Recognizing the Good: The One Who Returned || Pastor Dolores Ybarra

Thank you again for coming out on this special Wednesday night.

If you've been a part of Patria Well, which was

ALFC earlier, you would know that on our Thanksgiving nights

that we always give an opportunity to one of our

ministers or pastors to preach for the first time. So

a few years back you saw Gabe, he preached, and

now he's a part of the rotation.

On Fresh Start.

And this person that we are introducing is so very

special to me and my family. They've been a personal

friend of our family for over thirteen years. When we

launched the Pomona campus, he and his wife were some

of the first members and most faithful members, and now

they serve as the campus pastors of that location. We're

trying to hold in the name so long, but Pastor

Steve and Pastor Dolores have been a phenomenal blessing to

Patriot and specifically Pastor Dolores. What we love about her

that she's an incredible wife, mother, business professional, but she's

always seeking to be in God's will. We got closer

when we went on mission trips with our daughters and

now her daughter, Sabrina, she thinks she's half black because

she calls me Dad sometimes and so forth.

But that's just how close we are.

And we just see Pastor Delores, if you guys went

on the women's cruise, you can see that she knows

how to pray, she knows how to exhort, but she.

Also knows how to preach.

So if you guys would stand on your feet and

help me, Honor Pastor Delores, we will. We're bringing the

words tonight.

Good evening, Patria. Thank you so much. You guys can

have a seat. I am excited to be back home

after five years, that's how long it's we've been at Pomona,

but I'm also very nervous, so.

Thank you all.

I also just want to start off by thinking our

lead pastors, Pastor Adam and Pastor Ashley for allowing me

to take the pulpit tonight, and the executive team here

they have been praying for me, pouring into me, and

I honor their leadership.

Thank you all very much. Well tonight. The theme of.

The message is gratitude, and that probably comes as no surprise,

being that we sang a bunch of songs thanking God

and worship, but also that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. But here's

the thing with gratitude. There's probably half of us here

who naturally lend towards that. Right as we prepare for

the holidays, we become extremely thankful and we see a

lens of what God has done in our lives. But

there are also probably people here where the holidays are

hard for them. It's not that they're not grateful, but

they suffer from depression, from anxiety. And I believe that

both of us matter to God, and He hears both

of us. So for the purpose of tonight, the title

of this message is called recognizing the good we are

going to be in Luke chapter seventeen, verses eleven through nineteen.

So you know here at Patria we stand for the

reading of the Word. So would you all join me

as I read Luke seventeen, verse eleven starts off as

on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between

Samaria and Galilee, And as he entered a village, he

was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance

he and lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus Master, have

mercy on us. And when he he saw them, he

said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed. They cleansed.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed,

turned back, praising God and giving him thanks.

Wait, I lost my place.

He turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and

he fell on his face at the feet of Jesus,

giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered,

we're not ten cleansed. Where are the nine? Was no

one found to return and give praise to God except

this foreigner, And he said to him, rise and.

Go on your way. Faith has made you well. You

can be seated.

Amen, Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord Jesus for this

time with your people. Father God, I do not take

this life, Lord, but I recognize I am only a vessel.

So I pray that the Holy Spirit speaks through me

to your sons and daughters. I pray that hearts and

ears were prepared to receive your word well before anybody

walked into this sanctuary. So Lord, have your way with

your people tonight in Jesus' name. So, as Pastor Aaron mentioned,

me and my husband, Pastor Steve, have been part of

Patria for a number of years. We're actually it's actually

been about eighteen, but we haven't always been saved.

Big surprise, right.

See, we were raising a young family in the city

of Pomona, and around the time my son was three

and my daughter was nine, I went to work full

time and we were in need of some childcare. And

I'm a very diligent person. People at Pomona know this.

Like I go through and I fall. I look, I

read every review. I look at things in detail before

I make a decision. And I was deciding on who

I was going to trust my children with. So I

went to the county website. I started to look up

childcare centers. I looked at the infractions against them, and

then I went to visit them.

I am not joking. I did this, guys, and I

went to visit them, and I found a home for

my kids.

The home was a Salvation Army. Our son was three,

our daughter was eight, and he was there for preschool.

She was there for after school care. Now, like I said,

we weren't serving God at this time, but we knew

who God was, so it's not like we were opposed

to them learning about God.

Our daughter would bring home permission.

Slips and ask to participate in Bible studies. We realized

that our son learned how to pray over his food there.

They went to chapel and see in our home, we

weren't reading the Bible, we weren't worshiping, we weren't going

to church, and we prayed every now and then. But

I truly believe Jesus met my children at Salvation Army Forward,

were introduced to Patria. We start serving faithfully. We built

community here. Some of that community is in this room tonight.

Without them, our foundation would not be as strong.

We love you guys. Some of you may remember that

we would close out a Wednesday service. They would want

to turn the lights out and we were outside still

having conversations.

But that was so vital to our walk.

And so when my husband decided that we were called

to Pomona, I was not willing to go. I went

dragging my feet, but he was insistent that we were

called to Pomona, and we joined the launch team and

eventually became part of the leadership team. And as part

of the leadership team, Pastor Aaron and Erica challenged us

to pray for a permanent home in the city of Pomona.

Without knowing where that home was we prayed diligently, and

you may remember when Pastoron would preach on a Sunday

or Wednesday here and he have this home with him.

Now on the back of this home is an address

that he kept hidden from us for months, but he

was believing that God would have this as Patrio Pomona's home.

One night, we're in their house having a leadership meeting,

and he says, it's time to reveal the address four

ninety East Laverne Avenue, the place where God met my children.

And see, the important thing about that is that our

kids brought us to Christ. Our daughter was like, I

want to go to church. I want to go to church.

I want to go to church now, I want to

go to Wednesday service. Now I want to go to

Wednesday service. Had they not had the foundation, I don't

know where we'd be today. But this is my testimony

of health faithful God has been in my life. He

has brought us full circle and now we have the

privilege to pasture that campus so that other children can

meet Jesus. See, this is what gratitude is about. The

Hebrew word for gratitude is hakkat hatav. Do you guys

can you repeat that after me? Hawkarat Hatove, I think

I got that right. And as you've heard before from

other pastors up here, Hebrew words don't translate directly to English,

but this is translated.

Uh.

This is a word for gratitude, but clearly translated. It

means recognizing the good. And that is the title of

today's message. So today I'll have four points for you.

The first is plead, then press on, praise and perfect.

We'll go through these one by one. And the first

is plead, So as we read in Luke seventeen, and

it'll be on the screen. It says, and as he

entered a village, he was met by ten lepers who

stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying.

Jesus Master, have mercy on us.

See the thing is, these lepers raised their voice. Some

translations relations say they yelled to me. They were pleading

for their healing.

See leprosy is a very visible disease. But they were

kept at a distance.

If you remember what we read, they were kept afar

because if you suffered from leprosy, you were ostracized.

You weren't allowed in the community.

You couldn't hold a job, you couldn't be around other people,

and you could not go to church. But yet these

lepers pleaded for their healing. They called out to Jesus

to make sure he heard them. And sometimes I don't

know about you, family, but sometimes when I need a healing,

my call out to Jesus sounds a little like uncertainty.

It sounds a little like unbelief. Jesus, if you can, Jesus,

would you consider. But not these lepers. These lepers declared,

they pleaded with Jesus, screaming fur their healing. But they

didn't just do that. See, when Jesus heard them, then

they pressed on. They had to move forward. And in

Luke seventeen fourteen, it says when he saw them, he

said to them, go and show yourself to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed. Why why not

heal immediately? Why not just give them a healing? He says,

go and show yourself to the priest. Well, the one

thing is with leprosy, you need someone to co sign

that you're healed. You need someone to say, hey, you've

gotten a healing. You can come back into society, And

some of us do that. Today you're diagnosed with cancer.

You go back to the doc, even though in prayer

you clearly heard from God that you're healed.

You go back to the.

Doctor more tests, only for the doctor to say you're healed.

We do that today. But what this really was, family,

was an act of obedience. It was an act of faith.

Could you imagine if the lepers were like, I'm not

gonna go you can heal me right now, Jesus, you

have the power to why aren't you gonna heal me

right now? And they could have stayed stuck in their circumstances, situation,

their illness. See when I read this, I think about

perspective and how perspective in a situation really matters based

on what we believe. They could have chosen to stay

in their current situation and not perceive the healing that

was coming. But it took an act of faith, an

act of obedience. There's a couple of pictures that they're

gonna put on the screen of Patria Pomona when we

first took when Patriot first took over the proper this

is what it looked like. And if you've been there

since then, you'll know that we've done a transition. But

this is another picture of what it looked like. And

this is Patria Pomona today. We've made significant improvements to

the property. It's gotten a facelift, We've done a bunch

of different things.

It feels so much like home.

While in twenty twenty, my husband and I went through

the most difficult time in our marriage. And I'm not

going to say that our marriage was perfect before then,

but I will say we didn't have the issues that

came up in twenty twenty. So in twenty twenty one,

I found myself calling Pastor Aaron and telling him I

think I went out in my marriage. And he asked

us to come see him. So we're in his office,

we're talking. We're pointing fingers at each other. Well he

said this, and she did that, and back and forth,

and he looks at us and he was like, hold on,

hold on, hold on, stand up, look out the window.

What do you see.

By this time, Patriot Pomona has had the renovations.

But me and my husband start to pick apart everything

that is wrong with the property. Oh there's weeds, that

sprinkler's broken, that tree looks like it might be dying.

I think the painters miss something here.

And Pastor Aaron stops us and he tells us, do

you know what I see? I see green grass that's

watered in mode. I see a gate that wasn't there

before that protects our property and our children.

I see new windows. I see a fresh coat of paint.

And in that moment, it dawned on me that I

could hold on to the current's perspective of my marriage,

where I'm pointing fingers at my husband and looking at

everything that goes wrong instead of concentrating on the promise.

In that moment, I was elevating my problem instead of

the promise of God. And can I tell you, family,

Once we got that right, God said, you can now

be pastors of this church. Honestly, you guys blown away.

But God was waiting for our act of obedience. He

was waiting for us to see clearly that he's the healer,

that he makes all things new, that he restores, that

he makes things whole. And until we could see that,

we would be stuck in our current circumstances, until we

moved forward, until we pressed on past what seemed to

be so hard.

And what that led to was praise.

See, my perspective started to shift so instead of complaining

about my husband, I would think about the time he

called me out of the blue when I was having

a hard day at work. How did he know what

to call me? He made today better just by doing that.

And I started to say those things to him, because

out of pressing on comes the praise. And that's exactly

what the leopers did. In Luke seventeen fifteen through sixteen.

It says then one of them, when he saw that

he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

He fell on his fate at face at Jesus's feet,

giving him thanks.

Now he was a Samaritan. See.

The one thing I note when I read this is

that the lepers pleaded for and praised with the same energy,

the same reverence. They were shouting on both ends. Lord,

I need your help, Lord, thank you for healing me. Lord,

I need your help. Thank you for healing me. It

didn't change for that one leopard, he reverenced God when

he needed his help and when he got his healing.

In some of us family, we can't do that. We

get our healing and we walk away from God because

we say thank you and we think that's all he

can do in our lives.

But He has so much more for us.

See, when you start to recognize the good, it's easy

to elevate your praise. And some of us don't realize

that because we don't want to see that there is

purpose in our pain.

Charles S.

Rgon said, I bear my witness that the worst days

I have ever had turned out to be my best days.

And when God has seemed the most cruel to me,

he has been the most kind. If there is anything

in this world for which I would bless Him more

than anything else, it is for pain and affliction. Really, really,

can you honestly say that? I don't know if I

can honestly say in the moment if I would bless

God for the pain and affliction. But I can tell

you now, family that since I pressed on, when I

see other marriages suffering, I'm like, hold on, move forward,

go past it.

Trust God, because it's gonna get better.

He has so much more, and He has way more

for you together than a part. I don't know if

some of us are ready to see the purpose in

our pain, but God is willing to show you, and

that leads us to our last and final point, which

is perfect in Luke seventeen seventeen through nineteen. It says,

then Jesus answered, we're not ten cleansed.

Where are the nine?

Was no one found to return and give praise to

God except the foreigner, And he said to him, rise

and go on your way. Your faith has men made

you well. All ten lepers received a physical healing. All

ten lepers. One returned to say thank you. And the

one that returned to say thank you, Jesus said to him,

rise and go on your way. Your faith has made

you well. I believe that when Jesus says your faith

has made you well, what he is saying is your

faith has made you perfect, not perfect without imperfection, because

that's God, but perfect as a whole. He didn't this

one leper didn't just receive a physical healing. He received

a complete healing spiritually, emotionally, physically, a complete healing because he.

Had a moment of gratitude.

And he recognized who the healer was, and he recognized

that Jesus had the power and the authority. See Matthew five,

verse forty eight says you therefore must be perfect as

your heavenly Father is perfect. Sometimes we interpret perfect to

mean nothing will go wrong. That's not true. Me and

Pastor Steve still have passionate arguments. But what we know

now is that there is nothing that can separate us.

Nothing can come against our marriage. Perfect doesn't mean nothing

will go wrong. Perfect means complete. It means that we

look more and more like our heavenly father. It means

that we grow in holiness, that we grow in righteousness,

and that others can see our Father in us.

Perfect doesn't mean without imperfection. It means complete.

James One verses two through four says count it all.

Join my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds,

for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness,

and you let steadfastness have its full effect, that you

may be perfect and complete. Lacking nothing, steadfastness means to stay.

Steadfastness is long suffering. How many of us are willing

to do that so that we can be perfect.

Complete, looking more and more like our heavenly Father.

Some of us, when we get our healing, we're just

satisfied to hear from the world.

Somebody may come across your path and.

Say, hey, you look different, and you may say yeah,

I do, but never share who made you different, who

never share, who healed you. That's what the other nine

lepers were. They got their healing, they went to the priest.

The priests said they were healed, and they went on

their way. The one leper he came back and he

gave glory to his healer. And see, our healing isn't

just for us. In this last scripture Luke seventeen nineteen,

the end of it says, rise and go on your way.

An that's a verb, that's an action, rise and go

on your way, not for yourself. See in other references

in the Bible, when God or one of his messengers

references this, rise and go on your way, it's a

call to action, it's a call to obedience, and it's

a call to faith. In Matthew nine, there will be

some scriptures up here. In Matthew nine, verse five through six,

it says, for which is easier to say your sins

are forgiven, or to say, rise and walk that you

may know that the son of Man has authority on

earth to forgive sins. He then says to the paralytic, rise,

pick up your bed and go home. In Luke seventeen nineteen,

which we just set read. It says, and he said

to them, rise and go on your way. Your faith

has made you well. And Acts ninety six it says,

but rise and enter the city, and you will be

told what you are to do. This scripture is in

reference to Jesus speaking to Saul, who later becomes Paul,

who wrote most of the New Testament. He is likely

responsible for why you believe in God. And if he

didn't rise and go.

Can you imagine what would have happened.

In Acts eight twenty six or twenty seven, it says,

now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise

and go toward the south, to the road that goes

down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is a desert place.

Philip was instructed to go to meet the Ethiopian eunuch,

which led to the Gospel Going Beyond Israel. Imagine if

you do not rise and go. Some of you are

in this room tonight and God has healed you, but

you're still in the same place. He is calling you

to rise and to go. And we can only do

that when we have a moment of gratitude. See most

of us we get scared because the enemy starts to whisper,

lies to us. When I was preparing to come here tonight,

as we were driving up, my husband says, are you okay?

I said, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I'm so scared,

so scared. But gratitude looking at where God has brought

you from, looking at the healing, looking at the deliverance,

looking at how He has made you new, looking at

him dying on the cross. For a US, gratitude is

spiritual warfare against the eyes of the enemy. And as

I was preparing to come up here, my son turns

to me and he says, two, Timothy, mom, for God

has not given you a spirit of fear. Gratitude is

spiritual warfare. So tonight, on the eve of Thanksgiving, as

we prepare to be thankful for a lot of things tomorrow,

I'd like to remind you family, gratitude isn't a one

day thing. Gratitude is an everyday thing. Wake up in

the morning and challenge yourself to change your perspective, to

shift it and to see and to recognize the goodness

of God in your life. I promise you it's everywhere.

If you just.

Look, We're gonna transition to a time of alter call

because I recognize that there may be some people here tonight.

Like I said at the top of me talking where

this is hard.

It's hard to be grateful. It's hard to be thankful.

Because you look at your life and you say, but

I haven't seen the promises of God, or maybe you

have and you're just choosing to ignore them. See, God

reveals himself in lots of things. It's just up to

us to look for him. And tonight you may be here,

and you may be at the end of the end,

and all God is asking is for you to turn around,

to look at Him and to reach.

Out for him. He'll do the rest.

So, family, if you're here tonight and you've never accepted

Jesus as your Lord and savior, I want you to

take a moment and just go through your day to day.

He woke you up, you're breathing, You had a way

to get here today, you had food today, you have

clothes on your body. These are all reasons to thank God.

But what He wants the most from you isn't any

of that.

It's your heart. He wants you to love and to

serve him. He wants to make you whole.

He wants to forgive you of your sins because he

wants to spend eternity with you.

He doesn't just.

Want you here for a moment on the earth recognizing

who he is. He wants you for all eternity. And

if you're here today and you've dedicated your life to

Christ in the past, but man, things just got really hard.

Kind of how like how they got hard for me.

You're having a hard time recognizing the good, seeing who

God is. I'm talking to you too. I'm gonna challenge

you tonight to hear what God is calling you to do.

He's just calling you to rise and go. It looks

different for all of us, rise and go. So if

you're either of those two people, I'm gonna ask that

you bow your head, and we're all gonna bow our

heads and close our eyes, and we're gonna say a prayer.

But family, I want to remind you, it is not

the prayer.

That saves you.

It is a heart of repentance, of giving it to

God and asking him for his forgiveness, and then truly

seeking him and running after him. So, if you'll all

bow your heads and close your eyes, repeat after me,

Heavenly Father, I thank you Lord, that you sent your

son to die for my sins. I thank you, Lord

that you love me enough to make me perfect, to

make me complete, to make me holy, to make me

look more like you. I want that more than anything. So, Lord,

today I asked that you come into my heart, that

you save my soul, and that I be with you

for all eternity.

Thank you Lord in Jesus' name. Amen,