You are invited to stop treating faith as just head knowledge and start practicing what you hear. Take the step of obedience today by surrendering your life to Jesus and making your faith public through baptism. As you do, you will find your spiritual muscles growing and your hunger for God deepening.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing and it's because *God* has me here. There's nothing better than walking in the sitter of his will. I mean, it's just it's fun.
Doesn't mean it doesn't get hard. Doesn't mean life doesn't get tough. Man, it does. But to have Him with you, and knowing that He's empowering you, giving you the *grace* to be able to walk through the tough stuff, and to enjoy, the good stuff, man. It's it's just it's fun.
So I'm just gonna dive right in. We're in the middle of a series titled Hearing God. I think this is part like 7 or or 6 or 8 or somewhere along in there. And so there's a lot in it. If you haven't heard any of the series, I'd encourage you to go back.
I'm not gonna do a huge review today. But I will tell you this, what we've learned in hearing God is like faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. It's impossible. Anything not done in faith is sin, is what the Bible says.
So that means we we have to learn what it looks like to live as people of faith. And faith isn't what a lot of people think it is. It isn't just trying to hope enough. Isn't just trying to believe enough. **"faith comes by hearing"**.
It's what the Bible says. And hearing by the word of Christ, which means you can't have a life of faith outside of relationship with Jesus. It's not religion. It's not, I'm following this list of rules, this code of laws in order to try to be good enough. That's not faith.
That's your effort. That's that's trusting in how good you are, and there's no peace there. There's only this day I felt like I did enough, and the next day I don't feel like I did enough. So now I feel condemned. I mean, pardon my French, but that that kind of living sucks.
It just does. It's not real. But there's there's a relationship with *Jesus* where you can know that he already did it all for you because he's he's good, and the heavenly father already paid the complete price for you. So that just like I love my son, Tripp, I'll never disown him. I've already adopted him and I wanna continually show him his identity, who he is as a Phillips.
He never has to doubt the fact that he's a Phillips. There's nothing he has to do to earn being a Phillips. But when he understands everything that it means to be a Phillips, man, he'll live that out completely. Makes sense? Man, that's how good God is in this and in us.
So faith comes by hearing. As we hear Jesus, we understand who he is. We have the capacity to live by faith. But faith is completed by obedience. Right?
Without without *faith* without works is dead. Right? So there's a lot of people that hear but don't obey, and there there's no relationship there. So God loves you enough to speak to you. But if you just hear him and don't obey, then you're you're saying that you don't love God enough to respond.
We love because he first loved us. We have the capacity to obey because he spoke to us. But then we walk out that *relationship* by saying, yes, Lord. And that's what we were saying when we what we declared is, hey, I'm making this decision ahead of time to say "yes, Lord". Because that's Christianity.
Because sometimes God's gonna tell you to do stuff that doesn't seem logical, doesn't seem like you should do it. I mean, he told me to pick my family up and move them away from from my parents, where my kids and her parents, where my kids ain't gonna have any grandparents, you know, for 15 hour or 14 hour drive. I mean, that doesn't seem logical, but but we've already made the decision, yes Lord. And so we said, yes Lord. And man, praise the Lord.
Many families have been shifted because of it. Many lives have been transformed. And it's not just because of me, but it's because of Jesus, and he wants to do the same thing in you in every area of your life. He's that good. So God speaks to us in many different ways.
Right? But it's all by the Holy Spirit, and it's all so that we can live by faith in every area of our life. We've learned that in the Hearing God series. We've learned He speaks through the word, and everything that He says in every other area of your life, if it doesn't line up with the character nature of God through the word, then it wouldn't God. He speaks through prayer.
Right? Not just us saying a bunch of stuff to him, but us listening all throughout the day. 2 ears, 1 mouth, we listen. And God wants to speak to you so that you can hear Him clearly. And we learned that He speaks in circumstance.
We spent the last 2 Sundays talking about Him speaking in circumstance, and today we're gonna wrap up that aspect of hearing God, Him speaking in circumstance. And and if you just listen to the past couple of Sundays, then you would think, well, you know, when I say circumstance, I'm only meaning bad things because I talked about the storms, and I talked about being able to walk through that. And I and I spent time there because a lot of times in our culture, we just focus on the bad. Right? You ask somebody how they're doing.
This going on, and this going on, and that, and and you know, and and it's like a badge of honor that I'm going through all this tough stuff. Man, everybody goes through tough stuff. I don't I'm not diminishing your tough stuff, I'm just saying everybody goes through tough stuff. It's the perspective you have on the tough stuff that that helps you to get through it. And our perspective is God is good.
I don't I might not understand or know if He did it, or if He didn't do it. Because there's everything that happens was was God's will in your life. Just so you know. Like, listen to the message a couple weeks ago. But basically, all things do work together for good for those that love Him and are the called according to His purpose.
So the right perspective on every circumstance is, I don't know why this is going on in my life, but I know you're good, and I wanna hear you in the circumstance. I wanna go to truth in the circumstance, and I know somehow, some way, even though all of this is crazy, you're gonna work it out for good, so my eyes are on you Jesus, and I trust you. Man, there's peace there, because that's truth. Amen? Amen.
So having the right perspective, and then don't go into the circumstance, necessarily, but going to truth in the midst of it, and then defining the circumstance by truth. So that was the last 2 weeks of hearing God in circumstance. But God uses circumstances to lead us and to guide us, and He speaks to us in that way. I want you to know, like, we talked about John-5:17. You bring that up?
It says, in His defense Jesus said to them, my Father is always at His work to this very to day, and I too am working. So like, God's always at work. Always. He's been at work, and you know what? He's working it out, so that His **divine grand plan**, His divine purpose is gonna happen.
He's working all things together for good, whether or not he calls it, maybe the enemy tried to steal, kill, and destroy, but he's gonna work it around so that his *purpose* happens. He's just that good and that powerful, he can do it. Even the junk meant to prevent it from happening, he's gonna work it out so it happens. He's always at work. And as we talked about in the beginning, during the worship service, he created you on purpose and for a purpose.
Really, for many purposes. And so if he designed you, then he designed you in a way that fits into his grand purpose in such a way that your role is important. It matters. Not only that, but he's been working in your life and around your life and through your life, even before you came to know Him. Since you were born, even in the circumstances surrounding your birth, He was trying and and wanting to work it out for good, even when, even the junk that happened, even the tough stuff, not that God caused it, but he wants to work through it for good, so that you can be developed and walk out your purpose to completion.
Amen? Amen. In every way. So don't blame Him for the bad things, or the things that other people did to you, or your mistakes, and all that other stuff. Don't blame God, didn't plan for for you to to mess up in that way, or for them to do that stuff to you.
He didn't know. But man, He can work it out for good, and He's going to. If we'll let Him. And so He's working, and He's inviting you today to be a part of His purpose. To to to to participate in the way that He's designed you to work.
Amen? So you have to understand that to understand the next couple points. But I I just wanna show you how God leads in in circumstance. Let's go to Acts-16. I mean, is pretty cool here.
*Acts-16:6*. It says, Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia in Galatia, having been kept by the Holy *Spirit* from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mycia, they tried to enter Bith Bithnia, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. That's the Holy Spirit. So they passed through Micah and went down to trials.
The Holy Spirit prevented them. So if you just read that, you would think, well, god doesn't want to speak to Asia. You know? But we know that the great commission says that we're supposed to make disciples of every nation. So we have to think, wait a second, God has a purpose and he has a process.
And, like not only does he have a purpose and it's designed, but there's a process to the purpose. And so, a lot of times we might see what God wants to do and try to go do it before it's time outside of His process. And the Holy Holy Spirit will say, hey, wait, stop. That's why it's important to understand that He speaks to you. Right?
First, by the word, we understand His character and nature through the word, then in prayer, and then there's some principles of how he speaks through circumstances, so that we can listen like Paul did and say, oh, wait. I'm not supposed to go to Asia right now. I'm supposed to go somewhere else. And then when he went to Bithynia, oh, I'm not supposed to go to Bithynia right now. How did the Holy Spirit show him that?
Like, because we can hear the Holy Spirit in the same way in our daily life. Knowing in this circumstance, we're supposed to say something, and in this circumstance, we're not supposed to. And and here, we're supposed to do that, but just not yet. Maybe that's in 5 years and 10 years. I have no idea.
I'm just saying, yes, Lord, in the moment. You know? Like, God can lead you and he wants to lead you like that by faith. So, I don't know if if God led him, 1, through prayer, and then maybe there was some circumstances that happened and maybe some confirmations through some other people. It doesn't say all that but what I do know is god uses circumstance in order to show him by the Holy Spirit that he should not go to Asia.
Yeah. Right? Now, if you if you skip ahead to Acts-19, a lot of times you don't understand why it's happening in the moment. You just gotta trust and obey by faith. But then later down the road, *god* will show you if you have ears to hear and eyes to see.
So in Acts-19:26 it says, and you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray into large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. So so wait a second. *God* ended up impacting Asia, just not Paul's way. Paul wanted to do it himself and God said, nope, I got a different plan. Go to Ephesus.
Paul started preaching and teaching in Ephesus for 2 years. The disciples that he made in Ephesus where some of them were from Asia, and they went back to Asia. So he wanted to reach Asia, but not through Paul, through Paul's disciples. Ain't that cool? Yeah.
So he actually did a bigger work by being obedient to the Holy Spirit in His timing, because it was multiplication instead of just all about Paul. So being willing to say, yes Lord, and understand the circumstances. How we do that? Well, watch this. I just wanna show you something else.
Let's go to Proverbs. We're learning to hear God, and how He moves, and how He works, and I'm just laying the foundation for the the point. Proverbs-26. Watch this. This is crazy.
Oh, that's a good 1 too. You know what, let's just go ahead and do Oh, well, we'll go back to that 1. *Proverbs-26* verse 5, watch this. It says, do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself would be just like them. Now watch verse the next verse.
Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. Wait a second. Hold on. Did the Bible just contradict itself 1 verse right after the other? Go back to the the verse right before it.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly. Verse 5. Answer a fool according to his folly. You see that? That's some crazy stuff.
You won't understand it outside of relationship. See, there's sometimes when I'm talking with somebody, they just don't get it. Maybe they're foolish in that area, ignorant or whatever. And I'm not supposed to say a word because they won't be able to hear me. I'm only gonna know that if I know how to hear the Holy Spirit's voice in that moment in relationship.
But then there's other times, verse 5, where I'm talking to the same person, maybe a little bit, maybe they've been through some circumstances and stuff, and now I'm supposed to say something. And so I gotta be obedient to the spirit and not just follow this code of, oh, every time I'm talking to fool, ain't supposed to answer them. No, because sometimes you are. But how would you know? It's *relationship* with the Holy Spirit, with God, who lives, if you've been born again, inside of you.
Where we can walk with Him. So sometimes I'm talking with a fool, and I ain't even supposed to say nothing to this fool. I'm just supposed to listen and be like, man, that sucks. Then walk away. Now all the times when I'm talking to a fool, I'm supposed to confront them in the foolishness because they're ready to hear it and respond.
And I won't know the difference if I don't know the voice of Jesus. And guess what? I've been doing this for a while. Sometimes you're going to get it wrong. And when you get it wrong, here's what you do.
*Lord*, I got it wrong. Would you help me next time so that I follow your voice instead of just my own thinking? Amen? I'll show you how. I didn't give you this verse, but I'm gonna go to it anyway.
No. Let's go to that verse you put up. Proverbs-3. That's a good 1. That'll explain it.
Here's how. You trust in the Lord with all your heart, and "lean not on your own understanding". In all your ways, submit to Him. Another version says, acknowledge Him, and He will, this version says, "make your path straight". Another version says, another version says, direct your paths.
So there's an aspect of learning to, in relationship with Him, acknowledge the fact that Jesus is with you in every single circumstance because He lives in you. So in prayer, that's acknowledging Him. Lord, what do you say about this situation? And not just barreling on ahead, no matter what, because hey, we did it right last time. No, He might want you to do something different this time.
So acknowledging Him in prayer, and then being led by Him in the moment. If you don't acknowledge Him, then you're trusting what you say, and what you feel over what He thinks, because you're not even willing to go to Him first. Make sense? And the promise is He will direct your path. That means God wants to direct your path.
He wants to direct your steps. He wants to walk with you, if we will let them. He wants to work all things out for good. But it's for those who love Him, and we love by obeying, which means we acknowledged Him in the moment, and we heard His voice, and we said, yes, Lord. And then He worked it out for good.
Amen? I know I'm a little jumpy on stage. I just get excited. Okay. So, like, I'll give you 1 principle for how I know whether or not it's the Lord, or a couple principles.
Number 1, it's gotta be in line with his character, nature, and the word. Number 2, usually, he's been showing me, if it's a big thing, He's been showing me in prayer. He's been giving me little hints. See, John-16 says, the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth, and He will show you "things yet to come". That's not just that's not like for psychics.
You realize psychics are are the demonic psychics are the demonic replica of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in you. Just to throw that out there. Like, the Holy Spirit wants to show you things yet to come. He wants to give you an understanding so that when it happens, you're like, oh, yes. This was the Lord.
I I saw it in prayer, or I experienced experienced it in prayer. And a lot of times, He's not gonna show you exactly how it's gonna be, but He is gonna show you through relationship with Him enough that you know God's leading you in the circumstance and in the moment so that you will say yes to His will. And you'll know you will know if you're being disobedient or obedient because you have a relationship with him. Yeah? Another way that I know it's the *Lord* is Isaiah-55:12.
It says, you will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. So, some of you might have heard me say, be led by His peace. You know, you're praying, when you're praying about a circumstance or situation, a lot of times people will come to me and I and give me counsel, and I don't have a certain direction for them to go. I don't, you know, all I have is my opinion, and I'll tell you if it's my opinion. You know, a lot of times, so I just say, hey, you need to pray, and seek the Lord in this, because they're both good options.
They're both in line with His character and nature, but man, I believe 1 of them's best, and here's how you know. You'll have a deep seated peace about it. Like here, it might feel crazy. Like, no. Like all of your friends might say, no.
But deep down, you know from the Lord. And if you got friends that really know the Lord, they'll confirm what God is saying in you. Right? Don't get counsel from a bunch of people that don't know Jesus, Because they they don't they don't they don't know how to hear the Lord too. They'll give you what's logically correct, but not necessarily what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do.
No, man. You you wanna you wanna get counsel from people who have been walking with the Lord for a long time. So that they can either confirm, they can confirm what God is telling you. Because there's a lot of times when he's leading you in a certain circumstance, there's a deep seated peace that you already know that you know. And he's gonna confirm it.
Through that. Because look, they're led by peace. We're led by his peace. I was gonna give some long examples, but for the sake of time, I'm gonna give a short example of 2 or 2. Because I think, like, the best way for you to learn how to live, how to hear God in circumstances, is to just to see examples of how it played out in in people's lives.
So I'm I'm gonna share this, but then you're you're also gonna hear from miss Rebecca, who was leading worship today, on how she's heard the Lord in in her life. And for those of you that are new to this series, that's every every message I share principles or a couple principles, and then we hear from someone how they've heard from God. So it's just not 1 perspective. Amen? Amen.
Okay. So, Rebecca, would you would you come on up? That would be great. Would you guys give her a hand? And and just let me let me tell you I'll just be transparent with you.
1, as I'm I'm here, I'm thinking, well, man, I you know, I'd planned for quite a few stories there, but I took too long in the last 20 minutes. So I asked the Lord, was like, Lord, you want me to want me to share 1 of those stories? And I didn't have a piece about it there in the moment, and for the reason, it wouldn't be loving Rebecca well, because it wouldn't give her the time necessary to share. So the character nature of God is to love others and to "lay your life down" for them. Right?
So I'm just kinda sharing with you the circumstance of how I heard from God there. Right? So so in that moment, when I'm praying, I'm like, wait a second. So scripture is usually, you know, laying your life down to love someone else, so that they so okay. So that's probably from the Lord.
Well, this is gonna if I don't share right now, I've I've I've I've already and this is the thoughts going through my head. I've already sat here quiet for about 10 seconds, they're just gonna think I'm weird. I'm like, well, hold on. So that's about you, so if I share right now, I'm making it about me instead of about you and what you wanna do, well then that's probably for me. I probably don't need to do that.
And I got a piece about going with Rebecca, so heck with how they think, let's do this. I'm just saying, that's how your pastor prays in a moment, okay? So just, it's that real, hence real church. Anyway, let me get my chair so I'm on the You did. It's perfect.
So in this series, I wanted to to get people of multi generations. Right? So we've we've had, people 20 and 30 years older than you, and then we we have you. How old are you, Rebecca? Gotta unmute it.
Oh, gotta turn it on. It's all good.
Tess. Tess.
Boom.
I'm 20 years old.
20 years old. And how long have you been following the Lord?
Since I was well, I accepted Jesus in my heart when I was about 4. But, yeah. My first account of the Holy Spirit was like 12. So So until 13.
4 years old, you said I'm gonna follow Jesus with all my heart.
Yeah.
But you remember like hearing him and like following his specific leading when you were 12. Yeah. And so since then, you've been learning what it looks like to walk with the Lord.
Yes.
For 8 years.
Yes. That's
awesome. Like, that's a big deal. Amen? So so, in this, you know, this is not pre planned for those of you that don't know real church, and don't know the hearing God series. I just ask her to come up with 1 or 2 stories of how she's heard God in her life.
And then what we'll do is we'll just dissect it together, and figure out some biblical principles so that we can all walk away having learned, man, praise the Lord. Because here's the reality is, if you're a Christian and you have a relationship with God, then there are things that God shows you in your relationship, man, that could impact me and could help me to learn and grow. Even though I'm the quote unquote pastor. And then there's things in me that could help you. So together, we're stronger.
That's why it's important to be connected to the body of Christ. Because here's the thing, to the extent that you're connected to the body of Christ, that's the extent that what's in you can help that church to be who God's called it to be. And to the extent that you're connected, that's the extent that what's in that church, and those relationships, and those people can help you be who God's called you to be. And to the extent that you're disconnected, you're preventing yourself from growing in the way that God's called you to grow. Ain't that crazy?
So if this is your local body, man, encourage you to connect. If it's not, if you're just here visiting, praise the Lord, thank you. And then go back to your local church and root and anchor because there's people there that need what you've put, what Jesus has put in you. And there's people there that you need what Jesus has put in them. I pray this is your church, but that's my opinion.
You follow Jesus. Amen? Anyway, so tell us the story of how you've heard the Lord.
Yeah. So so the story kinda starts with some some of you may know, my family and I moved here from Kansas City about a little over 2 years ago. And about a year into moving here, I really felt the Lord telling me to go back to Kansas City and go to a ministry school there for about a year. And this is kind of backstory to when the act the Lord spoke to me, the main thing I wanna hit on. But when the Lord spoke to me that time, he just kept opening doors to go to this ministry school.
And even when I didn't know how I was gonna pay for tuition, I ended up getting a full ride scholarship.
So So question on that. Like, when you said you felt the Lord speak to you the first time, how did how did that happen? Was it
Yeah. So actually, my grandma, she she's kind of involved in the church in Kansas City that did the ministry school. And so she she introduced the idea to me, and so I prayed about it. And I just really felt like the Lord is saying yes. And even when I was unsure about it, I felt like doors just kept opening, and I felt like that was confirmation that I was supposed to go.
Yeah. So in that, you you just heard how God's 1 of the ways that God speaks. 1 of the ways he speaks is he uses other people, most of the time Christians, to speak to you. Right? And it's humbling thing to allow God to direct you through someone else.
A lot of times we wanna say, no, my way. But, man, in Christianity, it's about submitting 1 to another. And so, it's a beautiful thing in relationship. And, you don't just take what somebody says is from the Lord. No.
It it, a lot of times, is confirm confirming what God's already been speaking to you, or he'll confirm it later. Right? But, it's important. That's how important relationships are, is because, man, God directs us through those things. That's 1 of the ways.
So you heard that. And then, you said you you said you just kinda knew or you you kinda you after she said that, what happened?
Well, after she said that, I was kind of unsure, but then I would pray about it. And then, just really felt *peace* about that. And then after that, the Lord just kept opening doors, and then gave I ended up getting a scholarship. So
So spoke through someone else, led by his peace, and then confirmed it through circumstances of different things moving forward. When you when you felt peace, would you did what did you say to the Lord? Did you say, like, I'll go if you if it's your will or what or
Yeah. I was saying, I'll go if it's your will. But if I'm being honest, it wasn't the scariest thing for me to do, just this decision specifically, because I had grown up in Kansas City Mhmm. Prior. True.
So anyway, yeah. So I ended up going back and I spent a year really building this foundation with the Lord. And it was this really sweet time with him and just running after him with some other people and learning more about the Lord. So then fast forward, the year the school year ends up kinda coming to a close. And I'm honest like, I remember my dad would call me and he'd be like, so are you gonna like stay there or like, please can you come back to live with us in Florida because we miss you.
And I was really having this wrestle of like, Lord, should I stay in Kansas City? Like I this is where my family is and a lot of my friends. I feel comfortable. I feel known. This is where I grew up.
Or should I move back to Florida where my family wants me to come? Or like is that your will Lord? And I didn't know what my community was fully gonna look like. I didn't know where I was gonna work. So I was really having this wrestle.
But I remember coming here for spring break and I was actually at the beach with Emily that a lot of you guys know. She's not here today but I was in the car with her and I was sharing with her this wrestle I was having. And I was really honestly getting really anxious about it. Like, Lord, what do what do I do? Do I stay in Kansas City?
Do I move back to Florida with my family? And I remember when I told her, I said, should I move back to Florida? And right in that moment, I felt this overwhelming amount of peace, like way more than I've ever felt before. And I knew that it wasn't me. I knew it was the Lord because just a second ago, I was feeling anxious about what decision I was supposed to be making.
And so I knew deep within my spirit that I was supposed to move back to Florida.
I love it. So 1, you see Isaiah-55:12 at work led by his peace. And you see *God* moving. And you said Emily just asked you the question?
Yeah. Well, we were just kinda talk just talking about life and stuff. And I was telling her, like, I'm really struggling. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
Uh-huh.
Like, and right in that moment, I felt all this peace just And, I just knew deep within me. Yeah.
So, I wanna point out a little thing too, and and correct me if I'm wrong here Yeah. On this. But, like so like a father with my son, I'm not gonna challenge him with things that he's not ready for, but I'm gonna I'm gonna if I know he's gonna be here, like, in maybe kicking a soccer ball, I'm not gonna teach him to to kick with his shoelaces first. Like, first, I'm gonna teach him to, you know, I'm gonna do some drills with him to prepare him so that he's ready to shoot like I know he can shoot. Right?
So, there's a step process. I see this step process in her. First, *God* asked her to obey him in a way that she was comfortable going back to Kansas City, where she it was a move. She had to get out of what she was used to being here, but it was a step. Are you gonna say, yes, Lord, and go?
Yes? And so, she's there. Now, she's she's proven she can hear and obey the Lord in that, and that was from the Lord. You're going to Kansas City for a year. Yeah.
Okay. For sure. But then, the next part was, He asked her to do something she was uncomfortable with, which was coming back here. Coming back to which there is where her extended family is. And, in our process, our walking with the Lord, a lot of times, when He's leading us, He's not going to Jesus said, I have so much more to share with you, but it's more than you can now bear.
Right? So He's not going to challenge us in ways that are more than we can We might feel it's more than we can bear, but He knows us better than we know ourselves. So He's gonna challenge us in ways that we have to say, yes, Lord, and He we when we look back at His process in our life, we will realize from the ways that He's moved in the past month, 5 years, 10 years, and in the process that He's preparing us to say yes this time, if we would just be willing to look and see. So He prepared her by having her move and say yes, But then, he asked her to do something she was uncomfortable with, but it was still his will. And the test was, are you willing to say yes, Lord, even when it's not what you wanna do, but it's what I want you to do?
And she did. And here's the thing, the process hasn't stopped. Because because every day in our life, God wants us to make us more like Him. And what it takes to be a disciple is denying yourself, "picking up your cross", following Him. Which means every day, He wants you to be a little less like what you think you should be, and a little bit more like Him.
And when you're more like Him, all of your gifts, talents, and abilities are actually magnified and shining better and anointed because you're doing it the way that He created you to live. But it takes you saying, yes Lord, to what he says, which most of the time is uncomfortable to your flesh. Right?
Yeah. And it's funny because as you were sharing Proverbs-3:5, I was actually about to share about that. Because that verse was a verse that the Lord was speaking to me during that time. Like Rebecca, are you gonna trust the Lord with all of your heart? Not just part of your heart, but all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
And for me, like, to not lean on my own understanding, my personality is very, like, I like to have everything planned out and, like, how how is it gonna work? I need to know the details, you know? But a lot of the time, before we take that step of obedience, we're not gonna see how everything's gonna work out. Yep. And so so I took that step and I trusted the Lord and I gave him my yes and I decided to move down here.
I didn't know where I was gonna work. Didn't I mean, I knew like some of you guys but like that was really it. And so right when I moved down here, not that long after, I actually ended up getting a call from Mariah Mullins. And her her and her husband Gabe, like a lot of you guys know, they ended up offering me a job to work for them and their company. And that in itself was such a blessing and so specific to to me.
And the Lord knew I needed it. Because that's the thing is whenever we submit our our need to understand or I think a lot of times we have a tendency to trust our own, like our own way because it's tangible. We can plan it. We can see it.
Yep.
But when we surrender that, he just provides for us and takes care of us in more ways than we can even imagine. Because the definition of faith is you can't see it. And so I the Lord is teaching me to "walk by faith" and not by sight.
Well, without faith, it's impossible to please God. So if you only say, yes, Lord, to things you understand or you like, he's not your Lord. You are. Yeah. Right?
But whoever's your Lord, you'll never say no to. So when he challenges you to do something you don't understand and you don't wanna do, but you know he's speaking, and you say, yes Lord, well that's showing that he's your Lord and you're not anymore. Which means you're a Christian. Yeah. Yeah.
Which is amazing. Anything else there?
I think that's mostly it. I another this is kinda funny, but this quote that's actually my mom has it in our bathroom if you've been to our house, but it's this quote by Cory 10 Boom. It's 1 of my favorite quotes that relates this. And it says, never be afraid to trust an "unknown future" to a "known God". Because when we know him in our relationship with him, we don't have to understand how everything's gonna work out.
Yeah. And and when you know him, well, then you know he's good. So if He's leading you, He's leading you toward His good. You also know He's love. Well, if He really loves you, when He's telling you to take a step and you don't think it's good because of your limited understanding, well, you can trust that He loves you and He is good.
And so, when you the more you learn to lean on that, the more you trust it because you've seen Him working in that way. And just like to really point out a couple of different things. *Hebrews-11:3, the first 4 words of that, Hebrews-11:3 are, by faith* we understand. Right? Meaning, there's a lot of things that when the Lord's wanting you to move forward in relationship with, you're not gonna understand until you obey.
Because faith comes by hearing, and faith is completed by obedience. Right? So after you obey, a lot of times, it was like, oh, wow. I'm so glad I said, yes, Lord, because now this happened. What are some of the the best things or the the benefits of having moved back here for your walk with God and just practically speaking?
Yeah. I think like a big thing, even it's just like you guys, like real church community, like I my family and I are just so thankful. Even just the family that you guys have been. So not only that, just how the Lord has provided that.
I didn't tell her to say that.
You didn't. You can you can give me my later. Just kidding. Yeah. So that also just even just working for Gabe and Mariah for their business and yeah.
Just the Lord has been so faithful. I just think there are even ways when I lived in Kansas City that I think when we grow comfortable or even for me, my friends were kind of everything to me. And I think whenever the Lord brought me here, it was still hard but he revealed to me that he satisfies everything. So those are that was the big
Yeah. A lot of things when we're living a comfortable life outside of his will, it's because we're putting things before him. You know, where things have become an idol as anything that we worship or we say, yes Lord to over what he says. But when you're living a life of faith, there are no idols. There can't be.
Because, you know, I always joke when I'm having a conversation with somebody and they say, they say, you know, I'll never do that. I was like, you know, I'll never move to Alaska, or I'll never Well, if you're if you're in relationship with the Lord, and you say you'll never, he wants to make sure that he's your Lord. So he might just work it out, so he says, hey, will you do that for me? And it proves that he's your Lord and not what you want and what you don't. Does that make sense?
Yeah. The other thing that I wanna point out is just how God leads through the circumstance is this. Watch this. I didn't know that she had talked about or had wrote down in her little journal there, *Proverbs-3:5* and 6. I didn't know that that was a part of the thing.
I didn't know that she was gonna be talking about *peace* and how peace led her. But yet, in my preparation, *God led me to Isaiah-55:12. We're led by his peace. God led me to Proverbs-3:5* and 6. You know, there's a lot of times people think that the messages are planned because the worship songs go right with it, and so we've we've coordinated.
That would be cool if we were that planned out, but we're not. I wish, you know, maybe 1 day we will be as we continue to grow and have more people on the teams and stuff. But man, right now, the Holy Spirit's just making do for us, and it's looking that way like where that planned out. But that's just a confirmation, like God leads you in the little things. And if you're following him, and hearing him, and walking by faith, man, it's so beautiful.
Cause the Bible says, when you see the answers to your prayer, your joy is complete. So what was all this? This was prayer. Hearing and obeying. Oh, We're gonna put that verse in there because it goes here.
*Lord*, what do you want to speak next? Oh, yeah. We're gonna put that verse in there. I just all I did was had an idea, and it went in line. I'm like, and I'm just gonna believe that that's the Lord, so I did it.
Well, now it's *confirmation* after the fact. Didn't understand why, but by faith we understand. Hear, obey, Did it. After the fact, it's confirmation. Oh, that was the Lord.
Praise the Lord. And and you don't just every thought you have think it's Jesus. Like, no. It's a walking with Him and growing in *maturity* and understanding how He speaks, His character nature, from your relationship with Him. What does that look like?
Every day, spend a little time in the Word, because the Word shows you the character and nature of God, and it reveals Christ. So that when you see in your daily life circumstance happen, you can say, oh, that's like that thing that happened in the Bible. That's probably Jesus. Maybe I need to look there a little bit closer. Make sense?
And every day, spend some time in prayer. Because if you're spending intentional time in prayer, well then, you're spending intentional time with the creator, which means you're able to recognize him more clearly in conversation with people, in circumstances. But outside of relationship, you'll just be guessing. We're not made to guess, we're made to walk with Him. And watch this.
*Hebrews-5*. Or is there anything else you got? Are you good? If you're if you're Would you guys give her a big old hand? She 20 year old mighty woman of God.
And and I wanna I wanna show you how in your walk with God, you can mature. Because maybe you've been following with Jesus for 20 or 30 years and you feel like, man, she knows Jesus better than I do. Maybe you've been following Jesus for, you know, the same amount of times. Like, how is she how is she so mature in the Lord? I don't get it.
I've tried. I wanna show you how. In Hebrews-5, and this is like this will sum up how to grow in your understanding of walking with the Lord and hearing him in your daily life. And then we'll we'll have, the next part of the series next week, to to show us how we hear God through people, through his church, and through the body of Christ. But Hebrews-5:13.
Let me get it. It says, anyone still on milk, being still an infant, is unacquainted with the teaching of righteousness. Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching of righteousness. So if I don't care if you've been following Jesus for 40 years and been a pastor and done amazing missionary work around the world. If you are unacquainted with the teaching of righteousness, you're still an infant.
Because when you're unacquainted with the teaching of righteousness, you think that your works make God love you more, And your lack of works make God love you less. So you always have to do more in order to be good enough to be blessed by him. And that's just not relationship. That's religion. And so there's a lot of ministries.
I'm not man, there's a lot of amazing, wonderful ministries. But there's a lot of ministries that just do a bunch of stuff because of the ego of the leader has to feel like they're super holy. So they do all these things in order to feel super holy. And it's really all about them. See, when you understand righteousness, you understand that Jesus died on a cross to pay for all your sin, past, present, and future.
But not just that, to restore your value and to put his goodness inside of you. His righteousness has been credited to your account. So that means I don't have to earn anything. He's already paid for it for me. So I don't have to prove anything because I've already been proven.
So that means I don't have to do anything in order to be good enough because he already sees me as good enough. And if God sees you as good enough, he's not just saying a lie. Like God sees truth, he's declaring truth over you, and his truth is bigger than your truth. And if he says you're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, guess what you are? So if you actually believe it, you'll get to live it out and walk it and experience his righteousness through you.
See, so many Christians are stuck in immaturity because they're all about "earning instead of about receiving" his goodness. But when you receive his goodness, you actually do more of his goodness that way. When you believe you're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, you're you start doing righteous things. But if you believe you're a filthy, rotten sinner, you do filthy, rotten sinner things. So my focus is no longer on my sin.
It's already been paid for and forgiven. I've been born again. So my focus now is on how forgiven I am. My and so I'm I'm it takes more do you realize it takes more *faith* to be joyful and rejoice because you're more focused you you can't be joyful in the Lord and rejoice except for understanding what he's done for you. It takes more faith to do that than to constantly be weeping for how bad you are.
Because if you're constantly weeping for how bad you are, you're more focused on you instead of focused on him. Now watch. When I understand *righteousness* and I like, when when I understand righteousness, I understand that he's standing right next to me even in the midst of my junk. And so in the do you know how to be free from your junk? Is invite him into it.
And the sin that you've been struggling with, when that thought those thoughts start coming back in your mind, that temptation, invite him there. *God*, *Jesus*, I know you're here, and I know you paid for this. Thank you, Lord God, that you've already paid for this, that you've already forgiven me. Guess what what's happening in that moment? You're focusing on what he's done instead of trying to not do something.
And guess what? Your actions will reflect where your focus is. So in the thing that you've been struggling with, when you invite him there and your focus goes back to how forgiven you are for that, you will begin to see freedom in that area more than ever before because your focus is becoming *Jesus* and you're understanding righteousness. Does that make sense? It's a mind shift because for so long we're taught, you're filthy, rotten sinners, you're filthy, rotten sinners, try so hard to quit sinning.
And I'm saying, no, no, no. You're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You're forgiven. And instead of focusing on trying not to, don't you just focus on Jesus in the midst of it? And watch what happens when Jesus becomes your focus, his life becomes your life.
Yep. So instead of focusing on the sin, focus on his goodness in the midst of it. Does that make sense? When you start to do that, your life will be a life of repentance. The reason you sin is because you went back there and forgot that you've been forgiven.
But if you go back there and instead remember that you've been forgiven, in that moment, you'll begin to live like 1 that's forgiven. Anyone still on milk is unacquainted with the teaching of righteousness because they're making everything about them. Infants are all about them. Infants, when they pray, it's all about me. Mature people, you live, you come to maturity when you can help other infants and other toddlers and other people to grow.
Your life focus is now serving, working, serving the community, serving your, at your job, you're serving others, that's maturity. Well, Christianity, it's the same thing. In Christianity, you're an infant if your whole spiritual life is focused on you. But just like a mature person, I take care of myself in him, and then I learn from him how to take care of others and help them to grow. That's called maturity.
Watch this. Hebrews-5:14. But solid food is for the mature. So once you understand right standing with God, he's right next to you, so now I don't have to prove myself, so everything that I do, the good things that I do, are not about me anymore, because I've already been proven. So they're literally to love others, because his love is shown so completely to me.
So now I can do this. Verse 14, solid food is for the mature, who by constant use, everybody say constant use. Constant use. Have trained themselves, another version says, have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil. Now, the bible says everything good comes from God.
So, we can say to distinguish *God* from evil, not God. So, in our relationship with Him, understanding how to hear Him in circumstance, this is it, by constant use. I understand he's with me, righteousness. I understand that's how he sees me, so I don't have to view everything through condemnation or earning anymore. And so now, when I think I hear him, by constant use, I'm putting it into practice.
And when I put it into practice, I'm learning, oh, that was God. Praise the Lord. And then sometimes you miss it. Oh, that wasn't God. What do you do?
You repent. *God forgive me. I missed that. I don't ever wanna think that way again*. Well, Lord teach me next time.
And you fall forward. You don't out of fear not try next time. Because that's fear, that's not relationship. He loves you. He wants you to learn.
When my son messes up, when he's honestly trying to follow me and do what I said, I don't I don't like tell him how terrible he is. He's honestly trying to do what I was saying. Like, man, hey, that's not how we do it. Let's do it this way. Get back up.
Let's keep going. Try again. That's your relationship. You wanna go to maturity? Constant use.
So too too long, the church has came to church on Sunday, not just real church. I'm talking about, like, the global church. Comes to church on Sundays, listens to a bunch of stuff, but doesn't use it. You know what happens when that happens? People get spiritually fat.
And I'm not talking about, like, faithful, available, and teachable. I'm talking about spiritually get to where you're lethargic, not using it, and and you can't do the activities you used to be able to do because it's all head knowledge and not life knowledge. You're only gonna grow more mature if you're putting what you hear into practice. And if you're not if you're not doing that, then what's happening is it's going in and puffing up your mind. Knowledge puffs up.
That's what it's talking about. It's puffing up your mind, making you think you're more mature than you are. And so then you try to hit everybody else with your spiritual knowledge, and your life falls over because your character was never putting it into practice. What happens when you hear the Lord and you put it into practice? Here's what happens.
Just like someone going to the gym, you eat, go to the gym, put it to practical use. What happens? Your muscles grow. When your muscles grow, you desire more you have to have more food in order to maintain that. So you get more hungry.
So you go back and you eat again, and you go back to the gym and you can do just as much or maybe a little bit more. And you, man, I'm starving now. So you go back and you eat some more. And next thing you know, you're growing spiritually, but not fat. You're growing in shape.
You're you're you're strong, but you're hungering for more than you ever did before, and you're eating more than you ever did. Meaning, spiritually, in the Lord, when this this has taken place, as you're putting things into practice, you can handle more of him. And so he's pouring more of more of himself, more of revelation, more of an understanding of his goodness and his and who he is into your personal time, in your private time, so that when you go out, you can look more like Jesus. It's called Christianity, man. Walk with me.
Amen? Yeah. It's good. I'm done. Praise the Lord.
So look, if Yeshavi, come on up buddy. He's our host. He's gonna close this out for us. In in all of this, and this whole thing, like if you're here and you're like, man, that sounds great. Where do I start?
I'll tell you. By being born again. Bible says you can't know the kingdom of God without being born again. Can't. Everybody's born of water, but my mouth's water broke.
*Jesus said it in John-3*. Go read it. See if what I'm saying is true. Everybody's born of water. But Jesus said in order to see the kingdom of God, you must be born of spirit.
Meaning, if you haven't been born of spirit, you have a spirit, but it's disconnected from God. So you don't know his life. He's speaking and drawing you, but he wants to put his life in you. And the only way you do that is by realizing that you've been a sinner, you've been living for yourself, and God doesn't live inside of sin. Right?
So, that's why He has to make you clean. So, you realize you've been a sinner, you've been living for yourself, you say, Jesus, I believe you died for my sin and rose again. So I you died for my sin to make me new, to clean me, so forgive me, and you rose again so I could experience your life. And now, what we did before. I confess you as Lord.
To the extent that I understand, I'll say, yes, Lord. And where I don't, I wanna seek you to understand. I wanna follow you. You don't have to. Sometimes it's good to run to the altar and take that physical step.
I mean, that's important. Sometimes God requires that, and that's awesome because there's always, always, listen to this, always a physical response to spiritual obedience Because he always wants you to put into practice what he told you. So here's what I want you to do. If it's you, if you've never been born again, after church or as Chevy's closing us out, I just want you to say that in your heart. "Forgive me of my sin", Jesus.
I believe you died for me, rose again, and I wanna follow you. "Come live inside of me". This can be that simple. Guess what happens? He'll make you new right there.
But here's the step of obedience. Don't keep it to yourself. "Tell someone and be baptized". Tell someone and ask them what baptism means because baptism is a step of obedience. Baptism is saying to the world, "I'm new".
Jesus made me new, and I want the world to know it. This ain't a private religion. It's a public relationship. Amen? Jesus said, you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my father.
See, it's not a private religion, it's a public relationship. When he changes you on the inside, he wants the world to know it so that they can experience the same love through you. Amen. 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 hundred to 84021 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.