Borrowed Miracles: How Jesus Transformed Generosity || Pastor Diego Mesa

Let's pray and I know God's going to say something

tremendous to all of us today.

Father, we counted an honor.

It isn't a right to stand behind this pulpit, it's

a privilege. We're not here, like Pastor Aaron says, or

the song that Pastor Daniel says, to lift up our

name and to evaluating a brag about us.

It's about to lift up the name of Jesus.

He's the only one that can resolve and the solution

to all the remedies and difficulties of life. Help us,

to help us to learn more that we can leave

this place and represent you really well in Jesus' name. Amen,

We're going to read a couple of scriptures. I invite

you to stand on your feet and we'll open up

with these scriptures. We are in Family Business Month and

last week Pastor Adams shared the vision of some things

we are building out. Some places we want to go

in Kenya with us helping a school, and we want

to Bible translate the Book of Joshua into a translation

that don't have a Bible. We have courtyard that we're

expanding for people to have fellowship. Our patriot campuses, and

so there's a lot of things that were talked about.

And you have those touch cards. It says, when you

give to the poor, it is like lending to the Lord. Wow,

I've never thought about it that way, and the Lord

will the Lord will pay you back.

Another translation says kindness.

Kindness to the poor is to loan to the Lord,

and he will give you a reward.

To the lender, you may be seated.

Powerful words there of financial transaction that we would often

not think about in the Body of Christ that are

often used borrowing and loaning and things of that nature.

There's a little girl, her name was Hattie Mayachu's story

around the turn of the century, nineteen hundreds, very poor,

meager young girl who wandered into a church and she

saw that there was a children's church or Sunday school,

and she went over there, but all the seats were filled.

There's a very crowded little little room. And she walked

out of their discouraged, and she just so happened to

bump into the pastor, who asked her what her name

was and what she was doing, and he proceeded to

tell her.

She proceeded to tell.

Him there's no more room, and he apologized and said, yeah,

that's why for many years we've been trying to raise

money for the church, and we could build a bigger

children's church so that we would never turn away any kids.

And she would come back and she would find places

in the weeks and months to come. But there came

a time when she was not showing up, and so

the good pastor he decided that he knocked on the

door of their home to see where Hattie May had been,

and he discovered that Hadie Made had tragically died. He

was overwhelmed, and the parents were there, and he sent

his condolences and his apologies that he didn't know about it,

and she said. The parents said, I'm glad you're here, pastor,

because there's this little note that Hattie May had written

to you with this old, tattered little coin purse that

she used to keep. And the note went like this,

It said, Pastor, here is fifty seven pennies fifty seven

cents in my little purse. Because when I came to

church that first time, there was no room, but you

made room for me. But I think about all the

other kids that will come where there will not be

any room, and so I started to raise money so

that you would build a children's church that would be

big enough for kids like me and others that would

be able to come and not be turned away.

He was overwhelmed by that.

The local newspaper had gotten word of that or wind

of it, and they publicized it, and the community of Pittsburgh.

Was overwhelmed by this story.

The pastor brought it before the people, and the people

promised and pledged that they would build a church, a

Sunday school, a children's church in honor of Hattie.

Made Today you could go over to the Baptist Church

in Pittsburgh.

Not only have they built a church and a Sunday

school for children, they have also built a hospital.

And they've also built a university, all.

Because of fifty seven sents that was started and donated

by a little girl who sends the need and she

would feel that need.

What you just read is this word called borrow and lender.

And I'm fascinated by that word because I want to

talk about Jesus who borrowed everything and yet owned everything.

I want to give you a new look at Jesus.

That Jesus's ministry was often around him borrowing things, and

yet he owned everything doesn't make sense oftentimes why he

did that? Have you ever had to borrow something from someone?

How did that emotionally make you feel desperate? Needy in

a place where I want? Did you feel humbled.

That I have to ask you because I don't have?

Have you ever loaned something to someone? How did that

make you feel grateful? Mad that they even asked you?

One time, my neighbor, who wasn't my friendly neighbor at

that time, came to me and knocked at the door

and said, can I borrow some milk for my coffee?

I thought to myself, what am I living in the

nineteen fifties' going on here? I said, okay, sure, And

when he gave him some milk and a little cup.

About a couple of weeks later, he knocked again he said,

can I borrow some more milk for my coffee? And

I thought, what what am I?

The markavo here or the market? What's going on here?

The dairy or what are you doing? Drive by here?

A week later he knew that Adam was the last

one to leave the house, and he would see Adam

riding his mountain bike. He knew Adam had left, and

he knocked on the door and said, can I borrow

Adam's mountain bike?

I thought, okay, so I loaned him the mountain bike.

He knocked a couple weeks later, can I borrow Adam's

mountain bike again? And I thought to myself, you know what,

the milk's okay, Adam's bike okay, But if this guy

asked for my mountain bike. Sometimes it's a strain to loan.

Sometimes it's easier than harder to loan, and sometimes you'll give.

The excess to God to borrow.

But not my only one, not my one that's worth

value and priceless. I'm not sure that I'm willing to

give that one up. Let me give you this statement.

It'll go on the screen. It reads like this, this

statement I want to share with you. How do you

see yourself through your faith or being a Christian? Are

you more of a borrower? Are you more of a lender?

It's a trick question because the answer is both. As

a Christian, I'm a borrower because I didn't bring anything

into this world. I had to borrow favor, I had

to borrow a relationship, I had to borrow intellect, I

had to borrow education. I didn't come into this world

with nothing. I'm a borrower. But at the same time,

I am to be a lender through my generosity and

the needs that God presents in front of me.

So in reality, I am both of those things. It

blows my mind.

Again as they trace this thought, that this omnipotent God,

which means all powerful God, God that labels himself or

calls himself al Shadai and the Hebrew the all sufficient One,

the mighty God, that the Bible calls him Great, and

the Bible calls him Lord, which means master and ruler.

He's the creator. I'm trying to describe to you the

bigness of God would humble himself and be dependent upon

you and I. That blows me away that this plutocrat,

rich God would be so dependent on your yes and

my yes to help him in the king work. Why

doesn't he just create it? Why doesn't he just make it?

There must be a purpose around him asking me to

borrow something from me. He must want to stretch.

My faith somewhere.

Maybe it's to give a testimony or a story of

participation or blessing or reward. Maybe it's to develop my character,

to break some bondages of greed and selfishness and fear

and coveteousness that can never be broken unless you financially give.

You don't have to agree with me. You don't have

to agree with me.

Until you know how to trust God with your money,

it will be a struggle to trust God in any

other area of your life.

Try to let think that through.

Why do people struggle to believe that you will heal

them because they've never really been able to overcome financial giving.

Why do they struggle in their marriage, why they struggle

with their children, why do they struggle in their emotions?

So I'm just trying to say, if you can manage

and figure out how to trust God with your money,

everything else is easier because the number one thing that

Christians struggle with to give God is their money. And

I'll prove to you in a few moments, I think

I'll do it now.

Why not since.

We're there, So here are some statistics I want to

give you on the screen. The average household income in

the Inland Empire, say ie, is eighty seven thousand, five

hundred and ninety seven dollars. Let's just say that every

one of those people tithed. The average tithe would be

eight thousand, because tithing is ten percent, eight seven hundred

and fifty dollars.

Are you with me today? Okay?

Patrio has six nine hundred and thirty seven households. Households

make up of sometimes singles, but they could be married

people and family. So there's almost seven thousand. That equals

out to about fourteen thousand members of our church.

Wat's this.

The average tithe at Patria is one thousand, nine hundred

and eighty six dollars. That would mean that the average

household income for Patria is twenty thousand dollars. You could smile,

or laugh or cry. I could tell you how much

most do you make? Twenty thousand dollars. Sometimes it's important

to talk about kingdom stuff. People don't like to talk

about kingdom stuff. Let's just talk about the miracles, the breakthrough,

how God's gonna help me in my life, and how

I'm gonna be better sometimes not every week, not every month,

but notice this blows to be a way that we

could do so much in this church.

With this.

The National tithing Collection of all Christian churches of all

denominations about five to ten percent of Christian's tie right

now at Patriot, about ten to fifteen percent of our

membership tithes.

So let me just use this illustration right here.

Okay, So these are my little jelly beans for the illustration,

and we're going to just.

Put the jelly beans up to the fifteen percent mark.

So this is our capacity at Patrio right now. This

is how much we give right there. Look at how much?

How many don't. Okay, So let's just play around with

this for a moment. I can see you're having a

good time. Let's just go a little fifty percent. If

fifty percent of our people tied, that's how much. That's

how much more we could do. We still have more

capacity if we went to seventy five percent.

What if we went to one hundred percent.

If one hundred percent of our members tithe, we would

never have to have an anniversary offering, a Christmas offering

feed the homeless people.

So here's here is the reality right now.

Fifteen percent of us that's a Patriot tithe. Fifteen percent

that equates out to Pastor Adams showed us last week

our budget through tithes, we bring in thirteen million dollars

if one hundred percent of us started tithing, our new

budget would be eighty six million dollars we'd be bringing in.

It blows me.

Away that we could do all that we do here

at Patrio with this amount thirteen million, fifteen percent tithers.

What could be done in the kingdom of how many

orphanages could be built, many churches could be built, how

many needs could be met. It blows me away that

this omnipotent God has made himself so dependent to me.

You want to go deeper. How many of you can

handle deep? You can't. How about this sight? Can you

handle deep?

Okay, I'll talk to this side because they couldn't handle deep.

Figure this out. How does this Jesus borrow everything?

And yet he needs a treasurer And his treasurer's name

is Judas, and Judas rips the treasury up so much

that it doesn't hurt Jesus's ministry and what he wants

to do. Just linger on that for about a week.

Chew on that one. Here we go. That was my introduction.

Now I'm going to preach everything in Jesus's ministry has

done through borrow. He borrows a manger when he comes

into this world. Mary and Joseph go to baby r Us,

host a party and ask you all to give towards them.

How irresponsible a marry and Joseph, she's nine months pregnant.

She has to borrow an innkeeper's manger to birth Jesus.

The next thing we say is he borrowed a lunch,

a little boy's lunch. The little boy of two little

sardines and five little crackers.

That's all.

It was a little boy's life that his mom had

packed him that five thousand men, there's women and children,

ten to fifteen thousand. Ask you right now, there's a

couple thousand.

People in this room. Let me ask you. Does anybody

have any crackers? Raise your hand? Anybody have any crackers? Anybody?

Keep it up. Anybody have any cookies? Raise your hand?

Watch this women, Any women have any chocolate?

Raise your hand? Chocolate women? Anybody have any gum tic TACs?

Anybody have any food on them? Right now, this is

only two thousand. Look at all the hands in a

group of five thousand. You're telling me that the boy

was the only one. No, I think the boy is

the only one that's going to give it to Jesus.

Everyone else has their hands in their pockets. He borrowed

a little poor boy's lunch.

How dare Jesus still that little boy's lunch? What happened?

He borrowed Peter's boat to preach a sermon to the multitude.

He borrowed a fisherman's boat, and that boat is how

he makes his income. He borrows a donkey to go

into palm Sunday, the farmer's donkey.

He borrowed his donkey.

He borrowed the upper room for the last supper, for

the washing of the feet of He borrowed this man

that probably makes a side hustle and income, loaning out

his property.

And then upon his death.

How many of you believe that Jesus knew he was

going to die before he died.

Every one of you should raise your hand. Yes, of

course he did.

He said, as Jonah was three days in the heart

of the belly of the whale, so the son of

Man will be three days in the heart of the earth.

He talked about it all the time. Why didn't he

make no preparation. Most of us make preparation. You already

have your gravestone or your site. You already bought your plot,

whatever it is. Why didn't Jesus do that? He allows

a man named Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, to

give Jesus and loan Jesus his tomb, and Jesus is

buried there.

Why why? Why did he do that?

Because all the things that I just shared with you,

these six things, they're not cheap, they're not leftovers scraps.

They're a thing of great importance. They're things of great value.

There are things of great need for these people. Who

are these types of people? I have to ask the question,

who are these people that Jesus asked?

And do I share any similar qualities with these people?

Who are these people? Were they just rich people?

Were they Were they just simply white collared people. No,

they were they were? Were they just professionals? No, they

were tradesmen too. They were uneducated as well as educated.

They were rich, but they were all so poor. They

came from various cultures. I'm trying to tell you something

that all of us. He did this for us, for

all of us. Understand, we all have something that he

can borrow.

We all have something to give, we all have something

we can loan. We all have.

Something that we could loan to Jesus based upon these characteristics.

Read two scriptures to you in Proverbs twenty two, and

what kind of people We're gonna trace it now and

land this plane.

What kind of people were these people?

The Bible says, the stingy are eager to get rich

and unaware that poverty awaits them. Surely none of these

people were stingy. Look at somebody and say, he's not

talking about you. The kinds of people that would never

ever loan anything to Jesus are the fearful are the

stingy are?

The hoarders are.

The coveteousness people, and the selfish people. Those classifications are

never going to loan anything of value, significance, or worth

to Jesus. But then we got this amazing scripture here.

The next one in Proverbs talks about the generous will prosper.

Those who refresh others themselves will be refreshed. So the

people that actually gave to Jesus let them borrow. Are

the generous people, the unselfish people like you, They are

the people that love Jesus, really love Jesus. These are

the kind hearted people that do that. These are the

people that learn how to trust God in their life.

I don't know about you. Every year I come up

with earning goals. I'm a good stewart, I live. I'm

a spiritual person. I'm a natural person. I'm a recreational person.

I'm an emotional person. I'm a married person. There's all

qualities of my life. So one aspects of my life

is I'm financially responsible. I have goals, I have dreams,

I have aspirations, and so I set earning goals of

how much money I want to make this year, how

much debt I want to reduce this year. I have

goals about when I'm seventy. This is the status of

life that I will have based upon my studard ship.

Does anybody do that? Like? Do you have anybody have

earning goals? Only five of you?

This section is really bad today? Does this section have

earning goals? Okay, okay, this section is the most fiscal

responsible people. All the rest of you, we're gonna pray

for you. How about this section? Oh that one's the best. Okay,

you guys have to work up to this level.

Over here.

I set earning goals, But every year I set giving goals.

Why would I set earning goals and not set giving goals.

So for the last ten years, me and Cindy have

given more every year than we did ten years ago.

And we have been tithing ten percent of our income,

no matter what it is, for over forty years. Way

before I was a pastor or a minister, I was

just where you are. I was a lay person who

came to a church, who had a pastor, who had

a normal job, and I would tithe.

We made an agreement on premarital.

Counseling whether I would marry this woman or not. She

was fine, and she still is. She weighed one hundred

and six pounds, and I won't tell you in Lionel

Ritchie's song what she looked like.

Ours my to my teg. I don't care how fine

she was.

When I went into counseling, I said, if you are

not willing to tie ten percent of our income, mine, yours,

and hours, then this relationship will not work. Been married

forty years hold on no forty one, forty one, Yeah,

forty one, forty one and December eighteenth, Yeah forty one. Sorry,

she don't even remember, but I remember. What kind of

people are these that loan to Jesus. Wow, so they're

gonna be on your screen. The first point is this,

these are the kinds of people. They are people that

had no regret or borrower's remorse. Not one of these

examples that I gave you had any regret.

Dang it, I shouldn't have given him that. I really

miss that. And that's what most people think.

That's why Jesus can't borrow anything from you. You've heard

a buyer's remorse. I'm talking about borrower's remorse. None of

them had that in them. They were simply grateful that

Jesus borrowed the loaves and the fish, and that he

borrowed the boat, and he borrowed the upper room, and

he borrowed the donkey. There was no sorrow conducted to it.

You know what, we really need that money.

Now. I'm gonna call the church.

I'm gonna call God and ask him for the last

six months of tithing back, because then he's not God

to provide for you, and says, I will rebuke the

devour and open to you the windows of heaven and

pour you out of blessing that you don't have enough

to receive, and the law of reciprocity, that what you sow,

you reap and it will be returned to you. You

have no sorrow, you have no regret, and they had

no sorrow, and they had no regret. The second thing

that I look at when I look at these is

they were left in a better position, not a worst one.

They were not now homeless. Peter went bankrupt in his business,

fishing business. Now the farmer lost his farm because of

the donkey. But that's what the enemy tells you don't

give to God, don't give to the church. You are

left when you give and loan to Jesus, in a

better place than you have ever been before.

If you don't believe it, let's look at the story.

After Peter loans Jesus's boat, he catches more fish in

one day than he has ever caught in his life.

And he caught it in a hundred degree weather at noonday,

when fishermen.

And fish don't bite. How does that happen?

Could God leaves you in a better place than you were?

I personally believe that. The little boy when he went

home to his mama, who had packed him that lunch

that day, and said, where's your lunch? Did you enjoy

your lunch. He would have said this to her, where's

your lunch? Well, the preacher he took it from me. Oh,

Mama's I don't care who you are. Mama would have

showed up at the preacher's door. But I don't think

that Mama showed up at the preacher's door, because I

think the Bible tells me that there were twelve baskets

left over, and I think Jesus gave that boy goes

twelve baskets. And Mama said, where were you today? I

was with the preacher. Where'd you get these baskets? I

loaned in my fish and my loaves, and whenever he

that preacher asked us up, give it, give it, give

it to him. We're living off the hog. Now I'm

going into baking business. Now you're left. You're left in

a better position, not not a worst position. They realized,

this is what they realized. The third one is this,

what kinds of people were they? They realized that they

were never They never really owned anything.

It was entirely his.

The boat was always his, the fishes and the loaves

were always his. The upper room was always is. The

donkey was his because he created it. He made it happen.

He brought it into existence. So these people, they may

have had a struggle because they're natural people like you,

but they could overcome it be because they realized, did

I really own it in the first place? Did I

really own it in the first place? Let me give

you this quote, and I think this quote drives a

little bit of what Jesus why he did what he did.

Did Jesus what the quote? That's the end of the

message story.

This is why we're giving because we need to upgrade

our equipment because our equipment is so old. Okay, no,

the quote, tell me when it's on. If not, I'll

just read it for myself. I'll find it somewhere. Okay,

forget it.

I'll thank you lord. Okay the quote?

Is it the fact that Jesus really needed this stuff?

Or is the fact that they really needed him?

I don't want to look at it because I'll get mad.

He put himself in a place of need, not for himself.

He put himself in a place of need because they

needed his blessing. They needed to grow. Can I have

the next? Please? They understood that no one can say

that they have nothing. That Jesus would not want to borrow. Well,

I don't have anything to give to him, because if

I did, i'd give it to him. Then you make

him a liar, because here's what Second Corinthians nine tells us.

Second Corinthians nine tells us. Now, the one who provides

seed for the sower and bread for food will also

provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your.

Jesus has to provide seed for you to sew. If not,

you can't give.

And so he always wants everybody to be able to

give into his kingdom so that He could bless them,

grow their faith, become a story.

So we owe it.

Heath provides seed for the homeless person. How many have

ever seen a homeless person with some stuff? How many

of you have ever given money to a homeless person.

When you give money, that's God giving to him so

that he has.

Seed to sow.

So I'm just I don't care if you're on disability.

I don't care if you're on Social Security. I don't

care if you make minimum wager or man maximum wage.

I don't care if you get bonuses or however you

get paid. The reality is God always provides a seed.

To solve the problem is we don't see it as

a seed.

We see it as I can buy a bigger house,

I can buy a bigger car, I could take more vacations.

But God is bringing increase into your life so that

you could participate in His kingdom work, so that you

can give and experience all the benefits of that. He

wants everybody to contribute. He wants everybody to do their part.

It's not equal giving, it's equal sacrifice.

When I was a little boy.

My last point, I'm getting to my last point now.

In Montabello, at Grant Ray Park, I played for the

city championship baseball team.

We went twenty twenty five and one. That year. We

lost one because it was a forfeit. We didn't have

enough players, so.

We really didn't lose technically we lost, so we went

twenty five and one. Okay, back then it was different

from how you play Pastor Ashley the way kids play

today because Pastor Ashley's a coach.

So back then you didn't You were not required to play. Kids.

All kids didn't have to rotate in and out. If

you weren't good enough, you didn't. You sat on the bench.

That's it. There was no sympathy players.

Unless the score was run up really high, you'd you'd

bring in the kind of I don't want to make,

the kind of odd ball just not developed yet, kid. Okay,

so that's how it.

Was back then.

Okay, there's some benefit to that. I know you want

to argue with me, but that's benefit. It teaches you

how to persevere, It teaches you how to fight, teaches

you got to go home and practice and get better.

It teaches you how to measure yourself. Anyway, I'm sorry,

let me go back. So we had a little kid.

His name was Alex. Everybody knows Alex. Alex is a

foot shorter than the smallest kid on the team, everybody else.

He's like a foot short.

His uniform when he puts it on, is like three

sizes bigger than him. The sleeves are down, the pants

are down like this. Alex cannot catch a ball.

He turns his back on it. If you go Alex,

here we go. Oh.

Alex never hit the ball, even in practice with the bats.

He didn't do that.

Nevertheless, when we sit in the middle like you do

when you win a championship game, and all the kids

put their hands in the middle and you go assist

boomba and you say something really neat there. Here's what

Alex did. We never asked him to. When we say

and we say mets because that's what our team, mets.

He take off as fast as he can, as short

as he can with those little legs, and he run

the first base and then he go around the second base,

and he go around the third base, and he'd slide into.

Play and we jump on Alex.

When we got the trophy, ship Champ, when we got

a trophy, Alex got a trophy, when we were honored

in the newspaper, Alex's name was in the newspaper. It

didn't matter. Alex wore the jersey, he was on the team.

He contributed in the way that he could contribute. And

my last point, they all had to go through a

process of contemplation or consideration.

They had to weigh in balance should I, shouldn't.

I, will I or won't I I don't want to

be over spiritual. It wasn't easy for that. Oh sure,

just take everything. This is my livelihood. I was gonna

use this for this. So when you loan something to

the Kingdom of God and I want to say this

about that. None of the things that were loaned to

Jesus was for her personal use. It was all for

the Kingdom of God. What you give is not to

give to me. It's not going into my bank account.

I'm gonna drive around in it, and I'm gonna wear it.

It goes into the Kingdom of God and the work

of God. But there's this contemplation that you and I

have of weane and balance yes or no, will or won't,

can or can't, and you go through a decision making

process that yields and says, you know what, I'm gonna

honor God in the way that he is asking me

to honor him with what he's asking me to honor

him with. Because your reality is this Jesus could force

he could just take it, but he doesn't. He when

he asks for our mind, he doesn't withdraw it from

our account. Debita, how many of you know some companies

don't trust you.

And don't trust you to make payments.

You say, I want your bank account number because we

don't trust you, and we're gonna take our payment out

every month. We don't do that to be a member

of it. We want your bank account because we just

gonna We're gonna take your time because we know you

make more than twenty thousand dollars.

I'm joking. Don't get mad. What does he do? He

needs our consent, he needs our permission. He looked at

Peter and said can I. He looked at the little

boy and said can I.

He looked at the man with the upper room. He

looked at the Mecca. He didn't just I'm God and

I'll kill you. I was a lightning bolt. Will I'll

give you a cancer if you don't get No, He

didn't do that. I need your permission. I need your consent,

and that's what he needs.

I end with this story.

Pastor Adam told a great story last week, and he said,

whether it's true or not, we don't know.

And here's one of these stories. It happened in nineteen

sixty five.

Remember what nineteen sixty five looked like from racial tension.

There was a black woman on the side of the road.

Her car was abandoned, it would not start, it was storming, rain,

cats and dogs. She needed help. She was far away

from the nearest gas station. A man, white man in

a pickup truck came by, asked her if she needed help.

She said, yes, I do. What would you like me

to do? Will you take me to the nearest gas station?

He said, I will. She went to the gas station.

He said, is there anything else I.

Could do for you?

She said no, You've done more than enough. The only

thing she asked for was could I have your address?

Two weeks later, and this is in nineteen sixty five,

a brand new console TV. Does anybody remember console TVs?

Because that was big a console versus your little black

and white one that we grew up with.

Young people.

These were there were no flat screens. You couldn't carry

a console TV. You need a four men, hefty men

to carry the consule TV.

He got one in the mill. And here's was the

note attached to the gift.

It read like this, thank you so much for assisting

me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched

not only my clothes but my spirit. Out of nowhere.

You came along, because you, because of you, I was

able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just

before he passed away. God bless you for helping me

unselfishly and serving others. Missus Nat King Cole pretty neat

story hunh. Lord, help us to be like you, Help

us to be generous. Help us understand why you put

yourself in places where you need to ask things of us.

Oh God, help us to overcome the fear tendencies we have,

the reluctant tendencies we have, all the things that the

enemy tries to rob us from. May our relationship grow

in the realm of giving God, whatever that might look like.

This is not done legalistically. This is not done in

fear of you doing something to us. This is done

in gratitude for what you've done for us, and the

joy and honor that Jesus would ask something of me,

and that I would have the privilege to contribute something

very very small but very important to me into the

work of God.

And not only that it will be remembered, it will be.

Reported and it will be rewarded in this lifetime and

in heaven. Lord, help us, just help us to realize

these moments, in these times when you are asking of

us to stretch ourselves. And I just pray today, Oh God,

for your peace now in Jesus' name. Amen, thanks for

listening to me today. We're gonna dismiss in a matter

of moments today, But I want to share with you

why I believe in Jesus. I'm like you, I'm not stupid.

I'm a pretty smart guy in some areas. I think logically.

I'm not easily convinced and not easily persuaded. I analyze

a lot of things. So my thought to you today

is why do I need to believe in Jesus. It's

a great question. It's a great question for an atheist

to ask. Appreciate you diego and what you believe in,

what you do, But tell me why. Oh I'm an agnostic.

I don't believe in Jesus as the only god. I

believe there's a god. I just don't know who, or

what or or what they are with their name. There's

not one absolute I believe there's many roads to Rome.

And this country does it this way, this culture does

it this way, this people does it their way. And

as long as you honor somebody, why.

Jesus do you great question? I'm not offended that you

asked me that.

Let's see if I could prove to you, because this

is why how I came to faith.

This is what I thought about.

Prove to me. It's Jesus Okay, here's my proof. More

than three hundred scriptures before Jesus was born talked about

who he was, where he would be born, where he

would do his ministry.

How he would die.

Jesus fulfilled more than three hundred of those prophecies written hundreds,

if not thousands, of years before his birth. Do you

know what the odds of him just fulfilling ten to

fifteen of them would be. It's astronomical, in the hundreds

of trilling to fulfill the iota of three hundred.

I believe in Jesus because of that.

I believe in Jesus because after he was died and

he was resurrected, more than five hundred people talked to

him and touched him. There were five hundred witnesses that

saw him die on that Sunday, and now there's seen

him that week. Five hundred people, not five hundred people

could lie or fabricreat and have such a specific story.

I believe in him because of that.

I believe in him because of those eleven men that

walk with him, that would live a martyred life and

die for their faith. If he was a fake, if

he was a phony, I take it so far. But

I'm not going to die for you, bro, But they

were willing to die for him, and it was a wicked, martyred,

suffering death they did.

That's evidence. Evidence is creation.

The world is still The universe in the Solar system

is still expanding. Scientists have no explanation because the Bible

says in the beginning God created and.

He never stopped it. It's still expanding.

Just one cell of your DNA tells us everything about you,

how your body functions.

That's not an accident. There's a masterful creator behind that.

I believe because of that. You know why I believe

in Jesus. I'll tell you why, because mostly all the

religions of this world study it out. Mostly all the

religions of this world acknowledge Jesus in some form or fashion,

miracle worker, prophet, teacher, moral man. Yet Jesus never acknowledges them.

Why does is have to talk about Jesus, but Jesus

never talk about Islam? Why do Hinduism talk about Jesus

but Jesus never talked about Hinduism? Because Jesus stood up

with exclusivity and said, I'm the way, the truth, the life.

No man goes to the Father Heaven. But by me,

these are the most.

Ludicant, pllunatant crazy man that ever walked the face of

this earth. Or he is who he said he is,

because he said.

I'm the way, the only way, I'm the only truth,

and I'm the only life.

That was proof to me. That was prove to me

right there, If it's proof to you.

Now, we're gonna give you an opportunities to render your

life and stop running. Maybe you've been riding the fensive

compromise today and you just want to rededicate your life

to the Lord. When I count to three, I'm gonna

ask you to raise your hand to commit your life

to Jesus Christ right now.

One two, don't be ashamed now one two, three, acknowledge Jesus.

Raise your hand.

Wherever you are today, let's say this prayer. Dear Lord Jesus,

I asked you to come and.

Live in my heart. I believe that you are the

true and only living God.

And today, in front of you and in front of

these people, I ask you to be my Lord and Savior.

Amen.