Shaped In The Waiting | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Linn Winters

The big idea

God's number one priority for every Christian isn't success, wealth, or happiness — it's growing us up into the likeness of Jesus, and the hard "in between" seasons are often where that growth happens most.

The moments that feel like a pause, a struggle, or an unanswered prayer are not signs God has abandoned us — they are often the very places God is doing His deepest work. Chasing success, comfort, or possessions will always disappoint, because those things were never meant to satisfy. Real transformation comes when we stop focusing on the table of things and start letting trials shape us to look like Jesus.

Point 1 of 9

Pastor Linn states plainly that the instant someone said yes to Jesus, God's number one goal became maturing them in Christ — not making them famous, rich, or happy. This reframes the whole series on the confusing 'in between' seasons of life.

Point 2 of 9

Using his grandson Caleb's flag football story — the team won big but Caleb wept because he only touched the ball once — Pastor Linn shows how being consumed by what didn't go our way blinds us to what God is doing in the moment.

Point 3 of 9

Through the contrasting characters Stephanie (not yet a believer) and Phil (a Christian), Pastor Linn shows both are chasing the same house, car, and lake house dreams. He challenges Phil directly: why look for fulfillment in the same place the world does, when the world is 'a ravenous mistress' that always demands more?

Point 4 of 9

He tells the story of stealing pea-stained golf balls from the zoo's oryx cage as a teenager, only to find they were permanently yellow and unusable. The image of a golf bag full of yellow golf balls becomes his picture of a life spent chasing things that can never satisfy.

Point 5 of 9

Pastor Linn walks through Romans 8:28-29, pointing out that most people quote verse 28 about God working all things for good but skip verse 29, which defines that good as being conformed to the image of Jesus. He argues the best thing that can happen isn't a promotion or bigger house, but becoming more like Christ.

Point 6 of 9

He recalls the WWJD bracelet era and tells about a staff member, Tom Stone, whose life was so marked by seeing God at work that staff began asking 'what would Tom do' — illustrating how letting Jesus show up in us becomes a reference point for others, even our own kids.

Point 7 of 9

Pastor Linn works through James 1:2, noting the text says to 'consider' or decide it's joy, not simply to feel happy about hardship. He illustrates with his high school basketball coach forcing him through brutal wind sprints, which he later realized was training, not punishment, for the real game.

Point 8 of 9

He tells of pushing a lawnmower in the Phoenix heat after Bible college when no church would hire him, and later being treated harshly by unfair elders at his first church job. He connects this to Jesus in Gethsemane praying 'nevertheless your will be done,' showing obedience under authority even when it feels wrong.

Point 9 of 9

Pastor Linn tells the extended story of banning a disruptive teenager named Joel from a youth trip, the resulting anger from Joel's mother Orly, and his supervisor's instruction to 'love on them' anyway. Years later Joel wept and hugged him, later becoming one of Cornerstone's founding 24 members and his own son's Sunday school teacher.

Take it into your week

Pastor Linn's charge is to spend the next thirty days asking, in every circumstance, what would Jesus do in a moment like this.