Cornerstone Cast

Cornerstone Church

5.0 (3)
Christianity
Updated Weekly

Do you want to grow in your walk with God? Do you want to learn more about what it means to be a Christ-follower? Then join us each week on the Cornerstone Cast as we look at God's Word together! At Cornerstone our mission is to connect people with Jesus and our vision is to see Champaign and the World transformed by the Power of the Gospel!

Sep 28

The Law of Freedom- James 2:1-13

James 2 confronts us with a question that cuts straight to the heart: if our faith never changes the way we live, is it truly faith at all? The passage zeroes in on favoritism as a case study, but the deeper issue is about what we carry with us from our old life and whether we have genuinely let go of it. When we show preference for the wealthy over the poor, the polished over the rough, we are not just being socially awkward. We are making a theological statement, one that denies the equal value every person holds as an image-bearer of God and the equal standing every believer has because of what Christ has done. The royal law, love your neighbor as yourself, does not come with exceptions based on appearance or social status. The law of freedom that the gospel introduces is not a lighter burden. It is a transforming one. It calls us to act justly, love faithfulness, and walk humbly with God. These are not suggestions for the spiritually advanced. They are the natural fruit of a life that has genuinely been changed by grace. As we sit with this passage, the real question it leaves us with is not whether favoritism is wrong. We already know it is. The question is whether we are willing to let the gospel reach into the places where our old habits still have a grip. Do you have any thoughts or questions about this episode? We'd love to hear them! Send us an email at: office@cornerstonesavoy.org. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church in Savoy, Illinois. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church and is not designed to replace your involvement in a local church; it is intended as an extra tool for growing closer to God.
Sep 25

A Call To Action- James 1:19-27

What does it actually look like to live out our faith rather than simply absorb it? James 1:19-27 lays out seven concrete instructions that form a kind of mountain range of wisdom, all pointing toward one central challenge: being doers of the Word, not hearers only. The passage calls us to be quick to understand others, slow to speak, and slow to destructive anger, and it frames these not merely as good habits but as marks of new life in Christ. When we receive the gospel, we are given a new identity and a new purpose, and that transformation is meant to show up in the way we carry ourselves every single day. The Word of God is described here as implanted in us, something God places within us through the Holy Spirit and Scripture, and what comes out of that implanting should be goodness, peace, and action. The striking truth James confronts us with is that hearing the Word without doing anything with it is a form of self-deception, like someone who looks in a mirror and immediately forgets what they saw. We live in a culture that makes it incredibly easy to consume Christian content, attend gatherings, and absorb teaching without ever taking a step that costs us anything. This passage invites us to examine whether our faith is truly changing us or whether we have quietly settled for the comfort of hearing alone.
Sep 24

An Unexpected Blessing- James 1:12-18

What if the hardest seasons of our lives are actually among the greatest gifts we could ever receive? That is the provocative and deeply biblical idea at the heart of this message drawn from James 1:12-18. Rather than treating trials as evidence that God has forgotten us or turned away, we are invited to see them as purposeful, shaping experiences that point us toward something far greater than temporary comfort. The passage introduces us to the image of the crown of life, a promise extended to those who love God and endure. Far from being abstract, this crown represents eternal life with God, the very relationship we were created for. Using the vivid language of athletic competition, the message challenges us to fix our eyes on that ultimate prize rather than on the pain of the moment. We also encounter a striking word study showing that the Greek word for trial and temptation is the same, which opens up a profound distinction: God does not tempt us toward evil, but He does allow trials that can either refine us or, if we drift from Him, become doorways into temptation. The difference lies entirely in where we turn when life gets hard. When we lean into God, trials become tools of transformation. When we rely on our own strength, they become traps. This is a message that meets us wherever we are in our faith journey and calls us to run the race together, with our eyes fixed on Jesus and our trust anchored in a God who never changes.
Sep 23

Reliance- James 1:5-11

What shapes the way we see the world? James 1:5-11 confronts us with a challenge that cuts to the heart of our daily lives: our reliance on God is not just a spiritual nicety, it is the very foundation of how we understand everything around us. This message walks us through three profound ways that leaning on God transforms us from the inside out. We explore what it truly means to pursue wisdom, not the kind that comes from textbooks or life experience alone, but the kind that descends from above, available to anyone willing to ask for it in faith. We are reminded that the book of Proverbs offers us a practical and accessible pathway into that wisdom every single day. But wisdom is only part of the picture. We are also challenged to examine the way we pray. Do we bring our requests to God with genuine faith, or do we quietly line up backup plans just in case God does not come through? The double-minded person, torn between trusting God and trusting themselves, ends up unstable in every area of life. Finally, we are pushed to ask a deeply personal question: where is our identity truly rooted? Whether we find ourselves in a season of abundance or one of struggle, the invitation is the same. An identity built on anything other than Christ will eventually crumble. One built on the grace of Jesus will hold through anything.
Sep 22

Mature and Complete- James 1:1-4

What if the hardest seasons of our lives were actually the most important ones? That is exactly the counterintuitive truth at the heart of James 1:2-4, where we are commanded not merely to tolerate trials but to count them as a great joy. This is not a passive suggestion or a comforting platitude. It is a direct, even forceful, call to reframe how we understand suffering. The book of James opens by addressing believers who have lost everything, people who fled their homes and livelihoods and were being exploited as day laborers in a foreign land. And yet the message to them, and to us, is that this very suffering is the soil in which mature, complete, and unshakeable faith grows. The testing of our faith produces endurance, and endurance leads us to a place where we lack nothing of eternal significance. That is a staggering promise. We explore what it means to face trials not with bitterness or avoidance but with a joy rooted in the unshakeable character of God, and why that kind of joy is only possible when our satisfaction is anchored in him rather than in our circumstances.
Sep 21

Where's My Worth- Luke 10:38-42

What does it look like to truly stop and behold God in the middle of our busy, achievement-driven lives? In this message drawn from Luke 10:38-42, we explore the tension between doing and being through the familiar story of Mary and Martha. Martha is not a villain in this story. She is doing everything the world would call right, being a good host, fulfilling her responsibilities, keeping things running. And yet Jesus gently redirects her, not with condemnation, but with compassion. The deeper issue is not her busyness itself but where she has placed her identity. When we root our sense of worth in what we accomplish rather than in who God says we are, we become anxious, distracted, and resentful, just like Martha. Mary, on the other hand, makes a countercultural choice to simply sit and receive. Jesus says that choice will not be taken from her. The spiritual challenge for us is the same one Martha faced: will we slow down long enough to let God speak into our lives, or will we keep overworking the dough, so to speak, never pausing to let transformation actually take place? This message invites us to examine where we are finding our identity and to consider what it might look like to find it in Jesus instead. Do you have any thoughts or questions about this episode? We'd love to hear them! Send us an email at: office@cornerstonesavoy.org. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church in Savoy, Illinois. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church and is not designed to replace your involvement in a local church; it is intended as an extra tool for growing closer to God.
Sep 21

Justification Explored- Luke 10:25-37

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is far more than a simple story about being kind to strangers. When we read it in its full context in Luke 10, we discover that the central question driving the entire passage is one of the most urgent questions any of us will ever face: how are we justified before God? A religious expert approaches Jesus, confident in his own ability to earn eternal life through perfect obedience to the law. But Jesus peels back the layers of that pride and self-sufficiency with a story that cuts straight to the heart. The priest and the Levite who walk past the beaten man are not just cautionary tales about indifference. They represent the impossibility of saving ourselves through religious effort. Meanwhile, the Samaritan, despised and rejected by the very culture that produced this legal expert, becomes a picture of the kind of love that actually rescues. Romans 3 reminds us that all of us have fallen short, but that we are justified freely by grace through the redemption found in Christ. The parable is ultimately a mirror, showing us that we cannot justify ourselves, and pointing us toward the one who can. Do you have any thoughts or questions about this episode? We'd love to hear them! Send us an email at: office@cornerstonesavoy.org. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church in Savoy, Illinois. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church and is not designed to replace your involvement in a local church; it is intended as an extra tool for growing closer to God.
Sep 21

Abide- Luke 9:57-10:3

What does it truly mean to follow Jesus -- not on our own terms, but on his? In this message, we dig into a striking contrast found in Luke 9 and 10 between three men who want to follow Jesus their own way and the 72 disciples Jesus sends out into the world. Each of the three men reveals a subtle but powerful sin lurking beneath the surface: a craving for comfort, a desire to follow only on their own timeline, and an anxiety-driven need to have everything perfectly arranged before stepping out in faith. Jesus, who sees past every surface-level response straight into the heart, lovingly confronts each one. The spiritual lesson is both challenging and freeing: the way we respond to Jesus exposes what our hearts truly desire. When we follow Jesus only when it is convenient, comfortable, or fully planned out, we are really following a version of Jesus we have designed for ourselves. The message calls us to something deeper -- a radical, urgent, and immediate obedience rooted not in our own strength but in abiding in Christ, the way a branch draws life from the vine. If we want to bear real fruit, we cannot afford to live three doors down from Jesus. We are called to dwell with him. Do you have any thoughts or questions about this episode? We'd love to hear them! Send us an email at: office@cornerstonesavoy.org. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church in Savoy, Illinois. The Cornerstone Cast is a discipleship ministry of Cornerstone Church and is not designed to replace your involvement in a local church; it is intended as an extra tool for growing closer to God.

5

out of 5

3 Ratings

Do you want to grow in your walk with God? Do you want to learn more about what it means to be a Christ-follower? Then join us each week on the Cornerstone Cast as we look at God's Word together! At Cornerstone our mission is to connect people with Jesus and our vision is to see Champaign and the World transformed by the Power of the Gospel!

Creator

Cornerstone Church
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

98
Rating

Clean
Show Website

Cornerstone Cast