How do I Share My Faith?: Sharing your story and His || Pastor Diego Mesa

Amen.

Well, so wonderful to see everyone tonight in our Saturday

Night service. I believe our Saturday Night is the best service.

That's great. You guys look good for the end of

a day, I met. I can't even imagine what you

look like when you.

Woke up this morning.

If you look so good at the end of the day,

you were looking amazing this morning. But hey, we're in

our our Questions of life questions that you wanted uh

to challenge our pastoral staff uh, and so our amazing

senior lead Pastor Adam challenged us the communicators every week

with the subject matter, and today we are going to

be talking about this. So listen to the questions as

they came in.

I'm curious and wondering about how to I can navigate

relationships in the faith and also relationships with people who

aren't necessarily believers, are Christian jit who are in my family.

How can I bring the Gospel to the marketplace as

a business owner?

How can we reach more non believers in the most

positive way? How do you help one of your parents

see the light when you're already on your journey. How

do you continue to support them even though they're not you?

Know on the same journey now, but you know you

want that light for.

Them, all right. I want you to stand for the

reading of God's word. It's our way of being unified

as we hear in reverence the Word of God. And

the portion of scripture we're going to preach from today

and launch from.

It's two scriptures. It's one is from Matthew.

It says this, go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

This is Jesus speaking.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Father, Son,

and the Holy Spirit. Then we go over here to Mark,

and Mark is very similar, but it's just a few

things different. Then he said to them, go into all

the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.

You may be seated.

The amazing thing.

About pastors is that you communicate on every subject found

in the Bible, from Genesis to revelations, from finances to

relationship to sin, to the workplace to raising children.

And to be honest with you as.

A pastor that I've been doing this this past June

for forty years. There's some things that I have mastered.

There's some things where you know what, I'm like a

professional and I bore a lot of fruit in those areas. Then,

to be honest with you, there's some areas where I

think I'm still an amateur and I'm very much a Novicet.

Today is one of those subjects. If I could be

transparent with you, it's something that almost a day that

doesn't go by where I do not think and challenge

myself that I need to grow in this area. I

need to do better in this area and challenge the

issues that sometimes can be blockage to me not being

effective in this thought. Let me share with you what

I mean. In nineteen seventy eight, that's probably before some

of you were even born. But in nineteen seventy eight,

I was still in high school and me and a

fellow friend and there's young kids here.

Do not do what Diego did. Okay, that's my warning

to you.

I did school with a guy and we're gonna go

pick up girls at Huntington Beach. Okay, this is BC

before christ I wasn't a Christian and didn't know him,

and we saw some hobbies out there swimming, and so

we just decided to go after them and talk to

them out there, and the next thing you know, they

came in and so we decided to swim as far

as we could and it became a competition.

So we swam out toward the ocean.

Well, the coast guard was making its routine, and you

can imagine how far we are for a coastguard to come.

And he said, you guys need to go back.

We're experiencing or going to be expecting severe riptides.

And you need to go back.

Well, you know, we kind of blew him off, like

what does he know? We're great swimmers. But my friend

took him a little bit more seriously and he said,

are you going in? Now?

I'm going to play out here a little longer. I'm

going in.

So he started to swim and he was probably a

good thirty feet in front of me, heading toward the shore,

and I just decided to stay there. The next thing

I know, I got hit by a ten foot wave

that was a riptide and it took me under. Now,

I don't know, I'm sure you can reflect on being

in a swimming pool or the ocean where you're holding

your breath and then you can't take it no more,

so you come up, or maybe you have experienced drowning

to some point, and that's what happened. I was like

a piece of clothing in a dryer, tumbling, tumbling. I

didn't hit the ground and I couldn't come up. And

that's what a riptide does. It goes like this and

throws you around. And I got to the point where

I was blacking out. My last thought I said was this.

If there's a God, I sure need him now. I

shot up out of the water like a torpedo. How

do I know this because the lifeguard saw me get hit.

He was already jumping in to look for me. Coastguard

saw me get hit, he was jumping in. They rescued

me and drug me out the same way you saw

it on Baywatch. Anybody see they watch. But it was

a couple of dudes. It wasn't hot. He's bringing me out.

They and they brought me out and they brought me

back and everything like that. I thank God for that lifeguard.

Let me tell you what the lifeguard did didn't do.

He didn't interview me when I was in the ocean

and said, it's your fault that you got hit by

the riptide?

Are you an idiot?

Are you stupid? Were you trying to kill yourself? He

didn't discriminate. You aren't the skin color that I normally rescue.

He just was being a lifeguard and rescued. Here's what

I know in this life, you are either going to

wear this uniform. This is called an umpire uniform. You

know what umpires do. They call you in and they

call you out. They fine you, and they throw you

out of the game. And sometimes in our zeal to

serve God, we become umpires to people that don't measure

up to our standards.

You're out of my life. You're going to hell. Who

do you think you are.

I'm finding you, I'm damning you, I'm shunning you, I'm

ignoring you, I'm judging you. And you sometimes can wear

this purposefully or unconsciously, or you and I could take

the premise that I'm gonna wear this, which is a lifeguard,

and whether I'm at work or at a Starbucks, or

at home, or at church or a ballgame, I want

to be more of a person here that doesn't discriminate.

That doesn't mean I don't challenge it. Please understand me.

It doesn't mean that I don't confront It doesn't mean

that I don't talk about sin. But I'm not here

to judge you. I'm trying to give life to you.

I'm trying to give answers to you. I'm trying to

give hope to you. I'm trying to rescue you. I'm

trying to save you through the Gospel and the saving

knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I want a relationship.

With you, no matter how far away you are, no

matter how offensive you are.

I consider it an honor and.

A privilege, just that you would talk to me, that

you would include me, that you would share your offenses,

why you don't like church and Christians, and why you

don't believe in God.

I'm honored by that.

But most people don't see it that way. When they're

wearing this, they sometimes elevate themselves above that person because

I accepted the Lord and I'm a person of faith,

and I'm going to heaven and I'm so much.

Better than you.

But if you're like me, I.

Have been saved all my life. Only three of you,

the rest of you are live or you're gonna get saved.

Tonight's and so today I want to talk a little

bit of what we're preaching today, but I'm gonna go

back and I'm gonna give you a little bit of

what we just read and break it down because these

are Jesus's last words, which ought to be our first priority,

but we don't view it that way. These are the

last words that Jesus spoke to his disciples, which ought

to be the first priority for us in our lives.

Notice what he said. He said go Go is an

action word. It means to engage. It means to approach.

It doesn't mean to stay safe, sit down.

In active and ignore. Most of us do that.

Go a movement towards somebody, make birth, create, assembol produced,

invest in somebody. And the third word he says here

excuse mean don't. Don't means don't overlook, forget, drop or

a abandon them.

Next word please disciples.

Disciples are people that act like Jesus, think like Jesus,

emulate Jesus, mimic Jesus. Disciples are people that love Jesus

more than they love their mama, their job, or anyone else.

That's a disciple not a convert. Converts are all over

the place, people that were crosses around their neck and

say they're a Christian, but don't have the mannerisms, the

lifestyle in their life.

They're a dime a dozen. Jesus never said go make Christians,

go make converts.

He said, go make disciples. People that act like me,

talk like me, think like me, believe that my word

is true, and want the scriptures to be live out

in their life, that love me more than they love

anyone else. That's what a disciple is. And we have

to apologize to our community in our world that we've

not been that sometimes, so we don't be the convert

and the observer. Then we go over here. Now, please,

next one to Mark, he says, go there it is.

Go with activity and movement. Go at least attempting. You

won't win them all the time. You're gonna feel like

a failure, like I really messed up. I talked about

the Dodgers, I talked about the weather.

But why didn't I talk about Jesus.

They shared that they're in need right now, They're in

hurt right now.

They're depressed.

What a wonderful opportunity for me to have prayed with them,

or share my testimony of how I overcame that. But

I didn't do it. We're all guilty of that. But

at least I tried, He says, go into this world.

What is this world he's talking about? This world number

one is every man's world. Going to the sports world,

go into the athletic world, going to the entertainment world,

Go into the business world, go into the finance world,

go into the medic.

Whatever world your limen. Go to that world. That's your world.

This world, the world of brokenness, the world of confusion,

the world of sin.

Go into that world.

And then he says, preach, preach, preach by your lifestyle,

preach by words, proclaim and tell them the story.

And then it lastly, is there one more? The gospel.

This is what we preach, the good news of salvation,

the good news of listen.

You could be saved if you want to.

You could be forgiven of your sins.

If you want to.

You can change and be transformed through repentance if you

want to. You can walk in an element of freedom

of guilt and condemnation if you want to. And you

can have an internal intimate relationship with your heavenly Father,

your creator called God.

That is the gospel. The gospel is this.

For God so loved the world that he gave his

only begotten son, that whosover believeth in him should not perish,

but have everlasting life. For God did not send his

son into this world to condemn the world, but that

the world through him might be saved. John three point

sixteen and seventeen. The gospel is Second Corinthians five twenty one.

For he made him to be sin. That's Jesus, who

knew no sin. He became your sin so that you

can become righteous before God. He was your sacrifice, he

was your substitution, he was your ransom.

That's the gospel that people need to see.

That's the gospel that people need to hear. That's the

gospel that I heard in nineteen seventy eight when I

was a Catholic, eight years of Catholic school, done my

confirmation and everything like that. Why didn't even think about

becoming a priest. But I had a relationship with religion.

I did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. My

lifestyle did not fit a Christian lifestyle. If I would

have died at that time, I would have split hell

wide open.

Though I was very very ritualistic and.

Very very religious.

So you and I need to know what the gospel

is Romans three twenty three. For all have sinned and

comes short of the glory of God. I don't care

if it's Mother Teresa. I don't care if it's the Pope.

I don't care if it's pastor Diego. I don't care

who the most holy, religious, ritualistic person. All have sinned

and come short of the glory of God and the

wages of sin.

Romans six twenty three is death.

The penalty for all mankind is death, spiritual death, splitting

hell wide open with judgment, punishment, and damnation. But in

Romans ten nine and ten, if thou shalt confess that's

with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in

thy heart that God has raised him from the dead,

thou shalt be saved. And verse thirteen. For whoserver shall

call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That's the gospel. That's the gospel that's.

Called the three minute elevator testimony that every one of

you should know how to do. Who is Jesus? What

is the Gospel? What does it mean to be a Christian?

I just told you right there. I just told you

right there, and it's now telling my story of what

I was like before I came to Christ. How I

actually got introduced to Christ, to these forty six seven

years of what my relationship with Christ has been like.

You could do that on a ball field. You could

do that at a break out of work. It's called

three minute. Your three minute testimony, your story, his story

and your story.

That's the gospel.

Could you give the Lord a clap offering.

We're gonna turn over to Luke fifteen and we'll land

there for the next remainder of our times. But the

reality is is George Barnard Research, which is a Christian

research organization, said that only five percent of Christians have

ever shared their.

Faith or won one soul to the Kingdom of God.

Hold on.

That means ninety five percent of the people in this

room have never experienced leading someone to the Lord's.

That's what we got to do better.

Church.

We're fishermen, but we don't fish. We're ambassadors, but we

have no location in country we're going to. These are

all terminologies. We have salt. We're called salt, but we

season nobody. These are things that.

You and I need to do better, and I hope

you can.

So here we go in Luke, and this is called

the Trilogy of the Lost. So now you're gonna get Bible. Now,

how many of you like your Bible? Anybody like your Bible?

Only three of you?

Okay, well that's all I know.

That's all I want to own. So I'm going to

preach the Bible to you right now. I want to

preach the Bible to you right now. Here's Luke fifteen.

It says this, and the tax collectors and sinners listen

what it's saying. Tax collectors and sinners, so they're almost synonymous.

It's just showing maybe where this sinner lived out his sin,

being a tax collair thief, a robber, a conniver, a chiseler.

He says here tax laart sinners were approaching and listening

to him.

Sinners were listening to Jesus.

Hey wait a minute, how many sinners want to listen

to me? How many sinners say they want to listen

to you?

Okay, let's move on.

And the Pharisees and the scribes were complaining.

This man welcomes.

He's approachable, he's available to sinners. He's accessible to sinners.

He doesn't spend his life avoiding sinners, he doesn't live

in a Christian commune.

And just I don't want to be around those sinners.

He remembers that he was once a sinner, so it says,

so he told him this parable. He said, what man

among you who has one hundred sheep loses one, Just

say that word with me one. Okay, that's one percent.

That's one percent. One of one hundred is one percent.

He does not leave the ninety nine. Leave, leave the

ninety nine in the open field, and go after pursue

the lost one until he gets discouraged.

No, until he finds it. Please.

When he found it, he joyfully puts it, puts it

on his shoulder. The celebration and coming home, he calls

his friends and his neighbors together, saying to them, rejoice

with me because I have found my lost sheep.

God help me.

I'm not there. I'm not there. You may not be there.

Many of our many of our beautiful Christians in this

church don't stay to the end of the altar call

because they don't celebrate.

They don't value a lost person.

They value getting to their parking lot or going to

lunch or going to the next place. Instead of waiting

to the very end of the benediction. It'd be like

me fishing, and you're moving around, splashing the water. I

almost say stop it, you're spooking my fish, and Altar

calls our fishing moments where the Holy Spirit is moving

on the heart of somebody, convicting them. I tell you

in the same way, there will be more joy in

heaven over one sinner who repents than ninety nine righteous

people who don't need no repentance. That's story number one.

What's this, he transitions now story number two? Or what

woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin,

she loses one coin.

So excuse me.

The first one was one percent, the second one now

is ten percent, does not light a lamp, sweep the

house and search carefully until she finds it.

Very similar wording here, And when she finds.

It, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, rejoice

with me because I found.

The silver coin I lost.

I tell you the same way, there is joy in

the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents.

And then we get this last verse eleven. He also

said the trilogy, the third story a man had two sons.

This is the story of the prodigal and there are

many verses. So I didn't want to go into that.

I just want you to see that we see the

trilogy here of the lost. You see here a lost sheep,

and a lost coin and a lost son.

So let's talk about it.

What are the similarities and all three of these stories

that you and I can learn from when it comes

to sharing our faith.

With others or how to live a godly life.

And win people over that are on the athletic fields

of our life, or in our schools, or on our jobs,

wherever they might be. The first thing I highlighted was this,

You and I have to be comfortable around sinners.

Now, that is what he says. See how quiet it God?

Because I guess you didn't like that. It says he

was comfortable around sinners. It didn't say this he was

comfortable around sin That's where you and I get messed up.

I am to be comfortable around the person. I am

not to be comfortable around the lifestyle. Jesus is not

condoning the lifestyle. He is condoning the person the value

of that person.

And there's a difference.

And sometimes that's where we get confused with these jerseys.

These people are wayward, These people are ugly, These people

are nasty all though, it says all kinds of sinners.

He hung around all them. Don't you tell me he

didn't know what they were doing and what they did.

And notice it says here what says he ate with them.

That's a whole nother level of relationship, because how many

of you know you got associates, you got friends, but

you don't eat with them.

You're never going to eat with them.

But how many of you know it's broken to a

whole nother level of relationship when you eat with somebody,

because the real you comes out and a meal.

It does.

You have ever seen these people who like you know

what they say, Oh, I don't eat that much. I'm

just salads, But put some ribs in front of them

and they'll tear your hand off. I just love to

eat a meal. Takes takes money to eat a meal,

takes time. It's a conversation to keep that going over

an hour or two hours kind of thing. And when

you go and travel in Europe and all that, there's

no half an hour forty five minute meals. There two

or three hours. And this is where you're living in

an Eastern culture. Now, he felt so absolent.

I'm honored.

I'm honored that you want to listen to me, that

you want to hang around me. I'm learning how to

do that as I'm a shriff chaplain. That's why I

became a shriff of chaplain, because I wanted to hang

around rank sinners, and I wanted to challenge myself to

be the best Matthew five version of salt that I

could be. I am the salt, and I've got to

recognize I'm not to keep the plastic on me. Neither

should I do this, Neither should I just just overwhelm them.

You go to church, you believe in jes Christ your

personal Lord and savior.

You have a Bible, You drink too much? What kind

of lifestyle you and you're dating.

You're shocking what you're doing over there?

You're going to hell. You better get right. You better

get right better at pen. I'll see you next week,

Chaplain diego Siya. I'll never be able to ride in

that car again. I've got to know when the opportunity comes.

How to go like that.

Just make them a little thirsty. I know what it

is about that chaplain guy. I just kind of like him.

I want to ask they do they just asked me

another question the next week, or another question the next week.

I want to preach too much to them, just make

them a little thirsty. And that's what you and I

have to learn how to do as we navigate through

this world and through this life. So the first point

is this, here's the first point. Then you and I

have to understand the people. People are lost and some

people don't even know they're lost. Did that did that

coin know he was lost?

I don't know. Did that sheep know he was lost?

He was probably lala la la, gagging all over the

countryside and eating all the berries and the hay and oh,

look at the mountains.

Didn't even know he was lost. Didn't know that.

May be a wolf was tracking him or a coyote

was trying. And there's a lot of people lost, but

they don't know their loss. They're having fun well being lost.

Don't act like and don't tell your children it's not

fun to sin.

It's fun to sin.

It's the consequences of sin.

That our heartbreaking.

Come on, I haven't been saying all my life. That

was kind of fun out.

There, but there is consequences to that. It destroyed my life,

It broke my life.

It offered me the world and then it emptied my life.

So you guys have to realize, and we have to

understand that we are dealing with lost people, and lost

people have lifestyles, and some people don't even know they're lost,

you know, And so.

That's who we're looking for. We're looking for the loss.

And so let me define this for a few moments,

if you allow me to.

You know, we live in a world where everybody, you know,

how many of you.

Heard this, Save the whales, save the polar ice caps,

save the forest, save the beaches.

Who who's shouting?

Save the sinners, save the loss, save the perverse, the homosexuals,

different lifestyles, then carcerant, the drunkard, the ones.

That hurt us the most, offend us the most.

Nobody wants to do that.

Nobody wants to do that. There was a man and

they'll show you. They'll show you the picture of him.

Martin Cohan. Martin Cohan. No, that's Enzo. Martin Cohan is

the baby one.

This is Martin.

In the early nineteen hundreds, he recognized when he'd go

to state fairs about chickens, baby little hatchlings that were

put in incubators, and he noticed that the medical industry

discarded premature babies.

They gave them no effort to live.

If you did not live all by yourself, premature baby,

then you were deemed worthless. And this man, who was

not even a doctor, said, if these premature little chickens

can live through an incubator, then why cannot premature babies

live if put in an incubator. And this man in

his lifetime saved seven thousand babies and lives by introducing

state Fair after state Fair, until the medical industry backed

it and saw what he was doing. He saved seven thousand,

seven thousand. That's what you and I are called to do.

When the world says they aren't worth saving, we've got

to believe that they are absolutely worth saving, no matter

who they are. See, here's the reality that I want

you to know. Let me give him some quotes. We

lost a spiritual hero this week, and so I wanted

to quote him. This is John MacArthur's quote, and I

wanted to just quote him. If you'd let me quote him,

maybe no quote. No, we don't get John MacArthur's quote.

I have a friend. His name is Keith.

Thank you, Satan, continues his effort to make sin less offensive,

heaven less appealing, hell less horrific, and the Gospel less urgent.

That's the way of the world today, it's the way

of society today.

They're lost, They're absolutely lost. I have a friend. His

name is Keith Wheeler.

He is carrying a sixteen foot wooden cross in seventy

five countries and he calls sinners kidnap royalty. That's his

way of looking at them. And he says, diego whenever

I meet up.

No matter who they are. And when I called.

Him a couple of weeks ago, said, every once in

a while I call him and they'll tell me some

exotic place he's at where he's carrying across.

And he said, diego, can can I call you back?

And I said, sure, you could call me back. And

then he called me back a few minutes later and

he said, thanks. I was talking to a transvestite about

the Gospel. He said, they didn't they didn't accept it.

I said, tell me, tell me what tell tell me

what you learn.

Teach me right now.

He said, here's what I do. I always remember their name.

I asked them what their name is that I use

their name repeatedly. When I talk to them, I always

look them in the eyes, so I always remember the

color of their eyes, and I smile really big when

I'm talking to them. That's how you and I have

to learn how to deal with the loss sometimes than

our frowns that we wear with our umpire outfits. So

you and I have to recognize that people are lost.

And let me just give you a few scriptures, because

the Bible talks about that there will be an everlasting punishment,

an eternal destruction, an eternal fire, darkness reserved forever, weeping

and gnashing of teeth, tormented by fire and brimstone in

unquenchable fire. These all Biblical terms talked about when it

talks about why people are lost in the state of

where they'll live for eternity because of their lostness. But

here's what the Bible says as it describes a few

scriptures that deal with this section. Please, it says about

sin because they did not believe. See, people are lost

not because of their lifestyle. They are lost because they

reject their savior, because they reject the sacrifice for their sin,

because they reject the ransom that's paid for them. The

sin of mankind that sends people to Hell is rejecting

Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior. Now, the

punishment of rejecting Christ is based upon the lifestyle that's lived,

which will determine the level of torment, damnation, and punishment.

Lifestyle does come to play. But the original sin is

the rejection of Jesus Christ.

Lost.

Next scripture. Please again, we said this, so let's move

on to the next one.

Please.

But the one who has the Son has life. The

one who does not have the Son does not have life.

That's the lost.

If you have Jesus in your life, you have eternal life.

If you reject Jesus Christ, you don't have eternal life.

Next scripture. Please.

Then he also will say to those left depart from me,

you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for

the devil and his angels.

That's the future of the lost.

No matter if they're good, no matter if they're moral,

no matter if they're nice. Because a lot of nice

people can split hell wide open. How do you how

do you judge nice?

Who?

Who is? Who is the judge of nice?

Hittler was nice, He just wasn't nice to everybody, But

but but he was nice. Charles Manson was nice, but

he was also evil.

So should we be.

Rewarded by not going to hell and going to heaven

because we have some niceties about us and ask God

to reject the sin in our life, not of just

rejecting Jesus, but the lifestyle we live.

So I always tell people.

This, why don't accept Jesus Christ And I don't want God?

Why?

Because because he sends people to house. Ready, who told

you that he doesn't send people to hell? The reality

is you're already going to hell. He's trying to save

you from hell.

The sin of.

Rejecting of Christ is your sentence to Hell, and he

stands in the way of that, your entire life, sending

you messengers labors, consciousness, conviction saying repent, don't go the

way of hell. It's like you seeing someone crossing Foothill

Boulevard when it's a lot of traffic. You see them,

they don't see the car. You yell out the top

of your voice, turn around, there's a car coming at you.

Stop run or.

Would you just say that full stupid idiot chill catch

you later.

I'm on my way to get me some ice.

Scream.

It's a couple of perspectives that have to be looked at.

But the reality, Oh my god, where did time go?

Time is over? It looks like you don't care. But anyways,

this is a tough audience today, really.

Really really tough.

It's risky business to go because you're going to be mock, rejected, ridiculed,

and ostracized. But that's why the Bible says, blessed are

those that are persecuted for my sake.

That's a good thing. We need to be persecuted a lot.

We need to be ostracized, we need to be unpopular,

we need to be mocked and ridiculed, because then we're

in the we're in.

The section where Jesus is. There are people that are found.

The Bible says, go into the hedges and highways and

compel them. Go compel them means to urge them. So

now we get to the people that are found. When

people are found. Noticing this story, it took effort, it

took diligence. This was not they casually found the coin

of the sheep. It took a lot of effort, and

we sometimes have to recognize it's going to take a

lot of work, time spent with somebody.

We have to earn the right.

I have no problem with someone's stating on a street

corner with an a sign or a blowhorn, but to me,

that's not the best way to win souls. I don't

know who you are, and that may have worked for

a former generation, but our gen zs and alphas, they

don't even see the sign.

And I don't want to make fun of.

You out there eight hours a day in the sun.

But the reality, did you see? I see nothing?

See you think it's causing conviction and repentance. Maybe for

a former generation that had a grandmama, had a teacher,

knew the wording on that sign, it meant something. The

best way to win somebody over to the Lord is relationship.

You have to earn the right to speak into my life.

I can't go into that deputy's car and start preaching

to him.

He's got to hear me week in and week out.

See me week in.

And week out.

See that I'm faithful to a woman for forty two years.

I've raised children, have seven grandchildren. I'm living the best

lifestyle that I can. Righteous, holy and integral. Okay, now

I'll listen to your Jesus stuff. We just want to

shove it down people's throat and we've not earned the

right by building a relationship.

Do you really care about me? Do you're listen to me?

I finished on Friday yesterday, and I saw an officer

driving up. And I don't want to get into the

particulars because it's very private my relationships. But I was

packing my stuff and I saw him in the squad

car coming out of the station.

I walked on.

Over there and I just he saw me, and how

are you today? And I want to say too much,

but I just want you to he not saved. And

when I say that, I mean that. And he opened

up to me the last time I drove with him

and he told me and I thought, whoa dude, you

don't even know me, and you're sharing your guts with me.

I am honored and overwhelmed that you trust me by

sharing your mood. And he told me in that conversation

that went on, my dog is sick and I'm just

really depressed about So I walked over there said how's

your dog?

How's your dog? He lit up like a light bulb. Oh,

thanks for asking me about my dog.

I'm earning the right to speak into his life by relationship.

Jesus doesn't seem to be in a hurry, in a

rush here. So we gotta look for the lost, and

then we gotta do everything we can to find them.

So we have to have our Here's we have to

have our head on a swivel. We have to have

our head on a swivel at the end of the day.

Here's what a head on a swivel looks like. This

is what you're gonna do. You're gonna You're gonna look out.

You gotta look out. You gotta see them. You gotta

see them. You can't ignore them. You gotta look out.

Look out, look out in your community.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you look out and

see them. Look around the offense that you have toward them.

Look around there their looks. Because some people are real

pretty on the outside and we're intimidated by that. Or

some people have status and money and fame and fortune.

You're intimidated by that, but you gotta look around. Or

some people are just like nasty and perverted and weird,

and we label them monsters. But you gotta look around

that and you got you gotta you gotta look at them.

You gotta look at them with love and careness and kindness,

and you gotta look with you gotta look with your testimony,

You gotta you gotta look with your good works toward them,

your lifestyle. So people say, how can I win my

lost family to Lord?

How can I win co workers?

To Lord?

Number one is to pray for them? Put yourself, put

a prayer, li together, and every day bring them before

the Lord. So every day, Lord, I lift up all

my deputies, I lift up all my sheriffs of God.

I pray that that you create an environment.

See, because unless the Holy Spirit goes before you, it'll

go between ears.

They won't listen.

You need the Holy Spirit to prepare them. And so

you pray for them.

That's what you. Number two, you be ready to share.

The testimony, the gospel that I shared with you, of

who He is and who you are.

You give, you do good works.

You walk across the room and you say hello to them,

and you be extremely nice. You invite them to Bible studies,

you invite them to church, you invite These are ways

that we.

Witness to people.

I'm really having a tough time because I'm five minutes

over and I haven't there's so much in this message.

And please don't tell pastor Adam or I don't know

when I'll be back.

But I have to tell you this. I have to

give you this.

So you go into the you go into you go

into the story of the prodigal Okay, okay. Now, the

other two stories show us that somebody left their vicinity

to go find the coin in the sheet. But in

the third story, the father doesn't go looking for the son.

And that's the way of vangelism. If you want to

go in the world, you.

Want to act like that, you go. I have to tough.

Love you go. And that's what most parents struggle with.

But watch this. I'm gonna show you on the screen

what happens when you release them and turn them over

to God.

Please show me, so.

It said, no, no, no, show me the five things

of what happens in the prodigal story.

Okay, there you go.

First, this is what happened. Remember, the guy parties.

He takes his daddy's well and he goes and he

spends it.

Okay, he parties.

He does everything with women, he does everything with drug,

he does everything with alcohol. Everything you could imagine. But then,

but then watch what happens. He spent everything. God has

to allow a sinner to be spent. Now they're gonna

go through lap. Don't give them money, don't support them,

because it's part.

Of their conversion.

You got to let them experience spending everything and experiencing lack.

The second stage, it says, then a.

Severe famine broke out.

They've got to experience a place of desperation in their lives.

The third day, they start working and feeding pigs. This

is a Jew who's touching.

Pigs, and so what has happened.

Now they're shame in this person's life, guilt and condemnation

of their lifestyle and what they're doing. He starts eating

with pig. He never thought he would do that. But

this is where sin took him. But God's gonna use

that sin to turn him around. God's gonna use that

famine to turn him around. God's gonna use all that

stuff in his life to make can repent. So now

he's in a place of disgust and it says no

one gave him anything, and he's absolutely abandoned, and he's

absolutely alone, and he says, I know, why don't I

return back to my father's house and he will take

care of me. And when he returns, the father runs

out and he restores him and he blesses him. You

and I have to learn how to do that with

our loved ones. Get your hands off of them. Don't

be moved by what use all the freaky stuff that

you hear.

They were once a Christian, they now are an atheist.

They don't believe in God and their indviant lifestylell turn

them over to God and let God take them through

this path. Because here's what First Corinthians says in First

Corinthians one, I think it's twenty six guys.

Can that help you? Can that help you? Yes?

For you see your calling brethren that not many see.

This is what stops sinners from getting saved. You watch me,

watch try to test this. People get they allow their wisdom,

their intellect.

They're iq I don't need God.

Then they go they're mighty, They're mighty in fame, they're

mighty and money, they're mighty in fortune, they're mighty in stature,

they're mighty and looks. They don't need Jesus. They have

a hard time except now they're noble, noble, as positions,

and they have titles. This is why it's hard for

some of these people that are full of intellect, people

that are very mighty in this world and very noble

in this world.

What they have to do is they have to get.

Rid of their wisdom, get rid of their mightiness, get

rid of their nobleness, and then they'll repent.

And give their life to Jesus Christ.

But this is the barrier that the Holy Spirit has

to break.

Down for them, and so you got.

To give them space and time God to work in

their lives. I'm done, but wats this? I have to

end with this? I didn't even do justice. Now comes

a celebration. Heaven rejoices, Jesus is rejoicing, and the angels

are rejoicing. When a sinner repents, this is what Jesus says.

He looks at you and he says, thank you. He

looks at you and he says, I want to reward you.

And he looks at you and says, I have a

special crown in heaven for those that win souls.

It's a Bible.

There's a crown reserved only for soul winners. Jesus wants

to give you a crown. Jesus wants to say thank

you to you, and Jesus wants to reward you. The

harvest is plenty, it's white, but the labors are few.

We love parties. How many of you love parties? You

used to love parties? You love parties.

I don't care.

Do you love parties? We party about everything. I mean,

we throw a party about everything. Birthday party, anniversary party,

graduation party, retirement part part and then my culture gonna

have a thart of the other man, you know, the

other So your party. We love the party, don't we?

Yeah, we do.

We love parades, Leakuors Parade, La Dodgers Parade.

All these people out, they don't work.

They just go to parades during the day, Rose Parade,

Thanksgiving Parade. We love festivals, Cochella Festival, October Fest.

It's like a funeral when people get saved.

Yeah, hey Dodgers, I love you. Yeah, Yes, whoa whoa Yeah,

somebody comes and repens.

Yeah.

Heaven is throwing a party, a festival and a celebration

up there in the church in heaven. And you and

are acquiet, God, move our hearts to sound like Heaven.

May we mimic Heaven our vision in this church is

to seek the lost. First part of the vision make

it hard for people to go to hell by being

a living Jesus to a dying world. I want to

end with this. Could I end with us? We're going

to end this service. Thank you guys for watching today.

God love you, God bless you. Do I have anybody coming.

Nobody's wanting to wow. We got through this service with

no help, but nobody else.

God bless you. There was a song that I remember.

It was called people Need the Lord, People Need the Lord.

I want to challenge you today. Notice this, one coin

was found, one sheep was found, and one's son was found.

Can you find one.

Person by the end of the year, just one, one

person by the end of the year. Could that be

your gift to God for saving you? Will you work

hard to recognize when someone's lost?

Will you work hard to find? Will you work hard

to celebrate?

Everyone reach one? Everyone has a sinner who's a.

Friend, a neighbor, and a co worker.

I'm so glad that somebody walked across the room had

the courage to look at this half one be person

who thought he was all that in a bag of

chips they used to call me in the world smiling

because I didn't smile, and somebody wasn't intimidated by me

not smiling one until I come to faith. People said, man,

I didn't even know you had dimples. I know because

I don't smile. Somebody had the courage, no matter what

I look like, to walk across the room and share

the gospel. Will you not be intimidated and walk across

the room?

Father?

I just pray Lord that you would lead us down

the paths of where sinners are. Maybe we create an

atmosphere where sinners are welcomed, help us to grow in

our faith. Pastor Adam a week ago told a story

of he went to this jewelers store and he was

talking to this guy and this guy said, what are

you And he said, I'm a pastor. And he said, man,

I don't even know what what does a pastor do?

And Adam told him and then he said, Adam said,

do you have a Bible? I said, what is a Bible?

I have never owned a bible. And Adam said, I'll

bring you one, and he drove three hours to deliver

that bible. God, I got ministered to the other day

because I used to pride myself that sometimes I like

taking the Uber. I take ubers so I could be

around sinners because it's a captive audience. So for twenty

minutes or however long, they got to listen to me,

and I listened. For the opportunity to share the gospel

I felt. So I felt so prideful God that I

do that. And then the other day I heard from

a pastor who said, I take one day a week

to be an uber driver so that I can evangelize

to the person in the back seat.

I thought, Lord, I can do het.

Her. I think I'm pretty good because I take an uber.

Here's a guy who volunteers his whole day just so

that he can hang around sinners and talk to them

and hear their story. Jesus, prepare us, lead us and

guide us. Holy Spirit, go before us and prepare the conversation.

And may when that opportunity comes it just be overwhelming

that you have set it up and now we just

simply need to share the gospel in Jesus' name, Amen,

Can we give the Lord a clap offering? I really

really apologize for taking so much time, So you pray

for me, because tomorrow I'm gonna have to chop, chop, chop, cut, cut, cut,

but you got the.

Raw and censored version.

So it shouldn't take much for anybody not to want

to come to Jesus.

God loves you.

He loves you with your warts, your sin, your scars.

He loves you with all your waywardness, all the perversion,

all the deception, all the issues. He really loves you.

And that's why he died for you. And he didn't

die for you when you got right. He died for

you when you were doing wrong. That's the way you

come to him, broken, empty, wayward in a sinner full

of like the prodigal, full of guilt, loneliness, shame, condemnation, emptiness, poverty,

whatever it is.

I'm just tired. I need a savior. I need eternal life.

I don't want to face the consequences of my sin

of rejecting you, nor the lifestyle that I've lived.

He loves you today.

If there's anybody in this room when I count to

three that would say I want to be loved by

God today, I want to be forgiven of my sins.

I want to know what that lifestyle is like. I'm

curious enough to give my life to him. I've tried

the world and no matter what it looks like, it's vanity.

It leaves me empty. I'm still searching, I'm still longing.

I'm gonna trust that Jesus is the end of the road.

One two, one two three.

Raise your hand, wherever you might be, wherever you might be,

God love you. Heaven rejoices, Come on, Church, Heaven rejoices.

To say this with me. If you raise your hand.

Dear Jesus, you know who I am. I'm not a

stranger to you. I may not know you, but you've

known me since I was in my mother's womb.

I give my life to you.

I want you to be my Lord's savior, take over

my life.

In Jesus' name. Amen, Gabe, would you close us out?

Could we give Jesus one more offering, one more clap

offering if you said that prayer and you ment it

from your heart. We have some next steps for you.

You can go ahead and go to that website grow

dot Faith, where you can download a free book written

by the man who just preached, Pastor Diego, who founded

this church, and it's just outlining what do I do

now that I follow Jesus. Now that I believe in Jesus,

what does my faith walk look like? And it's outlined

in that book. We're gonna leave together right now, really quick.

If you notice, maybe you didn't notice when you entered

from the courtyard, we do have a booth out there

for Abundant Preschool of Learning. That's our preschool and daycare

here here on campus. So if you didn't know we

had one, we do, and it's a great resource to

you if you are in need of that. A daycare

or a preschool that is faith based. They preach the

Gospel and preach Jesus and teach Jesus to these kids as.

They are going up.

So if you want any more information about there, they're

out there in the courtyard for you and they'll give

you all the information that you need if you need

a daycare or a preschool. Let's pray together and then

we'll all leave here together. I'm glad you came to

church today. God, we come before you right now. We

thank you Lord for bringing us here. We pray Lord

against any fear of sharing the Gospel with people. Lord,

that you would break down these barriers, Lord, and that

we would go forth and proclaim what you've done in

our lives. So proudly, God, we thank you and we

praise you in Jesus' name a man Amen. Hope to

see you guys next week