Cornerstone Church With Dustin Bates

Building A Legacy That Matters | Legacy

Jesus's parable of the talents reveals what it means to be a faithful servant while waiting for His return. Three servants received different amounts of money - two invested and doubled their talents, while one buried his out of fear. The faithful servants received identical praise regardless of the amount they managed. This parable teaches that God entrusts us with five key talents: time, relationships, resources, opportunities, and assignments. Legacy thieves like distraction, comparison, fear, complacency, and lack of faith can steal our faithfulness. True faithfulness means actively investing what God has given us rather than passively waiting, knowing we will give an account for our stewardship.

30th Anniversary Celebration

Cornerstone Church celebrates 30 years of God's faithfulness, tracing its remarkable journey from humble beginnings to community transformation. The story begins with Pastor Henry and Doris Hunkapiller's missionary work in Liberia, whose legacy continued through their daughter Georgie and her husband Pastor Artie Davis. Despite initial reluctance after previous church planting failures, God called them to start something different in Orangeburg. From a small gymnastics center to the Willington campus, and finally to the miraculous acquisition of the old Winn-Dixie building, God has consistently provided beyond human understanding. This legacy reminds us that we live in the shade of trees we didn't plant, and challenges us to continue building for future generations through faithful obedience to God's calling.

 

Choosing What You Multiply | Legacy

Life presents only two fundamental paths: walking by the Spirit or walking by the flesh. Every decision you make today actively shapes your legacy through God's multiplication principle - you don't choose whether your life multiplies, only what it multiplies. The mature Christian response isn't perfect walking, but quickly recognizing when you've strayed, repenting, and changing course. The fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control - emerges naturally when you're walking in step with God. You can create fertile soil for spiritual growth by staying planted in community, saturating yourself in Scripture, maintaining prayer, repenting quickly, and crucifying the flesh.

What Story Are You Living In? | Legacy

Life is more than daily routines and immediate pressures - you are actively building a legacy that will outlast you. Every person has two parts to their legacy: what they were given (both blessings and baggage inherited from family and circumstances) and what they choose to build with it. While you cannot control what was handed to you, you are responsible for what you pass on to others. The key is allowing God to author your story rather than trying to write it yourself. Building a godly legacy requires three actions: internalizing God's truth in your heart, verbalizing your faith in relationships, and memorializing His faithfulness in your environment. One faithful generation can break negative cycles and establish positive patterns for those who come after.

Honoring A Mother's Legacy

Three mothers demonstrate how lasting legacy is built through everyday faithfulness rather than grand gestures. The first mother exemplified wisdom and prayer, teaching her children character while serving as their spiritual shield through constant intercession. The second showed that transformation can happen at any stage of life, demonstrating that following Jesus means knowing where to go when everything falls apart. The third faced terminal brain cancer with unwavering faith, maintaining eternal perspective and continuing to serve others even in suffering. These stories reveal that legacy isn't about perfection but about faithfulness, and the calling to nurture and point others to Jesus extends beyond motherhood to anyone willing to influence lives for eternity.

Faith for the Rescue | The Great Rescue

Faith goes beyond intellectual belief to become personal trust that moves us to action. While belief is accepting facts mentally, faith involves trusting God enough to act without seeing the complete picture. Abraham exemplified this by leaving everything behind when God called him, not knowing his destination. True faith means moving before seeing the end result and enduring circumstances we don't understand. In our culture of distrust, we often struggle to move from belief to faith, preferring to trust ourselves rather than God. The foundation of Christian faith rests on knowing that God doesn't waste pain and that His character is trustworthy, even when we can't see His purposes.

Rescued From Fear | The Great Rescue

Fear can either protect us or paralyze us, but God wants to transform our greatest weakness into boldness. The Apostle Peter's journey from denying Jesus out of fear to boldly preaching the gospel shows us this transformation is possible. True biblical boldness isn't recklessness or aggression - it's spirit-given confidence to speak and obey God even when it costs us something. This boldness comes from spending time with Jesus and replacing wrong fear with the right fear of God. When we understand that Jesus has conquered death, we can live with courage, knowing that the worst thing that could happen to us is simply a doorway to being with him.

Rescued From Shame | The Great Rescue

Shame affects everyone and creates feelings of isolation, unworthiness, and contamination that keep us from God's calling. It originates from things we've done or things done to us, making us feel exposed and unlovable. Peter's story illustrates how shame works - after denying Jesus three times, he retreated from his calling and went back to fishing. Jesus rescued Peter through confrontation, nourishment, and restoration, asking him three times if he loved Him and restoring his purpose. We must choose to let Jesus crush our shame rather than let shame crush us, bringing it into the light and moving forward in obedience to God's calling.

Rescued From Doubt | The Great Rescue

In our culture of suspicion, doubt has become our default setting, leading to isolation and anxiety. The story of Thomas reveals that doubt isn't neutral - it has a destination that locks our hearts and separates us from community. When Jesus appeared to Thomas, He didn't shame him for questioning but offered peace and evidence. Christianity provides substantial historical, philosophical, and cultural evidence for faith. Faith isn't a destination but a trajectory - we're all moving toward either greater trust in God or greater reliance on ourselves. Jesus meets us in our doubt and invites us to examine the evidence while taking reasonable steps toward faith.

Easter 2026

Easter reveals that the impossible is possible through Jesus Christ. The story of two criminals crucified alongside Jesus illustrates humanity's two responses to life's chaos. One thief blamed others and demanded rescue without repentance, while the other owned his guilt and humbly asked Jesus to remember him. The difference wasn't their circumstances but their willingness to take responsibility. Jesus promises paradise to those who acknowledge their need for rescue rather than those who deflect blame. The chaos that entered God's perfect world through sin has an expiration date, and Jesus is the ultimate hero who conquers death itself.