(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Welcome.

Glad you're in church today.

We wanna welcome all of those who are online worshiping with us today from wherever you are in the world.

Thank you for joining in with us as we continue to teaching series that we have titled, Who is Jesus?

And this is a teaching series, a collection of preaching that will carry us into Palm Sunday and then eventually Easter Sunday, resurrection weekend.

It's a teaching series that we're kind of discovering a little bit about who Jesus is, though we're not given an exhaustive account of who Jesus is.

We're trying to put some foundations in our heart so that we can go into resurrection Sunday and celebrate what Jesus has done through his resurrection and hopefully bring some people with us so that life can be spoken into them.

You know, Easter weekend is a great weekend to bring somebody to church with you.

Lots of people will come if you'll just simply invite or ask.

And we're gonna be having our, again, Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, and then we're gonna have our Good Friday service, and then we'll be doing a Saturday service and several on Sunday, Easter Sunday.

And so all of that information is on our website.

You can go there, get that information, hopefully download some form of an invite, grab some invite cards.

They're provided for you also.

They'll be provided next weekend for you to be able to give out and invite, invite, invite, because we believe that Jesus can make a difference in somebody's life.

Come on, anybody receive that today?

Today, we're gonna continue our teaching series by going to the book of Ephesians.

If you brought your Bible with you, I'm gonna be reading from a couple of verses in just a moment from Ephesians chapter two.

If you have the Bible app on your tablet or on your phone, feel free to open that up to follow along.

And then also it will be offered on the screen for you to follow along if you don't have your Bible with you.

I do wanna encourage you to bring a copy of God's word, whether it's digital or a paper copy with you to church every weekend.

We dive into God's word, we study God's word, and it would be an opportunity for you to kinda go along with us and begin to let God transform you by the power of his word in your heart and so it's a good idea to possibly bring a copy of God's word.

If you don't have one, we provide those for people.

If they can't go buy themselves a copy of God's word or don't have one, we have those available for you at our prayer, our prayer partners have those available for you.

So feel free to stop off and ask them for a copy of God's word if you don't have one with you.

It's a really, really important instrument God uses in our life, come on.

So again, we're gonna be in Ephesians chapter two, but I'm gonna start off with a declaration that Jesus made himself in Matthew 16.

He was asked a question and then he made a declaration.

So I'm gonna read to you the question and then I'm gonna share with you Jesus's declaration and then we'll move to Ephesians chapter two.

The Bible says when Jesus, he came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?

This is a term that Jesus would use for himself, son of man and he says, who do people say that the son of man is?

Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.

And then he asked them, but who do you say I am?

You know, that's a very important question for every single one of us to answer personally.

Who do you say Jesus is?

Last weekend, we talked about him being the Messiah, the liberator, the Lord and the leader of our life.

And it's a really, really foundational thing for us to understand, to move forward in life, Jesus as Messiah and Jesus as Lord.

And Jesus asked these disciples, who do you say I am?

And Simon Peter, one of the disciples answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God.

Jesus replied, you are blessed Simon, son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock.

And Jesus goes on to say, and upon this rock, here's the declaration, upon this rock, what you just said, Peter, and the way you just expressed that.

He says, upon this rock, I will build my church.

Jesus says he will build a church.

And he says, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

The church is simply people who were caught out of darkness, recognize who Jesus is, and then a people that began to let God flow in them, and they express who Jesus is to the world around them.

He says, Peter, you recognize me as the Messiah.

What you just said, and what you just aligned with, and what you just express, Jesus says, I'm going to build a people, a church, that is caught out of darkness into the wonderful light, and the gates of hell, the gates of hell cannot conquer it.

In other words, it will penetrate into darkness.

Come on, somebody.

And it will bring the light of Christ, and it will begin to allow people to trust in who God really is, and build their life on that particular statement.

So again, Jesus says he's gonna build a church.

So to answer the question, who is Jesus?

We could say, Jesus is a builder.

He is a builder, but he's more than a builder.

The Bible declares him as a part of the building that God is building in Ephesians chapter two.

The Bible says this in verse 20.

Starts off with the words together.

Everybody say together.

Together.

This is really important for us to understand if we're gonna be a good expression of who Jesus is in the world.

He says, together we are his house.

The Bible says we are a house together.

We were built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.

So here the Bible declares who is Jesus.

It says he is not only a builder, but he is the cornerstone of what God is building in the world as the church.

The Bible says we are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.

So here the writer to the church at Ephesus uses this language of a house or a temple to express who God's people are.

And also he uses a house and a temple to express Jesus's function in that house and in that temple.

The Bible calls him the cornerstone.

Everybody say the cornerstone.

So what is a cornerstone?

A cornerstone is simply the foundational rock that begins to, that the house is built on and the house is built around.

It is the thing that stabilizes the entire structure.

It is the thing that aligns the entire structure.

And it is, it allows the expression of the structure to be seen in the world around it.

I'm gonna use this as an illustration today to help you grab hold of Jesus as the cornerstone of your life.

And the Bible says that he is the cornerstone.

And the Bible says that the prophets spoke about him and the apostles established him in the world.

The function of a prophet is simply to speak about who Christ is.

And the prophets spoke a lot about him being the foundation of our life, him being the savior of our life, him being the one sent from God into the earth so people could come back to God and begin to build a life that could express God in the world.

The prophets were spokespeople for God and are still spokespeople for God.

The apostles were sent into territories to basically declare Jesus as the cornerstone, but the way the apostles worked is they had experienced Jesus in their life.

And when they went into areas where the cornerstone had never been expressed, they were known as basically breakers.

They broke mindsets.

They broke traditions.

They broke people's wayward thinking.

They reestablished this foundation of who Jesus is in a community, that they broke into culture, they set things in right order about who Jesus is.

And the Bible says that Jesus is the cornerstone and he needs to align with who the prophets declare who he is, who the apostles declare who he is.

And if we can build our life on this cornerstone, it could change our life.

Amen.

So again, the Bible has a lot to say about these prophets and these apostles, speaking of Jesus and establishing Jesus, but in this particular passage, they declare him as the cornerstone of God's house.

So what does a cornerstone do?

Because if Jesus is the cornerstone, the first thing a cornerstone does is again, it stabilizes the entire house.

Who is the house?

The Bible says you and me are the house.

We are the temple.

We are where God lives.

Those of us who have put our faith and belief in who Jesus is, the Bible says we are his house.

And so the first thing a cornerstone does is it brings stability or it stabilizes your faith.

Has Jesus stabilized your faith?

Or is your faith by every blow of the wind or every happenstance or every teaching or everything that flows your way, is your faith being blown from one side to the other?

Is your faith wavering?

The Bible says this cornerstone, Christ Jesus, can stabilize your faith.

And in other words, what can happen is Christ Jesus can come into your life and he can bring stability to your life no matter what happens around your life.

And so many of us today don't understand the cross, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ.

And the Bible says the whole reason God did all of that was to show his love to humanity and allow humanity to come out of darkness, out of sin, put their faith in God's amazing love, and then be resurrected to new life.

Come on, somebody.

And live that life with faith in the son of God all the days of their life, never being shaken by what's around them in life.

Come on.

So look what the Bible says about Jesus being this stabilizer of our faith.

It's found in Ephesians chapter two, verses four through nine.

He's the cornerstone.

The Bible says God is so rich in his mercy there in Ephesians two, verse four.

And he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Jesus from the dead.

It is only by God's grace that you have been saved.

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ.

Look at this.

And he seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with him with Christ Jesus.

Pay close attention.

The Bible says because Christ raised us, was raised from the dead, now Christ seats us in the heavenly realms and we are united with Christ Jesus.

So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of his incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us as shown in all that he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus, who are tethered to Christ Jesus.

God saved you by his grace when you believed.

And you can't take credit for this.

It is a gift from God.

God gave a gift, his name is Jesus, so your faith could be stabilized and so you could be set in the heavenlies.

The Bible goes on to say this, and you can't take credit because it is a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward.

Let me repeat what the Bible says.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done.

So none of us can boast about it.

Salvation is a gift that gives me a stable seat in the heavenlies.

What does that mean?

That simply means because of what Christ Jesus has done on that cross and the door he opened for me to commune with my heavenly Father seats me with Christ in the heavenlies.

I got a seat in the heavenlies.

So whenever the winds of life blow and the circumstances of turbulence begin to surround me, I don't go from here to there because my faith is set in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies.

And he did a work on a cross for me, so I can't do anything to deserve it.

I can't do anything to get it.

It's not a reward for what I do.

It is simply him who sets me on stable footing.

So is your faith in Christ Jesus set?

Is it stable?

Or does when the economy begins to rock, you begin to rock?

When the relationships and the political unrest begin to rock, you begin to rock.

When sickness and disease comes your way, are you set and stable with God in the heavenlies?

Or are you blowing from here to there and you're not stable?

I need you to know today, the cornerstone stabilizes the entire house, the house stabilizes on Christ, the solid rock.

Let me read to you what Hebrews chapter 10 says about us not wavering.

The Bible says, let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm.

For God can be trusted to keep his promise.

God said he saves you, salvages you, puts you in right relationship with himself through the blood shed through Christ.

I didn't deserve it.

Grandmama didn't deserve it.

Aunt Freda didn't deserve it.

Uncle Benny didn't deserve it.

Nobody deserved it, but God did it anyway.

What is your faith in?

Because the Bible says this unwavering hope that we have that Christ Jesus has salvaged us, we can be sure that God is going to keep his promise.

Hebrews 12 speaks of the things in heaven and on earth being shaken.

The Bible says that God has made those who believe in Jesus as the Messiah, as belonging to an unshakable kingdom, a group of people who worship God for who he is with awe and wonder and fear.

The Bible says that, you know what?

We can be living in awe of God's mighty hand.

And you know what?

That changes the game when the storms of life come.

What is your dependency on?

Because truly, Christ Jesus is the foundational stone, according to the scripture, that the entire church and the entire house needs to stabilize itself on.

And my friend, when the church, the people of God, all of us, the Bible refers to us as living stones.

That means you're not dead, you're alive, because what Christ Jesus, you have been awakened to the spiritual reality of who God is.

And you're a display in the heavenlies because of what God has done in your life.

So in other words, it's not just about what your neighbor or your kids see, it's about what the powers and the principalities see God doing in the midst of this earth, in your life.

When you say, I don't care what storm comes, I am grounded on Christ Jesus, the solid rock.

He's my stabilizer.

So what else does the cornerstone do?

Again, it aligns the entire house.

If the cornerstone is off, then the entire house will be off.

But if the cornerstone is right, then what we have to do is we have to align our doctrine.

We have to align our beliefs.

We have to align ourselves with the cornerstone and then we can be built into something great.

And so the reality is the word of God begins to reveal to us, you know what, how to align ourself with God and let God do amazing things in our life and through our life.

When we built this building, whenever they took a measurement from the first measurement, the cornerstone was back here in the back.

But whenever they took the measurement to build the house, they didn't align itself right with the cornerstone.

And guess what that did?

That caused problems throughout the entire building process.

Because one of the measurements was out of alignment.

And we had to correct things and correct things and correct things because things weren't aligned.

And I need you to know today, if your life ain't aligned with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone of your life, in other words, if your life is aligning with something else, then you're gonna miss the amazing things that God can do in you, sir, and through you, ma'am.

Because the true reality of it is, until I decide to align myself with the word of God, the power of God, the prophets who spoke about God, the apostles who begin to express who God is in the world, you know what, the Bible says until I align with that, I can't become this great expression.

So what are you aligning with?

A fallible teaching about who Jesus is?

Is it your own made-up version of who Jesus is?

Or do you really believe in the heart of hearts that there is nothing you can do outside of Christ Jesus by making yourself right with your creator?

My friends, faith in the Messiah, the liberator, can change everything.

But are you aligned with the Jesus of the scriptures?

Because the Jesus of the scriptures will change everything about how you do life.

He will begin to put order to your steps.

He will begin to bring revelation to your mind.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God is a gift given to you and me to begin to see the future.

The Holy Spirit of God begins to speak to us about things in the future.

And the Bible says I've got to align myself with the cornerstone if I'm really going to see God do these amazing things out of my life, no matter what background I come from.

Whether I'm male or female, whether I'm white, black, Asian, it doesn't matter whether I'm young or old.

The Bible says it doesn't matter what my economic class is, what generation I was born in.

The Bible says that God can take diverse people, put them together, align them on the word of God, and then begin to express who he is out of that house.

So again, I'm convinced that when I'm out of alignment, I got a God who will get my attention and say, you're not living in alignment.

You got a part to play.

And I'm building a house and you're a block in my house.

And if you out here being Mr. Lone Ranger, Ms. Lone Ranger Christian, you're out of alignment.

Because what God's doing is bringing believers out of darkness.

And my Bible says, he's putting us together.

Not just so we can be saved and go to heaven, but he's putting us together to align with his word and be an expression of who he is in the world around us.

And until the fullness of that is done, Christ Jesus ain't coming back.

Come on, somebody.

And many of us are sitting and waiting on the return of Christ, but we're not a block in the wall.

And here's the deal.

Christ is saying, would you align with your gifts, with your talents, with what I put in your hands?

Because when you do, I'm gonna change the world through my church.

Look what the Bible says, Ephesians chapter three, verses 10 and 12.

Says God's purpose in all of this, of bringing us out of darkness into the wonderful light, making Christ Jesus our cornerstone, our stability and our alignment, was to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

This was his eternal plan.

The Bible says, which he carried out through Christ Jesus, our Lord, he brings us together.

He puts it all together.

Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence.

The Bible says that those of us who believe in Christ Jesus and the work he did on the cross and his resurrection, that I can step boldly and confidently in my creator's presence and begin to talk to him about aligning with him.

And then he begins to talk to me and impress on me through the power of the Holy Spirit in me about how to get in line.

In other words, the Holy Spirit, the gift that God gives to you is something there to nudge you and coach you and comfort you and teach you and help you get in line with what God's doing in the world.

And what God is doing in the world is he's expressing himself through his church.

The Bible says that, you know what?

He brings different people together and we're all here for the same purpose.

And it's simply to be an expression of God's goodness in a dark world.

The apostles were sent to break into cultures, to break into mindsets, to break into traditions, to break into wayward thinking, to bring who Christ Jesus really was and lay a firm foundation so the church, the Bible says an apostle is a gift to the church, so the church can begin to be built in a way that God so desires for it to be built.

In other words, so the Bible says that we all have a purpose if we have put our belief in Jesus Christ and it's simply to be an expression of who our creator is through the various parts to the world around us.

You belong unapologetically to the local church, the house of God, and everything he has entrusted to you belongs to him to work in and work through.

Now I can selfishly, we live in a world where I can selfishly say no, what I got belongs to me in my house.

What I've got belongs, you know what, and I'm selfishly gonna just use it for my own self and my own goodness and my own community and my own, no, no, no, Jesus says make me known to the nations of the world.

Come on.

And the reality of it is how we begin to do that is found again here in Ephesians 2, verses 20 and 21.

It says together, everybody say together.

Look at your neighbor and say, you can't do it by yourself.

That was just hard for somebody to swallow in here.

Because you've been trying to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

And you need God.

And you need to put your faith in God.

You need to align with God.

And you need to become a part of what God has expressed in himself to be in this world.

The Bible says together, we are his house.

God sends an invitation and invites you to be a part of the household of faith.

He says, we are his house.

We're built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets and the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.

He says, we are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.

Romans chapter 12, verse six says this, in his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.

The Bible doesn't say that God gave you a gift to do things subpar.

The Bible says he gives you a gift that belongs to his house to express him to the world around you.

And he expects you to do it well.

It don't matter your education background.

It don't matter what age you are.

If God has given you a gift, you need to understand that God's expectation is for you to use that gift and use it well.

The Bible says in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, again, I close with this.

Jesus says, upon this rock, I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

You know, I do believe that the cornerstone, Jesus Christ, stabilizes our faith.

He aligns us to do great and mighty things.

And then we have the potential to express God to the world around us and penetrate darkness.

And the gates of hell can't hold back a church that is aligned with Christ Jesus.

And Christ Jesus is simply the cornerstone of who they are.

Jesus says, the gates of hell, the gates of darkness will not conquer this kind of church.

And so God is calling you and God is calling me to put our faith in the finished work of Christ on a cross, to put our faith in the resurrection of Jesus, to come alongside of the local church and to be a grand expression of who he is and bring his presence into a world that desperately needs him.

My friend, I'm telling you, God's calling you to be a part.

He's not calling you just to be a spectator, he's calling you to be a participator.

He's calling you to step in.

I don't care if you're a woman or a man.

The Bible says in the book of Acts that God poured out his spirit on men and women alike and he gives gifts to all people that believe in him and those gifts can go to work in the kingdom if he would so dare believe it.

Why do you keep trying to classify yourself by human standards?

Why don't you let the spirit of the living God tell you who you are?

Why don't you get involved with what God says you can do in the world?

Why don't you put your belief in who Christ Jesus declared you to be?

You're not dead.

You can be alive in Christ Jesus today.

Your sins can be forgiven, forgotten as far as the east is from the west.

And my friend, God calls you to the wonderful light of knowing who Christ is, building your life on Christ as solid rock and expressing him to the world around you and you're never going to be satisfied in the deep part of your heart until you participate in what God's created for you to participate in.

God doesn't call human beings just to go to heaven.

God calls human beings to make a difference and bring light into a dark world.

God calls us to permeate his presence throughout this earth.

And my friend, if you're not a part of what God's doing because you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ and he's never made you come alive in your spirit, today would be the day for you to build your life on the cornerstone, Christ Jesus himself.

So how do you do that?

Number one is you admit where you are and you turn from your sin and you trust Christ, what he did on that cross through giving his life's blood and resurrect him from a grave.

And then you simply begin to align with him and become a part of what he's doing in the world.

But you have to make the faith decision.

Nobody else can do that for you.

You have to personally decide that Christ Jesus is your cornerstone.

So if you're ready to do that today, I'm gonna give you that opportunity.

Could you bow your heads please?

And I just pray or I ask right now that nobody move in this room unless you have an emergency.

Because God's at work in people's heart around you.

And if you begin to move around, that would be rude and nobody in here wants to be rude.

You see, God might be speaking to that woman, that man, that boy, that girl right beside you about becoming a part of what he's doing in the world.

And my friend, if that is you today, if you're ready to move in to being a part of God's house, being a part of what God is doing in the world through Christ Jesus, and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, maybe right where you sit today, you say, God, today, I admit that I'm a sinner.

That just simply means I admit I've missed the mark of your standard for my life.

But God, I wanna trust the forgiveness of my sin through the shed blood of Jesus.

Tell God, you receive that gift that he offered today.

Tell God, you believe that Jesus resurrected from the grave and defeated death.

And the same one who resurrected from that grave can give you life.

Tell God, thank you for that resurrection, and you believe in it.

The Bible says in the book of Acts, if we repent of our sin, and publicly acknowledge that Jesus is our Savior, we can receive the Holy Spirit of God in our life to begin to guide and direct us all the days of our life.

So my friend, if you're a Christian, all the days of our life.

So my friend, if you prayed that prayer today, I wanna thank you for your courage to say that you've missed the mark and you received Christ today.

But it's also important to make that public.

And I'm gonna give you a way to do that in just a moment.

I'm gonna ask you just simply, if you prayed that prayer today, and today is the day of your salvation, just to simply stick your hand up in the air.

And then after that, I'm gonna pray a prayer.

Because the Bible says, when you put your belief that God will empower you with the Holy Spirit.

And I'm gonna invite you to receive that gift into your life, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is simply there to guide you, direct you, and begin to bring revelation to you about who you are in Christ Jesus, and help you walk in that.

And my friend, after we pray that prayer, I'll simply allow you to put your hands down.

And then at the end of the service, there's gonna be some prayer partners stationed around the front.

And I'm gonna ask that if you really want to become a part of what God's doing, for you to come forward, let them know that today is the day that you made Christ Jesus the savior of your life.

And they're gonna simply congratulate you, and then tell you a few ways you can get involved to begin to see God do these amazing things through your life.

So today, if you received Jesus as your savior, I'm gonna simply ask that right now, wherever you are in the room, don't you worry about who's around you.

Just simply make it public by sticking your hand straight up in the air.

Praise God.

God, I thank you for every one of these people who publicly profess that you are the savior of their life.

God, I pray that they wouldn't stop on the journey right here.

They would make it known to the local church, they would put their gifts to work, and God, you would empower them with your Holy Spirit to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

I pray this today in Jesus' most holy and precious name.

Amen