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Unity, Maturity & Your Part | Pastor Adam Mesa | Patria Means Family
August 24, 2025 · 47 min
Series Patria Sermons August 24, 2025 · 47 min · Patria Sermons
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492K followers
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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0:00 Well, praise God. I'm excited to jump into the word today on this day today. And so if you have a bible, would you grab it out and prepare yourself to hold it? If not, we'll have it up0:12 on the screen. Could you also do me a favor? This is 1 of those weekends that it's all campus weekend. So I have all of our campuses joining us. Can we hear a Rancho? Give some love to Pomona and Alameda and all0:24 those that are watching online. It's so good to see everyone as we close out our series because next week, we go into baptisms. This week, we've had baby dedications. And so it's an action0:35 packed weekend that we have on this weekend. And the past 3 days, Ashley and I took our for the first time ever, we did something new. We took all of our campus pastors0:47 together with us for 3 days to sit together, to pray together, to drink together, and also to build community with 1 another. And so, you know, pastor Steve and Dolores were there from Pomona, and0:59 pastors Fuego and Tiffany came down from Alameda. We had pastors Aaron and Erica representing Rancho. And then also, you'll meet them a little bit later on. We had our new campus pastors for Corona,1:11 Marnie and Joseph, that were joining us as well that are new to the family who we'll introduce later. 1 of the things we did is we had a guacamole competition on who could make the best1:23 guacamole with the most creative ingredients, and everybody voted. And I'm so sad to say that of of course, Pomona would win that competition. And so1:35 they took the prize on the best guacamole. Pastor Aaron and Erica did not go in the running. Actually, second place for me and Ashley, which I'm really proud of. And but pastor Steven1:46 Dolores, they're both Mexican, so they should have won that, which I'm glad that they did. I'm only a quarter Mexican. So you know? And so it's been a great week already, and I'm excited to continue talking1:58 about our church. Patreon means family for the last time. And some of the things we shared about the first week of this month is we shared about meet the family, and it was God sets the lonely2:10 in families. And so, we shared about our church's verse, which is Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 to 15. And what we've shared so far, if you've missed it, is that through Jesus, God welcomes all people.2:22 Doesn't matter your background, your sin, your culture, your ethnicity, whether you were born a rich, poor, you know, working class or blue collar family, white collar family. Anyone who would call2:34 upon the name of Jesus is given the gift of salvation and brought into the family of God. And so we and so we talked about that the first week. And then the second week last week, which was phenomenal, we just2:45 allowed God to do some spiritual surgery on all of us and talked about freedom. And so, as we talked about that God welcomes us into the family, what then we talked about is then as you and I are welcome into God's2:57 family, he wants to begin to give you a new identity. He wants to shape your identity. And so if you missed last Sunday, I couldn't encourage you enough to jump online and catch up with us on last3:09 week. You could still participate because we talked about what does it look like to receive an identity that God wants to give you? Not 1 that man gives you, not 1 that the world gives you, but 1 that3:20 God gives you. But here's the beautiful thing, which we'll conclude with today. As God desires to give you a new individual identity, what the father wants to do as well for you and I is he3:32 wants to give us collectively a family identity. Maybe you've seen it in your own life. Maybe you've been part of a a family with a healthy identity or a family with not so much of a healthy identity. I think3:44 we all crave to be around a healthy family. You ever been around a healthy family before and thought, man, I crave that kind of relationship. I I desire that type of fondness with the3:55 family, not just a father's relationship with their son or a daughter's relationship with her mother. It's when a family is unified, there's beauty in it. There's attraction in it. Everybody wants and4:07 desires a family that moves together and communicates well and encourages each other and holds each other accountable to go to new lengths. And the reality is whether you've had that on4:19 earth or not, God wants to do that with you in his family. He wants to bring you and I through the family of Jesus, and he wants to impart some things to us, which is what we're gonna share about4:31 this week. And in a few moments, we'll jump to Ephesians 4, but I just want us to open up with this thought. And I want you to think about this for just a moment throughout the whole message that I share over these brief4:41 moments. I have a, you know, a random family here that I have a picture of that I wanna share with you guys. And, you know, here's this family. I don't know them. This is what we got off of Google. Okay? So4:53 these aren't relatives or anything like that, but it's a beautiful family. You know, in this photo, you see multiple generations. You know, you see grandparents in this photo. You have you5:05 see mom and dad in this photo. It looks like even mom and dad have some other siblings potentially in this photo, so multiple families there. And then you have children of of different ages. Right? You have5:17 teenagers and preteens and children. And when when we look at this photo, what I wanna encourage you to do today, because what I'm a what I what I want us to do to think about when we're in the house of5:29 God is is I want you to think, where am I at right now in my spiritual journey if I was in God's family photo? Where am I at right now in my5:40 faith? Now, I'm not talking about your age. I'm talking about if you assigned a spiritual age to where your faith is right now. Because we could all agree that if you saw5:52 someone that was older, maybe they were in their sixties or seventies, if you saw them with a binky in their mouth or they were drinking milk out of a baby bottle, would we not think that that was odd? We'd say, oh,6:04 that that's odd. And so a lot of times, what we like to do as Christians is we like to assign a number of years that we've been saved to try to signify our maturity. Oh, I've been saved6:15 15 years. I've been saved 20 years. I've been saved 30 years. But what I wanna propose to you this week, whether you've been saved 6 months, 1 week, 60 years, whatever it is, it's not about the6:27 length that you feel that you've been saved. My question is is where do you feel like your maturity has grown in the family? Because you could be saved 40 years but still6:39 have a pacifier in your mouth. You could still have a be drinking out of a baby bottle. And what I what I would love for every believer that as you get older in your faith, you grow in your6:51 maturity. As God has given you an identity, God brings you into the family identity. And what happens is you go from a place we don't mind when children are always receiving. But how7:03 many of all know, I did youth ministry for many many years, there's a time that parents shift the gear and they say, okay, you're this age. It's a it's time you start contributing to this family.7:14 Right. Right.7:15 When you were 5, we were good with you making a mess. When you were 7, we forgave you for spilling the drink on the counter, but you're not gonna do that at 19. You're not gonna do that at7:26 16. You know? Oh 0, you're 23 and still living with us? Time to chip in on that electric bill. Time to start covering your own insurance. And I want you to see that as we're7:38 part of God's family, we're part of his family identity, you may have been saved 20 years, but does your maturity, does your faith, does your contribution to the kingdom of I'm not talking about finances. Your7:50 contribution to the kingdom of God. When you're out in the city, do you think like a mature believer? Do you talk like a mature believer? Do you act like a mature believer? When you8:02 come into church, children only receive. Children do not give. The only thing children give is their presence. And there's for only so long is it8:11 cute. Right. Right.8:14 My boys are so cute to me, but when they start taking advantage of me, they actually turn really ugly in my eyes really fast. I'm like, no. No. No. No. You can't just bat your eyelashes. You're you're acting up right8:24 now. I've seen I've seen this progression in my own life. I got I got a family photo of of my family when I was growing up, you know, pastor Diego. And and so I, you know, I got here's pastor Nathan on the8:36 on the top left. Here here's here's my brother Caleb right here in the middle. What I don't understand is I didn't know that I was casted for Harry Potter back then. I had no idea. That was a really rough8:48 season for me. I had just started getting glasses. I actually couldn't see, and my mom picked out glasses with dolphins on the side of them. And I was really embarrassed by that. And then and then you got pastor9:00 Diego with whatever mustache that is. You know? And you've got my mom, the nicest white woman you'll ever meet in your life. She's the best. And so, you know, I got9:12 this picture, and at the time, I'm the youngest in the family. But as God has moved in my life, you know, leading a church now, though I'm the youngest in my family, in a9:24 lot of ways, prospectively in in my church setting, I I'm I'm leading in my family. And so it's it's been a very strange swap for me that I go from spending majority of my life as the9:35 youngest, majority of my life as the 1 receiving, and then there's a point where God shifts something in my life. And he says, now, not actually you're just not the 1 contributing, Adam. In a lot of respects, not9:47 all respects, but in a lot of respects, Adam, you're leading now your family. That's that's a strange change in a lot of our lives, but the reality is God wants to do that in our life.10:00 You you may think to your family, oh, they're so lost. They're so unsaved. They're so unchristian. They're still figuring this out and that. But but if you would allow God to mature your10:12 faith, you could see God begin to do things in your life that you don't just comprehend. I got a picture of just to see how family grows. This is our family. The past Thanksgiving, we this past Thanksgiving, not10:23 everyone's in this, but we had the Eliots, which is my wife's maiden name, and my family my my my in laws are all here today in church as well. And and so we got a bunch of the Messas, and then we got a bunch of the10:34 Eliots here. We got my grandparents there in the back corner, and and this is how our family's grown. And it's so interesting in the first picture that I showed you. Imagine if I still had the same maturity10:46 level of when I was 11 in this photo. I may have aged, but have I matured? Because stills are 2 different things. Getting a little10:58 bit of gray hair, growing hair in new places that you didn't know you could, that's not a sign of maturity. That's just a sign of aging. There are different and we're gonna talk a little bit about what that looks like11:10 today. Because as I look at my family now, I now see new family members in new seasons of their life. Right. That's the same way in the kingdom of God. Always remember that everyone to the left and right of you, no11:22 matter what campus you go, everybody is at new different seasons in their life. Don't just look at age. Just don't just don't look at whether they're polished or not.11:34 Go and go and test and say, I I'm gonna do my part at growing my own maturity in faith. I'm I'm not gonna be in the house of God just to receive. I wanna get to a place where when I get gray hair in the house11:46 of God, I'm doing what any natural grandparent would do, which is what do grandparents begin to think about? They begin to think about leaving a legacy. Amen. Grandparents, when they get to a certain age, they think,11:57 okay. Now it's time to start imparting everything I've learned, everything I've known to those that are under me. Not not be not be 40 years in the faith and say, I still need to receive. I still need to receive. I still12:09 you've had 40 years to do that saved. Now, it's time to jump in and get in deeper, and that's what we'll talk about today. I want you to see in Ephesians 4 today, I'm gonna mark up a little bit. I don't want you to stand12:19 today because I'm gonna sit in the passages a little bit too much, and I respect everybody's kneecaps in our church today. And and I know it's been a hot day, and our lower backs are all hurting us. And so wherever12:30 you're at, just just sit there because I'm gonna read. So we've been reading out of Ephesians 3, which all which is all about if you were with us last week, it was all about God wanting to welcome you and I into his12:41 family. And then we talked about the fact that God loves you more than you ever understand, and that God wants to do more in your life than you could ever comprehend. But what's beautiful is then Paul,12:53 it's almost like now he ramps it up. It's like he gave encouragement. He gave it's what we call the leadership sandwich, which is all the positive stuff. And then he goes into now, okay. Hey. Let's13:05 let let me challenge y'all a little bit. And so, this is what he says. And I want you to see this. And I'm gonna I'm gonna we're gonna mark just a little bit up today. So if you like taking notes, I'm gonna I'm gonna13:15 share that with you. I don't know. Okay. There we go. So here's what he says. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk. So he wants you to walk. So he wants you to move forward. We talked a13:27 little bit about that last week. God doesn't want you to stay stagnant. Did does everybody know how mold and mid mildew grows When things don't move. When things are13:38 stagnant. Right. Mildew does not tend to grow on things that are in movement. It grows on things that are stagnant. That's why if you've ever been in a hospital for any significant time, they have to move you13:50 around so that things so sores don't begin to grow on your body. Because when you are at a stale position in life, that is when mildew and fungus and sores begin to grow. And14:02 I wanna encourage you, the spiritual life and the Christian life is no different. The longer you stay stagnant, the longer you stay sitting, the longer you stay not contributing, not moving14:14 forward, just staying in a position of woe is me. I'm broken. This person hurt me. This thing's going on. It's it's okay to acknowledge. It's okay to be aware of what's going, but but don't just14:26 lay in the bed. Yeah. Because sores will develop. And so this is what the apostle Paul says. He's like, you gotta move forward. So he says, walk in a manner. Walk,14:38 move, of which the calling which you have been called. And he says, do it with humility. Don't do it with pride. Do it with gentleness. Do it with patience, bearing with 1 another in love,14:49 eager to maintain what? The unity. You're gonna see, in a second, he's gonna talk about maturity. And maturity prioritizes unity.15:02 When me and my wife, 1 of the things we do all the time when we give marriage advice is we say, hey, a great marriage is not about being right or wrong, and a great marriage is not saying, hey, is this normal or is that15:13 normal? A great marriage says, are we 1 in the decision making process? Are we unified? That's that's a that that is about as healthy as a marriage that you can get to say, my wife and I, God15:24 said that a marriage is to be 1. What is that? That's unity. And how many of us who've been married before, we know that that's easier said than done. And so it takes a lot of maturity to15:36 walk in unity because it's not easy. And we're gonna see he digs deeper in that. So he says, in unity of the spirit, the bond of peace. I want us to see the next slide. Check this out. Then he says, and he15:48 gave us and he goes into leadership in the church. And if you ever go through our growth track, we'll walk you into helping you discover kinda what your spiritual leadership gift is. Not your office, not your title, but15:59 your leadership gift. And so, he says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers. So, you got apostles. These are people that have a big vision. They're dreamers. Then you16:11 got prophets. These are people that are bold to speak into things. They they look at stuff. They hey. Why are things this way? What's going on here? Very passionate individuals. And then you have the evangelists. These16:21 are people that are they care about talking about Jesus. They just have a burden and a heart to just share Jesus. They're like, man, what are we doing in this room? We gotta get out of here and go talk about Jesus. You16:33 know? And it's a lead it's it's a gift. And so shepherds, these are individuals that are just like, I I just wanna get people in a room, and I wanna walk in with them. I wanna walk through life with them. I wanna talk to16:44 them. I wanna pray with people. You know, like, this is a person, if you're a shepherd and you have that spiritual kind of leadership gift, it's when you're talking to people, you don't look at the watch. Alright. You16:55 know, you you you you're okay with just go and they go, don't you gotta go somewhere? Like, no. No. This is important to me. You know? I don't I don't have that leadership gift. I get very impatient. That's not my17:04 leadership gift. Am I a shepherd? Yes. But, I'm more apostle leadership gift than shepherd. And then, lastly, teachers. These are individuals that everything is a teaching moment. Right? You've been around that guy17:15 before. You've been around that woman before. You know, you drop a pack of gum and they're like, that reminds me. You know? Though though though we lose something, God is never gone. You know? It's like, they just wanna17:25 teach everything. You know? And so, that's a that's a leadership gift. And so, says, why are all of us gifted with different leadership gifts? He says, to equip the saints for 1 another. And he says, for the work of the17:35 ministry, building up the body of Christ. Because your strengths aren't my strengths, and your weaknesses aren't my weaknesses. And therefore, he says, we all attain the unity. And so if we can do this together, we can17:46 be united in the faith and the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood. You could put woman here hood here as well. He's talking to men and women. It's just a lot of Greek choices were used17:57 masculine articles. But you would say womanhood and manhood. And he says, why is God doing this? Because he desires all of us to be mature in our faith. And he says, to the measure of Christ's stature18:09 of the fullness of Christ, So that we may no longer be children. This is what Paul's talking about. He's saying, can I move this over here by18:21 chance? Maybe that maybe we could fix that tomorrow, Javi. So, he says this, so that we may no longer be children, which means God wants us mature,18:34 and then this is where you start is not where you finish. And he says, as we grow in our faith, maturity18:46 will bring us to a place where we are no longer children. What do children do? They ask a lot18:51 of18:51 questions. They disagree a lot. They ask for a lot of candy. They want a lot of playtime. They get bored very easily. And,19:03 when you are a child in your faith, that tends to be us. We want the sugary things. Where's the fun things? Where's the you know, let's just keep doing worship. That's fun. Let's just do it over19:15 and over and over. Or I we should do more of this or we should do more of that. We should and it's it's whatever you think is fun. It's like that that or you get exhilarated. That's what I wanna do. That's why and we19:26 want sugar. You know? You know, give give me the simple verses over and over. Church was boring today. They actually read the Bible. It was so boring today. You know? Or you get overly zealous and then you just lock into19:37 1 thing and 1 thing only, and it's just an obsession of 1 thing. And so what happens is, you know, when we are children of our faith, that happens. Right? All our toys are ours. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. You know? And so,19:50 it's like my faith is mine, and I don't want you know, if if a person doesn't agree with me right that second, I disregard you. I cut you off. That is normally signs of children in in the faith. And so that's what the20:01 apostle Paul is talking about. He says, I don't want you to stay as children in the church. I want I don't want you to be tossed to and fro by the waves carried about by every wind of doctrine. In other20:13 words, he's like, I don't want you to, like, find a YouTube or a TikTok and be like, I like what they said, and then deep dive. Then all of a sudden, you don't go to church anymore. You don't have any Christian community20:23 anymore. You've you've stopped reading your bible. He's like, that that is not a sign of maturity. Oh, I've outgrown fellowship. I've outgrown attending church. I've outgrown having a pastor. That that is a he's20:35 saying you're being tossed to and fro with doctrines, and that's not maturity. How many times you've ever been around a 13 year old that thinks they're grown? And we think, oh, that's cute. You know, like,20:48 you're not grown. You know, like, you don't even have a bank account. You don't even you know, like, your parents still pay all your bills. What are you talking about? You know? But they convince themselves, I'm grown. I20:58 can make these big boy decisions. And then what happens is they often find themselves back in community going, hey, I was a little overzealous, or I was a little too passionate, or I was this or was that. Can you guys21:09 help me walk this back? And so what Paul is saying is he's saying, hey, don't stay in that season too long. You know, it it's not a season you should spend 30 years of your Christian life being. You know, your first 1 to21:20 3 years may be that, but it shouldn't stay that. And he says, by human cunning, by human craftiness, deceitful schemes, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who21:32 is the head into Christ. In other words, he says, Jesus leads us. And he's saying, if Jesus ain't said it, then we don't need to be following it. And he says, Jesus is our authority. And if21:44 you can't find it in scripture, then you don't need to follow it. You know, pastor Diego forever has always said, if I ever say something that you cannot find in the Bible, then just take it as my opinion and disregard21:55 it. You know, he said he said, just because someone's teaching it from a platform doesn't mean they bat 1000 every single time. Read your own word. Discover the word of God yourself. Make decisions on your own. Humans22:07 are flawed. They're failed.22:09 They say things that would say, oh, I didn't oh, I22:11 didn't mean that, or that's not how I said it the way I said it. It's not that way. And so what we have to recognize is that I gotta eat for myself. I gotta discover God's word for myself. And it doesn't mean the moment22:21 someone makes a mistake, oh, yeah. See, you're flawed. That's why I'm out. You know? Like, you know, we do that in our life. We do that in our marriage, and we do that in other things. But, again, that's not maturity.22:30 And so, says, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself in love. The22:41 more that you and I are engaged in the local church, the more that the body is functioning healthily. But the more people that are sitting on the sidelines or just attending without action, then22:53 it is not doing the body good. The body is not growing. I love that he says this. He says, when the body is working, you and I, Pomona, Alameda, Rancho, anywhere else watching online, when it is working properly, what23:05 happens? It grows. It grows. When we work well with God and we grow in maturity, we grow. We grow. You wanna23:17 see growth in your life? Activate your gift in God. Grow in maturity in Christ. Discover God's word for yourself. It will grow because you're in function in God's way. That's like23:29 saying, hey. If I plant a seed in soil and I give it water and sunlight and everything that it needs, will it grow? It is a guarantee it will. Of course, it'll grow because you've done the necessary things that it23:41 needs to grow. A lot of times, we're not growing because we're not doing the necessary things, which I'll share in a few moments briefly, but that is why lack of growth happens. It's not because your intentions aren't23:52 good. It's not because you haven't been coming to church at any significant time. It's because the steps that are required after, we're not doing. And so then he says this, and we're gonna land land the plane on the24:03 verses here. He says this. Next slide. Do we got a next slide? There we go. There is 1 body and 1 spirit. Just as you were called to the 1 hope that belongs to your call, 1 lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism, 1 god, father of all,24:15 who is over all and through all and in all. The reason why he keeps saying 1 1 1 1, because people always wanna try to find some type of loophole. They24:27 always wanna be like, well, you know, maybe could it be this or could I maybe start doing this too? And he's saying, no. 1 God, 1 spirit, 1 faith, 1 Jesus. There's no loopholes to24:38 growth. It is maturity in Christ. You know, growing in the family means that we grow in maturity. That's what God goes to show us. So, wanna share with you. I'm gonna read these points fast. The reason24:50 why I sat in that scripture longer is because now I'm gonna jump into some points and thoughts with you, all correlating to what we just talked about. Here's the first thing I wanna talk to you about when it comes to25:00 family identity. Family identity leads to family unity. Family ide the clearer the family's identity is, the more unified it could be.25:12 When me and my wife first got married, 1 of the first things we had to talk about is, hey, what is our thanksgiving's gonna look like? What is Christmas gonna look like? If you wanna be close with your family, and I25:23 wanna be close with my family, and I want our new family to be close with them, you and I have to be on the same page. Now, if Ashley was like, well, we're married, but I'll go to my family and you go to your25:34 family, well, guess what? Those families would have been unified, but our family would have not. Or if I say, hey, I wanna make this big purchase, and she says, I don't wanna make this big purchase, and yet,25:46 I spend our account that big purchase, and then an emergency happens, and then she says, well, now we're in trouble. That was not a unified decision. So therefore, when we are a family identity, it means25:58 that unity is crucial. Being unified is important. And here's what I wanna share with you. Unity is not uniformity. It's not26:10 about being the same, looking the same, talking the same, praying exactly the same way, worshiping exactly the same way. It's it's not that. That's not uniformity. It's26:22 not, okay, this is the this is not the portion, you know, we stand up, we sit down, you do this, you do that. Hey, you wear this, you wear that, you don't do this, you don't. That's uniformity. And can worship happen out26:33 of uniformity? Sure. If you're unified on that. But, a lot of times, moments and things that we have in the body of Christ is not unifying. And, here's some ways that we mess it up.26:44 Maybe you've been in church before. Maybe you've thought these thoughts before. But, if you stay in church long enough, you'll meet someone that makes it sound like to be in the house of God, to be in the family, your26:55 clothes gotta be a certain way. You gotta wear a suit and a tie, and that equals holiness. The sharper the suit, the nicer the tie, the more27:07 Christian you are. Ladies, you know, dresses below the kneecaps. Right? You know, no pants. Platform shoes gotta be a certain way. If you do that, you will be27:19 closer to God. But first Samuel 16 7 says that the Lord does not look at outward appearances, that the Lord looks at the heart. And so in27:31 the uniformity now, we'll get there in a few seconds. Maturity will change things. So does you know, you can't say, oh, so does that mean I could pull out my Fashion Nova see through crop top dress27:42 because, you know, God accepts me. No. But God what is coming out of your heart? Right. When you wear that, what is happening? Are you looking for attention? Guys, it's you could wear certain things, but are you hoping27:54 that people look at your muscles or say how attract or look at those tattoos? It's your heart, and you know what your heart is saying. Right. And so therefore but we give this misconception that says, we28:06 don't care if your heart is ugly as long as you look the part. Right. That's not what it is. Here's some other misconceptions. There's a misconception of music. Hymns versus modern worship.28:18 You're more spiritual. You know, this type of music is more spiritual than this type of music. And if you have an electric guitar, it means that it's not as spiritual as if you have a harp playing in worship or whatever28:29 it is. And so but style doesn't matter. John chapter 4 verse 24 says, worship in spirit and in truth. It doesn't say worship in spirit and truth and make sure there is28:41 no electric guitar or make sure there is no drums, or may you you know, you you some of you may think that's so silly that someone would think that older saints, you live long enough. You meet28:53 individuals28:54 Yes.28:54 That will say that. I like your church, but, you know, you guys you guys clap in church. That's not that's not God's not happy with that. And I'll get that in a second. You think, what?29:07 Politics, same party equals same faith. And so, if you are not part of 1 party, then you can't love Jesus or not in their party that you can't love our unity is in Christ. Right.29:18 Philippians chapter 3 verse 20 says that we are unified in Christ alone. Our citizenship is in heaven. Now, again, maturity will take next what it needs to grow in, but that29:30 is not what makes you a believer. And a lot of times, we attach following Christ to these outward things. Maturity, you'll grow out of some things. As you grow in maturity, you will change29:42 the way you dress, you will change certain views that you have. You but I don't get that in a moment. But when it comes to the family identity, the fact don't get the expressive things mixed up with salvation in29:54 Jesus.29:55 Yeah. Yeah. That's good.29:56 You oh, 0, you want a relationship with Jesus? Change this. Change that. Change no. Change your heart. You want a relationship with Jesus? Confess your sins and pursue the Lord.30:09 Not, oh, you want Jesus, we're gonna have to do something about them clothes you've been wearing, or we're gonna have to do something about, you know, the type of music that now those are expressive things that those30:18 some of those things need a change, but that is not what makes you a Christian. It's not what makes us a follower of Jesus. People put emphasis on 1 spiritual gift or another spiritual gift. Oh, this person's more mature30:29 because they know how to do this gift more than another gift, and that person is great at this gift, so therefore, they must be more spiritual, they must be more holy. That's not what it is. All gifts are equal in the30:40 house30:40 of God. And then we continue, we says worship postures.30:45 Hands raised, still, or dancing this way, that way equals true worship. Oh, you don't love Jesus because I don't see I don't ever see you on your face, or this or that. And we use it as it's expressive, and we point at30:56 it. Believe it or not, I went to a bible school that didn't allow you to clap or raise your hands because they believed you were cause calling calling attention to yourself and not God. And so we would if we ever lifted31:08 our hands in worship, we'd be asked to put our hands down at in college, at chapel. Or if we ever clapped, they would say, hey, you're making you're causing too much noise on yourself. Yeah. And you think, wow, that's31:18 kinda crazy. But we do that stuff in other areas all the time when it comes to pursuing God. Personality. People say quiet or loud is more godly. If you're more quiet, it means you've spent more time with God. If you're31:30 louder, it means you're more bold for God. No. You could be as silent as a mouse and be as bold as a lion. Yes. And you could be as loud as a lion and as weak as a mouse. The the31:41 personality types does not explain a person's relationship with God. But we do that all the time. And so the more we wanna be unified, the more we have to recognize that everybody in the house of God31:53 is unique and different. And God has called the uniqueness and the difference to build the body and to grow. Here's point number 2 with the few moments I have. Family identity calls for family32:05 maturity. We spoke about that. God calls us to maturity within the family. And if we look at immaturity, immaturity looks32:17 like instability. But maturity looks like stability, rootedness, discernment, and love. A healthy family doesn't just say come as you are. It says grow into who you're called32:29 to be. There are times in my own household that our family, we like to create equity within our household. And so, there are days that we will ask our 2 sons, Matthias Thomas, hey, where do you wanna go32:41 eat? And 1 will say, okay, Chick fil A. 1 will say this. We'll say, okay, we'll go with Matthias. And then we'll get home and we'll say, okay, Thomas, Matthias got to pick what we ate. You get to choose what we32:52 watched on TV. Okay? Now, we're creating equity, but here's what's not allowed. Thomas can't say, okay, I wanna watch Brain Raw on YouTube. Or I33:04 wanna watch this that he knows is inappropriate. Right. I don't say, oh, well, you got me, son. I said, you have a choice. No. I say, nice choice. Try again. Because I'm mature.33:16 Or if I say, hey, Thomas, you get to pick what's for dinner, and he says, Skittles. I say, nice choice. Pick again. That's what maturity goes to. But a lot of times in the church, what33:28 we try to do is we try to say, hey, just come as you are. And then we say, just stay as you are. Continue to consume Skittles. Continue to watch whatever you want on YouTube. Continue to listen to whoever. Continue to33:39 date whoever you want. Continue to this. Continue to that. And what happens is when people are younger in their faith, they get offended quickly because where they're at in life, they're getting called out for eating33:51 sugary treats. They're getting called out for who they're sleeping with or how they're living. And then individuals come to me and they'll say, pastor Adam, I didn't I didn't like what you shared today. I disagree with34:02 what you shared with today. I disagree with what you said about sexuality, or I disagree with how you guys think about this or how you guys think about that. And I say, hey, I love that you disagree with me. Tell me34:14 where in the Bible God is revealing to you what truth is. Because I'm not I'm not I'm trying not to speak from my opinion. I'm trying to speak from the word of God. And the and the great thing about the word of God34:26 is that if you wanna know what God says, you read it. People say, pastor Adam, where'd you get that statement from that you34:37 said about, you know, living with someone unmarried or lifestyle like this? It's from the Bible. And they and they can ask me, oh, well, where is it from? And I can say, okay. Give me a moment. I'll get it for you. And34:48 they say, well, but I feel like this is the right way to live, or this is the right way to watch things, or this is the right Then I would respond the same way and say, yeah, just show it to me in the Bible. And then34:58 oftentimes, go, oh, mine's still wrapped in saran wrap. I say, well, I'm sorry. I can't go to the church with opinions. So bible says that every person that teaches the word of God will35:10 be held to a higher standard. So so I can't go to God and say, oh, well, you know, we didn't address that or we didn't say that because someone once told me that it hurt their feelings. If Thomas comes to me and35:22 say, dad, you hurt my feelings because you said I couldn't have candy, I'd say, son, you'll get cavities. So I'm okay with you being upset with me because you got because because I didn't let you do what you did, or I35:33 didn't say that it's okay because I don't want you to be broken.35:36 Yes. I don't want you to be sick.35:37 I don't want you to be ill. And in the same way in the kingdom of God, as we grow in maturity, you and I have to be willing to say, my ways are not God's ways. My beliefs are not God's beliefs. My35:49 standards are not God's standards. He is greater than I am. So therefore, I submit going back to Ephesians 3, I submit my life to Christ. In other words, if my preference is different than Christ, then I need a36:01 change. If my beliefs are different than Christ, then I need a change. If my dating life is different than Christ, then I need a change. And who I sleep with is different than who Christ has called me, then I need aShow more
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