You are invited to move beyond tradition and personally welcome the King of Kings into your heart today. Whether you are just beginning your faith or deepening your walk, His love is ready to set your life on the course He created for you. Take that step of surrender now and experience the peace and joy that only He can provide.
What is up, Real Church fam? Thank you for tuning in to the Real Church podcast today. My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of being the
pastor here, and our prayer
is you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you? We pray you walk away knowing him. In the message today, we're we're gonna do part of the Christmas story. We're gonna get into some prophecy about it, really kinda dive deep into scripture. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
But then, also, we're gonna see what was it that the angel really meant when he said **"peace on earth"** and goodwill toward men. Alright. Buckle up. Let's let's dive in.
Well, good morning, Real Church. Look, before any more introductions or anything like that, I just wanna I wanna take a moment in Matthew, I think it's 18 20. Yeah. 18 20. The Bible says that where 2 or more are gathered in my name, it's in the name of Jesus, where 2 or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.
And, we're gathered in his name right now. Right? We're gathered because of his will. It's his will for us to gather today. But, it's also an as his authority as sons and daughters of the king, we're gathered in his name.
So, there he is in the midst of us right now. So, what I would like to do is is kinda what Moriah already did in the beginning. But, I I would just like for you guys to I hate to ask you that, but if if I would invite you to stand for a moment. We're gonna welcome. Sometimes, like to welcome Jesus and we do it with a big hand clap, but this time this time it's a little different.
This time, I just want to, you know, in the Old Testament when thousands of years ago when people would walk into the presence of a king, a lot of times that they would they would raise their hands and and you've heard this if you've been to real church a couple times, you may have heard this before, but raise your hands as a sign of surrender. What they're saying is, King, you are Lord in my life. You have the authority of my life. I'm surrendered to you. That's what the sign of raising your hands, that's what that meant.
So, recognizing that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has is in the room according to Scripture. If Scripture is true, which it is, then Jesus is here with us in our midst because 2 or more gathered in his name. Right? So, let's just take a moment to welcome him. If you're if Jesus is your Lord, if you raise your hands with me.
And and, Lord, we just Jesus, we welcome you. We thank you that you are here. We thank you for the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of Christ that is here in the room with us. Lord, we welcome you. We we ask you to have your way in this service, in this room.
Those that are doing the same online, have your way in the service in their homes or wherever they are, Father God. You are Lord. Lord, we surrender this to you, and we ask you that we wouldn't be deaf or blind, but we'd be able to see what you want to say, hear what you want to say, Father God, and then apply it. Lord, allow you to apply it to our lives, surrender our lives to that. You are Lord, and we just welcome you, Jesus.
Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. I know it's a lot of get up and sit down, get up and sit down, but I just felt like, you know.
My name is it's like Cathy said, it's like the Catholic church. My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of being the pastor here. There's no place that I'd rather be. I love getting to be the pastor here.
If this is your first time, welcome. We're glad you're here, and we pray that you felt, experienced the love of Jesus from the time you drove up to the parking lot until right now. And, I say that the same every Sunday for a reason because that's really our heart's cry. It really is. And so, we pray that you not only experience and felt the love of Jesus, but you come as a result of the day, you come to know the love of Jesus.
And, you walk out of here not just feeling good because you heard a sermon and, you know, you said some cool things and maybe hopped around a little bit because he's pretty crazy up there. No. That that you walk away that God actually spoke to you. Because if God speaks because God uses people to speak to people. A lot of times, not all the time, but a lot of times.
And if God actually speaks, He's the creator of the universe, then His word has the potential to set your life on the course that He created you for. It's more than just a Sunday morning type thing where we just go out of tradition. No. We're gonna celebrate the King of Kings and allow his word and to impact our lives and to lift him up in worship in such a way where we go out charged up and this becomes the pattern or pattern of our lives from Monday through Saturday. Amen?
Amen. Praise the Lord. Okay. So, we are in part 3 of a series titled Advent. Advent literally means a definition of Advent is the coming of someone important.
Right? And, we're celebrating Christmas because 2020 years ago, it's 20 20 since the most important person ever came to this earth. Right? Jesus Christ, born of a virgin. It's amazing.
Because He came, was born, lived, bled and died and rose again, we can have relationship with Him, invite Him to come in our lives and look forward to when He comes again. Knowing that the best is yet to come. Amen? Amen. So, we're in part 3 of this series.
Part 3, the title is peace and joy. We're just gonna dive right into scripture. We're in Luke-2, you know, growing up, we'd always read this story around the Christmas tree, traditional Christmas story. *Luke-2:1*, it says, in those days, Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And, I'll stop here as you guys are some of you are still flipping there, or you can pull out your phone, go to the Bible app.
If you don't have a Bible or the Bible app downloaded, you can go to realchurch.us, scroll down to the message notes, click there, and the message notes will pop up on your phone and it's amazing. Technology is cool. We can do that. So so, that way, you can follow along and maybe even you can take notes on your phone too, think, as possible. Anyway, in those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
This was the first census that took place while Corinthians, Corinthians, was governor of Syria, and everyone went to their own towns together. Now, this is history. This is historical fact. This actually happened. You can go back and look in in the books and see when the census happened.
And because of that, I think, you know, we actually think Jesus was born in April. But, regardless, that's that's where we are. So, verse 4. So, Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house in line of David. Now, remember from last week, we talked about those 351 prophecies of Jesus' birth, life, and resurrection.
351, and it's a statistical improbability that any person would fulfill even 8 of those, and Jesus fulfilled all 351, 1 person. If you remember, we we brought up Micah-5:2. If we could bring that up, Micah-5:2. But you, oh Bethlehem Ephrathah, I'm not really you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come from for me 1 who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. Right?
This is a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. And isn't it cool that circumstance would just so happen that there happened to be a a census, so Joseph and Mary couldn't have the baby in Nazareth, they actually had the bay have to have the baby in Bethlehem. God worked it out. Right? Isn't that awesome?
Okay. Cool. So, let's let's keep going here. He went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. Now, just a little like, let's just talk about this for a second.
They went from Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem. They probably went in Louisiana, we'd say, as the crow flies. Right? The straight shot down the the river. It's it's a little over 60 miles.
Little over 60 miles riding on a donkey with your pregnant wife, it's about to pop. Mamas, does that sound fun? You remember being pregnant? Can you imagine on a donkey It's a little over 4 days. Right?
Can you imagine being pregnant on a donkey a little over 4 days and you're about to, you know, you're 8 months pregnant and got to stop every couple of hours for a potty break. You know, even better husbands. Can you imagine? Your wife, 8 months pregnant and hormonal, riding on a donkey for over 4 days, over 60 miles. *Lord* Jesus Joseph was probably saying, Jesus, come.
Please come. Courtney Courtney may may murder me, kill kill me for that. Don't prosecute. It's just the hormones. She is pregnant.
Yeah. No. No. In in in all actuality, she doesn't. And, I told her, I warned her I was gonna pick on her a little bit.
And, she said, baby, go go for it. I said, okay. But, in all actuality, she doesn't get hormonal angry. She she gets hormonal, like, tears. And, just randomly, she'll watch this cat video and start boohooing and then laughing at herself on the inside because she's boohooing.
And, she's not the 1 that normally does that. I'm the 1 that usually cries at the drop of a hat when something, you know, like that on. Anyway, so now, you know, you know, I yeah. I don't know. I I I think God gave me compassion.
I don't know. Alright. Anyway, so while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths. This is verse 7.
Yeah. Now, it's "swaddling cloths". Right? Everybody say, swaddling cloths. Swaddling cloths.
It's very important to what happened. And, laid him in a manger. Everybody say, manger. Manger. I'm just getting you to say it because a lot of times when you see it and you say it, you remember it.
It's important for later in the story. Because there was no place for them in the inn. There was "no room". There just happened to be no room, so they had to go to this manger. Okay.
Verse 8, and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Do you do you guys mind if I just geek out a little bit on scripture? So, do you mind if I like, we just really like dig in, just kinda geek out on what what's what's happening here? The shepherds, it says, were they were watching their flocks and fields nearby. That's very important.
At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were terrified. They were filled with great fear. I'll just read the ESV because let's go to the next verse. And the angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. I love that it says, for all the people.
That means it's for you. It's good news of great joy that is for you. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, no matter what you smell like, no matter what your your past was, no matter what you think your future is. Jesus is good news, an opportunity for good news and great joy even for you. Amen.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David. Remember Bethlehem, big deal prophecy was awesome. A Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be a sign for you. Here's the sign, and there's a reason it's a sign. This will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped in what? Swamping cup. And lying in a? Manger. Okay.
Let's geek out on scripture just a little bit. This is the the the prophecy of Bethlehem, Jesus being born in Bethlehem, that's awesome, but it gets even more specific. Let's go to Micah-4:8. As for you now, prophecy sometimes a little metaphorical. Right?
So but, as for you watchtower of the flock, stronghold of Daughter Zion, whoever this watchtower of the flock is, this stronghold of Daughter Zion, it's important. As for you, the form of dominion will be restored to you. Kingship will come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Another version says, to you it shall come. It's prophesying whoever this watchtower of the flock is, to you the announcement of the Messiah of the king is going to come to you specifically.
Remember the the shepherds are watching at a field nearby, nearby the manger, nearby where it happened. See, watchtower of the flock in Hebrew, because the Old Testament, this was written in Hebrew. In Hebrew, it's Migdol Eder. Migdol Eder or Migdol eater. Yeah.
Right there. Migdol eater. That, we we don't really know what that means. We just see some language that might be, you know, special. No.
They would have known Migdol Eater was the the watchtower that watched over the flocks that were being prepared for sacrifice at the temple. So, they watched over the flocks and the shepherds were special shepherds that were trained by the rabbis that would have known. Right? There was a special even manger that was there at Migdol Eder that would have been extra clean, specially prepared because the rabbis, the sheep would have a firstborn lamb, who were getting pregnant to have a firstborn lamb, they would take the sheep to the special manger at Migdol Eder, and they would wrap the firstborn lamb in swaddling clothes so that it would not have a spot, and so that it would not be injured because it was being prepared for sacrifice at the temple to take away the people's sins. And to you, watchtower, it was announced.
This is the angel announcing the birth of Jesus at the manger. There are shepherds nearby. See, when when when the shepherds heard this, a light, a bell would've went off. They were trained. Wait a second.
This is it. This is the announcement of the Messiah. They wouldn't have went throughout Bethlehem. I always had this picture growing up of the shepherds going out to all these different mangers. Is he here?
Is he is here? You know, they wouldn't have done that. They would have known exactly where he was wrapped in swallowing clothes, lying in a manger, shepherds nearby. He was at the manger by Migdal Eder. This was announcement to them.
They said, wait, this is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Isn't that cool? How specific? This was written 500 years before Jesus actually happened, like this birth. That's awesome.
Alright. Thanks for letting me geek out for a little bit on some some scripture. Okay. So *Luke-2*, we said verse 10. Right?
The the angel said, I bring you "good news of great joy" for all the people, And, that's good news for you because he's the **sacrificial lamb*, the spotless lamb that takes away the sin* of the world. And, it's an opportunity and an offer to take away your sin so that you can be in right standing with God and have peace with God. Amen? So, this lone angel is there. He makes this announcement and then some angels show up with him.
Well, he's by the shepherds and then, you know, they say what's common on the Christmas card. Right? Can can we bring up the Christmas card? Glory to God in the highest. Right?
This is the KJV version. You know, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Yeah. Do you guys see peace and goodwill toward men throughout the earth right now? I mean, think about the last 2000 years and how many wars there were.
Did the Bible miss it? Did it get it wrong? World War 1? World War 2? 6000000 Jews killed?
Division? A country more divided than ever right now? You know, people screaming at each other on Facebook in all caps and Instagram, and comments going on for days about how, you know, whatever, fill in the blank. People dying overseas, starvation, being killed for their faith, peace and goodwill toward men. They miss it?
Is the Bible wrong? No. It's just misinterpreted. A lot of people assume it's peace and goodwill between men. Peace between men, goodwill between men.
It doesn't say that. It's peace toward men. Peace and goodwill towards men. It's actually the NIV version and the ESV version. Do we do we have that?
Here we go. Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth. Peace to those on whom His favor rests. That's actually more close to the the literal translation. See, it's it's peace.
Because of Jesus, we can have peace between man and God. It's peace from God to mankind. It's an opportunity and offers that we can have. It's gonna be good news of great joy. But but Jesus didn't say there'd be peace between men.
As a matter of fact, go to the next verse. Matthew-10:34, Jesus said, do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. It's the sword of his word. The sword of his word cuts hearts and separates light from darkness, and those that that crave to be in the light, walk into the light as he is in the light, and have fellowship 1 with another.
Because of that, they want their their deeds to be exposed transformed from darkness to light so that we can walk in relationship with him. But, the sword of his word also it separates because there's some people that love darkness. And, for fear that their deeds will be exposed, they hate the light and run from the light and hide from it. And hate those that walk in the light. I'm gonna say something that might be a little shocking to you.
You know, when when when they said, glory to God in the highest and or when they said, I bring you good news of great joy. Yeah. They said, I bring you good news of great joy for all the people. It's an offer and a gift for all the people, but it's not good good news and great joy for those who reject it. For those that reject Jesus, it's not good news and great joy.
Let's go Jesus is talking about the parable of the weeds. And, it's in Matthew-13:36. Jesus explained the parable of the weeds to people, you know, and it was a it was a parable and stuff. He told it, and then the disciples got alone with Jesus, and they said, hey, what what did you really mean? Like, what what exactly did that mean for us today?
Jesus said in verse 36 or in verse 36, it said, then he left the crowd and went into a house. His disciples came to him and said, explain to us the parable of weeds in the field. He answered verse 37. The 1 who sowed the good seed let's just read it up here. The 1 who sowed the good seed is the son of man.
The field is the word, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. Now, in the original text, it literally says sons of the kingdom, so children of the kingdom. Okay? The weeds are the people of the evil 1 evil 1. It literally says, sons of the evil 1.
See, there's 2 types of people in the world. There's sons of the kingdom or sons of God and there's "sons of the devil". I know it's not politically correct, but I wanna tell you truth because I love you enough to tell you the truth and show you his grace so you can receive it. There's 2 types of people in the world. They're sons of God and they're sons of the devil.
You know, this this thought that, oh, we're all just children of God. In 1 sense, maybe because he created you. But, in another sense, in reality, you're a son of who you choose to be a son of. You're either the son of the king, son of the son of son of God, or you're son of the devil, 1 or the other. And, the enemy who sows the weeds, the son of the of the devil, or the children of the devil is the devil.
The harvester or the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are the angels. Let's keep going. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. Sons of the devil.
Children of the devil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. On the next verse. Okay. Ever wonder what weeping and gnashing of teeth what is gnashing of teeth really?
A lot of times, we don't talk about hell. This is hell. This is what it's talking about. In in scripture, hell is a very real thing. You might say you don't believe in hell.
And, whether or not you believe in hell doesn't matter. The truth is there is hell there. Right? And, gnashing of teeth, it means like clenching your teeth together. Imagine hitting your thumb with a hammer and going, that's gnashing of teeth.
Or, if you're really angry at someone, like a dog growling like, I can't believe these. That's gnashing of teeth. In hell, it's it's pain, torment, torture. Sucks. People a lot of people so angry at God and angry at themselves maybe for never choosing him.
How could a loving God do that? How could there be a hell? No. He loves you enough to give you what you choose on this earth, and you either choose to be a son of the king or you choose to be a son of the devil, 1 or the other. How loving would it be to to make you be with him?
No. He loves you enough to give you your your choice. There's let's just I just wanna drive this home. In in John-8 verse verse 41. Jesus is speaking here, and he's speaking verse 31, the context, he's speaking to the Jews who believed in him, is what it says.
So, he's not speaking, you know, we don't just assume. He's speaking to a bunch of hypocrites that don't believe or just a no. He's speaking to the Jews who believed in Him. And, in verse 41, he says, you are doing the works of your own father. They said, we're not illegitimate children.
The only father we have is God himself. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I have come here from God. I have not come here on my own. God sent me.
Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and want to carry out your father's desires. There it is from Jesus. You're the son of the king, son of God, or son of the devil.
1 or the other. Jesus himself. And, these are people that believed in him. And, they even thought that did you see that in in verse 42? Or, no, verse 41?
The only father we have is God himself. They believed in Jesus, and they thought God was their father. Interesting. Right? See, the Bible says, even demons believe.
They believe that Jesus died and rose again. They were there. They saw it. Frightened the mess out of them. They know who God is, but they've never confessed him as Lord.
They've never made him the Lord of their life. And that's these people. They saw they believed in him. They believed because of the works he did. And they believed that God was their father.
This is the people that come to church on Sunday just to get a good feeling. But, they go and live however they want. Jesus is not your Lord yet. You need to be born again. You need to know him and have a *relationship with him* that impacts every aspect of your life so that you can walk in his love and walk in his goodness and realize that this is the real deal.
Who would I be if I didn't tell you the truth? I wouldn't be loving you. I'd be hating you, and and and be loving what you say about me. It's an open opportunity of good news and great joy for all the people. For though and and all the people have the opportunity.
But many reject and end up living a life that feels good and going straight to hell. A lot of people say, well, hold on just a second. I'm I'm not I'm not choosing. You know, I I don't believe I don't even believe there's a devil. I believe in God.
And, or or even I I grew up knowing God, but and and going to church and stuff. I'm just gonna do my thing, and then later I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm just not gonna choose. I know a guy who had a dream. On the dream, there's this fence. And, the guy's "sitting on the fence".
And, he looks to the left and there's a field. And, Jesus is there saying, come to me. I'll give you rest. I have a future for you. I have life for you.
I wanna take away your sin. And, you're just sitting there, you look over at Jesus, the or the guy in the dream, he looks over at Jesus sitting on the fence. He looks over to the right and there's the devil. And, the devil's like, you know, he's he's he's calling him to come to his side too. Time goes on.
The guy just sits chooses. I'm just gonna sit on the fence. Time passes where it's it's over. You no more time to choose Jesus. It's done.
Jesus left. Sitting on the fence, he looked over and the devil's there. Devil walked over and said, alright, man. Come on. Let's go.
Guy on the fence says, wait a second. I didn't choose Jesus, but I definitely didn't choose you. The devil says, yeah, did. By rejecting Jesus, you chose me. I own the fence.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Many will come to me on that day and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do all these amazing things? And then, I'll tell them plainly, depart from me for I never knew you. This is more than playing church.
This is more than just coming to get a good feeling. This is receiving the fact that he died and rose again and forgave all of your sin, imparted to you his righteousness and believing that and walking walking with him as the Lord of your life, which is awesome and wonderful and good news of great joy. Am I being unfair? Like, it is no. I'm I'm telling you the truth.
The truth cuts sometimes. But, it's a good thing and he loves you. And, the opportunity is to receive what that sacrificial lamb did. To receive what Jesus did and let him take away your sin. See, when Jesus said, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword.
Let's read the rest of that. In Matthew-10:34 35. For I've come to "turn a man against his father", a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Keep going. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.
Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Let's keep going. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
I say this for a reason. It's just a statistic, a newer statistic out. And out of 10 people who "walk an aisle" and pray a prayer, 8 of them walk away and never come back. And 2 of them follow, followers of Jesus. Look, I I can't I can't say what did or didn't happen in that person's life, but the Bible does say, you will know them by their fruit.
And maybe, just maybe that person walked an aisle for a better day instead of walking the aisle to receive Jesus and shine like the stars in the in the heaven because they received his righteousness. Maybe the person just walked the aisle for a better day and didn't walk the aisle to walk with God and realize I'm laying down my life for you. He's the Lord. Now, do you understand all that in that moment? No.
But, you enter into relationship and he walks with you step by step by step by step. And, when we fall, we fall forward into his arms and he picks us back up and we walk by step. But, there was a change. People are born again. There's a shift in a lifestyle, a shift in a desire within the heart to follow after you with everything that I have.
There's a shift here. And eventually, comes out everywhere. What this is talking about, what it was talking about with the the mother, the father, like, you give your life to Jesus, when you give your life to Jesus, there's there's not necessarily gonna be peace between all men. You got peace with God, and that's awesome. And because we're in right standing with God, we walk in joy and peace regardless of the circumstance.
But sometimes, you're going to get persecuted. People are gonna come against you because of your faith, if you're living it out. People are gonna gonna joke on you and like, you ever heard your your mom, your dad, your wife, your husband, your brothers, your your cousins, your coworkers say, oh, come on. Like, I believe in Jesus too. I go to church too, but but you're you're just going overboard with this thing.
No. You're just being real with it. Yeah. That's that's in itself as a as a form of persecution. It's like, hey, just just they need to know Jesus.
I'll give you an example. My my dad was in Uganda. He's preaching in Uganda, preaching the gospel, and there's this brother and sister that were there. And the brother received Jesus in Uganda. It was awesome.
And the sister ran home to tell her father because it was a Muslim family. And when the son when the when the brother later he got home, the father was waiting with the door open and a machete, and he chased him to kill him. The boy got away and went to live at the church. Like, this is real. Jesus laid his life down for us and it's awesome so that we can receive him, know him, and walk with him, and experience the good news of great joy.
Sometime sometimes the gospel cuts, but it's out of love. And the grace of it is that even though there's children of God and children of the devil, maybe you've never received Jesus and you're a "child of the devil". The grace of it is Jesus didn't say, I came to bring not peace but a sword like the Muslims do so that we kill our kill the infidels. He didn't say that. Now, Jesus said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
So, if you don't know Jesus yet, there's no condemnation from us to you. No, we pray for you. We want you to experience the love of Jesus. We want you to be born again and transform from a child of the devil to a child of the king, a child of God. We want you to know his goodness and his righteousness, to be forgiven, and to walk as 1 who's clean, who's been forgiven for by God, has a pure and clear conscience, and can walk forward knowing that the God of the universe is on your side.
You are at peace with him, and he loves you, and he cares for you, and he wants to walk with you through the thick and the thin. And when you fall and you feel faithless, he will remain faithful because he cannot disown his own. And you, when you receive Jesus and are born again, you are a son or a daughter of God, and he will not disown you. But those who disown him, Bible says, Jesus disowned them because you were never his. I wanna invite the band to come home.
We're gonna worship the king. We're about to sing a song titled, Run to the Altar. Sorry. Run to the Father. But in my mind, I'm thinking run to the altar.
Run to the Father. Fall into grace. No reason for hiding. Like, if if you're hearing this and you're like, oh my gosh, this is heavy and I don't know God and and you feel conviction. Don't hide in darkness, but run to the Father and fall into the arms of grace.
He's saying, come home. I love you. I will give you rest. He wants to put like the prodigal son, the ring on your finger, the "ring of sonship" or daughtership. The robe of righteousness around you and clothe you.
See, that's the grace. And, he wants to keep you that way. He will teach you to walk in righteousness. He you will have peace with God, and it's awesome. I just I I ask.
I beg of you. Don't reject it. Can can we can we stand again? I know. Stand, sit, stand, sit.
This time, can we all bow our heads? Close our eyes. Those of you watching online, this is for you too. Maybe as I'm I'm speaking today, it was heavy. But may maybe as I'm speaking, you realize you don't know God.
And this is an open invitation. It's it's good news of great joy for all the people. It's good news of great joy for you. It's an invitation to be be born again, an invitation to become a son of God, an invitation to to become new. Maybe you're you're you're listening and something inside of you is is burning.
Something inside you is like, man, I don't know why, but everything that this guy is saying, I believe it. That's God and he's drawing you to himself. He's drawing you, and he's he's inviting you to walk in relationship with him because he loves you and he cares for you. And he's saying, hey, look. You know, even while you're in the "middle of your mess", I sent my son, for God so loved the world.
That means for God so loved even you while you're in the middle of your mess. I sent my son to die for your junk so you can receive my goodness. I love you. That's what God is saying. If you're in here right now, I'm gonna count to 3.
If you're in here right now and you need to know God personally, on the count of 3, I want you to raise your hand. Online, I want you to just comment. We'll we'll follow-up and message with you message you. On the count of 3, I want you to raise your hand if that's you. 1, 2, 3.
I see your hand. I see your hand. Keep it up. Keep it high. Anybody?
Anybody else? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. You can put your hand down. If you're watching online or if if you raise your hand in here, everybody else keep your heads bowed, eyes closed.
Would you look up at me? Hello. You believe Jesus died for you and rose again? Just shake your head yes if that's the case. Praise the Lord.
Bible says if you believe he died and rose again, you confess him with your mouth as Lord, you will be saved. It's a believing in your heart thing. Right? So we're just gonna do that. And I want I just want everybody right everybody here and online, you as well, let's just say, Jesus, I believe.
Just say it with all your heart. Believe you died for me. I believe you died me. And I believe you rose again. And from my heart, you are my Lord.
Thank you, Jesus. Thank Jesus. And if everybody would just raise your hand. Raise your hands. Just to say, oh, it's a sign of surrender.
Right? You included. Yeah. Could. *Romans-10, that's all, you know, we we say this prayer, but a lot of times, Romans-10*, that's all it says you gotta do.
So I just wanna everybody confess this with thanks thankfulness because this is for you. If you've received Jesus, say thank you Jesus that I'm new. I'm born born again. That's a declaration you're confessing, you're agreeing. Thank you Jesus that I am forgiven.
Thank you Jesus for your righteousness. Jesus righteousness. Credited to me. Credited me. Now just everybody ask, heavenly Father, how do you see me?
Some of you for the first time in your spirit, you heard something. It's God speaking to you. It's your heavenly Father. He loves you. If you didn't, don't feel like you're you're messed up or weird or anything.
No. If you've received Jesus, you're in right standing. You'll learn to hear his voice as you walk with him. But he says, you're the righteousness of God, of myself in Christ Jesus. Jesus.
Not me, of God. You're loved. You're his daughter. You're his son and he's proud of you. Not based on what you haven't done or have, but based on the fact that you're his kid.
Now, go forward and leave your life of sin. Some of you need to repent, which means to turn from some ways that you've been living, change your mindset, and move in him. As we sing this song, you can put your hands down if you want or you can keep them up. As we sing this song, I encourage you, we're gonna old school church like this is an altar here. Run to the Father, but there's something about taking a step.
Get on your knees and pray. Something about physically taking a step with a spiritual act of significance that just just happened. It's something significant, but I would encourage you to come and pray. If you need to repent, you just want to pray, thank God for what he's doing. And also if you gave your life to Jesus, Jerry and Heidi are right here.
If you need prayer any any for anything, Jerry and Heidi wanna pray for you. There there are these 2 right there. If you need prayer online, please message us. As we worship, we're gonna sing about 3 songs. As we worship, we're also gonna have communion tables open.
Communion is you remembering what Jesus did. It's an it's a physic like, there's something about a physical act with what Jesus spiritually did. Right? What I'm saying, it's it's a big deal, and we're taking it as an act of remembrance. We're examining ourselves, scripture says.
We're examining ourselves to see Jesus. Go read it. It's awesome. So examine ourselves. Oh, wait.
Wait. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, so I can take this in faith. God, thank you that your body was broken for my healing. Thank you that your blood was spilled so that I could be in right standing with you, forgiven and clean and new. Purify my conscience, God.
I take these in remembrance of you and eat and drink. Do it personally. You don't have to repeat what I say. Do it with your family. Do it with each other.
Do it as you're praying at the altar. And then we also have the giving boxes there. It's an act of worship, tithes and offerings. It's saying, hey, you're the Lord of every aspect of my life because my treasure is with you, my heart's with you also. It's awesome.
Let me pray for you, and we're gonna worship. Father, I thank you for who you are. You're wonderful. You're amazing. And we get to do this.
*Lord* God, I pray that if people need to come forward, that you would not let you would just put it on their heart so hard. Lord God, and as they take that step of obedience, Lord, they would experience the fruit of it. Thank you, Jesus, for what you're doing. You're amazing. 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.
*"Transcribed with" Deepgram*