“The best is yet to come!” This statement has often been a popular rallying cry, especially for the Church. It’s a declaration rooted in the belief that God has great things in store for his people just beyond the horizon. And it’s a sentiment we’ve shared and stated here at Cornerstone...but, not anymore. Of course, we still believe the future is bright. But who has time for what’s to come when we’re too busy being blessed by what is? You see, the best isn’t “yet to come”—it’s here and now! God is on the move, and he is doing a new thing NOW, in the midst of our present circumstances. Instead of focusing on the future, we’re determined to follow God’s lead, right here and right now.

We’ve looked to the future, we know it’s on us, and we have confidence that God will provide. That leaves us with just one more thing to do as we build our future in the present—move! The time for preparation is over. A fulfilling future won’t be handed to us on a silver platter. As a famous native son of Northeast Ohio once said, “Nothing is given, everything is earned.” Do we truly want the blessings that God has for us? They can be ours—and not “someday” off in the distant future—but right here and now. All we have to do is move.

 Thank you for joining us. Isn't it incredible? We have people joining us from all over the place: people from the Philippines, South Africa, and Indiana. It kind of doesn't fit in with those other ones. But I had to shoehorn it in there somewhere, I guess.

Well, hey, we're here in our final week of Here And now. This series is where we have been looking at what it looks like to trust God, not just for some distant future, but trusting him right here. And right now, I think all of us can agree that whenever we believe about the best, we always think it's yet to come. Right. That's the saying: The best is yet to come; well, we're putting that phrase to death at Cornerstone. And we believe the best is not yet to come. But with God. And with Jesus, the best is always Here And now. We're always living in the glory days whenever we're following Jesus and following His purpose for our life. And so that's what we've been looking at. We've been looking at following Jesus and believing him for the best right here. And right now, not just collectively as a church, but in our own individual lives, as well. So I'm going to give you a real short recap of where we've been so far in this series, as we've worked through, here and now. So week one, we talked about getting on our mark, right getting on our mark that runners before they begin a race, the first thing they do is find their mark, find their line. And that's the line that they are taking off from that they're running from. And for us as a church, we were talking about the fact that the mark that we run from the mark that we're leaving from that we are running forward into this future that God's called us to the mark that we run from is the mark of God's favor, that we are sons and daughters of God that nothing can change that. And so as we run, if we ever hit any failure, if we ever have any obstacles, which we will, if we ever have anything coming our way, any opposition, we know that those things, we can either choose to label them as a failure, or we can choose to remember the truth. And the truth is that failure is a choice. But God's favor is a constant. God's favor is constant. It goes with us all the time. Our identity never changes. We are always God's sons and daughters. So we're running from our mark of God's favor. And then week two, we talked about the fact that we're running like no one else is coming. That it's very tempting for us to think, especially when it comes to the building campaign, but also in areas of our life. It's very tempting to think I don't need to do it, someone else will. Like I don't need to do, I don't need to clean up the wet spot on the ground. Someone else will clean it up. I don't need to do the dishes, someone else will clean it up. I don't need to talk to my family about Jesus. It'll make things weird. I don't need to share my faith. It'll make things complicated. I don't need to someone else will. And we talked about the fact that often in life, no one else is coming. There's, whenever it comes to our building, church, there's no multimillionaire living in this vicinity. That's just wondering, who can I give my millions to Oh, Cornerstone. Never been there. I don't know anybody there. But I'll give my millions there. That's not happening. If it does, awesome. But we're not counting on it. Because we are running, and we are acting like no one else is coming. And It's On Us. It's On Us. So we are taking action. And we are putting ourselves on the frontlines to make this building happen. And then last week, we talked about a unique sermon title, we talked about ravens, oil, fire, and food. We talked about the fact you had to be here. If you missed it, watch the archives way too much to recap everything right now. But we talked about the prophet Elijah and how he continuously took bold steps of faith for God in his life, believing that God would come through for him. And guess what God came through for him, time after time he provided through him through ravens through oil through the fire, and through food, God continually provided as Elijah trusted him and took bold steps of faith. And we talked about the fact that as a church, we believe that the same God is going to do that same thing today, that as we boldly step into the future, he has in mind for us, He will provide for us that he will see us through and he will bring his plans to fruition. Now that brings us to today. And today, my friends, is a tipping point. Tipping Point, if you've ever read the book or heard of the book by Malcolm Gladwell, he's a genius researcher author speaker. He talks about tipping points in companies and organizations and people's own lives. If they respond to a crisis, if they respond to an opportunity in the right healthy way, that it can become a momentum shift for the rest of their lives. Today is that day, this weekend is that weekend commitment weekend here at Cornerstone. This is our tipping point, a moment where everything can shift for us as a church. As you guys know, it's not like we do capital campaigns every year. The last time we did a true capital campaign like we're doing right now was the Reagan administration. All right, like it's been a minute, it's been a minute. And so we believe as we take this bold step of faith that We have not done in literal decades that God is going to see us through. And he's going to see us through right here. And right now. Today is that moment. Today is our moment. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready online? If you're ready, I want to see the hands-up emoji, and I want you to say I'm ready in the chat because God has a word for us today? Now today, we're going to be looking at one of the most popular, well-known pieces of scripture, that there is the crossing of the Red Sea, people who even only culturally have an idea of what Christianity and what the Bible is about no of this historical account, know a little bit about it. But what we're going to do, we're not going to focus on the actual crossing of the Red Sea. We're going to focus on the build-up to the crossing of the Red Sea because I feel like there are some truths in this particular set of scripture that God wants us to know as we get ready to take this bold step of faith as a church. So a real quick recap of where we're at as we head into these verses for today. So God's chosen people, he chooses this man named Abraham tells him, Hey, I am going to as long as you're faithful to me, I'm going to raise and create a nation out of you, the nation of Israel will be a nation of blesses the entire earth. So God did this, and the nation started to grow, but they became enslaved in the land of Egypt. The Egyptians have enslaved the Israelite people. And so, they're forced labor for them. God hears the cries of his people hears the cries of the Israelites. And so he decides he's going to raise a leader to deliver them, the leader's name is Moses, God raises this man through some miracles on God's behalf. Moses can gain the liberation of the Israelites from the land of Egypt. And so he starts leading them out of Egypt to the Promised Land that God has in mind for them. And that's where we pick up if you want to follow along. We're in Exodus chapter 14 Today, where we pick up starting in verse five, and I'm going to try not to pause too many times as we're reading through the scripture and preach at you alright, I'm, but I make no promises. I'm going to try, but I make no promises. Starting in verse five, when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, what have we done? I think a few of you have uttered that same statement. Whenever you found out we were doing a building campaign in the middle of a global pandemic, what have we done? What have we done, we let the Israelites go, and we have lost their services. Verse six, he had his chariot ready, and he took his army. He took 600 of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt with officers, over all of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, which real quick, I just want to this, this doesn't apply to today's sermon. But I just want to make sure we're on the same page whenever a scripture says that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Whenever God hardened someone's heart, many of us read that, and we read it from our cultural context. And we think well, that how, how awful of God, why would God do that? Why would God force someone to make a decision they don't want to make or force them to make a wrong decision? Whenever you look at the original Hebrew of this word, hard, and what it means is, it's almost as if you're wringing out a sponge. Did you put water in the sponge? No, you're just squeezing out what was already there. And so, in this situation, God is not forcing this decision on Pharaoh. The hate that Pharaoh has in his heart, the selfishness, and the pride he has are already there. God's just bringing it out. God's just bringing it out and making it come to the surface. So God hardens the heart of Pharaoh he rings it out, he brings to the surface what's been hiding underneath, so that he pursued the Israelites who are marching out boldly. The Egyptians, all pharaohs, horses and chariots, horsemen, and troops pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea, near P Hara, opposite Baal sifan. Some words right there for you who, as Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and the Egyptians were marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord, they said to Moses, was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone? Let us serve the Egyptians; it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptian than to die in the desert. And what I want us to know here church real quick is we need to expect opposition as we take bold moves of faith. When God moves, opposition confronts us, it just happens, so can we just claim today and just make a commitment today, we will not be the Israelites. As we pursue this new facility, we will not be the people who will finally give us the room we need if we pursue this new facility whenever red tape comes up. Whenever a zoning issue comes up, an issue with funding comes up that we know should never start, this shouldn't even try to build a new building. What were we thinking? We shouldn't even have bought this building. We should have stayed mobile. Can we just commit today that that won't happen? We're never going to say that because we are boldly following God into the future, he has in mind for us. Verse 13, Moses answered them, Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today, the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again, the Lord will fight for you. You need only be still now here is where everything changes. Because here is where you think like it's just going to stop at this, the Lord will fight for you need only be still, and then God parted the sea, and everything was amazing. And we were just still, and God moved on our behalf. Verse 15 is not what you would expect. Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Say it with me. Move on, put it in the chat move on. Verse 16, raise your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water. So the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground, raise your staff and stretch your hand. Isn't it funny how what Moses needed he had the whole time. He comes up to the sea come to this moment. He's, hey, we need to pray. We need to ask God for a move. We need to ask God to do something. Let's just be still and have him doing God's saying. Look at your hand. You have everything you need. I have empowered you. What are you doing waiting move, take the steps you know you need to give you what you need. And you've always had what you needed. Skipping ahead to verse 18, God says the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD cornerstone. We know who we are. We're on our mark, and we know our identity. We're acting like no one else is coming. We're putting this burden on ourselves. And we're acting like it's on us because it is. And we know that as we boldly take those steps, God will provide there is literally only one thing left for us to do, and that's it. Move.

Move. The same thing that the Israelites had to do is the exact same thing that we have to do. Move. Are you ready? Are you ready to move? Are you ready to move today? We take our first steps as a church towards that future God has in mind for us, and I want us to take a moment to pray real quick. Let's bow our heads, Heavenly Father. This is it. This is our moment, and we are ready. We are ready right here, and we are ready right now. God, you are calling us to the future you have in mind for us. I know, man I look around this room, God I see the potential you've placed in every single person in here. I see the potential you have placed in our church, the purpose that you're calling us towards of helping people find you find a family, and find their future. And God, today we claim that we claim we know today is our moment, and we are ready to seize it, we are ready to wrestle it to the ground. It is not going anywhere. We will not let this moment pass us by. We will rise to the opportunity we will rise to this moment. And we will see you move on our behalf in ways that we could never have even fathomed. We're going to see you do amazing things, and God not in some distant future. But you're going to do them right here. And right now, God, you're already moving. I feel you. I feel you're in this room. You're with us right now. God, I ask that you would be with me right now as I speak today. I do not want to get in the way. Please help my words be filtered through you. And through your words so that everybody hears you and not pastor Jacob, that my thoughts are your thoughts, that my ideas are your ideas so that we all can hear a word from you today and see it change our lives. We love you, Father, we pray all this in your name, amen. Amen. Today, the sermon title we're working with today is nothing, given everything earned. Nothing given everything earned. Does that sound familiar? To anybody? I want to see some hands. Does that sound familiar? All right. I see the Cavalier fans in the room, then that's where I'm seeing that any hands online Cavalier fans? That's a line there's a line directly lifted from one of LeBron's. It's his article. His article that he wrote with Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated whenever he announced that he was coming back to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers was towards the end of his letter. He wrote this statement. He said in Northeast Ohio. You work for what you have. Nothing is given. Everything is earned. And I'm ready to work. Now. It's kind of funny that he says this because this statement implies, hey, things are going to be hard. Things are going to be tough. We're going to have to grit, and we have to pull through, and it's going to be hard. It's gonna be difficult. But whenever you looked at the calves at the time, you're like, Dude, you just come on. You guys are gonna steamroll to a championship like you're on the team. Kyrie Irving was on the team at the time everyone knew the Cavs were going to trade for Kevin Love, another multiple-time All-Star one of the best players in the league. So whenever you read this, and you're like, oh, yeah, he's just he's saying these things to sound humble, but it's not anything given everything earned like you're not going to have to earn this, you guys are going to cakewalk to the finals, and you're going to Cakewalk to a championship. But I think LeBron really meant it. I think he really meant I think he knew now this is going to be hard. This is going to be difficult. We're not just going to be given a title, we're going to have to earn this thing. We're going to have to work for it. And that's because LeBron knew something from his previous stance with the Cavaliers. He was with the Cavaliers whenever he first started his career. And so LeBron knew, you know what? Potential is pointless unless it's realized. It is pointless. I don't; I don't care what our potential is. Yeah, you got me. Yeah, you got Kyrie Yeah. You got Kevin Love. Who cares? Who cares? Tell the person next to you. Hey, I got potential. Tell them I got potential. And then tell the other person I don't care. I don't care. Good for you. You got potential you want a cookie? I don't care that you got potential. I could care less if you have potential because potential is nothing unless it's realized. It's pointless. The Cavaliers were favored to win the title like the last three times that LeBron was with the Cavs the last three years before he left to go to Miami, their favorite in 2008, 2009 2010. People thought, oh, yeah, this team, they've got LeBron. They're building they've got some good shooters, this team for sure will win a title. They never even made it to the finals in either in any of those years didn't even make it to the big dance.

See, he knew potential is pointless unless we actually actualize it, unless we realize it, unless we live out our potential. What good is it? Who cares? Until then, we're just paper tigers. Until then, we look good on paper, we look good. But we're actually nothing. It's pointless. Cornerstone, I want to let you know, man, we've got potential as a church. I'm not blowing smoke at you. Whenever I tell you, I look around this room, and I see people, and I go, the potential in this room, the potential the people in here the influence that you have the skills that you have the compassion that you have the generosity that you have. It's incredible. We have some amazing, amazing people, not just in this room, we have people on our FM, our people who are online who are worshipping with us from their homes all over the place. Incredible, incredible people with amazing influence. But the thing is, it's pointless unless it's realized. It's pointless unless it's realized. And you may know that because you see that in yourself too. Because you see in your own day-to-day life, you know that you're just scratching the surface at times of what God has actually created you to do. You know, man, I've got so much potential I could, I could be such a better student, I know I could, I could be such a better student, but I mail it in all the time. I could be such a better wife, I can be such a better wife, I have the potential. But man, I just fall into my own selfishness. Way too often. I could be such a better kid, I could be such a better son, such a better daughter, I could be such a better boss, such a better employee, I could be so much better. I know I have this potential. But I'm just not living up to it. And unless you do, that potential is pointless. That potential is pointless. And not only is it pointless, but it's also scary. Because we lie to ourselves about our potential. We can feel comfortable because we know it's like a flip. It's like a switch. I can just flip it on at any time. I've got this potential in me, and I can live up to I'm just not right now. And it lulls us into this false sense of security that we can just stay as we are we just stay as we are. Because if we ever want to, we've got this potential that we can just flip on. And it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. We cannot allow ourselves to get lulled into this inactivity, we have got to move, realizing our potential requires our movement, if we want to actually not just as a church corporately, but individually, if you want to grow in your life, you want to move and actually experience the potential that you know is in you. You want it to become something, and it's going to take you moving, it's going to take movement, it's going to take action, it's going to take actually doing something we see that in scripture, the nation of Israel, they were never going to live up to the God-given potential and the purpose that He placed within their heart by staying in Egypt. And that's where they tried to go back to what just left us in Egypt. Why did you even try to take us out of here, Moses? Just let us go back there. They were never going to fulfill the mission God had given them if they had stayed where they were. They had to move. They had to move to reach the potential that God had placed in their hearts. The same is true for you, not just us as a church for you as an individual. I want to let you know this if you have stopped growing in your life, it's because you have stopped going. I promise you that is the truth. If you've stopped growing, it's because chances are you're just stagnant. You're staying where you're at. You're lulled into this fake sense of, you know, I'm all right where I'm at, I'm okay. I know I've got potential, I don't really live up to it, but I can at any moment I can. If I want to. Don't get there, don't get there. If you have stopped growing, it's because you stopped going, you have got to start moving. Again. If you want to unleash Absolutely, you want to unleash and realize the potential God has put inside of you. It's only going to happen through your movement through stretching through pushing through going, man, start giving, started giving start small, it's all right, just start giving become a ministry partner here at Cornerstone join a C group, you heard, the James family talked about how the groups have helped them, join a C group. Whatever you're doing, just start moving. Start moving start being active again. That's the only way to realize your full potential. I want to let you know Cornerstone. That's why we are not stopping. We're not this morning; every Sunday before services start, we have an MP rally where all the ministry partners get together in here, we rally we have a short devotional, we pray for the services break for the people come in today, everything like that. And today, one of the things that we did was, we talked about, hey, we're in this capital campaign, it's going to end after three years. It's not how long it will take to build a building. It's how long the campaign will take. And we were saying hey, what what do we want to see God? And what do we believe in the God's going to do during this period of time during these three years, and whenever it got to me, I said, I don't know. I don't even know. All I know is it's going to be something big, and it's going to be next. whatever's next, because this is in it. Like we're not building this building. We don't reach the end of the here and now campaign and then do a mic drop and say, Well, we're done. Like this is it. This is Cornerstone Church down forever. We are moving, we are moving, we're just taking step after step after step after step. We're not stopping as a church. Because if we want to live out the full potential of who God called us to be, it's only going to happen as we're on the move. It's only going to happen as we're mobile and keep doing things and keep following the purposes of God. We are moving, we are running.

You see the enemy what he wants, he wants us to stay motionless. He wants us to stay stagnant. He wants us to stay inactive. That's what he wants you to do in your life to stop pursuing things. Just stay where you're at. He wants you motionless. And here's how he wants to do it because of the enemy. He's not stupid. He's not going to try to, you know, for us as a church, the temptation isn't going to be Hey, don't build a new building. Hey, don't have more services; don't reach out to more people. No one else needs to hear about Jesus. That's not going to be a temptation for us. Do you want to know what the temptation is going to be? Man, you guys are done so much. Just stop and pray about it. Just stop for a little bit—you guys. Man, you've done so much. You've got a lot going on. Just stop, pray, pray, keep praying. Just keep praying. Just keep going. That's what he wants us to do. And I'm telling you right now that we as a church cannot buy into the prayer of procrastination. Just putting it off what we know God told us to do. We see that from the scripture that we looked at today. Moses knew where God was calling him the Israelites to go, he knew exactly where they were supposed to go. And yet he stopped. He stopped. And what did he say? They all cried out to the Lord. They're praying to God, God, God will move on our behalf. We just need to be still. God's going to do something to prayer, procrastination. He knew what he was supposed to do, you read earlier in Exodus, God had specifically told them where to go and to keep moving and to keep walking. But they stopped. They stopped. Chances are you may have that temptation to stop in your life as well. You know what future God is calling you to, you know, the purposes he has in mind for you, the potential he's placing your heart, and you're stopping, and you're praying. Oh, God, it just makes it more clear. Whoa, oh, God, just makes it more clear. I just, you know, I just need to pray for a while, just need to keep praying, but you know what God's told you to do? And the thing is, chances are the reason you're stopping. The reason that you want to just pray these prayers. And procrastination is the same reason that Moses and the Israelites wanted to do it. They stopped because they wanted certainty. They wanted certainty. Because they knew where God had called them, but between where they are and where they're supposed to be, is an ocean. There's the Red Sea. And so they're going well, okay, I know we're supposed to get there. But, you know, we thought the sea would already be dried up by now like God, Aren't you supposed to. So as soon as you make that certain, soon as it's clear, then We'll go, then we'll move in chances are in your life, that's what you're waiting for. You're not walking through the door until God makes it abundantly clear. You're not getting out of that relationship until God hits you over the head, you're not starting to give until God hits you over the head, you're just waiting and waiting and waiting, when I won't let you, you know, certainty will never come. It just won't, certainty will never come, you will never get it, and you don't need it. You don't need it. If you have confidence in the Savior, you don't need certainty in a circumstance, you just don't. If you have confidence in who Jesus is, then you know, okay, well, the person I'm following, I'm confident in them, I don't need to know where I'm going. I don't need to know how it's gonna work out. I don't need to know every single step along the way. If I'm confident in the person who's leading me, we don't need certainty as a church. We can do the best we can, do the best we can, pray, and there is a time for prayer. But there is a time for action. And there is a time to move. And we will not buy into prayers of procrastination because they're pointless. They're pointless. We need to have confidence in our Savior, confidence that the God who parted the waters is still moving today. And he's still active. We can move in expectation of a miracle.

We as a church can take steps that expect God to come through for us. We can take these bold steps saying, hey, look, yep, here's the sea, we know we're supposed to be there. And there is a red sea between us. And our goal, you know what, I'm going to take a step and just assume God's either going to park the sea, or I'm going to walk on water, one of those two things is going to happen because I know what he's calling me to, I'm not stopping here, I'm gonna keep moving forward and moving towards the future he has in mind for me, we move in expectation of a miracle. We press on towards the potential and the purpose that God has put in our hearts. I love this quote, this is from Dr. Charles Stanley, he says God takes 100% responsibility for a life that's fully devoted to him. Do you know what that means? That means if I completely devote my life, every aspect of my life, if Jesus is truly the king of my life, then that means every outcome in my life is out of my hands. Talk to you, if you want to have immediate stress relief, start devoting your life to God because you'll realize, man, these outcomes it's not on me anymore. It's not on me, I follow God in the area of my relationships, and I let the chips fall where they may. I follow God in the area of my finances, and I let the chips fall where they may. I just follow him, I completely devote myself to him. And I allow him to take responsibility for the outcome, move, and expectation of a miracle move like God is actually going to show up for us. I want to let you know, as your pastor and Pastor Brenda did this to us as your pastor, we are routinely going to say yes to decisions that we will fail if it's left up to us routinely. So get used to it, get used to things going, what are we why are we doing that? Because I don't want us making decisions as a church that are calculated because we know we can do it. I don't want us making decisions where it's like, okay, yeah, we've worked out the math, and on our own, we can make this happen. We're always going to add the god part like, okay, we can do this part greater than this is our goal. Like, oh, we can make this happen. Awesome, then we're shooting for here. That's why I'm saying that. We got something big coming up next. I don't even know what it is yet. But we're just gonna keep moving. Because that's what God is calling us to do. He is asking us to continue pressing forward and advancing his kingdom, and we're going to do it. We're going to move an expectation of a miracle church, we will move, we will move the key keyword there is we will move we I'm looking at every eyeball in this room. We will move every eyeball online. I don't care if you're watching this later on the archive. I don't care if you're listening to the podcast. I'm talking to you too. We will move as a church together we will move, and that's because of realizing potential. It's a group project. It is a group project. This isn't that, you know, stuff where one person does all the work and everyone else just signs off on it and gets the credit for it. No, no, no. This is a group project. This is an all scape. We're all a part of this. Whenever you look at scripture, you look at the story that we read from scripture this morning, you see that when the seas parted, the Israelites moved all of them. The Israelites moved. There weren't a few who hung back. There weren't a few who thought they'd just chill in Egypt. I'm good here. They all moved. There weren't a few who said all isn't that nice? That's great. What they're doing that they're moving? Am I happy for them? No, they all moved every single one of them. They moved in unison. realizing your potential is a grouped group Project, and here's the thing, here's, here's what we need to keep in mind. Who made up that group of Israelites? All of them, older people, middle-aged people, younger people, kids, babies, men, women, people who were young and healthy people who were older and sick people who had probably people who were lame, who were part of walking hard of hearing the heart of seeing a whole different variety of people made up that group, yet every single one of them moved. That means certain people moved at a quicker pace. That means some people needed help moving, which means some people weren't able to do it completely on their own. And some people were quicker, and some people were faster. But everybody moved. Do you get what I'm saying?

Don't allow yourself today to feel like, well, I know. We're making financial commitments. But I can't really make that much. And I mean, by the way, why do you even care? You shouldn't even care how much I'm giving. And of course, of course, I'm at a church and then talking about how much, and they're talking about money. Don't that is that's straight from the enemy. Don't even listen to it. It's never it has never ever, ever been about how much with God, it has always been about how willing it's never a question of how much can you give? It's never a question of, yeah, let's see the dollar amount how much? It's no, how willing are you to trust me? How willing are you to trust me that if you take that small step out onto the waters, I'll partner, or I'll help you walk? How willing are you to actively trust me in your life? We're trusting hard. As I said, we are doing a building campaign in the middle of a global pandemic, we're trusting we bought a building that was way too small for us because we believed that our people would come through and that we would add on, think about that for a second. That's like a family of like, seven buying a two-bedroom house. It's crazy. What we did is crazy. I mean, our old building on Killian road was 20,000 square feet, and we were outgrowing it. This is less than 8000 is a third of the size. But we believe we believe God for big things. We believe this opportunity where we have time when services have to be smaller, we believe this is an opportunity. And this is a moment, and we're going to seize it. We're going to meet at the moment. Together, we will move to realize potential as a group project. Think about that for a moment. What if we all moved? What like really, really think about that, how incredible that would be, I want to let you know, I'm not just talking a big game up here. We actually play this out on our staff. Whenever we look at our numbers for every week, the giving total that is a portion of it, we get pumped at seeing the amounts of gifts given because that's individual contributions. We don't care. It could have been $1, and it could have been $5. But I gotta tell you, whenever we had our first week, where our giving units were over 100, and it was in triple digits, we were psyched out of our minds. I can't even I can tell you we had 103. On that day, I can't tell you how much our giving total was for that day. But I can remember how many people gave because we were pumped up thinking that's 103 different individuals, couples, or families who believe in what God is doing through Cornerstone Church. That's amazing. That's amazing. Again, not how much but how willing it's a group project that we have got to go together. And this is it. Like this is it. This is the tipping point. This is the moment this is the time for us to step into that potential to step into that purpose that God has placed into the heart of our church. This here and now. Here, not here. This is it. This is the here. This is now the time for this might sound heretical. The time for praying about this is over. Why are you crying out to me? Move, move. This is the time for us to move as a church. This is the time for us to make our commitments. And I'm going to get super practical here for a little bit. This is what Second Corinthians 517 says. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. It's come. Do you know what that means? When it says that the new creation has come?
It means it's come. It's not a trick question. It means it's here. How often do we think that God's best for us is always so off far in the distance that the best for the church is always so often the distance the best for my relationships is often the distance. Always next year and next year, my New Year's resolution for 2022, and I'm just gonna keep pushing up? Whenever you follow Jesus, when Jesus is your King, truly your king, The new is here. It's always here, the new is always here. And now he is moving in our church, the old has gone, the new is here. It's here. And it's at this moment. It's at this moment as we make our commitments. Now, on the way in, you were handed a commitment card. This is where I said I'm going to get really practical. You're handed a commitment card, I want to walk through this real quick, just so everyone is completely aware of what it means what we're asking you to fill out. Hopefully, you've been praying about this. I really hope you've been praying about this, me and my wife, Jessica, we've been praying about our commitment ever since before this series started trying to figure out how we can make commitments, I want to let you know we're making our commitments from a variety of different sources. Me and Jessica, we're using stimulus money. We're using tax refund money, we're making a monthly commitment. And we're using money that I had from a pension whenever I was at my old job at all state, where I've been joking, calling it we're Frankenstein our commitment, we're grabbing all these different pieces and parts from all over. And the reason we're doing that is that for us as we pray and ask God, God, what's your number for us? That's what it looked like for us to have a sacrificial commitment. Because I would be lying if I said, I don't want you to feel the weight of this moment. I do. I want you to feel the weight of this moment because this is a big moment. These are big commitments that we're making. As we're trusting God and stepping forward in faith, we're taking that first step out onto the water. These are big commitments we make today. And actually, I waited later in the last service. But I want to let you guys know that you're not taking those steps earlier this service alone. You're not taking the steps alone, whenever you come in, you see these commitments up on the wall. Those are all from this morning. Leaders and stewards in the church got together last night, worshipped, prayed, and took the first steps of obedience took the first steps of the sacrifice made the first commitments we had last night over 40 separate commitments, totaling two, almost $300,000 in pledged money. That's amazing.
My commitment is right over here on the wall, and bringing this commitment is right over here. You're not taking these steps alone. The leaders in the church linked arms and said, we're going. We're going first. You don't need to be afraid you don't need to be scared, we're putting our money where our mouth is we have skin in the game. And so, if you want to take that step, this is what it looks like to fill out this card. So this top portion it's a perforated page, this top portion is for you to keep something for your records. It just has an amount that you commit to giving the total amount over the life of the campaign. And then the blind below is how often you plan on giving it if you plan on giving it, you know, monthly, weekly, annually, anything like that, or if it's a one time gift, then this is the portion that you are filling out as well today. Name, address, phone, and email that you want to know why we have that it's not so we can do a credit check. So don't. Don't be like, oh, what's going on? Right? What's going on. We have this information because we are doing what scripture says about being prudent, frugal, and wise builders. This is us counting the cost. This is us making sure we are not going this alone. This is us making sure that we actually have people who are supporting us, who are invested, who are getting behind us in this building project, and the contact information. That's a way you can get your records to you, your giving records, so we can make sure that you actually get those and you get updated on what's going on. So that's what the top portion is the bottom portion is your total gift. And then your first gift and the total gift is how much you plan on giving over the life of the campaign. And the first gift next week is our first fruit offering week. And what that means is next week is the first week that we're bringing our offerings in together and donating them and giving them to God and sacrificing and making that commitment real. So that's where you can put in what you're planning on bringing next week as your first gift. And then the bottom part again, it's just how often you plan on giving, whether it's annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly, or a one-time gift. Again, we want to be able to count the cost. We want to be able to budget we want to be able to plan, and you can only do that if you have an idea of when money's coming into a degree. That's why that information is on there. So we can plan, and we can be as frugal, and we can be as wise as we possibly can. And I want to let you know, every penny that is given today. You can trust Cornerstone. We don't abuse the money. We don't spend lavishly. We actually have the offices that we have up here at the top of the hill, we have those on a lease. We've already contacted our landlord, and our realtor asked If we could get those put back on the market, and they said yes, so at any moment, someone could come in, and we could be without offices as a staff. And that's okay. As a sacrifice we are more than willing to make to see this building come to fruition so we can have more money to put towards the project us as a staff at the beginning of this year, we cut across every single budget line, we cut the budget by 20%. When we do not have an extravagant budget, by the way, it's not like, oh, well, let's cancel our trip to Orlando later this year, like I guess we can't go to our big conferences. That's not where we're cutting, right? But we're cutting because we want you to know you're not taking the steps alone. The Church and the leaders of this church are making those steps and have made those steps and are going with you every step of the way. We're in this together. It's a group project. It's an escape. It's an escape, and God is going to do something amazing as we unite together. And we take these steps, and we move forward in faith, believing he will see us through now what you're going to do. Because we're Cornerstone, and we never we can't, we can't just have you fill this card out and put it in a slotback there. That's boring. It's boring. We can't do that. Are
are you kidding me? Now we want you to remember this moment, in the same way, the old building at 578 Killian road, when the amazing people of our church, Fred and Verla, Lewis Dean and Bernie Stevenson, when the incredible people of our church built that place, and they wrote their names and prayers on the studs of that building, we want you to have as close to a similar moment as you can. So when you make your commitment today, what we want you to do is that you'll see at the end of every, at the end of most of the rows, you'll see a little basket with a hammer and nails. We want you to do whenever your family, you as a couple of you, as an individual, make your commitment, fill out your card, and then commitment side down. You don't need to post it publicly. We're not asking for that commitment side down, nail it to the wall, nail it to the wall, and what we want you absolutely what, what we want you to know symbolically. With every single stroke of the hammer. We want you to know that the people who are building this building, yes, we'll have contractors come in here. And yes, we'll have construction teams and architects and all that. But the people who started building this building were you, your sacrifices, your commitment, your belief, and what God is doing through Cornerstone are the first strikes of the hammer that enable this building to get built. It's on you, and it's on us. And this is our moment. And if you're watching online, I want to let you know you're a part of this too. We have people get this we have people out of state who have committed one person $3,000 to this campaign. This is someone who will never benefit from the building on their own. And they've donated $3,000, we have extended family who's donating who they may never think about this, they may never set foot in this building. And they're giving to it. That's incredible. That's incredible. We've not forgotten about you, we are thankful for you. And so we want to let you know, if you fill out the online commitment card, the host is going to be posting in the comments, you fill out the online commitment card, we are going to copy your information onto a hardcopy card, we'll nail it up to the wall for you. And we'll make sure after everyone's done, we want you to keep your hammer, we want you to keep it, we want you to keep it as a moment where you can look back on it. It's like in the Old Testament, we see that God instructed his people to build altars, and they would serve as reminders for how God moved in the past. This hammer is a little altar for you to keep to put somewhere in your house so you can look back. And in years, whenever we are blown away at what God has done to Cornerstone, we can look back and say, Man, I remember. I remember it all started with a few strikes from this hammer, and look at where we are now. Look at what God is doing now. So you keep that hammer with you after you're done. And online. If you've made a commitment, we'll make sure that you get one, whether it's you picking it up if you live in the area, or we'll get one mailed to you if you're out of state, but we want you to know you are just as much of a part of this. You are here and now with us as well. Thank you for your sacrifices, as well, man. I'm just I'm excited. I'm excited because God is moving. He is moving. Now it's our turn. Now it's our turn to move. It's our turn to join him and what he's doing and help people find him a family and fulfilling future. God wants to bless the world. He wants to do it through us. He wants to do it through us. He doesn't want to do it someday. He doesn't want to do it in some distant future. He wants to do it right here and right now. Such a church. Let's take those steps. The worship team is about to lead us in a song as they do. You can stand up, and you can put your commitment on the wall stand up knowing you are taking those first steps on under the water, trusting God departed, or to help you walk, because he is. This is a move of God right now, we are a part of it. He is building his church, and he's doing it through us. Let's stay in, and let's make our commitments today. Man, oh man, pray with me real quick, Father God, we dedicate the commitments we just made to you. You are building your church, and you're doing it through us. Thank you, God, thank you, that you include us, that you include us that we get to be a part of this life-giving, world-changing thing that you call the church, that we get to be a part that we get to work with you what a privilege, it is God that you are building your church and in the process, you're building us. Individually, you are making us more and more into the people we're supposed to be people of compassion, people of grace, people of love. You're making us more like Jesus every day. And God, we thank you for that. Because that is truly heaven. That is truly heaven becoming more and more like our King. Thank you for that. God, thank you for the move that you're doing in our church.

Thank you for the fact that most churches, the averages, die after 40 years and that we're hitting year 40 plus one and we're just getting started again, we are just getting started. Again, you're doing something here, and we are thankful for it. We're thankful we get the part of it, God helps us keep moving, help us keep moving, you're moving, and we're going to have to move, and we want to keep up with you. Help us to continue doing that not just today but every day as we keep claiming that the best is here. And now. We love you, Father, we pray all this in your name, amen.