You are invited to step out of the shadows and into the light of authentic community. By connecting with brothers and sisters who will speak truth to you, you can find the freedom and healing God has prepared for you. Don't stay isolated; let the body of Christ help you walk in the light today.
It's an honor to get to be here and, to get to church do church with you guys. My name is David John Phillips. I get I get the joy of of being the pastor here, and there's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. And I'm very thankful that you would choose to spend your Sunday morning here with us today.
Enjoyed Easter service last week, I really did. It was amazing. Yeah. And really a mile milestone for our church. We saw a lot of new guests come.
I think between the 2 services, if, you know, there was 394 people, which is amazing. We're we're growing. There's a lot of people being touched. Now, of those are double counts because people served in multiple services, and so I I conservatively, I'm probably about 350 people, which is great. But I guess the most important part of that is is people hearing the gospel, people being transformed.
The thing that I'm most excited about, because I've prayed for our church, and I've actually asked the Lord to hold back our growth. I wanna grow at the rate of discipleship, which means the more of you that are disciples making disciples, the faster we'll grow. And until we have a a large a larger percentage of people that are making disciples in their daily life, God's gonna hold us back from growing until we begin to mature and realize that we're all ministers of the gospel, every single 1 of us. Or I need to do better at equipping you to be a minister of the gospel, 1 or the other. So let's both lean in and begin making disciples in our daily life so that all of Pinellas County can be impacted for Jesus.
Amen? Amen. Not just through real church, as many churches making disciples, but I wanna be 1 of them. And man, I it's so fun to get to see the testimonies on Slack. If you don't know, if you're out of the Slack, Luke, I'm Luke, I'm sorry.
We we You're invited to be as connected as you wanna be. Right? There's a lot of people that they come to church for 6 weeks, 7 weeks, and and they leave, and they're like, man, I just I just couldn't get connected. I'm like, no. You you We we present every opportunity to everyone to be as connected as you really wanna be.
And and actually, our people look for people that they've never met before to go and build relationships with people. Invite them to to lunch or to dinner, come to establish class. We we put it out before you. Why? Because we want you to be a part of this family.
Right? The body of Christ is a *family* with brothers and sisters that are encouraging and challenging 1 another forward. When you go through establish, you get connected to our Slack channels, and our Slack channels, man, that's that's where you can see our testimony page and hear about you guys leading people to Jesus in your daily life. I mean, almost every day, there's somebody else that got led to Jesus, somebody that got prayed for and there was and they were healed. Somebody that that stepped outside of their comfort zone and shared the gospel with somebody, and you're getting encouraged and challenged by 1 another.
If you're not on Slack, what's wrong with you, man? That's like where where's where it's happening. You know, there's encouragement channel, the different team channels. I mean, that's where the family is communicating. There's so much more to church than Sunday morning.
And if you're just coming to church on Sunday morning, that's good. But you ain't you ain't really experiencing family life yet. You don't really know the ins and outs of what it looks like to be challenged and encouraged and walk in discipleship with your family. Amen. The local church is supposed to be the body of Christ and family in Christ.
And so if you I mean, if you can't connect here like that, go somewhere where you can. Because you need to be connected in family and and in community and walking, walking with brothers and sisters. Not not everybody connected with me. It's impossible for me to connect with 300 people. Right?
But everybody should have brothers and sisters that are challenging them forward and that takes work. It takes work to be in healthy relationships. Relationships are the crucible that God uses for iron to sharpen iron. A lot of people don't wanna really be connected at church because they don't want their junk exposed. They really wanna sit in the back hidden in the dark and don't really wanna grow, they just wanna check it off their box.
You're you're gonna be uncomfortable at Real Church because we're gonna continually challenge you to connect and be healthy and to grow in in Jesus. And and that's a good thing. It's a really good thing. Because when you connect in relationship, people get to know you. And if they really love you, they say, hey, man.
What you're doing is not healthy. If they only encourage you in your unhealth, they don't love you. If your friends only encourage you forward in your unhealth and don't love
you enough to tell you
the truth, they're not your friends. If you're the kind of friend that is not willing to confront a brother that's has destructive stuff in their life, you need to step up your level of friendship and learn to love like Jesus, and be a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Because a brother a real brother will call a brother out. A real sister will call a sister out. And if you don't have friends in your life that can call you out, maybe you're you're living too much like a loner because you need family, and we're created to do life together.
You realize every letter where is this coming from, man? Gosh. Every letter in the New Testament that was written to the church is written with a plural you, not a singular you. So as you read the Bible, most Americans read it, it's talking to me personally, and that's great, and you should. But you should also realize it's a plural you, together.
It's talking to the church. You can't bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit alone. You're be kind to yourself? Love, joy, peace, patience? You wanna be patient with yourself?
That's a good thing. Be patient with yourself, sure, but it's talking about in the context of relationships. And man, that's where that's where iron sharpens iron, and it there's this conflict that causes you to grow and to look more like Jesus in relationships with the body of Christ. Amen? Amen.
I just got back. I flew in last night, from Louisiana. I was there for 3 days. Me and Elisha went to to Louisiana. I got a cool testimony, by the way.
God has entrusted a 120 acres of land, not here, sadly. 1 day, we'll have a land here and build a church, it'll be great, or buy something, I don't know, in his time. But he entrusted a 120 acres of land to me in North Louisiana in between 3 major universities to start a bible college for free. It's got a nice big old cabin on it, on the on a lake that is on the land, and pavilion, I mean it's gorgeous. It's amazing.
And then there's a team of people that are ready to run and help do the Bible College. And then there's a house on a bayou 20 minutes away, right outside of the 1 of the universities that we can start ministries on the universities. I mean, God does crazy things. So we're gonna we're gonna pioneer that sucker. It's gonna be great.
Sorry, I just got back from Louisiana. Ate crawfish, and now I talk like 1 too. That's where I grew up. But we're gonna pioneer it. God's gonna raise up the right family, whether if it's from 30 company, or from real church, or the different nonprofits that I'm connected with, and send them there.
They're gonna and and they're gonna run with the vision. It's gonna be beautiful. And we're gonna get to be a part of it. Who knows? Some of your sons and daughters, maybe even you, might go to to World Mission Bible College in in Downsville, Louisiana in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe. But it's gonna raise up leaders and send them around the world. It's awesome. You're gonna get to hear about it more and more as we do it. The other thing that we're pioneering, you know, we've we've been a part of pioneering and really have pioneered a ministry in Pakistan.
We took up some donations for it a few weeks ago for we have 11 full time evangelists, have had that for 2 years, 30 third company, which is the nonprofit we're connected with, was donating for those 11 evangelists. They're really responsible for the 65,000 people that, are being discipled every week in this these unreached people groups. I know that's crazy to think about, but bro, little churches can have big impacts when you have people all out for Jesus. Can you imagine as this grows into a bigger church? Dream a little.
I mean, God can God can do amazing things with a group of people that's **All in** running on the same mission, same vision that he's called and he's empowering. So we we took up some donations, did some cool stuff. By the way, we have now, from Real Church, y'all sponsored 14 more evangelists so far. And so, you know, we got the the motorcycles for about 5 6 of them now, and those will continue to grow, but that's gonna multiply that work in Pakistan that we've got to be a part of. So there's 25 full time evangelists that are in the process of getting started, and and you guys are playing a part in it.
I mean, it's amazing. It's crazy. Some people are like, what about here? Hey, man. We're doing it there and we're doing it here.
Man, we're laying our life down. This is the base. This is home base for all of that. And the home base, the the healthier it is and the stronger it gets, the more we see Jesus impact Pinellas County and around the world. We're supposed to make disciples of all nations.
Right? 1 step at a time, we get to be a part of it. And your pastor is just crazy enough to believe that we can do it. We can play a part. Amen?
Amen. Alright. Well, I am really, really excited about the message today. I am. You know why?
Because we're going back to the Corinthians series. Now, if you're lost, you don't know why people are laughing, we started a series on the book of first Corinthians in October 2022. And I made up my mind, I was gonna go verse by verse through this thing, and it was just gonna take as long as we it takes. I thought it would take 5 or 6 months. And here we are.
2 and a half years later, and, you know, of course, this is the base series that we go back to. Sometimes, God takes us on bunny trails, other series. We did foundations. We did, you know, a bunch of other things, but we're back in Corinthians, and it's been so long since I've picked up the Corinthians series. Some of you have been coming to church for 6 months, and you didn't even know.
So I'm gonna have to give you, today is gonna be a little bit of a reminder and a review. I don't believe it's any less powerful though because, man, God speaks through people and to people, and I believe you came to hear the word of God, and he's gonna speak to you and impact your life today, and it's gonna be amazing. But I do need to get us all a little bit on the same page, so today is gonna be for that. Corinthians was written anybody know who it was written by? Paul.
Paul. Yeah. Corinthians was written by Paul to a church in the city of Corinth, which is why it's called Corinthians. K? Paul went and he spent about a year and a half there, raising up the church, building up church, setting up leaders, and I think you need to know a bit or be reminded a bit about the city of Corinth and what was happening before we dive into some of the the verses that we're gonna dive into.
Corinth was a big deal, especially in Greece, before the Roman Empire. Corinth Corinth was 1 of the major cities of of the the Greek Empire, and it was almost like if you took New York City and Las Vegas and mixed them together. Right? New York City, back in the day, if you wanted to make a buck, if you wanted to start a a new business or a new company that would multiply rapidly, get in the stock market and other things, you you move to New York City. Right?
Well, Corinth was a major port city where you could go and it was a center of commerce and all of that. Okay? So you would go and go there to make a buck. But also, Corinth was like Las Vegas. Debauchery, which simply means like partying, and drunkenness, and lust, and prostitution, and just living that party college lifestyle.
You know? That's debauchery. So debauchery, prostitution, drunkenness, craziness, lust everywhere, that's the city of Corinth too. And in the Roman world, it was still a major city, and they made up this new word, you know, like, we when we talk about Vegas, you know, a lot of people say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. You ever you ever heard that before?
Well, they had a word about the city of Corinth. It was it was called it was a verb, to Corinthianize. Oh, we're gonna go Corinthianize tonight. You know, we're going partying. We're going whatever.
So it was not, the most holy and godly city, which would mean it would be the perfect place to set up a church because we come to bring the culture of the kingdom of heaven into the darkest places, and people are set free from darkness and begin walking in the light. Amen? Amen. God sent Paul to this area and he spent a year and a half there raising up the church, body of Christ, God doing crazy amazing things, revival broke out, and he set up leaders and pastors over the church, and then he went from Corinth to the next city, and to the next city doing the exact same thing. With a letter to first Corinthians, like first Corinthians, the first letter he wrote to to them that we have, you know, in the bible, it happened maybe about 2 or 3 years after he left the city and he began to hear some things.
Apparently, the culture of Corinth began to infiltrate the church. You start reaching new believers. They have things that that are going on, which is good. Man, we we want to impact people. We wanna be a hospital for the broken.
But if we begin to accept those things and allow them in the church, it begins to infiltrate, and people don't grow in Christ as they should. So as leaders in the church, we need to confront it. We need to love people where they are, confront it, and help them to grow out of it. Amen? So Paul began to hear that the church in Corinth started having some issues.
I'm I'm talking drunkenness was all throughout the church in Corinth. They were There was some crazy lust stuff going on, even incest and homosexuality, and you know, I mean, sexual immorality. They were getting so crazy weird with the spiritual gifts, which are good that they they put an over focus on tongues and a less of a focus on the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And so it was causing people to to just wonder the the lost not wanting to come to come into, you know, they'd see the crazy weirdness and leave. And Paul's hearing about all this, and it it's important to grow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
You know, understand and have a desire for all of them. Speaking in tongues and and prophesying and praying for the sick and healing, but it should be balanced. We should be growing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The character of God and the power of God equally. Where it's just real.
Some people might think it's weird because they grew up in a dead church, or a church that minimizes those things. But man, I want I wanna be normal as far as the bible is concerned, and walk in the fullness of everything that God has. Amen? Amen. So Paul's hearing all these things, and he writes the letter to this really jacked up church that's got a bunch of problems.
They own a struggle bus in many different areas of their life. Yeah? So in writing this letter to the Corinthians, you'd think when Paul wrote the letter, he'd start off with, you bunch of jacked up, low down, messed up, struggling Christians, I'm gonna have to start over, and come back, start over with a new group of people. Like, that's what you think how, you know, the letter would be hearing about all of the mess that's going on in Corinthians. But is that the way that Paul starts?
No. It's not. I'm gonna take a pause from here. Just let's just put a pen in it. We're gonna get back right to that spot.
My wife walked off the stage, and I hugged her close, and I gave her a kiss on her lips, said, love you, baby. She began walking off, and I said, well, you guys couldn't hear it, but she could. You cute, you fine, you ma. You cute, you fine, you ma. When I see my little river girl, I I just like making up funny songs for my kids and for my family.
I see my little river girl walk in, and I say, oh, girl, you cute. I really, really love you. Girl, you cute. You cute. You cute.
Too cute. She starts dancing. I first walk in my house after being at work. I don't want the my the first thing my kids to see me is frustration and anger, being ticked off. I wanna be excited about seeing their daddy.
I want them to know that their daddy's not mad at them, their daddy loves them. My wife, same thing. First thing she sees in the morning when she wakes up. For the last few years, when God got my attention and kinda said, son, you you better start husband and your wife like our husband to church. She first wakes up and said, good morning, beautiful.
It's so good to see you. Did you have a good night's sleep? Every morning, that's the first thing she hears. I walk in the door and my kids see me. First thing they hear, why hello, Selah.
You're so beautiful. It's so good to see you. Did you have you had a good day today? Hello, Eden. Oh my gosh.
You're so cute. It's so good. Son, trippermann, big man. What's up, mister humble bolder leader and a learner? How are you, son?
First thing they hear. Why? Because that's who they are, and I'm reinforcing as their father their identity, and the fact that I'm mad about them. I love them. I'm not mad at them.
I'm mad about them. And that they have been gifted and entrusted to me to steward and to raise up in him. That's the first thing they hear. Because it's the culture of the kingdom of heaven, and I'm learning to father my kids and to husband my wife like Jesus husbands me, husbands the church, and fathers his kids. Amen?
Amen. If you don't do that, just start doing it. Repent. Say, man, I've been all frustrated coming in worried about myself. Fathers, it ain't about you anymore.
Kids, the beautiful thing about kids, and I think I think people in their twenties should get married early, have a wife, and have kids quickly. Because and if you didn't, that's okay. But the quicker you have a wife, the quicker you get rid of that type of selfishness. And the quicker you have quick kids, the quicker you get rid of that type of selfishness. Because you can't have kids and live for yourself and be have a good family.
Amen? Amen. It's a reflection of the way that we father, the way that we parent, the way that we mother should be a reflection of the way Jesus loves us. The way that we husband, reflection of the way Jesus lays his life down for the church. And the beginning of Corinthians is an example of the way that we should approach our kids the first time we see them, every time.
And Corinth was jacked up. I mean, jacked up. Incest. Incest in the church. Nobody was saying anything.
Drunkenness. Craziness. And you think Paul should slap him upside the head. There's a time to rebuke. Here's the first thing Paul says.
*1 Corinthians-1* verse 1, he just introduces himself. Verse 2, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. That's e d. That's past tense. Sanctified means made holy.
Set apart for his good work. You realize if Jesus is the Lord of your life, you have been sanctified. You have been made holy in him. Have been. You are being made holy too.
You're gonna see that holiness come out more and more as you learn to say, yes Lord, in different areas of your life. But it's already a fact, in Christ. And as you stand in it and walk it out, others will begin to see the the holiness of Christ flowing out of the way that you speak and walk, and live and talk. What's the first thing Paul said? Which is what God's writing to his babies, his children in Corinth.
He wrote, to the church, which is his body. He's identifying them as his. Of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. By the way, what is Paul's writing to Corinth? What God is writing in his letter to the church in Corinth is to you.
To all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord. Now, question. You feel jacked up? You feel all messed up? You feel like God's just being held back by the blood of Jesus smacking you?
This is how he feels about you. This is how when he when when he walks in the room, when you walk in the room to go to see him, to seek him first, you surrender your life to Jesus. That's my boy. That's my girl. Sanctified in Christ Jesus.
That's how he sees you. Now, what else does he say? Grace and grace to you and peace from God our father, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing he said. Grace to you and peace.
What did Jesus say when he stepped into the room when the disciples were huddled in fear? Anything not done in faith, by the way, is sin. So the disciples are sitting in a circle in fear. *John-20*. Jesus steps into the middle of their fear.
And he doesn't say, you guys, you've been with me for 3 years, and now you huddled in sin. I can't use you anymore. Get out of my face. It's not what he says. He says, peace to you.
Peace. As the father sent me, so I sent you. That's peace between God and man. It's the same thing he's saying here. Peace to you.
You think that God is so mad at you right now that you've walking in shame and guilt and hiding from him and fighting and trying to earn favor with him again, and and God is saying in the midst of your jacked up mess, if Jesus is Lord, if you've surrendered to him, he's saying, I love you and peace. If you haven't surrendered to him, he's saying, I love you. Surrender. I wanna give you peace. I want you to experience my grace.
What is grace? God's power empowering you to be what you can't be on your own, holy. To do what you can't do on your own, holy things. Grace is God's power doing it. He said so he's saying peace between you and and the father.
There's peace there. Why? Because of Jesus. Just receive it, accept it, believe it again, and fall forward, get back up, and start walking. And grace to you.
How do I experience that grace? By grace through faith. You live this life by grace through faith. There's a lot of people say, well, I'm just trusting the grace of God, but they ain't they ain't walking in faith, so they're not experiencing any grace. They're just saying it.
How do you experience grace? You take steps of faith. I believe you enough to adjust my life to you and line it up to be obedient in the areas that I've been stupid in. Amen? Amen.
Like the Corinthians. So let's just let's just keep going. What what what how did the father introduce himself again to them through Paul's hand? Paul said, I give thanks to my God always for you. This jacked up church.
What? I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has get was given to you in Christ Jesus. That in every way Everybody say, every way. Every way. Oh my god.
Every way, you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge. The first thing that God says to this jacked up church that's messing up in multiple ways is not you're all jacked up, but actually you got my grace. There's peace between me and you and you have been already enriched in every way in all speech and all knowledge. But pastor, I don't feel that. I don't feel like I'm enriched in every way in all speech and knowledge.
I know. Watch the next verse. Even as the testimony about *Christ* was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of Christ your Lord. Again, Paul is talking to Corinth, the Corinthians that allowed the culture of America. I mean, Corinth into the church.
And he's reminding them of their identity, of who they are as sons and daughters, and that he's proud of them because of their faith in Jesus, and they've forgotten that. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you, even as the testimony What is it? How do you have a testimony? A testimony is a story of what Jesus has done, but it's it's given by a witness. In the court of law, it's it's not a valid testimony unless it was an eyewitness testimony.
An eyewitness is someone who has personally seen and personally heard. And if you personally see and personally heard, then when you testify, your testifying counts because you are a witness. But if you haven't personally seen and heard, then it's just hearsay. It's not a valid testimony. When you encountered Jesus and you surrendered your life to him, you became a witness.
You are a witness because you have an encounter with the Lord Jesus. And every single day that you encounter him and say, yes, Lord, the testimony of what Jesus has said about you is being confirmed to the world around you. When you say, yes, Lord, your life begins to show the holiness in that area of your yes, and it confirms the testimony of Jesus. Other people see that area of your life, and they're like, man, I see Jesus. I see something different.
They might not know how to describe it, but it's drawing them into relationship with him. And Paul is saying that there has been a change in Corinth, in the church of the Corinthians, because of what Jesus has done in them, and he's reminding them of their identity, that there has been a change. I want you to think back. Has there been a change in you? Is the testimony has the testimony of what Jesus has done been confirmed in you?
Do you see from the time that you gave your life to *Jesus* to a day later, 3 days later, a month later, 6 months later, was there a difference in your desires? A difference in what you thought was fun and not fun? Did something begin to shift your your attitude, your actions begin to change? Maybe maybe you've been struggling like the Corinthians. You're on the struggle bus a bit.
You you feel jacked up in different areas of your life, but you know because of Jesus, there was a change. The testimony of Christ has been confirmed, and you don't know why you're stagnant right now, but you've been stagnant. I got good news for you. You can be unstagnated. But I'm reminding you who you are.
You how do I not lack any gift? I feel like I lack every gift, pastor. What are you talking about? I ain't seen anybody healed. I hadn't shared the gospel with anybody.
I I feel too guilty and and full of shame for the stuff that I'm messing up in to be even try that. Like what what are you talking about? Like enriched in every way? Don't feel like I can share the gospel. Enriched with all speech.
I don't feel like I can even minister to anybody in my life. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm too young in the Lord, or I'm too scared, or I'm too this, or I'm too that. No. You're not. His word says, if Jesus is Lord, you've been enriched in every way, and you're not lacking any gift.
If we can just be honest, love you enough as a brother, you just believe in a lie. Says, as the testimony is confirmed. What does that mean? As you take steps of yes, Lord, in by grace through faith, in the yes, Lord, the step of faith, his grace comes and enriches you in every way you need to take that step. And his Holy Spirit, the grace you need, enriches you in every gift you need to take that step.
Some of you just aren't taking the steps, so you're not experiencing different gifts that he wants you to experience. What do I mean? You wanna experience heal healing in your life? When the Lord highlights somebody that needs healing, don't go, ah. Instead, Lord, I know your word says to lay hands on the sick, and they will recover for anybody that believes.
So I'm gonna take a step. Hey, man. What happened to your foot? Oh, I'm sorry. I I just felt like Jesus loves you a lot.
Would you mind if I pray for you to be healed? And then you begin taking those steps. You're gonna have an encounter with Jesus. The testimony of what God has done and what his word says is possible is actually gonna happen in your life. And it be confirmed.
And you'll realize that his grace empowered you in a way that it never had before. You just never experienced it because you never took the step. Take a step to go share the gospel with somebody. Take a step to go minister to somebody. Take a step to go pray for somebody.
Take a step to go teach that that children's church class, or to or to go greet somebody, or to or to whatever it is. As you take the step, his grace empowers you and you're enriched in every way with all speech and all knowledge, everything that you need by grace through step of faith. So you start seeking the different gifts of the Holy Spirit, and you're not experiencing them in your life. What's gonna happen is the Holy Spirit's gonna give you the opportunity to take a step. Well, I tried it, and it didn't happen.
Don't take 1 step of faith. Be faithful. Be full of faith steps in that area until it becomes your normal life. Make sense? Alright.
Still got time. Praise the Lord. This is why Corinthians took so long. This is just review. We're gonna get into where we left off next week.
So watch this. So that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not you're just you're not not lacking in any gift only when he comes in in days, but as you wait, as you live in him now, not just for the sweet mind by. Who will sustain you to the end? Now, he wrote this to that jacked up church in Corinth we talked about.
Who will sustain you to the end guiltless. But the church in Corinth's guilty. But in Jesus, he's declaring who they are, and they gotta remember who they are so they start living out who they are. It's not a license to sin, but it's a declaration of who Christ says that they are. And those that hear it and believe it and start living it show that they have the testimony of Jesus.
And others that are pretending to be Christians and play in church will run away eventually, and show that they were never a part of it. Which 1 are you, brother? Sister? Are you really all in, or you just been "playing church"? Are you really all in, or you just sitting in the back to come and hear a good word and be encouraged a little bit, and then go on about your business?
Man, Jesus loves you too much to let you be that way. It's time to be all in. All in. He's worthy. He's worth it.
He's worth believing that you can be free again. He's worth believing everything is real in this book, and you can walk in him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. This ain't just games.
That's why we call it real church. Real people, real life, real Jesus, "real good time". You learn to have a real good time walking with him because it's exciting. You never know what's coming next. It's exciting.
*Guiltless on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the blood of Jesus is that good. And, man, if I'm not forgiven*, then I'm gonna live like I'm forgiven because he's worth it, and I'm so grateful for what he's done. Verse 9, God is faithful by whom you were called into fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
God's faithful. He's gonna pull you through your junk, your jacked upness. You just keep falling for it. Get back up and keep walking. Now, what does Paul do after this?
He fathers them. He he just followed them by encouraging them, by stepping in, by reminding them of who Christ was, and then he loves them enough to call out their mess. He loves them enough to rebuke them in the in the different areas that they need rebuking because they know it's coming from a loving father. And he's trying to help them to live like daddy, heavenly father, to be a a reflection. You know, if if you're new, the bible actually says that you can be an imitator of your heavenly father as a dearly loved child.
And so in some areas, sometimes the father's gotta call out areas that are not like him so that you can trust him enough to walk like him. But I can't do that. No, you can't. His grace empowers you to as you take those steps of faith. Amen?
Amen. So there's 2 reasons why Christians don't or they stay stagnant or not living this life that I'm talking about. 2 reasons. Number 1, ignorance. I just don't know any better.
Maybe they were never really taught. So that could be because you're a brand new baby Christian, 6 weeks old, 6 6 days old, 6 hours old. And and so don't know. Great. Now you know.
Get around a believer that's really living it out. Hang out with them and learn from them, and and walk with Jesus, and fall forward just like a toddler. Get back up, and and he'll help you to take the next steps. And man, you're gonna grow faster than you thought possible. But sadly, there's some there's some Christians that have been Christians for 6 years, 10 years, 20 years, maybe even 60 years, and are stuck and not living like this.
And they're Christians. They really love Jesus with all their heart, and they don't know why they're stuck, and it's not ignorance. I'm gonna tell you what it is for a lot a lot of people. It's called a stronghold. A stronghold is is an area of your life, your mind.
The bible says, renew your mind, change your life. Well, the enemy wants to renew your mind to his reality, so your life follows his reality. So in your mind, what happens? The enemy sows a seed, a lie, and when you believe the lie, you empower the liar in that area of your life. And then the enemy uses that lie that's believed to attack other areas of your life, and cause guilt and shame to cause you to be stagnant and not willing to move forward in other areas because of this.
Right? A lot of times, that *stronghold* is either the lie that's believed is either because of unforgiveness because of what somebody else did, unforgiveness because of what you did, I could never be *forgiven* in that area, offense, which unforgiveness leads into offense and bitterness. A lot of times, that's the case. Or just wounded. Somebody said something dumb they shouldn't have said, and you got wounded, and you got hurt, and then you hid that hurt.
And you've been hiding that hurt sometimes, maybe 6 days or maybe 60 years. And hidden hurt gets infected. And you guard and don't tell anybody, and that hit and hurt gets infected, and it's a focus of your life and you don't even know it. Secret sin, things that you can't get over, struggle with, a lot of times it's because of hidden hurt beforehand that you believe the lie, and God wants to set you free of it so you can live this life we talked about. That's why God came in through Paul's pen and reminded the Corinthians of who they were.
Because they were either ignorant, they forgot who they were, so they were "living stupidly", or they believed some lies and forgot where they were, who they were, so they were living stupidly. Make sense? And that's what happens in a lot of Christians in the church. I've I've been through a lot of, I call it, deliverance sessions. Right?
Counseling where people who's the liar? Satan. The father of lies. He has a bunch of demons. Yes.
Demons are real, and they sow lies into your life, into your heart. And when you believe them, it gives them power in your life to create a stronghold that keeps you stagnant in different areas of your of your life, and and preventing you from walking forward. I'll give you I'll give you an example. When I was in at River of Life Church, my dad's church in Winnsboro, Louisiana before we moved here, we would do a lot of counseling, deliverance ministry with a lot of drug addicts because they they run a a drug rehab. And these they were drug addicts, then they get saved, get transformed, born again.
You know, God would do amazing work in their life. And then, they just keep going through the same pattern, and they it's like they get free from drugs, go out, do the same thing, come back to the drug rehab. Get free from drugs, go out, do the same thing, come back to the drug rehab. And so we said, hey, look, you know, you got a stronghold in your life. Let us sit down if you don't mind and just talk with you about it.
So we we'd sit down and we'd say, hey, this is a safe place, you can tell us anything, you know, and they begin to open up about their life. And the reason that they started drugs, a lot of them, was because they were raped when they were 10 years old by their dad, or their mom, or their aunt, or their uncle. They excused it, thought it was normal. It's not normal. They say, well, I had a good childhood, and then you come to find out that they were sexually molested or or whatever it is when they were a kid for 5 years by someone, and they believed that the lie that they believed was it was their fault or they were dirty.
So whenever it quit, they believed the lie. The stronghold was actually that they were dirty. They believed they were dirty. So then they started living a dirty life and coping with the pain of that through drugs and alcohol and, you know, whatever it was. And so the drugs wasn't even the issue.
It was just a coping mechanism for the lie and the stronghold that the enemy set up in their life to kill them. So we just find out the lie, and I look at those you know, we'd have a group of people, look at those young women or young men, say, hey, you gave your life to Jesus. Jesus is Lord. Yes, sir. He says you're clean.
Tears. Why? Because the lies attacked with the truth. They have a choice to believe the truth or to believe the lie. They unraveled the hidden hurt that had gotten infected and messed up a lot of their life, brought it to the surface, we attacked the lie with the truth.
*Jesus says you're forgiven* and you're clean. You're not that dirty little kid anymore. What your dad did to you, your grandparents did to you, your uncle, that friend, whatever, is not who you are. You're a New creation in Christ Jesus. Tears.
And then you get them to confess it. And then you get them to forgive that person. Not saying what they did was okay, but I'm releasing it to Jesus. Next thing you know, the infection's gone. Right?
And the liar who's been attacking in them I mean, their dreams, and their thoughts, and other things has no lie to hold on to anymore. So then you just lay hands. The bible says you'll cast out demons, and you just lay hands on them and say, in the name of Jesus, go. And when the lie's gone, the demon goes. Has to.
It doesn't have to be
a bunch of
fanfare and weirdness. Can be, but it doesn't have to be. And there's a lot of Christians in the church that are struggling pornography, sex, sexual immorality, outside of marriage, living with their girlfriends, other things, and really, they know it's wrong, but they can't stop because of "secret sin" that they've always kept hidden or hidden hurt that they've always kept hidden. And right now, you're getting nervous about it as I'm talking about it. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit says, I wanna heal it. Let me heal it. Bring it to the surface. God wants you free. It's an amen over there.
*John-3:20-21*. Pull it up. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. A lot of people that have evil done to them, or they've done evil, and they don't come into the light because they don't they they're shamed of it. Shame says you're still that same person.
But if you've given your life to Jesus, you're a new creation. Shame has to go. You're not that same person. So then, I wanna teach you to live this way. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they've been done in God.
If you're a son or a daughter, even if you do evil stuff, you're still a son or daughter. And when the father shows, hey, that's not of me, what do you do? You come into the light, so it may be clearly seen. What happens when you come into the light? Does the father say, I can't believe that.
Get out. You're not my son anymore. And why are you so scared? That's not what he does. He says, I've washed you clean by the blood of the lamb, so that you can be guiltless on the day of judgment.
You just forgot. You've believed a lie. *Ephesians-5* says, that when you come to the light, that darkness is transformed into light. Why? Because it becomes your testimony of what God has freed you from, and you share that testimony, and it delivers others.
It's pretty awesome. So here's what we're gonna do. I wanna invite you guys to stand. I want you to play some music back there, some soft stuff with no words. I wanna invite the altar ministry team to come to the front.
*James-5:16*. By the way, we don't force anybody to do anything. I'm not gonna force you. I'm not gonna drag your arm or anything, but I have presented to you the way to freedom. The hard part for you is going to be whether you choose to hide still, or you choose to come into the light.
That's what you're gonna be wrestling with as I give this altar call. Okay? *James-5:16 says, Confess your faults* 1 to another, and pray for each other so you may be healed. Healed of what? The hurt, the pain, the hidden, the infection, the shame, the guilt, the habit so you can walk in freedom as a son and a daughter reflecting the light of your father.
So these men and women here are in twos. There's something special about confession. Confessing is agreeing. I've been believing this lie or I did this thing or whatever it is. It's not who.
I need help And a brother or sister ministering to you, reminding you of the truth of what God says in that lie, helping you and praying for you. You're gonna get free. It's gonna be beautiful. But grace requires a step, a faith step, by grace through faith. So I'm gonna open up the altar for that.
They're also equipped to pray for you, for healing, and they will. But first freedom. There is freedom for you. The Holy Spirit's hitting some of you already. Let it happen, and take the faith still.