The Future of Anxiety || RE(A)D Letter Pt.3 || Pastor Adam Mesa

Well, this time, we're gonna jump into our message today. And so

if you have your Bible by chance, or you brought it on your phone

or anything like that, you could join us. You could earn John chapter

fourteen. If you want to hold your place there John chapter fourteen, We'll

be there in just a few moments together. You know, as we continue

this series read letters talking about the life and ministry of Jesus. We're discovering

throughout the Gospels. And if you're new to church, the Gospels are the

four books at the beginning of the New Testament, so it's Matthew, Mark,

Luke, and John, and those books are all about the life and

ministry of Jesus here on earth. All the books end with Jesus's ministry,

ending with post his resurrection and his ascension into Heaven. And so as we've

been serving for the past couple weeks some of the words that Jesus gives us

that we can find truth in, we've been encouraged to also challenge each other

and say, hey, let's also during this month read the Book of Mark

together. So I want to encourage you to continue, if you haven't started

yet, in your Bible, in your phone or in your physical Bible.

Throughout the next couple of weeks, read the Gospel of Mark that's about the

life of Jesus. And today we find ourselves in the life of Jesus in

John chapter fourteen. And I just want to say I loved the message last

week from Pastor Aaron. If anyone was here at church, it was a

great message. I still been lit ever since then, and it was a

great message. I watched it online. I don't know about you, but

I'm blessed whenever I'm not physically in church that I just feel like abundant living.

Does online church really excellent? I love the quality. I appreciate it.

We never want you to be comfortable watching church online and only do that

from home. But just like last weekend, I was celebrating my eight year

anniversary with my wife up in Napa, and so we were hanging out together

in Napa. It's actually tomorrow is our actual anniversary, and today's her thirty

fifth birthday as well, And so I know you're not supposed to say age,

but you know, thirty five it's a good year. But so,

I mean, she's smart. She chose our wedding to be the day after

her birthday, so double the gifts and then also double the punishment if I

forget. So she's smart, be very smart. But last Sunday I got

to watch online with everybody, and I loved Pastor Aaron's message talking about us

being a city lit on a hill. And if you haven't watched the I

courage you go on our YouTube page and check out that message. Unlike Pastor

Aaron, I only have one illustration today. That guy had like fifteen up

on stage. He's going from light and light bulbs to putting candles out.

I'm thinking, I don't know if the team had a fire extinguisher nearby or

anything like that. I'm like, look what happens when me and Pastor Diego

aren't here. Pastor Aaron starts lighting things on fire and stuff like that.

But it's a great message, so you gotta catch it. If you haven't

caught it. If you're ready and you're in John chapter fourteen, would you

join me in the standing of reading of God's word today as we show God's

word honor through standing as well. It's found in John chapter fourteen of You

Versus Today. It says this, let not your hearts be troubled. What

an appropriate thing to share today. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe

in God, Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go

and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place

for you, I will come again, and I will take you to myself,

that where I am, you may also be. And you know the

way to where I'm going. Tom has said to him, Lord, we

do not know where you're going. How can we How can we know the

way? Jesus said to him, I am the Way, and I am

the Truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father

except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my

father. Also from now on, you do know him, and you have

seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father,

and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been

with you so long and you still do not know me? Philip, whoever

has seen me has seen the Father? How can you say, show us

the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and

the Father is in me. The words that I say to you, I

do not speak on my own authority. But the Father, who dwells in

me does his works. Believe me, I am in the Father, and

the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Truly, Truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will

do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do.

Because I'm going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name,

this I will do. That the Father may be glorified in the sun.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Praise

God, you may be see it. Thank you so much. You know

today what we're gonna be talking out and we're gonna be sharing about is a

little bit deeper to what I believe Jesus is sharing about in this moment.

And if you know a little bit about the context of the conversation in John

chapter fourteen, what's happening is he's at a dinner with the disciples known as

the Last Supper, and so Jesus is just a few hours away from being

turned in to be convicted wrongly and to be crucified three days later. We

know that Jesus would resurrect and he would put victory on the cross because he

has won it all for us through his resurrection. So Jesus is moments away

from that, but he knows there's gonna be a period of time in which

he dies. The disciples still don't know fully what is going on. They

haven't graphs and captured Jesus's necessity that he must die for our sins, and

so Jesus is trying to give them hope when it can seem a little hopeless.

So if you're taking notes today, what I want to share about is

a message titled the future of Anxiety. Future of anxiety, because in these

moments, oftentimes, if we live in an emotional state, in state of

being of anxiousness, it's very easy that as we leave our house every single

day, I find myself to be pretty anxious at times. I'm anxious when

I turn on the news. I'm anxious when I go online. I have

anxiousness when my kids go to school. There's this anxiousness that we all currently

feel all the time, so much so that when I begin to feel anxious,

sometimes I'll turn on the news and I'll see some type of crime happen

just a few blocks away from my house. It just so happens that that

night. Whenever I see that on the news, I do something that maybe

you do. I go and get the Brinx door locks and I put them

under the door. Bang. I go and I put the little poll in

between my sliding glass doors. I triple talking because there's something about when I

feel like it's in my own backyard, I just get a little anxious.

I'm a little more anxiety when the kids go to bed, I find myself

in the front lawn, mosing around a little bit more and checking out what

the neighbors are doing a little bit more, because that's what we do when

we don't know what's around the corner. We begin to get a little anxious.

And Jesus gives the disciples hope knowing that, hey, there's gonna be

some attitudes of faith you're gonna exhibit when you don't see me face to face,

and I want you to take courage to know what I'm doing in Heaven

is preparing a place for you to come and dwell with me, and so

Jesus is trying to secure Oftentimes I'll travel and I'll go preach out a church,

or I'll go with another organization, and my son will start to exhibit

a little bit worry, and I have to reassure my son. Listen,

son, I'm gonna be back before you know it. Dad's gonna be back

before you know it. And what that has meant to do is to give

us a trust and a hope and a faith. And so today what I

want to encourage us through is some unhealthy attitudes of faith that maybe you or

I exhibit on a regular basis, And within these passages, Jesus encourages us

not to exhibit these attitudes of faith. So if you're taking notes, the

first thing I believe Jesus shows us is oftentimes our faith will be exhibited through

a frantic nature. And so an unhealthy form of faith or attitude of faith

is the faith of franticness. The great philosopher Seneca, the Stoic philosopher,

said, frenzy is the wound of the mind. In other words, when

you are in a state of franticness and frenzy, it consumes your entire thinking.

It's all you think about, it's all you think about. Sometimes.

I'm privileged that I get to do marriage counseling, and one of the most

heartbreaking things to do is when I'm doing marriage counseling, sometimes I'll ask one

of the spouses, just remember, why did you marry the person that you

married? And sometimes truth will come out in the answer, and one of

the spouses will say, well, I married them because I didn't want to

be alone. Had nothing to do with love, had nothing to do with

the fact that they saw the future. It was the fact that I was

in a frantic, frenzy man mentality, and all that I had saw in

my mind was to make a decision to try to fix a frenzied problem.

And a lot of times we find ourselves making decisions because simply we're frantic,

We're in a frenzy, and we end up making decisions based out of emotion,

not based off of Is this where God is calling me? Is this

where God is leading me? It's more so out of the fact that I

don't know how to control that outcome. So therefore I will try to take

it in my own hand to make a decision without wan whaying what will come

out of it? And so what happens is Jesus says in the verses that

we read at the top in the first sections, he begins in verse fourteen,

Let not your hearts be troubled. This is an encouraging word from Jesus

to say, you may be frantic when I leave. You may be in

a frenzy when I leave. And we know it. When you study the

life of the disciples. After Jesus was crucified, I mean, I mean

Peter starts rejecting Jesus and denying Jesus. Other disciples go back to being whatever

they were before they found Jesus. Others are just frozen in time. They

can't move forward. They just they're in a frenzy, and Jesus is trying

to get ahead of it to encourage them to say, hey, listen,

when the franticness and the frenzy comes. First things first, let not your

hearts be troubled, he says. The second thing is this, believe in

God and also believe in me. Believe in the Father and believe in me.

And then Jesus gives this this massive amount of couragement by saying, in

my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I

have told you that I go and prepare a place for you. And if

I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. And

will take you to myself that where I am you may also be, and

you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord,

we do not know where you're going. It's so much like I mean,

I'm kind of like a Thomas like Thomas like a little smart Alec right

here. Jesus like Jesus telling Thomas, guys, you're gonna go where I

go. And Thomas goes, Jesus, we don't even know where you go

in how can we go where you go? And we don't even know where

it is that you're going. And then Jesus goes, and then Thomas says

this, we don't know the way, like we don't got no GPS or

anything like that. And Jesus said to him, I am the way,

like what you've been missing, Thomas, you've been missing. I am the

way. I am the truth, and I am the life. No one

comes to the Father except for me through me. If you had known me,

you would have known my father. Also from now on, you do

know him, and you have seen him. So Jesus begins to encourage his

disciples, and he begins to give them what we would say. And there's

a lot of it in the Bible a marriage analogy to the Kingdom of God.

And so Jesus tells Thomas and all the rest of the disciples, I'm

gonna go and prepare a place for you, and when the time is right,

I'm gonna come and I'm gonna take you to where I'm at. And

so in the in between time you're gonna be here on earth, and in

between time here on earth, I'm hoping that you get prepared as much as

I'm making preparations for you. And so what happens is is oftentimes in Jesus's

day, in Jerusalem and in Israel, is when a man wanted to betrothe

and marry a woman, he would first go to the father of the bride

and he would say, hey, I'd like to marry your daughter. From

there they would begin a kind of a dowry negotiation. He would ask questions

about him as a man and investigate and other things like that, and when

he decided, okay, you're a man worthy married, worthy of marrying my

daughter, the man would go back home and he'd go to his father and

he say, Dad, they accepted, I can marry her, in which

it was the father's job to then walk him outside of his home and next

to the home, almost like a room edition. He would say, son,

this is your plot of land, and you may build a home here.

A room edition. I know your Bible may say that you know mine,

says an ESV. That he has prepared a room for us. Yours

may say. If you have King James, it may say mansion. But

the more accurate translation is like an apartment addition. But don't get caught a

lot of times people get caught up on like what we're gonna be living in

in heaven. Don't let that catch you up, because I would rather be

in a room edition connected to God's house than imagine, connected to the Devil's

house. So I'll take the room edition in God's kingdom. And so what

would often happen is the father would have his house. He would give a

plot of land, either an acre away or sometimes connected to it, and

say, hey, this is for your family. And then it was the

job of that son that say a brother or say his children one day get

married. They just continue to build on that property together and they continue to

inhabit. And so what happens is is Jesus goes, hey, where I'm

going I'm going to set up and prepare a place. I'm gonna set up

a place, this kind of a tent. I'm gonna stab place for you,

Thomas. That's what I'm going to do, Thomas. I'm gonna go

set up a place for you. And then Thomas would be like, okay,

Jesus, so how long is that gonna take for you to set up

my place before you come back? Well, Jesus goes, well, that's

between the that's the father's decision is when it's time to return. Because what

happens is it's God's desire that many room editions happened in the Kingdom of God.

And so for my life, like I gave my life to Christ in

two thousand and seven, and you want to know what happened in two thousand

and seven. Not only do we know Heaven rejoices, but what happened in

two thousand and seven when I gave my life to Christ is what happened was

is Jesus set a new tent. There's a new dwelling place. He's preparing

a place for me. So when I gave my life to Christ, he

set up a new place. There's Adams got your name on it and everything.

Adam, I'm looking at that. I'm going, Jesus, thank you

so much. I'll take that in your kingdom. And then what happened was

is one of my friends from high school, when I led them to the

Lord Jesus said, man, Adam, you're doing a good job. You're

adding room, additions to this kingdom. You're continually sharing about the love,

hope, and salvation of Jesus. And so here we are there's more room.

And what happens is, Adam, you're making space for grace. You're

making space to share the love of God. And what's gonna happen is one

day which I look forward to, is the day that one of my sons

come up to me. It maybe thirteen fifteen, twenty five, twenty six,

and they say, Dad, you've been following Jesus for so long.

It's time that I want to give my life to Christ. And you want

to know what Heaven's gonna be doing at that time, They're gonna be like,

hey, ring it up, we got another one. Let's make some

more space. Let's make some more room. And so you and I,

Jesus is looking for us as we share the grace of God. What Heaven

does is Heaven begins to expand and make space for all those that would call

upon Jesus, all those that would go to Jesus to know the Father.

And what Jesus is doing in heaven today is the Father is surveying how kingdom

is now, the kingdom of Heaven is growing, and Jesus waits for the

day that the Father says, Okay, Jesus, it's time to head back.

You can go gather your bride, you can go get your church.

We're still, according to revelations, we are waiting for that day. But

in the meantime, you and I are not meant to kick up on our

lazy boy. We're not meant to kick up and just chill or just go

and do our own thing. It's part of our job that we're meant to

share our testimony of God's goodness. We're meant to preach the way named Jesus.

We're meant to share about the truth of Jesus, the life of Jesus.

That as we go and share this with people, and they may not

look like you and I, they may not talk like us, they may

not be people that we would naturally gravitate to. But the reality is is

God is looking to expand his house. Jesus says, in my father's house,

there are many rooms I go to prepare a place for you. In

other words, what Jesus is looking to by the power of the spirit is

to add more room editions, add more room editions. And so what happens

is God has called us not to be frantic, but to take hope in

peace. To say, man, Jesus has prepared a place for me in

heaven. Life is not just here on this earth. Life is just not

what I see today, because Jesus is waiting in heaven, and he has

established a kingdom not just here on earth, but also a kingdom in heaven,

one that I will be in his presence, not far off. It's

not like God says, hey, I have heaven and then I got all

y'all common people there. You guys are gonna be somewhere else because I only

want to see you guys on special occasions. No, God says, And

we know in the future New Jerusalem will come down from heaven to earth.

It's a place where God will dwell because what God wants to dwell with his

people. The reason why Satan hates you guys so much is not only because

he wanted to be like God, but also because he looks at God's love

for his creation and he's thinking to himself, why does God not love me

as much as his creation he's created. But he looks at humanity and says,

these sinful people, humans who go to war and kill each other and

do that, what does God want to do with them? God wants to

redeem them. God wants to rescue them. God wants to give us life.

God wants to fill us with truth. God wants to show us the

way. And his love for you is something that makes the enemy very angry

because of how much God loves you. Let us not miss out on the

opportunity that God has made every effort to make space for you. God has

made every effort to show you his grace, to make room for you.

Inteen There was a man named Steve, and he was a computer science major

up in San Francisco. And it just so happened when Steve was at school,

some of his friends said, Hey, tonight, they's supposed to be

this private surprise lecture with a special guest. Do you want to go with

us, and the young man named Steve said, no, I got school

and work, and I got other things going on. I don't think I'm

gonna be able to make it, so he skips out on it. It

just so happened that the next day he sees all his friends and he says,

hey, who spoke last night? They said, you won't believe who

spoke last night. It was doctor Clark. Doctor Clark, the father of

computer science and the father of futurism. This guy is like the Einstein of

computer technology. It just so happened to be that it was this young man

Steve's hero, and he missed out on having They said, all of us

got to ask him a question, all of us got to talk to him.

And this guy Steve, was fuming because of his missed opportunity. He

couldn't be mad at anyone but himself, because he chose, I just got

a busy life, I'm gonna pass up on the opportunity. When he found

out it was his hero, he made a pledge to himself that he would

never miss an opportunity of futurism and invention ever again. That young man was

a man known by Steve Jobs, which was the inventor of Apple. He

invited, He invented Apple computers, Apple phones. Everything that you and I

tend to have in our back pocket, he invented it. And Steve Jobs

was famous, famous for not missing opportunity. He wanted to be the first

to invent a touchscreen. He wanted to be the first to invent the type

of phone we have. He wanted to be the first to invent the type

of computers we have, the size we have. And everyone would always say,

where does this come from? They didn't ask him. He say,

because there was one time in college where I missed one opportunity and I made

a promise to myself I would never miss an opportunity like that ever again.

And so Steve Job says, I wake up every single day saying yes to

whatever I think is gonna go further and whatever's gonna create the future. Now,

if a human can decide that about technology, how come we can't every

day wake up and say, God, I'm not gonna miss an opportunity to

see you. God, I'm not gonna miss an opportunity to see your hand

in my life. God, I'm not gonna pass another opportunity to experience your

presence, to experience your grace, to love someone, to forgive someone,

to walk something out. And so many times we just say I can miss

church, I can miss reading my Bible, I can miss walking in love.

I'll figure it out in the long run. How many times do we

miss the opportunity that God has given us to exhibit his grace. Instead we

just live in this frantic state of personal control. A lot of times God

has called us to share that love with someone else. Just about a month

ago, or head of security, Vince went off on vacation. He went

to the Philippines for a couple weeks, and so in the meantime, during

the normal hours that Vince is here to after us, we ended up hiring

an outsourced security company. Men, you guys may remember that. And so

this was an armed security company and they are such a great company to work

with. It just so happened one Saturday. We do Saturday morning prayers from

ten thirty to eleven thirty every Saturday, and so what happened is is one

of the security guards came as a young man, Hispanic, in his thirties,

and he met me here at the front of the altar and he said

Hi, Are you the guy in charge today? I said, yeah,

I'm the guy in charge today. He said, do you want me to

be doing security outside or inside? I said, if you could be inside,

because there's only a few of us, nothing really is going to happen

outside. Just look after us on the inside. He seemed a little uncomfortable

about that, so he said no, no, no, no, no,

I'll stand outside. I said. I said, no, I'd really

rather you be inside, he said. He said, okay, So we

start Saturday morning prayer. What happens on Saturday morning prayers. We do ten

minutes of worship, then we do ten minutes of Bible reading about prayer,

and then we do ten minutes of personal prayer or twenty minutes of personal prayer,

and then we do twenty minute it's a corporate prayer where people now come

up and you can make intercession. You could pray for things, you can

pray for things that are on your heart, you could pray for family,

anything like that. So this young man he comes up to me with five

minutes left of prayer service and I'm sitting up here in the front with my

head down praying, and he walks up to me and he says, excuse

me, sir, what are they doing over there? I said, I

said, uh, what did they do? They're praying over there. I

thought he didn't know what prayer was, and so I said, no,

they're praying, they're talking to God. He said, no, I know

that, but like, did you pre choose those people to go up and

pray? I said, no, the microphone's open. They they chose on

their own. So now I'm starting to get the hint. And he's like,

could I go up there and pray? And I thought to myself at

first I was like you you on the clock. Uh, so, I

don't know. And then my follow up thought was are you a Christian?

I don't know him. He's an outsource company. And then my third thought

was do you go to church? And then my fourth thought was God telling

me to shut up? That was the fourth thought where God was like,

Adam, what do you care? What is this your business? Like?

Move on and so and so I I So. Then I back up and

I'm like, you know what, man, Yeah, yeah, yeah,

feel free. You could go pray. You can go go pray. And

he walks up to the microphone and he says, hi. He introduces himself,

says, Hi, my name's Armando. He said, this is my

first time in church in twenty years. He said, I work for a

security company. I happened to be scheduled to be in security today. He

said. I tried to ask the pastor if I could do security outside.

He wanted me to stay inside. And I haven't been in church for twenty

years. He said. When I was thirteen, twenty years ago, my

aunt had cancer and she passed away, and she loved Jesus and she said

the one thing she told me is, MIHO, if I pass do not

lose your relationship with God. Do not walk away from God. And he

said that was twenty years ago. When she passed, I did lose my

relationship with God. I never returned to church after her funeral ever again,

And he says, and as I've sat here, God began to speak to

me. And today I want to give my life to Jesus Christ. Here

in this room and all of us, all the hundred of us that were

there for prayer. Many were there. I mean, we just start erupting

and we're clapping, and we're thinking to ourselves this and then he says,

and if you don't mind. Can I pray? And he goes and in

his prayer he says, God, I haven't talked to you in a long

time. And it's a moment like that where God just works on you and

just reminds you. I'm thinking of the schedule of prayer, the setup of

prayer, and God's just like I'm doing stuff. Would you just I'm making

space for people. Would would you just get out of the way and point

them to a tent, say hey, hey, you get some good sleep

over here with Jesus, you get some good rest in this tent. Would

you just start pointing instead of trying to control this thing and trying to elect.

And what happened was is later on after prayer, Phil who works with

me, many of you know Phil, he met Armando out in the parking

lot and they talked for an hour. Phil began to tell him what a

relationship with the Lord looked like in his own life, and then Armando asked,

could I be baptized here at abundant living at that moment? That's what

transformation looks like. That's what understanding that God's making space every single day for

people all the time. And if we would just allow the power and the

love of God to exhibit through us, and we would just get out of

our own ways sometimes and just say, God, use me, don't let

me miss these opportunities where you're speaking to people. How many times has someone

text you and said, hey, are you available? I'm going through a

tough time, and you're like, I'm going through a tough time too,

No, I'm not available. How many times have you walked past a neighbor

and you thought, man, they're going through it. The lawn isn't kept,

they haven't took their trash cans out. And instead of just knocking on

their door and checking on them and saying, hey, God, put you

on my heart. Is there anything I can pray for you? Instead we

just think, well, God bless them. I'll lift them up on a

sign and put their name on some type of prayer card. Right. I'm

like that too. I fall guilty of that old same thing. But how

many times could we just get to a place where we just allow God to

speak and use our lives? And so with the few most have. Here's

the second point I want to share with you. Not only does an attitude

of unhealthy faith exhibit that of a frantic nature of anxiety. It also exhibits

a foolish nature of anxiety. There's been times that Adam has just been foolish

about things. But also other people will see your love for God as foolish

too. First Corinthians, Chapter one, verse eighteen says this, for the

message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but us who

are being saved, it's the power of God. And so we see God's

power on display all the time. And to other people it may not make

sense. It just looks like foolishness to them. For you to say I'm

praying about this, I'm believing God for this, they may roll their eyes

and say, what a foolish person you are to believe God for something,

to pray about something. But we know there is power in those things.

We know that the spirit of God is active in those ways. We can

trust God. But also in our own life. Sometimes we're like Philip and

we believe some foolish things. It said this in verse eight It says Philip

said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for

us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long you

still don't know me, Philip, Like, look at this. This is

a disciple who has spent every day pretty much with Jesus for three years.

And Philip has the audacity to look at Jesus and say, when do we

get to meet Papa? Like, you've been good, Jesus, but when

does the big dog come out? That's what we're waiting on, like Jesus.

And then so Jesus looks at him, He's like, whoever has seen

me has seen the Father. What do you mean, Philip, how can

you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am

in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say

to you do not speak on my own authority. But the Father, who

dwells in me does his work. Believe me that I am in the Father

and the Father's in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

See Philip began in that moment to have a very twisted view of who

Jesus is and what Jesus is there to accomplish, Because as we engage and

get to know Jesus, you begin to see God the Father face to face

all the more, and to know the life in ministry and miracles, of

Jesus is to know the heart of the Father. And so what Philip's trying

to do is he's trying why you surp for the big Man? And what

Jesus is trying to say is we're unified. If you see me, you

have seen the Father. I want you to do me a favor. If

you have your cell phone out the one time you can use your cell phone.

Okay, you can pull it out. I'm just kidding. Half of

the people been Instagram this halftime half the time. So but you can use

it out. You'll pull out your cel phone real quick and pull out whatever

web browser you use, so you know, use Safari or Chrome or whatever

like that, or if you know you're a bit fallen and you have an

Android, whatever android people use to search the internet. God bless you guys.

You can send all complaints to Pastor Nathan his email is it. No,

go to your browser and then go to Google dot com. Go to

Google dot com. And then once you get to Google dot com. I

just want you in the browser not to not to put anything other than just

put in Google a skew skw. It's up on the screen as well,

a skw. Put that in your Google browser and then hit ter and then

I want you to want you to do it. I want you to scroll

up and down in the browser, want you to see if you notice anything

unique about your Google browser. It gets crooked, it's a little askew,

it's a little off centered. Some stuff is on the page, some stuff

is off the page. The more you scroll down, the more a skew

it gets. It just so happens that a board engineer at Google decided that

whenever someone would google a skew, that not only would it tell them what

a skew is, it would show them what a skew means is that it's

off, it's a little off. And so oftentimes what happens is because of

us, because we're just a little we're a little crooked. Sometimes we we

just we're on the page, we're off the page. In our faith,

we just you know, instead of instead of just talking about being a skew,

we just show ourselves to be excused, like we just sometimes we're there

and sometimes we're not. So sometimes we pray and sometimes we don't. Sometimes

we read and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we go to church and sometimes we

don't. And what happens is is we wonder to ourselves, we think to

ourselves, you know, the way that God is defined in my life and

who God is, I think there's something wrong with him. Like, no,

there's something wrong with us. We've just been a skew. We're a

little crooked, you know, and we find ourselves off the page. And

so it's not it's not an issue with God. It's an issue like Philip

with my belief. Like Philip saying, hey, when when do I get

to meet the big Man Jesus? Like you've bet the big man? What

are you talking about? Like when you talk to me, I am here

and the Father are one, not one beings, but they're unified in thought,

They're unified in principle, they're unified in what they came to accomplish together.

And so what Jesus says is, like Philip, your thought about who

I am and what I'm here to do just a little skewed. It's a

little skewed. And he says this, we are one and we believe the

same thing. And then Jesus says, and if you don't believe that,

then why don't you believe all of the works I've done? But you look

and survey how good I have been. And sometimes when I find my faith

a little askew and a little crooking, what I need to do is I

need to just pause and I just need to remember how good God has been

to me, how far the Lord has brought me to where I'm at today.

I see to say, God, it may look ugly right now,

but Man, you have been good to me. And even more than that,

you are also being good to me. You are preparing a place for

me. You have a namesake for me in heaven, and for that I'm

thankful. And a lot of people don't understand why do I need to go

to Jesus to attain salvation? Because the Father sent his son to die for

us. Why would there be any other opportunity to attain heaven out side of

the son if the Father sent his son to die. Jesus is the way

to salvation because Jesus is the only one who sacrificed for us the way he

did, And so we have to honor the Son in the way that says,

I follow you, Jesus, and as I see you, I can

see the Father. So further. It was a couple of years ago.

I know many times, even myself, I fall for this. I think

because someone's like a pastor or religious leader, I don't I think they're perfect,

you know, Like so I think that they've never done anything wrong before,

they don't have bad moods or anything like that. I mean, I

may be a pastor, but I look at other pastors and I think,

oh man, they're so awesome, They're so amazing. And it just so

happened. There was a pastor that I was a big fan of. I

had watched his stuff, I'd seen his stuff online and I'm like, man,

that guy's he just does great stuff. And blah blah blah blah blah.

I happen to be at a conference he was speaking at. I have

another friend, a pastor friend that's like really close with him, and so

I told my pastor friend, Hey, I'm gonna be at this conference.

He said, Oh, my friend pastor so and so is there, and

he says, if you see him, tell him that we're friends and tell

him hello, and I'm sure he'll talk with you, and blah blah blah

blah blah. I'm like, oh man, great. So there was a

break in the conference and I worked up my courage, and I went up

to this pastor that I look up to, and I said, hey,

Pastor so and so, my name is Adam Mesa, a pastor over in

Rancho Cucamonga. Your good friend so and so told me to come and say

hi to you if I saw you. And the guy looks at me and

he says, I don't care. Now here's the thing. Okay, So

I'm a Christian, I'm a pastor myself. I may have a church in

Rancho Cucamonga. But here's the thing. Depending on the crowd, I'll either

introduce myself because you know, Rancho Kuku Maunga could be a little boogie nowadays.

Okay, So, so I may live in Rancho Cucka Manga, but

when I got to make a point, oftentimes I'll set I'm from sam Berndino

County. That's usually what it is, right I say, I say,

I'm from sam Bernardino County. I was born in West Cooke, Dina.

That like, if I have to like emphasize something like that, and then

if I want to add a cherry on top, I say, and my

dad was raised in East La Like that's the like, that's the like,

Hey, I could go there if I need to go there, okay.

And so in that moment, I'm thinking to myself, he musta not have

heard where I'm from, because in that moment I say, I said I'm

from Rancholl, Cuckomonga. It was the wrong introduction. She'll let him know.

So he says that I don't care, and so I just say,

okay, nice to meet you, sir. I didn't morrow anything. I

felt stupid, That's what I felt. And so I walk away. I'm

thinking to myself, man, that was rude. You know, the sam

Bernardino County wanted to come out really fast, but but you know, I

was out of our state. I don't I don't know any police officers in

that state or anything like that. So I had to play it cool.

I had to play it cool. It just so happened. A few years

later, one of that pastor's friends, who's good friends with Pastor Diego,

my dad reached out to him and said, Hey, one of my good

friends happens to be in the area on a certain day. He has an

open availability to preach. Would you like to have him preach at your church?

Now? At this time, my dad don't know what happened at all.

So my dad texts me and says, hey, do we have room

on the on the on the space to have one of my friend's friends come

preach at the church. And so I messaged Pastor Diego back and I said,

hey, listen, I'm cool if you want to have him. But

here's the story of what happened. I met him one time. I introduced

myself and he responded and said I don't care. And so then Pastor Diego

responded, got you. He reached out to his friend and he said this,

your friend disrespected my son. He disrespected my son, he disrespected me.

We don't got no space on our calendar. I'm sorry, he ain't

gonna be able to come cuz you mess with the son, you mess with

the father. You disrespect the son, you disrespect the father. And so

I don't have to worry about nothing now. Passor Diego said, if your

friend would like, if he remembers that moment, if he'd like to apologize

and make amends. I mean, we're still believers, we can still we

can still forgive and walk. But as of right now, that's the last

guy we met. The jerk. That's the guy that's not rocking with us.

But it was the perspective to say, hey, Passard Diego has never

personally met that person. But the way you treat the son is the way

the Father sees himself being treated. And so there's gonna be a lot of

people one day standing before God who didn't treat the Son right. Gonna be

a lot of people standing before the Father one day who didn't ever look the

Son in his eyes. There's gonna be a lot of people that stand before

God one day and recollect on all the charities they gave towards and all the

prayers they prayed, and all of the times they fasted for their religion or

did whatever they do. But if they don't go through the son, if

you don't honor the son, if you don't believe in the Son, if

you don't have faith in the Son, if you don't believe Jesus paid for

it all, if you don't believe Jesus died for you, if you don't

believe Jesus resurrected for you, if you don't believe Jesus has forgiven you,

then the Father does not recognize what we refuse to go to the son too.

And so there is hope, there is forgiveness, there is a future,

and there is a peace. But it is only found through Jesus.

And to see Jesus, and to know Jesus is to know the Father,

because they are one in principle, they're one in unity, they're one in

Godhead. And so to know Jesus is to know the Son. I want

you to look at someone to tell them I know the Son. Look at

the other person you don't like as much that you didn't turn to, and

let it. Let them know too, you know the Son. All right,

let's close with this. The last bad attitude of faith that we have

as we close is we carry an attitude and faith of famine. It's a

famine mentality. It's a famine of faith that I'm always gonna lose out on

things. I need to take as much as possible because I never know when

I'm gonna get it again. It's this, it's this idea that Saint Augustine

the Hippo, one of the great church fathers, said, find out how

much God has given you, and from it take what you need. The

remainder is needed by others. And so if you need peace, take peace.

But give it to some to someone else. Don't hoard all the peace.

If you need forgiveness, take forgiveness, but share it with someone else.

If you need love, take love, but don't hog it all to

yourself. Give it to someone else. God has given us, and Jesus

has fulfilled all things to us, it says in verse twelve. With this

last stop truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me

will also do the works that I do, And greater works than these he

do, he will do because I am going to the Father. Whatever you

ask in my name, I will do this so that the Father may be

glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I

will do it. You see what Jesus is talking about right here is he's

not talking about to end every one of your prayers within Jesus name and it's

yours. He's not saying all you have to say is God, I would

love a Lamborghini in my driveway in Jesus' name. Amen, I asked for

it in his name. It's done. He said, he'll give it.

No, that's not what Jesus is talking about. What Jesus is saying is

he's saying, whatever you ask in his name, that what that glorifies the

Son, he will do it. Not everything we ask, and not everything

we pray for endeavors to glorify the Son. Some things look to endeavor to

glorify ourselves, to build up ourselves. So what Jesus is saying is when

you and I are in alignment with God's purpose, in God's will, God

is looking to release all of his resources to you. That's not just financial

blessing that comes blessing in life, that comes in blessing in peace that comes

with blessing of purpose. And what the reality is is the more I lean

into the sun and the more I look to glorify the sun, the more

I can see God active and activated in my life. In other words,

it's best in this phrase as we close. Right moments lead to healthy movement,

and unhealthy motive leads to muddy moments. We'll say it again. Right

moments lead to healthy movement and an unhealthy motive leads to muddy moments. Let

me expand on that. As I've been married, if I go to my

wife, there's many times my wife will have a very busy day and she'll

have been very busy week, kids, school, work, everything, everything.

I see she's exhausted. But what you imagine with me, if you

will? If I said, hey, baby, I love to take you

out on a date tonight, she says, yeah, I've been a little

tired, but I'd like that too. That sounds nice. So I come

home, I bring her flowers, I get her car door for us,

I give her some chocolates. I pull up to the restaurant, I get

her chair out, I set it down. We get a meal, and

I get her dessert. And then I get home and I say, it's

so babe, you want to I want to put the kids to bed and

we want to have some alone time. And she says, you know,

baby, I just like I said, I'm so tired, thank you for

today, but I just I want to get some rests maybe tomorrow or something

like that. And then I go like this, man, see see I

do all that stuff for you. I take you out to dinner, I

buy you chocolates. It cost me four hundred dollars today, and you can't

you can't do nothing. What did I just reveal? My motive? My

motive. I wanted a healthy moment, a moment, a healthy moment was

for her to everything to go the way she wanted, everything the go way

I wanted. But the problem was my motive was completely unhealthy. I said,

I'm stepping into this not because this is my wife and she's had a

busy week and I would love to get some rest and get her a meal.

It's the I want something, I need something, and so I'll do

whatever it takes until I get what I want. If I don't, then

I'm gonna throw a fit. And so what happens is an unhealthy motive leads

to muddy moments, usually leads to arguments on lack of clarity, lack of

direction. But what happens is is when I pursue a healthy moment with it

with the right motive, then I can actually see healthy movement. And there's

a lot of times that we come to church and we start a relationship with

God with the wrong motive. The motive goes, God, I got this

list of things I need you to do. I will go to church,

I'll read my Bible. I'll even go to that men's sprint God. But

at the end of it, at the end of it, if I don't

get what it is that I need from you. I don't know that I'm

gonna continue this relationship. Happens all the time. It happens all the time.

I'll see people at the mall and I'll say, oh my gosh,

it's so good to see and they're hiding behind the blinds or whatever it is.

I say, Yo, it's so good to see you. I say,

where you've been. I don't even ask them why they don't go to

church anymore. They just they just tend to offer that and they'll say,

oh, you know, you haven't seen me at church in a while,

because we just tried that for a season and we didn't get anything out of

it. And then I'll go Church wasn't meant for you to get anything out

of it. Church is meant for you to put something into it. Church

has meant for you to give worship to God, who has created you and

redeemed you and saved you and has given you a life. It's not meant

for you to say, Okay, God, time to dance. So I

did everything I did. I got rid of Tupac, I got rid of

jay Z, I get rid of but Yonce. I'm listening to these weird

Christian people on ninety point one. I'm doing everything that I gotta do.

God can't stand eighty nine point seven, But I'm listening to it. If

I listen to that one worship song over and over one more time. But

God, I'm doing it for you when you're gonna meet me. It's unhealthy

motive. It's unhealthy motive. And what happens is is Jesus begins to encourage

Philip and Thomas to say, Hey, ah, I mean, there's a

lot I could do for your anxiety and your anxiousness when I'm gone, But

the only way you could do it is by receiving me. And we know,

according to Aks, that it's by the gift of the power of the

Holy Spirit that can give us the peace that we truly need. What we

have to do is we have to begin to correct our motive. Why do

I worship God in the first place? Is it because of who he is

and what He's done in my life? Or is it because of what I'm

trying to get out of him? Because che transformation in us happens when we

follow him. That's why Jesus says he's the truth and the life. He's

three things you need a way He's the way you need truth for your life,

he has truth. And if you need life desperately, he has life.

It's all found in Jesus. Let's pray this afternoon. God, we

thank you so much for this message today, Father God, I pray Lord

that you radically transform our hearts today, Lord, to know you and see

you in our life every single day. God, may we make room and

make space for other people the way Jesus you have prepared a space for us.

God. May we continue to walk out of here not living an anxious

or an anxiety filled life. God, but to truly know there's no place

for frantic or frenzy mentality, There's no place for famine. Today, Father

God, may we truly truly leave this place and follow you with a sincerity

of heart. Jesus, the one who's truly the Way, the truth,

and the life in Jesus name. Amen and Amen. If you give me

just two more minutes, we're gonna leave here together. I love to in

bite you today. You've never given your life to Jesus Christ, and you've

never confessed Jesus has your personal Lord and savior. I encourage you today be

the day that you say yes. No one can bribe you, force you,

or convict you to follow Jesus as the Holy Spirit speaks to you today

and encourage you to find a life in Jesus. Only you can make that

decision to say God, I desperately want a relationship with you. And as

in we engage with Jesus today through his death, burial, and resurrection.

The Bible in Romans chapter ten, verse nine and ten says that if we

confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our heart

that he rose from the grave, the Bible says you will be saved.

So there's hope in a future found in Jesus, and it's found in saying

God, I have fallen short of your glory, and I have sinned,

and I repent of those sins, and I choose to make Jesus my Lord

and savior. Here today. And so if you're here today and you're ready

to take that next step in confession of faith, then right now all of

us are going to join you in saying a prayer. By no means is

the prayer the thing that saves you. The Holy Spirit is already speaking to

you what we're doing through this prayer is we're affirming the work of God in

our lives, and so family, whether you're in the court, cafe,

are in this place, would you join me in saying this prayer out loud,

as many people will be saying this for the first time in their life.

Would you join me in saying, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment,

I confess you as Lord and Savior. I believe in my heart that

you died on the cross and you rose three days later. From this day

forward, I repent to my sins and I commit to follow you for the

rest of my days. In Jesus' name. Amen.