Beyond the Letter || Night 8 || ALFC Fresh Start

Welcome to the Lesse Podcast. Here at LC we seek the loss, teach

the found, and send the disciplis. We truly hope you're encouraged by this

week's message. Today we had Pastor Aaron joining us, who leads our Pomona

campus over here, the one of with the you know, with that nice

corn rolls or something I wish I could. I wonder do I have enough

hair up here? Your wife does it? My wife is my braider.

I didn't know Latina's could braid like that, you know, like that's that's

nice diversity YouTube. And then we got Pastor Diego, our founding pastor,

joining us tonight, and then myself Adam, you know, lead pastor,

so we didn't have to cheer. It's okay, No, it's good to

see you guys. So let's go ahead and jump in. As always,

we try to take in as many questions as possible within kind of the allot

of time that we get, but we also try not to overwhelm it at

the same time. So today I know we have one live person, and

so why don't you go ahead introduce yourself and then give us your live question

tonight. Hello, my name is George. My question is more of a

need of advice. I'm trying to live a lifestyle closer to my faith,

but my closest friends are worldly. They talk about worldly things like there's desire

to cheat on their spouse or sleeping around. What do you recommend I should

do? How can I live on them and steer them on the right direction

and try to get them closer to God? Yeah, that's a great question,

George. Thank you so much for also asking it live as well.

We always love it being asked live and takes a lot of honesty to come

and ask a question like that, which you're not alone. This very common

question that many people ask in their faith at some point because they come to

a crossroads a lot of times in our faith. So I'll that pastor Dieg

or pastor Air and try to add input to it too, and then I'll

tack on if either of them have something on it. Well, again,

I want to personally commend you, because not everybody is bothered by their friends'

lifestyles. H They pattern each other, they mirror each other, but then

they just say that I'm a Christian now and they're not a good witness or

not as the Bible says a good light to them or the salt, and

so you know, the these so these friends appreciate the fact that you don't

judge them and appreciate the fact that you're you're still participating with them, But

the reality is it affects your witness. And then when they you know,

it's very improbable that they'll ever come to faith because your lifestyle really doesn't back

up what you're saying. So you know, I commend you for being at

the place where I don't want to live that lifestyle, but I also don't

want my friends quote unquote to go to Hell. I love them enough.

So the reality is is the greatest, like what we're preaching on Sundays,

it's your story. It's your story. That's the greatest influence and witness that

you could tell them is when they see the kind of guy that you used

to be and the changes that Christ has made in your life, and how

these lifestyles and these these habits and these whatever words we want to give language

to have changed in your life and you're headed in a whole new direction.

For a minute, there they think it's a fad. For a minute there

they could criticize you for a minute there they can not be moved by it,

but you live long enough in front of them, they're start saying,

man, I know this guy and he's totally different, and yet he still

loves me, you know, and he don't party with me, don't cuss

with me. You know, he doesn't do what we used to do.

And now they're they're in a place because the Holy Spirit is using your lifestyle

to convict them. They want that change too. So the greatest thing you

could do is live the life, live the life for Christ that you know

you should do. Number two, pray for them. Somebody prayed for you,

so don't ever quit on them and get discouraged. And number three is

just continue to invite them to church or into fellowships where you know ministry is

going to take place or you know Christian faith is going to be discussed.

And that would be my answer to you. Yeah, that's good. What

I would add on would I would add on kind of as well. And

it's something that I kind of live by more and more and I kind of

share with people as well, especially maybe in your shoes, my shoes,

other other situations before where you're kind of dealing with people and we'll get to

it, because I know we have questions about in a moment as well.

But like I currently kind of walk by more of a model right now that

that helps me walk in gray. So the first one is hungry, Hyhena's

hurt. That's just what I repeat to myself. Hungry Hyhena's hurt. So

a Hyhenas those little dog things from Lion King, and they're always nipping at

each other. They're always hurting each other. They're always like they're selfish,

they looking out for themselves. They talk. So when I look, I

go man, hungry Hyhena's hurt. Like if if I'm hanging around Hyhenas,

at some point, I'm gonna get nipped, Okay, Like at some point

some some of them bite me or it's gonna affect me negatively, right,

So that could be with either someone who's hurt you or if also you're with

unbelievers who don't have a certain grace that at some point, at some point,

you know, this is where my second model with this goes is be

careful who you let lick your wounds, because that kind of goes into the

same thing because if if the loudest voices in my life are people who aren't

have the same relationship as God as me. Then what happens is if I

fool, if I say they're my loudest voice, then if I let them

lick my wounds, at some point they're gonna be like, you know,

man, I don't know how you remain faithful your wife. I don't know

how you do it. And then at some point, if you hear the

enough, you'll go home and be like, why why am I faithful to

my wife? Why am I? And so to me? You have to

have this balance. James chapter five or sixteen talks about going to your brothers

and sisters confessing your sins. So there should be a relationship with other believers

who can hold it down for you. So that almost as if, like

almost as if as you come to church, there's a place where you get

built up and you get ready to go about in the world. But you

don't go into the world to get built up because because if you do that,

then what happens is is those those relationships are going to start to negative

affect you. I hear it all the time with men, man, my

friend, my friends are my friends. I know how to filter it out

and then next thing, you know, I get a text that says,

hey, are you available for counseling because me and my wife where we look

like we're not gonna make it. I'm like, I thought you told me

six months ago that you were good and your friends had no effect on you

and your wife's relationship. But at some point you end up soaking those things

in because if you have your friends, you keep bringing your hurt if they

don't have the same belief system. That's where First Corinthians fifteen thirty three is

famous for. Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. That doesn't mean you can't

like have friendships and you can't share the gospel and be a light to them.

But if they're your sources, if they're your only source of strengths,

that's where you can kind of get into some some struggled water because now you

don't have anyone that can build you up, and you only have people that

don't know what it is that you're going through. And so when you're like,

yeah, man, I just got gets to church on Sunday, they're

like why why why just hang out a little longer tonight on a Saturday night?

Like no, because this is important for me. This is where I

get built up, is where I get this is where I get recharged and

renourished. And so having Christian friends as the loudest voice will help you to

kind of be that light that you need to be. You know, there

was a time one time where me and my wife got really close to a

couple that was really having a struggling marriage, and the difference between us and

them was in their struggling marriage, they never admitted they would say they would

say like, yeah, we're struggling, and we would know why and all

that stuff, but they never said they want to do better. There they

were okay with where it was at. And me and my wife found that

every time we hung out with them, we argued the next day like cats

and docks every time we hung out with them. And I was like,

Babe, I think we got to peel back as often as we're hanging out

with them, because they're not even saying they want to do better, and

we're fighting in the same way With me when I would by myself hanging out

with unbelievers a lot, the next day, all of a sudden, you

know, an f bomb started sticking in my head. All of a sudden,

I started rolling my eyes at people more and stuff like, Man,

I'm more of a sponge than I thought I was. You know, I'm

more susceptible to this thing than I thought I was. I'd all of a

sudden be like, find myself. Oh what was that song they were playing

the other day in their house, And I'd start listening to be like,

I don't even listen to secular music. Why am I listening to this song?

So I found I find myself. I got'd be very careful with what

I sponge and who I let lick my wounds. And so that's just to

me, that's just some encouragement to say, continue to love them, Countine

Priest of Gospel, but also be weary in your own walk that you're making

sure that you have some healthy relationships. Neighborhood groups, neighborhood groups, neighborhood

groups. I mean, that's why we preach about those so hard, because

you need that core of believers. Don't mean believers won't hurt you too,

but trust me, you're gonna need it in the church as well, you

know. So thanks George. All right, let's go to the next question

that we have let's go. Now they're up on the screen. I'm extremely

church hurt. Are tapping a lot. There were a few people are about,

but maybe three or four people right past or Aaron that that kind of

had exactly the same question one way or another. I'm extremely church hurt in

one way or another they had this. I'm trying to submit to the Lord,

but it's just so hard. I'm trying to stay at the church still

because my family attends there, I was born there, but the leaders have

hurt me deeply. What do I do? So there's one of those cases

of someone that is watching us somewhere online and they're speaking about their church that

they're at in particular, and so do uh either of you want to?

I see you really thinking about it. But I'll give some some starting perspective.

I think we have principles that that guide the particular. So a particular

situation is that the church leader hurt this in individual. But if you look

at the principle, what do we do with hurt? We go to Matthew

eighteen and Matthew eighteen is an attempt to reconcile. But if you can't reconcile,

what Matthew eighteen says, if you go to your brother who sends against

you, go to him alone and share your fault with him. But if

you look right before that passage, it talks about how Jesus leaves the one

for the ninety nine. Then it talks about how we are to treat the

one who offends us. A lot of times when we're offended, we don't

go to the one, We go to the ninety nine and gossip, so

that's what ends up happening. But it says, go to the one who

hurts you, and if that person repents, you've gained your brother. But

if that doesn't work, you keep reading Matthew eighteen because it's a parable about

someone who had to settle accounts. And what that looks like is if you

cannot reconcile, you forgive. Because I think the question is more broad than

what do I do with my church membership at this local church, Because even

if you go to a different church, you're going to take you with you.

So if you're holding on to an offense, forgiveness is not depended upon

the one that offended you. Forgiveness is dependent upon you and God. Reconciliation

is depended upon God, you and the and the person that offended you.

That's what Matthew eighteen is for. So I would encourage anyone that's church hurt

or anybody that's hurt. Period. We follow the principles of Matthew eighteen.

We go to our brother, we go to our sister, and we let

them know the offense. If reconciliation is not possible, then we keep reading

Matthew eighteen and we talk about forgiveness, because forgiveness is how we settle the

account. I can't I can't settle the relationship, but I can settle the

account. The resolution is now I'm no longer offended and I can move on.

So I don't have the relationship with the person talk through the details of

that, but God expects us to forgive, whether the person is repentant or

not. Yeah, so I'll do a little bit with your scenario there.

If I'm reading this right, the person that I'm approaching that has offended me

is church leadership. We don't know if that's an elder, a deacon,

the pastor. Okay, so now I'm laying to peer volunteers, and now

I'm gonna go to them and tell and tell them and it just it doesn't

go well. They don't they don't receive it. There's no repentance, there's

defensiveness at what then tell me what I'm supposed to do? You know,

I forgive them, I'm not holy bitterness in my heart. But tell me

what I'm supposed to do. I'm i supposed to stay in that church because

that's the concern. The parents go there or is it a separation? What

do you? How do you guys me? And that? So in that

scenario, I forget. So let's say you've hurt me, Yeah, has

pastor over hurt you? Opening up a counseling appointment. So let's just play

out two months ago. I'm just kidding. So we haven't reconciled in our

relationship. Biblically, I don't believe that I'm permitted to leave a church that

God has assigned me to. What I think about is all the Christians that

were under Paul's leadership, and they knew Paul's pass So I know that there

were some Christians that are probably like, wait, why is he our pastor?

That was a reality that we had to deal with. At the same

token, I don't think that person is wrong if they've gone through Matthew eighteen,

they have sought reconciliation, it's not possible they have forgiven, but their

gifts are starting to not be utilizing that church and they want to go to

another church. As long as they've communicated to the leadership and that pastor understands

that they're released, I think that's fine. Yeah, it's a it's a

You know, these these are really tough because you don't know the specifics of

the situation. So when people say church hurts, what are you let's define

what you mean. Somebody didn't say hello to you. Is that a church

hurt. Somebody didn't ordain you when you felt like you needed to be ordained,

or was there a some level of abuse of authority? You know,

and you know somebody shamed you, embarrassed you. That's a whole n So,

you know a lot of people hide behind church hurt, you know,

as much as hide behind I just want a divorce because of something petty,

and it happens within the church. They're divorce seen or leaving over something petty.

But if it is viable, I mean, there is actual falls doctrine

being preached, sexual immorality going on, abuse, a membership of self glorification,

going on, not handling money. Right, then my answer to you

is run, flee, lead, forgive, pray, but go get planet

again, Go get fed, and go be in a healthy environment. Respect

your parents and tell them why you have to do what you have to do.

But yeah, yeah, I have an example of that where I've given

advice to that, and I give advice to anyone who, you know,

if they feel like there's no heart for reconciliation from a church, volunteer leader

or whatever in the sense that now whether you agree with the outcome or not,

right. But but I had someone call one time who who knew someone

say, hey, they need They may they love the church that they're at,

but there's a lot of abuses and and they're just so every Sunday they

come, it's just broken hearted by the abuse and can't. Can my friend

call you as another pastor and get advice. They lived hours away. I

said, yeah, I'd be happy to do that. And I called the

person in the and the and the young woman begins to say to say,

at my church, there's this, like you know, there there is abusive

authority. And one of their recent example, one of their not resents having

years ago. One of their examples were that they were, you know,

had to give the pastor put water on the on their podium and thank thankfully

for us, we have a LEFC water that's alkalized and very healthy and good

for you, per per you and stuff like that. But so we can

go fill it up in the in the cafe in any time or anything.

But uh, but they gave this example, say, I put, I

put a desaunty water, and then I began the desauny water got taken off

the table, and then I got yelled at and said that the pastor will

only drink glass vase water on the table, and they made me leave the

service, go to the grocery store, spend my own money to buy a

boss water and replace it. In the middle of the message. I am

so hurt. I told them I was hurt from this, you know,

Can I seek out another church? And my honest advice was, if they

make a mountain out of that molehill, I can only imagine what all the

other things could be. Yea. And so if you've articulated to them that

this is kind of ludicrous and I don't think this is writer and anyway and

it feel like it's abusive authority. I personally believe that's abusive authority. Then

then I highly recommend if the Lord releases you and you let them know,

because I think it's always big to let them know, then you should seek

somewhere else out And they did, and then they ended up going to another

friend of mine's church, and now they're thriving and healthy and feel so safe

under that leadership. And I think that's a great example of you know,

the you know, that's why the Book of Revelations and other path and other

letters to the church exists. Because we are imperfect people and there are imperfect

leaders, and people will fail you and the Church will fail you, but

Christ will never fail you. God will never fail you. And so the

quicker we can, as hard as it may be, sometimes the quicker we

can wrap our head around that notion to say God didn't fail me. People

failed me. God doesn't God doesn't gossip about me. God doesn't ridicule me.

People did that. And either you can push through it in the community

you currently are and deal with what that would look like. Or because we

see that a lot with divorce, there sometimes divorces happen in church and one

person feels like a group of volunteers take one person's side over the other.

That kind of stuff is very common that happens, and it's like if you

could push through that and you can still root yourself and God will be so

fruitful in that. But if you feel like you know me and Pastor Dango

happens all the time. Friends will call and say, hey, man,

I'm gonna send uh you know, one of my head volunteers. Why starting

to go to your church because there's a separation at their church and they really

need a safe place to fellowship. We say, man, bring them over

here, we'll cover them, we'll look after them. We've called other pastors

said the same thing. So that those kind of realities do exist. And

what we want to see is we want to see a person get into become

healthy again, you know. And for us, that's part where our forward

classes come from really help people with those type of things, whether it be

through their personal life or their church life. But that's where we have some

of those programs here at the church that would kind of really help you face

some of those either church hurt or someone personally hurt you. Our forward Class

really does begin to tap into some of those things. I encourage you to

look into that when our next forward classes and you could you could do that

at the website and teams amazing with that. And you have some smaller churches,

not all the smaller churches where they're highly influenced, and people get self

condemned when they think I can leave because there's such manipulation within that church.

They feel condemned to leave that they you know, are a Benedict Arnold to

the ministry and they just got to recognize that's not a healthy environment. And

the Kingdom of God is so much bigger than one particular church. Yeah,

yeah, yeah, that's great. Okay, let's go to question number three.

What do we have? I just want to know if God would be

mad at me because I don't read the Bible every day. I read,

I read my morning and evening prayers, and I pray to myself. I

think they mean they pray to them with themselves. But I just want to

know if He gets mad at me, and if he would forgive me.

Thank you very much, great honest question. Uh uh, What I would

say? First, I'll say this is first first Samuel chapter sixteen, Verse

seven says, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his

appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance,

but the Lord looks at the heart. And so part of that statement

that I would highly, highly focus on is this fact of does God forgive

me? You know that that already is a person who has a very sincere

heart when it comes to their relationship with God. And we are we are

deeply imperfect people that I wish we could all walk out our faith the way

we all would hope to walk out on paper every single day. But that's

not always the reality. Like there are gonna be times where you're gonna lose

your anger. There's gonna be times where you're not reading your Bible. There's

gonna be times where you may not even be praying, you may not even

seek God. That that's not something conscious. You're not doing it because oh

I reject you, Lord, or I reject this. It's the it's the

fact of oh wow, like I'm I sin, I'm a person of flesh.

But what God is really looking at, according to Roman chapter two,

like he's looking at your heart. What happens when you recognize these things?

What when I say, Man, Lord, I've gone three four days without

reading my word. I've gone a week without talking to you God, I

need to start that right now. That that's as signed repentance is a fancy

way of saying turning the other direction. So what it seems to me and

this question is you have a desire and you are often turning the other direction.

You're saying, Lord, this is how it ought to be, and

I'm not meeting that. Mark. Well, welcome to really realizing what this

relationship with Jesus is. Because if I ever met someone who ever said I

got this Christianity thing figured out, I mean, oh, I'm self sacrificial.

I carry my own cross every day. I never said a bad thing.

I've never been unforgiving towards anyone. I go to church fifty two days

out of the year. In fact, I double dip on Wednesdays. I

don't watch TV. I mean, you're just talking about a complete monk.

You know. I'd be like, you might have some pride, you might

have some of that, you know, you might have some narcissism. Somewhere

in there like and so that that to me would be way more concerned.

Famously, you know, young believers always come to me and go pastor Adam,

how do I know that I'm saved? And I always say because people

who are unsaved don't ask that question. That's how you know. Unbelievers don't

ask, am I a believer? They don't believe, They reject God until

the time that they respond to him and love him. And so the very

fact that you have concerned where you're at your relationship with God, truly,

I want to encourage you like you're you're headed down a healthy path. And

I just always encourage a believer. Just be better than you were last year.

Be better than you were last year. You know, it just continually

grow in the same way. And it's just like if you go to the

gym and someone says, I want to bench press three hundred, Well you're

not gonna bench press three hundred right now when you've never bench pressed before.

But maybe in five to six years, if you were consistent, you could

get to that place. And I know when I first became a believer,

I grew up next to you know, my dad over here. He'd be

up at four am and pray to six am. And I always told myself,

I don't know how I could be a Christian because I could never imagine

myself spending as much time with God as he does. But I was comparing

it to a kid who couldn't spend two hours doing anything, Yeah at all.

I couldn't do anything longer than ten minutes. Now, since the Lord

has saved me and I spent so many years with Lord, it conceptually makes

sense now because I've grown with the Lord in that way, and so I

could talk to God longer, i can read my Bible longer because I'm growing

in what it's like, what we like to say talking about Jesus. Jesus

grew in wisdom and stature as he aged, he grew in knowledge and favor,

and so that's kind of what that looks like. So I just want

to encourage you to keep that path, continue to have a love for God,

a softness Lord. And God is always forgiving. The Lord is always

forgiving anyone who got anything else on him. Yeah, I completely agree with

that, And I would just also compliment that there are different seasons where you

may be able to devote more time to reading, and in certain seasons you

can. I remember when I didn't have a job and I was just always

in the scriptures. And then I went to Bible school and I'm I'm just

chewing the scriptures all the time. And then once I started working again,

I was like, how can I get back to that season? And that's

not realistic. So as long as we are enjoying quality time with Jesus,

Jesus is good. Jesus delights in us. Jesus loves us Romans five as

says, while we were sinners, Christ died for us, so that means

we can't do anything more to receive more of his love. So I would

just say, just start enjoying the love that God already has for us.

And as we enjoy that love, that gives us an opportunity, like,

man, I'm gonna spend some time with Jesus. Whether it's five minutes or

fifty minutes. God just wants a heart that's open to spend quality time.

When I spends quality time with my wife, one of the best things is

that we don't have to have an agenda. I just want to be next

to my wife, and that's how God is with us. Like we do

we move our phones, do we move our distractions? And do we just

enjoy the God who loves us? And that would say that that would help

on the does God forgive us? And actually to help with thoughts like does

God forgive us? As you're spending quality time with Jesus and you're growing in

that. Paul says in Philippians, I pray that your love grows more as

you grow in knowledge. So as you have more knowledge about the God that

we serve, we recognize absolutely God. He not only does he forgives us.

Sometimes we're talking to God about things that he chooses not to remember or

he chooses not to think about. So as we just grow in that quality

time, it would just be beneficial for us to enjoy it, but also

not to have any condemnments. I was like, man, I haven't done

enough. Well, we could never do enough, and we didn't have to

do anything to deserve his love. It was his grace. Yeah, that's

great. Okay, let's what we got in the next one. Growing up

in church, I was always told by my parents to never miss church.

Is it bad to miss church? Like say, go on vacation. Maybe

some of y'all in hear our parents like this or something like that, go

ahead. It was I first came to ALFC Easter to twenty ten. Pastor

Diego gives a challenge, come to church a year straight and see what got

to do in your life. And I took that literally to the point where

I didn't want to miss church at all because I'm by nature a rule follower.

But now I understand the heart of what my pastor was saying. Hey,

just kind of like the question from earlier, the more you're around the

body of Christ, the more you'll become like the body of Christ. And

then what I recognize, I didn't have to come to church. I am

the church. So yes, now I do enjoy vacation because I am the

body of Christ, and the Body of Christ cares about my self care.

So it's not a condemning thing if you miss a Sunday because you go on

vacation. God wants us to enjoy ourselves. But we have disciplines to prioritize

church. But as we prioritize church and our values start to change, we

recognize I've missed church, but I'm not missing God. I'm still spending time

with God, and I'm a part of the body. Yeah, it's great,

you know what I think, But take your vacation. I mean,

if you're not feeling well, stay home. This is not a legalistic religion

where God is checking everything off, you know, and holding back blessings unless

you meet the highest standard there is. Because we've been saved by grace.

You'll never meet his standard. So yeah, God's not mad at you if

you if you don't read your Bible, and God's not mad if you if

you don't go to church. So yeah, that's all I gotta say about

that. Yeah, I mean I'm not here all the time, You're not.

Nobody's here all the time. Maybe a handful of people there all the

time. Yeah. Well, and you know, I think about there there

was a time when because I for me and you know, my studies of

theology, like I just geek out over church. So so I love the

I love the I love God's Church like I love it in all forms,

and so I love to see it in all forms, whether it's in Brooklyn

or Miami or in England, Like I want to see how the church runs

and operates, and I kind of I love seeing that. And so you

know, there was a season early on in my marriage where whenever me and

my wife would go on vacation, I would have us go to church.

And there was a time because she really felt like if she vocalized this,

she wouldn't be a real Christian. Is when she told me, Adam,

when we go on vacation, I don't want to go to church. I

don't want to spend that whole Sunday. And I really had to think about

what she meant by that, because at first you can say, oh,

you don't, you don't love God, you want to spend time with God,

and that's where the legalism comes. That's where that's where that kind of

perception comes. But if you think about it, when Jesus would ask Jesus

what are the greatest commandments, Jesus responds with two things. Love the Lord

your God with all of your heart, soul and strength. Love your neighbor

as yourself, two greatest commandments. So by proxy, everything that the acts

and on the body of the church is meant to do is to support you

and I to fulfill those things. That's that's that's the major cause of God.

To love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength,

and love your neighbor as yourself. And so if I take off one

weekend or two weekends or three weekends, I would say it becomes a bad

practice when those two commandments cannot be no longer fulfilled in your life. Okay,

if you have lost the heart and the desire and the culture to love

God with all of your heart, soul and straight because the Church, the

body is meant to help you feel that. One of the ways we love

our neighbors as ourselves is the Bible says that upon salvation, the Lord gives

us spiritual gifts. And so the way you're meant to enable and love your

neighbors to use your spiritual gifts. You know, you could be in Miami

and you could love your neighbor with your spiritual gifts. You know, you

could be in Texas and you could love the Lord your God with all of

your heart, soul and strength, and you could do that without going to

the four walls on a But why do the four walls matter on a regular

basis? Because we're not meant to do this alone. Anyone who does this

and reclusively does this alone ends up creating their own religion. If you ever

met a solo Christian before. They always stick out like a sore thumb because

you're like, man, I think you've created your own religion, Like,

and I've talked to people before in the church ought to be this the church.

I go, why don't you find that church? They tell me sometimes

that church doesn't exist. So christ Church the one that you have figured out,

there's not one in them, there's not one on the entire planet.

And they're like no, I'm like, well, wow, you were all

in trouble then, like this is very troubling. And so it's this idea

of like just fitting everything within a religious box. And that's where it can

become very dangerous because then what you've done, and we'll talk about it kind

of a second, what you've done is you've created an image of what a

Christian looks like and then you just put on that skin when you show up

to church on Sunday. And that's where that can become very dangerous, is

when it's just Okay, I just gotta hit these markers, I gotta read,

I gotta pray, and I gotta go to church. But nothing else

in your life is transformed in any way. And so so this idea of

they're being freedom in Christ's freedom, freedom to go on vacation, freedom to

rest. It's just unfortunate in the American standard nowadays, and average Christian goes

to church only once every three weeks, and so we're kind of dealing with

the opposite issue right now in America, not someone going to church every having

to go every week. We're having people that feel like they can live their

faith out by only going once a month pretty much, which is pretty hard

to do that. That's very difficult. So that's where we just encourage you

to find that healthy balance, find that healthy relationship with the Lord that helps

you love the Lord God and helps you love your neighbor. That's what that's

meant to do. And we all as a leadership team in a church and

all is not just to help you do it, but to help activate you

so that you could do it in God's church as well. None of us

are Christian by standards. God has called all of us off of the bench

to serve in his local church in that way as well. So that's the

biggest engagement I would say, on top of attendance is jumping into use your

gifts within the body of Christ in a deeper way. Let's go to the

next question. Let's do these few minutes we have. We got a couple

of minutes, so we'll rapid We'll rapid fire these couple ones. I struggle

with knowing when to tithe and how to be wise with my finances at the

same time. Sometimes I won't tithe because I would pay my bills first and

then only have enough money for food and gas. But I don't know if

that is how God wants me to treat his money. At the same time,

I want to be wise with money and have enough money for my necessities.

I don't know if I'm doing this out of fear of running out of

money, or if I'm doing everything backwards. What do you think I ought

to do? I'm gonna give us to the triple og pastor diego on this

one. Okay, Well, at the end of the day, the Bible

is the Bible, and it challenges us. It asks of us to tithe,

to take ten percent of our money, whether you choose to give gross

or whether you choose to net it. I don't think that's my personal conviction

that God is saying that gross is better than net. He wants you just

to give ten percent. Obviously, if you give gross and at the end

of your income tax, when you get that, you don't have to tithe

again. But if you do off a net, then when you get your

income tax, you're going to tithe off of that. So I just want

to say, it's clear about tithing. There's no there's no nothing found in

the Bible says I can tithe my time, which people want to do.

I'll tithe my talent. There it's tithing is related to money and giving ten

percent of your money. The reality is as we live in America where everyone

you know is in debt and loan tuition loans, and so I understand it's

very difficult for me to be in debt today, give my life to Jesus

tomorrow and then take ten percent when my paycheck doesn't even pay all my bills

and my creditors are waiting and I'm using credit cards to sustain myself. So

what so what is the out there? The out is is that you commit

God will honor your faith. You say, Lord, I want to work

to what you have asked me to do, which is ten percent I have

I'm going to stretch myself I'm going to use my faith and I'm gonna believe

God that this three percent, four and a half percent is something I'm going

to give every two weeks when I get paid, and I believe that promotion

will come my way, a salary increase will come my way. And my

proof to you that I want to honor your system is not to go buy

a bigger car or to go uh you know, in debt. More.

It is now to increase my tithe so that I can reach that ten percent

kind of thing. So that's what I would tell a person to do.

And there's so many other, so many other factors that are that are within

that you know for me when I when I I've been I got saved in

nineteen seventy eight, so I was just a junior in high school. But

by the time nineteen eighty king, I was already tithing. So so I've

been tithing now for forty two years and I have never missed ten percent of

my money. So I have a track record, and that track record is

based upon my conviction that this is true, that he would rebuke the devour,

devour open to me the windows of heaven, and I I told my

wife when I married her forty years ago, because she manages the finances,

and that's how I've chosen to run my household. I told her, if

you have to choose between paining a bill and pain the tithe, you will

pay the tithe. You will not pay the bill. Now that's my conviction.

I have the faith to back it up, and I will do whatever

I have to do to get a second and third job to make up the

difference. So you could see how how I would live out that conviction.

And I told her, if there ever gets a point where we cannot afford

a mortgage on a home and not pay our tithe, then we are going

to downsize and get a home that we can afford where we can pay our

tithe. Now that that is my conviction. I've lived that life forty years.

I've tested God, and God has proven himself. I've had I've had

a place where I made minimum wage and live that out and seeing God move.

So it's not like, oh, that's easy for you to say,

pastor because I see you wearing your fancy shoes. You don't know what I'm

going through. Listen, you don't know what I've been through. Neither and

so so there was a time when I had little babies and I made minimum

wage, but I held to this principle. So I just want you to

see that the truth is there, and God is not respect of her will.

He will fight your battles, he'll move mountains to confirm his word to

be true. But at the end of the day, yes, there comes

a point where you've got to trust God and you're gonna have to overcome that

fear. And that's why the only place in the Bible that this statement is

there is related to tithing and money, where he says, test me and

prove me and see if I will not open it. It's the only place

because he knew that the greatest test for every one of us today would be

the test of our money, whether we will trust God with ten percent.

Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Can I say one more thing, it's

not it's not there. Yeah, I know. But because people ask me

this all the time. They asked me this all the time, always ask

me gross and that, and I testing that. But the other other thing

they always asked was a pastor, can I take my tithe and give it

to other places, like give two percent to the Salvation army, Give two

percent to my grandma, give two percent to the church, give two percent

to an orphanage. And I tell them, no, you can't do that

Biblically, you you gave the generosity thing that it's God's storehouse. God's store

house is the place that you're being fed. If you if we said yes

to that, then let's all do that and see if these doors stay open

because you're giving money here. You're giving money giving So how do we How

do I have toilet paper to wipe your butt when you come on in here?

How do I have diapers when you you didn't bring enough diapers for your

baby? How do I give them cookies? God has a perfect law.

It has no inflation in it, and it has no increase in it.

He says ten percent will meet all the needs of the church. If everyone

does that, there'll be no needs. But when we start, you know,

subtracting from it, that's when now you have to have anniversary offerings.

You have to make pleads to people. You have to do that because the

bottom line is is that people are not tithing and giving their their ten percent

to the Lord. So it's an equal it's equal across the board. So

whether you make maximum wage or minimum wage, the ten percent applies across.

It's a perfect system to meet out all the needs. Can I I want

to elevate the wiz still practically that Pastor Diego is sharing. He said,

if you're not starting with ten percent, what can you start with? Because

a lot of times we say, okay, man, I can't give ten

percent, and that may be a reality, But what can you commit to

to just start the faith muscle? So it's just a it's a conversation with

God. God. I desire to be a tither, but I'm spending more

than one hundred percent of my income and that's That's some conversations I would have

with people that spend all of their paycheck and they're in credit card debt.

So is so to give ten percent, it's actually like seventeen percent swing because

seven percent of their money's and credit cards. So if I can't give ten

percent of my income, okay, God, you know what I'm gonna start

by committing to every time I get paid, I'm giving twenty five dollars.

Every time I get paid, I'm giving fifty dollars. Whatever that is between

you and the Lord and the Lord is patient, and the Lord is kind,

and like what Pastor Adam sitting in First Samuel sixteen, he honors our

heart. So we come to we come to Christ with situations. I came

here in twenty ten. I started tithing in twenty thirteen. But then I

would tip, if Pastor diego preach, I'll get more, you know.

So that's how I started. That's how I started. Oh, pastor's preacher,

we got the notes. Oh I'll get more today, you know,

I didn't know nothing. But at the same token, when you have a

discipline to say God, I want to please you, what is the start

line of your faith? Look like, what can you start committing to?

It be my question. Yeah, let's get I'll just had two things.

We're gonna do a series in November about about God and money because it's been

a long time since we've talked about how God views money in the Bible.

So the month of November as a church that that's what we're gonna be talking

about. So we have a lot of new believers asking questions not just and

again it's it's not about tithing to the church. It's it's about God's desire

for how we handle money. It's been said, if you do, if

you do a topic study in the Bible. Faith is talked about about seven

hundred times in the Bible, faith, which is something very common to all

of us. If I talk about faith, many of us would at least

have a ba base layer understanding of what that is. The Bible talks about

money and finances two thousand times in the Bible, three times as much as

faith. Because what happens is there's a there is a spirit of badmon and

there's a love of money that can easily happen with people. And so that's

why Pastor Diego is saying the Bible says, test me and see, because

that's the that's the thing we all think about every single day when we wake

up, is making money. It's covering, covering bills, food on the

table, it's money. And so the moment we trust God with it by

giving it, then that's what's the Old Testament is. Then what we're saying

is God, I trust you with my crops, I trust you with my

farm. I trust That's the difference between Genesis and the Book of Genesis.

And so why can enable why Able gave God his best tithe because he was

saying, God, I trust you with my sheep. So that's that parallel

in that same way. And then there may be some Bible nerds here say,

pastor Diego, you're talking about the Old Covenant, that's tithing. What

about the New Testament When the New Testament says an acts that the church gathered

everyone sold all of their things and gave it to the Church for God's kingdom

expansion, for the glory of God. And so you can choose which Covenant

you want to give towards. You give towards the Old Testament version, which

is ten percent, or the New Testament version, which is sell all of

your things and give it to the glory of God for evangelism. So you

pick which Testament that you want to fall into giving. And then that's why

Paul begins to then teach more and more that you decide in your heart on

what you want to give and give it cheerfully. Because in the Old Testament

and even still to this day in Judaism, every year at the top of

the year, you have to announce to the church what you will be given

giving for the year, and everyone holds you accountable to that number. And

so Paul said, we're doing away with that all that pressure or that community

pressure of you at the top. And then what would happen is the person

who gave the most, everybody would hand clap and they would worship and on.

But then also people would find out and come and ask them to help

with their bills on the side and everything like that. So that's why Paul

says, you just give quietly to yourself what you decide in your heart.

But as a church, we say, but there's a there's a there is

a maintenance in the Old Testament that says the great place to start is shooting

for ten percent. It's a great place to start. That is still true

to this day, whether whether Old and New Testament, it's a good place

to be at. We'll end with this question and leave here together, since

we got about five more minutes, and we'll leave here with time and I'll

have Pastor diego close this out. Hello, family, So I notice some

of our church attendees dress provocatively. No one look at anyone, and I

understand that some of them aren't saved. But for the ones who are and

continue to dress very revealingly. With the pastor ever addressed that to the church

to dress more modestly. Thank you so much. Well, there's a certain

level where you got me beat. I can't tell on a Sunday who's saved

and not saved, so not by anyone's actions, just by their appearance.

So somehow someone is making an audit on Sundays because they said, I understand

some people are unsaved, but those saved are still dressing provocularly. I don't

know how you've measured that. I don't know how how you've maintained that.

So you know better than I do. Okay. I will say this though,

as a church number one, if someone is is serving and on our

family team and in a position of authority or leadership or anything like that,

if if that were true, then then then it would have been addressed.

So so one of the elements within our church. So so so so we're

an evangelical church in the sense that we preach the gospel every single weekend.

We always into service with an altar call and invitation of faith to Jesus.

Because because we believe that the modern day church acts as a town hall to

the church today, so anyone is welcome to come into these doors. Everyone

is meant to feel welcomed in these doors. The deeper you go down into

the process of joining our church and being part of the family is when we

begin to disciple you and teach you deeper and deeper doctrines and so on.

Sunday, we don't we don't necessarily have a fashion police. We don't have

We also don't have a gang police. You know, there there are guys

that come in with three tear drops on their eyes, and we don't Our

security team doesn't pat check them before they come in because hear me, the

moment you start judging on outer appearances, we got to follow that through in

a lot of different areas. That doesn't just have a woman showing her clevelange.

So now we become some type of team that now is just looking for

anything. Now they're natural wisdom things we use for safety and security and all

stuff. But but there's an element where you say, hey, we welcome

anyone to come to these doors, whatever lifestyle you in, whatever you identify

as, whatever you look like, come here because we believe is we preach

the gospel, God is going to begin to transform your life. And when

God begins to transform your life, when the spirit moves, there's something inside

of you that's going to start to say, hey, there's something that's not

matching with what's going on. There's something that's not matching with the way I'm

living, or what I'm wearing, or what I'm doing. And just because

you and I can perceive someone in a seat and say, well, they've

been coming here for a year, I'm gonna assume that they're a Christian and

they're still dressing that way. We can't assume that they're a Christian because they've

been coming a year. I remember one time when I was the young adult

pastor, we had a young woman who got saved, and man, she

dressed as provocative as you can ever imagine. And she came to me and

my wife one day and she said, I got saved. I feel uncomfortable

with what I'm wearing, but my mom won't let me get new clothes.

She won't let me change new clothes. And so she said, well I'm

and my wife gave her some clothes that she had, but they were two

different sizes. So well, we began to do is encouragers just say okay,

well, as you could change your clothes if that's what you feel like

gods do. We never talked about it, we never shared about but we

do. We've had sermons before we talk about modesty and and and we've done

that and other things, talking about glamorizing our self, attention to ourselves.

But but when we said that, she begins, over the course of a

year to change her wardrobe. And then she came to us one Sunday and

she said, Pastor Adam and Ashley, Tonight, I'm going home and I

have a couple of friends and we're gonna burn all my old clothes and we're

gonna celebrate what God has done in my life. It took her years to

get to that point. You know, we have women that come to our

church that have only fans. We have we had, we had women that

come to our church that are strippers, we had. We have men that

come to our church that have those type of things too and do those type

of things too. And so what we want to say is we never want

to teach someone ever fix your outside before you fix your inside. It's the

last thing we ever want to do as a church. Last thing over twelve

years ago, the first time I became the youth pastor, I said I

said, I said, you may remember this. I said. What we're

gonna do is we're gonna stop telling the teenagers they can't sack their pants,

and we're gonna stop telling them to take off their hats. Because if they

come to church on Sunday and we tell them, as long as you're outside

a church, you could do whatever you want, but when you come in

here you got to look a certain way. Then what they're gonna learn is

they're gonna say, oh, Christianity has two sides to this thing. I

I can be what I want outside and then when I come in here,

it's all about putting something on. What I'd rather do is you come as

you are in here, let me disciple you, and let me get to

a place where now in the discipleship process, I say, hey, how

about we pick up your pants one of these days? What do you think

about that? Well, why do you think about that? Pastor Ma?

And I'd be able to explain and then yeah, you're right, Maybe begin

to pick up their parts. We started to see more students get off their

phones by us not even talking about it. Then when we would harp on

it every single week and so so so there's a certain degree where in our

church we want to take you through growth track, we want to get you

in neighborhood groups, and we believe through those processes real discipleship will begin to

come. And because we do believe in modesty, we do believe for men

and women, but we believe for us. There's a process in which we

do that in our church. And we are a church that might mean,

believe me, we're a church that confronts things, but you'll notice a lot

of times in our in our messages, we don't. We don't confront outward

things. We confront inward things a lot of times. We confront matters of

the heart a lot of times, and we could, we could we confront

matters of sin, and then we believe by confronting those things in a person

finding a relationship with Christ, then we can start to say, well,

what do you think this would look like on the outside. But that that

that that comes after. And so if for some reason there was and we've

had it before, we've had we've had worship leaders, people on staff,

volunteers that we've had to bring alongside and say, hey, you know,

we have a policy of dress and respectability and modesty, and we believe it's

biblically founded. It's also in our growth track book. So we have certain

amounts of those things. But on our Sunday and Wednesday, people that are

coming to the church, we exercise a lot of grace in that area.

You know, and want to and want to want to first lead them to

Christ in that way. Yeah, yeah, that's good stuff. And if

you and if you see them a lot, invite them to your neighborhood group

and start start loving on them the church. That church is a hospital,

guys. That's what this church is. It's a hospital. And people are

sick in hospitals. So our job, by the Holy Spirit is to get

them well. But all sick people can come into this hospital and the greatest

miracle, as it was seeing in over and over, God just churns their

life around. And you think, wow, that I remember when they came

through, when they came through those doors. And for and for the person

that I can understand this that is vulnerable and susceptible because of his eyes,

what he sees or even what she sees. Then how everything you do outside

the church, you got to do inside the church. So like a star

trek shields up. That's what you gotta do. So I'm a man just

like anybody else, And if I see something in front of me, I

guess shields up. Here we go, let's look look, keep eye contact

Diego, pass, Pastor Diego, Reverend Bishop, I contact ie contact,

I contact, let him pass, let him pack, don't turn, don't

turn. Hallelujah. I made it. Okay, let's go back. So

if I got to do that, what's the big deal? Everybody else can

do. That's a hospital, you know. So yeah, it was a

great question. Thank you for the for the honest conversation and answer. Pastor

Diego, would you like to close this out as we leave here together?

The reality is, as we've said it before, it you and I are

one germ, one virus, one accident, or a mishap away from Heaven's

Game eight or Hell's doors. Tomorrow is not promised to any single one of

us. Somewhere tonight, you could slip off to sleep and not wake up

again, but wake up on the other side of eternity. You have to

ask yourself the question, if I was to die tonight, where am I

going to spend it in eternity? There are people that die that are not

ninety five years old in a hospice. There's people that you and I know

that are our age, planning a vacation, planning to graduate from school,

an anniversary, and they get on a freeway and they never get off,

or they check into a hospital for minor surgery, but a complication takes place,

or they do something that they've done a thousand times no risk, but

an accident takes place. The reality is this, it's appointed in the men

wants to die after that as judgment. And sometimes you and I don't have

time to get ready to repent and to give our life to Jesus Christ because

it happens that quick. And why we want you to live another one hundred

years, but should that not be granted to you, then we just simply

want you to be ready. Eternity is forever and forever and forever. There's

no reincarnations, no backdoors, no second chance. So there's a lot to

risk not to get this right now. So today I don't know where you

are, but today are you ready to make a commitment to Jesus Christ?

Or you say I'm a Christian, but I'm not serving the Lord as I

should and I'm writing the fence of compromise, in and out, up and

down. Or maybe I love God and everything is great, but I'm not

filled with the spirit of God, with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

And if that early church who saw resurrected Jesus God saved when the Bible said

he breathed on them, but then he told them to wait in the upper

room and tarry for the Holy Spirit, then what makes us think that we

don't need the activation of the Holy Spirit in our life the same way that

early Church did. It's to be a witness for Jesus Christ, that Holy

Spirit in us. It's a relationship that allows you to have victory over your

flesh, and it builds up your most holy faith as you pray. So

there's many benefits to it. But wherever you are today, if you're saying

I'm ready, I'm ready because I don't know if I was to die tonight

that i'd go to heaven. And if I have the slightest of doubt,

I want to settle that right now because I heard you say there's too much

to risk, or I want to rededicate my life to the Lord today.

God never left me but I left him or I want to get filled with

the spirit. Here we go one two, you raise your hand when I

count to three. Going to pray for you. One two, three,

raise your hand wherever you are right now, be bold for Christ. I'm

gonna lead you in a prayer. I can only give you the words.

I can't give you the heart. But I want you to know that Jesus

is listening. Right now. Say, dear Lord Jesus, you know who

I am. I ask you to come and live in my heart. According

to Romans ten nine and ten, I confess with my mouth, and I

believe that Jesus is the Lord of my life. I make a commitment to

you now and I will now serve you through your strength and by your grace.

I call myself a Christian, and I am a follower of Jesus Christ.

I am forgiven, and Heaven is my home 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

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