Cornerstone Simi Audio Podcast

This week’s episode features a vulnerable and transparent discussion with 3 women from our Cornerstone family around the topic of sexual brokenness. Lisa, Val and Robin each discuss aspects of their own sexual brokenness in the context of our pastor’s teaching in I Thessalonians 4:1-5, where Paul instructs us to “abstain from sexual immorality”. Although each woman’s story is different, each of them experienced the redemptive work of God that allowed them to flourish and be transformed, in spite of their brokenness, to honor God and display Him well. This episode includes sensitive and personal information and is not recommended for children. Please be cautious when listening if small children are present. Our prayer is that you will be blessed by this discussion and that you too will seek assistance if you are suffering in this area of your life.

As we near the end of the sermon series on I Thessalonians, Todd, Christian, and Spencer recap where we’ve been and then discuss Paul’s final instructions to the first-century believers. Paul clearly wants to reassure these believers that those who have died prior to the Second Coming of Christ are secure in their salvation and are not destined for wrath. But just as important is what we are still called to do while we wait for Christ’s return or our own home-going. Paul instructs us too to live in readiness and with preparedness for what is coming, even though we don’t know the time of Christ’s return, and we are to live and model Christ’s example, walking day by day in the character of Jesus. The pastors discuss the importance of encouraging one another and building up other believers in the faith, even in suffering and turmoil. This recording is such an encouragement at this particular time considering the current upheaval in our world. Listen closely and be encouraged!

Friend and bible scholar Bob Kreycik joins Todd and Christian this week to explain the meaning behind the phrase, Day of the Lord. Used multiple times in the Old Testament, we find it again in this week’s New Testament passage in I Thessalonians 5:1-3. Bob helps us understand that this reference in Paul’s letter is largely dependent on also understanding the OT references. The Day of the Lord is always spoken in reference to a day of judgment, including a literal physical judgment, a judgment by God towards those who have harmed His chosen people, for which He has great concern and protects. This introduction to the last chapter of I Thessalonians is a continual encouragement and comfort to all believers that all evil will be punished and ultimately vanquished.

This week Todd, Christian, and Spencer discuss at length the significance of the death and resurrection of Christ from the viewpoint of the believers in Thessalonica with their Roman-Greco understanding of death. Using I Thessalonians 4:13-18 as their text, the pastors explain how radical the resurrection of Jesus was to these young believers and that they too would one day be resurrected and join Jesus, and the promise (found in verse 17) that they would forever be with Him. The Apostle Paul speaks to these believers in a way that they can understand and he encourages them and instructs us to do the same in our time and context.

This week’s episode with Todd, Christian and Spencer returns to the passage in Thessalonians 4:1-8 where Paul instructs us how we are to walk with God which includes to “abstain from sexual immorality”. Those unfamiliar with the concept of Scripture being a Story that God is writing from eternity past to eternity future will particularly benefit from listening to this episode. The pastors recount the beginning of the story in Genesis, with man and woman living in perfection, then the entrance of sin (Genesis 3) and the devastation that sin has brought to mankind. But in God’s grace He brought redemption through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus which gives us hope for a return to perfection in all things in the new creation. One of the most significant segments of this episode is the discussion of our principal identity - that of being created in the image of God - and not our sexuality. First and foremost, the “most central aspect of humanity is that we were made in His image, we have a responsibility to rule in partnership with Him and we are to put Him on display”, and this includes the choices we make in our expression of our own sexuality.