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Obedience
April 29, 2025 · 47 min
Unveil the unique authority of the Bible and its role as the definitive word of God, setting it apart from any earthly text.
Series Adam Mesa Sermons April 29, 2025 · 47 min · Adam Mesa Sermons
Unveil the unique authority of the Bible and its role as the definitive word of God, setting it apart from any earthly text. ...more Show the full description Show less Unveil the unique authority of the Bible and its role as the definitive word of God, setting it apart from any earthly text.
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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 The Authority of the Bible and Obedience
The Authority of the Bible and Obedience 0:01 Welcome to the ALSC podcast. Here at ALSC, we seek the lost, teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you are encouraged by this week's message.0:14 Additionally, as we jump into the message right now, I just wanna say this because last year, a young girl who was in her twenties, came up to me and she said, I'm loving, this thing that's going on. She didn't know what0:26 to call it, and we all come from different backgrounds, and some people call this mass, some people call this service, some people We traditionally just call it a church service. And But she came, she said, I like it all0:36 this stuff. And she said, but you keep When you reference stuff, you're you're referencing these little books, and then you reference 1 book. What is that thing that you're talking about? She was talking about a0:47 Bible. And so, we shared and we said, that's the Bible. And she said, that's great. I know what the Bible is. I've heard of it. I didn't know that's what you were referencing. And so she she said, what is it0:59 though? And so you may know or heard of a Bible, but we don't want to take for granted that not everyone grew up in church, not everyone went to Sunday school, not everyone knows. Why are we talking about this book1:11 and not any other book? Why do we only reference this book as the authority of our life? And so, it's important what we're going to talk about today, because we're in a series on favor, and we're on O today, which is1:22 talking about obedience. And it is impossible to be obedient to God if we don't know why this book carries so much authority in our life. If we don't know If you look at the encyclopedia, the
1:34 dictionary, and the Odyssey, and this book at the same caliber, then it is impossible to walk in obedience towards God. Because we don't understand the value of this book, the Bible, that we have
1:45 access to. And so before we jump in, I just want to share a little bit, and for some of us it's just a refresher. We call this the Bible, but what this is is the word of God. This is God's word to us.
1:57 There's no other books that will come before it or after it that will include being part of the word of God. So any other religion that says it's a continuation of this book, it's impossible, Because Jesus said, not an
2:09 iota will be added to these words. And so what he's talking about is a t crossed or an I dot. Nothing can be added to this word of God. And so what this compiles as is it's 2 testaments.
2:21 It's an old testament and a new testament. Here's the best way we could think about it. Old testament is everything before Jesus, new testament is everything after Jesus. Old testament, the whole point of
2:32 it, it's real historical documents, but the message and theme inside of it is you and I cannot live a righteous and holy life on our own. There has to be a sacrifice for our life,
2:44 and so we wait for a messiah. The new testament is all about the messiah has come. Our savior, the 1 who died for our sins, fulfilled the old testament law, and he
2:56 is the 1 we've been looking for. And it ends with the book of Revelation, which says, set your sights on heaven because he will return again for his church to fully redeem us. That's the book we hold in
3:08 our hands. Then people say, but who was it written by? Well, it was written by human people, but here's the difference, is the Holy Spirit spoke through them. And so we say, it's inspired by the Holy
3:20 Spirit, because God spoke to them, and as they wrote these stories, and wrote these letters, and lived out these lives, it was God moving through them. I have a great Christian book right here by Dave Ferguson. It's
3:32 called Hero Maker. The difference between this book and this book is when Dave Ferguson wrote this book, the Holy Spirit took talked to him. Okay? And he could talk to you. Okay? So you could be out in the
3:44 street, and he could talk to you and say, hey, give that person a smile, give that person an encouraging word. He could talk to you and say, hey, put your phone down right now, don't be focusing on that. Holy Spirit can
3:53 talk to you all the time. Holy Spirit in worship could be talking to you. Lift up your hands, I want to do something in your life, I want to heal you. That's that's talking to you. But the difference between this book
4:03 and this book is when the Holy Spirit talked to him to write this book, with these authors, the Holy Spirit spoke through them to write this book. That's the difference. Holy Spirit talks to you, Holy Spirit talked
4:13 through them. And so every word that they wrote was inspired and led by the Holy Spirit. Why does that matter? But because when God gave us this, God was trying to help you and I understand our
4:25 purpose in life. He's trying to tell us that if you open this, and you follow my commands, then you can see me more actively go from a place, because what happens according to John 1, is Jesus is the
4:37 fulfillment of the word. If you and I treat these words with seriousness that God gave to us, then the Holy Spirit can move through you because this is God's word. So the Holy Spirit talks to you all the time,
4:49 but if you want the Holy Spirit to move through you, then this word has to saturate your heart. You have to live this thing out. And so you may say, Pastor Allen, why are you talking to me about the Bible? Because this
5:00 does not matter if you and I don't see this as God's word. Amen. If we watch the Grammys, or we watch the Emmy's with more seriousness, then we read
5:12 these words over our lives. If you and I watch an ad for a blender or a Stanley cup, and that moves us to purchase something quicker than it is that we read these words and say, oh God,
5:24 I gotta go in this direction. You ever seen that before? You're on TikTok, and you see a new milkshake from McDonald's? What do you see yourself doing the next day? You're in the drive through getting a milkshake from
5:33 McDonald's. If an advertisement can move you more than God's word, then we have to say, God The problem isn't God, it's God I don't take your word serious enough. I don't
5:45 treat this with the value that I need to in my life. So it's important for us to understand what that is, or else we will walk in at first like that young girl. She began to have a radical understanding of God's word,
5:54 but at first she was saying, oh, that's nice. You read a book called Joshua, and you read a book called Ezekiel and Matthew. Oh, that's really nice. And when you explain, no, no, no, no, no, that that's just not a book.
6:05 That's just not the that's God's word for our life. God gave us this to help us succeed in life, and also to understand that God loves you more than you love you, and God loves you more
6:17 than you love anyone else on this planet, because he gave his son for us, and this whole story is meant for you and I to understand that. So without further ado, we're gonna talk about obedience today, which is not the
6:27 most funnest thing to talk about, but it'll help us radically understand when we know why God's word comes with so much weight and value. And if we understand that we begin to start to follow God's commands, we
6:39 can see how he can radically shape our life, and radically involve himself in his life. Because there are times that I don't want to obey God. There are times that I don't want to take God seriously, but when you do,
6:49 there are going to be some things we look at today where we can see God can do tremendous things in your life when we walk according to his word. And it's all over the world, talking about following his commands, obeying
6:59 his word, and hopefully we'll understand why he talks about that. So if you're ready and you turn to first Peter chapter 1, we're going to start today. If you do me the honor of standing for the honor of reading God's
7:09 word, we're going to start in verse 13. We've been in a series called favor, and we broke down favor in an acronym. Faith, abundance, victory, obedience, and then next week, renewal. And
7:21 so we see faith, abundance, victory, obedience, and renewal. Today we're going to talk about obedience. When we follow those things, we can see God show favor in our life. It says this starting in verse 13. Therefore,
7:31 with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children,
7:43 do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all that you do. For it is written, be holy
7:55 because I am holy. Since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. You and I are foreigners here on earth
8:07 right now. For you know that it is not with perishable things such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life. Handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ,
8:19 a lamb without blemish or defect. He chose you before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last days for your sake. Through him, you believed in God who
8:31 raised him from the dead and glorified him. And so your faith and hope are in God. Let's pray this morning. God, we pray this word over our life today, Father God, that we can have a
8:43 total understanding of what it means to follow you, Lord. We thank you, God, that you're here to speak to us today, Father God. None of us came here to hear an opinion or a lecture or philosophy. We came to hear from
8:54 your word today, God. That's the only thing that can transform and that's the only thing that can move through us. So today, God, may you move through us in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Let's talk a little
9:05 bit about obedience. But when you talk about obedience, it's quite easy to feel tension in the room. Part particularly, you'll feel a lot of tension from many men, because a lot of us men, we we struggle with obedience
9:17 because we want to be the kind of kings of our castle. We want to be the 1 that's in charge. We feel like when we don't aren't in charge, that we start to get a little finicky. When men, when we don't have a plan, or we
9:28 don't know what's around the corner, we start getting a little afraid. Women feel that same way when women don't know what's on the horizon or what's next. We all start to say, I need to be in control. So to hear an idea
9:39 of like obedience to God, ah, like, is there a friendlier term? You know, here here in America, we try to use more politically correct terms. So is there like a politically correct term for obedience? No.
9:51 There's there's no PC term for obedience. I can't say listen softly or he loves you. I can't say that with this. Obedience is obedience, but I'll show you how you and I, we're
10:03 really obedient to things every single day, but mostly because we see that there's value on the other side of it. That's why we obey certain things. I'll show you, because you may say, I I don't know. I don't think I'm
10:13 very obedient on a daily basis. Well, just put some of yourself in some of these circumstances. When you go to the theme park and you go on a ride that goes upside down, do you just leave the bar above your head? Or when
10:23 they say pull on the bar, do you actually pull on it 10 times? Do you do that? Or or when the sign says pull down the bar, do you just go, I'm not really an obedient type of guy. I don't I kind of like to do things
10:34 myself. We'll see how things go. No. You grab that bar, and you triple check, you quadruple check, you just keep pulling on that thing. We do it all the time. When your job says to clock in at 8 AM, do you come and clock
10:46 in at 10 15 or 9 15? Or are you there at 7 59? I don't know. I If you're a truck driver and to get full payment, you have to deliver at a certain
10:58 time, are you stopping at a truck stop to sit on your phone, or are you grabbing an empty bottle next to you to go use the restroom? Because many truck drivers, when it says it has to be delivered a certain time, once it
11:08 goes past a certain time, they some of them start getting deduct pay from that stuff, And so some of them, you'll hear them. They'll be like, man, I had to use the restroom while I was driving in a bottle because I had
11:17 to make it to that day. We we're obedient to things all the time. When you get newly married and someone hits on you at the coffee shop, do you flirt back? No. You know, you remember those
11:29 days when you were newly married? No 1 could even look in your direction. You were living in obedience to your spouse. Now some of y'all would just love for anything to flirt with you, but when you're newly married, you
11:41 be, you know, you got this glow, so people are trying to say, hi. You know, they say your name at getting you giving you the copy, you're like, oh, please. I don't have time for this. I'm married. It's an obedient. No
11:50 one's forcing you to not respond to a flirt back, but because you love and commit your spouse, you obey an idea that's there, which is I'm not gonna dishonor my spouse by flirting back, or giving my number
12:02 back, or giving my Instagram back, and if that were to happen, we would say, oh, there's an issue with that person respecting their marriage. But but how often do we flirt back with other things in our life that isn't
12:14 something God has planned for our life? When you're driving and it says the tire pressure is at 15 PSI, do you keep driving or do you pull over and put some air in your tire? We'll just see what happens. We'll just use
12:25 faith and keep going, and I'm hearing, but we'll just see what happens. I'm sure it's nothing, you know. You're obedient. You mean When you
12:37 have Laker tickets and game starts at 7 15, do you show at 7, do you show up at 8 30? You show up at halftime? No. You're there early. You've got nachos, you've
12:49 got popcorn, but God forbid, come to church on time, you know. It's like, uh-oh. It's Uh-oh. Well, LeBron's playing tonight, guys. He's
13:01 gonna win the championship. Whatever they do. Whatever they win. When you have a client meeting set for 10 AM on Zoom and it could change your career, do you log on at noon? Or are you there
13:12 triple checking the microphone, triple checking the camera, triple check You know, 3 years ago, it would be a client meeting in person. Now it's got to be on Zoom nowadays with where how we're working. When you're
13:23 driving on the freeway at 85 miles per hour, do you pass by a police officer or do you slam on your brakes? Or do you speed up to 95? Oh, there's a cup. I'm going 85. Let's push this bad boy to
13:35 95. See what he does. No. You hit them brakes so fast, you look in that rear view mirror with that sweat drop coming down and thinking thinking, did he was he looking at me or was he looking at someone else?
13:47 Oh, you you get obedient real quick because you know what's on the other side. You know what's on the other side. When your baby wakes up at 2 AM with a fever, do you put them back in the crib and say, oh, I think
13:57 they'll sort it out, or do you run to Walgreens and the emergency room? Right. That's good. When there's an emergency, what do you do? You put everything down. Oh, man. But obedience to God? I don't I don't
14:09 know. When you're at the beach and they pull out that red flag or sharp spotted in the water flag, do you just keep swimming and just keep doing back strokes and keep putting your snorkels on, or do you get out that
14:21 water as fast as possible? I don't know. And the last 1, last week there was a blizzard in Buffalo, New York, and when you see a Buffalo and you just want to see the Bills play, do you
14:32 join 400 other men and shovel out the snow completely for free just so you could watch a football game? These guys committed in minus temperatures
14:45 to just shovel out some snow to see a group of men on a field play football. I mean, it's not a I mean, we don't even go out in the rain. Like, we can't even conceptualize the hell that
14:56 those guys are going through, and they're just loving it. Sacrifice for my bills. I love my bills. Guys, this team never won a championship in their life, and they're sitting there. I just love my team. I just love my
15:08 team, but Lord forbid, have God ask us to do something. Join a neighborhood group, go on a missions trip, serve a community, start serving, do something for some I don't know Lord. You're
15:20 asking from a lot for me Lord. It's obedience, And so today what we're going to do with some time, Thomas Kempis, 1 of the early church fathers, said if you want to learn to live in obedience to Jesus,
15:31 meditate on his life, and you'll find all you need. John 1 says that Jesus is the fulfillment of the word, so all you need is in the word of God. You want to know God's instruction for your life, how he can navigate
15:43 your life better than you and I can navigate our life. All we have to do is open up God's word. Allow Jesus to speak into our life, allow by the spirit of the God to speak through us, but also we have to put our pride
15:55 to the side and be obedient when God tells us something. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Many of us know that old old song, Michael Jackson, ABC 1 2 3. We're going to talk about the ABC's of
16:07 obedience. Very simple. So here's the first a. Here's the a and then there's b c. First a's, we have to have the right attitude when it comes to obedience. Some of us just have a bad attitude when
16:19 it comes to following God, when it comes to obeying God. We read that in first Peter, and first Samuel says this 15 22, and Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and
16:30 sacrifice in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. What was happening in Israel is nobody was obeying
16:42 the words of God, but when they felt like they needed God or wanted God, all they went and did was just light some incense, and they just did an animal sacrifice, and they felt they were doing their part. And Samuel
16:53 says, listen guys, God don't care about none of that stuff if you're not walking in obedience. If your life doesn't reflect a child of God, he says, those sacrifices don't mean
17:05 anything to the Lord. We read in first Peter, he said, as obedient children, that's what he tells us. He says, as obedient children, obey the Lord. How many of you guys have ever
17:16 been somewhere in public, and you can tell in 5 seconds or less the difference between an obedient child and a disobedient child? The difference between a child who gets spankings and doesn't get spankings. No, I'm just
17:28 playing. But a child who's disobedient, obedient. The the the the the disobedient 1, it's really fast to notice. When you're at the park and he gets his slurpee and he pours it down the slide, guess what?
17:41 That's not an obedient child. Or the kid that's putting sand on everyone's food while they're trying to eat. Like, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to decide, is that child
17:52 obedient or is that child disobedient? You and I could go spend time at Chuck E Cheese, and if I told you, I want you to create a list in the next hour of obedient children and disobedient children, you wouldn't come
18:03 back to me an hour and just be like, I just can't tell the difference. I don't know. It's just so hard. So hard. There's so many nuances, you know. 1 kid was trying to put a slice of pizza in the coin dispenser, and I
18:14 thought, may maybe he thought that's how you pay. I don't I don't know. No. We're not naive. So so how come when it comes to you and I as children of God, we act so confused on what God would want
18:26 us to do and not do. It's not hard to know what God wants to speak over our life and do our life, and what an obedient children looks like. So the first thing it starts is, what is
18:38 my attitude when it comes to obedience? What's my attitude? Well And so my attitude has to reflect the fact that when God speaks to me, I'm in a place where I go, okay,
18:50 Lord, I understand. How many of you guys have children before and you ask them to do something? By that fifth time that you're asking for the same thing, you are playing 0 games at that point.
19:02 And all I have to hear from my wife in the background is if I have to call your dad up here, I just immediately start loosening my belt. I just I know it's game time. I know my wife is at a point where
19:14 she's fed up with these boys, because their attitude is not matching the obedience. And so they go from a place where we say, Yeah, we're going to go over your cousins this evening, to when I'm calling my brother Nathan
19:24 and I say, Hey, we're not going to make it. They're not being obedient in the house anymore. So privileges are starting to get revoked. They were going to be getting Chick fil A DoorDash to the house tonight. They was
19:35 going to be hanging out with their cousins, but because they lacked obedience, it's all off the table. Their attitude is not matching, and so you and I, there are things God has on the table.
19:46 And our attitude has to match God's desire, and our obedience has to match what it is that the Lord is speaking to us. And a lot of times, we're lacking in specific things,
19:58 and it's just not in financial things. We're lack we're lack in relational things. We'll wonder, God, where are you at in this marriage? Well, how obedient are you being in the marriage? What's your attitude of obedience
20:09 in the marriage? What's happening with those things? You know, back in October we did our men's sprint, and we had men's sprint. We had 600 men. We all came together to talk and learn about biblical manhood. We
20:21 launched the 2 52 club, which are men committed to Luke 2 52, and we took Jesus's life for 5 weeks, and we said we're going to be committed in the way that Jesus grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God,
20:32 favor with man. We're going to commit to those things, and a biblical man pursues wisdom from God, stature, we grow in stature, and then we pursue favor with God and favor with man. So, you
20:44 know, me being the pastor, I'm studying, I'm studying, and I'm getting all these lessons ready, and and I just I start to get uncomfortable with the week that we're talking about stature, because as we're talking about
20:55 that Jesus grew with stature, we're talking about not only did he grow in height, but he also grew in health. Stature is the fact that Jesus was healthy, because Jesus If Jesus was unhealthy, he couldn't do the
21:07 ministry that he needed to do. He's going from town to town. He's preaching from place to place. Jesus can't lose his voice. Jesus can't have a stomach ulcer. Jesus can't have backaches, and so we know he's fully God and
21:19 fully man, but he also had flesh. So he could have tore something. So as he's growing with stature, he's growing in health, and so we're talking to men and say, guys, it's important to be healthy, and in me, I'm sitting
21:30 there and I'm like, dang, I'm a hypocrite. I'm not healthy right now. I'm out of breath every week. I'm tired. I'm taking naps. I know that my weight
21:41 isn't where it needs to be. I knew I wasn't healthy, and so I'm approaching. So with many of the men, I was just very honest with some of the guys on the side. I said, this 1 is challenging me the most. But here's how
21:53 I've excused it over the years. Lord, I'm busy with your work. Lord, if these people stop counseling calling me for counseling appointments and prayer, I could get to the gym.
22:06 Lord, if I didn't have to, from you, try to study so hard and spend 25 hours a week in the word studying, and then I'm also having devotional time. God, if you didn't ask so much of me, then my health wouldn't
22:18 be where it is. Lord, if if you gave me a wife that enjoyed to cook, it may I may lose weight instead of But you gave me a wife that's amazing in every other area. She just don't like
22:30 to cook. So here I am, Lord. I'm get I gotta I gotta get in and out on the way home from a long service. Lord, this is God, Lord, if you want to solve this health
22:41 issue, it's Ball's in your court, Lord. Because I'm just doing everything you've asked me to do, Lord. But no, I felt like the Holy Spirit was saying, listen Adam, you got wisdom, you got
22:53 favor with God and with man, but your stature ain't looking right. And I was like, I don't like that. And so I talked to some of the guys. I talked to Brian Bradley here in the church. I talked to Henry over at Pomona.
23:05 We had individual conversations, and I was very honest with them. I said, hey, help me over this next season. My number 1 thing is I need to get healthy. I need to lose weight. I need to eat
23:17 healthier. I need to be more active. I gotta do it for my boys. I don't, and so I started getting blood work. Blood work didn't come back great, and so I'm telling guys, you got to help me. I'm doing something I didn't
23:27 want to do. I'm using excuses for everything in my life, but then I start becoming accountable. Start telling people. I'm telling my wife, hey, this is what we got to do. And so I did. Went and got a doctor,
23:39 saw my hormones were everywhere, so I started getting my hormones level. I started eating healthier. I started being a little bit more active, and sure enough, since October till now, I've lost over 30 pounds from that
23:50 time. So some of y'all been saying, I looking good. I know I looking good. Good. Because I had to fix my attitude.
24:02 I had to fix my attitude, and when God is telling me, Adam, you may say, you you may be looking good in this place. You say, I got no issue with stature. Okay. You may have no but you may not have no wisdom making poor
24:14 decisions, not God decisions, so you might have to be obedient in in in your wisdom. You you may have you may say, oh, I have wisdom. I'm brilliant. I always got the right thing to say, and I'm in the gym every single
24:26 great, but you got no favor with nobody. You don't know how to talk to nobody. You don't know how to talk to your neighbor, don't know how to talk So God be like, Hey, be obedient. Have some favor, or you may have no
24:36 favor with God, and so you're doing all the right things. You're saying all the right things. You're watching all the right guys on YouTube, and they're teaching you how to make money, and they're teaching you how to do
24:44 things, but you have you don't have God's favor yet, because you haven't laid your life down before God's feet and said, God, I trust you with my whole process. So it comes in the attitude, and for me I had to
24:56 fix my attitude, because my attitude came with I'm just doing what God wants me to do, and if I'm missing something, that's up to God to figure that out. It's up to God. No, God was saying, no Adam, no
25:07 Adam. You need to be obedient. You gotta fix your attitude on this, and you need to do your part, and I'll do my part. And so sure enough, you know, a couple weeks ago, you know, my wife told me how proud she was that I
25:18 started getting healthy, and I started losing weight, and I had much more energy with our boys, and and I just told her, I said, babe, I'm just trying to outlive you, so that 1 day I can have a second marriage. That's
25:30 all I'm trying to do. Oh, not playing. But I did say that. You know, you gotta have fun in your marriage. I told her I'm just trying to outlive you, babe. That's
25:42 it. I want a second wife 1 day. So, I'm not Mormon, so I can't do second wives now, so I gotta wait. I gotta wait. No, I'm just playing. If you're offended,
25:54 you can email pastor Nathan. Here's second point. As we fix our attitude, we also have to get to a place, and obedience is a place of belief. Obedience comes from a place of
26:05 belief. It's it's it's do I really trust God's word over my life? Do I believe that? Do I believe, or do I take God's commands and his words as opinions? We
26:17 see what happens in Genesis 3 9 to 13. This is the fall of Adam and Eve, and it says this, but the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? He knew exactly where he was at, and he's waiting
26:29 for Adam to respond, and he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. That's Adam speaking, And then God said, who told you you
26:41 were naked? God says, whose voice have you listened to? I never told you you were naked. I never told you you had to clothe yourself.
26:54 I never told you to put some clothes. You you have heard someone's voice other than mine, so you have believed someone else's voice in your life over my word in
27:06 your life. What's Adam's response? It's Adam's response, oh, Lord. I know. I know. I'm sorry. No. Lord says this. Adam says this. He says, the man said, the woman whom you gave me
27:20 to be with, she gave me the food of the tree and I ate it. God, here's the thing Lord, I would have believed you if you just didn't give me this woman. But the fact you gave me this wife,
27:32 she led me. She encouraged me to eat. So now God goes to the woman, and he says this, and it says this. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is it that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent did it.
27:46 Right? And and and that's what we do. It is when we're challenged on where our faith and trust is God, we're always quick to express why it was. Well, God, it's because I was let go.
27:58 If I wasn't let go, then I could have trust you in this area, but but I got let go, so I can't. Or God, there was an adultery, and so if there wasn't an adult, if everything was perfect, then it wouldn't have led me to
28:09 do what I We're always blaming something else, why we haven't been obedient to God, rather than the belief to take responsibility and say, Lord, you're right. What
28:21 what what can what can you do with me, Lord? Help me to trust you more, God. Help me to see your hand more in my life, God. Help, but you gotta spend time with the Lord to be able to see him
28:33 more active in your life. We gotta let the spirit move through us more so that we can begin to obey those things more, because it's right. Just like Adam and Eve, your flesh is saying, just eat it. Just eat the apple.
28:44 That was me. October was the hardest month for me. Just go just go get the cheesecake. Go get the, you know, going through the holidays, everybody, just eat it. I'm like, no, I can't. I can't. I'm trying to obey the word
28:55 that God gave me, and so I'm I'm trying. It's like, no, come on. I bet, you know, my boys would be getting ice cream and I could hear the ice cream talking. Just take a bite. Just a bite. And I'm like, no. No, I can't.
29:08 But but that takes obedience. Yeah. Yeah. Your your phone be talking to you. Other people be talking. You just gotta be obedient. No. I can't I can't do it. I can't do
29:20 it. I can't. You're reading During the fast, you're reading your bible, and all of a sudden someone's messaged you on Instagram or text, and you're laughing, and it's like, just come join me. Just disconnect from the
29:30 word. Just spend time, and you gotta be like, no. Paul says you gotta beat your flesh to submission. It's like you gotta put it in its place. So your belief has to rise when it comes to God. I learned that
29:41 firsthand. In 20 15, we had an Easter service, and back then I was the creative pastor, and so I went to Pastor Diego for that Easter in 20 15. I said, hey, I got a great idea. You said you wanted to talk about
29:53 faith. How about we talk about taking a leap of faith this Easter? For Easter, we'll film you jumping out of an airplane, and so and so we could show everybody that you had faith, and so you
30:05 jumped out of an airplane. And so pastor Diego said, great. I'll do it if you do it with me. I said, I said, well, I'm the behind the scenes guy, and so, I'm also double your weight, so it just might
30:17 not be good. And he said, I won't do it unless you do it. So he convinced me. I wasn't on camera at all or anything like that. I was just next to him in the airplane. So there's me and him in 2015, we jump on this
30:28 airplane, and he jumps off and they film him, and he's having the time of his life, and he's waving at the camera and all these things like that, and sure enough no, not that picture yet. We'll get to that 1 in a
30:40 second. Sure enough, I jump, and then what happens is is when I jump, I'm with a guy, the guy's from France, he's a Frenchman, and so he's got an accent, everything like that, so we jump, and
30:52 we're jumping through the air, and if any of you have been skydiving before or seen it before, when they pull the cord the wind catches the parachute, and so you shoot up in back in the air,
31:04 like you, it's like really strong, and so you get shot back up. So for about 2 seconds we go, and we shoot back up in the air, and the next thing you hear is you just hear ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting.
31:15 Our parachute snaps off of our body, and we start free falling once again, and there's cords and everything flying in it. The parachute ended up landing on the 2 15 freeway, so so they had to go get
31:27 it. So we're free falling. All the cords are everywhere. They're spinning, and so this guy, because I'm attached to him in the front, he starts cussing in French, which I don't blame him, and the reason why I know is
31:39 because I kinda know French, and I don't know those words. And he was saying I'm very heavy, very harsh, and you know, so he he's cussing up a storm. And so he unzips my jumpsuit, and he just
31:50 starts stuffing the wires, the the cords that were attached to the parachute, because if he doesn't get those cords out of the way, and he deploys the emergency chute, if it gets caught in those cords on the way out,
32:01 we're done. So he's frantically he has his watch in front of me that has the our our where we're at in terms of our height, and then marked as on it is like the lowest point we can pull our chute before we just, you
32:13 know, die. And so he keeps looking at that to make sure we're good. He's stuffing cords, he's putting them in, he's looking at the thing, he's stuffing. He zips my jacket back up, and then sure enough when you
32:25 deploy a parachute, you pull it from the back. Emergency chute is on your chest, so that you don't confuse the 2, and so he can't get in between us, because I'm a 2 50 pound gorilla. So he can't
32:37 reach in between me and him. He physically cannot get in between, and so he tells me once he's zipped to the jacket, he said, what I'm going to need you to do We're talking in the air. Full
32:48 on conversations. He says, what I'm going to need you to do is you're going to put your feet, you're going to, you know, straddle, you're going to put your feet on my thighs, and on the count of 3, without slipping out
33:00 of your harness, you're going to jump in the air off of my thighs, so that I can get in between us and pull the emergency chute, but be prepared, because you could slip out if you go
33:12 too high. So he goes, 1, 2, 3, I jump, he slips out, the thing pulls. Mind you, now I'm a foot above him. The thing, the
33:24 emergency chute releases, and I get yanked down once again, and you can feel like the the actual suit is looser now at this point. So I get yanked down, and we
33:36 start coming down, and as we're landing, now he's trying to be calm and stuff like that. He tells me as we're landing, he said, I have done 10000 jumps, and I've never had to deploy my emergency chute if it wasn't
33:47 for practice. And so as we're coming, there's an ambulance approaching, and I said, who's that ambulance for? He said, every time we jump, there's people with binoculars that are on each of us, and I gave them the we're
33:59 probably gonna die symbol, 50 percent chance of death symbol. So he said, the ambulance was, is for us. And I said, dear God,
34:12 you have my life right now, more than ever. If there was ever a time that I needed you most, it was at that moment, and I'll tell you
34:24 this, that moment did not decrease my belief in God, didn't decrease my faith in God, it increased my faith in God, because I needed him more than ever in that moment.
34:36 I needed to be obedient to the person who was speaking to me, or it would have been all over. Someone came to me yesterday when we were filming, and they said, I I think I would have been so scared, I wouldn't have had
34:46 the courage to jump off of his thighs to get in between, and and I was tell I I was just telling, neither was I. I was afraid too, but when you have to exercise faith, and you have no option,
34:58 you have no option. You have no option for your family, you have no option for your future, you have no option in your marriage, you have no option in your marriage. Like when you have no option, And you say, Lord, I I'm
35:07 I gotta step up. I'm stepping up. Because without you, God, and without you moving, I it wouldn't last. It wouldn't last. And so obedience also comes not only with an attitude, it's a belief.
35:20 To say, God, I have no other options. You know, Peter said that. There was a moment where Jesus was speaking to a group of followers, and he said something the crowd didn't like, and so half the crowd left, and
35:31 Jesus looked at Peter and he said, what about you guys? Are you guys going to leave too? And Peter said this, Where would we go? He wasn't saying he literally has nothing to do,
35:43 because later on, we know when Jesus gets put on the cross, Peter goes back to his hometown and starts fishing again. So Peter didn't mean I literally have nowhere to go. What he was saying in that moment is he was
35:54 saying, without you I wouldn't have anything. Without you Jesus, I'd have no purpose in my life. Without you Jesus, I'd have no direction in my life. So he makes a statement. He says, where would we go?
36:06 And eventually Jesus says, nobody revealed that to you except for God. And sometimes our only answer for stuff when they're saying, why are you doing what you're doing? What are you doing? What are you doing with that?
36:16 Why are you doing this? Why are you walking in forgiveness? Why are you walking? Why are you trusting God here? You just say, it's something God revealed to me. Something God spoke to me. It may not make sense to you,
36:25 but when you want to leave, I have nowhere to go when it comes to God. I I got nowhere else to go. I'd have to trust God. And then here's the last point is this will close this. We have to have an attitude and a belief.
36:35 The last thing is it will lead you to a place of compassion. God wants to, as we're obedient to God, he wants to increase our level of compassion, and he wants to see
36:47 compassion roll for us and through us. As we see God active in our life with his favor, it'll lead us to compassion. Teacher Bonhoeffer said, the first service that 1 owes to the others in the fellowship consists in
36:59 listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. Deuteronomy 5 3, you shall walk in
37:11 all the way that the Lord has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. I want to share
37:23 this last verse with you, and we'll close with this. Ephesians chapter 6, which seems like a very human command, but it's actually a very spiritual command. Many of us miss the fact that there's only a handful of literal
37:35 connected promises in the New Testament. There's not many. There's a lot about obeying and trusting the Holy Spirit and he'll lead you to places, but there's not too many places that's like you do this, God's promise is
37:45 this. In Ephesians 6 is 1 of them. Paul says this. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, this is the first commandment, with a promise.
37:57 What he's saying is this is 1 of the only 10 commandments that actually has a promise if you do it attached to it, and here's the promise. That it may go well with you, you'll succeed in life, and that you may live
38:09 long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in discipline and instruction of the Lord. This is a mirror andShow more
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