You are called to step out of your comfort zone and build genuine relationships with people from different backgrounds. By forgiving offenses and prioritizing connection over preference, you help the body of Christ grow in unity and purpose. Start today by reaching out to someone new and investing in the community God has placed you in.
Welcome to The Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
So Father God, I thank you that you are life and you are alive in us. We are living in your freedom, Father God, and we want to follow you with every every aspect of our life. Father, let that be our heart. And today for the message, Father, I pray that we "lean in". Lord God, pray that this is not just something that I'm saying to people, Lord, but it's your word coming across clearly and impacts people for eternity.
Lord God, let us grow in our understanding of relationships. Let us grow in our understanding of the need for unity, Father God. I thank you for who you are and I thank you for what you are going to do in Jesus' Jesus name, amen. So first, I just wanna say once again, it's just special thanks to Pastor Q and the chapel just for for providing that in the sake of unity, but also to go along with this series. It was on purpose, a series called Globally Connected.
See, I'm gonna make a statement here, a very important statement. Every church, every local church should be a globally connected church. According to scripture, every local church should be growing more globally connected. So you might ask the question, what is a globally connected church? A globally connected church has 4 key characteristics.
Number 1, they're a relational church. Number 2, a globally connected church is a discipling church. Number 3, a globally connected church is a sowing church, and a globally connected church is a going church. And for the church to exemplify those key characteristics, every individual or the majority of individuals in the church must begin to exemplify and grow in those characteristics. Right?
So as we become more relational, as we understand God's relationship with us, puts a desire in us to build relationships with people, maybe outside of our "comfort zone". Why? Because you can't disciple people without being relational. And your call, if you have received Jesus, if you're a born again believer, you are a disciple maker. It's part of the great commission.
And you can't make disciples without being relational, without loving people and letting them into your life. It's a big deal. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that in a little bit. But then, you can't And it's not just discipling. In order to really disciple someone, have to sow into their life.
You're sowing your time, your talent, and your treasure into people, but also into others as you begin to build relationships with them. And where you sow, a lot of times God uses you. You end up going. And we'll talk about that in a later message. But you go, and as you go outside of your comfort zone, in order to grow, you build deeper connections with people outside of your relational influence.
And next thing you know, your influence grows. So a globally connected church has 4 key characteristics, and and we're we're gonna gonna divide them up into 4 different messages. A globally connected church is relational, discipling, sowing, and going. And so today, we're gonna talk about a relational church. A globally connected church must be a relational church.
And you've seen our relationships with other local churches. You just saw pastor Q and and the worship team from the chapel. You've seen and you've heard about tonight, actually, we're doing our first monthly celebration. It's gonna be at Mission City Church with a close pastor friend of mine, pastor Josh Pool. Mission City is an amazing church full of Jesus, and it's an honor to be partnering with them.
And they've opened up their doors to us because we can't meet in Clearwater High School, and so we're getting to meet there tonight, 6PM. If you're in the Tampa Bay area, Clearwater, water, or anywhere around, come to Mission City Church, 6PM, so we can worship together. It's gonna be an amazing time. But see, that would only happen, it wouldn't happen if we didn't have a relationship. There's there's something important about being *relational in the body of Christ*, and we're gonna dive into that.
So I wanna see you there, but also in the heart of relationships and showing the importance of being globally connected. I wanna take a moment to introduce you. I wanna take a moment to introduce you to my African father. You heard that right. My African father.
I do have an American father. His name is pastor David John Phillips senior, River of Life Church, Winnsboro, Louisiana. They sent us here and I'm so thankful. But I also, spiritually, have an African father and his name is John Wandera and he's from Uganda. Pastor John Wandera has preached in my father's church.
I've got to preach in his church in Uganda and in Bali, Uganda. Pastor John is a leader of leaders. He has a network of hundreds of pastors throughout Uganda, South Sudan, throughout Kenya and Tanzania. He's been in my home back in Louisiana. I've been in his home in Uganda.
I've met his family. I've danced with his family and danced with his church family. I love pastor John Wandera and I call him my African father. He is so full of Jesus and I wanna take a moment to introduce you to him. Here is pastor John Wandera, your pastor's African father.
Hello. Hello. Hello. Rio Church. This is your beloved brother, pastor John Wandera, right here at City Victory Church in Bali, Uganda, Africa.
I tell you what, I bring you greetings from the church though we are still in a lockdown, but I but but see the church sends you greetings and love. What an opportunity for me to meet up with you. I know we are meeting for the very, first time. You haven't seen my my my face yet, but this is the most handsome face in the whole world. Oh my goodness.
I'm so, happy to be an African. I bring you greetings from my from my wife, Jessica, and also bring you greetings from my small family of 27 people, 25 children and the and the 2 adults. So I am here to just introduce myself and to invite you and welcome you to Uganda. How did I meet pastor DJ or pastor David John Phillips? You know, pastor DJ is a great friend of mine, and I wanted to assure you church that the Lord has blessed you with a pastor.
He he he is a man who has a heart for ministry. I met pastor DJ or pastor David Jones here in Uganda on a mission trip when he and his father and the team from his church that is from Louisiana, Windsboro, Louisiana, River of Life Church came from ministry here in Bali, where we did a go deep grace conference and a crusade, an outreach. And you know what? This is something that shocked me or shocked us here in Uganda. We I put on a dancing comp competition or a dancing a dancing kind of a a competition, yes, or contest.
And this was between the Americans and the Ugandans. But amazingly and shockingly, pastor DJ does, and he won the contest. Oh my goodness. He won the contest. Oh my goodness.
He broke the record, and he had to walk back home to The US with a trophy from Uganda. And that is how I connected up with the pastor DJ. And we remained friends. I've been visiting the church in Winnsboro, and the church keeps visiting me here, and actually, we are friends with this church. So therefore, it was a piece of introduction that I wanted you to I want to introduce myself, and I want to welcome you to Uganda when the lockdown is lifted.
Uganda is waiting for you. I remain your dear brother, your friend, pastor John here in Uganda, Africa. God bless you, and enjoy the rest of your service. Bye bye.
Thank you, Pastor John Wandera. Pastor John Wandera, my African father, he's so "full of joy". He's just full of joy. That's something that I think that he has to give. Maybe 1 day he's gonna get to come and preach in our pulpit, hopefully sooner than later, preach at real church.
It is my intention that you grow in all of the connections that God has given me and receive from them. That's something that he, as a Ugandan mighty man of God, can sow into us as Americans, is understanding the joy of the Lord in the midst of trial. That man, I learn so much from Jesus when I'm around him. It's an honor to get to know him. Globally connected.
God has called us to be globally connected, and a globally connected church is a relational church. Let's dive in. *1 Corinthians-12:12* says, Just as a body, the 1, has many parts, but all its many parts form 1 body, so it is with *Christ*. Now, Paul's about draw this analogy of the body of Christ, and you have to understand where, what part, what role Christ plays in the body of Christ. Paul says it in Colossians-1:17.
He says, And He, Jesus, is the head of the body, the church. Jesus is the head. What does a head do for the body? The head communicates his will to the body so that the body can accomplish purpose of the head. The head directs the body.
The head gives the direction to the body. Christ is the head of the body of Christ and we are his body in the world. He accomplishes what he wants to do throughout the world through the body of Christ. What an honor it is. It says, He is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, so that everything he might have supremacy.
Oh, sorry, verse 18, it says, in verse 17, it says, He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. I got something for you. Not only is He's the head, but He holds everything together. If there's anything in your life that seems like it's falling apart, maybe go back and reevaluate. Wait, is this in Christ?
Because in Him, if it's in Him, He holds all things together. Your marriage, does your marriage seem to be falling apart? Why don't you present your marriage to Christ and put every aspect of it before His feet? Every aspect. Maybe you didn't start your marriage that way.
Why don't you continue your marriage that way? Relationships with your kids, relationships with friends, with your job, why don't you give him every aspect of your life and just say, You know what? I realize now that you hold all things together. So I'm gonna put every aspect of my life in you. Not just that, he holds the body of Christ together.
Why? Because Jesus prayed in John-17, Father, make them 1 as we are 1 so the world may know. I've said this before, the most effective form of evangelism in the world is unity. And Jesus knows that, so if we're in Christ, we're unified. Let's look back at 1 Corinthians-12.
It says, For we were all baptized by 1 Spirit so as to form 1 body, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free. We were all given the 1 Spirit to drink, even so the body is not made up of 1 part, but many parts. We're all different. But in Him, we're held together and unified. That's why I say divisions in the body of Christ.
Not just in a 1 church, but in throughout many churches around the world. Divisions called, a lot of times, denominations. I don't call them denominations, I call them divisions. It wasn't from Christ. Christ wants unity.
And as we see him as the truth, we grow together and we let all the junk fall off. And as we grow together, the world sees Jesus more clearly. Man, if if there is division being caused between you and another believer, or between churches, that division is from Satan. You need to take those offenses down. Let them forgive and move forward in relationship, because God has called his church, the global church, and this local church, and you to be relational.
Let's dive in. Let's look at what that looks like. I'm gonna read a rather large passage of scripture here, so you can follow along. 1 Corinthians-12:15-27. It says this, now if the foot should say, because I'm not the hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being a part of the body.
I get to think a lot of times we have people say, well, I'm not like that guy. I don't speak like that person. I don't have the same gifts and talents. And they start to feel insecure. God created you as a foot and it's great without you being a foot.
The body can't accomplish what it's called to do. So start to be secure in your place in the body and not insecure because of comparison. It's so vital. We'll dig in. I'm getting ahead myself.
And if the ear should say, Because I'm not the I, I do not belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, stop being a part of the body? If the whole body were an I, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But, in fact, God has placed the parts of the body, every 1 of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all 1 part, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts, but 1 body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem weaker are indispensable. And the parts of the body that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor.
Why? Because in the kingdom of heaven, we honor 1 another because God loves us and we see his love. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment, but God has put the body together to give great honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no, no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for 1 another. If 1 part suffers, every part should suffer with it. And if 1 part is honored, every part rejoices.
You, everybody say, Now me. Now you are the body of Christ, and each 1 of you is a part of it. For example, and this is just kind of my under As I'm reading this, God gave me this analogy. Let's pretend that I'm a hand. Me being a hand, I'm really good at picking things up, doing short, quick movements.
I can move my fingers really fast. I can grab onto things and move things around like this. But without I'm not a shoulder. I'm just a hand. Maybe you're the shoulder.
Now, without The shoulder is really good at stabilizing the hand, at moving the hand in really big movements back and forth. So the hand, in order to accomplish the will of the head, the hand needs the shoulder because without the shoulder, the hand could never accomplish the full will of the head. But in order to accomplish the will of the head, the shoulder needs the hand. Because the shoulder could never pick up things and do those things. They are both vital, and they're created differently with different purposes, but they need 1 another.
Not just that. See, the hand, the hand is connected to the shoulder by its relationship with the wrist, and by its relationship with the elbow, and by relationship with the shoulder. The hand may not ever have a close relationship with the shoulder, but because of its connection with the other parts of the body, it is connected and gets all of the benefits of the shoulder because they're 1. And they're unified by the blood and unified by the will of the head. Does that make sense?
It's vital for us to be connected. And see, there's a way that we are connected, like globally connected. Think of this, the thing that binds the hand and the shoulder together is the different connections between this. But think of this, relationships are the things that bind us together as believers. Relationships are the things that bind the body of Christ together.
The whole body is effective if there's healthy relationships that are holding it together. As a local church, we have various parts of the body in our church, and you play a vital role. God has given you gifts and talents and abilities that I don't have, and other people things that they don't have, and as we come together, we're able to accomplish our full purpose. And that will only happen as relationships are healthy. Not everybody has to be relationally connected with 1 another.
The hand sure isn't relationally necessarily connected with the shoulder. But, if it's connected with the pieces that God has created it to be connected with, then the hand is still connected to the feet, and the body can accomplish its purpose. It's vital. It's necessary. So, you, we are, as a church, connected to the global body of Christ, and we have to have relationships, not just with 1 another, but relationships with believers outside of the church.
The way that God accomplishes His will throughout the real church, but also throughout the global body of Christ, Christ, is through strengthening those relationships. And let me write this down. This is important. Relationships are the currency of the kingdom. I'm a say that again.
It's important to understand. Relationships are the currency of the kingdom. God wants to accomplish his will throughout your personal world. The world of your family, the world of your job, the world of your areas of recreation, your everywhere that you step, God wants to accomplish his will throughout your world, and he wants to use you as a part of that in everywhere that you touch. And he wants to accomplish his will throughout clear water, throughout Tampa Bay, the world around us.
And as we zoom out the whole world, and remember, the way that he does that is through relationships. They're the currency of the kingdom. And what do mean by that? What is currency? Currency, the definition of currency is something, like a a dollar or, pesos or something that is in circulation as a "medium of exchange".
What do I mean? Like, well, let's break that down. What is circulation? It's movement to and fro of something. What is a medium?
It's it's the the means by which something is done. What is exchange? It's in the act of giving and receiving value. So, relationships are the thing by which God, or the means by which God gives and receives value in his kingdom, which which by which God accomplishes what he wants to do. Relationships are the currency of the kingdom.
So do you wanna grow in your relationship with God? Do you wanna accomplish God's will for your life? It will only happen as you grow in relationships with the people that God has designed you to be connected with because they have some things, some some kingdom nutrients, they have some some words from God, some ideas, some understanding of who he is, they have some gifts and talents and abilities that without you being connected with, you will be ineffective and unproductive unproductive in your walk in the kingdom. It's vital, real church, for us to accomplish what God has called us to accomplish in Clearwater, in Pinellas County, and throughout the world without relationships with other churches on a big level, without my relationships with other pastors, our church and other people, our church would never to be able to accomplish what God has called us to accomplish. And you may say this, you say, but hold on pastor, I'm not I'm not a relational person.
I'm a loner. I like to do things on my own. I get that. I understand what you're saying. But you have to understand.
Answer this question for me. Have you received Jesus? If you say, Have you received Jesus? Are you born again? Are you a "new creation"?
Because if you have, you have Jesus inside of you. And guess what? Jesus is relational. And when you were born again, you recognized that you're creation, and when you were baptized, you went under the water saying, you're no longer who you always thought you were. You are who You came up out of the water saying, I have Christ's life in me.
I am who he says that I am, and he is relational. So, as it says in Galatians-2:20, it's no longer I who live, but *Christ* who lives in me. Therefore, you are relational. Stop saying those lies about yourself that you're not because the only way that you're going to accomplish God's will in your life is by learning how to have healthy relationships and being held together by Christ because everything, all of those relationships are held together in healthy ways because of Jesus. Man, your next step in life might be waiting on you to drop the offense and actually have a healthy relationship with the people that you're offended at.
The ability for you to carry out God's plan and purpose for the next season of your life. Maybe you to take a step out of your comfort zone and begin to introduce yourself or get to know people that you said you'd never get to know those types of people. God has called you to love people and be relational. And as you do, you're gonna see things about Jesus that he's deposited in them that maybe you would have never seen before, but also, he's gonna connect you and use them to help you to accomplish your will, and he's gonna use you because there's things in you that they need in order to accomplish God's will for their life. Relationships are important.
Isolation kills, but through relationships, we can grow in the body of Christ and become all that God has called us to be and know Jesus more. As an individual, I'm constantly looking for relationships. How can I learn from these people around me as I get to know them more? And not only that, if they're willing, how can I teach them what God has shown me? As a pastor, I'm constantly looking for new pastoral relationships and new churches to connect with, and new leaders to learn from.
How can I learn from these leaders? Not only that, if they're willing and God's put something in me, how can I teach them to help them in their relationship with God? Because it's not about me, my 4, and no more. If you want to go to a church that's about you, your 4, and no more, just your preferences and doing it your way of things, don't come to real church because that is not real church. It's not how God has called kingdom, called us in the kingdom to live.
It's about laying down our preferences, serving 1 another relationally, and growing together in the body of Christ. *Psalms-89* or 86 verse 9 says this, I'm gonna read 2 passages of scripture, and I think it's gonna maybe drive this point home. *Psalms-86*. There we go. All the nations you have made will come and worship you, Lord.
They will bring glory to your name. And this is the verse that John the Revelator in Revelation is quoting in Revelation-7:9, or is referencing, where it says Give me just a second. *Revelation-7* verse 9, After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no 1 could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, Some salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb, this Jesus. Can you imagine every tribe, tongue, nation surrounding Christ's throne, crying out to him?
See, I believe we will see Jesus more clearly than we ever have before when that is happening. Why? Because we'll be more unified and more connected. And and maybe from another culture than than what I grew up from. Maybe another part of America or maybe another part of the world, from India or from Uganda, from Africa, from Asia, from Europe.
See, you grew up with a different worldview, and as you were born again, God began to shift your worldview to a kingdom worldview, but because of your experiences, you see things about Jesus, maybe that without you, could never see. But as we unify, now because of your experiences, I can see Jesus more clearly because of what you've seen and because of my experiences, you can see Jesus more clearly. And the only way that's gonna happen is as we connect in relationship, and as we're circled around the throne in every tribe, tongue, nation, we're gonna be able to together collectively be able to see Jesus more clearly than ever, and as we see him, the more we see them, the more we are like him. Man, I wanna unify in that way to the greatest extent that we possibly can, and the only way to do that is to grow as a church to grow relationally. And the only way to grow relationally as a church is for each individual member to grow relationally.
And you know what that takes? Sometimes that takes putting aside your offenses and being willing to forgive people. Be willing to let things go. Be willing to not hold people's sins against them. But sometimes growing relationally when you disagree with someone, it creates some friction.
But as iron sharpens iron, 1 brother and 1 sister sharpens 1 another. And because of that friction, we don't run away and hide. No. No. We we come together relationally and learn from 1 another and grow, drop our pride and and humility, learn from 1 another and grow.
And as we grow and we overcome our differences, we're actually connected deeper because of that. It's important. Let me give you an example of a church that I know that has done that. My father's church, River of Life. It just had their 20 year anniversary.
It's been 20 years of building relationships. And most of the leaders that are on his leadership team, his leadership board, I don't know, it's like 16 to 20 leaders, most of them have been there from the beginning. You know what they did? They decided they weren't gonna run at every offense, but they were gonna **covenant together** to impact the the world of Christ. See, too many people, they get offended and they just go church shopping and say, I'm gonna go here, I'm gonna go there because they hurt me.
And they only stay at a church for about 6 months to 2 years. And after that, they're just going to another place. Going to because this person offended and they'll never grow in relationships. And because of that, they'll never accomplish God's will for their life. If real church is the church for you, I encourage you to covenant with real church and say, You know what?
I'm gonna plug in, and I'm gonna bear fruit, and if somebody offends me, I'm gonna tell them, I'm gonna forgive them, and we're gonna go through our differences together and grow relationally. Because only can we grow in discipleship and becoming a deeper disciple of Christ if we're committed to being relationally connected for life. See, Pastor John Wandera, when we, as real church, and I learned this from my father, when we as real church, we covenant with people, we covenant with them for life. Why? Because we're gonna be connected for eternity.
It's a big deal. And I encourage you, if in this season of life, maybe God will send you somewhere else another time, we have open hands. But, hey, if God has called you to grow at Real Church, let's connect together, and let's be planted together, and no matter what happens, let's grow together relationally so that we can learn from 1 another and bring to the table everything that God's put in us so that we can be the most effective we can possibly be at reaching Pinellas County, Clearwater, Largo area, at reaching Tampa Bay, at reaching a world for Jesus. Because just like my father's church that's been connected for 20 years, God planted us here and the best is yet to come. And God is sending me more and more people to be connected with globally, to be other pastors to connect with around The United States and other leaders to connect with here.
And I can't wait to see how God fits us all together as a body to accomplish his amazing will for what he has in Real Church, and you are invited to be a part of that.
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