Beyond the Gift: The Widow's Sacrificial Heart || Pastor Adam Mesa

Well a man.

Thank you to all of those who regularly give and

consider Patriot your home church. Is great to see everyone.

We've kind of had some emotional past two services seeing

how excited our church has been over what God's been

doing in our house. And so if you have you're

beyond journal, you could pull that out because we're about

to get started in a few minutes on the message.

And if you want to take notes with us today,

we're on page seventy eight. If you're new to Patriot,

just visiting us, or haven't made it for a few weeks,

we've been in a six week series. This is week

five of that six weeks of a journey that we

believe God is taking us over the next three years

a vision as a church, and we've seen God move tremendously.

And if you don't have one of these journals, then

when you leave today, if you like it still, even

though we're towards the end, you're still more than welcome

to have one and follow along up until next week.

But you could get one out in the foyer from

our dream Team on your way out. But we've seen

God do incredible things in our church as we we've

been believing God not only that we go beyond as

a church, but that God is already doing it in

our church. We've experienced more growth over the past twenty

four months than we ever expected as a church. And

to be quite frank, if it was my preference, because

I've been the senior pastor for very long fourteen months

at this point, and you know, so seasoned and so

you know, just just been this for a very long time.

But if it was my preference going into being the

lead pastor of our church, if I knew that we

would not only experience the growth that we've seen, but

also need the necessity for vision financially, I think that

would have scared me at first. I want to say, God,

that's too much, too fast. Give us five years, give

us six years. Let us you know, we got a

whole new team for the most part, we got a

lot of new stuff we're doing. And I would have

honestly preferred to say, God, maybe like twenty thirty, give

us a fresh win, like just give us some space

to settle in. And you know, I'm thankful that God

has different plans. It may be oftentimes a stretch for us,

it may be a refining time for us. It may

be a pruning time for us, but regardless, here we

are as a church. Our parking lots are full, our

children's ministries are full, our youth ministries are full. Our

Corona pre launch meetings that we were doing had more

attendance than we ever anticipated. Our Alambida campus is already growing.

We're talking about Easter. How do we add services to

reach the needs of the people in Alameda. That's great problems,

but with great problems also require great solutions and also

normally require vision and finance. And so as we've been

in this season of seeing God breathe on our church,

we've been talking about what does it mean to capture

the wave that God has breathed.

Into our church.

And so at the end of service, we're going to

give everyone who considers Patriot their home church. If you're

just visiting, you're just checking us out, I know God's

gonna speak to you through the message. But also you

don't feel any pressure, don't feel any pressure at all

to be part of this. But if you'd like to

come alongside and you believe that you've been reached and

impact as a person through other people's generosity, it's an

opportunity for us to fan the flame that God has

already breathed, and so we're gonna give an opportunity at

the end of service for anyone that would like to

make a three year commitment with us on top of

our regular giving. You could do. So it's been emotional

because just about every service from yesterday to today, we've

seen about eighty percent of the room participate in what

we've been doing. And God has just been there. He's

meeting us, and he's the spirit of God is alive.

And you know, I know, when you're kind of a

new senior pastor, you build this picture in your head

like I don't think, I don't know people are I

don't know if people are gonna see what God's doing.

And people have seen it, and I'm just so honored

that we've all seen what God's done through Ephesians chapter

three twenty. This is what we've been believing God for

as a church, and this is what we've been seeing.

It says this now to him who's able to do

far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think,

according to the power that works within us. That's our

prayer for your life, that not only that as you

communicate to God, you pray to the Lord, you grow

in the Lord. That God will abundantly exceed anything that

you could ever think of, anything that you could ever

ask of. May His presence be rich in your life,

May his presence be rich in your family's life. And

may we see God do what He's done in our

lives into other people's lives. And so we want to

be a church that has open door policy, a policy

that says, anyone that's broken, anyone that's hurting, anyone that

want to experience the presence of God, then our church

is open and ready. It's been said that churches aren't museums.

They're hospitals. So we want to be a hospital.

We're hurting people broken, people can come and experience what

it means to be healed and made whold. But I'll

add this, we don't want to just be a hospital.

We also want to be a university where people can

be equipped and built up into the Word of God

so that they can go out into the world and

make an impact and make a difference.

We don't want you.

To check in the hospital and stay in the hospital bed.

Who want you to check out of the hospital and go.

You know what, I want to be a doctor too.

I want to help people. And in that same way

that you may checked into God's hospital at some point

in your life. We want to be able to equip

you through the Word of God so that you can

go out and make an impact to people in the

same way. And being our church being so healthy, it's

not because we do good Instagram posts why people are

coming to church.

It's because you're sharing.

The love of Jesus with those that you love and know,

and they're having a hunger and they're coming and they're

being reached in the same way as well. In just

a few moments, we're going to start and I'm going

to read a passage out of Mark chapter twelve today.

But before that, we're going to hear an incredible testimony

from a young man named Anthony who goes to our

Alameda campus. So check this out.

My name's Anthony Venezuela. I've been coming a Patriot Church

about two years and five months. My story begins when

I was about four years old. All of a sudden,

I know that, you know, the cops are knocking on

the door. They ended up finding a bunch of drugs

all over the house. I see my mom get taken

away in a police car and I don't know I'm

in CPS. Later that night, when I went into foster care,

I absolutely I had this longing for family. I wanted

to feel like I was loved. I didn't feel intimate

with them to the point where I was like, man like, yes,

this is family right here. Once I was in fifth grade,

we were at a family party and my dad tells

me after the party while we're at home and everything's

kind of settled in, He's like, hey, we just learned

that you know, your dad had passed away. And that

minute that I heard that, and just my heart is broke.

Throughout middle school and high school, I started to develop

more addictions. I was getting addicted to weed. I was

getting into relationships at a young age, finding interest into girls.

I was addicted to LUs, to pornography to get it,

to having sexual relations with people, and all of these

things that I was just running to running away from

my problems and running away from my hurt and my

pain and finding something to run to to get give

me a quick fix for those things. I would sit

up at night just thinking like, man like, why is

this happening? Like why am I here? Why can't it

just be over? Knowing that these things were going on

in my personal life, like it totally shut me down.

Stepping into this church was a big act of faith.

There was a group of young adults that were always

asking if we had plans after Sunday. That was kind

of my intro to getting into the church, you know,

that that young adult group and being welcomed by the pastors.

They were talking about baptism and you know, we had

piqued interest on it and we were having a service

and I was like, man, I want to get bap

to us. I said that, and we ended up doing it,

and we got baptized at December fourth in someone's backyard

and thank thank goodness for that that person's house and

being able to let us go there and do that.

There was actually this moment. It was the fourth of

July grade at that time, like there was things that

I was bat on and kind of wrestling through emotionally,

and I didn't know what that was. And I was like,

you know, like I'm gonna just set up and I'm

gonna just head out. My posture was more of like

man like I'm dealing with things I want to get away.

Pastorgo finds out. What Pastor Fuego did was he pulled

me to the side and it was in front of it.

It wasn't in front of everybody, but it was in

front of everybody, and he was like, why are you

even don't leave? Like we need you here, we want

you to be here. In that moment, like I just

had tears rolling down my face, not because he was

being rude, not because, but but because I felt like

what he was doing in that moment was exactly what

I needed my whole life, which was for him to

reach out and for him to say, Yo, I need

you here, we want you here. I even told my

family like I was like, man, I didn't feel wanted,

I didn't feel needed. So when I came here, I

felt those things and that's what kept me here. And

I felt God really tell me those things. So when

he was doing that, I knew it was God. We

have all these people in all this his community. We

were impacting Alameda. We're telling them about the gospel. I'm like, man,

like this is family right here, Like where would I go?

Where would I be without this? And I'm sitting here

looking at all these faces and all these people that

I've been shouldered to shoulder with for some time now,

and I'm like, this is a moment right here, this

is the moment where I'm saying, like, you know what, like,

I'm not going to run away from my from my family,

I'm not going to run away from God. I'm not

going to run away from this moment right here. I'm

gonna I want to stay. I want to be here,

and I want to be able to be shoulder to

shoulder and i want to fight with my family together.

Oh praise God. You know what we're doing is for

more individuals like Anthony to reach them to share the

love of Jesus. I don't know if you caught in

that video, but he said, as a young boy, about

four years old, his mom gets arrested and he gets

put into CPS. He immediately gets put into the system,

and so he's a foster child until he becomes an adult.

You may have caught he said, my dad told me

that my dad died when I was in the fifth grade.

He's talking about a foster parent telling him that his

dad died. And so there was a period that as

people were inviting him to church. He had every excuse,

every reason on why he could reject God, why he

doesn't need God. Where was God when I was four

and I got put into the system? Where was God

when I was in the fourth grade and my father

was passed away? Where was God here? Where was God here?

And you see there's a moment where he says, I'm

rejecting community, I'm rejecting family because I don't know that

it's good for me. I don't know that it's something

that's gonna build me up. And there's a moment though,

where the love of God, the persistency of people in

the church of inviting him, loving him, breaking down wall

after wall, brokenness after brokenness, it leads to deliverance. Yeah,

as a youth pastor growed up in this church, there

was kid at child after child, teenager after teenager that

would meet that was an adopted child, that was a

foster care child, and you would see it. You would

see their walls come up the moment they walked in.

I'd even see, you know, children that were hurting from

divorce of parents and brokenness of the home, and you

would see the walls up. You would see him they

they wouldn't look at you in the eye. They they

would either cuss you out the moment the sermon would start,

they would all of a sudden have to go to

the bathroom or whatever it is. But what we would

do is we would be consistent at loving them, caring

for them, sharing the Gospel with them, encouraging them, and

also disciplining at the same time. But then we would

see eventually that these young men and women, they would

begin to love Jesus, they would begin to be healed,

they would begin to be delivered.

And you see something like Anthony.

Where two weeks ago I got an opportunity to preach

up at Alameda, and I've had the honor because we

merged with a church called Encore just about four months ago,

and so now that they're Patriot Alameda. The moment I

started going up there, I had met young Anthony, but

I didn't really know his testimony. And so two weeks

ago when I went to go preach there, I went

to use the restroom and it was number one, so

you don't worry about it.

But I got to go to use the restroom.

And and Anthony's in there, and he's got a little ves,

and he's got a mop, and he's got a brush,

and he's got a broom, and he's sitting there, hands

and kne's scrubbing the toilet. And he gets up and

he goes, hey, pastor, Adam, if you got to go,

I got it all cleaned up, you'd.

Be the first one to use it.

And I said, no, Anthony, I just got I got

gotta go number one. But I'm sitting there, and as

I'm washing my hands, I could see him in the

mirror scrubbing the toilets, and I thought to myself, my lord,

this young man twenty two, twenty three years old. He

could be at the club right now. He could be

at friend's houses right now. He could be smoking, he

could be hanging out with people. He could be at

the local bar. He's in the House of God cleaning

toilets so that someone else could come and use him.

Not as a paid person.

Now, we got nice campus here in ranch On, so

you can eat off our bathroom floors, but as some

of our smaller campuses that are more bootstrap, and everyone's

got to serve and do everything there. I mean, he's

there serving his time, and I see him. He take

the brush, he wash his hands, and then he went

up on stage and he woke them every one for service.

I thought, God, this is what you've called us to

do as a church. So sons and daughters that are broken,

that are hurting, people that are looking for a savior

can find hope in Jesus. But not only find hope

in Jesus. You see in that video he was also

praying for people. He was praying for an older woman.

This is a young man who's all in for what

God is doing in his life. And as a church,

that's what we want to continue to see. Many of

you and I were products of that goodness of God.

But there's more people. These walls that are completely written

with people's names represent more Anthony's, they represent more Murials,

they represent more Shelby's, they represent more of the panatoes,

more people who need to experience the love of God, and.

They may not even know it.

They may step into God's house and have a wall

up that in time God will begin to chip away

and chip away and chip away, and the goodness of

God will show mercy. You know, last week on Sunday Night,

we invited some of our leaders and givers in the

church for a leadership night just last Sunday. What we

wanted to do, and not everyone could make it. We

have a few thousand people that serve and give, but

we invited and about five hundred people were able to

make it last Sunday night, and we didn't really mind

how many people came out. All we wanted to do though,

was those that came what they did last week. A

lot of people who serve and give. They turned in

their commitment card already because what they wanted to do

is they wanted to show all of you who come

to Patrio and consider Patriot the home church, but they

lead in the church, not on staff in the church.

They serve, they give.

These are people in dream teing, these are people in

kids ministry, youth ministry, these are elders, deacons. They all

came and two hundred and fourteen cards were turned in.

What they wanted to do was pre commit to the campaign.

They wanted to show the church. Hey, two hundred and

fourteen of our families were all in, and so what

I'm about to share with you is the number in

just a moment that they committed. But I want you

to remember, at our church, we have about fourteen thousand

people that call Patria their home church. Of those fourteen thousand,

that includes children's ministry, that includes youth ministry, And so

we have about seven thousand to eight thousand families who

if you were to meet them in the streets and

say hey, do you go to church and they say yes,

I do, And do you have a home church, they

would say yes, Patria. We have about seven thousand to

eight thousand families represented between Alameda, Rancho, Pomona, and even

some online as well that would say the same. And

so two hundred and fourteen cards were turned in last

Sunday of the eight thousand families, not twenty one thousand cards,

not two thousand, one hundred, only two hundred and fourteen

cards of thousands of families, as leaders wanted to show

you that they were all in. And I want such

an honor and privilege because we were blown away ourselves

that two hundred and fourteen families committed to cover seventeen

percent of the campaign, which that total is three million,

three hundred and forty three thousand, nine hundred and seventy

nine dollars. Two hundred and fourteen families, not four thousand families,

not five thousand, about two hundred and fourteen families committed

three million, three hundred forty three thousand, nine hundred and

seventy seventy nine dollars. If you're new to Patriot, they

did that for you. If you're new in your faith

and you're going to faith, they know what God has

done surely in their life. They want to multiply it

in your life. And so you'll see people standing and

clapping because it doesn't represent to them what's in it

for them. It represents to them what God is wanting

to do in your life. And so if two hundred

families could do seventeen percent, I just wonder if every

other family just did whatever God would encourage them to do.

There wasn't thousands, there wasn't tens of thousands, Just two

hundred families. They've covered seventeen percent. And so last two

services Saturday and first service, we're blown away by how

many people are committed, and many people came in at

whatever level.

God called them to do and has called them to do.

And next week we'll have a moment of miracle offering

for the next starting next week and for the next

couple weeks that anyone that wants to begin to sew

and we're gonna immediately see God do wondrous things. But

it's absolutely incredible what God has been doing in our church.

How many of you guys have ever met someone before

that they're not with their spouse, and then when they

talk about their marriage, they talk about it like, you know,

me and my spouse, we communicate so well, we never argue,

we never fight, We have such a great marriage. And

then one day you happen to be with them when

they're with their spouse, and it's a totally different story.

Like he or she says, we never arguing. Then they're

there and they're arguing within the first ten minutes, and

we communicate so well, and you see them why you

didn't tell me that. I didn't tell you that, and

you think, justse I think he was lying when he

told me that. You know, it sounds good until you

get with the spouse, and then the spouse is normally

a reflection of really what the health is. Sounds good

when you're by yourself. I just want to encourage you.

The reason why we did that last Sunday is so

that you can see those that lead in Patriot and

consider it their home church. They consider this to be

good soil, and two hundred families have committed three point

three million dollars over the next three years, each person

doing whatever God has called them to do. That should

show you that it goes okay if the leaders are

doing it, because those would be the first to be like, nah,

what Pastor Adam's saying about the church's health and all that,

what God's doing, The leaders would be the first to

be like, I don't see it, and you would see

that in their commitment. But the fact that you see

it in their commitment, and there were many that couldn't

even make it just because it was a Sunday night,

you could see this say, oh, they too believe that God.

Is doing something in Patrio.

So we're gonna have an opportunity in a few moments

to worship. And if God will call you and speak

to you to make a commitment, we'll give you that opportunity.

But I just want to share a brief thought with

you from the life of a widow in the Story

of Mark chapter twelve. And if you've been in church long,

you may have heard this passage before. But if you

have a Bible and you like to turn to Mark

chapter twelve. It's just a few verses that we're gonna read,

but they're absolutely powerful what Jesus tries to teach us

in this story. And so if you're ready, would you

just do me for a moment. Would you stand for

the honor of reading God's word, Because when God's word

is taught, we want to give him our full attention,

because he's worth the honor in this house today. Here's

what this passage says. It says Jesus sat down. He's

in the temple, he's in the house of God. He's

in church. For lack of a better term, they would

have called it a synagogue or a temple. And it

says he sat down opposite the place where the offerings

were put and watched the crowd putting their money into

the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts,

but a poor widow came and put in two very

small copper coins worth only a few cents. Calling his

disciples to him, you said, hey, guys, come here, all

his twelve disciples, come here.

I want to tell you guys something.

It says Jesus said, truly, I tell you this poor

widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

They all gave out of their wealth, but she gave

out of her poverty and put in everything all that

she had.

To live on.

You may be seated.

Let's talk about that a little bit today, because Jesus

begins to reveal a powerful truth in just a moment

in what he says. What happens is is back in

their day, everyone gave publicly, and so you may see

that in the apostle Paul's writing in the New Testaments,

he'll often say, hey, give whatever God put on your heart. Well,

one of the reason why he says that is because

in the Jewish faith, everybody would give publicly for more

of an accountability. And so what happens is it had

ended up being twisted because you would see wealthy people

dropping in bags of money. But Jesus would immediately see

that those individuals weren't tithing. Those individuals weren't giving an offering.

They were giving a tip and weren't tithing to God.

They were tipping to God because it was easy for them.

And so the amount may look like a lot to

the average person, but Jesus knew what their capacity was,

and so in that moment, he's showing the disciples to say,

I know what they could actually give sacrificially, and Jesus

goes they're not giving sacrificially, They're giving out of their abundance,

which quite frankly, is easy to do. When you give

out of your abundance, there's no stretch, there's no challenge.

In the same way with our time, our talents, and

our treasures. We call it the three t's is that

when God would enable you and call you, there's oftentimes

that God will stretch you to give up your talents,

to give up your time, and to give up your treasure.

Not just in church, out in the world as well.

God has called us as disciples of Jesus, to be

people that are generous with our time, generous with what

our talents are, what our gifts are, and generous with

our treasure. That God would speak to us and we

would live a life that's generous because it's through our

generosity that we live in a world where everyone wants

to know what is in it for me.

That's what everyone wants to know.

If your boss came one day to work and said, hey, everyone,

I need everyone to stay till three am and put

in some extra hours. Our first thing wouldn't be like,

oh I love this company so much, I can't wait

to work till three am. Your thought would be what's

in it for me? We gain double time, we get

in triple time, I get overtime? Do I get a

promotion at the end of this? What's in it for me?

And in your work?

That may be okay to do, But in the Kingdom

of God, what happens is is when we give up

as selfish lifestyle and a selfish way put. When Jesus

calls us to give of something, not just financially, but

he's gonna ask you to give your treasure. He's gonna

ask you to give your talents. He's gonna ask you

to give time to somebody. And we cannot lead with, well, Jesus,

what's in it for me? Because Jesus didn't go to

the cross for what was in it for him. He

went to the cross for what was in it for

you and I, so that on the day that we

would be broken enough to rest our faith and hope

on him, Jesus gave his life freely for you and I.

So Jesus calls us to live a life that freely sacrifices,

and what he sees with this widow is she gives

her everything.

Number One.

One of the things Jesus is disappointed, and one of

the reasons why he's calling his disciples over is because

the widow should have never had to feel like she

had to give everything. Those are smaller communities, and these

were smaller cities, and so the wealthy should have been

helping take care of this widow. And so Jesus is

pointing out, first of all, it should never have gotten

to the point where the widow has to do this.

So he's saying, look at all these people coming in,

giving freely and even tipping God.

But also they're leaving this widow up to hang.

To drive, and he goes, but look how hungry she

is for the Lord that she's giving her everything. Now,

there was a corrupt theology in Jesus's day, and sometimes

we see it trickle into the world today, which is

this is God can't do anything in your life until

you give. And so that's what she's thinking. She's fallen

prey to that false theology, and so she's giving her

everything because she's going through.

It, and she's she's been told that God can't.

Do anything until she gives it.

And that's not the truth.

That's not the truth that for the broken hearted, for

the one that is mild, and meet the one that

is needing Jesus.

Jesus is not.

Like, hey, you start doing things and I'll show goodness

and mercy to you. It is this that all the

goodness and mercy will follow you for all of your days.

It's not it's not contingent upon what you give financially.

But Jesus is amazed by this woman because he says,

look how she is giving her everything for God.

She needed and hungered for.

God so much. And if you know anything about Jesus,

it's not recorded for us, but most theologians believe that

Jesus would have immediately sent the disciples and others to

begin to care for this woman so that she's not

left to hang out and dry. They were called to

do something that the rest of the church wouldn't do.

And what we're trying to do as a church is

we're trying to minister to those that are broken hearted.

We're trying to minister to those that are not at

a place that they can give you that aren't in

a place that they know Jesus yet, that aren't in

a place that they're healing. Their marriage is not restored.

Yet.

We're not saying, hey, this is what's in it for us.

We're saying, what can we.

Do for you?

What do you need?

You need hope? Do you need prayer? Do you need

a relationship with Jesus? Do you need a miracle? Do

you need deliverance? And there's no contingency tied to that.

I met a man last night at Saturday service who says,

since October, I drive from Fresno every single weekend down

to here to the Rancho camp for service from Fresno. Now,

some of you aren't amazed because you're not good at geography,

and you must not know where Fresno is. Fresno is

five hours away towards northern California. He's closer to the

Alameda campus than he is to the Rancho campus. But

he said, I in October, I lost my mother and

she passed away, and my brother lived locally and he

came to church and God touched his life and he

invited me and my wife, and he had a He

had like a six month old with him in his hands,

and he had a two year old that was spinning

in circles with his wife. And and he said, and

he said, every weekend since October, and he goes, now,

we go to service Saturday, and he says, we drive

down on Saturday, we crash on my brother's house in

his couch, and then we go to church.

We would go to church on Sunday.

He go, now that we go to church on Saturday

and then we'd drive back home after service. I know,

I know I can say that because our online people

are watching the service from yesterday, so I could say

this to y'all. There are people who woke up today

five minutes away, who saw rain in the forecasts and

decided to stay.

Home from church.

And yet there's a couple with young children that are

that's an infant and a toddler, and they're driving five

hours every weekend since October to hear from God. There's

tons of churches between us and then. I don't know

why God does it. I don't know why people sacrifice

like that, but they're people that are. And there are

people who are feeling God that calls to them, and

God begins to speak to them, and God begins to

heal them in ways that they could never imagine. That's

what we're committed to as a church. And Jesus looks

at the wealthy people and he says, these people are

giving out of convenience and ease. But this woman is

hungry for God and she's giving her all. And so

the first thot I just want to share with you

is that Jesus shows us that God sees your heart.

It's not about what's on the outside, the exterior. A

lot of us we're trying to give a persona on

the outside that we have it all together. But God's

not impressed by that. What he wants to see is

what transformation is happening in your heart. Because whatever happens

in your heart will come out of you. It'll overflow

on the outside. It's not about giving a good perception

on the outside. First Samuel sixteen seven says, the Lord

does not look at the things people look at. People

look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at

the heart. Jesus sees this woman's heart. There were some

things that people could perceive on the outside, but Jesus

was able to perceive what was on the inside, and

what God begins to show us is it's a matter

of what's going on in our heart and how we

want to serve people from our heart, not out of

what people see. It's out of what God can see.

And what other people are looking at is what is

perceived on the outside. But God cares about what's happening

on the inside. A couple weeks ago, I was in

the airport and I was in a layover in Atlanta,

and I had some time to kill and I was hungry.

And here's one of the things. If you don't fly much,

I just want to give you one tip. If there's

anyone that's buying food in the airport, I'll just tell

you this. They're doing okay for themselves, okay, like they're

doing all right. The person who's not maybe doing all

right is the one who has a like a bagged

sandwich that they're bringing on the airplane or or tubbleware.

But if you see someone at any of whether.

It's a restaurant or fast food, if they're in the

airport eating, they doing okay. Because a meal that's normally

twelve thirteen dollars on the outside, when you're in an airport.

Thirty seven dollars.

Thirty seven dollars, Like I'll get I'll go on a

flight and I'll bring someone with me and we'll get

two cheeseburgers, a drink, a fry or whatever, and it'll

be like seventy six dollars for two meals. I'm not

making it up. Next time, just look at the menu.

When you're in an airport, go stop, buy a little chilies.

You're like, man, where's the three dipper at chilies in

the airport? You know, like in Chili's is twenty dollars.

In here it's like one hundred and fifty dollars. What's

but people are doing, they're eating, they're there so either

their their company got a good package or they just

given it out of themselves, but you know.

They're doing well.

And so I'm in line at Chipotle at the Atlanta

airport getting ready for a flight, and about seven people

in front of me. There's a teenage girl who's trying

to check out her food. But a lot of parents

nowadays with teenagers, they just upload like a credit card

into the Apple wallet into like a into a wallet.

So a lot of teenagers I talk to, they don't

have physical cards. They just tap for everything, and so

and so this is how it was for this young

girl is she's about seventeen, sixteen, seventeen years old. I

could tell because she still had like a backpack with

like little you know, teddy bears on them and stuff

like that. And so I'm like, and she just looked young,

and so I could tell she was young. And so

she was pretty nervous. She was pretty sure she traveling

by herself. And so she was nervous because her tap

wasn't working. It's not that her card was getting declined.

It just her phone. It wasn't communicating with the thing.

And so I see her. She's shaking with her phone

and she's nervous, and she's telling the worker, I don't

know what's happening, you know, let me call my parents,

let me try to figure it out. And so the

first couple of people, they're kind of just waiting, and

you can see they're getting real impatient and kind of

like you know, rolling their eyes, and and so me

the line, I'm trying to hurry up too. So I'm

just kind of like in my head, I'm like, well,

they just open up another checkout thing, you know, and

they end up doing that, and so I'm like, okay, good,

And then I get a thought as I'm making my

little burrito boll I felt like the Lord said, Adam, like,

pay for her meal if that's still an issue. And

so then I said, Lord, if the next six people.

Don't do it, then then.

I'll do it. Let's negotiate. And so I said, there's

six people in front of me, surely someone will do it.

Because for any of us.

In that line eating, now, if we were in another

public Chipotle, I think maybe that person didn't have the money,

but anyone eating at the airport, you all got extra

money to buy another burrito bowl for someone else, Like,

you're not hurting if you're eating at the airport. And

so I'm thinking, someone's gonna do it. And so sure enough, Nope,

they just keep going around her. They just keep going

around here. And so by the time I get to her,

line's long, it's been about twelve minutes. She still can't

figure this thing out. She's talking to her pair, she's nervous,

and I'm thinking to myself, man, what if this was

my niece, What if this was you know, what if

this was one of my children. What if this was

just someone I knew that. My heart was breaking for her.

And so I get to the line it's me and

the woman says, i'll take you over here, and I said, no,

you don't have to take me over here. Just add

mine to hers. I'll pay for hers. And she turns

around and she goes, no, I don't need the help.

I promise I have the money. And I said, you

probably do.

I know you do.

And she goes, it's just it's not working. And I said,

all that happens to me all the time. It never

happens to me, but I just, you know, I was

just trying to make her feel okay, So I said

that it happens to me all the time.

I get it.

You're good. I said, will you will you let me

buy your lunch? And she's like yeah, yeah, okay, okay,

thank you. She's like, I can get your number, I

can cash at you the mine.

I said, I.

Said, don't worry about it, it's okay.

Now here's the thing.

I don't want you to hear that and think, oh,

Pastor Adam is so godly.

Pastor Adam, oh.

He hears God and he does it because Here's why

there is nothing impressive about that story, because a seventeen

or twenty dollars burreata bull was not a lot for me.

It's not impressive. It took no sacrifice. It didn't now

for someone it would, and someone it may. And there

are things that would be a sacrifice.

You know.

If God told me to pay for someone's mortgage or

rent for Adam individually, that would be a lot. I'd

be like, Oh Lord, okay, I'll do it, but I'll

have to be so sacrificial.

I'm gonna have to man. But a seven dollar burrito

bull was not.

And so there's nothing impressive about what I did other

than just trying to be obedient to God. But here's

what I also didn't do. And the only reason why

I'm sharing it in this message is to make a point.

Otherwise I would have never said it. My wife didn't

hear about this until this message this weekend, so I

didn't come home and be like, Babe, your husband is

so generous. I'm like, Superman. Can you believe you are

married to a guy that is just so aware of

those around? How blessed are you?

Ashley.

I wasn't in the airport Babe, you won't believe what

I just did. I just I just paid for her.

Girl's but little girl's lunch.

I didn't do that. I could have. I guess well,

my wife would have done. Babe, I love you. That's

so amazing good. I didn't tell the girl, Hey, can

we get a selfie real quick? I'm a pastor and

I'm gonna put this on Facebook so people know how

holy I am and we can I as a Christian,

I want everyone to know that I gave someone ten dollars,

that I gave someone fifteen dollars, because that's what the

wealthy people were.

Doing in Jesus's day. They were saying, look.

Everyone, look at the big old bag of money that

I'm putting into the offering. But Jesus goes that was

nothing for them, and they were doing it because they

wanted everyone to see them and praise them. What you

should do when you hear that I saw a girl

doing that, you should have said, pastor Adam, why did

it take you so long?

You should have cut the line and just did it.

You should be.

Questioning why did it take six people for me to move?

Because I'm human and I'm still and I'm still selfish,

and I wanted to make sure I still got my

burrito bowl, and I wanted to make sure that I

could make it the way that I wanted to. There's

nothing impressive about what I did. There's more wrong in

it of when I should have acted than when I shouldn't.

So I meant to be impressive. See what happens is

a lot of times we're just doing what the wealthy

people were doing in this story, and we're saying, hey,

people notice me, Hey, people notice what I'm doing. Oh, hey, Jesus,

notice what I'm doing. But Jesus knows. I don't know.

I don't know, and your neighbors don't know. But God

knows what is sacrificial to you and what is not.

God knows what you are giving out of what's easy.

And I'm not just talking financially. I'm talking about the

way you serve. I'm talking about the way you talk

to people. I'm talking about the way that you love

your spouse, I'm talking about the way you love your children.

God knows whether you're really trying or God knows if

you're just hitting easy mode. God knows if what you're

doing is a true effort, or if he knows you're

being selfish. I sit with couples all the time and

they go, I'm trying, and then we sit and we

talk and I hope you're not trying. You're doing better

than maybe what you've seen your parents do, but you're

not trying. And effort is not a dictation of sacrifice. Sacrifice.

What is uncomfortable for you, What stretches you, what challenges

you that? And I I can't judge that. That's not

for me to know. That's not for me to figure out.

That's between you and God. Only God knows. What to

you is a real stretch. And there are times in

my marriage I gotta tell Ashley it may look like

I'm not trying.

But I really am. I really am trying. I just

don't know what I'm doing in this area.

And then there are other times that I'm like, you

know what, I'm being lazy, Yes, yes that's true.

Or I'm being selfish.

I did go on a shopping spree for myself and

you got nothing. That's my bad. I wasn't thinking about

you at all. I was being selfish. I just gotta

admit that. I just gotta admit that and so God

sees the heart, and Jesus shows us that he sees

are here's the last thought I want to share with you,

and then we're gonna have just a moment of worship

as people commit as God sees our heart. We also

see from the woman that she has a love for

the House of God, because it says she's giving in

the Temple treasury, so she's giving to the Temple, she's

giving to the Church. And so what she believes in

that moment, whether it was bad theology or whether, but

we know for her it was a sincere heart that

she loved God's house, and she loved God, and she

cared enough to sacrifice all that she had to see

God's house do well. Now I'm not saying, please, don't

sacrifice all that you have to see God do well here.

I would never want that from you, because Jesus does

indict the church to say they should have never taken.

All that she had.

They should actually be looking out for her, not the opposite.

But we do see Jesus does say, but she's gonna

be all right because her heart and she loves God.

And so what we see, as the scripture say, is

the Lord but two Samuel twenty four to twenty four.

But King David replied to Aaron, I no, I insist

on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to

the Lord, my God burt offerings that cost me nothing.

In other words, what David says is he says, I

don't want God to look favorable me if I didn't

sacrifice anything. Moody, one of the great preachers, says, what

God says about me is more important than what others

say about me. What God says about you is more

important than what others say about you. You know, there's

been a season in my life right now that as

I see people in our church that love people and

sacrifice for people, not just financially, but their time and

their talents. So a few months ago there was a

he's actually right here, I'll say in a moment, but

he's in service today. But Charles Fisher, one of our

elders and deacons, he texted me one afternoon a couple

of months ago and he said, Pastor Adam, when you

have a moment, can you call me. It's regarding Matthias

and he serves in Patriot Kids. So immediately I go, oh,

my goodness, what did Matthias do today? And I'm like,

I hear him upstairs. I'm at my house already. I

just preached all weekend, and I thought, I'm gonna have

to go upstairs and I'm gonna have to whoop some tail.

I'm gonna have to take.

Take away the I like, we had a good day.

What is going on? And so I'm just getting ready

for it, And I tell Ashley, actually, I gotta call

a mister Fisher. He says something about Matthias. She's like,

she's standing right next to me, you know. Like, so

I pick up the phone and I said, I said, hey,

mister Fisher, what's going on? And he said, yeah, it's

regarding Matthias. Today in church, his cousin Lorenzo came to

me and let me know that Matthias was in the

corner crying by himself. Then I thought, well, who do

who do I gotta beat up? What dad?

What dad?

Do I gotta beat up? What person do I gotta

talk to? We shut the whole place down, we do.

We're doing a full internal audit of what's going on.

And got my baby crying. So now I'm like opposite's coming,

like what have who do you know? Who do we

gotta reconcile with what's going on? And so he says, no, no, no,

it's nothing like that. I pulled him aside and I said, Matthias,

why are you crying? And he told me because he

misses his papa.

And I thought, well, that's.

Weird, and he goes, yeah, me too, because I told him,

you know, Pastor Diego, he's probably at service today. You're

only in children's church for about an hour. You'll see

him in an hour. You don't need to miss him.

And he said, no, no, no, not my Papa Diego,

but my Papa Tom. And what you may not know

is my father in law. In twenty twenty, he passed

away and he went home to be with the Lord.

And so he was one of our elders in the church,

and he's served in the church ever since I was

a teenager. Before I ever met my wife, I knew

him and he served with me in youth ministry. And

so that's Matthias's papa, about a year before he went

home to be with the Lord. So on this particular Sunday,

Matthias for some reason, is remembering his papa and he

begins to grieve.

He begins to cry.

At six years old, he was about he was about

he was about two years old when his grandfather passed away,

and so he's missing and he's grieving his grandfather. And

mister Charles he gets on Matthias's level and he's telling

me this over the phone. I got on his level

and I told him, Matthias, I knew your papa. He's

such a good man. He's with Jesus right now, and

there's gonna be a day that you're gonna see him

face to face.

And oh, I could tell you this.

He loves you, and I know he misses you. But

here's the thing, Matthias, he's so proud of you and

you're doing such a good job and just encourages him.

Told me what he said, and then he said and

then I just asked, Matthias, could I pray for you?

And so then I prayed for Matthias and I just

sat there. I was like blown away, and I was like,

I grew up here and I love this church. But

I was like, I really love my church. Not because

Pastor Adamson was in there. I just I just, you know,

he just knew my father in law so he could

speak to that level. But I know that if your

grandchildren and your children were in there, I know, and

I could. Pastor Garfield's here, who served in our kids

ministry for twenty years, he could have the mic and

he could tell you how many kids have come into

Children's Ministry who were grieving a lost uncle, grieving a

lost mother, grieving a divorce that was happening.

And we would see kids only.

On the first and the fifteenth on certain Sundays, and we.

Would see this, and we would see that.

And these volunteers, not staff members, volunteers love our children

and our youth enough to get on their level to

say it's gonna be okay. Do you know that God

has a plan for your life? Do you know that

there's things in life that hurt? You know, there's things

in life, whether it's a foster care, whether it's a

child of divorce, a teenager of divorce, whether it's a

broken home, whether it's a past, whatever it is.

We have people.

Serving, giving their time, loving our children while we try

to learn about Jesus. Stop babysitting over there. There's ministry

going on. So I just stood back, and it was

my first instance because I got young boys. I got

almost four year old and I got a six year old,

and so I'm starting to even see from my eyes

as a parent to.

Say, God, I love this church. I grew up in it.

Of course I love it, but it's ministering to my

family to a new level and a new layer that

I've never experienced before as a first time dad. It's

a younger dad. And so I was so thankful for him,

and I just told mister Fisher at the time, I said,

I love you and I appreciate you, not because you

did this for me as pastor Adam, but you did

this for me as a brother and the Lord, and

you prayed for my son, and.

That means the world to me. And so I went.

Upstairs immediately because I figured there's probably still some ministry

that has to happen.

So I went upstairs.

I said, hey, Mathis, I heard you cried today at

church and he said yeah. I said, would you like

to talk about it?

Son?

And he said no, I've already talked about it with somebody. Okay,

Well that's that. Well that's that. Like, Okay, there's an

hour conversation I don't have to have. And he was

so healthy about it. He was like, yeah, I cried, Yeah,

I missed Papa, but I'm good. You know, someone prayed

for me and I'm feeling better. And I thought, Wow,

thank you that it's not all on me. Thank you

that I got people in my church and our church

and our community that are loving our children and our

children's children and our grandchildren and each other. Praise God,

mister Fisher happens to be in service today, So would

you wait for us, Mister Fisher, thank you for loving

all of our children as everyone else in Patriot Kid does.

But thank you so much.

I'll share with this last thought, and then we'll give

a moment of worship.

As I shared, I grew up in this church.

And our church has grown relatively fast for a long time,

and then kind of over that past ten years, it

didn't grow quite as fast as it used to. And

there were some years that were less and other years

that were less and other years that were more. And

today our church and a given week is larger than

we were even before COVID. Going into twenty nineteen, we're

at one of the largest we had ever been, and

we're reaching more people today than we were even then.

And we're so thankful for what God is doing. But

for me, I've had an opportunity to grow up in

this church, and me and my brothers were the three

first kids in kids Church in nineteen ninety four, Children's

ministry was three people, myself, my oldest brother Nathan, and

then my middle brother Caleb, and that's what Children's Church

consisted of. And so in that moment, I never really

had to sacrifice much. I was able to play on

the playground. I was able to make a mess of

whatever I needed to wanted to make a mess of.

And if you remember me back in that day, I

would put wax on the church curbs and I would

skateboard on them and do all those things like that.

And so over the years, as God grew our church,

there were moments of financial vision that came before the

church and people would sew. One of the biggest moments

for us as a church was in about two thousand

and five, in two thousand and six, when we brought

bought this campus that you're in today, and it was

going to be a forty seven million dollar project. I

was only sixteen years old when that happened, and so

I got a picture of my dad on that day.

My dad there is on the far right, and then

next to him is our contractor who built it, built

this place, our construction company. Next to him is my grandfather,

my dad's dad, who we called Papa Diego. I called

him that growing up, but now we call my dad

Papa Diego. So then older Diego was called, oh, Papa,

so it gets really confusing for all of us. And

then next to him is the architect on this day.

This is the day that they submitted the plans and

drawing for approval by the city to beat this campus,

to this campus be built. So it's a big moment

in two thousand and six. And you see my grandfather there,

he has on the dolly cart. Those are the architectural

renderings that needed to be approved by the city for

the very walls and foundation and buildings that you're in today.

That was happening in two thousand and six, and there

were people and many are here today during that season

who sacrificed a lot financially for these walls to go

up so that you and I can be ministered to.

And I was only sixteen years old, and so I

did not have much to give to it. In fact,

I had a minimum wage job. I worked at Victoria

Gardens and I was working at Zuomi Skate Shop building

snowboards and skate decks. So I have a picture of

me at sixteen years old, and that was me when

my dad was at city Hall turning in plans. I

had a skateboard and I was just chilling. I was

talking to girls, and I was going out and I

was sneaking out the house and I was trying to

figure out who I was, and I was incredibly you know,

just doing whatever I felt I wanted to do. And

there were people that sacrificed that said we're going to

build a church. And I had an opportunity that at

seventeen years old, I gave my life to Christ. And

we were already moved when we were moving into this building,

and this was a place where people sacrifice so that

my faith in your faith could be built up. And

then there was a moment in our church's life at

that time. I didn't sacrifice much. I maybe bought a chair.

I was sixteen years old, so it was like three

hundred dollars to sponsor a chair, and I think I

did that maybe one or two at a minimum wage job,

and that was okay because it was a sacrifice that

I was sixteen years old. The next project we went

into was when in twenty fourteen when we built a

new building on our north side that now house serves

as our Overcomers Ministry and our special needs ministry. It's

a five million dollar project. At that time, I was

twenty four years old, and I just was only a

year into being a youth pastor, just was starting my career,

was just stepping into what I believe God called me

to do. And so even then there wasn't much I

could do. I was dating my wife and we were

just hanging out. We were dating as young twenty year

olds do and maybe gonna get married. And we were

in this campaign five million dollars and I put on

there and I gave a few thousand dollars, which was

okay at twenty four years old. And then we step

into today. I'm in a different season of life. I

have a wife, I have sons, and not only in

what God has called me to do, but also historically,

I've operated a marketing and consulting business. So for the

past fourteen years outside the church, and I've had that

and God has opened.

Up doors for me.

And I felt like as we stepped Me and Ashley

stepped into this season, God gave growth into our church

like we weren't expecting that. God told me, Adam, kid, anymore,

you got to carry your weight that for the past

thirty one years of this church being around, people have

sewed into a space so that you can grow and develop,

not as Pastor Adam, but as a.

Believer of Jesus Adam.

And my children now are being ministered too, and my

marriage is being built up. Every single week. For the

past fourteen years that I've been on staff here, I've

sat in the front row every Sunday to hear my pastor,

Pastor Diego preach not as someone who's staffed, but someone

who's a believer who wants to grow in their faith.

And when God has called me to sit on the

opposite side of it, I felt like, God say, Adam,

this isn't a season anymore. You're not skateboarding around Victoria

Gardens anymore. You're not a twenty four year old anymore

that's looking for a girlfriend and maybe looking where you'll

settle down, or and say you're a man who has

children who has a wife, it's time to commit big.

Felt like God stretched me and challenged me in that way.

And as God did that, me and Ashley began to

make pledge now of some that would stretch us and

challenge us. And I don't know how it's gonna look

for you. But last Sunday, when I made my initial commitment,

within three days, three separate organizations called me and they said, hey, Adam,

we know that you've branded and helped companies, and you've

done marketing, but we also know that you've done patriots.

Knew you did all the new name and logo and

everything like that. Would you rebrand our company? Our organization

will hire you to do it. And that would have

equaled the same amount that Ashley and I put on

our pledge card. And so I was blown away to

say God. Then I felt like God say, that's not

a cop out, Adam. For you to just say, oh,

I do these three jobs, it equals what you're pledging

is God said, well, then you could do more, Adam.

If I opened up the door within three days of

you making commitment, than Adam, you initially what you thought

was a sacrifice you thought too small.

So Ashley and I.

We will be adjusting our commitment over the next week

or so, but that's something that we felt like that

God has told us. Adam, you have been fed in

this house. You and your wife have grown in this house.

And it's not any particular time period. It's not someone

that's been here longer and other it's just about everyone saying, Lord,

you've spoke to me, You've used me in this church.

I want to sew into someone else.

And so I encourage you today that we not be

like those who give or commit out of convenience, but

we be like the widow where the Lord sees our

heart and he says, I know what you can do.

I know what you can be part of.

And if for some reason you're out a season of

life financially that you can't participate right now, please know

this is not anything that we're trying to convince you

or guilt you into. It's actually my prayer that if

God doesn't tell you to do anything, that you don't

because I would never want you to do something that

you don't think God told you to do. But if

you do do it, I believe that it's because the

Holy Spirit has drawn you to be part of something

that God is doing in this house. And we see

it happening in Alameda, and we see it happening in Pomona,

and we know it's gonna happen in Corona, and we

know it's gonna happen anywhere else that the Lord would

call us to be an impact for Jesus Christ, because

it's all about preparing a way that with Jesus would

return You and I. We do not show Jesus all

of our accomplishments. When we stand before him, we show

him all that we did with our heart to love him,

serve him, and be with him. That's what God will

see is he'll see our commitment level to his house,

to his kingdom, and we have an opportunity to be

a part of that. So at this moment, I'm gonna

ask that Pastor Diego and my wife come up here briefly.

We're all gonna leave here together in just a matter

of moments, but I just want to give be able

to give some space that we're gonna worship in just

a few seconds. But if you would like to participate

today in this commitment of what God is doing in

our church, then you may have got one of these

when you came in, and you're more than welcome to

grab one. If you haven't got one yet, you can

wave your hand in the air and our elders deacons

at our Dream Team will have some of these cards

and they'll begin to get them in your hands. You'll

see them walking down the aisle. If you don't have

one and you want one, you can just raise your hand.

If you don't have a pen either, you can raise

your hand and we'll get you a pin. But I'm

gonna let Pastor Diego share some words of encouragement for us.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I'll do it in a moment.

Yeah yeah, yeah, thank you, Thank you, Passor Adham. You know,

we as a family, we have to do this.

We have to do this.

Thirty one years ago this month, I opened up my

home to twelve people. Thirty one years ago to this month,

twelve people. You know what those twelve people did. They

kept inviting their family and friends, and we led them

to the Lord. And then I looked at those people

and I said.

We can't stay here.

I need you to help me by giving money so

that we could find a bigger facility. I asked them.

They gave we went to an elementary school. We're there

one year and I did it again. I said, you

need to help me invest in the Kingdom of God

because there are stories that need to be be told

and lives that need to be changed, and people keep

inviting them, and we've got to keep creating room.

So they gave.

Then I said, we got to go to Utica property

five seven hundred and fifty square feet in a business park,

so it sat two hundred.

And fifty people.

And then I looked at them.

And it said, the people keep coming, stop inviting people.

Let's stop winning souls to the Lord.

Let's become in a cult. No, we couldn't do that.

I looked at them and said, this building is for

sale five point nine million dollars.

Do you want to buy it for the glory of God?

They said yes.

Then I said I need you to give money right now.

They bought it.

I said, you keep inviting people and God keeps saving them.

We've got to go buy thirty acres of land and

build a forty seven million dollar project. It's not going

to take pennies, nickels, and dollars. It's going to take

thousands upon thousands of dollars.

Will you do that?

They said, yes, many of you are a byproduct of people.

That's sacrifice. I'm only asking you to do that. I

did that for my three boys, Nathan, Caleb, and Adam,

and your children that were the age of my children,

so that they'd have a place to connect with God.

Now I have another legacy.

Of Ariel and Judah and Ezra and Silas and Lorenzo

and Matthias and Thomas, and I'm giving for them and

for your.

Children that are their age. We've got to do this.

In all the years that I have given to this church,

and all the times I have given financially, here's what

I could promise you. Number One, I have never regretted

what I gave. I never sat back said, dang, I

shouldn't have done that. Number Two, whenever I've given, I've

never missed the money. And number three, God has always

divinely opened doors that I knew my income, my paycheck

and my boss couldn't do for me. All because I

gave that house that we started thirty one years ago.

It's because a member came up and paid for the deposit.

Because I was making.

Three hundred dollars a week, as a pastor twelve hundred

dollars a month and would never be able to afford

a home. He said, God put it on my heart

for me to make the down payment, and it was

like twelve thousand dollars to buy that home. I have

no money, didn't have. That picture of me was all

that black hair I had back then.

You've all warned it out. It's all gray hair now wrinkle.

You see that ugly.

Face I was making because I was looking at that

forty seven.

Million dollar project. They owed.

Jesus, I'm joking with you. I'd have no money. I

couldn't take my children. I always wanted to take them

to Disney World. Man came up to me and he said,

here's ten thousand dollars. I just said, said you want

to take your children on a vacation. All because I've

always been a tither and I've always given offerings. I

pray that you will experience a God that will do

divine things for you.

Thank you.

I said it thirty one years ago to those people

in my house, and I'll say it thirty one years

later to you. Thank you for your generosity.

I mean, in a second, Ashley's going to pray for us,

and we'll give you an opportunity if you'd like to

partner with us during this time at our campaign and

make a commitment. We'll open up the altars for you

to come when Daniel leads us in a pastor Daniel

leads us in worship. But you know, yesterday during service,

when we were about to start, I leaned over at

my wife because she had a new Bible next to her,

and I know she didn't you know, I didn't see

anywhere she would have showed me it at home or

anything like that.

And so I said, what's that?

And she said, oh, there's a teenager at the Jesus

Clubs of our Youth Ministry, where we go to high

schools and we preach the gospel to teenagers. There's a

teenager named Zuri who is making these bibles. It's like

a pair of pants and it's a denim cross and

and she's like giving them away to students so that

they can proudly walk around and talk about their faith.

And also it looks cool.

It's a good talking piece because at first you say

what is it, and then you see it's a Bible,

And so then I text past her hair, and hey,

pass her hair. What's the deal with these bibles? Said, Oh,

she gave me ten to give away. She's been making

bibles and gifting them to people and things like that.

And I said, she's in our youth ministry. He said, yeah,

she leads in junior high as well, and she helps

pour into the junior high students. I thought to myself,

I don't remember anyone when I was in high school

proud enough to carry a Bible like this and try

to share their faith in such a way. Maybe there

was one or two people, but a collective of students

who are walking around proudly with their bibles. I believe

God is doing something in the next generation. I believe

God is bringing a renewal. I believe God is bringing

a revival, and I sure love our church to be

a part of it. We don't have to be the

center of it. We don't even have to be leading it.

We'll do whatever God wants us do. But I would

sure love to be a part of the fire that

God is flaming and fanning in the hearts of young people.

We may have not seen our generation rise to an occasion,

but I believe God will see the next generation and

the next generation. It starts with a foundation, and you

and I today we'll help lay that foundation. We shared

about it the first week of our beyond that we

do believe, and there's a saying also in the secular world,

where California goes, so does the rest of the world.

Whatever music, arts, and everything else that we're doing, you

could tend to see in the next three to five

years the rest of the world follows well. Right now,

we're seeing more Christian movies come out than ever before,

Christian televisions come out, before, record sells highs for Bibles

in the past thirty years. Because I do believe that

there's a hungry people, and believe it or not, a

lot of that is happening in California. It's starting in California.

So I believe if our nation does experience revival, there

will be a big part that California will have a

part to play in it. And we just so happened

to have Southern California campuses and now Northern California campuses

as well. So I believe God has called us to

be an influence for Jesus Christ, to help reach people,

to share the hope of Jesus, and so I was

inspired by a teenager's faith to be bold about our faith.

And so next week, as we put a campaign, we

put our commitments today over starting next Sunday to the

following Sundays, we'll give an opportunity for you that you'll

be able to should you want to give and want

to be able to do. We call it the miracle

offering that immediately as you give, we're gonna start the

projects that we've committed to. And one thing you'll see

about your church here is that, like you could tell

in the courtyard or I could show you an Alameda

or Pomona, is what you give to it gets done

here at this church. Is that everything that you sow

goes back into the House of God. And so you're

gonna see that through this campaign as well. And so

should you want to bring next week a miracle offering

to towards towards this, I'll guarantee you that it'll immediately

begin to start to make it impact. So whatever you

can do starting next week, we're all gonna commit together

as part of it. But I'm gonna have my wife, Ashley,

she's gonna pray for us. And then Whenever you're ready,

we'll begin to worship and you can place your commitment

cards in there for us.

Let us pray definitely.

Father, we just come before you with a gracious and

thankful heart.

Father, I thank you for every.

Individual and here that calls Patria home, but not only

calls Patriot home, they call it family, Father, because when

they step on this property, that's exactly what it is.

We are a family, the body of Christ's Father. So

we thank you for this vision that you have given us, Father,

to expand your kingdom.

Father, for your glory.

Father, as we reach Alameda, as we reach Pomona, Father,

as we continually reach Corona, Father, we ask that you

send the lost Father. Let your name forever be on

our tongue. Father, that we are excited to share who

you are and what you have done in our life,

the supply Father, the provision that you have provided over

our lives. Father, we are eternally grateful for what is

to come Father through this campaign. Father, it is not

for man, but all your glory. As we see heaven

growing in your mighty name. Father, we ask that you

give back to your members, Father, what their heart desires

to give.

Father, you give back in tenfold.

Father, you supply the finances and resources that they may need.

Father.

You see the exper their business, of their growing finances. Father,

but also the health of their family and their marriage, Father,

of their children and their grandchildren, that they want to

come to your father, that they have a safe place.

Father.

So we thank you, we honor you, We give you

all the glory and what you're going to do through

this campaign, Father, and we thank you and your mighty name.

Amen.

Amen, Well, let's begin to worship. You're more than welcome

to sit or stand. Pastor Daniel's gonna lead us in worship,

and whenever you're ready, if you'd like to participate, feel

free to come forward.

Faith rius stuff, let's faith rise a you call me out,

bond the walls the great on no.

Where feed may face.

They're find you in the maze stream, Oh shanste.

The faith with stead. I a call a bond your name.

Keep my eyes above the way with noceans.

Rise son, rest in your gan raids, for I felds

you are my Oh.

The crags abound to deep, the swallers the.

Salt run head be my god my feet. I fell

fears surround me.

Ever fell, and you won't start night.

I would call bond your name.

Keep my eyes both though way with ocean dries song,

rest in your parades for im.

Walter wal warm war.

Spiritally, beware my trucks to speak out boards and you

work the world.

Brect you come.

I hear you take me deeper than my feet could

a pro want in my faith would be made trust in.

The press, and so come we'll sing it again.

Turn it up church, spiritly, be wear my trusts is

with outboards, and we walk on the walls.

Wherever you would.

Take me, take me deeper than my feet could have.

Yeah in my fain would be made strong with friends.

Come on with spirit.

Spiritly, you wear my trust.

Is with dial boards and you are the ones we're revering.

You can.

Say, shake me teap for that money.

My thing will be made strong.

The press chump, one more josh, spirit leading spirit Ly,

you have my trusts with down for let me are

fom the world wherever you call, come on, take me deeper,

Take me teaper than money today, wand and my faith

to be made shrimp speak the press chump, shave your

take us deeper, take a steamer in your brands.

It's teaper and under. We believe, we believe, we believe,

we believe.

We believe, we believe, we believe, we believe, we believe.

We believe.

We believe.

We're sewing into drown, showing in the solid droll, showing

it to pout, This, showing in to favor, showing into partings,

showing into buildings, showing into children, showing in to use them,

showing you to aug so is your television, showing it

to Colda, showing it to that soap.

Showing it to Pomona.

We believe, we believe, we believe, we believe.

Why I will call upon.

Jesus cheap my eyes above.

Yeah, when all shows a rise, I shall will rest

in your brains.

Than you arm.

God.

We thank you so much God. I pray Lord that

we may see the world and people the way that

you see them.

God.

I pray that you will give us the eyes that

you see your creation with God. I thank you Lord

for a church of people that believe in reaching more people.

God.

We don't see a pond where we hoard God's resources,

but we see an ocean of more fish that God

wants to win, more people that God wants to chase

and pursue. Father God, I thank you Lord that our

church is not just a museum of people that say,

look how great this person is, Look how great this person.

But we're a hospital, God, We're a hospital looking to

serve people. God, looking to help people see Jesus in

the way that he's the healer, he's a redeemer, He's

Jehovah rapha. Lord, God, I pray that we see them

the way that you see them. But God, I pray

that they don't stay in the hospital. Lord, but we

also be a university that equips people. God equips people

for the work of the Kingdom. Lord, And what we

don't do just stays in the four walls of our church.

But we go out into the highways and the byways,

and they compel people to come to Jesus.

Lord.

I thank you, Lord that you equip your church here today.

Father God, God, I pray that we believe God for

those names that are on those walls, that they will

come to faith, that they will experience healing, that they

will experience freedom, they will experience the goodness and mercy

of God. And we know Lord that in this pursuit

the enemy, he will try to do whatever he can

do to try to stop this momentum. Father God, but

we know that in Jesus's name, the enemy has been

defeated and Jesus has crushed the head of Satan in

every way. Lord, So we know the enemy will try.

We know he will try to get in wherever he

can get in. God, what we say right now in

Jesus' name, the enemy will have no foothold in this church.

He will have no foothold into any marriage, any purpose,

any family. And he cannot have our teenagers, he cannot

have our children, he cannot have the next generation. God,

we believe Lord that you are covering them in Jesus's name.

There's anyone here that feels far from Jesus and is

ready to take a step of faith to fully rest

their hope and faith on Jesus Christ and the Cross

of Calvary. I encourage you right now, with the few

people that we have with us, if you're looking to

believe in Jesus for the first time, could we all

repeat this right now and say, Dear Lord Jesus, in

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

believe in my heart that you died on the cross,

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

I choose to follow you for the rest of my.

Days in Jesus' name. Amen.

Can we give the Lord a handclap and thank God

for what He's done in the church? Well he at

this time if you need any prayer at all, you

need someone to believe God with you, pray for you.

Come in agreement with you. Our elder's deacons and prayer team.

They'll be here at the front of the altar and

they love to pray for you. Otherwise, we'll see you

on Wednesday or next Sunday. God bless you family.