You are invited to step out in faith today, whether that means standing for healing or joining the covenant community. Take the risk to obey God's call on your life and get established in a place where you can grow. Visit our website to learn more about our vision and take your next step.
Wow. I still need a hug from miss Pam real quick. I love you. They they did keep that from me. I didn't know that.
Hey. I don't think Courtney knew either by the surprise on her face when she's like, what's going on? I don't know. Father, I thank you for your goodness. I thank you for who you are.
*Lord*, we thank you that you're here, where "2 or more gathered" in your in your name. There you are in their midst. Lord, you inhabit the praises of your people, so we thank you for that. What an honor it is to get to minister to you in worship. Lord God, what an honor it is, and and it's really an overflow of of your lavish ministering to us.
*Lord, thank you so much for what you're doing. You are the healer*. Everybody said? Amen. That being said, I feel like the Lord wants to do something right now.
When God moves in supernatural ways, a lot of times there's obedience before the supernatural. The the supernatural is on the other side of obedience. And supernatural works of God should be natural when we're walking in obedience to his leading. Amen? And a lot of times when you step out in obedience, you're stepping out on a limb.
But guess what? The fruit is born on the limb. "Amen? Amen." Okay.
So I'm gonna take a risk, but I need you to take a risk with me. Okay? God's our Jesus is our healer, and and he wants to heal people right now in the room. If you have sickness or pain in your body, whether it be small or big what do I mean by small? Headache?
Backache? Big? AIDS? Hepatitis? Disorders?
Cancers? Brokenness? Broken bones? Depression? Anxiety that you just felt as impossible?
*Jesus* took it on the cross, and he is our healer. So if if you have pain in your body, I want you to stand up right now. If you don't, stay seated. There's a lot. Wow.
It's a it's a step of faith, a risk, right, to stand up. Amen? Alright. So Jesus is our healer. Amen?
And he paid the price for healing. If you're seated, you elected to be the prayers. Those who are seated, *Jesus is the Lord of your life. The same Holy Spirit that lives in me lives in you. The same Holy Spirit* that was on Jesus as he walked the earth and healed the sick, right, lives in you.
So if you're seated, I want you to go and find somebody that's standing. I want you to "lay hands on them". If you're not a Christian, or you're just kinda checking this thing out, you can stay seated. The rest of you, I want everybody to have a hand laid on them. And the book of Acts, we see laying hands on people.
Good. Alright. Don't pray yet. Don't pray yet. Don't pray yet.
Shh. Don't pray yet. Alright. Anybody standing? Somebody's not laying their hand on them yet.
Alright, church. Go lay hands on those people. Come on. The supernatural's on the other side of obedience. Go find the people that don't have their hands laid on.
Chuck's over here. If you're standing and nobody's laying a hand on you yet, raise your hand. Be bold. Alright. Good.
Be bold. Over here. Over here. No? Okay.
Okay. So now, very important for the prayers. It's not about your prayer. I don't want you to yell and scream and holler and make it 5 minutes because you're trying to make God work. *Jesus* already worked on the cross.
It's a step of faith. You understand? You're trusting in the finished work of Christ. So when you pray, it can be just simple. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you're the healer.
In the name of Jesus, by his authority, I command this to be we're not asking in this moment, like the the disciples in in the book of Acts said, be healed. That's it. K? So in this moment, we're not asking for God to heal. Jesus already paid the price for healing.
We're standing as sons and daughters and replicating what we see in the book of Acts. In the name of Jesus, whatever it is. But before you pray, I want you to ask them what you're praying for. And then I want you to call whatever it is by name. And in Jesus name, go away.
In Jesus name, be healed. Does that make sense? So take a moment to interview them, ask them, and then 1 or 2 people pray. Alright. Once you know, pray very simply.
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Okay. That should be good. Just 20 prayer. Alright.
Here here's where the rest of the risk comes in. You guys ready? This is real church. Real we're not a "fake it till you make it" church, but we do believe the Bible. Okay?
So here's what I really want you to do. I want you to test it out if you had pain that can be tested. Okay? Sometimes God supernaturally moves instantaneously. We should be done we should be done praying.
Test it out. If the pain went away or is at least "80% better", and you can and you know that. I want you to wave 2 hands over your head. 2 hands over your head. You know it's 80% better.
Wave it high. Only if the pain went away, 80% better. Look around, church. Now, hey, listen. Listen.
Stop. Stop praying. Stop. Stop. Listen.
Listen. This is important. Those that pain went away test it out. Those that pain went away, and it's at least 80% better. I want you to raise your hand.
2 hands over your head. This is important. Okay. Eric, what was it? And you felt it, and the pain's gone, or 80% better?
Yes. Yes? Okay. What was it? Your neck?
Got punched in the neck, and and now it's all loose up. Okay. Praise the Lord. That's amazing. Now, I share those testimonies on purpose.
Right? So if the pain went away right now, that means Jesus is moving. Does that make sense? Don't diminish it. Don't say, No.
No. Lean in. Let it build your faith. Okay? Faith is a big deal.
Now, if the pain didn't completely go away, praise the Lord. If Jesus prayed for a blind man twice, then we can pray again. Right? Yeah. Okay.
So we're just gonna take a step of faith biblically and pray 1 more time. Don't pray harder. Don't pray louder. Don't be like, I gotta really try this time. It's not your effort.
It's Jesus. Just do the same thing. Thank you, Jesus. You're the healer. In the name of Jesus, whatever it was, be healed.
Okay? And we're we're gonna trust him. He's our healer. Pray again. But if you're already healed, don't don't get don't receive prayer again.
You pray for somebody else. Thank you, Lord Jesus. In the name of Jesus, cancers leave now. In Jesus' name, blood disorders be made whole. Stomach pain, stomach issues, nausea, go away in Jesus' name.
We rebuke the spirit of infirmity, leave. *Lord*, we thank you for what you've done and what you're doing. All right, I want you to test it again. Honest. We're not a fake it till you make it church.
If you're not healed, don't pretend you are. You understand? If it got worse, put your hands lower. No. I'm just kidding.
Alright. If it's at least 80% better or more, wait. 2 hands over your heads. Honest. Come on.
Alright. Here's my request. Here's my request. Testimony is a big deal. If if it's at least 80% or more, Jesus moved, right, I want you to find Jenna at the end of the message, you're walking out.
She's our testimony girl. Okay? And and we need to capture these *testimonies* of God healing, of supernatural, the amazing things happening because Psalm 1 19 1 11 says, your testimonies are my heritage. So what testimony what Jesus has done is our heritage. If you haven't seen it in your life yet and you hear what Jesus has done in somebody else, you can take that as your heritage.
They are the "joy of my heart", Which means I honor what he's done. I don't diminish it because I haven't experienced it yet. I honor what he's doing in others. And what you honor multiplies. Amen?
Amen. So, man, I wanna hear I wanna see some video testimonies from what Jesus did today so that the world can see the glory of God, what he's doing, and have a desire to know him more. Amen? Amen. Praise the Lord.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for moving. And Lord God, I thank you that even though every single person in this moment didn't see a miracle, some of them are gonna get better in 3 days. Some of them are gonna get it better in 7. And some of them, Lord Jesus, we don't understand why, but we don't have to. We have **peace that passes understanding** because we trust you.
And when we trust you, we don't need to understand. Lord Jesus, thank you for peace. Thank you that you're our healer. Lord God, that this isn't just a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but we believe the Bible at what it says, and Lord, we wanna raise our level of experience to what the truth is declared in your word, and not diminish the word to what we have experienced. Father, stretch our faith, stretch our obedience to step outside of our self consistently and into obedience so we can see the fruit of your kingdom in our life.
And Lord God, any areas of unbelief in us, we repent and we declare and ask, **help our unbelief**. Help our unbelief, Lord God, so we can reflect you more. In Jesus' name. Everybody said, Amen. You may be seated.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. And man, I love declaring and walking in the love and power of God.
I just love it. You know why the you know you know faith works through love? So the gifts of the spirit work through love. It's all about the love of God overflowing. And when you love someone enough to see them in their need and have compassion on them and step out of of yourself and take a radical step of obedience, a lot of times you'll see the supernatural fruit of that because that's what they did in the book of Acts.
And you know what? Little secret. I love doing it in the face of the religious that hate it. I just I mean, those religious, you know, their face, they look like they're sucking on a sour lemon when stuff's going on like that. I love it.
Because Jesus loved it. He flipped the tables of the religious over and over and rebuked them. Why? Because he loved them too. And that's the only thing that would cut their hearts so they can start walking in freedom.
And some of them still rejected him and then end up crucifying. And guess what? When you start walking the Christian life for real for real, when you start walking walking for Jesus in a way that's obedient in the face of culture, you're get persecuted too. But blessed are those who are persecuted for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We don't do this for persecution, we do it for love.
But when you really love in truth, you get persecuted. The religious hate it. That's okay. Jesus loves them and he died for them too. And you, the heart posture is, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing.
Amen? Amen. Amen. It's fun, man. I wanna I want to a couple things.
I I want you to know if this is your first time or if you've been coming for a little bit and you haven't really built any relationships or other things, you're welcome here. And my my prayer and our prayer as a leadership team, dream team, or volunteer team, our prayer is that you would encounter the power and the presence of *God* because of his love. And it would challenge you as you encounter his love and he speaks to you in truth. It would challenge you to walk in deeper levels of freedom, to stand in his truth so that you walk in freedom your whole life, that you stop making excuses for your lifestyle and instead *repent* and follow him. Amen?
Stop making excuses for, oh, this has always been me, or this is the way I've always been. Man, stop it. When you give your life to to Jesus, you become a new creation in him. His righteousness credited to your account so you don't have any excuse anymore. It's like, oh, I'm I'm I'm just nothing but a filthy rotten sinner so I can make excuses for my sinful ways.
No. You can't. When you give your life to Jesus, you're a new creation, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and now it's time to step up and begin to walk it out. Because that's who you are, and the more you believe who you are, the more you'll do what he's put in you. And if you won't, either you're an infant in Christ and need to mature or you never were.
And you need to repent and actually be born again and stop playing church. Amen? Amen. I got I just got good news, man. *Jesus* loves you.
That's good news enough. And he loves you too much to leave you where you are. He loves you where you are, but he loves you too much to leave you there. Look, I wanna share something with you that a couple of people that I deeply respect have said, and I think that you deserve to know as a church. I'm proud of you.
I'm proud to be your pastor. I am. Thankful I get to be. 1 was Todd and Diane Harrison. Todd and Diane Harrison.
Diane is over the prophetic for a network of at least 1,500 churches around the world. And she had her son, Todd and Diane had their son call me, Tim Harrison. He's leading a church in Panama, and they're having some issues with discipleship. And Todd and Diane Harrison told Tim to call Real Church because Real Church is 1 of the best disciple making churches they know. What a humbling, amazing compliment from somebody who knows a lot of churches around the world.
And then I wanna read you a quote, and this is giving *glory to what Jesus* has done, but bragging on what Jesus has done in his beautiful bride and desiring all the more. Doctor Leon Van Royan, who came here 2 weeks ago, did the the healing school, just really teaching on what the Bible says about healing and our identity in Christ. It was amazing. God did super cool stuff. Doctor Leon is a overseer of our church.
He's also a personal mentor. He's 1 of my spiritual fathers. Like, I wanna be like him when I grow up because I've considered his way of life and the outcome of his his faith. And the Bible says, when you find those like that, imitate their faith. It's in Hebrews.
Anyway, let me just read you this. Doctor Leon Van Royan, an overseer of the church who's a spiritual father to many churches, he has over a 150,000 students going through his schools of ministry from multiple different churches. He was here 2 weeks ago and made this statement, and I quote, this church, to me, is the epitome of a modern day book of Acts church. You are the most zealous in soul winning, *disciple* making that I have come across in the whole world. You not only know the word academically and theologically, but in reality, real church.
And you know, I talk about this church everywhere I go, and I go to a lot of places, 42 weeks a year traveling. And this church is certainly what I desire to see throughout every church that's related with me because this is an authentic New Testament model church. You are doing it right here in Clearwater, Florida. I thank you for being the church. Thank you for doing what you're doing.
It was 7 years after we moved here that I looked up. This was October 2024, and I saw during boiler room, we had just started boiler room, there was a line of people that were coming up to the microphone to pray for their neighbors and their friends to be saved. And I was standing right back there, and I turned around and I saw that. And I saw the picture of what I saw 7 years before in Louisiana when God told me to come plant the church and what it would look like. I saw the culture, the beginning of it.
It took 7 years for that to happen, but that's just the beginning. We've been painting the same brush stroke over and over and over, and that's what we're doing. And it's only getting better. There's only more multiplication. In painting that same brush stroke, there will be pruning.
Pruning happens for something to to bear much fruit. A lot of times, there's growth that happens way out here and way out here, and it takes too much nutrients, and so a good gardener prunes it so that the the unified can bear much fruit together. Amen? So there will be pruning, but we'll keep painting the same brush stroke over and over and over. And then as you're more equipped and you start living out what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ, A disciple is a disciplined follower of Jesus.
A *disciple of Christ* is not a church sitter. A disciple of Christ doesn't just come on a Sunday morning, sit on a chair, then go about their business for the rest of the week saying, I'm good. I got my check-in the box. I listened to a good sermon. It made me feel good about myself.
I might have even talked about it at lunch. I opened up my Bible 3 times this week. No. No. No.
A disciple of *Christ* is 1 who has confessed that Jesus is Lord. 2 words in the English language that don't go together, the word no and the word Lord. When Jesus is your Lord, you tell him yes, and you tell your comfort no. That's right. Wow.
That's right. Regardless, when you pick up the word and you get to know him and you realize that you're still an infant when you just give your life to Jesus, so you get around those that are older than you in the Lord because you're learning to be humble and not make it about yourself. Because a selfish Christian is is There's no such thing. You get it? Like, a Christ follower is following Jesus as he laid down his life for us.
We lay down our life for him and for others. So any area of selfishness in our life, he puts his finger on and says, give me that. Amen? And so, man, we're a *disciple* making church that's making disciplined followers of Jesus. And watch this, most most church people don't wanna hear this 1.
But I mean, Jesus is doing this in many churches around America. There's revival happening. We're not the only 1. There's many churches, and I believe there's many in Pinellas County. Praise the Lord.
We're gonna run our race, and praise the Lord for what he's doing in the churches down the street, praying for them as we run our race. And as it coalesces, we'll see more and more people come to know Jesus. Amen? Amen. But a disciple a disciple a disciple, a disciplined follower of Jesus, Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
Meaning, the more you're following *Jesus* in whatever realm of your life that he's given you influence with, whether that's in business, in your family, the more you follow Jesus, the more you're gonna be looking for fish. Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of people. And you don't just fish, get them saved, and then walk about your day. You lay your life down to help them follow Jesus like you will to the extent that they'll listen. That's called making disciples.
It's the great commission, not the great suggestion. And if you're visiting from another church out of town, or in another state, or whatever, you're just here on vacation, praise the Lord, thank you, Go back. And if your church isn't making disciples, find a new church. If your church isn't challenging people outside of themselves and into the harvest field, find a new church. It's too late in the game.
It's too late in the game to be playing church at dead churches. Come on. That are playing like they're a part of the body of Christ, but they're really not. It's time to go find a church that's "all in" for the great commission, get submitted, and run-in unity. Amen?
Amen. That's what we're doing, and you're invited. And I'd I'd say this, dude, we have fun. Our motto is I'm a Real. Person living a Real.
Life for a Real. Jesus having a Real good time. Real good If you ain't having a real good time following Jesus, you're doing it wrong. I'm telling you, man. It's fun walking in surrender.
It is. Like like, for real. I mean, you guys have seen this before. Right? What is this?
It's a shoe. A shoe is created in the image of the? Foot. But it's not the foot. So if it tries to live life all by itself, it's going stinking life.
And it's not able to run, dance, or jump like it's supposed to. It just is no fun. But it might think it's really living, but it's not. When it surrenders to the 1 in whose image it was created, not partial surrender because then it's just limping limping along. I'm talking full surrender.
In surrender, there's *freedom* because it's empowered by the 1 it was surrendered to. To run, dance, and jump, and play, and do everything that it was created to do. And man, it's a real good time, and it feels fulfilled too. Amen? Amen.
So, man, I wanna be *surrendered* in every area of my life to him and to whatever he put me in. All in for him. It's the Christian life, and man, it's a good time. Is it are there troubles? Yeah.
Am I am I saying saying that you're not gonna have troubles? No. You're gonna have troubles. Jesus said, in this life, you will have troubles. Literal quote.
But he says, but take heart. I have overcome the world. And he lives in you, and he lives in me. So when we're standing in him, we can rejoice in him in all things. Amen?
That's another quote of scripture. Rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say rejoice. So not rejoice in the circumstance. Too many times as babies and a lot of Christians have been going to to church for 20 years have been repeating the first year of their Christianity 20 times, and they're just a 1 year old Christian.
Because they haven't learned to step out of immaturity, to step out of themselves. A baby whines, cries, and complains about what they don't have. They whine, cry, and complain about what they need because they're not mature enough to learn to get it themselves and then to help others do the same. Babies make messes. And church, we are a church that is called to mature babies into mature followers of Jesus that are learning how to help others mature.
We are a *disciple* making church. Okay? Let me let me give you a picture of what it's gonna be like because we're just getting started. Promise. Here's a picture of what it's gonna be like.
Remember, testimony, Psalm 1 19 1 11, your *testimonies* are my heritage. They are the joy of my heart. Okay? So what we see Jesus do is our heritage. What I'm about to tell you is our heritage, but we're also connected to this, which is cool.
Y'all remember 3 or 4 weeks ago, Daniel Salim came. Daniel Salim, he is our national director for what we're doing in Pakistan. Bruh. There's a lot going on. 5 years ago last month, 1 man invited us to come to his village and preach the gospel to him and his family and his friends, and he ended up inviting 15 villages.
He was influential. From that 1 time 5 years ago, now, there have have been well over, well over, like thousands over, a 100,000 people born again. It gets better. There are at least a 100,000 people that are being discipled weekly in 2,540 villages, with 2,540 leaders and apprentices of those villages that are like pastors, that are having Sunday services now and doing discipleship throughout the week. In 5 years, in 4 unreached people groups now and multiplying.
That's crazy. It's exponential. But that's what happens when missiologists, those who study missions and stuff, when you have a structure of *discipleship* that you stick with that's healthy, and then and then the people are ready for it. Once it gets to about the third or the fourth generation, about the fourth, maybe fourth or fifth generation, then it gets exponential. What I mean by fourth or fifth generation?
That means if I share the gospel with a 100 people, but 10 of them decide to hang around and I get to make make disciples of Christ. And those 10 begin to do what I'm doing. They follow me as I follow Christ. Right? Maybe to even doing better than that.
And those 10 eventually begin sharing the gospel with others, and they each have 10 disciples. Well, how many is that? 10. 10 times 10 is a 101. Right?
That's the third generation. So me, first generation, second generation, the 10, third generation, the 100. If they all do sharing the gospel with people and end up making friends. Next thing you know, they each have 10 people that they've helped to look more like Jesus. 100 times 10 is?
So that's the fourth generation. The fifth generation looks like a 100,000 people. You get it? That's how *Jesus* designed the church to spread. And there is a wineskin.
What I mean by wineskin is a method of doing church in America that is, oh, let me come on a Sunday morning. Let me sit on a chair. Let me listen to the sermon. Let me take some notes even. No, I'm not that mature.
Ain't even gonna take notes. Didn't bring my Bible, but man, it made me feel good. That's awesome. And then let me go back to my work and my job, and I'm incorporating church into my life. That "wineskin has to be broken" for a disciple making movement to happen in America.
We're breaking it. That's why I speak the way that I do. Because the way that God has created it is my role is to equip you for the works of ministry. My role is not to do ministry. As a Christian, my role is to do ministry in my daily life, but as a leader, my role is to equip you for the works of ministry.
And then as you minister, which means you're giving out what you got, whether that's on Sunday or really Sunday just drove you into the word to make you wanna know him more. And so you're getting you're getting meat from the word and digesting it in your in your belly with him, and it's becoming milk. Milk wise, so that you can give it out to other babies who don't know how to get in the word themselves. So as you mature, you you begin to hunger and desire and thirst for righteousness, and God gives you all things. Why?
So that you can give to others, so you can multiply. As you begin to minister in your daily life, you mature. Until you're ministering in your daily life, you're stay a baby. You wonder why you haven't grown in Christ? It's probably because you haven't been given out what he gave you.
And you know what? Those that don't give out what he gave you, they're just babies, but they're filled with more knowledge than any other church in the world. The American church is filled with more knowledge than any other church in the world. But the thing is, if we're not putting it into practice, we're getting big heads and we got little bodies. Can you see that picture?
What happens when your head gets too big? You fall over. Pride comes before destruction. But not just that. Remember James-1, those who hear the words and don't put it into practice deceive themselves.
There's a lot of deceived people that think they know, but they don't know because they haven't lived it. Don't be a deceived person who has a bunch of pharisaical **"head knowledge"** of the word. You study the word night and day. Oh, you you care about the word. You wanna know the word, but there's no relationship with the Holy Spirit, so there's no life practice.
You're just relegating this till there's no power in here. You're just looking for head knowledge so you can win an argument. Don't be that guy. Let him break your heart, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, wanting more and more of him, And then let it overflow out of you because you're learning to be obedient. Those who love me obey my commands.
What are the commands? You give your life to Jesus. You're born of the spirit. By the spirit, he writes his commands on your heart, meaning he leads you day in and day out to live out what this means. Why?
Because you're a son and a daughter, and as you don't, he disciplines you because he's a good father, because he wants you to look more like him and not be enabled than your junk. Amen? He wants to heal that mess. So a lot of people don't just do what I said because I I did I did pick on chair sitters. But a lot of people make the excuse that, oh, you know what?
I'm the church. We're the church. I don't need to be connected with the body of like, with the the church. I can do church on the golf course. I can do church, you know, in my own way, and I can just go to the assembly when I need to.
Hold on. I get concerned when I hear that. I get concerned about people who claim to be Christians when I hear that. Because *Ephesians-3:10* says that God's intent for the mystery, his intent was that the multifaceted wisdom of God would be revealed through the church. The church he calls his body, the body of Christ, who he calls his bride.
And it says, don't forsake assembling yourselves together as some get in the habit of doing. They're in the habit because they've deceived themselves, they think it's okay, so they can isolate. But here's the beautiful part, guys. And I'm preaching a message I didn't write, but here's the beautiful part. *Glory*.
The word *glory* means the character and nature of a thing on full display for all to see. So the glory of *God* is the character and nature of God on display for all to see. Now, the Hebrew word, kabad, for glory, is weight or weightiness. So there's a weight to God's glory. But don't worry, *Jesus* says, My burden is easy.
My yoke is easy. My burden is light. You have been given a race to run. He's created you for certain works, divine purposes that require the supernatural power of God to accomplish in and of yourself with him, the Holy Spirit through you. And as you surrender and submit to him, he takes you through the process to be able to walk in the grace necessary for you to walk out those purposes.
You follow me? What is grace? God's power empowering you to be and to do what you can't be and do on your own. How do you experience that? By faith, by hearing, believing, and obeying, and on the other side of obedience, you walking in more of his grace to reflect his character and nature and bringing him glory.
You're carrying the weight for the race he's called you to. But it gets better, church. *Jesus* prayed, Father, give them the glory that you gave me. *John-17*. Jesus said, I brought you glory by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
So when we accomplish the work we that God gives us to do in our life, By the way, you need to work. Following it's by grace through faith. Right? By grace not works that you become saved, but you're created for good works. You're not created to just sit on your butt and sing kumbaya.
It's work, but it's work he empowers you by *grace* to do. But you gotta tell your flesh, no. Suck it up and get out there, buttercup. Amen? Amen.
Okay. So *Jesus* brought the father glory by accomplishing the work that God, the father, the father gave him to do. Jesus is not created, but father gave him to do. In the same way, we, as the body of Christ, bring God glory by accomplishing the work that he gives us to do. But Jesus said, give them the glory that you gave me.
So we're supposed to be growing into the mature man, Christ, together as the body of Christ in unity. And it's only in unity, John-17:19 20 21, 22 23, where he says, Father, make them 1 as we are ones so that the world will know. Meaning, in unity, we're able to reflect the glory of God most completely so that the world knows Jesus. Why? Because the "weight of the glory" that Jesus carried is heavier than any 1 man can carry himself.
The finger can only carry so much, and you might just be a finger. You're definitely not the whole body. The pinky can only carry so much. You might be a pinky. But the pinky in unity with the other fingers, in unity with the hand, that hand can carry so much more weight, which means it can reflect so much more glory of *Jesus* for the father.
And that hand in connection with the arm, in connection with the shoulder, in unity, man, it can follow so many more commands by the head and do so much more work, will bring the father so much more glory, and it can carry so much more weight, and the glory of God is weighty. But if the finger tries to carry the weight that the arm is supposed to carry by itself, because it's like, I'm the church by myself. I can go do what I want. It's gonna be overburdened because it doesn't have the grace for that. You need to be in unity with the body of Christ, which requires Uh-oh.
Here's a bad word for America. Submission. It requires submission coming under someone else's mission. The great commission, we're co laboring with him together, but this is a kingdom. It's not a democracy.
It's God's kingdom, and in his kingdom, he delegates authority. And to walk out your mission, you have to come under some delegated authority that you're gonna disagree with sometimes. Right? There's authorities in life that have specific grace for the influence God has them. We see it in the home.
A mother and a father are the covering for the children. The children don't have the ability to experience and go through the things that a mother and a father do, and they're covering the children until they raise up the children to be able to handle it. It's like a roof. A roof is the covering for that which is under the house. The roof is made to experience the heat and the rain and the wind.
And that which is in the house might even be more valuable than the roof itself. But if it were to stay outside in the rain, what that which it was not created to handle, it would be carrying a weight or going through things it wasn't created to go through because it didn't stay undercover. Coming under the authority that God's put you under is part of walking in the kingdom. Guess what? Satan was kicked out of heaven for rebellion.
"Lack of submission". And you know what? There's a lot of struggle in marriages because the bible says that the husband is the head of the wife, like Christ is the head of the church, which means he's the covering, and made to go through things and experience some of the pressures and stresses that the wife is not supposed to. The bible calls the wife the weaker vessel. I don't believe that means that she's less than.
Because biblically, she's the helpmate, that's the same word for God, meaning the man can't accomplish what he's called to accomplish without his helper, just like God is our helper. Does that make sense? The weaker vessel, think of it like a vase, a beautiful crystal vase that's delicate, valuable. If you treat the vase like you treat, you know, the man, the vase will break, but she's no less valuable. She's got a purpose that she's called and created to make.
When the same way, the man as the covering is supposed to go through and experience things and cover the wife protecting her so that she can do what God's called her to do. And then she helps the man to do what God's called him to do, and together they're in unity and it reflects the church in Christ. Does that make sense? You follow me? But a lot of women are experiencing a lot of pressure and and wrestling with things, 1, because the man is not leading as he's to, and the woman doesn't respect or honor the husband because he I shouldn't give respect and honor to that which doesn't deserve it.
Oh, wait a second. You've been in the military? There's a lot of officers that don't deserve respect and honor, but we say, I, sir, and we salute the office because it's delegated authority that we've been put under. In the same way, we're in a kingdom with delegated authority. And if if the woman in a marriage rebels in her heart, grumbling in her heart, which was the message today, actually.
We'll we'll talk about it later. It's 1 Corinthians-10, the fourth 1, you know, Corinthians and Abiram, and we ain't got time. It's already 11:34. I'm I'm I'm landing the plane. But rebelling in her heart, right, and saying, no, I'm gonna make decision.
I'm gonna control. My husband's not doing what God's called him to do, so I'm gonna control him to make him. I'm gonna become Holy Spirit. What she's doing is she's stepping out from undercovering, and experiencing the pressures and the things that she was never made to. But and it's a lack of trust in God who delegated authority because the Bible says God is the 1 who sets up authorities.
So to go against delegated authority is to rebel against God. But when you come under and respect and honor the position because God made it, what you're doing is in you're trusting your life and yourself to God, and then by doing, releasing control to God, God is the 1 that disciplines the covering for being stupid. And he protects you. And then either he'll remove the covering, or he'll fix it. You got problems in your marriage, woman?
It might be because you're rebellious. You got problems at your job? It might be because you're rebelling against your boss. You've been grumbling in your heart and talking about it with the coworkers, or talking about it with your wife even and others, and just grumbling and complaining, and it's called a rebellious heart, and God hates rebellion. You know what happened in *Numbers-16* for the rebellious?
The grumblers. You know what happened? Hell opened up and swallowed them. Now, the Bible says the gates of hell will not prevail. It does say that.
Right? But for a believer and Jesus Jesus took the punishment and the penalty for us. Praise the Lord. But for a believer to walk in rebellion, what they're doing is they're allowing hell to open up in their life. Don't do that.
Honor *authority of God* by humbling and walking with him, and then quit walking in rebellion and blaming a lot of people, blaming the church for what people did, instead honor the church, honor authorities in the home, honor your boss. Man, you know, if I'm honest, I didn't vote for president Biden when he was president. I didn't. And I I sometimes, I made jokes about him that I shouldn't have, which was a lack of lack of honor for the office and anti biblical. Should I follow any authority in my life that leads me into unrighteousness?
No. And I should stand against unrighteousness. But at the same time, *God* places authorities in place. So I stand against unrighteousness, but I respect the office. And you know what?
You know why? Biblically, *God* places people that are evil leaders in in places. A lot of times, it's because the people have rebelled and he's disciplining them. If I'm just gonna be honest. Anyway.
Anyway. So, here's the deal. Here's the deal. To land the plane, close it, and do what we gotta do. We love you.
We're a disciple making church. We're gonna make disciples. We're gonna have tough conversations where tough conversations needed to be had because we love you enough to do it. We're gonna encourage you. The Bible says to encourage, rebuke, build up, use scripture, exhort, use scripture for that in righteousness.
Right? So you wanna go to a church that's gonna use scripture to encourage, exhort, rebuke, and build up in righteousness. Right? And if if you go to a church where they let you live in sin and don't rebuke you for it, they don't really love you. They just want your butt in the seat and they want your tithe.
You understand? Man, we're challenging and encouraging people to walk in righteousness here. And then as they do, we see more and more people born again in their daily life and living for Jesus. So I would encourage you to get established. Getting established doesn't mean going through established class.
Let me repeat that. There's a lot of people, like, when you when you first, you need to go through establish. Okay? So you go to our website, click on the 3 3 little things, and watch those videos that we're talking about. That's great.
That's really you kind of seeing what's "under the hood" of the church. You're understanding our vision, our mission, our values, if if we're place that God wants you to get connected. Do that. That's important. You get to see our our financial structure, our governmental structure, all this stuff.
You get to see our core beliefs. Do that. And then, if you if you're like, man, I like this place, we we have somebody reach out to you and help you take your "next step" in getting established in the church. Maybe that's serving some people who've never been born again, gave their life to Jesus. You know, some maybe you've never been baptized.
Help you take a next step. But that's still not being established. That's going through the established process. Because some people aren't fully ready to be established in the body of Christ. They haven't matured to the place where they can, where they can be a contributing member.
But being established in the body of Christ, really, is being a covenant member. You're not established until you're a covenant member. What is a covenant member? Covenant member is like, I know the vision and mission and values of this church. I know what God's called it to do, and I'm going to give my time, talent, and treasure to help the mission happen.
I'm going to serve, attend, and tithe to help this mission move forward. That's someone who has been established in the church. And some people that you're in process, you're like growing and learning and being challenged and stretched in faith. Praise the Lord. Keep that.
Keep coming. Keep attending. We're gonna challenge you and encourage you. But man, we're able to accomplish the mission with those who are established, those who are all in. I know God's called me here.
And that's not doesn't mean you're signing your life away. That just means I'm covenanting with God because God sent me here to be here until he sends me somewhere else, healthily. So if you haven't been through Establish, go to realchurch.us. Watch the Establish thing. Don't sign the covenant member form yet.
Instead, get on a serve team or go to a small group, something. Figure out what it looks like under the hood. Build some relationships. Get to know the culture. And then when you know that this is a place God called you, become a covenant member.
Be all in. Help us move the vision forward because we're gonna we're going to be a disciple making movement. We're gonna keep painting the same brush strokes over and over and over, and eventually, there will be a fourth and fifth generation of disciple makers where it becomes exponential and shifts the culture in Pinellas County and wherever else he sends us. Amen? Amen.
Alright.