Cornerstone West Los Angeles » Sermons

We know that Jesus died for us to be a family and we also know that unity is the glue that keeps us together as one family. God has made our family at Cornerstone so diverse that we represent and reflect our surrounding community. I believe that as we continue to grow in our diversity, God wants us to be a more unified family. We will learn this morning from the apostle Paul that there are lies th...

God has made us a family from among all sorts of different ethnicities, cultures, and even languages. In a linguistically diverse place like Los Angeles, we have the opportunity and blessing to live life cross-lingually with our brothers and sisters in Christ as a part of one local church. But, how do we do that? What does that practically look like? How do you build a relationship with someone wh...

Cornerstone is committed to being a multi-ethnic and multilingual local church. But why? Being a multilingual church is incredibly difficult, and there are always going to be divisions in this world, so why bother? But Christ calls us to do hard things for the sake of the gospel, and the local church is meant to be the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God on earth, a multilingual community declaring...

As we conclude our series through the book of Isaiah, we consider again how different life is when we remember that the LORD is the central reality of all of life. As the book concludes, its perspective shifts to remind us that the LORD is not only the central reality of this life, but also of the life to come. The eternal promises of God remind us that we have an eternal hope that is guaranteed a...

As a church our deepest need is for redemption and renewal, and forgetting who we are and what God has done for us is dangerous, sending us off into practicing false religion. Isaiah 58 unmasks our false religion and shows us true religion that pleases the LORD, not to make religious people into better religious people, but totransform us from self-serving people to God-glorifying people. It's abo...

In light of the Servant, what happens to people who build their security on other things? The LORD tells his people that all their attempts to find satisfaction outside of him leave them empty...yet they return to them over and over again. And yet God invites them to take refuge in him, and demonstrates that even though the problem is deeper than they realize, his love runs deeper still through th...

Like the leaders of Israel in Isaiah's time, we often are short-sighted, seeing this world and only this world. But when God breaks into our world we see with new eyes; we see a God who turns the world upside down, giving hope and everlasting joy to those who have none in this world. Application Questions 1. What are the ways that you see short-sightedness in your life? 2. How can you fight the te...

As we meditate on the reality of the physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering that Jesus endured at the crucifixion, we begin to understand the immense power of God's grace and love demonstrated at the cross. The horror of the cross is meant to show us the devastating nature of our sin, and the unfathomable lengths that God would go to in order to bring us back to himself.

In the midst of the Servant Songs, we pause to look at Israel's ideas about God. Encouraged by his promises of redemption, they tell the Lord to“awake, awake” and come to rescue them. But this betrays their way of thinking: that thus far, God has been asleep to them. The Lord's response is to tell them and show them that He has been awake to them, but they have fallen asleep on him. The same can b...

Isaiah 50 is telling us an incredible story. You and I have dishonored the Lord, and He is right to reject us in everlasting disgrace. But, instead, He gives us His Servant as His instrument of redemption. The Servant accomplishes our redemption by leveraging the honor befitting His obedience and intimacy with The LORD for our sake. To rid us of disgrace, He embraced disgrace, to bring us a transf...

The center of Isaiah focuses on the Servant, whom the New Testament authors identify as Jesus Christ. This is the second of four“servant songs” that detail why Jesus comes into the world and what he comes to accomplish. Here we see the breadth and the depth of Jesus'mission, and also something more: we get a lesson in how to experience his love when we feel numb to it. Application Questions 1. Wha...

All of human history points to and culminates in the person of the Servant. The entirety of the Bible up to the point of Isaiah asks the question,“Who is the Messiah? Who will save us?” , and the book of Isaiah itself leads up to this point where the LORD introduces His Servant to His People. This Servant is in the exact nature of the LORD Himself: gracious, just, merciful, powerful, and accomplis...

As the book of Isaiah transitions to the message God gave the exiles for the time when they would inevitably be taken into exile, we find a powerful message of comfort. In the depths of sorrow, when dreams have been destroyed and lives have been turned upside down, God reminds us that he is near, he is holding us close, and he has the power to bring about his promised redemption. Application Quest...

We are an increasingly restless people, constantly busy and always working on various parts of our lives. Humans have always naturally tried to work our way to strength, stability and security. In Isaiah, we've seen the the LORD is the only rational place to put our trust and hope for the future. But the people of Israel—and us today—turn instead to other ways of managing our fears and desires. Ne...

The LORD reveals Himself through the prophet Isaiah as the God who is victorious. No other god, no other person, no other thing will ultimately have HIs plan or purpose accomplished in the world, except for God. His victory now in our lives is not exactly the same as His ultimate victory when He will create a new heavens and a new earth, but His victory is real now, and will be secured and assured...

Judgment is an uncomfortable idea. Why would you ever want to listen to a sermon on judgment? In this sermon, we explore why we, in fact, ought to be deeply comforted and assured by God's judgment. God's perfect judgment brings about the justice that our souls crave in a rampantly unjust and unfair world. More than this, the more we come to understand God's perfect judgment, the more we come to co...

Isaiah's call to ministry teaches us the pattern of true spirituality. Isaiah is overwhelmed by God's holiness and then met with undeniable grace. After that, he commits his entire life to God's service. This same process happens not once but regularly for anyone who relates to God. Today we face the same question the nation of Israel faced in the times of Isaiah: will we distance ourselves from t...

Isaiah lived in a time of major social upheaval and personal struggle. In the midst of it all, he receives a vision of the LORD, and begins a ministry of telling everyone that the LORD is the central factor to everything in life. In the first chapter of the book, Isaiah teaches us about the LORD, his wayward people, and his plan to save them. At the center is the LORD's character, goodness, and lo...

Should I stay or should I go? When talking about living out the Great Commission, that seems to be the choice that is put before us. But what if “staying” is more about remaining faithful to the person and purpose of Jesus than it is about a location? What if the choice we think of between staying and going isn't a choice at all? Staying is what we do when we go, whether we go out into West LA or...

The great commission doesn't just require some of us to go to spread the gospel in new places. It also requires the rest of us to send those who go in a manner worthy of God and his gospel. Instead of seeing missionaries as“having missions covered” , we are to understand ourselves as fellow workers with them by the way we support them before they go, while they are gone, and when they return. Appl...

Before Jesus departed this earth, he gave His church her marching orders: to go and make disciples of all nations. But if the Bible calls us as Christ followers to be his witnesses in all the world - to be part of the Great Commission that one day will result in people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation worshiping Christ before his throne - we have to acknowledge that some will need to g...

God's heart for humanity extends to every single corner of the globe. He longs to see his glory spread and his salvation extended to every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. As his children, we get the privilege of participating with him in the spreading of his glory and the inviting into his salvation. The announcement of his hope is the greatest movement taking place on the face of the planet, a...

Christmas isn't just about God coming to earth, it's about the eternal Son of God becoming fully human. As fully human, Jesus experienced life on the earth in a way that means he can sympathize with us, be our example, and suffer for us so we might be forgiven. Understanding the doctrine of the incarnation brings real hope and joy to the Christmas season. Application Questions 1. Do you struggle m...

Celebrating Christmas is about more than thinking about Jesus towards the end of December. Christmas is about the doctrine of the incarnation: Jesus is fully God and fully man. It's this doctrine that inspires the greatest Christmas songs of hope and joy, because caught up in the incarnation is the great truth of the Christian faith that sustains us in our lives. Application Questions 1. Is the id...

The last section of Ecclesiastes summarizes the book as a whole and leaves us with parting words to reflect on. In the midst of a life that we can't control, the Preacher tells us to remember our Creator, the giver of all good gifts, and rejoice in what he gives us daily. When we put the book together, we find that this lifestyle is what it means to fear God: knowing his power, knowing his goodnes...