You are called to be a leader who reflects Jesus' character, not just someone trying harder to be good. Stop focusing on your own strength and instead fix your eyes on how dearly loved you are by Him. As you obey His commands out of love, impurity will fade and you will shine as light in the world.
*Amen*. Okay. So got a couple of things that I I want to say as well before I get started. Number 1, my name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and the honor of getting to be the pastor at Real Church.
There is no place I'd rather be, and there is nothing that I'd rather be doing. I say it every time, and I mean it every single time. And I got a prayer I want to read to you. It's Ephesians-1:17-18. That the God so this is me and Paul.
Paul was writing this. This prayer from the Holy Spirit. I'm I'm praying it with him for you. Paul wrote this to the Ephesians, but it was to all the saints everywhere. So it's to you as well.
My prayer is that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit, capital s, that's the Holy Spirit, of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. You want more wisdom in your life? It comes from the knowledge of Jesus. You want more revelation in your life? As as the father is revealed to you, it's an invitation to you to imitate him in your daily life in that way.
The more you know God, the more you're gonna reflect his goodness and his character and nature to the extent that you're not reflecting his goodness and character and nature that you extent that you don't have a relation a revelation of who he is in your life. So that revelation comes from the knowledge of *Jesus* because Jesus is the exact representation, the exact imprint of the father, but in bodily form. Hebrews-1. Amen? Amen.
So my prayer is that you come to know Jesus more today. You come to know his love and his power more than you ever have today. Verse 18. Having the **eyes of your heart** enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious *inheritance* in you, the saints.
That takes the eyes of your heart being open to the revelation of not only who he is, but who he says that you are. The Bible also says in 1 Corinthians-2 that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Now, that's when we share the gospel. It has the power of God for salvation.
It has the power to break through the blinders that the enemy has on people to experience a relationship with the God of the universe. But the problem is there's a lot of believers as well. Believers who have surrendered to Jesus as Lord, who still have their eyes blinded to some of the realities and the revelation of the goodness of God in their life and who they are in him. So that's that's mine and Paul's prayer for you today, is that he would open up the the the windows of your heart to be able to receive the goodness of God in a fuller way than you've ever experienced before, so that you can reflect the goodness of the Father to your world, and experience the results that come from walking with Him, joy, and peace, and righteousness. Come on.
Is this making your heart burn a bit? You're like, oh, I need more of Jesus. Yeah? It does me. I mean, even saying it to you, I'm, oh, I need more.
I want more of him in my life. Amen? So the other thing I gotta tell you is is is this. If you didn't know already, and I'm I'm gonna repeat this over and over this year, real church is a **leadership development crucible**. A crucible is a container where you put metals in to melt and the impurities to come to the surface and you scrape off the impurities so it can be more pure and more usable, more moldable in the in the master's hands.
Real church is that. You come here, don't expect to just be able to sit in the back, "check it off" your box. I went to church today and go on about your life and your business and never change. The only way that you grow to look a little more like Jesus is change. And God is after you wanting you to look more like him.
So following Jesus requires change and change is uncomfortable. So God sends you to real church to make you a little uncomfortable, to bring some of those impurities to the surface so he can scrape it off and make you more usable in the master's hands. The more usable you get in the master's hands, the more he presses you forward towards the purposes he called you for. So I'm unashamed about it. I'm excited about it.
*Amen*? Amen. And so 1 of those things I'll challenge you in is is I wanna encourage you. 1, we're in a series called back to the basics. Leaders love and you're a leader.
I'm speaking to you like a leader. You're like, well, I'm I'm I'm not a leader. Yes, you are. If you if Jesus is the Lord of your life, then you're commissioned by Jesus to disciple nations. *Matthew-28, make disciples* of all nations.
You're commissioned by God. If you're a disciple of Jesus to follow, you're commissioned to make disciples of nations. Make disciples of individuals and of nations. You're commissioned to be a world changing leader, even you. By the power not by your power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
What do you do? All you gotta do is learn to deny yourself, "pick up your cross", and follow him. Learn to continue to grow to look more like him, and every day, your obedience, your steps of obedience will create a wake of purpose and power that will suck those around you into wanting to know Jesus too. Amen? Amen.
Okay. So in that, leaders love accountability. They love being challenged. And you might not you might I don't feel like that. That's okay.
I'm speaking to you like the leader you are because I'm speaking to you from the eyes of God, how he sees you until you begin to believe it about yourself and live it out. And and many of you are. And we got a church full of leaders. Amen? Amen.
So I challenged you guys last week, and I'm gonna challenge you again. I challenged our elders, our deacons, our staff, our covenant members, and and everybody in here is invited to participate. We're doing this series called Back to the Basics. Leaders never get bored with the basics. Kobe Bryant was 1 of the best basketball players of all time, and he put world class intentionality and intensity into the basic drills that high schoolers do, and he said he was the best in the world in his day, at the height of his playing, because he was the most intense about the basics.
He was the best in the world at the basics. So you, I want you to be the best that you can, growing in the strengthening of of the foundation of the gospel and and and who he is and who he says that you are. I want you to continually reinforce that foundation day in and day out, and this series is to help you with that. So on realchurch.us, we have a page. You click sermons, back to the basics, and you can watch the teaching that I just did, not just on the sermon, but I made a 30 minute teaching in my office for you with notes.
Leaders, go through the notes. Every note. Look at the scriptures. Pull it up. Don't do it.
Do it in place of your bible study 1 or 2 days this week because I know as leaders, you're diving into the word every day because you can't get enough of him. *Amen*? Amen. If that's not you, I'm speaking to you like it is because that's what God says about you. Because man, he wants you to have a passion for him so he can push you forward to the purposes he has for you.
And that comes when knowing his word. So just substitute 1 or 2 days in the word. Do the notes. Look at it. The notes look like this.
Or you can click the assessment. It's got the notes on it too. But leaders love accountability. So do the assessment. Fill it out.
And when you fill it out, guess what happens? I get it. I get to read it. It's not like, oh he's checking on me. Mean, stop that.
No. I love you. I'm making **disciples** who make disciples. *Amen*? Amen.
So I'm gonna read it and pray for you, and everyone that comes to me, I'm going to respond to. My 1 of my overseers, doctor Leon, he says he says, a church will grow by the number of leaders it has. And for every leader, not 1 that calls themselves a leader, not 1 that pretends, for every leader that is actually passionate pursuit of Jesus and making disciples, God will send 8 more people. It will be a suction that sucks in 8 more people to be discipled. So we and my prayer is that our church would grow at the rate of discipleship.
So that would mean, judging by the crowd, we probably have about 30 or 35 leaders in here. I don't know who. He rides to the surface. But leaders love accountability. Leaders are unafraid of being challenged and pressed forward in their relationship with Jesus.
Leaders, I call them fat soles. Don't be offended. Leaders don't get offended. I call them fat soles. Faithful, available, teachable, *spirit* filled.
They're full of the Holy Spirit and obedient. Oh my gosh. Pastor just said obedient. Wait a second. Yeah.
Of course. American culture, Western culture says we the people, but kingdom culture says Jesus is Lord. That's right. That's right. American culture says if I feel it, I want it, I'll do it.
And if somebody says otherwise, heck with it. That's independent. That is good for a democracy and good for America, it's amazing. However, you're first a citizen of the kingdom and the king of kings, and Jesus is Lord, so you understand authority. And the greater the greater you learn to surrender and say, yes, Lord, and follow his leading, the better leader you'll be, because you can't be a good leader without being a good follower.
And if you're just mister and miss independent going from church to church and bringing what I got, and if they don't like what I got, then I gotta go somewhere else. It's all still all about you, and you don't get it. When you learn to sub to do submission, which is throughout the Bible, submission means coming under someone else's mission, that's when God can entrust you with your own. But until you learn that, you ain't being entrusted with nothing by Jesus. I'm not talking about me.
*Amen*? Amen. So my challenge is I'd love to see a 150 assessments keep me busy, keep me praying. Because I I sent 1 a reply to everyone praying for them, the people that they said that they were gonna pray for, all that stuff, because we're disciples making Disciples. Disciples making Disciples.
And I hadn't we haven't made a disciple until you're making disciples too. And and really until you're making disciples who make disciples too. *Amen*? Amen. You guys okay?
Yes. Last but not least is is in that we have something we're rolling out called SLT, spiritual leadership training. It's intense. You all shouldn't do it because it it requires a cost financially, but also time wise, and requires a year long commitment. But you'll get out of it a lot.
I'm on week 41. Now, it's doctor Leon is the 1 that wrote it. I finished my doctorate. I thought I was done with school, and God taught me. He said, when you quit learning, you forfeit the privilege to lead.
I want you to do SLT. He gave me a year off, and maybe that was procrastination. I don't know. So then I called doctor Leon and said, hey, you got this year long thing. I'm in.
I'm on week 40, 41, something like that. It's stretching me. It will stretch you, and it will challenge you into the purposes God created you for no matter where you lead, whether that's in business, in your family, whatever it is. So pray about it. This is the last call.
We already have 16 signed up. Right? It's awesome. I want 20. But if God puts on people's heart and you guys are faithful and obedient and just "take a jump" a leap, praise the Lord.
There's a cost. It's $1,100 because it's a year long worth of material. You get 20 credit hours out of college. Not that you need it. I don't need it.
I just want to be to become what I'm reading. *Amen*? Amen. K? 5 books, doctor Leon wrote.
Weekly stuff cost cost you about 5 hours of time a week, and you're you're in the room with **world changing leaders** online. It's self it's self paced week to week. Make sense? K. So pray about it.
You can find the registration, www.realchurch.us. Leaders listen. Don't say, well, don't I couldn't find it. God told me to do it, but I couldn't find it. No.
No. Do what it takes. Don't give me excuses. *Amen*? Realchurch.us.
Realchurch.us. Get involved. And when you click involved, you'll see SLT, spiritual leadership training registration. Look at the form on there that'll tell you all the details. Pray about it.
If it's good with you and the Holy Spirit, say yes, Lord. If not, not it's not for everybody. Maybe you're not available for this this year. That's okay. But but it's gonna be amazing.
Alright. 1 more announcement. I said when we were 250, we'd go to 2 services. That's what I said. Because when we got here in 2017 to begin building a team to plant the church, 90% of people in Pinellas County were not in church on a Sunday morning.
Over 90%. Which means over 90% of Pinellas County doesn't understand either who Jesus is or they don't understand the importance of the bride and body of Christ so they're not living out their purpose because you can't really live out the fullness of your purpose unless you're healthy connected healthily connected to the local body of Christ. And so I told the team, said, hey, I prayed. I think it's time to go to 2 services, but if we have 2 50 there, we'll do it. There's 251 people here today.
Why are we going to 2 services? Because it will go from 2 it'll give us the capacity to disciple more people from 250 to 4 4 to 500 as you guys continue to make disciples in your daily life. Amen? So next week, we'll have 2 services at 9 and at 11. 09:00 and 11:00.
As a matter of fact, goodness. Thank you, Jesus. That's awesome. We have these right here. They're invite cards.
We'll put them out at the back. Ashlyn, where are you at? Trip, would you hand this to Ashlyn? She'll put them out on that back table. Get 3 or 5 or or however many you can personally have a conversation with people and invite them.
They have not they have times at 9 and 11. Next week, we'll change our website, all of it. Come at 9 or come at 11 and park in the bus loop because that'll make more room for guests. We'll open up the gate for the bus loop so that you can go out there as people are coming in. It's gonna be awesome, and more people are gonna give their life to Jesus and be pressed into their calling.
*Amen*? Amen. Cool stuff. Can we just say thank you, Jesus? Thank you, Jesus.
I thought I might get that text, so I kept I kept checking my phone. Now I'm putting it on sleep. We're we're gonna get into this message. Alright. Last week, we talked about salvation and just the basics of that.
It's way the basics are not shallow. The basics are eternally deep. That's why you never get bored with them, and you continue to grow so you can reflect the goodness of God more and more than you ever thought possible. *Salvation, when you're born again, you give your life to Jesus, you're born of the spirit, you are transformed* from the inside out, and everything that I'm about to talk about is applicable to you. You understood from last week how much you're forgiven with the scale.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch the the the lesson. Go watch the the sermon. Go look at Back to the Basics on the website. You'll get it. It will transform you, then you'll share it with others.
*Amen*? Amen. But what I'm about to say is applicable to you, and it's crazy to think about. This is the goodness of God. And and sadly, a lot of churches, I'm not saying all, but a lot of churches are not preaching what you what what happens, like the fullness of what you received when you gave your life to Jesus.
*2 Corinthians-5:17* says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, all things have become new, or the new has come. Like you are new. Yes.
You don't have to attain being a new creation. How new? What does this look like? Romans-6:1-2. Watch this.
This is crazy. What shall we say then? Are we gonna continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who have died or died to sin still live in it?
That's past tense. That means when you gave your life to Jesus, you died to sin. Wait. What does that mean? What does that mean for me today?
Next verse, Romans-6:6 through 7. It's crazy. We know that our old self was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For 1 who has died, which is you, if you gave your life to Jesus, has been set free from sin. That means you have already been set free, some of you, from what you've been struggling with, and you just don't even know it.
You're already dead to it. You're a new creation in Christ Jesus. Wait. Hold on, pastor. This is too good to be true.
I know. I'm gonna I'm gonna take it deeper. Watch John-1:12-13. It says this, but to all who did receive him. Did you receive him?
To all who believed in his name. Did you believe in his name? Yeah. Oh, there you go. Talk back to me, baby.
I like it. I like it when you say amen. Alright. To all who believed in his name, he gave the rights to become children of God. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
You, when you believed in his name, *Jesus became your Lord*, you became a child of God. Meaning, the heavenly *Father* put his *nature* inside of you. You now have the nature of your heavenly Father, and the sin nature, *Colossians-2*, was circumcised, cut away from your heart. You're no longer a filthy, rotten sinner. Instead, you've died to sin and been set free from it.
That's what my word says. I mean, there's people in here right now, they're like, what? This can't be. This is I've never heard this before. Don't believe me unless you see it in the Word, but if you see in your Word, change the way that you think and change your belief.
And if you're not willing to change your belief, then you're more stuck on what you've always heard instead of what the Word says. You okay? Okay. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna tell you some truth here. Watch this.
*Ephesians-4*, just to keep driving at home, watch this. *Ephesians-4* verses 22 through 24. I'm gonna say from verse 20, but that is not the way that you learned Christ, assuming that you heard about him and were taught in him. Many have heard about him, but not many were really taught in him, the way the word teaches. To put off your old self, which belongs to the former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God.
The NIV says created to be like God. That's what that means. In true *righteousness* and holiness. Your new creation, who you are now, is created to be like Him, like your heavenly Father in righteousness and holiness. A son, it's the heart of the Father for the son to grow up and look like the Father because the Son has the nature of the Father.
When you were born again, born of the Spirit, He put His nature in you. Ephesians-5:1 says that you are to be imitators of your heavenly *Father*. You guys alright? This is all true. Absolutely true.
You don't attain it. You received it when you receive Jesus, when you confess Jesus as the Lord of your life. This was attributed to you. It's an *inheritance* that is yours. Now, the the the problem is a lot of people say, well, hold on pastor, I see that.
I see it says that in scripture. Maybe that's just some high theological point, but it's not really reality. I don't know. Theology is the study of who God is, which means it's the study of your Father. And the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God is in you, empowering you to live out theology in your daily life.
Look at your daily life, and you'll see your theology. What you really believe about God. *Amen*? Okay. So so wait, pastor.
What happens when I don't like, I know the Bible says I'm a new creation, but what happens when I don't feel like a new creation? Like, what happens when I I read these words, and I see that it says that I'm free from sin, but I don't feel free from sin. Do you know what I messed up with last night? What happens, pastor, like when when the Bible says I'm born of God, but I I feel like there's this sin nature on the inside of me that keeps wanting to come out? Like, I know what scripture says, but I also see something completely different, and it looks like it's the opposite of what scripture says.
Like, maybe these are just some high theological points that are for the past ors to speak about on Sunday, but Monday through Saturday, I mean, come on. Like, let's get real. You're just some lunatic that's preaching this like it's true, but but I'm gonna go and live my life, and then study the Bible to check it off my box, because I don't really believe it's true. Look at my life. It's different.
It's a lie. I over exaggerated maybe a little, but to some extent, everybody's felt that. Yeah? What happens when we see the life that we're living and it doesn't line up with the life of Christ? I'm gonna give you some some analogies, some mental pictures that's gonna help to drive this deep in your heart, and then I'm gonna give you the practicality of how to live it out that will set you free forever as long as you remember because your life's transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And the enemy the enemy of your soul does not want you to believe what the word says about you. So even if you get it today, he's gonna come back at you and try to renew your mind back to his way of thinking so that you don't live in freedom. You have to go back to the basics as often as it takes to get your foundation so solid that you're that you're changing the lives of others with the basics. Okay? So you guys ready?
Yes. Some of you have heard these before. If you've heard it, don't check off. Listen all the more so that you can give out these analogies when necessary. Okay?
If I throw a stick in the water, does it float or does it sink? If you didn't know, wood floats. K? So if I throw a stick in the water, it's gonna float because it's the nature of wood to float. Now, if I put my hand on the stick, if the stick comes under the power of my hand and I push the stick down under the water.
Is it sinking or is it floating? Sinking. It's but but wait, pastor. You said it was a floater. But it's sinking.
Like, can you imagine in that moment, if the stick had eyes and ears, if it had its 5 senses, and it had the mental faculty to look around at itself, and it sees its current present circumstances, and it says, oh, I'm sinking. I must be a filthy, rotten sinker. Did the fact that it's sinking in that moment change its nature? No. It's still a floater.
It's just came under the power of something that's causing it to sink. All it has to do, if a stick could do this, is come out from under the hand. When it comes out from under the hand, it naturally floats because it's its nature. Your nature is of the heavenly Father, that you've been born again. The problem is, sometimes you forget who you are, and you come under the power of sin, and then you look around at your circumstance, the enemy starts to scream at you, and religious people say, you're nothing but a filthy, rotten sinner.
We're just all sinners anyway, and gives them the excuse to live that way instead of stand in who they are by faith, come back out from under the power of the thing that's pushing them down, and begin to live out what they naturally are supernaturally by the power of God. You guys good? You want you want analogy part 2? Please don't forget. You're not a filthy rotten sinker.
You're a floater. You guys okay? *Romans-8:1* and 2. Alright. There is therefore therefore.
My Louisiana comes out sometimes. Alright. There is therefore now, when? Presently. Not just presently when Paul was writing Romans, but now.
In your life, now, no *condemnation* for those who are in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus? Yes. So there's no condemnation for you. The enemy wants to accuse and condemn you in your mind so your life lives like it's condemned.
Well, you have to go back to the truth of the word. His word says there's now therefore no *condemnation* for those in Christ Jesus. When you understand that and get it deep in your soul, you'll run to the Father when you screw up instead of running from Him, feeling condemned by Him. *Amen*? Amen.
Next verse. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit, another version says, gives life or the spirit of life. That's the Holy Spirit. When you're born of the spirit, he gives you his nature.
He puts the Holy Spirit, the spirit of life on the inside of you. You're still under a law, but it's the law of the Spirit. What does that mean? That means when what the Holy Spirit says goes in every moment. Yes, Lord.
You're under the law of being obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit. You guys follow me? Yes. You guys good? Okay.
That law, the law of the Holy Spirit, which he put in you, transformed you, sets you free from the law of sin and death. Pastor, wait a second. Romans-6 says, I have died to sin. I've been set free from sin, but I the sins everywhere. Yeah.
Absolutely. Sin is still very much alive. You're just dead to it. If you're dead to it, you're free from it. You're also free to it.
You can choose it anytime you want, but why would you? It'll cut your life up. That's the difference. That's the rub. It's there, but you're free from it because you're dead to it.
Now, the law of sis the power of sin is still very much alive in the world. It's everywhere. I mean, there's death, there's destruction, there's rape, there's abortion. There's all kinds of sexual immorality. I mean, there's all kinds of crazy stuff in the world today, and it's hurting people.
Because the enemy wants to steal, kill, destroy, and he uses the power of sin to do it. But the law of the spirit of life has set free set you free from it. Let me explain with the analogy that I told you. You guys ready? Yep.
Yes. Yes. Yes. I mean, we'd be done. You know?
No. I'm just kidding. Are you are you guys ready? Yes. Praise the Lord.
Okay. Alright. So, there is a law of gravity that permeates all of the world. Yes? I mean, everything, if if this is all I got.
Everything, if I drop it, what's going to happen? It's going to fall because it comes under the law of gravity. It's everywhere. You have nothing I wanna say a caterpillar. Caterpillar has nothing in its nature to overcome the law of gravity.
If a caterpillar accidentally steps off of this, it's gonna hit the ground and go splat because it's just fat and slow and, you know, has these little bitty legs and you know, eeks along. There's nothing that can transform it until See, the characteristics of God are so clearly seen when you look at nature. It'll make you wanna know him if you're not blinded, you're willing to open your eyes, until it goes through this process called metamorphosis. It's like a death and resurrection, isn't it? Caterpillar, once it gets fat enough and slow enough, it builds this cocoon around itself.
And these enzymes eat the caterpillar until it becomes this ooze in the cocoon. Like this is ooze there. And these cells called imaginal cells spark to life and begin to eat the ooze and recreate the caterpillar into a butterfly. And they form butterfly legs and butterfly wings, and and it looks completely different than the caterpillar did. And when the butterfly is formed, there's a resurrection that happens.
It breaks out of the cocoon, and it it walks and when it gains the strength after being reborn, it now flies. So the caterpillar, there was nothing in its nature that could overcome the law of gravity. But now that it's died and be reborn as a new creation, it has everything in its nature to overcome the law of gravity at any point. It's free from the law of gravity. It can fly.
You understand? What if that caterpillar I mean, what if that butterfly still thinks it's a caterpillar? What if it doesn't renew its mind to the reality, the new reality of who it is? What happens then? It will never fly.
Even though it's in its nature, it'll walk around like a filthy riding caterpillar. And to the extent that it remembers who it is now and understands who it is now, it will use its nature to overcome the law of gravity because it's free from it in its new nature. You are not a caterpillar any longer. You're a butterfly. God has given you in your new nature when you surrender to Jesus, when you were born again.
If you haven't been born again yet, you're still trying by your self effort to fall and you fall, fall, fall from time to time to time until you'll get to the end of yourself and you're ready for metamorphosis. K? New nature, born again, born of the spirit, puts the Holy Spirit inside of you to empower you to do what you can't do on your own and to be what you can't be on your own, to overcome the law of sin and death. *Amen*? Amen.
You want another 1? Yeah. Alright. Here's another 1. *Jesus* goes to see Lazarus who's dead.
He's in the tomb. *Jesus* comes in, and they're weeping and wailing. Why didn't you come, Jesus? He's been dead for 4 days. If you were here, just like you healed the guy with the blind eyes, you could have saved him from death, but now he's death.
He's dead. Jesus is like, believe. He weeps with them, and he tells them to roll back the stone. And they're like, but it's gonna stink. You know why?
Because death stinks. Everything about death just gets more stinky and rotten. Rolls back the stone, *Jesus* says, Lazarus, come forth. I don't know, like in Hebrew, maybe come out. You know?
Lazarus goes through metamorphosis. He resurrects to life. This really happened, by the way. He walks out of the tomb. As he's walking out of the tomb, he looks like a mummy.
He's got old stinky grave clothes wrapping him up. I mean, he looks like from a mom like from your your movies, you know, mummy. Old stinky grave clothes all around him. And Jesus says, take those grave clothes off of him. He was resurrected to new life, but still smelled like death because he had old grave clothes on him.
There's a lot of Christians, you've been resurrected to new life, you've been born again of the spirit, raised to new life in him, but you still stink. You got grave clothes on, and you need to take them off so your life don't stink anymore. So you can walk out the purposes you have for them. Those grave clothes are binding, binding you to things that you've been set free from. Why would you choose to stink?
Don't. Experience the freedom that comes from walking in freedom that he's already given to you. Renewing your mind to the reality of what he said about you, is taking off the grave clothes. To the extent that you're not experiencing freedom in any area of your life, that's the extent your life doesn't smell like Jesus, because you got in a grave clothed on, you have some area of unbelief, or some area that you're still holding on to something that you don't trust the life of following Jesus is better than holding onto that thing. And that thing's gonna rip your life to shreds until you finally let go and say, yes, Lord, and you begin to experience his righteousness, peace, and joy in that area.
Until that, you're still gonna be fighting. I'm right. Don't touch me here. Don't talk to me about this. But his righteousness is in the word.
You walk out what he says about you, no matter what you've always thought about yourself or your processes or the way you do things, you're gonna experience the freedom and joy and peace in your life, and everyone around you will experience it too. But I like my grave clothes. Yeah. But they stink, and they're repelling people from you, and you're claiming to look like Jesus. Come on.
This is good stuff. You guys encouraged, yet challenged? I'm a I'm a read I'm gonna have to skip the last part of the message. But you can get it when you go to realchurch.us, and you click on Back to the You do lesson 1 because you forgot to last week. Fill out the assessment.
I pray for you to respond. And then you do lesson 2, and on lesson 2, the rest of this is there too. Okay? You can go through the note. The notes are there so you can see it.
Alright. This this is important. I gotta do this. *Ephesians-4*. Question is, if all of this is true, how do we live?
Like, how do we experience this transformed life in our life? Now what I'm about to say may step on your toes. Okay? It may it may it may poke you in some areas that you've some grave clothes you've been holding on to and making excuses about. I love you enough to do it because how will you stop stinking unless you know?
Okay? But I'm gonna tell you how to take those off. It's easy if you're willing. You ready? Yes.
Yes, sir. People are starting to get nervous. If you're nervous that you're it's probably an area you're not walking in freedom. Just lean in. Get uncomfortable.
The Holy Spirit will comfort you as you step in obedience. Okay? Alright. This is this is in Ephesians, the beginning, the first 3 chapters, he talks about I like, everything I've been talking about, he said it in just different ways. And he says, okay, practically, this is how you do it.
This is this is what you do. 4 25. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each 1 of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of 1 another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him work, labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with everyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for the building up of others, as it fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Grieving the Holy Spirit is doing what he told you not to do.
Disobeying. Okay. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. Get rid of your offenses. Okay?
Offenses just means you're over focused on yourself. Bitterness is you're focused on what somebody did to you when Jesus has already set you free. Hurt for people. Don't be hurt by them. Be so secure in who he says about you that you can love them even though you see that they believe a lie.
That's why they're hurting so many people. K? Get rid of slander. Quit talking about people. Love them.
Be put away from you along with malice, like just doing somebody wrong for the sake of it. Be kind to 1 another, tender hearted, forgiving 1 another as God in Christ Jesus forgave you. Therefore, 5 1, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all, everybody say all. All.
All *impurity* or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper for the saints. I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna do it gently. All impurity. It's what you read, what you watch. Now watch this.
If I were to pull up some random woman up here and make out with her on the stage, you'd stand up and you'd walk out. Some of you may say, why? Because adultery is not okay. So why is it that we go to the movies and explain away TV shows watching adultery and say, it's just entertainment. Am I not entertaining you?
It's just entertainment. You explain away impurity. Oh, he's just being radical. No. I'm being biblical.
Walk forward in purity in the Lord. Yeah? All impurity or covetousness. Covetousness is I want what they have because I'm not thankful for what you gave me, God. Must not even be named among you as is proper among saints.
Let there be no filthiness, watch this, this got me when I was 23, because I was the king of this, or foolish talk, or crude joking. Oh, it's funny. I was 23, the Lord said, stop joking. Stop all joking. I couldn't even joke for a couple years until he cleaned my mouth out.
And then he brought back joking. Now I'm the king of dad jokes. Nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or covetous, which is idolat is being an idolater, because you're wanting what somebody else has instead of thankful for what he gave you, has no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let no 1 deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience.
Empty words are excuses for doing these things. Therefore, do not become partners with them. For at 1 time, you were darkness. It didn't say you were in darkness. A lot of people read that into the text.
It says you were. You gotta come to the the point that you realize that your old life, it wasn't just you were a good guy, you just needed some help. No. No. You were darkness.
You were ungodly. But you believed in Jesus, and then he said, but now you are light. You're in the light. Yes. But you are.
You have been transformed into. Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. Then he turned to his disciples, which were disciples. Now you're the light of the world. Go shine.
Pastor, how do I do this? That do I just try harder? No. That's religion. Religion is focused on you trying harder.
When you I try harder. I'm focused on me. When you focus on you, you reflect what you focus on. You just produce more selfishness. How do you live out this?
How do you shine brighter? So if Ephesians-4:25 through *Ephesians-5:7* or 8 were as a sandwich, we just ate a good sandwich. The first part, 4 25 through the end of 4 is a bun. 5 3 through 5 8 is a bun. The meat is in the middle.
It's the how. *Ephesians-5:1*. Be imitators of God as **dearly loved children**. When you know you're dearly loved by him, your "eyes are on him". And anything that doesn't look like him, you willingly set aside.
To the extent you're not willing to set aside set it aside, that's the extent you don't understand how much he loves you in that area. *1 John-4* says, we "love because he first loved us". *John-14:15* says, those who love me obey my commands. So if you're lacking obedience and impurity, sexual immorality, if you're lacking obedience and crude joking and lying and stealing, those areas, those are not who you are. Those are just grave clothes if you've given your life to Jesus.
But it does stink and it does show an area where you don't understand the love of God. So take your focus off of you and put it on him. Those who love me obey my commands. Lord, I need to love you more. I I need to try harder to love you more.
That's still a focus on I. And you're only gonna "produce flesh and fall". You put your focus on the 1 who dearly loves you, Jesus, and the heavenly father, on the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. And your love for him will reflect what you've been focusing on. So your love will grow because you love because he first loved you.
And then your *obedience* will grow because those who love me obey my commands. You understand his love more, your love grows, your obedience grows, guess what? Crude joking goes away. *Impurity* starts to go away. You're loving him more with what you watch.
You're watching some thing that you've always said was great and the Holy Spirit says, hey, that's impure. And you say, yes, Lord, I love you more than I love my comfort and entertainment. And guess what happens next? As you obey him, he reveals more of you to him, to your to you. If you're walking and you feel like you're stagnant, it's probably because you haven't been obedient and last thing he said.
He's just waiting on you to say, yes Lord. So that you can walk in in more freedom and take off more grave clothes and "stink less" and reflect him more. Amen? Amen. You guys good?
Yeah. Well, I guess that's all I got. K. I well, I got more, but it's on that real church website, back to the basics, lesson 2. Make sure you look at it.
Turn in the self assessment so that I can pray for you and encourage you and help you to be a disciple maker. Amen?