Living Faith: Action, Generosity, and Community Impact

My prayer is always been God make us a church that does things okay, not just a church that talks not just a church that cries and gets convicted but actually does something um you know the Bible says in Matthew 5 verse 16 it says in the same way let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven. [00:01:24]

I pray all the time that we would be a giving church that we would be known as a church that gives that that SEI Valley would know Cornerstone as a church that contributes and gives to the community rather one that takes and so I got to ask you again as you came in this evening did you come in to give to other people did you look for people to minister to to care for. [00:02:28]

I was trying to share with him about God and he was just so turned off by it all, just absolutely turned off by everything and uh you know we got together several times and and while I was there and I had just making no progress whatsoever um but the thing he kept coming back to he goes you know goes my mom was this devout Christian and man she would just Hammer me with with scripture all the time. [00:04:51]

I think one of the one of the turn offs to church for many of the people in the world today especially in America is the church talks talks talks but they don't do anything you know and they see the church as a place that's so judgmental and wanting to take stuff from them rather than a place where we are actually doing things and doing things for other people and caring for them. [00:02:09]

The statistics on church spending highlight a need for change. By reallocating our resources, we can make a significant impact on global issues, demonstrating the love of Christ in practical ways. If every Christian gave just 10% of their income, we could address global needs in profound ways. Our vision at Cornerstone is to lead by example, striving to allocate half of our resources to those in need, both locally and globally. [00:16:52]

I really believe that if Cornerstone sets the pace and sets the example there's so many people that watch Cornerstone Church to see what we're doing all across the nation they want to know what is Cornerstone doing believe it or not you know you get out there and they want to know and if we really can what we're trying to do now as a church is based upon this whole idea of love your neighbor as yourself. [00:18:26]

What if we didn't build a building out there what if we just built like a park with a huge outdoor Amphitheater kind of like a you know Hollywood Bowl type of thing or you know just something where it was just a a huge grass field a huge grass outdoor Amphitheater and uh and we saved all of that money all those millions of dollars and you know we're able to give that to the poor. [00:22:03]

I believe it's time that we start giving and loving and doing and and uh and that our Deeds would prove our faith man I I hope you don't leave here going a there goes France is beating us up it's it's not that I'm just going man one of the byproducts of us giving is that we just become happier because it's more blessed to give than to receive. [01:01:15]

I was really concerned about this passage I've been praying about this because I know there's some of you in this room that you would say you know my actions don't match up to my words my actions don't show my faith and that doesn't mean you go out and just try to do a bunch of stuff to make up for it it's really a change of heart and saying God help me become that person. [01:02:15]

I don't want you to think that I'm teaching do a bunch of stuff and that will save you absolutely not I'm saying that if you are saved you'll do a bunch of stuff okay makes sense we are saved for one reason and one reason only because of the blood of Jesus Christ okay no amount of Good Works was going to erase all the junk that we did in our lives. [01:03:49]

I think Integrity is who you are at work um because that's where you spend most of your time you know so who you really are usually comes out at work and if there's no Integrity in the workplace chances are there's no integrity and here someone else was saying your heart your actions will will come out and so when you don't see that uh true in the in the workplace it really destroys the testimony of the church. [00:42:40]

I want you to pray like crazy because we're we're going to start approaching the government now we're going to start approaching the uh the city uh officials now um the the new uh I don't know if they've even figured out the Ventura supervisor yet have they they're still counting huh okay well foy's ahead praise God um we we uh no no I I I didn't say that um I I just he was just he's just excited about what we're doing here. [00:46:50]