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My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy of getting to to be the pastor here and and to get to to do this. If this is your first time, thank you for coming. Thank you for choosing to spend your your Sunday morning with us. Our prayer and our hope is that you "walk away encouraged", having encountered the love of Jesus, and with a desire to know him more.
Because man, it's so much more than just a religion. It's a relationship that impacts every aspect of your life. It's not a private thing. It's actually a public thing. When when you encounter his love, man, you you want it you want him to impact every aspect of your life because he's just that good.
You might wonder why was it why is it named real church? Well, it's been my motto since I was 14. Just just a real person living real life for real Jesus having a "real good time". That's who we are, you know, and and hopefully hopefully you experience that. And so thank you for coming.
Now, we are in a series titled Hearing God. And I I guess before I go there, this is the first time we've we've started streaming on Facebook in a long time. And so if if you wanna support that or you want your friends or whatever to to experience, you know, the livestream and everything, just pull out your you can pull out your phone in church, you know, go to your Facebook, Real Church Clearwater, and click share. Or if you're like, well, I don't know what this is like. Let me experience the service first, and then after service, go home and do that.
You know? I'm good with that. Anyway, so we're in a series titled Hearing God. Has this been encouraging for you guys? Has it helped you Yeah.
In your relationship with God? Amen. If you haven't got to hear any of it, we've we've been in the series since the June. Thanks to our production team and stuff. We have podcasts, and we have it on YouTube, so you can go back and kinda listen to it and check it out if you'd like to.
I'll give you just a really brief recap. We're gonna kinda flip things today, which I'm excited about. But we started with the definition of faith. And and you have to understand that faith like, without faith, it's impossible to please God. Because you have to believe that he exists, but also that he's good, that he loves you, that he's a rewarder of those who seek him.
And the Bible says **faith comes by hearing**. So faith is not the product of your effort trying really hard to have faith in this thing or in this circumstance or situation. No. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. So faith is the product of relationship with God.
You can have faith in a lot of things that you have relationship with. You know? But the faith, the biblical faith we're talking about is a product of knowing Him and walking with Him. It's the product of of hearing His voice, but we also have learned that faith without works is dead. Meaning, faith comes by hearing, but faith is completed by obedience.
The way that you grow in faith is to hear what God says, believe it enough to stand in what he says, and to even if it's an action step, take action on what he says. And here's something that I haven't shared with you guys. And that that was basically the first message. We dove down deep and shared a lot of examples. And and then we talked about, you know, obstacles to to hearing God that, you know, that maybe we've experienced in our life.
And then we talked about hearing God through the word, through scripture. We talked about hearing God through prayer. We talked about hearing God through circumstance. And really, the word is is the the thing that negates whether or not we've heard God in a circumstance. Right?
If it doesn't line up the character nature of who he is in scripture, then what you think is God in the circumstance or what you feel may not be God or is not God if it doesn't line up with his word. Amen? So everything's based on that. But then as we understand and grow in his word, we we see Christ revealed. That's what his word is.
And so we're able to experience and know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and trying to reveal Christ in the circumstance. Amen? So we spent about 3 Sundays working on that. And then I'm excited about today, but before we get there, I gotta I gotta share this with you. Faith comes by hearing.
*Faith is completed by obedience. So it's like to walk in faith, to grow in relationship, it's this love* thing. You know, faith, the we learn that the substance faith is a substance of things hoped for. So in any area of your life where you have hope in the character and nature of God, that's an area where you're likely to be able to hear him. But any area of your life where you doubt the character and nature of God, or you're discontent or discouraged or whatever, you know, that's an area where you're likely not to hear him speaking because faith is the substance of things hoped for.
Right? And then hope comes from love. The Bible says, love always trusts. So as we receive his love for us, we hope in his character and nature, then we hear him, and then it's a relationship because the Bible says those who love him obey. So that's the obedience to hearing.
It's the response of love. It's a friendship. God calls us friends of God. That's amazing. Amen?
What a privilege. So anyway, in line with that, I wanted to to read you this. It's a statement from Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God. Says, you cannot stay where you are and go with God. No matter how long you've been following him, even myself, I can't follow God and stay where I am in any area of my life.
Many of us want God to speak to us and give us an assignment. However, we are not interested in making any major adjustments in our lives. Biblically, that is impossible. Every time God spoke to people in scripture about something he wanted to do through them, major adjustments were necessary. They had to adjust their lives to God.
Once the adjustments were made, God accomplished his purposes through them. God speaking to you will eventually result in some invitation to move forward with him. That moving forward will lead you to a crisis of belief that requires being willing to take practical steps to adjust your life to be able to follow God's plan. And that's really where the "rubber meets the road" as believers, whether or not we're willing to move forward. Do we stay in fear, timidity, comfort, or do we realize that despite our fears, the bible says there's no fear in love, and God is love.
**perfect love drives** out fear. And our fear that keeps us from moving forward is actually the very thing that's preventing us from knowing him more. So, ma'am, we want you to encounter the love of Jesus because the more that you encounter his love, the more you trust him, and the more you're willing to take the steps that he wants to call you forward in so that you can walk with him day in and day out and experience more of him. And to know him is to be free. I'm gonna call up mama Wanda.
Come on, Mama Wanda. If you're not used to the Hearing God series, we we hear from you know, we usually, I preach a principle, that was kind of more of a tangent, But a principle of hearing from God along with the the sermon title that day. And then, we hear from somebody in the congregation. And, don't worry, I'm not gonna call you out. You know, I I did talk to mama Wanda about this beforehand.
But I don't know what she's gonna say, so it's gonna be awesome. But this time, I wanted to flip the script. I wanted us to hear from mama Wanda, and have this discussion. And then from there, we'll pull out some principles and get into the message. You can have a seat.
This is
mine. That is yours. Yes, ma'am.
I like
it. And then, if you let's see. We'll push that forward for you. I think it's on.
Okay. We're good.
Yeah and I just want to kind of tell you a couple things about mama Wanda first before we we get in the message. See, the title of today's message is hearing god through people. **hearing god through people*. He speaks in many ways and all throughout scripture*. God used also used people to speak to people.
*God* used Abraham. God used Isaac. God used Moses. God used the prophets, Daniel, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah. In the New Testament, *Jesus*.
Then, God used the disciples. In Acts, God used not just the apostles, but many different people. And, here's the crazy part, he wants to use me and her to speak to you today. But, if you're a born again believer, then God lives in you, and he wants to use you to speak to the world around you. You know?
And it's a beautiful thing. And the crazy part is, is he most consistently uses Christians who you are in relationship with to speak to you. When he uses people, he most consistently uses *believers* who are in you're in relationship with in order to speak to you. So today, he's gonna use mama Wanda. This lady, I asked her yesterday just to confirm, but she gave her life to *Jesus* as a little kid.
And she's been walking with him and growing in her learning what it looks like to **walk with him** for many years. Is that is that accurate?
That's true.
Yeah. And so, I mean, I'm not gonna say her age or anything, but I mean, at least.
I don't mind.
55 years you've been walking with Jesus?
At least.
60 years you've been walking with Jesus?
You know more. Yeah. It's a widow. Well, you look fabulous.
She does, doesn't she?
Me too.
It's Jesus. He he created her beautiful.
He sure did. Inside and
out. Before we dive in with mama Wanda here, I wanna point out something too. The Bible never says that revival is gonna come through the young people. The bible does say that in the last days, old men will dream dreams and young men will have visions. It's a **multi generational revival**.
"Nobody's left out". Nobody. *God* wants to use everyone. How to walk with the Lord in the way that they did before us so that we can stand on their shoulders and keep moving forward. And older generations, listen to me.
If you make it all about you, that's not leadership. And we ask you to lead, which means laying your life down to serve the younger generation so that they can experience Jesus, which means laying down preferences. It doesn't have to be the same way it's always been. It's whatever it takes for them to know Jesus, for the younger younger people to know Jesus. So, older generations, we lay our life down to serve in the Lord.
Younger generations, we honor and learn. And there's this beautiful unity that happens in the body of Christ that's multi generational. That's real church. Amen? So I want everybody in this church who's been following *Jesus* for 35 years or more.
If you've been following Jesus, born again, and you might have had some ups and downs in there, but you were born again and following Jesus 35 years or more, would you stand up? Hey, the rest of you guys. Come on. Honor them. Stand up.
Praise the lord. Thank you, Jesus for these people. Hallelujah. We honor what god has done in you. Amen.
And we thank you for being faithful. It's a big deal. And we wanna learn from you. Mama Wanda?
Yes, pastor?
You you're gonna have to hold that probably a little bit closer.
Is that better?
That's better. Okay. Would you share a couple times that you've heard the Lord speak? And, I'll just start with 1. Share share 1 time that you you know you heard the Lord and what that looked like, and we'll just discuss.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, if I can just set a little backdoor for you so you can understand. You know, I grew up in church my whole life, and, it's fair to say I was kinda probably a a nominal Christian. I just went to church and sang in the choir. Was doing my good thing. You know, it was a good thing.
I don't think I ever really understood you could have a *relationship* with Jesus. I'm I don't know how I failed to understand that, but I really didn't. And so, throughout my life, I've had bad stuff, and I've had really good things happen. And 1 of the most blessings, I mean, God's given me so many blessings, but there is an area where I wanna speak with you that I felt very strongly God wanted me to share with you today. 9 years ago, my husband passed away.
Now understand that he was the love of my life. He took care of me. And see, didn't worry about a thing.
I didn't have to write out a bill. I didn't have to
do anything. I just came home, cooked dinner. We had a great time. We loved the Lord. We went to church.
He he was he was a wonderful godly man. But I think truly I lived for him. I honestly, I did. So when we got the cancer diagnosis, let me tell you, that was devastating for at least me. I mean, he said you can't scare me by heaven.
But for me, was devastated. How how am I gonna live? How how am I gonna go through all this? So when he passed away, there's a lot of stuff I could tell you. We don't have time.
So when he passed away, the day after my family, we were gonna go to church. I mean, what else do you do? You just go to church. So we we went to church, but before we went, I said I went into my room and I said, God, is there anything you wanna share with me today? So this is number 1.
God can speak with you, through your devotionals, through his word, through a thought. So I picked up the devotional just for that day and said, now is the time you need to learn to release the possession of your loved ones into my care, that I'm the alpha and the mega, the beginning and the end. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. So in spite of cataclysmic changes here in lies your security.
And I'm thinking, well, that's really a great word. So I I just thought, oh, you know, my family's waiting. We'll go to church. About the third or fourth song in, they started singing a song that I hadn't been away that long. I was taking care of my husband at home, but I've been away maybe a month and a half.
And they were singing the "Cornerstone song". My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy name on Jesus' name. Christ alone, Cornerstone, weak made strong in the savior's love through the storm. Through the storm, he is lord and lord of all.
I I wept. I mean, I went forward. I walked out. It felt like I floated. I probably was an angel because I floated right out, And I went right up front.
I was the only 1 up there. I raised my hands toward heaven, and I said, God, I don't know why you want me to give you bill. You already have him. He's yours. I don't know why.
But maybe there's something in me that's holding on to something, and you want me to release it in you so that you can move in me. And the second principle is is that he shared with me I needed to praise him in the midst of the storm. Does that make any sense? It didn't to me at the time. But I began to do exactly what he said.
I gave I released God to Bill. I said, he's yours. I you know what, God? I'm I'm not I'm not angry. I'm not mad.
I'm hugely disappointed because I wanted him to be healed. I wanted to live the rest of my life out, have little old white hair, and walk the streets with him, and just just have my life with my husband. That's what I wanted. I wanted to grow old together with him. So now understand that that was 1 process.
So when I got my husband's urn, I put it right by my nightstand. I mean, I looked at it every night. And so I I would periodically, when I would have the grief coming, believe me, grief is it is not fun. You know, as as wide and vast as the Grand Canyon, that's can be your grief. And it's it's it's a chasm like no other.
You feel like you're going to die, that you're never going to live again, and you don't know how you're gonna wade your way through it. But I will tell you, I I used to go, this is shame on me, but I I might as well tell the truth. Right?
Mhmm.
Because this is how God works, and I love how he works.
"Real church".
Yeah. Real church. And so I I used to go and get that and I'd hug that urn, and I'd weep, and I said, God, can't you just let him walk through that door again? You raised Lazarus from the dead. You could do this.
You you you parted the Red Sea for the Israelites. I know because my Sunday school teacher taught me that. I knew. And yet, it was so silent, so silent. And then 1 day, I went to get the urn, and I hugged it, and I was weeping and crying saying, God, I can't do this.
I just can't do this. And a thought came to my mind. Now believe me, I was just full of fear, anguish, sorrow, foreboding silence in your pain. And God said to me, why are you seeking the living among the dead? And, well, I don't know.
And he said, if you pick up my word, my word will give you **life and life abundantly**. And you know what? I needed life and I needed abundant life. And you know, the dichotomy in this remember I told you I was in sorrow, grief, pain, all that stuff? It's never fun.
And it's terrible, actually. I there's not a word in the vocabulary of the dictionary that I can explain to you how horrible that is when you lose someone you love. And you know the dichotomy is, the Bible says to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. In everything, give thanks.
What? Everything? Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. He's good. And the enemy in John-10:10 states that the enemy runs around like a "roaring lion" trying to rob, steal, kill, and destroy you.
And he was trying to destroy me. But Jesus says, I have come that I give you life and life abundantly. Right? There's that word again. And so I knew I had to place my trust in God because I couldn't live the life without him.
And you know what I did? I mean, really, every time the grief would come, I'd run out to my living room, what day or night, didn't matter when it was. I turn on my praise music. I get my bibles out and my devotionals, and I'd start reading, and I'd praise the Lord, and I'd stand there, and I'd praise the Lord, and I say, God, I stand before you. I stand before you naked with nothing to offer you but my pain.
That's alright. Because that's when the victory comes. And little did I know you see, so now my life is his *word* brings me life. It's the very essence of who he created me to be. You know, I draw strength from him every day, and I I walk I walk with him on a daily on a daily every day, actually.
And I count on him to be my lord and my savior. So, the difference is when you don't have a relationship with the Lord and then you go through horrible things, you find 1 real fast. And you really humble yourself before God Almighty. But isn't that where he wants us to be anyway? Isn't that what he desires of us is to "seek him first"?
That's the very first scripture God gave me when I was 22 years old. And I'm 66. Seek you first the kingdom of God. So I have to seek him first in every area of my life. And his kingdom, his righteousness is right living.
We don't like to talk about right living because it might infringe on what I might wanna do in my private life, but God sees everything we do. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and guess what? All things all things will be added unto you. Not just 1 thing, not just 2 things, but all things. And so he has he has established all things for me, pastor, that all I have to do is just walk through the doors, And that's exactly all you have to do too.
It's just he's already has it there. We just have to believe it enough to walk through the doors, and he will open the doors wide for you. Not because I'm anyone special or at least I don't want anybody to go through what I've been through, but those who have, you know who you are. And, you know, I'm I can only say how sorry I am that you've gone through pain and suffering because it doesn't matter what it is. If you've lost someone you love, whether it be a husband, a daughter, a a father, whatever it may be, God knows your heart.
And he knows what you're going through and I couldn't believe the songs today. I mean, that just tied everything right in. Right?
It did.
And so, I know I know that there's a "divine appointment" for 1 person in particularly, and I won't say I won't say who they are, but this was a divine appointment for you today. That God has given you a nugget of truth. The nugget is to praise him continually in the midst of your storm and to seek him, because I promise you, he'll answer.
So I called her last night, you know, just to encourage her and and see if she was ready. And she had she told me she had this all this stuff right now. I said, so mama Wanda, I said, I don't want you to bring what you wrote. Mhmm. Because see, you may not have had the opportunity to talk with her, but I have.
And I know all that she wrote is already deep down in her, and it's just gonna bubble up. Like, maybe go back and listen and get a count because it maybe 10, 15, 20 scriptures she just quoted. You know, just because she knows him. Like, knows him. I wanna go to a verse, and I wanna talk about it with you a little bit.
Okay. And we we can get to your next story. But *Hebrews-13:7*. It says this, remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and **imitate their faith**.
For God is the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. She by the way, in Acts, there's deaconesses in the in the church, in in the book of Acts. Go Google it. She's a deaconess of our she's 1 of the leaders of our church.
But didn't you did you not just hear Jesus flow out of her mouth? That's every time you have a conversation with her. But consider the outcome of her way of life. And then it says, imitate her faith. Like, if you consider the outcome of their way of life and you don't see Jesus, don't imitate that person's faith.
Yeah. Right.
If you see the leadership here, me, other leaders here, and you consider the outcome of our way of life and it's not something that's gonna lead you to Jesus, you need to go somewhere else. You know? Just being real. Right. But, man, we wanna live in a way that where where you you consider the outcome of our way of life, and you see Jesus.
Well, then, imitate our faith. Imitate mama Wanda's faith. What does that look like? Faith comes by hearing. Imitate the way she hears.
And then obedience, her relationship. But, like, she she heard so clearly because she knows his word. So when thought came in that she was able to recognize it because she knew how he would speak. And because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Meaning, he wants to do the same in you and through you.
He wants you to be able to respond to situations in the same way she does. But you gotta know him in the same way. And so we can learn as you build relationships with people in the body of Christ. You can learn from their relationship, learn with the Lord, and not have to, hopefully, repeat their mistakes. But we're supposed to lead in such a way where mama Wanda says, like Jesus, you'll do the same things I do and even greater.
Because she laid her life down to serve you in such a way that you can experience him in the same way that she does. Amen? Amen. Will you share another story? Okay.
Oh, yes. I I'm Of how you heard the Lord.
How I heard the Lord. You'll find this entertaining. I'll just so I tell you. Okay. So, at home, I have a 6 pound 8 ounce baby girl.
What do you think I have? A dog. My sweet little dog. And she's my baby, my baby girl. And I'll tell you, God gave me her.
He gave me her to help me with my emotional well-being, and that when I come home, I had something to look forward to when I come home. But 1 day, I was taking her for a walk up toward Highland. If you know Highland, it's pretty busy, a real busy street. And the Lord spoke to me and said, turn around and go back. She's gonna get out of her harness.
I stopped. What? Really? Okay. So I turned around.
I went right back. And so I went by the side of our building, and I was just letting her do her thing, sniff the ground and whatever. And I'm looking out over the water and watching the ducks and the birds, and thanking God for my day. And I said, come on, Coco, let's go. Well, there was no there was nothing on the other end of that harness.
She got out. And she was running around when when I when I saw her, she was in around she's running around that field like, I swear if she was Martin Luther King, she'd be saying, thank God almighty, I'm free at last. That woman doesn't have a hold on me. She was free. And I'm like going, oh, come here, Coco.
Come to mama. And she's she go she wiggles. She was so excited and like and then she take off again. And so then then the fear comes. And I'm like, oh, what if
she goes in the water? I gonna have to go in there and get her. There could be a gator.
Well, I'm sure there's snakes in there. I know there's snapping turtles in there. Oh, god. Okay. I'll do it if I have to.
So then what if she goes toward the road? I can't catch her. She's fast. And I after after all, I am a senior citizen. I can't run as fast as I used to.
But I will say, I I I said, you know, so I'm trying all these things to get her attention like, come to mommy. She looks at me like, nope. And so I said, you want a treat? She stops. She looks at me and continues to run.
So, you know, I couldn't even get her to come with a treat, and that's her. She loves treats. So then I start screaming. That's what you do. Right?
Is there anybody here that can help me catch my dog? And nobody I mean, I live in a 55 and older community, so I think nobody can hear there either. Just saying. So I'm like, I'm freaking out at this point and I'm saying, God, God, what do I do? And the thought came to my brain.
Said, turn around, tell her you're leaving. Just say goodbye to her. Say, Coco, mommy's leaving. I'm going home. Bye bye.
Don't look back. Okay. Alright. Alright, God. I got this.
So I walk. I turn around. I just walk away. Said exactly what I said, what God told me to say. I walked in between the shrubs, never looked back.
Boy, was that hard. And and, and I and I went to my door. I locked my door and went in. She shot him like a bull like a bullet. I shut that door and I said, Coco, do you want a spanking now?
Or does mommy just wanna love on you because you didn't get in the water and you didn't run that far into the road and get smashed and killed and I'd be broken hearted and wounded? I said, you know what? Thank you, God. I did pick her up and love her even though I was really mad. But this is what it kinda taught me.
You know, who would think that God would care about something I cared about as simple as a as a puppy dog? By the way, she's gonna be 2. I couldn't believe that. I said, wow, she's really getting older now. That's a good thing.
This puppy stage is getting old. So but God is so good because he does care about the "littlest things" that matter to you. And you oftentimes don't think that he does care, but he really truly does. If we just listen and if we just hear his voice, he'll speak to you in it's a thought. Trust me when I tell you that my thoughts never measure up to him.
His ways and his thoughts are higher than mine. But because I open myself up to him and I say, God, please help me. I don't know what to do. He says, I'll tell you. I love you.
And you're his daughter, you're his son, and he loves you.
So there's some verses for that. In *John-16*, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit shows us "things yet to come". It's not just the major things in our life. Right. You see, it also says we're his friends because we can know his plans.
Well, if we're a friend of God, then he's a friend of us. Friends care about each other and about what the other person cares about. Which mean, means what she just said, God cares about what you care about. Ain't that cool? You know, and he wants you to care about him.
He wants you to care about his righteous things. Yeah. His his righteousness and his goodness. But even the little details, the things that we love. He cares.
But then a couple of times she said, it was a thought. It was a thought. A thought. Well, you do understand everything that that in this world you process through your brain. Yep.
So when the Lord speaks to you in your spirit, you still have to process it through your brain. *1 Corinthians-2* says, who has known this is verse 15, the or 16, sorry. I'll read them both. The person without with the spirit makes judgments about all things, big and small. But such a person is not subject to merely human judgments.
For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? Right? Who has known the mind of the Lord so as so as to instruct him? But then it says the next sentence, and here's what she was getting at. But we have the mind of Christ.
So the spirit of Christ is in us Yeah. And is speaking to us in such a way that we can hear him in the big and the little, but it takes spending time getting to know him, getting to know his word, making those life adjustments we talked about so that you are not just going about your own business, but you're going about his business. Because he created you for a purpose on purpose. And if you really did that, the only way you're gonna live out that purpose that your creator created you for is to follow him. Yeah.
Is to know him. The way the reason a lot of people are all depressed and stressed is because they keep trying to go about their own life instead of submitting to him. There's freedom in him being your Lord. Amen. Because he loves you and he wants you to fulfill.
He wants you to fulfill everything that he created you to fulfill. And don't you know that when an object that the creator the creator created is fulfilling its purposes, it's bringing glory to the creator? Yeah. Yeah. Amen.
Amen. Any closing words? Anything? You don't have to have something, but do you?
Let's see. You know, I I just think if there's anyone here that wants to have a closer relationship with Jesus, doesn't mean that you don't know him. It just means that maybe you want a closer relationship with him. It's here and it's available. That's why we're here.
And we want you to we want you to grow in the knowledge of who he is because he loves you that much.
Amen. Would you you guys give mama Wanda a big old hand? I'm gonna give you a big old hug. I love you so much. Yep.
That's good. You know what? I'm gonna be scared. I'm gonna trip over these chairs while I'm talking if I if I don't move them. So, give me a second.
I think that was about the loudest I could be. She's amazing. And there's many people like that in this congregation, and there's many more to come. I wanna show you something. *Colossians-1*.
I'm gonna read verse 27, and then 20 eight's really the main focus here. But, it says, to them, God has chosen to make known the rich to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And because of Christ in Wanda coming out today, God has been glorified. And that was his purpose in putting Christ in us. In order for that to happen, you have to be born again.
Right? You have to believe that Jesus died on a cross, rose again, and then confess him as your Lord. Like, even demons believe Jesus exists. You know? You can believe he's there, but not follow him.
But to be to be born again is is to confess him. Say, Lord, I forgive me of my sin. Lord, I I want to repent, which means "turn from the way" I've been living, as we talked about in the beginning. Make the adjustment to turn to you. Come into my life and make me new.
And here's what he'll do. He'll put his *spirit* inside of you. That's what born again means. The the God who is life comes to live in you. So your spirit that was separated from God who is life, very much active, but dead because it's separated from God who is life.
*God forgives* you of all your junk, but then he makes you clean, past, present, and future, completely forgiven and made new, and then puts His Spirit in you to lead you and guide you in relationship with Him towards the purposes He has for you so that you can bring Him glory in the world. Christ in you, the hope of glory. To live without that is not life because you were created for that. And it takes saying, I'm following you instead of following me. I'm following what you say about me instead of what I've always thought about myself.
I'm laying all of that down no matter the cost, no matter the adjustments. Amen? Alright. Yeah. Amen.
Praise the lord. That kid's cool. Good. Alright. Then in 01/28 by the way, if as I'm talking, you're like, I've never done that.
I've never been born again. Maybe you got baptized as a kid, but never really chose Jesus to be your lord. You can do that today. You know, you you sometimes, we get people to walk an aisle and pray a prayer. Sometimes, we get people to raise their hand and pray a prayer.
Why is it why is it important to take an action step? Because without the physical action, there's there's there's no completion of faith. Right? Everything that you experience spiritually in your life will have a physical result. There will be a physical response that needs to take place.
So you hear Him, and and He makes you new, you can't help but begin taking new steps towards Him. There's always a response. And so I would encourage you, if you know, as I'm talking, you need to be born again, just in your heart, in your mind, right now, say, Lord, I need you, forgive me of my sin, and I wanna follow you. I don't know how to say it right, but I just know that I want you to be my Lord, make me new. That's enough.
But don't keep it to yourself. Tell someone. After you tell them, get baptized, which is the public proclamation that you're new, that it's real. And here's the next part. Get a shirt.
No. No. I'm kidding. Here here in Colossians-1:28, he is the 1 we proclaim. He is the 1 we proclaim, Jesus, admonishing.
Alright. The word admonish means to rebuke firmly. Who do we admonish? He is the 1 we proclaim admonishing and teaching everyone. That means every believer, including myself, sometimes needs to be rebuked firmly.
Who have you given permission in your life to rebuke you firmly? Because if not, you're probably not in relationship with the people you need to be in relationship with Uh-huh. Or you're preventing yourself from growing. Everyone needs to be admonished. Who has the right to do so?
You need to be build some relationships. And I'm not talking about non believers. I mean, what if your mom and daddy are are are not a believer, they still have the right to rebuke you firmly. But I'd encourage you to to get with some believers who are a little further along than you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, and mothers and fathers in Christ, who can admonish you.
And teaching. Who have you given the right to teach you? Or is it all about you? And what you think? And if somebody teaches you that's wrong with different from what you think, but in line with scripture, do you reject it or do you receive it?
Man, everyone, which means everyone in here if you're a believer, and myself, all need to be admonished sometimes and taught sometimes. Praise the Lord. Why? So that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. Full maturity.
1 of the prerequisites to full maturity is being admonished and being taught, which means *Ephesians-5* is applicable to us. *Ephesians-5*, I don't know if I gave them this verse. *Ephesians-5* says, submit to 1 another out of reverence for Christ. Meaning, refusing to submit 1 to another is refusing reverence for Christ. We're not created to do this life alone.
We're created to be a body of *Christ* together. Because here's the thing. *1 Corinthians-12*. There's a verse for everything, guys. Just saying.
Verse 18. But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every 1 of them, just as he wanted them to be. That means, whatever local church god's called you to be a part of, you're here, so I'm gonna assume it's here. But, man, if you're just visiting and you're a active part of another local church, praise the lord. That's great.
I'm glad you came, man. Be encouraged and but he's placed you exactly where you needed to be. And I once again, I pray it's here. But why? Because *God* has put stuff in you, giftings, talents, and abilities.
And he wants to use you to speak to others in this congregation, in this community. Because they there's things that you have, or maybe not yet, maybe you're growing in relationship or you're just gonna start, but in 6 months or 3 months or you're gonna have things that they need in order to grow. And *God* most consistently speaks through those you're in relationship with who are in believers. "Isolation kills", man. God wants to speak to you through many people.
Some things some things he holds back just because he wants you to be in relationship with that person and speak through them because we can learn to submit 1 another in unity Because he's a God in perfect unity, father, son, and spirit. And he's teaching us as a body to be in perfect unity with him as the head and with with each other. Takes humility to be in unity. Takes humility to submit 1 to another. For me, you know what it looks like when I'm out in the crowd?
Dolores is our worship leader or whoever else the delegated authority is who's leading worship, and they say, hey, let's everybody lift our hands. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna lift my hands. You know why? Because I'm submitting 1 to another.
And I'm in the house of God, and God has delegated authority to that person who's leading worship at that time. Meaning, when she speaks, she's speaking for God. So by submitting to her, I'm submitting to Christ in her. Do you know what I'm do? I'm gonna raise my hands in unity.
Why? Because the supernatural blessings on the other side of obedience. If I were to sit in there and say, well, I don't feel like it, that's rebellion. I know I'm stepping on some toes right now, but I'm just I'm teaching you kingdom authority and kingdom unity, submitting 1 to another. If I was like, well, you know what?
I just don't feel like doing this today. You're gonna miss out on what God wants to do in your life and through your life. Can you imagine what it would look like if everybody understood kingdom authority and submitted 1 to another out of love and humility? That's why when I'm out there and they say that, I'm raising my hands. When they say sing along with me, I'm singing with all my heart because I understand authority.
I get it. And I wanna learn. Even if they're younger than than me and the Lord. Man, I can learn from anybody because if they got Jesus in them, man, Jesus can speak through them with all wisdom. Nobody's got all wisdom except the Holy Spirit.
And if the Holy Spirit's in you and he's speaking through you, man, I can learn from you. Amen? Amen. I'll give you an example of someone like, we're we're Americans, so we're we're taught to be individualistic and everything. And it's all about, you know, me and mine.
That's not kingdom, by the way. We're we I love democracy. I think it's great, but it's still not kingdom. And this is a kingdom thing. When we were in Pakistan, we were preaching to about 22,000 people.
And 98% of them at this 1 event did not know Jesus, but they knew authority. You told them, lift their hands, because most of them were slaves. So they've been forced to understand that. You know what? They they lift their hands.
You you you tell them to sing, they sing. You tell I mean, they just they just did it. But see, there was an honor. Like, Jesus commended the centurion because he he was in the military, he understood proper authority. And Jesus said that that understanding of authority was faith.
And I don't wanna be caught as a lack of *faith* because something in me has been hurt by authority in the past, and so I try to control things myself instead of learning what it looks like to be kingdom. *Unity* comes when we learn to submit 1 to another. Honoring those older than us in the faith. Learning from, stepping out, and as older in the faith, honoring those younger than us in the faith by serving them, "washing their feet", and saying, you're gonna do the same things I do and even greater. And operating with 1 another in unity in that way.
Man, that's real church. That's not just real church, that's the church. That's kingdom. It's awesome. Watch what happens.
Watch what it looks like. *Ephesians-4*. You've heard part of this. I'm gonna pull out something in a way that I've never have before, I think. Chapter *Ephesians-4 chapter or chapter 4 verse 11 says, so Christ* Himself gave this is a gift to the church from Christ.
He gave the Holy Spirit, poured out the Holy Spirit, and He gave this. The Holy Spirit gives a lot of other gifts and stuff too. It says, *Christ* himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers. So take them as the mentors of the church. Okay?
What is their purpose? To equip the people for the works of some versions say ministry, other versions say service. It's or It's the word, which means ministration, ministry, and service. And just to throw this out here, as whatever you wanna call me in that list, a leader in the church, it's not my job to do ministry. As a believer, it's my duty as His son to do ministry in my daily life as a Christian.
It's it's my my role as a Christian to minister everywhere I go. You you are all, if you're a Christian, ministers, you're missionaries at your job, at your home, when your family reunions, everywhere you step foot, you're to represent Christ as a minister of the gospel. But as a leader of the church or 1 of the leaders, it's not my job to do ministry. It's my job to equip you. To Dekaionios.
*Ministry* and service. The word, how they used it back then, was as someone who waits tables. Someone who waits tables, what do they do? They go to the people that come in, and they serve them, minister to them what they need, the food they need and the drink they need in order to help them to be strong and go out with the energy necessary from the restaurant. That's what a server does.
Right? I'm supposed to equip you in the church and in your daily life to minister to everyone around you. Giving them what Wanda gave us, the word. From your life, from the way that you live in every way. But it's not just in your daily life, it's also here.
Watch. To equip his people for the works of service or *ministry* as a waiter, so that the body of Christ may be built up. The purpose is so that the body of Christ is built up. Not just you, us. Not just us, but all the local churches in the area.
So that when people see the church, they see Jesus. They see this unity and synergy of people coming together with the gifts, talents, and abilities, selflessly submitting 1 to another. And it's like, why are you doing that? And it draws them into relationship with him. There's many new people here today.
You know what our role is as a church? To do this for those that are coming "sitting in the seats". How can I serve you? How can I show Jesus? What do you need?
How can I pray for you? How can I minister to you? How can I "lay my life down" for you so that you can experience the love of Jesus and become a part of his body? No matter the adjustments in my life so that people can see Jesus. If you're a Christian, it's time to stop sitting in the seats, church.
Amen. It's time to start laying your life down So that the world can see Jesus.
Yeah. In
*relationship* with 1 another. Now we got a great church, most I mean, we got a lot of people who are serving, okay? But listen, when do we stop that? Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the full measure of Christ. We never stop.
To the extent we're not mature and disunified, that's the extent that we're not submitting to 1 another and ministering to each other and ministering to those who come in or those out there in our daily life. We we receive in relationship with the Lord, and and to the extent that we receive, we give out. Watch this. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and by cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. You know why?
Because we're in relationship with 1 another, seeing Christ in each other, and encouraging and admonishing 1 another towards Jesus in maturity. And when there's immaturity, you know what we do? We wash people's feet and we serve them until they get it. And then we push them back up. Verse 15, instead "speaking the truth" in love.
Sometimes it's hard to speak truth to somebody because you're risking relationship. Because sometimes truth offends, it cuts. But we gotta, as a church, love people enough to speak truth even at the risk of offense, because it's only the truth that will set people free. How do we do it? In love.
They gotta know that you care about them. And if you're gonna give somebody a cutting word, it better hurt you as much as it hurts them. Because you love them so much. If it doesn't hurt you to give them the word, you don't care about them enough to give that word, somebody else needs to give it. Until we all reach unity in the faith oh, that's above.
Okay. Instead speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. From him, that's Jesus, the whole body, every aspect joined and held together by every everybody say every Every. Supporting ligament. That's you guys.
That's me. That's all of us. Everyone who's a Christian. Held together by every supporting every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love. That's Jesus, Jesus is love, God is love, as each part does its *Word*.
Heidi is a great example. She'll tell you. So, Imma tell you for her.
She
first came through the door. She said, I ain't serving. And now, I love to serve. I grow in Christ every time I lay myself down to serve others. She can't get enough.
Service. Why? Because that's what we're called to do is serve 1 another in the lord and help each other everywhere. As each part does its work, there's different seasons, there's different times. You figure out what's *God*'s calling you to do.
It might not look the same as the next person, but man, he wants to use you to "impact others" if you're willing. And what does it take? It's that thing I read in the beginning. Many of us want God to speak to us and give us an assignment. However, we're not interested in making the adjustments in our lives.
Biblically, that's impossible. Every time God spoke to people in scripture about something he wanted to do through them, major adjustments were necessary. They had to adjust their lives to God. Once the adjustments were made, God accomplished his purposes through them. As we make the adjustments to be obedient, we experience God more personally, but we also experience God more relationally.
We experience him through the body. We hear him and we grow in him because we needed that *relationship* to happen. Amen? Amen. So I wanna make the invitation to you guys.
If you're a part of this body or you think you wanna be, man, we wanna we wanna create every opportunity for you to be a part and to serve so that we can be most effective at impacting Pinellas County and the world with the love of Jesus. And so I I want you just to pray about it. Seek his face on it. And if he moves on you, make a step. Right now, in our in our body, we have some major needs.
1, we want to be able to continue worship and production in the way that we're doing. I like playing the drums. But man, it's a little difficult playing the drums and preaching. And we we we need people that are faithful, available, and teachable. We all need super techies.
We need people who love to worship. They wanna learn how to hold a camera. I mean, because we got an amazing team of people that are willing to train you because it's discipleship. It's what we're called to do. Just faithful, available, and teachable.
Our kids area, we need people that are willing to say, you know what? They need me. Praise the lord. I'll be a part because here's the thing, *god* wants to grow this church and he is and there's gonna be many people coming. And when the many people come, I want enough of our church willing to do this.
How can I serve you? So that they experience *Jesus* the way that they want they need to. Amen? Amen. So, we're going to and I know there's different seasons of life.
Please don't like just do with the Lord and I'm I'm gonna look at you like you're following Jesus with all your heart regardless. Know that. But we wanna we wanna create every opportunity for you. So those that serve, you know, you might only be able to serve twice a month. Praise the lord.
We don't want you to serve more than that anyway because it's we wanna serve you well. Those that that serve, you have kids but you've wanted to serve but you have kids, guess what? We're gonna start providing childcare to take away the excuse so that it can be a a time where you get, get with some friends and stuff and and your kids get loved on in Jesus. We'll do everything we can to create the opportunity because in ministering, you're maturing. Amen?
Amen. So, if that's the case, if you wanna be a part, don't leave here without going to realchurch.us, clicking connect, and saying I wanna be a part and then when we call you, answer. When we text you, respond. 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.