You are called to move beyond head knowledge and build an authentic relationship with Jesus that transforms your life. Embrace the community that challenges you to grow and stand firm in the truth that you are forgiven and pure.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. I'm thankful that God sent me here, sent my wife and I, our family to plant this church.
We moved 7 and a half years ago, planted the church 6 and a half years ago. The vision and mission and values that God has given us before we came, wrote them on paper, they're not changing, they won't change. Why? Because God did it. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting I'm sitting on the on the step at my great grandmother's house, which was what we were living in, she had gone on to be with the Lord, and and Lord, what do you want real church to look like 1 day?
You know, and and I had to write out a vision, mission, and values for it. I wrote it out. Like, man, this is I love this. Lord, I pray it's from you. Well, God confirmed it.
We moved here, and the third day after we moved, we were at Highland Rec Center. My name is David John Phillips. Usually, you meet another person with similar names, it's John David, not David John, just so you know. Never met another David John in my life except for my dad, my son, but also this guy. I was in Highland Rec Center third day after we moved, and sat down and I'm sharing the gospel with people, man, trying to build relationships, invite people to be a part of what we're doing, and he was a Christian, and after hearing what God was doing and gonna do in real church, he said, man, I got a book for you.
And he handed me a book titled Wiki Church, W I K I, like Wikipedia Wiki Church. I was like, man, thank you. You know, I took it. I took it home and I began to read it, and the exact mission statement that I wrote down 6 months before we moved was what this book was about by a church that had been running that play for 25 years in The Philippines, and was an international ministry that had discipled multiple people from multiple cultures. *God* gave it to us.
We're not changing it, but you're invited to be a part. Amen? Our mission statement, how we do church is we engage the culture with the love of Jesus. We establish the believer in the body of Christ. We equip the believer to engage the culture with the love of Jesus, and we empower the ready to live their God given purpose.
It's basically fancy words for make disciples. Engage, establish, equip and empower. And once you're established, you're giving us the license to disciple you. And that's uncomfortable for a lot of people because a lot of people just wanna be alone in the back and, you know, let me come to church, "check it off my box" and be done. I'm not saying if you haven't been to Established Class, that's you.
I'm not saying that. Maybe you're just making sure that this is the right thing, I talked to somebody earlier and then, you know, it just hadn't worked out for their schedule. We're gonna make it easier for you. But for many people, that's the case. And I just want to encourage you, *discipleship happens in the context of relationships*.
The whole Bible, especially the New Testament, the letters that Paul wrote, it was a plural you. The fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self control, that all happens in the context of relationships. And the Body of Christ is the Body of Christ for a reason, because you're supposed to have deep relationships in the Body of Christ that help to challenge you and you help to challenge them forward in their walk with Christ. Amen? It's important.
So if this isn't the right local church for you, praise the Lord, go to 1 that is. Go to 1 where you can get healthily connected, not just hide in the back, but build deep *relationships* with people that are gonna challenge you and encourage you and help you to move forward in your walk with Jesus and eventually you'll do the same for them. That's a healthy church. You know it's the right church for you if you've been going there for a few months and you start to feel a little bit of a pressure to to change. And it makes you feel uncomfortable.
Don't go to a church where you're comfortable being who you what you've always been and not challenged to change. If you start feeling a little a little pressure and challenged to change and you're uncomfortable, what's going on? That's called God. Because it's uncomfortable for your flesh to walk with Jesus in an authentic way. That's why the Holy Spirit's called the comforter.
Because it it takes radical steps of faith to step out of your comfort zone and into looking more like Jesus day in and day out. And the Holy Spirit comforts you in that, but empowers you forward and will not let you stay the same and walk in peace at the same time. Peace, kingdom peace, His kingdom, His kingdom peace is the fruit of what He put inside of you and surrender to Him 1 step at a time. The fruit of disobedience is a lack of peace and a lack of looking like Jesus. The fruit of obedience and walking with Him is looking more and more like Jesus every day.
And that's what we're gonna talk about a lot today. I have I have 2 different I just spit a lot, baby. Are you okay? Good thing we got our first row back quite a bit. I got I prepared I called it 2 different mini messages today, but when I went over the message yesterday, only 1 of them came out, and it was much much longer than I thought, so I'm only gonna get to preach 1 message today.
It is what it is, but I'm excited about it, and I think it's gonna help you, and it it helps me, and I hope and I pray that you walk away understanding really practically some of the stuff we teach all the time. It's all throughout scripture. Just maybe with some analogies or a visual of what the Christian life looks like, so that when the things that we talk about are happening, you can see that picture in your mind, realize, and be aware of the enemy's schemes of how he wants to take you out so you can walk in freedom and everything. Amen? So, with that being said, we're still in the Corinthians series.
People laugh because we've been in Corinthians for about 3 years. In and out of it. It's the base series. We go back to it if Lord didn't lead in something else. So, I'm I'm I'm just gonna briefly hit *1 Corinthians-8:1* to 3.
That's what we ended the message on last week, and and then I'm gonna skip the rest of 8 because 1 of the teachers in the house, Daniel did an amazing job preaching this message on 12/17/2023, *1 Corinthians-8*. We've been stuck for a while, and I would encourage you to go back, Exegesis is a theological term you might hear in Christianity as you continue to follow Jesus, it just simply means pulling out what's in the text, and Daniel did a great job pulling out what was in the text and making it practical for our daily life. Amen? So 12/17/2023 on our podcast, you can go and check it out, but I just wanna hit this again because it's important. Now concerning food offered to idols, I'm really not going to be talking about food offered to idols for this message, but there's some principles here.
It says, we know that, quote unquote, all of us possess knowledge. Remember, like Paul quoted that for a reason. He was quoting another letter that the Corinthians wrote, and it comes across like they were saying, hey, we all possess knowledge. We're all kinda on the same page, We know just as much as you do, like somebody trying to prove what they know. Just so you know, Christianity isn't about just growing in your head knowledge, your rational, like rational knowledge, being analytical is not being, not walking by the Spirit, just so you know.
There's a lot of people that want to grow in their head knowledge of stuff, and they they read this like a textbook, and you can you can read the Bible. You can worship at church. You can come to church consistently. You can go to prayer meetings. You can do all kinds of stuff, and do it the wrong way, and see no fruit in your life from it.
See no fruit of the Holy Spirit. You have to approach the Bible. You have to approach God. You have to approach worship. You have to approach it all him.
You have to approach him the right way. Approaching him in pride or to build up your own pride, what you know, you will be resisted by God. The Bible says God resists the proud, but gives *grace* to the humble. So if you come to church and you have a critical spirit, what I mean by that is you're just checking it out, see if it's in line with your preferences. You're not really here to see God and to know him, you're here for you and what you want.
Right? And if if as soon as you don't like something or it doesn't hit the right way, you're just like, I'm done with that. You're approaching church like a restaurant. Don't approach church like a restaurant. Approach church for Jesus.
Amen? When you approach it for him, man, you experience more from him. Because it's a it's not just about what you know, but it's about knowing him. Watch. This knowledge "puffs up".
That's what I'm talking about. But love builds up. If anyone imagines he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. I said this last week. The more that you know in anything, the more you realize there is to learn.
You can tell when somebody is immature in something. They think they know everything. You can tell if somebody is immature in something. They try to prove how much they know to you. But the the more that you know, the more you realize there is to learn.
In the same way, in your relationship with God, it's not just about knowing a bunch of stuff about Him, or even knowing a bunch of His words that He wrote in the scripture. It's actually about knowing Him, and Him illuminating this in relationship so it becomes a part of your life. Because knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. And when you come to know the 1 who is love, he builds up your life so much that there's an overflow from your life that impacts everyone around you. So you begin to love others, and build them up, and they experience God through you, because you know him.
And then everybody else is like, man, how do you know so much? Why? Because God's grace is on your life. He's not resisting you, because it ain't about your pride anymore. It's about an authentic relationship.
It's a difference in religion and relationship. Yeah? So when you approach scripture, when you approach worship, don't make it about what you know. Make it about knowing him, and you'll come to know more than you ever would have on your own. A lot of people approach scripture to be right.
This is a common phrase that said, but I'm gonna say it again. Jesus didn't die on a cross and rise again for you to be right. He died on a cross and rose again for you to become love. And you are transformed by His love and become a representation of His love the more you know Him. And in relationship with Him, He's going to give you what you need to know.
I'm not saying knowledge isn't good. Knowledge is great. A matter of fact, I think we should, as Christians, we should pursue knowledge more than the world. It's a big deal. But do it in relationship with Him.
He's going to lead you into everything that you need to know. Isn't He the 1 that by whom all things were made, through whom all things were made, and all things were made for him? Right? So all knowledge is all knowledge that you need is from him. He has all of the answers to cancer.
He has all the answers that you need in your business to the next steps, or all the answers you need in your job to change the atmosphere, to change the environment, but also to bless it. He has all of the answers you need in order to help fix the relationship issues that are going on. It all comes, all of that knowledge that you need comes in relationship with Him, but He doesn't just give you the knowledge, He gives you the grace, He empowers you to be, and to do what you can't be, and do on your own, because He wants to build you up to be a world changer, to be able to change your world by his power and presence. Amen? Amen.
You guys with me? Verse 3, but if anyone loves God, he is known by God. And this is where I ended last week. Right? You can't *1 John-4:8*, the inverse of that verse is is to know God is to love him, or to love God is to know know him, and to be known by him.
You can't love *God* and not know him. You can't know God's love and not be known by him. Meaning, any area that you have hidden, any area that you're hiding, that's an area of your life where you don't know the love of God. Otherwise, you would trust Him with it. And you would freely walk into the open, even though it's a little scary for your flesh, and we are going talk about that.
Even though it's a little scary for your flesh, you're gonna freely walk into the open and let His light and love shine on that place and burn away the junk so that you can experience true *freedom*. Everybody say freedom. That's what we're talking about today. So we'll skip the rest of chapter 8, because Daniel Mannix did an amazing job. We'll go into chapter 9.
Paul, verses 1 and 2. He says, am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my "workmanship in the Lord"?
If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. Now really, I read the extra just to say I got through 2 verses, but we're only gonna start we're gonna stick on that 1 sentence, that first sentence there. Am I not free? Let's think about this.
Paul is writing it. Am I not free? Paul is free. Paul wrote about freedom. Paul lived a life that exemplified what it looks like to be a man freed by Jesus Christ, To experience that freedom.
Actually, the fruit of his freedom is the reason you're sitting in the church, probably. Because Paul, in most of the known world, shared the gospel, multiplied the gospel, and we see it spread from city to city to city. There were others, but he wrote most of the New Testament. This is the fruit of his freedom. So yes, Paul is free.
He talked about what it looks like to be free from sin, free from the law, walking under the law of the Holy Spirit, which experiences or gives you more freedom in your life. So is Paul free? Yeah. I mean, the sentence itself says, am I not free? Meaning, hey, dummy, I'm free.
Right? Right. He's not calling you a dummy. I'm just you're not a dummy. You're a smart guy.
Girl. Okay. So I guess with that though, if Jesus Christ paid his life so you can be free and walk in freedom in the same way, are you free? Are you free? So so might say depending on your understanding of scripture, you might say, yeah, I'm free.
Okay. Is your life showing that freedom? If other people looked at the fruit of your life, would they say, man, that man, that woman, they're free. I wanna experience that kind of freedom. When other people look at your life, do they see freedom?
Or do they see bondage? Think about it. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about freedom, what you're free from. What did Jesus die on a cross to set you free from?
Well, there's a few different things, but then I also want to show you how to live out that freedom and grow in freedom. This is gonna be a rehashing of something I preached about a month ago, but then with a clear example. *Romans-6:7*. For 1 who has died has been **"set free" from sin**. Jesus died on a cross and rose again, so that you could experience his life and live set free from sin.
But I haven't died. Well, have you given your life to Jesus? The Bible says you have been crucified with him. It's no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. So he paid the price for you to live a life of freedom from sin.
But pastor, don't feel free. But what is the truth of his word? Does his truth outweigh your feeling? What's more fact? Your feeling or what he says?
But pastor, I really screwed up yesterday. It would look like I'm still in bondage to sin. Well, let's talk about it. I want to explain what it looks like to be free. I gotta take this off, because I just keep keep tugging on it, and pulling on it.
I'm not used to wearing a jacket. Kind of funny. Alright. *Romans-6*, verse 5 through 11. I'm just gonna read this for a second, and then we're gonna talk about it and explain what living in freedom looks like.
For if we have been united in a death like His, we shall certainly be united in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified in Him in order that the body of sin might be "brought to nothing", so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. So when you were, when you gave your life to Jesus, if you gave your life to Jesus, if you didn't give your life to Jesus, you're still a slave to sin. The only, only way that this happens is when you surrender to Jesus as Lord. You're like, but I'm a good person.
I'm sure you're a good person. I'm sure you're good in many different ways. But that doesn't change the fact that in some way, some shape or form, your heart is bent on selfishness and needs to be set free from you. And God loves you. He's not mad at you, but He loves you enough to die for you and rise again so you could experience the freedom that I'm talking about.
Okay? But this says, so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Another version says, might be brought to naught, might be made of no consequence. This is the life that we're supposed to be living. Let's skip to verse 11.
So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. What does this look like? Alright. Put these up here for my eraser. Let me bring this to the front, because this is where we're gonna be the rest of the time.
Can everybody see it? Everybody see it? You guys good? Okay. Here's what it looks like, guys.
Don't make fun of my art artist skills. Okay. It's pretty excellent, Thank you. Alright. Before you came to know Jesus, you had a sin nature, a heart of stone, the bible calls it, that's bent towards selfishness.
You might do good things. I got pink here. You might you might do some good things. You know? You might you might get to grow in as a person in emotional maturity.
You might grow in in subjecting the will to habits that help you in different ways, you know. And so you might do some good things, but no matter how many good things you do, you can't change the heart. And in some way, shape or form, you're always drawn back to selfishness and sin and *enslaved* to it. So you have to be saved from yourself. This is why I say, for those of you that are new, you don't teach a 3 year old to sin.
They naturally disobey. You have to teach them what it looks like to obey. You don't teach them to steal and lie, but sometimes, depending on if they think it's beneficial for them, they'll say, I didn't take that. Bobby did. Mine.
Right? So everybody has this nature to sin. I'm I'm trying to show you this. Okay? When so that you can see it in your mind, live it, and explain it to others.
When you surrender to Jesus as Lord, here's what happens. *God*, all of your life, at different moments of your life is on the outside. Okay? And maybe he sends someone in your path that shares the gospel with you. Maybe you go to church with your family.
Maybe there's just this circumstance that's too crazy good to explain, and what that is, is the Holy *Spirit* trying to get in. It's the Holy Spirit impacting you, and people have all of these encounters with God, and they think they know Him, because they have an encounter with Him. No, you don't know Him until you surrender to Him as Lord. A lot of people come to real church even, and having a feel His presence, sense His goodness, may even get healed. Do some may even pray for other people, because the anointing, the presence of God is flowing.
They say, well, I've done good works. I've done good things. It ain't about what you've done. Is Jesus your Lord or not? He doesn't become your father until He's your Lord.
The Bible actually says that there's children of God and children of the devil, and we all grew up as children of the devil until Jesus is Lord. It's biblical. Look it up. But I'm a child of God. No, you're not.
Not if Jesus isn't your Lord. I'm not saying that to be mad, like to be mean or anything, I'm just telling you truth. A lot of times people won't tell you truth, and that causes people to live outside of freedom, because it's the truth that sets people free. Okay? When you surrender to Jesus as Lord, in that moment, he forgives you of all of your sin.
Yes, you've heard me say that a lot. And then he changes your heart. He puts the Holy Spirit inside, gives you a new heart, the Bible says a heart of flesh, not of stone. Meaning a heart that's bent towards God, instead of towards selfishness. So in that moment, when you surrender to Jesus, here's what happens.
Your heart goes from black to red. It's filled with the Holy Spirit. This is actually a representation of the spirit. Now once again, stay with me. You are spirit, soul, and body.
You have a body, you have a soul, and you have a spirit. Your spirit is 3 parts. Your spirit consists of your communion with God, your intuition, and your conscience. Before you were born again, you were out of communion with God. Because you were out of communion with God, God is life, you were considered dead in your sin.
Make sense? Yep. Separated. You still had intuition, and you still had a conscience. It was just jacked up.
Right? You were born with a conscience, but from the things that you did, the way that you were nurtured, things that God says is wrong, you thought were right. You still, sometimes your conscience would go off on bad things? Sure, because you have a conscience, but it's separated from the life of God, and has been tainted in different ways. So in that moment, when you were born again, your spirit and the Holy Spirit were brought back into communion, relationship, which purified your conscience.
The blood of Jesus** cleaned your conscience and made it new. So all of a sudden, you have a clean conscience. The things that used to cause you to feel like it was great, you didn't feel guilty about, all of a sudden you do it and your conscience goes, don't do that. I used to love this, don't do that. If you keep doing it, you dull your conscience until you repent, come back and let the blood of Jesus wash you clean, give make you free from a guilty conscience.
Make sense? Yep. Doesn't change the fact that the Holy Spirit and your spirit are in communion. That will never change. Because when you gave your life to Jesus, he sealed you.
That word for seal, *Ephesians-1:13*, is the same word for the rock being sealed over the tomb of Jesus. You are sealed, the Holy Spirit keeping in here, if you really surrender to Jesus as Lord. And if you really surrender to Jesus as Lord, you will see fruit in your life later. Make sense? Okay.
Clean conscience. What used to be bad, or what used to be good, is not good anymore because it's not in line with who Christ is and who you are in him and here. Make sense? Okay. So what happens?
Now, instead of God trying to get in, it's God in here trying to get out. *Philippians-2*, verse 11 and 12. We're getting back to freedom, just stick with me. Or 12 and 13, sorry. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your *salvation* in fear and trembling.
It means a deep respect and fear of God. The fear of God is is not I'm afraid, it's simply the hatred of evil. It's I'm I respect what you say more than what I feel. I respect and honor what you say more than what other people say and think. I'm going to follow you, even if following you makes me look like a fool to those around me.
That's the fear of the Lord. If you'd rather look cool and not like a fool, when the Holy Spirit tells you to obey and something that the world would think looked like a fool, you fear man instead of God. You need to be *transformed* in that way a little bit more by his word. Make sense? Okay.
Work out your salvation in fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. That was my first paper in Greek, just for those of you that wanna know, was on these verses. For it is God who works, the emphasis on there, because the the positioning of the words matter, the 1 who works is God, almost like another name for God. God is Jehovah Jireh, he's Jehovah Rapha, but he's also the 1 who works. Ain't that cool?
What is He doing? He's working in you, creating in you the desire and the ability to fulfill His good purpose. He's working in you. You have to partner with that through surrender and obedience. When you partner with that through surrender and obedience, what he worked in you is worked out of you.
Let's talk about it. How does that work? Well, you're not just spirit, but you're spirit, soul, and body. Your soul where's my my black marker? Your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions.
Your will is the highest part of your soul. It's your desire. You can't follow God without submitting your will to what the Holy Spirit is saying. And the more that you put your mind on the things of God, so the Holy Spirit leads you to go open up the Bible instead of to turn off that television show. So you're watching this television show, and you notice for the first time that there's more cussing in it than you realized.
Wait a second. They just took God's name in vain. They just said f you like 10 times. And the Holy Spirit's like, turn it off. Your flesh goes, no, but I love this show.
It's my I've told everybody it's my favorite. Your flesh is uncomfortable, because the flesh is at war with the spirit, so you don't do what you want. Here's the thing though. You've been **crucified with Christ**. It's no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you.
That *flesh* has been crucified with Christ Jesus. It's, in biblical terms, dead, but it's still there. Okay? *Romans-6:5*, remember, it says, it has been brought to nothing, meaning it is of no consequence. Don't make the flesh of consequence by doing something that it's requiring you to do.
Make sense? You don't have to follow the lusts of the flesh anymore, because you have been set free from them. Now, you are free to follow the desire of Jesus, the leading of the Holy Spirit to be led by the Spirit. What are you gonna choose? What you choose depends on how free you walk.
When you just decide to walk by the lust of the flesh, even some of the good things that are not God things, you are choosing to be enslaved and not walk in freedom. How do you grow in freedom? See, when you were born again, this happened right here. The Bible says you have been made free. The Bible says you have been made perfect.
Perfect in Christ, Hebrews-10. Says you have been sanctified, but yet, we are still, not only have we been made perfect, we're still being made perfect. Not only have we been sanctified and been made holy, we're still being made holy. And we walk in relationship with him, and this is the process. Watch.
What happens? Holy Spirit says, hey, turn off that television show. Your conscience hits you, the Holy Spirit confirms it, and you're like, you kinda fight with it a little bit. Finally, you obey and you turn it off. Hour later, the Holy Spirit says, hey, go pick up the Bible.
So when you go and pick up the Bible, here's what's happening, when nobody's watching, the Holy Spirit, who now lives not just out here, he lives in here, who's leading you in your soul, your mind, will and emotions. Your conscience hit you, you had the thought, you obeyed, he impacted that aspect of your mind. And then he leads you to go pick up the Bible. What do you do? You go and pick up the Bible.
And as you're reading the Bible, it talks about being generous, so your hands start to be filled with the Word of God. The more you're doing that in secret, the more your life is being transformed in your mind and in your hands. Next thing you know, you're out and about, and you have the thought, you have a memory of what you read in Scripture, and you have a feeling like you want to give something to that person. You never would have done that before. What's happening?
The Holy Spirit led you into the Word that is changing your mind, Romans twelve:one and 2. When your mind is transformed, so is your life. So it's filling your life, and now, when you take that step of obedience, okay, those who love me obey my commands. What does it look like to love God? Obedience.
When they obey, if God is love, and the Holy Spirit is leading you to do something, and you obey Him, the love of God is gonna flow through your life and impact the world around you. So now, you become that person when you obey to be radically generous in a way that's not normal, because you're obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit based on what happened in this whole interaction. All of a sudden, the goodness of God comes out of your hands and impacts the world around you and begins to transform you more. You're still in the flesh. Why?
Because you were born in the flesh, but you're not of the flesh, you're of the kingdom of God**. So you're in the flesh, but representing the kingdom of God, and you don't have to be a slave to the flesh anymore, but you can walk by the Spirit. Those, Galatians-5, who walk by the Spirit will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Right? But this is how it works.
So what happens? Now, this happens, you grow a little bit more, you're fulfilled because you're created to live this way. You're created to live for the love of God, and to represent the love of God. So you go back, and that felt good. Now you go to turn that show back on, Holy Spirit says, and you do it anyway.
You watch anyway. Your conscience goes, you feel a little guilty, but just like, I'm gonna do it. That temptation just overcomes you. What happens? The enemy, which once your life was his playing ground, now he doesn't have a home there anymore.
Okay? The enemy, Satan, his horde, sin on the outside, is constantly on the outside trying to get in. So when you watch that show in disobedience to God, you're opening up your ears and your eyes as gates into your mind, your soul, your will and emotions. And so, the enemy comes on the inside and begins to attack or afflict your mind with what you're seeing and you're watching. And it begins to, the enemy wants to transform your mind, or renew your mind to his reality, so your life can be transformed.
You're watching, and all of a sudden, on what you're watching, it talks about, you know, how dumb it is to be radically generous. The next time you're out, the Holy Spirit says, hey, give something to that guy, and what the enemy planted in your mind caused you to hesitate. Instead of being obedient to the will of the Lord, you're disobedient. And you're reinforcing what the enemy wants, and you're walking by the flesh instead of walking by the spirit. So there's people that fall away, that were really transformed, and really saved here.
They gave their life to Jesus, but they weren't in a healthy church that was challenging them. They were just going for the feel good. They weren't really getting in the word, or with other brothers and sisters around them that were challenging them to get in the word, and to really live authentically for Jesus. So what happened is, the enemy caused them to think and believe lies about themselves, and now their life looks just like a non believer. They're good in different ways, they think they're feeling they feel good, they're doing good, but they're not bearing any marks of the love of God and the fruit of the Spirit.
The good thing is they're sealed, and eventually some believer is going to come along and rebuke them, love them enough to tell the truth. Right? And hopefully, this will be transformed. How do you know if they're really a believer or not? You can't.
The only way we can know them is by their fruit. Man, it's tough. I've done a lot of funerals where you don't really know because their life isn't really bearing fruit. So I can't say they're a 100% in heaven with Jesus. Why?
Because the only ones I'm confident are the ones that "finish well". Finish well. I have hope. I mean, maybe that person, you know, had a weak moment, a weak time, screwed up and ended up dying. I have hope.
I hope that when they gave their life to Jesus, it was real and they were really transformed. But I don't know. The only ones I know are the ones who have been living for Jesus in a real way, authentically, and their life has been being transformed by the goodness of God. And everywhere they go, you see obedience to the Holy Spirit. More and more, their life is being transformed such that 1 day where'd my oh my tissues are in my hand.
1 day, 1 day it looks like this. In the flesh. But not of the flesh. Been so *transformed* by the goodness of *Jesus* that their life is a reflection of the love of Jesus. Everywhere they go, people are like, what's going on?
What is that freedom you have? Because they're walking in surrender because they know it's the right thing to do, and they're feeling fulfillment because this is the way of the Christian. This is Christian life. Now, what happens here? And I'm almost done.
Here's what happens. The enemy is out here in the world, but not of the world. The power of sin, you're dead to sin. You're free from it, but the power of sin is still very much alive, and you're still in the flesh. So the power of sin is still pulling on the flesh, trying to get you to surrender.
*Flesh* just meaning the desire of the body or the soul, the mind, will, and emotions to do something stupid outside of God. Okay? So the enemy is constantly trying to get in your eyes and in your ears. Do you just seclude yourself in a monastery, so you can't see anything? No.
You go into the world proclaiming the gospel. You've overcome by the "blood of the lamb". You touch the leper. The leper doesn't touch you. Right?
The leper's healed, not you. Meaning, you you go and you hang out with the sinful. You love them where they are. You care for them, and you pull them to freedom. But sometimes, when you go out there, the enemy gets some thoughts in here.
Next thing you know, because of what you've seen and heard while you're out in the world, you start to have some thoughts. What's going on? The enemy then tries to make you believe that those thoughts came from you. No. If you hate the thought, it's proof that you've been transformed.
Don't be condemned by the thought, just replace it with what the Lord says. What does he say? You're forgiven and you're pure. To be real, communicate transparently, right? I have a beautiful wife.
She's amazing and wonderful. I used to struggle with pornography and before I got married and in the first 5 years of marriage. If you have a if you have a something you're enslaved to, marriage marriage, you think that will if you're enslaved to pornography, don't get married to be done with pornography. Secret sin will only grow more dirty, and it will continue to entangle you until you actually get free from it the Jesus way. But here's what happens sometimes for me.
I'm free. But sometimes, live in clear water, go to the beach, it's skin city. And sometimes the enemy tries to bring back old memories of crap. Am I condemned because I think those thoughts? No.
But if I ruminate on them, love them, then they'll create feeling in me and when I act on that feeling, I allow a stronghold to happen. Praise the Lord, I'm free. I don't. So don't, you don't have to, you have been set free. So when the thoughts happen, instead of ruminating on it, or even feeling condemned by it, because therefore there's now no condemnation, go back to what the truth says.
You know what I do? Well, thank you for my beautiful wife that you've given me. Thank you that I have been set free, that I'm forgiven and loved and pure because of your blood. And if every time the enemy tries to attack you with your past from the outside, it pushes you into the realization of who God has made you on the inside today, he'll attack you less. Yep.
Yes. Because it's just pushing you to worship. Yeah. But the enemy might attack your thoughts all the time. The only problem is if you believe them or you ruminate on it.
Instead, believe the truth of the word of who you are in Christ and watch how your mind is transformed and even the memory of your past begins to fade. And the only attacks in your weakness are in times when you're tired or other things, and you just continue to stand because His Spirit has made you strong in Him. This is what walking in freedom looks like. Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the lusts of the flesh. You don't have to.
You're not a filthy rotten sinner anymore. You're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians-5:21. If you surrendered your life to Jesus, if you just had some cool experiences but never allowed God to go from the outside to the inside, you've never said I'm a follow you instead of myself, well then none of this applies to you, but it can when you surrender. Amen.
I wanna invite the altar team to come up. I'm gonna have my buddy Todd come close us out, and I love you, that's all I got. Hopefully that encouraged you.