Making the Miracle // Permission Slips // Read

The last couple of years have been anything but easy. A worldwide pandemic, tumultuous elections, racial and social tensions…it’s been quite a ride. Now generally, January is a time of optimism—people are hopeful, believing the best about the future. But all of that craziness we’ve endured has led to an understandable unease about the upcoming year. You may be one of the millions who are wondering: “Will 2022 really be any different? How can I be confident about my future in the middle of so much uncertainty?” The good news? You don't have to limp into the new year with anxiety. God has given you permission—permission to hope, dream, and believe in the new year. No matter what comes…this year will be your year!

When you get a permission slip, it acts as a form of consent—it’s an “OK” to take action. And when it comes to this year being your year, that’s exactly what you have to do: act! That’s the way to make 2022 your year: by making it your year. Take action! Make the choices, make the decisions, and make the sacrifices you know will lead to a fulfilling future this year!

Well, I'm so thankful for the Roundtree's. You know, we have seven core values here at Cornerstone and they embody all of them. But there are two that specifically stand out. Today as we're talking about ministry partner, a weekend. One is second-mile generosity. That is how we give of our time, our talent and our treasure cheerfully to expand the kingdom of God and impact our community that is run in Cheryl. Then the other one is workers, not watchers, we at Cornerstone are workers. We're not watchers; we know that following God's purpose in our lives comes from working on the field, not from watching on the sidelines. And we are so grateful that we have had you guys on the field for all of these years, all these decades because you guys have made just a monumental impact. And we are so thankful for you and thankful for all of the people here at Cornerstone who are ministry partners, joining together in the work of expanding the kingdom of God through Cornerstone Church. Well, hey, I am so pumped for today's sermon. As I was preparing this one, I was saying to Megan Oberlin before service, I was like, I mean, I like preaching like I just like preaching. But can you relate? Because you're your worship leader? There are some songs that you just can't wait to sing. And you're like, oh, yeah, and I'm like, that's, that's the sermon today. I've been so excited to preach this sermon because I think it's that important. And it's that impactful for all of us who call ourselves Christ-followers. So we've been in this series of permission slips, I can't dive too much into where we've been, I would encourage you to go on our website, Cornerstone Church dot-info, catch up on our archives with where we've been. But essentially, what we've been talking about is the fact that we have been given permission by God, to step into this year with confidence to seize his will for our life, and his will for our life is that we become more like Jesus, that's God's will for everybody. I know a lot of us when we've talked about God's Will we start thinking about what are we going to do? What are we going to major in, in college? What am I going to do with my career, that's not God's will. That's a good thing. But God's will is not what you do. It's who you become. And that's what's important, who we are becoming. And so God's will become more like Jesus is absolutely capable to happen this year, you can make that happen, you can step with confidence into that goal. This year, no matter what comes your way, no matter what obstacles you face. And here is why we can say that we're going to read this together. I'm actually going to ask you if you would read this aloud with me. This is our theme verse for not just the series, but for the whole year. This is Second Corinthians 119 through 20. Let's read this together. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us by me and Silas. And Timothy was not yes and no. But in him, it has always been Yes. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. And so through him, the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. That's good news. Because what that tells us is that every single promise God has ever made, and let me tell you, there's a lot. There are a lot of promises, in God's word, every single promise, every single one has been rubber-stamped has been validated by Jesus Christ. So this year, as you set off to become more like Jesus, you can know that is the one thing you will never fail at. I can't promise you health and wealth. I can't do it. I wish I could. That would be great, wouldn't it? I can't promise that for you. The only thing I can promise is that as you try to become more like Jesus, you will not fail. You can't. Those promises have been yes and amen. By Jesus and by God himself. So that's where we've been so far. Now today, if you're taking notes, our sermon title is making the miracle-making the miracle, and one thing that we have kind of hit on, and every single week of this series leading up to today has been this recurring theme of action Action Movement doing something, right? I mean, we are talking about permission slips, what's the whole point of a permission slip. It's, it's something that gets signed. So you can go do something. So you can travel somewhere. So you can go on the field trip. That's the whole point of a permission slip in the permission slip that God has given us, the permission slip to become more like Jesus that He has commanded us to do, we are supposed to act on that. We are supposed to go and start acting and becoming more like Jesus in our life, we are supposed to take action. We're supposed to move. I talked about this a little bit. During the first week of this series, we talked about how important it is that we get our identity first, before our activity. And a lot of times, that's the reason we screw up we put activity first we worry about what we do, rather than who we become. But identity has to be foundational, it has to be the core thing that we settle on first. Now, what I said, and what I'll reiterate again, today is I'm not saying activity is bad. It's just that you have to get your identity first. In fact, this kind of a sidebar, this is for a sermon for another day, I would wager every time you ever sin, every time you ever missed the mark of God's will in your life. It's because you're putting activity before identity. You're forgetting who you are, and you're acting in a way that you shouldn't act. That's the old dead self. That's not you anymore. That's not the new creation. That's not how the new creation would think or act. So it's so important that we get identity first. But that doesn't mean that activity is bad. Our identity must lead the way, but the activity must follow. It has to if we are truly to be people of faith, identity must lead the way. But activity must follow Hebrews chapter 11. We don't have time to read it all today. 40 verses won't be taken up all the time reading through that I would tell you, you should read it this week. Look it over yourself. But in Hebrews chapter 11, we see example, after example, after example of people who placed their faith in God. And then once they had that identity set, they acted, they did something, they allowed their identity to form. And then they act it again, just look at some of these examples. Abel Abel brought an offering Noah built the heart. Abraham obeyed God and left his home country, Jacob worship God, Moses chose to leave Egypt to follow God Rahab welcomed the men of Israel as spies, all of these things, you notice the recurring theme, they're all action verbs. Doing something, doing something, yes. Knowing who you are in God, knowing who you are in Jesus, but then acting who you are should absolutely inform what you do. It just should. Is anyone in here in a relationship? Dating marriage? Anybody? Come this? Is this like a middle school dance going a lot better if you just participate? Because a lot better if you just participate. Anybody married in here? Hallelujah. I see the hands. We all got here somehow, right? anybody? Anybody online? So we got a lot of people in here who are either married or dating. We're about two weeks out from Valentine's Day, right?

So this is your cue to if you haven't yet, make the reservation, by the President, get the chocolates, get the flowers, get things ready. Because guess what, in a couple of weeks, you're going to be expected to have acted right to have bought to have prepared to have reserved. Now, why is that? It's because your identity is a person in a relationship. And so that identity 100% should inform your activity. Valentine's Day is coming up if this is who I am, this is the kind of person I am I'm someone in a relationship. I absolutely should act, I should do something, how much more so when it comes to the fact that we are Christ-followers. We're to call ourselves Christians, Christ-like which means we have to act like Christ. We have to move we have to partner with God, we have to do things, we have to take action, our identity must lead but our activity must follow. We have to partner with God. Our identity has to inform what we do and that we actually do something, in fact, I would say a faith that doesn't serve others, like faith that doesn't partner faith that doesn't do what Ron and Cheryl have done for the last decades a faith that doesn't serve others as a faith that stalls out it just does a faith that doesn't actively serve other people. It doesn't look to the lowest and least and people who are under hard times and say how can I help them a faith that doesn't serve others as a faith that will stall out anyone ever tried driving stick shift before? I see some very confident hands-on Yeah, I know. I know my way around a stick shift. And I see other people who are like I didn't like drive stick shift so much is just stalling out like and just tearing the clutch apart, right? Stick shifts, I remember trying to learn to drive for the first time it was in my sister's like 97 Honda Civic, it had a stick shift. And I remember like driving it around Coventry, driving around town trying to learn how to do it. And the one part that would always freak me out, like I was good on shifting gears, you know, I'm in a 97 Honda Civic, I feel like I'm in the Fast and Furious like, like just shifting gears like, this is awesome until there's a red light or a stop sign, then you're like, Oh, crap, don't stall this thing out, don't sell this thing out. Especially there's a hill on Main Street, wherever you come by the electric union, right by the park, you're going up that hill, like as I've been going up, and I'm like, please stay green. Because if it doesn't stay green, I'm just I'm running through this thing. I'm committed, like, I'm just going through and trusting God with the best, right? Because I would stall out whenever I was first learning how to do it because that's how stick shifts work. That's how they work the rotation of the tire is locked to the rotation of the engine. So whenever your tire whenever you're not going anywhere, if you don't handle things correctly, if you don't put it in neutral, if you don't have your foot down on the clutch, the call the cars is going to stall out. It's just going to stall out because once you have stopped moving, the engine dies.

See where I'm going with this. So many of us have faith that's just sitting there. We're not moving, we're not acting, and we wonder why it falls on hard times why it dies, why it doesn't get us through hiccups, or obstacles in life will no wonder, no wonder we don't have an act of faith. We don't have a faith that goes and does and does things. I'll tell you this much. I'm a pastor, I see time and time again, people in our congregation who are going through hell, like I mean, they're, they're having loved ones pass away. They're having, they're getting illnesses, right? They're getting illnesses or prognosis that is not good. And even in the midst of it. They're facing it with confidence, saying, Hey, I have I have even if faith, even if this thing happens, I can still step in the future with confidence because I know God is with me. And so those kinds of people, because they have an active faith, and they're partnering with God, these things come their way and it doesn't faze them, they keep pushing through, they keep going through to the other side, because they have a faith that's moving. So it's not going to stall out. But time and time again, the people who aren't partnering with God, who don't have an act of faith, man stuff on a much smaller level will happen and there'll be like me and it's God even notice me. Does God even care about me? And I'm like, man, look at look at this dichotomy of this person who almost a minor inconvenience has them wondering if a god is even real. And this person has lost their sister and their mother within a span of a month and a half. And they're still serving and giving of themselves and trusting God for the best. And I'm like, wow, what's, what's the difference here, nine times out of 10 the differences this person's plugged in nowhere, is partnering with God in no way. And this person is they've been partnering and trusting God for so long. And so whenever they hit these bumps, they're already connected, and they have an active faith. A faith that is not active, a faith that doesn't serve others is a faith that will stall out. In fact, I was trying. I was trying to look through scripture this week, as I was preparing for the sermon trying to find a good example of like someone who, you know, had put their faith in God, but it wasn't an act of faith. And so it kind of stalled out. You want to know I couldn't find one. I couldn't find a good example. Maybe someone after service can give me a good one. But I couldn't find a good one that was thinking like me; I can almost always find an example of what I'm looking for in Scripture. Like that's what I based my sermons off of the stuff that I read and like, oh, man, that's it. That's a good thing to talk about. And I just couldn't find one. And it kind of struck me well, maybe the reason I couldn't find one is because people who aren't active, just don't do anything new or noteworthy. Like no wonder they're not in Scripture. They didn't leave a legacy. They're not like Ron and Cheryl. They're not leaving a legacy that's going to live way past them and affect generations and generations to come. So, of course, there's no good examples in here. Because they don't have an act of faith. They have a faith that stalls out this right here. This is why nine out of 10 churches die. Sure there are there are some churches that they're doing everything right. They're trying to honor God as best as they can. And they just fizzle out. They're not able to make it, but I would wager nine out of 10 churches die or lose influence not because they believe the wrong things. But because their belief was never activated into actual faith. It never translated from this is what I believe to now this is what I do. And this is how it actually lives out in my life. That right there. Let me tell you, that's why I believe in Cornerstone so much. That's why I believe in our future not because I'm such a great pastor. Not.

Not not because our worship team is the best, which I mean, they're incredible. Don't get me wrong, our worship team is incredible. But that's not why I look at cornerstones future and I get pumped, and I get excited seeing what God's gonna do in our church. It's because I see we have a culture of Give and serve. And we you want to know something? Whenever we were talking about Ron and Cheryl, we're like, oh, we absolutely we want to honor them. They're getting the Legacy Award. But the cool thing was being able to say, and you know what, in future years, we've already got ideas of who's probably going to get it. Because it's not just Ron and Cheryl, and then no one else here does anything. We've got people here who are giving and serving and trusting God with their time with their talent, and with their treasure. And that is why I'm optimistic about cornerstone, because we have people who get it. And I'm like, man, if we got people who get it, we're gonna have a church that doesn't stall out, we're gonna have a church, no matter what comes our way, including looting, losing a building, being mobile for years, even those things aren't gonna throw us off our game, because we have an active faith and an act of faith will never stall out. It will never stall out. And so we don't have to worry about that. For our church, we serve and we love and one of the crazy awesome things that God does, is as we serve, and as we love, and as we're active, we see miracles happen. They will know about that. Right? We see miracles happen, we experience them. In our church, we see addictions broken, we see people who are going through grief and loss, handle it and process it correctly, and end up on the other side. Still, with just devout faith in God and trust in God, we see relationships being restored. And that's because as we partner with God as we get active, what's so amazing is that God takes moments, and he turns them into miracles, stuff, that stuff that we just thought was just going to be a fleeting moment, a passing moment, turns into a miracle when we partner with God, I would guarantee you all of those people that we read about in, in Hebrews, that we looked over, Moses, Abraham, Joseph Rahab, none of these people in the moment that they made these decisions in the moment that they've made these actions, I would wager almost none of them realized how consequential it was. It was just a moment. It's just a moment probably is inconsequential, as you thought today was just another Sunday service. Just now there's another weekend service. That's probably how they thought about all of their things. Just just another time, I'm trying to trust God, just another time trying to put put my best foot forward in faith, they had no idea that that fleeting moment, God was going to work a miracle out of it. But that's what happens. When we partner with God. stuff that we don't see happening happens are small acts of service are small acts of giving and serving God transforms them and does something amazing. In the midst of it. You know, Pastor, Brenda, Pastor Brenda had no, I do what she was doing. Back in June of 22,006. No clue. All she knew was that she had seen an image a photograph of a young child, literally dying of thirst, dying of thirst, trying to drink urine from an elephant dying of thirst. And it created such a holy rage in her that she decided i I know, I can't fix the whole problem. But I can do something, I can do something. So she looked into it and found out it cost $1,500 to clean to drill a clean water well, in an area overseas. And so she talked to our church about it. She preached a sermon called a cold cup of water, talked about how important it is for us as Christians to act to put our faith into action. And what we were hoping was that we would be able to raise enough money to build one well, one clean water well, Cornerstone raised enough money to build 15 on that Sunday, 15.

She had no idea. It was just a photograph she saw in a moment. It was just a photograph, she saw the moment. And little did she know even that Sunday was just scratching the surface because out of that a nonprofit was born Clearblue Global Water Project, which is still running today. All these years later, 16 years later, they've built clean water wells in over 30 countries around the world raised over $2 million in doing it just incredible, incredible impact. And she had no clue. None. It was just a moment, just a moment. But it was a moment when she realized her identity as a child of God as an image-bearer of God, realize the worth of someone else who's an image-bearer of God and said, Okay, if I truly am following then I cannot just stay here. Just I'm a child of God, oh, I'm saved. No, my identity has to inform my activity, I have to do something I have to. And by doing that, by giving and serving by partnering with God, that moment became a miracle. And that's what happens when you partner with God. Little fleeting moments that seem inconsequential to you become miracles. I guarantee I could hand off this mic to share on she could probably talk the rest of the morning about all all these little moments that seemed inconsequential that seemed like oh was just it was just another normal Tuesday, it was just another Sunday service. But something happened she gave herself Ron gave himself they serve, they prayed for someone. And that moment became a miracle. God did something incredible out of it, because that's what happens. When we partner with God, he turns our moments in two miracles. And so what that means is that for all of us, 2022 this year can be your year. Like it really can. You don't have to do what all of us Browns fans do every single year and be like, well, you know what, 2023 that has a good ring to it, that's gonna be the, like you, you don't have to do that this really can be the year that you finally get where you need to be. When you finally start living out God's will for your life becoming more like Jesus, this can be that year, but you have to make it your year. Like, you can't just you can't just pray and say, God make everything around me. Just so conducive for me to just be the person you want me to be, that ain't gonna happen. That's not gonna happen. You have to act, you have been given permission slip is signed, for you to act and for you to seize God's will for your life. But you have to do it. You have to make this year, your year you have to act. And here's the thing. We were designed to act like we were designed to make we were made to make, right we were we were designed for activity. It is a core fiber, and our inner being of who we are, right? Our God is the God whoever He revealed Himself to Moses said, I am. Right. He is literally an action verb. He's a constant state of action of being. And that's what we're supposed to be. We are supposed to be action verbs who are acting in our communities to reflect the love of God to reflect the kingdom of God and His principles into the world. We are designed to partner with God. In fact, God's first command to mankind, Genesis 128, go and be fruitful and multiply, multiply, make, right this this command to go and act. Same thing with Jesus and his followers Jesus's last command before He ascended his last command in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, go and make, go and make disciples Oh, but tell them to obey all I've commanded you to do teach them. These are instructions for us to act for us to move past just saying I'm a child of God and actually act like a child of God actually trust, like a child of God actually partner with God rather than just having it be lip service. We are supposed to partner with GOD we were made to partner with God. And that's the key, and this is in our last little bit together, I want to I really want to hammer home this point. All right, I really want to hammer home this point because it is so important. It is so important that we understand we cannot just stay at identity we have got to move towards actually living out our faith by giving and serving. So I want to read from John chapter 14, verses five through eight. This is Jesus talking to His disciples before he's getting ready to go to the cross. He's telling them he's getting ready to leave them. That's where we pick up here in verse five. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And here's where things turn, Jesus says, and if you really know me, you will know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father. And that will be enough for us. To show us the Father show us the Father. So I want us to put a pin right there Johnny or John chapter 14, verse eight, we're coming back to that. But real quick, a picture is gonna come up on the screen just a moment. Don't shout it out. Just answer to yourself, because I don't want you to ruin my illustration. If you know who this is. All right, but just in your head. See if you know who this little guy is on the screen. Again, don't say it out loud. Cute kid, right? Cute little kid online. Don't don't put well you can put your guesses in because I can't see what they are. Anyway. So cute little kid, right? This is I'll give you one hint. It is a famous person's kid. It's not like we just took a picture of a kid who's like the son of a greeter at Walmart. And you're like, Who is this guy like you? You will know his parent here and here in a moment. But a cute little kid but just kind of nondescript. It's just just a cute kid. Maybe you've seen them before? Somewhere, right? But let's look at the next picture. See if it helps at all.

So funny, every service you can hear the ah, when that second picture comes up, right? It's Tiger Woods son, Charlie woods. Yeah, isn't that hilarious? How whenever he's just wearing the little blue hat and the Nike shirt and it looks like he's at a sporting game. It's he could be anybody, right? I mean, he could be anybody but the Second, he's wearing championship red, like his dad wears every Sunday, wearing the black hat. That swing looks just like tigers follow through, right? As soon as all of that's in place. It's like, oh, instantly even people in this room who've probably never watched a round of golf, saw this picture, come up and go, oh, I don't know his name. But I bet that's Tiger Woods kid. Right? instant recognition the second that he looked like his dad now, if you watch Tiger at all, if you are even remotely a golf fan, I'm a golfer. And I love watching the tournament. And I love watching Tiger play. I'm just I'm a fan of greatness. I want to see people who are great play. One thing it's so nuts is Tiger and Charlie got to play in a tournament together earlier this last year. And watching them play together was bananas. Like these dudes are carbon copies of each other, like their mannerisms are so similar. In fact, check this out. Look at look at some of their mannerisms. In this video, look at the stance. Look at the glove, take it off the exact same way the follow through in the club twirl. Look at the foot, low res. Same club twirl, same swing, the way they reach down pick up the tee. I mean it's it's he's a little tiny Tiger. He looks He looks just like him. And one of the coolest things. So this video, someone had compiled it put this all together of like, man, look at their mannerisms. They're just exactly like each other. Someone put this thing together and showed it to Tiger at the end of the tournament. He was sitting down for an interview, they handed him the phone. They're like, hey, hit play on this and just kind of just tell us what are your thoughts on this in the whole thing I'll tell you gotta go check it out on YouTube. It's so good. Just type in Tiger, Charlie Woods mannerisms, and you'll be able to see it by just one play just a little sliver watch this.

The nose, those things that we have. We both have allergies. People struggle on the golf course we get like windblown or rough sniffing and just said this, that little thing that we have we both have been beaten.

Even that last little bit, they both say the same thing. They hit it in there, say be the number be it be it be the number right there. There's so similar. And what's so cool is if you watch the whole video, you'll see Tiger just gushing over, Charlie. I mean, he has a hard time laughing like right or not laughing just right there, you can see how he's cracking up talking about him and how similar they are. And yeah, we both have that little nose thing with our allergies. And he's just laughing and smiling through the whole thing, seeing how much his son is like him and how much his son just embodies who he is. And the funny thing is, is again, this kid when I first showed you his picture, I would say, you know, probably at least 75% of all of you and people watching online had no idea who that was. He had no clue. But the second he was wearing championship red had the black hat and you saw that swing. I couldn't even put Tiger up on the screen. Right? All of the images of Tiger Woods could have been cut out today, not up on the screen at all. And I would wager the vast majority of you would have known who it was in a heartbeat-like oh, that's that's Tiger Woods kid. It's Tiger Woods, son. See where I'm going with this? Let's jump back real quick to John chapter 14. This is again verse eight. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Verse nine, Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been among you for such a long time. You see, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father? How can you say show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me the words I say to you, I don't speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work. It's the Father in me who is active. It's the Father in me who is giving and serving and doing things in the world. So believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves, not the words, the works, believe who I am because of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the work that I have been doing. And they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. You see this is why activity is so important. This is why we have to move past just identity and we have to act. We have to give. We have to serve. Jesus said you will know that the Father is in me because of the works I am producing. That's why whenever Jesus was walking around, sure there were some people calling him a heretic. There were some people call him crazy. But there were 1000s of people seeing him and saying there's something about this guy because they were seeing his father In Him, they were seeing God at work in him, the same should be true of you. And the same should be true of me. We should be little tiny Charlie Woods walking around, where people may not know who we are. But the second they see us giving and serving, like, that person is associated with Jesus. They have to be the way they give the way they love, the way they serve the grace, they show the Mercy they show, there's no way they follow anybody but Jesus, they have to be one of his, that has to be God's kid. It has to be because they look just like him. The mannerisms are the same, the way they talk to people is so loving and so full of grace, and so full of kindness and patience, you see the best way. And we just saw this from Tiger and son, the best way to demonstrate family likeness is by getting involved in the family business. The second that kid picked, picked up that swing or that club and started swinging, we know who he is. And in the same way, the second we start loving people sacrificially. We start giving of ourselves, people know who we are. Because our identity is proved through our activity. People know who we are and who's we are, because of our actions. In Jesus himself said it God the Father is at work in the world, and it is high time we join him. It's high time we partner with him on bringing heaven to earth by our identity leading to our activity. Again, until you start giving and serving you are not really you. You're just not. You're living a distorted view of what you think you're supposed to be. You were made to give and serve. I'm not just talking about that in like a hypothetical theoretical way. No, your body craves it. That's why whenever you give and serve, did you know whenever you self sacrificially give of yourself, scientists have studied this, your body releases certain endorphins to the pleasure center of your brain to act as a reward for giving of yourself sacrificially.

That's insane. Your body craves it. Your body craves partnering with God in this way. That's why whenever we had our big given serve day, this last summer, we had so many people the second we were done doing service projects all over the city saying like, can we do there anything else we can do? Are we doing this again? When are we doing this again? How do I sign up for it again, because they're just craving it. They're like this, this is amazing. This is what I was clearly made to do. That's why a few years ago, whenever we had our vision and victory fundraising day, and we had our big offering, we had a man come forward through tears, literally pouring out his wallet, just emptying it out. Just saying I know I needed to do this, I know I need to do this. It never felt more alive. Had no regrets. Because he was made for that. You and I were made for that we were designed for that we were made for the family business, we're supposed to be like our father, people are supposed to look at us and be able to identify who we are not because of the words that we speak. But because of our actions. If you have to constantly be telling people you follow Jesus, if they'd be telling people that you're a Christian, you're doing something wrong, they should be able to just see it, be able to see that swing and say, Oh, I know whose kid that is. I know who he is. Not man. They're telling me who they are. But while everything else seems to point towards something else, it's about works not about our words, and you are not yourself until you start to give and until you start to serve. I'm going to ask Robbie if he would come up on stage. And as he gets ready to come up, I just want to I want to make this very practical. Sometimes I talked about this earlier series. Sometimes it's easy to preach a sermon like this, but then not give you any handles like nothing to do with it. We're giving you something to do with it today. All right. I want to challenge you. This isn't like so much an invitation. This is a challenge. I want to challenge you to partner with God. I want to challenge you to live into all that you were designed to live into. On your way in today you were handed one of these cards ministry partnership weekend. On the back, there are three lines one for your name one for and phone number one, four a telephone number ways for us to get in contact with you. This is a sign up card. For if you are ready to take that step and partner with GOD here at Cornerstone. Now I will say this, you don't have to do it here. But you got to do it somewhere. So if you're not going to do it at Cornerstone, that's Hey, no hard feelings. But this needs to be your last Sunday at our church. You need to go somewhere where you're going to start doing this and start serving because you are not you until you're doing this. You're not you until you start serving in giving of yourself now of course I'm biased. I don't think there's a better place to do it than at Cornerstone right? I think we got ourselves a pretty good church right here. And we're just scratching the surface of what God has in mind. For Cornerstone we we are we've got a huge vision for our church. So thank God We have a huge God, right? But I'm telling you, it's time. It's time to to make your works. Match your words to get involved to start partnering with God, you were made for it. You were made for it. You were designed to serve to give of yourself in this is how you can make 2022 your year by truly starting to partner with God in a radical way. So I'll ask you, will you do that? And this goes for everybody watching online, too, you'll have an opportunity to sign up to become a ministry partner, as well online. Will you do it? Will you partner with God? Will you make yourself available to him? Will you say yes to God, I hear what you're calling me towards today. And I'm going to partner with you. I'm not going to push this off anymore. Because let me tell you, this right here. This is a moment for you. This is a moment; I already know what you're thinking because I've been there. It's just another church asking for another commitment asking for another thing for me to sign up. Right? That's what this is, right? It's just another one of those things. But what if it's not? What if this one little thing that you're like, alright, I'll sign it. I'll sing it like I'll, I'll turn it in.

And what if five years from now, this moment becomes a miracle. And you're looking back at your life and you're going holy cow, the people now who I would call to go through grief with I would call to ask for prayer. I would call to go hang out and do something all of these people who now are such foundational Cornerstone people in my life; I would have never met them if it wasn't for this. If it wasn't through serving if it wasn't through being a part of what God is doing at Cornerstone. This could be your moment. This could be your moment where you look back on it years from now and realize it was a miracle. Don't let this moment pass is not just another opportunity. Just another moment. This is your moment. Make yourself available and partner with God right now.