You must move beyond simply receiving God's presence in worship to becoming a carrier of that presence in your daily life. Covenant with your local church to engage the culture with the love of Jesus and establish yourself in the body. When you flow out what you receive, you will see depth in your relationship and impact those around you.
Thank you for what you're gonna do today. Thank you for how you're gonna speak, how you've already spoken. Thank you for what you've done. And I *covenant with our people to be done at 11:20 in Jesus* name. You better warn me when we get 2 minutes out.
Alright? Okay. *1 Corinthians-3*. We're continuing our our series in Corinthians. I heard Chevy did amazing last week.
I was in Japan. *God did amazing stuff in Japan. Got to encourage the church*. I'll tell you more about it another time because I need to get into this message. But I'm excited to listen to the message heavy preached.
Hadn't got to yet, but will, and we'll put it up on podcast hopefully today or tomorrow. Deal? Deal. Alright. *1 Corinthians-3*.
We're gonna be in verse 16 and 17. Just a little reminder. Remember we've been talking about building your house. And that it's important what you have affections for, what you are fond of. Because *God does not give the spirit* or God gives the spirit without limit.
Right? And we learned a couple of Sundays ago that we're not limited then in our ability to hear him. We're not limited in our ability to show his power, to show who he is and his love to those around us except by our own affections as Paul says, 2 Corinthians-7. So we're limited by our affections. What we are fond of limits us.
And so it's important that you understand what you're affectionate for and then repent. Shift the inputs because what you're affectionate for is a product of what you've been putting in your eyes and your ears. And then it grows from there because your desires come from your affections. This is what we've learned. I'm just doing a a quick review.
You wanna go into a deeper, understanding of this, listen the podcast 2 and 3 weeks ago or go to YouTube. Because so what you're affectionate for is a product of what you've been in communion with. And communion is the intimate exchange of ideas on a mental and spiritual level. So communion is not just this, the bread and the and the juice or the bread and the wine, but communion is also whatever you've been, like, meditating on and thinking about communing with in your mind. There's an intimate exchange of ideas on a mental and spiritual level, and that creates the affections.
And those affections, when you commune with that, creates the desires, desires, d e s I r e, desire. De means of, sire means father. So every desire you have has a father, and it's the product of what you've been communing with. Make sense? Yeah.
You guys follow if you're not following me, go back and listen. So that desire, if I continue to commune with it, it'll grow and grow and grow. And next thing you know, it'll produce an action and that action will either be sin or righteousness. And it'll be sin if it's the if I've been communing with things that are outside of the kingdom of heaven, if I haven't been communing with the father. But when I commune with the father, what I mean by that is when I spend time in his presence, *worshiping* him, listening to the word, getting in his word, spending time in prayer, like thinking about him throughout the day, knowing that he's with me and recognizing his presence with me.
I spend time there, then I have affections for what he has affections for. And I have desires that are birthed out of the kingdom of heaven. And next thing you know, my actions will be in line with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and I'll be building a life that matters. And it's important. You know why?
Well, there's many reasons. Well, because 1 Corinthians-3:16 says, don't you know that you, yourselves, are god's temple and that god's *spirit* dwells in your midst. Now, let's look at that. In 1 sense, you individually, you are god's temple. You weren't As a matter of fact, you were born broken.
We were all born broken. That's why there's so much brokenness in the world. But for god so loved the world, he so so loved you in the midst of your brokenness that he sent his 1 and only son, Jesus Christ, to come and be born of a virgin, born of God, came a man, God became a man, lived a perfect life, and died on a cross for your brokenness in order to restore your created value. In order to forgive you of your brokenness and begin to restore your life so you can live the life that He created you to live. The Bible says, you can't see the kingdom of God unless you've been "born again".
Meaning you were born broken, but when you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you're born right. You're born with His, He puts His spirit inside of you, He gives you a new heart that leans towards Him, and puts you on a path of learning to renew your mind and follow Him day in and day out. So that you can start by building a life with Jesus as the cornerstone, and every step you take in obedience is demonstrating the very wisdom of God, and you're building a life that reflects His character and His nature and His glory to the world around you. You guys follow me? So that means when you're born again, you become a *temple* of God.
A temple is a house that is made for *worship* and that houses the presence of the God it worships. When you're born again, you are washed clean and he puts the holy spirit in you and your life becomes a house that is made for worship and to house the very presence of god of the god that you worship, the very presence of the holy spirit. Amen? Amen. You know, you can't worship without sacrifice.
If your worship doesn't require sacrifice, I don't know if it's worship. *Romans-12:2, present your bodies as a living sacrifice*, holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. The thoughts coming through your mind, some of your minds are saying, wait. Wait.
Wait. Wait. To obey is better than sacrifice. Exactly. Obedience is the highest form of sacrifice.
Because just sacrifice for sacrifice sake. You might be sacrificing something you wanna sacrifice. But when God says to do something, you have to sacrifice your will to obey him and that is worship. Isn't that beautiful? So you are God's temple, made to house the very presence of God and reflect his presence everywhere you go.
As a matter of fact, *John-7* verse, I think, 38. We'll see. Yeah. Whoever believes in me as scripture said, "rivers of living water". Everybody say rivers of living water.
Rivers Will flow from within them or flow out of their belly. By this, he meant the spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the spirit had not been given since Jesus has not been glorified. Well, Jesus has been glorified. So when you're born again, he puts his spirit in you so you can know him, then he puts his spirit on you the holy spirit can flow through you and impact the world around you.
Rivers of living water flowing out of the temple of your life that is supposed to be an act of worship demonstrating the very presence and glory of God to the world around you. Come on. Hallelujah. That's good preaching. Amen.
Alright. Well, let's look back at 1 Corinthians-3. 16, do you not know that you yourselves are god's temple and that god's spirit dwells in your midst. Now, everything that we just said is true. But that's not necessarily what this verse and the verse after it is talking about.
Because verse 17, if anyone destroys god's temple, god will destroy that person for god's temple is sacred and you together are that temple. Everybody say, together. Together. This is talking about the church. You individually are God's temple, just like we talked about a couple weeks ago.
You individually are the house that God is building, but you're also individually just a stone in the house he's building. You are individually a temple of the Holy Spirit, but you're also just a part and together we are His temple. Together. Bible says, if anybody destroys that temple, god will destroy them. You better double check your mouth if you're talking about the church.
Not just real church, any. You better know what you're saying is from god. Otherwise, repent now. God is jealous about his church and very protective of his movement. But you together are his temple.
Let's just think about that. Remember, rivers of life, rivers of living water flowing from within them. And he says, you yourselves are my temple and I'm in your midst. It just reminds me of Matthew-18. I don't know about you guys, but it does me.
*Matthew-18* verse 19, again, truly I tell you that if 2 of you on earth agree about anything they ask, it will be done for them. By my father in heaven, meaning when we come together and we're in 1 mind, in 1 accord because of the Holy Spirit that's in me is the same Holy Spirit that's in you, then we're in perfect unity. And there's a synergy that happens in that, which is important. And God's will is accomplished on the earth. But wait, verse 20, for where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there I am with them.
There it is again. Interesting. Does that mean God's not with you when you're alone? No. You're his temple.
His presence is in you. And hopefully on you. It's awesome. You're supposed to get alone with God and enjoy his presence, but there's a greater manifestation of him being with us when we come together. Let's just think about it for a second.
Holy Spirit in me, rivers of living water flowing out of me. But wait, Holy Spirit's in you. Rivers of living water flowing out of you representing the Holy Spirit. So when we get together, our rivers collide, especially when we're in unity. So there's a greater manifestation of His presence, life changing presence and power and love of the Holy Spirit when believers come together in unity that unbelievers need to see.
That's cool. It's important. As a matter of fact, it was prophesied about in Ezekiel. I'm a close with this, but it'll take me about 10 minutes. Perfect timing.
*God's good like that. Let's go to Ezekiel-47* where it talks about the river. So Ezekiel is in the middle of a vision here. Prophet in the Old Testament and this man is leading him around showing him things yet to come. And it says, the man brought me back to the entrance or to enter oh wait, I'm reading it wrong.
The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple. There we go. And I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east for the temple faced the east. The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. Okay.
So just a picture here, there's this temple, which we've been talking a lot about temples, and there's water seeping out under the threshold. Think of like a door, water seeping out, and it started at the altar, the place of worship, the place of dying to self. What is your spiritual act of worship? Romans twelve:two, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable God, this is your spiritual act of worship. And as you're doing that, His Spirit is flowing out of you from His throne, being thrown upon the praises of your people.
So we're praising Him and worshiping Him out of obedience, and as that worship is happening, His spirit is flowing in amazing ways in this temple where we're gathered together and it's flowing out and it's seeping under the threshold. You guys follow me so far? It's pretty cool. He then brought me out through the North Gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east. Everybody say outer gate.
Gate. And the water was trickling from the south side. So wait a second, as it's coming under the threshold, it's seeping, it's just coming under the threshold. But then all of a sudden you get to the outside of the temple, and now it's a trickle. Is there a pattern here?
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off 1000 cubits. 1000 cubits is 1,700 feet which is about a third of a mile. So, about a third of a mile, he measured off. And then led me through water that was ankle deep. So it started at the altar, seeped out of the temple, got to the outer gate and it's trickling, and then got a third a mile from the temple, and now it's ankle deep.
So it's getting deeper the further it goes from the place of worship. Where did it start? The place of worship, the temple. Where does it get deeper? Interesting.
Verse 4, he measured off water that was knee deep, another thousand cubits away. So now we're 2 thirds a mile away and it's knee deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. So now we're a mile away and it's up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, so in a mile and a third.
But now it was a river that I could not cross because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in, a river that no 1 could cross. He asked me, son of man, do you see this? You're never made you were never made to just worship and sit in his presence and do nothing about it. What he does in you, he wants to do through you. And he wants to gather the saints together to sit and enjoy his presence.
And it's a beautiful thing and powerful, but the purpose of that is to send you out. And when you go out and you let what He put in flow through you, it gets deeper. More miracles happen outside of the church these days than inside of the church. You know why? Because of this.
He was prophesying about our time, about the time of the church. Man, I see way more people led to Jesus outside of the church than inside of the church in my personal life. As I receive in my office and or in my my living room or wherever I am, enjoying his presence. I go and I give out and it gets deeper, but then as I come here, God does an even greater work inside of me because we're together in his presence, but it's not meant to stay here. Let me prove my point.
What time is it? I gotta prove my point quickly. I didn't give you guys or I didn't give you these verses, but in Isaiah oh, it's the other way. Chapter 58. It's talking about fasting, which is a way of worshiping.
Verse 2, it says, for day after day they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right, and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions, and they seem eager for God to come near them. What is that saying? It's a people that seem that they really wanna be in his presence, and they wanna enjoy him, and they're they're seeking after him, and it's a beautiful thing.
And then God says, why have we fasted? Or they say, why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it. Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed? Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling, strife, in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fasting I have chosen? Only a day of people to humble themselves? Is this the kind of worship he's chosen? Only a day to come and enjoy his presence, or only a moment of time in the day to enjoy his presence, but then not allow that life change to impact the world around you?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed or for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I've chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood, then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will appear quickly.
Then then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help and he will say, here I am. It's I'm here offering my body as a sacrifice of worship with you guys together, and we're enjoying his presence, we're enjoying his word, we're enjoying all of that, and the more that we're in unity, the greater the manifestation of that is, the more we're all seeking him personally, the greater the manifestation of His glory and His power is when we come together, and it's awesome, and it's wonderful, and it's beautiful, but it's just a trickle. And then we go from here, and we begin to set the oppressed free.
We begin to pray for the sick and see them healed. We get to share the gospel, and other people receive it, and they experience the love of Jesus. We go to our family reunions, and we have peace and joy that's not normal in our family, and they're like, what's different about you? And you get to share Jesus and why you're different. You're letting what's inside of you come out and impact the world around you, and now it's getting deeper in you, and you're seeing a bigger change around you.
But until you start to give out what you receive, you're not gonna see a change. Let me prove it 1 more time. I got 3 minutes. Let's go back to Ezekiel. Watch this.
That's a Louisiana term right there. Watch this. That's w a t c h I s. Watch this. Alright.
Let's let's pick up where we left off. *Ezekiel-47* verse 6, second sentence. Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, the water flows toward the Eastern region and goes down into Arabah where it enters the Dead Sea.
When it empties into the sea, the salty waters there become fresh. Swarms of living creatures will flow will live wherever the river flows. Let the river flow Lord. There will be large number of fish because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh. Do you realize **fresh water** doesn't make salt water fresh?
Freshwater just makes saltwater more brackish, better mixture, right? Or less salty, that's all. It's describing a change of nature. We have we've give our life to Jesus. He put his spirit in us.
We have a change of nature, fresh water. Our life becomes fresh water. But now when we touch salt water, our fresh water doesn't get salty. Their salty water gets fresh. Change in nature.
It's a big deal. Let's keep going. So wherever the river flows, everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore from Engedi to in Eglum. There will be places for spreading nets.
The fish will be of many kinds like the the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. Now watch this, and I'm a I'm a end with this. But the swamps and the marshes will not become fresh. They will be left for salt. New King James version, the King James version says, but the swamps and the marshes will not be healed.
They will be left for salt. It's those that come and get a glimpse of his glory. What is a what is a marsh? It receives from the river, but there's no outlet. Healing is where there's a flow.
Receive, give, receive, give in the river. A marsh receives no outlet. It's only receiving. I need, I need, I need, but I'm not gonna give out what you've given me. Which means you're living still living for self.
Because a relationship with *Lord* imitates the Lord and receives from the Father and does what they see the Father doing and and says what they hear the Father saying. And it's a challenge for all of us to receive and give out. Because here it says, but the swamps and marshes will not become fresh or healed, they will be left for salt. And that's the people and don't be this person. And if it's you, the shoe fits, kick it off.
Don't live that way anymore. Who come to *church* in order to experience the presence, go to the prayer meetings, go to the worship services in order to experience the presence, but then don't become the carrier of the presence as they go. And so it just stays a little seat where there's really no relationship. And your life stays the same. There's not much healing or none.
There's not much change or none. Just a little. You wanna see great growth? You wanna see depth in your relationship with Jesus? Come to church and experience the simple, and then go out and give it out and watch how it becomes depth in your life.
Watch how your life is demonstrating the depth of the Lord. At Real Church, we're a church that engages the culture with the love of Jesus. And then we establish them in the local body. If you're not established in a church, you're invited. Get established here.
Covenant with us like you covenant with your spouse to change the world and be on mission together with us. If this isn't the church, go covenant with another. But covenant with some local church and be a part of the body. So we engage the culture with the love of Jesus. We establish the believer in the body of Christ, and we equip the believer to engage the culture with the love of Jesus.
That's what this message is. If this is your local church, this is my effort, best effort to equip you with understanding it's necessary for you to give out what you receive to the world around you. And then after that, we empower the ready to live their God given purpose. Man, as you do that consistently, God's developing character in you. And maybe it's to be a business leader, a business owner, maybe it's to to be a great mom mom or grandmama, or or maybe it's to work at a church 1 day.
Whatever whatever the purpose is, our role as a church is to lay our life down and serve you, to help you, to live out your purpose when you're ready. That's it. That that's our mission, man. If we got a bunch of people being equipped to or being established in the local body, being equipped to to engage the culture around them with the love of Jesus, meaning let the river flow, and then as they're consistently doing that, they're growing that, and when they're ready, they we are part of the process of empowering them to live out their purpose. I think we're doing our role in making disciples, don't you?
Amen. That's our church, guys. Is this your first time you're invited to be a part? If you've been here for a long time, let this just reorient your heart to who we are. Amen?
Amen. Would you guys please forgive me? I went 2 minutes over. I broke my so I I guess you have the choice whether or not to forgive me. But I'm asking for forgiveness.
Please forgive me. I love you, and I just want you to have an amazing day. We have some announcements, so please stay seated. 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 our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321 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.