Unity, Maturity & Your Part | Pastor Adam Mesa | Patria Means Family

Well, praise God. I'm excited to jump into the word today,

on this day today. And so if you have a Bible,

would you grab it out and prepare yourself to hold it.

If not, we'll have it up on the screen. Could

you also do me a favor. This is one of

those weekends that it's all campus weekend, so I have

all of our campuses joining us. Can we hear in

Rancho give some love to Pomona and Alameda and all

those that are watching online. It's so good to see

everyone as we close out our series because next week

we go into baptisms. This week we've had baby dedications

and so it's an action packed weekend that we have

on this weekend. And the past three days, Ashley and

I took our first time ever we did something new.

We took all of our campus pastors together with us

for three days to sit together, to pray together, to

dream together, and also to build community with one another.

And so you know, Pastor Steve and Dolores we're there

from Pomona and a pastor's Waego and Tiffany came down

from Alameda. We had pastors Aaron and Erica representing Rancho

and then also you'll meet them a little bit later on.

We had our new campus pastors for Corona, Marty and

Joseph that were joining us as well that are new

to the family, who will introduce later. And one of

the things we did is we had a guacamole competition

on who could make the best guaca mole with the

most creative ingredients, and everybody voted, and I'm so sad

to say that, of of course Pomona would win that competition,

and so they took the prize on the best guacamole.

Pastor Aaron and Erica did not go in the running.

Actually second place for me and Ashley, which I'm really

proud of. But Pastor Stephen Dolores, they're both Mexicans, so

they should have won that, which I'm glad that they did.

I'm only a quarter Mexican, so you know. And so

it's been a great week already, and I'm excited to

continue talking about our church Patreon means family for the

last time. And some of the things we shared about

the first week of this month is we shared about

meet the Family, and it was God sets the lonely

in families, and so we shared about our Churches verse

which is Ephesius, chapter three, verse fourteen to fifteen. And

what we've shared so far, if you've missed it, is

that through Jesus, God welcomes all people. Doesn't matter your background,

your sin, your culture, your ethnicity, whether you were born

a rich, poor you know, a working class or blue

collar family, white collar family. Anyone who would call upon

the name of Jesus is given the gift of salvation

and brought into the family of God. And so we

talked about that the first week and then the second week.

Last week, which was phenomenal, we just allowed God to

do some spiritual surgery on all of us and talked

about freedom. And so as we talked about that, God

welcomes us into the family, what then we talked about

is then as you and I are welcome into God's family,

he wants to begin to give you a new identity.

He wants to shape your identity. And so if you

missed last Sunday, I couldn't encourage you enough to jump

online and catch up with us on last week, you

could still participate because we talked about what does it

look like to receive an identity that God wants to

give you not one that man gives you, not one

that the world gives you, but one that God gives you.

But here's the beautiful thing which we'll conclude with today.

As God desires to give you a new individual identity,

what the Father wants to do as well for you

and I is he wants to give us collectively a

family identity. Maybe you've seen it in your own life.

Maybe you've been part of a family with a healthy

identity or a family with not so much of a

healthy identity. I think we all crave to be around

a healthy family. Have you ever been around a healthy

family before and thought, Man, I crave that kind of relationship.

I desire that type of fondness with the family, not

just a father's relationship with their son or a daughter's

real relationship with her mother. It's when a family is unified.

There's beauty in it, there's a traction in it. Everybody

wants and desires a family that moves together and communicates

well and encourages each other and holds each other accountable

to go to new lengths. And the reality is, whether

you've had that on earth or not, God wants to

do that with you in his family. He wants to

bring you and I through the family of Jesus, and

he wants to impart some things to us, which is

what we're going to share about this weekend. In a

few moments, we'll jump to Ephesians four. But I just

want us to open up with this thought, and I

want you to think about this for just a moment

throughout the whole message that I share. Over these brief moments,

I have a you know, a random family here that

I have a picture of that I want to share

with you guys. And you know, here's this family. I

don't know them. This is what we got off of Google. Okay,

so these are relatives or anything like that. But it's

a beautiful family. You know, in this photo, multiple generations.

You know, you see grandparents in this photo. You have

you see mom and dad in this photo. It looks

like even mom and dad have some other siblings potentially

in this photo. So multiple families there. And then you

have children of different ages, right, you have teenagers and

preteens and children. And when we look at this photo,

what I want to encourage you to do today because

what I want, what I want, what I want us

to do to think about when we're in the house

of God. Is I want you to think where am

I at right now in my spiritual journey? If I

was in God's family photo, where am I at right

now in my faith? Now, I'm not talking about your age.

I'm talking about if you assigned a spiritual age to

where your faith is right now. Because we could all

agree that if you saw someone that was older, maybe

they were in their sixties or seventies, if you saw

them with a binkie in their mouth, or they were

drinking milk out of a baby bottle, would we not

think that that was odd? Would say, oh, that that's odd.

And so a lot of times what we like to

do as Christians is we like to assign a number

of years that we've been saved to try to signify

our maturity. Oh, I've been saved fifteen years. I've been

saved twenty years. I've been saved thirty years. But what

I want to propose to you this week, whether you've

been saved six months, one week, sixty years, whatever it is,

it's not about the length that you feel that you've

been saved. My question is is where do you feel

like your maturity has grown in the family. Because you

could be saved forty years but still have a pacifier

in your mouth. You could still have it be drinking

out of a baby bottle. And what I would love

for every believer that as you get older in your faith,

you grow in your maturity. As God has given you

an identity, God brings you into the family identity. And

what happens is you go from a place we don't

mind when children are always receiving. But how many of

all know I did youth ministry for many, many years.

There's a time that parents shift the gear and they say, Okay,

you're this age, it's time you start contributing to this family.

When you were five, we were good with you making

a mess. When you were seven, we forgave you for

spilling the drink on the counter. But you're not going

to do that. At nineteen, You're not going to do

that at sixteen, you know are You're twenty three and

still living with us, trying to chip in on that

electric bill. Time to start covering your own insurance. And

I want you to see that as we're part of

God's family, we're part of his family identity. You may

have been saved twenty years but does your maturity? Does

your faith? Does your contribution to the king Bob, I'm

not talking about finances, your contribution to the Kingdom of God.

When you're out in the city. Do you think like

a mature believer? Do you talk like a mature believer?

Do you act like a mature believer? When you come

into church? Children only receive, children do not give. The

only thing children give is their presence, and there's for

only so long? Is it cute? My boys are so

cute to me, but when they start taking advantage of me,

they actually turned really ugly in my eyes, really fat.

I'm like, no, no, no, no, you can't just bat

your eyelashes. You're you're acting up right now. I've seen

I've seen this progression in my own life. I got

I got a family photo of my family when I

was growing up, you know, Pastor Diego and and so

I you know, I got, Uh, here's Pastor Nathan on

the on the top left. Uh. Here, here's here's my

brother Caleb right here in the middle. What I don't

understand is I didn't know that I was casted for

Harry Potter. Back then. I had no idea that was

a really rough season for me. I had just started

getting glasses I actually couldn't see, and my mom picked

out glasses with dolphins on the side of them, and uh,

I was really embarrassed by that. And then and then

you got Pastor Diego with whatever mustache that is, you know,

and you got my mom, the nicest white woman you'll

ever meet in your life. She's the best. And so

you know, I got this picture. And at the time,

I'm the youngest in the family. But as God has

moved in my life, you know, leading a church now

though I'm the youngest in my family in a lot

of ways perspectively in my church setting, I'm leading in

my family. And so it's been it's been a very

strange swap for me that I go from spending majority

of my life as the youngest, majority of my life

as the one receiving, and then there's a point where

God shifts something in my life and he says, now,

not actually, you're just not the one contributing at him

in a lot of respects, not all respects, but a

lot of respects at him. You're leading now your family.

But that's that's a strange change in a lot of

our lives. But the reality is God wants to do

that in our life. You may think to your family, Oh,

they're so lost, they're so unsaved, they're so un Christian,

they're still figuring this out and that back. But if

you would allow God to mature your faith, you could

see God begin to do things in your life that

you don't just comprehend. I got a picture of just

to see how family grows. This is our family the

past Thanksgiving. We this past Thanksgiving. It not everyone's in this,

but we had the Elliots, which is my wife's maiden name,

and my family, my in laws are all here today

in church as well, and so we got a bunch

of the Messas. And then we got a bunch of

the Eliots here. We got my grandparents there in the

back corner. And this is how our family's grown. And

it's so interesting. In the first picture that I showed you,

imagine if I still had the same maturity level of

when I was eleven in this photo, I may have aged,

but have I matured, Because those are two different things.

Getting a little bit of gray hair, growing hair in

new places that you didn't know you could, that's not

a sign of maturity. That's just a sign of aging.

There are different and we're gonna talk a little bit

about what that looks like today. Because as I look

at my family now, I now see new family members

in a new seasons of their life. That's the same

way in the Kingdom of God. Always remember that everyone

to the left and right of you, no matter what

campus you go, everybody is at new different seasons in

their life. Don't just look at age. Just don't look

at whether they're polished or not. Go and go and

test and say, I'm gonna do my part at growing

my own maturity in faith. I'm not gonna be in

the house of God just to receive. I want to

get to a place where when I get gray hair

in the House of God, I'm doing what any natural

grandparent would do, which is what do you Grandparents begin

to think about. They begin to think about leaving a

legacy grandparents when they get to a certain age, they think, Okay,

now it's time to start imparting everything I've learned, everything

I've known to those that are under me. Be not

be forty years in the faith and say I still

need to receive. I still need to receive. I still

you've had forty years to do that saved. Now it's

time to jump in and get in deeper. And that's

what we'll talk about to say. I want you to

see in Ephesians four today. I'm gonna mark up a

little bit. I don't want you to stand today because

I'm gonna sit in the passages a little bit too much.

And I respect everybody's kneecaps in our church today. And

I know it's been a hot day and our lower

backs are all hurting us. And so wherever you're at,

just sit there because I'm gonna read. So we've been

reading out of Ephesians three, which is all about if

you were with us last week, it was all about

God wanting to welcome you and I into his family.

And then we talked about the fact that God loves

you more than you ever understand and that God wants

to do more in your life than you could ever comprehend.

But what's beautiful is then, Paul, it's almost like now

he ramps it up. It's like he gave encouragement. He

gave it's what we call the leader ship sandwich, which

is all the positive stuff, and then he goes into

now Okay, hey, let's let me challenge y'all a little bit.

And so this is what he says. And I want

you to see this, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, we're

we're gonna mark just a little bit up today. So

if you like taking notes, i'm gonna, I'm gonna share

that with you. I don't know. Okay, there we go.

So here's what he says. I therefore a prisoner for

the lords urge you to walk. So he wants you

to walk. So he wants you to move forward. We

talked a little bit about that last week. God doesn't

want you to stay stagnant. Does everybody know how mold

and mid mildew grows when things don't move, when things

are stagnant. Uh, Mildew does not tend to grow on

things that are in movement. It grows on things that

are stagnant. That's why if you've ever been in a

hospital for any significant time, they have to move you

around so that things so sores don't begin to grow

on your body. Because when you are at a stale

position in life, that is when mildew and fungus and

sores begin to grow. And I want to encourage you.

The spiritual life in the Christian life is no different.

The longer you stay stagnant, the longer you stay sitting,

the longer you stay not contributing, not moving forward, just

staying in a position of woe is me. I'm broken,

this person hurt me, this thing's going on. It's okay

to acknowledge, it's okay to be aware of what's going

but don't just lay in the bed because sores will develop.

And so this is what the apostle Paul says. He's like,

you gotta move forward. So he says, walk in a manner,

walk move of which the calling which you have been called.

And he says, do it with humility. Don't do it

with pride, do it with gentleness, Do it with patience,

bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain what

the unity you're gonna see in a second, he's gonna

talk about maturity, and maturity pri prioritizes unity. When me

and my wife, one of the things we do all

the time when we give marriage advice is we say, hey,

a great marriage is not about being right or wrong,

and a great marriage is not saying hey, is this

normal or is that normal? A great marriage, says, are

we one in the decision making process? Are we unified?

That?

That is about as healthy as a marriage that you

can get to say, my wife and I God said

that a marriage is to be one. What is that?

That's unity? And how many of us who've been married

before we know that that's easier said than done. And

so it takes a lot of maturity to walk in

unity because it's not easy. And we're gonna see he

digs deeper in that. So he says, in unity of

the spirit, the bond of peace. I want us to

see the next slide. Check this out. Then he says,

and he gave us and he goes into leadership in

the church. And if you ever go through our growth track,

we'll walk you into helping you discover kind of what

your spiritual leadership gift is. Not your office, not your title,

but your leadership gift. And so he says, and he

gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and

the teachers. So you got apostles. These are people that

have a big vision, they're dreamers. Then you've got prophets.

These are people that are bold to speak into things.

They they look at stuff, they hey, why are things

this way? What's going on here? Very passionate individuals. And

then you have the evangelists. These are people that are

they care about talking about Jesus. They just have a

burden and a heart to just share Jesus. They're like, man,

what are we doing in this room? We got to

get out of here and go talk about Jesus, you know.

And it's a gift. And so shepherds, these are individuals

that are just like I just want to get people

in a room and I want to walk in with them.

I want to walk through life with them. I want

to talk to them. I want to pray with people.

You know, like this is a person. If you're a

shepherd and you have that spiritual kind of leadership gift,

it's when you're talking to people, you don't look at

the watch. You know, you're you're okay with just go

and they go, don't you got to go somewhere. You're like, no, no,

this is important to me. You know, I don't have

that leadership gift. I get very impatient. That's not my

leadership gift. Am I shepherd? Yes, but I'm more apostle

leadership gift than shepherd and then lastly teachers. These are

individuals that everything is a teaching moment. Right, You've been

around that guy before, you've been around that woman before.

You know, you drop a pack of gum and they're like,

that reminds me, you know, though we lose something, God

has never gone. You know. It's like they just want

to teach everything, you know. And so that's a leadership gift.

And so he says, why are all of us gifted

with different leadership gifts? He says, to equip the saints

for one another, and he says for the work of

the ministry for building up the Body of Christ, because

your strengths aren't my strengths, and your weaknesses aren't my weaknesses.

And therefore, he says, we all attain the unity. And

so if we can do this together, we can be

united in the faith and the knowledge of the Son

of God. Too mature manhood, you could put womanhood here

as well. It's talking to men and women. It's just

a lot of Greek choices were used masculine articles, but

you would say women hood and manhood. And he says,

why is God doing this? Because he desires all of

us to be mature in our faith. And he says,

to the measure of Christ's stature, of the fullness of Christ,

so that we may no longer be children. This is

what Paul's talking about. He's saying, can I move this

over here? By chance? Maybe we can fix it tomorrow, Hobby.

So he says this so that we may no longer

be children, which means God wants us mature. And then

this is where you start, is not where you finish.

And he says, as we grow in our faith, maturity

will bring us to a place where we are no

longer children. What do children do? They ask a lot

of questions, they disagree a lot, They ask for a

lot of candy, they want a lot of playtime. They

get bored very easily. And when you are a child

in your faith, that tends to be us. We want

the sugary things. Where's the fun things, where's the you know,

Let's just keep doing worship. That's fun. Let's just do

it over and over and over. Or we should do

more of this, or we should do more of that.

We should And it's whatever you think is fun, it's

like that, or you get exhilary, that's what I want

to do, that's why. And we want sugar, you know,

you know, give me the simple verses over and oh

church was boring today. They actually read the Bible. It

was so boring today, you know. Or you get overly

zealous and then you just walk into one thing and

one thing only, and it's just an obsession of one thing.

And so what happens is, you know, when we are

children our faith, that happens, right, all our toys are ours, mine, mine, mine, mine,

you know, and so it's like my faith is mine

and I don't want you know, if a person doesn't

agree with me right that second, I disregard you, I

cut you off. That is normally signs of children in

the faith. And so that's what the apostle Paul's talking about.

He says, I don't want you to stay as children

in the church. I don't want you to be tossed

to and fro by the waves, carried about by every

wind of doctrine. In other words, he's like, I don't

want you to like find a youtubeer or a TikTok

and be like I like what they said, and then

deep dive and then all of a sudden you don't

go to church anymore. You don't have any Christian community anymore.

You've stopped reading your Bible. He's like that, that is

not a sign of maturity. Oh, I've outgrown fellowship. I've

outgrown attending church. I've outgrown having a pastor. That is

a He's saying, you're being tossed to and fro with

doctrines and that's not maturity. How many times you've ever

get around thirteen year old that thinks they're grown and

we think, oh, that's cute. You know, like you're not grown,

you know, like you don't even have a bank account.

You don't even you know, like your parents still pay

all your bills. What are you talking about? You know?

But they convince themselves I'm grown, I can make these

big boy decision And then what happens is they often

find themselves back in community going hey, I was a

little overzealous, or I was a little too passionate, or

I was this or that. Can you guys help me

walk this back? And so what Paul saying is he said, hey,

don't stay in that season too long. You know, it's

not a season. You should spend thirty years of your

Christian life being. You know, your first one of three

years may be that, but it shouldn't stay that. And

he says, by human cunning, by human craftiness, deceitful schemes,

rather speaking the truth and love, we are to grow

up in every way into Him who is the head,

into Christ. In other words, he says, Jesus leads us.

And he's saying, if Jesus ain't said it, then we

don't need to be following it. And he says, Jesus

is our authority, and if you can't find it in scripture,

then you don't need to follow it. You know. Pastor

Diego Forever has always said, if I ever say something

that you cannot find in the Bible, then just take

it as my opinion and disregard it. You know, he said,

just because someone's teaching it from a platform doesn't mean

they bad it. Every single time, read your own word,

discover the word of God yourself, make decisions on your own.

Humans are flawed, they're failed. They say things that would say, ah,

I didn't it, Oh I didn't mean that, or that's

not how I said it. The way I said it,

it's not that way. And so what we have to

recognize say, I got to eat for myself. I got

to discover God's word for myself. And it doesn't mean

the moment someone makes them to say, oh, I see

you're flawed. That's why I'm out, you know, Like you know,

we do that in our life, we do that our marriage,

and we do that as things. But again that's not maturity.

And so he says, from whom the whole body, joined

and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

when each part is working properly, makes the body grow

so that it builds itself in love. The more that

you and I are engaged in the local church, the

more that the body is functioning healthily. But the more

people that are sitting on the sidelines or just attending

without action, then it is not doing the body good.

The body is not growing. I love that he says this.

He says, when the body is working, you and I

Pomona Alamito Rancho anywhere else watching online. When it is

working properly, what happens. It grows. It grows when we

work well with God and we grow in maturity, we grow,

we grow. You want to see growth in your life,

Activate your gift in God, grow in maturity in Christ,

discover God's word for yourself. It will grow because you're

in function in God's way. That's like saying, hey, if

I plant a seed in soil and I give it

water and sunlight and everything that it needs, will it grow?

It is a guarantee it will. Of course it'll grow

because you've done the necessary things that it needs to grow.

A lot of times we're not growing because we're not

doing the necessary things, which I'll share in a few

moments briefly. But that is why lack of growth happens.

It's not because your intentions aren't good. It's not because

you haven't been coming to church at any significant time.

It's because the steps that are required after we're not doing.

And so then he says this, and we're gonna land

the plane on the verses. Here he says this next

slide here we got, next line, there we go. There

is one body and one spirit, just as you were

called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God Father of all,

who is over all and through all and in all.

The reason why he keeps saying one, one, one one,

because people always want to try to find some type

of loophole. They always gonna be like, well, you know,

maybe could it be this, or could I maybe start

doing this too? And he saying, no, one God, one spirit,

one faith, one Jesus. There's no loopholes to growth. It

is maturity in Christ. You know, growing in the family

means that we grow in maturity. That's what God goes

to show. So I want to share with you. I'm

gonna read these points fast. The reason why I sat

in that scripture longer is because now I'm gonna jump

into some points and thoughts with you, all correlating to

what we just talked about. Here's the first thing I

want to talk to you about when it comes to

family identity. Family identity leads to family unity. Family the

clearer the family's identity is, the more unified it could be.

When me and my wife first got married, one of

the first things we had to talk about is, Hey,

what is our Thanksgivings gonna look like? What is Christmas

gonna look like? If you want to be close with

your family, and I want to be close with my family,

and I want our new family to be close with them,

you and I have to be on the same page. Now,

if Ashley was like, well, we're married, but I'll go

to my family and you go to your family, well

guess what those families would have been unified, but our

family would have not. Or if I say, hey, I

want to make this big purchase and she says, I

don't want to make this big purchase, and yet I

spend our account that big purchase and then an emergency

happens and then she says, well, now we're in trouble.

That was not a unified decision. So therefore, when we

are a family identity, it means that unity is crucial.

Being unified is important. And here's what I want to

share with you. Unity is not uniformity. It's not about

being the same, looking the same, talking the same, praying

exactly the same way, worshiping exactly the same way. It's

not that. That's not uniformity. It's not okay, this is

this is not the portion. You know, we stand up,

we sit down, you do this, you do that. Hey,

you wear this, you wear that, you don't do this,

you don't that's uniformity. And can worship happen out of uniformity? Sure,

if you're unified on that but a lot of times,

moments and things that we have in the body of

Christ is not unifying. And here's some ways that we

mess it up. Maybe you've been in church before, maybe

you've thought these thoughts before. But if you stay in

church long enough, you'll meet someone that makes it sound

like to be in the House of God, to be

in the family. Your clothes gotta be a certain way.

You gotta wear a suit and a tie, and that

equals holiness. The sharper the suit, the nicer the tie,

the more Christian you are. Ladies, you know, dresses below

the kneecaps, right, you know, no pants, platform shoes, got

to be a certain way. If you do that, you

will be closer to God. But first, Samuel sixteen seven

says that the Lord does not look at outward appearances,

that the Lord looks at the heart. And so in

the uniformity. Now we'll get there in a few seconds.

Maturity will change things. So do you know you can't say, oh, so,

does that mean I could pull out my fashion nova

see through crop top dress, because you know God accepts me. No,

But God, what is coming out of your heart when

you wear that? What is happening are you looking for attention. Guys,

is you could wear certain things, but are you hoping

that people look at your muscles or say how attract

or look at those tattoos. It's your heart, and you

know what your heart is saying. And so therefore, but

we give this misconception that says, we don't care if

your heart is ugly, as long as you look the

part that's not what it is. Here's some other misconceptions.

There's a misconception of music hymn's versus modern worship. You're

more spiritual. You know, this type of music is more

spiritual than this type of music. And if you have

an electric guitar, it means that it's not as spiritual

as if you have a heart playing in worship or

whatever it is. And so, but style doesn't matter. John

chapter four, verse twenty four says worship in spirit and

in truth. It doesn't say worship in spirit in truth,

and make sure there is no electric guitar, or make

sure there is no drums, or may you know, some

of you may think that's so silly that someone would

think that older saints. You live long enough, you meet

individuals that will say that I like your church. But

you know, you guys clap in church. That's not God's

not happy with that. I'll get that in a second.

You think what politics, same party equals same faith, and

so therefore if you are not part of one party,

then you can't love Jesus, or knowing the party that

you can't love you. Our unity is in Christ. Philippians

Chapter three, verse twenty says that we are unified in

Christ alone. Our citizenship is in Heaven. Now again, maturity

will tay next what it needs to grow in. But

that is not what makes you a believer. And a

lot of times we attach following Christ to these outward things. Maturity,

you'll grow out of some things. As you grow maturity,

you will change the way you dress, you will change

certain views that you have. But I don't get that

in a moment. But when it comes to the family identity,

the fact, don't get the expressive things mixed up with

salvation in Jesus. Oh, you want a relationship with Jesus,

change this that change no, change your heart. You want

a relationship with Jesus, confess your sins and pursue the Lord.

Not all you want Jesus. We're gonna have to do

some about them, clothes you've been wearing, or we're gonna

have to do something about you know, the type of

music that. Now those are expressive things, that those some

of those things need a change. But that is not

what makes you a Christian. It's not what makes us

a follower of Jesus. People put emphasis on one spiritual

gift or another spiritual gift. Oh, this person's more mature

because they know how to do this gift more than

another gift. And you know that person is great at

this gift. So therefore they must be more spiritual, or

they must be more holy. That's not what it is.

All gifts are equal in the House of God. And

then we continue and he says, worship postures, hands raised, still,

are dancing this way? That way equals true worship. Oh,

you don't love Jesus because I don't see I don't

ever see you on your face or this or that.

And we use it as it's expressive when we point

at it, believe it or not. I went to a

Bible school that didn't allow you to clap or rate

your hands because they believed you were calling attention to

yourself and not God. And so we would if we

ever lifted our hands in worship, we'd be asked to

put our hands down in college at chapel, or if

we ever clap, they would say, hey, you're making You're

causing too much noise on yourself. Yeah, and you'd think, wow,

that's kind of crazy. But we do that stuff in

other areas all the time. When it comes to pursuing

God personality, people say quiet or loud is more Godly.

If you're more quiet, it means you've spent more time

with God. If you're louder, it means you're more bold

for God. No, you could be as silent as a

mouse and be as bold as a lion, and you

could be as loud as a lion and as weak

as a mouse. The personality types does not explain a

person's relationship with God, but we do that all the time.

And so the more we want to be unified, the

more we have to recognize that everybody in the House

of God is unique and different, and God has called

the uniqueness and the difference to build the body and

to grow. Here's point number two. With the few moments

I have, family identity calls for family maturity. We spoke

about that God calls us to maturity within the family.

And if we look at immaturity, immaturity looks like instability,

but maturity looks like stability, rootedness, discernment, and love. A

healthy family doesn't just say come as you are. It

says grow into who you're called to be. There are

times in my own household that our family we like

to create equity within our household, and so are There

are days that we will ask our two sons, Matthias stumps, hey, guys,

where do you want to go eat? And one will

say okay, Chick fil a. One will say this. We'll

say okay, we'll go with Matthias. And then we'll get

home and we'll say, okay, Matthias got to pick what

we ate. You get to choose what we watched on TV. Okay.

Now we're creating equity. But here's what's not allowed. Thomas

can't say okay, I want to watch brain raw on YouTube,

or I want to watch this that he knows is inappropriate.

I don't say, oh, well, you got me son. I

said you have a choice. No, I say, nice choice,

try again, because I'm mature. Or if I say, hey, Thomas,

you get a pick what's for dinner and he says skittles.

I say, nice choice. Pick again. That's what maturity goes to.

But a lot of times in the church, what we

try to do is we try to say, hey, just

come as you are, and then we say, just stay

as you are. Continue to consume skittles, continue to watch

whatever you want on YouTube, continue to listen to whoever,

continue to date whoever you want, continue to this, continue

to that. And what happens is when people are younger

in their faith, they get offended quickly because where they're

at in life, they're getting called out for eating sugar retreats,

they're getting called out for who they're sleeping with or

how they're living. And then individuals come to me and

they'll say, pastor outa, I didn't like you shared today.

I disagree with what you shared with today. I disagree

with what you said about sexuality, or I disagree with

how you guys think about this or how you guys

think about that. And I say, hey, I love that

you disagree with me. Tell me where in the Bible

God is revealing to you what truth is. Because I'm

trying not to speak from my opinion. I'm trying to

speak from the Word of God. And the great thing

about the Word of God is that if you want

to know what God says, you read it. People say,

pastor Adam, where'd you get that statement from that you

said about, you know, living with someone unmarried or lifestyle

like this is from the Bible? And they can ask me, oh, well,

where's it from, and I say, okay, give me a moment,

I'll get it for you. And they say, well, but

I feel like this is the right way to live,

or this is the right way to watch things, or

this is the right Then I would respond the same

way and say, you just show it to me in

the Bible. And then oftentimes they go, oh, mine still

wrapped in saran wrap. I said, well, I'm sorry. I

can't go to the church with opinions. So Bible says

that every person that teaches the Word of God will

be held to a higher standard. So I can't go

to God and say, oh, well, you know, we didn't

address that or we didn't say that because someone once

told me that it hurt their feelings. If Thomas come

to me and say, Dad, you hurt my feelings because

you said I couldn't have candy, i'd say, son, you'll

get cavities. So I'm okay with you being upset with

me because you got because I didn't let you do

what you did, or I didn't say that it's okay

because I don't want you to be broken. I don't

want you to be sick. I don't want you to

be ill. And in the same way in the Kingdom

of God, as we go in maturity, you and I

have to be willing to say my ways are not

God's ways, my beliefs are not God's beliefs, my standards

are not God's standards. He is greater than I am,

so therefore I submit. Going back to Ephesians, I submit

my life to Christ. In other words, if my preference

is different than Christ, then I need a change. If

my beliefs are different than Christ, than I need a change.

And my dating life is different than Christ, than I

need a change. And who I sleep with is different

than who Christ has called me, then I need a change.

What I drink is different than God tells me, I

need to change. If what I say is different than

what God tells, then I need to change what I say.

If what I do is different than what God needs

to do, then I need to It's his family, it's

his house. I gotta make the adjustments. And then if

I'm unwilling to do it, then I just got to

admit that I'm being a stubborn child, that I'm being

a child that doesn't want a relationship with my father.

And so in maturity, I just want to encourage you.

This is where you start, is not where you finish.

And as God purifies you, you and I have to

be willing to look in the mirror and be like, man,

I gotta do, I gotta change. And there be be

days you say I'm not strong enough to change. Well,

thank God that God has the strength because at the

end he said that there's one spirit and one and

won Jesus. And so therefore the vehicle in which you

can accomplish being part of God's family is through the

power of Christ. It's through God's power. But you and

I have to be willing to say, you know what,

I've been in first grade for so long, it's time

that I get in the ninth grade. And then when

you get to the ninth grade, there's going to come

a day that you got to go to spiritual college

and then when you go to Spiritu Coach College, there's

a day that you got to start a spiritual family,

start mentoring people, start showing them what God's revealed to you,

and then there will be a day well, you'll have

grandchildren and the people that you poured into, the people

that you prayed for, the people that you mentored, they

will now be praying for people, and they will be

mentoring people, and you will become gray hair in the

Kingdom of God based off of the wisdom of your maturity.

Here's the last point in all land of playing for

our campuses today. If I offended you, I'm sorry. You're right,

I'm wrong, and you know, luckily God's ways are better

than all of ours. So I am wrong often in

my own life and in my own sin. And so

zero point three family identity results in family contribution. The

last point is at some point we all got a

part to play, and so I want to encourage you

with just this last spot. In a household in a community,

there's a difference between a guest, a renter, and an owner.

We know that there's a difference. A guest in the

home is welcome but not invested. They come to receive hospitality,

but not to contribute. When someone's a guest at my home,

no sit on the couch, Feel free to go in

the refrigerator. How do you like the temperature of the home?

Can I make it hotter? Can I make it cooler?

Can I get you a drink? You want to snack?

You're a guest in the home, and when you're a

guest at Patriot there's a season that we want you

to feel that way. Hey, what can we do for you?

How can we serve you? Do you need counseling? Do

you need this? Can we help you with that? Can

we help with your kids? Can we help that? But

then there may be a difference of a renterer. What's

a renner? A renter pays something, enjoys benefits, but doesn't

carry the full responsibility of care or repair in the future.

And it's lit limited commitment. If something break. If you're

a renter and something breaks, you call the landlord, Hey

fix this. It's you're contributing, but you don't carry the weight.

And then what's an owner? Well, the honor of aahome

is fully invested. They sacrifice, they maintain, they build, They

think long term, They carry responsibility because their heart and

resources are tied to the house. What does that look

like in the Kingdom of God. Well, here's what it

looks like in the Kingdom of God. Here's what a

guest in the Kingdom of God says, I attend church.

Here's what a renter in the Kingdom of God says.

I'm involved, but I keep one foot out of the door.

The next person that offends me, I'm out. The next

thing I come across I don't like, I'm out or

an owner is a renter will say, oh, I give

some times or this or that, But an owner says,

this is my family, this is my mission. I am

the church, and I have a responsibility. That's how an

owner begins to think. And you and I are a

call called. And here's how it's put very simply as

we close. Guests enjoy the house. Renters use the house,

but owners build the house. And that's the difference. I

want to encourage you think of your season of faith

that you're in. A guest, you enjoy the house. A renter,

you use things, and you may put things back where

they belong and respect and things like that. But what

does an owner do. An owner goes Okay, now it's

my turn to build the house. And as we grow

in maturity, the highest form of maturity in the house

of God, says I'm doing my part to build the house.

I'm building people, I'm building influence. I'm building in my community,

I'm building in my workplace. I'm contributing in every facet

with God's given ability in my life. That is what

maturity brings. So I just want to encourage you today

as we close, is that God has a table and

every person that says yes to Jesus you have a

seat at this table. You have a seat at this table.

But then what happens is is you have a seed

in this table. There will be dishes that get dirty.

Would you pick up the dishes and help clean them?

Would you see that if there's no pepper, would you

go out to the store and grab some pepper. If

you see that somebody's water is not filled up? Would

you grab the pitchure? Because a guest, they just sit

and they just say, can I have seconds? Can I

have some more juice? Can I have some more water?

But the moment you start owning and being a part,

you think, oh, they're out of water, and we're out

of pitcher, let me go get some more. Or this

person's out of grace, let me go give some grace.

Or this person's out of forgiveness, let me give some forgiveness.

This person doesn't have mercy, let me give mercy. This

person's broken, Let me pray for them. This person's hurting,

Let me help them financially. This person's going through a divorce.

Let me check up on them weekly. This person just

lost their mother or father. Let me ask them if

there's anything I can do for them. You see what

happens when you believe that you're an owner at the

table and part of the Kingdom of God. It means

you begin to start to carry influence and mature. When

you're in maturity, what happens is people will start to

look at you. If if a plate drops, they'll look

at you. What's gonna happen? How are you gonna react?

How are you gonna say? Because you're the one who

says you go to church, You're the one who says

you read your Bible, You're the one who says you pray.

So when you're out in the city and something breaks,

something goes wrong, they're gonna look at the person who

says that they have a relationship with God and they're

gonna think what are they gonna do about it? And

then when we're throwing plates in chairs and spilling water

on people just like everyone else, they think, oh, God's family,

they're a mess. But when we grow in maturity, it

means we grow in influence in people's lives. I'll pray

for us today as we leave. God, I just prayed

this word today would transform us today. Lord, I pray

would activate us into a new season of maturity. Father God,

I pray if there's anyone new to church or new

to discovering Jesus, may they see that God, you're working

in their life. You're growing then't They don't have to

be this gray haired person in the faith after their

first year, thirty or fourth. But what they should see

is momentum movement. As Paul says, that they're moving forward

in their faith. We thank you for this today in

Jesus' name. Amen, And if there's anyone in this room

that you've never confessed Jesus Christ, as you're a Lord

and Savior. I want to make an invitation today that

tomorrow is never promised. People all the time they get

on the freeway and they never get off the freeway.

They check into hospitals and they never check out. And

I'm not trying to scare you about how fragile life is,

but it is a reality. We know that life is fragile.

There are times that I'll bump my knee and it'll

hurt so bad, and I'll think to myself, how am

I this fragile life is? Fragile life is a gift

from God. And every single day that we live to

our own standards, our own ways, we are taking advantage

of God's grace for our life. But the day that

you start to walk in the yes with God is

the day that you start to walk in the fullest

potential of God's kingdom, which is this that Christ died

for your sins. There's a real cross, and there was

a real death, but more than that, there was a

real resurrection that today there is a tomb in Jerusalem

that is empty because Jesus has risen and he has

conquered death, and he has put sin in its place.

Jesus is victorious. And if we ever want the benefits

of the Kingdom of God, then we need to be

in relationship with the one who won the victory, the

one who won the championship. You may say, oh, but

I didn't play the game. But are you on God's team,

because every team member gets a championship ring. You men say, well,

I didn't get on the field, I didn't do this.

That was all Jesus. Yes, it needed to be Jesus.

He's the only one who could carry the weight of sin.

But when you join the family of God, we become heirs.

You all get a ring. And then that day that

you look at and you walk in the Kingdom of God,

you will know that it is Jesus Christ who won

the victory, and we will worship him and we will

thank him in spirit, in truth. And So if you

are here today and you are ready to make that decision,

and you're ready to acknowledge your sin, acknowledge your past,

it's not the moment where you say, oh, I got

the power to change everything in my life. No, God

will fill you with his spirit and God will walk

with you with the strength to overcome those things. People

often say, when I figure this out or I stop

doing this, then I'll give my life to Christ. You

may never do that on your own strength, but with

the strength and the power of God, there is nothing

impossible for God. You're more than a conqueror for those

that follow Christ Jesus. So if you're here today, would

we bow our heads and close our eyes. If you're

ready to make that decision of faith today and follow

Jesus Christ, would you say this out loud with me.

We're all going to join you because we all celebrate

this moment with you. Would you say, dear Lord Jesus,

in this place, I confess my sins. I believe in

my whole heart that you died on the cross and

you rose three days later, and stay forward. I choose

to follow you for the rest of my days in

Jesus' name. Amen and Amen. Can we celebrate with those

who gave their life to Jesus Christ this evening. We're

so excited about it. Everything that we do is to

welcome more people into the family of God. God is

not a private club. God is an open place that

anyone who wants a relationship with him is welcome and

so welcome to the family. If you want to grow

in your faith, you want to let us know that

you gave your life to Jesus, then we have a website.

It's ww dot grow dot Faith. Our elders and deacons

and prayer team will be up here at the front

if you like any more prayer. Pastor Sammy's gonna come

on up here real quick and he's gonna bless us

and head us out today. Pastor Sammy, would you come

and bless us today?

Thank you, come on quick, put our hands together for

Pastor Adam incredible word on Patremine's family. Let's pray together.

As Pastor said, if you need additional.

Prayer, come on up to the front. Lord, We thank

you so much for that word.

We thank you that our church name Patro means family,

and we pray that you will be with us. And

we say yes to pulling up a chair and being

a part of a to contribute and be an owner

in this family in Jesus' name, and everybody.

Said Amen and Amen.

God bless you family, and we will see you next weekend.