Why Your Portion Matters | Joshua 13:15-33 | Pastor Diego Mesa

Well, hey man, it's good to see everyone here tonight.

And what I know about our Wednesday Fresh Start service

is these are people who like to eat twice a week.

One meal is not good enough.

So but there might be some that you work on Sunday,

so this is your first time this week. But either way,

thank you so much. I'm just of the opinion. You know,

the Bible says in Hebrews the tenth chapter, it says,

in these last days people will be forsaking themselves in

the house of God. It says, as you see the

day approaching, do not cease to becoming a church. And

then the presence of God church helps us raise our godliness,

our spirituality, our morality. This is where we get godly

examples of what a marriage should be, of what a

man of God should be. Community is found within the

walls of the church. And here's what I know know

about the future. Whether it's because of AI or technology,

it's going to become more of a lonelier generation than

ever before that are going to live isolated, live and

distant lives. And all the psychologists and psychiatrists are telling

us that of this gen Alpha generation in how they

have socially distanced. I think COVID just expose that and

put it on the planet to stay. And you're going

to have to fight for community. You're gonna have to

fight for community, and community brings so much safety and protection,

and usually people that have community in their lives are

just simply happier people. And so coming to church is

part of that. Plus it's a kind of a commandment.

God told us to do so at the end of

the day. Because Jesus told you to do it, that's

a good reason to do it. Now, before I pray,

introduce the subject and preach, I have to ask you

to pray for me and to forgive me. I'm a

little bit angry right now, and I don't know that

I'll be able to minister the word of God under

the anointment of God by being angry. So you have

to pray for me. So I know you're just absolutely confused.

Your mind is so serious right now, it's ridiculous. If

I could take a picture of you. Okay, So you

know that I'm just a really health buff eater. Okay,

So I decided to make me the best organic pizza

on the planet. So my crust was made out of

broccoli that I had shedded by my hand, okay, and

then it was made with cauliflour that I cut and

created the base of the crust.

Are you with me?

And then I put some bone broth in there to stick,

some eggs and a little bit of salt in there,

and a little bit of olive oil, and then I

let it cook to create the base. And then I

put some organic tomato paste on there. And then I

put what did I put on impolves? I put mushrooms

on there. I uh cook some salmon and put that

as my as my protein on there.

I cut.

I went in to sprouts and bought a pineapple and

I cut up pineapple and put it on there. Doesn't

sound wonderful. And I got a plate and I said,

oh my god, I made so much. This will last

me three days. This is awesome. I'll be eating this

for the next two or three days.

And so I ate my plate. Let's pause for a moment.

On Wednesdays, Enzo and Ezra come over, and lovely Cindy

watches them at the house, but emphatic amaze. The trouble is,

I love Enzo and I love Ezra, but they bring

their dog Bruno, and we got to watch Bruno. And

you know where this is going. I don't they call

this a bernadoodle. He's a stupid dumba doodle because that

guy jumped on the oven.

And ate my pizza.

So if anybody like a free bernadoodo, I'm gonna get

rid of that dog. And my son's up there in

the front row. I said, don't ever bring that dog by,

don't ever.

Bring him again. He's gonna come missing. I got my

labs back there.

He gonna meet the homies for the gangsters from mounta Ballot.

Next time he comes over, that little diva duva, little

preppy dog, he gonna get introduced some little homie Jesus,

some chocolate brown's that are jump on him.

Anyways, Oh wow, I got a star from scratch. Here

we go. See you were so serious, you.

Thought I was really angry sinning my life or some anyways.

Joshua the thirteenth Chapter, Joshua the thirteenth Chapter. Father, bless

our time in the word today. We just thank you

for the Word of God, and we appreciate all that

the Word will minister to us with practicality. That we

could go home and live out tonight even tomorrow, to

better serve you in Jesus name. Let's stand for the

reading of God's word.

Here we go.

We're in Joshua, and we're in chapter thirteen, in the

middle part of the chapter, and we're going to highlight

just a few verses. It says this to the tribe

of Rubens descendants by their clans, Moses gave the border

of the Rubenites was the Jordan and its plains. This

was the inheritance of the Rubenites by their clans, with

cities and their settlements. To the tribe of the Gadites

by their clans. Moses gave this as their torritory, territory

Jazzar and all the cities of Gilead, and half the

land of the Amorites or are near Rappa. This was

the inheritance of the Gadites by the clans, with the

cities and their settlements. And to have to tribe of Manassa,

that is, to have the tribe of Manassa's descendants by

their clans.

Moses gave. These were the portions.

Moses gave them on the plains of Moab beyond the

Jordan east of Jericho. But Moses did not give a

portion to the tribe of Levi. The Lord, the God

of Israel was their inheritance, just as he had promised them.

You may be seated. You know.

I have a brother who's eighteen months younger than me.

His name is Brian.

And if you grow up in a home with siblings,

you are always trying to measure yourself against each other.

And you're always.

Trying to make sure that your parents equally proportion out

the presence, the foods, the desserts, the clothing, the rooms,

the beds, whatever it is. You're trying to make sure

that nobody gets ripped off, like why did my brother

get a bit more dessert than me?

Kind of thing, you know.

And then you're measuring yourself by your brother, WHI is

he taller than me and I'm shorter than him. You're

always trying to measure yourself. So we had chores, and

the amazing I had to do the front yard and

Brian got to do the backyard. And I used to

think that I still today believe that I got the

raw end of the deal, because the front yard used

to take so much longer than the backyard, and my

dad required so much more of the front yard because.

It was so visible.

Where the backyard my brother did just simply mode it

and that was it. Where I had to edge, I

had to pull weeds, I had to hedge, I had

to do all the extra and I used to think

and that I got the wrong end of the deal. Well,

sometimes if you're not watchful and mindful, those childhood competition

and measuring and proportioning out can come into our adult

lives where we now compare ourselves to someone else, who

they married, the kind of house, what city they live in,

the level of income they have. In the Body of

Christ and the church, we're measuring ourselves and comparing ourselves

with their talents and their gifts and how God uses them.

And sometimes that could get us to a place in

our hearts where we believe in entitlement, that we deserve

something just because or it makes us unappreciative and we

are not content or satisfied with what God gave us,

And sometimes we think that we are less than or

getting ripped off because I've been through a divorce and

you haven't been through a divorce, and my wife was

unfaithful to me, and your wife has not been unfaithful

to you. So I got the raw end of the deal,

and your children are serving the Lord, and my children

are running the streets living like the devil. I got

the wrong end of the deal.

I've been.

Passed over on three promotions. And look at you. You've

gotten three promotions. And we graduated the same year. We

have the same college background, but you make tw I'm

just kind of preaching right now, and we get caught

up in that comparison and that measuring out and that

proportioning out. Let me give you the last image and

then I'm gonna launch this. Let's just say we had

a giant piece of your favorite pie. Yell out to

me your favorite kind of pie.

Apple pie, heard, key, Oh jeez key, lime.

Pie, cheesecake, sweet potato.

Okay, listen, We're.

Gonna portion that pie out by cutting it, Okay, all right.

And the reality is is that you have the option

of cutting your own piece or turning the knife over

to God and say, God, you cut my piece for me.

And that's the difference in maturity. Most of us are

gonna take the knife and cut our peace based upon

our stomach's need, our wants, and our likes and as you.

But you're in the Kingdom of God.

God asks you take the knife out of your hands,

put it in my hands.

I know the portion that is best.

For you, so that you don't get obese. And I'm

talking about obese naturally. I'm talking about sluggish and fat

spiritually in your emotions.

So let's talk about what we just read in Joshua.

Now we have the allocations of land mass as they

have entered into the land of Canaan and have begun

to conquer enemies. Now these twelve tribes twelve like twelve families,

begin to divide it up based upon what Moses promised.

But Joshua will now deliver it to them.

It was a promise from Moses, and now Joshua would

begin to cut up that mass of land and begin

to allocate. And you saw a few of those allocations

that were given in the land or the territory or

the inheritance. Here's the first thought that I like to

look at today that teaches us what we just read.

After the conquering of the land, after you conquer the land,

after you conquer your enemies, after you conquer the opposition,

now comes payday, now comes the reward.

Now comes the paycheck. But please see the order.

The order is this, you must first work for it

before you get the reward.

You must first invest in it.

You must put for the time and the energy, the sowing,

the conquering. You must be obedient first. You must be

responsible first. You must live differently first. Now you get

to rest. Now you get to reap, You get to inherit.

Now you get to retire. Now you get peace. We

get in trouble when we do it in reverse. We

get in trouble when we're doing it in reverse. We

can't inherit if we first not invested.

And that's what we need.

To tell this young generation that wants to make million

dollars on being.

A social.

Popularity on social media and just have a X amount

of million, and I'm gonna say they can't. But the

odds are just so limited, and so people want to

work less than ever before but get the big paycheck.

And that goes against the grain in which hot God

created us.

Work is not a curse. Say some of you don't

believe that.

That's why you don't work, because you believe it's a curse.

Work is very self fulfilling, it's validating It allows me

to use my talents and my gifts. I realize there

are people that don't like their jobs. That's a reality.

But once you work at a job that fixs your gift,

mix your purpose, you feel like you're adding to society,

then it's very, very self fulfilling. But I want to

just share with you. The Bible says this, do not

be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows

that will he reap. So if you are not reaping

what you want in your marriage, or in your health,

or in your finances, then you've not sowed enough. Don't

expect just blessings to come because you say a prayer.

You have to work toward that. You have to invest that.

You have to sow that. Nobody loses natural weight overnight.

It takes a long time. Sometimes. I know you want

to just shoot ozepic in you and lose it in

thirty days.

But that's not healthy.

God, that guy's always up in my business. I don't

know why he's always up in my business. The Bible says,

if you are willing and obedient, you're gonna eat the

good of the land.

God wants you to eat the good of the land.

He wants you to enjoy life.

He wants you to have a fruitful life, a bountiful life,

a life of increase. But you have to sew by

being willing and obedient. The Bible says in Genesis, so

the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed.

And on the seventh day God completed his what his

work that he had done, and he rested on the

seventh day. Notice it didn't say he rested, then he worked.

You work, then you can rest. You work, and then

you can play. You don't play and then work. Say

they're three amens. Because I'm just I'm not sure that

you understand this. The Bible says, you will surely eat

what your hands have worked for, you will be happy,

and it'll go well.

That's what God wants for every person.

He wants us to be happy and he wants it

to go well with us. But we've got to put

in the time and the work. So they had to

put in the work of conquering those enemies. They had

to put in the work of obeying Joshua, their leader.

They had to walk the land, and they had to

go through all that area, all the energy, all the emotion.

But now they're beginning to have an inheritance. They're beginning

to having an inheritance, and that's what God wants for us.

The second thing I learned from this is that God

creates boundaries for them, divisions for them, allotments and allocations.

And that's what God does for us. So there'll be

a little map here to just show you. Wow, that's

well anyways, Just see all the colored areas there. I

thought it'd be a little bigger than that, but that's

all the tribes in there, and that was the land

that was being allotted to them. So the map reveals Israel.

But this broadened land were twelve tribes where the land

of Canaan it consists of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and

the tip of Egypt. All of that land was Israel. Well,

I just gave you a revelation there. All of that

land Israel owned. The twelve tribes own that land. But

God made allocation of that land. He gave boundaries. What

am I trying to tell you? A life without boundaries

leads to chaos, feuding and fighting. God wants you to

have freedom, but he wants you to live a life

of boundaries.

Boundaries are good.

I need boundaries for relationships or you're gonna get burned.

I need boundaries on spending mon my money, or I'm going.

To go in debt.

I need boundaries with my emotions would I think on

or I'm gonna get in trouble. I need boundaries on

my mouth. I need boundaries for my eyes. I'm talking

to somebody today. I need boundaries for my ears. I

need boundaries for my hands. This is not to control

your life. This is to protect your life. And God

divided boundaries. He said, Reuben, you go over there. God,

you go over and if you look at it, there

were different sizes of acreage that were given. And God

could have said, that's not fair. Why did Ruben get

so much land? God, you're not a just god. God,

You're not a fair God.

Yeah he is.

He gave you some land, he gave you health, he

gave you a marriage, he gave you breath. What are

you doing comparing to somebody else in land, disbursements, in inheritances,

in blessings, or whatever that might be.

In that.

God challenges us to always live in boundaries, or you

and I are going to get in trouble. There's boundaries

that you and I have to live in our lives. See,

there's something called the boundary of sex. Sex is wonderful.

Sex is to be enjoyed by two married people. Oh

your sould fashioned, you, old gray hair, preacher, wrinklely face. Well,

then do whatever you want to do and see if

there's problems. If you're blessed, then there's no problems there.

Then maybe you're you're smarter than the Bible and God.

But God puts boundaries within the sexual relationship. It's between

a husband and a wife.

That's the bout. You have as much sex.

As you want nine and days, seven days a week,

fourteen times a day, the upside down purple Hippopotamus if

you want, but it's done within the boundaries of a marriage.

And this is not a sex talk, or then I'd

would tell you why there are consequences. But I think

you're smart enough to discern that Bible said it's okay

to be angry, but I'm gonna put boundary around it.

You cannot sin. You should be upset, sometimes you should

be mad. Sometimes none wrong with that. It's when it's

carried too far. And now there's hatred, and now there's violence,

and now you're putting your hands on somebody, and now

you're hurting somebody. Boundaries alcohol. See, you've been waiting for

me to talk. Now, there's boundaries. Be not drunk with

wine where there is excess. Now, I'm a person that

doesn't drink it, but I don't have a problem with

someone who drinks alcohol as long as they don't use

it to be intoxicated, because that's the boundary God put

around it. Now, I know some of you are real religious.

Pastor you were my best preacher, and now you're not

because you said that, Well, what do you think Jesus

when he changed water and oning, what do you think

was non alcoholic?

Is that what you really think?

In a Jewish custom that made wine that was like

their water to drink in that culture, he just said, Oh,

they are going to come to people two thousand years

from now that live in California that go to Patria,

and they're going to be offended.

So I'm gonna just make non alcoholic wine.

That's more of a miracle than making it with alcohol

through the fermentation process.

There's boundaries. Nothing wrong with a man having a.

Female a man who's married having a female as a friend.

But there's boundaries. Come on.

What you're doing with you're married and you're with a

woman at nine o'clock at night, ten o'clock at night?

Are you stupid? Are you dumb?

Is there something up here that's wrong? What are you

sharing your private information with somebody of the opposites?

So you're going beyond the boundary.

And when you go beyond the boundary, you're gonna reap

what you sew and you're gonna get in trouble. So

God gave them boundaries. That was my introduction, And now

I'm gonna preach. Here we go, So here we go.

Psal I'm sixteen, says this Lord. You are my portion

and my cup of blessing. You hold my future. My

flesh and my heart may fail, but God is my

strength and my heart my portion forever.

The Lord is my portion.

I have promised to keep your words and lamentations. The

Lord is my portion. Therefore I put my hope in him.

The third thing and the last thing is God saying

I'm your portion. I'm the one who allocates your blessing.

I'm the one who allocates your inheritances. I'm the one

who allocates your your possessions.

I'm the one who.

Does it, and especially for Levi and the priesthood. Notice

it says that no land was allocated to Levi. God said,

because I'm going to take care of Levi.

Levi does my work.

Levi's in charge of the tabernacle and the and the temple.

And that's why all you other.

Tribes will take a tenth of your income, the tenth

of your earnings, the tenth of your protest, and you'll

bring it to the house of the Lord so that

the priest Levi will be taken care of. That's where

all of this comes from. And so you and I

have to recognize that God is our portion. And that's

where that picture of that pie comes. And give God

the knife and let him put the portion on your

plate instead of stop serving yourself. So here's the thought

I want to break down to you. They'll be on

the screen. God was teaching them that I am the righteous,

just and fair portioner. I'm not an unjust portioner. You

may think that someone else is getting more than you,

but not in my eyes. You may think you're being

left behind and forgotten, but you're not by me.

You may walk around.

With a chip on your shoulder, but if you look

to me as your portion, I'm the one that provides.

So here's the way it's gonna be broken down as

you look at it. God is the one who will

give you your share. God is the one who will give

your serving size. God is the one who will give

you your peace. And God is the one that will.

Give you your part.

God is the one that gives the portion its size.

It's within his heart to give that. He said to one,

I'm gonna give one talent to two. I'm gonna give

two talent into the third, I'm gonna give five talent.

Now that one talent could say, that's wrong, that's unjust.

Why are you giving someone else five when you only

gave me one? The two could say, why are you

giving me two when you gave that God five? But

God is the allocator. And listen, Even if you've got

one talent, listen, if God bless your one talent, you

will be more prosperous, you will be more influential, You

will be more blessed than somebody who has a hundred

talent outside of God's outside of.

God giving it to it. And God favoring it.

So you and I have to realize that, no matter

what you have today, or no matter what you don't

have today, start looking to God as the portion of

your life.

And I'll describe what that means. Now it'll go. The

first one will be on the screen whom it talks about,

God is my portion.

That means you don't have to worry about getting ripped

off or overlooked when you truly believe.

This is a real maturing message. Now, if you truly.

Believe that God is your portion, because you said it,

then you can never get ripped off. You can never

be overlooked and forgotten. But if you're in charge and

you're the one who gives portune, then you might be.

You might have gotten ripped off, you might have been forgotten.

But in God's kingdom, he says, if I watch over

the birds of the air, and I watch over the

lilies of the valley, and I work, they don't work

and toil, but I provide for them. What makes you

think you're being overlooked and ripped off?

It just may not be your time. God may be

asking you to learn how to wait on him.

He may be telling you you want it, but you

can't handle it. You don't have the character to back

it up. And the enemy's gonna stew it, steal it

from you, or you're gonna backslide the moment you get it.

So I already know what you're gonna do with it.

I'd rather your heart be right with me. I'd rather

you stay safe, be faithful to your wife. I don't know,

but you and I have to understand that in the

Kingdom of God, you and I should not have to

worry or get mad or fret that you're being forgotten

or overlooked or passed up by anything in your life.

The second point here about God being your portion. You

don't have to be jealous or insecure or watch this,

we're playing with the word walk in compare a sin.

The actual word is compare a son.

But the reality is is that when you get caught

up in comparing, it's a sin. Because here's what Second

Corinthians says the ten chapter. However, when they measure themselves

with themselves and comparing themselves amongst one another, we should

never ever be measuring ourselves against each other, comparing ourselves

against another. They are without understanding become you're not smart.

You're not smart.

Lord, Why do they have? Why don't I have? Why

do they get to live there? Why don't I get

to live there? Why do you seemingly use them the

way you use them and don't use me? God said,

then you don't believe that I'm your portion, and you

think you're getting ripped off, and you think that I'm

gonna unjust God, and I'm not.

God would tell you I'm not.

So you don't have to be jealous of anybody's blessing.

And you know, again, if it's a believer, then you

should be rejoicing. You should be celebrating that my brother

and sister and the Lord and God's favoring them. So

that means the promises of God are real and the

principles of God are true.

And then I could continue to be encouraged by.

That, because again, in running, you ran this, I think

I can run it. Now you swim this, I think

I could swim it. Now you bit this, I think

I could. So you going in front of me tells

me I'm next. I could do it. God is not

a respect of persons. This might happen for me. Then

if it's a sinner, who's prospers. Why would you ever

end me a sinner, someone who doesn't have a covenant

with God, someone who.

Got their wealth outside of God.

It doesn't have God's favor on it doesn't have God's

blessing on it.

And listen with what's going on.

In media today with all these celebrities, it should be

an awakening moment. Why am I jealous over sinners in

the world they're living in. They may have eaten at

the finest restaurant, drove in.

The biggest cars, and it make more money than ever, but.

They're im moral, They're ungodly, they're going to jail, they're

being persecuted. And I was ending that they're on their

seventh wife with their ninety nine children from their mama,

Mama mama.

And I go home to my wife, to my three children.

I get my whole paycheck. I don't have to pay childs,

but I don't have to pay aliba. I'm not waiting

for someone to knock on the door and say.

You my daddy. Listen, why would I ever end me

a sinner?

Many of them don't live to be old, eat, drink

and be merry, and God's blessing is a long life.

Come on, we need to wake up.

We need to wake up to what.

Why am I so jealous?

Whatever they might be, no matter what they look like,

you don't have to compare.

You don't have to be jealous in any form or fashion.

God is my portion. Here's the third principle here I

want to look at. Don't doubt that God can take

care of you and provide for you. Don't let that

doubt come in that makes you think that God can

provide for you, especially in places of lack, poverty, inflation, difficulty, recessions, layoffs, sorrows.

And hardships.

That's when we really really question whether God is a

provider in the portion of my life. And that's when

you need to believe the most that He is in

your life. The reality is is God's got resources that

the economy and man doesn't have. God has reserves that

the economy and man doesn't have. God has reserves. God

has reservoirs, and God has resources that this world's.

Economy does not have.

God wants to remind us if out of a wilderness,

I created manna for my children to eat, and out

of a wilderness I brought forth water in a desert

and in a wilderness I could bring forth, Quail. What

makes you think that I can't provide for you or

can give you a portion for what you need. Though

the economy is though they're downsizing, those jobs are being eliminated.

Though they're eliminating the blue collar worker jobs, entry jobs.

Kids are coming out of college with degrees and can't

get a job. You're not of this world. You have

a covenant with God and need to know how to

stand on the word of God and believe God. I

remember he didn't know how to say this, but I

remember my son passing Nathan, and he went and got

his master's degree from APU and thought he'd be an

elementary school teacher and was so excited about that.

And we wanted that for him.

But the reality was this was many many years ago.

They weren't hiring teachers. There was a shut down and

a lockdown on how I don't know if you remember

how many.

Years ago was that, Nathan. Eighteen years ago, they weren't hiring.

They were not.

I mean, now they desperate, but back then you'd have

to go far away to find a job. He didn't

know what to do with a master's degree. And I

told him, you know what, we just have an opening

in our children's church. Why don't you just come and

serve in children's church until maybe a job opens up.

Eighteen years later, he's never left. God provides in so

many different ways that are not even in your equation

and on your agenda. How God will work things out

though he's never used and he didn't pay for it.

Me and Cindy paid for his college tuition. But I'm

blessed that he's in the Kingdom of God, his family's

in the Kingdom of God, and he's serving God. So

who's counting dollars and things of that nature when there's

so much other value that's being done in the Kingdom

of God. So the reality is is that it doesn't matter.

It really doesn't matter. And I know that's hard for

you to believe, but it doesn't. The economy doesn't matter,

the economics doesn't matter, the recession doesn't matter, the lack

of jobs does it. But God is your portion, and

you need to start exercising your faith and trusting God

and start confessing that and start believing that.

That God will provide in that way.

You know, I talked about that Quail miracle that was

found in numbers. The eleventh chapter, and it's an amazing

story if you want to read it. The children of

Israel were missing the barbecue from Egypt.

They were tired of the vegan diet. It's a joke,

but I could see jokes aren't working tonight.

So anyways, they said, we want some quail, or I

mean we want meat. We want meat, And so God said, listen,

I'm going to provide I'm going to provide you some quail.

And the reality of it is is I'm gonna bring

them so low to the ground they're only gonna fly

three feet in the air, so you can knock them

up side the heads so you can eat them. And

they're gonna be fifteen to twenty miles in the north,

that's how many they're gonna be, fifteen to twenty miles

of quail to the southeast west fifteen to twenty miles

of three feet of quail. And all you have to

do is get your club out of the boom and

put on the barbecue.

Boop, put it on the barbecue.

And it says, I'm not gonna allow the supply to

be for one day. I'm not gonna allow it for

to be for two days. I'm not gonna allow it

to be for four days, five days, and in either

seven days.

I'm gonna give you quail for an entire month.

When originally God said I'm gonna provide. The story says

that Moses said, Lord, if we kill all our cattle

and all our herds and fish every day, how can

we feed so many? And that's when the Lord say,

is my arm's so shortened that he cannot provide.

God stood up, like, who puts you in charge? Big

bad Moses.

You think I'm limited and all I could supply for

my people? And the Bible says there was six hundred

thousand men.

That's just men.

You had the wives, and you had their children, and

that's how many people ate and God provided for So

what do you think that God can't provide for you

and that God can't take care of you in your life.

One of my favorite heroes is this guy who lived

in the eighteen hundred is. His name was George Mueller,

and I loved all George and if you study him

and read about him, it's just a man of faith.

In Bristol, England, he was in charge of an orphanage.

And it's been one of my greatest passions, and I've

said it for years. I don't know if I'll ever

be able to do that. I would just love to

have an orphanage. I would just love with all my hair.

I know I have to get into legislation and change

foster care system, but I always said that Kindred hospital

we'd buy and I'd make it an orphanage, and I

take care of those little children that don't have mommies

and daddies, and I'd bring them to church and I'd

ask you to take them home on Sunday and feed

them and love them and play with them, and.

Then I send them to our school to go to school.

Monday through Friday. Those little old and George had an orphanages.

And again it was times of recessions and financial lack,

and they didn't know where they would feed some of

those children sometimes. One day the nurse, the maid came

to George and said, we don't got no food. I

checked all the cabinets, there's not anything there. He said,

prepare all the plates. God will provide. She said, well

did you What did you say? I said, put all

the forks plates on there and tell the children to

sit down.

God will provide. I prayed, and I ask God for

a miracle.

And the next moment, when she said they're all setting down,

and they're all their plates are the forks that they're

ready to eat? There was a knock on the door

and the baker said, you know what, God woke me

up last night. I told me to make extra you

need any bread? He said, yeah, come on, in lay

it on the children, right he left. Not a minute later,

all of a sudden, the door on the knock. It

was the milk man. He said, I was delivering my

milk on the horse cart and it broke down in

front of your orphanage.

And I don't want this milk to go to waste.

Can you use it? God'll do that.

He's your portion that makes up for the difference of

this world and your inadequacies that I am under I

am so underqualified to have a church this size. I'm

so underqualified, it's amazing. The closer you get to me,

you'll get more scared and say, oh my god, that

guy's not too smart.

Is here.

Hombout one and a half junior college education And we

built over one hundred million dollars in assets. I didn't

graduate from Stamford. I ran an organization with well over

hundreds of employees. What do you one and a half

years junior college, twenty million dollar budget?

How do you do that? God is my portion.

Where I've lacked, natural shortcomings and inadequacies, God made I

didn't have the strength to go through stage four kidney

cancer that was terminal. I'm as frail and weak as

the next guy. I felt the pain of it, the

torment of it in my mind. That God's grace was

sufficient and he made up the difference. I was promised

a church in Pomona. It was taken from me. But

there's a church in Pomona that God.

Gave me that said, when you when you take over

that church and.

Become the senior pastor of I want to bless you

with this house. They never gave me a house, but

I live in a great house today.

God is my portion.

Stop looking to man, your boss, your husband, your.

Wife, the president. God is your portion. He'll make up

the difference.

In the recession, the hardship, the difficulty is God's arms

shortened that it cannot provide.

For his people. God gets very upset.

When you start doubting that he can do that in

your life. The reality, let me give you a quote,

as I got a land in this plane.

Here's the quote.

George says this, the longer I go on in this service,

the more I find that prayer and faith can overcome

every difficulty. That's what George Mueller said. Can you go

ahead and give the next quote up there? With God,

it may this is huge right now, guys, and excuse

the misspelling enough to recognize it's smith smell. But with God,

it may sometimes temporarily look like your life is not

fair or equal or portioned out. But God will make

the adjustments, right, Okay. So I'm not telling you that

sometimes it doesn't look right. It does okay, sometimes it

just doesn't look fair, right, okay, But here's the here's

the reality. God will make the adjustments. It doesn't look

fair that David is being overlooked.

I'll make the adjustments. David.

Just hang on there, Joseph, you feel like you're being overlooked,

God's gonna make the adjustment. You're gonna have the last

say so in this Okay, here's the real ruth. I

know this is tough times right now, but God, God's

gonna make the adjust Mordecai, listen to me, Mordecai, hang

in there. I'm gonna wake up the king in the

middle of the night. He's gonna go back and look

at the history logs and he's gonna see who is

the person that exposed the villain and that was gonna

take his life out.

And he realized it was you, Mordecai, that exposed that assassin.

And he's gonna say, did Mordecai ever get a blessing

for telling me that the assassin was after me and

that no, he didn't. Well, we're gonna bless him now.

God hasn't forgotten. God will not overlook you. God will

not bypass you. It just temporarily looks like that, but

God will make the adjustment at the end. Come on, Jacob,

stop fighting now.

I know you live father in law who.

Rips you off all the time, say I'm gonna give

you this wife, and he don't give you his daughter.

Here's your Leah Kyle's eyes.

I know you got a tough what break there, brother,

work another seven years you get Rachel.

That's a good blessing.

Now now I need you to work another six years,

and I'm gonna bless you, said, listen, listens. Enough of

you blessing me because you change my wages ten times.

You owe me money, been ripping me off. I'm gonna

go to God, and God is gonna be my portion.

You just need to agree with it. Every sheep that's spotted,

it's mine. Every speckled sheep is mine. Every striped sheep,

it's mine. They don't exist. God gave him an idea.

When the lambs and the goats are drinking their water,

pilled some branches and pill them.

And they'll see spots. And when they look at the spots,

then they made.

They'll burnt the spotted ones, the speckled ones, And all

of a sudden he has a herd that's bigger than

his father in law lay in. God knows how to

make the adjustments. I promise you you'll win. I don't

even know where. I'll just give me whatever's on the screen.

And don't think anyone else is the source of your life.

God is the source of your life. My sufficiency is

out of myself to think anything of myself, sech A

Corinth in three five. But my sufficiency is absolutely of God.

He's the source of my life. So that's closing this out.

Don't so don't squander God's portion, but steward it. Well,

learn how to steward.

What God gave you.

You steward it by wisdom, make smart decisions. You steward

it with generosity, tithe. You steward it with faithfulness, holiness, integrity,

time management, responsibility, and obedience. Now, what God has blessed

you in the portion will not be lost, and it

will not be stolen. You will now be able to

inherit it, and you will now leave it as an

inheritance your whether that's your faith, whether that is substance,

whether that is influence, whether that's your prayers, or whether

that is property. It's the way that God intended. And

I finished this out. It's not we are not to

live beneath the portion that God has allowed it to us.

Could you put that statement on, let's not live beneath

our portion. That's called ignorance. Well I don't deserve and

I'm a nobody. Well then you know what, somebody else

will be blessed. Then somebody else will be blessed. Then

don't live beneath your portion. The word bless has found

three hundred times in the Bible. The word blessing has

found five hundred times in the Bible, and the word

blessed has found three hundred times in the Bible. Blessed

means to be happy, favored, prosperous, and have good fortune.

God wants his children blessed period.

So do not live beneath your portion, but also do

not live above your portion. That's arrogance, and Philippians that

I have no more time. In fourth chapter says, learn

how to be content with what God has blessed you with.

Learn how to be to be thankful for that little

Jelope car you drove up, and be thankful for that

little one bedroom apartment you live in right now. God's

not done with you yet. God's something, But it starts

off with let me go into your garage right now

and take to see how while you do, I mean,

go in that little Jelope car and see how clean

it is right now? How could God ever bless you

with something better When you don't know how to steward

the blessings of God, you know, know how to take.

Care of it, It'll be lost.

And it'll be squandered. So in conclusion, I say this

to you, how will God increase my portion? Can God

increase the portion on your life? Whatever portion you have now?

Could God increase the portion?

Yeah?

He can't. And it's with the answers I gave you.

It's wisdom, it's generosity and its faithfulness. And whatever you

have today, God will bless it with even more if

if you walk in wisdom, if you're generous, and if

you remain faithful, God will enlarge your portion. Father, I

thank you for the message you gave us today. I

pray it resonates in the hearts of every single one

of us. Lord today, I thank you for the boundaries

that we need to set in our lives. Thank you

that we need to put the work in first before

we could reap the harvest. And thank you for the

lessons that we've learned so that we don't have to

be jealous or walk in competition, or be fearful or

envious about anything that anyone has or even the economy.

We can never ever be overlooked. You will always make

the adjustment. Though it temporary looks like we're passed up,

We're never passed up by you.

God.

We honor you in Jesus's name.

Amen.

We're getting ready to leave this church tonight. Thank you

so much for coming to church. You know this week,

this week Ozzy Osborne died. This week Malcolm Jamar Warner died. Huh,

you're not going to live forever. I'm not going to

live forever. Sometimes it's expected and sometimes it is absolutely unexpected.

I think for Ozzy it was expected. You could see

the deterioration of his life. He had his last concert,

so he was able to whatever. But for Malcolm it

wasn't expected. He went on vacation, he went into the

ocean in Costa Rica. Sometimes it happens, you see, you

know what's going to happen, and then sometimes you don't

know what's going to happen.

I want to tell you this, Where where do where do?

Where does one go when they when they die? See,

here's the the theories or philosophies of the world. I

go six feet under into an eternal rest, and it ends.

That's that's it. Life is over.

But yet the Bible says, it is appointed under men

wants to die, and after that is judgment you live again.

So going into the ground six feet under your your

mortal body, the flesh decays, that stage of skelet in

your corpse, but the real you, spirit and soul go somewhere.

The second thing that people believe in is they'll go

to a holding place and somebody will pray them out

of that holding place, and if enough prayer are lifted

up for this person, then eventually they'll go to heaven.

Where does that come from? The Bible says it's appointed

in the men and wants to die and boom, after

this is judgment, there's no purgatory or holding place. I

know I'm going to come back recarnated as a Bernice

doodle dog. I'm going to come back as King Arthur.

I'm going to come back as a beetle or a

tree or a person that's real. Where does that come from? No,

it's appointed in the men wants to die. And after

this is I know I will become karma. I'll come

back to the energy of this world. It's appointed in

the men once to die, and after this I'll come

back as a spirit and I'll just float around like

a ghost, and I'll live in a mansion and I'll

haunt people who.

Live there, scare them.

Now, it's appointed in the men wants to die and

after this is judgment. For Ozzy Osbourne, Boom, the moment

he closed his eyes, Boom, he was in the presence

of God, close his eyes, live again. For Malcolm Boom,

he closed his eyes and boom.

He lived again.

And for you, it will happen the same way. And

the person that you look at will either be your

friend or he will be a stranger to you. You

can't wait to hear the words out of his mouth,

you can't wait to experience what he's gonna give you,

or everything is a mystery filled with uncertainty. You're shaking

in your boots and your knees are knocking in fear

like never before, because your wife's not there, your kids

are not there, your car's not here, your gun's not here,

your friends aren't here.

You're there all by yourself. And you have never ever been.

As exclusively by yourself, with no cell phone, no music,

no nothing but you and God.

What are you gonna do?

Well, that's why you give your life to Jesus today. So,

whether it is like Malcolm, or it is like Ozzie,

or it's one hundred years from now.

I know what's gonna happen. I don't fear it.

I want to live as long as I can, but

when that time comes, I'm ready.

I'm ready.

This is my reward. It's called heaven. It's eternal life.

It's the blessings that God is ready to give to me.

And the reality is, is your best day on this earth,

whatever that looks like, your very very best day, is

the worst day you would ever have in heaven.

It's just so good. His is so good. I used

to play pool with.

A guy named Darnell, and I loved him so much.

And this was at my former church. I worked so

hard I never got to go home sometimes, and he

come from work and.

He just he loved to play pools. So he treats

me to a meal. I didn't make nothing. He take

me up to eat and he played pool with me.

And he asked me one time, pastor diego, do you

think there's pool in heaven.

I said, Darnell, if you like it, there's pool in heaven.

He died shortly after that. I want you to go

to heaven if you want to accept Jesus for the

first time, if you want to rededicate your life to

the Lord. Everything is going well. You're born in the spirit,

but you're not filled with the spirit. You want everything

that God has for you. When I count the three,

you raise your hand his eyes. I'm raising my hand

because that's how Jesus died on across mar beaten and

naked in front of the world. He didn't die in

a dark alley where no one could see him. I

haven't been saved all my life, and I was unashamed

of the life that I live. I cuss in front

of you, fight in front of you, get drunk in

front of you, fortunicate in front of you. Now all

of a sudden we come to Christ and we're ashamed

to lift our hands. No, let's not do it that way.

When I count the three, you raise your hand, give

your life, or you dedicated, or you get filled with

the spirit.

One two, one two, three. All across is out of toorum.

Raise it up. I raise it up.

Ye.

If you're raising your hand, do one thing for me.

Stand on your feet. Just be bold, be.

Courageous, Just stand up, just stand up, just stand up.

Good job. Say this with me.

Lift your hands short Heaven, say dear Jesus, you know

everything about me.

I thank you.

Today for saving my soul. I'm not worthy of salvation.

But thank you for loving me enough to die for me,

help me to now get to know you.

In Jesus' name, you may be seated. Amen, there we go.

Come on, can we put our hands together for Pastor Diego?

Can we thank him so much delivering a powerful, powerful word.

I know we're about to head out, so before you

get moving, and I know a few of you guys

already have, but that's okay.

I forgive you.

If you gave your heart to the Lord for the

first time or for the last time, we have a

resource from you, actually from our family, Pastor Pastor Diego.

If you go take out your smartphone, go to grow

dot Faith. I think it works on androids too. I'm

not sure, but it's just a bad joke and the

moving on.

Grow it out faith.

That will be some of your next steps on you know,

walking with the Lord. And I'm gonna pray for you

in a second. But I want to challenge you with

the challenge that Pastor Diego would say. He would say,

if you would give your give yourself to coming to

church every week for a year, guarantee your life will

be different and it will be better. I promise that.

So what are the next steps? Grow dot faith, Come

to church. Let's pray after this prayer. If you need

additional prayer, our elders, deacons and prayer team will be

up here. Amen, let's pray together. LORDI thank you so

much for incredible service. Thank for what you've done. People

are saved, restored and set free. We asked that you

be with us as we go from here in Gee's name,

and everybody said amen and Amen. If you need additional prayers,

come on forward. Besides that, have a great night and

we'll see you this weekend.