God has made us a family from among all sorts of different ethnicities, cultures, and even languages. In a linguistically diverse place like Los Angeles, we have the opportunity and blessing to live life cross-lingually with our brothers and sisters in Christ as a part of one local church. But, how do we do that? What does that practically look like? How do you build a relationship with someone who speaks a different language? Where do we start?

Application Questions

1. How can you best engage in our unity Sundays in a way that blesses your brothers or sisters that speak either Spanish or Farsi?
2. How might God be calling you to use your resources to serve and care for your brothers and sisters who speak different languages than you?
3. How might God be calling you to use your gifts to serve and care for your brothers and sisters who speak different languages than you?
4. What are steps you could take to build relationships with your brothers and sisters whose heart language is different than yours?

Cornerstone is committed to being a multi-ethnic and multilingual local church. But why? Being a multilingual church is incredibly difficult, and there are always going to be divisions in this world, so why bother? But Christ calls us to do hard things for the sake of the gospel, and the local church is meant to be the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God on earth, a multilingual community declaring the message of the gospel and the supremacy of Christ in all things.

Application Questions

1. What are some ways it might be hard for you to be a part of a multilingual church?
2. Where in your life are you actively pursuing doing“hard things” (laying down your life) for the sake of Christ?
3. Why does language matter so much to God? Why should it matter to us?
4. How is the Bible's view of the church different from your own view? What are ways that should change how you live as part of the church?

As we conclude our series through the book of Isaiah, we consider again how different life is when we remember that the LORD is the central reality of all of life. As the book concludes, its perspective shifts to remind us that the LORD is not only the central reality of this life, but also of the life to come. The eternal promises of God remind us that we have an eternal hope that is guaranteed and assured, even when we struggle in this fallen world with our fallen hearts.

Application Questions

1. As we look back on our series through the book of Isaiah, how has the fact that the LORD is the central reality in all of life shaped your perspective in new or renewed ways?
2. What injustice do you see in the world? How does the fact that the LORD will return and bring perfect justice give you hope?
3. What idolatry do you see in your own heart? How does the fact that the LORD will return and bring perfect joyful worship give you hope?
4. How can you remember the assured promise of Jesus'return in the midst of your daily life in this fallen world?

As a church our deepest need is for redemption and renewal, and forgetting who we are and what God has done for us is dangerous, sending us off into practicing false religion.Isaiah 58 unmasks our false religion and shows us true religion that pleases the LORD, not to make religious people into better religious people, but totransform us from self-serving people to God-glorifying people. It's about remembering what God has done for you.

Application Questions

1. Do you tend to identify as an oppressed person who has been set free by Jesus? Why or why not? What are some ways that you can be more mindful of what God has done for you in Christ?
2. What are the areas of your life where you are placing an unfair burden on others? What does repentance and correction look like in these areas?
3. What is an action step that you can take at each level of oppression (societal, communal, personal) to help to relieve burdens?

In light of the Servant, what happens to people who build their security on other things? The LORD tells his people that all their attempts to find satisfaction outside of him leave them empty...yet they return to them over and over again. And yet God invites them to take refuge in him, and demonstrates that even though the problem is deeper than they realize, his love runs deeper still through the servant, Jesus Christ.

Application Questions

1. What are some things in your life that promise satisfaction and don't deliver, but you keep turning to them anyways?
2. How do those things take God's place in your life?
3. What would it look like for you to find comfort in God instead of those idols?

Like the leaders of Israel in Isaiah's time, we often are short-sighted, seeing this world and only this world. But when God breaks into our world we see with new eyes; we see a God who turns the world upside down, giving hope and everlasting joy to those who have none in this world.

Application Questions

1. What are the ways that you see short-sightedness in your life?
2. How can you fight the temptation to believe that“tomorrow will be like today” ?
3. What is significant about God offering an“everlasting name” ?
4. How would your life change if you viewed your life through the lens of eternity?

As we meditate on the reality of the physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering that Jesus endured at the crucifixion, we begin to understand the immense power of God's grace and love demonstrated at the cross. The horror of the cross is meant to show us the devastating nature of our sin, and the unfathomable lengths that God would go to in order to bring us back to himself.

In the midst of the Servant Songs, we pause to look at Israel's ideas about God. Encouraged by his promises of redemption, they tell the Lord to“awake, awake” and come to rescue them. But this betrays their way of thinking: that thus far, God has been asleep to them. The Lord's response is to tell them and show them that He has been awake to them, but they have fallen asleep on him. The same can be said of us. God shows us what it means to be spiritually alert to him and centers us on the Servant, Jesus Christ.

Application Questions

1. Have you ever felt like God was asleep to your needs? Looking back, do you think that was true?
2. Are you awake or asleep to the reality of Jesus? Are there ways you see spiritual drowsiness in your life?
3. How can you cultivate spiritual alertness in your life?

Isaiah 50 is telling us an incredible story. You and I have dishonored the Lord, and He is right to reject us in everlasting disgrace. But, instead, He gives us His Servant as His instrument of redemption. The Servant accomplishes our redemption by leveraging the honor befitting His obedience and intimacy with The LORD for our sake. To rid us of disgrace, He embraced disgrace, to bring us a transforming honor that gives a whole new identity to disgraced sinners like us.

Application Questions

1. How does the concept of honor/shame affect the way you think about your sin and separation from God?
2. In what ways are you trying to manufacture your own honor to hide your shame? How can you“unmask” yourself and turn to the LORD for new honor?
3. Spend time meditating on the difference between the Servant's character and disgrace compared to your own. What response seems most suitable in light of these differences?

The center of Isaiah focuses on the Servant, whom the New Testament authors identify as Jesus Christ. This is the second of four“servant songs” that detail why Jesus comes into the world and what he comes to accomplish. Here we see the breadth and the depth of Jesus'mission, and also something more: we get a lesson in how to experience his love when we feel numb to it.

Application Questions

1. What about Jesus in this passage makes him worth “foregrounding” in your life? How might that affect different parts of a typical day?
2. Have you ever found yourself believing things about Jesus without being personally affected? Why do you think that happens?
3. How can you meditate more on the love of God in Jesus Christ? How do you think that would affect you?