and say, God, you know what? I don't

want to worry because I don't want to worry. We

come to God and say, God, I know that you

have called me above that. God, I know you've called

me above, you know, just that little bending of the truth. God,

you've called me above, fill in the blank there. I

want to give you an opportunity as the band sings

this song. to come and lay those things down in

the altar. Our altar team will pray with you. They'll

meet you right here. And then after, you're going to

go down and eat great food. Because both of those

things are kingdom. So as the band sings, the altar's open.

Everybody stand with me all over the building. If you

need to come and lay something down in the altar, come.

If you don't, worship with a reckless abandon. And then

we'll fellowship and connect through all the things that we do.

Pastor Clay.