Capstone Church

Religion says that u should trust in what u do as a good moral person.
The gospel says that you should trust in the perfectly sinless life of Jesus because He alone is the only good and truly moral person who will ever live.

Religion is about what we can do.  It is all based on our ability to be a good moral person.  When you create a matrix of world religions, this a common denominator.  Morality makes sense (mentioned in Part I).  It only makes sense that if you are “good” then you will be ok with some type of sepreme being.  Religion isn’t about what has been done for us, but what we think we should do.

The Gospel says that our trust isn’t in our actions, but the actions of Jesus. Since he has been the only person who can claim perfection, it is in him we must place our trust.  Jesus’ sinless life is where our hope is found.  It is because of his sinless life his sacrifice would suffice.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 John 3:5, 1 Peter 2:22

The goal of religion is to get from God such things as health, wealth, insight, power, and control.
The goal of the gospel is not the gifts God gives, but rather God as the gift given to us by grace.

When we walk into a church we often think about what we can get out of it.  We search after God selfishly because our expectations are that we will benefit from it.  In Religion we think of God as a genie in a bottle who exist for our pleasure and wants. We think that if we act religious our lives will be without any wants or desires.

The Gospel doesn’t focus on material gifts, but the eternal. The gift we have recieved is a grace and forgiveness that we don’t deserve. The Gospel understands that this is not our home, and we shouldn’t fall too in love with it and its “things”.  We see throughout scripture that not only are we not supposed to follow Jesus in order to recieve things, but that we will often have to give up more earthly things than we will ever recieve in this life. Our treasures are to be stored in heaven, not granted to us because we are religious.

Scripture: Matthew 6:20, Luke 14:33

The past two weeks we have been in a series called “Reflections”.  Our first week where we established that a foundation of the Bride of Christ (local church) was to Reflect God’s Reconciliation (with Him and each other) - listen here.

In our second week of “Reflection” we looked at another purpose of the church - Reflection of the Gospel. Our definition of The Gospel - or Good News comes from 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. This week we will be posting the “Religion vs The Gospel” statements from Sunday’s Gathering with additional thoughts under each.  We would love to hear your thoughts, struggles, or questions on the statements to see an organic conversation revolving around a better understanding of the Gospel.

Religion says that if we obey God He will love us.
The gospel says that it is because God has loved us through Jesus that we can obey.

Religion is easy. If we do the things that make us look religious we can assume that we are religious. Religion is our attempt to EARN our way back to God.  It says that if we follow some rules and jump through some hoops then God might love us.

The truth is, we can never earn our way back into right graces with God.  When sin entered the world our relationship was severed. The Gospel says that God already loves us and proved that by sending Christ to come rescue us and reconcile that severed relationship.  And because of Christ obedience and sacrifice through the cross we are able to obey.  Christ not only defeated death, but sin.  Our vices that so easily entangle us can’t be shed with our strength, but only Jesus.  So no matter how hard we try to obey God through religion we will never have that reconciliation and salvation without the Gospel.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Hebrews 12:1-2

Religion says that the world is filled with good people and bad people.
The gospel says that the world is filled with bad people who are either repentant or unrepentant.

In our current “Spiritual Atmosphere” in the United States the idea of good people going to heaven and bad people going to hell is very common - even among Christians.  Again Religion is easy and makes sense. This seems fair - good and bad.  We can manipulate religion into what we want it to be, but the Gospel isn’t based on fairness or human manipulation.

The Gospel says that the world is filled only with bad people who are either forgiven or unforgiven.  This shreds the idea of good people going to heaven, because there are NO GOOD PEOPLE.  Remember the view of “good and bad” isn’t by our human perspective but God’s. Even though someone may look “good” in our human eyes, doesn’t mean that that have the blood of Christ on their hearts.  The Good News of the Gospel is that we can have forgiveness through the cross and aren’t good people - but a forgiven people.

Scripture: Romans 3:22-24, 5:6, 10:8-10, Luke 7:36-50

I am extremely grateful for freedom. The freedom that we have as a nation has come at a great price. Today we celebrated even more so the ULTIMATE sacrifice that was paid for our freedom. By GRACE and GRACE alone we have been given freedom from sin and slavery. We have been freed from our bondage.

Today Walt spoke passionately about the Harvest. Jesus’ prayer request in Matthew 9:35-38 reveals some characteristics of the Harvest. The harvest is very plentiful even in Fountain Inn. Within 10 square miles around Capstone there are 10,000 people not connected to a local community of faith. People who do NOT know of the FREEDOM that is found in Jesus.

The 3 Characteristics that Walt gave today are:

1. The Harvest has VALUE. Is there value for the lost in your heart?
2. The Harvest is READY. Are you ready to work the harvest?
3. The Harvest has URGENCY.

I don’t know how many know of this, but Capstone Church now has a podcast. We are recording sermons each week and posting them on the internet.  You can follow this link to access it. 

We finished the One Prayer series yesterday. It has been an awesome month of June in celebrating with so many other churches around the world. Yesterday’s message was a perfect ending to the series.

Yesterday Kevin asked the question: What are you YOKED to? Are we yoked to sin or to Christ? For FREEDOM we have been set free. Yet so many times we leave our freedom and return to slavery. Our personal culture does not give way to Kingdom culture.

Kevin explained that our freedom is not a license to sin, and the best way to move beyond that is to think of others and not ourselves. What is our freedom? Our freedom is Jesus Christ, God’s son given for us. I pray that we will declare war on the sin in our lives. Pray for the grace of God to help us replace our Personal culture with Kingdom culture.

Set List:

• Happy Day (Hughes) 
• All Because of Jesus (Fee)
• You Reign (Williams)
• Revelation Song (Kari Jobe) 
• Saving One (Starfield)

To all the EDGE students out there. I have been asked by Brandon to inform you that there is an EDGE gathering coming up FAST.

Sunday during the service we mentioned how much information there was on the medicial aspects of the crucifixition.  Below you find two quick links that will have a lot of information on what we talked about at the Gathering.  At the end of each article there are also references these men used and are very detailed in these areas if you would like to dig even deeper.

Medical Aspects of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ by David Terasaka

On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ by William D. Edwards, MD

Awesome morning at Capstone Church today. Started a new series. Plans were changed BIG time today, but the name of Jesus was lifted high and that is ALL that matters. I wrote a few random thoughts on my blog here.

Is your life like a fairy tale? Odds are that you would answer with a major NO! We read these tales and dream about those things in our own lives, but reality never works out the same way. The problem is that fairy tales only exist in our minds. Happily Ever Afters are not always a part of life. In fact more than our HAPPINESS, God’s main concern is our HOLINESS.

Think about that last line. The Creator God of the universe cares more about your holiness than your happiness. In our sinful mind we get that sentence turned around, but after spending time in the Word we see how true that statement is. “When we love God more we love our spouse greater.”

Read Ephesians 5:25-33 again. Don’t miss the correlation between the image of marriage and the relationship between Christ and the church.

The word that stuck out to me as Walt preached today was SACRIFICE. “Most men would quickly sacrifice their life for their wives. It wouldn’t get a second thought. But are you willing to sacrifice the ESPN or the football tickets or the golf outing?” Our role men is to lead our wives and family in a way to present them blameless before the Father.

Walt closed with this statement and I pray you sit on this for a while. “When we love our spouse as Christ loved the church our marriages will undergo transformation.”

Here are the songs we used to guide our worship today:

• Stir Our Hearts (Dukes)
• All For You (Dukes)
• How Great is Our God (Tomlin)



• Mighty to Save (Hillsong United)



• You Alone Can Rescue (Redman)



• Let Your Kingdom Reign (Elevation Worship)

Yesterday we had the privilege to DUNK 6 people. It is always an exciting time when we get to join in the celebration of transformed lives. Having a DUNK’D service was the perfect way to finish off the Transform series.

Walt preached from Romans 6. Celebrating the transformation that Christ has brought about in our lives. We were DEAD and we are now ALIVE. Think about that. DEAD and now ALIVE. CELEBRATE. SHOUT. JUMP for JOY.

Christ has made us NEW.

Set List:

• All for You (Dukes)
• Jesus Paid It All (Stanfill Version)
• Stir Our Hearts (Dukes)
• From the Inside Out (Hillsong United)
• Let Your Kingdom Reign (Elevation Worship)

The past two weeks have been a blur. When we heard about Haiti’s greatest natural disaster, we knew that Capstone was called to the aid of the Haitian people. Knowing that our mission partners, The Lashbrooks, were OK was a huge relief, but we knew they needed assistance. The most urgent need was money to purchase supplies for the over 100 children they care for. We called this Phase 1 of Hope for Haiti. Within days Capstone had $5000 in the hands of the Lashbrooks so that they could get the needed items. Over the past week our friends and family of Capstone have given an additional $5000 to make Phase 1 a huge success of over $10,000 in aid to Haiti and the Lashbrooks.

Last Thursday I received an email that would have me and two others in Port de Paix with the Lashbrooks 24 hours later. We were able to assist in the aid of Port de Paix with food, water, and medical supplies. We were able to hand the money you gave to Pastor Andy who the next day caught a bus to Port au Prince and found a camp of 200 who had received no aid since what the Haitians are calling “the event”. Your funds purchased water, food, and medicine for this group. All resources we receive will continue to go to this group on the edge of PAP until they receive more help.

Phase 2 began with the collecting of much needed supplies this weekend. Wednesday night volunteers came to pack up these supplies and get them ready to ship over to Haiti. We are calling on our local community (schools, churches, and businesses) to help during the month of February to collect as many supplies as we can to aid Haiti.

Phase 3 will be a trip hopefully this summer to Port da Paix to help the Lashbrooks continue in their ministry to reach Haiti with the gospel of Christ.

As pastor of Capstone I have been blown away at how our newly established community of faith has responded to those in need in Haiti. It is an honor to lead and minister with you as we are all being the hands and feet of Christ. Just as our mission to plant Capstone isn’t a sprint, neither is our aid to Haiti. We have the mentality of a marathon. We believe that anything that is done well doesn’t come quickly, but over a long steady process. Thank You for your gifts, time, and prayers.

While I was in Haiti we were able to attend a Sunday service with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It was a beautiful time. After the service one of the Haitian visitors who also attended the service went to the pastor’s wife and wanted to give a message to us. Her message was simple: “Tell the American’s thank you for not forgetting us.” And this message I pass on to you. Thank you for not forgetting the Haitian people. Continue to pray for them and be the voice of the Haitian people.

Hey everybody. As I am typing this post, Walt and Marvin are driving all night to Ft. Lauderdale to board a plane for Haiti. This day has been CRAZY. It started this morning with an email that involved a FREE plane ticket if Walt could get to Ft Lauderdale. Obviously this kind of opportunity cannot be passed up.

Please keep them in your prayers as they travel. Check back on this blog or over on my blog for any updates as we receive them. PREPARE yourselves Capstone as God leads us toward our partners in Haiti.