You don't need to earn God's love because Jesus already paid the ultimate price to restore your worth. Stop running from Him and invite the Holy Spirit to repair the broken places in your life today. Embrace your identity as 'loved by the Lord' and walk in the freedom of His redemption.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
I am. This is a message I've I've never preached before. As a matter of fact, I I had no idea. We're in the character series, part 7 of the character series, and I had no idea who this Bible character was before Friday. So I'm gonna pray, and I just I believe that this message is gonna be encouraging.
I believe it's my prayer that that it would be not from me, but from the very heart of God. If if it's God if it's me speaking, you can walk away and say, oh, that was good. It kinda tickled my ears. I walked away and it was, you know, it sounded good, made me feel good about myself. But if it's God speaking to you, then it has the the potential to to shift your life for eternity.
So as I pray, would you pray, God, let me hear your voice. Open up your heart. Let me let me hear something from you, father. Father, I just thank you for who you are, and I thank you for these amazing people that are here today. *Lord*, we invite you.
Holy Spirit, we invite you to move as you wish in this service. We give you rain here, And I just ask you to speak where it's this is not about me, it's about you, and it's about you loving people, and people understanding just how how much you love them, and how you care for them, and how you wanna walk them into a deeper understanding of who you are and who they are in you, father. *Lord*, I can't, but you can. So, father, I give this message to you. I give all of this to you, Lord, and I pray that lives are forever changed.
Every hindrance, every distraction, just be gone in Jesus' name. Thank you, father, for what you're gonna do. Amen and amen. Let's get started. Once again, we're in the character series.
We're in the character series, we're talking about all throughout the summer, different characters in the Bible and their stories. But you gotta understand that these characters in the Bible are more than just these stories from a long time ago. Right? They're they're real people, real men, real women, real struggles, real trials, real problems, real supernatural wins. And if they experience those same supernatural wins, and they overcame the the temptations, they overcame the trials, we can learn from them and experience the same supernatural amazing power because of Jesus in our lives today.
So this is practical stuff for us here and now. Amen? So let's start. Let's go to *2 Samuel-12* and verse 25. It says, and because the Lord loved him, he sent his word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedediah.
And there's a little b there in the NIV. If you look down at the bottom, it says Jedediah, where the b is. It says Jedediah means loved by the Lord. Who is Jedediah? Like, really?
Why is he loved by the Lord from birth? What is the backstory? What is it about Jedediah that caused him to be loved by God? What's so special? I don't know about you, but I wanna be loved by God.
Look to your neighbor on the right side. I wanna be loved by God. Look at the neighbor on the left, I don't know about you, but I wanna be loved by God. I believe the story of Jedediah holds the key to understanding God's love, to understanding the very heart of God, to understanding as we can how we can walk as ones who are loved by God. To understand the story of Jedediah, we has we have to understand that God is a God who loves redemption.
He just does. God's heart is a heart of redemption. He loves stories of redemption. As a matter of fact, all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, as a whole, it is a story of redemption. And each story shows a story of redemption.
*God's heart is for redemption*, and he loves, absolutely loves the results of redemption. Jedediah is the result of redemption. Some of you are stories of redemption. I am a story of redemption. In others, it's time to be redeemed.
So what's the definition of redeem? Let's pull it up. That's a lot of words. Let's read it. Definition of redeem, to buy back, to repurchase, to get or to win back, to free from what distresses or harms, to free from captivity by payment of ransom, to extricate from or help to overcome something detrimental, to release from blame or debt, to clear, to free from the consequences of sin, to change for the better, to reform, to repair, to restore.
Some of you guys need that in your life today. Skipping a few, to exchange for something of value, to redeem, to make good, to fulfill, to atone for, to expiate, redeem, and error, to offset the bad effect of, to make worthwhile, to retrieve. So Jedediah. How did Jedediah come about? Let's look at the backstory.
I love backstory. If you flip the page back or scroll down on the phone, *2 Samuel-11:1*. In the spring at the time when the kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. Hold up.
This is the springtime when the kings go off to war. Back in the day, you know, they didn't go off to war in the winter. They didn't have these like heated battleships and and heated tanks and everything. It was hand to hand combat. It was intense.
And it was just too cold in the winter. But the kings went off to war in the spring. David was king of the Israelites. And David, at the time when the kings went off to war, sent his troops out to war, but David "stayed back home". See, there's an issue with that.
When the Israelites would send their troops out to war, the Ark of the Covenant would go before the troops. If you've been if you've been coming to a real church, you know the Ark of the Covenant represents Jesus. The troops were to follow Jesus into battle, because just like Courtney said, Jesus has already won the war. When when they were obeying the Lord and going into battle, following the ark of the covenant, following Jesus, they knew the war had already been won. We're supposed to live our lives with our focus on Jesus, following Jesus no matter where he goes, no matter what happens, no matter what the battle look like looks like because we know if we're following him, the war is already won.
It's a done deal. David took his eyes off the ark. David didn't follow the ark in the battle as he was supposed to with his men. David said, no. Not this time.
I'm good. You guys go ahead. I'm gonna stay back here. I deserve some rest, not knowing that rest is following Jesus. Amen?
So what happened? What had happened was, 1 evening, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. Hold up. 1 evening, David got up from his bed. The NASB, another version says, late in the afternoon, David got up from his bed.
King James Version says, at evening tide, whatever that's supposed to mean. It's actually between 5 p. M. And 6 p. M.
When David got out of his bed. Why is David getting out of his bed between 5 and 6 p. M? Man, he took a long nap in the afternoon. I'll tell you what, a lot of times boredom leads to bad things.
When you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing and you're bored, a lot of times it leads to bad things. A lot of times when you get lazy in 1 area of your life, he should have been out of battle, it leads to laziness in a lot of other areas of your life. Amen? You ever experienced that? I have.
Okay. So what happened? From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Uh-oh. The woman was very beautiful.
And David sent someone to find out about her. The man said she is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him and he slept with her. That's intense.
The focus of our eyes becomes the desire of our heart. Wherever we put our focus in life, that becomes the desire of our heart. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And then the mouth speaks death or life. And it's kind of like a self fulfilling prophecy.
David focused. He took his focus off the ark, and he put his focus on another man's wife, and it became the desire of his heart, and then he spoke, hey, will you go and check out who this lady, who this is, and it's Bathsheba, and then it produced sin in his life, and results of sin is death. It's just truth. So what happened next? She came to him, he slept with her.
Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness, then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David saying, I am pregnant. The fruit of intimacy, natural, they had sex, the fruit of intimacy is reproduction. Right? Now everything that happens in the Old Testament, it's a physical representation of what spiritually happens in our life today.
We know that worship is intimacy. The fruit of intimacy causes reproduction. Now when we're intimate in worship with our with Jesus, when our focus is him we're "reproducing Jesus" in our life and those that we have influence over it reproduces Jesus in their life. You ever hung out with someone, you've been following Jesus with everything you have inside of them and you've been hanging out with these people, and all of a sudden you start to notice they get on fire just like you are? The fruit of intimacy is reproduction.
Isn't that awesome? But see, also the converse is true. *James-4:4*, and this is tough. It says, you adulterous people. Now adultery is intimacy.
Don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Spiritual adultery stinks. If I want I want my focus to be Jesus constantly. And anytime that I'm distracted by what is not Jesus, I put my focus on something else above Jesus, that is the object of my worship.
That's what I'm becoming intimate with, and it's being reproduced not only in my life, but in the life of those around me with whom I have influence. Let me give you an example. My kiddos. Man, if I am all out for *Jesus* and out of the the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So I'm focusing on Christ.
My I'm I'm speaking about Christ. I'm speaking about Jesus. I'm building people up. I'm lifting people up. They're watching me and they're like man I wanna be just like daddy and it's reproducing Jesus in my kids lives because what they see they reproduce.
But let's say dad comes home and he's complaining about his leadership. He's complaining about his boss. Well my kids are seeing that and they're gonna reproduce it in their life. Next thing you know they're gonna be complaining about their leadership. They're gonna be constantly constantly complaining about daddy.
If I'm always down in my wife when my kids are in the room, not building her up, speaking to her as Christ loves the church, building my wife up by the washing of the water of the word, no. If I'm always down in her and telling her how terrible is she is and not honoring her but but dissing her constantly what are my kids gonna do? It's reproducing because of my influence that God has given me over my kids. What I'm focused on is reproducing in my heart and reproducing out of my mouth and it's reproducing in their lives. They're gonna begin to do the same thing to mom and probably to women too.
That's tough. How do we fix it? *Redemption*. It's always redemption. So let's start back with a story.
What did David do? So David sent his word to Joab. So he got this woman pregnant, and he sent his word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite. Remember, Uriah is Bathsheba's husband. And Joab sent him to David.
When Uriah came to him, David asked him how how Joab was, and how the soldiers were, and how the war was going. Small talk. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master servants and did not go down to the his house.
David was told Uriah did not go home. So he asked Uriah, haven't you come just come from a military campaign? Why didn't you go home? Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my Lord's men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife?
As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing. David tried to cover up his screw up, but he didn't realize who he was dealing with. See, he was dealing with Uriah the Hittite. Uriah had already been infected by David's heart before David took his eyes off the ark. Let me explain what I mean.
See, David was a man after God's own heart. He had just fell for a second. He took his eyes off the ark for a second, off of Jesus for a second. He was a man after God's own heart. And Uriah the Hittite, there was multiple different mighty men that it talks about.
And these mighty men, Uriah was 1 of them. These mighty men were David's mighty men. These mighty men could take down a 100 men just 1 at a time. Like Uriah standing up against a 100 men, he could take them all down. Some of them, it even says that they could take down 1000 men.
It tells a story about 1 of the mighty men. All of Israel's army was afraid, and they were running, but the mighty man took a stand. He he picked up a spear, and he slayed 300 men by himself. The whole Philistine army ran, and then the Israelites came back. That's 1 mighty man.
1 mighty warrior of God. See, Uriah was a mighty man, had already been infected by David's heart because David had influence over him, and David's heart was a heart after God. Where did these mighty men come from? Who were these mighty men before they became mighty? Who was Uriah before he was a mighty man of God?
I'll tell you, because it's very applicable to us. In *1 Samuel-22:1*, David left Gath. Now remember, this is David, the same David. Think about these mighty men and the exploits and the things that they're doing, the the armies that they're they're routing just by themselves, the giants that they're defeating. Who does it remind you of?
See little David as a teenager? The whole the whole Israelite army is scared of the Philistines. There's a there's a giant that's that's making them, you know, shaking their boots, and David comes up with a slingshot. Says, I don't know why you're afraid. God's in me.
I'm gonna "take this guy down". He takes, single handedly takes the giant down, cuts off his head, and the whole Philistine army runs because of God and David. The mighty men were just reproducing what they saw in David. Because who God gives you influence over, what your focus is, it reproduces in them. You see it?
Ain't that cool? So who were these mighty men before they were mighty men? David left Gath Gath it's kinda hard to say. *1 Samuel-22*, verse 1. David left Gath and escaped to a Cave Of Adullam.
I apologize. I can't read there. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him. So David's on the run from Saul. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander.
About 400 men were with him. These 400 men who were distressed, discontented, and in debt gathered around David and became the mighty men. Isn't that amazing? Some of you are distressed and discontented and in debt, and that's all you see right now. But that's not what I see.
I see mighty men. I see mighty women of God. At 1 time I was distressed and discontented and in debt. And I found somebody that was all after Jesus. And I latched on to them, and their "heart infected me" for Jesus.
And now I'm a mighty man of God. And there are many men and women in here who are on the dream team, who have given their life to Jesus in the last year, or have been living for Jesus for the past 15, 20 years, and have become mighty men and women of God. And if you're distressed, discontented, or in debt, that's not the end of the situation. I encourage you to get connected. Hey, follow me as I follow Christ, just like Paul said.
Come on, let's do this thing together, and let's take this city for Jesus. You are a mighty man and a mighty woman of God. Let this heart infect you with Jesus. So Uriah, even when his leader fell, he said, no, I'm still gonna be focused on the ark. So what did David do?
The cover up. Back to 2 Samuel-11. Uriah said to David, the Ark of Judah is staying at tents, you know, he can't leave. So in the morning, David wrote a letter to Job, verse 14, and sent it to Uriah. In it, he wrote, put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fierce, then withdraw for him.
He murdered him. David murdered Uriah. And and and here's the thing, secret sin, David's trying to cover up his sin. Secret sin only grows more dirty. It's just truth.
Secret sin only grows more dirty. In *Matthew-10:26* 6, it says, there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed. There is nothing hidden that will not be made known. It always come to light. Always comes to light.
In Ephesians five:eight, it says this, for you were once darkness. It doesn't say you were once in darkness. It says you were once darkness. But now you are light in the Lord. Doesn't say you are in light, but you are light.
Let me explain. Live as children of the light. For the fruit of the light consists in goodness, righteousness, and truth, and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Man, when you give your life to Jesus, when you've been forgiven, when you know that you're in right standing with him, when you screw up, when you mess up, you don't wanna hide anymore.
It's just not okay to hide anymore. I wanna run into his presence and expose expose everything and say, hey, clean me out, God. And he looks at me and says, son, you're already clean. You're you're in my presence now. You can freely approach me because I "paid the price" for you already.
As long as we stay hidden, secret sin only grows more dirty. That's the importance of the church. That's the importance of community. It always has to come out. Always.
I'm giving you an example. I was following Jesus too, and I got stuck in pornography. I've said this before up here. Got stuck in pornography when I was like 20. Struggled with pornography for 5 years.
And it wasn't until I "quit hiding". Secret sin only grows more dirty. It wasn't until I quit hiding and exposed it that I was healed of it. Now watch this. This is amazing.
It says, it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. When I was struggling with it, I was ashamed of it because I was being disobedient in secret, hiding. But everything exposed by the light, I confessed it, confessed my fault 1 to another, pray for each other so you may be healed. Actually, I was 25 years old and went and told my wife, broke her, she prayed for me, I was healed of the struggle or the addiction then. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible and everything that is illuminated becomes a light, Literally becomes a light.
Meaning, what was once darkness in my life, I'm no longer ashamed of it because I'm healed. And now that I'm sharing my testimony of what God has freed me from, there are people in here that are struggling with pornography and struggling with adultery, and struggling with those things. And what was once darkness is now a light. I'm sharing my testimony, and it's exposing the darkness in your life and bringing it to the light. And you're being drawn to Jesus saying, hey, quit hiding and run to me.
I love you. I forgive you. So *God sent Nathan the prophet to expose David's sin* because what is hidden is always exposed. Either exposed by circumstance or we freely expose it and are freed from it. What happened?
Well, *2 Samuel-11*. Verse 9. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
Now therefore, the sword will never depart from your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. This is what the Lord says, out of your household I'm gonna bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to 1 who is close to you and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all of Israel. Now that's crazy.
I mean, that's just crazy. The Bible says that the Lord punishes the sins of those to the third and fourth generation. You ever you ever noticed how a lot of people or maybe even yourself have struggled with the sins of your father or of your grandfather? The same sins from them was kinda passed down to you and you experienced this that same struggle? What is it that breaks that struggle?
*Redemption*. *Jesus*. That struggle you don't have to struggle with those sins anymore. Jesus breaks the struggle. Redemption, baby.
Let me explain. Let me get to Jedediah. First thing David David said, then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. David didn't David didn't hide it. David didn't conceal it.
David didn't blame everybody else. When it was brought out, it was brought to the light. See, Holy Spirit in the New Testament, Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. Well, we can either blame everybody else and pretend to be godly, or we can recognize that we're ungodly. The world, Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin.
*Romans-4:5* says this, however, to the 1 who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited to the righteousness. God doesn't justify those who pretend to be godly. He rebuked the Pharisees. He justifies those just as if they'd never done it, those who recognize that they're not able to reach God in and of their own self. Nathan replied, verse 13, then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
Nathan replied, the Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die, but because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die. And Nathan had gone home. After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife had born to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child.
He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventeenth day, the child died. The payment for sin is death. Guess what?
The payment for sin is still death. *Romans-6:23*. Old Testament, the payment for sin was death. 6 verse 23, the payment for sin is still death. The Lord God is a just God, period.
What happened next? After all of this played out, *2 Samuel-12:24*, then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him, and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedediah. King Solomon, *God* actually named him Jedediah.
You see, the firstborn had to die to pay for the sin of David so that the secondborn could live. Do you get it? Let me explain. *Colossians-1:15* says that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. Jesus prayed the price once for all.
The payment for sin is till still death. The firstborn has to die to pay for the sin. But Jesus died once for all. Once for all time and once for all people. Jesus died, the firstborn of all creation died so that the next generations could live.
*Romans-6:23, for the payment for of sin is death*, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God loves the story of redemption. This was a physical representation of what God is doing spiritually in and through us today. Jedediah, the 1 who God loves. You are Jedediah.
The first 1 that paid for the sin is Jesus. *God* loves you and it is a "free gift". The only way to experience that gift is to receive it. I've said this before. I'm a say it again.
This iPhone, if I was gonna give you this gift, a free gift. As a matter of fact, put your name on it, leave it at your door. It says, hey, this is yours. I paid for it. You open your door, you look at the gift, that's not real.
Throw it away. You die without ever getting to experience the benefit of receiving that gift. The gift's already been paid for. It's already been bought. It's for you.
The other person receives it. They live the rest of their life in eternity, experiencing the goodness of the gift that was paid for them. What does it take to experience eternal life? Receive it. Receive what Jesus has done.
*Romans-4:8* says, blessed is the man whose sin is never counted against him. We don't have to pay the penalty for our sin anymore. Jesus already paid it all, past, present, and future. We don't have to exist in in constant guilt and condemnation anymore. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Let's pull back up redemption. What did Jesus really pay for? To buy back, to repurchase. That's what Jesus did on the cross for you, to get back or win back. Jesus won the war to free from distress and harms, to free from the captivity by payment of ransom.
*Jesus is our ransom*. To release from blame or debt, your sin debt has been paid. To free from the consequences of sin. There's consequences of your sin that you're paying for in your life right now that you don't have to pay for because Jesus already paid for it. There's consequences of other people's sin that are affecting you right now, and you can say, you know what?
I'm free. I am free because you have set me free. You paid the price for all of those consequences. Thank you, Jesus. I received that, and I'm gonna walk in that despite what other people say.
To change for the better, to reform, to repair and restore. You want your marriage repaired and restored, your finances, you want every aspect, your job, the way that you treat people restored, the way that you burst out in anger, your heart restored. Come into the light, expose all you are to the light, and let him redeem and repair and restore you. And it doesn't happen in isolation, by the way. A lot of times, *Jesus* does it through the body.
The body of Christ. The body of Christ is Christ. People say, man, I'm just gonna watch church on TV at home. That's great. However, you are missing out on community, and we are created for community.
We are created to do these things together. And maybe, just maybe, the words that you need to hear from the Lord, he wants to speak to you through his body. How cool is that? To exchange something of value, to make good, to fulfill Jesus fulfilled the whole law. He fulfilled everything to atone for, to offset the bad effect of, to make worthwhile.
Don't ever ever again think that you're not worthwhile, that you're not worthy. *Jesus* paid his life for you. You're worth the very life of Christ. You are worthwhile. And he did that to show you, to restore your value, so you quit believing the lies about yourself.
If you guys don't mind, if you guys would all bow your heads, close your eyes, it would be amazing just to give a moment. I believe that there are people in here who are crying out for redemption. You came here to really check out this church and see what's going on, but you've never experienced redemption. You've never experienced Jesus. You didn't realize that you were loved by the Lord, that you were Jedediah.
You didn't realize that God paid the price so that you could have a relationship with him. And you've been trying to earn it your whole time the whole your whole life, been trying to do something right, been trying to do the right things. But really the right thing is to surrender, to stop trying and give up control, give it to Jesus. If you you need your life to be repaired, *restored*, if you need to start a relationship with Jesus, and you know that, I'm a count to 3, and I want you to raise your hand. 1, 2, 3.
"I see you". Anybody else? I see you. Those of you that rose raised your hand, if you look up at me, I wanna ask you a couple questions. Just between you and me, everybody else is praying.
Do you believe that Jesus died for you? Yes or no? Yes. Do you believe that he rose again? Yes.
Yes. Bible says, if you believe that he died and rose again and confess him with your mouth as Lord. Now that's important. There's 2 words in the English language that don't go together. The word no and the word Lord.
What that means is you're saying, give you my life. Living for myself hasn't worked. So from now on, I don't understand everything, but I'm a I'm a live for you. Help me, God. Is that what you wanna do?
Yes or no? Yes? All right. Would you guys pray this with me? Just mean it with everything you have inside of you.
Okay? Just close your eyes. You have a heavenly father that's here. Right now, he's he is here. Holy Spirit is here.
His presence is here. Just pray this. And everybody, if you guys will pray this too, just to make them feel comfortable. God, I need you. Today, I "stop running from you".
I believe Jesus, you died for me. I believe you rose again. And right now **you are my Lord**. I give you my life. Forgive me for running.
Help me to live for you. I trust you. I receive you. Holy Spirit, I invite you into my life. *Baptize me in your presence*.
Teach me. Speak to me. Empower me. In Jesus name. And you never know if somebody is really forgiven.
If they keep begging for forgiveness, they don't believe that they were forgiven. But you know that they're forgiven when they start thanking God for forgiving them. So everybody right here, close your eyes. Say, "thank you, Jesus". I'm forgiven.
This is for Thank you, Jesus. "I am love". I am Jedediah, loved by the Lord. You paid your life for me. Thank you, Jesus.
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