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November 5, 2025 · 45 min · Adam Mesa Sermons
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Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
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In this video 0:00 A Piece of the Pie
A Piece of the Pie 0:00 Hi. Welcome to ALFC podcast. At ALFC, we seek the lost, teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you are encouraged by this week's message.0:14 Well, hey. Happy Sunday, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us in this place. You may even be rewatching this later on in the week. So wherever you're watching this from, wherever you're joining us, I know all our0:24 campuses are here joining us right now. Thank you so much, for being with us today. We couldn't be more excited because today's a special day. I don't know if you've noticed, but this week marks about 40 days till0:35 Easter. So we're coming up to resurrection Sunday, so make sure as we start announcing to all campuses, whether you're online, you're in Pomona, you're in Rancho, make sure you mark what services you're gonna be0:47 attending as we announce what those Easter services are gonna be. But the reason why I say that is because leading up till Easter, this series this month and then the series we start in April that leads us into Easter0:59 is gonna be so important because it's gonna be a little bit of a challenge for us. It's gonna be a good challenge. But as I jump in to talk about the series, I don't know if you remember but there was a show back in the1:09 day called The Jeffersons. It was 1 of my favorite shows. It it existed way before I was even alive. But then if you ever stayed home sick from school and you were there at school, The Jeffersons would1:21 always play. And because I know some of our campuses, we got online people watching online, I can't play the video for you. So let me just read the lyrics real quick, and then I'm gonna tell you what the series for this
1:32 month is called. Here's the lyrics if you remember, and I'm a terrible singer, so so I'm not gonna sing. Okay? I'm gonna read them and then and then if you wanna toe tap to yourself and sing it yourself,
1:44 by all means, feel free. But here's the lyrics to that old time show, The Jeffersons, with George Jefferson. And if you don't know the premise, it was the fact that now he and his family, they moved up to the upper side
1:55 of class where kinda all the white people were at. It was African American family, and finally, they got to live the way that predominantly all the white people in New York got to live. And so here's the lyrics to it. It
2:07 says, well, we're moving on up to the east side to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Moving on up to the east side, we finally got a piece of the pie. And then here's the
2:19 fun part. Fish don't fry in the kitchen. Beans don't burn on the grill. Took a whole lot of trying just to get up that hill. Now we're up in the big leagues getting our turn at bat.
2:31 As long as we live, it's you and me, baby. There ain't nothing wrong with that. Well, we're moving on up to the east side to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Moving on up to the east side.
2:43 And here's the final part. We finally got a piece of the pie. We finally got a piece of the pie. Right? That was pretty good. I mean, I didn't sing it but that's what we're
2:55 gonna be talking about this month. The series this month we're talking about is called a piece of the pie. A piece of the pie. Here, I got a little piece of pie right here. Now
3:07 I don't know what your favorite pie is, but here's the reality. If you're not a pie person, you and I cannot fellowship with each other. Okay? You you have to like some sort of pie. Pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie. This
3:18 right here is pecan pie. So we got all kinds of good pies. But I remember growing up that was always kind of a statement used. It wasn't always about a pie, but it was, hey, let me get a piece
3:30 of that pie. And when the Jeffersons were talking about, what they were talking about was that there was a type of living that was reserved for only a certain type of person. So what the song is and the whole show is,
3:41 hey. We finally getting a piece of our pie. We're finally getting a little something we deserve. And so you cut a little piece right here, cut a little piece right here, and now this is something that you could serve to
3:52 somebody. And so the Jefferson song is all about getting a piece of that pie. And then come into the next person, and if you've seen the Jeffersons, man, they got all their friends now that they bring up to the east
4:03 side. I mean, come hang out with us. There's more than enough piece of the pie. You know, as we lead up to Easter and we're talking about what it means to be at resurrection Sunday celebrating the death and resurrection
4:14 of Jesus. What we also wanna say is we wanna say that everyone deserves a piece of Jesus. Everyone deserves a piece of the pie. And why did Jesus come to this earth? It was so
4:26 that he could offer salvation to every single person. It wasn't reserved for a specific type of class. It wasn't reserved for a certain type of people group. It wasn't reserved for a certain type of gender.
4:38 The gospel is free for everybody. Everybody deserves a piece of the pie. Now here's what we want to do though, we want to encourage you that for
4:50 this month offering a piece of the pie is not for the church on Sunday to do, It's for all of us to do. We have some action items this month
5:02 that we need to be sharing the gospel with those that we know and love. We need to share the message of Jesus so that they understand that they too reserve a right to have a piece of that pie, that
5:14 salvation is for everyone and everyone has the choice to say, yes, Jesus, I'll take that piece of the pie. I want you to check out this verse in Mark chapter 6. This is the verse that we're talking about
5:26 this month. Look at this, Mark, if you have your bibles, 16 15 to 18. This is what it says. And he said to them, speaking about Jesus, he said go into all the world and proclaim the
5:38 gospel to the whole creation. And then he says, whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these
5:50 signs will accompany those who believe. So what he says is, it's free for everyone. Go out into the world, preach the gospel. Anyone can choose to follow me. Anyone can choose to have a peace. And then he says these
6:00 signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons. They will speak in new tongues. These are beautiful miracles. They will pick up serpents with their hands and if they drink any deadly
6:12 poison it will not hurt them, they will lay their hands on the sick and the sick will recover. These are some incredible miracles not to hurt them, they will lay their hands on the sick and the sick
6:24 will recover. This is the fact that everyone can have a piece of the pie. Everyone deserves a piece of the pie and everyone needs a piece of the
6:36 pie. But here's also the reality of what this scripture is talking about, is not everyone will say yes. I've been places before where dessert comes and if you're
6:48 ever with me somewhere out to dinner, I just want you to know this. When the when the waiter comes and they say, would you like some dessert? Adam's answer is gonna be, can you bring the menu? 100 percent. Whenever
6:58 somebody goes, no. I didn't save any room for dessert. Like, once again, just don't fellowship with me in any way. If you're someone who's not gonna have any type of dessert, at least split a dessert with me.
7:10 No. I'm okay. I'm totally full. Like like and then I go, okay. That's your choice. And then my dessert comes and what do almost every time a person says, wow. That looks good. That looks really good. And I think to
7:22 myself, of course it looks really good. It's dessert, it's pie, it's cake, it's ice cream. These are the best things. See what Jesus says in Mark chapter 16, he says go out into all the world. It's called
7:34 evangelism. It's called sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. It's telling someone who's been down, who's been broken, who's been beaten up that there's a God who loves them, that there's a God who wants to save them,
7:45 that there's a God who desires relationship with them, and it's the fact that Jesus Christ died for your sins and he rose from the grave, defeating death in its place. This is the good news. This is the gospel of Jesus
7:56 Christ. He says go out into the world, share this with people, and he says, and those that receive it, well, man, there's gonna be some beautiful things that follow. And he says, and those that
8:08 don't, that's totally up to them. But here's the thing, we all got a job to do and that's to share the gospel with those whether they take the pie or not,
8:20 whether they want a piece or not, whether they say it's not a good time for me, I don't really need Jesus, that is completely up to them. But we have a responsibility and that is to share
8:32 the good news of Jesus Christ. Here's what I wanna do, I wanna share some facts with you for a moment about sharing our faith. I don't know if you've ever been to a place before but you've thought to yourself whether it
8:43 be a loved 1, a friend, a coworker, man they really need the gospel. They need Jesus. Not like in a judgy sense, not like, oh, they need the gospel. But in an honest sense to say, man, I I
8:55 know my friend needs a relationship with Jesus Christ. They're far away from God. Well, here's some facts around it. I just wanna help us all out today. As we go and share our faith with Jesus because we all
9:07 or with with other people, we all have a heart and a desire to share our faith with others. Hopefully, when we leave today, not only will we have a passion and fire that burns inside of us to do so,
9:19 but hopefully also when we leave today we'll be that much more aware of how I should share my faith. So if you wanna share your faith today I just want you to look at this real quick. Here's
9:31 3 things people are looking for when it comes to conversations around Jesus and the gospel in the church. So if you have friends that you're gonna have conversations around, here's 3 things they're looking for. And this
9:43 is all according to the Barna Group who's done research talking to people who are non Christians. Here's 3 things people are looking for. Thing number 1, they really want to see evidence presented
9:54 around Jesus and the bible. Now here's the thing. I'm not calling everyone that they need to be an expert in church, an expert in the bible, but to some degree we
10:06 should all know what we believe and why we believe it. Our testimony is a big part to play in this, but also the reality of the truths. Why Jesus? Why do I need Jesus?
10:18 What did Jesus do for my life? Secondly, why the Bible? Why should I trust it? Now maybe at some point we'll have some greater conversations around that to go deeper But at some point, someone
10:30 who's an unbeliever says over 50 percent of non Christians say they want at some point in a conversation around Jesus, someone to share some type of evidence around why he is who he says
10:42 he is. You wanna know what's crazy? Is 13 percent of Christians believe that's not important to know evidence around the Bible. That's from believers. It's very different. So an
10:54 unbeliever's like hey I'll lean into Jesus a little more if you just give me a little bit more evidence and facts. And then the believer says, well I don't think that's important. Well if we're gonna win people for Jesus
11:05 then it's very important. Here's number 2, it's important for those individuals that they've said, I want them to listen without judgment. Listen without judgment or a judgmental
11:17 attitude. Now here's the thing, there are lifestyles and there are things and we all part of the gospel is saying I confess my sin so at some point you have to come to terms with your sin
11:29 but what this says is on the front end when I'm conversing with someone about who Jesus is and what he did and when a person responds to me about who they are, what their lifestyles, what their this, I'm not at
11:41 a place where I'm immediately ridiculing them for it. Like, ugh. You go, what? You do what on Fridays? You do what with your friends? Immediately you shut them
11:53 off. Your judgmental attitude has cut them off from the gospel. And here's the third part that leans into it. So what they would want you to do is now in your personal life, an unbeliever says, I would like more
12:04 Christians to actually represent the teachings of Jesus in their personal life, not on Sunday. So when you come to contact with an unbeliever, this is
12:16 an unbelieving coworker, this is an unbelieving family member, this is an unbelieving neighbor, Those are the 3 things they're looking for. They want a little bit more evidence when it comes to Jesus. They want you to
12:27 listen to them without judgment. And then what they want you to do is they would allow they want you in your personal life. They wanna be able to see with their eyes that the things that you're saying Jesus taught in his
12:39 word, you're living them out. That's what they wanna see. Here's some more statistics. Check out these statistics. I'm gonna go through them pretty quick. Nearly half of Christians say it's wrong
12:50 to evangelize. Nearly half of all Christians say you should not force your opinion. Now here's what I'm saying, not in a judgmental way, just to say that I believe
13:02 every person needs the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe every person needs the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe every person needs the hope of Jesus. They say, well you could believe that but you shouldn't publicly
13:11 share that with anyone. Half of all Christians believe that. That's kinda crazy. The next 1 is 2 out of 3 Christians strongly agree that the best thing that could happen, ever happen to
13:23 someone is for them to come to know Jesus. Here's what's crazy, that's something to amen about and I know some people right now even in here they're like amen and I agree, amen. Majority of
13:35 Christians believe that if somebody knows Jesus it'll radically change their life. But half of them think that you shouldn't tell anyone that.
13:47 That they should just discover this on their own, stumble upon a church on a Sunday, trip into a YouTube channel, trip onto someone's Instagram, and be like, oh, where where majority of Christians believe that Jesus
13:59 can radically change your life. 2 thirds of them believe that, but majority of them say, but you shouldn't tell anyone that. You don't wanna offend anyone. That's kinda crazy. And the
14:11 next 1 is this, more than half of Christians report having 2 or few 4 of fewer conversations about faith with a non Christian during this past year. Over half of Christians this
14:23 past year have not talked about Jesus once with somebody. And if they did, it was very remedial. Here's the next 1 right here with a few more. The top qualities let's talk about non Christians. What
14:35 are they looking for? The top quality non Christians would look for in a person with whom to talk to about their faith is that, we talked about that, listens without judgment. And the second thing is, does not force
14:46 conclusions upon them so it's not forceful in their approach and then the next 1 is this, let's look at the last step right here. Some non Christians say they might be more interested in Christianity
14:58 had they seen more evidence and the faith had a better reputation. This is what it is. If the church had a better reputation when it comes to living the
15:10 way these evidences say, if the church had a better reputation of living this gospel out, not practicing what we're preaching, if we could practice what we preach, then more non believers
15:22 would say, I'm interested in Jesus. I would love to learn more about Jesus. Can you believe that? Sometimes the best thing we can do for the gospel is really
15:34 get out the way. Sometimes that is the best thing we can do. Sometimes we're in the way. We're responsible for a lot of people that are saying, no, I'm not interested in Jesus. And then you get a
15:46 lot of people like this where they say, okay, I'm interested in Jesus but now I'm not interested in the church. But if we know anything about the book of Revelations, the church is Jesus's bride.
15:58 So pastor Diego has said it before, you get both. To follow Jesus means to get to church, to come to church means you gotta get Jesus. These things are married together. The gospel of
16:10 Jesus and his bride, his church, you and I, what we're doing here on Sunday, what we're doing during the week in our neighborhood groups, what we're doing in growth track, these are evidences that God is moving in our
16:21 life. And then the more we take it outside the church and we live this thing out, the more people go, I want that. I want a piece of that pie. The problem is the pie we're
16:33 serving right now don't look that good. Yeah. And so when we're when we're offering a piece of that pie, people are going like, what's it made out of? It's like anytime someone says you want a gluten free
16:45 pie, immediately immediately. No. No. I don't want a gluten free pie. I want the pie with all the best everything. I want the best sugar. I want the best flour. I want the best I want the best
16:57 everything. So so the pie, we're part of that representation. That's what we're gonna talk about today. Because we got a whole month into this series that we're gonna hopefully light a fire in all of us to say we are
17:08 going to share the gospel with somebody. I'm gonna leave out of this place today and this next month and I'm gonna think of 3 people that I know that need to hear this message. I'm gonna think of 3 individuals that I'm
17:19 gonna spend the next 30 days praying for, encouraging, sending hopeful texts to, and you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna do something crazy the month of April. I'm gonna invite them to church on Sunday on Easter in
17:30 April. We're gonna believe for something crazy because today we're gonna see some things that I know not only God does in your life, but also he does in the church's life together.
17:42 So check this out. What happens is is not only is sharing our faith important, we saw that in the statistics, but truly transformation and community together, us and community together,
17:54 is just as important as part of the process. I want you to look at this real quick. What does the church have to offer the world? This is still according to the study of Barna of what makes
18:06 the church unique. What happens is what does the church and the gospel have to offer the world? Here's some things that it does and we've seen it happen since the beginning of the church. Number 1 is the church offers
18:17 community. As you look in the world around us, more and more people are searching for community. People join face group groups and people join TikTok communities and people join these
18:29 things, people join workout classes, people join yoga classes, people join poker groups and all these things why? Because people in the world today is more and more people this is the most
18:41 de church generation and era of any recent generation. So what happens is as people have pulled out of church over the past couple decades more and more people have now been desiring community. That's why out in
18:53 the world you see that as a big language of topic of discussion that there were a community and we're a small group and that's why CrossFit blew up because it was a workout style that people would come in community and
19:03 you'd make friends. Well, the reason why that that that sounds palatable to people and they want a piece of that is because God created community for his church. That's a place you and I are supposed to be involved.
19:14 That's what the church does. Second thing is is the church offers personal transformation. This is through the sermons on Sunday. This is through for us here at Abundant Living. We have growth track. We have
19:26 forward, we have neighborhood groups. These are all created for personal transformation. And then what happens is as we discover more about who God is and who God is in our life in our
19:38 personal life, it becomes transformed. Our lives becomes transformed. Then what happens is our social transform. You want a better marriage? You want a better family? You want a better community? Well, the church and the
19:49 gospel of Jesus, that's why we have to know these things. So when people say, what benefits it for me to follow Jesus? What does it benefit me for to go to church on Sunday or on Wednesday? Right here, here's some things
20:00 that it's benefits is you're gonna get community. You're gonna have personal transformation. You're gonna have social transformation. Those that you do life with and those that you love, the more that you try to be like
20:12 Jesus, the more transformed your community will be. The second, the third, or third thing is or the fourth is purpose finding. Well now people who've spent their whole life chasing money
20:24 and success and a job or a perfect girl or a perfect guy, well guess what? That's not always purpose finding. That's just materialism. That's just living a
20:35 secular mindful approach. So what happens is the church and the gospel gives us purpose. Next thing it does is how many of you guys know it took God 6 days to create the heavens and the earth? He he's a creator.
20:47 The more you lean into God and the more that you encounter God, the more creative we become. That's part of his spiritual nourishment, his creativity. And the last thing is, this is huge because nobody does this
20:59 today, is accountability. The church offers, and not everyone likes it, but everyone needs it. The church offers accountability to people. What it means to be able to answer to
21:11 someone else and because you're striving for the same thing. You're all striving for Jesus. We're all looking for reading our word and looking for God to fill us every single day. Well, what happens is when I do
21:22 community with people, I get accountability. How many people do every single time we turn on the news? That they're in trouble, they've done this, they've got caught into this and we all say, well, those people need to
21:33 be accountable to somebody. Amen. What happens when you're not accountable to anyone or anything? Well, that's why we get into the issues we get. And so these are incredible things that if you're taking notes today, that
21:45 if I was sitting with someone and they say, hey. What would it benefit me to lean into God? What would it benefit me to follow Jesus? What would it benefit me to go to church on Sunday? Well, I got a few for you. These
21:55 are the building blocks to have conversations with people to share about Jesus. So here's the thing, we only got a few moments together today so I have 2 points. Normally I do 3 but today I'm just doing 2
22:07 because we're gonna really lean into these 2 because I hope that when you leave out of these next 2 points, you're gonna kinda have a fire about you to say I'm going to share my faith. That that that's the 1 thing we
22:18 want during this series, Piece of the Pie, is that I'm not gonna be like 50 percent of other Christians that say you gotta remain silent to share your faith. If you truly believe that God has transformed your life,
22:29 somebody ought to hear about it. Somebody. You better tell somebody. So whether it be through social media, whether it be through an email blast, whether it be you gotta stand on a mountain with a megaphone, somebody
22:40 ought to hear. If you were once 1 way and God has renewed you and made you new, somebody ought to hear about that. So here's the thing, here's what God wants to do and I'm we're gonna read out of Matthew chapter 5.
22:52 So if you have a bible, you could go to Matthew chapter 5, kinda hold your place right there because I got 2 points that I wanna share with you out of Matthew chapter 5. This is a decree from Jesus of what he wants to do
23:04 in our lives. He wants to use our lives. The gospel is a partnership. We put all our hope in Jesus. Jesus now says, join me in sharing this good news with others. And here's what I'll do in your
23:15 life. Here's what I wanna do. So Matthew chapter 5. Let's read this real quick. He says this. Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its
23:27 saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. Here's the first point if you're taking notes with us
23:39 today and Pomona I want you to write these 2 down. Rancho I want you to write these 2 down with me. The first 1 is this, is my life has purpose. Your life has purpose.
23:51 Do you know how many people are sitting here on a Sunday today? Whether you're in Pomona sitting down or Rancho sitting down, out in our courtyard online sitting down, you may be in your living room. How many people
24:01 right now are sitting down saying, I don't know what my purpose is in life? I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing here right now. Like, yeah, I kinda clock in and I clock out and I go. I have a little place
24:11 that I watch TV or I do this, but I don't really know what my purpose is. Jesus begins to share a little bit about our purpose. He starts like this. He says, this is your purpose. You are the salt of the
24:23 earth but if salt has lost its taste how will it's saltiness be restored? So here's the question for us as we look at this today is how does my
24:35 life taste to other people? How how does my pie, the pie that I'm making, the life I'm living, the things I'm saying,
24:47 the places I'm going, the things I'm watching, how does that taste to other people? Because here's the reality is Jesus wants to do something great in our life. He really
24:59 does, he wants to use our life, he wants to bless our life and this ain't no prosperity thing I'm saying, this is just the reality of when you read the bible and you read it and you go, oh, wow. Jesus genuinely
25:12 wants to do something incredible through my life. Now is it always comfortable? Absolutely not. But the end result's the same. It's the fact that Jesus wants to do something incredible in
25:23 our life. So what happens is Jesus makes a statement. He says you are the salt of this earth. You are well, at first we think, what does that mean? How does that have any value? Here's the thing that
25:35 briefly we have to understand. I have a bag of salt right here. And in this bag of salt, this is about I think it's about 5 pounds of salt. It's a big bag of salt. You know, in
25:47 Jesus' day they didn't have any refrigerators. There there was no way to keep anything cold. And so salt was a preservation. So what you would do with any type of meat, any type of
25:59 food, you would either pickle it which is adding salt to it and other ingredients is or if it was meat you would crust it in salt and you would let it hang so that way you could have beef or lamb or
26:11 whatever else and it could rest there for weeks or months as long as this was their modern day refrigerator right here, this bag of salt. So in Jesus's day, you could have a
26:23 brick of gold right here or you could have a bag of salt and somebody is gonna choose the bag of salt. Because not only
26:35 is it used to flavor things, it's used to preserve things. And so that means if it's a preservative then that means that as a believer, if Jesus says you're the salt of this earth,
26:47 He's saying the Christian church, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the thing that preserves a society, preserves a family, preserves a home, preserves a
26:59 workplace. This is the preservative. So what he says though is what happens is is if I were to pour a bunch of water into this it would immediately lose its
27:11 taste, it would lose its flavor. Or the moment that I would use this and cook this, I couldn't extract the salt from it. Once it's lost its taste, it's lost its taste. So what he says
27:23 is he says you have to stop putting yourself in places where you're losing your preservation, where you're losing your gift, where you're losing your purpose, cause he says very
27:34 hard, how many of you guys know it's hard to take something back once it's been out there? And so what Jesus says is he says as believers where he wants to use you and he wants you to be
27:46 a preservative in the community, He wants you to be a preservative in your home. He says once you start putting yourself in areas you shouldn't, it's gonna be much harder to take that back than it is to move forward. So
27:58 I want you, if you're in Pomona or somewhere else right now, say I'm a preservative. I'm a preservative. Look at Billy Graham. This is what Billy Graham said. Check this out. Billy Graham once had a quote and this is you
28:08 and I. Billy Graham, the great preacher, he says, we are the bibles the world is reading. We are. He says, we are the creeds the world is needing. And then he says, we are the sermons
28:20 the world is heeding. Your life. Your life is the greatest sermon that you could ever preach. Your life is the only bible that some people will ever read. Some people will never open up a bible in their
28:32 life. But if they know you follow Jesus, if they know you're a Christian, you're the only bible they'll ever read. The question is what bible are they reading in your life? Because Jesus wants
28:44 to give you some purpose. I mean, he wants to open doors. He wants to rain down favor and blessing. And this always isn't in material things. This is in profound peace. This is in profound joy. This is in profound
28:54 purpose. God wants to give us those things. But what sermon is my life living? So the reality is we have to understand is that your life, you have some
29:06 purpose. The gospel has purpose. I was once, many many years ago, there was an individual who set up a meeting, for me in my office. Back then. I was the youth
29:18 pastor. It was about probably 8 years ago. And this individual came into my office and, he begins to explain to me that he leads 1 of the largest Islamic mosques in all of
29:30 America and it's located in Texas. And so I said, oh, okay. Is there any reason why you wanna you wanna meet with me? And he said, well, what I've noticed, what the what the Christian church does really well
29:42 and he goes, because I'm over the youth center in Texas, for all all all of Islam, all of the Muslims. And he says, man, we just we have a tough time with our youth getting our youth to be connected, getting our youth
29:54 to be in our mosque, and all these other things like this. And he says, the the Christian church is just so good at it. So I just wanted to if you don't mind, could I interview you and kinda understand why the Christian
30:05 church is so good at reaching the next generation so that maybe I can pull out some points from that? And I looked at him and I honest to God, I wasn't trying to be snarky or anything like that because on a personal
30:16 level, he he was an incredible guy. But my answer to him was, the reason why the Christian church is so successful at reaching the next generation is because the gospel of Jesus
30:28 Christ transforms the hearts of any man and woman no matter their age. And so when our young people hear the gospel of Jesus that He loves them, He died for them, He resurrected for them,
30:41 they go, man, I want to know Jesus, I want a piece of the pie. And so he didn't seem very comfortable with that answer. He was looking if we do pizza Fridays or do we do
30:52 iPad giveaways? I said we don't really do any of those things. I said what happens is is we bring life in the church and our young people as they are experiencing the world around them they
31:04 say man I want some of Jesus. That is what makes us unique. And so then he looks at me and he says, is there anything else that you can offer me that maybe we could do? And I, honest to God, I said, I love you, but I
31:16 think the only thing you can add is probably add the gospel of Jesus Christ to what you guys are doing. And then maybe you will really see some transformation in the youth. And he finally he
31:28 kinda chuckled and he's like I get the point, I get what you guys do. And I say and I'm not being like vindictive or mean or anything like that, I'm really trying to honestly tell you the gospel gives purpose to
31:40 every person's life. That's all it is. And so we shook hands and he left but that was the reality. He was looking for some type of tip or trick or marketing thing and the
31:51 reality was even though we may do some of those things that's not what transforms people that's not what gives people purpose it's the gospel that gives people purpose. And then here's the second thing is
32:03 we're kind of closing today is as your life has purpose the last thing is is your life has power. Your life has power. You see in Matthew chapter
32:15 5 we just read you are the salt of the earth. The verse continues from verse 13 down to 14. Here's what it says. It says, you are the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
32:27 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, it gives light to all those in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. Let your light shine.
32:40 Not let the church's light shine. Not let a building's light shine. I know between Rancho and Pomona, we have some beautiful buildings with some really cool stuff, but that is not what Jesus wants to shine in a
32:51 community. It says, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. You living out what Jesus taught and then give glory to your father who's in heaven. By
33:03 the way that you live, by the light that you shine, that will give God glory. So you say, I wanna give God glory in my life. Live this thing out. Share the gospel with other people,
33:15 practice what you preach as you read the word of God let that transform your heart and mind that is what you could do because your life has power what you do and what you say has cause and effect. And so the
33:27 reality is is the gospel wants to transform hearts and minds, Jesus wants our light shine to other people. You know in 2008 I lived in Texas for a little bit of a time
33:39 period. And while I was living in Texas I went in a program for about 6 months at a church and then I decided I wanted to go to Life Pacific University. And so after about 6 months in Texas I packed my car
33:50 up and what was gonna happen was I was gonna fly back home, attend the school in the spring, and so my parents were gonna ship my car from Texas back to California. So, instead of shipping boxes, what my
34:02 parents told me was just pack your whole closet, all your clothes, everything in the trunk of your car, in the back seat so that when the car when the exporter comes, he'll pick up your car and then you'll just unpack
34:13 your car. So I'm like, okay. Perfect. It's the week of that I'm supposed to be heading back home to California. There's a winter storm in Texas. Now I don't know if you've heard of recently these past couple years these
34:23 winter storms that happen in Texas, they're pretty crazy. It gets really cold, it gets to like 18 degrees, I mean it's storming, all these things like that. So that's what happens, 1 night I'm on my way after a Wednesday
34:35 night church, my whole car is already packed and the tire blows out. And guess where the spare tire is? Under everything in the trunk of the car.
34:47 And it's storming now. At this point, it's 18 degrees and there's snow that's starting to fall. And so if you've ever been to Texas there ain't street lights like there are in California. There's a lot of areas that are
34:57 just pitch black. And so I pull over to the side of the road and I frustratingly just start pulling out all the clothes because I'm trying to get access to the spare. So just in the middle of the road just my whole
35:08 closet is just being thrown on the ground. I'm mad, I'm frustrated, probably said some words I shouldn't have said or anything like that. What happens is, is this 85 year old woman pulls up in her car right behind
35:19 me and flashes her high beams and keeps them on. And I walk up to her and she looks at me and she says, baby it looks like you could use some light, take your time. And she reaches over to her purse and she grabs a
35:31 book and she sits back and she starts reading her book. Over the next 30 minutes that light saved me. I couldn't see anything. It was pitch black. So now I was able to change the
35:43 tire, swap the tire, do everything I needed. Why? Because a woman was generous enough to shed some light on me so that I can get to where I needed to get to. That is the
35:55 gospel that you would shed a little light on someone else so that they can get to where they need to go to when it comes to God. Jesus says you are the light of this world. As we
36:07 begin to close, I want you to check this out real quick. As we begin to close, there was the temple in Israel. This is what Jesus is referring to. This was the early temple in Israel. So when Jesus was preaching and
36:19 teaching, this temple is what everyone would see in Israel. It was at the highest point of the city in Jerusalem. It was on a hill. But specifically in this photo, this is how it would
36:30 look. So anyone in the city, if you would look up, you would see the temple of Israel. Could we go back to the other photo? Here we are. So what happens is you'll notice right here on the back photo, the other 1,
36:42 sorry. In this photo you'll see these 4 big candelabras. You see every night these candelabras right here, they would be they would shoot up fire.
36:54 Bright bright fire. So that no matter where anyone was at in the city you could find where God's temple was. Here's what you gotta know about the temple. Is in this building right here, this is where
37:06 God's presence was was in the temple. It's called the Holy of Holies. This is where his Shekinah fell. This is where only 1 priest once a year could atone by sacrificing 1 lamb for the sins of
37:18 Israel. This would happen in this room. So what happens is this was the most holy of places of all of Israel. This is where Yahweh's presence was. And these candelabras at night, they
37:30 shone bright so anyone in the city could know where God's presence was. I want you to get this because it'll change some people's life. What happens is when Jesus says you are the light
37:41 of the world, you are a city set on a hill, a light that shines bright. You're not meant to be hidden. Your life. So what Jesus says is he
37:53 says stop looking to the temple and we know this, I have it. First Corinthians tells us that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It's the place in which the Holy Spirit dwells.
38:05 So your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. What Jesus says is Jesus says that when I die and I resurrect, what's gonna happen is the temple of God is gonna go from a place into a
38:17 people. So when he says you are the light of this world, he says stop looking for the temple to be your answers because what's gonna happen is I'm gonna dwell in you and you will be the light of the
38:29 world. So what he says is he says this will become you.
38:33 Yeah. That's really good.Show more
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