You are invited to stop settling for shallow Christianity and dig deeper into the basics of the gospel. As you obey and trust His character, you will taste and see that the Lord is good through real transformation. Don't just believe; test your faith and expect God to move in your body and spirit today.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There is no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. I say that every single Sunday because I mean it, and I want you to know it.
And I want every visitor, every guest that comes here to know that too, and our prayer is that you encounter the presence and the power of Jesus, that you encounter his love in a very real way, so that when you "walk away", you're never the same. When you encounter Jesus, when you encounter Holy Spirit in a real way, really you're kind of forced into the valley of decision to to believe what just happened or not. To move forward with greater steps of surrender, following his love that's drawing you into deeper relationship with him, or to continue the same. When you're following Jesus, you're never continuing the same. You're always being conformed, being transformed into his his image to look more like him.
Amen? Amen. Amen. So, *Lord* Jesus, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for who you are.
*Lord*, we thank you for what you've done and what you're doing in our lives. Lord God, that we get to participate with you. Thank you, Jesus. Lord God, I I I know that your word says the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. So right now, I just rebuke those blinders.
In Jesus' name, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened to the depths of the glory and the riches and the love that is found for you in Christ Jesus. *Lord* God, any areas of our life where there is unbelief, I ask you to help our unbelief. Lord God, that we would see the fruit of belief in every area of our life. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for what you're doing. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the lives that are have been transformed already today, and that are gonna be transformed as a result of what you're doing today.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Everybody said Amen. Amen. Okay. So we're in a series titled back to the basics.
If this is your first Sunday, that's okay. Each message stands alone, but I would encourage you, all of you, to go to our website, click on sermons, then click on Back to the Basics. We created a resources or resource for you, 7 different videos for every part in this series. They're about 30 minutes long, it's me in my office walking you through it. But then also, you have the PDF of these notes, and you have a button that says assessment on it, and that assessment is questions, it has the notes and stuff, but some questions you can fill out on your phone, you can fill out on the computer.
I mean, I've even had people print out this thing and and write write their answers in the self assessment portion, and email the picture to me. That works too. Either way, I encourage you to do that, and here's why. Because you're a leader. If Jesus is the Lord of your life, then you are a leader.
You're first a follower of Jesus, but the best followers are the best leaders. Amen? And he said, follow me and I will make you "fishers of men". He said, follow me, and not only is he gonna make us fishers of men, but he commissioned us to be *disciples* of him, and discipling nations. So discipling people in our lives and discipling nations, which makes you, if Jesus is the Lord of your life, a leader commissioned by God to lead other people.
Leaders are all in for Jesus. Leaders don't mind assessments. They don't mind accountability, right? Because they love being challenged and grown to be better. Leaders are all in.
They sacrifice their life for the sake of others. They're servant, servant hearted. And that's you because you're a Christian, right? Because Jesus is the Lord of your life, and you're daily leading others in your daily life. You're you're hungry for the word, daily getting into his word because he's challenged you to, and you can't get enough of him.
Amen? Amen? Alright, if that's not you, if that's like, oh, hadn't been me for a while, it's okay. Being your pastor, I love you, and I challenge you forward in him, and I'm calling you forward, speaking to you the way that he says that you are until you repent for the way that you've been and start living out who God says that you are so you can make the impact he's called you to make, and that requires you to know his word day in and day out personally, to get in in in his presence day in and day out privately, and then corporately, it'll let it overflow so that we experience his goodness together in a more powerful way. This is called a relationship with Jesus.
It's a personal relationship that's public. It's a personal relationship that's so personal and your walk with him, you can't help but talk about it. Amen? And back to the basics is is there for a reason. Because leaders, good leaders never get bored with the basics.
So you never get bored with the basics because you never get too big for your britches. Amen? Amen? Amen. You get if you get bored with the basics, you're like, oh, it's just the gospel.
Oh, it's just salvation. I wanna go into the deep meat of things. That that means you're prideful because you you want really what you wanna do is find some back corner of scripture that nobody talks about so you can feel better about yourself that you know something that nobody else does. That's called pride. Pride comes before a Fall.
Actually says destruction. Haughty spirit before a fall. But, yes. So it's important to never get bored with the basics because it's the gospel, and the basics of the gospel are not shallow, they're eternally deep. And the more you learn the nuances of the basics of Christianity, the deeper your foundation will be, so that when the storms come, and the enemy brings doubt and fear and other things, you won't be shaken.
You'll be standing in what his word says. You'll be solid on the rock. Amen? Now, I got a warning for you with this message. Some of you, when I preach this message, you'll be like, that's not basic.
I know I never heard a church do that and talk about stuff like that as basics. Well, we're raising back the level of Christianity to what the bible says is basic. Okay? Like, we're raising back the level of what Christianity the bible says is normal in a Christian's life. So when you say the word Christian and people look at you, they don't want to them.
Instead, they think about Jesus. Amen? You guys ready? I got I got some some prep for you before we dive into the notes. You ready?
I know I asked that, but are you sure? Alright. There is more to Jesus than you currently know. There is more. When you're born again, when you give your life to Christ, you surrender.
You've you've surrendered to him as the Lord of your life. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. You've been forgiven. All the weight of shame and guilt fall off. You have a new life.
You're a new creation. That is not the end. You don't walk an aisle 1 day, make an emotional decision, and then go about your business, so because now you can make it into heaven 1 day. If if all you did was walk an aisle 20 years ago, and nothing's actually shifted in your life, then maybe you don't believe as much as you say you do, because there will always be the fruit of belief. Your life will demonstrate, your actions of your life will demonstrate what you really believe.
They do, always. So you can say you believe something, but look back at the last month, last 6 months of your life, at the fruit of your life, and you will see what you actually believe. Amen? There is so much more. When you give your life to Jesus, that is the beginning, not the end.
The Bible says in Psalm 34 verse 8, it says, **"taste and see"** that the Lord is good. Taste and see. So there's this command to taste. You have to hear it, believe it, and obey it to actually take a bite. And then on the other side of obedience is the the the experience of him and a change in perception, your understanding of the world because of what you tasted.
Follow me here. Hebrews-11:3 says, by faith, we understand that the world was made from nothing, from his word. He created it. Okay? The first 4 words, by faith we understand.
So on the other side, what is faith? Hearing him, believing, and obeying him. On the other side of hearing him, believing what he said, and taking the step of obedience, comes the understanding of why happened. But you have to trust him enough to actually take the step, to take the step of faith before you even understand. Then your perception changes.
Then you begin to see what he's saying is really, really good. But you have to trust his character and nature before you've really experienced it based on his word. Taste and see. You've heard the saying, **"quality, not quantity"**. Yeah?
I want some good quality. I'm not worried about the quantity, I want quality. When you go to a restaurant, you find a really high quality restaurant with high quality steak, it would be my favorite, or just picture your favorite meal, your favorite, like, the the thing that you you love. You search to find that that restaurant when you go somewhere, and you put that hot steaming food into your mouth, and as you take a bite, and it goes out, it's high quality. When you find something that's high quality, you actually reorient your life to figure out how you can get more quantity.
Because quality makes you desire quantity. In the *kingdom of heaven, when you taste and see that the Lord is good, it leaves you with a hunger* for more. I'm not talking about some mixed religion that makes you try to perform in order to earn junk. I'm talking about walking with Jesus in the goodness of his love, the character of his nature, and experience the power and presence that go along with Christianity. It leaves you desiring more.
Amen? So in what we're talking about with this, my prayer is that it leaves you desiring more and seeking after the things of God in a in a real way, but, you know, really we're talking about walking by the Holy Spirit. Your *Christian life* is is walking by the spirit, not by the flesh. Walking by what he said, being obedient to him, and experiencing the outflow of that in your life. That is the rest of your Christian life after being born again.
Amen? K. So in that, there are really some some guardrails that will keep you going. On the left is do not grieve the Holy Spirit. On the right is do not quench the Holy Spirit.
As you do these things, you will stay on the race that God has called you to finish every purpose that God has for you. Okay? We'll talk about how to move forward and not stay stagnant. But first, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. That's really talking about don't lean into any fleshly evil desires, any evil thoughts that come into your mind that create those desires.
Don't lean in, don't don't ruminate on those things, don't act on them, don't Stay away. Flee from sexual immorality. Flee from lust and perversion. Sleeping with your boyfriend and girlfriend. Stay away from gossip.
Stay away from just the things that are not of the character nature of Christ. From lies, from cheating on your taxes. I mean, stay away from all of these things, because I don't wanna grieve the Holy Spirit at all. He's put in me to conform me into the character and nature of Jesus Christ. And when I intentionally step across those lines, or even when I unintentionally do, he's there to say, that's not who you are.
You're my son, and you're my daughter. That's not how we walk. When we stay there, it causes grief in him. It it pains his heart because he loves us, and he's living in us. We're his temple.
You follow me? So man, don't wanna grieve the Holy Spirit. It'll keep me on the race, but I also don't want to quench the Holy Spirit either. That's to quench the Holy Spirit is like to stop the flow. So when I was thinking about this, I was thinking about my little brother.
He's 5 years younger than me. When he was 3 years old, 2 and 3 years old, he loved to play in the little blue plastic pool you'd get from Walmart in the backyard. Anybody remember those? Throw in the backyard, you get the water hose out, and hand it to your 3 year old, and the 3 year old's standing there with the hose, just, you know, I had me, the 8 year old brother would pick up the other side of the hose and stop the flow, quench it. Yeah?
Kink it. And my little 3 year old little brother take it and look at the hose, and then unstop the flow in his face. A picture of of quenching. How do you quench the Holy Spirit? It's by not being obedient to how he's leading you forward.
He's saying go lay hands on that person to pray for them. I don't know. No, I'm I'm comfortable here. He's saying go share the gospel with that person. No, I don't know.
I'm comfortable here. He's saying in service, as you're sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit, you get a little nervous. You see people raising their hands and something inside you says, hey, why you lift your hands too? I'm too cool for school. I don't know.
What are they gonna think about me? I'm not comfortable with that. Following Jesus isn't comfortable to your flesh. Tell your flesh to "shut up". And start being obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and watch as you experience the supernatural on the other side of your obedience.
Grieving the Holy Spirit is about character. Quenching the Holy Spirit is about walking in power by faith. You keep in these 2 guardrails, you'll stay on the race, And anytime you get off, the Holy Spirit disciplines you. The Holy Spirit says, uh-uh. Stop it.
It's time to continue moving forward. Why? Because he wants you to fulfill every good purpose, and he doesn't want you to stay stagnant and get off in some wayward direction. Amen? Amen.
He loves you. So then how do you move forward on the road, on the race that God's called you? With 2 things. **Thankfulness and hunger**. Thankfulness and hunger.
*Gratitude and hunger*. If you have thankfulness without hunger, you'll stay where you are. I'm grateful for what God did in the past. It's the guys that always say, 20 years ago, this happened, but nothing's happened in their life. Man, I wanna be grateful for what he's doing now.
It's important, but I have to be hungry for more. I have to be daily encountering the presence and power of Jesus, and it's drawing me forward into more, more, more, because I got his quality, and I want quantity. But if you have hunger without gratitude, then you won't be able to move and rest. You won't be able to be entrusted with the more, because you'll be this anxious, I gotta do this, and I gotta do this, and I gotta do this. It won't look like Jesus.
So I want this *hunger* mixed with gratitude, not grieving the Holy Spirit and not quenching the Holy Spirit. How do I do that? Don't even focus on those things. Just keep your eyes on Jesus. When you keep your eyes on Jesus, he's gonna help you with all of this.
Just say, yes, Lord, in the moment, moment by moment, and he'll lead you to look like Christ everywhere that you go, and you'll notice the character and the power in your life. You'll be thankful and hungry, and everybody that sees you will say, what's different about you? I want Jesus too. Or they'll persecute you and make fun of you. I mean, that's what they did to Jesus, right?
So if we're experiencing and walking in that kind of life, we're being what the biblical Bible calls a normal Christian, and we will experience all 3 of those things. You guys ready? I think you're prepped. Okay. So In Acts-11:26, it shows us that that's where they were first called Christians, in the city, the metropolitan area of Antioch.
What was happening in that time? Well, Antioch was the third largest metropolitan area of the Roman Empire, the Roman world at that time. There was a lot of stuff happening in Antioch. There were people from every tribe, I mean, every all over the world. There were Asians, there were Europeans, there were Africans, there were Middle Easterners.
I mean, they were all there, people from every socioeconomic class, and they were first called Christians there in Antioch. Well, let's let's take a moment to look at what the term Christian means, what it is, and before we do, when you if you were to poll Americans, normal Americans that aren't Christians or maybe grew up around the church, in Downtown Saint Pete, or Downtown Clearwater, or in, you know, the universities around, Baylor University, whatever, or or Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Seattle. If you were to poll people and say, hey, what is a normal Christian? What what does that look like to you? What do you think they'd say?
Go to church. Maybe they're maybe depending on their experience in the past, they're kind, good people, maybe a little weird, got some weird beliefs, you know, but they keep quiet. Maybe they had bad experiences in the past. Don't know much about it, but just saw some crazy people, and they're like, man, those Christians, they're a judgy bunch. They're a bunch of hypocrites.
You probably hear that 1. Right? Judgy bunch, bunch of hypocrites, believe some crazy things. I don't know about those guys. I wanna stay as far away from them as possible.
I got a crazy uncle, you know, Calls himself a Christian. So you get a wide variety of examples of what a Christian is if you poll random people, but about a normal Christian, if you will. But I wanna see once again, what does the Bible say is normal Christianity, and "raise the standard" of Christian to normal, what the Bible defines as normal. Amen? Okay.
So the word Christian, Christ, plus the suffix I a n, a Latin suffix. We'll talk about it. What does Christ mean? Christ means anointed 1. We use it to to refer to Jesus the Christ.
Jesus the Messiah. He is the anointed 1. Jesus, fully God, was born of a virgin, and he decided *creator* of the universe, everything was made by him, through him, and for him, decided to step into creation, live life as a man, fully surrendered to God the father. The Bible says, apart from the father, nothing. He only did what he heard the Father saying.
He lived in full surrender. And and the anointed 1, when he was baptized, came up out of the water. The Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, baptized in the Holy Spirit. Why did that need to happen? Because he was living as a man, full of the Holy Spirit, even though he was fully God.
So he was anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit, and you began to see in the next 3 and a half years, Jesus Christ demonstrate what it looks like to live without ever grieving the Holy Spirit, and without ever quenching the Holy Spirit, running the race that his father set before him. And in the last verse of of the book of John, it says that there's not enough books in the world to show how much, how many supernatural amazing God things that Jesus did at the time. It's pretty awesome. 3 and a half years of not grieving and not quenching, but walking by the power of the Holy Spirit that we learned about last week. How many of you guys experienced the power of the Holy Spirit last week and it left you wanting more?
Amen. If you missed last week, I'm sorry, guys. You gotta show up. God is good. Okay.
So Christ, Messiah, but also it means anointed 1, anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit. So when they saw in Antioch, all of these Romans, Gentiles outside of the church, they saw this church in Antioch that was filled with every socioeconomic class. It was filled with multiple different races, multiple different nations. They didn't identify them as Africans, and Asians, and Europeans. They actually identified them as something that superseded that, because the way that they acted reminded them of the stories they had heard about Christ.
They called them a whole new race of people, Christians. Christians. Now, some of them said it as a derogatory term because some of them persecuted Christ. It was so counter cultural what they saw that there were "salt to the culture" that that of the Roman culture, and some people didn't like salt. You know what I'm saying?
Some people made fun of them. Some people persecuted. Others joined them. And that's what it'll be like with you when you live as a normal Christian. A biblical normal Christian.
So if bearing the name Christ means you're a follower of Christ, you're associated with Christ, and you're in this world but not of this world, you're like a whole new race of people, no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you, Just quoting scripture there. Well, then let's ask, what did Jesus normally do? Because that's probably what a Christian would normally do. Amen? Alright.
What did Jesus normally do? Matthew-8:16 says he healed the sick and cast out demons. *Matthew-8:1* through 3, he was willing. What do I mean? The the person that he was ministering to said, Lord, if you are willing.
Jesus said, I am willing. There's a lot of people that are associated with Christ, but aren't willing to follow him because it's an inconvenience. Man, I wanna I wanna be so associated with Christ that anything he calls me to do, any person he brings in, Lord, I am willing to lay my life down like you laid your life down for me. What else did Jesus do? Mark-4:35 through 41 says, he performed miracles.
You see a lot of miracles throughout scripture. These are just examples. Luke-7:11 through 15, Jesus raised the dead. Luke-23:34, he forgave when people didn't deserve it. He also rebuked the religious.
He also had compassion on people, great compassion that overflowed in him healing all of the sick in in many villages and casting out all of the demons. The question is then, how did Jesus Jesus did these things. How did Jesus do these things? Well, I've already told you, but I wanna show you in Scripture so that you believe me. If you don't see it in Scripture, don't believe me, but if you see it in Scripture and it affects like it it comes against what you believe, change your beliefs to what Scripture says.
Amen? Amen. Okay. You everybody okay? You still here with me?
Alright. It's about to get interesting. Just wanna make sure you're you're awake for the next parts. Verse 37 and 38. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed.
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the *Holy Spirit* and with power, and he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. For God, talking about the Father, and the Holy Spirit was with him. So Jesus did what he did by the power of the Holy Spirit in submission to the Father. Yeah, but pastor David, like, that's awesome. But that's Jesus.
What about us? What does that mean? How does that affect me and my life today in 2025? It's crazy that's the year. Time flies.
Well, let's look at it. Matthew-28. It's the great commission. Verse 16. Some of you guys are gonna doubt what I'm gonna say.
Some of you guys are gonna doubt some of the things that happen in the rest of the service. This is for you. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. So these are the 11 disciples that saw Jesus die on a cross.
They saw him appear to him them multiple times afterwards, and here he is before them, and they're worshiping him, but some are still doubting. It's crazy. So to all the doubters in the room, it's what Jesus says to you. Ready? Verse 18.
Jesus said, I can't believe you filthy rotten doubters. Get out of my life. I never wanna use you again. Why do you let doubt cause you to feel like that then? If you know his word.
Amen. What does he say? And Jesus said, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Alright.
He still commissioned them despite their doubt. Jesus is the Lord of your life. You've been commissioned by God to make disciples despite your doubt. Now, verse 20. Teaching them to observe all, everybody say all.
All. All that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. How is Jesus with us to the end of the age? By the Holy Spirit. What were the disciples supposed to teach others as they made disciples?
Everything that Jesus had commanded them. As a matter of fact, you're sitting in this church today because those 11 disciples and the 120 in the upper room did it. They started going and making disciples and teaching other people all the stuff that they had been commanded by Jesus, and it passed down from generation to generation, normal Christianity. And now we're raising the bar in real church today, back to normal, to what did Jesus command the disciples to teach, so that we can live the normal Christian life and change the world like the 11 disciples did. What was some of the things that was was commanded?
Well, let's look at it. I'll show you a few things. We'll just read it in scripture. *Matthew-10:1*. And he called to him, his 12 disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast out to cast them out, that's demons, guys, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
Oh, my. *Luke-9:1*. And he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all. Everybody say all. All.
So last 1 was every disease and affliction. This 1 is all demons. Power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. Just to drive it home, let's go back to Matthew-10:6-7.
Let's see the commands. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying, the *kingdom of heaven* is hand. Heal the sick. That's a command. It's an imperative.
Okay? Grammar, that just means he's telling you to do it. heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You receive without paying, give without pay. Now, wait a second.
The great commission said we're supposed to teach others to obey all that Jesus commanded the disciples, and he's telling us to cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers? Oh, my gosh. How is this possible? I'm telling you, we're raising the bar back to normal. This is biblical Christianity, guys.
For too long, especially in American culture, it's been come sit in the church, hear a good sermon that makes you feel good about yourself and real comfortable, and then walk back in out in your world, incorporate it into your life the best you can, and then go about your Christianity. I'm sorry, but that's not normal Christianity. That's subnormal. Normal Christianity is doing what Jesus commanded, and he empowers you to do what Jesus commanded. And you believe it so much, you see it in your normal daily life, and when you don't, it's abnormal.
And you get around some brothers that are and sisters that are living the normal Christian life, and begin to adjust your life, not grieving the Holy Spirit, and no longer quenching the Holy Spirit, but thankful for testimony of how he's transformed you, and seeing from their life from their life the power of the gospel, so that you're not living some "dead religion" anymore, but you're experiencing a "real authentic Christianity" that has the power of the Holy Spirit, and you're seeing healing, and demonic demons cast out, and the dead raised, and the lepers cleansed, and you can't help but want more. Some people are like, what did I get myself into? Oh my gosh. Just reading scripture, guys. I love you.
Don't shoot the messenger. Let's just follow him. So how is this possible? John-14:12. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do also the works that I do.
This is Jesus speaking. And greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father. Either we believe it or we don't. We believe it or we make excuses. There's a lot of Christians who are like, oh, I see.
I know it says that in the Bible, but this is 2025. You know? I mean, we're in America. So that's gotta be like metaphorical. No.
The problem is you're living a metaphorical Christianity instead of authentically following Jesus. If that was harsh, it's because I love you. We're just we're just gonna cut out a little unbelief every now and then. Okay? I wanna shock you there.
Why? Your life will demonstrate what you really believe. There's a lot of people that say with their mouth that they believe things that they would never actually put into practice. And I'm telling you, if you say you believe it, but you don't practice it, you're just you doing "lip service". You will put into practice what you really believe.
A lot of Christians, a lot of people, what they do is they lower the truth of the Bible to the level of their circumstance. And if I'm not seeing what it says in scripture in my life, well, I got to lower the importance and the potency of the Bible to match my circumstance so I can feel good about myself. Instead of seeing truth in scripture and raising the level of their circumstance to scripture, and if they're not seeing it, it's Lord, "help my unbelief". I'm not gonna make excuses anymore. I'm gonna go all in after you, conform my life to look like Jesus.
*1 John-4:17*. This 1 will throw you for a loop. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. In the NIV, it says, in this world, we are like Jesus. Man, I wanna live a life that when people see me, they say, Christian.
That's an that's 1 that's been anointed with the same Holy Spirit that was on Jesus, and he looks like a different person, and they either ridicule me, persecute me, or follow me. And I say follow me as I follow Christ, just like Paul did. Because I'm a pastor? No. Because I'm a Christian.
*1 John-3:2* and 3. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Which would imply, to the extent that I see him as he is, that's the extent that I'm being conformed into his image and can reflect that in the world. Then it says, all who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure.
Takes away the the excuse, so I'm we're just all sinners. Oh, you know, we're just all we're just gonna sin anyway. It's not in the bible. Stop it. You were a sinner, but then you were born again, and you were forgiven, and he gave you his nature.
Now, if you fall, "fall forward" into his arms. Get back up and keep being conformed into his image. And as you have the hope in him, he and you are purifying yourself, it says he purifies himself just as he is pure. Why, and how? By the power of the Holy Spirit working on you and in you, conforming you into his image.
Amen? Amen. You are a new creation, forgiven and credited his righteousness, now challenged to raise the standard of normal. How? Just like Jesus, *Acts-10:37* and 38.
How did he do all of that stuff? By the power of the Holy Spirit. Go to verse 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. And he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
So why am I not seeing this in the in my life? That's probably the next question that you would have. You've been following Jesus, follow him as Lord for a long time, and you hear this, you see it in scripture, and you're like, wait a second. We got an issue. I'm not seeing that in my life.
Why is it? Well, 1, I would encourage you to listen to last week's message, talking about the Holy Spirit. Learning who he is, and how to follow him, how to walk with him. It's kind of important. If you didn't listen to that, go back on, back to the basics and listen to that.
Number 2, you got all that down. Maybe it's this. Let's look at it in scripture. Luke-9:37-43. Before I read that, I'm gonna share a testimony with you.
About 8 and a half years ago, was in India, and I was preaching the gospel in in villages each night. They gather the whole village, and we go in and preach the gospel. And there's about a 180 Indians in this specific village at night. We had to go in at night this certain time because the president, even though on the outside it looks like he's okay, he puts Christians in certain states and stuff into jail. I was I was riding to this village with my brother that was there, Indian man.
I said and I had a little bit of fear in me. And I said, so they put Christians in jail here? He goes, oh, yes, brother. I said, well, have you been put in jail? He goes, oh, yes, brother.
I said, where were you? He goes, oh, it's just a little north of here. I said, okay. He goes, I said, were you afraid? He said, at first.
And then, I stayed in jail. He said, I was only there for maybe 3 or 6 hours. I didn't know that. But when I was there, the peace and power of the Holy Spirit hit me, and I realized I had nothing to fear. And so I don't fear anymore.
That's right. Yeah. And I asked him to pray for me, he prayed for me. I confessed my fault, the fear to him. He prayed for me, fear left.
It was awesome. So anyway, we get to this village, I think that was maybe the night or 2 before, we get to this other village. 180 there, I'm preaching the gospel. They're Hindus, so they *believe* every god is I mean, gods. Right?
So if you ask them to confess Jesus as Lord, they're like, yeah, I'll add him to my book too. I'll put him on my shelf as well. So preach the gospel, ask them all, hey, would you like Jesus to be the "Lord of your life"? And they all raise their hand, and I say, no, put your hands down. I don't mean add him to your your collection of gods.
For Jesus to be the Lord of your life, for you to be transformed, you have to take all the other idols off the shelf and make Jesus the only Lord of your life. If you're willing to surrender in that way, then I want you to raise your hand. They all raised their hand. They all gave their life to Jesus in that moment. It was awesome.
After that, I said, okay. How many of you guys Jesus didn't just pay for you to be forgiven, but also paid for you to experience his healing. How many of you guys have sickness in your body? Where, you know, whether it's pain physically or blood disease, whatever it is, you have sickness right now in your body. 80% of them raised their hand.
And I said, man, and so I'm gonna pray for you. And I just prayed. I didn't have to call them up front at that time, I just said, you know, in the name of Jesus, **be healed**. I called out whatever came to mind, you know, in Jesus name, be healed. I'm just really risking it for the Lord.
And then I said, hey, I want you to test your bodies. How many of you, the pain completely left? I said, don't we're not faking it, you know, or anything like that. I want you to authentically, if the pain is still there, don't raise your hand. If you didn't couldn't know before, you know, if you couldn't know if you're really healed, don't raise your hand.
How many of you, the physical pain literally left your body, and only 1 person raised their hand? I was so happy. Praise the Lord. God healed that 1 person. Asked him what it was, he came forward, it was his foot, and he was ecstatic.
Jesus healed my foot. It was awesome. Through translators. And then I looked at this group of 2 or 3 minute old believers, and I said, this didn't happen because I'm super special and have a mic, and I'm from America. This happened because I'm a Christian, and I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the inside of me, and I'm carrying the name of Jesus and the authority of Jesus Christ.
I said, how many of you guys are Christians? How many of you guys have the power of the Holy Spirit in you? And they they all raised their hand. I said, that's right. So you have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead living in you, and by the authority of his name, you can do the same things.
I said, how many of you guys still have sickness in your body? 80 per or 79.9 percent of them raised their hand. I said, okay. Christians, lay your hands on the person beside you. Don't pray some super religious prayer, just pray simple, in the name of Jesus, be healed.
Thank you, Lord, that you're the healer. And they were all timid, and I rebuked them. I said, hey, didn't you say you believe that you're a Christian? Don't you have the same spirit in you that I have in me? There's no difference in us.
You're my brother and sister. The anointed 1 of God lives in you. Do you believe that? Well, India, they go like this. Yes.
Lay your hand on the person beside you, and as a son or daughter with the authority of Jesus, command that sickness by his power, in the name of Jesus, be healed. They were loud then. Well, I mean, you just heard Telugu is the the language in this state. And then I asked, how many of you I want you to test your bodies authentically. How many of you were healed?
5 or 10 raised their hand. Wow. Had some testimonies, 2 or 3. Did it again. 5 or 10 more were healed by them praying for each other.
Did it again. 5 or 10 more were healed. Then I told them what Jesus told the disciples when they went out to the town. I said, now, the kingdom of God has come to you. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, proclaim proclaim the gospel when you go back to your village.
And they did. Amen? Amen. Why am I not seeing this in my life? Maybe some of you would be asking.
Let's talk about it. Luke-9:37. It's found in this story. On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him, Jesus. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is only a child.
And behold, a spirit seizes him and suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him. And, I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Meaning, they tried. A lot of people when they pray for someone and it doesn't happen, they say, well, must not have been God's will.
Take that lie out of your mouth from now on. Watch this. Jesus answered, oh faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him.
But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to the father, and all were astonished at the majesty of God. So question, why couldn't the disciples heal him? Was it God's will for him to be healed? Jesus healed him. Jesus only did what he saw the father doing.
So it was the will of the Father. It was the will of the Son. It happened, but the disciples couldn't do it. Well, maybe hold on, pastor. Wait a second.
Maybe the disciples just didn't have authority over this demon. They weren't ready for this 1 yet. They they hadn't Jesus hadn't given them authority to to do this. In that same chapter, Luke-9, before in verse 1, Jesus says, and he called the 12 to gay together and gave them power and authority over all. Everybody say, all.
All. All demons. So Jesus gave them authority. They heard, and they obeyed. They tried, but they couldn't do it, and it was God's will.
What is faith? Faith comes by hearing. It's completed by obedience, but it requires believing what you heard. How many how many of you know that you can do something for God and not really believe? You can try to pray for somebody and not really believe.
You can you can try to do a lot of stuff. In those moments, here's what I do. It's what what that same man said in in *Matthew-17*. It's the same story. *Matthew-17:16-21*.
Oh, sorry. Mark. Mark-9. Same story. This is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke because it's important.
And Mark-9:17 through 29 is the same story. And then the father, in verse 22, says it often casts him into the fire and into the water destroy him, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. If you can, Showing the father didn't have belief, really. I've tried this, it's happened since he was a kid, even your disciples couldn't, if you can. Jesus says, if you can, all things are possible for the 1 who believes.
Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, and here's my heart's cry when I don't see things happening in my life that Jesus did, because I have the same Holy Spirit. He put it on me. I wanna grow. Here's my heart's cry, what the father said, help my unbelief. I don't blame it on somebody else.
Jesus never blamed it on somebody else. *Lord* God, help my unbelief. Help me to see you so clearly. So then, how do we get rid of unbelief so that we can experience these things in our life more and more? I mean, that would be the next logical question.
The last thing that I'm gonna address today before we try this in real time. At the last of Mark-9, it says, the the disciples came to him privately and asked why could we not cast it out. And Jesus said to them, this kind cannot be driven out, but by anything but prayer, and a little superscript in some of your bible bibles shows you that it also says prayer and fasting. What is prayer and fasting? Prayer is communication with God, hearing and speaking.
Fasting is putting aside the things of this world, the things that appeal to your senses in order to hear him more clearly. It's all about relationship. The disciples, when they messed up, they didn't have the belief to do what Jesus told them to do. They didn't just make an excuse and keep going about their business. No.
You know what they did? They went to Jesus privately. They got along and went to him. There was a level of *trust* in their relationship. Relationship expels unbelief.
That wasn't just talking about the demon. This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. This kind of unbelief. Jesus had given them the power and the authority to cast out the demon. If they had the belief, the demon would have come out.
So the demon, but also the unbelief. What was the demon doing? The demon was causing the person to flail, to do all kinds of crazy stuff. The the disciple's eyes were filled with, oh my gosh, you know, he's throwing him in the fire. He's foaming at the mouth.
It's been since he was a kid. Like, there's all kinds of things filling their senses, causing unbelief. What does fasting do? You fast you stop filling your senses with things that you're used to in order to fill your mind with the words of God, so that you have the faith to believe what he says over what you see. Prayer and fasting gets rid of this kind of unbelief, so that you can experience the supernatural power of God, because you got alone privately, and you said, help my unbelief, Lord.
Teach me what it is. It's it's not about all of this. It's about you and me keeping my eyes on you so I can run the race you've called me to run that's impossible outside of the power of God. Doing that takes *trust*. Trust.
You will not follow God. You will not know him without trusting him. *Nahum-1* and verse 8. She's on it. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust him.
Looking throughout the world, he has an **experiential knowledge**. This knows is not the conceptual knowledge. A lot of people go to church and have this conceptual, I know about the Bible, but they've never really experienced a relationship with God, because they've never stepped into trusting him enough to "take the leap" of faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. This no is the same no in Genesis where Adam knew Eve.
Adam didn't just have a conceptual head knowledge of Eve. He experienced her, and the fruit of that relationship was children. It requires trust to actually take the bite, to taste and see that God is good. And when you trust Him, and you take those steps of obedience, it's loving Him back, and there's this relationship where the God of the universe no longer just knows everything because He's God, but he's experiencing you in relationship, and you're experiencing him. That's why it says in Matthew-7, many will come to me on that day and say, "Lord, Lord", did we not cast out many demons, heal the sick, and prophesy in your name?
And then I will tell them plainly, depart from me, for I never knew you. These people did a lot of cool things under the authority of the name, maybe because they saw their friends do it, they were around the anointing. But was there a trust in their personal life to not grieve the Holy Spirit and to not quench him because they knew him, or did they only do what they were comfortable with? I gotta trust him more than my lack of experience, than my lack of understanding to take the step. And if I only take steps where I completely understand, then I'm still in control.
*Trust* is what's required for this type of relationship, to walk and follow him where you experience the supernatural on the other side of obedience. So first, I wanna do this. I wanna ask you all to stand, if you can stand. Is there anybody in here, they're hearing this message, especially the last part, you know that you've never really trusted God, which means you've always been in control. You've never really made him the Lord of your life.
You've never deceited you from as the Lord of the throne of your heart, and put him there. You've only followed Jesus as long as it was comfortable. See, you you gotta surrender all. I make you the Lord of my life. Doesn't mean I'm always gonna get it right?
Doesn't mean I'm always gonna gonna I'm never gonna make a mistake, but I surrender all. Teach me like you teach a child. In that moment, he forgives you of your past, present, future, puts the Holy Spirit in you, you start a relationship with God where he begins leading you towards your purposes. If you've never experienced that before, you've never trusted him in that way, and you're ready to trust the Lord, I mean, you're so ready, you don't care who knows it. I'm not gonna call you forward and interview you, but I am gonna send people to you to lead you to Jesus.
And if you're ready, you don't care who knows it, I want you to raise your hand. That's me. "I need Jesus" right now. I see you, man. Jerry, Who else?
We got I see you. I see you. Jeremy, I need you. Yeah. All the elders, raise your hand high until somebody comes to you.
Robbie, any staff that's ready, go find go find people. Here's 1 right here. Christine, right here. Raise your hand high. We're going to you.
Anybody else? Somebody hadn't come to you. We're gonna continue the service. We're almost done. But anybody else is ready to surrender their life to Jesus?
I got a guy right here in the middle. Okay. You there. Okay. You guys, you can take them out if you want to, or you can keep them in here, but y'all y'all go ahead and minister.
The rest of you might as well put Jesus' words to the test. Not that we're testing God, but that we're we're stepping out in faith because he led me to, he led us to. How many of you guys, you have sickness in your body? Just raise your hand high. If that's you, you have sickness in your body, whether it's a blood disease, it's something you never thought was possible to be healed, or you got a sprained ankle or a headache.
Come on. There's more than that. Usually in a crowd, there's 50 percent of people. I don't care if you've been prayed for a 100 times, and and it hasn't happened. We're gonna keep keep praying until we see it happen.
Raise your hand high. K. Everybody look around. Now, put your hands down. How many of you guys are Christians?
Look around. Look at all these Christians. Come on. Alright. If you if you have sickness in your body, raise your hand again.
If you're a Christian, keep your hand high if you got sickness in your body. If you're a Christian, go lay your hand on 1 of these people that had their hands raised. We're gonna pray. Only if you're a Christian. Mhmm.
We're just gonna believe the word, what it says. Thank you, Holy Spirit. We trust you. Now, in praying, listen to me before you pray. Don't pray yet.
Don't make it a religious prayer. The disciples just said be healed. So here's what I want you to pray. I just want you to say thank you, Jesus, that you're the healer. In the name of Jesus, be healed.
And then thank him again. You can ask him what you're praying for before you do that. Okay? And then just say in the name of Jesus, shoulder, whatever it is, be healed. I'll give you 30 seconds.
Thank you, Lord Jesus. We trust you. You're amazing. We honor you, Lord. Okay.
Okay. Okay. That's good. Now, in the same way, I want you to "test your body". If if I want if if it was something that was physical that you know you know you can tell a difference, like if it was an arm that can only move here, try to move it higher than you could before.
If you need to walk on it, actually test your body. We're not we're real church. We're not a fake at church. Okay? So do not respond to this if nothing happened.
Say, I'm just saying by faith. No. I want you to be honest right now. Okay? What actually happened or didn't happen?
If you're at least 80% healed, I want you to raise your hand high and wave at me. Test your body. If you're at least 80% healed, in the back there. Keep your hand high. So I got 1.
Okay. 2. Jerome. 3. Anybody else?
At least 80% healed. Okay. Now, you see God moving. Come on. That's awesome.
Jesus is doing stuff. I'm gonna do I'm gonna do 1 more thing. There's a principle in scripture. Where you see God at work is your invitation to join him in what he's doing. Alright?
If the person wasn't completely healed, we're gonna pray 1 more time. Just put your hand back on and say the same thing. It ain't about your prayer anyway. It's about Jesus. He's the healer.
Just take a moment. We're gonna see more healing. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We love you. Okay.
Now, once again, don't raise your hand and make me feel good. It ain't about that. Okay? Test your body completely and totally. If it's at least 80% better, this time after the second prayer, raise your hand high.
Raise your hand. If it's test your body. If it's at least 80% or more. In the back. Praise the Lord.
Lewis. Come on. Exercising faith. Now, I'm gonna tell you like I told the first group. The kingdom of heaven has come.
The *holy spirit* is with you. There's more in him. Stay hungry. Don't quench the holy spirit. Don't grieve the holy spirit.
Stay thankful, honoring what he's done, and hungry moving forward. Yeah. Go raise this raise the dead, cast out the demons, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers. Pinellas County won't know what hit them. I want the altar team to come forward.
If you still need ministry, you still want ministry, you need prayer for other things, we wanna minister to you. Also establishes tonight, please sign up. You got till 1. We might extend it till 01:30 so we can do dinner. I know we already got 20 signed up, people wanting to become a part of Real Church.
That's awesome. So please don't miss that. Also, if if you've been touched today, there's probably people in your life that need to be touched too. Invite them. Bring them back next week.
God loves you. We're growing. "God's moving". You are dismissed.