I'm speaking to you this morning in a final effort to compel you to register to vote if you have not yet already. Tomorrow, Monday, October 7th, by close of business will be the last day to register here in Indiana. I would like to spend just the next couple of minutes sharing a few reasons why I personally believe the election to be the most important one of our lives. So on Thursday, September 26th, Hurricane Helene made landfall on the southern coast of our country, and quickly after, horrific rainfall and flooding wreaked havoc on our southeast. Days following this catastrophic event, it has been made apparent that our current administration is not coming to our fellow countrymen's aid. Because of decisions our nation's leaders have made to support those outside our country, there's nothing left to send relief to the people in our country who need it most. I don't know about you, but this information absolutely sickens me. To have our leaders make it so abundantly clear that they do not put America first cannot be tolerated. And one of the big ways we can push back is through our vote. The civilians and Christian organizations who are providing relief and aid to the victims of Hurricane Helene prove that the American spirit is not yet dead, but those of us on the periphery need to use this as motivation to speak out. This most recent unprecedented event is truly just one of the many reasons why choosing to abstain from this election cannot be an option. Please consider how our actions and responses to this current day's events are writing history. As a kid, I was a voracious reader, specifically loving historical fiction, where the story would put me on the front lines of any number of historical events. I would often wonder, after having read a story of bravery in the midst of uncertainty, if I would be so courageous if the situation demanded it of me. This small act here of speaking to you today is my act of bravery. Please don't let the tactics of the devil keep you quiet. Your voice does matter. Please register, please make a plan to vote, and please pray for America. So some dates to consider as you make your plan this election season. So tomorrow, Monday the 7th, that's your first one. You need to register to vote. You can do so in person or online. It's truly so easy. It takes just a matter of moments. If you are not able to vote in person on Election Day, there are absentee ballot deadlines, so you can go ahead and request a ballot. You can do so all the way up through October 24th, and you can return that by mail or in person by November 5th, close of polls. And then our voting deadlines, we have early voting, so that's actually considered in-person absentee voting. That starts October 8th and goes through November 4th, so right until the day before election day. And then of course we have our in-person voting on November 5th. In conclusion, God has blessed us with a great nation where the Christian has thrived, and I believe that the values we were founded upon are worth fighting for. In Esther chapter 4, Mordecai reminded her that she had been placed in her position for such a time as this. Please prayerfully consider and make your plan to vote. So yes, if you need help doing that, Megan will help you. If you've not, she can do it today before you leave, get you registered to vote in that way. And so it is vital. Talk to friends around you, anybody else that you know that you're concerned might not be registered. Let them know that it's important. It's one thing to be registered. It's another thing then to not show up. So we need to show up to vote. If just the church alone showed up, it would change the course of this country. And so this is vital on a lot of different fronts, but let alone the things that Megan had mentioned. So I appreciate her passion in that. And she's not just chasing votes here. She's also done it in Wisconsin as well and some other states. She's not traveling, just using her phone. But just impassioned about it. And so I appreciate that. what she said, I'm trying not to cry. So we're gonna open with the word of prayer. Before we get started here, Lord, we just thank you for this day and thank you for the strength you've given us in America, Lord, from our founding fathers that have tried to put the command as best they could into the hands of the people. And Lord, let us not make it easy for them to rest it away and help us to stand for it and help us to fight. And Lord, I pray that we would show up on the election day, November 5th, and we pray that it would be free and that it would be fair and that it'd be honest. And Lord, that you would do safeguard and protect it and expose evil where things or obstacles are put in the way. And Lord, I pray that all Christians all across this country would show up to vote. I pray every American would. I pray especially all Christians and Lord, that we would vote in accordance to your word. And Lord, that it would help change and shape our nation. Thank you for this opportunity we have to be here today on this first day of the week, Lord, where we honor you. And I thank you for all these who've set aside this time to honor you. Here, first thing, the first day of the week, to gather into your house and to hear your word preached and to fellowship with the saints and to worship and praise you. And I, Lord, I just pray that you'd be well pleased with our attendance and our efforts here this morning. Be the Sunday school teachers, Lord, give them clarity. May the kids have good patience and understanding and listening. And Lord, we thank you for the encouragement that Becky gave us last week for the news and the messages that are soaking in and making a difference in these young lives already and how they're paying attention. And Lord, we just pray you continue to grow these young souls, Lord, up to serve you. And Lord, I pray that you would just do the same for us, that we'd have a passion for you, that we'd understand who we are in Christ, Lord, so that we can go better forth to be good soldiers for you. Uh, do those that can't be here today Lord who want to be and can't and intercede with them and the things that they're caring for I prayed you'd be with every pulpit where the gospel is being preached this morning lord. Give them strength and power And lord, I just pray for those uh in these uh The devastated areas of our country lord that you just watch guard and protect and care for And I pray that the help that's trying to get through through citizenry would be able to get through And that the obstacles that are in the way would be Removed and and Lord so that we can get there and help our fellow countrymen and Lord I thank you for the heart of this church and Lord trying to serve and to help in that way as well And the ways pray you continue to move and work there Let's pray now that lord you'd be with the your word as it is preached be with the as we open it this morning Give me wisdom and clarity And lord help me to speak what you have For us today and not what I have and lord. I just pray you just Inhabit us today lord be here among us lord move among us and lord help us to come away from this loving you all the more We just pray this in your son jesus precious and holy name amen Ephesians chapter 2 You're like, oh, we got through all that last week. We did, but not as well as I'd like. And I originally set out the thought, I'll just go back up a little bit, but it's turned into the whole message. But Ephesians 2, and we'll start verse 19. I want to look at this a little bit more. It's just too much to go past as quickly as I did. Ephesians 2, verse 19 says, now therefore, You're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. We covered this lightly, but I just want to kind of remind us and delve into it a little bit deeper as I've meditated on it this week. We are now, as we covered last week, we're no longer outsiders. We're insiders. We are right now a citizen of heaven. If you've repented and trusted Christ as Savior, that is where our citizenship lies. We might live in Indiana, we might live in the United States, we might live on earth, but our true citizenship, our true home is heaven. Ultimately, our true home will be New Jerusalem, that'll be the city, on the new earth, you know, so we are a physical being, we're a body-soul unity that God has created us to be, and that we will actually live on a recreated paradise earth in the New Jerusalem. And so I stress that because we usually just say heaven, and that's where if we died right now you would go, that was like the temporary spot in which we will be where God dwells but God's original plan was to be on earth with men and that is restored in the end when you get to the book of Revelation. A new earth, the city is restored and God dwells with men and so we live on a physical tangible earth. And I like to stress this because it's hard for me to imagine heaven. I've never been there. I don't know what heaven's like. I've studied it as much as I can and I've tried to imagine it. But you know what I can imagine? I can't imagine life on earth. I can't imagine physically being here and seeing the things and walking and living and doing it because that's what we were made for and that's what we are made to. And so we will live there. That will be our home ultimately in the New Jerusalem. And we looked at that in Revelation in a few places. And so, live like a citizen. Live like the citizen that you are. That's why we're called to be ambassadors. We represent a foreign place. Heaven. God's kingdom. We represent that in our life, though we live here just like an ambassador from Europe would come over and represent their country. Or if we went to Europe, how we would represent America. We are representing God here and now. Through us, the citizenship of heaven that is here now. And I was thinking about that, like how would I behave in heaven? Will I behave like I do now? I hope not. I hope it's not that drastic, but I'm trying to make it not so drastic. It's kind of like, that's why we're trying to live righteously and live holy, that we would behave and be like him. And so we need to kind of let that affect us now in how we are and how we move and how we do things. Because it says here we'll be living with the saints. It's right there at the end. It says fellow citizens with the saints, the saints. That's probably the most accurate word. Now, you know, we do live in a day and age, and I mentioned this some now, we always think it's like, oh, a sainthood is bestowed upon someone by the Catholic Church, you know, years later, because I think after you die, you have to perform so many miracles. I don't know how you do that. But you perform so many miracles, or, this one's kind of creepy, if they dig up your grave and they find you not to be corrupted, and that you smell sweet instead of rotten, they might give you sainthood. if that doesn't bother you, I don't know what should, you know, digging up people and seeing what they are, you know, like, oh, and they would make soap out, it's weird, weird stuff that goes on with some of that. And so, but it's not that. Sainthood is someone who's repentant and trusted in Christ as Savior, whether it be Old Testament, New Testament, or in the future. And so, in the Old Testament, That's what everybody was called, a saint. They were the saints of God. You can go through, it's everywhere. The Psalms and the prophets and everything, they're listening and talking about the saints, that are people that believe. We tend to always want to call them Christians, but there is a difference. There's a unique difference between us, but they're technically, we're all saints in that way. In the New Testament, the believers are called saints. So the ones who come to know Christ, they are called saints. So they are acknowledged that. And so that's where we are. We would find ourselves in the church that we would be labeled as saints. Let's behave like it. And in the book of Revelation when the church is gone after the rapture you have those that are left on the earth and they get saved. They are called saints. We call them usually tribulation saints. So we kind of identify the time period that they're from. Now when you break it all down it all becomes unique and different because Adam was not Jewish They'll try to claim him and they want to claim him but he wasn't. We didn't have Jews until Abraham. That's long after the flood. That's way after the Tower of Babel. Then that comes in and he was different. He wasn't the church. They were Israelites. They were the descendants of Abraham. Then when you get to the church we're different. Then after the church is gone we'll have Israel again but we'll also have Gentiles that get saved and that's why we just call them Tribulation Saints. So there are all kinds of different categories with different promises, with different benefits and different things that are allowed to us and so and to be honest we got the best deal by being the church you know that we are the bride of Christ we are in this close proximity and there are things promised to us that others don't get even the Saints of the Old Testament and so it's pretty sweet but we need to live like it we need to act like it because we are in partnership with all the saints. That's all of us throughout time and memorial. Anyone who comes to believe is considered a saint. Now we're church saints or we're bride of Christ saints and that makes us even more unique. So that's pretty cool. So we are fellow citizens with saints. As we gather here this morning for all those who have repented and trusted Christ as Savior, we are now gathering with the saints. And it's kind of cool to think about. a solemn assembly together with the saints of God. And that's what this is, a little rally as we meet together to talk about our homeland, to talk about how we're gonna serve, to get our marching orders, to see how we're gonna behave and what we're gonna be doing. It's just that kind of a way. I always think of it in a sense of an army that way. It's a time for us to regroup and then we break and we go back out, maybe like football a little bit. And so with that mindset of knowing that we are saints as well as they are saints, there is strength in that mindset. knowing who has gone on before, who we are now, and that it'll continue on after, that this is something that God has established, his saints here on the earth that will be with him, knowing who your contemporaries are here in this fellowship, that's why we are to gather ourselves together so that we know that we are not alone, and that's why your attendance is important, because it is an encouragement to the other saints, just by being here, if you never open your mouth and you never say anything, just by looking and seeing the consistency in fellow saints, and honoring the Lord and putting him first on the first day of the week and honoring his word and making it a priority to give to the church, to pray, to intercede, to support other ministries, to help and teach our young and do all the things that the church does. It is important for us to be together as a body in that way. But knowing who our contemporaries are strengthens us. Hold your spot here and let's turn to Hebrews 12. Paul, who I think has written Hebrews as well. Before we get to Hebrew 12, I want to back it up because, you know, Hebrew 12 comes after Hebrews 11. And Hebrews 11 is the hall of faith where he basically kind of expands on this idea of the fellow citizenship or the saints of the church. And we call this, that whole chapter, chapter 11, the hall of faith. The Hall of Faith that begins with Abel all the way back in the Garden of Eden. He starts talking about him and how he gave his life. It goes on to Noah and it goes on to Abraham and it marches on up to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and how they come and it gets to Moses and it continues on and it gets into the prophets and it kind of gets more generic as it gets closer but it really builds and we'll end with some of that. He points out their faith during this time. That's the common theme. By faith, Noah. By faith, Abraham. It was by faith that they did this, not seeing the things that they were going to happen. Abraham never had the promised land. He put his foot in part of it, but he never really got the promise. Jacob never did. You know, Jacob's kids, you know, finally that happens, you know, later their descendants as it developed from the 12 boys into 12 tribes is finally fulfilled. But it talks about their struggles and the things that they face, the mindset that they have. And he gives us a zoom in on one where he had the ultimate temptation not to follow, but he chooses to follow Christ. And that's in verse 24, Hebrews 11, 24. It says, by faith Moses, When he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was adopted. In the sense, you know, that they were supposed to kill all the Hebrew children and they didn't just throw him in one, they hid him, I think, for three years. put him in a, he's a young child, they put him in this ark they call it or a little basket that floated in the water and his sister runs along behind to make sure nothing happens to him but I think they knew that Pharaoh's daughter was bathing down at the Nile so it comes across that she has compassion, takes him in, raises him as her son. and becomes where he could have been Pharaoh. He continues on, he says, but he chooses rather, or choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He could have been in charge of the world, the known world at that time, but he chose his Jewishness. His mother got to be his wet nurse. So I think during that time when she had those visits within Pharaoh's palace, she's filling him with the Bible stories. Man, mothers, what a power that you have to whisper the truth of God into your children's ear from a young age and make that connection where he comes down as an adult, young male, to be offered the opportunity to be Pharaoh, and he says, I'd rather identify with the slave people here. I choose to be with them. Verse 26, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasure of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward, and by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who was invisible. He didn't see him, he didn't even know Christ was his name yet, he just knew he was Messiah, that's the Greek for Messiah. So he esteemed the reproach of Messiah, or Christ, knowing that he would come, and that he wanted to be identified with him, and he really forsook the world. What would it get profit to man if he gained the whole world and lost his soul? I think of Moses in this passage when I hear that. He literally had that opportunity to have everything at his fingertips for what, 70 years? And then he'd spend eternity in hell. And he said, no, the better bet is eternity with my Savior. And so he forsook that. He turned his back on the physical things to be with him. And so that's an example to me. This is a contemporary. This is a saint, a fellow saint, one who's gone on before us, that he has this. And so he chooses eternity over temporal things. So should we. It points out their faith in this passage. It points out their struggles. It points out their mindset, how he saw that which was invisible that no one else could see, but he knew it to be true. And so he believes it. Look at verse 24. I wrote the wrong one. Look at verse 34. He quenched with violence and fire, escaped the edge of the sword, some of them did, out of weakness were made strong, wax valiant in the fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised again because they believed, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. And so they would rather torture to death than bend their knee to bow down to some foreign god, to some foreign king. They said, no, I will esteem my savior all the more. that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, and yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. I love this line. Of whom the world was not worthy. That's how God sees them. All these who chose me versus what they could see, the world wasn't worthy of them. The one I put my word in their mouth and they proclaimed it. They lived it. They were tortured and they still stood for me. These were my people. The world was not worthy of them. He continues. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, none of them received it, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us that they, without us, should not be made perfect. They suffered as examples for you and I. So that when you and I are facing a struggle or a temptation or something, we can think back to these saints and say, they didn't give in. They are fellow saints of mine. I will not give in. I will not compromise. I will not fold to the pressure. I will not bow down. I will choose my savior over whatever's being offered to me or whatever temptation that might be. We make that struggle within ourselves, and here he gives us a whole chapter of it to think about, and it's expanded upon in the rest of the Bible. These are just kind of the cliff notes to go back and read these stories and understand, and so we should be that way. That builds us up to chapter 12. Verse one, he says, wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight of the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." This is motivation as well. We have this cloud of witnesses that are looking into the affairs of men and cheering us on by saying, look at our example. You know, we can read their life in a brief short of time, sometimes a few paragraphs we can read and see, and it seems like, oh, that was easy. That was a life. And they had through that, and it was an example for us, and it's recorded in scripture. We are those living examples now, and we have a cloud of witnesses that have gone on as our examples, as our encouragers, and I think, literally, as witnesses, watching things that are going on. In Revelation 6, if you turn there, we kinda get a little peek, because it's like, can they see us? Do they see us? Are they cheering us on? Are they watching from the mezzanine? I think yes. Revelation 6 and verse 9, after the four horsemen of the apocalypse are released. In verse 9 he says, and when he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar, this is the altar in heaven, the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a loud voice saying, how long O Lord holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them and And it was said unto them that they should rest yet a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. And so they're killed for their faith. They're under the altar, this special place, a close spot to God. They're asking, interceding for their fellow brethren who are still on earth and they know are suffering and dying. And so whether they can physically see it or whether they just know, I'm not quite sure. I think that they can physically see it. just my own personal opinion, but they are up there interceding on behalf of us as we are in our trials and we are in our persecutions. How long, oh Lord? Don't we kind of cry out that now for our fellow saints? When we hear about persecution, we hear about our things, even our own fellow countrymen, the things that are going on in the Carolinas. How long will corruption prevail? How long will these things be? How long until things are brought to the light and things are exposed and truth and justice and righteousness is served out? That's what fellow saints are crying. That's what we cry for our fellow brothers around the world. And so we have them interceding on our behalf. It's not just the saints that are alive, but the saints that have gone on are cheering for us as well. And I take strength in that. I take hope in that. I take solace in that. I take encouragement in that, knowing that we're not alone and that others are still cheering as the faith goes onward. And that reminds me of the scene in Facing the Giants where the guys crawl across the football field with the other dude on his back. Everybody's seen that. He's blindfolded. And then he can't see and he's like, I might be able to go 10 yards, 15 yards. But that coach is down on his face, says, you can do it, push it. And all the other guys come around, they're cheering, and he goes the whole length of the field. It's that, it's to push us the link further than we could go knowing that we have others cheering us on saying, take the faith brother, don't drop the ball, keep it lifted high, exalt him. And we make those good choices in the quietness of your mind or in the public square that the saints of heaven are cheering on knowing that the good news of the gospel is persevering. I'm getting the GGBs right now, you know, the Gospel Goosebumps. Thinking about, you know, the saints doing that. This is strength and Paul is trying to give us that strength as he is building towards the armor that he's gonna present to us at the end of the book. And so he is, he's just trying to let us know that you're not alone, that you have others that have resisted. You have others that were bold, you be bold. It's becoming of saints. It's how the fellow citizens of heaven behave. We are to be this way. Let's go back to Ephesians. Here's the part I wanted to go over. Ephesians two and verse 20. It says, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief cornerstone. We are not alone. We are fellow citizens. We are saints with everyone from the Garden of Eden until the end of the Tribulation and through the Millennial Saints. We have a cloud of witnesses that have gone on before us. And then he zooms in, he goes, let's look at the detail of what you have in Christ. He looks at the foundation, people that he knows you and I would know. ones that are probably important to us that helped us in our faith. I know the apostles and the prophets are the ones who spoke the words that I read that made me understand I was a sinner in need of a savior. The examples that they lived out as they traveled with Christ or as they heard from God and they spoke and they proclaimed the words, he says this is a foundation. The truth that he said in advance that he spoke through his men and these guys lived it out. Their stories, their lives, the examples that they are. It is strength shown to us and their weakness shown to us as examples saying that these are real people in the real world. It's not just generic prophets now. Sometimes we have that, but he zooms in on their stories as we look at them. How they trusted God into victory. That's why we learn these stories. That's why we teach them in Sunday school. That's why we go over them as we go over the whole Bible. That we don't limit ourselves just to sections. We look at the whole counsel of God's word. From David as a young boy trusting God to be able to go up and face a Goliath and then onwards to lead a kingdom. Esther, as Macon even mentioned this morning, for such a time as this, where she was literally about the only one in that position to be able to do it, let alone, she had an uncle that was encouraging her on, and saints that were hidden elsewhere, but she was there, the pressure was upon him, and even then, Mordecai is like, you should do this, but if you don't, God will raise up another, but you miss out on the opportunity. Praise God, she did it. Let's do that, let's not let others have what God says I want you to stand up and do. Let's do it, God will make a way for sure. I mean, he wants to use us as the conduit to do it. And so that's why we learn these stories, to have it. Daniel. Dare to be a Daniel, he is taken out of his country, put in a foreign country as a young man with opportunities galore, power and position, and he chooses the reproach of Christ. Time and time again with the testimony that goes on through more than one world empire, two putting in charge and command. Joseph, what an example of Joseph. Again, this guy should be bitter about Jews and about his brethren and everything else. They hated him, they despised him. They were plotting to kill him when they sell him into slavery. And yet he still holds what he knows about God from a young man to garner him and guard him all through his times in Potiphar's house, in jail, where he's made the leader, to ultimately put second in command of Egypt in that way, to where he basically saves the world as a type of Christ through it all. What an example he is, time and again. I think of Joseph a lot. He tells us how to work. How were to be bold and how he would not take credit. He later like hey, we understand you can interpret dreams I can't interpret dreams, but there's a God in heaven and interprets dreams and he lets me know You know, he made sure he had a chance to like really put it on. You know, it's him No, the God in heaven we answer is God in heaven how to deal with conflict He puts some things down to a test, or sometimes he just says no, and they put up something that's obvious. You cannot pray to anything but the king. He's like, no, I can pray to my God, no matter what you say. Yeah, there might be consequences, and you'll throw me in the line then, but I'm not gonna bow down to your pressure to the point where the king writes a decree. Daniel's God is the God of gods. We should all be worshiping him because he stood, he stands firm, giving God the glory and all the time. Daniel and Joseph, Elaine and Levi and I were just sitting around talking the other day, you know, encouraged by Joseph, his life and the story. And we just all recently listened to it. Oh, well, I'll put a plug in here. If you need a good Bible app, through the word, through the word, make a note and get that one. It goes through, And it takes like nine minutes or so where they'll talk about each chapter of the Bible, kind of give you an overview of it. It's usually pithy, usually witty. It's very encouraging. And then it'll read the version of the Bible that you want. You get to pick if you want the ESV, the NIV, the CSB, the King James. You can pick whatever you want and it'll read it to you. And then you have a reflection. Sometimes he has like a B-side that you'll talk a little bit more about it. But an excellent app. You can, within 15 minutes a day, you can get a chapter a day of the Bible where you know and understand and have things to think on. We had been through that. the story of Joseph. They're yelling at me because I cheated and went way ahead. I'm like, how do you stop in the middle of that story? I binge listened, you know. I listened to several days to keep it going. And so Joseph, what an encouragement he is. How often do we find ourselves as Christians talking about Peter? You know, the wisdom of John and things he was doing. We would wear bracelets that would say WWJD, you know, what would Jesus do? Or some had the WDJD, what did Jesus do? You know, instead of just what would he do, what did he do? How did he live and act and how he influences us? Jesus, the chief and the main character, and he gives him a title here that is close to all of us, Cornerstone. And I couldn't just go flying by that verse too fast. When the name of your church shows up in the text, we gotta camp on it just a little bit, right? So Cornerstone, it's our namesake. He is what we mean when we say Cornerstone. We mean Jesus. Cornerstone Church is the church of Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone, he is the foundation stone, he is the center, he is the main point of this church. We are calling out specifically as we look and we call it Cornerstone Church, we're looking at specific points. He is our foundation for what we do. how we behave, the things that are going on, how we live, how we want to govern ourselves as a church, with Christ as our cornerstone. He is a direction that we want to go. He is pointing us to God, because he is God, but pointing us to live like him. In the ancient world, There were three pictures of a cornerstone, and more so than what you and I have. They looked at cornerstone in three different ways. We think of, in our modern day, if I would say cornerstone, we usually think of the stone on the corner. You know, it's at the corner down there. There's usually, there's a ceremonial stone sometimes placed there. You know, on this day, this building was dedicated, and something maybe behind or whatever, a special stone. But even if not, it's the first rock that's put down when you start laying all the other courses. As a teenager, we were going to New Life Baptist Church, and we were building a church there at the corner of airport, or Nineveh and 31, right there. And so, as they dug that hole and they put it all in, my dad would take, my brothers and I, and he would drop us off. And we would work there all day. Free labor for the church all day long. And I got to know real construction. Other than just a little project that we did at home with dad or whatever was going on. Here they would lay it down, they'd put in rebar and how many inches you had to put past rebar to make it continue in one piece and how you put it all down. I worked with Gene Hazelwood. He built many a brick home around this area. He's also a family member, my wife's uncle. And he was known for his bricklaying, and I made the mistake of calling him a blocklayer. And he was like, eh, I got a little more skill than that, boy. I'm a bricklayer. And then he had me try and laid some, and he redid every one I tried. But it is harder than it looks. But he talked about, I remember the time and the care and the effort he put in putting that first cornerstone down. Because here he's gonna put a string on it and he's gonna stretch it out to make sure the building was oriented to the road the way they wanted and how it was all gonna be. It was all foundational to this one stone to make sure it was gonna be on center and it was gonna lay upon the foundation that he put in there. But this first block as he put it, he would stretch it and he would talk about this is gonna determine the gap I'll have in the mortar and keeping the mortar rows straight and how high they're gonna be and the spaces in between and all the care and the effort that went into that first rock. You have to make sure all the rest of it would fall in sync and I'm sure being building a church and knowing Elaine's uncle that he went through and he probably pointed out some things about he is a direction for our life as well. He is a line and something for us to attain to to keep us straight and keep us on the path to make sure that we don't get off course and that we can build something that is glorifying to God with our life all through laying down a cornerstone. and the time we took carrying those blocks and handing them to him and watching them build a whole building that still stands to this day to the honor of God. And so pointing those things out, a guide, a direction, a cornerstone laid down at the foundation of a building. Jesus is that guide. Jesus is our direction. He is our foundation, the foundation that no man can lay, 1 Corinthians 3 tells us. He is the rock. all other ground is sinking sand. By the time we get to chapter six and he gives us the gospel boots, it is a firm foundation that we stand upon Jesus Christ, the good news, the gospel of Christ. We have something that will not shift, that will not falter, that will not collapse. It is a life that you build upon the gospel with the foundation of Jesus Christ that will withstand the floods of this life that endures. And so it will not go flat as the kids will sing. They also saw a cornerstone as what we would call the keystone in an arch. So when you're building an arch, there's a wedge-shaped rock generally right at the top that kind of holds the whole arch together. Rome was known for it. It's what kind of made them the technological advance that they were. Roman arches and bridges are still standing to this day, you know, because they knew what they were doing and they built them so well because it was so strong and how it went. The keystone or the cornerstone at the center of that was key. It's what gave it its strength. It's what held it all together. If you've ever tried to build an arch and try to get it, no small feat, to be able to do that. But Jesus is that. He's our strength that holds us together. All the other stones would lean and push against that stone. And the more they leaned and the tighter they hit, the stronger it was. Same for your life. The more you lean upon Him, the more you push on Him, the more you try to connect with Him, the stronger you are. And He's at the head, but the rest of us, the stones that are fitly put together make up that arch, that's the building. And so it is a strong arch. Jesus Christ is our cornerstone. He is the source of our strength here as a church and as individuals. The last one. Well you take away that cornerstone and it will collapse that is for sure. But the last cornerstone that the ancients had would be the top rock on a pyramid. Think of the pyramid in Giza. It has four corners and then it comes up to a point at the top. Now that's the pinnacle or the top of this and as high as it exalted it is lifted up Now the one on, it completes the building. Without it, it's incomplete. The one in Giza right now is missing the top stone because they said it was built out of gold. That's probably why it's gone. But it's not there. Think how majestic that building is. It is lifted up and they made it gold to be exalted for everyone to see the strength and the power of whatever, whoever built it. It wasn't the Egyptians. But they've copied it and all the other ones are inferior to it. But it is lifted up. It is put first, it is what all the rest of the rocks were going towards, this key gold capstone that was at the top, this cornerstone. That's how we're to be, no other gods before us. He is to be high and lifted up. He is to be exalted. He is to be over our lives, the one who we put as the top, governing the rest of our lives that we are doing, that we are, all of our life was built towards that goal, to point and exalt Him, to trust Him. to make him our top priority, to find our completion in him when he is exalted to the spot he's supposed to be, at the head, at the corner, where all the other corners come together at that one point, he is to be that. Look at Isaiah 28 real fast. Isaiah 28, verse 16. Isaiah 28, 16 says, therefore, Isaiah 28, 16, therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste, and so we can build a life upon him. God has given us the opportunity to fall on a stone. You either fall on that stone and accept him as your savior, or that stone will fall upon you and crush you, the Bible tells us. And so, I've got a whole book by Noah Hutchins that talks about the pyramid. His summary is that he thinks Adam built the Great Pyramid, and it's called the Gospel in Stone, because if you study it, if you went through the entrance, they had to find it, so they blasted a hole in it, and they eventually find it. But if you went into the main entrance, it is a broad, narrow, broad way that leads down, out from the pyramid, into the ground, into a room that is called the pit. But, There's a narrow way on the way down the broad way that few there be that find it. But if you find that narrow way, it leads you up to ultimately the king's chamber. Before you get to the king's chamber, you have to go to the bride's chamber. Then once you're in the bride's chamber, there is a way that you have to get down on your knees to be able to crawl into before you can get into the king's chamber. And when you get into the king's chamber, there's one sarcophagus that is there that is empty. There's an empty tomb. There's the exact dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant. And so that's why they call it the gospel in stones because it's the broad way that leads into death. and leads you to the pit of hell, and there's a narrow way, and few there be that find it. But if you become a bride of Christ, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is King and Lord, and they'll lead you to the empty tomb where you confess him, and knowing that he'll make him Lord and Savior for life. And so many point to that. And so, maybe, it's interesting, I like it. But here in Ephesians, it says Jesus Christ is that cornerstone. And he goes on and he says, in verse, 21, it says, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto the holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. He says, he is the cornerstone, but you and I are the lively stones, that he takes all of us and we are all fitted together, and we are the building of the church, not these four walls, or six, four walls and a ceiling and a floor. It's not this, it's us, you and I. We are it, we are fitted together. And there is strength in that because we have a cloud of witnesses, the saints and the apostles and those Old Testament saints, the current saints, the saints that are coming, that we all fit together, founded upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. It's said like the redwoods, the redwoods are these giant towering trees that I would love to see someday. But I don't know if I will or not. But they say, for as big and as tall as those trees are, the root system only goes 10 foot deep. They said the way that it works and why these trees don't blow over, but they go out and that this tree's roots will intermingle with that tree's root and that tree's root will intermingle with this tree's roots and they're all tied together. That's what he means for the church. That's why he says don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. It's great when we all come together in the building at one time as we do now, but we are to be tied together through all things. That's why I was promoting the band app a little bit. That's how we let our prayers and intercessions be known, how we can text everybody and say lift us up. It's something that ties us uniquely together as the body of Christ, that we stand together as living stones, fitly put together, that the storms of life can blow against us and not fall down because we have the foundation of Jesus Christ. We will not have tragedy if He is the foundation, the cornerstone of your life. He's the cornerstone of the church. He's the cornerstone of what we are doing here. He's the cornerstone of each and every one of us if you have repented and trusted Him as Savior. He is to be our head. He is our building. He is what we live in and we exist in. And then we build upon that gold, silver, precious stones, hopefully not wood, hay, stubble as 1 Corinthians says. Jesus, our foundation. Jesus, our direction. Jesus, our guide. Jesus, our strength. Jesus, our example to live up to. Jesus, our purpose He is the glory. He's the one we're to exalt. He's the one we're to put on top of our life's pyramid to exalt and lift and esteem above all others. He is the rock that you can build your life upon. He is the foundation that stands when all other else is sinking ground, sinking sand. And so Jesus Christ, if you do not have him in your life, you are all men most miserable. But if you do have him, our life is safe and secured. We have something that we can build upon that he has said earlier in this chapter that he has something for us to do and it takes all of us fitly joined together. And knowing that we're not alone, that it's taking all of us and we are all working and striving as we continue to hoist the gospel light into this lost and dying world. Trying to get the scales of their eyes to fall off as Shane was just talking about earlier this morning. Just trying to get them to see the good news of the gospel. That's what he's given us, and that's what we have. And we're to have that with us. That's our heritage, it's who we are, and we are to carry it with us as we go into this lost and dying world. Paul has done a good job of building up who we are so that we could be the soldiers that we ought to be. As he starts making a turn towards that, as he starts off the next chapter praying and interceding, tells us some more fantastic things about him and who he is and that we have access to, and so I look forward to getting to that with you. But if you don't know Him as Savior, you're missing out. If you think you can do it on your own, you can't. You need the foundation stone of Jesus Christ. Repent and trust in Him. He's the rock. He is worth living for. He is the guide. He is the thing that you're missing. It is the hole that is empty in your heart that you're trying to fill with everything else. It is Jesus. It is Him. It's a relationship with Him. It's what you were made. It's what you were designed for. Repent of your sins and trust in Him and He will save you. And if He has, He's worth living for. And He's given you everything that we need for this life to be able to go forth and to please Him in it. Let's lean upon Him as I arch