Is Church Still Relevant? || Pastor Adam Mesa

Hey man, Well, praise guy. So good to see everybody today.

I want to welcome all of our campuses. We got

an all campus weekend, so would you do me a

favorite rancher, Would you welcome Pomona and Alameda to service

today with us as well. I just came in from

our Alameda campus. They had their first ever Men's day.

We were praying for thirty men to come. We had

one hundred men signed up at our Alameda campus and.

It was powerful.

We just didn't know what to expect for our first

men's event up there, so it was amazing. So shout

out to all the men in Alameda who came, and

shout out to I also want to talk for a

moment about our sprint coming up, because all of our

sprints are listed on a website patriotsprints dot Com, all

our past ones. When I was just at Alameda, a

young man came up to me said he was in

the middle of doing the Apologetic Sprint.

So it's so great.

The reason why we do these sprints not only to

disciple people, but also in the future wherever God would

lead us to cities in the church, we can walk

people through a discipleship process from wherever they're at and

whenever they start church. And so this Leadership Sprint it's

going to be available online as well once we start

getting started with it, So even for Alameda campus, they'll

be able to come. But if you're in Rancho and

Pomona and you're driving distance, it starts next week. And

so people have asked what kind of topics is our

leadership team going to discuss it the Leadership Sprint. Well,

some of them are going to be like this, how

do you lead when you're not in charge? Because not

everybody is the boss or the CEO, but you still.

Want to lead. How do you lead a team?

We're all going to be part of a team at

some point, whether it's in your household or in your workplace.

We have questions how to lead a team. Additionally, we're

going to talk about how do I lead in the

social media age? How many of you guys know that

the pastor the manager, the boss, the mentor is not

a person's greatest influence today, it's what's on their phone.

How do you lead through that when you're not always

the greatest voice in the person's life. And so, how

do you build a bridge to people that you're leading

when they're gonna double check everything you said on YouTube

or Google. So that is some of the stuff we're

going to talk about during the sprint on Tuesday night,

So make sure you join us, or you can simply

jump on patriotsprints dot com. After the first week, we'll

be able to make it available. Well, I'm excited as

we are actually concluding our series that we've done pretty.

Much all of summer.

It's been about a nine week series called Questions for Life.

This is the last one that we're dealing with. I

do want to encourage you to join us next week

because we've started doing this a couple times and I've

heard from people at our church have told me this

has become some of their favorite weekends. Next weekend is

what we call our next Gen weekend. We're what we're

having is we're having some students in our kids ministry,

Youth ministry, and young adult ministry preach a message to

us next weekend. So I'll be sharing a portion of it.

But then our next generation is going to come and

Jesus makes it clear that out of the mouth of children,

out of the mouth of babes, they too can speak

about the glories of God. And so as we've done

this annually, most of us end up crying.

Or encouraged or whatever it is.

So you don't want to miss next week, and that's

happening all across our campuses. We're going to have next

Gen students all across our campuses sharing, encouraging us and

challenging us, which is something I always look forward to. Well,

if you have a Bible today and you'd like to

fall along, I'm going to be sharing a few verses.

But our predominant verse we're going to be at today

is in Hebrews chapter ten, and so if you brought

a physical Bible, you could flip there and put your

finger there. Also, Additionally, if you didn't bring a Bible,

that's okay.

We're going to have it on the screen as well. Well.

As we've started this series, every single week we always

start with a video.

I'll tell you this ahead of time.

I play this video at first, this is going to

be hard for you to tell what is the topic

we're tackling through these questions and so, as you guys know,

across all of our campuses, we allowed everyone within our

church to submit questions and then we compiled that and said, hey, okay,

these would be the questions that people are asking this one.

Though it seems a little bit all over the place,

it's really not, at the end of the day, not fully.

And so I'm going to play this and we're going

to jump in with the topic today. Let's see what

the questions are today.

How will I overcome spiritual dryness? How do I discover

God's purpose for me? How do I deal with anxiety

as a Christian? How do I keep the faith when

things aren't going my way? I just gave my life

to Christ recently. What does it mean to fully surrender

to the Lord?

I've been getting asked a lot. How can I help

you in your faith journey? And honestly, I want to

know ways in which I can be supported in my

faith journey. How do we forgive and receive true healing

to rest or broken relationships?

Some of my family members do not share the faith.

What's the best way to share the joy of Christianity?

My question for life is how do I deal with

the enemy getting in my head with certain intrusive thoughts,

and also how to deal with making tough choices.

Okay, let's talk about you may have thought like I said, like, hey,

there's a lot of questions. There's anxiety in there, there's

faith questions, there's dryness questions.

How could that deal with anything?

Well, have you ever connected with the statement, whether you've

gone to you know, buy a car, you've gone to

the doctors before. There's a thing called preventative maintenance or

preventative care.

Any of you guys know that, Like, you know what happens.

When your car first has that change oil light on?

And how long have you left that change oil light

on before? The one month? Three months, six months? Not

too long ago. It was just a few months ago.

I had a little bit of pain in one of

my teeth, and that little bit of pain started to

become a lot of bit of pain.

Which came into excruciating pain.

And so I went to the dentist and one of

the first questions doctor Raw asked me was how long

have you been feeling this pain.

I didn't want to.

Admit how long I had been feeling that pain, and

so I said, oh, I don't know, it just kind

of seems like it's uh popped up, even though I

had felt it for some time. And so whether it

be in a doctor's office, or whether it be with

our vehicles. There is something called preventative care preventative maintenance,

which the idea is that if I can stay consistent.

With my health, with my vehicles, with my home.

There has been times that I've had issues in my

home that were really little, but because I didn't want

to spend the two hundred dollars the three hundred dollars,

what was a little issue became a lot of issue

when the entire ac went completely out.

AC repairman recently came sol an issue I had.

He said, Honestly, if you would have just had a

preventative care with us, I don't think you would have had.

To fix what I had to fix.

I said, Man, I gotta be more consistent so that

my big problems aren't so big. Those problems can be

deal on a consistent base. So you may be asking yourself, Okay, Basthroom,

what is the question? Well, the question is this, why

do I need to go to church?

Why do I need to physically go to church?

Is a tending church still relevant in an A and age.

When I got Instagram and I have YouTube, and I

have access to all the greatest preachers, I have you know,

we got a phenomenal worship team. But to you, you

may say, but they're not this worship leader. They're not

that worship leader, they're not this song. They didn't do

the rendition of the worship song that I like. Or

I like my preacher. Don't get me wrong, I like

my pastor. But have you seen this guy blowing up

on YouTube? And so it's very quick that we can say, ah,

it's really not all that important to come to church.

But here's what happens a lot of times in our faith.

You may start to see that change oil light come.

And any of us who have been in church long

enough you recognize in your own faith that you will

experience seasons of anxiety. You will experience seasons of dryness,

you will experience seasons of pain. And what we can

do is we can say, my faith walk and my disciplines,

in my church attendance, my disciplines, and my daily word

with God. Either I can get to a place that

when I start to see that check engine light or

I start to feel that toothache, I am so consistent

in being around fellow believers and in the presence of God.

That when I start to I nip it rather than

when I feel it.

I just go longer without going longer, without going to church,

longer without attending around other believers and being in the

spirit of God. Watching online is good as a supplement,

but it's not good as the diet. You could take

a vitamin see tablet every day, but you can't live

off of it.

And so I want to encourage a Hebrews.

Ten, Like I said, if you want to stand for

just a moment for the reading of God's word, it's

just a few verses today, whether you're in Rancho Promona,

we stand just because the highest honor we can have

is reading God's word in our life. And so as

we open God's word, we want to give God the

greatest honor that it deserves with our attention. And here's

what Hebrews Chapter ten, verse twenty four says this. And

let us consider how to stir up one another to

love and good works, not neglecting to me together, as

is the habit of some. He admitting he's like, there

are individuals who don't prioritize meeting and gathering, and he says,

but encouraging one another, and all the more as you

see the day drawing near.

We're to stir one.

Another and encourage one another, and we're not to forsake

gathering together. I'll share a little bit today why but

you may be seated for just a moment. I want

to share with you for a moment. Here's the culture

that we currently live in. It's twenty twenty five right now,

and here's just some data points of what we see

in society. One in three practicing Christians stopped attending church

altogether after twenty twenty.

One in three.

That's a lot. That's a lot of people. It's not

a little data point. Just think about a third of

your income dropping overnight. You feel that, And so therefore

since COVID, one in three people have stopped. Why have

they stopped, Well, they got in a habit of watching online,

or they got in this habit. Deconstruction and disillusionment have

increased spiritual independence. In other words, people have started to

make their faith more private out of fear of losing

friendships or relationships, or just a desire to not want

to be accountable to anyone.

What happens is.

They've started to make their faith life very private, and

so they may listen to messages every day. They may

journal every single day, but the reality is they are

doing it by themselves. And so this is the culture

that we live in. Every single week I meet someone

that says, pastor out of my back and I said,

you want you back from vacation? They said, no, back

to church from COVID. I said, man, it's twenty twenty five.

How long did it take for you to go back

to work with fast? But we say that, and you know,

and I'm Pastor Adam, I'm much nicer. If I was

my dad, Pastor Diego, I'd probably say something a little

bit more direct, but instead I just say, I'm so

glad that you're back.

We've missed you so much.

You know, hasn't been the same since you left in

two thousand and twenty.

But that's what we live in today.

But here's some things I want to give you data

points before we jump into.

The Word of God.

Of Here's what is factual that gathering together does. This

is not done particularly by Christian studies. These some of

these are university studies, secular studies who have studied people

who go to church to.

See what type of data is behind it.

Here's some things that they've realized attending religious services at

least once a week A weekly is linked to thirty

three percent lower risk of death by suicide. So almost

thirty three percent less risk for those that go to

church every single week of having the desires and the

action of suicide. On top of that, twenty two percent

lower risk of depression just by attending weekly a person

depression goes down by twenty two percent just by attendance.

Here's some other things. Frequent service attendance correlates with higher

levels of hope. It's been studied that people who go

to church, they have a thirty three percent hope view

of life than the average person. On top of that,

they have thirty percent higher life satisfaction. And I have

on here the studies so that you don't think I'm

making it up or anything like that, so that you

can get at you can look it up if you

want yourself.

Here's the next one.

Adults and teens involved in church are two times less

likely to engage in drug.

And alcohol abuse.

Why should the next generation be in church? Well, here's

just one data point. On top of that, for adults

and teens, they are more likely to recover.

Faster from addiction.

Individuals who go to church regularly and get involved are

less likely for substance abuse and less and more likely

to recover from addiction sooner.

That's powerful. These are just normal data points.

We hadn't even gotten into what the Bible says. We

hadn't even gotten into how radically gracious God is. Through

the spirit of God. We're just talking about individuals who

have studied believers in people that go to church. On

top of that, church attendance boost social networks. It reduces

loneliness by twenty nine Social isolation increases mortality risk by

thirty percent, so it reduces loneliness. On top of that,

an improved self reported mental health and emotional well being

for individuals that go to church.

People are more emotionally confident.

On top of that, seventy five percent of weekly churchgoers

say they.

Find a great deal of meaning in.

Life, seventy five percent of people. Would you say seventy

five percent of your workplace finds great meaning in life?

Would you say seventy five percent of your family members

find great meaning in life? Well, it suggests that those

that go to church seventy five percent say I know

why I'm here.

They may not fully grasp it. Yet they may not

fully understand it.

But they say, God has revealed to me what my

purpose is and why I'm here. I have meaning in

this life. God cares that I'm alive. God cares that

I'm breathing. God cares about my marriage. God cares about

my children. God cares about my well being. And these

individuals have been studied that they discover this. Why while

being gathered together under a roof where we worship together,

we pray together, we sing together, and we read God's

word together because we know that when we are together,

we are stronger. But there's a lot of individuals and

we've all fallen pray to this and says, I love Jesus.

I don't have to go to church. I don't have

to attend church. I don't have to be spiritual ub

because loving Jesus is enough. But when you read your Bible,

you can't do it in a vacuum.

And when Jesus speaks, Jesus speaks.

To his bride, his church, which is the gathering of

his people. If you like following Jesus by yourself, or

you know someone that likes following Jesus by yourself, I'll

tell you this. They're going to be really uncomfortable in

heaven because Jesus is not going to give them a

cubicle in heaven and say I'll come check in on

you in an hour. He's gonna say, hey, we're all

gathering together to worship. You want to come? And you're like,

I've never done this before. I only ever did this

by myself. Rich Veloto says it like this, you can't

love Jesus and hate his bride. It's hard to love

Jesus but hate the thing that Jesus loves. We say, oh,

church folks are messy, and if you need a process

some more church healing. A couple months ago, we did

a message where we talked about church hurt and so

you can go find that on our YouTube page and

Pastor Diego talked about it.

It's very strong and very powerful.

So I'm not here today to put any type of

disillusionment to say, hey, the church is perfect and individuals

are perfect and everybody gets it right all the time.

No, it's human, but it's God's.

And we're his bride, and no bride has ever been

a perfect bride.

We make heirs, and we make mistakes because we're human.

But that doesn't mean we give up on what God

has blessed and God has redeemed. Here's some things I

want to share with you about values of gathering together.

Here's the first one, if you like taking notes. A

value of gathering together. Number one is community. It's a

place to belong. Here's what Acts, chapter two says. In

the Word of God, Acts chapter two, verse forty two

says this, And they speaking of the church, the early church,

or in the second chapter of Acts. So this is

day one of the church. Holy Spirit has descended upon

the upper room. The church starts. Now it's been activated.

And they go, okay, what's next. Here's what happens. And

they devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching and the fellowship,

the teaching of the Word of God and the fellowshipping together,

the community together, to the breaking of bread and to

praying for one another.

Where is this happening?

This is gathered and what happens as a result, And

all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs

were being done through the apostles, through the leaders that

God has instituted, because they were doing things the way

God had called them to do, which was this, to

gather together to teach the word of God, to preach

the gospel of Jesus, but also to care for one another,

be in community together, Pray for people when they're broken,

believe for people when they're addicted, show grace on individuals

who are struggling. This is something that gathering together. You

ever felt before, You've ever felt so condemned inside of

yourselves until someone told you it's gonna be okay, until

someone forgave you, until someone told you that they love you,

and then you go, oh, I'm so I feel.

So much better.

You can't do your faith alone because every single day

the enemy is trying to point you out. Every single day,

the enemy is trying to make you feel guilty. Every

single day. The enemy is trying to make you feel broken.

Every single day, the enemy is trying to show you

your past. But what happens is when we gather together

and we hear the word of God, and we pray

for one another, and we fellowship together, we say, hey,

that that thing that you're believing, that's a lie of God,

that thing that you've let fall into your mind and

your ears, let's just spend a second renewing your mind

and praying over that.

There's healing in prayer.

There's healing in Confession of Sins Acts Chapter two says

that happens when we gather together. Can that happen with

a group of friends at a Starbucks?

Sure?

But how often are you guys doing it? And are

you inviting people? What happens when it grows?

Well, you've started a church. Now tell people all the time.

They're like, hey, Pastor Adam, is it wrong, I'm starting

a Bible study. Yeah, no, it's not wrong. Start a

Bible study. And then they come like it's Pastor Adam,

one hundred people are coming. This is still wrong, I'm

starting a Bible So I said, well no, but at technically,

at some point you started a church, because then you

got to meet somewhere, and then you got to care

for people, and then you gotta counsel people, and then

you gotta marry people. Then you gotta bury people, and

then you gotta walk deliverance through people and disciple people.

And so anything that is fueled by the power of

God will make an impact and it will grow.

And so anything that God.

Is involved in in community, God will make an impact.

But a lot of times when we have this philosophy

that my faith is independent or I can do it

on my own, all I gotta do is be able

to you know, have my journal out and watch a

sermon off of YouTube and not gather with other people.

It's almost like me saying like this, does anyone here

not have a firepace in their home? And every Christmas?

This is what you put on your TV when you

guys go to have dinner. I got a fireplace at

my house and I've never lit it, and I still

at Christmas time, choose I put one of these on

and then we blast the volume up and it's it's

either got Christmas.

Songs or's got the little crackle and the little pop

in the back. Clack clack, click clack, clack clack click.

Now here's the thing that's nice and great for setting

a vibe, for setting an ambiance, for setting a mood.

But if I was really cold.

I couldn't do this, like like for what this is

made for the It may look good, but it's meant

to be functional.

And so if we're just trying.

To set a mood or be inspired, then yes, looking

at this is enough but but if you're really cold,

like like like if you're really out of place where

you're like I am freezing.

I like I might.

I think I might go through hypothermia.

Like if at this place doesn't start getting warmer, then

what happens.

Is I got this little they call it a little

portable campfire. I haven't we haven't lit this yet, so

let's see what happens. This is our first service of

the weekend, so I don't know how successful it gets,

and so this will determine whether the rest of the

day tomorrow this will be used. Does it seem like, oh,

we see a little bit, okay, what's getting there? But

I'm getting more nervous at the smoke than anything else.

So I'm not gonna light it because I don't want

service to be, you know, left out.

But if you imagine if I put this on and

it's created a fame. They call it a portable campfire,

as good as it will look, And actually this wouldn't

look as good as the campfire I showed you. But

guess what, this is far more functional. If I was

cold and you had this campfire, or you had a

picture of a beautiful campfire or a beautiful fireplace. I'm

choosing this, even though it don't look like that I

can actually get warm from this. I can actually get

I could make a marshmallow over this, I could put

a can over this and boil something. There is so

much more function in this than there would be.

For what I was watching.

And so as watching church and doing church through technology

as good and as much as that sets a vibe

in your life or may inspire your life, and it's

a good supplement.

There are days where you will just.

Need to be in the fire. You just got to

be around the fire of God. And when we gather,

there are times where your faith can't get you to Tuesday.

But there are individuals across all of our campuses and

in these rooms where they will have enough faith to

pull you by. Because where you came in and you're

like God, I'm crumbling, there may be someone to your

left or right of you that is worshiping God with

all of their heart and through them, you are watching them,

and you're saying, God, give me enough faith in this

season to be like them, or you will come and

you will be broken, and you will say, I don't

think I can pray another prayer because I feel like

you've been praying and I feel like things haven't.

Been going the way that I've expected.

But guess what, At all of our campuses, we have

prayer teams where they expect after service, every single service,

every single Sunday, they expect to have enough faith for

you that when you're struggling, when you feel like you

can't pray another prayer, you feel like you need someone

to come in agreement with you. There are individuals at

all of our altars, across all of our campuses that

they came that Sunday specifically to pray for you. I

don't come every Sunday. I know I do pray for people,

but I come every Sunday expecting to when I come

to each God's word.

But there are individuals here at this church.

They come every Sunday expecting to intercede for you, expecting

to pray for you on your lowest day. Could you

zoom your favorite preacher for that moment? Could you zoom

your favorite church for that moment? Not here to make

fun of We do church online. But I tell people

all the time that say, Hey, I live in this state,

You're my home church.

I say, I hope not for long.

I want at some point you to be able to

find a church that you can get around a campfire,

because you're.

Gonna be days.

You may be good right now, but there will be

a day where you're gonna need the heat.

On a cold day.

And yeah, we may be able to answer a DM

with an encouraging word, and yeah, we may be able

to go in the comment section and say, hey, we

got you, we're praying for you.

But there's just nothing like being around the fire.

And so God created his church because God knew you

couldn't do it by yourself. And he created gathering because

he knew we couldn't do it alone. And so we

need to get to a point where we don't forsake

coming together in community. Here's the second thing as well,

though well also in community. But secondly, God wants us

to gather in church because He has a calling.

Over your life.

God wants you to contribute in the Kingdom of God.

God wants you and I to be participators in the

Kingdom of God. One Corinthians twelve twelve to thirteen says,

for just as one body has many members, all the

members of the body, though many, are one body.

So it is with Christ.

For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body,

Jew or Greek, slave or free, all were made to

drink from one spirit. In other words, God doesn't want

to just feed you at church.

He wants to you, not to drain you.

But to activate you. That God is aware of how

he has created you. God is aware of your gifts

and your talents, and God wants to activate that to

not only fulfill the call of your life, but to

fulfill the desires of the kingdom that he has.

This is not what church is.

I know we're in America, and I know we brand

everything and we market everything in the United States of America,

and so many of us on the outside if we're

just attenders at church and we don't take our faith

outside the walls, we don't engage with other people, and

we just slip in and slip out, or we just

watch online. Unfortunately, here's what we believe about church is

we believe that church is just kind of a marketing

ploy for God. In other words, I got the word

church and we would say, this is church, just go

to it. We think this is God's like marketing desire, Like, oh,

just church, Why just go to it. You ever have

parent before like that, Like when you were younger, you're like,

why do I have to do this?

Why do I?

And then what do mom and dad say? Because I

said so? But God doesn't say that in the Word

of God. He's not like, oh, go to church and

we're like why God, And He's like, cause I said so,

Because you will die if you don't do it.

He doesn't say that.

He makes it very clear to us why he wants

us to gather together, and it's less of a marketing thing.

It's less of a branding thing, and it's more like

what he wants us to do is he wants us

to get into a room together, not a second picture

for that, and he wants to be the church, the

body of Christ. It's not a marketing thing for God.

It's not a branding thing that, oh, if you guys

just go to church, it's just you'll look better together

and then that'll make more people want to come.

You know. It's like a car accident.

When there's a car accident, you know, it's like everybody

slows down, everybody wants to look at it. So it's

not like God's thinking if you just guys go to

the church, more people will be interested in church because you.

Guys are going. That's not God's response.

God's response is you gather together because you are functional together,

because we are His body. And there are individuals that

we see in First Corinthians that you have different gifts

than I, and you have different gifts than.

The people that you're left and right of you.

And when you are not activated and called within the

body of Christ, then what happens is we're missing out

on the member of your.

Body, you. And so God has called us to be engaged.

And in the month of August, we're gonna go deeper

into that and we're gonna talk a little bit more

about activating ourselves not just in the church, but on

the outside of the four walls of the church. And

we have growth track at Patria that will walk you

through your spiritual gifts and be able to help you

to understand your spiritual gifts a little bit more. And

that's what we'll talk about in a later time. But

God has called you. But here's the third thing, God doe.

Not only does God call you, not only does he

desire community from us, but.

Also church is a place for covering.

It's a place for accountability and spiritual safety. A covering

in spiritual safety. Hebrews thirteen seventeen says it like this.

It says, be responsive to your pastoral leaders.

Listen to their counsel. I would say not.

He's not just talking about the pastoral leaders from the platform.

He's talking about leaders within the church that are that

are giving up their time, that are giving up their

energy to be there for people in the church.

And he says this, listen to their counsel.

They are alert to the condition of your lives and

worked under strict supervision of God. In other words, a

lot of times our faith goes rogue because we're acting

rogue and we're not under any spiritual covering, and we're

not under any spiritual authority. And so it's not like

we're jumping to church to church to find the right church.

God called us to, which that's fine.

Go to as many churches as you need to till

you find the church that God has called you to.

But when He called you to it, know that this

is a place that I'm expected to be covered. Not

all the moment someone holds me accountable, I'm out of here,

or the moment I see a little bit of friction,

I'm gonna go to the next place. Because wherever you go,

there you are. Wherever I go there, I am. And

so we have to recognize that there are times we're

not even perfect, and we need spiritual accountability and we

need covering.

There was a recently my son, Thomas.

We're on vacation, you know, just about a week ago,

and I know that you guys have wondered if my

skin tone has gotten darker, And yes, because I've been

in the sun, and so I'm one step closer to

what I identify as, which is African American.

So I'm almost there. Two more weeks in the sun.

May be darker than my wife, not darker than my

oldest son, Matthias, though, that boy, he gets dark.

In the sun.

But my youngest that's my white boy, that's Thomas. And

I got a picture of Thomas right here.

And we were.

Recently on vacation about a week ago, and we're at

the beach and he had a little little floaty on

and he was in the water. The water was really

calm in the ocean, and so Thomas tells me and

Ashley we are getting out, and he says. He says,

I want to go and swim in the ocean. And

we said, no, Thomas, you're four years old. You're not

swimming in the ocean alone. We're going inside. And he goes,

you ever argued with a four year old before. It's

one of the most frustrating things that you'll ever experience

in your life. So we say, Thomas, no, absolutely not.

You are not going in the ocean alone by yourself.

And he goes, I'm not by myself. I'm not alone.

And I said, I said, yes you are, Thomas.

You are alone.

Your mom and I we are getting out. You are alone.

He goes, nah, I'm not alone. And I'm like, Thomas,

you are by yourself. Nobody is there. The answer is no,

and he says, no, you're lying. Jesus is with me always.

Now. Number one. I wanted to say, be quiet, you

a little smart Alec.

You're right, But would I say, oh, yeah, in that case, Thomas,

go are you a mile out if you want Jesus

is with you. No. Though that's true, it doesn't mean

it's wise in application. And so when people say I

can go and swim this life alone. I don't need community.

I don't need accountability. I can live my faith out

by myself. And what happens is when a pastor or

fellow Christian says, hey, it's not wise, and they say, well,

Jesus is with me. It's not that it's not true.

I'm not trying to tell you what. Well you know

that's no, He's not with he is, But also he's

wanted you to have wisdom. Also, he's not there to

rescue you in everything. And so what happens we got

to recognize just because something is true about God doesn't

separate the fact that other.

Things are true about God.

Just because the word of God Jesus says I will

be with you always, also doesn't mean what we just

read is Nolan void. If Jesus believed our faith was

independent by ourselves, he would have never said, don't forsake

gathering Day one of.

The holyp we're descending on the church.

You wouldn't see that they were breaking bread and praying

for one another.

And eating food.

And so just because it is true, because you'll hear it.

I've talked to people before they're like, well, I have

the spirit of God. I could do it in mine

I could I you know I could have a relation

worship with Jesus in the bedroom.

Yes, it's true.

But what happens when the devil, who's prowling like a

roaring lion, looking who he may devour. What happens when

he finds you by yourself? What happens when he finds

you struggling in your closet at home?

We're struggling in your bedroom?

Who do you called in? Who do you called in?

Because God has given the church to be a place

where we're covered, where we know, that's a place that

I can run to when all things are broken and

all things are hard. Doesn't mean it's always perfect for us,

doesn't mean it's always easy, but it means God cares.

Here's the last point I'm gonna call close with this

is church is a place and gathering together as a

place where God can commission you, where.

God can send you out.

It's God's desire that the church isn't just a place

you go to. It's a place you go from. It's

somewhere you just go to, somewhere you go from. It's

a place where you and I are trained and equipped

and prepared to go out into the world and preach

the Gospel, as Jesus would command us to to go

to every corner of the world and share about the

goodness of God. This is a place where we are

sent out. Have you ever seen a beach that was

absolutely dirty before? And what happens is every once in

a while you'll see people that for that day, they've

all gathered together and they all got you know, little picks,

and they have trash bags, and they have all these things.

And you know, they may doing it. They may do

it to try to clean up the environment. But I

think if we're honest, we're doing it because we just

we want the beach to look clean, because I want

to be able to sit on the beach and have

a sandwich and a cold drink and not have people's

trash coming up around me. And so what happens a

lot of people are caring for what it is that

God's cared us to, but also they're cleaning because they

want to make it presentable. But imagine a lot of

times sometimes we as believers in the church, we're sitting

on the beach while it's dirty, and we're in our

lawn chair. We got our drink in hand, we got

our sandwich in hand, and there's people all around us

cleaning up the beach, and the right thing to do

is that, hey, people are cleaning up the beach. Maybe

if I want to sit and enjoy the view, if

I want to enjoy the surroundings.

Maybe I should get up and pick up a little

bit of the trash.

Maybe I should clean How many times do we find

ourselves commenting on the world around us, how broken it is,

how dirty it is, how fallen it is.

All my question is to you is are you.

In the beach chair or do you have a trash

bag and shovel in hand?

Are you actively trying to clean up the fallen world?

Do your part as a commissioned believer of Jesus to

share the love of God? Or are we saying I'll

let all the other believers in Jesus clean it up.

I just want to enjoy the view. I just want

good songs, I want good sermons. But I don't want

to deal with anyone's baggage. I don't want to deal

with anyone's dirt. I don't want to deal with anyone's

journey to me that I don't I don't want that.

Because the church is not a cruise ship. We're not

a cruise ship. The Church is a battle vessel.

And there's a difference between a cruise ship and a

battle vessel. Cruise ships is what people go do on vacation.

Battle vessels is what people use to.

Get things done.

And when Jesus gave us the Church and Acts chapter two,

he didn't give it to us so that we can

just live a vacationed life as believers. He gave us

it so that we could do battle with the things

that are not flesh and blood. But it's all of

the spiritual things of this world that are causing darkness

upon people's lives.

And so there are many things.

That God has given us that will benefit us in

the church. And the moment we recognize and say, I

recognize it's not perfect. I recognize there will be seasons

in my life where I don't want to go and

I want to go. But I'll take you back to

the beginning is do you want a little toothache or

do you want need the tooth to be ripped out?

And the lack of value that we put in God's

Church will determine based off of where we're gonna be

at spiritually one day. I want to get to a

place that I'm consistent and disciplined in my faith, with

God's word in my prayer and coming to church not

because I just want something out of it, but because

I know that someday things will get hard. But if

I have relationships that are healthy, if I know people

in my church that can pray for me, if I've

been in community with other individuals, I know that I'll

never be alone. That's why God gave us the church,

not just to see the bad in it, but to

see the beauty and what God has given us. I'm

gonna pray for us, and we'll leave here together. God,

I pray right now, in this moment, Lord, across our

campus is God, may we see the church with your eyes.

Father, God, that this is a gift from you.

This is a gift from you to develop us, to

help us see that your goodness and mercy is real.

Lord. So God, I pray.

If anyone has been in church and seen the church

act any other way than the way that You've called

it to do, God, may you just heal them in

this moment.

Lord, May you.

Help them help them to see that just because one

person or one place hurt them doesn't mean that.

All places and all people will hurt them.

Father God, I pray that you would heal them in

that space, Lord, but I also pray anyone here Lord, may.

You activate us. Father God, put.

Us into a new season where we hunger for people

and we see people with your eyes, Lord, that we

don't take it for granted that you've given us the

ability to pray on people's behalf, believe on people's behalf,

and worship God.

So I pray you move in this place today in

Jesus name.

Men, as we leave here together right now, I just

want to invite you, if you never made Jesus Christ

your personal Lord and savior, don't let another day go

by without knowing, without a doubt, that you have a

relationship with God. And the Bible makes it clear the

only way to have a relationship with the Father is through.

His son Jesus.

Jesus is the only one that gave his life, died

on the cross, and rose three days later for humanity.

No other person in this world has ever done that.

No philosophy can save us, no mortal man can save us.

If you think about any other belief system that exists

in this world, there is a grave for the person

that led that belief system. But for Jesus, because he's

fully God and fully man. Today in Jerusalem there is

an empty grave because our king has risen, and today

he says, at the right hand of the Father, the

Bible says that he will innercee, innercede for anyone that

would follow him. And so as you're here today, if

you're ready to make a decision and say, Lord, I

commit my life to you, or maybe a long time

ago you said this, but as you look at your life,

you say, I've not been living a life that reflects

that that I've said I am. I've said I'm a believer,

but I look at my life, look at my habits,

look at my faith.

It doesn't reflect that.

So you may be here to say this prayer for

the first time or the last time, but I want

to encourage you. It's not the prayer that saves you.

It's the heart of transformation within the Holy Spirit.

Right now. It's talking to you. Jesus says in his Gospels.

He says this, I stand at the door of your heart,

and I'm not whoever opens it and lets me in,

I will come in and I will dine with them.

And so God loves you so much that he will

not force himself on.

You, but he will knock, he will talk to you.

We have to respond.

So if you're here today and you're ready to make

that response, we're all going to join you in this moment. So, family,

wherever you're at courtyard, cafe, in this room, or online,

would you need to be fair, bow your head, close

your eyes, as you're here today and you're ready to.

Make that confident decision.

Not to know that salvation is in your own hands,

but in the hands of God, that through Jesus and

his stripes you would be healed. Romans chapter ten, verse

nine and ten says that if you confess with your

mouth Jesus's Lord and believe that he rose from the grave,

you will be saved. It's a period after that statement,

not a question mark or a comma.

It's a promise that if we believe, we will be saved.

Would you join me in saying this prayer right now,

as many people are gonna say this for the first

time or the last time, would you say, dear Lord Jesus,

in this moment, I confess you as my lord and

my Savior. From this moment on, I repent to my sins,

and I fully believe that you have redeemed me.

From this day.

Forward, I would choose to follow you for the rest

of my days. In Jesus' name. Amen, I'm gonna do

one thing to Patriot. One of the things we do

is we celebrate those who have given their life to Christ. So,

on the count of three, if you said that prayer today,

I'm gonna ask that you raise your hand. All we

want to do is we want to celebrate and welcome

you into the family of God.

So, if you said that prayer.

Today for the first time or the last time, would

you raise your hand on the count of three, one two,

one two three, raise your hand up high in the air.

I see you, my friend. Welcome to the family. I

see you too, back there, Welcome to the family. Welcome.

I see you back there as well. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,

I see you too back there, hey, Welcome to the

Family of God.

The Book of Revelation says, if.

One person gives their life to Christ, all of Heaven rejoices.

Right now, Heaven is rejoicing at the decisions that.

We're made today.

If you said that. Prayer today or raise your hand.

We have a website we want to help you with

next steps. We want to make sure that you don't

do this by yourself, and so you can always ask

someone in the cufoyer who has a family Badger T shirt.

They could help you, or you can simply go to

our webs ww do grow dot Faith. We have a

small book that you could read over a cup of coffee,

but it's your best next steps on what you can

do in your walk with Jesus Christ. Additionally, if anyone

is here, as I shared today, our elders, deacons in

prayer team, they're gonna be up here in the front.

So if anyone needs prayer or anything like that. Guess what,

you're around a hot campfire today, So feel free to

come up to the front and get prayer, whether you

need them to pray for you, come into agreement over

anything or anything like that. Our team is here to

believe God with you and for you. I'm gonna bless

us one more time and we're gonna leave here together.

God. I thank you for this moment. Today.

I pray a blessing over every single person. Lord, may

they be covered by the love and grace of God. Today,

Father God, I pray you would anoint their thoughts, anoint

their hands, and anoint their feet, that everywhere that they

go the spirit of God would follow.

Lord. May they be lights in dark rooms in Jesus' name.

Amen and Amen. God bless your family. Thank you.