You are invited to stop seeking completion in others and find your satisfaction fully in Jesus. When you understand you are loved by the Father, you gain the freedom to serve your church and love your spouse without condition. Today, surrender your past and step forward into the purpose He has prepared for you.
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.
My name is David John Phillips. I'm the pastor here at Real Church. And as I say every Sunday, there is literally no place that I would rather be. I get to come here and I get to preach the *gospel* to you guys. And the gospel, if you if you don't know what that means, it's the good news.
Man, it's good news. When you go to church and you sit you sit down and you listen to a pastor share about Jesus, it's good news. If it's not good news, they're not sharing the gospel. Don't go back there. Go to a place that's sharing the good news of Jesus.
Man, he died for you. He loves you. He cares about you. This is your first time, you are welcome here. And just like my wife said, we pray that you felt love, you felt welcome from the time that you pulled into the parking lot until the time that you made it here.
Everything that we do is so that you can experience the love of Jesus, and you can walk out of here encouraged and walk out of here with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. It's a big deal. Now, I wanna get right into we are in a series oh, side note. If you like following along with the notes, you can take your phone out, go to realchurch.us, www.realchurch.us. Click on this Sunday, click on view sermon notes, and all of our sermon notes will pull up instantly right there.
Pull up on the Bible app or pull up on the on the Internet depending on how your phone works, and and you'll be able to follow along with what we're talking about today and be able to take notes if you like to do that, or you can follow along with the the Bible and we'll have the the scriptures on the screen. So we are in part 3 of the Family Matters series. Tagline, why? Because the family matters. It's a big deal.
And then also there are matters in the family that sometimes we need to deal with. Right? That's a that's a big deal. So when we before we get into the message today, we have some family matters of the house that I wanna take care of. Mister Mike Gabbert, would you come forward, please?
As Mike's coming, I just wanna introduce you to Mike Gabbert. Mike and Angie became a part of the church before we even started. They they were meeting with us at the house coffee shop when we were meeting there and building a team, and and Mike is 1 of the most faithful men that I know. The Bible says you're faithful with a little, he'll give you more, which is a big deal. Right?
And in in church or in the kingdom of God, leadership doesn't happen because of your pedigree. Right? Leadership doesn't happen because I've been here and I've seen this and I've done this, or I went to this school and I went to that school and no. No. To lead, Jesus says, is to serve.
Right? Those those who wanna be great in the kingdom become servants. Those who wanna be first becomes the slave of all. Right? Jesus bent down and washed his disciples' feet, and in doing so, he said, you go and do do the same for others.
We don't lead as the world leads. If you wanna be a leader, you're not constantly pushing others down so you look better. No. You're bending down and you're serving 1 another. And, man, you you know, I just began to to watch Mike, and Mike is a completely different person.
Tell me if just is this true or not? You're a completely different person than you were a year ago. Yes. Sure. Yes.
Let me let me tell you how he's different. Mike do we do we have a microphone? He's awesome. Baby, where Mike is awesome. Where where was where'd you set the microphone, baby?
Because I wanna give him the opportunity to to respond. Uh-oh. Courtney said, I told him he wasn't gonna have to. There we go. So, Mike, when I say this, tell me you know, tell them if I'm because I don't I don't wanna lie about you.
Right? But as far as praying for people a year ago, didn't really happen much. Right? No. No.
Now the guy 6 after 6 months of being here and and and God just moving his life, now he calls me and asks me if I could pray for him. He calls me and tells me, man, I just I got to I got to talk to my boss and talk to him about Jesus, and and he's he's constantly praying for people and ministering to people. It's become a part of his normal daily life because that's what we do as followers of Jesus. We live the same life Jesus lived. In this world, we are like Christ.
And, man, this man has become a picture of Jesus to so many people in his daily life. He gets here about the same time I do in the mornings, sometimes even before. He leaves about the same time and sometimes after that I do in the evenings. The man is a servant. And so I it it Mike, I just we we want to appoint you to to to be a deacon at Real Church.
Deacons serve people. Well, he's already doing that. Deacons minister to people. Well, he's already doing that. Deacons take care of the lot of the practical matters of the church.
Well, he's already doing that. He is leading our setup team, and it's called the wrecking crew. And if you guys like to do work with your hands and be a part and and sweat and man, his team's the team to do it. They get here at 7AM. Oh, come on.
No no nobody. What's the deal? So I would just like for us as a as a as a body, we are the real church family, let's pray together for Mike, and I'm just gonna pray for him. And I just thank you, Mike, for your faithfulness, man. And thank you for who you are and and who you've allowed Christ to make you to be.
So, father, I pray for Mike right now. Lord, I pray that that more than ever before, Lord, you would just pour out your presence. Lord, he would realize more than ever before who he is in you. God, and I just pray for more gifts and more talents and more abilities to be manifest in his life. Lord, as he prays for people, people come to know you, God, because of his prayer, because of of of who he is in you.
Lord God, I pray that that there are miracles that begin to happen. People are healed and set free and delivered. Lord, his his family members who are already coming to know Jesus come to know know you more because of what you've done in him, father. As they see him, they see Jesus. When he walks into a gas station, when he walks into Walmart, when he goes to his job, people notice the difference even more than they already have because it's your light shining out of him more than ever before.
And, father, I pray for radical multiplication of this man. Lord, I pray you bring other men, Lord, other other other families around him, Lord God, and and the Jesus that in him is in him is contagious, and it multiplies. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Yeah. Love you, brother. So if you aspire to leadership at real church, it's not because of your pedigree. Be *faithful*, be consistent, and serve people. It's what we do.
Period. So number 2, real church. Family matter number 2. We know, a lot of times, if you've been going to real church for any any amount of time, then you know that sometimes we do skits. Sometimes we like to to show what God is doing and what God wants to do through a skit.
So I like to a lot of times, like to to pull up a volunteer or pull up someone to be a part of the skit. And I couldn't think of anybody better, and she might not like me for this 1, but I couldn't think of anybody better for this skit than Jen. Jen, could you could you come up? I didn't warn her about this 1. I'm sorry.
Jen, could you come here? Usually, warn people about skits and stuff. Or if it's random, I have people raise their hands. I didn't warn her about this 1. I'm sorry.
Are you okay with that? Okay. Are you sure? Okay. Good.
Are you ready for this? Are you no? I think you might be. Hey. Would you would you play that in the back?
What what better way to end the Family Matters series than to to show a "picture of covenant", the beginning. That's amazing. When you know Jesus, everybody's like, still hugging people back there. But when you know Jesus and you see how much he loves us, man, it's a picture of family. You do family right.
Doing family right is getting married. You know? That's that's doing family right. That's what the woman wants, and that's what the man doesn't realize, but he needs in a relationship. Doing family God's way.
He created it. So, I don't know who this is for, but get married. Amen? Alright. So now on to family matters, the message, because we dealt with our family matters for real church.
Let's get into it. Before we do, I would love to pray. I just love to pray because, man, I could I could speak and use the gifting that that God has given me and and speak a message that will tickle your ears and you guys walk out of here and you're like, man, that sounded great. You know, he's a decent speaker, blah blah blah blah. But that wouldn't change anybody's life.
Because it's not about how good I speak or how bad I speak, it's about whether or not God speaks through me and impacts you. Right? And it's whether or not you receive what God says. So let's pray together and let's pray this. Let me ask you this this question.
I ask this from time to time. Do you believe that God can speak to you? Yeah. If you do, raise your hand. You believe that?
Do you believe that God uses people to speak to people sometimes? Do you believe that God could use me today to speak to you? Now if that is the case right? I set you up for that, of course. But if that is the case, then why don't we sit on the "edge of our seat" a little bit, proverbially?
Why don't we listen as if God is wanting to speak to us? Check everything by the word, obviously. Don't but but test test it. But why don't we sit on the edge of our seat? Because if if it's God who speaks today, and if you receive a word from God, then it's going to impact your life for eternity.
It's gonna impact every aspect of your life for eternity, and it's gonna produce in you fruit that will last for eternity. You're gonna walk away from here encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. It's gonna break away any lies that you have believed. Right? And you're gonna reproduce Jesus in your life in ways that you never have before.
So let's pray together. *Father*, I just thank you that you are here. Lord, I thank you that you love us. Lord, I thank you, and I pray, father, for every person under the sound of my voice that they receive a word from you. God, you get me out of the way, and you speak what you wanna speak today.
In Jesus' name, we give you the rest of this service. We give you every aspect of it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright.
Let's go to *1 Peter-1*, and we're gonna start in verse 3. And this message might kinda look a little bit like my bible study. Like, this is what my bible study looks like. This is what goes on in my mind. I just pray and ask God to speak to me when I open up his word.
And then I dive in and I question, you know, sentences, and I'm like, God, what are you saying here and there? But let's start here. 1 Peter-1:3. Praise be to God to the God and *father* of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
In his great *mercy* everybody say mercy. Mercy. What is mercy? We've talked about it multiple times. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve.
See, you do deserve, I do deserve, in and of ourselves, we deserve to be separated from God for eternity. It's not about the good that you do. It's not about your good works. We don't earn a relationship with God in his great mercy and you're like, wait. I've been a good person.
I've done good and all this. No. No. No. No.
It's not about you. It's about him. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth. You are brand new. You are born again if you receive Jesus.
You have been made new. New birth into what? Into a living hope, not a dead hope. You have a living hope. So whatever you're going through right now, whatever situation you're in the middle of right now, you can have hope because the 1 who is hope is living and he is with you.
Through the *resurrection* of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an *inheritance* that can never perish, spoil, or fade. We're gonna talk about that inheritance and what that looks like in just a little bit. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith everybody say through faith. Through faith. Who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is is ready to be revealed at the last time.
Who through faith are shielded by God's power. Maybe you've heard before the take up the shield of who through faith now where does faith come from? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So we put our trust in his word, and it shields us from the attacks of the enemy. So we can walk through circumstances and go through circumstances and be shielded from what those circumstances want to do and want to cause to our to our life because we're trusting in what his word says about us, and we know that he's faithful to to make the make come to pass in our life what he says.
Does that make sense? So we're we're shielded through faith. Don't lose your faith, but "keep moving forward" in faith, trusting what he says until the coming salvation that is ready to be revealed. You guys, some of you guys might be like, what is he talking about? Don't worry.
It gets better. Let's go to Psalms-1 0 3. *Psalms-1* 0 3 We're gonna start in verse 8. The Lord is *compassionate* and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. And you have to remember right now, this was written before Jesus died, and the people died on the cross and rose again. The people were guilty and needed like they they were accused because of because of their guilt. They had sinned. They had fallen short of the law and the 10 commandments.
They were guilty and were being accused. But he it says this, he does not or he will not always accuse. Why? Because when Jesus died on the cross, he he became what we were accused of. He became our sin.
Amen? You follow me? *Jesus* was accused for us. He was accused in our place. He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
*Jesus* died as your sin. Jesus was convicted of your guilt so that you could be convicted of righteousness. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. How high are the heavens above the earth? Well, you know, if we we think about the atmosphere, I don't know.
Is it 30, 40000 miles? Does anybody know that offhand? No? Okay. No physicists in here?
No. So but if we keep going, we know that the universe is expanding at the speed of light. So if we keep going straight up as high as the heavens are above the earth, it's expanding at the speed of light. It's infinite. That's how much he loves you, and that's how much he cares about you.
But I don't feel like he loves me right now. Well, that's why we have the shield of faith, trusting in what his word says instead of how we feel regardless of our circumstances. As far as the East is from the West, verse 12, so far has he **removed our transgressions** from us. What are our transgressions? It's our sins.
How far has he removed our sins from us? As far as the East is from the West. How far is the East from the West, guys? Infinitely far. It keeps going and going and going.
Go that way and go that way, you can keep going those 2 ways forever. Yeah. Anyway, Courtney got it. Courtney laughed at me. She's like, where is he going with this?
If he's removed our sins from us because of what he did 2000 years ago, he "washed us white as snow", Why do we still walk around as if we're carrying our sins? As far as the East is from the West, he's removed our transgressions from us. I'm gonna ask you again. If he's removed our transgressions from us as far as the East is from the West, 2000 years ago when he paid the price for our junk, then why is it that we walk around as if we're carrying the burden of our sin? We don't have to anymore.
You are free. Be free. My dad says it like this. Be free. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
Say we are blessed. We are blessed. Say I am blessed. I am blessed. Look to the person on your right.
Say you are blessed. I am blessed. Look to the person on the other light. Say you're still blessed too. Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every everybody say every Every.
**every spiritual blessing* in Christ Jesus*. If you're in Christ Jesus, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Now. Some people are like, alright. Well, that's cool and all, but I need a physical blessing.
How can I get those spiritual blessings to turn into physical blessings? Let me tell you. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. I put my faith in what he says about me and my circumstances shift into what he says. Now those blessings are not just for me.
It's not about, hey. You know, I I give my life to Jesus and all of sudden, my life gets better. That's and it's just about me, me, me, me, me. That's selfish Christianity. No.
We are blessed to be a blessing. We grow in our understanding of who he is and who he says that we are so that we can show those around us who he is and who he says they are. We are constantly "pouring out", pouring out, pouring out, and he is constantly filling us, filling us, filling us. I have a a cup of water God's filling it with his water. What happens to the cup?
Begins to overflow and it wets everything around it. Right? Now what if I'm not drinking from I have a cup of water that's filled with him. Right? But I'm not I'm not allowing him to continue to pour into me.
What happens? The water gets stagnant. Right? Water gets stagnant, stale begins to grow little nasty stuff, right? What was once living?
We need to stay in his in his presence. We need to realize we're loved by him. We need to stay around others. We need to stay connected and continue to receive from him. Receive.
Receive. And don't live off of yesterday's water, but continue moving forward in him. For he chose us, verse 4, in him before the creation of the world to be **holy and blameless** in his sight. Everybody say holy and blameless. Holy He chose you to be holy, to be "set apart" for him, and blameless in his sight.
In his sight, he sees you as *blameless*. In his sight, he sees you as blameless. He has washed your sin as far as the east is from the west. He's taken it from you, and he sees you as set apart for himself, and he sees you as blameless. Quit seeing yourself any way different.
If that's how god sees you, then let's look at ourselves as he says. Yeah. In *love* he predestined us. In love, god can only do things in love because "he is love". That's his nature.
That's who he is. We wanna understand love. We wanna understand the nature of love. We have to understand who he is. Everything that he does is in love but god did this to me but god did this to me but god said this or or or god took this away from me or god gave me this sickness or god gave, no, god didn't do that.
That's a lie. What if it's the enemy that comes to steal, kill, and destroy but Jesus comes that we have life and "life more abundantly". What if you know, the Bible says it's the my sheep know my voice, and the stranger's voice, they will not listen to. That means a stranger's speaking. So so what if there's these circumstances in life that you're going through because life is tough, you know, and the enemy comes in and whispers and says, hey, you did that.
It's your fault. You hear blame and you hear accusation. Well, Jesus already took all of our accusations against us. Right? So there's there there therefore, now no condemnation for us, and and and really, it says the the he's the accuser.
The enemy, Satan is the accuser of the brethren. So if you're hearing accusations that it's your fault and and and you did this to yourself and you're no good, you deserve this junk. Well, guess what? That's not from god. Who's it from?
The accuser of the brethren, the enemy, Satan? So, a lot of times we believe that we feel all condemned and we begin to carry the sin that Jesus has already taken from us. Yeah. But if that doesn't work, then the enemy, the stranger will speak and he'll come and he'll say, god did that. God caused that.
It's his fault He he gave you that sickness. He took that person from you. He caused all of this and then we begin to believe this lie that the god who is love caused all of this junk in our life that was a product of sin being in the world. Right? And now we blame god and we put a wall up between us and god because man, how could a loving god really do that?
So, deep down, we don't really believe that he's a loving god. Then, we get mad at him and we run from him in fear and shame and guilt pointing our finger at him the whole time. You ever been there? Some people are like, that's me but I don't wanna say it. Man, god loves you.
God's compassionate towards you. He cares about you. Quit blaming him for what he didn't do. In love, he predestined us. In love, he predestined us for *adoption* to sonship.
Through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and his will. It's god's pleasure and god's will that you would be seen as his son and his daughter. To the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the 1 he loves. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of god's grace that he lavished on us. Man, that's good.
God loves you. God cares about you. God has adopted you as a son. Amen. He's your *father John-20:17*.
Jesus said this, do not hold on to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. Go and said to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my father and to your father. You hear that? Jesus said, to my father and to your father, to my god and to your god. There's relationship.
There's personal relationship. It's a close thing. So, the first point of my message is god is our father. Family matters. God is our father.
We can see him as our *father* So, a compassionate father. Well, maybe you say, well, wait a second. I didn't have, I don't know what a compassionate father looks like. I didn't have a compassionate father growing up. My father beat me.
My father was mean to me. My father left me. My father abandoned me. My father molested me. That's tough.
And that is that happens a lot. And I'm so sorry. I really am. And you know what? *Jesus* paid the price to heal you of your past, to heal you of what happened to you completely and totally.
*Jesus*, as a matter of fact, he redeemed you. He purchased your past. So your past doesn't own you anymore. So it's time to leave your past in the past completely. You are not defined by what you have done and haven't done anymore, And you're not defined by the sins committed against you anymore.
So it's time to allow the blood of *Christ* and the broken body of Christ to heal every wound, to trust him at what he says that you're loved, and allow him to be your heavenly father. And move forward because now, despite of what you despite what you didn't have in the past or what you have had in the past or what you've been done to you in the past. Christ says, you're born again. You're brand new in him. You're a new creation.
You're loved by god. You're cared about by god. He has made you his own and he calls you his own. So you can leave the past behind you and move forward with what god has and not get stuck anymore because you're not defined by that. Amen?
Amen. God is my father. God is your father And he's good. Second point, Ephesians. Don't worry, I only have 2 points.
*Ephesians-5:25*. Family matters. God is our father. Number 2, husbands love your wives just as everybody say just as. Just as.
Just as *Christ* loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. God is our *father* and we are the bride of Christ. Do you see that in comparison between a husband and a wife and Christ and his church? You are the church. Christ is your husband.
You are connected with Christ. Marriage is a picture of our relationship with Jesus and Jesus's relationship with us and that's why marriage is so important. I was looking for the right word to say. I was like, got stuck there. Marriage is so important to god because it it it shows our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Let's just dive into here and and everything it says about husbands and wives, let's just think about that as us and Jesus. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy. Holy means set apart. To make her set apart. Cleansing her by washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any blemish but holy and blameless.
There's those words again. *Holy and blameless*. You are holy and blameless. You are cleansed by his word and are being cleansed by his word. How are you being cleansed?
Washing of the water of the word. How are you being cleansed? How do we shield ourselves in life? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by? And how are we cleansed?
By the word. You know what, guys? Coming on Sunday and hearing the word from me is not enough. How can you walk in the trials of life Monday through Saturday without knowing what he says about you? It's so valuable and so vital to your life.
We are cleansed and are being cleansed by his word. We're spotless and blameless. He sees us that way now and yet we're being made spotless and blameless day by day. We're reproducing his nature in and through us every single day as we understand more and more what he says about us. Get in his word.
If you're like, well, just I when I open it, I don't understand. We'll we'll pray. God says he'll give you wisdom. He'll open it to you. You're not gonna understand everything just all of a sudden instantaneously could but but chances are what you're gonna do is you're gonna say, god, would you show me who you are?
Would you teach me how you see me and how you love me? And then begin to read little by little. It might just start with a verse, but how do you eat an elephant? 1 bite at a time, guys. Angie said you don't.
Yeah. Anyway, *2 Corinthians-11:2*. Paul says, I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy. Why? Because god's a jealous god.
He's reproducing that jealousy. I'm I'm promised you to 1 husband to Christ so that I may present you as a "pure virgin" to him. You know, god made you clean because of Jesus' blood. He wiped away your past. You are in his eyes are a pure virgin, cleansed and holy.
You were caught in the act of adultery, spiritual adultery, going after going after another, just like the woman that was caught in adultery. And Jesus looked at you and said just and he said, where are your accusers? And and and she said, none, lord. And he looked at you and said, then neither do I condemn you. Now go and sin no more.
In the same way, Jesus says, neither do I condemn you. Now go and sin no more. Be filled with my word. Understand my word. Understand how I see you and what I've said about you.
Allow that to wash you clean and move forward as I have spoken. Without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless. 28, it gets good here. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
Do you realize Jesus loves you as his own body? Jesus loves you himself. After all, no 1 ever hated their own body but they feed and care for their body just as Christ does for the church. And I just get the picture of this wife who understands her husband, loves her, and cares for her, and she's close to him, and he's feeding and caring for her. How does Christ feed and care for us?
Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He feeds us by speaking his word over us. When we get in his presence and we're listening to him, we're praying, we get in his presence, and we're reading, and we're seeing what he says about us, and we're like, wow, that's amazing. I am spotless. I am blameless.
And now because of that, I because I understand and I trust you by faith, I can move forward and live a spotless and blameless life because that's what you say I am and when I forget, guess what I do? I get around others who have been in his presence and man, I forgot and I fell and I get around others and they say, no, you're forgiven. Stand up. Let's walk together. That's called the church, man.
For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and the 2 will become 1 flesh. You are 1 flesh with Jesus Christ. This is a profound mystery but I'm talking about Christ and the church. Right there. What is the mystery?
*Colossians-1:27, *Christ in you** is the hope of glory. You are 1 with Christ. Christ in you. Listen to this, Christ in you is god's hope of glory in the world. There's no plan b.
You are plan a. God's hope of glory in your family is Christ in and through you. He's waiting on you to understand who you are in Christ so that as you walk into your family, you're carrying the peace of god. And when you look at your wife, you speak the word of Christ over her, not what you feel in the moment because you know his word is more powerful than yours. As you walk into your job and they say, you know, you gotta do this and it's a lack of integrity, you say, no.
I won't stand for it. I don't even care if I lose my job. I'm gonna stand with integrity with what Christ says. And every word that you speak, everywhere that you go, when people see you and hear you, they're seeing and hear Jesus because Christ is in you. And when you wake up and realize who you are and who Christ is in you, this city can't contain it.
It's called an awakening, guys. An awakening is when you wake up to the reality that you're a son of god. You're you're the bride of Christ. You're united with him. You're spotless and you're holy and you carry.
Do you realize when when a wife gets married to a husband, she takes on his name. You've taken on his name. When a wife gets married to a husband, all that is his *inheritance* becomes her inheritance. You have the inheritance of Christ Jesus. When a wife gets married to a husband, they're united as 1 flesh.
You are 1 with Christ Jesus. It's a picture of us. All that is his is ours. His authority is our authority here on the Earth. We are ambassadors of the kingdom.
Everywhere that you walk, people should see Jesus. Because that is who you are and that is the life we live. We don't live this just a religion thing where I go to church on Sunday and go live my own life the rest of the day of the week. That's not Christianity. Christianity is, man, I can't get enough.
I'm his kid and I just want to learn from him and I want to sit in his presence and I want to hear him speak to me. It's my food. It's the life that I live. I'm man, I'm the bride of Christ, and I realize that all that is his is mine. And and, man, I I wanna I wanna be around him, and I wanna hear his word because I know it's by his word I live.
And not just for me, but for you, for those around me, for those at the gas station, for those that are listening you know, on podcast, for those when I walk into Walmart. Man, people are waiting for you to be Jesus to them. People are waiting for you to wake up and walk out who Christ says that you are. God loves you more than you can imagine *James-1:27*. Says, religion that god our father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Yes, absolutely. Physically, we need to take care of the orphans and widows. It's a big deal and it's and it's awesome and it's showing the love of Jesus and What's an orphan? The fatherless child What's a widow? Someone who lost their husband.
And you are fathered by your heavenly father and you're the bride of *Christ* So, let's not live like orphans and widows anymore Let's live as those who are loved by our father who are married to Christ because there's orphans and widows all over Clearwater who don't understand the love of the heavenly father. There's widows all over all over Clearwater who don't understand what it means to be married with Christ and they live in this religion. That is no relationship in it. They have no idea how to hear their husband's voice. How to hear the word of the father over them?
And they're waiting on you to be Jesus to them. Too many of us are living our lives as if we're orphaned and widowed when we're not. You are loved You are loved. You are his. He cares about you.
Is this hard? Is it are you guys okay? Yeah. I'm closing. Could you turn me down just a little bit?
Maybe I got a little ring. I think I'd miss it if I didn't talk a little bit, just a little practically about marriage. I'm gonna take about 3 minutes to do that, and then we're gonna close. 5 minutes. I'm a read James-3.
Somebody turn me down just a little bit out there? James-3:14. Says, but if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder in every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all purer than peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere, peacemakers who **sow in peace** and reap a harvest of righteousness. Chapter 4 verse 1, what causes now think about your relationships. If you're married, think about your relationship with your spouse. If you're not married, think about your relationships with your friends or with your family, with your mother, with your father, with your kids. What causes quarrels, fights, and quarrels among you?
Do they not come from your desires that battle within you? You desire, but you do not have, so you kill. You covet, which is like you want, you desire, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. Every fight in marriage, every fight in your relationships is due to selfishness. Think about that.
I mean, that's that's every single 1. It's due to selfishness. Nowhere in his word I'm preaching to myself here. Okay? When I start when me and my wife disagree, it's usually due to my selfishness.
Nowhere in his word does he say it's okay to be selfish. Nowhere. Because we die to self. We live for him. Period.
You know what? Nowhere in his word does it say it's okay to be discouraged. Nowhere in his word does it say it's okay to be disappointed. Nowhere in his in his word does it say it's okay to be discontent. Think about that.
Nowhere. We can't be discouraged because he is our courage in all sir all circumstances. Every single 1. So if you're feeling discouragement, that's from the enemy. Reject it.
Put your mind on what he says. If you're feeling disappointed, you're appointed by God. And those around you may not know it, but they're appointed by God too. Speak to them as he says that they are. Period.
If you're feeling discontent, Paul says I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me. What's he talking about? Right before, he's talking about being content in every circumstance, whether he has much or he has little. Some of us are living a life of discontentment, which is not a life of Jesus. That is the main thing that I had struggled with and have struggled with in our marriage is being discontent.
Isn't that dumb? Because I have everything in Christ. Think about this. I'm gonna say something, and it's going to probably going to rub you the wrong way at first. K?
It's probably just gonna you're like, woah. Did he just say that? I don't need my wife. I don't need anything from my wife. I am completely satisfied and fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
I'm a whole person. Marriage is not addition, it's multiplication. Half. If I'm if I was just a half person looking for my wife to complete me, a half times a half is a fourth. I'm a whole person satisfied in him.
And if I'm completely satisfied in him, then whether or not she does whatever, I can still be satisfied in him, and I can love her regardless. See, when I say the words I love you, if I'm only saying the words I love you to hear I love you too, then that's selfish. It's all about me. But if I'm saying the words I love you, like, really? It's to serve, and it's to let them know, and I'm I'm being loved to the to my wife or to that person or or whoever it is, then I love you is about loving the person, not what you get in return.
What would it be like if in every relationship we had the mindset of Christ Jesus, where he loved you before you even knew how to love him? What would it be like if we had that mindset in our in our marriage? We can be understand that we're appointed by God. We don't have to be disappointed. We can understand that no matter what circumstance, we can walk in courage because he is our courage.
We don't have to be discouraged. We can understand, man, I am fulfilled. I'm I'm loved by my father in heaven. I am the bride of Christ. I can be content no matter what comes my way because I'm gonna trust you.
And I know my circumstance. No matter what, you're gonna "work it out for good" because that's what your word says. And I'm gonna say I'm gonna put my focus and my faith in your word instead of what I see and instead of what I feel. So I'm gonna walk forward contented, not discontented, no matter what happens. No matter if everything's ripped from me.
No matter if they come at me and try to kill me because of my faith. No matter if I were to lose this whole church. No. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna be content because I'm completely fulfilled in him.
No matter if I were to lose my wife tomorrow, I'm gonna be content because I'm completely fulfilled in him. And that allows me to love my wife with a "love that surpasses" all understanding. To love you despite you can come at me and rail at me, but I'm gonna love you back because I understand that I'm fulfilled in Christ. You are not an orphan. You are not a widow.
You're a son and a daughter of the most high king. You're a wife of Jesus. "Stop living" in the past. Let's move forward. Because he has amazing plans for you.
He loves you. Let's pray. *Jesus*, I thank you for who you are. I thank you that you love us. Lord, I thank you that you care.
God, there's some people that are hurting in here that have been living in the past and they need to be healed. They need to receive what happened today. You know what? My wife and I would be at the front. We'd dismiss.
Usually, we sing a song. Jerry and Heidi, you guys would come up too. If you need to let go, you need to move forward, we wanna pray for you. God's gonna heal you right now today. God's gonna set you free, teach you to move forward.
As I'm talking I was talking today about having a heavenly father, be the bride of Christ, knowing his peace and knowing his love. Maybe you're in here and you're like, man, I don't know what that means, but, man, my inside right now, I know I need to know that. I need a relationship with the God that you were talking about because I don't know him. And God loves you so much. If that's you, I'm a count to 3, and I just want you to raise your hand.
You're saying, I need a relationship with Jesus. I don't have 1, and it's time for me to surrender my life to him. 1, 2, 3. Anybody? "Raise your hand".
Wonderful. We all know Jesus. This message was for you today. It was for you to be healed and move forward as a kid in *Christ*. It was for you to learn that you can be Jesus to your world.
God loves you so much. *Father*, I pray right now for this congregation. God, that they just receive the love of the father. Lord, your love. Lord, they move forward in healing.
Lord, they move forward as your kid. Jesus, they move forward as your bride. Lord, that that that this word continues to cut deep as they meditate on what you have spoken about or this morning, and it impacts every aspect of their life, God. It shifts things. It begins to shift their marriages.
It begins to shift their relationships. It begins to shift what they put in their ears and they put in their eyes, Lord God, into your word. Begins to shift how they deal with that boss or the coworker. It begins to shift how they speak to people and how they forgive and don't harbor bitternity anymore because you don't harbor bitternity against them. Lord, it shifts things.
Thank you for you. My wife's gonna close us out and then we're gonna be at the front to pray for people if you need prayer. If not, God bless you.
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