Cornerstone Church

2016 was a hard year for many people and it was a tough year for Cornerstone. Cancer, death, conflict, divorce, financial struggle, depression, and despondency have been familiar foes to many of us. It is very tempting to lose heart after a year like this. Thank God this is not the whole story. If we have learned anything from the Scripture this past year whether in 1 Peter, our Biblical Change series, or from Exodus, it is that God is on the move whether we know it or not, whether we feel it or not. We pray that God uses our 2017 vision series entitled, "Spiritual, Complicated, Long-Term" to fuel us for a long obedience in the same direction. For this first week, we looked at the spiritual nature of our mission. The Gospel opens our eyes to the spiritual nature of all things. Here is this week's message, "Everything is Spiritual".

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On Christmas Eve, we celebrated the birth of Jesus by taking a look at John 1:1-18. Jesus is the storytelling God who wrote Himself into the story by tabernacling in skin in order to rescue us. God gives us life through His Word made flesh. Here is this week's message entitled, "The Rescuing Word".

In Exodus 40, we see how God completes the rescue story by entering the completed Tabernacle. This week we zoomed at three levels: the details of the Tabernacle, the bookends of Exodus, and the story of God's presence. God's indwelling is the heart of our rescue. Here is this week's message entitled, "The Indwelling".

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When we say “Ground Zero” most of us will think of the site of the World Trade Center in New York City: the scene of a catastrophic, world-changing event, the site of a memorial commemorating sacrifice, and a place of new beginning. In Exodus 37:1-9, we’re going to look at a place described for us in the Bible that is also extremely significant. We’ve been tracking the story of the rescue of Israel through the book of Exodus. We’ve seen how God not only rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, but has now also had to rescue Israel from their own foolishness. As part of the life of this new nation, God gave them instructions for how to set up their worship. Deep inside Israel’s worship tent, in the inmost room, the mercy seat would be the place where God would demonstrate what was at the core of their continual rescue. The mercy seat is rescue’s ground zero. Our rescue is forged where untouchable holiness meets immeasurable mercy. Here is this week's message entitled, "Rescue's Ground Zero".

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In Exodus 34, we get a window into how God rescues us from our idolatry: He does it by molding us in His image. Here we observed that God is the Gospel, rescue is about new beginnings, and that we become like what we worship. Ultimately, rescue molds us into the image of our Rescuer. Here is this week's message entitled, "Molded by Rescue".

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The Reformer John Calvin made the observation that "The human heart is a factory of idols...Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols". Exodus 32 is the one of the greatest examples of this. The dynamics of idolatry against the dynamics of God's rescue are grounds of God's singular greatness and beauty. There are no substitutes for our rescuing God.Here is this week's message, "No Substitutes".

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Almost every custom of the Old Testament seems weird because they are not normal to us, but it was not weird to them the original audience. In fact, what we will see in Exodus 24 and the rest of the Books of Moses fits perfectly with the 14th-15th century BC custom of covenant making. It particularly parallels the treaty form standard in the Ancient Near Eastern world known as a Suzerain/Vassal Treaty, common when a larger king (Suzerain) helps a smaller king (Vassal) defeat their enemies. How does God implement a Suzerain/Vassal Treaty with Israel? We observed that the covenant was documented, ratified, celebrated, tested, and later superseded in Jesus. God covenants with us as the Great King. Here is this week’s message entitled, “The Great King”.

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Although it is embarrassing that many of God’s people can’t name the Ten Commandments, a greater problem is the way in which we often ignore the context for which the Ten Commandments were given or why they were given. The apostle Paul warned us about people who desire “to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions” (1 Timothy 1:7). As we come to Exodus 20, we want to look at the Ten Commandments in context and understand what God is after in giving them to Israel. We will see two ways this happens: 1) Rescue shapes our values, and 2) Forgiveness fuels obedience. God's rescue changes our everyday life. Here is this week’s message entitled, “Everyday Rescue”.

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In Exodus 19, Israel saw the glory of God descend upon Mount Sinai, and it changed everything about how they would live their lives. He was preparing Israel for the giving of the covenant to them, which would define their relationship, and reshape their entire culture. We see this in the three messages that God tells Moses to give to Israel before He meets them. In these messages, we see a vision for intimacy, preparation through cleansing, and exclusive access. We are shaped by the rescue of God's presence. Here is this week's message entitled, "The Rescue of God's Presence".

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In Exodus 15.22-17.7 we see a major shift in the book of Exodus after the defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. The Pharaoh and the Egyptians were the evil oppressors of Israel that wouldn’t give them their freedom. But after their defeat, Egypt is no longer a threat to Israel and God himself is leading them in the wilderness toward Mount Sinai in order to forge the organizing of Israel as a holy nation equipped to conquer the promised land. Lest we think that Israel will now live happily every after following their redemption by God, we are jolted in the wilderness with the vehemence of Israel’s demand and grumbling for water and food. What we see emerging before our very eyes is the shifting of Israel from victim to villain in the story. What will be reflected on in later parts of Scripture is this is where Israel’s hearts were hardened against the Lord just like the heart of Pharaoh. God meets unrighteous demands with inconceivable grace. Here is this week's message entitled, "Unrighteous Demands".

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Why does God put us in seemingly impossible situations? Whether is it the discovery of cancer, the emergence of mental illness, the suffocating schedule, the irreconcilable marriage, the uncontrollable child, the horrible work situation, nagging money problems, or total lack of clarity about the future, tough times will always be with us. Among other things, God wants to continually remind us of how desperate we are. Whether we know it or not, or whether we show it or not, we are all desperate people. Sometimes it is more obvious to see, but either way, if you get to know people longer enough, their desperation of inevitably reveal itself. This is the beauty of the gospel: God invites us to nakedly display our total desperation and need for rescue. Perhaps no story communicates this more clearly than God delivering Israel through the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 13-15. Here we learn that we need God's rescue because we can't save ourselves.

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On Sunday we looked at the tenth plague in Exodus 11-12. This was the big one that changed the fortunes of Israel and shaped their culture. What made it so powerful and unique? We explored four dimensions: retribution, substitution, redemption, and celebration. God rescues us through the redemption of substitutionary judgment. Here is this week's message entitled, "Rescued with Blood".

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