You are invited to stop striving for your own version of truth and instead rest in the finished work of Jesus. Embrace the reality that you are Plan A to God, forgiven and set free from the law of sin and death. Today, choose to walk in the Spirit rather than relying on religious effort.
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.
Alright. So now, we can start the message, start the series. Have you guys enjoyed the big series so far? Yeah? Has it been helpful for you?
Good. Good. Good. Good. Let me ask you a question before we get started.
Why why'd you come to church today? Why are you here? Like, no doubt in my mind that there are some of you that are here because you are passionate, in love with Jesus. You've been spending time every single day in your word. You've been spending time in prayer.
You're listening to worship music in your car, you're sharing Jesus with people, and you're experiencing him in every moment of your life, and it's wonderful because it's more blessed to give than to receive. Right? So as you're giving out what what Jesus has put in you throughout the week, you just get to come here on a Sunday morning and celebrate what God's doing in your life, celebrate with your brothers and sisters, and it's just like life abundantly. Right? Living from glory to glory.
It's wonderful. No doubt there are some of you in here that is like that, and that's amazing. That's Man, that's living for Jesus. Reality is, there are many of us. Right?
Maybe that our week wasn't like that. Many of us are hurting. Many of us need encouragement. Many of us, maybe this is just kind of the last straw. This is the last the final reach for help.
Looking for hope, looking for peace when there is none in your life. And I just wanna say, you came to the right place. You came to the right place. You have brothers and sisters in Christ. And if you don't know Jesus, you came to the right place to find hope.
I mean, Jesus, the church, the local church is the body of Christ. And we wanna be life giving, meaning, we're showing you Jesus. We're showing you who he is because life is found in him. And you're gonna walk away from here, I promise. If you open yourself up, you listen, not to what I have to say, because if it's from me, there's nothing life changing about that.
That's No. *God* can use people to speak to people. Do you believe that? And really, whether you you know it or not, that's probably why you came to church, To hear from God. To hear something that would be life changing, that would set that change the direction of your of your life, to alter it just a little bit more on track to what Jesus, what God has planned for you.
Amen? Well, if that's the case, or you're just now realizing that that's the case, let's pray together. Because I believe God wants to show you some really cool things today that will change your life for eternity. So join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for who you are.
*Lord* and there are people in here who don't know who you are. Lord, I pray that you reveal yourself today in a way that shifts their perspective. *Father*, I pray that we all, every single person in this building, every single person listen on the podcast down the road, every single person walks away from this moment with a deeper understanding of your love, a deeper understanding of your life, a deeper understanding of your plan, a deeper understanding of your purpose. In Jesus' name. And every distraction, every junk that would, you know, that that would come to cause us to to not hear, just be gone in Jesus' name.
We welcome you. We thank you that you're in our midst. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright.
So before we get into the message for today, which is the big answer, there is a big answer. We're gonna do a quick review because I think it is very important for you guys to understand how we got to the big answer. So if you didn't get to see all of the messages or or listen to all of the messages for the month of March, it's okay. I'm gonna do a quick review. If you have some time, go back and listen to the podcast, but you will not be behind.
You you will get it today. Okay? So we started out with God's big plan. And what is God's big plan? God's big plan, we we we saw in Amos-3:7 that surely God does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants, the prophets.
Then we saw in John-15 that we're not his servants anymore, we can be his friends. Right? Because he shows his friends his plans. And we saw that his plan, his ultimate plan, the end of all things, it's already been written in the book. *God*'s word, his plan is to know you.
And for you to know him, and to be known by him, and to make him known throughout the world. His plan is for you to walk in personal daily relationship with with him, the creator of the universe. He loves you. He's not a far off and distant *God* like a lot of religions would preach. No.
He's a real and personal God where you can know him in a daily personal way. He listens to you because he cares about you when you pray, and he speaks to you and and is waiting for you to learn to listen to him. Amen? So, is his God's grand plan and and his grand plan for the world, his grand plan for this city, his grand plan for your job, his grand plan for your family, his grand plan for the people that you bump into at the grocery store or at the at the gas station, his grand plan for all of that is you. It's Christ, his life in you.
**Christ in you**, the hope of glory. God's hope of glory in the world is you. You are plan a. There is no plan b. Period.
That's amazing. So God's grand plan. That is God's grand plan. Next, we talked about the big fail. So we went back to the beginning.
We saw Adam and Eve, and we saw that there were 2 trees. There was the the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And because God is love and he created us for a loving relationship with him, love has to have a choice. Otherwise, it's obligation. So he gave us a choice.
We had the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We could choose life. God is life. We could choose to be in a in a a codependent I mean, a dependent relationship on him where just like Jesus, when he walked around on the earth, he heard he he didn't do anything unless he heard the father speak. He didn't say anything unless he heard the father speak.
He didn't do anything unless he saw the Father doing it. Right? He was walking in in perfect unity with the Father in heaven. It was amazing. And we are created to live like that with his life in us, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness.
It's a wonderful experience. But Adam and Eve didn't choose the tree of life. Adam and Eve chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which sounds great. Right? Your truth, my truth.
It doesn't matter whose truth. Right? It's all truth. Blah blah blah. No.
That's not truth. There's only 1 truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Period.
Deal with it. See, the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a tree of what I choose to be good and what I choose to be evil. It's self It's what I want. It's what a lot of people in today's culture preach. But that's not truth.
That goes against the definition of truth. And choosing my truth instead of choosing the truth results in death. It result it results in independence. Bible says, if you ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die, which is separation. It's independence from life, the tree of life.
It's independence from God. And independence from God results in death, spiritual death, eternal death. God gave people a choice, and people every single day are choosing not God. And so when they die, God gives them their choice, what they chose for all of their life, not him. And if they're choosing not him, he is life, he is love, he is joy and peace.
So, they're choosing the opposite of love. They're choosing an eternity filled with hate and fear and despair. If God is all things good, they're choosing an eternity filled with all things bad, which is torture and pain. It's hell. People are walking over a blood stained cross in order to choose hell because they want their own way.
It's not God's plan. He loves people. So there's the big fall. And in that, we we saw in Romans-5:19. It's through the disobedience For just as the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners.
We saw, just as through the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners. You're not a sinner because you sin. It's counterintuitive. People think, what? What?
Wait. You're not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you're a sinner. You're not a sinner because you sin. You sin because 1 man sinned.
Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam chose self. And from then, it was passed from generation to generation to generation to choose self. Let me prove it to you. I've I've said this every single Sunday.
If Johnny, as a 2 year old, wants this book, he says, he steals it and says, mine. Nobody taught him to steal. It's natural. It's a nature thing. You asked Johnny, did you steal that book?
They bull faced lie. No. Sally did. Nobody taught him to lie. It's a nature thing.
Where did the nature to sin come from? From Adam. You're not a sinner because you sinned, you're a sinner because Adam sinned and you're born with a nature thing. With an a heart issue. It's huge.
So then we got into the big fail. It's a play on words. We we went through Noah in this this big judgment. God judged the world with the flood and and and everybody died. In Genesis-6:5, it says, the inclination, the bent, the leaning of man's heart was on evil all the time from birth.
Man had a nature issue, a heart issue, something wrong from the inside. God judged the world. Boom. And then right after the judgment, Genesis-6:5, man's heart's on evil from birth. Judgment.
*Genesis-8*, man's heart's still on evil from birth. The flood didn't work. Judgment doesn't work to change a man's heart. The flood did exactly what God wanted it to do. See, God is a storyteller.
History is his story, and he took 4000 years to teach us a lesson, which we're gonna learn today, and we're gonna learn the answer to that lesson. But, part of the lesson was judgment doesn't work to change a man's heart. Why do preachers try to change their congregation preaching nothing but judgment if it doesn't change a man's heart? Why do we try to change our spouse and our loved ones? Giving them what they deserve, which is judgment, if it doesn't change their heart.
So, judgment doesn't work to change a man's heart. Next, the next week, which was last week, we got to breaking those big rules. Later in the story, history. History. *God* gave the law, the covenant.
We've heard about the law. It's those 10 commandments, those big rules, the thou shalt not. Thou shalt not have any other God before me. Thou shalt not, you know, murder, thou shalt not steal, that all of these rules. Right?
These 10 big laws, and and we saw that really it was 613 laws, and you're blessed if you do, and you're cursed if you don't. Right? Is what it said. And we found out really that in Deuteronomy-31:26, I believe it says, that it's the law is opposed to you. It's against you.
Wait a second. What? That goes against what a lot of people have heard all their life. But the Bible says the laws opposed you. It's against you.
*2 Corinthians-3:7 and 3 9 says it's the ministry that of death and the ministry of condemnation*. The laws oppose you, it's the ministry of death, and it's the ministry of condemnation. Wait a second. What? This is flipping the script in my mind.
What's going on here? What then is the purpose of all of these commandments, these 613 commandments that Let's look at it. What's the purpose of the law? *Romans-5:20* says this, and if if you don't already know, you can go on your phone to realchurch.us, click on this Sunday, and click on view message notes, and all the notes are right there. You can follow right along, or you can go to the QR code there.
Just just It's all right there in the Bible app, but you get there through that, or you can follow along here. But in Romans-5:20, what is the purpose of the law? The law was brought in so that the trespass might decrease. No. It doesn't say that.
It says increase. The purpose of the law was that sin would increase. And we showed how that happened. I gave the story of my friend who did a test. He had a garden and all these students were walking by the the garden.
They didn't even pay attention to the garden. Right? And and so, he set up some signs outside of the garden. Says, "do not spit in the garden". Next thing you know, all these school kids that are walking by, they're just spitting as much as they can in the garden because it's a nature thing to want inside to break the law.
I also gave the the example of my my daughter. I had just told her, she had a flashlight and it was the room was dark, and I said, don't shine that light in in Eden's face. I turn around, what she do? She shines a light right in Eden's face. It's a nature issue to rebel and break the law.
And, the purpose of the law, why he put it all out there, was so that sin would increase. Why? Romans-3:20. Says what? Therefore, no 1 will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law.
What is law? Law is doing things for God. No 1 will declared in right standing with God by doing a bunch of stuff for him or not doing a bunch of stuff for him. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin, conscious of our inability to consistently choose God, conscious of our nature to choose self always. You see the result of that in your family.
You see the result of that in the world. It's it's a nature thing. We saw that on the day that the law was given, just to push it down a little bit further, on the day the law was given, 3,000 people died. But there's good news. *God* took 4000 years 4000 years in history, in his story, to show us that it's a nature issue.
4000 years to show us that we have a heart issue, we have a nature problem, we have a sin issue from the inside, and there's nothing that we can do to save us from ourselves. We can't try hard enough, we can't we can't do good enough, and religion will try to make you think the opposite of that. Religion, over and over and over, there's all these different religions. Some of them say, hey, you have to follow this list of rules, this list of laws, and and these 5 pillars or or whatever it is in order to be good enough to make it to Allah, or to make it to to this God or to make it to that God. Some of the religions say, if you're good enough, if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds enough, then you'll make it to the next best animal or whatever it says.
Some religions say say, you know what? Just just don't worry about it. Just put it out of your mind. Just don't care. And so you try not to care, but regardless of which direction you're going, trying to be good There is no peace in that line of thinking.
Because there's a hole in your heart, a a "God shaped hole" that is You you have a desire to know your creator, to know Jesus, to be in relationship with him, and you can try as much as you want, but over and over and over, you will run into the fact that you're not good enough. See, the law is God's perfect and holy will on on 2 tablets of stone cold stone that's put into your face, and you look at it and you read it, but it doesn't empower you to keep it. So you're broken against it. It's meant to break you, to realize that you need some you need you can't save yourself. That's the purpose of it.
It's good. It's holy. It does its work. It's meant to break you. We can't come to *Jesus* until we realize See, the Bible says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who realize their need for a savior. *God* didn't come to save those that think that they're godly. Oh, he did. He came to save those that think they're godly, but those that think that they're godly never run to him. He saved those that realize that they're not godly.
Right? Those are the ones that can can reach out for a savior. I need you. There's a nature issue And we need to be saved from that nature issue. You know, from Fresh Start, there's a lot of guys that come into Fresh Start.
It's a it's a drug rehab that we run-in Louisiana. You know, my my dad's church started and runs it. It's amazing. 70% successful. You know, the the guys that come into fresh start, when they a lot a lot of them when they first get there, why are you here?
What happened? Oh, my lawyer messed up. Oh, you know, it was my mama's fault. It was my daddy's fault. It was my grandma's fault.
It was it was No. Take ownership for your actions. It's nobody else's fault but yours. There's a nature issue. It's a problem within yourself until you own it and say, god, I need you.
I can't do it by myself and Imma quit blaming everybody else. See, there's good news. Let's get to the good news. Good news. The big answer.
The big answer is Jesus. Oh, that's too simple. No. No. It's it it is simple.
The big answer is Jesus. Let's go to John-1. And Angie, these probably aren't gonna be in order because I'm just gonna read through John-1 for a little bit. *John-1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God*, and the word was God.
Everybody say, was God. Was God. *Jesus* is the word, and the word was God. Yeah. He was the son of God too.
He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Period. You know what? A lot of people, when I talk to them about Clearwater, it's the the hub, the head of Scientology, and all of this stuff, and and right across the right across the bay is the international headquarters of the Shriners, and you got the Baha'i temple, and you have all of this prostitution and and all of the the drugs and stuff that are underground that a lot of people don't know about, and and you have the strip clubs up and down 19. These people are just people that need to be loved. They're people that are walking in darkness that can't see Jesus, and they need to see Jesus in us.
Where the darkness is darkest, the "light shines brightest". That's why we're here. That's why this church exists. Verse 9. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming in the world.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. For many of us, it took 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, still didn't recognize Jesus. Some some people, 50 years. Some, 60 years. Some people don't give their life until they're 85 years old.
He's clearly seen throughout the world. The Bible says that we're without excuse. Why? Because his nature is seen throughout creation. When you look at the trees, you look at our bodies and how amazing they are, you look and you begin to seek after God.
If you're real, you seek him, you'll find him. He'll reveal himself to you that he's revealing himself all over the world. You're like, what about the Muslims? The Muslims are having dreams of Jesus in the Middle East and coming to know him because they're seeking after truth. They're tired of the lies.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. You know, Jesus was born of a virgin. You ever wondered why Jesus was born of a virgin? You ever wonder, like, why? I mean, we heard the story, the Christmas story.
We hear Jesus being born by the virgin Mary and and all of these. Why? Well, the whole big series, it's a nature issue. Right? And that nature is passed down from generation to generation to generation to generation.
The sin nature. Well, if Jesus would have been born of Joseph and Mary, he would have had the same sin nature passed down from generation to generation to generation to generation. But Jesus was born of God. Right? So Jesus had the nature of God.
*Jesus* set aside his godhood, humbled himself and became a man born of God. So Jesus had a nature from birth not towards self, but towards God. That's why he was born of a virgin. Jesus had a nature from birth to choose God's plan and not his own plan. To choose his father's plan and not his own plan.
That's why it had to happen that way. Ain't that amazing? So as he grew up, he chose God's way instead of his own. So what does that mean for us? *John-1:12*.
Yet to all who did receive him, Jesus, to those who believed in his name, Jesus, he gave the right to become children of God. Everybody say "children of God". Children *born* not of natural descent nor a human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. You get it? Yeah.
It's a born again thing. You ever heard about the born agains? You ever heard about you you must be born again in order to be saved? In John-3, I don't have these notes up there, but so we're just gonna read it. *John-3*, Nicodemus is he's a Pharisee.
He's coming to Jesus, and he says, hey, we know, teacher, that you're from God, because nobody can do these miracles unless it's somebody that's that's from God. And Jesus turns to him and he says these words, very truly, I tell you, no 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Now, hear that and you're like, wait, hold. If you if you're not you didn't grow up in church, which is okay. You're like, wait, what?
*Born again*? You can respond just like Nicodemus did. Can can a man crawl back into his mother's womb? That just sounds ridiculous. He said, how can someone Nicodemus said, how can someone be born again when they're old?
Surely, they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. Literally, he said that. *Jesus answered, very truly I tell you, no 1 can enter the kingdom of God* unless they are born of water, water and of and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh. Right?
Water breaks when you're born. Flesh gives birth. Okay. But the Spirit gives birth to spirit. When we receive *Jesus* see, we're doing baptism today.
We have a baptism ceremony. We have multiple people getting baptized, and it's amazing. It's wonderful. What is baptism? Baptism, and I've said this multiple times, but let's put it together with this whole nature thing because it's a big deal.
This whole children born of God because it's a big deal. Baptism is a "burial ceremony". You don't bury a loved 1 until you know that they're dead. When you know that they're dead, when you know that all life has passed from their bodies, and they they they're dead, then you put them in the ground. Baptism is a burial ceremony.
When you're baptized, when you go under the water, it's representing that you realize that you have died with Christ. The sin nature, the old you has been crucified with Christ 2000 years ago. When you come up out of the water, it's representing that you have been resurrected to new life with him. Meaning that you're a "child of God", born not of natural, descent, but born of God. You have a God nature inside.
He's taken your heart and shifted it, Ezekiel says, from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. That means he shifted your heart from a heart that's bent towards me always to a heart that's bent towards God just like Jesus. That's what it means to be born again. That's amazing. Those of you that are Christians and you're like, hold on.
Wait a second. I I still struggle. Yeah. Because you're renewing your mind. You're renewing your mind to the reality of who you are in Christ, of who he says that you are.
And, the more that you renew your mind to who he says that you are, the more you begin to walk like Jesus. The more that other people see Jesus in you, see Jesus through you, and it's amazing. The more you experience freedom in him, the more you experience life, the more that others experience life in and through you, and they see you, and they're like, what is different about you? It's Jesus, man. I have his joy.
I have his peace because I'm I'm renewing my mind to the reality of who he says that I am because I know he says I'm a child of God. So even when I don't feel like a child of God, life's not about my feelings. It's about faith, and it's about what he says about me. And he says I'm forgiven. He says I'm a son.
He says I'm in right standing with him. So I'm a put my mind on what he says, and as I do, I begin to walk out what he says that I am. That's Christianity, man. That's the good stuff. That's life.
Check this out. In Romans-5:19, I don't know if I have it up there or not. But Romans-5:19, for just as through the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the 1 man, Jesus, the many will be made righteous. Everybody say righteous. Righteous.
That means right standing with God. *Romans-4:7* and 8. Some of my favorite verses. Religious people hate these verses. I mean, if you're religious, you're not gonna like what I say.
Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the 1 whose sin the Lord will never count against them. Who's the 1 who sin the Lord will never count against him? It's not Jesus. Jesus never sinned.
I ask this question to people who who on the street sometimes, you know, when I'm talking with them and they say they're a Christian and and they gave their life to Jesus and I see it's real. I was like, well well, I show them this verse. Who is the 1 who sin the Lord will never count against them? And then some people will say Jesus. I'm like, no.
*Jesus* never sinned. Who's the 1 who sinned? The Lord will never count against them. Exactly. It's the 1 who's given their life to Jesus.
The 1 who's been born again. The 1 who's a child of God. The 1 on the inside, they're changed. They they might still be struggling on the outside because they don't quite get it yet what God has done on the inside. But man, if he's done it on the inside, it's who you are.
And as you understand who you are, you begin to walk as 1 that's forgiven. A little bit before that it says, Romans-4:5, it says, however, to the 1 who does not work, but trust God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. There there it is. Trust God who justifies the ungodly. It's hard for a rich man to get to heaven.
Why? Not a it could be talking about rich and money. You know? Shoot. It's I think it's talking more about in in addition, I think it's talking about rich in spirit.
Those who think that, you know, blessed are the poor in spirit for those in the kingdom of heaven. The rich in spirit think they don't need him. They think they're good enough. I got my own truth. No.
You need Jesus. You need his truth. You need who he is. Amen? I'm a close with this.
*Romans-8* says, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of spirit who gives life has set you free from the "law of sin" and death. The law of sin and death which condemns you, which is the ministry against you and all those things. So it points out your sin and makes it bigger, makes you sin conscious, conscious of of your failings and your inability to be towards God. When you give your life to Jesus, he sets you free. Right?
He seals you with his spirit. Wells up to eternal life. You begin to walk. You can be baptized. You can be you you have his power in and through you.
You begin to walk by his spirit. It's the law of spirit and life. You know, on the on the day the law was given, 3000 people died. On the day the spirit was given, Peter's preaching. You know, after after the Holy Spirit falls into place, know, Jesus exalted Holy Spirit falls down in Acts-2 and and Peter's preaching and 3,000 people give their life to Jesus.
3,000 people are born again. 3,000 people live. You see the difference? I'm a preach the spirit of life. I'm a preach mercy and grace.
I believe. I don't believe. I know. But you guys, I know there's people in here that have never experienced *life in Christ*. Maybe you've experienced religion.
Maybe you experienced a form of godliness, but not the really who he is. Maybe you've been trusting in how good you are. Or maybe you've never even heard about this whole Jesus dude, and then all of sudden as I'm talking, it's like, wow. I've never saw this before. And something inside you is going, I need that.
Everybody stand up, if you don't mind. If you can't stand, you can stay seated, but but everybody who can, please stand. You know, sometimes I get everybody to close their eyes and bow their heads and sometimes I don't because Jesus publicly gave his life for you. What does it take to be born again? It takes your life.
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