You were never designed to walk this path alone, so surrender your life to Jesus today to unlock the freedom found in His body. Embrace the vulnerability of community, knowing that transparency and shared faith create a synergy that transforms you. Step out in obedience through baptism and join us in living out your God-given purpose together.
Welcome to The Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now, join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
My name is David John Phillips, by the way. I'm the pastor here at Real Church, and I love being the pastor at Real Church. I love this place. I love you guys. *God* spoke this church into existence 2 to 3 years ago, well, almost 3 years ago now, and then we moved here a little bit about a year ago, and and everything that's happened is just a God thing.
The fact that you're sitting here right here today is a God thing. So, man, let's just give God a big hand clap of what he's doing. The lives that are being changed, 17 people baptized last month, even more people being baptized today after service, so it's kind of a big deal, because God's amazing. So let's do a quick video recap, what just happened there. What you saw was a kid that was born, and because of some kind of thing that happened, we don't know what, but he became handicapped, almost like an invalid, if you will.
And the *father* and the son had a special bond. When the son got a certain age, he saw this this 5 mile race, and he communicated to his father that he wanted to run-in this 5 mile race. And did you catch the point that this father was not a runner? Man, I I hope that I would have enough love in that situation to say, yeah, absolutely. So the father chose to to run with his son, and his son in that moment spoke or not spoke, but but communicated to his father and communicated that he felt for the first time in his life like he wasn't handicapped.
And that right there, his father then effectively gave his life for his son, began to do what he didn't think probably didn't think was possible because he was not a runner. He began to run marathons, and triathlons, and all kinds of these amazing races so that his son could not feel handicapped. He gave his life for a son. That right there is the love of a father for a son, and that's amazing. And the crazy part is, the crazy thing is is that God loves us so much more, even more than that.
God gave his life, the son of God. Jesus Christ gave his life for us so that we could know him, so that we could experience his life. God wants to run with you. He wants you to be able to experience his life because we were born paralyzed by our addiction to self. We were born paralyzed by our addiction to sin, and because of what God did for us, he can free us from that, and we can experience his life, his joy, his peace in a way that is absolutely amazing, and what it takes is surrender.
What it takes is realizing that we're paralyzed by our own self, and that we could never experience that freedom in and of ourselves. So we say, daddy, *God, father*, help me. I want to run with you. And we do that. God says, I've been waiting.
The whole time, I've been waiting for that. Let's go, son. That's that's amazing. That's the love of *God* for us, son or daughter. So back to that video.
Something else that I see in the video that goes along with the series because we are doing the series today, starting the series, which is **better together**. Something else that I see there is a word named or a word called synergy. How many of you guys know what synergy is? Anybody know what synergy? Don't worry, I'm gonna explain it.
Synergy, it's the interaction of 2 or more things, of 2 or more people, of 2 or more organizations, 2 or more entities, the interaction of 2 or more things where because of or or 2 or more things to produce a combined effect or a combined output that is greater than the sum of the separate effects or the separate outputs. Let me put it in today's language or or in in an analogy. I'm standing right here, and my name is David. Here I am right here, and here right beside me standing is Jim Bob. Do you guys see Jim Bob?
Does everybody see Jim Bob? You don't see Jim Bob, just imagine him. He's there. This is Jim Bob. Okay?
My my imaginary friend. So I'm David, I'm standing here, and I'm working on something right here in front of me, and I'm working on this thing, and because of the output of my work is 10, 10 what? I don't know, $10. Make it up. 10 something.
But the output of my work for this something by myself is 10. Now Jim Bob, he's working on something too by himself, and the output of his work is 10 as well. Now we can add those 2 outputs of our work together. 10 plus 10 equals what? 20.
Great. Cool. So I, though, I get smart. I get a little bit wise, and I look over at Jim and I say, hey, Bob, you know what? I think we might be better together, so let's work together, let's collaborate.
And so we begin to work together and collaborate, and we begin to work, and you would think that the output of what we do together would be 10 plus 10 is 20, but God created something in nature. God something as a part of nature called synergy, where when there's collaboration, when there's working together in a team, there's this synergy where the the output of this collaboration is greater than the sum of the other outputs. So now me and Jim Bob working together, there's something amazing that happens where my work challenges him to do better than he could alone, and his work challenges me to do better than I could alone. And then all of a sudden, our output is 30. It's amazing.
It's wonderful. It's crazy. That's called synergy. Now back to the video. Think about this.
You had the dad who was not a runner, but because of his son and because of his partnership and his connection with the son, all of a sudden, because of the heart of his son, all of a sudden, the dad became a runner, something that he probably thought that he could never do. Not only did he become a runner, he became a marathon runner and a triathloner. I mean, think about this. This is a guy who was not a runner, ran 5 miles, then began to run marathons, 26.2 miles, and he just didn't do it by himself. He also ran it pushing a wheelchair with his son in it.
That's amazing. That's a higher output than he could have done alone. Think about this. He also ran triathlons. That's not just running.
That's running back biking and swimming. So he swam 0.92 miles, that's 1.5 kilometers, with a bungee cord tied around him, pulling a raft with a man in it. There was an output because of his teaming, his collaboration with his son, because of them doing things together that was greater than he could have ever possibly done alone. That is synergy. But not only that, because of the father teaming with the son, the son would have never been able to experience that freedom except for the father in the video.
So so he was better because of it. Synergy. It's pretty amazing. Togetherness. Once again, the title of the series is Better Together.
Together, it is so important, it's a vital part of who we were created to be, and some of you may say no. Absolutely not, I do not like that, I do not want to be together, because together in relationships with others, I get hurt. I am better off alone. I am better off by myself. And maybe once again, that's because of some hurt or pain that you've experienced in your marriage, or some hurt or pain that you've experienced, or in the past, or or in the present in a relationship with your son or friends or some organization or business or church or or whatever it is.
And I, in no way, want to minimize what you have experienced. That's that's probably pretty terrible, but I can tell you that you are not created to do life alone. It might feel easier alone, but it's better together. And if you have no 1 else, I want you to know that real church is here for you. We are here.
I don't care who what what you've done. I don't care what you what where you've come from. I don't care who you are. We love you, and we're here from you. And you have to understand 1 thing about us, that we're not perfect.
So don't expect us to be. If you're perfect, then run from us, because we will mess you up, because we're people and we recognize that. We're people who understand that we're imperfect, but we're looking and focused and just can't get over the perfection of Jesus, and so we're pursuing him because we know how much he loves us and he's transforming us to look more like him, and as we do, we're helping others to see his love more and more clearly every single day. That's what real church is doing, and you are welcome here. No matter how much you want to be alone, you need to be together.
It's important. Dude, you need to agree with me. So alone, you will never reach your potential. Alone, you will never reach the highest of what you can do because you were created to work together. You were created to work in a team.
You were created for synergy. And you might not believe me, you're created to create with each other, but let me show you. Let's go to *Ephesians-5:1* and maybe 1 and 2, maybe just 1. We'll see. In Ephesians-5 and I've used this before.
It's 1 of my favorite verses when I'm talking about how we are supposed to live. It says in Ephesians-5:1, follow God's example. The other version would say, be **imitators of God** as dearly beloved children. You if you've given your life to Jesus, you're you're God's child. Like, you have the nature because you've been born again.
You have the nature of your father in heaven. So the output of your life is supposed to be similar to his nature, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self control, that's amazing. But not only that, we're supposed to be imitators of God as dearly beloved children. As I've said in a message before, a dearly beloved child wants to imitate their father when they know they're dearly beloved. So be imitators of him.
Now if we are born again, if we've given our life to Jesus as Christians and we're born of God, then and we're supposed to be imitators of him, then if I can prove to you that God is someone who loves teams, who has created teams, who loves synergy, and that's a part of his nature, if I can prove that, then I can prove that you are not created to be alone, but you're created to work together with others. You follow me so far? Let's check out Romans-1:20. *Romans-1:20*. For since the creation of the world, god's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse.
Basically, what that's saying is, *god is the creator and we can look at creation* and see the nature of our creator. God is the artist that created all of this amazingness, and we can look at what he created and see the characteristics of our from from looking at his art, we can see the characteristics of our artist. Does that make sense? So going with that, I googled because I wanted to find out is synergy a part of nature, so I googled synergy in nature. You know what came up?
First things that came up was a bee and a flower. Think about a bee and a flower. A flower because of a flower, or because of a bee rather, the flower is pollinated, right, This cross pollination happens, and the flower is able to reproduce because of its relationship with the bee. But then also because of the flower, the bee has pollen that it takes back to the hive to to create food in the hive and also to create honey, which is absolutely amazing. The bee could not do this without the flower, and the flower wouldn't be as effective at reproduction without the bee.
So because of the relationship together, they're better together, Right? There's a synergy, a synergistic effect where the output of what they can do is greater because they partner together. Does that make sense? Follow me so far. So therefore, synergy is a part of nature, so it's a characteristic of our creator.
If you don't believe me, that's okay. There's countless examples in nature, but what about God himself? Let's go to Genesis-1. In Genesis-1:1, it says, in the beginning, and I just wanna stop right there because I wanna get off on a little tangent. In the beginning, there's a lot of theories, there's a lot of thoughts about how things were created, or how things came to be rather.
And 1 of the 1 of the biggest thoughts on creation or or evolution or or or whatever you subscribe to is the big bang theory, and a lot of scientists are actually moving away from the big bang theory. But let's talk about the big bang theory, and I think unintentionally, lot of Christians and a lot of even non Christians, a lot of people live their lives according to the principle of the Big Bang Theory. But in order to show you that, I must explain what the Big Bang Theory is so that you can understand what I mean there. So the Big Bang Theory, this is how it goes. Basically, everything that you see, all of time, space, all of matter, everything came into being that was all in this collapsed together in this 1 little, we use a big word, infinitesimally small, which is like a scientist word saying really, really, really, really, really, really small point.
Where all of matter, all of time, all of space was all collected in this 1 little, really small point. Now this is a theory, this is the Big Bang Theory, Just follow me here. And then when the time was right, when the pressure was right, when the the environment was right, when everything just happened to be just right, all of the sudden, bang, there was this big expansion and and explosion, and and the stuff that you see came into existence according to this theory. Right? So you had stardust, and stardust swarmed together to create planets, and next thing you know, there's earth.
Similarly, according to the Big Bang Theory and evolution and all that kind of stuff, know, you have earth, and when the time was right, and when the atmosphere was right, and when the pressure was right, and when everything was just working together, just so, all of a sudden out of this primordial ooze, bang, there was life. Eventually, boom boom, here you are. I think a lot of us unintentionally live our lives according to that principle, this blind luck, blind luck, that when the atmosphere is right, when the time is right, when the circumstances are right, all of a sudden, bang, I'll get my life together. When the atmosphere is right, when the time is right, when pressure is just so, all of a sudden, bang, my family's gonna be amazing again. When the atmosphere is right, when the time is right, when the pressure is right, when everything just just happens, all of sudden, I'm gonna have an amazing relationship with my wife, or I'm gonna have amazing relationship with my family or with my kids.
Or when everything is just right, then then all of a sudden, boom, that dream job that I've been dreaming of will all of sudden pop out of the air, pop out of nowhere, and just happen. I think unintentionally, live our life according to the principle of the Big Bang Theory. But living according to the Big Bang Theory is this luck type of situation where you are just hoping for an amazing *creation* out of a situation that looks nothing like what you were hoping for. There's no planning, no preparation, no intelligent design in that situation. You're just hoping on blind luck.
And amazing things that last key. Amazing things that last do not happen that way. What does the Bible say? The Bible says back to Genesis-1:1, in the beginning, God. Enough said.
In the beginning, *God*. God is the beginning of everything that lasts for eternity. God is the beginning of everything in your life that lasts and that matters. We need to learn to let God be the beginning of our everything, of every aspect of our heart. God to be the beginning, the first of our finances, of our time, of our talent.
*God* to be the beginning of our job, of our family. God put God first in our days, in every aspect of our life because as we learn that God is the beginning, that's when things happen that last for eternity because otherwise, what we create in and of ourselves, it seems good to us, but it's not the kind of good that lasts. But when we rest in him and put him first and allow him to be the beginning of everything, then it's built on a strong foundation that will last for eternity. In the beginning, God now back to synergy and back to all of that stuff. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, verse 1.
Verse 2, now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. I see 2 right there. I see God, the father, and God, the Holy Spirit in the beginning. Verse 3, and God spoke and God said.
What is that? John-1:1, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God, and the word was God, and the word be he was with God in the beginning. So the word is a person. Everything that was made was made in and through him.
That's Jesus Christ. The word verse John-1:14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So when God said, now I see 3. I see god the father. I see god the holy spirit, and I see god the son, Jesus Christ.
So the father plus the holy spirit plus Jesus, that equals god's method for amazing creation which is an intentional intentional collaboration. Follow me. So when the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit came together, all of a sudden, what is that next part? Let there be what verse forth? Light.
Let there be *light*. Random. Who is light? John-8:12. *Jesus said, I am the light of the world*.
I am the light of the world. So, you have the sun, this amazing creation, the sun, moon, stars, the day, night, trees, plants, animals. With intentional collaboration, there is amazing creation and then in Genesis-1:26, check this out. This is really, really cool. Excited about this 1.
Then, god said, let us make man and and that let us. Who is that? That's the father, the son, and the holy spirit, Right? 1 God, yet 3. It's the I don't have time to explain the trinity completely, and I don't even know if I can, but the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.
There we go. So let us make mankind in our image. Everybody say the word image. Image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds of the sky, over the livestock and the wild animals, over all the ground, creatures moving all around. Verse 27, so God created mankind in his own image.
Everybody say image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. You are created in God's image. That means you're valuable.
That means you're more valuable than probably you even know and you even think. Check this out. The word image in the original text is the same word used for idol. Follow me here. The word image is the same word used for idol.
So you're created as god's idol. Now, before the blasphemous bells ring off, listen to this. Created is god's idol. In that day, and people still throughout the world do this, which is kinda crazy to think about, but, you know, if a family had a tent, their dwelling place, what they would do is they would make for themselves this god. Okay?
They'd form, they'd fashion this god out of dirt, out of clay, out of brick, out of mud, out of something, and they'd place it in the mantle in their tent. Okay? And what they believed this is an idol. Okay? What they believed about that idol was that it looked like the god that they made it after.
It represented to them the god that they made it after, and they also believed that the spirit of the god that they formed it after dwelt inside of the idol. You get me? "You're god's idol". Not that he worships you. No.
No. Not not in any way, shape, form. No. No. We worship him, but you were created in his image.
You're created to look like him to the world, and you're created to have his spirit, who he is, dwell in you in partnership with you, to partner with him in doing his will throughout the world. Amazing creation comes with intentional collaboration with God. We're created to collaborate with him. And with him, there's a synergy that is greater in our life than we could ever experience apart from him. Talk about synergy.
When we give our life to Jesus, he fills us with his presence, with his joy, with his peace, with his love. He fills us with him, which is amazing. And then like the father pushing the son, the father is pushing us, encouraging us, and empowering us through every aspect of our life so that once again, the output of our life is with him, in relationship with him is way more, infinitely more than it could be apart from him. That's powerful. "We are better together" together with *God*.
Check this out. Remember in John-8:12, *Jesus said these words*. He said, I am the *light* of the world. It's Jesus speaking. Now check this out.
In *John-1* verse 4, in him, that's Jesus, in him was life, and that *light* or that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is overcome. So when we accept Jesus, when we accept who he is, his light, he comes into our lives, and he illuminates. His light illuminates the darkest parts of our hearts, making us clean in him. And here's the crazy part.
In Matthew, it says, you are the light of the world. *Jesus* himself said, you are the light of the world. What does he mean? First, he said, I am the light of the world. Then he said, you are the light of the world.
When we accept Christ, when we give our lives to him, we we *surrender* to him, we come to know him. He fills us with his spirit and with his life and with his light, and it illuminates our heart. But not only that, as we understand more and more who we are in him and who he is in us, it also begins to illuminate everything around us. And in partnership with him, we have an output in our life that's greater than we could be alone, and it changes the world around us. You are the light of the world.
*God* wants to collaborate with you to change your world. *John-17*. This is Jesus praying. Imagine. *John-17* verses starting in verse 20.
He said, My prayer Jesus praying my prayer is not for them alone. Who is them? That's the disciples. That's what he prayed about in the first 19 verses. So my prayer is not just for them.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. That's us, me and you, if you believe in Jesus. That all of them may be 1, *father*, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may know that you have sent me. Then he says, I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be 1 as we are 1, this unity thing.
Verse 23, I in them, and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Check this out. There is unity in Jesus, and there is disunity apart from Jesus. If there's any areas of your life in your marriage or your your your finances or any areas of your life in in your relationships between your kids where there's disunity, probably the answer to that or the reason that there's disunity is because somewhere, somehow, there's a lack of understanding of who Jesus is and who you are in him. Because if you understood who Jesus was and who you were in him, you could see others as he sees them, and it would fix the unity issue.
Somewhere in some way, some party, there is a lack of understanding of who Jesus is and who he is in you or who he is in them. I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity, then the world will know that you sent me. That's crazy. Then the world will know. So as we come to know him, we partner with him, and we're able to see others in and through him, there's unity so much so that it changes the world.
Then the world will know. Let me read this to you. Church, when we see *Jesus* for who he is and we see who we are in him, then we can look at each other with a deeper understanding of who you are in Jesus. There's a deeper level of love for people, a deeper willingness to not sweat the small stuff. We're able to come together for an output that changes the world around us.
*God* created you, you, with your own gifts and talents and abilities. More than you could ever know, he formed you. He had his eye on you. You are not an accident. You did not just come out of nothing because the right things came together at the right time and boom.
No. You're an amazing creation by intentional collaboration, and you are created to know your creator and to be in daily communion, daily union, daily relationship with him, to partner with him in changing the world, but not just with him. When you come to know him, you become a part of his body, his bride, the local church. You are created to partner together with other Christians to change your community, your city, your nation, and your world. When you partner together with others, together with others, in this way, there's a synergy that cannot be stopped.
The combined effect of you working together with God and with others who are following Jesus is way more than you could do alone. Working alone, get connected to a local church. If you're not connected to a local church, get connected to real church. We are better together. We are better with you.
We will be more effective at reaching this community, reaching this city, reaching this nation with you. You are valuable. You matter. What God has created in you is a missing link and a missing piece to making us more effective at showing the world who Jesus is. The combined effect of you working together with God and others who are following Jesus is way more than you working alone.
Get plugged in. Use your talents and abilities to help his church, whatever local church, real church, to help us be more effective in this city. What are you waiting for? This city needs to change. It needs to know the love of Jesus, and it's waiting for you to wake up, to realize God loves you, to realize your created value, and to partner with his church in changing the world.
*Father*, I thank you for who you are. Lord, you're wonderful. Lord, you're amazing. Father God, thank you for loving us. Thank you, Jesus.
We're not closing, but what I would like to do is I'd like you guys to stand up. And I'd like to sing the course of reckless love. So we're just gonna sing this course together. And I want you to think about how you're created to be in relationship with God. I want you to think about how you're created not to be alone.
And I want I want you to think about how much God loves you. Think about this message. We're seeing the chorus and we'll come back out in a second. A Course of Reckless Love. So maybe you're in here and you've never ever experienced the life, the collaboration with God, the knowing him, the relationship with him.
Being experiencing his love, his joy, his peace. You've maybe you've believed in him, but believing in him is not surrendering to him. True life happens when you give your life away. When you say, like the boy did with his father, I can't do this on my own. Daddy, help me.
Is there anybody in here? Everybody close your eyes. Close your eyes and bow your heads just to make it, I guess, more comfortable. Is there anybody in here who would say, I don't know *God* like you talk about. I realize I believed in him, but I've never surrendered to him.
And I know that today is my day. Today it's time for me to give my life to Jesus so that I can know him in that way, so that my life can experience his love, his joy, and his peace. I want to surrender my life to him right now. It is time. If that's you, on the count of 3, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand.
1, 2, 3. I see you. I see you. Anybody else? It's amazing.
Raise your hand high. I see you. That's 3. Who else? Want you guys to raise your hand.
I want you to look at me. Do you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again so that you can experience and know his life and have relationship with him? If that's yes, shake your head yes. It's amazing. It's amazing.
Well, then I want you to pray this prayer with me, and this prayer is not what saves you. It's surrender. So pray it and mean it with everything that you have inside of you, and I want everybody in here just to be praying. So let's pray together. Say, father, I surrender.
I believe you died for me. I believe you rose again so I could know your life. And I've been living for myself. Forgive me. I surrender my life to you.
Thank you, Jesus. Teach me what it means to follow you. I receive your forgiveness. I'm loved by you. Thank you, Jesus.
Amen. Alright. Let's give a big hand clap of praise. It's huge. 3 people decided to surrender.
Now maybe there's other people in here that there's aspects of your life that you haven't allowed God to be the beginning in. You haven't allowed God to be first. He wants to be first in every area of your life. And what's going to happen as you continue to pursue him, as you continue to follow him, what will happen is this right here. And it happens to me still still.
The Holy Spirit will bring to surface things that you've kept hidden. And you have the choice in that moment to confess it, agree with God, agree. You know what? Confession just means agreement. That's right.
I've I've held on to that. Agree with him. Realize that you're forgiven. But then also it says, confess your faults 1 to another and pray for each other so you may be healed. Secret sin only grows more dirty.
That's the importance of togetherness. It's importance of transparency. It's important of church body. Finding brothers and sisters, finding friends, deep friends who you trust to be able to bear your soul with 1 another and pray for each other so that you can be healed of the addiction or healed of the habit or healed of the just that heart thing so we can walk together closer to Jesus. It's such a big deal.
So daily, daily allow the Holy Spirit to bring things to the surface. So daily you can look more like Jesus. So daily other people can see you and see Jesus more clearly. That's why we do church. That's why we're starting small groups in January so we can have those relationships, those friendships together, which is gonna be awesome.
I love you guys so much. We're gonna have baptism right after this. So at 11:30 on the dot, because we have some, like, free cotton candy and that stuff, and we can hang out out there. You guys, please hang out. But at 11:30 on the dot, we will do baptism.
If you just gave your life to Jesus, you have the opportunity to follow him in obedience today with baptism. Like, woah. Hold on. What is that? Baptism is simple.
What it is is a public profession of what God has done internally because it's not personal, it's public. But not only that, and I explain it like this, baptism is a burial ceremony. David, what do you mean? That sounds weird. No, trust me.
Baptism is a burial ceremony. What you're saying is you recognize that the old you is gone. And so when you go into the water, it's representing that I'm no longer the old David anymore. I died with Christ. But when I come up out of the water, I've been resurrected to new life with him.
I have his life. I've been born again. That's a recognition of what he's done. That's what baptism is. We're gonna be doing that at 11:30.
Those of you that just gave your life to Jesus, you are welcome to do that. We have shirts for you. Those of you that maybe you're in here and you're like, hey, I need to give my I mean, I need to be baptized. It's time for me to be baptized. I've never really done that.
I want to do that. Hey, you can be baptized as well. Just go out to that picnic table in the next 15 minutes and get a shirt and get changed, and we'll ize you too as it's gonna be possible.
Thanks for listening to the "Real Church podcast". If you have questions, comments, or I'd like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching Real Church Clearwater or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
Go to realchurch.us and click the give button. Whether you're praying, giving, or serving with Real Church, you're playing a part in every life being changed. Thank you. Until our next podcast, "be blessed". We'll see you next time.