You are invited to stop relying on your past failures and start walking in the new identity Christ gave you. Take a step of faith today by repenting of the areas where you aren't living out God's truth. Let His Word wash you clean so you can truly exemplify His nature in your everyday interactions.
What is up, Real Church? Thank you for tuning in again to the Real Church podcast. My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of being the pastor here. And today, we're starting a new series titled *Faith*.
*Faith* leads to some things in your life, and I'm excited for you to find out what. Check it out. God bless. Okay. So, I sat down in my office this week.
I go out and a lot of times in the mornings, I do my personal bible study in the office. It's just what I do. And and, over the last week, week and a half, I've been in Titus. I guess, where God has had me over and over and over, in the book of Titus. And, it's only a 3 chapter book.
It's not like it's this huge thing, but he's just had me every single day going back there. And, so Thursday, I go back to go to my office, and as I'm walking out there, I'm like, alright God, I'm praying, you know, as I'm walking out to my office, God, what what would you have me to read? What what what what do you have me to plug into today? And and, I hear God say, Titus. Now, when I say that, if if you're like, you you hear God?
Yeah. We have a relationship with him. It's awesome. What it looks like for me is, it's a thought that goes through my mind, but at the same time, I have a deep seated peace and a knowing. And, it, you know, if it lines up with Scripture, then I'm gonna I'm not gonna question it and doubt it.
I'm just gonna go with it and follow Him. And, more times than not, by faith, it is Jesus, and it's awesome, and lives are transformed because of it. Amen? Amen. It's awesome.
Well, Titus. And, I'm like, but God, like, I've been in Titus for the last almost 10 days now. I mean, I've read it. It's 3 chapters. It's like the short little letter.
And then, I come back around to, you know, been following Jesus long enough, you realize, wait a second. If I if I read this thing in relationship with him, then then really it doesn't get stale. Not only that, if I'm reading this in relationship with Him, we we in Him, we live and move and have our being. Right? And and we don't live by bread alone, but we live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
So then, just to hear him say over and over every single day, I love you, man, that's enough. Just to hear him say, I'm here, man, that's enough. I I could charge hell with a water pistol with just him saying that, you know. And so, I I open up the book of of Titus, and I'm in *Titus-1* and verse 1. And I read, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect and their **knowledge of the truth** that leads to godliness.
You know what? For the last few days, God had spoke to me about Titus and specifically about that verse. You know, that he had already shown me is is man, knowledge of the truth leads to godliness. There's a lot of people that think that they know the truth of scripture. They know a lot of Bible, but there's no godliness in their life.
Knowledge of the truth leads to godliness. And, who is truth? Jesus is truth. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. So when we grow in our relationship with the 1 who is truth, godliness is produced in our life.
Maybe, just maybe, sometimes we need to humble ourselves that there's no godliness in an area of our life, but we know what scripture says. It says, you know what, God? I don't wanna just know about what you say. I wanna know you in such a way that godliness is produced in that area of my life. Father, help me to know you more.
Amen? *Godliness*. What is godliness? The word godly word godly means like God. Godliness is living a life that exemplifies the very character and nature of God.
Amen? Living a life that exemplifies the very character and nature of God. You might say, well, hold on pastor, that's not possible. We're filthy, rotten sinners. Nope.
Not if you're a Christian, you're not. You're born again, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus, you've been credited with the very righteousness of God to your account through Jesus, that's what He says about you. And, not only that, He's placed His Spirit inside of you to empower you, to be like Him in this world, to be imitators of God, Ephesians-5:1. So, it's not impossible. It's Christianity.
Anything less is not. Amen? *Galatians-5* says, the fruit of the Spirit. What is fruit? What's the fruit of a tree?
Fruit of a tree is the result of the nature that is within that tree coming out for all to taste and see. Amen? So, the fruit of the nature of the spirit that is inside of you is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control. Did I miss 1? Meekness, something like that.
There we go. That's the result of who He is in you. And, if you've been born again, then God lives in you. And, according to Titus-1:1, it says, growing in our knowledge of the truth leads to godliness. That's awesome.
And, that was old news to me. I had just read Titus the day before, and the day before that, that was something that God had spoke to me, and that was awesome. But, as I sat down again to read Titus, and I read verse 1 again, God spoke, and I was in utter awe. Let's read it together. I wanna show you what he said.
*Titus-1:1*, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further, number 1, the faith of God's elect, and number 2, their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. Knowledge of the truth leads to godliness and faith. That's it. Faith leads to godliness necessarily. I want you to repeat that with me.
Say, faith leads to godliness. Faith leads godliness. Ladies and gentlemen, faith leads to godliness. A lot of times when you hear faith preached, you hear about power and miracles, And, those are good things. Those are God things.
Those are awesome. You hear scriptures like, if you have faith the size of a "mustard seed", you can say to this mountain, be picked up and thrown into the sea, and it will be done for you. That's awesome. Powerful. You also hear things like Jesus telling the woman, the the young woman, daughter, your faith has healed you.
Miracles, healing. *Faith* is necessary for that, and it's a big deal. And, we also talk about when we talk about faith, lot of times people talk about, wait, don't we start our Christian faith, our Christian life by faith? Yes, we do. Absolutely.
*Salvation. Ephesians-2:8*. The Bible says, we have been saved by *grace* through By through faith, by getting what you don't deserve through faith. So, faith is a big deal. It's a major part of our Christian life.
Let me ask you this. If we start that way, how do we continue? There's a there's a verse for that. *Colossians-2:6*. It says, so then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him.
How did you receive him? By grace through faith. How do you continue in him? By grace through You guys get it. Grace and faith are the way we live.
It's through faith that we progress in a relationship with God and in our reflecting him in our everyday interactions. Faith leads to godliness. Would you guys say that? Faith leads to godliness. You sound great.
How? In order to know how, we must know what. We already know what god know what godliness is. Right? It's where your life exemplifies the very character and nature of God.
So, my next question is, in line with the series, what is faith? What is faith? Well, there's a verse for that. Hebrews-11:1 says, faith is this is NIV, faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance in what we do not see. I grew up memorizing a lot of the King James version scriptures.
In the King James version, it says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the assurance of what we do not see. ESV says, faith is the assurance, or is it assurance? Evidence. Evidence. Right.
Of things hoped for, the assurance of what we do not see, or conviction of yeah. Can I be honest with you? Can I be just just real like transparently honest with you? Not that I would not be, but I've been a Christian for 30 years, because I was a wee little kid. And I learned this Bible verse when I was probably in junior high, probably 11 or 12, memorized it.
And, I've I've I've thought a lot about this Bible verse. And, just being real with you, *faith is the substance of things hoped for. Most of my Christian* life, I'm like, what does that really mean? How do I apply that to my daily life practically? How does that become like, what does that what does that matter?
I'm getting a lot of amens from this section. You hear that? You guys you guys need to wake up over here. What does what does faith is the substance of things hoped for really mean? I mean, I know it's important.
Like the Bible says in Hebrews-11:6, it says, without faith it's impossible to please God. I really wanna please Him, like don't you? There's another verse that says, anything that's not done in faith is sin. Think about that for a second. So, faith is really vital to our Christian life.
We need to understand this. And then, I saw this and it clicked. And so, hopefully, over this next section of the message, it will help it to click for you. So, practically, helps you to understand what walking faith out in your daily life looks like. Let me explain.
*Faith* is not hope. It's not hope. You need hope in order to have faith. Remember, faith is the substance of things hoped for, but faith is not hope. And, when we're thinking about hope in today's culture, hope in American culture or in the culture of the world, hope that kind of hope doesn't necessarily have to be based in reality.
Just doesn't. Right? Like, I can tell you, and it's completely normal, I hope that I get $300,000,000,000,000 in my mailbox tomorrow. Right? That would be awesome.
However, that's that hope is not based in reality, it's based in fantasy. And, that's not faith because faith has to be based in fact. *Christian* hope's a little bit different. Christian hope is hope in Christ, which is the bedrock and the basis for our faith. Because faith has to be based in fact.
I did not say faith has to be based in something you can see. It's not, but faith is based in fact. You might say, wait, wait, hold on a second pastor. Are you telling me I gotta have this "blind faith" type of thing? No.
I'm telling you, you have to have real faith. And, real faith is based in fact, gravity. Can you see it? Nope. Do you know that it's gonna hold you down to this earth so that you don't go flying off into space?
You say, I hope so. No, you don't. You know so. You know so, so much that you plan the next 10 years, 20 years, 30 years of your life with the basis understanding that you're not just going to randomly "fly off into space". Right?
That's faith. If something is indisputably true, it's fact. And, faith is based on fact. Let me ask you this. Let's get real.
Is God a liar? Are you sure? God's not a liar. Right? If you think God's a liar, it's gonna be pretty hard for you to have faith.
And, I'll take another step. Any area where you distrust *God* in your life, that's an area where you have trouble having faith in your life. That's an area where you have trouble seeing the reality of God's word exemplified in your life. Right? Don't worry.
It's gonna get encouraging. Promise. *Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the word of God*. He is truth.
And the Bible says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So our faith comes from what God says, and his word is indisputably true. It's fact. Faith rests on fact, but it doesn't stop there. God is supernatural, so his word is supernatural fact.
Amen? Now, stick with me. We're gonna get real practical in your daily life here in just a second, but this is a bedrock. This is this is important for you to understand so that we can apply it in our in our life. So, God is supernatural.
What's greater? Natural or supernatural? Supernatural. It's in the name. Right?
Super. It's super. Supernatural. So, what's the greater reality? What we naturally see to be true or what God says isn't is supernaturally true?
*God* says. Right? It's a good example. Something that requires you to have faith to do consistently. I'm gonna give you 2.
The first 1. Don't get mad at me for this 1. Naturally, a 100% is better than 90. Right? Naturally, a 100% is better than 90%.
But, God's word says, his supernatural word says, tithing is a big deal. His supernatural word says, to give 10% of the increase into my bank account to him? Are you serious? Logically and naturally, that doesn't make sense. But, God says, when you supernaturally follow my word by faith, 90% is greater than you not following my word by faith with a 100% of your control.
Right? It takes *faith* to consistently tithe. Because, it's not a natural concept. I'll give you another example. Don't get mad at me for this 1.
Please. Tongues. *1 Corinthians-14* talks about tongues. It does. As a matter of fact, it says that tongues edifies you.
Yep. It been it's beneficial to your spirit. It's in the Bible. It also says in 1 Corinthians-14 that when you pray in tongues, your spirit prays, but your mind is unfruitful, which naturally and logically, it makes no sense, is what it's saying. So, for you to consistently pray in tongues when you're alone, you have to have faith.
Now, you might pray in tongues all the time when other people are watching just to feel more religious about yourself, and maybe they'll they'll feel more religious too. But, for you to consistently pray in tongues alone, that takes faith. For you to consistently pray alone takes faith. Yeah. Right?
For for you to pray when everybody else is watching, may or may not take faith. But, for you to pray alone, in relationship with the God of universe, to actually believe that's beneficial, it takes faith. Yeah. Amen? Amen.
Please don't get mad at me. Okay. Why? Because the supernatural is greater than the natural. Faith moves forward based on supernatural fact, the supernatural fact of God's word, no matter what we naturally see and feel.
So, let's get back. Stay with me for a little bit more. We're gonna come back around to your daily life. We're born to live by our senses. We grow up that way with what we see, what we hear, what we taste, what we touch, what we feel.
Right? Smell. We're born to live that way. We're born because it's logical, naturally, of course. But, we're born again into relationship with the Creator of the universe to live by faith and not by what we see.
And, faith comes by hearing his supernatural word. So, we're born to live naturally, but we're born again to live supernaturally. We're born to live by what we see and feel, but we're born again to live by what he says. Amen? So, faith takes what he says as a greater fact than what we see, so much so that the person of faith bets their whole life on it.
Because they know what he says is true, just like they know gravity to be true. It's not a hope in some fantasy, it's a trust in the *supernatural* reality of his word. So much trust that we bank our life on it. *Jesus* said this, pray, our father in heaven. Right?
He said, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's how we're supposed to pray. The faith life lives based on God's Word as the creator reality, and is excited for the world to naturally see what we supernaturally know. You guys follow me so far? Yes.
That's faith. Let me give you an example. Hopefully, this helps helps to bring it home and then we'll get into some practical stuff. Imagine that I'm faith, and I'm on a tight rope. There's another dude right here.
This is God's supernatural word. He's in front of me. I'm faith, God's supernatural word. Back here, this is natural circumstance. This is what we naturally see.
As long as faith keeps his eyes on God's supernatural word on the tightrope, he's steady and firm, and he he he follows God's supernatural word. He's good to go. And, guess what? Natural circumstance follows right behind. Because, our natural circumstance will eventually follow faith, if faith follows God's word.
But, what happens so often? I wonder how I'm doing. As soon as I look at natural circumstance, guess what? Natural circumstance falls off, so do I, And, God's Word stands strong. Right?
But, what happens? What happens then? And, I think it's 2 Timothy-2:13. Yeah. It's 2 Timothy-2:13.
You know what? I don't have this on the screen, but it'd be worth you guys turning there to see it. It says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself. 2 13, for if we are faithless, he remains faithful cause He cannot disown Himself. So, you've been born again, you have His Spirit in you.
He claims you as His own. Yes. So, when you fall off faithless, guess what God's supernatural word does? Who's the word? Jesus Christ.
He he looks back, He says, oh, you know what? I'm gonna remain faithful. Let's pick you back up. Let's put you back on this rope. Let's start over because what you know what?
You're not defined by your past. You're defined by what my word says about you. So, why don't you keep your eyes on me and let's keep walking. Right? Everybody say faith leads to godliness.
*Faith leads to godliness*. How? It's natural to live by what you see instead of what he says. Let's work out how does faith lead to God lead to Godliness. Because now we know what faith is.
We know what Godliness is. How does this come together to look in our life? Let's go to 2 Peter-1:3. I don't know about you guys, but I'm having fun. *2 Peter-1:3*.
It says, His divine power has given. Everybody say, has given. Has given. That's past tense. Wow.
That's cool. His divine power has given us everything. Everybody say, everything. Everything. We need for a godly life.
What is a godly life? It's a life that exemplifies the very character and nature of God, and He's already given you everything you need for that. Amen. Stop with the excuses. How?
Through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. We've already talked about that. That's cool. Verse 4. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them, everybody say, through them.
Through them. You may participate in the *divine nature*. What? Is this like a heretic scripture? What's going on?
No. This is His word. Through them, we participate in the divine nature. God's nature, you've been born again, not of yourself, but of him, and he's placed his nature inside of you, so that the fruit of your life, the result of your life is his goodness, His character, His peace, His joy, in such a way that others can come and taste and see from your life that God is good. Amen.
You guys caught up to that section. Good job. Oh, she's she's coming back. Alright. It's coming back over there.
Okay. So through faith in His precious promises, in His word, supernatural fact, we get to participate in God's nature. We we reflect His godliness to the world around us. How? That's the question.
How? There's a verse for that. Let's go to 2 Corinthians-1:20. It says, for no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. Guess what?
If you're born again, you're in Christ because He's placed you there. So, all of His promises to you are yes. What's our response? And so, through Him, the amen is spoken by us. You know what amen is?
Amen means, let it be. So, our response by faith is, I see the promises in you, Amen. Let it be. No excuses. No but this and but that.
But God, you don't know who I was and who I am, or or how I've struggled with this and how I struggle with No. Our response by faith is, amen. Let it be. Set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit. Everybody say, His Spirit.
His Spirit. In our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is yet to come. Let me ask you this. How much of His Spirit did He put in your hearts? All of it.
Now, the I had about maybe a third of you, a fourth of you say that? I just I wanna show the rest of you. His Spirit is infinite. Right? Mathematically, if you put an infinitesimally small amount of something that is infinite somewhere, all of it is somewhere.
So, if if we put His infinite Spirit, an infinitesimally small amount of His Spirit inside of you, guess what? His infinite Spirit is still inside of you. So, you have all of who he is inside of you as his son and as his daughter. Yes. Amen.
That's a big deal. So, the question is, how does faith lead to godliness? And now, we're set up. You guys are ready. *Galatians-5:22*.
How much of the spirit's in you? And the fruit of the Spirit, the results of the spirit is what? Love. Wait. Wait.
Wait. Wait. Hold on. Love? You don't know how much of a hateful person I've been.
Like, 10 minutes ago? You didn't see what I wait. Wait. A year ago? You 10 years ago, you didn't see what I did.
I've been a hateful person. That's right. You know what? Maybe you have been. But are you born again?
Because if you're born again, then you're a new creation in Christ Jesus. He's washed you clean. Your past no longer defines you, but his supernatural word defines you. So take your eyes off of yourself and your past and put them on what he says about you, and walk forward in faith because all of his love is in you waiting to come out. And the way that it happens is through faith.
Believe what he says. The reason you're still acting hateful is because you still believe you're hateful when God doesn't say that's who you are. Joy. That's a big 1. But my doctor says I have a chemical imbalance in my brain.
I have serotonin issues. Guys, I I I say this not to pick on anybody. I say this, I I for 8 years, I I took Prozac. Okay? I wanna show you through this and scientifically right now that this is true.
Joy. His word says that His spirit is in you. He is the spirit of joy. So all of his joy is in you. All of it.
Period. He says, "count it all joy". He says, rejoice in all circumstances. Again, I say rejoice. We have the capacity to do it because we have all of God in us.
So, we're either gonna look at what he says or we're gonna look at our natural circumstances. So, I'm gonna choose to count it all joy no matter how I feel because I've learned from being born. I'm born to live by how I feel, but I'm born again to live by what he says. Guess what happens in your brain? I dare you to look up doctor Caroline Leaf.
She's cutting edge neuroscience, cutting edge neurosurgeon, and they're learning about the neuroplasticity of your brain. That in 63 days, there's something called a neuro cycle that your brain, literally, has the ability to remake itself in an area that you struggled with all your life. Literally. But not only that, it also has the ability to cause your body to skip over genetic markers for depression and cancers and other things, which means that science is catching up to the truth of God's word. Science, I mean, the Bible says that you renew your mind, you change your life.
Science is finally getting it. So, if you renew your mind to the supernatural reality of what he says, I'm taking my eyes off of what I feel, what I've always been, what I've always believed about myself, and I'm putting my eyes on what he says. Guess what? I'm gonna continue walking, eventually, my natural circumstance will line up with my faith because my faith is focused on fact. Your job, if I'm stepping on your toes, is to, if the shoe fits, "kick it off".
*Repent* and put your your mind back on what he says about you because if you're a born again believer, all that I'm saying is true for you. If not, be born again. Receive Jesus so you can have his love and his goodness inside of you. Peace, love, joy, peace. I'm just an anxious person.
Stop lying to yourself. Are you born again? No, you're not. That's not what the word says about you. That's might be what you feel.
But Jesus said, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Why? Because all of Jesus' peace is inside of you. By faith, put your eyes on what he says about you instead of what you've always felt.
Thank you Jesus for peace. Thank you for what you've done. It's not easy. I'm not saying it's easy. The enemy is gonna attack and accuse and and there's gonna be stress and pandemonium and wars and rumors of wars and craziness and and your your your own wife and and your own husband, your own kids coming against you.
But, my eyes aren't focused on the circumstance. My eyes are focused on what he says, and so because of that, I can bring his peace into the circumstance despite what's going on around, and let his peace come from me and rest on the very room that I'm in. Amen. That's a life by faith. What are you gonna choose to live?
Natural or supernatural? *Love*, joy, peace, patience. I'm not picking on any 1 person. I've talked to a lot of people. A lot of people say I struggle with patience.
That's a lie. That's not who you are. All of God's patience lives inside of you. Every bit of it. The times you struggle with patience is just because you forgot who you are.
You believe who you used to be. And now, you confess it with your mouth. Stop it. In that moment, when you struggle with patience, you took your eyes off of him and you put your eyes on you. You forgot that he is love and love is patient and love is in you.
So, you're supposed to reflect that in that moment. So, you fell off the rope for a little bit. Guess what he does? Hey, "get back up here". You're a patient person.
So, quit saying I'm not patient. So, you know what? I forgot who I was for a moment. Thank God that you've made me that way. You made me patient.
I'm a walk forward in what you say that I am instead of continuing to make excuses about everything else so I can feel better about myself. Amen? *Love*, joy, peace, patience, kindness. You're not mean. Quit calling people mean.
It's not who you are. Not if you're a Christian. You got the very kindness of God flowing through your veins. Anytime you're not kind, you just don't believe who you are. As Christians, we have so we we it's so easy.
I'm not saying it's easy. I'll I'll say, if you're a Christian, you've been born again, so you believe who Jesus is. And it's much easier, I think, for Christians, maybe it's just the way that people are taught, to believe who Jesus is. He's great. He's kind.
He's love. He's he's goodness. He's patience. He's all this stuff, and that's awesome and wonderful. I man, I'll believe that about him.
But when he says, when his word says that's who you are because he's in you, man, that's hard to believe. Because naturally, we see what we felt. Naturally, our conscience knows what we just did. Either we're washed by the blood of the lamb, have a clean and free conscience, or we need to be. Go back to his blood, let him pull you back up on the robe.
Says, put your eyes back on my word, understand who I say that you are, and let's keep going. Believe who I say that you are. Maturity happens when a *Christian* doesn't just believe who Jesus is, begins to believe who Jesus says that they are. Amen? *Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness*, gentleness, faithfulness.
You have trouble being faithful at your job? You have trouble being faithful to show up on time? You have trouble being faithful this, faithful that faithful to your spouse? Hopefully not, but you know why? Because you believe a lie about yourself.
God's faithful and God's in you. You know what? When you start believing it, faith leads to godliness. You'll start living a faithful life. Faith leads to godliness.
Self control. I just have issues. Quit quit telling other Christians they're they lack self control. No. They just forgot who they were for a moment or maybe they just never knew.
The God of self control, the fruit of the spirit that is inside of you is self control. He gives you self control. So, lack of self control is a lack of faith. But if I if I believe who he says that I am, if I have faith on what He says, then I'm going to exemplify that in every area of my life. And, every time I fall off the rope, or every time I see a brother fall off the rope, or a sister, what am I supposed to do?
I'm supposed to take their eyes, point it back to Jesus, say, get back up on the rope. Come on. Let's keep going. That's what a church does. I got 1 more.
*God has not given you a spirit* of fear. You're not a fearful person. Every time you say that you're you're afraid to move forward in God, that's a lack of faith. Put your eyes back on what he says about you. Other versions say, God has not given you a spirit of timidity.
I'm just timid. I'm just shy. But, you're saying the same thing. You know what? Jesus ain't shy.
So, that might be who you were born as, but you're born again with a spirit of boldness. Yes. So, you need to get over yourself. Put your eyes back on Jesus. Because when he asks you to go pray for that person, you you gotta be out of yourself and into him in order to step in boldness to go do that.
When he asked you to invite that person to church, when he asked you to go serve and do things that you would never do, praise God that that you've been crucified with Christ. You don't even live anymore. Christ does in you. So, put your eyes on him and walk in faith. Amen?
*God* said, I can go here, but I gotta be gentle. *James-2:17*. I don't think I have it up there, but basically, says faith without action, faith without works, faith without deeds is dead. That means, if faith leads to godliness, which I've shown you it does, that any area of godliness that you lack in your life, there's "dead faith" in that area. K?
But guess what? This is not condemnation. That's what the accuser does. This is exhortment. This is encouragement.
Hey, guys. In that area, if you're born again, take your eyes and put it back on Jesus. If you're living with your girlfriend or girlfriend, marry them. That's what scripture says. Or move out until you do marry them.
If you're doing gossip and slandering people and talking bad about people, stop it. That's not who you are. I'll show you that in scripture too. Don't believe a pastor unless he tells you in scripture. *1 Corinthians-6:9-11*, and I'll be done.
I promise. I didn't show you that in scripture though. So Come on. That was funny. I came that was a joke.
I came up with that. *1 Corinthians-6 verses verses 9 through 11, it says, or do you not know that wrongdoers will not enter the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God*? Do not deceive neither the sexually immoral. So, I'm out, you know, lusts, porn, all that kind of stuff. Idolaters, put money above God, you put your your spouse above God, you put your your work above God, idolaters, adulterers, sleeping around, people who's not your spouse, nor men who have sex than men, homosexuals, nor thieves, those who steal, nor the greedy, those who, man, I gotta have what everybody else has, nor drunkards, It's pretty self explanatory.
Slanderers, swindlers. It's manipulative in order to get what I want. None of those will inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 11. Watch this.
Here's proof that you can change. You ready? And, that is what some of you were. You might be born 1 way, but guess what? You can be born again.
That's awesome. We can be changed by the truth of His Word, and we don't have to live by how we've always felt, but we can live by what He says, and let that change us from the inside out so we no longer struggle with those things. Our life is transformed by the renewing of our mind. That's awesome. And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of God.
And if you're struggling with that, go back to the fact that you were washed, you were sanctified. That sin, that issue that you're struggling with over and over is not who you are. And, the lie that that you think that is who you are is a lie. And, you need to be delivered from that stronghold in your mind. Believe the truth.
Let it wash you clean, so you can live in the purity and of of godliness, and what that looks like in your life. Faith leads to godliness. I wanna invite the band to come up. Worship band. We're gonna worship Jesus.
I wanna invite you guys to stand. You are invited to stand. I ask you guys to close your eyes. I want you to put your mind on *God*. Heavenly Father is here by the Holy Spirit.
*Holy Spirit*'s here in the room. And I want you to repeat this after me. Say, heavenly Father, how do you want me to respond? As we worship, worship, you'll put some stuff on your mind, on your heart. You'll show you.
Maybe you need to repent, which means I'm turning from looking at the back, the natural circumstances to what you say about me so that my life can exemplify what you say. I don't know. Maybe you need to come to know Jesus. I'm talking about this being born again stuff, and you're like, man, I've never experienced that. If that's you, I'm gonna be sitting right over here.
Take a faith step. Come talk to me. Say I need to know Jesus. Don't leave out of here. Not.
You need prayer? Man, I'd love to pray for you. I'll be standing right here. If you just wanna go do business with God, you know, in front of the church, a lot times called the altar, mean, come get on your knees before God and pray. *Repent*.
Turn back to what he says about you. Take a step. You know? Go go grab 1 of your friends or grab somebody in the church, ask them to pray for you. I'm not the only minister of the gospel in here.
If you're a Christian, you're a minister of the gospel. Minister to 1 another during worship. I'll come back up here after this song. We'll do communion together, which will be awesome. But I beg of you, I plead, respond however he said to respond, however he leads you to respond.
Don't walk out of here with the Holy Spirit moving on your heart and you'd be like, I love that feeling, but I'm gonna ignore it and go live my life. Don't do that. If you're a Christian, that's not who you are. If you're not a Christian, you're invited to "come to know him". Come come to know Jesus.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a "deeper understanding" of how much **God loves you**. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321, and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church Lord. *God* bless you, and the best is yet to come.