You are called to stop hiding your struggles and open your life fully to God in prayer. By pursuing this deep intimacy, you will find the freedom to walk in holiness and share His love with others. Start today by confessing your secrets and letting His grace transform your daily walk.
What is up, Real Church fam? I am so excited about this podcast today. Today, we're getting into *Advent* part 2. Just so you remember, Advent means the coming of someone important, and Jesus is the most important person that could ever come. And today, we're talking about prophecy and preparation.
*Prophecy and preparation. You don't wanna miss out. I guarantee you're gonna walk away encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you, and maybe maybe with a little more fire under your butt to follow Jesus*. It's gonna be awesome. Let's listen in.
Alright. You know what? Can we can we just give a big old hand clap to Emily? That's Emily who does the the videos there. She edits them.
I think she does a great job. And then, man, also, I think maybe even I hate to make you clap again, but maybe even a bigger hand clap, the Holy Spirit. God's here and he loves you and he cares for you. Can we just honor him? My name is David John Phillips.
I have the honor of being the pastor here. I know I say that every single Sunday the exact same way, but I mean it every single Sunday. I I have the honor of getting to be the pastor here, and there's no place that I'd rather be than right here, right now, getting to preach the good news of the gospel to you here. Then also to those of you that are watching online, thank you for tuning in today. Man, God is good, and we pray that you and you guys walk away from today encouraged, number 1.
Number 2, with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Amen? You I I just I love you guys. I I really do. And, you make it easy.
For example, just 1 example of many. Don Backs. I just A couple of years ago, Don was an alcoholic. *God* moved on his heart, he dropped alcoholism, was born again. About that time, came to came to real church, started getting involved, started serving, started building relationships with people, you know.
Building relationships with other believers helps you to grow in relationship with *Jesus* because it rubs off. It's important. Isolation kills. Right? But together, we're the body of Christ.
Started building relationships. Next thing you know, passion for Christ started rubbing off on him and he started rubbing off on others. Next thing you know, he's in Scripture constantly, and next thing you know, his marriage is is blessed and better than ever. Next thing you know, his family starts looking at daddy and wondering what's different. Next thing you know, they start coming to church.
Next thing you know, they start coming to know Jesus as well because wanting to know the heavenly father just like their daddy now knows the heavenly father because there's been a major shift in his life. Because when you're born again, you're a new creation. Things on the outside change, not just things on the inside. Yeah? But then also, what's really cool is is **intimacy causes reproduction**.
Right? The principles of the kingdom, the principles of God are found throughout nature. And when you find intimacy, you also find reproduction. And in Don's life, there was intimacy with Jesus. Right?
Because we're created to be intimate in relationship with him, to know him, not just come to church on a Sunday morning to get a spiritual high and then go on throughout the week and forget about him. This is a real deal. Like, this is like, this is supposed to be an overflow of your quiet time, your personal time with him. And, man, in Don's life, it was very obvious that that was the case because his intimacy with God overflowed and reproducing. Now, his son and his daughter and grandson and family is coming to know Christ.
Why? Because this is more than a personal relationship with Jesus. Right? Because it really if it's personal, it becomes public. Why?
Because intimacy causes reproduction. Amen? Amen. Man, I love it. That's And why I love being a part of this church.
It's because you guys are growing in your relationship with Jesus. Man, I was And and it's it's overflowing on everybody around you. 1 day, this this church is gonna be filled. 1 day, we're gonna have multiple services, not just so that we can have more people in the building and feel good about ourselves. No, because you're understanding that you're ministers of the gospel.
So, in your daily life, your intimate relationship with Christ in the quiet time is overflowing, and people around you are like, what's going on with you? I gotta have what you have. And you say, man, I have a relationship with the heavenly Father, and it's real, and it's so much more than religion. It just overflows. Here, take some.
You want some? And, next thing you know, they start coming to church too. Man, it's just 1 person at a time, menacing the love of Jesus as we grow and into I was I walked in, my wife finishing up a Bible study that she did with some ladies in the church, and for the holidays, for Christmas and stuff, put it on hold, and then we'll start by the way, we're starting small groups in January. Right? Towards the January, we'll do some training for the leaders in the beginning.
You don't want to miss out on small groups. It's it's it's just little Bible studies and time of fellowship and fun time, but also where you get to rub shoulders and build relationships with men and women in the same season of life that you're in that are passionate in passionate pursuit of Christ, they get to to encourage you forward in him. Anyway, I walked in and walked through as they're talking. I'm just hearing testimony after testimony of these ladies of lives transformed as, you know, I'm just walking through and I'm like, woah. Oh my gosh.
Like, you know, of how they're seeing prayers answered. And not just testimony of, like, coming to know Jesus, which is the biggest 1, but I'm talking testimonies of lives transformed, of them praying for people and ministering to people and seeing people come to know Jesus and seeing people healed as they pray for people just because that's a real real life with a real Jesus. It really overflows into people and impacts everyone around you. Man, I'm hearing all these testimonies. I'm like, man, I get to be their pastor.
Come on. It's just good. It really is. Anyway, if you're watching online and you could be here this Monday morning, you're missing out on all these relationships. Man, I encourage you, don't forsake, as the Bible says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as some are in the habit of doing.
Don't let the fear that has caused a lot of people to not go to church prevent you from doing what the Bible says to do. And, while you're watching online, please click share. It's like inviting people to church. Amen? Alright.
So, we are in part 2 of a series called *Advent*. Did you guys enjoy part 1? Hopefully, you did. If you didn't, don't tell me. You know, I like to be encouraged, not discouraged.
No. Part 1 was fun. Part 2, the title, is prophecy and preparation or preparation and prophecy. Just to remind you, Advent, a lot of liturgical churches and, you know, very traditional churches do Advent around this time, which is great because the definition of Advent literally means the coming of someone important. And the most important someone came 2000 years ago to this earth, God incarnate Jesus Christ, fully God yet fully man, which is awesome.
But the amazing thing is, he didn't just come once. He's coming again. Amen. He'll be riding on a white horse. Yeah.
He's not coming as a lowly humble servant this time. He did the first time. He's coming as a victorious king. He's coming to pick up his bride. Yeah?
A radiant, spotless church. Spotless bride. Why? Because of her faith, because of our faith in Christ Jesus. He's not coming from a for a sickly, you know, oh my gosh, I'm just a filthy, rotten sinner type of bride.
He's coming for understands who she is in him because she's been washed by the water of his word. Man, that's a big deal. So, man, I I I wanna allow myself to be washed by the water of his word, but not just that. I wanna believe it so much that I walk in it and it overflows out of every aspect of my life. Man, because of Advent, because because he's coming again.
If you're in Christ, if you've received him, you've allowed him to come into your life, then then for all of us, the best is absolutely yet to come. And, if you haven't received him, today's the day of salvation so that you can say the "best is yet to come" because without Jesus, there's nothing but hell. It's just real. Hell is a real place. We're gonna get into it in Revelation-19.
But he says he's a righteous judge. A righteous judge. Is it right for a judge if there's a murderer that's standing before him? I mean, just you just in real life today, is right? A murderer who's murdered multiple people standing before the judge, and the judge looks at him and says, you can just go free.
Is that right? That's an evil judge. That's an evil judge. It just is. *God* is a righteous judge.
100. He doesn't just say, because the payment for sin is death. He doesn't just say, you know what? I'm just gonna sweep your sin under the rug. No big deal.
No. He fully, fully, *Jesus took the payment for your sin* 100%. Like, Jesus Your sin was judged in Christ. And, if you receive Christ, then you get the judgment of Christ, which is his goodness and his righteousness, which is awesome. But, if you reject Christ, you get the full penalty of that sin because God's a righteous judge.
Man, it's a big deal. So, have hope in his second coming if we're in Christ, but if we're not in Christ, there's no hope. It's real. And, I'm getting on a tangent here. Alright.
We'll get back to that. *Prophecy* and preparation. What is prophecy? We look at the definition of prophecy. I looked it up in Webster's dictionary.
I like to do that. I I don't know if you've noticed, if you heard me preach for quite a bit. I usually define a word in the beginning. I don't know why. I just kinda like to do that.
We look up the definition of prophecy. It's a prediction of something to come. That's what prophecy is. And then I looked up I Googled prophecies of the end times. And Wikipedia popped up, so I clicked on it.
And I counted. There were over 140 different prophecies of the end times that have not come to pass. Probably closer to 150, but I'm being conservative. 70 AD, it was prophesied that the end would come. Some crazy stuff happened in 70 AD, but it came and went.
It's not the end yet. Let's see. May I have it written down here. May. Pope predicted the Earth's sin by January.
He was wrong. '19 well, you get to the 15 hundreds and the 16 hundreds, there's quite a bit of prophecies and thinking that the end was certainly going to happen at this time. It didn't happen. 18 hundreds, same thing. 19 hundreds, especially in the 19 eighties, something about the 1980s.
There were some books written, and it's coming. Like, here it is. And then they'd shift it to this date. It didn't come yet. Didn't you guys remember the Y2K bug?
Man, everybody and their mama thought our world was going in 2000. Yeah. I mean, just some prophecies that hadn't come to pass. Nevertheless, let's go to 1 Thessalonians-5. I I think I might read off of here today.
We'll see. Verses 20 through 22. Oh, by the way, today, you can go to realchurch.us, scroll down, click on message notes, and all the message notes are right there in in cool little format. Yeah. Which is awesome.
Some people get mad at me when I don't do that. I apologize. Online, I think you can do that too. Alright. 1 Thessalonians-5:20-22 says, talking about these prophecies, right?
Do not treat prophecies with contempt. That's a big deal. Right? Don't think they're not worth your time. Don't think prophecies are worthless.
Important. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all. Hold on to what is good. Reject every kind of evil. How do we test them all?
*Romans-12:2*. Our life is transformed by the renewing of our mind. Then, we'll be able to know and test. Test and know what the will of God is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. So, as we grow understanding, we renew our mind to the reality of who He is and who what His Word says about Him, we'll be able to test and know what's what's good.
Bible says all good things come from God. Right? What's from God and what's not. Regardless, we know if it's written in Scripture, if it's God's word, if it's a prophecy in his word, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's good and it's gonna happen because it's from God. As a matter of fact, next next scripture, *Luke-1:37*.
It says this, for no word Let's read that together. For no word from God will ever fail. Wow. Ever. Ever.
Just let that, like, "wash over you" for a second. No word from God will ever fail. What did we say last week? It's 5,467 promises, something like that, that are applicable in the Scripture. 5,467 promises that are applicable for a believer's life, for someone who's in Christ.
If you're not in Christ, it's not applicable for you. I'm sorry. But, he wants it to be. It's an invitation because he loves you. 5,467 promises that are applicable for a believer's life.
And, no word from God will ever fail. What's the difference in a promise and a prophecy? Prophecy and a promise for a believer? Nothing. For those Watch this.
First Corinthians Let's go to the next verse. You know, I have them all on the screen. I don't even have to open my Bible today. I like opening my Bible. Don't get Don't don't write me about that.
*2 Corinthians-1:20* says, for no matter how many promises God has made, they are **yes in Christ**. Therefore, if it's a promise, it's a prophecy for a believer. You get it? No matter how 5467 promises in Scripture that are applicable for your for your life in Christ, they are yes. What's our response?
And so, through him, the amen is spoken by us through the glory of God. What that means, amen means let it be. So, we hear his promise, we stand on his promise, and we speak by faith. Let it be in my life. I stand on that.
I don't see it happening to my life right now. I'm not gonna get all worried about the circumstance. I'm gonna stand on your word because I know your word is true and no promise for you from you will ever fail. So, by faith, I'm standing here based on what you said until it happens. Amen.
Let it be. You guys might be in the spit zone. That's awesome. You know, no promise from God. I I went here a few weeks ago, and I've I've said this over and over because it's 1 of my favorite because it changes your perspective on everything.
But I just want you guys, no promise from God will ever fail. And here's 1 promise from him. All things, right, all things **work together** for good for those that love him and are called according to his purpose. So, if you love God, you're called according to his purpose, not just you say you love God, but but you know his love for you, you're you're born again, you know all things. What that means is, and that won't ever fail, that means when a terrible situation comes, Like, you can say, as a believer, you can say, oh my gosh, that was bad.
*God, I can't wait to see what you do. How are you gonna work? I can't wait to see how you're gonna flip this out to work for good because I'm called according to your purpose*. Man, I just can't wait. It gives you a whole new perspective about everything in life that God is using every circumstance.
He didn't cause every circumstance. A lot of people blame it on God. Stop it. No. But, he works even what the enemy brings against you out for good because that's a promise.
Everything. Like, I remind you of that on purpose. Hopefully, I sound like a "broken record" that you can't just get out of your head because eventually it'll change your perspective. You'll be like, wow, when that thing happens to you at your job. God, I can't wait to see what you do because your promises are good and they'll never fail because they're your word.
Man, how are you gonna work this 1 out for good? I'm just excited. Yeah. Cool. Alright.
Well, back to the message. According to the Encyclopedia of Biblical *Prophecy* by J Barton Payne, there are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament for a total of 1,817 prophecies. That's conservative. Some people say 2,500. These prophecies are contained in 8,352 of the Bible verses, and since there are 31,124 verses in the Bible, and 8 the 803 hundred or 8,352 verses that contain prophecy consist constitute 26.8% of the Bible's volume.
I like numbers. I was a math major. Let me break it down. Basically, what that's saying is, there's a whole lot of verses in the Bible, and over a fourth of it is prophecy. Yeah?
Over 25%, 26.8% of of the Bible is prophecy. And guess what? The cool part is most of it's already happened. The only thing that hasn't happened that's been written down is the end times or Jesus' return. Some of the end times.
Some of it's already happened too. So, some of it. The only things the the less conservative estimate of how many prophecies are in the Bible says 2,502,000 of them have already happened. And that's amazing. That's a big deal.
Okay. So, let me just give you some examples surrounding the birth of Christ, because this is Advent, the coming of someone important. The birth of Christ, the time of Jesus' birth was prophesied hundreds of years before it happened. There's actually 351 prophecies detailing the birth, the life, and death, and resurrection of Jesus. 351.
I'm just going give you a few of them. About June, 06/2003 to 06/2006 to be exact, Daniel wrote, this is over 600 before the birth of Christ, in Daniel-9:25, know and understand this. Sometimes prophecy is written a little metaphorical. We'll we'll we'll talk about it. Know and understand this.
From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, that's pretty clear, until the anointed 1, that's Jesus, the ruler, comes, there will be 7 sevens. What's 7 times 7? 49. 49. Good job.
You're good at math too. And 62 sevens. Must be about 364. 434. So, 434 plus 49 is April.
Right? So, 4 83 years will be from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed 1 comes. Wrote that 100 Daniel wrote that 150 years before the time that the word went out to rebuild Jerusalem. In Nehemiah-2, we see that word happening in April. 4 83 years later, depending on which historian you're reading, was either Jesus' start of ministry or Jesus' triumphal entry.
Exactly. Either way, the Messiah had came just like Daniel had prophesied hundreds of years before. That's pretty amazing. Yeah. That's just 1.
Number 2 of 03/1951. Number 2, in the eighth century BC, which is 7 to 800 years before Jesus, Micah prophesied in Micah-5:2. But you, O Bethlehem, however you pronounce the next word, you, O Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, 1 who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from days of old, from ancient days. It's all about Jesus from Bethlehem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is amazing.
That's number 2. Number 3, Isaiah wrote about 700 years before Jesus. He wrote this in Isaiah-7:14. This is number 3. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God with us, prophesying that Jesus is more than a man. He's actually God with us, which we know, and we have it in multiple accounts from the gospels that Jesus was born of virgin Mary. Most people have heard that before. Number 4, over 500 man, love this stuff, guys.
Over 500 years before Jesus, Zechariah wrote 11 chapter 11 verses 12 and 13, I told them, if you think it best, give me my pay. But if not, keep it. So, they paid me 30 pieces of silver. Next verse. And, the Lord said to me, throw it Listen to this.
It's important. Details. Throw it to the potter, the handsome price at which they valued me. So, I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord. The temple was called the house of the Lord, which is awesome because this is detailing how Jesus would be betrayed.
*Jesus* was betrayed by what? How many pieces of silver? 30 pi This was written 500 years before it. Not only was he betrayed by 30 pieces of silver, but also Judas, after he did it, he threw it at the feet of the priests at the temple, the house of the Lord. And then, he went and hung himself in a field, the potter's Field.
And, the priest took the money and bought the field, the potter's Field, exactly as prophesied. And, it's now called the Field Of Blood. Pretty amazing. 500 years before Jesus. Exactly.
How many is this? Is this 4? Was that number 4? Yeah. Number 5.
About 1000 years before Jesus, David wrote this talking about Jesus. Thousand years before Jesus, All who see me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord, they say. Let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. Talking about Jesus. Now, a lot of the Psalms are messianic Psalms, like prophesying about Jesus. The next 1, I'll just give you like a bonus here. Psalm 69 21.
They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst, prophesying about Jesus. Well, look at actually what happened as Jesus is going up to the cross and on the cross. *Luke-23*. This is over 1000 years after it was written. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at Jesus.
They said, He saved others. Let Him save Himself. Sound familiar? If He is God's Messiah, the chosen 1, the soldiers also came up and mocked Him. They offered Him, what?
Vinegar. Wine vinegar. That's pretty amazing. Exactly as I said. That's number 5.
Number 6, I'm gonna give you 8. *Jesus* himself prophesied that He would be crucified. *John-3:14-15*. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have, what? Life.
Eternal life, Jesus defined, is knowing God. *Relationship*. Jesus, a couple years before His own crucifixion, prophesied His crucifixion. Why did He say that He was a snake just as a snake was lifted up? Yes.
Thousands of years before, Moses He's referring to Moses. Moses is in the wilderness. The Israelites are in the wilderness. And the people in the wilderness, there's this manna falling from heaven. Manna that they're eating because there was no other food anywhere, and God miraculously gave them food to eat.
*Jesus* said he was the manna that fell from heaven, the bread of life. You know what the people in Israelite in in Israel did, like, in the wilderness? The people, because of their circumstance, because of how hard it was, they rejected the manna that fell from heaven. They called it the "worthless bread". Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, the life.
I'm the bread that comes to heaven, but he he he's the word. So many times, when we're going through circumstances, we look at those 5,467 promises from God, which is the word, Christ, we say, That's the worthless bread. It's just not It's not applicable. For me, it doesn't matter. I don't see it happen in my life when we begin to complain just like the Israelites did about the worthless bread, which is Jesus.
Come on, let's stand on His promises. Let's stand on His word. What happened to the Israelites? Snakes came, a plague of snakes. See, when when there's sin, anything not done in faith is sin, by the way.
When there's sin, there's consequences of sin. Sin cuts you up. There's poison. Sin wants to kill you. The enemy wants to to lure you away from walking in faith in Christ and let sin cut you up and kill you.
He does. It's his ploy. What happened? Snakes came, biting the poison of the snakes, killing the Israelites. God told Moses, raise up a bronze serpent, raise up a pole, and on the pole, put a bronze serpent.
And all of the Israelites who are bitten by snakes, when they look to the bronze serpent, they will be saved. How does that represent Jesus? *2 Corinthians-5:21, He who knew no sin*, Jesus knew no sin. He wasn't a serpent. A serpent usually is evil.
Right? But it says, became sin. He literally He didn't die just die for your sin. He did. But He didn't just die for your sin.
He literally became your sin. Jesus became your sin on the cross. That's amazing. So that we, who are experiencing all the consequences of our sin, when we realize that we can't save ourselves from our sin, but we look to Him who became our sin for us so that we could become His righteousness, we're able to receive his goodness and be healed and enter into eternal life. That's not just a sweet by and by, guys.
That's like knowing him now. Eternal life is not going to church on a Sunday, singing a song, getting to feel good, and then going Monday through Saturday and acting like you don't know him. That's a joke. That's that's saying this is worthless. No.
Eternal life is walking with Him "moment by moment" in *relationship* that impacts every aspect of your life. That's awesome. It's a big deal. Number 7. 1000 years before it happened, David wrote this, *Psalms-22:16*.
Dogs surround me. A pack of villains encircle me. They pierce my hands and feet. So, 1000 years before Jesus was crucified, pierced my hands and feet, but hundreds of years before the Romans adopted the Persian practice of crucifixion. It was pretty cool.
And David wrote this as he's writing out these messianic prophecies of messianic songs, detailing the wounds of crucifixion. Some people here, maybe you're kind of scientific in your mind, you're like, Woah, wait. How do we know that this was really written in? It's called text criticism. It's the science of finding out when historical writings actually were written.
You look at the language that was used and what languages were spoken around that time, and you can detail exactly when it happens, and you look at where the documents happened and how they were written, text criticism. And because of text criticism, we can accurately pinpoint when these things were written hundreds of years before they should have known. That's awesome, man. God has laid out a path to expel all unbelief. But, you know what unbelief says?
I don't want to surrender to God. I know all signs point to it, but I just want to live my I want to be the Lord of my own life. God says, no, that's not okay. I love you too much for that. Because you being the Lord of your own life is gonna result in you being separated from me for eternity.
So, I wanna lay down every way possible for you to know me, but it takes faith. It takes stepping out and saying, I need you. It takes stepping out and believing more than what you can just see. Man, that's an invitation. God loves you so much.
Number 8, 700 years before Jesus, Isaiah-53:9. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done I think, actually, that's backwards. I have he had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone, yet he was buried like a criminal. He was put in a rich man's grave. There we go.
Either way, Jesus died on a cross between 2 criminals. He died on a criminal's cross. And Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of the council, rich man, took his body and put him in his tomb, exactly as prophesied. Guys, Christianity is not a joke. It's not just some religion about a bunch of myths.
This is real. *God really loves you. He really wants a relationship* with you. He really wants to impact every aspect of your life. It's not just something we come sing songs and get a good feeling.
I've said that multiple times, but I really want you to get that. It's more than a religion. It impacts Jesus, literally impacts every aspect of your life. And, it doesn't matter if you're a teenager. Doesn't matter if you're a 6 year old kid, doesn't matter if you're 80 years old and you've been following, you know, whatever you wanted to for your whole life.
It's time to surrender and know Him. See, these are just 8 of 351 prophecies. And there was a guy who's much smarter than me, Professor Peter Stoner, who's a he probably got kicked on as a kid. His last name. I digress.
He was a mathematics and astronomy professor. Peter Stoner. And he's made this statement, odds. I like odds. Statistics is hard because a lot of times it goes against what you would logically think, but yet it's right.
Statistics is a mathematical it's awesome discipline. Statistically, 8 1 person fulfilling 8 of these 3 just 8 of these prophecies in detail exactly as supposed to be are are the odds have a 1 in 10 to the seventeenth odds. You can put those zeros, the first 1. That's 1 in 100 mathematical improbability that 1 person would fulfill just 8 of the 351 things. Just trying to expel a little unbelief.
That's a big deal. Just to put that in perspective, Peter Stoner said he used Texas. I'm gonna use Florida because we're Floridians. And believe it or not, you can fit 4.8 Florida's in Texas, so let's just say about 5. It's like putting 5 floor about 5 Florida's landmass, filling them with 2 feet of silver dollars, me taking 1, marking it as the 1 you're supposed to get, hiding it in there, then blindfolding you, and then you just walking out randomly and picking, and the first 1 you pick being the 1 that I marked, that's the odds.
5 Florida's. If we were to just take he went on it right if we were to take 16 of the prophets not just 8, but 16 remember, there's 3 51 16 of the prophecies, the odds that 1 person would fulfill all of these would be like taking those silver dollars with that 1 marked 1 and putting it in a ball that was as big as no, bigger than that our entire solar system. 16. Just 16 prophecies. Big as our entire solar system.
It's 1 in 10 put up the next zeros. 1 in 10 to the 40 fifth power. A mathematical improbability. That's 1 Let's see if I can get this right. 1 in 1 quatturo decillion.
I feel accomplished. I said that. Quattro da Silian. 1 and 1 quattro da Silian. That's a mathematical, statistical, and probability impossibility won't happen.
Like, if you look into it, Jesus expels all unbelief. It's really a matter of do you want him to be Lord of your life or not? Right? And, he fulfilled 351, all of them, everyone. See, the Jews at that time knew that it was time.
They've read the prophecies. They just rejected him. And, that's not who we want. He didn't come like we think he should have. Don't be like the Jews.
Don't reject him just because you're offended by how he moves in your life. You know? Think about this, if if He fulfilled all of those in the past, and most of the 1,817 prophecies or so are fulfilled in the past, then what are the chances that the ones in the future are gonna happen? I'd say a 100% because no word from God will ever fail. And the next time, he's not coming as a lowly servant on a donkey.
He's coming as a as a victor, victorious riding on a white horse. Let's read it. Revelation-19. I think that's the next 1. Yeah.
I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true. He is faithful and true. With justice, remember we talked about that? He judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns.
He has a name written on him that no 1 knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean, pure because we're wearing his robe. His righteousness, not our own. Keep going.
Is there 1 more? Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. Out of his mouth is a sword of his word. His word cuts. Some of you guys are being cut right now by his word.
It's not a bad thing. It's a great thing. He's trying to cut the sin out of your heart. So, you'll repent, turn to him, and walk with him, and stop playing church. So, you "give your life" and every aspect of your life.
So, you give your mind to him. Some of the stuff coming in your mind, just let sit there and sit in it. The enemy sometimes put thoughts in your mind, not for you for you to think that that, oh my gosh, that's me. And the next thing you know, what you've been thinking becomes the way that you live and the way that you speak. Stop it.
*God wants you to think about pure things. He wants to purify every aspect of your the intentions of your heart. And when anything comes up in your mind or in your heart that's not from him, he wants you to take it to him and walk with him in purity knowing that you're forgiven. But, he didn't just forgive you to live in sin*, he forgave you to walk purely and holy and to continue to let him purify you. He will rule them with an iron scepter.
He treads the wine press of press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. See, all the wrath for those who are in Christ has fell on Jesus. But if you're not in Christ, he's a righteous judge, guys. On his robe and his thigh, he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Every knee will bow 1 day.
And if not in this life, then in the life to come. And I wanna already have bowed. See, the Bible says, this is a big deal in Romans-10. I'm gonna read it because it's important. And I I just want you to understand this.
If you declare, confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and everybody say, believe in your heart. Believe in That God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's awesome. But now, let's compare that with Matthew-7:21. Do we have that 1?
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord. Wait a second. Hold on. They they just said, Lord, Lord. Didn't they just confess with their mouth he's Lord?
What's the difference? Believe in your heart? There's a lot of people walk an aisle and say a prayer, but no life change. You're not born again. Those that are born again are a new creation and things will begin to shift on the inside and begin to come out.
I'm not saying you're all of a sudden everything shifts and sometimes it does miraculously, where all of a sudden your mouth changes, the way you think to everything. But, when you're born again, there is a change and it will come out because you're a new creation. It's a big deal. It's awesome. He's holy.
He loves you and he cares about you, and he wants to pull you into walking holy with him because he's given you his righteousness. Amen. Amen? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not do a bunch of amazing things?
Did we not prophesy in your name? There's a lot of people in church that are prophesying his name, but don't even know him. Do we not drive out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? There's a lot of people we look at and say, oh, man, they they they gotta be so holy. But inside, they're decrepit and wretches because they don't know him.
And you know why? Next. Verse 23. Do we have it? I'll read it from here.
It's okay. The devil don't want it up there. It's the most important part. No worries. No worries.
Lean in on this 1. I'm a read it all again. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father is in heaven. Many will come to me on that day and say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In your name, perform many miracles, drive out demons.
23, then I will tell them plainly, and here's the key, depart from me for I never knew you. There's a lot of people that say, I know God. I believe. Bible says even demons believe and tremble. But, they don't know Him.
Not like this. What's the difference? A lot of people come to church and put on a pretty face, raise their hands and worship, but they never say, God know me. Says, depart from me for I never knew you. See, he's a loving father.
He'll never force himself on you. See, there's a difference in, I know a lot about a lot about God. And God know every aspect of my of my life. God, this sin I've been struggling with, Lord, it's you are Lord over it. Take it from me.
I confess it to you. And, not just in front of a pastor, I'm talking about in your closet at home. Lord, this this that that what I've been struggling with. I know your word says I'm forgiven and I'm not gonna hide it from you anymore, and I'm gonna do whatever you say to do, because you are Lord over this area of my life, and over this area of my life. I want you to know every aspect of me.
I'm not gonna hide anymore, because I want you to know me and I realize that I am known by you so I can walk as 1 who knows you. Yes. Amen. That's freedom. Yes.
Hiddenness is darkness. Secret *sin* only grows more dirty, and eventually, it will come out and destroy your life and send you to hell. The light of the love of Jesus is constantly saying, open your life to me. I have forgiven you. I've paid the price for your forgiveness.
Now, just receive it. Run to me, let me give you rest. Let me clothe you in my *righteousness* and walk with me. Because once you believe it, you will walk a righteous life. And when you make a mistake, instead of running like a filthy rotten sinner, now you can fall forward into my arms and get up and I'll say, come on son, we're keeping going because I don't even see that anymore.
But, there has to be a shift. There has to be a moment in time where you say, God, know me. Where you open it all to him. Not just Lord, Lord for a feel good. No, this is real, guys.
This is a relationship. This is something that overflows not just on Sunday morning, but in your quiet time when you wake up, you say, hey, God. Oh, my gosh. You're with me. Guys, God did something to me this past week.
Like, I've I've, you know, I've I've known and I told I told our team this before. We have a dream team service at 09:00. And, Ben, you guys can come on up. It'd be awesome. But, I've like, we walk with God and we talk with God and it's awesome.
And, I've been walking with Him and talking with Him. But, He's just like, He just made it even more real. Guys, we walk with Him. Like, it's this is like, it's not religion. It's relationship.
It impacts every aspect of our life. Like, we we speak with him moment by moment when I'm driving in the car. I heard my buddy 1 of my mentors, Dan Moeller, say this and I'm like, man, so many times we play worship music in the car and we sing about God but never really talk to Him realizing that He's not only He's "sitting in the seat" beside me. He not only sitting in the seat beside me, He's He's He's in me. And, I can I can sing these songs not just about Him but I can sing them to Him and then listen to Him in relationship?
He says, my sheep know my voice. If you don't know His voice, get in His Word or maybe give your life to Him. Maybe open up yourself to Him so that He knows every aspect of you. I'm not trying to, like, make some of you that have been walking with Jesus, most of you have been walking with Jesus all your life think you're not saved at all. But I'm just calling us to holiness because righteousness, His grace produces holiness in our life.
And if you're walking in grace and it's not producing holiness, you're not walking in grace. Romans-6:14, sin shall no longer be your master because you're not under the law but under grace. So, you're walking in grace and sin is not your master, in any area of your life where sin is your master, you're not walking in grace, Holmes. Yep. It is.
That's A lot of people misunderstand grace and and think it's mercy. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Man, it's His mercy that He spilled His blood for us and and and washed us clean. And, it's His grace that we walk in day in and day out and empowers us to talk with him throughout the day and empowers us to live like him and empowers us moment by moment. We "walk in his grace", and the more that we grow in him, more we need his grace.
It's not just a doctrine, it's a lifestyle. It's Jesus. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged 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.