You are invited to examine where your heart truly rests as you navigate your spiritual walk and your role in society. Take time to pray for wisdom and align your actions with biblical truth in every area of your life. Let this message challenge you to be a light in your community and a faithful disciple in your nation.
*Amen*. Wow. You guys look great today. I'm excited. My name is David John Phillips.
I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. No place I'd rather be. There's nothing that I'd rather be doing, and my prayer is for every single 1 of you today to have an encounter with the love of Jesus, to have an encounter with the presence and the power of God. If you haven't already, I pray it it continues to happen, such that you leave never the same. Such that you leave choosing to follow Jesus all the more.
Whether you've been following him for 50 years or you're kicking the tires of Christianity, my prayer is you encounter his love in such a way, it causes you to want to follow him with even an even deeper level of surrender. *Amen*? Amen. How many of you guys that you would want that as well? I mean, that's that's why you came, right, to encounter the love and power of Jesus.
Awesome. Okay. Well, let's let's *pray* in that direction. The Bible says, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. So in any area of your life where you're not experiencing the reality of the kingdom of God, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, that's an area where you may be struggling with *unbelief* because you've been blinded by lies that you do believe.
So my my prayer is also that this message exposes those areas so that you can walk in freedom. *Amen? I'm sure you wanna walk in deeper levels of righteousness, peace and joy in every area of your life. Yes? That happens by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit as you let go of areas unbelief* of unbelief or areas where you believe lies and surrender to the truth of his word.
So just say this, say Jesus Jesus. Help my unbelief. "Help my unbelief". Help me to see you clearly. Help to see you clearly.
And I'll renounce every lie I believe. And I'll renounce every believe. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Amen.
Okay. So, we got a lot today, like a whole lot. We're gonna get it all done too. Don't worry, I'm not gonna keep you here past like 2PM. Just kidding.
But I'm gonna I'm gonna open up. We're starting a new series today, which I'm I'm kinda sad to move on from the Glory of Living series. I had a good time. Hopefully, it encouraged you. Didn't Yeah.
Yeah.
If you missed out on the Glory of Living series, you can
go back to our podcast or YouTube. I think they're actually all on YouTube now too. So you can find it at our website. Just click sermons, either video or audio. It'll lead you to the right direction.
I'd encourage you to check out that last series, but we're starting a new series. So we're gonna intro the series, preach the first series of the of the our first message of the series as well. And then we're actually gonna have a mini I say many not because it's not important. It's vitally important, just many as far as time goes. We're gonna have a a wedding During the message.
I mean, the the title of the series is "From the Heart". From the Heart. If you see that, isn't that Jenna cool? Jenna does our our graphics. We call it Jenna cool.
So previewing a series, preaching the first message of the series, a short but impactful and powerful wedding as a part of the first message. Altar call and altar ministry as well. I am gonna talk a little bit after that about the election. Some people are like, oh no. Make sure I leave after altar ministry.
No. I mean, just wanna bear my heart with you. Okay? That's it. That's all.
And then after that, we have a baptism. Maybe more. Maybe you you didn't know you were getting baptized, but you came today and you're gonna encounter Jesus in such a way you want to. We'll see. Regardless, we got a lot to do, so we need to get started.
*Amen*? Amen. You guys Some somebody's like, help him, Lord. Yeah. We gotta we gotta make it through.
I will start like this. Jesus said these words, be careful how you hear. For with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you. If you come in, and right now, you're measuring the words that come across in inches, inches will be measured to your life. If you measure them in yards, yards will be measured to your life.
If you measured it in miles, miles will be measured to your life. Meaning, to the extent that you honor what God wants to communicate to you, that's the extent that you will experience the fruit of it in your life. So be careful how you hear. *Amen*? Amen.
Kind of important. And so I would say everything that I say, judge it by the word. If it's not in the word or not in line with the word, then please kick it out. If it can't be backed up by the word, and if I'm preaching messages that aren't backed up by the word, go somewhere else. But if I but if it is backed up by the word, regardless of if it offends you or not, regardless of how it makes you feel or doesn't make you feel, it doesn't matter about your feelings or your offense.
If it's backed up by the word, then put it into practice in your life, so that you can experience the fruit of *God's* life in your life. *Amen*? You guys okay with that? Okay. Alright.
So from the heart, the the series just came from really a leadership principle that I learned in studying leadership. There's a leadership principle, it doesn't matter what kind of organization you lead or the organization you're a part of, the heart of the organization follows the heart of the leader. It just does. So in this series, I'm gonna speak a couple, but we're gonna have multiple different leaders that are leading different aspects of our church to speak what God has been putting on their heart over the past few weeks or the past few months. Because if God has appointed them to lead aspects of this church, and he's showing and revealing things to them, then chances are he wants the church to follow in that direction and learn the same things and put the same things into practice in their life.
Make sense? So from the heart, you're gonna get to hear from from me a couple of times, but also from many leaders in here, and it's gonna be powerful. I already know what some of them are speaking, and and you don't wanna miss out on it. With that being said, there are some things that God has been just placing on my heart in my quiet time. As I read scripture, I can't get away from this word, and I can't get away from the the verses and the passages that that have to do with this word, and I've been just meditate on meditating on it for the last few weeks, and the word is *abide*.
This is a rhetorical question, so you don't don't answer this. Just think about it, process it, but what do you think about when I say the word abide? What does that mean for you in your life? When Jesus said, talked about abiding, what does that look like? Let's let's start the chapter that comes to mind when talking about abiding is John-15.
By the way, when the bible is written in originally in Greek, the word the Greek word that's used for abide can also be translated as remain. So if you're reading a version and it says remain, it's the same word for abide. Okay? In John-15:1, it says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
Slight bunny trail here from where I'm going, but the Greek word for he takes away, a lot of English versions have translated as he takes away, but the Greek word actually means he lifts up. And it makes more sense because it says, every branch in me, he lifts up. You guys follow me? Now, he's talking about a vine, like a a a grapevine. And the grapevines, the picture, you know, every time that he's sharing an analogy or something, I my wife and I talked about it, it's probably because when he said consider the sparrows, a sparrow probably flew by.
And he's like, hey, look, guys, look, consider the sparrows. When he's when he's talking to them about *abiding* in him in the vine, like, they were very familiar with grapes. It was a normal crop there, everywhere. There's there's grape vines. And when he would say, any vine in me that that is not producing fruit, you you lift up.
What they would do, the vines that that weren't producing fruit, a lot of times it was because they were off of the tie, and they were falling down into the dirt. And because they were dirty, they weren't getting the adequate amount of sunlight, so what the the vine dresser would do, he'd lift them up out of the dirt, dust them off, and tie them back up where there's can get adequate sunlight, and then they would begin to produce fruit again. There's a lot of people that are in Christ, but are not producing fruit because of insecurity, because they took their eyes off of Jesus, put it on themselves, and they find themselves down in the dirt. He wants to lift you up because he has placed you in him. And he wants to remind you that his words have made you clean, so be clean.
That's right. And start to produce fruit again. But it also says that any vine in him that's not producing fruit, he prunes so that it can produce more fruit. What is he pruning away? He's pruning away aspects of your life that are good, maybe, or bad, that are preventing you from putting the focus that he wants to put on your life in the areas that he's called you to focus on.
So you're putting all this extra energy into fruitless things, and he prunes it away so that you can put the energy into the purposes he created you for. You follow me? Alright. That was my bunny trail. Already you are clean because of the word I've spoken to you.
See, I'm just quoting scripture. *Abide* in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do Anything. Apart from me, you can do no thing. Nothing. But wait, I can do a lot
of stuff.
I've done this, I've done this, I've
done this without you. Yeah, but everything that you've done, if apart from Jesus is not gonna last for eternity. It's gonna amount to nothing. It's only the things that are in him, from him, by him, and through him, in obedience to him that are gonna last for eternity. Everything else is gonna burn.
Even good things. Good things done apart from him are not gonna matter. You can't take them to the grave with you. *Amen*? Okay.
We're getting there. If anyone does not abide in me Now, this is saying what a lot of people thought verse 2 is saying. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. That is talking about hell. Those that don't abide in Jesus do go to hell.
There's a real hell. They are choosing not to follow Jesus, but instead to follow themselves. They are choosing to be their own God, and they get the result of that, which is an eternity separation from God. It's real. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
Do you want to have your prayers answered more frequently? Learn what it means to abide. I haven't told you what abiding means, really. I will. But this message will help you to get your prayers answered more frequently.
It says, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Do you not have consistent answered prayers in your life? Chances are maybe you haven't been abiding as the Lord would like you to. Because the product of abiding is answered prayer. *Amen*.
1 of them. Verse 8. By this my father is glorified that you "bear much fruit" and prove to be my disciples. So the product of abiding is also bearing much fruit. Remember from the last series that we talked about, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
It's not *God's will that you fall short of his glory. He wants your life to bring him glory. He wants you to fulfill every purpose* that he has created you to fulfill. He wants you to walk in every good work that he's purposed for you, and his leading you in everything is for that purpose. And when you do, you will bring your manufacturer glor glory.
I almost said glary. He wants you to bear much fruit. What what kind of fruit is he talking about here? Fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness is in there, meekness, self control.
So yeah. He wants you
to bear that in every aspect of your life, and this is talking about a life that produces results for the kingdom of God. He's talking about a life that is leading others to Jesus. It's making disciples. It's living out your purpose, and your job, and your business, and changing atmospheres. It's "changing the world".
He wants you to be a world changing leader. Changing the world that he's put you in because of what's inside of you. That's bearing fruit for his kingdom. As the father has loved me, so I have loved you. *Abide in my love*.
So let's just put a pause on this. What does it mean to abide? Like, when I was thinking about what does the church think that it means to abide? What does the global church, the American church? What do Christians think when it means to abide?
What what do I think? Because the other word for *abide* is oftentimes translated as remain, you know, in in my head, when I'm thinking about this, how do I practically abide in Jesus more? Does it mean to remain, to tarry longer in his word as I'm reading his word? Does it mean to remain, tarry longer in worship sets, and in prayer times, and and prophecy times? Does it mean to remain, to tarry longer in the secret place or the quiet place, to get alone, and and just to call out a little bit longer on my knees more and more to the Lord.
Is that is that what it means to abide? I think maybe some people would think that that's kind of what I thought it meant to abide and and that could be what it means to abide, but it also could be disobedience if you're doing that and he didn't say to. Let me explain what I mean. What is abiding biblically? The definition of of how to abide is in the next verse, John-15:10.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Obedience is abiding. How do you abide in God? How do you abide in Jesus? You obey.
Mary and Martha, Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus. Martha's making sandwiches. Jesus commends Mary because it's what he wanted them to do at that moment. She's at his feet. But if Jesus would have told Mary, go make a sandwich, and Mary would have stayed at Jesus' feet, Mary would have been disobeying, not abiding.
*Abiding* is obedience. No obedience, no abiding. I'll give another example. I gave this example in the dream team service. I was running, I've been I've been, spending time with the *Lord* later in the day, so I have my my morning time with the Lord, but then later in the day, I spend time, on a prayer walk or prayer run, or a combination of the 2, depending on how I'm feeling that day.
And so I'm going to do this thing that the Lord had told me to do almost every day, and I'm out there, I'm about 10 minutes in, and I'm, you know, just getting started, and the Lord just keeps bringing back this thing that he told me to do, make a video that I've been procrastinating on. He he wanted me to make this video to serve people with discipleship. And I've been procrastinating. No, Lord. I'm a I'm a go run like I told you I would.
So I'm running, and he goes, no. Go make the video. So if I would have continued in my prayer time, which used to I would think was abiding, I would have been being disobedient and not abiding in the Lord because to abide is to obey, and I needed to stop what I had planned on doing and go abide by be go go and be obedient to make the video. Does that make sense? You guys follow me?
*Abiding* equals *obedience*. Abiding leads to greater fruit in your life, greater results for the kingdom. Abiding leads to greater answers to prayer, but then also keep reading in John-15:11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you
and that your joy may be full.
You want fullness of joy in your life? It looks like obedience. As you obey, you get more answers to your prayers. As you obey, you get more fullness of joy. As you obey, you live a more fruitful life.
Let's go to 1 John-2. Because John wrote John, and John wrote first John, the letter to the church. When he's talking to the church, verse 1 of chapter 2, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the *propitiation* for our sins.
By the way, that word propitiation, it it just means that that he I wrote a little note in here. He's "satisfying the wrath" of God for us. Jesus satisfied the wrath, but also regained our favor with him. So he is he is the propitiation of our sin. He took the wrath of God for sin on himself, and and the when we lost favor with God because of sin, he regained it for us and gave it to us.
That's what that's what *propitiation* means, just so you know. You guys follow me? Okay. Not only for all ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. Man, I wish the whole world would receive Jesus as Lord and and get the benefits of that.
Verse 3. This is it. This is the 1. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Now, this is not talking about all the old covenant Mosaic Law commandments.
Okay? This is talking about when you were born again, he wrote his commandments on your heart by the Holy Spirit. You were born of the spirit. He put the Holy Spirit inside of you, and he wrote his commandments on your heart. You know them by his voice.
He leads you in line with his word, the principles and character of his nature, day in and day out. And you know that you know him if you obey him, is what that just said. I told this to the dream team too. Like, we talk about impartation in the church, praying for people, and having an impartation of the gifts of the spirit, impartation of faith, you know. I love to pray for people for impartation, it's a big deal.
But there's 1 thing that I cannot impart to you. I cannot impart to you my history with the Lord. Can't do it. My **history with the Lord** is the story of how he's worked in my life. The testimony of how Jesus has has done different things in me.
And that story is full of him inviting me into a deeper relationship with him, moment by moment, and me responding by obedience. No response by obedience. Usually, most times, no testimony. Think about the testimonies of how God moved in your life. He spoke.
He moves sovereignly. He he invited you to go to church. He invited you to say yes, but you said yes. You had to obey. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
*Faith* comes by his initiation, hearing God. He speaks to you. You gotta believe what he said enough to obey. On the other side of *obedience* is the supernatural. It's the testimony.
Now, if you look back at your life, and you have 0 stories of when you obeyed, but you didn't want to, you don't have a relationship with God and you don't know him. You can know a lot of scripture. You can do a lot of things in the church that you wanted to do, but if the Holy Spirit has never nudged you to do something that your flesh didn't wanna do, or to not do something, stop doing something that your flesh wanted to do, and you didn't obey. If that if you've never obeyed like that, you don't know God. Oh,
there's a
scripture for that. Next verse. Whoever says I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. There's a lot of people that read the bible to make themselves feel good, but don't actually obey it. There's a lot of people that go to church and love the presence of God that they're experiencing as an overflow from other people's relationship with God, that worship and pray and raise their hands, but go live their way instead of surrendering to God.
It's time to say, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord is surrendering and starting to walk and create
your own history with the
*Lord because of your obedience*, because you trust him enough to follow him. Without that, you're just playing God. You're just play you're a liar. Without obedience, you're lying to yourself that you know him, and it's time to surrender and say, yes, Lord. Or go do something else.
Why would you even come to church on a Sunday? Why why would you like, why would you waste time if you're not really gonna be serious and say, I'm all in? Like, God loves you. He cares for you. He wants you here.
But but those that are half in and half out, he spews out of their mouth, out of his mouth. It makes him nauseous, those people that say, I'm a Christian but don't do what he says. Bearing the name of Christ but not living it out is taking his name in vain. I'm not telling you this because I'm mad at you. I'm telling you this to hopefully wake you up and shock you into living a life of surrender because he loves you.
He cares for you, and he wants you to experience the fruit of obedience, which is freedom, joy, answered prayer, and peace. That verse, it says, the truth will set you free. I've said this before. Some of you may not not have heard it. Before it, it says, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Before that, it says, if you remain in me. That word remain is abide. Obey. You wanna experience the freedom of knowing the truth? It takes obedience to the truth.
It takes living it out. So I wanna give you some just real practical examples of my history with the Lord as your pastor. The first time I remember hearing *God's* voice, I'm sure that he spoke to me many many times before this, and I'd probably just ignored it, did my own thing, other things, you know. I had given my life to Jesus as a 4 year old. Okay?
But the first time I remember hearing his voice and surrendering to it, I was 11, sixth grade. 11 years old, I get to junior high, got all this nervous stuff in me, wanna be popular, wanna try to be at least, wanna hang out, fit in. There's no difference than people at work as adults.
Nope. That's true. Right?
So don't just think this isn't applicable to you. It doesn't matter. If you don't have a history of obedience, it might start with something like this. I'm talking with the girls in eighth grade at the candy machine trying to look cool. They're cussing.
I'm cussing. They asked me 1 of them said, aren't you a Christian? I said, no. The Holy Spirit said, what? First time I heard the Lord.
He said he said, he he led me to stop cussing. So my New Year's resolution was to stop cussing, to adjust my life to live in obedience to the leading of the Lord. That's I'm looking back, I know that I know him, because I heard him and I adjusted my life. You follow me? As a result of that, my youth pastor, not I had no idea.
This was all personal. Right? But my youth pastor began saying, hey, I want you guys to read a chapter a night. In the morning, the night, whenever you just a chapter in the bible to get to know God. So I I had a black bible that was given to me by my parents.
It said David John Phillips on it. I had some highlighters. I began obeying. *Obedience* is contagious. I began obeying God through the command of my youth pastor, and I began reading a chapter a night and highlighting in my black I mean, I lost my black bible in college, but it was wrought with color from highlight.
For years of reading a chapter a day. That was that was when I I mean, you know, don't say, well, that's just a kid thing. No. If you're a kid in the Lord, if you just gave your life to Jesus, start reading a chapter a day. I dare you.
You just might start seeing fruit in your life. So you know the book in the Bible that I've read the most? Matthew. Because I would start reading Matthew and get about 3 weeks in, quit for a week or 2, just start a new new year's or not new year's, a new resolution in my life, start reading Matthew again. I've read the first 7 chapters of Matthew over and over and over.
I mean, I can quote to you a lot of Matthew-7 because it was a lot of the first things that I tried to memorize in the Bible as a 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 year old reading a chapter a day in the Bible, highlighting and trying to put it into practice in my life. A history of obedience. I'll give you I'll give you some more examples of history of obedience. I'm not sharing this to boast, I'm sharing this to say follow me as I follow Christ. And I want you to live a life where you can say follow me as I follow Christ to those that God puts under your influence.
And man, if we're doing that, then praise the Lord, we're growing in the Lord together. Another example, 14 years old, and I got a girlfriend in high school. She's cute. We make out too much at the high school football game, and at the dance that was after, the homecoming dance. So on Monday, she sends her friend to me, and she said and her friend says, she's willing to do anything to keep the relationship going.
Meaning, she's okay with having sex with me. Holy Spirit says, break up with her. So what did I do? I adjusted my life to what was countercultural in high school, but what the Lord was saying. I went, met with her the next day, said, hey, I'm a Christian, I can't do that, we gotta break up.
We broke up. *God* saved me. But it was through obedience I got to experience the fruit of that, which was purity. Ended up marrying my wife as a virgin, 20 years old, 21. Why?
Because I adjusted my life to what was countercultural, but cultural in the "kingdom of heaven". Started as a 14 year old saying, yes, Lord, in that area of my life. Now, if you've not been pure or are not being pure, let the Holy Spirit convict you right now. Hey, that's not of me. Do the same thing.
Yes, Lord. Adjust your life from what's counter cultural I mean, what's cultural in America to what's cultural in the kingdom of heaven, which means repentance. Fast forward. Carrying my lunch tray in high school. Now, all of these things that I'm telling you, these are things that I'm doing as a 4 or 5 year old believer walking in the Lord.
Some of you guys, you've been Following Jesus 4 or 5 years. It's time for you to start living like this. I'd encourage you to start living like it 6 months, 6 weeks in, 2 weeks in. The quicker you're you're living in obedience, the more he's gonna reveal to you. Actually, there's a verse for that.
*John-14*. Why do you think I I know scripture like this? It's not because I'm superhuman and have a a great memory. It's because I've been consistently every single day putting this thing into my life since I was 11 years old. Every single day.
Except for a couple of those times where I I missed and I had to start over in Matthew. It's just consistency over time. For you guys, same thing. Start today. Start getting in his word consistently, and you'll see the fruit of the word in your life.
But it takes obedience, abiding, and you'll get the fruit of obedience in your life. *John-14:21*. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. God manifest himself to you by telling you something to do.
And then he waits. And when you do it, you're obeying him, you're abiding in him, and then he says, oh, he loved me with what I gave him. Let me give him more. And he manifests more of himself to to you. You know him, you know God right now to the level of your obedience.
You want You wanna grow in your knowledge of him? Yeah. It might take time in the secret place or time in the word, but if you don't combine that with obedience, you're not gonna know him anymore than you do now. Your history is directly your testimony of what God has done in your life is directly connected to your level of surrender to him, your level of willingness to lay things aside and obey. I'll give you a couple of more examples.
So everybody always told me that I was gonna be a a a preacher or a pastor 1 day, and I always said, no, I'm not because that's what my dad did and I wanna do my own thing. I was gonna take the ministry to the marketplace. Right? I was a submarine officer. I was doing ministry on the submarine.
I was I was had small groups, I was leading people to Jesus, but it wasn't my calling. I was running from my purpose. But it was good that *God* didn't have me in my purpose at that time, because God sent me to the Navy to get rid of 2 character flaws before he could thrust me into my purpose. 2 things that I kept making excuses about that that were he graciously prevented me from walking into my purpose until I was willing to be obedient in those 2 areas. You know what those 2 areas were?
Lust and integrity. How bad would it be to have a pastor who was a lustful a lustful pastor with a lack of integrity? It'd be pretty terrible, wouldn't it? So he prevented me from stepping into my purpose until he rooted out those 2 things, the pornography thing and little white lies. Every secret sin grows more dirty with time unless you confess it, repent of it, and move into righteousness.
Don't think what you're hiding is gonna stay hidden. It won't. I'm not saying it's gonna be exposed to me, I'm just saying it's gonna be exposed and rip your life to shreds. You might as well repent and start walking in obedience so you can walk to your purpose. There's some people in here, you feel like you've been going in circles and circles and circles over and over and over, and you can't understand why.
And you wanna serve God with all your heart, but you're holding on to just a couple of things that if he let you go into the next part of your purpose, it those things that you're holding on to would ruin your purpose, and ruin the people that he wants to give you influence with. Yeah. So he's waiting out of graciousness to you and you're mad. Repent and start walking in character the way that he's asked you to. So what did I have to do?
In the navy, God rooted out pornography, healed me of it, restored my relationship with my wife in that way, and he rooted out the the lack of integrity thing. When he did that, you know what he did? He said, hey, I've called you into ministry. Are you gonna submit to it? I raised my hands after this.
I said, yes, Lord. Tears rolling down my face. Every life decision you give me from this day forward will be in line with "full time ministry". When it was time to get out of the Navy, the next day, I had a job offer at a church, but it was to be the janitor. So it's another, are you gonna obey, or are you gonna go and make money in engineering and other things because you were a submarine officer?
Oh, wait. And by the way, *obedience* is gonna take major life adjustment. If you're not willing to majorly adjust your life to follow Jesus, you're probably not ready to follow Jesus. Keep following yourself. But if you're willing to make major life adjustment to follow Jesus, then he's your Lord.
And guess what? He loves you. He's gonna lead you "1 step at a time". Don't worry. If you're if you're like, I'm scared about this, that's okay.
He's a good father. He's gonna help you 1 step at a time. Just know it's coming. For me, we had purchased my dream home. Now my dream home wasn't a mansion by the sea, but it was a nice home.
I mean, it's 2,600 square feet, it was a big open plan, had a fenced in with other nice homes in the neighborhood. I was 27 years old thinking, man, I'm living high, I got a a kid and a dog. You know, American dream. And then he tells me, you know, when it's time to get out of the Navy to take a job as a janitor at a church that can't support my mortgage. So to say, yes, Lord, I have to make major life adjustments and give up my dream.
Am I gonna be obedient, or am I gonna say yes to me in my dreams? Well, Courtney and I, she's in it with me. She had to walk through this with me. We ended up selling the home, downsizing from 2,600 square feet to 1000 or 1,100. But it's worth it.
*Obedience* is always worth it. She ended up stories of her having to give up things over and over and over, and what seemed as a sacrifice in the moment ended up bearing much greater blessing on the other side of obedience. But I had to We had to trust him that he was good enough to follow even when we didn't understand. And by doing that, we were abiding in him and getting the fruit of abiding, which is a deeper revelation of him, more answers to prayer, fullness of joy, and other people experiencing Jesus through us. I'm telling you, *surrender* and abiding is worth it in every way.
*Amen*. Because the extent you're not, in whatever areas you're not, you're hindering yourself from experiencing God and what he's called you and created you for. So you're preventing yourself from full fulfillment in Jesus. Amen? I wanna give you an example, a real life example of abiding.
Would you guys come forward? You guys can step right here. Jerry and Heidi, would you come forward as well? It's a big deal. No.
We're gonna we're gonna be down here. If y'all step yeah. Get her flowers. That'd be great. Thessalm, this couple, 3 weeks ago, gave their life to Jesus.
Yeah. We're born again. 2 weeks ago, they were baptized. Why? Because when you're born again, you repent, you get baptized.
That's the next thing. But because *God's a good father*, he wants to lead them to be blessed in every area of their life. They have been living together for 40 years. They got a 38 year old son, but have never been married. It's like, oh,
well, this this is as
good as married, not before God. So they were willing to say, yes, Lord, to adjust the way that they've always done things. And actually, as their pastor, I said, hey, guys. You know what? Why don't you remain celibate until we get married because you're forgiven, you're loved, it'll be it'll be just like your virgins on wedding night.
Because it's holy and it's precious. And we don't follow Jesus just incorporating him into our life. We adjust our life. Who cares what American culture says? We're following kingdom culture.
And they're saying, yes, Lord. So it's time to do a little wedding. Yeah. Brother, would you like to say anything?
Yes, sir. First first and foremost, good morning, real church.
Good morning.
And I just wanna give a word of thanks to you all as allowing me and my wife and Anthony to be a part of y'all fellowship services. And, also, I would like to give thanks to pastor David and his wife. And first and foremost, to my brother Jerry and his wife, miss Heidi, to lead us to to allowed to us to rededicate our life the life life to the Lord, as well as give us the the right the right to be able to to make a covenant with God by by our marriage because we were living this year for 40 years just just being girlfriend and boyfriend, and and I just wanna give you all thanks.
Okay? Love you. I
wanna say, man, God is proud *Amen*. Of his son and his daughter. Amen. A mighty man and a mighty woman of God in his eyes. Alright.
If you guys will stand right here, just scoot up a little bit. Yep. Yeah. You can you can give the flowers to her now. Beautiful.
And you can you'll keep them later. So this is miss Antoinette Antoinette Howard, and mister Jerome Wilson junior in Christ. Amen. Marriage is an important thing, and God spoke about marriage in Ephesians-5. And I wanna just take a moment to read that little thing about marriage.
He says, wives, submit to your own husbands as unto the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is of the church, his body, and it is himself its savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her with the washing by the waters with the word, so that he might present to the church to himself in splendor, the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own body. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no no 1 ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of the of his body.
Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and the 2 shall become "1 flesh". Yeah. Now that you've heard *God's* message concerning marriage, do you agree with it and commit yourselves to each other in accordance with it? If you do, say I
do.
Yes. Wonderful. There we go. You can hold hands for this part. I'm a have you go first.
Alright. Say that say this. Say, I, Jerome Wilson junior I, Jerome Wilson junior **take you**, Antoinette Howard
You, Antoinette Howard
**"to be my wife"**
To be my wife.
To have and to hold
To to to have and hold to this day forward From this day forward. For better or for worse
For better or for worse
For richer or for poor
For richer or for poor
in sickness and in health
And for *sickness* and for health. To love and to
*cherish* To
to love and *cherish*
till **death do us part**
till death do us part
according to *God's holy law* According
to God holy law. You owe me nothing
You owe me nothing except
to *receive* Except to receive
the love of the father from me
for the love of the father for me in the presence of *god*
the presence of
*god* I
make this vow. I make this vow.
And you, Antoinette. Say, I, Antoinette Howard
I, Antoinette Howard
take you, Jerome Wilson junior
take you, Jerome Wilson junior
to be my husband be my husband have and to hold
have and to hold
from this day forward
this day forward
"for better or for worse"
richer
or for poor
richer richer or
for poor sickness and in health In
*sickness* and health.
To love and to *cherish*
To love and to cherish till
death do us part death according to **God's holy law**
*God's holy law*
You owe me nothing
You owe me nothing
except to *receive*
to accept or *receive*
the love of the father from me
*love of the father* for me
In the presence of God.
In the presence of God.
I make this vow.
I make this vow.
Now, we will seal this with the giving and receiving of rings. It's a picture of the covenant. You you can give that to miss there you go. You can put it on her left finger. There you go.
Right here. Okay. Just repeat this after me. "I give you this ring" I give you this ring. As a symbol of our covenant within Christ.
As a symbol of our covenant with with with Christ.
With all that I am.
That that with all that I am.
With all that I have.
With all that I have.
**I honor you**. I honor you. Alright. Put this on his this finger right here. And repeat this after me.
I give you this ring
I give this ring.
As a symbol of our covenant in Christ As a symbol of covenant of Christ. With all that I am
All that I am.
With all that I have.
All that I have.
I honor you. I honor you. *Lord*, bless this union, and let the fruit of it be many others. Lord, let them see their obedience to you, and let others fall in their wake in obedience to you. Lord, thank you for this special *covenant*.
Bless them. Lord, that there'd be more peace and joy in the home than ever before. Lord God, thank you for what you've done. By the authority given to me, by God in the state of Florida, I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may "kiss your bride". Oh my goodness.
You guys could be seated. Thank you, man. Following Jesus looks like surrender. And guys, if there's any areas that you're struggling with obedience, Jesus said those who love me obey my commands. K?
So if you're struggling with *obedience* in an area of your life, it's because you're struggling with loving Jesus in that area of your life. But the Bible, I got good news for you, you can't just muster up say, I wanna love Jesus more. Doesn't work like that. The bible says we love, 1 John-4:19, because he first loved us. So your love for God is a reflection of your understanding of his love for you.
So any area where you're struggling obeying God is because you're struggling loving him, it's because you lack understanding of his love for you in that area. You're having trouble trusting him because you're lacking understanding how much he loves you. Begin to search out what God says about that area and how he loves you. And when you get a picture of his love for you, you'll love him back by obeying him. Make sense?
I wanna do this. I wanna have everybody I'm gonna invite you to stand, please. And if there's areas of your life where you know that you need to obey, that you haven't been. Areas where maybe *God's* challenging you to do something, but you've been procrastinating or hesitating and not doing it, which is disobedience, or areas where God's told you to give up something to stop doing something, and you haven't been doing it, or you have been doing it anyway, which is disobedience. If you're ready to be free from that, the bible says "confess your faults" 1 to another and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Healed of the the habit, healed of the addiction, healed of the lack of love, healed of whatever it is. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. So what I'm going to ask you to do is in line with that. If you need to grow in your life in an area of obedience, either to do something or not to do something, I want you to come to the altar. *Holy Spirit*, come.
Thank you for your love, Lord. Thank you for your goodness. Just fill in. As those of you that are already on your knees, you can keep coming. If *God's* moving on your heart, this is me.
Come now. Come on. Come on to the altar. Just fill in. We can turn on some some software, some music.
As they're doing business with the Lord, I just want you to Whatever it is, I want you to put it before the Lord. Also want you to hear this. Is there anybody in here, you say, I've never I'm looking back at my life. I don't have a track record of obedience like this. I don't know what it means to have a relationship with God.
Jesus said, no 1 can see the kingdom of heaven unless they've been born again, born of the spirit, which means you believe Jesus died and rose again enough to follow him as Lord, enough to do what he says instead of what you feel. When you do that, he forgives you of all of your sin, past, present, and future, and puts the Holy Spirit inside of you to lead you like a fatherly to son or a fatherly to daughter. That's the initiation into walking with God. It's from God on the outside to God living on the inside. If you've never experienced that before, you've never really given your life to Jesus, and you and you're like, man, that's me.
I want to give my life to Jesus. I want to live for him. I've never given my life. I've never been born again like you're talking about. I've never had the presence of God come and live inside of me to lead me.
If that is you, I want you to raise your hand high. Raise your hand high. I see your hands. I see your hands. Okay.
I want you to look up at me, those of you guys that that raised your hand. Look at me. Do you believe that Jesus is the Lord of your life? Yes? Okay.
Are you willing to surrender your life to him? Alright. I want you to pray this prayer. It's only say these words out loud if you believe them. I don't want the whole church to say it.
I just want those that are giving their life to Jesus to say it. Say this, but say it out loud like you mean it. Say, Jesus, I've been living for myself. I believe you died on a cross, and you rose again so that I could follow you. You did that to save me from me.
So right now, say it out loud, "I choose to follow you" instead of me. I give you my life. I turn from my sin, and I turn to you. *Holy Spirit*, come fill me. I *receive* you.
Let me pray for you. The bible says that you are forgiven. That right now in this moment, that was real when I believe it was, that you have been forgiven. God, Jesus credited his righteousness to your account. You're clean.
You're pure in his eyes, and he's excited to help you grow. *Lord God, fill him with your presence. Fill him with your spirit* right now. Let him experience more of you than they ever have before. In Jesus' name.
Thank you, Lord God. For all of you at the altar, I want you to pray this prayer with me. For everybody out there, if you if you didn't come forward, you know there's areas of need in obedience, I want you to pray this. Say this out loud. Say, Jesus Jesus.
I commit I commit my life you. You. Give you this area.
I give area. Give it to you completely. My answer is yes, Lord.
I can't do it
on my own. I can't stop on my own. I can't obey on my own.
But you live in me. My eyes are not on me anymore. They're on you, Jesus.
Help me. I trust you. I trust you. When that situation comes back around,
my eyes are on you. Thank you, Jesus. I'm moving forward in obedience. Now let
me pray for you. Father, I pray for all of these. Fill them with your presence. Fill them with your spirit. *Lord God*, let them experience more of you than ever before.
1 step of greater surrender at a time for the rest of their life into the purposes that you have for them. 1 step of looking more like Jesus at a time into the purposes and the calling you have for them. Lord God, every bit of insecurity that would hold them back, every bit of fear of man fearing what other people think, Lord God, I rebuke it, and I silence it in Jesus' name. Father, I pray for the fear of the Lord. Lord God, an understanding that what you say matters than what they more than what they feel and what others feel.
*Lord, I thank you for your goodness. Bless them. Give them a hunger and a desire for your word more than ever before. Lord God*, let them get in your word every day, not making excuses anymore about why they can or why they shouldn't. Every demonic stronghold that was holding them back from getting in your word consistently.
I rebuke it. Lord God, I thank you for what you're gonna do. I thank you that these are gonna be a people of the word. Lord God, they're gonna have passion about the word, and they're gonna put the word into practice 1 step at a time. Father, they're mighty men and women of God.
See yourself as God sees you. He sees you as forgiven. He sees you as his sons and daughters. He's proud of you not based on what you haven't done or based on what you did, but he's proud of you based on the fact that you're his, and that's enough. Now move forward just like Jesus did when the father said, I'm proud of you.
Move forward in victory because he's yours.
*Amen*? Amen. Amen. I wanna have an altar team, if the altar team could come forward as well. Praise the Lord.
If you'd like more ministry, the altar team will be up here. If you need to continue to doing business with God, you can. Up to you. We're almost done. Praise the Lord.
If you need ministry of the altar team, they'll be up here, but I'm gonna continue because I got something very important to talk to you about. I'm just gonna shift gears for a second. You guys okay? Okay. As your pastor, first, Lord, thank you for what you've done.
*Lord*, thank you that you're challenging us all forward in you. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. We're gonna leave the altar team up here when we go for baptism too.
So if you need prayer for healing and that kind of thing, they'll be up here. Some of them will. Others are gonna go. We have baptism. It's gonna happen.
But I'm gonna tell you something very very important because this is an election week. It's a major thing for our country, and I I think you need to hear this so you can be seated for a second. You guys can just chill up here for a second awkwardly. It's okay. No big deal.
I'm your pastor. As a pastor, I'm the shepherd. Jesus is the shepherd. I'm more of an under shepherd under his leadership. With that being said, there's a there's a fallacy, a wrong way of thinking that has been taught in American culture, that the church should stay out of the government, that the church should stay out of the the schools, and that the church should stay out of your jobs.
That's not true. Those that we're supposed to, in Matthew-28, disciple a nation. *Matthew-28, the great commission says, just make disciples* of all nations. The 3 darkest areas of every nation are the schools, the jobs, the marketplace, and the government. Those are the areas that need light.
They need the most light. So those are areas that the church is supposed to pray for and infiltrate with the kingdom of God, taking his goodness there. So with that, as your pastor, I would be wrong if I did not tell you and encourage you. 1, go vote. It's important.
We have a major "tipping point" happening on Tuesday. And as Christians, you should participate in the direction of your nation. Don't vote for a party that's not gonna matter and not gonna be a "hill of beans". You're just gonna be throwing away a vote. Vote for a party that is most in line with the principles and character of Jesus, or that will help to push it forward.
Now, I did write this out, wrote a statement. I wanna read it to you. This is from my heart and other mentors that I trust. While it is true that the gospel isn't right or left, the gospel is about right and wrong. And I believe that honest Christians must acknowledge that while there are immoral leaders and corruption in both the Republican and the Democratic parties, there is currently, in my opinion, more wrong in the policies on the blue side of the of the line than in the policies on the red side.
The policies in many of the leaders in the on the Democratic, the blue side of the aisle, that are anti biblical are this, and this is why I'm voting red this time. I would encourage you to pray about it and go look, but here's my reasons. Number 1, the "unlimited murder" of the unborn as a human right is ugly. Abortion. Number 2, the redefinition of marriage, which is permeating a lot of the blue policies around America.
Cultural permeation of the "transgender ideology", biological men and women's sports bathrooms and locker rooms, legal protections for sex change surgeries for minors, sex change surgeries for minors, teaching children perverse sex and gender ideology in public schools, pornographic books in public schools, which all of the above are assaults on the bedrock of a functioning society, which is the nuclear family, the legalization and therefore popularization of drug use, reduction in the support of Israel, which is anti biblical, also virtually all threats to religious liberty are coming from the left. Virtually all threats to parents' rights across America come from the left. There are already multiple blue progressive Democrat party run states where parents' custody of their children is in jeopardy for failing to affirm a child's chosen transgender identity. So for these reasons, not because I think president Trump is Jesus. He's not.
But I am voting on the red side of the aisle on all issues because of that. I would encourage you to pray, search the bible, search scriptures, and we are called, called to disciple nations, and part of that is infiltrating the government, the schools, and jobs, and taking the kingdom there. I pray some of you are raised up as government leaders, future governors and presidents 1 day, and, man, you change a nation. School teachers discipling their students, business owners, disciple looking at their job as if as if it's they're the "pastor of their job". And I would encourage you, don't sit it out, pray about it, and follow your conscience in the leading of the Holy Spirit.
*Amen*? Amen. Alright. Now, we have a baptism. Believe my my my wife and Heidi are gonna baptize someone.
So I encourage you guys to go out there. Before you do, hear Moriah. She's gonna close us out, and it was a long Sunday, but a good 1. Yeah.
[Speaker 3] [01:05:34] That was great. Thank you.