You can start today by surrendering your will to Jesus as Lord, choosing His path over your own desires. Stop letting past failures or stereotypes define you, and instead walk in the freedom of His forgiveness. Take the next step of faith by committing to read His Word and pray daily.
What is up, Real Church? Thank you for tuning in again to the Real Church podcast. We are continuing this foundation series, and I'm excited about today's message. Today's message is titled the **"normal Christian" Life**. Man, we're gonna really unpack that today.
I know today's word is gonna be challenging, but encouraging, and it's gonna help you walk out this normal Christian life. God bless and enjoy. Now today, the title of the message is the normal Christian life. The normal Christian life. Let me ask you a question.
And I need some audience participation for this 1. And you guys can comment online. That would be great. I'd love to go back and read the comments. When a typical American, I'll use the word I'll use American because we're in America.
When a typical American thinks about a normal Christian, what words would they use to describe what they would see as a normal Christian?
Stuck up.
Stuck up? She says "always kind". So, perfect? Okay. Okay.
So, I'm I'm talking about before you came to know *Jesus* and before you believed in Christ, what did you what was your perception of a Christian? *Bible* bee did you did did you think they were always kind?
No. Yeah, like "no bad days". Like, you got Jesus, you have no bad days, you don't even complain.
Oh, okay. I gotcha. I see where you're going. Before you came to Christ, the church hurt you more than anybody in the world. Oh, that's tough.
Perfectionist, I heard over here. What's some other ones? Holy. Hypocrite? Holy.
Judgmental. Judgmental? You guys see where I'm going now. Alright, judgmental, hypocrite, hurt, holier than thou. What did what did you say?
Boring. Boring. Arrogant. Arrogant. Weird.
Weird. Yeah. Come on. You guys are going to see. You the hopefully we got some good comments online too.
Pushy. Oh. I think a lot of a lot of lot of people see *Christians* as pushy if they're on the outside looking in. Any Self centered. Self centered.
Whoo. Gullible. Whoo. Now, I mean, I'm getting lots of crowd participation now. Okay.
Should it be that way? Okay. The definition of normal is conforming to a type, conforming to a standard, conforming to a regular pattern. Now, some of you know this because some of you have heard this before. *Christians* weren't always called Christians.
*Christians were called followers of the way*. It was the way of Jesus Christ. But in the city of Antioch was where they were first called Christians. Let's read it. In *Acts-11:20* five-twenty 6.
Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called *Christians* first at Antioch. I'll just give you a little background here.
Antioch was like the second or third largest city in Rome at the time. This is in the Roman Empire. Okay? It was a major place of trade. So, that being said, that means there was every ethnicity in the Roman Empire was there at the church in Antioch.
Okay? So, you had also had every social socioeconomic class. You had the rich, you had the middle class, you had the poor, all there in the church at Antioch because the church represented really those that they had reached from the greater culture. So, in the church, you had Europeans, you had Middle Easterners, you had Africans, you had North Africans, you had Asians, South Asians, East Asians, all who were involved in trade had been 1 to Jesus and were part of this church in Antioch. You had rich, you had middle class, you had poor, everybody.
What's interesting is the Romans, when they saw the church in Antioch, they called them Christians. The word Christian, let's break it apart. Christ, I a n e n, Christian. That I a n is a Roman or is a Latin suffix, and that suffix means ethnos, a whole another nation of people, a whole another ethnicity. So it's interesting.
When the Romans saw the church in Antioch, they didn't identify them by their skin color. They didn't identify them by how rich or poor they were. That's how they would normally identify people. No. They identified them as a whole another ethnicity of people that did what Christ what they heard Christ normally did back in the day.
30 years before, 40 years before. See, the stories of Christ had been going around the Roman culture at the time. They'd heard about Jesus. And when they saw this church, they said, man, they identified them more with Christ than they did their own skin color. They identified them more with Christ than they did their own socioeconomic class.
Because they were doing what *Christ* normally did. And it looked different to the Romans. You guys follow me so far? You guys get that? Normal being conforming to a type, conforming to a standard, conforming to a regular pattern.
Therefore, a normal Christian in the church of Antioch was someone who did what Christ did. So then my next question for you is, what did Christ normally do? Right? We we we hear what people see and say a Christian is today. We we we heard that.
But the outsiders identified the church as people who did what Christ did. What? I need some more crowd participation. What are some things that Christ normally did when he walked this earth?
He spread truth, love, and life.
He spread truth, love, and life. Let's be love and light. Let's be specific. That's good. What else?
He Okay? *Healed* Spread truth, love and light. He healed people. What else? He raised the dead.
Okay. What else? He loved the children. He loved the children. That's good.
He flipped the tables in the temple.
**Righteous anger**.
Righteous anger. Cast out demons. What else? Spent time with outsiders. Spent time with outsiders.
Come on. He took time took time away with God. Went off to the mountaintop. These are things he normally did. What else did Jesus normally do?
Teacher. He was a teacher? So he didn't just keep it to himself. He prayed. He prayed consistently.
What else did Jesus normally do? Encouraged. Encouraged. He was an encourager. What else?
Convict. Convict. Predict. Predict. So he told the future.
Yes, he did. Prophesied. What else?
He spread
the He the gospel. Spread the "good news". He spread the good news of the kingdom. The kingdom has come, he said. I'll give you a couple more.
Oh, everything that you said was love. He loved people. Had compassion for people. Compassion is seeing people in the midst of their suffering with a desire to alleviate it. Desire to take away their suffering.
He was a servant. Amen. He forgave even when they didn't deserve to be forgiven. He "washed his enemy's feet". His the the 1 that was about to betray him, he washed their feet.
The people that he *healed* were screaming at him, crucify him, crucify him and spitting on him. And Jesus said, father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. He was the embodiment of love. Right? Jesus, the Bible says, Jesus is the "exact representation" of the heavenly father in bodily form.
And the Bible says that God is love. So, everything that you said can be wrapped up. 1 Corinthians-13:4-8. "Love is patient", love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others.
It is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. He loved in that way.
He also loved supernaturally, as you guys said, healing *demons* cast out, raising the dead, all of those things. How did Jesus do those things?
By the power of the Holy Spirit, my God.
How did He do them? By the power of the Holy Spirit. *Acts-10*. Let me read it to you. I'm going somewhere with all this.
*Acts-10:37-38*. It says, you know what happened throughout the providence of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached? Verse 38. How God anointed *Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit* and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil. How many?
All. Because God was with him. So Jesus did all of this by the power of the Holy Spirit. My question to you is, how does this affect us today? Yeah.
The same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in us. Now, here's here's something. I'll wait to go here. Let's let's go here in a second. How does this affect us today?
*Matthew-28*, the great commission. I wanna focus in on something here. Now, the foundations of the gospel are simple and straightforward, but they're not shallow. Very deep. And it gets ever deeper as we grow in revelation of who Christ is and who he is in us.
Amen? Okay. *Matthew-28*, we're gonna start in verse 18. It says, then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go.
Other versions say, as you go. Right? Make disciples of all nations. That's our commission. Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
And teaching them here's what I want you to key in on. Verse 20. And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the end of the age. Now, if Jesus did everything that he did walking around the earth as God, then what we can say is, wow, that's awesome.
*Jesus is God* and that's amazing, but I could never do any of those things. I'm just gonna worship him because he's God. And we do. We worship him because Jesus is God. He's fully God, 100%.
But if Jesus did everything that He did as a man, filled with the Holy Spirit, that changes things. Because then, we're men and women filled with the Holy Spirit.
The same Spirit.
The same Spirit that rose from the dead. *Jesus was fully God*, but He walked around the earth as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Philippians-2, He set aside, He did not count equality with God something to be grasped. What did He do? He was equal, fully equal with the Father, but yet He chose to live life as a man.
Let me let me put it in perspective for you. Jesus was *born* through the birth canal of a woman. I just saw that 2 weeks ago, my little baby. It's gross. The Bible says Jesus learned *obedience* through suffering.
Do you realize *Jesus* pooped on himself and had to be cleaned by his mom? Jesus breastfed? Jesus grew? Jesus probably skinned his knee? Why?
Did he have to do all of that? No. He's God, but he chose to. He lived life as a man filled with the Holy Spirit and overcame for us. So that we could know that he's been through everything we've been through and he can relate to us and have empathy and compassion so that we can relate to him Cause we know He's been through it.
And He overcame so we can trust in Him. You guys follow me? Fully *God*, **fully man**. And did that because He loves us. It's important.
So how does this affect us? Jesus said in Matthew-28:20, he says, and teaching them to obey everything. Everybody say, oh, everything. Everything. Everything I have commanded you.
Surely, I'm with you always at the end of the age. So then, what did Jesus command the disciples? Because whatever he commanded the disciples, that is applicable to us because we are supposed to learn everything that Jesus commanded the disciples and to do it. Amen? Amen.
You guys follow me there?
Yep. Alright.
Well, let's see what Jesus commanded the what are some things Jesus commanded the disciples to do? Let's go to Matthew-10. Now, this this might challenge you a little bit out of your comfort zones. I'm okay with that. Just go to scripture.
If it goes against some of the things that you've always grown up believing, I'm okay with that too. Go to scripture, I love you enough to teach a truth. Okay? Praise the Lord. And and and as you go to scripture and you and you walk in relationship with Him, God will help us to walk forward in everything he's called us to walk in.
*Matthew-10 says, Jesus called his disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits, demons*, and to heal every disease and sickness. Does does it say some diseases and sicknesses? No, it actually, it literally says, every. In verse 8, Jesus commands them. He says, heal the sick, "raise the dead", cleanse those who have leprosy, **drive out demons**, freely you have received, "freely give".
You see the command there? It's quiet. **freely give**. Freely you've you've received. Freely give.
I mean, this is a command. Wait. Wait. And Jesus said, teach them to do everything I've commanded you. Right?
So, we're sitting here today in a church because the disciples started making disciples and teaching them to do everything we commanded. That that Jesus was commanded to them. And that's that's why in Antioch they were called *Christians* because they were doing everything that Jesus was doing day in and day out. You follow me? So, basically, what we need to do is we need to raise the standard because the standard of normal is Jesus for a Christian.
And we need to raise the standard and and look at what does it mean to live like Christ in this world. Let's keep going. What are some other things that Jesus commanded? That's as a as a Chris we're growing in our understanding of who Christ is and growing to what it looks like to live that way. Amen.
*Luke-9:1*. When Jesus had called the 12 disciples together, He gave them the power and authority to drive out some demons. How many? All All demons, and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom and heal the sick. So there's there's your there's your command.
Let's go to Matthew-10. Oh, wait. No. I've already read that 1. Let's go to John-13.
I'm giving you a lot of scripture for this because this is the foundations. So I don't wanna just give you a feel good sermon. I want you to go back and look at these scriptures and make sure that you get this deep down in your soul so we can walk together in this as we grow together in Christ. *John-10* or sorry, chapter 13 verses 34 and 35. Here's a command.
A new command I give you, love 1 another when you feel like they've loved you well. And man, if they really hurt you, you don't have to forgive them. You know, you can just feel like you love them. Yeah. Is that in there?
No. Nope. New command I give you, "love 1 another" as I have loved you, so you must love 1 another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love 1 another. You know, so Jesus washed the feet of his enemy, of the 1 who betrayed him.
As we said earlier, the ones who were crucifying him, Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. But pastor, I was raped. I understand. *Forgiveness* is not saying what they did was okay. Forgiveness is saying, I'm releasing them to you God.
I'm not gonna hold onto this and hold it against them anymore. I'm gonna release them to you so that I can love them how they need to be loved. That doesn't mean you need to hang out with them constantly. That means you love them how they need to be loved. Sometimes love says the truth.
Sometimes love separates for a time. Love isn't just this feel good thing that this culture says. Love isn't acceptance. I can love you and not accept the way you're living. *Jesus* flipped tables and that was love.
*Jesus* told the rich young ruler, give it all away and follow me. And he walked away and Jesus let him go. And Jesus is love. Sometimes love's tough. Sometimes people will be offended at you and walk away because you had the courage to love them in a way that nobody else would.
You had a cur the courage to tell them the *truth* in kindness because love is kind. But, you had the courage to tell them the truth when nobody else would. I pray they come back months later, years later and and thank you for it. But we're supposed to love in the way Jesus has loved us, which means we're supposed to *forgive* because we've been forgiven even when we didn't deserve it. That means we're supposed to tell truth even if it means that we lose a friend for a while because they just want you to accept them instead of love them enough to tell them the truth.
That means we're supposed to be radically generous even if they don't deserve it because Jesus gave His life for us. That's radical generosity when we didn't deserve it. That means we're supposed to embody 1 Corinthians-13:4-8 in every aspect. Love never love keeps no records of wrong. Love is not self seeking.
That means we're not supposed to be self seeking in any of our relationships. You do this for me, then I'll do it for you. Nope. That's not Christianity. I'm gonna lay my life down for you.
And I'm gonna help you to grow so that you can do the same. Isn't that love? Isn't that the command? That's not natural love. It's impossible to do that by our own effort.
It's impossible to live that way naturally. That's why the Romans saw these followers of the way and called them a whole another ethnicity of people because they weren't living naturally. They were "living supernaturally" by a power that was out of this world. It's the Holy Spirit that was in them empowering them by faith to live the way Jesus lived. To love the way Jesus loved.
There was it wasn't just all about miracles and raising the dead though that did happen. It's supernatural to forgive your attacker. Especially when it's was someone close to you. It's supernatural to be generous to the waitress when she don't deserve it. It's supernatural to "step out of your comfort zone" and begin to be bold when you've always been timid.
The Holy Spirit has not given you the spirit of timidity, but of love, of power, and a sound mind. Why would you say that you are something that the Holy Spirit is not when he's in you and you're a new creation? Right? We don't live by who we always thought we were. We live by who he says we are.
And Christ is the picture of normal. Therefore, if it's not in Christ, it's not who we are because we're a new creation in Christ Jesus. I told you, foundations, simple, straightforward, but deep, not shallow. Amen? Amen.
So we're
*Christians from Christ* like Mars or from
Martians. From I don't know if I'd go the Martian route, but I I see what you're saying. T I a n. I a n. Martian.
Right. From Mars. So just like From Christ. Yes. Just like a European, it was changed to an e, but it's the same thing.
There are someone from Europe just like an Asian is someone from Asia, American, African, South American, a Christian is someone from Christ. Someone that represents Christ in their life, in every way.
Here is our DNA, our bloodstream that's been passed down.
That's right. We are have a new nature and it's Christ's nature and we're born again and we're renewing our mind to the understanding of who he says that we are. So, the question is, how is this possible? I told you it's supernatural. It's not natural.
How is this possible? *John-14:12*. *Jesus said these words. He said, very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing. They will do even greater than these because I'm going to the father and Jesus had to go to the fathers to pour out the spirit* that was on him to put it in us.
So, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, love supernaturally, forgive supernaturally, be radically generous, lay our life down for our brothers so that the world around can see Jesus in and through us. That's the works that God has called us to do. John-14:12. 1 John-4 17, how can we do this? Well, let me show you that I'm just not off my rocker and out of my mind.
John chapter 1 John-4:17, the religious man might hear this. I mean, now, I'll probably get messages from people that say, oh, you're you're, you know, preaching heresy. Well, look at 1 John-4:17. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement. In this world, we are.
Like Jesus. Like who? Jesus. In in this world? There it is.
That's the word of God.
In this world, we are like Jesus. Christianity is not about you trying really hard to be the best form of yourself that you can be. Christianity is about you believing in Christ. Through that, you no longer exist. Christ exists in you.
You are a new creation. Christ wants to live through you. So that through you, he'll impact the world around you because in this world, you are to be the representation of Jesus. And who is Jesus? The exact representation of the Father who is love.
You are to be the representation of love to the world around you, supernatural love. Amen? Amen. *1 John-3:2-3*, just to drive that home a little bit. Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known.
But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves as he is pure. Wow. I have that hope in him. So, that says that we purify ourselves as he is pure.
But then it says, right before it it says, when we see him, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Meaning, the more clearly I see him as he is now, the more I'm like him today. So I need to renew my mind to the reality of who he is to understand him more clearly because the more I understand who he is, the more I'll be able to clearly represent him in the world around me. The more I'll be able to love others the way that he loved. The more that I'll be whether that's, like I like we already talked about supernaturally.
Amen? Okay.
Does free will free will and the Holy Spirit don't operate at the same time?
Yes. Free will and the Holy Spirit do operate at the same time. You have the free will she asked, so free will and the Holy Spirit don't operate at the same time? Yes, they do. You the Holy Spirit will never make you do something that you don't wanna do.
So that's why we call him Lord. He leads us and we live a life by following him and choosing to lay down our will to do what he says. And he's going to lead us to look like Jesus in our daily life. Right? So he's gonna lead us to love like Jesus would in the moment, moment by moment as we learn to hear him.
Alright. So then the question is, and this is this is where we'll wrap up, and this is where it might get for a second, a little like, oh, wow. Wait a second. He's talking to me. But I'm talking to you like this because I love you and I wanna encourage you.
The question might be, why am I not seeing this in my life? Why am I not seeing this kind of supernatural stuff? Dead being raised, people healed, demons cast out. Why am I not seeing this kind of forgiveness? It's so hard to forgive.
Why am I not seeing this kind of radical generosity in my life? It's so hard to let go of these things. Why am I not seeing this in my life? Let's talk about it. Luke-9:37.
The next day, when the crowd came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. A man in the crowd called out, teacher, I beg you to look at my son for he is my only child. A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams. It throws him into convulsions so that he "foams at the mouth", it scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. Verse 40, listen to this, I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they Could not.
They could not. That's Luke-9:40. What's interesting, because in Luke nine:one, *Jesus* called the 12 together, He gave them the power to drive out all demons except for this 1? No. Jesus had already given the disciples the authority to drive out all demons.
That was his word to them. But they couldn't drive this 1 out. What did Jesus say? You unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.
Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion, but Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to the father. And all were amazed. Let me ask you this. Was it God's *will* to heal the boy? We know it was because Jesus healed him.
So it was God's will. So many times, we don't see miracles in our life or we don't see this radical supernatural love or other things, we just say, well, must not have been God's will. The *disciples* prayed. The disciples tried to cast the demon out but could not. And they had the authority from Jesus.
Right? Right. And Jesus did it. Something's going on. It was God's will.
*Mark-16:17* says, These signs will follow those who believe. They will heal the sick, they will raise the dead, they will cast out demons, they will do all this other crazy stuff. *Mark-9*, let's go to the same story. Verse 17, exact same story. I want to point something out to you for you guys to chew on.
Man in the crowd answered, Teacher, I brought you my son who was possessed by a spirit that robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes at the teeth, becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not. You guys agree this is the same story?
Right? This is the same story. It's just through somebody else's perspective. It's somewhat it's through Mark's perspective instead of Luke's perspective. Okay?
The gospel of Mark. *Jesus replied, you unbelieving generation*, how long will I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me. So they brought him.
When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground, rolled around foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, how long has he been like this? Now, this is important. He's foaming at the mouth.
I want you to catch that. Like, this is a freaky situation. I don't know about you, but I'd freak out. Right? And to put it on top of that, Jesus says, from childhood.
So this just isn't isn't just a 1 time occurrence. This is something the kid was probably born with or at least started as a child. From childhood. It has often thrown him into the fire or water to kill him. So, this is a spectacle for your eyes.
Take pity on us and help us if you can. *Jesus* said, if you can, everything is possible for the 1 who? Everything is possible for the 1 who? Believes. Believes.
Believes. Immediately, the boy's father exclaimed, my consistent prayer. I do believe. "Help me overcome" my unbelief. Thank you.
That's my prayer. All the time. *Father*, help me overcome my unbelief. I believe. When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit, the deaf and mute spirit, he's you deaf and mute spirit, he said, I command you, come out of him and never intimate him again.
The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately. I would've asked him privately too.
Kind of ashamed. Why couldn't we drive it out? He replied, this kind only comes out by prayer. Other versions say by prayer and fasting. We're gonna explain that.
We're almost done. Let's go to the same story in Matthew. Okay, we just saw Luke's version, Mark's version. Let's go to Matthew. *Matthew-17*.
Starting in verse 16, I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him. You can go back and read before. It's the exact same story. Okay? Jesus replied, you unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you?
How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me. Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he was healed at that moment. Verse 19, then his disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, why couldn't we drive it out? He replied, because you have so **little faith**.
What is faith? faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Jesus imparted into them the faith, what they needed for the faith to do this thing. When he said in Luke-9:1, you have *authority* to drive out all demons. They didn't believe his word.
What what did they see instead? They saw the foaming mouth. They saw the circumstance. Do do we live by what we see, or do we live by what he says? Faith comes by I mean, we we live by faith, not by sight.
Right? So, they saw the circumstance. They saw this boy shaking on the ground. They saw this boy foaming at the mouth. They heard, this has happened from childhood.
Man, this is 1 of those incurable diseases. I probably don't have the faith for this 1, and they didn't. They were unbelieving. They didn't believe god's word as much as they believe the situation. So, what they put their faith in manifested.
Their faith was in the situation and the situation continued to manifest. Instead of putting their faith in what god had told them. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the? Word. And Jesus told them, You have authority over all demons right before.
Right? Okay, so he replied, Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move. I can't just say to any random mountain. This is not a name and claim it thing.
It's the faith. Did God say for that mountain to move into the sea? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by His word. If God said it and I heard it, then I can say to that mountain and believe and it will happen. Then he says this, nothing will be impossible for you.
And then verse 21 is tagged on in some versions, which says, this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. Just to explain that for those of you that are wondering, prayer and fasting fasting is not a formula to get a demon out. It's been taught that way in a lot of churches. I love those pastors. I'm not saying that they're less than men of God or anything like they are mighty men of God.
But on this point, they're wrong. Fasting is not a formula to get a bigger demon out. Everything happens in relationship. Prayer is communication with God. So I'm speaking to him and I'm hearing his voice.
And when I hear him, I pray what he says. If you ask anything according to his will, he hears you. And if you know that he hears you, you know that you have it. So when I hear his will and I pray his will, it has to happen. The mountain has to go in the sea.
The demon has to come out. The person is forgiven. The all of these things. Right? Yeah?
What is fasting? Fasting is, I'm setting aside what my senses are used to. Hunger, what I'm used to watching, what I'm I'm setting aside my senses in order to live by your word in this set period of time rather than what I'm used to living by. To train myself to hear you more clearly. Fasting helps you hear God more clearly.
Fasting is relational. I'm setting it aside. It's like taking a vacation with your wife. You haven't got to spend some alone time together. So, you go spend some alone time together to to grow in relationships so that you can understand and communicate more clearly.
That's what fasting is. It's relational. So, why does this kind only come out by prayer and fasting? Because this kind, the the the little boy was shaking, rattling, rolling. The senses wanted to believe this instead of his word.
So, if I'm fasted up and I've been consistently praying, I'm more more used to hearing his voice than I am to walking by what I see. So, no matter what I see, I'm going to stand in his word and live out the normal Christian life. Yes. Yeah? How is this applicable to everything else?
The normal Christian life? Because in life, it is normal in America. It's normal for Christians to not live by like Christ because they're used to living by what they see. They're used to saying, oh, culture says, I shouldn't forgive this person. Culture says, I shouldn't be generous.
Culture says, I can't pray for this person because I've seen this and I've seen this history and I've seen this circumstance and so, I'm used to living by culture and when I live by culture and not by what I confess but I believe, everybody else thinks I'm a hypocrite.
Okay. Yeah.
But we are normal Christians. Meaning, we don't conform to what the world says. We have our eyes focused on Christ. So, we look to what he says and we in *relationship* are spending time with the Holy Spirit. We're fasting from time to time.
We're learning what it looks like to hear his voice more clearly. And as we hear his voice more clearly, and we see him more clearly, we're able to live out who he says that we are. And the world around us looks at us and they see Christ.
Amen.
That's Christianity. Simple, straightforward, not shallow. It's relational. Many people are like, wait a second, hold on. Much less than healing the sick and raising the dead.
I just I just need to forgive somebody. I just need to learn to be generous. I need to stop holding on to this stuff that whoever did to me a week ago, you know, and now I'm all bitter in my heart and hurt and I need to start start there. How do you start there? Believe.
Believe that you're *forgiven* and then forgive. Believe that you're loved and then love. If you have trouble hearing his voice in that, spend some time in prayer. Get in his word. Get around other believers that believe and hear them speaking his truth into you so that you can actually believe.
Anything that you're struggling with, it's a lack of belief. Amen. Everything. It's not their fault. Because all of his promises are true.
And to you, they're yes and amen. So, everything you're struggling was a lack of belief. Does that mean you're not gonna go through tough times? Yeah. You're absolutely gonna have to go through tough times, but I can believe him in the midst of the storm.
*Jesus* is in the bottom of the boat and it's storming and he's sleeping. Why? Because he's he knows he's good. The disciples wake him up because of lack of belief. They could have been sleeping beside him.
You're gonna go through storms but when we believe, we can walk through them with him. You're gonna have tough times. When we believe, we can respond like Jesus would in the situation and *supernaturally love* ourselves. It takes faith to forgive yourself because Jesus forgave you. But also supernaturally forgive others because Jesus did and walk with him day in and day out.
That is called the normal Christian life. And we need to raise the standard back to normal and live like that. So what happens if you're not living that way right now? Have you put your faith in Jesus? Are you born again?
Because if you are, you're forgiven. Believe it.
How'd you really get born again?
The Bible says to be born again. She asked, how do you really get born again? Believe. Bible says, if you believe Jesus died for you and rose again, and you confess with your mouth that he's Lord, you will be saved. You will be born again.
It's not confessing to a priest. You don't have to walk an aisle, you can. But what you're saying is, I believe you died for me. I believe you washed me clean from my past even though I don't feel it right now. I know you did because your word says it.
I'm gonna put my faith in you. And not only that, I'm gonna confess you as Lord. I'm going to confess you as Lord means I'm saying yes to you as the Lord of my life and no to myself when I wanna do something that's different from what you say. That's what it means to be for him to be lord. So to confess him as lord is, you're my lord.
You tell me not to date that boy. My body says I want to. But you said, so yes, lord. I don't feel like going to church today. But, you said, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as some are in the matter a habit of doing.
Yes, Lord. You said to spend time with you in prayer. My flesh doesn't want to. Every time I go to, it just fights me on it. But, wait a second, I'm dead to that.
I'm gonna do what you say. Yes, Lord. I just messed up and didn't do what you asked me to say, and I sinned. But you said, I'm already forgiven, so I'm gonna believe you, get back up, and go do what you asked me to do, instead of drowning in condemnation. Yes, Lord.
Yeah?
Yeah. Yeah.
So, being born again, you can do it right now. I believe. You're my Lord. I'm a follow you. That's enough.
For the rest of you, you haven't been living this way. Guess what? To some extent, I haven't. I'm not seeing dead raised every time I lay a head on my hand on a dead person yet. I don't have a trouble a problem forgiving anymore though.
I've been walking in that. If need if you need help forgiven, let's pray. I wanna pray with you. I wanna help you forgive. Right?
"God wants to grow you" in that. So, *Romans-8:1, therefore, there is now no condemnation* for those in Christ Jesus. Don't be condemned by what you haven't been doing. No. Get back in relationship with the father and keep walking with him.
Amen? Amen. Let's pray. *Lord*, you. You're awesome.
Thank you that you're so real, so good, and we can walk with you day in and day out. Lord God, I know this message was challenging, but it's foundational. Lord, I pray we begin to walk like you because we believe that you are who you say you are. So we are who we say who you say we are. Lord God, let us forgive, let us love supernaturally, and let us take the next step in our faith.
Whether that's to read the Bible, whether that's to pray, whether that's to "pray for healing" for someone, to lead somebody to Jesus, or just to come back to church. Lord, let us believe enough to take the next step of our faith in our faith because you said you're good. We trust you. In Jesus name. Amen.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a "deeper understanding" of how much God *loves* you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.usconnect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, 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.