← Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
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If you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to the tenth chapter of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter ten. I heard about a young man. He was a sharp young man, barely 20 years of age, and he was working in a grocery store. And a little lady walked in the grocery store at the end of the day, it was almost closing time, and she called him over and said, hey, sonny boy. And kind of irritated him that she called him sonny boy. Sonny boy, come on over here. I said, I need a. I need a half a head of lettuce. He said, well, ma', am, I don't even know if we sell a half a head of lettuce, but I'll find out. So he goes to the back of the produce department and finds the produce manager and says, sir, sorry to bother you with this at the end of the day, but we've got a crazy dingbat of a little old lady who wants a half of a head of lettuce. And he turned around to see that the little lady had followed him back there. But quick as a flash, he said, but we're in luck, because this fine, beautiful little lady wants the other half. So they cut the lettuce in half, wrapped it up, put it in a sack. She paid for it, went on her way. Happy. About that time, the manager of the store was catching up with what was going on. So he's back there overhearing this, and he walks up to the young man and he says, young man, I saw what happened there. Said, you have diplomacy. You have a lot of skill. You inserted your foot in your mouth and you extracted it perfectly. You saved our store a customer. You met a little lady. Happy, Good job. You're on your way up. And he said, by the way, young man, you're not from around here, are you? He said, no, I'm new to here. He said, where are you from? He said, I'm from Lansing, Michigan. Lansing, Michigan. He said, yeah, you know, we're famous for two things here in Lansing, Michigan. And he said, what is that? He said, well, one, our hockey teams. We got the meanest, roughest, toughest hockey teams in all the world right here in Lansing, Michigan. Said, oh, really? Said, yeah. What's the other thing? Said, well, we don't like to talk about it too much, but the ugliest women in the world are from Langsing, Michigan. I don't know if it's the cold weather, I don't know what it is, but the ugliest women in the world, no offense, anyone in Langsing, Michigan, may be watching. Are in Lansing, Michigan. And the store manager said, oh, really? My wife's from Lansing, Michigan. And quick as a flash. He said, oh, really? What team does she play for now? That's diplomacy. Guy's probably in the Senate by now. Who said that? But isn't it great to be on Team Jesus? And that's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This message is about the church and reviving the church in our generation. We've just come to the aftermath of Easter when we celebrated in the resurrection. And of course, after Christ came out of the grave, he appeared to his disciples. First, a small group of just a few, and then ultimately 500 eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Christ as they gathered in the period between his resurrection and his ascension. And. And ultimately the church is forming as Christians and believers in the resurrection and Jesus are getting together. And Jesus gave them in that period instructions as to what they were to do and how they were to do what they were to do. And first on the list, of course, was the Great Commission. Go into all the world and make disciples. Amazing challenge, because they didn't even know that half the world existed. Most of the world existed, and they had no transportation as to how to get there. And yet Jesus said, I want you to go global. I want you to go into all the world and make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Speaking of baptism, I am a Baptist. Someone said, jack Graham, what would you be if you weren't a Baptist? I said, I'd be ashamed. But no, I'm not one of those Baptists think we're the only ones going to heaven. I think there's a lot of Baptists not going to heaven for sure. So I'm a Christian first, I'm a Baptist second, for sure. But it is good to get the body of Christ together and believers across all stripes that are in his stripes, the blood of Christ. So he said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And of course he said, before you go though, you're going to need power, My power. And he had promised him the Holy Spirit. So he said, go to Jerusalem and wait. Wait and pray until the Spirit comes and then go. And so they did, just as he commanded them to do in an upper room, right on time, right on schedule, on the day of Pentecost, after the ascension of Jesus, as he ascends into heaven, the angel said, this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, will come again. In the same way you've seen him go, Christ is coming again. Amen. And we stand on tiptoe with expectation of the coming again of the Lord Jesus. And as he ascended, they got on their knees and they prayed in the upper room. And as they prayed up, the Spirit came down and then filled them and the church went out and they changed the world. The church was born on that day. And here we are 2,000 years later. And the church needs a rebirth. Just as America needs a rebirth, the church needs a rebirth as well. A spiritual awakening. Have you had a chance maybe to go see the Great Awakening movie, the story of Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield? Have you seen it? It's a really powerful story. And it was Benjamin Franklin who said there would have been no revolution, American Revolution, apart from the preaching of George Whitefield and other preachers. Really. The revolution was born among the people of God, among the churches in the colonies as the gospel was preached and the first great Awakening came. And we do need another Great Awakening. You're part of a miracle church right here in this region. When I hear the story of your church and how it began 30 something years ago and with just a small band of believers and here you are today in multiple services and fantastic ministries, I would say that you cornerstone. I hope you realize this. You are a miracle church. You're a miracle church. God is doing miraculous things, changing lives and healing marriages and serving the community and all the things that you are doing together. And we should always be praising God for what he has done and never stop praising him for the miracles and the majesty of his name which is shared from this place. You have a dynamic preacher and teacher of the word of God. And so what has happened here, in many ways, you can't explain it. In fact, if you could explain what God does, he probably didn't do it. There are so many things in God's churches that he does that that we can't explain apart from the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And that is what has been happening here. Not every church in this country is experiencing revival and reawakening, but we're praying that it will begin to happen. We are living in a post Christian world and culture. We have a great past in this country. But today, in great part because churches have drifted and churches and pastors, many of whom have defaulted on preaching the gospel, that church attendance is down, down, down, do be, do, down, down. That's how down it is. And many are leaving. The churches and churches are on life support. There are signs of Revival we're grateful for. Bible sales are up and podcasts, Christian podcasts and and book sales and young men are coming to Christ in Gen Z. We're seeing some signs that revival could indeed be on the way, but we desperately need it. Many Christians, even regular church attendants, the numbers say that regular attendants to church only manage to get to church a couple of times a month. That's not good enough. God needs to renew Christians and renew his church. The church will speak boldly and unite faithfully and love sacrificially and think biblically and stand courageously and live righteously. This is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So in verse 22 of chapter 10 of Hebrews it says, let us draw near. I want you to mark a couple of words as we scroll down this scripture. It's the words let us. The pastor pointed out that that fits with my joke, the lettuce joke. That was brilliant, Pastor. Let us circle it. Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold. There it is again. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And then again, verse 24 and let us, let us, let us, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit is of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more. Watch this and all the more as you see the day approaching. How is the church awakened in our generation? I was a part of the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and 70s. I was a teenager and a college student when we saw a great revival sweep across America that began on the west coast with the Calvary Chapel movement and Chuck Smith and many of the pastors, your pastor included, swept up in that movement. Baptists were experiencing the same thing across the country. The great Jesus movement. But one thing we need to remember about any Jesus movement, that any Jesus movement is also a church movement. And any Jesus movement that is not church centered is not a Jesus movement. And any church that is not Jesus centered is not a church movement. It's all about his church, this Jesus movement. And therefore He. He says, let us, let us, let us three times here. And that's personal and it's plural. Let us. Just as the revival call in 2nd Chronicles 7:14 tells us that the church are God's people. When my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, that's when repentance and Restoration takes place. And so it's not let them, but church. It is us. It's we. It's team Jesus. Let us draw near. So if we are going to awaken personally, corporately, that's the first thing that needs to happen. There needs to be. We are to be sincere in devotion. Sincere in devotion. Let us draw near with what? A true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled clean, representative here of the blood of Christ and our bodies washed with the pure water, the cleansing of repentance and faith. Let us with sincere devotion draw near to be sincerely devoted to love with Jesus. It means that our hearts are to be true and authentic and genuine without pretense, without hypocrisy. We are strengthened by the power of Christ. We are here. Why are you here today? You say, well, I'm here to sing songs. Well, we sang beautiful songs of worship. But that's not primarily why you're here. You say, well, I'm here to hear a message, hear a sermon. It's good to be in a church where the word of God is taught. But that's not the primary reason that we gather together. It's not that we just get together to meet our Christian friends. That's strong. We are going to see that in just a moment. But the reason we are here, why are we here? To draw near to Jesus. That's why we're here. And God uses the preaching and the worship and the fellowship and much more. But we are here because we love Jesus. And if you love Jesus, you want to be near to him. And of course, Jesus is everywhere and you can be with him anywhere. But there is a special sense in which the presence of Christ gathers when we gather and his presence when two or three are gathered in his name. He says, I am in the midst. There is a unique distinction that God has called us together to. To experience his presence and his power together. And so the first thing that happens is that we draw near in sincere devotion. The next thing is that we are steadfast in doctrine. People say, well, I don't like that word doctrine. It sounds too stiff, too boring. No, doctrine means teaching. And doctrine is truth. And verse 23. Look at it again. Let us that's all of us. Hold fast, get a good grip on the confession of our hope without wavering, without drifting. You see the Christians written to here early on in the letter to the Hebrews. I believe Paul wrote it. You can disagree with that. We know God wrote it, given by the Holy Spirit. But be that as it may, the writer. He is concerned that Christians are drifting back into their former way of life, that Christians were drifting back into their former religious expression, back into Judaism, Judaism especially. And so he's writing to remind them not to drift. He said, how shall we escape if we drift, if we neglect so great a salvation? Some were even defaulting. We talk today about deconstruction, people who are abandoning the faith altogether. They were facing persecution and trials and tests and swimming upstream against the current. And so they needed to be encouraged like we need to be encouraged today, because often we feel like we're meeting greater resistance than ever. Did you know there's more hostility towards Christians in the world today, worldwide and even in this country than ever before? And so it can be discouraging. And we might just want to hunker down and just hold on. He doesn't say just hunker down and hold on and wait for the Rapture. No. He says, I want you to hold on to your hope steadfast. Our hope is the certain and sure confidence that I Our future is with the Lord. Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is knowing that your future is with Him. And he says, get a good grip. Hold onto truth forthrightly, firmly and fearlessly. This means that in church, we don't get together just to have a pep rally for Team Jesus. We get together to grow in our faith, to learn more and more about God's Word. As I said, to seek God, to experience his presence. Presence, to enjoy the fellowship of the church and to hold on to hope. We don't give up hope because hope holds on to us. And I love the way it's being said. Often I repeat it, hope has a name, and his name is Jesus. Well, the third thing he says in verse 24, and let us consider how to stir up one another. To love and good words, good works. So there is a stirring in duty. I like the way the New Living paraphrases this sentence. It says, think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Think of ways. Consider it. This is the creativity of the church and doing things that we've never done before, sometimes in order to fulfill the Great Commission. You heard the seven last words of the church, right? We never did it that way before. But no, we are always seeking to be like the sons of Issachar, understanding the times and knowing the times in which we live. And so we're to stir one another. It's an exciting challenge. Here it means to ignite, to spark, to spoke, to provoke good deeds. And this is the work of Christ and his church, that we would live with good deeds and serving Christ and in creative ways, in new ways, in fresh ways. One of the ways that we do that back in Texas, and we really started when I was pastoring West Palm beach down in Florida in the 1980s. We started a pregnancy center because abortion was running rampant in the 80s and 90s. And I was up preaching one evening at our outdoor amphitheater down in Florida. And I was speaking about the evils of abortion and calling it sin as it is. And as I was speaking, God reminded me that we needed to do something about it. And Pastor, you've been preaching when God speaks to you, right? And God spoke to me as I was preaching. He said, you need to do something. And so we started pregnancy centers. And we carried this on in Dallas and every day now, through sonograms and other ways, we are saving babies. Over 100,000 babies that were on their way to abortion have been saved and their parents and their families. And I'm so glad I heard the announcement about the march and the prayer. And many of you are involved in ways through your church of serving and saving babies. There are just so many ways. Can I tell you, there's never been a better time and a better place with opportunities and technologies and responsibilities than we have today than to stir one another up to. To good works. That's another reason we gather, because you spark me. It's like a fire in the campfire. You take a log off and it goes out, but you keep stoking the fire. You stay in the fire, you stay around God's people. And you will be provoked. You'll be prompted. You'll go out here stoked to do something great for God in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what will happen to you. So speak well of your church. That's another thing I wanted to say before I left today. When you talk about stoking the church and prompting one another to good works, always be positive about your church. Don't be negative about. Our church is not perfect down in Texas by any means, but. And this church, I'm sure, is not perfect. And you can find. If you come in here looking for things to find fault, you can find things. But don't be that guy. Don't be that girl that's always finding fault. Something's wrong, something's bad. The preacher preached too long. I didn't like the music. I didn't like the songs. Somebody looked at me the wrong way. Don't be negative about your church. Prompt one another, prompt, provoke one another, stoke one another to good works and good deeds. Because let me tell you something, if you are negative about your church, you know who hears it. Your kids hear it and your friends hear it. And it's a bad testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So stoke it. And then he says, be steadfast in your dedication, verse 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some that's a well worn, well known verse among many Christians. Don't forsake getting together. But we're living in an era, unfortunately, where churches have church attendance has become optional or occasional or convenient or casual or consumer driven and fewer and fewer people are being faithful to their church. Now, I'm not preaching churchianity here. There's a lot of people that are in churches that aren't Christians. But if you're a Christian, you're going to want to be in church. And don't forsake getting together with God's people. Be steadfast. Be steadfast in the dedication. Some people only come to church when they're hatched, matched and dispatched. When they're born, throw a little water on them. When they're married, throw a little rice on them. When they're dead, throw a little dirt on them. Did you know in the New Testament if you willingly, deliberately the Christians in the first century, if you deliberately and willingly miss the fellowship of the church, consistently you were not considered a Christian, assumed that you weren't a Christian because you no longer were showing up with the saints. You say, where do you get that? 1st John 2:19 they went out from us because they were not of us. For had they been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us. But they went out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not of us at all. So there are people who are on church rolls like ours. We got a lot of members and FBI couldn't find a lot of them. But if you consistently absent yourself from the love of Christ and his church, it's probably because you are not saved. Because if you're saved, you will gather with God's people. He was sitting. He wasn't a much for stirring about it wasn't his desire no matter what others did, he was sitting by the fire. Same old story, day after day he never seemed to tire. And while others worked to build their church, he was sitting by the fire at last he died as all must do and some say he went up higher. But if he was doing. If he's doing what he was always doing, he's sitting by the fire, though. Be steadfast in your dedication to the church. And here's another reason for that. If you consider church attendance optional, I promise you, your kids see that and they will grow up to consider church attention, not church attendance, not essential at all. That's why many young people are abandoning the church as soon as they get out from under the roof of their parents, because they know that now church and even Christ is optional. So, so many who identify as Christians are not actively involved in a local congregation of believers like this one. If you are attending today and you're not a faithful attender and a part of this fellowship, I want to challenge you to consider the fellowship of this church. As I said, there's no such thing as a churchless Christianity. No such thing. Jesus is the head of his church, his body. He is the husband of his bride, his church. One final thing and I'll land this plain. A church that is awakened is also alert to the days. So much the more, he says, as you see the day approaching. We live in fear filled days, fearful, but we don't panic. We pray. We pray for the welfare of the city. We pray that we would, as a church, wake up and stand up and pray up and speak up and draw near. Our nation needs the church. Your church is such a blessing to this nation. You really are. And we need more churches just like you. And because if we lose the church, we lose the church in America, we lose everything. Are you hearing what I'm saying? If we lose the church, all is lost in this country. Our faith, our freedoms, our future. Now the church will not fail because Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And so we just don't stand around waiting for the rapture. I believe that rapture is coming and coming soon. But I'm also praying for revival. Whether I go by air or by land, I'm praying for revival and spiritual awakening in our country. One more time. Amen. God bless you. Thank you.