Cornerstone Church

What does revenge cost us when we refuse to let go? Can forgiveness set us free without excusing the person who hurt us?

In this follow-up conversation from Week 1 of At The Movies, Lead Pastor Scott Savage and Jake Downing discuss what True Grit reveals about revenge, bitterness, grace, and the difficult work of forgiveness.

The film follows 14-year-old Maddie Ross as she pursues the man who murdered her father. What begins as a desire for justice becomes a consuming quest for vengeance. Drawing from Hebrews 12:14-15 and Ephesians 4:31-32, Scott explains how bitterness takes root, poisons our relationships, and often costs us more than we expected to pay.

Forgiveness does not mean pretending the wrong never happened. It does not remove accountability, guarantee reconciliation, or immediately restore trust. Forgiveness means abandoning revenge, absorbing the cost of the wound, and choosing freedom through the grace Jesus has given us.

Whether you are carrying an old wound, struggling to trust again, or finding it impossible to stop replaying what someone did, this conversation will help you understand the difference between forgiveness, reconciliation, and trust while identifying a practical next step toward healing.

Scripture: Hebrews 12:14-15

Speakers: Scott Savage and Jake Downing

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: At The Movies

Week Number: 1

August 16, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

Why do people defend choices that cause obvious harm? How can something feel right to us while leading us farther from God?

In Week 11 of In Their Own Eyes, Scott Savage concludes the series by teaching through Judges 19–21, one of the darkest passages in the Bible. A Levite refuses responsibility for his actions, the tribe of Benjamin protects guilty men, and Israel’s pursuit of justice becomes an escalating cycle of vengeance, violence, and destructive decisions.

The final chapters of Judges show what happens when people repeatedly ignore God’s warnings and do whatever seems right in their own eyes. The deepest problem is not simply that Israel is missing a human king. The people have forgotten God, lost the standard that limits vengeance, and become unable to recognize how far they have fallen.

Judges leaves us in a dark and seemingly hopeless place. But the Bible does not leave us there. As the story of Scripture continues, every human king eventually fails, revealing our need for Jesus, the true King and the only hero who can answer the darkness exposed in Judges. Unlike the Levite who sacrifices someone else to save himself, Jesus sacrifices himself to rescue and forgive unfaithful people.

Whether you are struggling to admit a wrong decision, watching conflict spiral out of control, or realizing that your faith has begun to coast, this message will challenge you to stop justifying what merely feels right, return to God, and choose what is right in his eyes.

Scripture: Judges 19–21

Speaker: Scott Savage

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 11

August 9, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

What are you afraid to lose? If the person, possession, achievement, or plan that makes you feel secure disappeared, what would you have left?

In Week 10 of In Their Own Eyes, Scott Savage teaches from Judges 17–18, where Micah builds a religion designed to give him security and control. Using stolen silver, household idols, an ephod, and a hired Levite, Micah convinces himself that God must bless him because he has assembled the right religious pieces.

Meanwhile, the tribe of Dan avoids the land God gave them and searches for an easier path. They take Micah’s idols and priest, conquer a vulnerable city, and call their compromise God’s approval. When Micah watches everything he trusted disappear, he asks the question at the heart of this message: “What do I have left?”

These chapters show what happens when people seek God’s gifts without seeking God himself. Idolatry builds a god we can control, small compromises move us farther from God, and the things we trust for protection can eventually destroy us.

Whether your security comes from a relationship, career, home, achievement, bank account, or carefully controlled plan, this message will help you honestly name what you are depending on, turn from compromise, and return to the Lord before loss exposes what your life was built upon.

Scripture: Judges 17–18

Speaker: Scott Savage

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 10

August 2, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

What happens when a God-given strength becomes the place where you stop depending on God? Could you keep succeeding and never realize that you are operating on autopilot?

In Week 9 of In Their Own Eyes, Jake Downing teaches from Judges 16 and the final chapter of Samson's life. Samson had been set apart by God and given extraordinary strength, but years of compromise taught him to treat that gift as if it belonged to him. After carrying away the gates of Gaza and repeatedly escaping Delilah's traps, Samson became convinced that he could always shake himself free.

When Delilah finally learned the truth and Samson's hair was cut, the tragedy was deeper than the loss of his strength. Samson did not know that the Lord had left him. Captured, blinded, and forced to grind grain for the Philistines, Samson had to become blind before he could finally see that his strength had never come from his hair or from himself. Standing between the pillars of Dagon's temple, he humbled himself and asked God to strengthen him once more.

Samson's story warns us that one of the most dangerous places to live is in God's gifting without dependence on God's Spirit. The problem begins when we trust the strength instead of the God who gives it. Samson died with his enemies, but Jesus died for his enemies and completed the rescue Samson could only begin.

Whether you are relying on natural ability, past experience, professional success, or a gift that has always come easily, this message will help you identify where strength has become self-reliance, ask God to help you see clearly, tell someone where you have been trying to do it alone, and take one concrete step of obedience.

Scripture: Judges 16

Speaker: Jake Downing

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 9

July 26, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

What if the choices that shape your life are not the dramatic ones, but the small compromises you barely notice? What if visible success has convinced you that God approves of habits that are quietly pulling you away from Him?

In Week 8 of *In Their Own Eyes*, Dr. Brian Koning teaches from Judges 13-15 and the early life of Samson. Long before Delilah and Samson’s public collapse, God chooses him before birth, sets him apart as a Nazirite, and empowers him for a purpose. Yet Samson repeatedly follows what is right in his own eyes, allowing small compromises to become dangerous habits.

Through Samson’s calling, his pursuit of a Philistine wife, his disregard for his Nazirite commitment, and Israel’s acceptance of Philistine rule, this message shows how compromise slowly reshapes the heart. Samson’s victories reveal God’s faithfulness, but they do not prove God’s approval of Samson’s character. The better question is not simply, “Am I succeeding?” but, “Am I becoming more like Christ?”

Whether you are wrestling with a habit that once troubled you, looking for security in something other than God, or realizing that a small compromise has started to feel normal, this sermon will help you examine what is shaping your heart, confess one specific compromise, and replace the counterfeit with God’s better path.

Scripture: Judges 13-15

Speaker: Dr. Brian Koning

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 8

July 19, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

What if you know the truth about God but still struggle to trust Him? What if your faith has become more about control, bargaining, or performance than confidence in God’s character?

In Week 7 of In Their Own Eyes, Scott Savage continues through the book of Judges with the story of Jephthah in Judges 10-12. Jephthah is a complicated figure: rejected by his family, called back by his people, able to speak truth about God, yet still deeply shaped by pain, anger, and control.

Through Israel’s cycle of idolatry, Jephthah’s rash vow, and the violence that follows, this message shows how easy it is to know the right things about God without actually living like we trust Him. Jephthah’s story warns us that knowledge alone is not the same as faith, and that trying to control God can lead us away from the trust He invites us into.

Whether you are wrestling with old patterns, treating God’s love like something you have to earn, bargaining with Him for an outcome, or trying to control what you are afraid to entrust to Him, this sermon invites you to identify the gap between head knowledge and heart trust, and to take one concrete step toward trusting God’s character this week.

Scripture: Judges 10-12

Speaker: Scott Savage

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 7

July 12, 2026
Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

What do you do when it feels like evil is winning? What happens when revenge feels like the only way to make things right?

In Week 6 of In Their Own Eyes, Scott Savage teaches from Judges 9 and the brutal story of Abimelech. After Gideon's death, Abimelech uses family wounds, political ambition, and money from Baal-Berith to seize power, kill his brothers, and become the kind of ruler Israel thought it wanted.

Jotham's bramble parable warns that a false savior cannot provide real shade; it only brings fire. As Abimelech and Shechem turn against each other, Judges 9 shows how revenge, power, and unchecked evil eventually destroy the people who trust in them.

The core teaching of this message is that the deepest problem is not simply out there in culture, politics, other people, or visible evil. The real enemy runs through the human heart, which is why we do not need another judge or a better human savior. We need Jesus.

Whether you are angry at what someone has done, discouraged by evil in the world, or tempted to believe the problem is mostly "out there," this sermon invites you to look in the mirror, name what is in your own heart, confess it to God and others, receive God's grace, and extend that grace to others.

Scripture: Judges 9

Speaker: Scott Savage

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 6

July 5, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

Chapters:

0:00 Parenting, humility, and the mirror

3:08 Everyone did what was right in their own eyes

4:09 Solzhenitsyn and the line through every heart

6:23 The problem is not out there

7:42 Judges 9 and the power grab

14:36 Jotham survives and speaks

16:45 Jotham's bramble parable

19:42 The unraveling begins

24:49 God's judgment is quiet, but not absent

26:32 The reckoning

29:21 God is far from silent

30:00 The real enemy is in the human heart

34:19 Name what is in here

34:47 Confess it to God and others

35:30 Receive grace and extend it

36:14 We need a different kind of Savior

Why do we keep asking God for signs when He has already shown us the next step? What if the real issue is not that God has been silent, but that we are still hiding from what He has called us to do?

In Week 4 of our series, In Their Own Eyes, Scott Savage continues through the book of Judges with the story of Gideon in Judges 6. Gideon is hiding in a wine press when God calls him a mighty warrior, not because Gideon looks strong in the moment, but because God sees who He is making him into.

This message, Why You Keep Waiting for a Sign, looks at Gideon’s fear, Israel’s oppression under Midian, the prophet God sends before deliverance, the altar Gideon has to tear down at home, and the fleece Gideon lays before the Lord. Along the way, Scott contrasts worldly sorrow with godly sorrow, showing the difference between regret that keeps us stuck and repentance that moves us toward freedom. You can follow that comparison here: Worldly Sorrow VS. Godly Sorrow Chart

Whether you feel weak, stuck, afraid, unsure what God is asking of you, or tempted to keep waiting for one more sign, this sermon is an invitation to pursue intimacy with God, not signs, and to trust His presence as you step forward.

Scripture: Judges 6

Speaker: Scott Savage

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 4

June 21, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

Why do we keep repeating the same destructive patterns, even when we know where they lead? How can we break the cycle before it causes more damage?

In Week 3 of In Their Own Eyes, guest speaker Jeff Gokee teaches from Judges 4 and the story of Deborah, Barak, Sisera, and Jael. Israel repeatedly rebels, suffers the consequences, cries out to God, and experiences restoration. But the cycle is not simply going in circles. It is spiraling downward.

Jeff challenges us to see Judges as a mirror. Like Israel, we can resist wisdom, place our security in people or politics, twist Scripture around our preferences, and gradually become indistinguishable from the surrounding culture. Deborah offers a different example. Her identity is rooted in God, she listens to His voice, speaks truth, and acts in obedience.

This message, How to Break the Cycle of Dysfunction, reminds us that transformation requires more than recognizing the pattern. We must cry out to God, stop making excuses, and obey what He has called us to do.
Whether you feel trapped in repeated mistakes, overwhelmed by anxiety, distracted from Jesus, or unsure how to live faithfully in today’s culture, this message will challenge you to examine your life and take your next step of obedience.

Scripture: Judges 4:1-24

Speaker: Jeff Gokee

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 3

June 14, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com

What do you do when you know the right things about God, but He no longer feels real in your heart? What happens when faith becomes something you remember with your head, but no longer live with your whole life?

In Week 2 of our series, In Their Own Eyes, Scott Savage continues through the book of Judges with Judges 3:7-31. Through the stories of Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar, we see how God responds to a forgetful people who keep drifting away from Him. Israel forgets the Lord, worships false gods, falls into oppression, cries out for help, and again and again God sends a deliverer.

This message, When You Know God but Don’t Feel Him, shows that rebellion often begins when God stops feeling real. But even when His people are unfaithful, God remains faithful. He sends reminders through ordinary people, unlikely deliverers, and even the tools already in our hands.
Whether you feel spiritually distant, stuck in a season where faith feels more like information than reality, or unsure how God could use your ordinary life, this sermon is an invitation to remember who God is, what He has done, and how present He still is.

Scripture: Judges 3:7-31

Speaker: Scott Savage

Cornerstone Church, Prescott, AZ

Yavapai County | Evangelical Free Church of America

Series: In Their Own Eyes

Week Number: 2

June 7, 2026

Learn more or plan a visit: https://prescottcornerstone.com