You are invited to stop relying on religious performance and instead rest in the truth of God's love for you. As you take communion and give offerings, do so out of relationship rather than compulsion. Let this love empower you to fall forward into Jesus, even when His words challenge your feelings.
Man, don't know about you, but I love Jesus. And I love worshiping Jesus. Would you guys, would you guys just give Jesus a "big old hand"? Thank you. But would you guys also give a big old hand to honor the band for leading us in such a powerful time of worship?
Man, it's fun. I love getting to be your pastor. My name is David John Phillips. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing than getting to share Jesus with you today.
It's just fun. And I'll tell you, I I took a couple of our staff and my wife, and we got to go to Louisiana and go to the Destiny Conference, Destiny Leadership Network. It's a relational network that our church is a part of. And the leader of that is my apostolic leader, Doctor. Phil Brasfield.
And man just has his I'm just thankful that we have such powerful leadership and over our church, and it's just good. Everybody in authority must be under authority. It's important. Of course, if you don't know, we have elders in here that that, hold, you know, our church accountable, hold me accountable. We have deacons and and staff and leadership team.
It's a great thing. While we were there in in in Louisiana, you know, got to spend quite a quite a bit of time with my dad. You know, realized something. I realized I get a lot of my jokes from my dad. And he got a lot of his jokes from his dad.
So, they're granddad jokes. Oh, come on. That was funnier than you made it out to be. You might hear some dad jokes over the next Yes. He liked it.
You might hear some dad jokes over the next couple of weeks, just because me and my son listened to quite a few on the way here, and they were pretty great. And and you might not have to, you might not think they're great, but if you laugh at them, I'll feel great about it. So, we'll go from there. All right, we are in He likes my He likes me. I like him too.
Yeah. I like it when you say Amen and laugh back. Okay. So we are in a Hearing God series. Was last week beneficial for y'all?
Did it help? Amen. If it didn't, go back and listen to it, and maybe it will, hopefully, in Jesus' name. But we're in the Hearing God series, and last week was kind of a foundational message. And I'm serious about it, if you didn't hear last week, please go back and listen to it.
It's on our podcast and YouTube because it is the foundation for everything moving forward. Every week from here on out, I will share a principle of hearing God, what it looks like to hear God with a little bit of a recap. And then we will pull somebody from the congregation. Don't worry, you know, if I haven't talked to you, it's not you. So I'm not going to just randomly, hey, how do you hear God?
You know? That that might put you on the spot a little bit, which I'm known to do, but but not not in this series as much. So, then we'll pull somebody, and and you guys will get to hear a conversation of what it looks like for them to hear God in their life, and we'll pull principles out, and hopefully by hearing it from a bunch of different angles, from a bunch of different lives, from a bunch of different stories, It will help you in your daily life to walk with Jesus. Amen? Amen.
Okay. So, to start today, and I'm gonna just start with the scripture and the principle, and we'll pull in and rehash, recap some of the stuff that we talked about last week, so that we're all on a solid footing. Okay? Is that sound fair to you? Good.
And I'm not losing my voice, I lost my voice, and it's coming back now. So, praise the Lord. On Monday in Louisiana, I couldn't talk. I was I could whisper. And let me tell you, my staff and wife were really happy about it.
They just were. They, you know? I laughed along with them as they said it, you know? It didn't hurt. But no, really, didn't.
I'm good. Okay. So we're in Matthew-13. And although you've heard me say the parable of the sower quite a bit, and you might think that's where I'm going, I'm not. We're gonna start in verse 53, and I'm just gonna get started reading.
*Matthew-13:53*, and we're gonna read through 58. Says, when Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there coming to his hometown. He began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? They asked.
Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary? And, aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did his this man get all these things?
Now, take notice of this next line. And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home. Verse 58. So we'll stick a little bit for the recap.
And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. Now to understand this passage, we have to understand faith. Hence, the reason for the recap. Faith comes by what? Hearing.
*Romans-10:17. Faith* comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Okay? So "faith comes by hearing". We learned also faith is completed by obedience.
You heard me talk about it there. God speaks to us out of His love because He wants us to hear Him as His kids. He's our heavenly Father. And we respond in love, you can't have love like a loving relationship without 2 parties responding to 1 another, right? So, respond in love by obedience, and the obedience shows that we love Him back.
Amen? So, in talking about faith, you know, we've we looked at 1 Corinthians-13:13. Now, just you have to put your thinking caps on for a second because I am a recap, doing a recap to get the deep dive. Go to the last last message, our last week's message. *1 Corinthians-13* says, now, remain faith, hope, and love.
These 3, but the greatest of these is love. Okay? So, faith, hope, and love. Love is the foundation of hope. Earlier in 1 Corinthians-13, it says, love always hopes.
Okay? Where does love come from? God is love. In first John, it says that we love because he first loved us. So, to the extent that we have trouble loving, and I'm not talking about cultural love today.
I'm not talking about this feel good thing. I'm talking about God's type of love, the love that remains. I'm talking about a love that never fails. Right? We love to the extent that we understand our heavenly father's love for us.
Not just understand it, but receive it. In any area of our life where we're lacking love, it's an area of our life where we haven't received the heavenly Father's love in that area. Now that could be for many reasons. Maybe it's because, you know, of all the past that's happened or maybe trauma here, trauma there, or this person did this or that person did that. But, even in those things, that's not a good excuse.
So, stop making the excuse. Well, I went through this, but my dad didn't treat me right. I get it. And man, you know, you ask anybody in here, they went through a lot of stuff too, and I'm sorry you went through that. But the heavenly father loves you enough to heal all of that.
And if you're a "born again" Christian, you can't be a Christian without being born again. So if you've been born again, then you're a "new creation", and your past and what everybody and he said, she said, and what they did to you doesn't define you anymore, so stop living like it does. Because His love defines you. So I'll receive His love in those areas, and let's move forward in being who He says that we are. How do we do that?
Right? Faith, hope, and love. When we receive His love, love always hopes. So we receive His love, now we have the capacity because we see a little bit more about who He is, His character, and His nature in that area of our life. As a whole, when we become a Christian, but then in every area of our life where we receive His love, we see His character and His nature, who He is, so we can hope in who He is in that area.
You guys follow me? Hope is not the cultural thing that, you you don't hope in things, you hope in God. And that's an anchor for our hope. If you hope in something else, your hope is shaky. You know, when you're praying for your spouse, your significant other, as a Christian, I'm not hoping in my spouse to change.
I'm hoping that God touches His heart and restores and redeems, or her heart restores and redeems and forgives and loves. My hope is in God's character and nature because He is a Redeemer. He is the Savior. He is the Deliverer. And if they need deliverance in a certain area of their life, my hope's not in them to find it.
My hope's in God to show them and them to respond. Right? So our hope is in God's character, God's nature, who He is. And so when I have that kind of hope because I've received His love in this area, well then, man, that's a big deal. So in this area, maybe it's my finances.
I hope, you know, I can hope in my finances because He is the *Redeemer*, and He's the 1 that can bless me and keep me, and He's got a purpose for me, and I can't do that purpose without finances. So man, I can hope in who He is, this big grand thing out here, but hope is not faith. Faith Hebrews-11:1 says, faith is the substance of things hoped for. So hope is the foundation of faith. This is a review.
Hope is the foundation of faith. Meaning, in any area where I don't have hope in his character nature because I haven't received his love or invited his love into that area, that's an area where I can't hear him because I'm discouraged and discontent or whatever it is. Because remember, faith comes by hearing. And the foundation of faith is hope. So I have hope in His character nature, but now my ears open to what He would say, because I know He has good things for me.
Then He speaks in this area, so I can have faith, because faith comes by hearing, and my obedience to what He says. So remember, I hope in these big things, His character, nature, blessing, and love, and He's the deliverer, He's all of these things, but when He speaks, He speaks specifically to this area of my life for the next step. And that next step, a lot of times isn't the big thing. So I have to trust what He says because I know His character and take that step in my relationship to stop complaining so much about, or to my wife and start thanking God for her and speaking blessings over her. That's maybe the next step in that relationship.
And God's like, Oh, I want to heal your marriage, but I ain't gonna just do it like that. I'm a walk you through process of obedience so you can learn about my character nature and learn to obey, so down the road you can walk out your calling and your purpose. You follow me? Faith, hope, and love. That's how it works, guys.
And as you obey, as you obey the specific things he speaks. Okay? Then the supernatural is on the other side of obedience. You experience a little more of his character nature, supernatural restoration in that area to the extent that you obeyed. And then guess what happens?
You have greater you've received his love now, so you have greater hope, so then you hear him more clearly and you continue to walk that cycle. There's the message from last week in a nutshell. To dive in deeper, hear all the analogies, and get it in your in your heart. Go listen to it. Okay?
Fair enough? Yeah. Cool. So now we can understand this. First, I mean, Matthew-13:58, He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
They couldn't hear Him. You know why they couldn't hear Him? Because they were so familiar with who He was, that when He tried to show them who he is, they took offense at it. They grew up with him. He wasn't doing all those miracles and all that stuff.
Like, what's going on? They knew him as the carpenter's son, as the the brother of as as as the son of Mary and Joseph and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judges, and all of his sisters. So, when he came back with all of this wisdom and miraculous powers and it's different from what they grew up because of the lack of familiarity with who he, like with all of this new stuff, it was it was just different. So, they took offense at him and because of their offense and their lack of familiarity, they couldn't hear him. They refused to.
Isn't it the same for a lot of Christians today? Yeah. Growing up in church, growing up with Jesus, hearing him, hearing about him, and and what your parents told you, and your grandparents, and your uncles, and aunts, and that preacher was probably amazing preacher. But you heard a lot about him growing up. But then now that he's trying to reveal who he is to you, and it's different from what you always thought, and it's not familiar.
A lot of people take offense at that, and can't hear Him, so they can't walk in faith knowing Him more. The only way to grow is to walk in the unfamiliar as the Holy Spirit** leads you. You can't grow in your "comfort zone", because because if you could, no, you just can't. It's your comfort zone. That's how you stay the same.
The Holy Spirit will always lead you outside of that in order to become more like Him and less like you. The only way to do that is to take down the walls of offense and walk with Him when He shows you things about Him that are unfamiliar to you. Is that it? I don't want to be 1 of those that get offended every time Jesus tries to do something that I'm not familiar with. I want to go to scripture, see if it's in scripture, and if it's in scripture, I want to submit my life and seek and to understand and know and obey even when I don't understand.
Because my Bible says in Hebrews eleven:three that faith come By faith, we understand. That means a lot of times I have to hear and obey in order to understand who He is before I understand. That makes sense? You follow me? Amen.
Cool. All right, so there's your principle. Principle in that, real short and succinct, hopefully, if I can summarize it down into a sentence is, don't let what Jesus is trying to show you offend you so that you won't hear Him and follow Him just because it's unfamiliar. Amen? Amen.
Alright, Gabe. Let's do this. Come on. I think I gotta get a chair. David, when you come up, if you could bring those chairs over, they're back here.
You'll see em. That'll be great. Gabriel Mullins is 1 of our elders too. We have quite a few, Jerry and Heidi and and, Gabe and Mariah. I appoint husband and wife together, and Daniel, except when they don't have a wife, but he's amazing and full of Jesus.
Mighty man of God. Amen. And, and we we got some others that are coming. Cool. And then grab that mic too, brother.
So we're just gonna have a conversation, and it's gonna be fun. And hopefully, this conversation will help you to understand how to hear the Lord more clearly in every area of your life. You guys hear just unmute it. Yep. There you go.
And then mute it back when you're not talking so it's not like yeah. Because you guys hear my testimonies all the time. You know? And but if you hear someone else's testimonies and it hits a little bit closer to home, maybe it'll help a little bit more. Amen?
Amen. Cool. So Gabe, what's something funny about you, man? Just to I didn't ask him to I mean, is on the spot.
I got 10,000 bees coming to my house anytime, sometime soon. I've got a big package of bees coming. So I'm gonna start beekeeping.
Gabe the beekeeper. That's that's not normal, but cool. I think it's cool anyway. I mean, I you know, are there any other beekeepers in here? See, it's not normal, but it's cool.
Oh, it's not common.
It's not common. Okay. Not common. Normal, but not common. Thanks for the correction.
Excuse me. Okay. So, brother, I know you as a man of faith. I know you as 1 who hears from the Lord. My wife makes fun of me because anytime she'll walk in a room, or a lot of times she'll walk in a room and I'll be on the phone or texting someone, and she'll look and it'll be Gabe all the time.
So she was making fun of me, a couple days ago for that. Anyway. So Gabe, if you would tell us a time where you specifically remember hearing from the Lord. And remember, hearing from God's important because we're saved by grace through faith, and faith comes by hearing. And I gotta say this too, I didn't say this earlier.
Sorry for for but this is important. The Bible says faith comes by hearing, not by reading. Somebody needs to hear that in here. You realize the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the teachers of the law memorized most of the Old Testament, but then crucified Jesus. There's a lot of people that know this book, but don't read it by faith.
They read it for more mental ascent and understanding. They get prideful and their life falls over. Right? I read this book to know His character, nature, and who He is, and to hear Him. And when He highlights it and it speaks to my spirit, then all of a sudden, that all of a sudden, His speaking to me by the Holy Spirit, as I'm reading this, speaking through the Word, it becomes life in my daily life.
Becomes the living word when it's breathed on by the Holy Spirit**. Amen? Amen. Okay. All right.
So, what's the time in your life, and let's discuss it, but when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt you heard the Lord. Yeah. And what happened?
So I had a few I had a few times that I could have shared, and there's something that happened recently that God told me I have to share. So I don't want to, but I have to. So there's an example right there. I'm already hearing God and doing what he said. But that's because the reason I don't wanna share is because it's it's a little fresh.
It's a little close to home. I I gotta be a little vulnerable, and I didn't obey God on this 1. So, such a good song this morning, and Robert is so good on that obedience. It's so funny how the spirit will just bring lots of things together that's not planned, but So at work, I I work with this guy and he's homosexual. And I've worked with him for about 2 years now, and I've grown to really like him.
Like, I've grown to just *love* his his humor and and I I don't even know that I can list a lot of things that I like about him because I honestly didn't like him at first. And it's slow and and then just over time, I just started really enjoying who he was. And I attribute some of that to the to the Lord because because I can't even really identify what what it is about him that I like so much, but I just started really having, like, compassion on him in my eyes. And and and 1 time we were joking and laughing about something, and and I felt in my spirit the Lord kinda prompt me, you know he's on his way to hell. Right?
And and it's like I had to I have to I had to wrestle with this thing of like, oh, man. Well, what do I do about that? And and by nature, I'm not I'm not I would not I not only do I not excel at, like, evangelism, like talking to strangers or your server about Jesus or that kind of stuff, like, I'm really bad at it. And it's something that I've recently took up praying for because I'm like, I'm sick and tired. I I I wanna see people saved in the streets, and I wanna and I wanna be talking to people about Jesus.
I wanna see his "transformative power" hit people that aren't in this building this morning. You know? So I started praying for him. I I went up, I do 24 hour shifts. I was in my call room, and I was praying for him and praying for him.
And I've done it a few times now, and I think my heart just, is going out to him. You know, he's an he's an older guy. I'm thinking, man, much time does he have left? And and and here I am laughing him all the way to hell.
You know? So so let's let's just interject right here and and talk through this a bit. Because there's some some stuff here that's culturally relevant. Right? Why do you say that, or why did the Lord say he's on his way to hell?
Because he doesn't know Christ at all.
There there it is. Anybody that doesn't know Jesus the Bible says, John-3, unless you've been born again, you can't see the kingdom of heaven. Now, there's proof in this story that God loves this man. Mhmm. Because God gave Gabe a supernatural compassion for him.
Mhmm. John-3 says, for God so loved the world. He loved people in the midst of their lifestyles, in the midst of their sin, in the midst of what's going on, so much that he sent his son to die for them, proving that he loves them where they are. Right. And, he's inviting them into relationship with him.
And the way he does that is through us. So God loves him, God cares for him, and God's moving on Gabe in order to show this man his love.
Amen. Yeah, exactly. So the other day, it's like the morning and I go down and, you know, because I again, did 24 hour shifts, I'm at work. I'm waking up. I'm gonna go home.
I'm tired. I usually, like, get out there pretty quick. I give report to the charged person. I give off the phone and I and I head out. And we're planning a party at that time.
Everybody's setting up a party and and I don't pay much attention to it because we have parties for everything all the time. It's like always somebody's birthday or something. And I think I've had like 3 parties for me since I've been there in 2 years. So they're really nice. Always throwing parties for each other.
And and they're like, quick, sign the card, you know, and and and I'm like heading out and I'm like grabbing my pen, like, am I signing? You know? And they say well so and so he he's getting married. He got married or whatever and it's his wedding party you know. And and it just hit like big conviction just hits me because again it's like here I am praying for this guy not just for the homosexuality thing, it's for his soul, it's for him.
Like that's what we're kind of emphasizing. It's not just about 1 sin. That sin was like a nice convenient display of the fact that he doesn't know Christ. And so it's like in my face. But I there's lots of people that I work with that are going to hell.
*God* used him and put him on my heart for for this reason. And so here I am with this card and I'm going, oh Lord, I can't think of anything that I wanna say in this card. And and in hindsight, I wish I would have said, oh, I can't sign it. I'm a Christian. You know?
And just left it at that. And but I didn't. I just broke congrats. Gabe.
So, just to to I mean, because this is important for you guys to know, and mean, Gabe is a radically bold person, and is willing to just say truth to almost anyone. But, in the culture today that is pushing that this is right and okay and of God, God created me this way, this, that, and the other, even Gabe, it's hard to stand up for love and truth. See, truth will set you free and you can't love without sharing truth. Now, don't just go, you know, preach on the street, this is wrong and this is wrong and this is wrong. No, you "love people well".
*God was showing him how to love* them well. Let me just show you in scripture real quick for anybody that's questioning, whether you're online or in here. *1 Corinthians-6:9* says, or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
It's pretty clear right there. You know? And so, you have to, in in dealing with the culture of the world and the culture of the kingdom, you have to decide, do I believe the Bible or not? And if you believe the Bible, then you have to adjust your preferences or your feelings no matter how hard it is in the culture of the day to the culture of the kingdom and the Bible shows the culture of the kingdom. Now, here's the beautiful part.
Watch this. So, it says that list of things specifically, sexual immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who have sex with men, thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers. They're not gonna inherit the kingdom of God**. Why? Because the fruit of being born again will come out in your life and change your lifestyle.
Watch this. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. So that proves you, you can, you know, there's a lot of people that are born in sin, and what that sin is, I don't know. It could be a bunch of stuff.
I don't want to fight about that, but I do want to say, hey, no matter how you were born, you can be born again, and transform into a new creation to where now you're no longer what you always felt or what you always thought or what everybody else said about you, you are who Jesus says that you are. And you either submit your life to what he says about you, or you continue to go your own way, and what you do will show who you are. Does that make sense? God loves you, and He wants to redeem and deliver you, so you can walk in the freedom of who He created you to be, And only when you walk in that freedom will you be fulfilled and joyful and full of peace. Amen?
So deal like there's some people in here that may be dealing with that because they've always excused it because you know people. Well, you can still love people and love them well without affirming their lifestyle.
Yeah. That is how you love them. Right? Yeah. That is how you love people well.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So I signed the card and I just immediately felt convicted. I just recognized just like he said like like I know that my gifting is act like 1 of my gifts my wife will tell you is always telling the truth. Like boldly telling the truth.
I'm if I if I'm at risk of something it's usually offending someone. Like going too hard and not having love and what I'm saying. But but with this, it felt like Peter it felt like Peter, you know, like denying the Lord to a little girl. It's like this little thing. And you might think what's the big deal?
Know like this like okay you wrote "congrats or whatever". Yeah I congratulated him in his sin. It's a really really big deal. And *God* brought to remembrance to me Ezekiel. In Ezekiel, there's the scripture, *Ezekiel-3:17*.
It says, this is God talking to Ezekiel the prophet. Okay. He says, Son of man, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and give them a warning from me. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die and you give him no warning nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life.
That same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. So it was a big deal. It's like a really big deal to me. And, you know, this was like like 2 weeks ago. And since then, *God* has been fathering me and teaching me like, where's the where's the cracks and what led to that mistake?
You know, like, where's the holes the holes that kinda led led me to this point of not even being able to stand up at such a simple and basic level when there's when the heat is only going to continue to be turned up especially in our culture. I need to I need to I need to be fathered and be taught. And so God taught me a few things. It's so funny in the middle of no, we ain't lost. We are we are found, baby.
We might be off the track but we are we know where we're going.
Those of watching online, somebody's phone said GPS signal lost.
Alright. So, you know, I was okay. The first I wanna say a few things because I've learned a few things that God has supernaturally showed me. Number 1, he showed me that a lot of the reason why I've hated speaking to people, anyone about the Lord, in public and stuff is because I've done it out of works. I've had to like try and make myself do it.
And I haven't done it in faith. Meaning, haven't done it in connection with my relationship with God knowing my knowing His love for me and knowing my love His love for others and desiring to share it. There's been no relationship there. And so because of a workspace mindset, I've like tried to sum up, oh, I gotta I gotta talk to this person about the Lord, you know, duh duh duh. And and as I have done that or as I've wanted to do that, it hasn't had the power.
It hasn't had the anointing of the Spirit and the end result has been just frustration. And so, it makes me clam up or not want to do it anymore. That was the first thing he showed me.
That that works based mindset is a performance based mindset. I gotta do it so that I feel better about myself, so that I feel more religious, I feel more holy, I feel like I did my check marks, that kind of thing. So, there's a lot of people that do a lot of good stuff, but it's about them. That's a workspace mindset. A relational mindset, where you're submitting to the Lord, is the Lord, you're doing it to love Him, and to love them.
So, it's compassion for the person, instead of, I gotta do this so I'm more religious. Does that make sense? Yeah. And, that's the difference. And, if you're doing it this way, so I can feel better, you'll always end up, you'll always fail, or you'll look down on others that aren't doing it like you.
But, if you're doing it out of love and compassion, you'll be way more effective, and you'll bring others along with you. Instead of looking down on them, you'll serve them and help them to do it too. Amen?
Yeah. Exactly. Yep. And then, just like when was this? Yesterday?
2 days ago? Tuesday. Few days ago, I'm talking to my old accountant from Michigan. And it's so good. I'm just like, hey, how are you doing?
Whatever. He just threw me threw threw out this paragraph to me. Denise led a transgender Denise is his wife, led a transgender person to Jesus last week. She got saved and is walking away from that lifestyle. And she said she heard the Lord speak to her for the first time, and he told her to throw away her cigarettes.
And then she prayed for her to be to get baptized in the Holy Spirit**, and she started speaking in tongues. And it's like, there there's a transformative power. It's not we're not trying to guilt people into living their depressed life for the rest of their life, following Jesus depressed, and then barely making it to heaven. And well, it was worth it. No, man.
There's a transformative power. The gospel is transformative. It will meet people right where they're at. When people haven't experienced *love* the person, they think they they, you know, they'll go and love anything in anybody. You're looking for him.
Looking for him. But when they experience him, it changes everything. It's a transformative real power that changes people and calls it it makes leaving sin actually fairly easy.
Yeah. I I love how you said, you know, God spoke to her and said, leave the cigarettes. You know, it just kinda shows you the depth of God's love. Before we came here, my dad started, and many of you know, my best friend runs 1 of the largest faith based drug rehabs in the state of Louisiana. I got to be a part of a lot of the counseling and ministering there when I was there.
And, and man, like, you know, when somebody comes to the church, a lot of religious people would say, not that church, but just a lot of churches, you know, maybe they're cussing, or maybe they look a certain way, whatever, a lot of people would try to clean up the outside, or clean up their mouth. And we're like, dude, stop. They're trying to get over the fact that their parents raped them from the time they were 5 to 15, and they coped with drugs for 10, 15 years. Let's let God heal the deep stuff first and let Him walk them through being healed in the other stuff because He'll transform their life to look like Him, not you. You know, so, so being able to love them well and see, love people well, see what God's working on, and, and partner with Him, instead of just trying to clean up and make somebody look religious.
And God just loves people so much better than we can. We just gotta focus and listen to him. Amen?
Yeah. The last thing I wanted to say about this is that the *Lord* just spoke this to me yesterday. And I might And when when you
say he spoke it to you, what do you mean?
Yeah. I was reading a book about that that that had an analogy in it and, it was analogizing something into saying how Jesus was friends with sinners. And when when I read that, like, my spirit was so moved. You know? And that's the Holy Spirit.
It's I don't just get moved for nothing despite what you guys might think. So I usually cry while I'm on stage, but that's the spirit moving. And when and and so, like, I paid attention to it. And and and the reason it moved me is because, it goes deep in me. Like like, they called Jesus a a friend of sinners.
And and I'm like, I wanna be called a friend of sinners, man. And and I'm thinking, I don't have many sinner friends. I have a lot of Christian friends. And I used I used to have a lot of sinner friends in high school. I was thinking about this, like, I had a lot of friends that were sinners.
And I and I and I would go to parties and I would not drink. And they they all thought that was the wildest thing. And I wouldn't sit there and preach to them. I just would just live like Jesus. And and they were attracted to it.
And Jesus came up all the time, and it became really easy to talk about Jesus with sinners. And then after high school I started drinking. And and I I lost that witness. And and so then I and so then I like what happened was my life became fractured into which my sin, well, like, when I would hang out with sinners, would sin with them. And then when when I would go to church, it was like, that was my church.
And so I actually became like almost a duplicitous person. And then and then fast forward to a point where I finally recognized that I needed to get out of the sin. So then it's like, okay, let me get out of this lifestyle by like, I can't hang out with these people and I can't do this. And I would go and I came into the church and I'm just starting to like come around to this thing that's like, I never got back into the world once I understood righteousness. He brought me back into the church to make me a whole to like, he's working on holiness with me and bringing me into the mindset of righteousness.
And now it just hits me like a ton of bricks yesterday as I'm reading this, like like, I wanna be a friend of sinners, man. I want that to be my title because that's how you're gonna that's how you're gonna win people. That's what Jesus did. He didn't he didn't go and preach. You know, he he he preached hard messages, but people were so attracted to him.
Sinners were attracted to him. Religious people weren't. It was sinners that were attracted to him.
He he loved well. He rebuked the religious. You know, 1 of the ways that I I respond to people when they ask me about the homosexual lifestyle or adultery or whatever is I say, hey, I wanna be like Jesus. I wanna live like Jesus, where there's this woman that was caught in the act of adultery. They don't say where they they just let the man go, so there's this unequal, you know, thing going on.
But, he was caught in the act of adultery. The religious people threw her in the middle of the public area and trying to trap Jesus. What are you gonna do? Jesus bends down in the dirt, starts writing. And 1 x 1, the religious people walked away.
You can only imagine what he wrote. But then he said to the woman, he didn't say, hey, you're okay. Your lifestyle is no big deal. I love you. Now, you know, go on about your own life, because I wanna be your friend.
That wasn't friendship. How many of you know a real friend will say things that sometimes cuts and hurts, but they say it because they love you and it's what's best. And if you're a real friend to them, you'll receive it, come back around and say, know what, I was wrong. That's what a good friend does. A good friend will tell you what you need to hear, even at the expense of your offense, and at the risk of you walking away.
Because they love you more than they love what you think about them. So what did Jesus tell the woman? He said, where are your accusers? She said, nowhere, sir. And, he said, neither do I condemn you.
He said that first. Then, he said, now go and "leave your life of sin". He called it what it was. But his love enabled her to go and do what he said. Religious people do it the opposite way.
They say, you filthy, rotten sinner, I love Jesus. No, no, no. Those that are a friend of sinners say, show His love, and they love in truth. When it comes up, or when it's time, or whatever it is, they don't hold back because they love the person so much they want to see freedom in every area of their life. Now go and leave your life with sin.
Because man, the freedom's only found in "walking in truth" in Him. Any other thoughts? Mm-mm. You're done? Mhmm.
Hallelujah. Yeah. Thank you for being so vulnerable, brother. You're welcome. Real church.
Roberto, Robert, would you come grab your guitar, brother? Amen. Would be awesome. Here's what we're gonna do. So we're gonna take communion, **enter a time* of worship*, where we worship through giving tithes and offerings, which the Lord leads you to do that, or you're walking with him as your home church, I encourage you to, just in obedience, responsive love, and through communion.
And I'm reminded to say this too. You don't have to give in service. You can give online, but don't do it out of compulsion. Do it out of relationship. And if you feel it's out of compulsion, don't do it.
Walk in relationship with him. Amen. We're also gonna take communion. I wanna remind you that if you're born again, you're in *community* with each other and in community with the heavenly father, the son, and the holy spirit**. Amen?
So when we take communion, you're saying thank you that your body was broken so I could be made whole in my mind, my will, my emotions, in every aspect of who I am. My physic my physical life, spiritual life. When you take the the drink, you're saying, I believe that you've forgiven me. You've washed me clean of who I always was, so I don't own my past anymore. As a matter of fact, "I'm not my past".
I am who you say that I am. And I'm gonna fall forward from now on into you because I know that I'm forgiven. We're reminding ourselves in Christ of what that means, saying that forgiveness matters for my daily life moving forward. Amen? It just does.
And we're gonna do it communally. So when you come forward to get communion cups, please don't take it alone. 1 of our core values is together we, as as weird as it might be for you, "step into the weirdness". Step out of the familiar and bring a brother or a sister, a mother or father, a son or a daughter, and do take communion together and help each other to remember that you're forgiven and you're whole because he made it that way 2000 years ago. Amen?
So we do it in little groups around here. If you don't have 1, come get me or my wife or your neighbor or if you, church, if you see somebody alone, help them. Now if you're not a *Christian* and you're hearing all of this, you're like, man, I I wanna know his love like that. *Communion's for believers because you're in community* with the heavenly father. You can't be in community unless you've been born again.
Now, I'm not talking about going to church and being here because your mama asked you. I'm talking about saying, being born again means, I believe Jesus, you died for me for my sin, because I've been living for myself. No matter how hard I try, I can't do it on my own. And I believe you rose again, Jesus, so that I can live your life. And a lot of people just stop there.
Guess what? Even demons believe Jesus died and rose again. Even demons go to church. That's not enough. You know what the rest is?
I confess you as my Lord. I'm a stop living for me and what I think and what I feel, and I'm gonna be I'm gonna "live for you", Jesus, even when you say something that I feel is wrong Because what you say is good is gonna be my good from now on. What you say is true is gonna be my truth from now on. What you say is right is gonna be my right from now on. At the cost and expense of myself, I'm gonna follow you, God.
Because you created me to do that. Ask Jesus as Lord. And when I mess up, praise the Lord, you forgave me so I can fall forward into you. If you need to receive Jesus, I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand. I'm gonna ask you to do something else.
Jerry, would you stand up? Would you turn around and look at him? That's Santa Claus. And he wants to help you with the gift of salvation. Go see him.
He wants to lead you to Jesus. And then after that, take communion. Amen. I want to invite you to stand. And we're gonna worship in this way, In the background, kinda softly, is gonna be singing *obedience*.
It's gonna be awesome. Lord God, we thank you and we praise you. Thank you that we get to do this together. Let's worship.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God *loves* you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.usgiving, or you can text any amount to 840-0321, and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you, and the "best is yet to come".