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Wow, guys. I am as excited or more excited than ever about this message. This is an opportunity for you to walk in your purpose more than ever before. It's an opportunity for you, especially if Real Church is your home, to begin to walk out this purpose in the next season at Real Church. So I would encourage you to listen to the full message and respond.
I'm excited. My name is David John Phillips. I get to be the pastor here at Real Church, and the "best is yet to come" for Real Church and for your life. Amen. Well, as I said earlier, my name is David John Phillips.
I have the honor of getting to be the pastor of this church. There's no place that I'd rather be. There's nothing that I'd rather be doing. And I'm so glad that you chose to be here today with me, with us, with our amazing dream team, with the people here. Thank you guys for coming.
Would you guys give our dream team a big old hand too? Some of you like, who's the dream team? They're the serve team. They're the people that are that are doing what it takes to to effectively minister the "love of Jesus" on a Sunday morning. Without them, I couldn't preach, the band couldn't play.
The people on online wouldn't be able to hear it. So I just thankful for to our kids team, thankful to our production team, to the worship team, to everybody. And you know, do you realize most people make the decision whether or not they're coming back to church within the first 10 minutes of stepping on the church campus? It's way before the pastor preaches. You know how they make that decision?
Usually, it's on how they feel. Do they feel loved or not? Do they feel the love of Jesus? They don't a lot of people don't really think that, but that's that's that's what happens. So, it's the dream team.
It's the serve team. It's how people love well that makes a church effective. And I'm thankful for our dream team. I'm thankful for you guys for serving well. And, we pray that you did.
You felt the love of Jesus from the time you walked in till the time that you you hit your seat. And we pray that that love impacts your life for the rest of your lives. And you're always invited to be a part of what God is doing. We are in the middle of a transition. This is actually our last Sunday where it will look like this at this church.
We'll probably have chairs next Sunday, and we'll have the kids stuff. But everything else will be pretty stripped down because somebody else purchased the building. Praise the Lord. It's another church coming in here. They we didn't have $9,500,000 to purchase this thing.
They did. Praise the Lord. Man, I pray it's blessed. I pray they impact the community like never before, but it launches us into a new season that the best is yet to come. And I'm excited to tell you about it at the end of the message today.
You don't wanna miss out. If you're watching online, today is vital. If you're a part of real church and if you're not, please click share because this needs to get out to as many believers as possible. Especially those that have the opportunity to be a part of this local church. If if God's call them to be a part, this is the message that they need to hear.
It's a big deal. And I'm excited about what God is doing and what he's gonna do. So stay tuned. Amen. If you're in here, take your phone out.
Go to Facebook. Click share. You're inviting your your guys to church, but you're also inviting them to hear about what's next at Real Church. It's a big deal. *God* set this series up.
Oh, I was gonna go get my computer, but you know what? We're gonna preach without it. God set this series up. We're in a series called foundations. Okay?
This is the last part of the series. My mouse's a little dry, so please bear with me. It's the last part of the series. You know, the premise for the series is whenever, you know, a sports team goes into they're about to go into their next season, they have this training camp and they go back and they study the foundational skills of their craft, so that when they learn new skills, when they learn new plays for the next season, a football team or whatever, they're ready and it's built upon a strong foundation. And, I said this every service for the foundation series, because it's important.
You have to understand, when somebody's gonna go back and build extra stories on a building, or expand the building, they make sure to reinforce or ensure the foundation is strong enough to handle what's next. Amen? A building can only grow as large as the foundation is strong. And God wants His church to reach people. And so, wanted God put it on my heart to go through the foundation series, so that we understand the foundations of our faith.
Now, as if you've been a part of this series, then you understand foundations are simple and straightforward, but they're not shallow. The foundations of the gospel are not shallow. Don't think that. Don't ever think that. Jesus' love is eternal.
That means it's eternally deep. So we will continually, for the rest of eternity, grow in our understanding of the foundations of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Of the love that he displayed when he died on a cross, rose again, so that we could experience his life. Amen? Come on. Amen?
Amen. Yeah. Talk back to me today. That goes for you online too. I need you guys to engage today, to type out your amens, to quote the verses or whatever.
Later in the service, we're all gonna engage in what's going on, and I want you to engage too. So, I'm speaking to you online. Amen? To you too? Alright.
So, let's start with part 7 of foundations. All of these foundations messages have had a lot of scripture that's important and on purpose. It's to get you guys going into into your word. Right? Going back into into all this stuff.
So, I want you to look at these scriptures with me. Some of you, most of you, if you've a part of real church today, what I'm preaching today, you've heard probably 237,000 times because it's foundational to who we are as a church. But if you're new here, this might be new to you because this might be a little bit different than what your your old church taught. That's okay. I'm okay with that.
If it's in line with scripture, then man, we need to change our beliefs and change our life to line up with what scripture says. Amen? Amen. That's why I use scripture. Alright.
So, let's go to 2 Corinthians-5. I'm gonna start in verse 16, just because I can't leave out this verse. There's such a good truth there. And the title of this message is Go. How appropriate.
Everybody say go.
Go. Good.
Just making sure you're awake. You still are. Verse 16, so from now on from now on, there's no excuse. From now on, we regard no 1 from a worldly point of view. No 1.
Worldly point of view regards someone from their past. What they see about that person, what other people say about that person, or what they see from what they do or don't do. That's a worldly point of view. But we don't see people that way. We see people as created in the image of God.
So whatever they've done in their past, they're still valuable because they're in God's image. Whatever they haven't done in their past, they're still valuable because they're in God's image. We not may not be able to trust them with as much as this person because this person shows the character necessary to handle whatever, but we can love them and help them to grow into everything God's created them to be. Amen? Amen.
So, it's not just looking out though, it's looking here. Sometimes, it's hard to believe that you're valuable, that you're created in God's image. You can't look at yourself from a worldly point of view either. And if you do, you're probably gonna have trouble looking at everybody else from that because you're gonna try to push everybody down so that you can feel better about yourself. But if you realize that you're created in God's image, and not just created in his image but Jesus died for you making your life valuable enough that for God to die for, that changes the perspective, doesn't it?
All of a sudden, we need to look at ourselves with a little bit more value. Jesus died for me. I'm not just a filthy rotten sinner. Jesus said I was worth dying for and I'm created in his image. He must have did that for a reason, for a purpose.
Interesting. Then it says, though we once regarded Christ in this way, do so no longer. That just means we used to think Christ had no meaning, just a fairytale or a story, or he was just a prophet or a guy that walked around the earth. He didn't really have no meaning to me or any meaning to me. But he does when you realize he's the king of kings and lord of lords and he actually loved you enough to die for you and rise again so that you could experience his life here, now, today, in relationship with the God of the universe.
That's the gospel. Right? Simple. Straightforward. Deep.
Let's keep going. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come or he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new is here. That means you're not once a drag a drug addict, always a drug addict. You're not once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
I'm sorry to the popular teaching. Bible says you're a new creation in Christ. Therefore, you're once a alcoholic, now a new creation. Now, you're no longer an alcoholic because there's no alcoholics in Christ. You might still struggle in your mind with some of that stuff.
You just need to be renewed in your mind to realize the reality of who Christ says that you are so you can live it out. That's good. So then we need to look at other believers as new creations who just need to understand what Christ has done done for them. They need to see his love lived out through my mouth to them in the way that I serve them. So that they can walk in the freedom that we have because we understand.
Amen? Amen. Okay. You guys are following me so far? All this is from God.
I can confidently tell you everything I just told you is from God. It was right there. Who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of what? So, he just he gave these pastors on stages the **"ministry of reconciliation"**. Is that what it says?
Nope. Everybody say, he gave us. That means he gave me. Everybody say me. Me.
Say, I am a minister. I am a minister. Of reconciliation. Of reconciliation. If you're a believer, you've been reconciled in right *relationship* with God because of Jesus.
Therefore, you, your commission by God is to be a minister of reconciliation, reconciling those around you into right relationship with God because you are. Ministry's not for the pastors, guys. We'll talk about that more. Ministry is for all believers. As a believer, I'm a minister.
2, but you are a minister of reckon what does that mean? Minister of verse 19. Here's what it means. Because there's a little colon there. It's like, this is what it means.
That *God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ*. It's not God's will that anyone should perish. If your theology says otherwise, you need to shift it. Jesus paid for the sins of the world. Watch this.
That God was recognizing reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. That means Jesus paid for all of the sins of the world. So there's people walking around in sin thinking God hates them or there there isn't a God and they don't realize that Jesus already paid the price for their sins and God's not counting them sin the their sins against them in Christ, if they're in Christ. So, our role as a minister of reconciliation, say, hey.
Hey, you. *God* loves you, man. Like, Jesus paid the price for you. You don't have
to live that way anymore. You can walk in relationship with the heavenly father.
You don't have to say it just like that. You can say
it by the way you serve them. You can say it by the way you love them. You can say it by the way you speak to them. You can say it by the
way you live around them, and you can use words. The
people need to know,
because it's a free gift. You guys have seen me do this over and over and over. I want you to get this in your soul. If I buy this phone for you, I put it in your name, give you all the minutes that you ever need for the rest of your life and and put it and say, hey, here this is yours. You have an option.
I don't believe you. Never pick the phone up, never use it and die separated from the gift that I gave you. There's a lot of people that are dying and going to hell and will be in hell for eternity because they rejected the free gift that Jesus gave. And he commissioned us as ministers of reconciliation. To do to what?
Watch. We are therefore Christ's *ambassadors* as though God were making his appeal through us. God wants to reconcile the world to himself through us. That's a responsibility as believers. Wait a second.
I'm not just supposed to come to church and sit and listen and go home. No. As a disciple, you're a minister. That's who you are. It's right there in scripture.
You can't just wait on the pastor. It's important. It's important. Everybody say it's important. It's important.
It is. Yeah. Amen. Good job. Okay.
We are Christ's ambassadors. So an ambassador, what's an ambassador? It's it's someone from another nation that goes into a nation that represents the interests of the king of that nation, or the president of that nation. Right? When you're born again, you're a new creation of heaven.
You're an ambassador of heaven. You're no longer of this world. In the world, not of the world. That's his verse. You're an ambassador of the kingdom of heaven, doing his will with his authority on earth, if we would believe it.
And His will is for you to be a minister of the kingdom on earth, reconciling the people around you, bringing the people around you into relationship with Him like you did. Multiplying what He's done in you. Amen? It's all right there. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
*God made him who had no sin. And this is the gospel*, 1 verse. This is the gospel. God made him who had no sin. Who was it that had no sin?
Jesus. To be sin for us. Guys, Jesus had no sin, but he died. He became my sin. My sin on the cross.
So that in him I received him, he entered into my life, I entered into relationship with him, and so in him I might be the righteousness of God. I have right relationship with God. "I'm in" right standing with God. When he looks at me, he sees the goodness of Jesus by faith. And now because I have right standing, can go on about right doing.
That's righteousness. That's the gospel. That's what we do. And that's what you're commissioned with day in and day out. Yeah?
You agree? Alright. Let's go to Ephesians-4. We're skipping quite a few verses. *Ephesians-4:11*.
This is this right here, what I'm about to share with you, what I just shared with you, is part of the DNA of Real Church. It's who we are. It's where we're going. Listen to this, verse 11. So Christ himself gave everybody say gave?
Gave. Gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. Okay. So this is a gift from Jesus to the church. The gift these are quote unquote the mentors of the church, if you will.
I don't care what you call me. You can call me an apostle, evangelist, a prophet, pastor, a teacher. I really don't care. It's not about a title. But I know that my role, whichever 1 of those I am, is the same.
Let's say if I was an apostle is to use the gifts that he gave me to do what? Verse 12, to equip the people for the works of service. Another version says ministry. So it's to use those gifts to equip you for service and ministry. If I was a prophet, it would be to use my prophetic gifts to equip you for the works of service and ministry.
If I was an evangelist, it would be to use my evangelistic gifts, my evangelistic office, to equip you for the works of service and ministry. If I was a pastor or a teacher, maybe so. Whatever it is, it's to equip you for the works of service and for ministry. Amen? Amen.
My role as 1 of those things is not to do ministry. My role as a disciple of Christ is to do ministry. Jesus commissioned the disciples to go throughout the world making disciples. Disciples make disciples, disciples minister. My role as whatever God has called me is to equip you for ministry.
And as an individual, I'm a minister day in day in and day out of my life. Amen? Amen. Okay. What does that do?
Verse 12, to equip the people for the works of service so that Christ, so that the body of Christ may be built up. Hey, you guys watching online? Just type amen if you're listening. So, I want you to stay engaged too. It's important.
Like, this is a vital message for our congregation for this next season. So that the body of Christ may be built
up. Jesus doesn't want his body to be lacking.
And how the body is built up is the body of Christ serving and ministering to 1 another and to those coming in. To those that don't know Jesus. It's not built up by not doing that. It remains lacking if that's the case. But, if I'm effective, and I wanna be, I'm I wanna do everything I can to lay my life down so that I can be effective at the at the calling that God's given me to equip you.
But then, you as the body of Christ and us together, we could collectively lay our lives down to serve and minister so that the body of Christ may be built up. And guess what? Local church is a local I mean, church is a local part of the body of Christ. He wants real church to be built up, as well as Mission City Church, Generation Church, all of the churches around. He wants them built.
The church that's gonna be in here, Grace Family Church, he wants them built up. You know why? Because they're the body of Christ. And if you're called to be a part of that church, praise the Lord. Go build them up.
Go serve and minister. That's awesome. If you're called to be a part of a real church, serve and minister so that the body of Christ may be built up. If you're a believer. If you're not, sit here and listen to the love of Jesus and let us serve and minister to you until you become a believer and then start serving and ministering.
Amen? Amen. Okay. Next verse. What happens when that happens?
Not only is the body built up, watch this, until. So, serving and ministering is a part of the process, and you faithfully do it as the body's built up until, that means you continue, until there's an end to serving and ministering. You know what the end is? Until we reach unity in the faith. That's number 1.
If there's division in the church, the division is coming from somebody who doesn't wanna serve and doesn't wanna minister. Because unity comes through serving and ministering. That means division comes through selfishness. Because you don't wanna serve others and minister to others, it's selfish and love doesn't seek its own. But unity comes through laying down yourself in order to serve and love others.
That's minister to others, that's love. So if you've been living your Christian life sucking, there's a there's a parable or an analogy that I came up with when I was 15, and it's applicable today. You know what the analogy is? Big water tank. It's the source.
*God* is the source. He's the big water tank. A pipe going from the water tank. The pipe's supposed to take the water and give it out. But if the pipe doesn't give it out, the water that it receives gets stagnant.
It can only receive as much as it gives out. And it can think it's receiving all kinds of stuff that's just flowing over the top, but it's really not receiving anything new. It's just getting stagnant. So a lot of people that just come and sit, conference after conference after conference, brag on who what preachers they've heard and what things they've heard. But if you're not giving out what you're hearing, your head knowledge is growing, but your life's not.
And so you got this big old head knowledge, and guess what? You fall over. Pride comes before fall. As you learn, you minister and serve and your body, the body gets stronger and more unified. Not only does it unify, watch this.
*Ephesians-4:13, until we do it, we minister and serve, until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God* and become Mature. Attaining to the full measure, the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. That means as long as we're in this body, we're serving and ministering if you're a believer. And as you do, you will mature. You ever wonder why you've been stagnant in your relationship with Christ?
If you've been stagnant, you know why? It's probably because you're not serving a ministry. If you feel stagnation, you probably need to go serve a minister. You probably need to give out the last word God gave you. If you feel stagnant in your relationship with Christ, that's the litmus litmus test.
If I feel stagnant in my relationship with my wife, if I don't feel like I love her as much as I used to, it's probably because I haven't been loving her. So, I need to go wash the dishes. I need to go do something for her to to love her. And as I do acts of love, all of a sudden, the feeling comes back. It's amazing how that happens.
It's the same principle. You feel stagnant in your relationship with Christ. You've been receiving, receiving, receiving. It's time to give out. Because if you just receive its death, think about the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea lowest place on earth has no outlet. It only receives. There's no life there. But the Sea Of Galilee right above it receives and gives out full of fish. You're created to receive and to minister and to serve.
Don't minister and serve without relationship. You minister and serve without relationship, security here, guess what? You're burn out. You'll be done. No, it's, I'm in relationship, Monday through Saturday, as a believer.
On Sunday, I come to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ, and pour out into the lost that don't know him. So that they can come to know the love of Jesus, be a part of it, and get with it. So the body of Christ may be built up. Unified and mature. So, here's a here's an "alarm system" in your head.
If you sense disunity, are you ministering and serving? Here's another alarm system in your head. If you sense stagnation, are you ministering and serving? Because if not, that's the reason. See that in scripture?
The title is how important is this? *Matthew-28*. Hopefully, I'm saying this with a smile. Hopefully, it's not coming off as like a big old axe. Just I don't wanna do that.
I'm I'm I'm telling you because I love you, and because I love the body of Christ. You know? I I I really do and I want to I want us to grow together in Christ Jesus and effectively reach the world. So please don't think I'm mad at you. I'm not mad at you.
You're an amazing church, you know? Amen? Amen. You can type 1 man on there. Okay.
*Matthew-28*. Then verse 16, then the 11 disciples went Galilee to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. That's interesting. Before he gave them the "great commission", he tested them with obedience. So a lot of lot of times, just a little tidbit, a little sidetrack here.
There's a lot of times God wants to do what's next in your but he's waiting to you to obey for what he just said. And what he just said is the test of your character. Are you willing to trust him? You a lot of times we pray for what's next. We want what's next, but we ain't willing to do what he said.
Right. Amen or owe me. Sometimes it's owe me. But then we repent, we get up, we keep walking because he's good, he loves us, and we're forgiven. Verse 17, when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.
Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I commanded you. I'm with you always to the end of the age. So, they're gonna make disciples and teaching us to make disciples and we go make disciples and we teach them to make disciples and they get and the cycle cycles and that's why you're sitting in these chairs and that's why we're having this conversation right now.
Right?
But I'm I still have doubts.
They saw the resurrected lord ate with him, saw his hands and feet, and were there with him on the on the mountain and some of them worshiped and others were doubting. And Jesus still commissioned them to go. In the midst of your doubts, you're commissioned to go. If you're if you're a believer in Christ. *John-20*, Jesus appeared to them.
They're all afraid. You know, they're afraid before he appeared because of fear, because of persecution. Jesus appeared to them for the first time, said peace and then he commissioned them to go do the same things he did. So you're afraid and and fear oh, you're fearful and doubtful? So what?
You're still commissioned. Go minister and go serve. Amen? Amen. Praise the Lord.
Alright, well, let's talk about it. I know what's next for real church. I'm excited about it. And I think God set it up for the last message of the foundation series to be go. Cause this is the last service that you'll see like this.
We're a half service here next Sunday, and I encourage you to invite your friends, invite your loved ones, invite everybody. It's important. We'll have some chairs. We'll have the chairs sitting out. Stage will be gone.
All this stuff will be gone. We'll have the kids area, so you can still bring your kids. We'll have kids service. It'd be awesome. But it'll be very acoustic.
I probably won't have a microphone, but I got a loud voice. Sorry. No big deal. That being said, for everybody watching online and all in here, we're having a big old real church work day on Saturday, 8AM until we're done. If you can come at 8, great.
If you can come at 12, great. But please come. We have a sign up sheet outside. If it fills up, turn it over, write your stuff out there. I wanna contact you and just confirm a time for you because we have to be out after Sunday.
And we'd love for you to to participate in that. 1 of the things of serving in that way, though it's work, is you build relationships with the body of Christ and build family. Those that work together, together. Or those that serve together, stay together. Probably could say those that minister together, stay together.
So I invite all of you. If you're like, well, I can't carry a lot of stuff. Come. You can carry a pen. You can sit down and encourage us as we do it.
We want you here. But let's talk about the transition. Let's talk about what's next for Real Church. Online, I want you to lean in. I'm gonna have some action steps for you at the end of this, so it's important.
But before I do, let me get another sip of water. Remember do you guys remember the mission statement of real church? I know a lot of the dream team that were here this morning do. If you don't know, I'll just tell you real quick. The vision statement, the overarching thing is whatever it takes for you to know love and live purpose.
Know the love of Jesus, live your God given purpose. Said really succinctly is just no love, live purpose. God is love. You can't know him without knowing Jesus. It's like the gospel in 1 statement, real real kinda simple.
That's the overarching like, why we do what we do. Jesus laid his life down, did whatever it took for us. So we see his love and then we lay our life down for for him in order to do whatever it takes for those he put in front of us to know love and live purpose. Right? That's just what we do as Christians.
Well, that's why it's the vision statement of the church. What God really put on my heart I'll tell you the core values too because I think they're important. And these core values, they're basically what you feel. They should be what you feel when you come into our church without even realizing it. And I've heard this said from time to time.
So it's always encouraging when this is the case, because this is the culture, core value set culture, by the way. If you're attuned to any of like leadership stuff, a lot of core values set culture and culture matters. Our core values are together we love boldly, communicate transparently and create with excellence. The love boldly part comes from Jesus. He was "scandalous in his love".
I mean, supposed to be the king as everybody else thought. He's coming in with a with a a conquering sword, but he came in as this humble servant, shepherd king, who laid his life down for the people so they can experience real freedom from the inside out. Scandalously not caring about what they had done in the past or who they were, what they look like, what they smell like. Same thing for us. We love boldly.
That's why I tell our team all the time. We're laying our lives down so that everyone that comes through these doors on a Sunday morning, we can do it outside too, small groups, other things, but on a Sunday morning we lay our lives down so everyone comes through no matter who they are, what they've done, what they haven't done, what they look like, what they smell like. It doesn't matter that they experience the love of Jesus because that's what Jesus did for us. Therefore, this is what I tell the dream team. After we get we have a little dream team huddle thing in the beginning, I say, the rest of this service, after we're done ministering to 1 another, the rest of the service ain't about you.
It's about those people that are walking through that door. We want them to experience the love of Jesus as they come in because they some of them have been hurting and and and this is their last hope. And man, if they see Jesus through you, they might come to know him and walk with him like we do. Love boldly. It's 1 of our core values.
Hopefully, you experience that kind of love. If you haven't, please tell us we wanna get better. Number 2, communicate transparently. You can't have relationship with someone unless you take the walls down. So I wanna be transparent from the stage.
Ask me anything. There shouldn't be anything to hide. If there's something to hide, it's probably wrong. In a relationship in a marriage, the more open you are, the more intimate you can be. The more open I am, the more intimate I can be in a relationship with God.
Well, as a church, the family, the same thing too. Communicate transparently. **create with excellence**. It's the "wow factor". You see the sunrise on the sun on on on, you know, the beach.
You see the beautiful blues and oranges and purples, and you see it and people drive from all around just to go see the sunrise, Clearwater Beach or Indian rocks or whatever and they go, wow. And they're just captivated. *God* did that. He's created with excellence to draw people into relationship with him through his creation. So we want to do the best that we can.
We were on a month to month lease. Give us a little grace with the carpet, guys. But we wanna do the best that we can with what god places in our hands and the talents and gifts that he gives us to create with excellence so that people walking through the doors or experiencing our small groups or experiencing serve teams or outreach or whatever we do, people say, wow. You would do that for me? We say, yeah.
*God* loves you that much, man. It's worth my morning. It's worth my sweat. But then it's all wrapped in together we. Together we, law, boldly, communicate, transparent, and creative excellence.
Why? Because alone, you're ineffective and unproductive. But together, we're the body of Christ. Bible literally says, those who walk in the light as he is in the light will have fellowship 1 with another. That means those who don't have fellowship probably aren't walking in the light.
If that's an old me, kick the shoe off, put a different shoe on, start walking in the light, and let's have fellowship together. *Repent. That means change your way of thinking. Get connected. If this is the local body to do so, praise the lord*.
Let's walk together. Let's have fellowship because we're walking in the light of Christ. And we're doing it together. We're loving boldly, communicating transparently, and creating with excellence together. And as we do that, the Bible says, *John-17*, Jesus prayed.
He said, make them 1 as we are 1. Then the world will know. Man, if we're doing this together, the world's gonna see that kind of unity. The world's gonna see his love and know that Jesus was sent for them. That's our core values.
Hopefully, you've experienced that to some extent coming to real church. God put on my heart our mission statement. It's a whole another story on how we wrote it. But He put on my heart the first 1, about a month and a half ago, 2 months ago. engage the culture with the love of Jesus.
Just begin to speak to me about that a little bit. Engage the culture and kinda playing in my mind. Well, July, I go and meet with pastor Craig, great guy, man of God. Pastor Craig Altman, he's buying the facility, breaks the news to me. We gotta be out September 1.
They plans and that kind of stuff. They were generous to us. We didn't have to pay rent the last 2 months. Praise the Lord. You know?
We got a place to store stuff over there for a little while, which is awesome. So we're thinking about what are we gonna do? Like and of course, we've been "portable church" before. We've been "mobile". Right?
In Clearwater High School, that's how we started a year and a half there. And it was awesome. Changed a lot of lives. We we we we probably could have done portable better. We had a lot of totes and carries, not very many wheeled things.
I mean, probably could have done portable a little bit better. But man, God used it. It was awesome. We're learning. Anyway, about 2 weeks after that you guys following the story so far?
Am I telling it okay? Alright. About 2 weeks after that, I get a call from a woman named Sandy. I got a long standing relationship with Sandy. She's Sandy is Jerry and Heidi, our 2 2 of our elders, the husband and wife, Jerry and Heidi.
Jerry's in here somewhere. He's probably out ministering to somebody. She's their old 1 of their mentors, amazing, mighty woman of God, and she's a prophet. Remember that list? Ephesians-4:11, apostles, prophets.
She ministers from that office and has that gift consistently. And she hears God clearly. And I know from my past, when you hear her say, hey, you know, gives you a word, you should probably listen to it whether you like it or not. So I'm talking to Sandy a couple of weeks after we hear about, know, the church and stuff, and and she has no idea while we're on the phone, by the way, about the building being sold and us having to find a new facility. She has no idea.
She's talking to me about a book she's writing, and, you know, I'm talking back and forth, and I was talking for a bit, and she said, Pastor David? I said, yeah. She said, as you're talking, I just have this word that keeps reverberating in my spirit and I gotta tell you. She said, mobile. And I reacted harshly.
I said, no. Sandy, no. I said, you don't even know what you're saying right now? But no, and and you had to have heard God wrong, but we as a church, we want to anchor. We don't wanna be portable again, and and we we've done that.
It wasn't easy but we just feel like we should buy a building. We just or we should lease a place for long term because it's easier. I didn't say that. And she kind of reluctantly said, oh 0, well, look, it could be some, I don't know what it means. I just know that's the word I was hearing.
Could be something different from what you're saying. Just pray about it and over time like, okay. Actually, I had to call her back 2 weeks later. And I I I said, look, the Bible says, do not despise prophecy. There's a verse that says, do not despise prophecy.
So, call I said, look, I'm not despising it. You know, I I just wanna hear clearly from God. If that's God, praise the Lord, you know, I'll do whatever he asks, we'll do whatever he asks. But that let that be that. So, diligently, our team has been searching for a building for the right place.
We really, honestly, we didn't have the capital to buy, especially not in this market. But we did have some money for a nice monthly lease with also the ability to do a bit of a build out. And looking in our budget for what we need to have as a church, and not just here, but to grow a bit, most markets it's there. But, in this market right now, there's "dead end" after dead end after dead end after dead end after dead end. And, let me tell you, everywhere on LoopNet, I have looked at, and if it was even remotely close to what we needed, I have called, I have talked to the people.
We also had a team of multiple realtors from multiple different places, and they'd give me information, and I'd say, I've already talked to them. I've already talked to them. I've already talked to them. If it's on LoopNet, I've already talked to them. Why are you sending me this?
Dead end after dead end after dead end after dead end. We're holding out by faith. Well, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the lord. So, if it wasn't the word of lord, it wasn't faith. 2 weeks ago, come to the realization from a good friend, Krueger, telling me something I didn't wanna hear.
Hey, even if we do find a space to anchor long term, there's going be a bit of a build out. Permits take a while to get. It's going be at least 6 months, probably more like a year. And as reality set in, I realized Sandy was right. We're gonna be a portable church again, at least for a season.
And actually, I had to call back Sandy and tell her because I always wanna tell somebody that was right. But see, a lot and I said in my heart at that time, yes, Lord. And the thing is, when God wants you to walk into something that he has planned for you, a lot of times you have to say, "yes, Lord", before you understand. But he'll always give the passion you the passion for what he's called you to. Just you got a lot of times have to say, yes, Lord, before you get it.
Like when God called me to move back to Louisiana years ago to help my dad with his church, I didn't wanna go. But I said, yes, Lord. And then as I was driving across the state line, God gave me a heart and a burden for the people that I was going to minister to for that season. Same thing here. Now, I'm more excited than ever.
And I wanna tell you why. I wanna tell you what the plan is. And I think that real church, I know the real church is gonna thrive and that you all are invited to be a part of it. See, we left Clearwater High School with great relationships with the Pinellas County School Board. Talking with the person that's in charge of leases, she said, and I quote, we want you in a school.
We never had any calls from most places. We get calls from that are complaining about this from you guys. We never had anything. It's because we serve the teachers, we serve the maintenance guys, we serve them well. There was great relationship there.
The currency of the kingdom is relationships. He wants to get something done. He does it through relationships. So we have an opening. It's just finding the right school.
Began to look around. We believe we found the right school. We got 2 that are very interested in this coming. 1, we could go to if we want. Another 1 that is a strong, strong there has to be 1 more person say yes.
We believe that one's the 1. We'll find out Monday or Tuesday. I'll announce it to you this next Sunday for sure what school we're gonna be in. It's nice. It's clean.
It's got great classrooms near to where the auditorium would be. It'll be perfect at engaging the culture with the love of Jesus. And in doing this, I believe going into a school is gonna give us opportunities to reach people that we would never would have reached here. And it's an opportunity, I believe, our first season launching the church in Clearwater High School was to start it. Our next season here was to equip those that were a part of the church.
Equip the believer to engage the culture with the love of Jesus. To equip you to minister. But now, church, it's time to go minister. It's time to go to this school. Once again, I don't wanna say it yet because we haven't signed on the dotted line, but I, Lord willing, we will sign this week to go to this school.
And if it's not this school, will be another 1. But to go to this school and to minister the love of Jesus and watch as more lives than ever have been transformed through real church in this community and in this county. Here's the plan. Saturday, those of guys that are watching, I want you to, Saturday, if you can be here 8AM, showing up, we're tearing all this down. If you can't be here at 8, come when you can.
Stay for as long as you can until we're done. If you can only stay 30 minutes, come, please. Sweat equity. It's important. Then, Sunday, invite everybody because I'm inviting everybody that comes today, and I'm inviting everybody that comes next Sunday, and everybody who's ever came to Real Church to be a part of what we're doing.
Come. After that, for the month of September, we will be online because we have to convert all of our equipment into portable again. But we're gonna convert it into portable excellently. So that the cases are big and strong and roll on and off and are easy. Get it there.
It's all organized and nice. It's gonna be costly, but it'll be worth it. Our equipment, we gotta be able to do live online excellently. Because most people that don't know Jesus and has never been to church, watch online before they come. So if we're gonna engage the culture with the love of Jesus, we need to do it excellently, so that they can experience the love of Jesus, and so they can come to know him through us.
Because that's remember, we implore you on Christ's behalf as ambassadors. That's what we are. So, for the month of September, we're gonna have a month of **prayer and fasting**. I'll be doing online about a 20 minute message on prayer every Sunday. We're gonna have houses of prayer at host homes that you guys will be able to sign up for next week and online.
Go to a host home for "house of prayer", watch the 20 minute message, be engaging, but then you guys are gonna take communion together. Some people will some people will do worship if they have people that can sing or some people might just not sing like they're in the shower and praise the Lord, you know. I don't know. Some people might choose not to. But the prayer always precedes revival.
Always. And it's gonna precede revival this time too. And it's gonna be amazing. And I invite you to participate in the prayer that precedes revival because the Bible says when you see the answers to your prayers, your joy will be complete. You want complete joy?
Pray and watch it happen. And you'll you'll receive it. It'll be awesome. Then, what we're gonna do during that month of September, we're gonna create teams, those who are willing, those who wanna serve and minister. We have 1,400 people, 1,444.
It's probably some redundancy there, so conservatively, maybe 1,200 on our list of people that have ever come and filled out a "connect card". I wanna call everyone. I wanna call everyone, not me, us together, and invite them to our first service, October 17. Invite them personally. And if the opportunity presents itself, pray for them on the phone.
And if they're a believer, invite them to serve with us. Because here's the deal, doing what we're wanna do at this school, we need everybody to be to serve and to minister. And here's the here's the important part of it. And I want you to catch this. I wanna I want you catch it.
I want you guys to online. I want you to catch this vision. There are mamas that are anxious because there's babies been crying. They're on their last leg. And their last hope will be coming October 17 or the 20 fourth or whatever Sunday they come.
And to find something that's clean and nice and welcoming and to find people that they can leave their toddlers with so that they can go hear the gospel. It takes somebody willing to think outside of what they need in order to lay their life down to minister and to serve so that that mama can hear Jesus and come to know Jesus. And you know why they would have come to know Jesus? Because the people serving their kids. They wouldn't have come to know Jesus if their people weren't serving their kids.
Many of you, *God* is calling and putting on your heart right now to be in the kids team for that. It's not because you love kids. It's because you love people more than you love yourself. I'm not saying you serve there every Sunday. If we have a large enough kids team, people serve there once a month.
At least, at at least no more than twice a month. But man, if everybody if everybody ministers and serves, think about how many people we could minister and serve. And how many people can come to know Jesus. Our worship and production team needs to grow. We need people who are willing to learn about cameras and all the other stuff that they do.
Our setup team and teardown team needs to grow. We need people who are willing to unload the truck. And say, you know what? I'll give up my Sunday morning early or my Saturday night whenever we're able to do it because the people that are coming through these doors are worth it to hear and know the love of Jesus that I know. I'm not just coming to church to receive, I'm coming to church to serve and minister.
Because I know that that's what it takes to mature and unify the body of Christ and for the body of Christ to be built up. So, we need serve team. We need we need set up and tear down. We need people, a worship team, and and and production and and guess what? You're probably not just gonna be put up on the stage if you this is the first time there needs to be relationships.
Right? And so you're probably gonna start serving in somewhere production and stuff because this is leadership. You know, just pour out leadership. Right? You wait till people have the heart to serve first.
If you can't clean the toilet, you can't speak. Do you understand? People want a microphone without being willing to serve people. They want a microphone for themselves. **Serving comes first**.
You wanna be on the leadership team, elder, deacon, if God's calling you, put that in your heart, praise the Lord. If you're not serving, you're not going there. People will serve for a year. Whether that's leading small groups serving on Sundays or both because it's important. The heart of Jesus is John-13.
He taught the last lesson he taught his disciples was bend down, wash their feet, and say, go do this to each other too. You want to lead? Lead is a serve. Just is. I feel called a leader.
Why haven't you placed me in leadership yet? Well, are you effective at serving consistently, faithfully, or not? And and if the shoe if if God put leadership in your heart, I'm not telling you this to hit you with an axe. I'm telling you this so that you understand the path in Christianity towards leadership. It's serving others.
So let me finish. I got on a tangent there. So we'll call everybody on the 1,200 person we'll also create teams, and it's gonna take a lot, but it's worth it. Handwritten note, every 1 of the 1,200 mailed to them. Everyone inviting them to come.
And if we know them and they're believer, we're inviting them to serve with us, to come back and start serving, start serving again at this this new home and new season of real church, where we're gonna be more impactful, because more people are ministering and serving than ever before, so the church will be built up better than ever before, and reach more people in Pinellas County for the love of Jesus than ever before, and
the cycle will continue to cycle.
Amen. Amen. Praise *God*. Not only that, we're gonna send out a 100,000 piece mailer. 100,000 homes.
100,000 homes. There's a statistic on how many people will come from that. And many of them will be unchurched people, People that haven't tried church in 10 years, haven't tried church in 5 years, or just been offended for some reason. They just need to be know the love of Jesus. And they're gonna give their life to Jesus that first Sunday.
And it's gonna be amazing. But it won't happen if we're not ministering and serving. That's reality. What else are we gonna do? That night, we're gonna have a "big old party".
Hopefully at Highland rec center, if it's open, we're gonna find a park. We'll have a party. We'll have cookout. We'll have stuff for the kids. We're gonna have bouncy slides.
Why? Because we want to give every person that came that day. 1, we wanna celebrate with the the the team that helped us to to do this at at this new home. It's awesome. We wanna celebrate them.
It's a big deal. You guys. But number 2, we wanna give every new person the opportunity to experience food and fun in Christ. Because guess what? The goal is discipleship.
And you can't disciple people without relationships. So we wanna provide every opportunity from day 1 for them to develop strong relationships so that they can walk as effective disciples of Christ. And October 17, we're also gonna start small groups and give everybody the opportunity to join in, sign up for a small group, and become a part of where really *discipleship* happens when you're serving and in small groups. In small groups is where you're really able to iron out things and get deep in the word and all that kind of that's really that's where the disciple that's where the church really happens at real church is in small groups. This is just a challenge and a kick in the butt, and encouragement and a shot of love.
But man, this is small groups where relational discipleship happens. So we want to get as many of them in small groups as possible. And as many of people, as many believers as we can serving as possible, so we can minister and serve 1 another, and mature, and unify as a body of Christ,
and as we mature and unify, man, then Jesus' prayer, make them 1 as we are 1 so the world may know, then more the world will know because what God's doing through this aspect of the local body of Jesus *Christ*, right here, real church. Man, come on. Let me tell you what he's doing in Pakistan, just from what you guys have done so far from this little local body. And can you imagine what he's gonna do? In Pakistan over the last year, in 15 unreached villages because of your radical generosity, it's went from "1 family", 1 family, 15 villages that speak a language that only the Old Testament or the New Testament has been translated in.
They don't even have a whole Bible yet. 1 family, we started partnering in *relationship* very intimately connected and because of what you have done, it went from 1 family to 400 new believers to 25 leaders to oh 1000 believers. I just got new word that's multiplying even more. There's 18 20 believers in a region of 15,000 people. It went from 0% Christian to 18.
Wait, no, less than 18%. 12% Christian. That's amazing. That's crazy. That's what we did as a little baby church.
Unified together. Can you imagine what God's gonna do? Not just in Pakistan, and not just around the world, but in Pinellas County.
Guys, this has been my heart from the beginning. But it's time for it to become your heart. And it's time for us to unify together and say whatever it takes for the person walking through this door to know the love of Jesus, live out their God given purpose. So we serve and minister to them and invite them to follow Jesus. And following Jesus looks like getting get served and get connected in groups so you can grow in discipleship.
And then man, there'll be all kinds of outreach and all kinds of crazy stuff that happen as a result of it. It'll be awesome. So here's what I want you to do. Online, I told you you're gonna get connected. It's time to connect.
I want you to look down on your seats. There's a little connect card. So look down to your right or to your left. Go ahead. Look down.
Pull that little connect card and that pin. Can I get the worship team come up? Please, everybody pull out the connect card. The bible says, those of you watching online and here, the bible says, where you see God at work actually, I'm sorry. The bible doesn't say this.
This is a principle pulled from the bible by Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God, if you've ever heard of it. But the principle is where you see God at work, that's your invitation to join him in what he's doing. I want everybody Raise your hand real quick. Come on, let's exercise. Everybody raise your hand.
Raise your hand too. Alright. Put it down. Do you see God at work at real church? Yes or no?
Yes. There's your invitation from God to join him in what he's doing. So we're gonna sing and worship, and we're gonna respond. And here's what that response is. If you wanna be a part of what God's doing in this new season at Real Church, You wanna serve and minister.
Might not look what it look know what it looks like. That's okay. But if you want to, I want you to fill out that card and put I'm in. If you're new here and this is your first time and you're like, man, I want to too, but I have some questions. Fill out that card, put I have questions.
I will personally call everyone who fills out that card and put time in or I have questions. Personally, me. I'll try to do it this week. If you're online, you want to be a part of what we're doing. I want you to comment on YouTube, on Facebook, I'm in.
Or I have questions. If you can, I want you to message me? If you don't message me, I'll message you. I wanna call you. I wanna talk to you.
Because here's the real deal. *God*'s put inside of each and every 1 of you that's here today. Let's watch it online. Gifts, talents, and abilities, passions that are to be used in the local body of Christ to build up His body so that the world can know who Jesus is. And if you're here today, I believe it's because you're supposed to be a part of this 1.
I could be wrong. But here's the real deal too. The gifts, talents and abilities that God put in you and the passions He put in you will never come out like they're supposed to until you're connected and using them in the local body of Christ. Real church can't be what God's called real church to be until you are walking out your passions, gifts, and talents, and abilities in and through this local body. And here's the thing, you can't be what God's called you to be until you're at the place God's called you to be, the local church God's called you to be, walking out your passions and gifts because there's other people in this body that have gifts, talents, and abilities that are connected to yours that you don't know yet.
That without them, without the unity together, you'll never accomplish what God's called you to be and do throughout the world. And you probably don't even have an idea what that is yet. That's okay. Because God's waiting on you to do the last thing before he shows you the next thing. Pretty awesome.
I don't want I wanna do this too because this is important. Would you all bow your head and close your eyes for a moment? Is there anybody in here that would say, all this stuff's awesome. My heart's pounding, but really I don't know who Jesus is. And I came here for hope.
And I heard that Jesus loves me and I want, and wants a relationship with the God of the universe. And I know I need that. If that's you, if you if you need a relationship with Jesus, would you raise your hand up high? You say, I don't know God, but I want to. Would you raise your hand up high?
Please. I implore you on Christ's behalf. You need to know Jesus. Is there anybody that would say that? Just raise your hand up high.
I don't wanna embarrass you. I just wanna lead you into a relationship with Christ. If you're online, message me. I wanna lead you to Jesus. Alright.
I want you guys to look up. When we get effective at engaging the culture with the love of Jesus, there will be many lost people in the service that are wanting to come to know him. We need to start ministering and serving so that happens. Amen. Let's worship him and let's respond.
You can respond by filling out the connect card. If you'd like, can put that in the giving boxes on the side. You can also respond by communion. Encourage you to take communion. It's a acknowledgement that Jesus is Lord and Savior, and that you're remembering that you're washed by His blood and healed by what He did.
And if you'd like during worship to give tithes and offerings, you can do that as well. You can give online. We love you guys. I promise the best is absolutely yet to come. Let's stand and respond.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and 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.usgiving, or you can text any amount to 840-0321, and then just search in the link that comes up, search for Real Church Clearwater.
*God* bless you and the best is yet to come.