No One Else Is Coming // Here & Now // Read
“The best is yet to come!” This statement has often been a popular rallying cry, especially for the Church. It’s a declaration rooted in the belief that God has great things in store for his people just beyond the horizon. And it’s a sentiment we’ve shared and stated here at Cornerstone...but, not anymore. Of course, we still believe the future is bright. But who has time for what’s to come when we’re too busy being blessed by what is? You see, the best isn’t “yet to come”—it’s here and now! God is on the move, and he is doing a new thing NOW, in the midst of our present circumstances. Instead of focusing on the future, we’re determined to follow God’s lead, right here and right now.
Most fairy tales follow the same narrative—a princess locked in a tower, a dragon imprisoning her, and a brave hero coming to save the day. In those stories, the princess doesn’t need to do anything. Just sit back and wait. But what if there was no prince coming to the rescue? What if her freedom and future rested in her deciding to take action? In our lives, more often than not, there is no one else coming. It’s on each of us to take charge of ourselves and act, trusting that God will be with us as we fight for our future.
Man, oh man, that is good stuff. That's, I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, hey, if you were with us last week, too, you know that we had another one of those videos, right? We had a video with Dean and Bernice Stevenson, Dean and Bernie's we had a video with Wes hornish in it. And we announced that we're in a building campaign, right. We're in our hear and now building campaign. And we don't have building plans yet. They're kind of expensive, kind of pricey, so we're holding off on those. But the amazing thing is, even though we don't have architectural renderings of what a building will look like, we do have plans of what we're building for. You just saw it. That's the blueprint. That's the blueprint of what we are building for. We are making room. We are making room for people to find a Father, find a family, and find a fulfilling future. That's what this is all about. And it's exciting. Just seeing how God is working that out in our church, we need more room, we need more room because he is giving us influence, and it's just great to see what he's doing in the life of our church. Speaking of that, man, wasn't last week incredible. Were you here for worship night? Can I hear if you were here for worship night, online, man oh, man, it was something else last week. Like it was something else we were joking about. The next day, like Monday morning, a lot of us on staff, a lot of the ministry partners who volunteered, we were like, man, we're going to have a holy hangover on Monday morning. We're just wiped out. You read his words in the heart. It was intense and not even just worship night. But Sunday morning was amazing. And you want to know why that is? It's easy to think it's well, I mean, we started, we started a building campaign. And it was worship night, and Dwight was here. And we had many people appear on stage and the lights in the fog and everything. And so it's cool that that's not why it's so powerful. You want to know why last week was so powerful, because you and you online, you brought it. That's why it was powerful. And you want to know what I mean by it. What I'm talking about you came in here with an expected heart. You came here expecting to see God move in to do something in your heart. And whenever you come before God, whenever you approach his throne, with an expectant heart, God does something. He moves in a different way. And so the encouraging thing about that is you loved how last week was we can have that every week, we can have that, you come here with an expected heart, God will meet you here. Um, so you know, luckily, we don't get this lot of Cornerstone, but I hear from Pastor friends about how they'll have people come to their church and say, you know, just wasn't getting fed. Man. I'm glad we don't have that here. Because if you come with an expected heart, you're already full. You're already full. And whenever you come to Sunday, it's just an overflow of what God's been doing in your life throughout the week. And so I want to let you know how great last week was we can have that every week. We keep coming here with expectant hearts expecting to see God move. We will have worship. We will have moments like that every single Sunday. I promise you that. I'm going to ask you, what are you expecting today? Are you expecting to hear God moving to say something to you because he's going to, I can promise you that much. He will say something to you if you pray with me real quick, Father God. We are here with expected hearts. We are here with open minds, spirits, and open hands willing to listen to you today because God knows you want to speak to us. And so we are here and God. What we ask is that at this moment, you supernaturally would go before us to remove any distractions, any other tabs that we have open on our computer, any other apps that are calling our name, any plans that are beckoning us for after church that we would take those and that we would set them aside for the next few minutes so we can be present to hear from you because we know whenever we are present, and when we are expecting God, you move mountains, you speak in different ways you do something to us. We believe you for that today. Go before us at this moment. Meet us, God challenge us in the right way and help us to meet that challenge. We love you so much. We pray all this in your name, amen. Amen. Tell the person next to you that you came with God's going to speak to you today. God's going to speak to you today. Believe it, put it in the chat. God's going to speak to you today. Don't tell him, finally. It's about time. Don't tell him that that won't that won't go over good. Well, hey, we're going to be if you have your Bible with you, and you want to follow along, we're going to be in Acts chapter 20. Today Acts chapter 20. If not, don't worry. We'll have the words up here on the screen. I'm just going to give you a real quick background on the book of Acts. So the book of Acts is like the sequel to Jesus's life if there could be such a thing, right? So the first four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are immediately followed by the book of Acts, which is this historical record of what happened in the early church. Jesus died, he resurrected, He returned to heaven. And then Acts chapter one picks up on the story with Jesus's disciples furthering the kingdom of God in the area of Jerusalem and the surrounding cities and regions. And so whenever we look at the book of Acts, it's kind of like divided into two chapters, or two, two sections. Whenever we look at it, we can see that chapters one through 12 focus on the Christian church in Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was killed, where he came back to life where he ascended into heaven. It just focuses right there. But then a shift happens in chapter 13. And suddenly, we start following this man named Paul, this amazing man of God, and we start following him for the remainder of the book, chapters 13 through 28. And Paul is actually who we're going to kind of focus on today. We're going to look at the Apostle Paul a little bit. And with that in mind, I want to see Has anyone ever taken one of those, like 23andme? Tests? Anybody? When there's like DNA, see what your background is? Does anybody ever like to play around on ancestry.com, family tree, anything like that? It's kind of interesting. I've done it before because they have a free trial. And so I signed up real quick to try to get as much information as I could in seven days before I had to pay for anything, right. So I signed up for ancestry.com. And it was pretty interesting. Like it was, it was crazy. I went back to like, great, great, great grandfathers and grandmothers, and it was pretty crazy seeing where you come from. Something about that always interests me. And I've always kind of thought it would be so cool. If we somehow could know our spiritual family tree. If we could, wouldn't that be cool, like just the idea, the concept of, well, I have faith because my dad led me to faith and my dad's faith that can be traced back to a Billy Graham crusade. And Billy Graham's faith can be traced back to this theologian that he read, and that feels like keep falling back and see where your faith goes. Wouldn't it be interesting to see who's in your faith family tree, right? The different people, maybe celebrities, maybe famous people throughout history have impacted faith reaching you today? And whenever I think about that, the cool thing is that just about every single person in this room, if you profess faith in Jesus Christ, everybody watching online, if you're a follower of Jesus, if we do a DNA test on your spiritual DNA, and we follow it back, chances are it's going to end with Paul. Chances are the man we read about in the book of Acts, the man who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and through his letters to various churches, chances are, he's your spiritual Father, because of his impact, because of the impact he had because of the life he lived. He advanced the gospel in ways no one ever has, and no one ever will. Again, outside of Jesus Christ, Paul is the most influential figure in the history of the Christian faith. He had influence, and he used that influence to advance the gospel church. That's what we're trying to do. We believe God has given us supernatural influence, not just in Akron, not just in Northeast Ohio, we have people watching online from different states in different countries, God has given Cornerstone influence, and we want to use that influence and turn it into capitalizing on it to advance the Kingdom of God in new ways. We're following Paul's lead. Now in Acts chapter 20, the set of verses we're going to be looking at today it's pretty emotional because what we're going to be reading is Paul's goodbye letter, this account of his goodbye that he has to the church elders in the city of Ephesus Paul went to the city of Ephesus, he started a church there, the church thrived and grew, and became this mighty church that had completely changed the city of Ephesus. Back in those days, unless you're seeing somebody face to face, you're probably not going to hear from him again. Right? Can't exactly FaceTime anybody can't send anybody a tik-tok or Snapchat right can't tweet anybody that is just saying, it didn't happen it, you see him face to face. That's it. And Paul, he knows with his line of work, he's like, Man, I'm, I'm not going to live to the ripe old age of 80, or 85, or 90 or not. It's not in my cards, the line of work that I'm in advancing the kingdom of God under the oppression of the Roman Empire. I know my time is limited. And so Paul's seeing into the future, and he realizes I'm probably not going to see this, this church that I started these people that I love this, this congregation, I'm probably never going to see them again. So Paul asks the elders to come and gather together to have his final goodbye. And that's where we're going to be reading from today. Acts chapter 20. Starting in verse 16, Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible. By the day of Pentecost. Paul is on his way. He's traveling, But he knows he will be going by Ephesus. And he wants to say one last goodbye to the leaders at the Ephesian church. So from Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the church's elders, verse 18. When they arrived, he said to them. You know how I lived the whole time I was with you. From the first day I came to the province of Asia, I served the Lord with great humility. And with tears during severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents, you know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you. But if taught you publicly and from house to house, I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God and repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. And here are key verses. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships face me in every city. Verse 24, however, I consider my life worth nothing. To me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task. The Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace, a man an amen. Man, there's, there's a lot to digest there. We're going to come back to that. I'm going to come back to that scripture in a moment. Real quick, I want to give you my sermon title for the day. If you're a note-taker, any note-takers in the house, man, I'm a note-taker, there's something that happens whenever you're writing it down. You're typing it in. It just sinks in a little bit louder, a little bit better. But if you're taking notes, our title for today is no one else is coming. No one else is coming. I want to ask you a question real quick. And this isn't hypothetical. Like, I'm not just asking this, and I want a response. Like there's a call and response moment. I want to know, what's one of your biggest pet peeves? What's one of your biggest pet peeves? What just kind of like sets you off. Don't be shy unless it has a name. If your pet peeve has a name, keep it to yourself if it's like my husband. I'm not trying to have any drama today. But what's a pet peeve? Come on, fire them off, put them in the chat online, chewing with mouth open. Whew, we had one of those in the first service I can get on that one. That's true. Anybody else? Any other pet peeves?
interrupting people when they're talking? Yes, that's a good one. And one more. One more. Slow, Amen. Hallelujah. That's Yes. Yes. Can I tell you where I'm at? I can't tell you where I'm at. And this is your pastor. I'm going to be vulnerable for a moment. I can about lose my salvation whenever I step into a puddle with a sock on. Can I tell you I lose my mind it something. Something sets off my lizard brain kicks in. I'm like, What is going on? Like I just go bonkers. I hate it. I hate it. I hate when that happens. It just happened to me. A few days ago just happened to me. We've had all this snow, right, and it's easy to track it into the house. And evidently, that's what happened got tracked into the house because I took our dog out Teddy, let him use the bathroom, brought him back, took the shoes off, set stuff up, and turned on the TV. You're ready to go into the kitchen to make a little cup of coffee and take one step, and just right, you feel it and instantly just Are you kidding me? And so I'm my thought immediately. I'm not kidding. This is just vulnerability right here. My instant thought is really like no one else could get this. No one else is going to pick this up. Now, most of you, that seems like yeah. Why didn't anybody else get it? But you don't know I haven't told you yet is my wife and kids are gone. They're out of town for the week. I'm the only one home. I'm upset and yelling at no one. Teddy is looking at me like you've lost your mind. What is going on? You see, I had tracked the snow in; I had let the snowmelt. I didn't clean it up in here. My instant thought was, well, surely someone else was coming. Surely someone else has come in to clean this up, right? No one else is coming. No one else is coming. We do that, don't we? We assume someone else will get it. Someone else is coming in. We do it all the time. We do it with the empty toilet paper roll, right? Yeah. Someone else will get it. The gas tank, man, that's my wife that's my wife's go-to she's must be allergic to gasoline because she never fills the tank every time I get in that car. It's at a quarter tank or less, and that's if I'm lucky it's at a quarter tank, right? Someone else will get it. Someone else will do it. The microwave man, I don't think I know of anyone who has a clean microwave everyone's microwave looks nasty as all get out on the inside because someone else will get it. Of course, my super had a few splatters, but nothing crazy. There's already stuff in here before me. Someone else will eventually get around to it. If those don't hit you're at, maybe one of these will, you're a person who you're you're constantly late all over the place, and it doesn't matter. Other people will be there. Start the meeting without me. There are other people, and I don't need to be there on time. Maybe you're a person you're like, I don't need to give all our effort on my paper for school. Because I know that my professor grades on a curve. I don't have to do that great. I just got to do better than this guy. So you don't go all out because someone else is coming. Someone else will handle it. I don't need to make the party, and it doesn't matter if I RSVP. People will still be there. Someone else is coming. Someone else is coming. But what if they're not diverse enough to consider that? What if no one else is coming? What if the situation that you keep punting on this situation? Do you keep deferring on? It's like my wet socks. Do you think someone else is coming in? You're the only one home? What if no one else is coming. And it's just on you. You saw last week, last week was a call to action as a call, too, but this week is a wake-up call. It's a wake-up call for you as an individual. It's a wake-up call for us collectively as a church. It's a wake-up call for myself, and I'm included in this. The Wake-up call if we want to make a difference. If you want, let me put it this way you want your life to actually matter. Your life to matter. After the moment you take your last breath, you have got to start living like no one else is coming.
Start living like no one else is coming Cornerstone. I know as a church, we want to make that kind of difference. We want to have a difference as a ministry that outlives our lifetime. We want to have a difference of making heaven full of seeing people come to saving faith in Jesus, not just for eternal fire insurance, but for a better life right here. And right now. We want to make a difference. So we're running in the flow of favor. We're doing everything we can to advance our mission and to capitalize on the influence that God has given us. We're trying to get this new facility built. We're trying to get this new facility built. And I want to tell you, as we run towards that future, as we run towards that, we claim that we're going to see that happen in here. And now. I want to let you know when it comes to our facility. And whenever it comes to the issues in your life, our biggest obstacle to overcome it's not the enemy. We love to blame things on Satan, don't we? It's not the enemy. He's not our biggest obstacle. Our biggest obstacle to getting this building built isn't even finances. It's not even money. It's not even the pandemic. I know the pandemics kind of become a catch-all for everybody to that well, this pandemic, what can you do? What can you do? No, no. If we don't get this building built, we will, but hypothetically, let's say we don't get this thing built. It will be because of one obstacle and one alone. Us. Us. We are our biggest obstacle. I am our biggest obstacle. Tell the person who came with you today I knew it wasn't you. I knew you weren't the problem. I knew it. I knew it in the pastor just confirmed it. It was you knew it was you. It's our biggest obstacle. And if I can get real specific with that for a moment, I can pinpoint our obstacle, our biggest obstacle to seeing God move in our lives, both corporately as a church and independently as people. Our biggest obstacle is our tendency of dependency. We tend dependency, and we tend to depend on people and not in a healthy way. I'm not talking about the kind of dependency we have on God where you know, Acts 17:28 talks about hey, and God we live and move and have our being everything comes from him. I'm not talking about that kind of dependency. I'm not talking about dependency on other people from Galatians six, which says carry each other's burdens. And by doing so, you fulfill a law of Christ. I'm not talking about that kind of dependency. I'm talking about the bad kind of dependency. I'm talking about a passivity that says I don't need someone else will. I don't need to because someone else is coming. No, it's good. We're good. I'm fine. Someone else will handle it. the tendency of dependency, and I want to tell you something. It's so ingrained in us. It's almost subconscious. You know, that's why I was about to flip out whenever I stepped in a puddle, even though I was home alone. Because at a subconscious level, it is so easy for me to just defer to someone else. It's so easy for no one else to pick this up away. It's just me. No one else is here. It's the reason you can get mad at a dirty microwave that you dirtied up. It's the reason you can be upset about an empty gas tank that you let go unfilled. It can be the reason you sit down to do business, and you're upset, there's no toilet paper, and you were the last one to use it. Because at a subconscious level, we tend to depend on someone else will do it. Someone else will come. Someone else will fix it. I don't need to; I tend to depend. I tend to depend, even if it's subconscious. We act, think, or act like someone else is coming. And if it just stopped its dirty microwaves, that'd be one thing. be annoying. Sure. If it just stopped at empty gas tanks, then yeah, maybe you run out of gas a few times here and there. But I mean, it's nothing too big. The problem is that it carries over into significant important, vital areas of life. This tendency to dependency carries over into crucial areas of life. And so you know what ends up happening? Whenever it comes to sharing faith with your family, you start to have family members who don't know Jesus. They're far from God. And your mindset is someone else to talk to him. I don't need to. It wouldn't be good if I did. It wouldn't be good. If I didn't know. I know. But you don't know my uncle. Look, someone else will come. Someone else will come someone else will talk. Someone else will handle it. Someone else must be coming.
Someone else, I don't need to be the one to go sit with the new kid. That's you know, I don't want to do that. I got my friend group. We're cool. Like we're good here. Someone else? Someone else. I feel like I always have to do it. Someone else can step up, and someone else can be the one to go do it. Someone else can be the one to break that generational sin in my family. I know my great grandfather's struggle with this and those habits he passed down to my grandfather and those habits he passed on to my dad, and I know now I see him rising in me. But man, you know how hard it would be for me to complete just adjust my life to completely adjust things to sacrifice and put in the working man, someone else will do it. Someone else will do it. I am getting this new facility bill, getting this new facility. But I want to tell you, I promise you, I promise you. It won't be the devil if we don't get it built. It won't be financed. It won't be COVID-19 It will be a tendency of dependency of us.
People who call this church their home say someone else will build it. Oh, that's so nice what cornerstones doing. That's so nice, but Cornerstone doing, someone else will give someone else can pray. Someone else can sacrifice. Someone else can worry about it. I mean, you don't know what my schedule is like, you don't know what my finances are like, pastor, you don't know what I'm going through someone else. Someone more capable, someone more equipped, someone more resource, let them handle it, not me someone else must become. We tend dependent. As I said, today is a wake-up call. Do we tend to depend on where does it come from? Where does it come from? Why do we do this? Why did we do this? There's a whole abundance of potential reasons for it. There's a whole bunch of different reasons. Maybe it's experiences in your past. I know I've been there where, you know, I haven't done what I'm supposed to do. I've passed off, I've deferred, and other people picked up the slack for me. And so it's easy to think that will always happen, that I can always just push things off, and someone else will come. So maybe it's past experiences. But I think the main reason we have this tendency towards dependency is this especially. I'm going to get real like on point whenever we talk about our own individual lives and us trying to build this new facility as a church. I think the main reason we tend to depend is that we overestimate other people's resources and underestimate our obedience. I'm going to say that again because you need to hear it again. We overestimate other people's help, and we underestimate our obedience. We love to depend on other people. We love to depend on other people. Man, let them handle it. He didn't want me talking to my uncle about Jesus. No, no, no.
Let me get someone who's more capable. Let me get someone who knows spirituality better to talk to him. Let me get someone else to someone else. Not me. Somebody anyone else will do it. Now I know the church needs help. I know people in my life I get it but someone else, someone more resource someone with a better intellect with better finances with better capability, leave it to them. They're more resource, not me. But the truth is the moves of God. When you look throughout history, when you look throughout scripture, moves of God have very little to do with resources and a whole lot to do with obedience.
They have very little to do with resources. I want you to do me a favor when you go home today, rifle through scripts. You try to find how many times God is searching the earth, looking for the most resource person to use. You won't find it. You won't find it. God could care less about the resources you have. He wants your obedience. When have resources ever mattered to God? Did resources matter when he called Moses, who had a stutter who had a speech impediment, to be his lead vocalist? Before Pharaoh, did the resources matter? He could have cared less. Did the size of Gideons' army matter to God? No, he whittled it down from a 10,000 man force to 300 because resources don't matter, but obedience does. Did David's stature matter? When God selected him to be king, he was the smallest of his brothers. Resources don't matter to God, but no obedient, faithful heart does the two loaves and five fish? Was God looking for the most resource person in the crowd? Or was he just looking for someone who said this is what I have? I'm just giving it to you. When have resources ever mattered to God? When he talks about the mustard seed faith that can move a mountain, he talks about the widow's mite making more difference in someone giving ten times the amount she gave. When have resources ever mattered to God? They don't. Your obedience does stop overestimating other people's resources and underestimating your obedience. Stop doing it, stop downplaying it. We are so concerned, especially whenever we get to this building project with well, how much? How much we focus on how much well how much can I give will even matter how much we are so focused on how much and God is saying I don't care how much I care how willing are you? How willing are you to stop talking about your resources? I don't want to hear it anymore. When have I ever cared about your resources? I care about your heart, and I care about your obedience. Are you willing? Like I've been saying, this series, man, has two tracks. We're talking about it, and what God can do through us in the here and now in a personal standpoint, and also corporately, collectively, as a church and man, I just want you to understand this so bad in your own personal life, not just with this building campaign. It's your obedience that matters. I just, man, I want you to get that. I just want you to realize that and embody that and hold the truth that God does not care about your resources. He wants your faithfulness. He wants your obedience. Don't downplay it anymore. Look at what we just read in Acts chapter 20. The Apostle Paul was not a resource man. He was not a resource man. He did not have tons of funds, right? Didn't have bags of cash or anything like that. He wasn't an official high up in the Roman government. He's not a resource, but he was obedient. He was obedient. Listen again to what Paul says. This is him describing his ministry in verse 19. He says I serve the Lord with great humility with tears in the midst of severe testing. You know, I haven't hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you. I've taught publicly and from house to house. Paul was a resource, but man, was he obedient? Paul was a resource, but man was he faithful. He just listened to God. Whenever God called him to do something, he did it. He did it. Paul could have very easily Paul knew some people. As I said, he was a Roman citizen. He was a Pharisee. He knew some people, and he could have just left this to someone else. Oh, God, I don't need to do this. There are other more resource people out here, but he didn't do it. Paul obeyed. And Paul followed. And Paul worked. And because he did, because he did those things. His choices set into effect, a domino, a chain of events that led to your faith. He's your spiritual Father. And unresearched but obedient man. That is the reason you're here today. This is the reason Cornerstone Church exists. It's the reason you're watching at home today is because an unreinforced man named Paul, who was obedient to the point of death, followed God and trusted him. And because of that, he chose to change the world.
Do you think you're under-resourced? No, you're underestimating. You're not under-resourced. You are underestimating what God can do with your simple obedience. Don't do it anymore; stop downplaying it. Stop downplaying it, stop looking to other people go Well, man, they're, they can write the check. They can give. They can pray. I'm not a prayer warrior. They are man. I don't have funds; they do. Stop downplaying your obedience. Don't do it. God does not care how much God cares how willing he wants to move through your obedience. My grandpa James Mason, another not-resourced man who did not have tons of money, didn't come from a prominent family. He was a pastor. He pastored multiple churches never had a church over 200 people. Yet when he passed away, his funeral was held in a room that could accommodate 2000 people because so many people wanted to come and remember him and honor him. This small man from Pennsylvania under-resourced his death was mourned in person by 2000 people on different continents because of the impact he made. Under-resourced but obedient, do not downplay what God can do with your obedience. Don't do it. God does not care how much he cares about how willing you are in your obedience, not your resources, if what can change the world? It can change the world, and I mean that literally, it can change the world your obedience. Because whenever you couple it, take your obedience and start following God, let me put it this way. When you live like no one else is coming. You can make a difference no one else can. When you live like it's on you, there's no one else coming when you start living like Man. There is this on me. There is no one else coming. When you live like no one else is coming, you will make a difference no one else can make because you are unique. You're one of a kind, man, you're special. The stuff that God has given you, the experiences you've been through, the skills you have, and your personality. It is unique. And it's one of a kind, and it's special, and your family, friends, and community cannot afford you differing anymore. They can't. Your family needs you. Your family needs you to step up and not say, Well, someone else is coming. Someone else will be the kind one. Someone else will be the patient, someone else will be the one who you know, doing all these things. No, no, stop deferring. No one else is coming. They need you. Your church needs you. We need you here. Cornerstone is not the church that we should be without you. I'll be honest, it we're just not. We need you. We need your obedience, not your resource, your obedience. That's what we need. We miss out on you. When you defer when you give in to that tendency of dependency, we miss out on you.
You see, Paul was unique. Man, Paul was unique. Paul was one of a kind. Paul was a Roman citizen. So that gave him certain privileges. He was able to get meetings, and he was able to be seen before people that he wouldn't have if he didn't have that unique quality about him, him being a Roman citizen. Paul was a Pharisee. This man knew the law inside and out, which gave him the ability and the authority to speak on things and allowed people to hear him who wouldn't have heard him before because he had that knowledge that hey, I've been there. Paul was unique. He was unique in his calling and unique in His skill set. He was unique in His influence. And whenever you take that uniqueness, and you couple it with the fact that Paul lived like no one else was coming, and he ministered like no one else was coming, and he loved like no one else was coming. When you couple those things together. Monumental impact, monumental impact. You want to know how the Ephesian church responded to Paul whenever he announced this, and he says, Hey, I'm leaving. I may not see you again. He had made such an impact on their life.
Listen to this. I didn't give them the verses to put up on the screen. I just want to read this to you. This is the response of the elders. When Paul had finished speaking at Ephesus, he knelt with them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him, but grieved them the most was this statement they would never see his face again. Then they walked with him to the ship. They were heartbroken. They were heartbroken. TheThe scripture says wept, and they held him, and they threw their selves on them and kissed him and just this man who had given them everything. He had made a monumental impact on them. And he was under-resourced but obedient.
He made an impact not because he came in and bought them all this stuff and was just, you know, lavishing them with gifts. He was just obedient. And because of that, he made a gigantic impact. The same is true for you. You, like Paul, have a unique calling, a unique skill set, a unique purpose, and a unique influence that no one else has. You have people watching you that aren't watching anyone else in this room, and you have those things. And suppose you couple all of that your skillset, you're calling your influence, you couple that with the fact that you start living like no one else is coming, I want to tell you, you are going to make a change. In that case, you're going to make a change in the people around you; you're going to make a change in the world. You're going to make a change in the church. We need you. Cornerstone needs you without you see kids is not what it could be. Without you, our greeter team is not what it could be without you. Our worship team is not what it could be. Without you, our tech team is not what it could be without you, and we need you because you're unique. And you're one of a kind, and you have a special influence, calling, and skill set that no one else has. We need you not your resources, your obedience, your obedience of your time, your talent, your treasure. We need that as a church. I don't want you to miss out on this. I don't want you to miss out on this. Because we would miss out, we would miss out as a church. You would miss out to let's not confuse things here. You would miss out too. And I don't want that for you. Because God's doing something special in our church, I mean, you can feel it right. But you can feel God is at work in our church. And I want to tell you something, and I don't mean this to be like a this isn't a threat. It's a prediction. You either start living like no one else is coming, or God will find someone else who will. You can, you can either join up, you can either get on board, you can either start moving in the direction that God is moving, or he'll find someone else who will just absolutely just do it. Just do it. Start getting into the flow of what God is doing. Be a part of this move live like no one else is coming and make a difference. And no one else can you can do it. And I promise you the video testimonies we've seen, and you'll be able to be a part of that. You'll be a part of that, rather than sitting there going man in that nice. I don't know who these people are. Who's Alex who's hating, who's Dean and Bernice, who's West? I don't know who these people are, and you will be a part of it. You will be a part of helping people find the Father, a family fulfilling future rather than just sitting by and going, oh, and that nice. I don't want you to miss out on that. I do not want you to miss out on that start living like no one else is coming. I want us to real quick, and closing just looks at those last three verses that we've been focusing on today from Acts chapter 20. These are just men. They're so strong. The Apostle Paul says And now compelled by the Spirit, and I'm going to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen there. I only know that the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me in every city. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim Say it with me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task. The Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace, and I got to tell you what, if those verses don't make you want to run straight through a brick wall, check your pulse. I don't know what will then I don't know what Paul's essentially say? Look? I have no clue what's coming. None. I have no idea. The only thing that the only thing I'm assured of is prison and hardships in testing and possibly death. It's the only thing I have any certainty in. However, this is Paul's way of saying I don't care. I don't care. I don't know what's coming. But I don't care because my only aim is Jesus. If you want to sum up the Apostle Paul's ministry in one phrase, His entire ministry in one phrase, no one else is coming.
No one else is coming. You read the life of the Apostle Paul, and you will see it time and time again. He is making steps. He is making choices. He is making decisions. And it's very clear he is living his life with the phrase. It's on me. It's on me to do this. The gospel hasn't been preached there. Send me. It hasn't been preached here. Send me because it's on me. No one else is coming. No one else is coming in is on me. That is how he lived his life. He could care less about his resources. It was all about obedience. He realized it's on me in church, and I want to let you know. It's on you. It's on you. And I know we're real big on like, groups and collective. And that's great because we collectively are a church. But I want to let you know this is a very individual sermon today. I am talking to every single person in here today. I'm talking to every set of eyeballs when I say it's on you. I don't mean Cornerstone collectively. I mean, you. I mean, you it is on you that thing that you've been wondering like, man, Should I do it now? Someone else is probably coming. I'm here to tell you today. No one else is coming. It's on you. That person in your family here like, yes, some I wish someone would talk to them about Jesus, I want to let you know, you're that someone? It's on you. There is no one else coming. That new kid who's every single time you see them is by themselves. That's because no one else is coming. It's on you. That generational sin that you see just habitually go through one cycle after another after another. It's not going to stop until you say it's going to stop because it's on you. There is no, and I cannot say it enough. There's no one else coming. There is no one else coming. The phrase we've been focusing on today comes from I don't know if anyone's seen that movie zero, dark 30. It's a movie about the CIA and FBI trying to find Osama bin Laden after the 911 terror attacks. And as you know, from history, it took about ten years to find him eventually and for them to hunt him down. And there's a scene in the movie that is so powerful. When one of the directors comes into a room. This is about five years into the manhunt. And they're no closer to finding him than they were on day one. They're no closer. He comes in, slams the door, throws stuff down. He says, Look, I don't know what you think. But let me make something very clear to you today. If you think some secret group is working on this on another floor. If you think there's another Building in Washington, where they have Intel that we don't have, where they've got resources that we don't have, they know what's going on, and they're this close to a breakthrough, I want to let you know you are wrong. There is no one else. It is just on us. And we are failing right now. There's no one else coming. That resonated with me so much. I still think about that scene from time to time. And I think about the truth of that. In many areas of life, there is no one else coming. You are there for a reason. God has given you a calling, he has given you a skill set, and he has given you influence for such a time as this. Do not squander it. Come out with this tendency of dependency that someone else will come. There's no one else coming. There is no one else coming. It is on you. When it comes to this building project. I want to let you know something and make something abundantly clear. If you think a millionaire is waiting out there just waiting to sign a check for $2 million to build this building. I want to let you know you are wrong. If you think that we just have MPs out the wazoo, and when someone calls off. We've got five more people clamoring to take their spot. And we have way more than enough people and see kids and our worship team. We never, if you think that I'm here to let you know that you are wrong. There is no one else. It's on us getting this building built. No one else is coming. No one else is coming. It's On Us. It's just God and us. And I'm here to let you know that is more than enough. It's more than enough. And it has zero to do with the resources in this room. And it has everything to do with the obedience in this room. Are we going to approach God saying how much are we going to say? How willing, how willing Am I to take that way? And I hope you feel the weight of this today. I hope if you're thinking, Well, is he talking to me? Yep.
Absolutely. I was talking directly to you. They expect me to give absolutely I do. I do. I am my wife and me, and we're given to it to the point that it hurts to the point that we're going okay. All right. We're going to have to really move some things around. So yeah, I expect it. I expect it. Not a certain resource. I expect obedience. Because that's what God is after. That's what he is looking for. And that's what we, if we have any right to call ourselves, his church. That's what we should be doing, obeying Him? Are you with me? Are you with me? Are you ready to take those steps of obedience? If you are, I want you to raise your hand. I want you to raise your hand as an affirmation. Even if you're watching online, I don't care if you look weird. If you're at a Starbucks watching right now, they'll just think you want more cream or something like that. I want you to raise your hand what we are doing at this moment; we are declaring no one else is coming. It's on me. It's on me, Father God, today we declare that truth. No one else is coming. It is just us in you. But that is more than enough. That's more than enough. That is all that we need. All you have ever asked for is our obedience. We see it time and time and time and time and time again in scripture. That's all you ever ask. That's why you pick the lowest and the least. And you make them great. Not because they're such a resource but because they're obedient and faithful. And they say yes, God send me they say yes, God Your servant is listening. They say yes, I am the LORD servant, Do with me what you will. Now that's the cry of our heart today as a church and not just as a church. That is the cry of our hearts, individually today. That is not just in the building. But as we leave this place, we look at our relationships and realize no one else is coming. It's on me to be the difference. No one else is coming. I hate my work. No one else is coming. It's on me to be the change first. My marriage is hard, man. No one else is coming. It's on me to make the difference first. Help us internalize that help us realize that because we know when we do when we realize no one else is coming and we live like no one else is coming. We will make a monumental change in our life. Help us to do that, God, and we will give you all the honor, all the glory, and all the praise, and it's in your name that we pray. And everybody said in agreement. Amen. Amen.