You are invited to stop relying on your own wisdom and start trusting God's plan. Surrender your pride and let Him use your life for His glory, even if the world calls it foolish. Embrace the call to obedience today and watch God work through your life.
Amen. Thank you, Roberto. I don't know why I call him Roberto. His name's Robert. He'll he'll probably get me for that 1.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. No place I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing. And I say it every time, Chevy mimicked it so well, because I mean it, and and I'm thankful. And I was thinking on Friday night, we set up on Friday nights.
It takes about an hour, to set up most of the stuff, the production stuff. It takes about an hour and a half on a slower night hour and 45 minutes. But everything out there, it only takes about an hour because we have many hands. Many hands make light work. I'm not saying we don't need you.
We need you. I was just I was just looking around and, like, at all of the people and the smiles on their faces and the laughing and the and the the discussions happening as I'm setting up the chairs that you're sitting in. I'm just thinking, man, Jesus, you're amazing. You know? I mean, this is a church family.
If you're visiting, don't feel like you're not you're invited to be a part of this church family. It's a beautiful thing. And I was talking with with Gabe yesterday, not Gabe Mullins. Usually, I'm talking with Gabe Mullins. My wife laughs when I'm on the phone.
She's like, you're talking to Gabe Mullins, aren't you? Probably. But I was talking, with the other Gabe. We went to a party at Gabe and Kelly's house and we're just you know, we picked up our family and moved here 5 years ago just step of faith, obedience. That's what faith is.
*Faith* comes by hearing, believe, and obey to plan a church. And it's been 1 of the hardest things we've ever done in our lives. But we didn't do this. We just obeyed. He did it.
It's his grace to enable us and now us together to do more than we could ever do on our own and to be more than we could ever be on our own. It's his power through us together, and it's beautiful to see this happening, his word happening. I just wanna tell you church, the "best is yet to come". We're just getting started. Yeah.
We're meeting in a high school or middle school, Oak Grove Middle School. So what? Look at you guys. The lives changed. Can I just I am planning on doing this, but if your life has been transformed and changed in some way through the ministry at Real Church, would you stand up?
Everybody doesn't have to stand. I'm I'm just be honest. Look around. You're invited to partake in that, to participate, to join in, and be a part of life change and helping to change others' lives. I mean, that's it's amazing.
Would you guys give God a big old hand? I wanna I wanna keep you posted, keep you up to date, because I told you I would show a video of what's going on in Pakistan. We've we've been a part of pioneering work over the last 2 years. It's just reached into a a new "unreached people group". We had a mini a couple of mini crusades there that other people are starting to notice and partner with us.
So this was completely funded with some good friends of ours that are partnering with us called 30 third company. They they sold $25,000 to make these too many crusades happen. I'll show you 1 of them. If you'll pull up that video, Robert. Got it going?
Is it going? Do we have any audio? No. No audio? Oh, there we go.
Just to put it in perspective, these people have never heard the gospel. Never. Unreached by the gospel in this area, this people grew. You can stop it. So over 2 nights, 2,200 people showed up.
We we 30 different or 29 different villages. We invited 2,200 different people showed up, and 800 over 800 people "gave their life" to Jesus. Like, this is so much bigger than just ourselves, and it's what the gospel is all about. It's what the cross is all about. We're gonna continue in our series first first Corinthians.
I, you know, I don't have my dad joke book with me today. I'm sorry. I'll have to bring that back out. Gift from the wisers and crowsmans and shoveers. Yeah.
Now you know who's culpable. Alright. So are you guys enjoying the first Corinthians series so far? Praise the Lord. I'm glad.
We will continue with it. We have gotten halfway through chapter 1 in in the last 3 Sundays. We will continue with, verse 18. And just a precursor to this message, I'm gonna start with foolishness. I'm gonna end with foolishness.
And in the middle, there'll be nothing but foolishness. You'll see what I mean. As a matter of fact, let's just Google what is the definition of foolishness. Alright? It's not a dad joke.
I'm I'm I'm as serious as I can be. Having or showing a lack of good sense, judgment, or discretion, absurd ridiculous, Marked by a loss of composure. Insignificant. Something that is foolish is seen as insignificant. Something that's foolish is seen as trifling.
That's absurd. We're gonna read from verse 18 to 25 for now. Says, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent. I will frustrate.
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of the sage? Has not God made the foolish made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him.
It's impossible to know god through worldly wisdom. It's impossible to know god through the wisdom of the world. And we'll talk about what that is. Verse 21 again, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. I told you, I'm preaching, it's foolishness.
Through the foolishness of what was preached. God chose to make it this way so that the pride and arrogant would be found out. I don't need church. I don't need God. I don't need to go listen to that preacher.
I can find him on my own. That's the wisdom of the world. Don't ever say it again. And as you grow in him and you grow to know him, as and whatever he puts inside of you, he's commissioned you to preach to the world around you by the way you live and the way you speak. You're all ministers of the gospel as believers.
And it takes coming together to be challenged and pushed towards overflowing what he's put in. Amen? Amen. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a "stumbling block" to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. But to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
And just to remind you, I told you an analogy or something that I was teaching my son or about my son. Like, my son is a 10 year old boy. He's about to be 11, and and man, he comes up with a lot of ideas, and it's great. And he's a very smart and wise 10 year old boy, and especially for his age. But he doesn't have the experience that I have as his father.
He doesn't have the knowledge and the teaching that I've had. He hasn't been through the stuff that I've been through. So he could never, outside of the supernatural influence of God, act in most situations as wisely as his father is just simply because he's 10 years old and I'm 36. Right? But if he obeys me in his obedience, he is showing all of the wisdom of his father even if he doesn't understand.
Right? When he does what his father says, even when he lacks understanding, his action or his speaking is showing all of the wisdom of his father. And as believers, we walk by faith and not by sight. Even when we don't understand, we can have a peace that under that passes understanding because we know he's good, because we know he is love, and he loves us completely. And so in our obedience, we display all of the wisdom of the father even though our actions and our words sometimes look like foolishness to the wisdom of the world.
Right? Verse 18 again, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are saved it is the power of God. So we we talked about what foolishness is. I guess the quest the next question is, what is the message of the cross? And why is it foolishness to the world?
Because Paul in this verse is contrasting the wisdom of the world with the wisdom of god. Why is the message of the cross foolishness to the wisdom of the world and and what is this wisdom of the world that it's talking about? Well, what is the message of the cross? We talked last week a whole lot about love. We said the power of the cross is love.
In 1 John-3, the Bible says that this is how we know what love is. Jesus sacrificed himself for us, and we should do the same for 1 another. Therefore, love is the sacrificing of yourself for the sake of another. You can say you love someone all you want. Most people when they say I love you, they don't really love you, they love what you can do for them.
They love what they can get from you. They have a feeling of love. But love is sacrificing yourself for the sake of someone else. I had to learn to love my wife. I, as a 20 year old boy, when I married her, I didn't really love her.
That might be shocking to a lot of you. But I'm just being honest. I loved what she could do for me. I loved how she made me feel. I I I loved a lot of things about her, but I didn't I didn't really understand what it meant to love.
It wasn't till about 5 years into our marriage that I began to learn, wait, love is sacrificing yourself for the sake of another. It wasn't till about 5 years in a marriage that I learned what it looked like to sacrifice my wants, my needs, my desires for her sake. What what, you know, the the things that I would hold on to and control, my list, if you will. Sacrifice that even if she never quote unquote met the deepest desires of my heart, it's not about me anymore because I've been loved by him. And so because I've been completely and totally loved by him, I can lay my life down and begin to actually love her for her instead of for me.
*Jesus* stepped out of heaven. So the message of the cross that is foolishness is it's love. Jesus stepped out of heaven and sacrificed himself for us. Not the message of the cross isn't just to make you better. Because when you receive his love, you're commanded to become love.
Meaning you're commanded to pick up your cross and follow him. You can't receive his love without getting on the cross yourself. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We have been crucified with Christ. We become what he did.
We are imitators of our heavenly father as dearly loved children. Follow me as I follow Christ. It's no longer about us. The cross actually does away with you. That's the power of the cross that is foolishness to the world.
The world, the wisdom of the world is all about self. Self help getting, making sure you're taking care of yourself, self care. But the message of the cross is death to self. And it's foolishness to the world, but it's wisdom. It's the wisdom of god.
But to us who are being saved, it is the not just the wisdom of god, it's the power of god. Let's talk about the 2 different kind of people that Paul's talking about in these these verses. He's he says, verse 20, where is the wise person? And don't worry, the verse before it will probably it's quoting Isaiah-29. I will destroy the wisdom intelligence of the intelligent.
I will frustrate. It's in that verse, he's talking about a wonder. Like a lot of times, the 2 types of people that we're about to talk about, they need to see something exactly in the way that they understand, but that's not the way that God does stuff. A lot of times God will do things in a way that makes you wonder. And in your wondering, you'll either have to discount it and discredit it, run from it and talk bad about it, or you'll seek out in order to find.
Which kind of person are you? The things that you don't get, the things that you don't understand, or the things that rub you the wrong way because they're different from what everybody else always taught you, but they're in line with scripture. Do you just excuse them away? Do you just push them back and like, no, I don't wanna hear that? Do you talk about the people that believe those things even though they're in scripture?
Or when it makes you wonder, do you press in to say, God, what are you doing? Who is you? Who who are you in that area? Because I don't know you that way, and I wanna experience all of who you are. Because my Bible says, Seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you, ask and it will be given to you.
What kind of a person are you? Do you seek after Him or the things that you don't understand do you just push away? I wanna be a person that seeks after all of who He is in every way, even if it makes me uncomfortable. Because the Holy Spirit is given as the comforter to comfort me as I learn to walk by faith. Because the only way you can grow is stepping out in faith and walking in that way.
Amen? Amen. So, yes, that's the problem. That's why so many movements die. It's because God moves in a way a lot of denominations are dying right now because 50, 60, 70 years ago, God moved in an amazing way, and they were born again in that way, and they sought Him in that way, and it's amazing, and it's wonderful, and I honor that.
And then God says, all right, let's take the next step, and they're like, no God, I want this way, this is what I understand, this is what I grew up on. No, I'm not doing that, and then it becomes religion and it dies. Instead of a death to self and my preferences, I'm following after you wherever the burning bush is. Amen? So who are these wise people he's talking about?
In this whole paragraph, he he's he's talking about 2 different types of people, the wisdom of the world, 2 different types of worldly wisdom. Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Those are the 2 types. He says it again.
Later, Jews verse 22, Jews demand a sign. Greeks look for wisdom. He says it again, stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles. And then he contrasts it, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God for those who believe. *Jesus* actually talks about these 2 different types of people that represent the wisdom of the world.
And so we can see what Paul is referencing here and I think maybe even a little bit more clearly, the 2 types of people, if we go to Mark-8. You guys okay? Alright. You following? Yes.
Alright. *Mark-8:14* it says, the disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for 1 loaf they had with them in the boat. Verse 15, Jesus warns them, be careful, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. Other versions say the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The yeast of the Pharisees, the yeast of Herod.
Same thing. These are the same 2 groups of people that Paul's talking about in *1 Corinthians-1. Wisdom* of the world comes in 2 forms. Leaven of the pharisees and the leaven of have have Herod. First, I guess we we probably need to think about what is leaven?
What is yeast? What is he talking about when he says yeast? A lot of people say, well, that's sin. That just doesn't work with scripture. Sorry.
Because if yeast was sin, when Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like yeast, just doesn't work. And it says it it fills the whole it fills the whole loaf. Leaven is a way of thinking. Yeast, the way he's talking about here, it's a way of thinking. Okay?
Like we talked about strongholds, it starts as a way of thinking. Why is why am I saying it's a way of thinking? What does yeast do? Yeast starts as 1 little yeast organism and it multiplies over and over and fills the whole whole loaf. That's what happens.
Well, when you have a thought, it starts as a thought, and then it begins to multiply as you ruminate on it, as you meditate on it. Next thing you know, the more you're thinking about that thought, you start to feel those feelings. Then when you feel those feelings long enough, you begin to believe it. And when you believe it, it's infiltrating your heart. So then out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
So then you begin to speak it and act on it, and the more that you act on it, all of a sudden, now it's feeling your life, then it becomes a habit. And the more that it becomes a habit, the longer that that takes place, it becomes a lifestyle. And it all started with a Leaven in the Bible, it's talking about a way of thinking. There's a way of thinking that the Pharisees thought that Jesus warned them about. And there's a way of thinking that the that Herod, whatever that represents, which we'll get into, or the **philosophy of the day**, we'll get into.
There's a way of thinking that that represented, and Jesus warned them about both. Instead, we should have the leaven of the kingdom of heaven, which should fill the whole aspect of our life and change everything. The way of thinking of the kingdom of heaven. You guys follow me so far? The *wisdom* of the world has 2 main ways of thinking.
It's the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. It's a religious mindset that exalts itself over and above the powerful God which you can know, and it's a mindset of the culture of the day, of whatever culture you find yourself in. The mindset of the philosophy of the day or the political system of the day. Whatever whatever thing that you find yourself in, and both of them are pulling at our mind so we don't renew our mind to the reality of the kingdom of God. Because when we renew our mind to the reality of the kingdom of God, our life is transformed, and we begin to live over and above the religious system and the philosophy of the day.
Amen? I'm having fun. Drink to that. So what is the religious system? In *1 Corinthians-1*, he talked about it being the teachers of the law.
He talked about it being the Jews. *Jesus* talked about it being the Pharisees. It's a mode of thought, method of thinking that plays like God's at the center so that everybody else thinks that God's at the center of your life. But really, you don't know him, and you don't really attribute any power to him. And you may have even fooled yourself to believe that you do.
It's a mode of thinking where you say and sing that you trust in the promises of God. But when it comes down to it, you don't really think that they can change your life. You think that that just happened in the past, but it doesn't really matter for today. That's just for the pastor sharing the gospel, praying for the sick to be healed. You know, praying for things day in and out, that's just for the pastor.
That's not really from my life. That's the leaven of the Pharisees. In Luke, he calls it being a hypocrite, being a play actor that that I'll go to church. Sunday, what it looks like is or today, what it looks like is I go to church and I get my Bible out or I get my thing out, I sing the songs or I just go to check it off a box, but really when it gets down to the nitty gritty and we need to think logical, like do we really bring God into this sickness and pray to Him first and ask for prayer and and pray for healing or when somebody's sick around me, do I lay hands on him and pray for him? I know the Bible tells me to but I don't really believe that he's really that powerful.
I just say I do and sing about it but Imma go on about my life. I know my friends and people around me need Jesus and I I know I have the answer but that's for the pastor. I'm just gonna invite him to church instead of sharing the gospel. I'm I'm playing like I have god at the center but I don't really know Him because I'm not really stepping out in what He tells me to step out in and be obedient. I'm being a part of the thinking and the mindset of the religious system that "plays like it has power", but its life doesn't demonstrate any power, and the world says, nah, I don't want any of that.
It's not real, just an act. The leaven of the Pharisees, tough. Like, you you gotta understand the context of what's going on here in in Mark-8 with Jesus. Like, they had just fed the 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, multiplied it, probably more like 25,000 there because of women and children and everything. Amazing.
And then they just fed the 4,000 with 7 fish, think, or loaves, something like that. They they just did this, and now they get in a boat just a few verses later, and the disciples forgot to bring bread except for 1 loaf they had with them. All they had was 1. And Jesus warns them, be careful. Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
They discussed with 1 another and said, is it because we have no bread? Aware of their disgusting, Jesus asked them, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do your eyes fail to see and your ears fail fail to hear?
And don't you remember when I broke the 5 loaves for the 5,000, how many basketfuls did you pick up? 12, they replied. And when I broke the 7 loaves for the 4,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? They answered 7. He said this he said to them, do you still not understand?
We're in this boat. You have 1 loaf of bread, and you're worried about it, and I'm with you. Do you still not understand? You lose your job, things don't go right a day, **"tough stuff happens"** in life, and I'm not talking about just little stuff, I'm talking about tough stuff. And you start freaking out.
I want you to know that Jesus loves you, and he's telling you, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He's telling you because he loves you, beware of the leaven of of Herod or of the philosophy of the day because they will both try to distract you from the power of who's with you and the wisdom of who's with you so that you get focused on what you don't have or what happened to you instead of who's with you and how he's gonna make you through it. Look, I'm I'm preaching at myself too. Sometimes thank you, Heidi. I said that I keep preaching.
Sometimes I lack peace. When I lack peace, I have taken my eyes off of who's with me and put it on what I don't have or got caught up in some I have to do it, it's about my effort and me instead of what Jesus did, or some other philosophy of the day that, hey, you know what the the the leaven of Herod is? I haven't touched on that yet. The leaven of Herod, it's the philosophy of the day. So, back in the day, it would have been Roman culture which was heavily influenced by Greek culture which is why in *1 Corinthians-1*, he he talks about the Greeks and the Jews because it was, he's talking about Greek culture.
Well, here, it would have been Roman culture. Here, it's American culture. Beware of the leaven of America. Beware of the Philip like America says, in most parts of America, it's okay that you believe in God. That's fine.
I don't care if you believe in God. Be spiritual. Be whatever you want. But leave him away from your job. He has no business there.
Leave him away from your politics. He has no business there. Leave him away from this area, in this area, in this area. You can he's a personal religion and that's awesome. I'm glad that it's good for you.
Ever heard that? I'm glad that that's working for you, but you know what? Keep it to yourself. Don't you put them at the center of your workplace. Don't you put them at the center of your politics.
Don't you put them in the center of of of this area of your life or this area of your life or or your fun. Don't you put them at the center of your entertainment? That's just weird. It's foolishness. Don't you put them at the center of your relationships?
Come on. Everybody's sleeping around. Everybody's doing this. Everybody's doing. Don't you dare.
That's foolishness. What are you some weird minded Christian? Beware of the leaven of American culture. We're a part of king kingdom culture and we're mind is supposed to be renewed by that such that it affects our feelings, it affects our our what we say and what we speak in every area of our life, affects how we live, affects our habits so that it becomes our lifestyle. So you can't help but overflow what he says.
Beware because what happened is because of the leaven of the Pharisees' religion and because of the leaven of the culture of the day, the disciples were getting distracted by that and forgot, weren't able to see the power and the wisdom of who was with them. So they were worried about just having 1 piece of bread. I never wanna do that again because I've done it before. Amen? Amen.
You mind if I talk about some more foolishness? Is that okay? The reason the message of the cross is "foolishness to the religious system" and its foolishness to the culture of the day is because the religious system and the culture of the day is about what I can get and how I can do in order to get and be better. Where the message of the cross is about I'm dead to me, so what can I give? You are Lord over my finances.
You are Lord over my job. There is no secular work. If you're a Christian, you're a missionary at your job. And if your boss fires you because of it, that's great. Congratulations.
You're counted as those that are being persecuted for the gospel. That doesn't mean that you get so heavenly and high minded that you can't do your job. No. What I'm talking about is when you go in, you serve your boss as unto the Lord, and you show up early and you stay late, and you'd be 1 that they can count with a lot of responsibility because they don't know why you work with so much integrity when everybody else does not. And then you go over and above, and when they ask you, you tell a reason for the you have, and a reason for the joy and the vision and the peace that you have in the midst of whenever your work is struggling and whenever this is struggling.
You come in happy when everybody else is complaining about their home life and everything else, and it's because you're so caught up in the the the leaven of the kingdom of heaven that it's influenced the way you think, it's influenced the way you see, your perception of life, and it's influenced how you feel, and you can't help but speak about his goodness and now they have a choice. They'll either either explain you as well way as some weirdo or they'll run to you saying, what do you have? I need Jesus. Until you're willing to be foolish for Christ in the eyes of the world, you're not ready to be a witness. And guess what?
If you've given your life to Jesus, even though you may not have thought about it and you just heard that line for the first time today, If you've given your life to Jesus, you were declaring at the beginning that you're willing to be a fool for Christ. So even though you might not be here yet, if you're a little baby Christian, you are already willing. And as many times as you fail, this church is here to help you and help you to fall forward, to wash your feet in righteousness, meaning we're reminding you that you're forgiven, that you're loved, that therefore there's now no condemnation, and we're gonna tell you just like Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, "get back up and keep moving forward". We don't condemn you, now go and leave your life of sin. Let's be a reflection of Jesus in every area of your your lives from now on.
Can I just say the leaven of American culture, we're getting ready to vote on Tuesday? God's at the center of my politics and He should be at the center of yours as well. So when you look at who you're voting for and what you're voting for, you should look through biblical eyes. And if they don't align with Christian values, don't vote for them. And whichever 1 aligns the most with Christian values, pick that 1.
How about that? Just being real. And I'll say this, and and I'm I'm if this if this cuts you because you've done this before, I have a a easy word and a good word for you at the end of it. Abortion is not a Christian value. That's right.
Abortion wait. Wait. Wait. Abortion is murder. It's murdering God what God has declared to be life, and it's standing in the place of God.
There's a lot of people that vote for abortion and quote unquote women's rights. It's not a right to murder. K? But they vote for that because maybe they have abortion in their background or someone else and they're protecting and and feeling guilty, and so they're trying to cover it up and try to make it right and make it okay, so they fight for it. No.
No. If that's you, look, I got great news. God loves you and Jesus' payment on the cross was to forgive you of your sin but it takes repentance. It takes realizing that you were wrong and saying, God, I don't ever wanna do that again. I receive and I'm moving forward.
Amen? Amen. He cares for you. There's *no condemnation* and it and it requires repentance. Let's move forward in him.
And so, I will never vote for a candidate that pushes for abortion ever because it's murder. It's not okay. Alright? Okay. Let's end this thing.
Let's land this plane. Wherever we've been flying, we're about to land. Foolishness, that's where we're at. Alright, *1 Corinthians-1:26*. I got great news for where you're going, guys.
Personally, in your life, if Jesus is your lord, I have great news. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no 1 may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, holiness, and our redemption. Jesus Christ is our righteousness, he's our holiness, and our redemption.
Therefore, as is written, let the 1 who boasts boast in the Lord**. You know what? I'm about to boast for a second. I'm serious. But I'm gonna boast in the Lord.
I had an amazing home life. I had a ridiculous fear of failure that resulted in insecurity and me pushing myself over and above in order to be captain of the teams first in in every way. And and the talent that God gave me to do that, God gave that. But the the motivation was from fear, insecurity, not not okay. I was a prideful punk in many areas of my life.
Not many people saw me as that because I was the quote unquote golden boy because I was the first grandson of my family. But I was a prideful punk, selfish in many ways, and that's affected the first 5 years of our marriage, as I said in the beginning. I was foolish to God. *Saved*, a Christian wanting to follow him but in control in many areas and not willing to surrender to his lordship until I was broken. So I was a fool.
And then, "little by little", God "put his finger on" the things that I held as Lord over him. See, I confessed him as my Lord overall, but I didn't realize that he was gonna invade every area of my heart and put his finger on the things that I held above him in that area. Just like he did to the **rich young ruler* came to him, Jesus*, I serve you in everything. He said, oh, really? Sell all you have, give it to the poor, come follow me.
*Jesus found his 1 Lord* that he had put over him, put his finger on it. Sad thing is the rich young ruler said, no, can't do that, walked away sad. For the rest of my life, whatever Jesus puts his finger on, I wanna say yes, Lord. I give it to you, every aspect of it. So God began putting his finger on everything that I called Lord.
Not with my mouth. I would never do that. He was my he's my Lord of my heart. I was a baby Christian. But every little thing in every little area that my actions showed that I was in control instead of him.
Give this to me. Give this to me. Give this to me. And as I surrendered, there began a process. See, the Bible says unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.
Living for yourself is the lonely business. Living for what you want, what you need, you will die alone. But **dying for Christ** with him as Lord, once the seed falls to the ground and dies, then it grows and produces much fruit and produces much more seeds. Many more seeds. Love.
We're invited to love, to "die to self" in every area of our life, and as we do, the seed of the gospel. We die becoming more and more like Christ, and our life begins to pour out the fruit of love. You know what the fruit of love is? Anybody has a have a baby, fell in love, got married, became intimate, and had a baby. The fruit of love is life.
God created it that way. Guess what? When you die to self in every area of your life, he's Lord, you surrender. There's a process. A seed doesn't just immediately produce fruit.
It goes through a process of remaining, remaining dead, remaining following Him instead of what I want in this area and this. Oh, you don't put a time limit on God and say, I'm only gonna follow you if in 6 months, you give me what I want. Are you serious? Guess what? The season for you to start bearing fruit is 7 months.
It's complete surrender from the heart and he knows. But when you really do, you really surrender in every area, guess what? Over time, the process happens and then all of a sudden your life begins getting love all over everyone. Your your life begins your the love from your life begins sowing life everyone around you. And everyone in that area of your life begins to be seated by the life and love of Jesus Christ, the gospel, because of what you say and what you do.
It's a beautiful thing. It's amazing. So I surrender. I was on a submarine when I surrendered in the belly of the well. And I said, God because my purpose I've been running for my purpose.
My purpose part of 1 of my purposes is full time preaching the gospel and sharing God with where wherever he tells me to go. That's not that's not all of your purposes. Maybe some of you, to be full time in ministry as a pastor, a leader, a teacher, whatever it is. Most of you, it's your full time in ministry at your job, your "full time ministry" as an entrepreneur, your full time ministry as a mom or whatever it is, great. For me, I was running from my call.
I hadn't fully surrendered. I surrendered in the belly of the well. When it became time to get get out, God tested that surrender. I was offered full time position the day I was getting out of the Navy at a church in line with my purpose. But I was offered the full time job as a janitor and the guy who made silly songs for the children.
Foolish in the eyes of the world when I was a nuclear officer in the Navy. God was saying, you really gonna surrender? And then he drove the nail home. We bought our dream house. In order to do what I told you to do, you're gonna have to sell your dream house because you ain't gonna make enough money to to do it.
Foolishness to my family. I'm my wife. She pushed me to do it. She loves God and she loves me, her husband obeying God because she knows the fruit of that. But extended family, why are you getting a You could sign another contract.
You could, know, you could go use your training to go work in this area or in this environment. It's not about me anymore. I died to me. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So in every area of my life, my home, my finances, my job, my time, my relationships, everything, it's about Him.
And I'm gonna stand in it even if the world thinks I'm foolish the rest of my life. Because to know Him and to walk in His presence is enough for me from now on. Amen. God began to work in my heart because He had forced me to the place of decision and surrender in every area. And I remember shoveling sand in the parking lot of the Journey Church in Fernandina Beach area.
They just had this big new campus, new building. I'm shoveling sand for 6 hours. First 30 seconds of shoveling sand, I'm like, ugh. You know, about 30 minutes later, I'm like, God, why am I here? Don't you know what I've done?
This and this and this and this. Dumb, prideful. I told you I was prideful. And God just began to rip my heart to shreds and then 5 and a half hours later, it became, God, even if you have me shoveling sand and cleaning toilets the rest of my life, as long as I'm in your presence, as long as I'm following you, it's enough. It doesn't matter to me anymore.
I'm following you. It's His grace working into my heart by faith in relationship. And that gave Him something in order to use and to manifest Himself through. From that moment, God began to promote. I was in school, masters in Christian leadership, then he gave me opportunities in order to begin to build teams and to do stuff.
It wasn't here. It wasn't by my power and my strength. It was God's grace. God began to change lives. People began to give their life to Jesus and and get involved and get in ministry and and other things.
And here I am. I'm just trying to be obedient. My eyes on Christ, not about what other people are saying about me or doing. Then God told me I was gonna do pastors conferences around the world preaching the gospel. And I'm like, what?
Yes, Lord. But you're gonna have to do it because I've spent my life trying to promote myself and making it about me. So you're gonna have to do it. You're gonna have to make it happen. Then I was invited to go to Brazil to share my testimony, to share the gospel, and it was awesome.
And I ended up speaking in front of pastors, then I was invited to go to India to do 2 pastors conferences as a 27, 28 year old punk little kid. I'm like, what's going on? I don't understand. It's the grace of God by faith in what He says, and He will make you into what you could never be on your own and cause you to do what you could never do on your own by His power, shaming those around you who thought that it was foolishness to obey Him. That's what it looks like.
Then he sent me from there to help in my dad's church, and I'm helping in my dad's church. In the last 7 years, I've traveled to 10 nations preaching the gospel, doing pastor's conferences, seen 10 well, over 10,000 people give their life to Jesus in just messages. I'm boasting in what Jesus has done, guys. I'm a life that has just decided I'm gonna be foolish for Christ, and whatever He wants to do, it's gonna happen. Now on Wednesday, I'm defending my my I'm defending my doctoral thesis, and and maybe afterwards, I'll be doctor DJ.
We'll see what happens. But if that's it's out of obedience to what he said. I'm not boasting in my accomplishments. I'm boasting in what Christ has done. He took a foolish, prideful punk, changed him from the inside out, and now is showing his glory through my life and to whatever extent he wants to do it.
I'm excited. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for your grace. And what I'm telling you, I'm telling you this because if He could use me, He can use you. If He can use me to do this and my purpose, man, in your business, in your job as a wife, as a mother, as a father, in whatever area, if you would just surrender, just let go of control, follow Him as the Lord of your life, and trust Him, and stand with Him through the tough time.
Man, He's gonna make your life so much more beautiful and so much more amazing than you could ask, think, or imagine. And what the world sees as foolishness, when you start to stand in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, they'll come to you asking you for help. Because God wants to use your life to show His glory, but he only promotes those who surrender. We're not gonna do an altar call or anything like this. I'm actually gonna get Heidi to come out and give the announcements.
And I just want you to chew on it, go home, and do business with the Lord. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God *loves* you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect.
And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.usgiving or you can text any amount 84021 and then just search in the link that comes up search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you and the best is yet to come.