God’s House, God’s Rules | Pastor Adam Mesa | Patria Means Family

Amen.

Well, Hey, as we go to dig in the word

the word today in just a few moments, could we

just welcome Pomona Campus with us today in Alameda Campus

with us all those watching online as well. This is

one of those weekends that all our campuses are joined

together to hear from Me and so we love the

work of God that He's doing across our campuses. And

I just I wanted to spend a moment just if

we if we could, just I want to pray in

a moment. I want to pray for you, but I

also want to pray for people that may be on

your heart because I was just kind of stirred this

past week. As last Sunday we had our next Gen

Weekend and at all of our campuses we had representatives

from Patriot Kids Speak and Patriot Youth and Junior High

and young Adult and I mean it was extremely powerful

and just talking to all of our campus pastors about

what God did in every service.

But for me, it was just I was just I

was so moved.

I was moved every service, but particularly our last of

the day when we invited all of our teenagers, youth

in junior high and everyone else.

To come forward.

There was close to like seven hundred students that came forward,

and I mean we couldn't we couldn't even fit them

in the aisleways. They were just they just crowded and

just to see our pastors and our prayer team and

our elders and our.

Deacons just just praying over.

I mean, Pastor Diego called me this week and he said, Hey,

did you did you kind of feel that there was

like a shift in that moment, you know, even for

our church maybe, And I was like, yeah, I did.

I felt like God.

Just kind of I don't we don't know what it is,

but it's I think he kind of sealed something or

started something kind of for the next generation. That that

our church has always always had a heart for the

next generation. But it was just it was very unique

if you were here across all services, but as second service,

like God really moved and then and then God just

continues to affirm and confirm that. You know, We're going

to share this week in a series for the next

three weeks called Patriomanes Family, which just digging a little

bit into who we are. We have so many people

at our church that are new, either new to faith,

or new to church, and we want to just share

a little bit about who we are, what's valuable to us,

what do we see in God's Word that roots us

as a church, kind of give a glimpse of what

our growth track is. So if you never taking growth track,

you can do that across all of our campuses by

going to our connect tab or talk to our teams

after service. But then I saw the Women's Night last night,

and I talked to so many women who said, Hey,

I've been trying to get my friend to church for

five years, ten years and they've never come. You know,

they tell me, oh, this person grew up Buddhist, or

this person grew up this way, you know, went to

Catholic school when they were ten and they haven't been

to a church ever since. And then they tell me,

and God did something in their life at our Women's Night,

and I was just like, Lord, just in one week,

you just impact after impact after impact and really believe

it is a move of the spirit. And so I

love wherever you're at and our campus is I want

to pray for a This is what I precific specifically

want to pray pray about, is if any of you

have a burden for someone that's on your heart.

Like if there's someone on your.

Heart that throughout the week or throughout the day, they

just come to you. It could be a child, it

could be a grandchild. I mean, it could be a

coworker or a friend. But I just want to believe

God that not only would God touch them kind of

in the next ninety days to six months, but also

that God would use you to speak something in their life,

use you to encourage them in some type of way.

And so I just felt like there's some people, like

you've been carrying a burden of someone on your own heart,

and I think collectively as we worship this weekend, we

can bring those people before the Lord together and don't

let you carry that burden on your own want we

want to carry it with you because I think God

is doing something special here at Patria in moving in

people's lives. So would you do me a favor wherever

you at Rancho Pomona, Alameda, we just bow your heads

and close your eyes for a moment. If you're thinking

of someone that you have a burden for right now,

would you lift your hand up in the air so

I could see you, and I may not be able

to see you where you're at your location, but our

team does, and our pastors do. And so Man, it's

like you know, here in this room is about ninety

percent of the room, and so I can only imagine

what our campuses look like. Right now, I want to

lift those people up that are on your heart. Right now, Lord,

I just pray right now, Father God, for those people that.

Are a burden on our heart.

God, not that they're a nuisance to us, God, not

that they frustrated us, Father God, but we love them.

Lord.

We see what it is that they're going through. We

see the burden that they are holding on to, Father God.

We see the pain that they have. God, we see

the distance that they have. Lord.

This may be a grandchild or a child father. This

may be a spouse, This may be a loved one.

Lord.

This may be a coworker, a friend, a cousin. Lord,

whoever this is that's on everybody's heart. Father God, I

pray right now, Lord, in Jesus' name, would you soften

that individual's heart. Father God, may you make yourself known

to them over the next ninety days, in six months, Lord,

may they begin to have their blind eyes open to

see your hand has always been in their life.

Lord, But may they see it clearly?

Right now, Father God, and Lord, may you use us,

Father God, to be a blessing in their life. Lord,

I pray you would give us words of encouragement, words

of wisdom, words of.

Discipleship for their life.

Father God, I pray Lord that you would give us

an opportunity to point to Jesus Christ as our lord and.

Save your Father. God.

Jesus, you've made it clear that your yoke is easy

and your burden is light.

Lord.

So right now, God is they have been a burden

to us. God, we give them to you, Father, to

know that this burden is nothing for you.

It's weight heavy on us. God.

We love who it is that we have this burden for.

But right now, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, you

would do a move in their life. Father God, we

pray that their tomorrow and their future is greater than

their past. Lord. If healing needs to take place, Lord,

may healing happen. May it happen in their body, may

it happen in their spirit, and may it happen in

their life. God, we thank you for this moment in

Jesus Mighty Name, Amen and Amen, we thank the Lord

for just a moment, do I do thank God is

gonna do something over the next few weeks and a

few months in those people's lives.

I also get asked before we.

Jump in a few moments, I just think that this

moment is kind of special, that God is gonna solidify

kind of for the next couple of weeks what he

wants to share with us and what he wants to

speak to us.

About our church and who we are.

But one of the things is is I often get asked,

you know, every once in a while. You've ever been

around someone and you've been around them a few times,

and then finally they ask you a question they've always

wanted to ask you, you know, And so I kind

of I tend to get that people don't ask me

questions they really think right off the bat. But if

they get a few conversations every once in a while, Hey,

I hear someone say, pastor around can I ask you

a real question, like like something, something that I really

wonder about. And I'm and it happens every once in

a while. I go, yeah, hit me up with a

real question.

They go don't you kind of ever get tired.

Of like what you do like and what they don't

mean is like tired of God or anything like that,

But they mean, like, don't you get tired of like

praying for the same things all the time? Like you know,

after service you have everyone's praying about something that's heavy.

They're praying about finances, they're praying about a sticky situation,

they're praying about healing, they're praying about this, they're praying

about Like don't you feel like you're saying the same

prayer over and over and over? Or they'll or they'll say,

you teach the same message for multiple services a weekend.

Don't you ever want to just go on autopilot and

just don't you get tired of saying the same thing?

Or I'll get this a lot too.

It's like you've been preaching for a long time, you

ever get tired of saying the same Bible stories over

and over again? I mean, like how many times can

you talk about Moses? How many times can you talk

about Ara? How many times? I mean, we know who

Jesus is, but like over and over and over, and

to be honest, my truthful response is no, it never

gets tiring.

I've never been tired of it. I've never.

I've never not looked forward to sharing God's word. I've

never not looked forward to praying for someone. Has, like

my physical body been tired before. Oh sure, man, after

a Sunday, I got so much back pain, do you want.

To believe it?

And my leg's hurt and all that stuff like that.

Bodily tired. Yeah, that happens all the time. But like

a desire, and here's why, here's why, and it's really

not all that special while it also is spiritual at

the same time, Here's why I never get tired, whether

it's on a platform or out in the city or

anything like that. I never get tired of praying for

someone because to me it may be my hundredth prayer

for the day for someone, but to them that's their.

First prayer that they've received for the day.

And so I always keep that in mind that for me,

I may have given a Bible verse or an encouragement

or wisdom to sixty people on one Sunday or one Saturday,

but to that person this is something that they're gonna

hold onto for the next month to pursue God deeper.

When someone walks up to me and says, I have

like a dryness in my life, to me, it seems

like the answer would be the same thing over and over.

But what I want to say.

Is tell me about your dryness because I want to

be able to encourage something. But also at the same time,

I never get tired sharing God's word because the Bible

says that God's word will never return void. So whether

we open this on your physical Bible, your iPad, your iPhone,

when you read God's word, it always returns something. Something

always returns, something always speaks, something always uplift, something always encourages.

So though in the.

Moment I may not as a man fully understand God,

what are you doing?

What are you saying? There are times that.

I've got off stage and I've said, God, that was

a great word. And then there's other times I've walked

off stage and I'd say that's one of.

The worst messages I've ever preached in my life.

And someone will walk up to me and say, Pastor Adam,

how's the best message you.

Ever preached in your life? Why?

Because it had nothing to do with me. God's word

never returns void. I never get tired of this because

it's not my words, it's the Lord's words, and it's

not under my power.

It's under the Lord's power.

So I want to encourage you today that there may

be times that you may physically be tired, but God

has a guarantee that if you would sit in the

word of God, if you would sit in the presence

of God, that it'll.

Always return something.

God will always do something, And never get to a

point where you're tired of being a believer.

Go get tired of being a believer.

To you, it may be a frustrating day that you

got to walk in love, or walk in grace, or

walk in forgiveness. But for that one person you encounter,

that would be the first day that they've experienced the

love that you can show them or the forgiveness that

you can show them. There's a man that I know

in the church who I love. He's I've known him

for a couple of years now. He comes on Sundays

and he's in his sixties and a couple of years

ago when I met him. He sits outside in our

courtyard because you know, since COVID, we put our led

wall out in the out in the courtyard, and so

there's a lot of people that like to sit out

there for different reasons, different reasons. But there's a there's

a man that I know that a couple of years

ago we met. He's in his sixties, and he came

to me and I asked him, I said, hey, why

sometimes I see you out in that sun and you're

getting cooked, man, Like you're sweating, Like I see you

wiping sweat off your head and all this stuff. You know,

you can go inside. There's ac inside.

So I always see you. I always see you.

And when I and when I first met him, it

was because I wasn't the senior pastor at the time.

So on Sundays I wasn't preaching, I would go and

circle and I'll do rounds and so on Sundays I

would run into them all the time. And so what

he told me was, he says, you know what, I

sit outside all the time because I kind.

Of grew up in the hood. I've done some time before.

And he goes, I don't really get along with church people.

So I'm trying to pursue Jesus. I'm trying to have

a relationship with God. But those people inside and there

I don't think they're my kind of people. And so

I told him, I said, hey, if you ever gave

it a chance to sit in there, you'd find out

that at least one person you sat next to, you

probably served more time than you did, probably end up

liking him. And he's like, nah, no, I'm good, I'm good.

I just sit with me and my wife out here.

I'm fine, I'm fine. And it was about a year

and a half later, I'm outside I spoke that weekend.

I'm outside in the foyer or out in the courtyard,

and he comes out to me. He says hi. He

says hi to me almost every week. And he goes

pastor Adham, you see where I came from. And I said, oh,

were you using the restroom inside? He said no, I

sat inside And I said, oh, you sat inside? He

said yeah, yeah. It was about time I got closer.

And then about it. And then about nine months later

after that, he said, you know what I'm I want

to become a better man. I'm in my sixties, I've

spent sixty years doing like my own way. And he said,

I'm interested in this whole growth trak thing you're talking about.

Can you tell me about that. You know, what's incredible

is what God can do is that as we sit

somewhere every single week, whether someone sits far away middle

close to God's word, if you are in hearing distance

of God's word, God's word never returns void. There is

always power in God's work, and he will tell you

and speak to you in exactly the way that the

Spirit of God knows. Because I don't know you, I

don't know your business, I don't know what you do

during the week.

I don't know how you talk.

But the Spirit of God knows God, and spirit of

God knows what pains you carry.

Spirit of God knows what purpose you have. And when

the Word of God goes forth, God will speak. God

will speak.

And I'm always encouraged by individuals who sit and experience

the Word of God. Here's what I want to do,

Ephesians chapter three, verse fourteen to twenty one.

I want to just read this real quick, and then

we'll jump into.

A few thoughts that I have today for Patriot means

family Ephesians three. If you have it, you can stand

for the reading of God's Word, and I'll also.

Have it up on the screen for us as well.

This is our Church's verse.

Is our This is our foundation scripture as a church

at Patria.

This is what we established about almost a year and

a half.

Ago as the as the the scripture passage that would

take us into the next beyond as a church. I

want you to see what it says. Here's what it says.

I'm gonna read a few more verses. I'm gonna Readiverse.

I'm gonna read Diverse twenty one. But fourteen to fifteen

is our church's verse. Here's what it says. For this reason,

I bend or bow my knees before the Father, from

whom every family, as patrio in heaven and on earth,

derives its name, that He would grant you, according to

the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power

through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ

may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you,

being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to

comprehend with all the saints, what is the with and length,

and height and depth, And to know the love of Christ,

which surpasses knowledge.

Is not always rational. That you may be feeled all

to the fullness of God.

Now to him who's able to do abundantly more beyond

all that we ask or think, according to the power that.

Works within us.

Amen, you may be seated. Let's talk about that a

little bit today. Thank you so much, Pastor Julio. I

just wanted a sacred moment for us. So I think

what's beautiful is as we talk about what Patreon means. Well,

we just read in verse fourteen, there's a lot of

times we sit in seats. I feel like the older

I get, the more that I need a sit. You know,

I stood very easy in my teens. I stood very

easy in my twenties, and then now in my mid thirties.

And I know you guys think, Adam, you should be

able to stand long.

I can stand long.

Ish, but I know as you get older and older, we.

Need a sit more.

There would be a time in my twenties where I'd

be sitting to border airplane an hour early, and I could.

Stand the whole time.

I could just find a little arm bench and I

can have my coffee and I could answer em.

I could just stand and there'd be no seat.

Now I'll walk, I'll walk six gates down just to

find a seat, and I'll just keep a look on

my watch to know when the airplane is boarding, because,

whether we realize it or not, sitting down is kind

of an important feature of our life. We sit in

a lot of places. Whether you're at the DMV, you sit.

Whether you're at the hospital, you sit. You go to

a sports game, you sit. You go to a concert,

they make you upgrade to sit standing. You can pay

less to stand closer, or pay more to sit further,

as long as because you want to see.

That's the level of seating that we compromise.

Sometimes we will pay more for a car, not because

of the things that it offers, but it's just a

more comfortable seat. Or guys will buy better motorcycles not

because they look better, but because it's just a more

comfortable seat for a longer ride. The beauty about Jesus

is and the relationship with Jesus is as we sit

in the House of God to learn there's only one

position that we will take when we see Jesus one day,

and that is not a posture of standing, and that's

not even a posture.

Of sitting, but it is a posture of kneeling.

And some of you are thinking, man pastor at him,

I couldn't kneel like that.

My knees aren't what they used to be. But I'll

tell you this.

In heaven you will be able to do this. This

is a posture that you will be able to take.

But I want to encourage you. Oftentimes, how we bow

is kind of dependent on how we sat on earth,

and where we sat on earth and sat under, and

how we received from God. Because this is the place

that Ephesius four fifteen the reason why we chose fourteen

and fifteen as our verses, because it's Christ centric, it's

not us centric.

It says. For this reason, every need will bow before Jesus.

All who part of the family of God. The patriot,

which means belief in Christ, brings us into the family.

And so there will be some who will not bow

before Jesus.

They may bow for a moment, but there will come

a day where.

Judgment will happen, where what we did on earth and

who we followed on earth will.

Be dependent, and we.

Will bow while others will be asked to leave, and

they'll be told, hey, this is the time where my

family bows, and the Father will say you are not

part of my family. Therefore you cannot bow. You may

bowed for a moment when you recognize who he is,

but that's kind of or like beaking. We're not in

heaven to bake from God. We're in heaven to bow

before the Lord to give him all.

The recognition of what he did on earth.

And one of the things I want to encourage you

here at this church is if you sit in a seat,

you are not a guest your family. If you would

have faith in Jesus, if you would have faith in

Jesus your family. I want you to hear that for

a moment, You're not a guest your family. If you

would have faith in Jesus, you are family. Here's what

I'm saying. Listen to what I'm saying. Listen what I'm

not saying. What I'm not saying is if you tithe,

you are family. I'm not saying if you attend a

certain amount of Sundays, you are family. What I'm not

saying is if you pray every single day or you

do this at the church. Sure you do that at

the church, you are family. No, no, no, it is

if you follow Christ and believe in Jesus your family.

There's no guest in the Kingdom of God. There's no

visitor in the Kingdom of God. There's either family or not.

What does family look like. We're gonna share a little

bit about that today. But in God's house you don't

get guest privileges. You have family rights because God in

a sense, doesn't have guests. He may call us to care,

he may call us to love, he may call us

to represent people.

But there's not gonna be someone you're gonna meet in heaven.

That just says, Hey, I'm testing this whole thing out,

and I'm deciding if I want to buy the car

or not. I'm deciding if I want to buy that

house or not. Open house happens when you hear the gospel.

That's the open house. When you hear the gospel that

Christ died for your sins and he rose three days later,

that is open house. That's the time that you say, God,

am I gonna invite you into my heart to dwell,

and then from that point you are considered family to God.

And many of us we have at our homes.

We all have different kind of a kind of nuances

at my house, at our houses. For any of you guys,

let's just see wherever you're at in the campuses. I

want you acknowledge for just a moment, how many of

you guys are like a like a no shoes in

the house type of household.

Let me see my hands. Okay, it's about twelve of you. Okay.

How many of you guys are.

Like no pets on the couch or bed type of

type of house?

Okay?

How many of you are the type of house that's

like food is only for the kitchen or the dining

room like type of house. You know, it ain't going

ain't going to the living room, it's not going.

To the bedroom.

That's probably the only divisive thing in my marriage is

my wife will eat a meal in her bed, and

I'm just like, I just feel so nasty, Like I

find it to eat a meal laying on the couch.

I gotta like sit on the table. I got bad.

That's all I have issues. So, but.

How many of you guys are like a no technology

at dinner type of household? Like phones gotta go away,

iPad's gotta go away?

Right?

Yeah, So we all kind of have our things. We

have our cultures of our home, we have our rules

of our home, we have our standards of our home,

and One of the reasons why we struggle, not just

in a church, but in following God is because I

think that we failed to recognize that God's house has

a culture, has a standard, and sometimes we're uncomfortable with it,

not because it's not rooted in God's word, but because

you have your own culture, and you have your own standard,

and you have your own expectation of God. But guess

what his house his rules. And I don't mean that

here at Patriot. I mean that within the Kingdom of God,

his house his rules. And there are times people get

mad at me if they come and they say, passed

around of my God, an issue with what the Bible

says about this or what God says about this, And

I'll say, hey, share me a scripture where you're coming from.

And they're like, oh, I don't have a scripture.

I just feel And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. Your

feelings is your house, and I'm not interested in living

in your house. I'm interested in God's house, and so

I'm interested in his word. I'm interested in how what

God says about where our shoes go. I'm interested in

where God says we eat. I'm interested in where God

says we serve. I'm interested in where God says I give.

That's what I want to know. And so what we

have to recognize when we join the family of God,

and you are adopted in the family of God.

He's the one caring for you.

Patria means someone that's been adopted by a father, not

a home. You see the word that's over two hundred

times the Bible when it uses the word household, it

uses the word oycos only three times in scripture.

Is patrio used. Patria is used just three times.

Number one Patria is used that says Abraham is the

father of faith. In the Book of Acts, Abraham's the

father of faith. So therefore, as you and I follow,

Jesus were adopted into Abraham's father of faith, which means

he's the father of our faith. On top of that,

the scripture talks about the fact that Joseph was Jesus's

father because in order for Jesus to be king, he

had to be adopted into David's household King David's household,

And so when Joseph said, Jesus is not my son,

he's the father's son, but he can have all of

my rights and privilege Jesus was Patria.

Adopted into Joseph's household.

And then the only third time you ever see it

in scripture is Ephesians three, that says everyone of all

creation is fatherless until God the Father sent his son Jesus,

full of love, full of grace that surpasses all knowledge

and all understanding, to what to love us so much

so not just to die for us, not just to

raise for us, but to bring us into his household.

And so if God would go, if I was an orphan,

if I was alone, and.

God would go to those depths to adopt.

Me, that I got to recognize is his house, his rules.

God's house has a culture, and you and I were

called to follow God's culture.

But also for us as a church, we've endeavored to.

Follow the word of God but also become part of

God's household, in God's family. And there's been beautiful things

even through the inception of our church.

And I'll just briefly overlay it.

You know, here at Patria, for majority of our church's life,

we are.

A buddet, living family church.

And felt like God was doing a new thing about

a year and a half ago, and Pastor Diego felt

that way, and I felt that way, and so in

nineteen ninety four, though Abundant Living Family Church was launched

in Fontana, California. And I have a picture of what

that house looked like. That was our childhood home and

the church launched at that time with twelve people. It's

a thousand square foot home with twelve people. I want

you to look at this. I had twelve seats right here.

My arms can fit around just about Let's see if

I turn it in right here, my arms can fit

at the size that Abundant Living started at.

I want you to think about that. In about ten seconds,

if I was.

Part of Abundant Living in nineteen ninety four, and about

ten seconds.

I could greet everyone who came to our church. Hi

hi Hi Hi, Hi high high Hi Hi Hi. That's

our whole church right there.

Nineteen nine old church was right here in these actually

green chairs are from our original Utica building that we

still have. These were the green chairs that were in

that building. We still got we like vintage. We got

like our own, we got like our own vintage goodwill

here at the church. I just got to text the

team and be like, hey, anyone got an original blank

and then they just it just starts appearing. It's original

Utica chair, not an original house chair, but an original

Utica chair.

It's twelve seats and twelve seats. I mean this fast easter.

Across all of our campuses, we had close to seventeen

thousand people that were impacted.

That sat in a seat, sat in a seat.

Some of our campuses were standing room only, and so

they stood. But wait, sadness ee, you look at it

starts with twelve people. Can imagine if twelve people catch

a vision. But here's the thing.

Sitting is not. It's not just enough. It's how am

I willing to kneel in God's house?

It's how am I willing to be part if I'm

part of the family of God and the culture of God.

Imagine a pastor Diego saying, hey, this is good right here.

I like this because at this size I could give

everybody high fives. But what happens when these individuals like

what God is doing and they share it with someone else.

You know, there are times people will tell me, you know,

I like Patriot, I visited, but it was too big.

And I say, I know, I hate it too. One Sunday, I.

Proposed to everybody that they stopped bringing their friends. And

I also asked ninety percent of the church to stop

coming back. We just can't decide what ten percent gets

to stay. And normally they go, oh God, yeah, that

doesn't make too much sense, does it.

I wish they would stop inviting. Does that sound like God?

Imagine if Jesus when he was when he was doing

his ministry, and it always said that the living rooms

were full and these spaces were full, that Jesus like

Jesus had Peter outside as a bouncer and was just like, hey,

what is a little clicker?

Hey we meet. We reached Max's capacity to hear Jesus.

You're gonna have to take a ticket and visit him

later on next week. You see, if the family is

doing what the family does. Have you ever been around

a healthy family and you thought to yourself, I want

to be part of that family. Cool it. It's not

a bad thing to be part of God's family. It's

not something you need to apologize about. It's not something

that you need to give in an excuse about. It's

not some If God's household is the best household to

be a part of. If the Kingdom of Heaven is

the best kingdom that there will ever exist. There is

nothing to apologize about other than to a knowledge to

say God's House is God's House, and I love. What's

beautiful is what happens is nineteen ninety four, we plan it.

In two thousand and seven, we moved into our current

Rancho campus. Yes, and it's in our Rancho campus that

we moved into. And at that time we had these

theater seats for majority of the time. And uh, these

theater seats right here this these are the ones they

were drilled in to the campus just up until two

years ago.

We took them out and we changed them when we

moved in here.

A big deal was to be able to do a

capital campaign to be able to afford the chairs. They

were like one hundred and thirty dollars a chair that

was actually look, that was Pastor Diego's envelope that he

would pass out in two thousand and six.

It said time to build part two. I don't know

what part one was, We'll have to ask him.

And then look right there it had it had a

little chair that was like you want to buy your chair?

Say hey, you want to buy you a chair.

And then two years ago we were like, okay, you know,

we feel like it's time God's doing something fresh in

our church.

We got we gotta shrink as God does big.

We got we gotta get smaller, and so and so

we made a big investment and we and we took

He's out and we put and we put these chairs, the.

Ones that we're sitting in across all of our campuses.

And some people said, I'm not a fan of that,

And I get that.

I get that. I liked liked I've been here for

twenty years. I liked the chairs that I had. Well.

I recently was talking to a man in our church.

He said, he said, I've been part of our church

for twenty years, and he's very involved, and he said,

I have met more people in the past twenty four

months with getting new chairs, because now we do circles

and tables, and we hold men's events, and we do

women's brunches and all these things. He said, I've been

here for twenty years, I've met more people in two

years than I had in eighteen years. And he just said,

I'm so thankful that I get to participate and meet

more individuals. He didn't say, meet people. He knew people

because I got to meet more people. Because as a church,

the more that we understand that we're a family, that's

why Patrion means families, the more we're able to understand

what God wants to do not only in our lives,

but in the life of your neighbor and the life

of your home and the life of your community. Here's

some here's some things that make us special as a culture,

as a church, as God has done many things. Because

then in twenty nineteen, we launched our second campus, Pomona,

and our Pomona campus launched with with these stacks of

forty five chairs. And every single week they would be

portable and they would take these chairs out right here

and they would set them up. For over a year,

they did this every single Sunday. And there were and

there were, and there were hundreds of these little things

right here. And what Pastor Aaron used to do at

Pomona is every Sunday they would take a stack of

empty chairs, they and they and they would pray over

them and they would say, Lord, every empty seat represents assault.

And they would believe God that the impact would expand

to people who weren't in a chair. And then just

this past year, in twenty twenty five, God would add

a third campus in the city of Alameda. And God

is doing such incredible work that they are soon on

the horizon that within probably within the new year, they'll

be adding.

A third service. Because God is just growing.

God is just growing in Alameda and doing a work

in Alameda, because God's moving than twenty twenty six, because

we put a priority to launch Alameda, and so we

put a small pause and we're already parting. Have it

set that in the early parts of twenty twenty six

we'll be launching Corona Campus with.

More people, more hearts, more souls to make an impact.

But with the last few moments, what roots us, Well,

I want to share with you what rootsus is, and

you hear it all the time, but I just want

to dig a little deeper. What roots us is our vision.

Our vision is to seek the lost. How do we

seek the loss? We seek them with love. Our vision

is to teach the disciples. In other words, this is

the uncomfortable part that as we begin to teach the disciples,

it means what we're doing is we're stripping ourselves of

our our house culture for God's house culture, and that's uncomfortable.

But I encourage if you sit long enough, you will

see God finish what he started in your life. And

a lot of times we don't want to sit long

enough because the moment we feel the heat turned up,

the moment we feel the discomfort, we say, don't, I

don't want to be taught to this degree. You ever

quit something that you enjoyed, but you just quit it

because it was just too hard. Look, I loved it,

I loved doing pilates, or I loved jiu jitsu, or

I loved going on walks, but then I just got

out of breath, or it got too hard, or it

got too tired. And something that you knew was good

for you, that you enjoyed, you didn't quit because you.

Disagreed with it.

You quit because it was at a discomfort. But I'll

tell you this, in the Kingdom of God discomforts your friend.

It's the love of a father.

And there are all the times with my sons Matthias

and Tomness, I gotta love them so much that they're

kicking and screaming not to eat their vegetables, not to

wake up in the morning not to do things, but

my love is so great that I want to discipline

them into who they're called to be. And so, as

a church, teach the fountain. That's important to us because

teaching is fun, but it's also uncomfortable. But second, the

third thing is send the disciples. We're a church that's

not frozen. We believe that God has called us to

be sent out. And we see these three things built

into our kind of values.

And here's our values.

Number one is we're Christ's centered, Christ's character, community commits.

So we're christ which means we're mission driven. We're Christ's centered,

and we believe in passionate worship, biblical truth, and the

Holy Spirit's power.

We're community driven. We believe in diversity.

We believe in the Kingdom of God, which means we're

a church that opens our hands to other churches. We

remove our ego because we only are in one kingdom.

It's not a kingdom of Patria, it's a Kingdom of God.

Reason why we felt like God was calling us into

a season to name our church Patrio because it's the

most neutral biblical term you can have. What's your name,

God's family that that's the name it's about as open

handed and kingdom driven that you can get you part

of God's family. Oh hey, what's up, cousin. That's why

we named ourselves Patria. It's like, oh, but I go

to the Way, or I go to Water of Life,

or I go to the Rock, or I go to

this Hey.

What's up family? What's up? Cousin? What's going on? To us?

Said that.

I go to this church, I got Hey, that's great, Hey, cousin.

We're patriot.

We got a unique DNA.

But at the same time, we have one value, and

it is that we're community driven and we believe in

the Kingdom of God. The third thing is character. We

believe that God's building character in our life. That when

you and I stand before God, that we will be

better that day than we were any day on heaven.

Because God's developing character, He's developing leadership in us, discipleship

in us. We raise people with integrity, the accountability, and

spiritual maturity. We want to take people from drinking milk

to eating meat. That's what we want to do as

a church, and that develops people's character.

And the last thing is commitment.

In other words, we don't quit when it gets hard.

We don't quit on God, we don't quit on people.

We don't give up on broken people, we don't give

up on hurt people.

We just don't walk away. We are committed.

We're building a church where no one does life alone.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, Christianity means community through.

Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ.

No Christian community is more or less than this than

what being about Jesus, Being about Jesus. As I closed

for just a moment because I want to respect our

time today, is this.

There's a lot of famous seats in history.

There's Lincoln's rocking chair that he was unfortunately assassinated in, that's.

Held in the Ford Museum.

Now, there's rosa park bus seat that started the movement

during the Civil rights era.

There's JK.

Rowling's cafe chair that she wrote, Harry Potter, you know

this chair sold for four hundred thousand dollars.

It was a chair.

There were dozens of other chairs in that room.

That look just like that chair.

I bet you can even find out the serial number

and still online by the chair, the same model.

But for people, they say.

But it's not Harry Potter's chair people value sitting to

United Nations. It's seen as one of the greatest honors

in the world to have one of the one hundred

and ninety three seats that's represented in the United Nations.

And what happens is not only do you get your

nation's name, but on your chair, they.

Put your name on it.

It's seen as a great right, a great honor, and

a great privilege.

But here's what I tell you.

Whether it's the famous chair Lincoln sat on, or the

famous chair Rosa.

Parks sat on, or the chair JK.

Rowling sat on, or the chair that the United Nations

sits on. Parents, your dinner table chair can be just

as valuable.

Students.

The desk chair that you sit on at school can

be just as valuable. That office chair that you hate

that always gives you bad lumbar support that you sit

on all day, even that can be a chair of impact.

Because the Bible says that even God sits on a throne,

and he sits on a chair.

And in the Bible, it's seen in numbers that God

in the Ark of the Covenant, where they used to

sacrifice the animals, they would lay the blood of the

animals that would atone for the sins of Israel, and

it was called the mercy seed. And God said, when

you build the ark out of gold, I want you

on the top to put two angels that their wings

come together. And then I want you to have a

flat surface that's gonna be my seat of mercy. So

when the blood sits on that, I won't be sitting

in a judgment seat, the Beama seat. I'll be sitting

on the mercy seat, the seat that anyone that's willing.

And we would know later on in the Book of

Romans that anyone that's willing to receive Jesus, that would

be the seat the mercy, the blood that would be

for our lives.

And so you ask yourself, where does God sit. God

sits in a.

Place of mercy for your life. God sits in a

place of forgiveness and a grace. And it's our job

to show the world that there is a chair, the

Beama seat, the judgment seat, but.

There also is a chair that God sits on, called

the mercy seat.

And you and I, if we're children of God, if

we're patriar, if we're that family, then you and I

will never see God in that Beama seat. We will

see God in the mercy seat, the seat that has

compassion and forgiveness. So what encourage you today as a

church is we're one that believes in seeking the laws,

teaching the family, and sending you to disciples. And we

have a beautiful history that we've sat in over the years.

We believe that there's more people who have not rested.

And normally a seat is supposed to be a place

of rest, But a lot of people that I see

on the world, they're sitting in anxious seats. They're sitting

in broken seats, They're sitting in seats of discomfort and pain.

And you and I God has called us to be

people that say there's a seat God has and it's

a seat called mercy. And if you'd receive Him and

his son Jesus, then God will give you that seat

and will give you that rest. Or if you don't,

then you will meet God in the Beama set. It's

not God's plan to meet us in the Beama seats.

God's planned to meet us in the place of mercy.

I'm want to pray for us just a moment, and

this is why we'll continue to talk over the next

couple of weeks. But this is an introduction that as

we're part of God's House is God's rules, I will

encourage you to be a person that says God. I

recognize that I have a lot of growth to do

as a person to recognize.

God's house and God's rules.

And I believe as we acknowledge that and we become

soft and tender hearted to what God wants to do.

God will use you in ways you.

Could not comprehend in your life because it's God's house. So, God,

I just pray right now, is we're in your home,

would you speak to us today, God, would you stretch

us today? Father God, We thank you Lord for the

history of our church, Father God, but we also believe

that you're doing something fresh and new in this house.

God.

So I pray Lord that as we keep our eyes

fixated on Jesus, we may sit in your mercy and

your grace today.

Lord, in Jesus name.

Amen, if you're here today, I want to have us

leave all together one more time, and I want to

have us power has just one more time. And I

just want to invite you if you never made Jesus

Christ your personal Lord and Savior and you never experience

the mercy of God, the.

Fact that Jesus's blood was.

Shed for you, and his grace is available for you,

and his mercy is available for you if you're willing

to lay your own life down.

At the altar of God.

There's a passage in the Bible that speaks of a

man named Abraham, who God said, I want you to

take your son, Isaac, your promised son. I want you

to lay him at the altar, And he says, I

want you to sacrifice him for me. All God wanted

to see is what Abraham lay his most prized thing.

At the altar of God. But what a lot of people.

Miss is is Abraham had a deep understanding and knowledge

of God. Abraham had so much faith in God that

he knew that even if his son would.

Die, that God would give him life instantly. He knew.

He believed in the resurrection. Abraham believed in the resurrection.

So some people think that's crazy that someone would lay

their son's life down, and even that that's crazy that

God would even ask that. No, Abraham known as the

Father of Faith because he had so much faith that

he said, God, you control life, so whatever is taken

you can give right back. And that's the mercy of

God is that whatever has been taken from you, God

can give back. If peace has been taken from you,

God can give it back. If joy has been taken

from you, God can give it back. If your health

has been taken from you, God can give it back.

But you don't have faith in God because he can

give that back. You have faith in God because He

holds and sustains it all, and that through Jesus he

has redeemed it all.

That's what faith is.

And so if you're here today and you're ready to

make a decision of faith today by following Jesus, which

you repeat after me and say, Dear Lord Jesus, in

this moment, I confess you as my Lord and Savior.

I believe in my heart that you died on the

cross and you rose three days later. From this day forward,

I commit to follow you for the rest of my

days in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Can we give God praise today that there are many

in this room, in the courtyard cafe, are in this

place who responded to the grace and mercy of God.

If you're here today and you want to take some

next steps, with us. We would love to come alongside

of you in your faith journey. If you want to

leave today, you can go to our website and go

to ww dot Grow dot Faith. If you said I

said that prayer for the first time, or maybe I

said it a long time ago, but today I really

meant it, then I want to encourage you to go

to that website and allow us to take some next

steps with you. Additionally, today, as always, we have prayer

up here at the altar. So if there's anyone that's

got a burden, if there's anyone that needs someone to

come alongside of them and pray for them, encourage them,

you need someone to speak a word over you, then

our prayer team, our elders and deacons day will be

up here today. As we leave here together, I'm gonna

bless us one more time, will be here.

God.

I thank you for today, Father God. Pray Lord for

blessing for every single person. Father God.

May they dwell in your shadow every day of their life.

God, bless their mind, bless their thoughts, God bless their words,

but pray you bless their sight today Father God, I

thank you Lord that you've called us into your family

there's no greater honor and privileges in this world than

to be a child of God. And so we thank

you for your grace today in Jesus' name. Amen and Amen.

God bless you family.

We'll see you next week or next Wednesday.