You are invited to shake off the chains of fear and live boldly in the freedom Jesus has given you. As you consider your resources, ask God how He wants you to worship Him through giving, trusting that He is your provider. Come back next Sunday to keep being encouraged as you walk this path of faith 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.
Good morning, Real Church. Hey, beautiful. Ask ask my wife. Was not just some random girl. Okay?
Ask my ask my gorgeous wife, Courtney Phillips. Been married 12 and a half years, and she's amazing. Could you stand up and just wave? Just so everybody can just stand up and wave, so everybody take you in. Yeah.
She's amazing. God blessed me with her a long, long time ago. So anyway, my name is David John Phillips. I'm the pastor here at Real Church, and there is no place that I would rather be. There's nothing that I would rather be doing than preaching the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, truth and grace to you here.
And now, today, if this is your first time at Real Church, guess what? You don't have to stand up and wave. You are welcome here. You are welcome. We pray that you felt at home from the time that you pulled into the parking lot until the time that you made it to your seats.
Maybe you got to enjoy 1 of those free donuts or some coffee or something. Everything as a matter of fact, I want you to know this. Everything that we do here at Real Church, everything is for you. Everything is for you. Because it because if you've been coming to Real Church, it's not about you anymore.
You're you're growing in Jesus. You're you're learning who he is. You're learning to lay your life down for those around so that those around you can experience who Jesus is. So this is your first time or you've been coming for just a little bit, we what we do is for you, so you can experience the love and joy and peace of of a savior. And we realize, man, that that God has changed us from the inside out.
And and a lot of for most of us, if not all of us, it came as we saw Jesus in someone else. We saw his love. We saw his joy. We saw his peace. There are radical acts of kindness towards us us left us thinking, what's going on?
How could someone love me that much? It's only it could only be Jesus, and we wanna be that for you. We want you to walk away from today saying, wow. *God* cares. God loves me.
*God has a plan for me. God has a future for me. I wanna give my life to Jesus*. And if that's not the case, hey, just just we just want you to come back. Just come back and keep being encouraged every Sunday.
Keep being encouraged, and eventually, I'm telling you, his love is gonna take over, and it's gonna be amazing and wonderful. And look, hey, if you came in today, you probably, maybe you got 1 of those blue bags or or somebody handed you this "connect card". We just encourage you to pick that connect card up, fill out your name, Email, and phone number. There's no address so we can't show up at your door knocking on it, you know? But but towards the end of the service, if man, if if you choose to follow Jesus for the first time, you can just check there or if you'd like more information about serving, what what does it take to make this church run and how do how do you guys do this setting all these these this stuff up in the Sunday morning for me?
Like, y'all would do that. If you want more information about serving or maybe you like to join the "serve team", be a part of what we're doing here on a Sunday morning. It's amazing. You meet lots of friends and it's a lot of fun. If you'd like to be baptized, check baptism.
Baptism is it's it's it's part of what Jesus commanded us to do when we give our life to Jesus. It's awesome or if you wanna know just about the ministries of this church and and what we're doing and we also have a serve card. If you're ready to serve, there's a different opportunities that we have so you can be a part of what we are doing here at Real Church. I don't have my phone on me. I usually do.
We're a phone church. You can pull out your phone. If you pull out your phone, pick it up. Where where did I put my phone? I think I put it back here.
It's a 20 first century, yo. Alright. So, you pull out your phone, you can click on Facebook if you will. At the top right, you'll see "check-in". You check-in, location should be on.
You'll you can check-in to Real Church. That would help us in a big way because it'll show all your friends and family that you're you're checking out Real Church today, and it'd be kind of like an invite to go for them to come and see Real Church as well. And then also, you can go to www. If you wanna follow along with the notes, if you wanna follow along with what I'm talking about and also, it pulls up stuff in the Bible app. You can go to www.realchurch.us, our website there.
I would bookmark it if you if you wanted to butrealchurch.us, click on this Sunday and then click on view sermon notes. Automatically, all of the sermon notes will populate on your phone right there in front of your screen. It's like a miracle. It's it's wonderful. Jesus said, we do the same things he did and even greater, right?
That that was a joke. Okay. Corny joke number 1 on pastor for today. So, I'm I apologize on that
1. Okay.
So, did you guys enjoy worship? Yeah. Did god minister to you? Yeah. Yeah?
Good. I enjoyed it too. So, I wanna get into the message today. Actually, preached the first little part of my message. I wanted to remind you guys about Peter and John just like exactly what I said.
Peter Peter was all about before before crucifixion and resurrection. Peter was all about proving his love for his savior and Jesus had a lot of grace with him, you know, And then John was boasting in in Jesus' love for him. Now that once again, that's pre crucifixion, pre resurrection. After Jesus was raised from the dead, after things shifted, things shifted in Peter and John as well, as they do for us. Jesus rose again and and the disciples all saw Peter and John I mean, all saw Jesus there, and they believed in their resurrected savior.
They confessed him as their Lord. They were born again. Boom. In a moment, their heart shifted from living towards self to to living towards God. Right?
That it was a it was a born again heart shift and it's amazing. And so then Jesus told them to to wait, that he was gonna do something. He was gonna give them this gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, And and then Jesus rose again, and when he was seated at the right hand of the father, Acts-2 says, he poured out the Holy Spirit, and they were baptized in his spirit, and they had the power to be a witness, the power to to share boldly and amazingly what God had done, what they had seen Jesus do. Jesus said, you do the same things I do and even greater, which is crazy to even think about. But yet here we see in Acts, we see the apostles, we see Peter and John, and the rest of them doing the same things that Jesus did and even greater.
These are the people that were running from you know, when Jesus was crucified, they were running out of fear for their lives. Hey, I'm I'm scared to death. They might crucify me too. And then all of a sudden, in a moment, they have the boldness to preach and to speak to the same people that crucified their savior. What was the shift?
Man, it was it was that holy spirit boldness. It was amazing. So, I wanna pick up the story. In Acts, we're gonna be talking about Peter and John some more today. I wanna pick up the story in *Acts-2* just to kinda give us a basis for what we're talking about In Acts-2, I'm gonna start in verse 40.
Don't kick the stand, preacher. *Acts-2:41*. Before we get started, let's pray. Father, I thank you for who you are. You're amazing.
You're wonderful. *Lord*, I recognize that my words can't change anything. My words can't impact anyone. I can try to make it sound good and people walk out smiling but it won't be life changing. Unless it's you father.
So, lord, I I just ask you to speak. Well, let this be your words. Penetrate our hearts, father. Lord, so that every word that's spoken is encouraging, lord, and life changing and challenging and exhorting, lord god, and we walk away from here thinking, man, god loves me. I'm encouraged.
I'm challenged and I wanna I just wanna live. I wanna live for you with everything I have. Resting in your goodness and in your presence, father. *Lord, build our faith* today. Build our faith today and every distraction, every thought that would exalt itself against the knowledge of you, just rebuke it and say, go away in Jesus name.
What I I just I pray that that we're able to hear and understand and know what you would have us say, have us hear and have us learn today in Jesus name. Amen. So what has just happened is what I told you. Right? Holy Spirit poured out this the the I mean, Jesus poured out the the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and there there you have Peter, the very guy that ran and denied Christ 3 times for fear.
Now, he's preaching the gospel. He's preaching the good news of Jesus in the face of those that were persecuting him and it says in verse 41, those who accepted his message were *baptized* and about 3,000 were added to the number that day. Now, that's amazing. That's that's some miraculous stuff. I want you to know that, man, we've been going at this thing for 10 months.
We're a 10 old little baby church. We've had over about a 110 people give their life to Jesus on a Sunday morning. I mean, that's awesome. Right? Yeah.
You can get a hand to that. That's that's Jesus. Not only that, I wanna I wanna share just a little testimony of of someone who who gave their life to Jesus. I told the dream team about this. We had a just a whole family that's been shifted and changed and transformed.
About 2 weeks before we launched the church, we were meeting in a little coffee shop called the House Coffee Shop, just inviting people to be a part of our team. And and this family came in, Mike and Loretta, Keith, if you haven't met them, they're amazing. I mean, you can't help but smile when you get to know them. And they came in, God began to shift and and change their lives. And they began praying for their sons, for their family, and the next thing you know, Josh Roar.
Josh began coming to church about the second or third week of our church. He he wouldn't even come into the service. He just he he wanna sit out there and and help, you know, put flags in the ground and help set up early in the morning, came at 07:30AM to help us. Like, just a heart to serve, didn't know Jesus, you know, and wouldn't even come into the service. Next thing you know, we we're still praying for him and still praying for him and still praying for him.
Then he comes in the service. Next thing you know, he gives his life to Jesus, which is awesome and wonderful. Next thing you know, he he he begins to realize that he needs to make some lifestyle shifts and lifestyle changes, and he begins to give things to God, and then fight and struggle, and and and we ended up sending him. We my my father and our church in Louisiana started and run the largest faith based drug rehab in the state of Louisiana. We ended up sending him to the the the rehab there.
He's graduating today, 7 months. 7 months, he's completely transformed, a whole new man. It's gonna be amazing. He's a new creation in Christ Jesus, completely and totally set free, dry, clean. He's not once a drug addict, always a drug addict.
He's he's once a drug addict but now he's a new creation. Amen. Yeah. So so here's what happened. When he gave his life to Jesus, *God shifted and changed* his heart.
But he needed some help understanding who Jesus said he was. Because when you understand who Jesus says you you are, everything on the outside begins to shift. Right? When you begin to believe what he says about you. We kept praying and kept praying and kept praying.
Next thing you know, his older brother Robert comes, gives his life to Jesus which is awesome. Next thing you know, do do you mind if I share this? Good. Some some some guy out there. Next thing you know, he's on his deathbed.
We go to the hospital, pray for him. 3 days later, I and he was on his on a ventilator. He'll tell you he died. I mean, that's what he says. I believe him.
3 days later, he he's back up, moving, calls me about a week or 2 later, wants to be baptized. I mean, come on. It's a family. Yeah. Amen.
It's a family. And God values people. Exactly what's happening in Acts-2 is happening here. It's happening in and through us, and it's not because of me. It's because of Jesus.
It's because of his his godliness in and through us together. And what's our goal? Impact the world around us so people around us can understand and see the love of Jesus. So you have all of these brand new baby Christians in Acts-2. These brand new little baby Christians.
You know, people people might get a little freaked out by that word, by that term, brand new baby Christians but but *Jesus* actually said that we're born again. It's brand new and everything that we see in life teaches us about the nature of god and and we see it as as a baby is growing from infancy to to being mature. It's a picture of a brand new little baby Christian. When a brand new little baby Christian's born again, they're they're learning this whole new world's open to them of of of a relationship with God and joy and peace and and amazingness, but a little baby doesn't know how to feed itself. It's the the baby's learning how to get in the word, learning how to hear god's voice.
An infant, a 6 month old or a a 2 month old can't really understand what daddy's saying to the baby. All all the baby knows is daddy's there. But as the baby grows and matures, learns to understand and hear daddy's voice and then eventually grows and grows and learns to walk eventually then learns to hold the bottle and feed itself and I probably got those backwards but is maturing and maturing and maturing. Well, we we have in Acts-2:41, 3,000 added to the number that day. We have "3,000 little baby Christians".
What's the next step? What do you do after you're born again? *Acts-42. Well, they were baptized. So, they were they gave the life to Jesus*.
They were baptized. It's it's important What's next? Acts-42, 2 42. They devoted themselves to the **apostles teaching** and to *fellowship* and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. You want you wanna know what's next?
You wanna know how to grow? Hey, do what they did. They have devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship, and to prayer. So, what does it mean they they devoted themselves to apostles teaching? Well, these apostles had been walking with Jesus for 3 years.
They've been listening to his words for 3 years. They had cultivated an intimacy with him, which was awesome. They they saw it. So these 3,000, man, they spent as much time with the 1 who had the ones who had spent more time with Jesus than they did, and listened to them. They didn't have the scriptures, so, I mean, I I would back everything up against the word, but they listened to them and and learned from those that that had been intimate with Christ longer than they had.
I would encourage you, do the same thing. Find some some strong Christians in your life that you know are "rock solid". I mean, they're not constantly condemning you blah blah blah. No, they're teaching the truth and grace of Jesus. You can see the character of god in their life and get close to them.
Hey, come here on a Sunday morning. Listen. Soak it up. Make sure I'm preaching the word, right? If I'm not preaching the word, don't listen to me.
If someone's not encouraging you in the with with stuff that's in line with scripture, don't listen to them either. If they're just complaining and and telling you divorce your husband and all this, that's junk. Run from them. Run to those who have been with Christ, who are spending time with Christ, and do what they do. Listen.
To their teaching as it lines up with scripture. What's the next step? Listen to the apostles teaching and to fellowship. Man, this is so so so hard in today's culture. Like, "American culture is individualistic".
It's like, it's all about me, me, me, and if it ain't someone into me and it ain't it ain't in line with my my time frame and my stuff, then I ain't doing it. I'm busy. I gotta work, you know, and I gotta rest and I and and I just I just need to I need me time. I get it and to some extent, that is poor important but let me tell you, **Isolation kills**. Isolation kills.
Yeah. Somebody else needs to say amen too. Think about think about, man, I'm going in so many different places than I expected to go. So, think about Think about gazelles. I know Lion King's about to come out, you know.
Think think about gazelles. Think about this this pack of gazelles. I don't know if you call it a pack or you call it, what do you call it? But a herd. Herd.
That's a weird sounding word. Herd. Anyway, think of a herd of gazelles. Which gazelle did the hyenas pick off? Is it the 1 in the middle of the pack?
Is it the ones that are running together? No. It's the weak 1 that isolated itself from the pack. Isolation kills. We get all circumstances are hard.
I'm feeling I'm feeling down and out. I'm feeling shameful. I'm feeling ashamed of what I've done. I feel like these circumstances that I'm going through are my own fault. I I can't be around people right now.
What are you doing? Isolating yourself? Not fellowshipping? Isolation does what? Isolation kills.
*Fellowship* strengthens, encourages, and grows. Now, of course, gotta be fellowship with the right people. If they ain't strengthening, encouraging, and growing you, go somewhere else. If this church ain't strengthening, growing, and encouraging you, then go plug in at another church that is. It's gotta be a life giving church.
If you go into a church that's not strengthening, encouraging, and growing you, and get and and a life giving church, then then go somewhere that is. Get get out of that place. I believe every person, the the every person deserves to be a part of a local church that is a life giving church. Yeah. That's full of brothers and sisters in Christ that encourage 1 another and and push 1 another on and and and when 1 person's down, when that gazelle's at at the back of the pack, the other 1 comes back and pushes him forward into it.
That's fellowship, guys. We need it. We are created to be together even when you feel like you're not. It says they broke bread together. Hey, they took time to eat.
There's something special about inviting someone over to your home and eating with them. You know, when we first got here 2 years ago, we had a party. We had a party at our house, and we invited there there was an Egyptian named Mia. We invited him into our home and he came to me and said, you know, this is the first American's home I've ever been in and he'd be he'd been in our country for years. Shame on us.
You know what? That's a bad saying. I shouldn't say shame on us. We should be like Jesus. Should take the time to invite people in our home.
Let them see the ins and outs of us. Now, a lot of times, we don't invite people in our home because we're hiding. Let's let's not be let's not hide anything. Let's open up everything to our father in heaven because he he loves us and he's good to us and and he wants to see us and change us from the inside out. We open up everything to our father in heaven and and and then we can be comfortable.
Open up everything to everyone around us and be friends together instead of hiding. You can't really be open to others and before we're open with god. Amen? This this makes sense. This is not my notes.
I'm serious. I got a whole different message. I'm not, don't worry, I'm not gonna keep you till 11:30. Oh, by the way, completely different note. That reminds me of last week.
We had the opportunity. We had a church planter. This is a radically generous church, guys. You guys are radically generous. We had a church planter come who we planted this church 10 months ago in our heart.
This is a church who will plant churches. This is a church who will plant churches in this city. We're gonna plant churches in Tampa Bay, in Florida, in the nation, and in the nations. Okay. That is who we are.
And just to to show that, to prove that to you, we had a church planter who connected with us. He he asked me to be his overseer. Me, 1 of his overseers which means, you know, he's kind of accountable. It's it's just an important thing. It's a kingdom thing.
We asked him to come preach. He came and preached and we said, we're gonna give our whole offering that Sunday. Sow it into his church. You know, you guys gave $2,085 So, wrote a $2,085 check, gave it to Imagine Church because we're sowing into what we believe is kingdom building and hey, man, if 110 people gave their life to Jesus in the last last 10 months here, we pray that 2 20 people give their life to Jesus at Imagine Church in the first 10 months. Amen?
Because because that's just a kingdom thing. The local church is the hope of the world, guys. Get plugged in. Get connected. It's it's important.
And then, they devoted themselves to apostles teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is communication with god. How do you build a relationship? Communicate?
It's that simple. *Prayer is communication with god*. It's not just it's not just sitting down and talking to god and then walking away. How would you feel if your spouse came to you and just unloaded, walked away next day, came back to you, unloaded, walked away, came back to you next day, just talk for an hour and a half. Fellas, if she's doing that, just listen, alright?
Just, I'm sorry. But never listen to you. *Relationship* is mutual. We have 2 ears and 1 mouth. We're to we're to listen to god twice as much as we pray as we speak in prayer.
Prayers communication It's important. You you know what? How did I I wrote I wrote this down somehow. I think it was was better. Isolation kills but fellowship strengthens, encourages growth.
I've already said that. Our relationship with god is demonstrated by our practice of prayer. Now, hold on. Don't get legalistic on me. Don't go and feel like you gotta spend 10 hours on your knees because I said relationship with God is demonstrated by practicing prayer.
Now, I'm spending 10 hours on my knees, so I feel better about my prayer life. That's junk. What I mean is, when you understand your father's love for you, like the like the good the good father and the good son, you understand how he loves you. You want to spend time with him. If you don't want to spend time with your father in heaven right now, you don't want to pray.
It's no amount of effort that's gonna make you want to spend time with him. It's a deeper understanding of how much he loves you and who he is. That's gonna make you want to spend time with him. So, ask, hey, god. I have a misconception of who you are because I don't have a desire to to get in your presence.
Would you show me how much you love me? Will you show me who you are? Then then you have a desire to communicate and then all of sudden, you start communicating with him and and it starts growing and your relationships start starts growing and then other people start seeing his character, his nature in and through you in the in the ways that you speak just because you've been hanging out with your daddy. I mean, that is that's Christianity. Oh, I also said, I also wrote this down.
Talking about fellowship. So important and here's another reason why. You are 1 relationship away from knowing Jesus better than you've ever known him. I want you to look at the person on your right. Okay.
Hold on. Let's let's make eye contact with with the 1 person on your right and 1 person on your left, you know, make eye contact and then make eye contact with the other person. Whatever it takes there. Everybody's looking at the back of everybody else's head. Chances are those 2 people understand Jesus in a whole different way than you do.
If you ask them questions and listen to them and listen to their experiences and what they've learned about god, you probably grow more than you've ever than you have in a long long time. Person on the other side, maybe needs a little bit of the experience that of Jesus that you've had and if you're willing to share your testimony, your story of what Jesus has done in your life in the last week, you might help those around you to grow too. That's fellowship. Isolation kills what I'm explaining to you is the church I'm trying to decide. I have 5 minutes Don't worry.
I don't I don't say I'm closing 27 times. It's all good. Okay. Let's just keep reading. So, verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. I'm gonna stop right there. With the wonders and signs only meant to be performed by the apostles? May answer, no. It is the glory.
Think about this for a second. It's the glory of the teacher to sit and learn at the feet of the student. What do I mean by that? It's the glory of the teacher to sit and learn at the feet of the student. That means is, if the teacher's done his work and the student is no longer under him but he's pushing the student up and the student learns, becomes a peer, and maybe even surpasses him so that the teacher can learn from the student then.
That's true leadership. *Jesus* said, you'll do the same things I do and even greater servant leadership, serving people. The apostles were following after the footsteps of their of the of Jesus. They did all these signs and wonders but they were teaching by their lifestyle. If you read the rest of the book of Acts, it wasn't just the apostles.
It was the deacons, it was the other people started doing all these miraculous signs and wonders. Why? Not to show what who they were but to show the who who is who their king was. I'll share with you a sign and wonder. I've had the opportunity to be on CTN, Christian Television Network which is is has been awesome.
We have the the headquarters is in Largo and we have some amazing people who here that are part of CTN and 1 thing led to another. Next thing you know, they asked me to to fill in as a host of their prayer show. You and me, America's prayer meeting. It's from 12:30AM to 03:30AM. And I just get to take in calls constantly on air and minister to them as if we're 1 on 1 but you know, hundreds of people or however many people are watching.
So, taking in calls from California to Nevada to to Alaska to Florida to South Carolina to New York. I mean, pretty much every state. It's been, it was, it's been amazing and this past Thursday night, I got to do it again. I'll say 1 of em. Oh, well, I'll tell you too.
The very first call, call in, I mean, having issues and pain all in the neck and and I *Jesus* said, we do the same things he didn't even greater. I'm just crazy enough to believe in. And I I I said said, Imma pray for you I ministered to her for a second and I prayed for her and then I asked her. I said, look, I'm not a fake it till you make it kinda guy because I'm not. I don't like shows.
I just like real. That's why we named a real church. Authentic. I said, but is the pain? Did the pain go away any?
If it didn't, that's fine. Just be honest but did the pain go away any? She said, it's gone. Pain on air, live, pain left, immediately. That's amazing.
That's a miracle. Later in the show, god had done some really cool stuff. I'll tell you about this other 1. It's about 02:45AM. I get a call and this lady is in the middle of a panic attack.
Now, you know, she had to wait online on the phone because there's a list of of callers or whatever but so was, she I guess, maybe towards the end of it or I don't know. She was in the middle of a panic attack and she also had this burning in her stomach that was very painful. The way she described it to me. And I just told her how much God loves her. God cares about her.
Bible says if we pray anything in Jesus' name actually, I'll show you. I was gonna preach about Peter and John going to the temple and healing the guy, the lame man by the gate in Acts-3. Just didn't get there. But how was he healed? Acts-3:16, by faith in the name of Jesus.
This man who you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that is completely healed. So it's Jesus' name, 1, and the faith that comes through him. A lot of people have misconstrued. They've really jacked that up for lack of better terms.
I think his name and then claim it. If I attack Jesus name on the end of anything, then my prayers are automatically gonna be answered and that's junk. I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna say this in Jesus name. It has to happen.
You don't understand what it means to say it in Jesus name. I don't say in the name of Jesus, I get a Lamborghini and all of sudden, get a Lamborghini. This is just not how it works. The way it works is this, and listen because it's gonna build your faith. I pray in Jesus' name.
What that means is, it's like a power of attorney. If I'm if I'm working for this company and my my boss, the owner of the company is going up overseas and he signs, he gives me a power of attorney to purchase a property for the company. Okay. Well, he goes overseas and because he's given me the power of attorney, I'm acting in his name. I have the authority of his name.
It's 2 requirements for the power of attorney. Otherwise, it'd be legal. I'm acting in his name with the authority of his name, in his place, and I'm in line with his will. In his name, in his will. So I ain't go buy the house because I'm in his name and his will.
But as soon as I wanna buy that Lamborghini for myself with the company car, I'm in his name, but I'm not in his will. I won't be prosecuted. *Jesus' name is power* of attorney for us. We're acting in his name and in his will. That's why it says 1 John-5:14 and 15.
You've heard me quote it thousand times in this church. If you ask anything according to his will, he hears you. And if you know that he hears you, you know that you have what you've asked. Yes, Courtney. Almost did fall.
That means I'm I'm asking in his name. What was it god's will for her to be healed? Yes. *1 Peter-2:24*, **by his stripes**, we have been healed. Isaiah-53:5, by his stripes, we are healed.
*Jesus* took the stuff on his back so that we could be healed. Is it his will for your family to come to know Jesus? Yeah. His word says, I mean, I just let me read that. Incompleteness.
So you know that when you pray, God hears you. First Peter, I know I'm not preaching. I'm just kind of talking today. I'm sorry. I think it's second Peter.
Yeah. *2 Peter-3:9* says, the lord is not slow in keeping his promises. Some would understand slowness. Instead, he is patient, not wanting, not willing anyone to perish but everyone to come come to repentance. And I ask for my family to come to repentance in the name of Jesus.
I can count on it because it's his will. Man, I've seen that prayer happen over and over and over. Your family's a product of that prayer. That's why god healed the lady. We just don't believe his word.
Was it because of my godliness? No. *Acts-3*. After he healed the guy, Peter said, why do you stare at us as if it was by our own power or godliness that we made this man walk? That's how you can know if it's a fake.
See this stuff, you know, if it's a fake, if they're if they're boasting in themselves, like it's their own godliness, like their amount of prayer that they've spent before the Lord, their amount of reading the word, their amount of of of preaching the right way made things happen. That's junk, man. It ain't our godliness, it's his grace and his mercy. And we as sons and daughters of the most high king. I just wanna and I wanna take his word verbatim as what he says.
Preach it and live it. And man, as many times as it exposes my flaws and my thoughts, I'm gonna change my flaws and my thoughts to the understanding of who Jesus is and who he says that I am period. And if you're new to this thing, get around some people that aren't. Learn, grow, seek, serve, plug in. Sunday morning ain't enough, man.
Get in a small group. We got small groups. Ask about small groups. Go to our website. Sign up for a small group.
Get around some other believers. Get encouraged. Grow. Plug in and repeat. You're welcome here.
I'm a close now. There's no big emotional high this time. I'm not like everybody's not weeping in their seats. The Holy Spirit is still moving. Everybody would bow their head and close their eyes.
You hear me talking today? You're like, man, I don't know this Jesus that he's talking about. I know some religious form of Jesus but I've never entered into relationship with with this Jesus. I want to know him. I want to have relationship.
It's like Jesus standing outside your heart knocking on the door. You've been saying you believe in and believing and believing him and you've been praying, praying through the door but never really allowed him in, never received him. If you're ready to receive a relationship with Jesus and that's you. I'm gonna count to 3. Just want you to raise your hand.
1, 2, 3. Anybody at all? Wonderful. That's amazing. Everybody in here knows Jesus.
Would you guys give a big hand? Everybody knows Jesus. Come on. I ain't upset about that. Let me pray for you.
Father, I pray for this amazing group of people, mighty men and women of God. I pray for freedom. I pray for a deeper understanding of love. Chains of depression leave. In Jesus' name, there's people struggle in here struggling with depression.
You don't have to anymore. You don't have to be depressed. *Jesus* is your joy. Jesus is your peace. Shake those chains off.
Literally, shake the chains off. They've been broken by him. *Lord, I love* you, and I praise you. If you need prayer, feel free to ask anybody for prayer because we're all believers in here. So, ask the person beside you to pray for you.
So,
my name is Courtney. I'm I'm his wife. Last week, I'm going to just kind of talk to y'all just not really polished or anything. It's just kind of a story I wanted to share. Last week, we took the entire offering, everything that was given through text, online, and the box from morning until midnight and we sewed it into Imagine Church.
Now, we give people the opportunity to worship god through giving every single week and we truly believe that that is what it is. It's not a, you know, we're we're worried about keeping, you know, paying the rent and everything. But every once in a while, I'm just going be transparent with you. Every once in a while, there there was a time where David would kind of apprise me of like the finances of the church and finally, I was like, you know what? That's just stressing me out.
We're a new church plant. Like, I'm just going, I can't I can't deal with all these thoughts about, you know, what's going on with money but every once in a while, I'll ask when when I feel strong, I'm like, so how are the church's finances? He's like, they're great, man. That's just right. To me, to his wife, they're great man.
So, last week, I asked because we were giving that money to Imagine Church. So, it wasn't because I was just curious. It was like, I was concerned. So, I was like, so how are finances? And he was like, man, they're great and so I sat there and he was like, I would say he was making a snack but he doesn't do that.
He walks in and he opens the pantry and he looks at it for 10 minutes. So, that's what he was doing and I said, you know, every time I've been concerned with We're able to We're trust you. You, we don't have to ask you to do provide. You are "Jehovah Jireh". You are our provider.
We we sometimes forget that that's who he is. Not what just not just what we call him. That's who he is. He is our provider. I don't really stress about it anymore when I start recognizing him for who he is and and I was sitting there and I looked at him in there and looking at the pantry and I said, you know, I've realized that even if people don't partner with god and walk in *obedience* to give, that lies on on god to provide, not for us to figure it out.
We get to partner with god and what he's doing through obedience And there's a reason that Jesus said, give what you've decided in your heart to give, not under compulsion or reluctantly because the Lord loves a "cheerful giver". I say that every week. We are not to compel you to give. We are not to pressure you to give. I feel like if you are being instructed by god to not give under compulsion, then we are being instructed by god to not push you.
However, I will unapologetically offer up that option of worshiping god. We invite you to worship god through giving and simply ask god if how much and how often he would have you sow into this ministry and just be obedient because in his obedience, you get to sow and reap. In our disobedience, if god has prompted you to do something and you don't, he's going to provide. We've seen it time and time again where it's like, hey, like, there's 1 time where we were ordering something and it was like, we were like getting ready to launch the church going do it. To going going do God provides whether we participate or not but he wants you to walk in obedience because he wants to show you how he can impact your life through your obedience and let you be a part of the answer to your own prayers.
So, I invite you to worship god through giving. Ask god if he tells you no, then don't and if he tells you to just be obedient. We love you guys. I believe we are going to worship together 1 more time and I will close this out in announcements. Is that correct?
Can y'all hear that? So, we are going to go ahead and close out. I'm going to shut us down in prayer and also have just a a quick a couple of quick announcements. God, you are good. We trust you.
We love you. We worship you for who you are. Thank you for teaching us what it looks like to be a part of the beautiful body of Christ. God, thank you for your church. Thank you for these people.
Thank you for community. Thank you for the worship. Thank you for the message, and I pray that it impacts us every day. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
If you do have a connection card, whether a connection card or a serve card, you can hand it to someone in the lobby or stick it in the giving box. If you're a first time guest, hand it to someone in the lobby and they have a T shirt for you just to say thank you for being here. If you are ready to take the next step and serve at real church that there are so many areas of serving whether you've been coming here for the full 10 months or this is your first Sunday and you say, hey, I wanna be a part of this. Just fill out that serve card and I'm gonna give you a call today or tomorrow and we're gonna chat. That's not signing your name up for anything.
That's just asking questions and so you are invited. We need you. We need you. The church needs you. If this is where god wants you to be, then that's then then we want you here.
So, I do want to put that invitation out there to you guys. Thank you. Have a great Sunday and a great rest of your week and we will see you next Sunday. Bye, guys.
Thanks for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching real church clear water 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 are "playing a part" in every life being changed. Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next time.
Transcribed with Deepgram