Happy Sunday and welcome to our service this morning. If this is your first time, we’d love to connect with you personally. So find that phone and text “SayHi” to 97000. Someone from our team will reach out and connect with you soon. We can’t wait to meet you for those of you that have been with us for a while.

Welcome back! Consider hitting that share button and inviting a friend or family member to join you in hearing the message today. I’d like to share a brief reminder. This time has been a unique season that is prone to challenge us, change us, and grow us. Let’s take this opportunity to mark our moments of breakthrough and celebrate together.

One way to do that is through social media. Just tag us @cornerstonesf and use the hashtag #yearofbreakthroughsf to appear on our Virtual Breakthrough Wall. Let us know what Jesus is doing in your life throughout this year. Now it’s that time to worship together. May the Lord continue to bless you

and may you be inspired by the current message series. Now here’s the worship team to get us started.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Welcome to our online service. Uh, join me and the rest of us to worship the Lord this morning now and welcome it to both our homes and our hearts.

Yes God, there’s nothing that’s better than You. We love You. We praise You in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let’s continue with our online service. Today’s a special day it’s Pastor Terry’s birthday. Let’s wish him a happy birthday to

Okay. Wow. Yes. Thank you. Uh, the Cornerstone Happy Birthday Song. I receive it. Um, thank you. Thank you for your love. What a blessing to be alive. What a blessing to be able to have another year to celebrate and I’m looking forward to the journey that is ahead for all of us. You know, if you’re new here, you’re saying, well, let’s, you know who I’m pastor Terry, I’m the Lead Pastor here at Cornerstone Church in San Francisco.

And in fact, if you are new here, we’ve got a spot for you on our website that we’d love for you to check out. The New Here page has got a lot of things to support your experience and help you explore what it would mean to be a part of Cornerstone. And again, just something we’ve created just for you. In fact, I know that, uh, some of you are, you know, walking through a lot of challenging things right now, uh, the Surrender series that we’re going to be, you know, exploring together in these coming weeks.

And next few months has a lot to do with trusting God. It has a lot to do with letting go, and we’re going to be hearing actually from Pastor Sam, as he talks about what it means, it means to surrender our dreams. And especially when those, those dreams, um, don’t turn out the way we were hoping. Or when God has a different assignment for us than what we were wanting for ourselves.

So what do you do with that? And we’re going to sit with that and be blessed with it. But even now, I just want to pray. I want to pray the Lord’s blessing over all of us as we prepare to share this message. And so Lord Jesus just welcome You in right now that You would open up this word for us in these very unusual times of ours.

When many of us are exploring what it is to move forward without fear. And to trust You with our tomorrows, we welcome You into our today and into this moment in Jesus name. Amen.

Hi and welcome to our weekend service. I’m Sam Marcum. I’m one of the pastors here at CornerstoneSF. Today, we’re going to talk about our dreams. I’d like to start out by sharing a passage from third Samuel 10:20 SMV. For, I know the dreams that I have for me says the person plans to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me comfort and some fun.

Yes, that’s the SMV. The Sam’s Made Up Version. Okay. So in the real passage written by Jeremiah, the prophet who was tasked with, uh, speaking on behalf of God, to the nation of Israel who had been in exile, he said in Jeremiah 29:11, for, I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.

I mean, that’s good, but sometimes I like my version better. You know, the part about the comfort and the fun. Sometimes I think God just doesn’t get me. If He would just consult me a little more, we could get accomplished some big things and I’d be a lot happier, but that’s not really how it works is that as we seek to grow in our faith, we are responsible for discovering who God is realizing how good He is, and then adjusting our lives to the truth that we discover.

Thankfully, He helps a little along the way. And if we dig into His words, the Bible, we will discover that He has good plans that are for our welfare and not to harm us, that give us the promise of an amazing future and an unrivaled hope. At some point in our lives, we were introduced to the teachings of Jesus as we wrestled with His teachings.

And some of us may be at that point right now, we started to sense the invitation that Jesus extended to His first disciples. Two simple words, “Follow me”. However, and whenever that invitation came to each of us, when we are ready, that is what we do. We follow Him. And then we step into becoming His disciples and some of us may have a hard time identifying ourselves with the word disciple and as such follower or student of Jesus might feel more natural.

But since disciple is the word, most of most used in the Bible for these synonymous terms, I want to challenge us to connect ourselves with this term. Jesus, wasn’t looking for followers like on social media who liked what He posted. He was looking for disciples, people who would respond to His invitation to follow and get to know Him and then learn and apply His teachings.

So fellow disciples, are you ready? And if you’re unsure, whether you want to be a disciple of Jesus, I encourage you to hang with us. Being a disciple is not easy. It means that we often are called to take our eyes off of ourselves and as we seek to love and serve others. And as we have been exploring this in the series, there are things that we surrender to God in the process, but it also means that we get to experience God’s love, His presence and His plan in a whole new way.

It changes everything. So now that we know who we are as disciples are or potential disciples, the next step is figuring out what a disciple does. What’s our mission? What’s our purpose. I suggest that we can live our lives with confident purpose by engaging in three important practices: surrender our dreams, embracing His assignments and enjoying His presence.

I came to San Francisco with a plan. I came to San Francisco with a dream. I had grown up in Wisconsin, but I came here wanting to find myself. I had a dream for my future. I wanted to live in an exciting place. Check, uh, where I could advance my career. I wanted to maintain my friendships from the past, but make some new friends here as well.

I wanted to get experienced that would help me become more confident in who I am. And I wanted to have a lot of fun. Parts of my dreams were tied to who I am, someone who deeply values family and community. I wanted to date eventually get married and have kids. And I had dreams about my future marriage.

I dreamt about days and nights walking hand in hand with my soulmate. We would find ways to do nearly everything together. Our love would be full, palpable, and passionate all the time. Never stopping. There would be no want in the marriage and we would be true partners helping to satisfy every need and accomplish every goal.

I mean, all marriages are like that. Right? And I wanted my future kids to live close to their cousins and extended family so that they could grow up and experience some of the joys that I had as a child. I had dreams about my friendships. My friends would be self-sufficient strong problem-free and caring.

They would be happy running around and playing sports or sitting around, catching up. We’d be able to walk through anything, but we’d be so self-sufficient and so capable that they’re rarely be any challenge or hardships in our friendship. Other parts of my dream are tied to what I felt like I should do.

I felt pressure to decide on a career path. I needed work experience and I needed to pay the bills. I eventually wanted to own a house, own a car and have margins for fun with people I cared about, but I also wanted my work to have meaning and not just be a paycheck. I wanted to have extra to save and be able to donate to help others in need as well.

To be transparent, I was anxious. I felt pressure to show people that I could become someone of value and do something significant. I wanted to be successful and I wanted others to know that I was successful. And I dreamed of what would happen after paying my dues and working hard in that season. I would move closer to family.

I would step into the type of job I had. I had in mind when I went to school, I might even go back to school, but that would just help propel me into that job that had meaning and significance, but also paid the bills with extra leftover. As I reflect back on the last 18 years in the Bay area, I realized many of my dreams are still in process or have changed.

I did find a job with purpose and meaning. I worked at the San Francisco Food Bank for almost six years, and now I’ve been on staff at CornerstoneSF for over 12 years. My work has paid the bills and allowed us to help with a few great causes, but we rarely have been able to save that much money, especially after having kids. Homeownership seems highly unlikely, which creates elements of insecurity and restlessness.

For relationships. I eventually met Anne. We dated and we got married and now we have two amazing children, but my marriage and my family life are far from perfect. We enjoyed our first few years of marriage as we learn to be a married couple before, starting to try or try, starting to try to start our family.

And then we had two miscarriages that puts strain on our relationship as we wrestled with a loss in different ways. At times, we have each felt empty, void of passion and unloved. We are far from family. And so finding time for date nights is challenging with the complexities of this COVID season, the kids who we love dearly and normally have great patience for sometimes nearly drive us crazy.

I’m sure some of you may be here with relate. I have some amazing friends, but we have all had our share of ups and downs and we don’t get to see each other as often as we would like. As I think about my dreams from almost 20 years ago, I realized how much of my dreams were based on mostly on me and my happiness.

There were very specific things I wanted and some of it was outside of my control. So as a disciple of Jesus, what do I do with my dreams? Some might never come true. Some seem like they are in process or partially realized. Others, they’re hard to tell. And some of them have been realized in different and unexpected ways.

I wanted to own a home, but just as I was feeling sad about the unlikely prospects of that, a generous family in our community reached out to our family and offered us the opportunity to rent a beautiful home they owned. They installed new appliances. Let us pick out paint colors, let us choose whether we wanted hardwood, floors or carpet.

And in which rooms we wanted those in and invited us to treat the yard like it was ours. So we were able to put in a raised bed, raised bed gardens, which I love to do. Plant fruit trees, build a playground and make it a home. It was different than my dream, but God provided an amazing and unexpected way. Today,

I’d like to suggest that God’s plans are greater than our dreams, perhaps I’m not alone in my dreaming. Does anyone else have any big dreams? Anyone, maybe you have big dreams for your future, your career and your relationships. You may dream of changing the world. You may have dream of peace, justice, healing, and hope.

Our dreams are part of who we are. Our dreams are tied to where we are currently and what we hope to do and become. Health, security, happiness, abundance, hope, success, friendship, love, comfort, purpose, meaning, and so many of the things we desire and dream for affect our choices as we strive to move towards our future.

And these are good things. And maybe you’ve also seen your dreams fall short. Maybe we are still waiting on that dream job, or maybe we had it and then lost it. Maybe we are waiting for that right person, our soulmate, but they just haven’t come yet. Or maybe we had what we thought was a great relationship.

And then things went sideways. Maybe our friends haven’t been there when we needed them, or we let them down. Maybe people haven’t left or have left or were tragically taken from us. Maybe we felt like we were on a great trajectory and then things changed. COVID happened. Something derailed us. And now we are floundering to try to find direction to recalibrate and rediscover our dreams or maybe in a good season now.

And some of our dreams have come true and we are trying to figure out what is next or when our dreams came true. It didn’t bring the joy and satisfaction that we thought it would. Maybe it feels like we were riding a wave. And if we don’t figure out how to use the, this unique opportunity, we may miss out on a chance for something amazing.

One of the things that Jeremiah 29:11 reassures us of is that God has a plan and He knows the hopes and desires that we have, which guide our dreams. And what if the problem with our dreams is that we dream for the wrong things or dream too small. And we might say we dream for the wrong things. What does that even mean?

What if the things that will bring us the greatest satisfaction and joy are actually tied to God’s plans. Speaking through another of His prophets, God said in Isaiah 46, nine through 10, remember the former things of old, remember our history for, I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there’s none like Me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.

So into the future saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. God knows what our dreams can yield and when our dreams might actually hurt us or distract us from those plans for our welfare, our best future in our ultimate hope. So what if the longings we have will find the greatest fulfillment when we surrender our dreams.

Dang, that’s rough. Surrendering my dreams is hard. I don’t like it. I don’t want it, but what if it’s true? I have come to believe that God’s plans are greater than our dreams. And the good news is that we are not the first people to struggle with this, to wrestle with this. The first disciples did as well.

And that’s why the things that Jesus taught and did with His first disciples are so important and can guide us in this today. I believe God’s promises to His disciples and the great commission, meet our dreams and extend them forever. True life. True security, true joy. True abundance, true contentment.

True hope, true success. True friendship. True love, true justice, true purpose and true meaning the disciples had dreams too. To explore this, let’s look at the story of Matthew. I’m going to take what we know from the accounts recorded in the Bible and invite us to use our imagination and bring in our reasoning to connect us to Jesus’s

first disciples. Matthew was known as Levi and he was a tax collector. He worked on behalf of the Roman empire and collected taxes from the Jewish people. Matthew likely signed up for the job with hopes and dreams of having a very profitable career. Dreaming of the home he could buy, the parties to get through, and how nice life could be.

However, being a tax collector for the Roman empire meant that he was viewed as a traitor amongst his people. He was worse than a Gentile. Someone who didn’t know God, because he willingly took the money of God’s people and gave it to the Roman oppressors. On top of that, it was well known, widely known that tax collectors often charge extra just to line their own greedy pockets.

Matthew may have signed up for his job thinking of the luxurious life that he would be able to afford, but it had likely caused him to lose all of his closest friends. Who would come to this parties? Who would enjoy his home? And the Romans thought he and his people were a joke. They weren’t his friends, they treated him all right.

As long as he was able to bring in his quota and give them a cut from time to time. But if he was short, they made it clear how easily it would be to get rid of and replace him. The only people who might hang out were the other tax collectors and people who were outcasts or of disrepute, but where they, even as friends? They would come to his parties,

but if it came down to it, they probably would turn on him as well. This is not what he had signed up for. What he had dreamed of. But what could he do? The Romans weren’t exactly the understanding type and the Jewish authorities made it clear he wasn’t welcome anymore. He was stuck. But then Matthew started hearing stories about this Jesus.

He was a teacher who spoke with authority and was healing people who had incurable diseases and disabilities. There were even rumors that he might be the Messiah that Matthew had heard about in the Torah, the old Testament scriptures, while growing up. Could he be the promised King in the line of David who would cast off the Roman oppression and make Israel a great nation again? Will God finally forgive and deliver His people, but even if He was the Messiah and He probably wasn’t would this new King welcome in a tax collector, a traitor, a thief.

But then one day people ran by Matthew’s tax booth yelling. It was unbelievable. Matthew asked them what, what, what, what happened? And they said, you wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. These guys brought their friend who was a paralytic on a mat. They carried him because he couldn’t walk.

And since they couldn’t get into the house where Jesus was, they went up on the roof and they literally made a hole in the roof. And tied ropes to his mat and lowered him down in front of Jesus and Jesus watching this whole thing happen was marveled at their other faith and said, because of their faith, the man’s sins were forgiven and the Pharisees who were there, they were watching Jesus.

Cause they were amazed at Him to try to figure out what to do with him. They asked how He dared say such a thing that He could forgive sins. And Jesus said He would show He could forgive sins by doing something even more or difficult. And He healed the man. He just spoke healing over and yeah. Welcomed them up.

And, and the man just picked up his mat and walked home with his friends, dancing and glorifying God. What kind of man is this Jesus? As Matthew listened to that, he considered this and he saw a crowd coming from the same direction. Could he, could Jesus be coming this way? Surely He wouldn’t notice a tax collector, a sinner, but then there He was and they, they locked eyes.

He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t spiteful. And in Matthew nine, as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth and He said to him, follow me. And he, Matthew rose and followed Him. I love the simplicity here. Matthew was ready for change. He needed a miracle that there was no real hope until this unexpected invitation.

Follow me. I can imagine Matthew saying, “Me? Like, me?” You do know who I am right? This is my tax booth, but you can see that. I mean, seriously though, me, uh, right now, right now? Do you mind watching the, the tax booth? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yes, I’ll follow you. And Matthew was excited about this new opportunity, a new dream.

So he threw a dinner party for Jesus and the others who were willing to come to his house. To celebrate. In verse 10 and as Jesus reclined at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. Matthew, his only friends and associates were there.

The Pharisees found their way in. They were still trying to figure out what to do with Jesus, His signs and miracles couldn’t be neglected or ignored, but what God’s Chosen One, not realize the type of people these were. Surely the Messiah, the Christ, a King wouldn’t surround Himself with sinners, traders, liars, and thieves.

And in verse 11, and when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners. Matthew waited with bated breath, maybe Jesus didn’t know. Maybe He hadn’t heard who he was or his who his friends were. What would Jesus’s disciples say? Some of them clearly, weren’t happy to be at this party with his type of people either.

But when He, Jesus heard it, He said those who are well, have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice for, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. What? Did Jesus just school, the Pharisees? Who does that? Jesus had referenced Hosea 6:6. Hosea 6:6 says, “For I desire steadfast love mercy and not sacrifice for the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.”

Jesus wasn’t diminishing sacrifice, but He was noting the greater priority that God put on love, a right heart and caring for the poor in spirit, the sinners and the broken. The prophets, those who spoke on behalf of God had always come to call the sinners to repentance, to open the door back into right relationship with God.

And now the One who might be the Messiah was inviting the hurting, the rejected, the lost, and the outcast to come to Him to be healed and to be restored. And Matthew began to dream again, he, he became one of Jesus’s 12 closest disciples. Matthew stepped into this new life with abandon taking note of much of what Jesus said and did. Matthew was drawn toward all the ways Jesus showed that He was the Messiah and King. Jesus talked often about the kingdom of heaven and that it was being established real time.

How in Matthew’s life changed so quickly. He went from hopelessness to the inner circle of Christ the King. This was like Joseph going from prison to the second in command of all of Egypt. Matthew wrote his entire account in what is called his Gospel with . The intention of showing Jesus’ identity as a promise King and Messiah and describing Jesus, focus on training and equipping His disciples and the count continues.

Everything was going right. Jesus kept doing more and more amazing things. Casting out demons, healing, the blind and death, making the broken whole, feeding thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread, calming a storm with His voice and even walking on water. This is not only was a King, but He was something more.

And then the Transfiguration, jesus took John James and Peter to a mountain. Moses and Elijah showed up and Jesus talked with them like old friends. No big deal. And then from the heavens, God spoke, this is my Son, who am I with whom I am well-pleased. Always listen to Him. That was it. He was the King of Heaven because He was the son of God.

The dreams grew. What would it be like to serve alongside the King of Heaven? The Christ, the Messiah. Matthew had gotten in on the ultimate startup at the ground floor. God must’ve heard his hopeless prayers. It was going to be amazing. But Jesus kept mentioning about going to Jerusalem, being killed and rising

on the third day. It was an odd parable or phrase to keep repeating, but Jesus told a number of stories that made more sense once He had explained them. He was always teaching something new. He would surely explain what dying symbolically meant. Oh, and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus received a King’s greeting.

The disciples walked alongside of him taking it all in. It was coming true. He was stepping up to the throne. After that, the amazing Passover meal, He washed their feet. He talked about the importance of serving. He gave a new commandment to love others like He loved. And said there would be a new covenant in His blood, again, very morbid, but things, new things were always good with Jesus.

They went to the Mount of Olives and everything happened so quickly. Judas showed up and there were a crowd of armed guards with him. They arrested Jesus and took Him the disciples wrestled with whether they should fight, but He didn’t want them to so they fled. Some followed at a distance to see what would happen.

He was taken to the high priest and then the Pilate even Herod was brought in. And then back to Pilate again. Now the crowd, some of the same people who had welcomed Him as King, they were yelling for Him to be crucified. He clearly had already been beaten. But Pilate gave in and let them take Him to be killed.

It was awful. He was mocked and flogged. The one so full of life was being led to His death. Then He was nailed to the cross between two thieves. And He died. How did it, it all happened so fast? The kingdom seemed to come crashing down. Matthew dreams of ruling with the King were lost. So much can change in a week.

So much can change in a day. His body was taken down, placed in the tomb and the loss was awful. Dreams of hope, freedom, justice, and new life gone. Now Matthew didn’t even have his tax collector job anymore. What could he do? And their lives were now in danger. Those hours in the shadow of the cross, while the tomb lay still were excruciating, the dreams were dead and buried.

Hope was lost. The oppressive powers had won. Why even dream? Dreams, failing can feel like death and death can feel like dreams failing.

But then, on the third day, the women came back saying that they had seen Jesus, not just that they had honored Him with embalming His body, but they had seen Him alive. They went to honor the dead and they met with the living. Then for 40 days, He would walk with them, eat with them and continue to teach. The dreams

weren’t dead. The dreams were resurrected by the resurrected One. They were alive again, hope was found. Death itself was defeated. It was so much more than Matthew had dreamed. He wanted a decent life. And now he was receiving eternal life. He wanted a modest change in the world was changed entirely. He wanted back into the old covenant and a new covenant was made.

This was God’s plan. Matthew chose to end his Gospel with a focus on Jesus, his advice to those who would follow Him. Jesus knew His plan from the beginning and these words invite in His disciples then. And those who would be His disciples today in Matthew 28, verses 16 to 20. What is called the great commission, the great assignment.

We see now the 11 disciples minus Judas went to Galilee to the mountain, to which Jesus had directed them. He had told them where to go. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him. But some doubted the word translated here is doubted means being a divided mind. They were unsure about what they were doing, what they could do when they, when our dreams are taken from us.

It can be hard to hope again, to trust again. In verse 18 and Jesus came to them and said to them all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. He had just risen from the dead on top of everything He had already done. He clearly had authority what He was going to direct His disciples to do, and be, uh, was to be there and our primary purpose.

So what He’s going to direct them to do was going to be there. And our primary purpose. This means some of our self-focused dreams are put on the back burner. Some will be given back to us and others will just become less of a priority or no longer a desire. We can live our lives with confident purpose.

When we surrender our dreams. And it can feel sad or scary to surrender our dreams. Sometimes it does mean setting them aside. Other times, it’s like what happened with Abraham and Isaac. Abraham surrendered, his son, Isaac, and his hopes for a family that God would bless. And God gave him back Isaac and his dream with a renewed blessing.

Jesus continued to go there for and make disciples of all nations. And in fact saying, because I have authority over all of having an Oliver shared this invitation to follow with anyone, everyone, our assignment is to tell people about Jesus and what He has done for us. It’s a gift for us and a gift for others.

And so he said, To go there for and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit. We invite others into identity from the Father who you’re created to be into, to salvation through the Son, which makes it possible for all people to know Him and into the power

given through the Holy Spirit. Our assignment is to help people know God. And he continues teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you. This is the plan. Learn His commands. Live His commands, teach His commands. Our assignment is to live and teach His words so we can live our lives with confident purpose.

When we embrace His assignments to tell people about Jesus and what He has done for us to help people know God and to live and teach His words. Jesus concludes and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. I’ll be with you, Jesus reassures His presence in our lives. We are never alone. May He help us to embrace and enjoy this?

We can live our lives with confident purpose when we enjoy His presence.

Mike drop, Matthew puts down the pen. The story is told when the Son of God gives you a mission and assignment, what do you do? God’s plans are greater than our dreams. I can tell you what Matthew did. He took very seriously call, seriously the call to go and make disciples and to teach all that Jesus had commanded.

He wrote the Gospel account to chronicle and document what Jesus commanded so that all future generations of disciples could know His commands and live out His plans with confidence and hope. What dreams are we holding onto? What would it take to give these to God and to step into what you and I say, we believe, what would it take to find fulfillment, to trust, to hope?

If I just had a soulmate. If I just had that job, if I just had more money, if I just saw changes in these broken systems, if I just had a real friend, if they just would come to Jesus, if they just would apologize, if they just would do this one thing. Our dreams can motivate us and our dreams can define us.

Matthew wrote down another invitation of Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30. Come to me all who are, who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for, I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find it rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

We are willing to risk surrendering our dreams. If we are willing to trust God who created us, if we were willing to trust Jesus who died and rose from the dead for us, then we can lay our burdens down and step into a plan that leads to our lives and our dreams being extended forever. Again, true life,

true security, true joy, true abundance, true contentment, true hope, true success, true friendship, true love, true justice, true purpose and true meaning. And God doesn’t take our dreams and leave us without hope. Sometimes like Abraham with Isaac, what we surrender to God has given right back to us or replaced with something greater and more amazing than we ever would have even thought to ask.

What is He asking you to surrender? God’s plans are greater than our dreams. What would happen if we stop waiting for these things to be perfect and come alongside of the perfect one. What if we stop waiting for the perfect job and come along and step into this assignment to know Him and His words, and then share His words?

What if we stop hoping for extra money to be available and work, to be faithful with what we have? What, if we stop looking for that perfect spouse or friend and show up and start becoming the type of person who would be a great spouse and friend for someone else? What if we surrender that change that we are always hoping to see and start working on the changes that we already know we need to make in ourselves?

What if we stop waiting and surrender our dreams, embraces assignments and enjoy his presence? What if we responded to those two words? Follow me. What if we started loving, like Jesus loved. What if we treated the least of these, those who are down and out as if they were Jesus, himself who just needed a little help?

What if we started to forgive? Like He forgave us? What if we took the plank out of our own eye before addressing the speck in someone else’s eye? What if we sought to be a good neighbor? Could you imagine what it would be like if we did those things? Just those things. Even now that sounds like a dream.

And that is God’s plan. Let’s live this out as people in process, not confined by what could be set free into the good plans of God. God’s plans are always greater than our dreams. For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. In a moment I’ll pray.

And then we will hear a song called Surrender, which describes the cost of giving God our dreams. The cost is real, but the benefit is life-changing. This is also the time where I get to acknowledge this is when our community honors the Lord with our ties and offerings. It has been humbling and beautiful to see how we have rallied together to continue to honor God in this way, in this season. Many of us are giving online through the website or app, but you can also mail in a check.

If you’d like to tangibly feel that step of surrender, that trusts God’s provision by writing it out and mailing it in. And if you’re a guest, there is no pressure here. We are just glad you’re here. God wants our hearts relationship with us before any money or act of service, but never doubt that God wants you and wants you to draw near. Jesus made that clear.

So let’s pray, Lord, I thank You that You know, our dreams and that your disciples like Matthew knew what it was like to wrestle with dreams as well. Thank You for Your great love and grace and mercy. Many of us are feeling weary from carrying heavy burdens and we want to step into that rest with you.

Rest for our souls, help us to trust and know that surrendering our dreams to You may be difficult, but to also know that sometimes You give our dreams right back to us with a little boost, a little extra, a little momentum, and other times You’ll, You will bring about something even greater and more amazing than we ever dared to dream.

Help us to embrace Your assignments, to tell people about You and what You have done for us. Tell people to know You and to live and teach Your words. Your plans are always greater than our dreams, and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

The blessing of surrender and what it means to yield. To let go so that God can have His way in our lives. Sometimes we find ourselves defeated and discouraged because our dreams are the things that we were hoping for haven’t come to pass. Maybe God sometimes has a different assignment for us, and He has something He wants to teach us in a place of surrender.

You know, I was just thinking about the opportunity that we have right now in this unique season, where many of us are having to walk through well as a country, as a culture, as a world, really, but even here in our city of San Francisco, we’re having to walk through, uh, this whole, you know, COVID, and the pandemic and the consequences and implications of it.

And even the, even the idea of regathering together, which we’ve begun to do in earnest, now we’ll keep going until we finally reach a point where, um, I’m confident we can restart in the way that we envision it, but it’s requiring a lot of patience. And that’s fine. I think many of you are aware that a lot of us feel very called to be a part of the witness of Jesus

here in San Francisco. That this world-class city has tremendous impact and also a need. And many of us have surrendered our dreams in a way to embrace the call of being here, who I also realized that some of you are a part of us from afar network connected in a very different way. And I would ask you if you are in other places, to pray for those of us as we start to regather and rebuild community in presence, even as I contend for,

and we contend for your wellbeing from afar. We’re together. We’re one, we’re one church. Really? If you think about it, we are Cornerstone and the people we touch and affect are a part of what God has called us to be together. So I want you to be healthy and I want you to be blessed. I do, because I think blessed people, bless people, hurt people, hurt people.

We talk about that all the time and I, I, I want you healed and whole, and I know that a lot of us are struggling right now. Still we’re afraid. We feel frustrated. We’re concerned. Um, we’re anxious. Maybe we’re under a lot of stress. Maybe our bodies have been given out. Um, I’m praying for a comprehensive blessing because I know this he’s so good and he’s so God, and he wants us to sow good.

And to sow God. Don’t ever forget how greatly and I can’t say this enough, how greatly loved you are. I mean, God gave us Jesus as living proof. Right? What more could He give? So with that in mind, He keep you spirit, soul and body. Me too. I want that in every way. In my mind, especially in Jesus’ name. Yeah.

Hey, it’s Chloe and Micah. It’s all things, Kids Ministry today. We have awesome content that’s being created every week with Pastor Anh and Teacher Amy. So make sure if you have little ones to check that out. And we also have Monday nights at 6:00 PM, we still have our story time and that’s for preschoolers and toddlers.

And then lastly, next week, yes, Mother’s day. We have In-Person Clubhouse. And for this one you will need to register. It’s actually going to be from 10 to 11:00 AM in person at the Riordan campus. But look, spots are limited. So you got to register. Okay. Okay. Wave us out.