Obedience || F.A.V.O.R. || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the ALC Podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. Additionally, as we jump into the message right now,

I just want to say this because last year, a young girl who was

in her twenties came up to me and she said, I'm loving this thing

that's going on. She didn't know what to call it. And we all

come from different backgrounds, and some people call this mass, some people call

this service, some people we traditionally just call it a church service. And

but she came she said, I like it, all this stuff. And

she said, but you keep when you reference stuff, you're you're referencing these

little books and then you reference one book. What is that thing that you're

talking about. She was talking about a Bible, and so we shared and

we said, that's that's that's the Bible. And she said, that's great.

I know what the Bible is. I've heard of it. I didn't

know that's what you were referencing. And so she said, what is it

the And so you may know or heard of a Bible, but we don't

want to take for granted that not everyone grew up in church, not everyone

went to Sunday School, not everyone knows why are we talking about this book

and not any other book? Why do we only reference this book as the

authority of our life? And so it's important what we're going to talk about

today because we're in a series on Favor and we're on Ode today, which

is talking about obedience. And it is impossible to be obedient to God if

we don't know why this book carries so much authority in our life. If

we don't know, if you look at the Encyclopedia, the Dictionary, and

the Odyssey and this book at the same caliber, then it is impossible to

walk in obedience towards God because we don't understand the value of this book the

Bible that we have access to. And so before we jump in, I

just want to share a little bit. And for some of us it's just

a refresher. We call this the Bible, but what this is is the

Word of God. This is God's word to us. There's no other books

that will come before it or after it that will include being part of the

Word of God. So any other religion that says it's a continuation of this

book. It's impossible because Jesus said, now an iota will be added to

these words, and so what he's talking about is a te crost or an

i dot. Nothing can be added to this word of God. And so

what this compiles as is its two Testaments. It's an Old Testament and a

New Testament. Here's the best way we could think about it. Old Testament

is everything before Jesus. New Testament is everything after Jesus. Old Testament the

whole point of it. It's real historical documents, but the message and theme

inside of it is you and I cannot live a righteous and holy life on

our own. There has to be a sacrifice for our life, and so

we wait for a Messiah. The New Testament is all about the Messiah has

come, our savior, the one who died for our sins, fulfilled the

Old Testament law, and he is the one we've been looking for. And

it ends with the Book of Revelation, which says, set your sights on

heaven, because he will return again for his church to fully redeem us.

That's the book we hold in our hands. Then people say, but who

was it written by? Well, it was written by human people. But

Here's the difference is the Holy Spirit spoke through them, and so we say

it's inspired by the Holy Spirit, because God spoke to them. And as

they wrote these stories and wrote these letters and lived out these lives, it

was God moving through them. I have a great Christian book right here by

Dave Ferguson. It's called Hero Maker. The difference between this book and this

book is when Dave Ferguson wrote this book, the Holy Spirit took talk to

him okay, and he could talk to you okay. So you could be

out in the street. He could talk to you and say, hey,

give that person a smile, give that person an encouraging word. He could

talk to you and say, hey, put your phone down right now,

don't be focusing on that. Holy Spirit can talk to you all the time.

Holy Spirit in worship could be talking to you. Lift up your hands.

I want to do something in your life. I want to heal you.

That's that's talking to you. But the difference between this book and this

book is when the Holy Spirit talked to him to write this book. With

these authors, the Holy Spirit spoke through them to write this book. That's

a difference. Holy Spirit talks to you Holy Spirit talk through them, and

so every word that they wrote was inspired and led by the Holy Spirit.

Why does that matter? Because when God gave us this, God was trying

to help you and I understand our purpose in life. He's trying to tell

us that if you open this and you follow my commands, then you can

see me more actively go from a place. Because what happens, according to

John One is Jesus is the fulfillment of the Word. If you and I

treat these words with seriousness that God gave to us, then the Holy Spirit

can move through you. Because this is God's word. So the Holy Spirit

talks to you all the time. But if you want the Holy Spirit to

move through you, then this word has to saturate your heart. You have

to live this thing out. And so even a say passed around, why

are you talking to me about the Bible, because this does not matter if

you and I don't see this as God's word. If we watch the Grammys,

or we watch the Emmys with more seriousness, then we read these words

over our lives. If you and I watch an ad for a blender or

a Stanley cup, and that moves us to purchase something quicker than it is

that we read these words and say, oh, God, I gotta go

in this direction. You ever seen that before? You're on TikTok and you

see a new milkshake from McDonald's. What do you see yourself doing? The

next day you're in the drive through getting a milkshake from McDonald's. If an

advertisement can move you more than God's word, then we have to say God,

the problem isn't God, it's God. I don't take your word serious

enough. I don't treat this with the value that I need to in my

life. So it's important for us to understand what that is, or else

we will walk in At first, like that young girl. She began to

have a radical understanding of God's word. But at first she was saying,

oh, that's nice. You read a book called Joshua, and you read

a book called these Pekiel and Matthew, Oh that's really nice. And when

you explain, no, no, no, no no, that's just not

a book. That's just not the that's God's word for our life. God

gave us this to help us succeed in life, and also to understand that

God loves you more than you love you, and God loves you more than

you love anyone else on this planet, because He gave his son for us,

and this whole story is meant for you and I to understand that.

So without further ado, we're going to talk about obedience today, which is

not the most funnest thing to talk about, but it'll help us radically understand

when we know why God's word comes with so much weight in value, and

if we understand that we begin to start to follow God's commands, we can

see how He can radically shape our life and radically involve himself in his life.

Because there are times that I don't want to obey God. There are

times that I don't want to take God seriously, But when you do,

there're gonna be some things we look at today where we can see God can

do tremendous things in your life when we walk according to His word. And

it's all over the work talking about following his commands, obeying his word,

and hopefully we'll understand why he talks about that. So if you're ready and

you turn to First Peter chapter one, we're going to start today. If

you do me the honor of standing, for the honor of reading God's word,

We're going to start in verse thirteen. We've been a series called favor,

and we broke down favor in an acronym faith, abundance, victory,

obedience, and the next week renewal. And so we see faith, abundance,

victory, obedience, and renewed. Today we're going to talk about obedience.

When we follow those things, we can see God show favor in our

life. Says this, starting in verse thirteen. Therefore, with minds that

are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought

to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children,

do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

But as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all that

you do, for it is written, be holy because I am holy.

Since you call on a father who judges each person's work, impartially live out

your time as foreigners here in Reverend Fear, You and I are foreigners here

on earth right now. For you know that it is not with perishable things

such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life

handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ,

a lamb without blannish or defect. He chose you before the creation of

the world, but was revealed in these last days for your sake. Through

him, you believed in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him.

And so your faith and hope are in God. Let's pray this morning,

God, we pray this word over our life today, Father God,

that we can have a total understanding of what it means to follow you.

Lord. We thank you God that you're here to speak to us today.

Father God. None of us came here to hear an opinion or a lecture

of philosophy. We came to hear from your word today. God, that's

the only thing that can transform, and that's the only thing that can move

through us. So today, God, may you move through us in Jesus

name. Amen, you may be seated. Let's talk a little bit about

obedience. But when you talk about obedience, it's quite easy to feel tension

in the room. Particularly, you'll feel a lot of tension for many men

because a lot of us men, we struggle with obedience because we want to

be the kind of kings of our castle. We want to be the one

that's in charge. We feel like when we don't are in charge that we

start to get a little finicky. When men, when we don't have a

plan or we don't know what's around the corner, we start getting a little

fraid. Women feel that same way. When women don't know what's on the

horizon or what's next, we all start to say, I need to be

in control. So to hear an idea of like obedience to God? Ah,

Like, is there a friendlier term? You know? Here here in

America we try to use more politically correct terms. So is there like a

politically correct term for obedience? No, there's no PC term for obedience.

I can't say listen softly or he loves you. I can't say that with

this obedience is obedience. But I'll show you how you and I we're really

obedient to things every single day, but mostly because we see that there's value

on the other side of it. That's why we obey certain things. I'll

show you. Because you may say, I don't know, I don't think

I'm very obedient on a daily basis, Well, just put some of yourself

in some of these circumstances. When you go to the theme park and you

go on a ride that goes upside down? Do you just leave the bar

above your head? Or when they say pull on the bar, do you

actually pull on it ten times? Do you do that? Or when the

sign says pull down the bar, do you just go I'm not really an

obedient type of guy, don't. I kind of like to do things myself.

We'll see how things go. No, you grab that bar and you

triple check, you quadruple check. You just keep pulling on that thing.

We do it all the time. When your job says to clock in at

eight am, do you come and clock in at ten fifteen or nine to

fifteen, or are you there at seven to fifty nine? I don't know

what. If you're a truck driver and to get full payment you have to

deliver at a certain time, are you stopping at a truck's to sit on

your phone or are you grabbing an empty bottle next to you to go use

the restroom? Because many truck drivers, when it says it has to be

delivered certain time, once it goes past a certain time, some of them

start getting deduct pay from that stuff. And so some of them, you'll

hear them, they'll be like, man, I had to use the restroom

while I was driving in a bottle because I had to make it to that

day. We're beating it to things all the time. When you get newly

married and someone hits on you at the coffee shop, do you flirt back?

No? You know, you remember those days when you were newly married.

No one could even look in your direction. You were living in obedience

to your spouse. Now, some of y'all would just love for anything to

flirt with you, But when you're newly married, you'd be you know,

you got this glow. So people are trying to say hi, you know,

they say your name at the getting you giving to the coffee You're like,

oh please, I don't have time for this. I'm married. It's

an obedient No one's forcing you to not respond to a flirt back. But

because you love and commit your spouse, you obey an idea that's there,

which is I'm not going to on or my spouse my flirting back or giving

my number backer giving my Instagram back. And if that were to happen,

we would say, oh, there's an issue with that person respecting their marriage.

But how often do we flirt back? With other things in our life.

That isn't something God has planned for our life. When you're driving and

it says the tire pressure is at fifteen PSI, do you keep driving or

do you pull over and put some air in your tire. We'll just see

what happens. We'll just use faith and keep going. And I'm hearing we'll

just see what happens. I'm sure it's nothing. You know, you're obedient.

You mean, when you have Laker tickets and games starts at seven fifteen?

Do you show at seven? Do you show up at eight thirty?

You show up at halftime? No? You there early? You got nachos,

you got popcorn. But God forbid come to church on time. You

know. It's like oah, yes, oh, but Lebron's playing the night

guy. He's gonna win the championship, whatever they do, whatever they win.

When you have a client meeting set for ten am on Zoom and it

could change your career, do you log on at noon or are you there

triple checking the microphone, triple checking the camera, chiple check. You know,

three years ago it would be a client meeting in person. Now it's

gotta be on zoom nowadays how we're working. When you're driving on the freeway

eighty five miles per hour, do you pass by a police officer or do

you slam on your brakes or do you feed up to ninety five? Oh,

there's a cop. I'm going eighty five. Let's push this bad boy

to ninety five. See what he does now? You hit them brakes so

fast. You look in that rear view mirror with that sweat drop coming down,

thinking did he was he looking at me? Or was he looking at

someone else? Oh? You get obedient real quick, because you know what's

on the other side. You know what's on the other side. When your

baby wakes up at two am with a fever, do you put them back

in the crib and say, oh, I think they'll sort it out.

Or do you run to Walgreens and the emergency room when there's an emergency?

What do you do? You put everything down? Oh? Man, but

obedience to God. I don't know. When you're at the beach and they

pull out that red flag or sharp spotted in the water flag, do you

just keep swimming and just keep doing backstrokes and keep putting your snorkels on her?

Do you get out that water as fast as possible. I don't know.

And the last one last week there was a blizzard in Buffalo, New

York. And when you see a Buffalo and you just want to see the

Bills play, do you join four hundred other men and shovel out the snow

completely for free, just so you could watch a football game. These guys

committed in minus temperatures to just shovel out some snow to see a group of

men on a field play football. I mean, there's not a nut.

I mean we don't even go out in the rain. Like we can't even

conceptualize the hell that those guys are going through. And they're just loving it.

Sacrifice for my Bills. I love my Bills. Guys, this team

never won a championship in their life and they're sitting there. I just love

my team. I just love my team. But Lord forbid, have God

ask us to do something. Join a neighborhood group, go on a missions

trip, serve a community, start serving, do something for someone. I

don't know, Lord, you ask you from a lot for me, Lord,

so obedience and so today what we're gonna do is some time. Thomas

kempis one of the early Church Fathers said, if you want to learn to

live in obedience to Jesus, meditate on his life and you'll find all you

need. John One says that Jesus is a fulfillment of the Word, So

all you need is in the word of God. You want to know God's

instruction for your life, how he can navigate your life better than you and

I can navigate our life. All we have to do is open up God's

work, allow Jesus to speak into our life, allowed by the spirit of

the God to speak through us. But also we have to put our pride

to the side and be obedience when God tells us something. So as we're

gonna talk about today, many of us know that, oh saw Michael Jackson,

ABC one two three. We're gonna talk about the ABC's of obedience,

very simple. So here's the first A. Here's the A, and then

there's BC. First, as we have to have it to write attitude when

it comes to obedience, some of us just have a bad attitude when it

comes to following God. When it comes to obeying God. We read that

in One Peter and first Samuel says this fifteen twenty two and Samuel said,

has the Lord as great and delight and offerings and sacrifice. In obeying the

voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and

to listen than the fat of rams. What was happening in Israel is nobody

was obeying the words of God. But when they felt like they needed God

or wanted God, all they went and did was just light some incense and

they just did an animal sacrifice, and they felt they were doing their part.

And Samuel says, listen, guys, God don't care about none of

that stuff. If you're not walking in obedience, if your life doesn't reflect

the child of God, he says, those sacrifices don't mean anything to the

Lord. We read in First Peter he said, as obedient children, that's

what he tells us. He says, as obedient children, obey the Lord.

How many of you guys have ever been somewhere in public and you can

tell in five seconds or less, the difference between an obedient child and a

disobedient child, The difference between a child who gets spankings and doesn't get mcnah.

I'm just playing he but a child who's disobedient, obedient, the disobedient

one. It's really fast to notice. When you're at the park and he

gets his slurpy and he pours it down the slide. Guess what, that's

not an obedient child or the kid that's putting sand on everyone's food while they're

trying to eat. Like it doesn't take a rocket scientist to decide is that

child obedient or is that child disobedient? You and I could go spend time

at Chuck e Cheese, and if I told you I want you to create

a list in the next of obedient children and disobedient children, you wouldn't come

back to me an hour and just be like, I just can't tell the

difference. I don't know. It's just so hard, so hard. There's

so many nuances. You know. One kid was trying to put a slice

of pizza in the coin dispenser, and I thought maybe he thought that's how

you pay. I don't know. No, we're not naive. So how

come when it comes to you and ized children of God, we act so

confused on what God would want us to do and not do. It's not

hard to know what God wants to speak over our life and do our like,

and what an obedient children looks like. So The first thing it starts

is what is my attitude when it comes to obedience? What's my attitude?

And so my attitude has to reflect the fact that when God speaks to me,

I'm in a place where I go, Okay, Lord, I understand

heming. You guys have children before and you ask them to do something.

By that fifth time that you're asking for the same thing, you are playing

zero games at that point. And all I have to hear from my wife

in the background is if I have to call your dad up here, I

just immediately start loosening my belt. I know it's game time. I know

my wife is at a point where she's fed up with these boys because their

attitude is not matching the obedience. And so they go from a place where

we say, yeah, we're gonna go over your cousins this evening to when

I'm calling my brother Nathan, I said, hey, we're not gonna make

it. They're not being obedient in the house anymore. So privileges are starting

to get revoked. They were gonna be getting Chick fil a door dashed to

the house tonight. They was gonna be hanging out with their cousins. But

because they lacked obedience. It's all off the table. Their attitude is not

matching. And so you and I there are things God has on the table,

and our attitude has to match God's desire and our obedience has to match

what it is that the Lord is speaking to us. And a lot of

times we're lacking in specific things. And it's just not in financial things,

We're lack in relational things. Well, wonder God, where are you at

in this marriage? Well, how obedient are you being in the marriage.

What's your attitude of obedience in the marriage. What's happening with those things?

You know? Back back in October, we did our Men's Sprint and we

had minsprint. We had six hundred men. We all came together to talk

and learn about biblical manhood. We launched the two fifty two Club, which

are men committed to Luke two fifty two, And we took Jesus's life for

five weeks and we said, we're gonna be committed in the way that Jesus

grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God, favor of man with man.

We're gonna commit to those things. And a biblical man pursues wisdom from

God stature. We grow in stature and then we pursue favor with God and

favor with men. So, you know, me being the pastor, I'm

studying. I'm studying, and I'm getting all these lessons ready, and I

just I start to get uncomfortable with the week that we're talking about stature because

as we're talking about that Jesus grew with stature, we're talking about not only

did he grow in height, but he also so grew in health. His

stature is the fact that Jesus was healthy because us. If Jesus was unhealthy,

he couldn't do the ministry that he needed to do. He's going from

town to town, he's preaching from place to place. Jesus can't lose his

voice. Jesus can't have a stomach ulcer, Jesus can't have back aches,

and so we know he's fully God and fully man. But he also had

flesh, so he could have tore something he couldn't. So as he's growing

with stature, he's growing in health. And so we're talking to me,

it's like, guys, it's important to be healthy. And in me,

I'm sitting there and I'm like, dang, I'm a hypocrite, like I'm

not healthy right now, Like I'm out of breath every week, I'm tired,

I'm taking naps. I know that my weight is it where it needs.

I knew I wasn't healthy, and so I'm approaching so with many of

the men. I was just very honest with some of the guys on the

side. I said, this one is challenging me the most. But here's

how I've excused it over the years. Lord, I'm busy with your work.

Lord. If these people stop counseling at calling me for counseling appointments and

prayer, I could get to the gym. Lord, if I didn't have

to from you try to study so hard and spend twenty five hours a week

in the word studying, and then I'm also having devotional time. God,

if you didn't ask so much of me, then my health wouldn't be where

it is. Lord. If you gave me a wife that enjoyed to cook,

it, may I may lose weight instead of But you gave me a

wife that's amazing in every other area. She just don't like to cook.

So here I am. Lord, I gotta get in and out. On

the way home from a long service. Lord, this is God. Lord.

If you want to solve this health issue, it balls in your court,

Lord, because I'm just doing everything you've asked me to do. Lord,

But no, I felt like the Holy Spirit was saying, listen,

Adam, you got wisdom, you got favor with God and with man,

but your stature ain't looking right. And I was like, I don't like

that. And so I talked to some of the guys. I talked to

Brian Bradley here in the church. I talked to Henry over at Pomona.

We had individual conversations, and I was very honest with them. I said,

hey, help me over this next season. My number one thing is

I need to get healthy. I need to get I need to lose weight,

I need to eat healthier, I need to be more active. I

gotta do it for my boys. I don't. And so I started getting

bood work. Blood work didn't come back great. And so I'm telling guys,

you got to help me. I'm doing something I didn't want to do.

I'm using excuses for everything in my life. But then I start becoming

accountable, start telling people. I'm telling my wife, hey, this is

what we gotta do. And so I did. When I got a doctor,

saw my hormones were everywhere. So I started getting my hormones level,

I started eating healthier, I started being a little bit more active, and

sure enough, since October till now, I've lost over thirty pounds from that

time. So some of y'all been saying I'm looking good. I know I'm

looking good. Good. I had to fix my attitude. I had to

fix my attitude. And when God is telling me Adam a Jed, you

may say, you may be looking good in this place. You say,

I got no issue with stature. Okay, you may have no but you

may not have no wisdom making poor decisions, not God decisions. So you

might have to be obedient in your wisdom. You may have. You may

say, oh I have whiz, I'm brilliant, I always got the right

thing to say, and I'm in the gym every single great. But you

got no favor with nobody. You know how to talk to nobody. You

don't know how to talk to your neighbor, don't know I to talk.

So God be like, hey, be obedient, have some favor or you

may have no favor with God. And so you're doing all the right things.

You're saying all the right things. You're watching all the right guys on

YouTube, and they're teaching you how to make money, and they're teaching you

how to do things. But you have you don't have God's favor yet because

you haven't laid your life down before God's feet and said God, I trust

you with my whole process. So it comes into attitude. And for me,

I had to fix my attitude because my attitude came with I'm just doing

what God wants me to do, and if I'm missing something, that's up

to God to figure that out. It's up to God. No God would

say no, Adam, no, Adam. You need to be obedient.

You got to fix your attitude on this and you need to do your part,

and I'll do my part. And so sure enough. You know,

a couple of weeks ago, you know, my wife told me how proud

she was that I started getting healthy and I started losing weight and I had

much more energy with our boys. And I just told her, I said,

I said, babe, I'm just trying to outlive you so that one

day I can have a second marriage. That's all I'm trying to do.

Oh, not playing but I did say that, you know, you gotta

have fun in your marriage. So I'm just trying to outlive you, babe.

That's it. I want a second wife one day, so I'm not

Mormon, so I can't do second wives now, So I gotta wait,

I gotta wait. Now, I'm just playing. If you're offended, you

can email Pastor Nathan. Here's second place is we fix our attitude. We

also have to get to a place in Obedience is a place of belief.

Obedience comes from a place of belief. It's do I really trust God's word

over my life? Do I believe that? Do I believe? Or do

I take God's commands and his words as opinions. We see what happens in

Genesis three nine to thirteen. This is the fall of Adam and Eve,

and it says this, but the Lord God called to the man and said

to him, where are you? He knew exactly where he was at,

and he's waiting for Adam to respond. And he said, I heard the

sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked,

and I hidden myself. That's Adam speaking. And then God said,

who told you you were naked. God says, whose voice have you listened

to? I never told you you were naked. I never told you you

had to clothe yourself. I never told you to put some clothes. You

have heard someone's voice other than mine, So you have believed someone else's voice

in your life over my word in your life. What's Adam's response? Is

Adam's response, Oh, Lord, I know, I know. I'm sorry.

No Lord says this. Adam says this. He says, the man

said, the woman whom you gave me to be with, she gave me

the food of the tree and I ate it. God, here's the thing,

Lord, I would have believed you if you just didn't give me this

woman. But the fact you gave me this wife, she led me,

she encouraged me to eat. So now God goes to the woman and he

says this, and it says this. Then the Lord God said to the

woman, what is it that you have done? And the woman says,

the serpent did it right. And that's what we do is when we're challenged

on where our faith and trust is God, we're always quick to express why

it was, Well, God, it's because I was let go. If

I wasn't let go, and I could have trust you in this area,

but I gotta let go, so I can't or God, there was an

adult tree, and so if there wasn't an adult, if everything was perfect

God, then it would have led me to do what I We're always blaming

something else why we haven't been obedient to God, rather than the belief to

take responsibility and say, Lord, you're right. What can what can you

do with me, Lauren? Help me to trust you more, God,

Help me to see your hand bore in my life. God help, but

you gotta spend time with the Lord to be able to see him more active

in your life. We gotta let the spirit move through us more so that

we can begin to obey those things more because it's right. Just like Adam

and Eve, your flesh is saying just eat it. Just eat the apple.

That was me. October was the hardest month for me. Just go

just go get the cheesecake, Go get the you know, going through the

holidays, everybody just eat it. I'm like, no, I can't.

I can't. I'm trying to obey the word that God gave me, and

so I'm trying to say no, come on. I know my boys would

be getting ice cream, and I could hear the ice cream talking. Just

take a bye, this a bye. And I'm like, no, no,

I can't. But that takes obedience. Your phone be talking to you,

other people be talking. You just gotta be obedient. No I can't.

I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't. You're

reading, You're during the fast, you're reading your Bible, and all of

a sudden someone's message you on Instagram or text and you're laughing, and it's

like, just come join me, Just disconnect from the word, just spend

time, and you gotta be like no, Paul says, you gotta beat

your flesh to submission. It's like you gotta put it in its place so

your belief has to rise when it comes to God. I learned that firsthand.

And in twenty fifteen we had an Easter service, and back then I

was the creative pastor, and so I went to Pastor Diego for that Eastern

in twenty fifteen. I said, hey, I got a great idea.

You said you wanted to talk about faith. How about we talk about taking

a leap of faith this Eastern for Easter. We'll film you out of an

airplane and so and so we could show everybody that you had faith. And

so you jumped our airplane. And so Pastor Diego said, great, I'll

do it if you do it with me. I said, well, I'm

the behind the scenes guy, and so I'm also double your weight, so

it just might not be good. And he said, I won't do it

unless you do it. So he convinced me. I wasn't on camera at

all or anything like that. I was just next to him in the airplane.

So there's me and him in twenty fifteen. We jump on this airplane

and he jumps off and they film him and he's having the time of his

life and he's waving at the camera and all these things like that. And

sure enough, no, not that picture yet, we'll get to that one

in a second. Sure enough, I jump. And then what happens is

is when I jump, I'm with a guy. The guy's from France.

He's a Frenchman, and so he's gotten an accent everything like that. So

we jump, and we're jumping through the air. And if any of you

been sky dying before seeing it before, when they pull the cord, the

wind catches the the parachute and so you shoot up in back in the air

like you whoom. It's like really strong, and so you get shot back

up. So for about two seconds we go whoom, and we shoot back

up in the air. And the next thing you hear is you just hear

dingdingdingdingdingdingding. Think our parachute snaps off of our body and we start free falling

once again, and there's cords and everything flying in it. The parachute ended

up landing on the two fifteen freeway, so they had to go get it.

And so we're free falling. All the chords are everywhere, they're spinning,

and so this guy, because I'm attached to him in the front,

he starts cussing in French, which I don't blame him. And the reason

why I know is because I kind of know French and I don't know those

words, and so and he was saying, I'm very heavy, very harsh,

and you know. So he's cussing up a storm, and so he

unzips my jumpsuit and he just starts stuffing the wires the cords that were attached

to the parachute because if he doesn't get those cords out of the way and

he deploys the emergency chote. If it gets caught, and those cords on

the way out, we're done. So he's frantically. He has this watch

in front of me that has the art art where we're at in terms of

our height, and then marked is on it is like the lowest point we

can pull our shoote before we just you know, die, And so he

keeps looking at that to make sure we're good. He's stuffing chords, he's

putting them in, he's looking at the day, he's stuffing. He zips

my jacket back up and then sure enough, when you when you deploy parachute,

you pull it from the back, emergency shoot is on your chest so

that you don't confuse the two. And so he can't get in between us

because I'm a two hundred and fifty pound gorilla. So he can't reach in

between me and him. He physically cannot get in between and so he tells

me once he zipped to the jacket, he said, what I'm gonna need

you to do. We're talking in the air, full on conversations. He

says, what I'm gonna need you to do is you're gonna put your feet

You're gonna, you know, straddle, You're gonna put your feet on my

thighs and on the counter of three without slip out of your harness, You're

gonna jump in the air off of my thighs so that I can get in

between us and pull the emergency chute. But be prepared because you could slip

out if you go too hot. So he goes one, two, three,

I jump, He slips out, the thing pulls. Mind you,

now I'm a foot above him. The thing, the emergency shoote releases and

I get yanked down once again, and you can feel like the court,

like the actual suit is like looser now at this point. So I get

yanked down and we start coming down. And as we're landing now he's trying

to be calm and stuff like that. He tells me as we're landing,

he said, I have done ten thousand jumps and I've never had to deploy

my emergency chute if it wasn't for practice. And so as we're coming there's

an ambulance approaching, and I said, who's that ambulance for. He said,

every time we jump, there's people with binoculars that are on each of

us. And I gave them the we're probably gonna die symbol fifty chance of

death symbol. So he said, the ambulance is for us, and I

said, Dear God, you have my life right now more than ever.

If there was ever a time that I needed you most, it was at

that moment. And I'll tell you this, that moment did not decrease my

belief in God. Didn't decrease my faith in God. It increased my faith

in God because I needed him more than ever in that moment. I needed

to be obedient to the person who was speaking to me or it would have

been all over. Someone came to me yesterday when we were filming, and

they said, I think I would have been so scared. I wouldn't have

had the courage to jump off of his thighs to get in between. And

I was just telling him, neither was I. I was afraid too.

But when you have to exercise faith and you have no option, you have

no option. You have no option for your family, you have no option

for your future, you have no option in your marriage, you have no

option. Like when you have no option, he just say, Lord,

I gotta step up. I'm stepping up because without you God, and without

you moving, it wouldn't last. I wouldn't last. And so obedience also

comes not only with an attitude. It's a belief to say, God,

I have no other options, you know. Peter said that there was a

moment where Jesus was speaking to a group of followers and he said something the

crowd didn't like, and so half the crowd left and God Jesus looked at

Peter and he said, what about you guys? Are you guys gonna leave

too? And Peter said this, where would we go? He wasn't saying

he literally has nothing to do, because later on we know when Jesus gets

put on the cross, Peter goes back to his hometown and starts fishing again.

So Peter didn't mean I literally have nowhere to go. What he was

saying in that moment is he was saying without you, I wouldn't have anything.

Without you, Jesus, I'd have no purpose in my life. Without

you, Jesus, I'd have no direction in my life. So he makes

a statement, he says, where would we go? And eventually Jesus says,

nobody revealed that to you except for God. And sometimes our only answer

for stuff when they're saying why are you doing what you're doing? What are

you doing? What are you doing with that? Why are you doing this?

Why are you walking in forgiveness? Why are you walking? Why are

you trusting God? Here? You just say it's something I'd revealed to me,

something God spoke to me. It may not make sense to you,

but when you want to leave, I have nowhere to go when it comes

to God, I got nowhere else to go. I'd have to trust God.

And then here's the last point is this is will closes. We have

to have an attitude and a belief. The last thing is it will lead

you to a place of compassion. God wants to as we're obedience to God,

he wants to increase our level of compassion, and he wants to see

compassion roll for us and through us, says, we see God active in

our life with his favor. It'll lead us to compassion. Tetri Banghapper said

the first service that one owes to the others in the fellowship consists in listening

to them, just as love to God begins with listening to his word.

So the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them.

Deuteronomy five to three. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord

has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well

with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall

possess. I want to share this last verse with you, and we'll close

with this Ephesians chapter six, which seems like a very human command, but

it's actually very spiritual command. Many of us miss the fact that there's only

a handful of literal connected promises in the New Testament. There's not many.

There's a lot about obeying and trusting the Holy Spirit. He'll lead you to

places, but there's not too many places that's like you do this. God's

promise is this, and Ephesian six is one of them. Paul says this,

children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise.

What he's saying is, this is one of the only ten commandment that actually

has a promise. If you do it attached to it. And here's the

promise that it may go well with you, you'll succeed in life, and

that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your

children to anger, but bring them up in discipline and instruction of the Lord.

This is a mirror and picture of who God is to us and how

we are to act to him, because he's giving a physical, earthly promise

that says, if your children can understand to honor their parents, there's a

promise associated that God will succeed them and give them a long life. And

then it says, but fathers, you have a responsibility that in order for

them to be able to honor you, well, you cannot provoke them.

You have to lead them in correct instruction the Lord and discipline. So guess

what. That's what God's doing to us as we honor God and we obey

his commands. He is not provoking you to anger. He is leading you

instruction for your life. He has gone so that you may succeed. You

want to succeed in life, something nobody talks about on all these YouTube and

tiktoks. You want to succeed in life, Obey God, follow the Lord.

You want to live a long life, Obey God. Honor God with

your life. Honor God, and that comes with obedience too. You can't

live life drinking. A leader of Coca cola every day. So we can't

say, God, I'm honoring you and I'm not living in total health.

But that was with me, Like God, I'm honoring you in all aries.

But He's like, take the burger out of your mouth, out him,

then I can help you live longer. It's an act of obedience that

he's reproving us. He's rebigion for himself, no for us, so that

he can show favor in our life. But what would it matter if God

showed us favor if we were disobedient, it would show nothing to anyone in

the outside world. Well, you mean you get to have your cake and

eat it too. You get to live your life however you want, and

God gives you blessings and God showed you fai no no, no no no.

We act discipline. We have discipline in our life. There are things

we do and don't do, there are things we say and don't say.

There are ways that we live and don't live. Why Because It's God's plan

for our life so that He can succeed in our life. And so today

what we can do is we begin to have an attitude obedience, a belief

in obedience, and also it'll lead us to a place of compassion to say,

God, thank you so much. You don't have to treat your children

like this, because we, like Adam and Eve, we've rejected you.

You could, for all intents and purpose, you could give us all the

smoke and not give us anything because of our decisions. But instead you choose

to love us. You choose as first Peter said. Don't forget. He

said, don't fall to your old ways and forget what the Lord has done

for your life. He says, like obedient children, remind yourself. Remind

yourself. Not too long ago, my Sammaitaia saw a spider in the house.

He said, Dad, we got sell the house. You got to

sell the house. I said, son, we can't sell the house because

of a spider. Now five years old, he can make an argument like

that, but he can't at twenty. He can't. At twenty, I'll

be like, son, you have no idea the sacrifice that we make to

have a roof over your head. We can't just up and sell this house.

But how many times do we tell God, God, you just gotta

get this thing out of my life, got to fix all this, And

it's like, you know how you know how hard the Holy Spirit been working

to get you where you're at today. You know how many signs God has

shown you to place you where you're at today. And so we got to

be like children with God. Thank you, Thank you for what Jesus has

done. I can't believe I've been in one of my tantrums lately. I'm

sorry. I'm sorry. I've just been acting up lately. I've just been

no different than my kids today. I'm sorry, Lord, And it starts

with an act of humility. We'll close with this. The attitude of obedience

is will say this as we close here. If we go back to this

life, here's what an attitude obedience looks like. Love God above all.

That's an attitude love others as yourself. Seek God. That's an attitude.

Seek God every day. Trust God. When you don't know what's around the

corner, Trust the Lord. Repentance and forgiveness. Go to God and say

God, I'm sorry, I'll fall in short. Would you forgive me?

Walk in humility? You want to know signs of humility? What that sounds

like? It sounds like this, I'm sorry, Could you forgive me?

It's my mistake. I'll try better. That's walking in humility. That's not

just to God, that's the other people, to other people. Lastly,

to walk in holiness and worship all holiness means, is I separate myself,

It says the first Peter we read. It says, be holy for your

God. It's holy. God is separated from all things that are sinful.

God is separated from unrighteousness. So he says, separate yourself from those things,

because God has separated himself from those things, and that'll lead us to

a place that walking in obedience, hees favor activated in a deeper, richer

way in our life. And if you're here today and you've never tooken this

first step of obedience, which was the first step of obedience, is Jesus's

words where he said, I stand at the door of every person's heart,

and I knock. Whoever lets me in, I will sit in and eat

with them. It's a promise that Jesus says that He's the fulfillment of everything

we need in our life. You and I have all fallen short of God's

glory. You and I have all sinned, and we've all fallen short.

But the beauty about God and his word is He's provided away where we can

trade those things for the sacrifice of Jesus. There was one time I was

at one of those token stores, big Al, and I was fifty token

short to get my son one of the candies he wanted. And the employee

there happened to go to our church, Abundant Living, and he said,

he said, don't worry about it. I'll cover the rest of the tickets.

You can go ahead and take the candy. I was like, man,

and thank you. I didn't want to have to go put twenty more

bucks in to get these fifty tickets. He said, no, I'll cover

the fifty you can have what you need. That's exactly what Jesus did.

Is when you and I one day would stand before God and he would say,

hey, you got to answer for your sin. Jesus steps in and

he says, don't worry about it. This person's with me. I covered

him. So the Kingdom of Heaven it's yours now because you earned these tickets.

Now, because you're redeeming these tickets. It's because you and I on

Earth redeemed Jesus in our life. And Jesus says, if you honor me

on earth before others. I will honor you in Heaven before my father.

If we can recognize Jesus here on earth, regardless of who sits on the

left and right of us, regardless of what you did last night, none

of those things matter to God. We honor God here on earth, and

we recognize him here on earth, he'll recognize us in heaven next to his

father. So I just want to encourage you right now as many of you

are here, some of you guys are going to be saying yes to Jesus

for the first time. If that's you, we're all right now together going

to say a pray out loud. The prayer is not the thing that saves

you. What we're doing is we're affirming the work that the Holy Spirit is

already doing in your life right now. So as we pray out loud,

we're a praying an affirmation to say, God, I know that you saved

me, and right now making a commitment to follow you. And so as

the whole church would join me right now, I want to encourage those who

have never said it before that you mean this with your whole heart. There's

nothing that I can say or make up to make you follow Jesus. It's

only the work of the Holy Spirit that can speak to your heart right now.

There's only the work of the Holy Spirit that can touch you right now.

And the Bible says that we go from a place of having a heart

of stone to a heart of flesh when we receive Jesus. It's a complete

transformation of our life. And so as many of you may say yes to

Jesus, we're going to celebrate you after we pray, because we just want

to honor those who are coming into the Kingdom of God as a brother and

sisters. So, family, would you join this right now as we bow

our head and we close our eyes, would you say this with me,

dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I repent to my city. I

confess with my mouth that you are Lord and you are Savior. I believe

in my heart that you died on the cross and you rose three days later,

and from this day forward, I commit to following you for the rest

of my days in Jesus' name. Amen, We really hope you enjoyed the

message, and if you said yes to Jesus, we just want to say

congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you walk out your faith.

Click the link in the description or head over to grow dot Faith to download

your devotional. Oh and be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your

friends. Thanks for listening to ALSC podcasts, and we hope you tune in again