Cornerstone West Los Angeles » Sermons

Typically in the midst of suffering, we can't stop thinking about what has been taken from us. But God shows us in James 1 what He can produce in us in the midst of trials. Application Questions:  1. How are trials in your life always a "loss"? 2. What is counterintuitive about God producing something in us in the midst of trials? 3. How does wisdom guide you in the midst of suffering? 4. How does...

How do we make sense of our suffering? Pain and difficulty can be completely disorienting and seemingly pointless. But God pulls back the curtain just enough to give us a glimpse of the glorious work he is doing through our suffering. And when we catch that glimpse, it changes everything. Application Questions:  1. In what ways do you try to make sense of your suffering with observational truth in...

Having established the theological pillars we need to understand suffering in our world, we now turn to explore what it looks like to walk through suffering on the ground. Scripture gives us a vocabulary for our suffering we can't find anywhere else in the world. And that vocabulary begins with understanding the sweet gift of lament. Application Questions:  1. What is the difference between compla...

How do we make sense of a God who allows suffering despite being good and in control of all things? Far from being a problem, God’s sovereignty gives us deep resources to face suffering. Only a sovereign God can take all things and work them for good, even when we don’t yet see how. What’s more, God uses his sovereignty to take on more suffering than we will ever experience in Christ. This shows u...

The Bible gives us more than pat answers when it comes to suffering in our lives. According to Scripture, suffering comes in different shapes and sizes, and comes into our lives as a result of many different factors. Often, suffering is a mystery without a full explanation. It’s into this complicated middle that Jesus was born, suffered, and died for our sins to show us God’s own love for us in th...

Every culture has a story of suffering that people use to make sense of the suffering they experience. Christianity provides a story of suffering that allows Christians to experience incredible hardship with endurance and even joy. It starts in the beginning with a good God creating a good world, which has been ruined by sin. This allows Christians to be honest about the struggle of suffering with...

The Psalms are incredibly honest about the reality and pervasiveness of suffering. In fact, they're often far more honest than we're willing to be. But it's only in being honest about the pervasiveness of suffering that we can experience the pervasiveness of hope. Application Questions:  1. In what ways are you currently suffering? 2. What types of suffering do you tend to overlook or not consider...

Jesus tells his followers that they are salt and light in the world. Salt is a preservative put into things that otherwise would fall apart. This teaches us that Christians are in the city to help it hold together. Light is what allows us to see the reality around us. This teaches us that Christians are in the city to show God’s truth and love to those who wouldn’t see it otherwise. Being salt and...

As we navigate life in a city filled with both unique blessings and unique challenges we need a supernatural endurance. Endurance is the strength to fulfill our God-given purpose even when things get hard. And, in Christ, we have all the strength we need. Application Questions:  1. What do you look to in order to escape the difficulties of the city when you are tempted to not endure? 2. What stori...

God gives His people instructions for how to live as they are taken into exile in Babylon, thousands of years ago. The principles that God gives His people still apply for us today. We too are in a land that is not our own. We too are called to seek the welfare of the city to which we are sent. Application Questions:  1. What are ways that you feel the temptation to assimilate to the city? 2. What...

Peter writes to Christians in a difficult place and reminds them of their identity: they are God’s own people. This identity isn’t achieved but received by grace. As citizens of God’s kingdom, Christians are sojourners in the city, living out the culture of God’s kingdom in loving interaction with our neighbors.  Application Questions:  1. How does Peter’s description of the Christian identity com...

In a city as large and varied as LA, it can be easy to lose yourself in it, life within it becoming something to merely tolerate or endure. But God has a plan and a purpose for the city, and invites you into it. Because of that, our lives in the city become wrapped up in the glorious purpose of a loving God.  Application Questions:  1. In what ways do you see life in the city as a struggle?  2. Ho...

Los Angeles is a hard place to live for many, and Christians easily lose sight of the larger purpose for their lives here. The story of Jonah shows us that Christians are called into God’s own love for the city. This calling gives us a different view of Los Angeles and our role in it, leading us to share God’s love and experience it more ourselves.  Application Questions:  1. What is the main reas...

Many thought that as religion declined, humans would experience less guilt in their lives. Instead, guilt has increased in surprising ways. We all want to experience the freedom of forgiveness, but the options to deal with guilt in our culture don’t satisfy. Christianity, by exposing the reality of our guilt and showing us the reality of God’s grace, provides genuine freedom from guilt not just fo...

Despite what many think, Los Angeles is a very spiritual city. While many do not consider themselves religious, most pursue spirituality in various ways. In Acts 17, Paul explores Athens, another very spiritual city. Instead of presenting Christianity as one spiritual option among many, he shows that their approach to spirituality cannot satisfy them. Only an unadjustable God who saves us by grace...

How do we know what is right or wrong, good or evil? Who has the right to say? God in His perfect goodness and authority speaks to a world so often confused about good and evil. Application Questions:  1. How does authority relate to morality? 2. How does truth relate to morality? 3. Why is the "I choose" approach to morality empty? 4. How does the "we choose" approach to morality fall short? 5. W...

Los Angeles is a city filled with people striving to find their own meaning in life. The options seem endless, and the idea of discovering our own purpose seems exciting. But can we really have the deep purpose we crave if we are making it up ourselves? Only Jesus can give us a stable purpose that we don't have to earn. Application Questions:  1. In what ways do you see those around you in our cit...

Easter is a time of generic hope ("after winter comes spring"), but Jesus says he brings hope into our lives now. We tend to downplay Easter so we can fit it into the ways we already understand the world, but Jesus bursts our categories. Dying for our sins and rising from the grave, Jesus opens the door to a new kind of life here and now, and ushers us into eternal life with him forever. Applicati...

Jesus famously calls us to "abide" with him as a branch abides in a vine. But what does that mean? What does it practically look like to live a life of abiding? And how do we know if we're abiding or not?  Application Questions:  1. How has the gospel already given you a vital connection with Christ? 2. How does your relationship with your phone (or the internet) inform what it might mean to live...

Everyone is searching for meaning, and purpose, and abundant life. Jesus makes it clear that the only way to the life we were created for is through Him. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. Application Questions:  1. What answers are you looking for from God that He doesn't promise to give you? 2. What promises can you cling to instead? 3. How does Christ being the "way" speak into you...

People in Los Angeles aren’t very familiar with sheep, but Jesus compares himself to a shepherd to help us understand who he wants to be in our lives. Shepherds know their sheep, love their sheep, and lead their sheep. When Jesus is your good shepherd you will follow him more closely than anything else.  Application Questions:  1. Jesus knows you even better than a shepherd knows his sheep. How mi...

In a passage where people are arguing with Jesus about his identity, we find his strongest claim to be God in the flesh. It leaves us with a radical choice: we must either follow Jesus as God in every area of our lives, or reject him entirely. Only when we understand these high stakes will we see the deep love Jesus shows for us by going to the cross in our place. Application Questions:  1. What a...

At the beginning of John 6, Jesus feeds almost 20,000 people miraculously. By the end of John 6, the only followers He has left are His disciples. Challenging His disciples, Jesus asks them if they will leave Him as well? Peter responds with a declaration of faith and desperation that is true for all Christians everywhere. Application Questions:  1. What does spiritual desperation look like in you...

Jesus is the light. He is the singular means by which we can truly comprehend and understand everything in the world. He allows us to understand ourselves, our lives, and the world around us as they truly are. And as his followers we have been given his light to illuminate the world around us. Application Questions: 1. In what ways does the gospel of Jesus help you understand the world (or yoursel...

A crowd that wants physical bread are met with Jesus, who tells them he is the true bread of life. When we understand what Jesus is saying, we find our deepest hungers exposed, the place those hungers are finally satisfied, and the way we savor Christ in our daily lives.  Application Questions:  1. What are the daily desires that occupy your mind the most? 2. How are those desires related to a dee...