You are invited to prioritize your relationships by anchoring them in the love of Jesus. Take a step of faith today to confess Him as Lord and invite His Spirit to guide your family life.
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.
So my name is David John Phillips. I'm the pastor here at Real Church. And if this is your first time, just like she said, we pray that you felt love, that you felt welcome, that you felt just the love of Jesus from the time that you drove into the parking lot until the time that you it to your very seats. It's our prayer that you would walk away from here today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you, with a with a a drawing. If you don't know Jesus with a draw, man, I I don't know what it was, but, man, I gotta go back.
I got I got I gotta have more. That that that draw is Jesus. Like, we know him, and and we're we're dedicated to him, but not only that, we want to love you. Like, was talking about our serve team. She was talking about our dream team and stuff.
The way that we do what we do, we do it for you to experience the same love of Jesus that we experience every single day. Right? We want you to know that. And so God bless you. You are welcome here.
And also before I get into the actual message, I wanted to to give you guys a just a a celebration, a praise report. Some of you may not know this, but about 2 to 3 months ago, we had pastor Chad Payton, who was a church planter like me, like us. Pastor Chad planted a church last Sunday in Tampa Bay. Last Sunday was their first Sunday. You guys were radically generous.
We took up an offering. The Sunday that they were here, our whole offering that came in for Sunday, we gave it to their church about 2 months ago. It was 26 or $2,800, something like that. We sowed it into their church plant, and I just want you to know that you sowed into good ground. They planted the church this past Sunday.
They had 248 people show up at their first Sunday. They had 21 people give their life to Jesus. Come on. And because of your radical generosity, you are a part of that. And so thank you for that.
It's a big deal. And before we get into the into the the service and everything, I'm gonna pray. And it's my prayer. 1, I'm a pray, and and I wanna pray together just to bless that church because because that's the first of many that we're gonna help plant because we're I I just believe in the body of Christ. I believe in in the kingdom and expanding the kingdom, and that's more than just about me.
Right? That's more than just this church. So just to cast a little vision to you guys, man, I you know, this the best is yet to come. We're just getting started. Man, it's my dream that 1 day, not only will we sow into other churches planting, but we'll we'll send some of you maybe 1 day to plant a church, maybe somewhere in Tampa Bay or somewhere in Florida or somewhere in another nation, something like that.
My prayer is God would send leaders to be we could raise them up and plant. Maybe it'll be another real church or maybe it'll be the church with a different name. It doesn't matter. It's not my kingdom. It's his.
Amen? So so let's pray. I wanna pray for Imagine Church is the name of it and pastor Chad. But then also, gonna pray for the message. Because as I say every Sunday, if it's just me speaking, using a a gift and a talent, it might tickle your ears.
You might walk away saying, man, that was good. I feel good now, but it's not gonna be life changing. But if it's God speaking, right, if it's God speaking through me to you guys, and you're you're receiving it, you're hearing it, then it's gonna shift no matter where you are in this faith walk. Whether you've been listening and walking with Jesus for 50 years, or you just you're brand new, or you have no idea who he is, it's gonna shift your future for eternity. So let's pray.
Father, I just thank you for who you are. Lord, you're wonderful. You're amazing. Lord God, I thank you for loving us. God, I thank you for the opportunity to get to preach your word.
*Lord, the opportunity to get to share to to get to share the good news of the gospel*. So, father, I pray for every person under the sound of my voice, whether it's on podcast or whether it's the people here listening right now, I pray that your love would impact them in a way, Lord, that that's that's fresh. Lord, that challenges them, Lord God, that sets a fire in their soul, that causes them to get up from hearing this message and say, let's march. Let's take this city for Jesus. Let's take my family for Jesus.
Let's let's take my job, my workplace for Jesus, Lord. Father, and I pray you speak. And then also for Imagine Church, Lord, praise God for your kingdom expanding, and praise God that we get to be a part of it. Lord, it's awesome. Lord, I pray for multiple more churches that are reaching the Tampa Bay area, life giving churches that are reaching Clearwater.
I pray for unity in your body. Whatever it takes, God. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Come on. Alright. So today marks the start of a new series. It's a new series called Family Matters. I think we got a title slide coming up, maybe, unless we might be having technical difficulties.
That's okay. But we have a new series called Family Matters. Why? Because family does matter. It matters.
It's important. Your relationships in your family, your relationships with your spouse, your relationship with your kids, your relationship with your your extended family, with your cousins, with your aunts and uncles, with your with your grandkids, or your grandparents, or your parents. All of those relationships matters, but not just that. Your relationship with your church family matters as well. Your relationships with people matters.
It's a big deal. Family matters. But then also, maybe maybe there are some matters in your family that you're going through right now that you're like, man, this this family matter is a mess. And you're like, I I don't know how to deal with this. I need some practical advice.
I need I need some understanding on what to do and and and what I'm walking through right now. Now we're gonna talk about some real practical things over the next 3 weeks. Both my myself and my wife, we're gonna get to speak together. It's gonna be amazing and wonderful. We're gonna talk about some real practical things on how to to live this thing out day in and day out in our family, in all of our relationships, and I think it's gonna be powerful.
So I want you to know that that I know that I'm not qualified as the end all, be all to answer all of your family matters. Yes. I'm a pastor, and I've only been married 12 and a half years to an amazing lady. I have 3 small children. I have a 7, a 5, and a 4 year old.
Kind of a 18 year old too. My little sister, the the the woman that was up here singing, she's my little sister and and she's amazing. And this is awesome, but she lives with us. And so kinda have like an older teenager. But with that, once again, I know that there's a lot of you in here that may have a little bit more experience.
Maybe you've been married for 40 or 50 years. Maybe maybe you you've raised kids who are mighty men and women of God, and maybe you've raised kids who have raised kids who are mighty men and women of God. And that's awesome and wonderful. And, man, I know that I can learn a lot from you. And at the same time, the reason that I can stand up here and speak about family because I'm not giving you my perspective.
I'm not giving you, hey. This is my way of doing things because it's not about me. No. The reason that I can stand up here and speak about family, about relationships is because I'm gonna point you to Jesus. I'm gonna point you to his perspective.
This is what the word says. This is this is how we walk this thing out. And so we can learn from 1 another in this. Amen? Amen.
Cool. Amen. So with that, let's go to Philippians-2:5. 0, and 1 last thing before we really dive in. If you have your phones and you you wanna follow along with all of our notes, I have all of the notes online.
So you can go to realchurch.us, click on this Sunday, click on view sermon notes, and you can follow along with the the scriptures and everything. It'll pull it up in the Bible app. It'll be awesome. So, that's for you and then, if you check-in on Facebook as well, it'll be like an invite to all your friends. Tell em, hey, I'm not ashamed.
I'm at church today. It's important. They see that. Maybe they'll come too. It'll be a big deal.
Alright. So, Philippians-2:5. Here we go. Says, in your relationships with 1 another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. I'm gonna read it again.
In your relationships with 1 another, have the same **mindset as Christ Jesus**. Question, what is Christ Jesus' mindset towards you? Jesus took his godness, as Courtney was talking about earlier, set it aside, became a servant to serve and to give his life so that you could experience his life. That's how much he loves you. Do you realize Jesus values you, values your life more than he valued his own?
Because he gave his life for you? *Philippians-2:3*, it says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourself. That word vain conceit is having a high opinion of one's self, a high opinion of your own worth, putting your own worth above everyone else's. The world says, I'm gonna get mine.
I'm only gonna love as much as someone else loves me. I'm only I'm only gonna do to others what others do to me. And if they don't if they don't treat me right, then I'm not gonna treat them right. They don't love me well, then I'm not gonna love me well. Good riddance to them.
Right? That's not how we are supposed to live. Bible says, in our relationships, have the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility values others above yourself.
Now this is not talking about, like, some, you know, self deprecating, like, you know, I'm I'm considering myself worthless. So so, you know, when I when I look at others, you know, they're way higher than me. And a lot of people live that way, and that's terrible. It's a terrible way to live. We have to understand the value that we have in him.
Did you hear what I said earlier? Jesus valued your life more than his own. Jesus paid his life for you, which means that you're worth the very life of Christ. We have a high value in Christ. And when we understand our value, we can be secure and value others as God says that we can.
Remember, once again, and I'm gonna repeat this over and over, in our relationships with 1 another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. What was that mindset? In *John-13* let's go there. John-13:3. Let's start in verse 2.
Says the evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning from God. That is a statement of identity. Jesus knew that he had come from god, that he had all power from god. Jesus knew who he was.
He was secure in his identity. And because he was secure in who he was, in his position, in his standing with his father, and he knew the authority that he had. He knew what he was called to do. Because he was secure there, he was able to do what he did next. See, when we're not secure in who God says that we are, when we're insecure, then in all of our relationships, we're constantly pushing others down so that we could be lifted up.
We're we're we're constantly about self instead of about laying ourselves down like Jesus did. *John-13:3, Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he he had come from the father and was returning to god*, so he was secure here. Verse 4, so because of that, because of he knew his identity. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around them.
This was the lowest of the low servants' job. And Jesus, because he was secure in who he was, took off his outer robe. For us, it would be taken off our outer robe of pride and getting down and washing someone's feet. What if we had that kind of a mindset in our relationships, in our relationship with our spouse? What if we had that kind of a mindset, the same mindset as Christ in our relationship with our kids, our relationship with our parents, with our cousins, or with the people that have wronged us.
You say, well, hold on. But you don't know what he did to me. You don't know what he said. You don't know what she said. You don't know what she did to me.
They betrayed me. Remember verse 2? Remember in verse 2? The evening meal was in progress and the devil had already promised Judas, prompted Judas, the son of Simon Escariot to betray Jesus. Judas is sitting around the table.
*Judas betrayed Jesus*. Judas not only did Judas betray Jesus later, like Judas is the reason that that Jesus "died on the cross", 1 of the reasons. Not only that but Judas had been stealing money from the money bags all along. Judas was only out for himself. How many people in our family or or or cousins or grandma or or whatever it is?
Do we think, man, they're only out for themselves and and and we feel like they have betrayed us. What did Jesus do in that situation? Because we are to have the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus in our relationships, right? Jesus washed Judas' feet anyway. Jesus washed Judas' feet anyway.
But what if it doesn't change them? It didn't change Judas. Judas still betrayed him, and Jesus knew it was gonna happen. And Jesus bent down in the form of a servant and washed Judas' feet anyway. In your relationships, have the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus.
What if it doesn't change them? But what if it does? Let me give you an example. Of when it did change somebody. I was *Judas* in my marriage I was Judas
The
first 5 to 6 years of my marriage I've said this before. I'm going say it again. Some of you haven't heard it. I had a wondering eye I I always thought the "grass was greener" on the other side. I was struggling with pornography.
I was the betrayer in my marriage. I was Judas, and it wreaked havoc on her. It caused insecurity, a lot of it. You know what she did? She get on her knees in her closet.
*God, lord*, please, would you promise me? Lord, lord, would you change his heart? Change him. Show him. Lord, how to be the man of god that you promised for me to have.
Listen to the prayer. The prayer for the first 5 years was selfish. She only wanted me to change for her to have the marriage that she was promised. But then about 5 to 6 years in, she began to **"wash my feet"** just like Jesus. She changed her prayer.
She said, you know what, father? I give his heart to you. I give I give his heart to you from now. Father, just make me into the wife that you've called me to be. Teach me to serve him.
Teach me to honor him even though he doesn't deserve it, father god. Teach me to love him as you love me. *Lord, you've forgiven me. You've helped me through these things in in ways that I don't deserve. Teach me to show him the kind of grace and the kind of mercy* that you've shown me even when he doesn't deserve it.
She began to wash my feet through her prayers. Now, what happened then is god began to change her heart because her her prayers weren't selfish anymore. Her prayers were god's will, god's heart for her. So, god began to pour his love into her heart and now, she's loving me because she's seen god's love. The Bible says, we love because he first loved us.
When we understand how much he loves us, when we understand how forgiven we are, it's then that we can forgive others. When we understand that he doesn't hold our past sin against us, right? Well, it's then that we we we stop holding our our spouse. We stop holding our our aunts, our our cousins, our grandmas. We stop holding their past sins against them.
To the extent that we understand god's love for us, that's the extent we can love those around us. She began to pray in that way. God poured his love out in her heart and gave her the grace and the mercy to love me despite me. Now, I'm stuck in an area where I feel guilt and shame because I know I shouldn't be living this way. I know it but I'm stuck because of guilt and shame.
I can't feel. I can't know the father's love there because I'm blinded to it but because of her prayers, because of what god was doing in her, I begin to see the father's love through my wife. We love because he first loved us. He loved me in a way that I didn't deserve and because of her sacrifice and her service and her washing my feet in the middle of my junk, It changed my heart from the inside out and I was healed of pornography. God shifted my marriage and now we have an amazing marriage.
She's an don't look I don't think the grass is greener on the other side. I have the most beautiful wife in the world. Amen. Sorry, fellas. I do.
You heard her speak. She's amazing. She's amazing mother and you know what? In her life, I I just want to speak what's what's like, I want to build her up in everything and I know even that the best is yet to come and I can't wait to experience it with her. I love her because she first loved me.
And she helped me to grow in my relationship with Jesus because she loved me even when I didn't deserve it. What if we had that kind of love? The same mindset as that of Christ Jesus toward the people in our in our lives, in our circle. To our world. To our world.
Yeah. You know, it starts though. It starts at home. It does. You ever notice?
You ever notice it's easy? I don't know about you, but for me, it's, you know, For me, it's easier to bear fruit, the fruit of of of the spirit which means if if you're not familiar with those terms, fruit of the spirit is is the results of relationship with god. What are the results of a relationship with god? Love. *Galatians-5* says that, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self control.
If you're lacking those things in your life, then it's a result of a lack of relationship with god. Do you want more of those things in your life? Seek after him. Get to know him. Commun with him day in and day out and you'll experience more love, more joy, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more goodness, more gentleness, meekness, self control because the nature of your father is going to rub off on you.
That's like awesome. It just is. But you know, as I was as I'm growing in Jesus, I find and I found that it was easier to project the fruit of the *spirit* or the results of a relationship with *god* in public than it was in the private of my own home. It's easier to project patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and meekness and self control around my boss or around my my friends outside or around the pastor or around the church people or whatever than it was in the places where I'm the most comfortable or with the people that I'm most comfortable with. You know why?
Like, I'll give you an example. For the longest time, my brother would make my little brother, Luke Phillips, he's amazing but he would make me so angry. Like, just so mad. You know why? Because he knew that the depths of me.
He knew me better than almost anyone else in the world and so with him, I was most comfortable in the depths of my lack of character would come out most easily when I'm around him. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Amen. I get so mad and finally, I got tired of it because really, it's real church because we want to be real.
We don't want any hypocrisy. There's no, I don't want any hiddenness. I wanna be I wanna speak to you with the same love and compassion and joy and peace and everything that I speak to my wife at home when closed doors. I speak to my brother. Right?
We wanna be the same. To not be the same is to be a hypocrite, to be a play actor. In any area of our lives that we're play acting like we're better than we really are. Man, god root that out so we can be just real whether we're alone, whether with our our kids, with our wife, whether we're with our our buddies, or whatever. We want to be the same day in and day out because there's freedom there.
There's freedom in transparency. There's freedom in freedom in a lack of hiddenness. Amen. There just is. So, in that case with my brother, I was like, man, god, this is not okay.
Follow, whatever is going on, would you heal it? Father, I want to open up my heart, open up every aspect of my life to god. I don't want to hide anything and when I open it up to him in prayer, his light shines on it and says, boom, there it is. He the holy spirit brings it to the surface. Why?
Because he's conforming us. He's making us to look more like Jesus day in and day out. Because he wants us to have the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus in every relationship especially with our families. Especially with the body of Christ but really, especially with every person because they're created in the image of god. So, we gotta have this this openness.
Thank you, Jesus and but then a lot of times then, he'll say, James-5:16, confess your faults 1 to another and pray for each other so you may be healed. I'm forgiven by god. Jesus forgave me 2000 years ago. I've received that but at the same time, I wanna be healed of the habit and a lot of times, it it means letting someone else in and and not keeping it secret. You follow me?
I don't even know where I am in my notes. What is Jesus's mindset towards you? Because in your relationships with 1 another, we're to have the same mindset with Christ. Jesus's mindset is I forgive you. I'm not going to hold your sins against you.
I love you unconditionally. What would it look like? To already have made up in our mind when our wife messes up, I forgive you. *Jesus* forgave me. What would it be like?
I already have in our mind when when our someone betrays us or someone someone messes up and instead of just waiting for them to mess up, already have your mind, they're already forgiven. I've already I I I choose now to not hold their sins against them. Why can I do that? Because *Jesus*, because I realized that Jesus paid the price for all of my sins 2000 years ago. So, when I see what he did for me, I can do that for those around me.
See, our relationship with others is a replica of our relationship with god. Can I say that again? Our relationship with others is a replica of our relationship with god and god wants it to be in the best of ways. See, a lot of people think, Ephesians-5:1 says, be imitators of god and it's in the ESV version. Be imitators of god as "dearly beloved children".
Be imitators of god. So, a lot of a lot of people don't realize that that their dearly beloved children and their view of god is a little skewed. So because of that, they're imitating god but they think god hates them. So, they just hate the world. They're imitating god but they think god is this nitpicky god who's nitpicking every little thing that's wrong about them and pointed out and saying, hey, you terrible person.
And so they go around nitpicking every little picky thing around everyone around them, and nobody wants to be their friend because they're imitating the wrong God. Says be imitators of god as dearly beloved children. Do you realize that you're a dearly beloved child of god? Dearly god loves you. God cares about you.
He loves you so much that he paid the price. He *Jesus* died for you so that you could experience life. Now that's how much he loves you. And in the same way, when we see that, that's why at Real Church, our vision statement says, whatever it takes for you to know the love of Jesus and live your God given purpose because Jesus did whatever it took for us. So we wanna repeat that in our relationships with others.
Some people say, well, I don't like people. Well, you need to grow in your relationship with Jesus because Jesus loves people, and Jesus is in you. If if a mentor of mine says, if the shoe fits, kick it off. *God wants our love for our family to be a replica* of his love for us. And I already quoted this, 1 John-4:19.
If we love because he first loved us, or we love because he first loved us. So our love for others, our love for our spouse, our love for our kids, our love for people is a direct reflection of our understanding of God's love for us. In the same way, our lack of love for our spouse, our lack of love for our kids is due to a or a lack of love for our parents or a lack of love for our grandparents or grandkids or cousins is due to a lack of living in God. It's due to a lack of relationship with him. It's due to a lack of understanding his love for us.
Just to to take it a little further. It says, we love because he first loved us. Right? As a child, like my my like, when a child's born, they don't understand what love is. In all of our relationships, right, it's a *replica* once again of of God's relationship with us.
And now now a a baby being born does not understand what love is. Their only knowledge of what love is is by seeing their parents, seeing their father and their mother. And as they see their father and their mother love them, they replicate it in their life because we love because he first loved us. They love because we first loved them. Right?
And and to the extent that we show that love for them, they grow in that love. Now to put that real practical, and and just just to let you guys know, there is no condemnation in this message. Okay? If you're not living if you're not living this life. Right?
And or or maybe you grew up not experiencing this kind of love or you didn't give this kind of love to your kids. Guess what? God is a redeeming God. And he loves you, and he can redeem your family. He can redeem your relationships and reconcile your relationships.
And if you have nobody, everybody's left you. What? You got us. You're welcome here. This is your family, but we're gonna pray, and we're gonna pray that God brings your family back.
That God restores marriages, that God restores family relationship with relationships with kids and relationships with aunts. I mean, God restores all the relationships because he is a God of reconciliation. The whole gospel story is that. But with children, we love because we've he first loved us. I when I got a really big revelation to that, I realized that my son and my daughters will love because I first loved them.
So really, I don't have to hear them say I love me. Right? I I I don't I don't go into their room at night and say I love you just to hear them say I love you too, dad. Right? Them saying that they I love you too, dad, doesn't mean that they understand what love is.
They understand what love is to the extent that I show them God's love. So you know what I say now? Say, Trip, Eden, how much does daddy love you? Trip, how much does daddy love you? I'll say too much.
Say, La, how much does daddy love you? Too much. Eden, how much does daddy love you? She'll say too much, daddy. Why?
Because I want them to be secure knowing how much their father loves them. Because I know that if they're secure in my love for them, that's gonna reproduce. And really, if I have the same mindset as Christ has to me, I have the same mindset as Christ in my relationships with them, then just like my wife was being for me, then I'm going going to be the love of the heavenly father to them, and they're gonna grow up in the love of the heavenly father, and then they're gonna reproduce that in every area of their life, and it's just gonna be an amazing thing, and their friends, and and everybody's gonna come to know Jesus all because we took the time to wash their feet with the love of the heavenly father as they were kids. But it gets even better. In the same way, there are people in your life, your kids, your spouse, your parents, your grandparents maybe, maybe your cousins, maybe people at your job, maybe people at Walmart.
I don't know. People in your life that have never experienced the love of the heavenly father. And just like me, they have a misconception in that area, just like me. They have a misconception of God's love for them, and they can't hear him. And you're God's voice.
God is waiting for you to have the same mindset as Christ in your relationships with him too, just like me with my kids. So when they see your love, they're gonna be seeing the love of the father, and it's gonna break their heart. It's gonna pierce their heart, and they're gonna see Jesus, and it's gonna draw them into relationship with him. The world is waiting on you to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus in your relationships with 1 another. The world is waiting on him.
What does that look like? *Jesus* gives us grace. He gives us what we don't deserve. What would it look like to "love others" how they don't deserve? To the world, it would be confusing.
I don't deserve wait. I was a terrible waitress, and you gave me a $100 tip. Why would you do that? Because Jesus loved me even when I didn't deserve it. I knew that you needed it, so I'm just gonna do it anyway because god cares about you.
What would that do to her? Mercy not giving her what she does deserve and grace giving her what she doesn't deserve. Loving 1 another with the same mindset Christ has for you. Your wife, your kids betraying you, treating you like dirt. World says treat them like dirt too.
*Jesus* says, had the same mindset I had towards you. Before you gave your life to Jesus, when you treated God like dirt, you ignored him or maybe you made fun of him or whatever it was. He still said, come to me. I'll give you rest. He still loves you.
He still forgave you. He still asked you. He invited you into relationship with himself. What if we did the same to those that hate us, to those that ridicule us, to those that persecute us? What if we had the same mindset as Christ in our relationships with 1 another?
You take a moment. You close your eyes. And I want you to pray this with me. Would you say, Spirit? Say it out loud.
*Holy Spirit*. Holy Spirit. Would you teach me what it means to love? This week, would you show me where I have a lack of character in a relationship? And remind me to pray and to apologize that you have in all my relationships.
Now keep your eyes closed and heads bowed. If as I'm talking, you're like, man, I this guy that you're talking about, I don't know him, but he sounds amazing. I want you to know that Jesus died on the cross so that you like, you've been living for yourself, and living for yourself doesn't work. It hasn't worked. Right?
And so what happens is Jesus said, you know what? If it doesn't work, then give me your life, and I'll give you mine. I paid the price for your sin, for your selfishness. I paid the price by dying on the cross in your place. The payment for sin is death.
And I rose again, meaning that my payment was good enough so that and then I rose again so you could have experienced my life today. You could experience eternal life, a relationship with the God of the universe. If you want a relationship with God like that, if you wanna know him in a real way, you never have before, would you raise your hand on the count of 3? 1, 2, 3. I see you.
I see you. I see you. That's 3. Anybody else? Raise it high.
4, 5. Anybody else? Raise it high. Don't be ashamed. 6.
Anybody else? 7, 8? Man, Let's pray. I want you well, first, I want you to look up me up me if you raise your hand any minute. Everybody else held bound heads bowed, eyes closed.
I want I only want the faces up of people that I'm I'm talking to. I see you. Do you believe that Jesus died for you? Shake your head yes. Like, big yes, so I can see.
Do you believe it? You believe it? You believe it? Yes. You believe it?
Yes. Yes.
Anybody over here? Good. Do you believe that he rose again?
You believe he rose again for you? Yes. You believe it? You believe that Jesus rose again? Yes.
Yes. You believe it? Yes.
Anybody over here? The Bible says if you believe that he died, believe he rose again, but also you you confess him with your mouth as Lord, you will be saved. So we're gonna pray a prayer right now, and you're gonna "confess him as Lord". Confess him as Lord means I'm not gonna live for myself anymore. I'm gonna live you.
And I I I might not know what that means, but I know you're gonna teach me. And I'm taking a step of faith right here. Let's pray together. Everybody close your eyes and everybody just let's just pray this to pray this together all around the room just to kind of support what's going on. That God, I've been living for self, but I'm tired.
I ask you to forgive me, and I believe you died on the cross to pay for my sin. Thank you, Jesus. And God, you you rose again, Jesus, to give me your life. I receive that right now. I confess you as my Lord.
Lead my life. I give it to you. Everybody, every single person look up at me. Every single person. Bible says this, blessed is the man whose sin is never counted against them.
Who is that man? Who is that person? That's you. If you've given your life to Jesus, the payment that Jesus paid for, his blood was good enough to pay for your past, your present, and your future. It was good enough for you.
Your guilt and your shame completely wiped away. Not only that, he also paid the price for you to experience his *presence* day in and day out. He paid the price for you to know his spirit. He also paid the price for you to be baptized in his spirit, to have the boldness and the gifts that that God has freely paid for you, which is amazing. If you've never experienced what it means to have a relationship, to to to walk in the presence of the Holy Spirit and to that experience that empowered boldness that that he gives you or any of the gifts of
the spirit and you want
to experience that. Let's pray. Close your close your eyes. Say, Holy Spirit, I invite you to baptize me in your presence. I need boldness in my life.
I need your gifts. Teach me what it means to walk by the spirit. Father God, thank you for this amazing group of people. Lord, I pray that you baptize them in your presence. We'll let them experience your presence like never before.
We'll let them experience just your real power flowing in love because of the love that you've birthed in their heart today. Lord God, give them the boldness and the power to experience what it means to to to have the same mindset of Christ in their daily relationships. In Jesus' name.
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