I received this response card this week. It makes me thankful to be part of a church where people are being challenged to be more like Christ.
Just so you all know, I love this church. All of you, my church family, encourage me and inspire me so deeply. Every day of the week, I look forward to coming to Cornerstone … this is wonderful!
I came across this passage in The Message and decided to share it with everyone. Even though we struggle with sin, there is hope!! Romans 8 continues on to explain how we can live in Christ and overcome the power of sin. I love the fact that we are not alone in our struggle to overcome sin. I have talked with several people over the past few weeks who are battling addictions, who are hurting, and who have lost hope. Our hope is that Jesus Christ defeated sin for us, and that through His power, we can overcome it as well. Read this paraphrase for a new perspective on this familiar passage.
This is from Romans 7:14-25
I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
It’s late on Sunday night and I am totally spent, but I had to share a little about today. Here are some of the highlights from the last few days.
Maybe it’s my engineering background, but I like to have a good grasp on how the church is doing. I want to know trends in everything from small group involvement to giving to attendance. After moving into our new facility we have a new way to measure how much fellowship occurs on Sunday morning … and it’s our Coffee Consumption. When we were at the school, everybody got there late and and left early, and we typically only fixed 3 large airpots of coffee. Now people are getting to church early and staying late, and our coffee consumption has increased to 8 large airpots. That’s a 266% increase in our fellowship!
I’m still holding off on posting my thoughts on Catalyst this year. It was great, but a little overwhelming. I’m still processing much of what God spoke to my heart this week. Sam, Todd, and I traveled together and had many challenging conversations about the future of Cornerstone. I really think exciting things are in store for us as long as we keep preaching and teaching Jesus.
As for the conference, Craig Groeschel really spoke directly to me. As always, I felt a connection to him and what he had to share. I think Andy Stanley has a unique way of relating leadership principles to the church in practical Godly ways, and I could fill a notebook with all of the powerful quotes that he shared. It was reassuring to hear directly from Dave Ramsey about the current financial crisis (although I’m still mad I didn’t win the free iMac he gave away to the girl three rows in front of me!)
And it was inspiring to look back at what Billy Graham has been able to do by simply being faithful to preach the Gospel.
But I was surprised and impressed by the two young guys, Matt Chandler and Steven Furtick. I have listened to sermons from both of them over the past year and although they are different, they both share an incredible passion. At Catalyst, both guys really preached passionately, and they preached from Scripture. It’s not surprising that the messages I enjoy the most always come directly from the Bible. I love learning leadership principles, but I am challenged, stretched, and encouraged when God’s Word is taught in passionate and compelling ways. I’ll share some more of my thoughts as I unpack my conference notes.
Today was finally the day when our church moved into the new facility downtown. We had a great service this morning and I really think it went better than anyone expected. The new sound system was awesome, we had volunteers everywhere greeting and welcoming our visitors, and the cafe area was cozy and inviting. I shared a passionate message about starting off right and it just felt like God was in complete control this morning.
Jenni took a few pics that I wanted to share. We really haven’t advertised our move yet. We wanted to get a few services under our belt and then let the community know and have a “grand opening” Even though we didn’t promote this first Sunday, we still had a lot of visitors. One person gave me a great compliment about the building. They said, “It just feels right” We purposely set out to create an environment where people would love to hang out. Here are the pics.
I’ve been to several conferences over the years, but the one that stands out the most is Catalyst . It is over the top in every sense imaginable. Incredible music and incredible speakers challenge you to live your life all-out for God, and it’s all done with some amazing technology. This year the lineup includes Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Dave Ramsey, Jim Collins, Seth Godin, Franklin Graham, Steven Furtick, William Paul Young, and many more! I have read books by most of these guys and I can’t wait to be challenged by them. Sam, Todd, and I are driving down tomorrow and we plan on really challenging each other as well. We are excited about the future at Cornerstone and we know that God is putting the pieces in place to do something incredible here in Galax. I won’t be blogging, but you can follow my updates from twitter. And if you want to keep up with everything going on at the conference, check out the Catalyst Backstage website for interviews, updates, and much more from the conference. And when we get back, we will be downtown at the new building!!
Cornerstone Sermons