A Place You Can Run | Joshua 20:1-9 | Pastor Fuego Padilla

What's up, Patriot, How y'all doing good? Yeah, it'll elect

your crazy Puerto Rican relative back here. Won't you look

at your neighborhood tell them, hey, come on, that was

kind of weak. That was kind of weak. Look at

your other neighbors, say, other neighbor, you know you're blessed,

and then tell them why cause you're sitting next to

all this. Come on, le's love. But hey, my name

is Passor Fuego. I have the honor and privilege alongside

my gorgeous y Tiffany Or being the campus pastor of

Alameda Patriot Alameda, and it's the honor to be here.

It's the honor to be here. Look, if you're visiting

for the first time, I often tell people you can

belong before you believe, you could belong before your behave.

You can even come as you are, but you best

believe our God loves you and I way too much

not to keep us the way we are. Amen. We

believe that Christianity is not about perfection, it's about progression.

You don't have to be the best today, but you

do need to get better today. So won't you touch

about two three people telling them get better, get better?

Get better. Come on, specially if you're married. Tell him. Listen,

that's why you're here, That's why you're here. Get better.

We're not trying to get better. We're trying to get better.

We want to make sure that Patriot is a home

for the hungry. Some of y'all looking at me a

little twisted, like did this brother say his name is Swego? No,

it's not Swego. And if you don't speak Spanish, it's okay,

Look neither do I. Fuego means fire is Spanish. Everybody

up fire, that's right. And it don't mean I think

I'm a hot and handsome dude, even though my wife

tells me all the time. Y'all through sabag. But it

does come from Jeremiah twenty and nine. If I said

I would never mention God or speak of his name,

his word burns like a fire. A fuego shut up

in my bones. I'm growing weary trying to hold it in.

I can't do it. I gotta tell people about Jesus

and what He has done in it through my life.

If you love Jesus on three yell, Jesus won two

three man. He's in the building and anything can happen.

Tell your neighbor. Anything can happen. Come on, anything can happen.

That's right, Well, I'm grateful. Listen, I gotta find out

right off top like a Barbara shalle Hey, we're my

nosey people that raise your hand. Nosy people, Yeah, because

we know who the real nose he was, the ones

with their hand down looking around y'all the nosy ones.

Uh huh. But listen, it's okay. We're gonna redeem it.

Everybody say redeem it, and that ray, We're gonna redeem it. This.

You know when nosy people do, they listen like this,

but they say, well, we're gonna redeem it by using

it to lean in. Everybody say lean in, and you're

gonna lean in because I believe whatever you tune into

you turn into. And I want you to lean in

and tune into the Word of God so that you

and I will turn into men and women of God,

men of valid, women of virtue. Amen. So let's do this.

Since we're getting off to a right story, let's do this.

Let's put our hands over our heart like this. Amen.

Have you noticed that your heart's on your left because

it just ain't right. Amen? It just ain't right. So

I want you to know that it is not my

responsibility to get your heart right. That's up to you.

According to Mark chapter number four, we see that Jesus

gives us a parable. He is telling us about a

farmer who's sowing seed, and he gives us four different soils.

So that soil is your heart. Now you gotta assess

your own heart and do the proper assessment to say, hey, Lord,

am I ready to receive the word of God? Because

the word of God is the seed that is potent

and it will bear fruit that will be thirty sixty

or even one hundred times more than what was planted.

But you gotta be ready to receive it. If you're ready,

everybody say I'm ready. Amen. Amen. Now, since we are

at church, we like to stand for the reading of

God's word. Amen. Would you do that? And if your

neighbors complaining about their feet hurt, and tell them they

chose to wear them shoes, all right, they chose to

wear them shoes. We are in Joshua chapter number twenty.

Joshua chapter number twenty, and this is how it reads.

We'll have it on the screen too, just in case

you don't have your bible. Then the Lord said Joshua.

Everyone says, Joshuay to the people of Israel, appoint the

cities of refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses.

Everyone say Moses that the manslayer, who strikes any person

without intent or unknowingly, may flee there. They shall be

for you a refuge from the Avenger of Blood. And

he shall flee to one of these cities, and shall

stand at the entrance of the gates of the city

and explain his case to the elders of that city.

Then they shall take him into the city and give

him a place, and he shall remain with him. And

if the Avenger of Blood pursues him, they shall not

give him up. The man slayer into his hand, because

he struck his neighbor unknowingly and did not hate him

in the past. And he shall remain in the city

until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until

the death of he excuse me, until the death of

him who is high priest at the time. Then the

man slayer may return to his own town and his

own home, and to the town from which he fled.

I'm going to jump down to verse nine and it reads,

these were the cities designated for all the people of Israel,

and for the stranger soul journey among them, that anyone

who killed a person without intent could flee there, so

that he might not die by the hand of the

avenger of blood till he stood before the congregation. Let

us pray, Spirit of the Living God, I thank you,

we honor you, Lord God. I pray that you would

hide the preacher behind the cross, that you would hide

the preacher behind the pulpit, that your word, that is

alive and active, would do what only it can do.

Lord God, I thank you that we are here, standing

in attention for your word to do what only you

could do to bring transformation on our hearts. So, Lord,

as we have ears to hear what you are saying,

let us receive it and let us apply it. Because information,

Lord God, with our application will not bring the transformation

we need. So, Lord God, we want to honor you,

not with just our lips, but with our lives in

Jesus Mighty name. And everyone said, amen, as you're having

to see, tell your neighbor that story was crazy. Our

story was crazy. Now, if you're new to Patriot, we

have been in the Book of Joshua throughout the entirety

of this year. We're almost done. There's only twenty four

chapters in Joshua. Whin chapter number twenty and now, if

you've been with us, I'm so proud that you've been

with us and following us and tracking with us. You

got your journal, your Joshua journal. Some of y'all probably

had kids during this time, and name your kid Joshua. Right,

some of y'all moved on Jericho Drive. You love Joshua

so much. But what I really love is that the

teaching that's been coming from this house about Joshua has

been very rich, with a lot of history in it

and showing that there's been foreshadows of Christ. Pastor Heron.

He preached the phenomenal message last Wednesday, and he brought

the word that was so beautiful. When I was leaning

in from home, I was like, brother, you were preaching

and showing foreshadows of Christ. Of how Jesus and Joshua,

how they're showing Jesus in Joshua. How about that we

see that Joshua he has a last task before he

goes home to see the Lord. And his last task

was to rebuild was to rebuild. Everyone say rebuild. He's

to rebuild. And Jesus, he says in his words in

the New Testament, he says, I'm going to prepare a

place for you. Pastor Heron was showing us those parallels.

He showed us how Joshua he took a heal victoriously,

and how Jesus took a heal victoriously called Calvary for

you and I. He showed us that in the word.

And today we're actually showing that Jesus is our refuge.

Can you say refuge? That's right, Jesus is our refuge.

Now in this story, it's kind of crazy. I was thinking,

is this hunger games? Is this purge? Is this the

old school movie The Running Man? I don't know if

y'all know about that movie, The Running Man, old school movie?

Running in this refuge that is established ahead of time

for people to run. Now, this is for people, of course, obviously,

who did something unintentionally. They have a refuge to run to.

If they unintentionally killed someone. That's why it's called the

man slayer, right, a man slaughter, they would have a

place where they can run. Now, this is something that

is good that's established and set up because they had

something called lex talionis. Lex talionis that is a Latin

word that means law of retaliation. Now low retaliation is

basically an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

They would have somebody. If someone cost harm to someone,

they would just retaliate. And of course it's not giving

freedom for revenge. It's not doing that. It's actually setting

a limitation. It's setting a limitation in this regard that

if it's an eye for an eye, they're saying that

the punishment should fit the crime. But you know, us

as people, we'd like to do extra. Somebody cuts you off,

you gonna cut them off and hit the brakes, you

know how we do. Somebody says something to your kid,

You're gonna hit both their kids. Someone says, oh, I'm

gonna hit you in the mouth. You're gonna say, I'm

gonna knock all your teeth out. Right, we always go

further than we should. And that's where Jesus even comes

on the scene in the New Testament and he says,

you've heard it said, right, an eye for an eye,

a tooth for a tooth. But I say right, do

not resist an evil person. If he hits you on

the cheek, give them the eye. If he tells you

to carry something one mile, carry it two miles. Jesus

is setting the tone and letting us know how we

ought to use this thing called retaliation. Instead of retaliation,

show forgiveness, mercy and justice. And this is really what

the Cities of Refuge are about, showing the proper justice

and mercy for the people who would escape and go there. Now,

these places are actually the cities are six cities. Could

we put those six cities up? These six cities, there's

three on the east side and three on the west side.

These six cities, they were in a place where it

was easy to get to. Some commentarators would say that

it would only be a day's journey away for you

to get there, just a day's journey for someone to

get there. It was easily accessible. Some even say in

commentaries they would say that the roads were actually a

lot wider than instead of it just being a narrow road,

there would be two or four feet wider, so that

people would have easy access to get to these cities

of refuge, So that they would stand before the people

and they would plead their case, and a person who

was the Avenger of the Blood would not take this

person's life without first having a case. Now, if you're

taking notes, I want to introduce the very first point

to you. If you're taking notes, because no takers, they're

the ones that rule the world. This is my very

first point. God provides ahead of time. God provides ahead

of time. Now, in verse two and three, it says,

say to the people of Israel, appoint the cities of

refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses. That

the man slayer who strikes any person without intents or unknowingly,

may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge

for the avenger of the Blood. So the cities are

not man's idea, they're God's design and that were placed

there ahead of time. I don't know if you can

recall right now at this moment a time where God

he provided something for you ahead of time. I remember

a friend of mine, him and I. We grew up together.

We played baseball, football, we went on vacations together. This

was my road dog, my homie. This was the God

that me and him were like chopsticks. We were together

all the time. Now, when me and him, were always

hanging out. His mother became kind of like my mom.

Anybody got some friends like that, right, came like my mom. Well,

his mother ended up in the hospital, had a very

bad stroke, ended up in the hospital. And I had

just a year ago given my heart to Jesus. I

surrendered my life to the Lord. I'm living for the Lord.

And I came to them before her being hospitalized, and

I shared the Gospel with her and she rejected it.

Her son rejected it, her husband rejected it. The whole

household rejected it. Felt bad because I knew that eternity

was real. And I said, man, I was so heartbroken.

Now she's in the hospital and she was declining quickly.

She ends up passing away. I get a phone call.

My friend calls and he says, fuego, my mom died.

And I was heartbroken. My heart was just grieved. I

put my hands to my face and knees to the

floor and I cried out, Lord, have mercy on her.

My mom. She came to me, she said, son, why

have you been grieving for so many days? This isn't

your mother. I'm your mother, and I want to let

you know like she is with the Lord, And I said, Mom,

you're a Christian. How could you tell me that? See,

you know the life that she lived and the life

that we used to live all together. How could you

say something like that? She said, Wait a minute, Sun,

you're going ninety in the thirty. What's happening? I said, man, Mom,

She went home and she rejected. She rejected the Lord,

and she said, Son, three days before she passed, the

Lord placed on my heart to go to the hospital

and for me. I went and talked to her, and

she received Jesus as her Lord and savior. And she

told me something that I never forget. She said, Son,

the Lord provides ahead of time. The Lord provides ahead

of time. And the Lord did that for you and

I because this refuge is a foreshadowing of Christ being

the refuse for us, being a provision to help us

when we have a place that we can run to.

You see, God provided Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior,

ahead of time before we even sin. He is the one.

Look at one Peter, chapter one, verse twenty. Look what

it says. God chose him who is him, Jesus as

the ransom long before the world began, Long before the

world began. God had provided a way for us. Now,

if you're taking notes, since his point number two, the

refuge was open to all. The refuse was open to all.

Verse number nine. This is where we find it. These

were the cities designated for all people of Israel, and

for the stranger, soul journing among them, soul journing among them. Now,

this is to me, this is exactly what the gospel is.

It's for all people, right, it doesn't reject anybody. It's

actually for all people. And now this place called the refuge,

people could come, whether they were Jew or Gentile. They

could come from anywhere. They were open. It was actually

open for all because it was open twenty four to seven.

It really was. The doors were not closed. I'm originally

from New York. You know what I'm saying, Son, It

was originally from New York. I'm originally from New York,

and there are things that are open twenty four hours

a day. My mama used to say, Son, New York

is the best place to be pregnant. I was like,

why you say that, Mama, because you know, when you're hungry,

you get some anytime. Anyway. I was like, you're giving

me too much information. Girl too much information. But this

refuge is open twenty four to seven. That meaning anybody

could come in at any time from anywhere and be

able to see receive mercy and grace. Now, this is

the Gospel open for all for food. People who are

jew or Gentile, near or far from God. They all

could come and receive Jesus. They all can run to

Jesus if they're willing to run to him as their refuge. Amen.

Now this is what Romas ten thirteen says, for everyone

who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,

shall be saved. That's why I love this place of

refuge that is open to all. Now, the place of

refuge is a beautiful place for this reason. The roads

some Jewish commentators who will say that the roads were

so smooth and that there was no hill, there was

no mound. It was smooth and it was wider as

I said before. And the reason why is because they

wanted it to be a smooth run for the person fleeing,

that they would not trip or stumble over something. They

wanted them to make sure they don't break their stride

to keep their Now I started looking at this and

I started to think about the church, started to think

about my life, started to think about this journey of Christianity.

And I wanted to ask you a question that I

asked myself. Listen, are you a place of refuge for all?

Or are you a stumbling block? Are you a refuge

for all or a stumbling block? Oh? You know what

a stumbling block is, right, It's not just something you

trip over. It's something like, oh, you know, you can't

tame your tongue, right, so when people come to you

to confess, it hits the press, right, everybody got to know.

Everybody got to know. Or how about this a person

that is out loud talking about the things of God,

but then they do dishonest business. These are things that

are a stumbling block. Why because all the people that

we deal with that are outside of Christ see that

and it trips them up forever wanting to run into

the presence of God. Now we should be like that

road to the road of refuse, the city of refuge,

that nobody trips or stumbles. This is what Jesus taught.

Matter of fact, it was so talked about in all

four of the Gospels. Now, usually some stories don't make it. It

all four of the gospels, but I think this was

so important that it made all four Jesus. He comes

to the temple and he sees that there are people

selling and trading, and what they're doing is they're charging

extra for all of the sacrifices that need to be purchased.

And he makes a whip and he drives them all

out of the temple. Right. We see this in John two.

He drives them out of the temple and he flips

over the tables and he says, get this out of

my father's house. You're turning it into a marketplace. You see,

those things were stumbling blocks. It wasn't that, oh, you

can't sell Patriot gear in here, No, it was talking

about why are you making it harder for people to

come to God. I am the sacrifice, I am the refuge.

I am the one that will cover them. I am

the one that is their hope, their joy. I am

the one, and you're making it harder for my people.

So I want to ask you, are you a refuge

for all or for some? Or are you a refuge

for just whom you want to be a refuge to?

And are you a stumbling block or not? Now when

I'm thinking about this refuge in a stumbling block. I

started to think about this place that was a refuge

for young men in Oakland. Now, I'm from the Bay

Area in northern Cali, right, and we used to live.

It is hood. I was gonna say, it was kind

of hood. It was Listen, it was Brookfield, California. Right,

it was East Oakland, Brookfield. We lived in this house.

It was seven bedrooms for bathrooms, and we're renting this

spot out. And when the Lord blessed us with this spot,

we opened the doors because I was like, Lord, this

house is so big. My kids don't even want to

play hode and seeking it. What am I supposed to do?

And it was like he slapped me on the back

of the head and he said, when did my great

commission become the great suggestion? He said, go and make disciples.

So I opened up the doors and guess what he saw.

Now that's a wrap, but he he. I brought people

in and I started to disciple them, and they went

off to be in churches. And now they're still there,

married in things. And it was great. It was a wonderful,

wonderful place for them to get restored. Now this did

not stop throughout my life. It started when I was

not married, but now even when I am married to

my lovely wife, Tiffany. We actually a couple of months

ago brought this young man into our home. His name

is Manny. I want to introduce you to him. I

think we got a picture of him, a man Manny,

and if not, it's okay, you follow him on the ground.

But Manny, Manny. I saw him. He was in our church.

And when he was in our church, he's our music director.

Now he's our music director. But he was at this

place where everything was on the decline. His health was

on the decline. I could just see him declining in

his leadership, declining in community. It was I just had

him on my heart for two months. I was praying

for him. Alas fastened and then I said. I came

to my wife and I said, sweet, this gentleman has

been on my heart for a couple of months now,

and I'm thinking that God wants us to move him

into our house. What do you think? And she was like,

the devil is a lot now, I'm just kidding. She

didn't do that. She didn't do that. She didn't do that.

She submitted you know, she submitted. She didn't though. She did,

though in a nice way, in the nice but she

did say to me, she said, you know what, you've

never led our family wrong. Whenever you feel God was

leading you to have a person move in the home

with us, we've always seen God breathe on it and

something great happen in that person's life. So we moved

him in. Immediately change started to happen in his life.

I mean, he's only been with us a month and

we already seen drastic change in everything in his life.

Why am I telling you this, Well, because one day

he did something that was out of pocket. My man

was on the Nick Cannon show wild'n Out, not literally,

but he was doing things he shouldn't have been doing.

So we sat him down, and when we sat him down,

we talked with him. The whole family we talked with him,

and as we talked with him, he I said, now

I'm gonna give you an opportunity to speak, and this

is what comes out of his mouth. He said, passi fuego.

I've never had this before. He said, you know what,

I've always just been yelled at and never given an

opportunity to talk. He said, thank you for correcting me,

and thank you for giving me a place where I

could plead my case, and thank you for this family.

I said, Wow, that right, there is a place of refuge,

a place that someone can come to. So that's why

I'm asking my church family tonight. Are you a place

of refuge for all? Are you a place of refuge

just for some? Can people come to you with some

of their burdens and you be tested and trusted not

to gossip or you will be a person that can

cherish it and take it to prayer. Could you be

a person that says, you know what they matter so

much that God died for them. Okay, I'm gonna say

this side. God died for them for you. Listen, y'all,

like he died for you. Like that's mind blowing to me,

Like he died for me and you. Why would we

try to give earthly advice? Why would we try to

give something clever? Why would we do that? Why would

we chat GBT something to say to the person. Why

when we need Heaven's resources to do Heaven's work. That's

what we need and that's what a person will need.

Now when this city of refuge is this city of refuge.

They had the roads. But one thing else that stood

out to me that they have when you're going to

this city of refuge, the cities of refuge, they had

these posts that stood up and on the posts they

were on every turn. So when the person was fleeing,

on the urns on the post it would say refuge,

and it was a sign of hope to the man

who was unhappy, who was fleeing. Will you and I

be a post on every corner that a person in

their life as they're fleeing. The one who is the

avenger of the blood I'm talking about Satan, you know,

the one that comes to steal, kie and destroy, the

one that don't want nothing for you to get that

God has in your life, the one that wants to

rob your purpose. The one that pulls up like a serpent,

and he looks like he's supposed to be there in

your life, but really he's not, because he comes disguised

as the angel of light. The one that pulls up

like he's your friend, whispers in your ear to see

but we can't even hear the slitherness feature of a

serpent because we have not been in the logos word

of God. We haven't been in the word of God

to know when God speaks, we can hear his voice.

We recognize his voice because my sheep they know my

voice and they run to me. Will you be a

post that says refuge that when somebody sees you. Another

God that we got he came to the conference. His

name is Chris. He was a gentleman in our neighborhood group.

And when we were in that neighborhood group, this guy

was struggling with alcohol. And Chris was saying, man, you

know what I've been doing things, and my wife she's

come to you know, fall in love with the Lord more.

And he was just boasting a whole lot about what

God has been doing. And the gentleman sitting across said,

he said, man, you talk about Jesus all the time, Chris,

But like I'm struggling with alcohol addiction. How does this even?

How do I get delivered from that? And my man

leaned over and he said, bro, I want you to

see the scars on my arms. I used to be

addicted to heroin and God delivered me. God is my refuge.

He's my refuge. He's my refuge. My man chose to

stand ten toes down and say I'm gonna be a

post of refuge, letting these people know this is a

sign of hope. Brother, if you're strung out on drugs

or if you're dealing with alcoholism, listen, this will be

a sign of hope that Jesus run to him, Run

to him, and you'll find rest. Because ask Christians, we

are to run to him, we are to rest in him,

but we are also supposed to rise. Run, rest and rise, run,

rest and rise. I gotta say that one more time, run,

rest and rise. The reason why I say run, rest

and rise is because do you remember when you were

when you were in your sin? Do you remember? Was

it death far? Was it deb distant? Listen? Every day

I wake up and I'm just I'm hitting the face

with it, like, Lord, look at what you saved me from. Now.

I don't know if it's been so distant from you

that you haven't had a problem. Maybe it's because you've

just been resting and you haven't rose up. When I

say rest and rise, I'm talking about the church. We

are a place of refuge. Great people will come, they

come running. They can find rest here. But I'm hoping

that you're not staying so comfortable that you're thinking that

it's still all about you and that you're not on

God's mission to go and seek the lass, teach the fountain,

send it. Are you a disciple or are you still

being comforted? See? Because because I kind of have like

a little bit of a pet peeven because I love

the House of God and I just knowing we've come

to church and we get all the coffees in and

we get the lattes and thieves be cracking. Look at

we got people at the Alter prayer team chewing mints.

Now like it's just great, no more halatosis, It's hallelujah, Amen,

and everything is just a blessing. But we could get

real comfortable. We get real comfortable, we just sit, we

take it in and then we forget that was a

good word. Was it that good that it moved you

to rise up and go and be a comfort to

somebody else who needed comforting just like you were. Because

that's what the refuge is about. The refuge is for

you to recognize, matter of fact, thank you, Holy Spirit.

Matter of fact, the refuge when they come to the

city gate and they stand at the city gate, you

know who are the people who would be the elders,

the levi Us. Whoo, didn't pass the here and teach

y'all about Simeon and levi They shouldn't have gotten nothing.

They took out the people or shock them. They should

have gotten nothing. But yet God showed them grace and

mercy and put them over positions in cities instead of

giving them land. And then look at what he does.

He makes them the judges at the gate so that

they would never forget the grace and mercy. God showed

to them that when they're judging others, they too would

be able to be merciful. Whoo, thank you, Holy Spirit.

That's what you and I are to be. Four people.

You gotta remember where you were from, Remember what happened,

Remember what happened. Take a drive down the old neighborhood

you used to go to something. Do whatever it takes.

But don't let that be out of your grip, so

that you don't fall out of touch for saying God,

I don't remember what you did it for me, because

we're always on to the next, on to the next. Now,

this is my last point right here, my last point, yeah, yeah,

my last point here we go. Here we go last

point point number three. The refuge was secure by the

high priest. Now verse six, it says he shall remain

in the city until he has stood before the congregation

for judgment, until the death of him who is high

priest at the time. Now we're gonna just jump for

the second time right to Hebrews, because Jesus is our

high priest. Jesus is our high priest. Even in John two,

when he flipped over the tables, there were high priests

that would come and check and see if there was

a spot or blemish on the animal, and they would

be like, no, you can't. Well, Jesus is the high priest.

He's the one also the lamb for us as well.

So Jesus, right here here we go. Hebrews, chapter nine,

verse eleven to twelve. Here he goes. But when Christ

appeared as a high priest of the good things that

have come, then through the greater and more per perfect

tent not made with hands, that is not of this creation,

he entered once for all into the Holy Place, hallelujah,

not by means of blood of goats or calves, but

by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption,

eternal redemption for this I'm gonna end with this story. Family.

I think that this story will be a minister into

all of us and minister to my heart very much.

So there was a man in his sun that were

lost in the snow, got away from their vehicle it

ran out of gas, and now they're on this journey

through the storm. It is snowing everywhere. There's like three

feet of snow. It's getting really cold. Seems like no hope.

I mean, his legs are weak, his toes are numb,

and his son is looking at his dad and he says, Dad,

I'm so cold. I don't know if I can make it,

and his Dad's like, I got you. He picks up

his son and he starts walking with him. He's walking

with the sun. And as he's walking with his sun,

he's getting Cody sees his legs getting even weaker and

he's shivering. And then as he's squinting it, he's looking

through the snow and through the wind, he sees just

like a flicker of light and it looks like it's

a house. And so he starts pressing forward, looking like

there's a glimpse of hope, and then there's smoke coming out,

like there's a chimney. He's like, yes, there may be

a fireplace where we could get warm. Him and the

sun get closer. It's an orphanage, and they busting through

the door, falling on the ground, and the warmth that

they feel on their body is like the warmth of

just thawing out with mercy. It just felt like mercy

washing right over them. They come into the place, the

lady greets them and she says, hey, can we help you?

She startled the little bit. He's like, yes, we're freezing.

Do you have anything that warm that we can eat,

or warm that we could drink? Some hot chocolate or something.

She says yes, and she helps them, and she helps them.

As she helps him. At the helps a young man

and his father. She brings it to him. They start

getting warm, and they're sitting down and they're kind of

now they're starting to get their feelings back in their

fingers and they're talking a little bit. But the lady

comes with tears in her in her eyes, and she says, hey, sir,

I'm glad that you're warm and everything, but I don't

know if you notice that this is an orphanage, and

this is a place where children who have lost their

parents they stay here. And we can't have any adults

staying here, and so you and your son are gonna

have to leave. And she was like, wait, wait a minute,

where are we gonna go? It's freezing. After she was like, sir,

I understand, but these are the house rules. You can't

stay here. And he was like, well, at least let

my son stay here, and he was like she was like, no, no,

he has a father. And so the father turns and

he looks at his son and he kisses his son

on the forehead and he's like, son, you know I

love you so much. And then he turns around. He

hands his hand to the lady, and then the father

walks out the door. And as the father walks out

the door, the lady said, hey, you have to take

your son with him, because he has living parents, and

he says, no, it's been arranged. The man walked into

the snow and he dies, maybe hundreds of yards away,

with his arms stretched out towards where his son was.

And he passes away, but lets his son live place

of refuse. Isn't that stories sound familiar? How Jesus he

brings you to a safe place, and with his outstretched hands,

he took a cross for you and me so that

we would be able to have the freedom in him,

the High Priest, the one that took our sins, and

it was laid upon him, and it was laid upon him.

You know, I don't know how many people here could

resonate with that story. I don't even know how any

of the messages hitting home for you. But my mission

tonight was just simple to get the people who who

are uncomfortable comfortable, and those who are comfortable uncomfortable, those

who need refuse to be in the arms of Christ,

and those who have been in the arms of Christ,

comforted by His love, his grace and his mercy. Now

to rise to say, Hey, how come I haven't joined?

How Come I haven't gone to growth trap. How Come

I haven't been serving at the doors? How Come I

haven't been in the parking lot. How Come I haven't

been using my gift in the House of God? Why not?

What have I been waiting for? The great commission for

every Christian is to go and make disciples. It's simple.

Discipleship is life on life. Have you opened your home

for somebody. Have you opened up the word and taught

already what you've been taught on Sunday to someone You

can start there. We have people in position that's pastors

and elders and people that pray for you. But you

you got to take a step forward. You got to

be able to be a place of refuge for others

that when you're at your job, at school, you're amongst

your family, you actually are a post that stands saying

a place of refuge. Now, just a moment, we're gonna

bow our heads and we're gonna say a prayer. Now,

there's no power in the prayer. The power is in

the name above, every name which everything will bound with

tongue will confess. And it's the name of Jesus. And

twenty something years ago, I'll say, twenty yeah, twenty years

ago when not I surrendered my life to Jesus, and

I didn't have the opportunity of sitting in church and

somebody telling me about a God that died for me,

took my sin upon him that all I have to

do is receive this free gift of salvation and I

can be saved. I didn't know that it was good news.

I was made on the streets where I was almost

murdered and left dead. And that night when Jesus, the God,

the God that I did not want, the one that

I rejected, walked into my situation. And when he walked

into my situation, I was met with his word. The

Bible says in Proverbs fourteen twelve, there's a path that

looks right to a man, but it leads to death.

And that night I was introduced to Christ. Because as

he knocked on the door of my heart that night,

that was the scripture that I was met with. And

I yelled Jesus. And when I yelled Jesus, the gunman

that had the gun to my face put the gun down,

and my life was fared. Now I'm here today to

let you know that the God that we serve, his

word is alive and is active. His word is real.

His word is what saved me that night. His name

is what saved me that night. Matter of fact, when

Jesus was walking on water, he walked on his word,

because in Psalms seventy seven, verse nineteen, it says that

he walked on water and left no footprint. Psalms was

pointing to Jesus. His word is alive, His word is real.

The Lord that we serve is real. Always. I could

download every single thing that I have in my heart

so that you would be able to repent and turn

to Jesus. But all we get is thirty five minutes

now tonight. If you do want to receive Jesus into

your heart as Lord and savior, we're all gonna bow

our heads and we're gonna say a prayer. And if

you would, let's all as a family say it together.

Would you would you say this? Repeat after me, Lord Jesus.

I believe that you're the son of God. I believe

you died on the cross, and on the third day,

God the Father raised you from the grave. I opened

my heart receive you as my Lord and Savior, Holy Spirit.

Feel me from the top of my head to the

soles of my feet in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, come on,

clap it up for yourselves. Family, Now, if you did

say that prayer for the very first time or for

the very last time, as pastor adam less to say,

I just want you to so boldly put your hand up.

If you would on the counter, three ready, one, two, three,

go ahead, and put your hand up there? Would you

keep it up? I see hands here all over the place.

Here you go. Amen. Now we have a resource for

yous ww dot Grow dot Faith. It's right here, yeah,

on the screen. It's a book that's you could just

download it and it's gonna help you take some practical steps,

especially in your walk. You don't want to just receive

Christ as Lord and did not know what to do

with your steps. We do have growth track on Sundays. Man,

I recommend you to go through that so you'll be

able to find out your own divine design and then

you'll be able to get mobilized what to not just

be a person that attends church, but that actually be

the church and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

The Bible says that the harvest is plentiful, y'all, but

the laborers are few. So pray to the Lord of

the harvest that he would send laborers. And that's you.

If God is already tugging on your heart, man I

urge you to make that step quickly. We have a

team that's ready to serve you. We love you, God

bless you. We have an ultra prayer team here too.

That's ready to pray for you if you need prayer.

God bless you.