You are invited to step out of your comfort zone and share the peace you have found in Christ with others today. Whether you are grieving a loss or engaging with the world, trust that God is speaking to you through these moments. Start by listening for His voice and obeying the promptings He places on your heart right now.
Amen. I love being a part of a church where you tell them to go say high fives and meet 1 another and it takes a while to get them back to their seats. I really, I do, because, man, people just love 1 another. Talking to each other, communing together, that's what the body of Christ is for. You connect it.
It's your family. It's your family, man. I mean, *Jesus*' blood is pretty thick. You know, they say there's nothing thicker than family blood. Well, Jesus' blood is pretty dang thick.
Just saying, man. I I I go to I go to India, Pakistan, you know, Colombia, Africa, then all over the world and it's a joy to be able to get to do that But there's something about when you meet a brother or sister that's really all out like you are, following Jesus. You sit down, you hear their story, and instantly you feel like you've known them your whole life. And you walk away and it's like, man, you know, these guys are are as close or closer than even some of my extended family because we're on the same page spiritually, walking with him. It's a beautiful thing.
I think there's a little bit of a If we can get that out, that would be awesome. That's that's 1 of my fatal flaws as a speaker. So, I get distracted by the If it's not dry. Alright. Number 2.
I wanna say this. Today, we're having a special service for a dear woman of *God* that we lost but haven't gained this past week. Loretta, Keith is with Jesus, closer than she she see him she sees him more clearly than we do today. And there's a verse I wanna read about it. In Psalm chapter 1 16, a 116 and verse 15.
It says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. I'm not talking about what Catholics say are saints because their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds in their life. That's not a saint. A saint is anyone who's put their **faith in Jesus** because Jesus' goodness has been credited to their account. And the more that we believe that, the more we live as a saint.
And so when when Loretta was born again, when she gave her life to Jesus, all of his goodness was credited into her account. So, in his eyes, she's a saint. And praise the Lord, we got to see some of that saintliness all around real church. And that's it, man. As you grow in Christ, his goodness will more and more flow out of your daily life.
And so we're grieving as a body, but we're rejoicing for her. And, that's an important thing. And so I would encourage you today, 2 to 03:30 is the viewing, and, at 03:30, we have the service. Please come. Please come to celebrate if this is your local body.
She's a part of our local body. Change your plans today and come. And we love to see you there. Once again, 2 to 03:30 is the viewing, and at 03:30 is the service. And what's the name of the place again, Courtney?
National Cremation Society on East Bay. National Cremation Society on East Bay. We love you, Mike. We do. And here's what I know.
I was I was there the day after it happened with Mike and the family. And I can tell you this about Mike Keith. I saw it. Is Mike, even through this, is founded in who he is in Christ?
Yeah. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Thank you.
And yet he's grieving and he should. Grieving is a good process. It's important. But he also and I saw it more stronger than ever before even that day. And I'm confident that he knows who he is in Christ.
And he's leaning on his family, and even more than that, he's leaning on Jesus. So I'm proud to call you my brother. Yeah. He looked at you guys and he said, thank you for all my family. Rob and and your the family here.
And all of you are his family too. Okay. Last but not least, I do want to say this. You know, I'm a little scared for you guys just because I might get a little loud. And not not not here, just in the message.
So I I don't wanna to to kill you guys. But with with with loudness. But no. What I wanted to say is is **Praise the Lord**. What I'm about to say is not a political statement.
It's a statement about life. Praise the Lord for Roe v Wade being brought down. No matter your political background, I really don't care about that. What I do care about is that babies are not being murdered. That's what I care about.
Amen. Because the lie that that's okay is demonic. Yes. Yes. And if that's what you believed, I I wanna point you to the truth.
I love you, but I do not love that way of thinking. And my prayer is that in the states, in all of the states, that abortion would be struck down because it's not okay. *God* God created and God is the God of life. And the mindset behind abortion is selfishness. Think about it.
And if you're just if you're if you're an abortion supporter, just think about why. The mindset behind it is protecting me over the life that is created, and selfishness is not of God. So not a political statement, but a statement of life. And so, Lord God, we just thank you for life. And, Lord, forgive us for being a nation that repeated the sins of nations in the Old Testament who sacrificed their babies over and over because of selfishness.
It's it's not something that's new. And Lord God, I pray that from this moment forward, our nation would take steps towards life. And anybody listening that my words offend would do their due diligence to seek you and to seek life and repent of just wrong thinking. I don't say this out of hate, but because I love them enough that they would know truth. I love you, Jesus.
Amen. Amen. Amen? Amen. Okay.
So, we're in a series titled Hearing *God* And, hopefully, this series has been beneficial for you. Has it been Yeah. Decently? Yes? You guys are growing?
Okay. And, I'll do a quicker recap than I did last week. So, the recap should be quicker and quicker. If you have missed the foundational message, the first 1, please go back on our YouTube channel or on our podcast and listen to it because the recap will not be enough. And listen to any of them because all of the hearing God messages are based on the foundational message, but then there'll be a principle that I share each week, and then we'll interview people from the congregation.
Don't worry. If I hadn't talked to you yet, it's not you. I'm not just gonna pull you up randomly. Probably. No.
And so we'll be able to hear from a wide range of age groups, a wide range of just backgrounds and everything, and and what it looks like for them to hear God in their daily life. And here's some of that stories, those stories, so it'll encourage you in your walk with Jesus. What we've learned in the series is that, you never know when I have to flip to something, so I might as well carry it. What we've learned in this series is that faith comes by hearing. And so you can't have faith without relationship with God and hearing by the word of Christ.
So you have to have a *relationship* with the God of the universe in order to walk consistently by faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God, the Bible says, and anything done outside of faith is sin, actually, the Bible says. So that relationship and learning to hear and respond in obedience is very important. And we've also learned 1 Corinthians-13:13 says, of these these 3 remain, faith, hope, and love. Right?
What is faith? We learn Hebrews-11:1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. So hope is the foundation of faith. As a matter of fact, if you have an area of your life where you've lost hope, you're discontent, or you're self focused, that's an area of your life.
The area without hope is an area where you can't hear God. Because hope is the foundation of faith, and faith comes by hearing. Right? Alright. Where does hope come from?
*Faith, hope, and love. Love is the foundation of hope. And I'm not talking about hope in things, I'm talking about hope in the character and nature of who God is, and how He can change your life*, and how He can change every situation of your life. He's a deliverer, He's a redeemer, He's a restorer. So this big thing of hope in any area of your life, the foundation of hope is love.
*Love always hopes. First Corinthians 1 Corinthians-13* says. And where does love come from? Well, we love because he first loved us. So in any area of your of our life where we don't have faith, it's because we're discontent, or discouraged, or overly self focused, or offended, or whatever it is, we need to have hope, and we get hope from receiving His love for us, inviting Him to love us in that area of our life.
And when we receive His love, then we trust His character nature again, so we can have hope, and then we stand in that until we hear Him specifically, and that's faith. God tells you what to do, and you take the next steps of obedience in that area. Make sense? And as you respond in obedience, that's you loving him back, so it shows relationship. Without the obedience, there is no relationship.
Just letting that sit for a second. Right? Can growing in obedience shows relationship. Those that say they walked an aisle and were born again but never in their life learned to submit and obey. I questioned it were you really born again?
Because you will know them by their fruit. *Obedience shows relationship*. Amen? Amen. Amen.
We're not saved by our works. We're saved by grace through *faith* but faith is hearing comes by hearing is completed by obedience. That's complete faith. Amen? Alright.
So part 2, we learned that what we're unfamiliar with will offend us if we're not willing to walk with with Jesus. Jesus went to Nazareth, and they were familiar with what they knew about Jesus and always heard about Jesus growing up with Jesus, but he couldn't do miracles there because of their lack of faith. Why? Because when he revealed who he is to them, they rejected him because it's not who he thought who they thought he was. And so they were offended and wouldn't hear him.
And we said, you know what? We don't wanna be a people who grew up in church and when Jesus tries to reveal himself to who He is now and continue, not that He's any different, but we grew up church thinking about, you know, what we knew about Him, but when we get born again, and we come to know Him, and He wants to reveal Himself in new ways to us, show us who He is today, I don't wanna be offended just because it's different, or I'll be offended just because I'm unfamiliar with it. I wanna obey Him even in the unfamiliar, as long as it lines up with His Word. And if it lines up with His Word, I wanna obey Him, and the more that I obey Him in what's uncomfortable, the more I'll see him and I'll be able to experience more of him in my daily life. Amen?
Amen. People get stuck in these religious loops. Well, you know, this, this, and this, and not willing to follow him even when it's clear in scripture. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want our church to be that church.
I want to follow him no matter what. As long as it lines up with scripture, which leads us to part 3. Hearing God. We said hearing God through the word. Man, Elijah was a man just like us.
Prayed it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain for 3 years. And he prayed it would, and it did. That little phrase, just like us, means, shows us that these mighty men of God all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, they're examples of us on how to follow *Jesus* in our daily lives. We're we're to read that and say, God, if you wanna do that in my life, yes Lord. Not say, oh, that's a cool story that happened a long time ago.
And as we're learning to hear him in our daily life, if anything that we think he says doesn't line up with the character and nature of god in this, isn't shown by example in this 1. It's probably not god. So, we need to know who he is and this is a great way to learn who he is. So, consistently get in scripture to understand the character nature of god. Amen?
Amen. And as we're going through scripture, we're seeing how Christ manifested himself in their daily lives, so in our daily life, when something similar happens, we can recognize it as Christ and not be offended. And say, yes, Lord, and then learn to obey in the same way they did. Amen? Amen.
Cool. Nope. Still need it. So, briefly, before I bring up mister Don Bax. Which is going to be awesome *1 Thessalonians-5* verse We're gonna start in verse 16 and go through 18.
It says, rejoice always. Stop there. Isn't that interesting? *God* commands us, through Paul, to rejoice always. So if it's a command, because this is a command, then it must be possible.
It's only possible through him. It's not possible in ourself or in our flesh by trying hard enough. It's always possible when you see him in the midst of the circumstance. *Philippians-4* says, rejoice in all circumstances. I'm not rejoicing necessarily in the circumstance.
I'm rejoicing in him in the midst of the circumstance. Make sense? So how often are we to rejoice? Always. Always.
You can only do that if your focus is him. As soon as your focus becomes what you're getting or what you're not getting, what's happened or what hasn't happened. As soon as that happens, your capacity to rejoice goes away. Then it says, do oh, wait. Pray continually, "give thanks" in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in in Christ Jesus.
So it's God's will for you in Christ to rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances. You can really only give thanks if you're content. *Philippians-4, that verse that we all know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The context of that is contentment*. Being content where we are, being content with where God's placed us, being content with what's in our hands and what's not in our hands, whether we have a lot or we have little.
It's but it the only way that you can do that in this world is if you're out of your mind and into His. Because being content in all circumstances out of is man, the people of the world gonna think you're out of your mind. You should be complaining. You should be hysterical, you should not be rejoicing in this situation, you should not be thankful. But guess what?
I am out of my mind. I'm out of my mind and into His. I'm in Christ. It's awesome. It's the way I live my life, man.
You want some, come hang out. It'll rub off on you. This is rejoice always. The the thing I skipped was the thing I'm preaching on. pray continually.
It doesn't mean I'm just like in a closet, you know, for a praying continually, like, and then I never leave to go take care of my family or anything, and I'm super holy because I'm away from everybody and and saying lots of words. *Jesus* actually said it's the pagans that say lots of words. Over and over. Pray continually is conversation. I'm speaking to Him, but even more than that, I'm continually listening.
As I'm preaching to you, I am listening to the Holy Spirit. I'm actually in prayer right now. And when He tells me to say something, I say it. When He says don't go there, I don't. You know why?
Because it's faith. Hear and respond in obedience. Pray continually. But there are activities, there are different things that that help us to connect or to hear from God. And different people maybe most naturally get in certain activities and that's where they reset or you ever you ever say that, I just need to go think and then you go do that thing.
That's probably the activity where you will most naturally hear from God. If you when you go think, you shift your focus from you to Him. For me, it's meditating on his word, which some people that's like, no way. You know, like sitting down and reading. Some people need to listen more consistently.
And when they're listening to the word, they help. That's great. But regardless of the if this is your main way that you hear from God or not, you need to make the habit of getting in his word and denying your flesh just to do that anyway. What I mean by denying your flesh is is even when you don't want to, just go do it because you know it's right. Yes.
Amen? Amen. Okay. But that's that's probably 1 of the main ways But another way which is interesting for you or maybe interesting to you, is maybe I didn't get to do this in the morning because, stayed up later the night before doing whatever or whatever. So, didn't get to do it in the morning.
A lot of times, things will be a little hectic around the house because maybe we're getting the kids here, getting the kids there. When everything slows down, I'll feel in my spirit, go ride your bike. Do you know what I'll do? I'll go ride my bike. And I know in that movement, doing monotonous things with my hands, and with my like, this monotonous activity, I will be able to focus and think and get along with God.
And usually in those times, God really connects with me. Riding my bike, taking a shower, you've heard it over and over washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, like any kind of monotonous movement activity. Man, you better believe me and the lord are speaking together and those are the 2 ways that I most naturally connect with god. Like, he speaks to me more in those 2 ways than anything else. There's all kinds of other things.
It's, you know, going and serving other people. It's, I mean, during worship, it's all kinds of multiple different ways and actually have an assessment that I'm going to make available to our whole church in the next couple of weeks where you can take it and see where you most naturally connect with god and then lean into those areas. Hopefully, will that help you? Praise the lord. Hopefully, it'll help you.
It'd be great but let me say this too. When you find that, don't just do that, please. Because the areas that others are strong in, you need to learn from them. Get around others where people are strong, people that love to worship. Get around them, and even though your flesh says, no, ain't singing out loud and I ain't raising my hands, do it anyway.
Because you'll learn to hear from God, and we can grow in hearing Him pray continually in every activity that we're doing. Amen? Amen. Isn't that awesome? Okay.
So hopefully, that helps. Last but not least, before I call up Don, is this. Here's the importance of prayer. Go to John-16. I think that's the last 1 I gave you.
Back there on the screen. There we go. I'll just read it there. It says, until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. "Ask and you will receive", and your joy will be complete.
Complete joy is the result of answered prayer. You see that? Ask and you receive, and your joy will be complete. Asking in his name is asking in line with his will under his authority. Well, if you're a son, you're under his authority.
Learning to know His will means you need to be listening. So, praying continue continually is I'm continually listening to God. And when I hear Him speak like Jesus, Jesus said, I only say what I hear Him say. That's that's prayer. I'm hearing him speak, and I'm responding.
I'm I'm saying what I hear him say in prayer, which means I'm praying his will. And then when I pray his will or I ask for what he has spoken, it has to happen. And then when I see the answer to my prayer, I have complete joy. You know why I'm always joyful? It's because I'm constantly in relationship with God, and I'm constantly seeing answers to my prayers in your lives, and in multiple people's lives.
But that's not just for the pastor. Like Jesus said, I want you to do the same things I do and even greater. Well, that for me as your pastor, I want you to have the same relationship I have with Jesus and even greater. I want your life to be full of joy, unspeakable, and full of glory. And it comes out of the product of relationship.
The product of continually listening and praying. Colossians four:two says it this way, you you you go ahead, devote yourselves to prayer, be watch ful and thankful. So I'm devoting myself to listening, and praying what I hear you say, and then I'm watching for it to happen, and when it happens, I'm thankful because man, I'm full of joy. Man, that's just some good stuff. All right, I'm done.
Don, would you come on, brother? I need to get him his microphone. Just so you know, this is deacon Don. Don is 1 of is on the leadership team of the church. He's 1 of the deacons here.
You'll hear a little bit of his testimony. But since we've planted the church, and he started coming maybe 4 or 5, you know, you can have that. When you're ready to speak, just unmute it. And when you're not speaking, just mute it back with him. But he has been radically faithful since he started coming and Jesus did a work in his life, and has a servant's *heart*, just willing to serve wherever, whatever, and do what, whatever, if it's not being done, it needs to be done, God's gonna do it.
And it's amazing. And and he's willing to serve you guys in many different ways. And some of you have been spiritually led by him because of that willing *heart* to go and to do. So Don, would you guys just honor Jesus in him? Thank you.
Amen. You might have to turn it up. He's a little soft spoken. Loud of heart, loud of life. A little soft spoken.
It's a good thing. Would you share just a little bit of your testimony, just so people can get to know you?
Well, the first 1, you asked me to think of a couple things that that pray about a couple different testimonies. And the first one's really heavy, very personal, and the second one's kinda light, but it just shows how much god works, in our lives if we we just take his hand. The end of 20 18, I got into a spot that I hadn't been in before. I was blindsided, basically, and, I was alone. And I went in into 1 of the deepest, darkest places I've been in in my life.
And I began to pray. I've always believed that that god is exists. I've always believed in prayer. I began to pray that, god, you've gotta answer this prayer in my life to get me out of this darkness. I'm in such a dark spot.
Everything I'm I'm losing everything that I have, and bring me into your light. I need to be in your light. I was wasn't sleeping. I was drinking excessively. I have I had made alcohol to God in my life for most of my life, But I started to pray, and I was awake a lot.
I wasn't eating properly. I mean, I was suffering from deep depression at that time. But I I believe that god was gonna answer these prayers. I had the faith that that he was gonna bring me out of this somehow. I didn't know how.
But me being my own god wasn't working. And I just I just laid there, and I just kept continually praying over and over. God, take me out of this darkness. You have to get me out this darkness. Show me what I need to do.
I'm done trying to do this on my own. It's very difficult. This is really, you know, a personal thing, but it just shows how much god works. I remember February 2, 03:30AM 20 19. I woke I was awake.
I had been praying. I walked into the kitchen to get a drink, and I noticed that the garage light was on. And I thought, what's going on out here? My 1 of my sons was out there with 1 of his friends, and they were, enjoying the evening, early morning, but they were drinking. And I and they said, why don't you join us?
They knew that I had been depressed. I said, okay. And I started to drink again, and I I the god just gave me this nudge, and he said, in order for this to change, in order for me to come into your life, you have to have clarity. And in that moment, I realized that I hadn't had clarity in my life for a long, long time because of the alcohol. And at that moment, that was it.
I and he basically said, that's poison. It's poisoned you. It's poisoned your life. It's poisoned everything in your life, your marriage, your children, your grandchildren. Your dogs don't even wanna be around you.
And that was it. From that moment forward, that was my last drink, And I've been sober since then, and miracles started happening. My life Now
now this is this is interesting because this is before you were born again. Right? Yes. So, I love this, and it's a it's a point. Like, he was talking to me a little bit about what he was gonna share before this this morning as we were in prayer.
And it's like, it's a point because *God* draws people to himself. It was his choice whether or not to reject that. He could say, no, I'm going my own way. And probably did multiple times in his life. But God was speaking to him even before he was born again, drawing him into being a and being a son into relationship.
Exactly. So what happened was things started to change. Not only did my *heart* start to change, but God in me and what he was starting to do in me, his works were changing the hearts around me, and my circumstances completely started to change. And I started to realize that the *miracle* that was happening was because of him. Nothing to do with anything that I was doing.
And it's not about me. It's all about what he did in me. So really, within a very short period of time, things started to change. There was reconciliation. There was a huge opening of *love* that completely started to change everything.
My perspective and the perspective of everyone around me and my family, my wife, we just things just completely changed, and it was because of the prayer. And that miracle started happening, and all these things started to come into place. It was it was absolutely amazing. What it did is it shifted my focus completely on the miracle and on what God was doing in my life at that time. And I started immediately to seek God in my life and understood so clearly.
Just 1 real quick thing. But back when I stopped that last drink, I started to think as I was in bed, and I this is all these people in my life that I'm connected to right now are all basically part of that lifestyle that I've had. And God spoke to me at that moment again, and he said, you will have "new friends". I am gonna give you a new friends group and new family, and you guys are it. I didn't know at the time, but I found real church because of the flags on Gulf To Bay at Clearwater High, and I'm going by there.
And I'm like, what is going on in the school that I attended? What's happening here? They have church for kids here? And I googled it and went online, and I saw what pastor and Courtney were doing and why they were here. And I told Laurie, I said, we've gotta go.
We've gotta go and see what's going on here. And the love of Jesus met me in the parking lot through this man right here, Mike Keith. The first 1 that I met. So praise God. And then he introduced me to his beautiful wife, Loretta.
But real church is my home. God is here in real church. "Jesus lives" in this church.
So so when when in all of this, when were you born again?
I'm gonna I'm gonna say that it took me about 2 months to realize that I needed to be born again. So we started, I think, March, the March 1 in 2019. So I'm gonna say, I believe, and I don't remember, and I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact date. No.
It's okay.
But I believe we are sometime in June.
Sometime in June.
That I sat and I every time you would offer *salvation* Yeah. In the sinner's prayer, I would just be like, "not now". Yeah. Do it. "Stand up".
No. No. I have this fight in my mind. But the conviction came over a period of time, and I'm gonna say a couple months.
Yeah. So this reminds me, he's like Cornelius. P like, Cornelius was this guy in Acts and, a Roman centurion. And it says in Acts-10:22, there these men went to Peter to get Peter to go to Cornelius' house. And it says, the men replied, we've come from Cornelius the centurion.
He's a righteous and God fearing man who is respected by all Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say. Then Peter invited them into his house to be a guest. So so, Corinthians is not saved at this time, but he's praying, he's doing some stuff, and God sent an angel. He's drawing him into a *relationship* being born again.
Alright, there's a lot of people around the world that God is doing this to. He's speaking to them and drawing into relationship with himself. Jesus said in John-3, you cannot see the kingdom of God, unless you've been born again. You can hear God drawing you to Himself, you can experience His presence, you can do a lot of stuff, but you cannot have a relationship with God, like a son and a father, or a daughter and a father, unless you have been born again, and that's what he's drawing you into. So just like in June, when he God is telling him in the service, hey, that's you.
Stand up. Stand up. Hey, It's time. Come on. And he's like, no.
No. No. For a couple months. In the same way, Peter went to Corinthians' house, preached the gospel. Man, they were saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and and they baptized them in water right afterwards.
*God was drawing them into relationship with Jesus*, and it's such a cool thing, and such a cool story to hear that. Maybe you're here, and you've never been born again, but you know you've heard God and He's drawing you. The step of faith is to surrender your life. How are you born again? You're born again by believing Jesus died and rose again, but you can't stop there.
Demons believe that. They were there. They know it. But then confessing him as Lord, saying, I surrender my life to you. I'm going to follow you over myself.
And when that happens, Jesus comes live inside of you. And *born again means born of spirit. So God is life*. Before that happens, your spirit is dead. Not that it doesn't exist and move, it does, but it's disconnected from God who is life.
So if you're disconnected from life, you're dead. You're a walking dead person, spiritually. But when you give your life to Jesus, the "God of the universe", by grace through faith, comes to commune with you inside. Your spirit is connected with "God of life", which means you're alive. You're born of spirit.
It's a beautiful thing. Remember what I just said, because God needs to if you're a believer, God needs to use you to tell others the gospel, and then lead them to be born again. Amen? Amen. So that was a time that you've heard God, and it was awesome.
Anything else on that story? You wanna go to the next 1?
Well, that was that was the the whole thing was God was drawing me in. I didn't realize that. But once I did and recognized that all these things were happening in my life and all these changes were happening, it was God working in me.
Amen.
And now I recognize it, and I need to find how to show God how much I love him back. And real church is exactly where God put me.
And how how do you show God how much you love him back?
By changing the way that I was as far as being a selfish person, a drunkard, unloving, unlovable, and turning that around and showing *God's mercy to others as he's shown me and his grace*. And and that's that's given honor to him and glory to him for everything he's done.
So to put it in biblical terms, what he just said, which is right. It's repentance and obedience. Right? It's by grace through faith. Obey because he's gonna lead him to do all of those things in relationship.
But he can't do it by his effort. He does it by obeying. And when you obey, he empowers you to do what he told you to do. Right? So grace is not opposed to effort.
*Grace* is opposed to earning. Amen? And and and so we obey, and we walk it out, and he supernaturally gives us the ability to carry out what he said. What's another story of you hearing from God, my brother?
Oh, that was a big 1. That's a big that was big prayers. And God answers and listens to all of our prayers because we're faithful and we're righteous. So a few months after I was saved and and
Why are we considered righteous?
Because of our faith.
Yeah. Because of Jesus. Jesus is
righteous. What he's done.
Our faith in him. So it's like some of you, I felt it in my spirit when he said, and we are righteous. Somebody said, no, we're not. We're "filthy rotten sinners". And and I'm I'm not making fun of you in that.
I'm I'm I'm pulling out a point. If you're a born again believer, you're not a filthy rotten sinner anymore. That sin nature was crucified on the cross with Jesus 2000 years ago. You have God's nature inside of you. In you, you're connected with His life.
So you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and I He declared that by faith. It's just normal for Him now. Now, we have to renew our mind to the reality of who He is in us, and walk that out. If you have a problem with what I'm saying, that's okay. Just go search it out in scripture, and you'll find that I'm right.
*2 Corinthians-5:21. He who knew no sin became sin, so that in him we might become the *righteousness of God** in Christ Jesus. That's a beautiful thing. Amen? Alright.
Keep going. I'm sorry for well, I'm sorry not sorry for interrupting you.
No. It's fine. The the point is, *God hears all of our prayers* if we pray in his will. So a few months after, probably sometime in September, that same year 2019, we've had this gecko at home, Laurie's pet gecko for 10 years. And 1 night she said, I'm gonna let him run around out here on our lanai.
We've got a screened lanai. So I'm like, you sure that's a good idea? Because I don't know if that screen's all intact and I don't oh, yeah. He's fine. So 20 minutes later, I can't find the gecko on the lanai.
I'm like, oh, well, where's the flashlight? It's here and not out there. Lifting all the pots up and can't find this little guy, and and Elizabeth is Lizzie, her lizard, isn't there. Can't find her. So Laurie starts to get elevated her emotionally, And the next thing I know, she she had purchased crickets in a little plastic baggy.
She's out in the bushes out in our apartment complex calling Elizabeth with the baggy crying, and God said, God and she came back in and pray for your wife. Pray for this this lizard, this gecko.
Now you say God said pray for that. How do
you how do you know that? Well, he because he he put it on. He just I had this overwhelming sense that he he said pray for the "little things" Yeah. As well as these "big things", you gotta say a prayer for these things because my wife's hurting.
So like just a deep knowing.
Yeah. It was just it was like, okay. It's time to activate *prayer. Yeah. And I'm like, yes, God*.
Nothing else I could do.
Over a lizard. Of And so we prayed. And I I prayed, God, if it's your will, we've taken care of this thing. My wife's in pain right now. We can't find him her.
And if it's your will, bring bring her back somehow. And we're sitting on the lanai. And at the time, we I smoked and and I quit that too. But anyway, praise God. 20 minutes later, I look at the next building, which is about from here to the wall, and there's a light in the hallway.
And I I just happened to glance over there, and there's Elizabeth on the sidewalk. I yelled inside. I said, Lori, go get your lizard. And she just burst it out in tears and just of joy, and God brought Lizzie back. I mean, it's just a little *prayer* for a little 1 of his creatures, but he listens to all of our prayers and all of our request.
And he knows exactly what we need when we need it.
Yeah. So I I've I've I've heard people say, well, I I won't pray for that. That's, you know, God's not God's got bigger things to to do. That mindset is a lack of understanding of your value to your heavenly father. And I'll prove it to you with a scripture.
There's there's a verse for that. *Romans-8:32*. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give him give us all things? How will he not also, along with him, with Jesus, graciously give us all things. It takes faith for some of you to pray for the little things.
Step out in faith. For some of you, it takes faith to pray for the big things. Step out in faith. Amen? Would you guys just give *God* a big old hand of thank you for what he's done?
*God* wants to meet you in the midst of every aspect of your life. I mean, he's pray continually, so I'm continually in the big and small things listening and and speaking. For some of you, the next step in prayer, like, think alright. Think of a baby. When a baby cries, what is it crying about?
Something it needs. It's crying because it's hungry. It's crying because it wet itself. It's crying because it's poo it pooped itself. It's crying because it wants something and sees in front of it, and, you know, he or yeah.
He or she. So that the baby is crying because of that. So all of its cries are focused on what it wants and what it needs. When you first become a believer, it is usual usually, all of your prayers are focused on you. Because you're *born again*, when you're born, you're a baby.
You're learning what it looks like to be in relationship with the father. Let me just say this. As you grow in your understanding and ability to understand your father's heart, heavenly father's heart in relationship, more and more your prayers won't just be about your needs because they'll be connected with his heart, and God loved the world. For God so loved the world. So more and more, your prayers will be, instead of just for you, you'll trust that he's got you taken care of.
And as you mature in Lord in the Lord, your prayers will be for you and for others. For you and for the church. For you and for your neighbors, for you and for the and then more and more, you will love others more than you love yourself in prayer. You still need to love yourself. It's still a personal relationship, but as you mature, that will happen.
And it's a constant growing in relationship. We'll get more practical as we go along in this series. I think we're gonna do this series through July on how to specifically hear Him. We'll get more practical on the different ways and and and what it looks like to hear the Lord in worship and in in riding your bike in in different areas of your life. We'll get practical in that, but just know that please listen all the time, and don't just dismiss things that you think are the Lord.
Because in Genesis, Satan to get them to *sin* said, did god really say? So, in your learning to walk in relationship with the lord, when the lord speaks to you something in line with his word, Satan's gonna say or a little demonic whatever or your own flesh, you'll have the thought. God didn't say that. Well, if you can back up the thought with scripture, and it's in line with love, loving someone else more than yourself, and you gotta deny your flesh to do it, my leaning is just go do it. You'll see on the other side if it was God or not.
If it's loving, why say no? And as you step into that, last verse, I promise. *Hebrews-5:14*. Watch this. *Hebrews-5:13*, anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching of righteousness.
Alright. So understanding righteousness is necessary for you to grow past infancy. Okay? Because when you understand righteousness, you realize you don't have to prove yourself to God anymore. You've already been proven by Christ.
So now it's no longer about you. It doesn't have to be about you. The the serving you do at church or the giving you do or the the the good deeds, you don't nobody else needs to know. You might tell them for a testimony to encourage them, but it's not about them looking at you differently or you proving yourself to God differently because you've been proven. You understand righteousness.
So now, because it's not about you anymore, you can mature in Christ. So how do we mature? If if you don't understand righteousness yet, you're gonna just continually pray for yourself and whine and cry to the Lord. That's okay. It's okay to be a baby for a while, but then there's a time to grow up.
Yeah? There's a time to move from immaturity to maturity. I mean, if a 40 year old is still whining and crying about themselves, we look at them like there's a problem. Right? You know, even a even a 6 year old, we discipline them if they're just constantly whining and crying about themselves.
What's your age in the faith? And how do you need to mature? But when you mature, how do you do it? 5 14. But solid food is for the mature who by **constant use** have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.
So constant use. When you understand *righteousness* and well, now I can fall forward. I'm okay with failing now because I'm not scared God's gonna leave me. So if I think this is a God thing and it lines up with scripture, and I believe He's moving, I may just try it and go pray for that person. I may just try it and bless that waitress more than she deserves.
I may just try it and start serving in that area or go to that small whatever it is that God's leading you to do. And man, in the constant use, you're learning to distinguish good, All good things come from God. So you're learning to distinguish God from what's not God. And until you put it into practice, you're not going to mature. You're not gonna learn what's God and what's not Him.
So it's a learning to walk in relationship, hearing obey. Make sense? Okay. My 7 year old daughter is doing this. I'm a close with this story.
The lights probably won't be good on the camera, but you'll see it. Yesterday, we were at Courtney went, took my 6 year old to a no. Sorry. My 8 year old daughter's learning to do this. Courtney took my 7 year old to a birthday party, and me and Tripp and Salah got to hang out together.
So we, I went on a run. They rode their bikes, and we went to Highland Rec or the park there. And as they're playing in the park behind there, there's these 2 guys that are playing soccer. I'm I've played soccer since I was 4. You know, I won't play.
So I'm watching them play, and they've they're playing small side, pretty far apart, 1 on 1. I'm like, there's such a better way. 360 degree soccer is so much more fun when it's 1 on 1. Anyway, you wouldn't, most of you wouldn't know. So they get about done, and I knew I needed to go talk to them, just because, 1, I wanted to play, but 2, I'm like, is this God?
Like, is this, is the reason I have such a desire to go talk to them, God? So I need to use this to distinguish good from evil. Is this me, or is this God? Well, I'm not gonna know unless I go try. So I go up and I say, hey, and you know, as they're walking off, I talked to the older gentleman.
I said, hey, you look like you beat him. He said, yeah. I said, said, good job. As he walked off to the younger guy, said, you let him win, didn't you? He laughed.
He said, yeah. Where are you from? Colombia. Oh, know. God bless you.
I'm learning Spanish. I wanna preach in Spanish 1 day. You know, and so it's a connection because I'm speaking his language a little bit. And and I I say, hey, you wanna play soccer? You wanna play?
And I taught him 3 63 60 degree soccer. So we played, and then, you know, when we're done, I kidded with him. I said, man, now now you gotta go tell your friends that you were beat by a pastor. He laughed. It was funny.
You should laugh too. But but now there's a little bit of a connection. And when he found out I was a pastor, he said he said, well, my, you know, my grandmama is real religious. She'd take me to church all the time. Well, there's my "open door".
You don't have to use pastor as your open door. So if you're not a pastor, you can there can be all kinds of other things. And I said, well, okay. Well, well, let me do you know Jesus? He said, yeah, I I believe in Jesus.
Grew up with it. I said, that's okay. I said, well, have you been born again? He's like, oh, many times. Maybe not.
I said, well, what do you mean? Like, he said, you know, baptized a couple times or you know, walked the aisle, said a prayer. I said, well, I mean, do you know that like and I I quoted John-3. I said, John-3 says, and by this time, Selah is coming over to me and she's standing by me watching and taking all this in. I said, John-3 says, you can't see the kingdom of god unless you've been *born again* which and I explained exactly what I said to you like, born of water.
*Jesus* said, you gotta be born of water. Your water breaks. Mama's water we're born of water. So but then he says born of spirit, which means, like, we don't have life and God is life. And when we accept Jesus as our Lord, God brings himself, his life by the Holy Spirit in us, and now we have his life.
We're alive spiritually. He's like, wow. I said, what do you think about that? He's like, that's well, it sounds true. I said, yeah.
And at this point, Selah interrupts me. She says, hey, can I pray for you? My 8 year old. You know what she prays? She said, Lord Jesus, I pray for for him that that he would come to know you in "Jesus name".
And he's impacted right there. So you know what I did? I just wanted to test and see if her prayer, if she heard from God, which she probably did because that's God's will. So now, I'm watchful, and I'm gonna be thankful. So I'm like, hey, man.
Do you wanna be "born again today"? He's like I said, if Jesus was standing in front of you, and you knew it, not and he was knocking on the door of your heart, asking to to come into your life today, right now, would you say yes? He goes, yes, I would. And I said, I'm not being funny here because Jesus is in me. And so he is standing before you in me, asking to come into your life.
I said, you want to be born again right now? He says, yes. Grab hands. Say a "lost prayer was answered" right in front of her. Right there.
We were thankful. Praise the Lord. I told I told him, hey, open up. When you leave here, "Google John-3", and just pray a prayer. Say, God, from your heart say, God, if you really love me and this was real, like that crazy red bearded dude said, would you show me?
And then read it as if he's speaking to you. He's going to. It's gonna be I said, how you feel? He said, man, I feel peace. I feel you know why?
Because it was real. Because it happened. And I tell you that because if a 7 year old, an 8 year old can step out of her comfort zone and pray and and do this, man, you can too. It's time to "get out of ourselves". You've been walking with Jesus longer than couple months.
It's time. Even a couple days, time to start sharing what he's done in you with others, and you might start to mature too. Hear *God* and obey. 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 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you and the "best is yet to"