You are called to train your heart to recognize the Father's voice through consistent time with Him, just as a child learns to know their parent. When challenges arise, shift your focus from your circumstances to the endurance of Jesus so you do not grow weary or lose heart. Take a moment today to repent of distractions and fix your eyes on Him to walk in faith and obedience.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. There's no place I'd rather be than right in the center of God's will. Yeah.
Amen. And I believe you're sitting in the center of God's will by being here today. I believe God has a word for you that's going to challenge you. It's going to encourage you. It's going to prop you up in him.
It's going to build your faith. It's going to be awesome. And I'm holding this. Geo came to me earlier today and and he he gave me Bucks thing he got signed and and whatever. So, I thought it was it was pretty cool.
Yeah. If you haven't met Gio yet, you need to meet him. Give him a big old high 5. He's awesome. He's just, yeah.
He real. There's Gio. And then also, I I was sent early this morning. You know, Pakistan where we've been working and stuff. If you didn't know that we've been working there, just go to our YouTube channel and watch last Sunday's message.
You'll see everything that we've been doing. But they're about 9 hours ahead of us. So they've already had Sunday service and and it's awesome. And so I got some pictures of the "new believers" and the new groups, the new discipleship groups of the thousands of brand new believers from there. And I just wanna show you 1, if you'll if you'll pull it up.
Look at that. Isn't that? There that's that's a new group of new believers sitting under a tree to hear the word of the lord and to worship together and it's today, it was a 120 degrees. Just think about that. Do you go to church for your comfort or do you go to church in order to seek and serve the lord?
Do you go to church for your comfort and your preference and then leave if it doesn't tickle your fancy? Or do you go where god's called you to be and stay there regardless? If you're here and god has called you to be somewhere else and you're just here because you're offended, go back. Somebody needs to hear that today. If you're just here because you're offended, you need to go back and reconcile with the local body of Christ that you left And then if he calls you here, come on.
But man, there's unity in the body of Christ. And we pursue unity at all cost. Even if it makes you uncomfortable. You understand? Amen?
That's biblical by the way. Praise the lord. Alright. So I'm excited about today because I was planning on starting this, series called Hearing God. And we're gonna do a series titled Hearing God.
It's gonna start, Lord willing, the June. And we're gonna have like really practical principles of what it looks like to hear God and talk about it. Because the Bible says without faith it's impossible to please the Lord. Right? Well, what is faith?
*Faith comes by hearing*. So how can you please God? How can you walk in relationship with him unless you know his voice? Unless you understand what it looks like to hear the Lord. But it doesn't stop there.
Many people just stop there. Faith is completed by obedience. As a matter of fact, without obedience, it's dead faith. It's not real faith. Right?
So, faith comes by hearing is completed by obedience. So, hearing without doing is rebellion. I said it before and then but then you have a lot of believers that just do a bunch of what they see is good stuff but there's no hearing. So, it's just religion. They're doing outside of relationship and eventually, there's burnout and weariness and all kinds of crazy stuff because they're doing stuff apart from God and there's no real fruit or lasting fruit there.
We want to walk in relationship with him in everything. Right? And hear and obey and learn the principles of who he is and so learn to do that as a child growing up. And so I'm not trying to condemn you if you're like, well I don't know how to hear the voice of God, but I know I'm a believer. That's great.
Like, we have a 10 old little baby girl. And I wish I would have put a picture up there if I didn't. You know what? Will you throw that that second picture up there of me jumping? You see that picture?
Number 1, that's that's how the discipleship over there in Pakistan makes me feel. But number 2, that's how my little 10 old baby girl makes me feel too. Yeah. She's awesome. She she has learned by being in my presence, by me holding her, by hearing my voice consistently.
She has learned that I love her. We love because he first loved us. She loves because I first love her. It's a reflection of our relationship with the heavenly father. But she doesn't know everything that I'm saying yet.
She knows my voice now. She's learned to because she's spent enough time *hearing* my voice where she knows when I'm in the room. She I sing to her all the time. She knows when I'm singing and she'll smile when she wakes up hearing my voice sing. But she doesn't know what I'm saying yet.
She hasn't learned to distinguish the notes or distinguish the the words yet. She knows probably some words. She's learning dada, mama. She's learning she's learning It's our way of saying no to obey. She's learning some some But she can't follow like simple commands yet because she hasn't matured, because she hasn't spent enough time *hearing* me and in my presence.
But as she grows and matures, she'll learn to understand and distinguish the syllables and the words and begin to be able to take little simple commands. And so, I will tell her, I won't tell her more than she's capable of. But I will train her as she's ready so that she can learn and grow and mature to be the woman of God that God's created her to be. Do you realize that heavenly father treats us the same way? And when you're "born again", you're like a little baby infant that has the capacity now to consistently hear the father speak by the word of the son through the power of the Holy Spirit.
But many people stay with the mindset of an infant because they never consistently run to the father. And instead, just try to hang out with him once a week when they're around other believers or whatever. And so they continually have the mindset of an infant not really knowing what the father's saying. Knowing they're in his presence when they're in it, they're in his presence. Sensing when when he's around and wonderful, but never learning to distinguish and hear clearly.
Do you realize I want River to understand every word that I say? Because I'm a good father. And he's a way better father than I am. God wants you to understand every direction and every word that he says to you. You he wants you to.
The because he loves you. Hallelujah. The *Holy Spirit* wants to lead you into all truth. Amen. Not some.
Right. I mean, that's straight out of the Bible. Right. He wants to even hold John-16, show you things yet to come. But how can you see things yet to come and hear things yet to come?
How can you grow in truth until you learn to hear and know the father's voice? And listen to this, maybe we are starting the hearing god series. *Hebrews-11:3*. See, a lot of people don't grow in their capacity to hear the father's voice because they don't understand what I'm about to tell you right now. *Hebrews-11:3* says, by faith, we understand.
Oh, look. There it is. By by faith, we understand what? Read the rest of it. That's right.
Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Hold there. Let's go back.
Just read the first 4 words. Okay. By faith, we understand. Now, what is faith again? Faith is hearing.
*Faith comes by hearing. Faith is completed by obedience*. So a lot of times, you don't understand until after you obey. You ever notice that in your walk with God? There's a lot of times in your walk with Jesus, you're like, man, you know, Holy Spirit's challenged me to do this thing and I don't know, I'm scared.
You know, or you just feel led to do this and you're like, nah, it just it doesn't look logical, doesn't this? But then when you obey on the other side of the obedience, you look back, you're like, oh, that's why. Oh, I get it now. But those that never take the step of obedience are not walking by faith. And guess what?
Either they never walk by faith and prove they never had a relationship with god or they eventually start walking by faith and learn that they were just living by fear before. You are those who have a relationship with the lord. So, begin to walk by faith. Yeah. Even when you don't understand, understanding that the understanding will come on the other side of obedience.
Amen? Amen. All right. Cool. So God led me to *Hebrews-12* today.
And we'll just go through as much as we can till about 11:20, and then we'll pray and be done. Amen? *Hebrews-12:1*. And Father God, just pray that that our hearts are open. That as you said Jesus, we're careful how we hear today.
That we're those that hear and put your word into practice so that we're the "wise builders" that build our house on the rock of Jesus. That our hearts are open and we hear with the the leaning towards belief instead of criticalness and doubt. Lord God, that we're good soil that doesn't take it, get excited about it, and run out and get choked by thorns and doesn't bear fruit. Get choked by the cares of the world. Get choked by distraction or by testing.
Lord God, but we're the good soil that hears and stands in it even when the sun gets hot. And produces that this word would produce much fruit Because we were careful how we heard today. *Holy Spirit*, I ask you to speak clearly. Amen. Okay.
So *Hebrews-12:1* says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Let's stop right there. So, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.
So, because we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, let us do these things. So, understanding what it's talking about with this great cloud of witnesses is very important because understanding that encourages us and empowers us to throw off everything that hinders, the sin that so easily entangles. Run with perseverance the race marked out for us. fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. So we got to understand this great cloud of witnesses stuff.
Okay? So it was talking about before in Hebrews-11 is like the hall of faith. It's all of these hall of fame of faith. All these people who live their lives by faith. So we were talking about faith before.
*Faith is hearing and obeying, very simply. That's completed faith. Now, in Hebrews-11* we're gonna see the results of hearing and obeying. Some of them. I'm just gonna read, I'm gonna read a bit of it.
And by seeing this, this is not like stuff that happened 6000 years ago that's like, oh my gosh I can't believe they did that. Now let me go about my life in a normal way. No. This was written as an example of the way that you can live day in and day out. This isn't just a bunch of stories about super superhuman heroes that has no application for your life today.
This matters for you and if you see it in scripture and it says by faith, you are challenged to live by faith. And you can live by the same faith and have the same results in your life. And if your theology has always disagreed with that, your theology wasn't biblical. But I love you enough to tell you that. I'm not telling you that to like punch you in the face and say, oh, you were terrible.
I'm telling you that because I I love you enough to say, hey, it's time to shift your theology so your life lines up with what scripture says. See so many people, they they read the scripture and if they don't see it in their own circumstance or they try it for a second and don't see it in their circumstance, they must they say, well I have to interpret the Bible through my lack of circumstance and that is a lack of faith. It's not okay. We don't interpret the Bible through our circumstance. We take the Bible as at face value knowing that what happened can happen in our life and we stand in it until we see it.
Bible says remain in the *truth* then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. If you're not seeing freedom in your life it doesn't mean try something new. It means continue to remain until you experience the freedom that the truth is declaring. Same same thing. Submit to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee. Submitting to God is resisting the devil. If he hasn't fleeed yet, just keep submitting. Because the promise is he will flee. It doesn't say instantly.
Amen? Amen. It might be 10 years. It might be it might take some heat. Sitting through a church service in a 120 degree weather in the in the dirt.
Anyway, okay. So, here's here's the hall of faith. This is the because of this, we can do, we can throw off the the sin that so easily entangles in everything that hinders us. We can run the race marked out for us with perseverance. I want you to think about the race marked out for you as we read this.
Like, these men ran the race. God has designed for every 1 of you a race. He's marked it out for you. He created you on purpose for purpose. And he loves you.
And he wants you to fulfill every good purpose that he has for you. And it takes *perseverance*. Like, as as I read this hall of faith, I I want you to think about your race. But understand the perseverance that they went through. Perseverance, definition.
When I want a clear understanding of a word, I just Google it. Definition. Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. That's perseverance. A lot if if if people follow Jesus for them, if, like, if you're a Christian just for you, then you won't persevere when it gets hard.
Because you'll just assume, well, God's not in this. I'm gonna run the other way. But if you know God's in it, you have no right to run the other way. You're supposed to persevere. It also says delay in achieving success.
That's perseverance. Like, if if God has set something before you, I was just who was it? Somebody was talking Nate was talking to me about Joseph. Like the story of Joseph, God showed Joseph what would happen like 12 years before it happened. And he persevered even though delay in achieving the success of ruling over, you know, his brothers and and all this other stuff that god had promised.
I mean, the opposite happened. He went to prison. His brothers threw him in a pit. He could've just gave up and said, oh, you know, heck with all of this. It must not have been god.
It got really hard so I'm gonna run the other way to what's easy. That's not Christianity. *Perseverance perseveres* in the word he said until I see it happen and even if don't see it happen in my life, man, my kids are gonna see it happen. I'm gonna live by faith even till I die. Let me show you.
*Hebrews-11:32*. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah. About David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith, hearing and obeying, conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised. Who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the furry fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned into strength.
Do you realize by faith your weakness can be turned into strength? And you realize that god is pleased without faith. It's impossible to please god. So, he's going to challenge you to move forward in your weakness so that his strength can be made known. Can I just give you a real practical example of that?
Like real practical. My I'm I've learned to be really comfortable talking with new people and randomly going up to a person and telling them about Jesus. I've learned to. Right? And and sometimes, people would say that that is a strength of mine.
So you know what God challenges me to do often when I'm talking with someone? A lot of times, he challenges me in my weakness to shut my mouth and listen and ask questions and to do what is not my normal thing to do but to stand in my weakness by faith. And a lot of times, God uses the listening and me being obedient in that in my weakness to show his power and strength and they end up getting saved. So, the excuse that you're not a bold person or you're just a timid person. Is is what does it say in Hebrews-12?
Let us throw off everything that hinders that's something that hinders you. Like, people, the things that is talking about, let us throw off everything that hinders is is the mindset of this is who I always was that prevents you from walking in who he says that you are. So, and we're all supposed to share Jesus with others but those all of those excuses are the things that hinder us because the old, I'm just not good at that. Well, no, you're not but he is and he's in you. So he's going to challenge you by the Holy Spirit to step into the areas that you're weak so his power can be shown.
So if you are the 1 or 1 of the people that always says, well I'm just a timid person, that's great because the Holy Spirit's gonna challenge you to be bold because the Bible says He's not giving you the spirit of timidity, but of love of power and a sound mind. So if you're going to live a Christian life and walk by faith, then you're going to be challenged in order to face the timidity and walk by faith in that area so that his power and boldness can be made can be made shown and made known through your life so that every round around you says that's not who you are. What's going on? And you can say it's just Jesus. If you're not willing to do that, my question is, do you know his voice?
Because if you're not willing, then you're either still an infant or Jesus isn't your Lord. Oh, he still loves you. Absolutely. And it's a draw into deeper relationship. Always.
I'm not telling you because he's mad at you. I'm calling you forward into deeper relationship so that you can experience and know the goodness of who he is and the goodness of who he is can be shown through your life. Amen. Shut the mouths of lions, 11 34. Quench the fury of the flames and escape the edge of the sword whose weakness was turned to strength and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
Like Gideon, his weakness was turned to strength. Case in point, what I just said. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.
They were put to death by stoning. They were sawed in 2. They were killed by the sword. They went about in sheep skins and goats skins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them.
That's holiness. They were set apart. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in the deserts and mountains living in caves and in holes in the ground. They were all commended for listen to this.
They were all commended for their faith. Yet none of them received what had been promised since god had planned something better for us so that together with him, with them, we could or wait, so that together with us, would they be made perfect? So, they did all that by faith looking forward to *Christ* and now Christ has been given out. The Holy Spirit has been poured out which is the better for us that we now have. And so, we have the capacity and the capability not just to do the very things that they did, but like Jesus said, to do the same things Jesus did and even greater by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Not because we're so good and amazing and wonderful but because Jesus is so good and we're found in him and all of who he is is found in us. Amen? *Hebrews-12*. Amen. Therefore, since so therefore, here's the here's the because of all of that, because we have that example, and guess what?
They're all cheering us on. Come on. And since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, we already talked the everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. You know, sin can easily entangle and I wanna tell you how so it doesn't so easily entangle you anymore. I I've said this before, but I'm a I'm a go in a little bit more here, hopefully, to make it a little more clear.
A lot of people, and I know I did for a long time just because of ignorance, I didn't know. But you have a thought. You see, the the enemy throws thoughts at you from your past weaknesses or things that just float through your mind, those crazy thoughts that you're like, oh my gosh. Where did that come from? You know, why is that?
And then a lot of people think that it started with them. And so they begin to feel guilty, convicted, and condemned because of that thought. And and now there's guilt and shame and they start to battle the thought. Oh, I don't think that. I can't believe I think that.
Whatever. And now, their focus is on that thought and it just goes deeper and they begin to feel the feelings that the thought was trying to get you to feel. Am I does that is that clear? Yes. So, I'm a say something I've said before but in a different context.
Okay? Pink elephants. Pink, purple, polka dotted elephants. Do not think about "pink, purple, and polka dotted elephants". Don't you do it.
You stop thinking about pink, purple, and polka dotted elephants. Too late. You're thinking about pink, purple, and polka dotted elephants. Some of you are even thinking about white elephants with red dots, and you're thinking about this, and that 1 thought led to this thought and that thought. You're like, ah, get those elephants out of my head.
That thought didn't originated with you or didn't originate with you. I suggested it to you. And on the power of suggestion, it came in your ear or came in your eye came in your ear and created a thought in your mind. You just have to understand that demons do the same. Or your environment does the same.
What goes into your eyes, your ears, your senses creates thoughts in your mind. Or the demon can suggest a thought too that just comes out of nowhere. And you're like, did that come from? Either way, either change your environment, if you're struggling with the thoughts that come from your environment, or understand that every thought you think didn't originate from you. And here's the tell.
If you don't like that thought, if you hate the fact that you're thinking it, it's it shows that you're actually a new creation. That it didn't originate from you. Yeah? So instead of being condemned by it, when that thought comes in your brain, instead of that, say and and you hate the thoughts, wow. Let it push you to Jesus.
Thank you, Lord, That I don't like that anymore. Thank you that I'm a new creation. Thank you that I'm forgiven. Thank you for what you've done in my life. Just to be real transparent with you.
And and most of you, if you've come to this church, you know like the I've been married 15 years. First 5 years of my marriage, I struggled with pornography. When an old stupid thought comes back in my head, I don't get condemned because I'm free from that. You know what I say? "Thank you Lord that I'm free".
Thank you that you've given me this gift of a beautiful wife that is my the blessing just for me to steward. Man, I'm satisfied in the gift that you've given. Man, praise the Lord that I've been set free. And you know what happens? The enemy puts less of those thoughts in your brain because every time he does it, it pushes you to Jesus.
He's like, woah. Like, his boss. I just imagine his boss and he's like, hey, did you did you put that thought? Did he fall? And then the little emph comes back and said, no.
Man, he started worshiping and praising the lord and and thanking like what you said wasn't right. It didn't work. Just real practical, guys. Sin doesn't have to so easily entangle you anymore. I mean, you can already know the the schemes.
The enemy's just going to go on play off your weaknesses. So just recognize it and stand in the truth no matter what. So so because of this cloud of witnesses that the the the their lives represented a life that walked by faith. We can throw off the sin that so easily entangles. We can throw off the things that hinder us from walking out the life that God's called us to live.
And we can *persevere* through the tough stuff, the difficult times, and through the delay and fulfillment of our dreams and visions with a trust that he's with us. We can persevere through all of that. The race that he's marked out for us. Please don't persevere in the junk, but persevere following him. Amen?
How? By fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer or the author and perfecter of our faith. That's how you do it. Like, the enemy just all he does is he wants you to take your eyes off of Christ and put them on yourself. That's it.
That's all. As soon as you put your eyes on yourself, what you're getting or what you're not getting, you're gonna fall. We fix because of those men and women that walked by faith. We know they live that way by fixing their eyes on the word. The word is Christ.
So we're no matter the circumstance, I'm gonna fix my eyes on Jesus. He is the author. Come on. He's the author of our faith, so he spoke to us and he also perfects our faith. Meaning, he speaks to us, we hear it, and when we fail at obeying, what does Jesus do?
Jesus encourages us. He reminds us of who we are. He disciplines us in a way to reinforce our identity in him, And then He tells us to do the same thing so that we can keep our eyes on Him and obey this time and walk it out. He is relentless about your process of becoming all that God's called you to be. And He won't let you walk around part of the process.
You ever notice how you fail at something and then 3 years later you end up going through a very similar thing? You know why? Because God wants to develop in you the character necessary to carry the call, and you have to learn in order to stand through that trial. God tests you with responsibility. Tell you to do something, you gotta obey through that.
And if you focus on your own effort or your own inability, you get weighed down by stress and weariness and discouragement and all this other stuff. That's just proof that you're focusing on yourself and what he told you to do. But if you fix your eyes on him, he's already given you the grace in order to to do it. Grace is grace is God empowering you to do what you can't do on your own. That's grace.
So if you fix your eyes on him, his grace empowers you with his energy to do the very thing that he told you to do. So anytime you're frustrated or anytime you're weary or you're discouraged doing what he told you to do, your focus is not on him. Just take your focus back off yourself and put it on him, and like, it'd still be difficult sometimes. But man, you got the grace to walk through it with fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self control.
If you're not bearing fruit in the thing he told you to do, your eye's on you. Just take your eye off of you. Put it back on him. How did Jesus do this? And Jesus, like all of these, this cloud of *witnesses* is, is like the example part of the example of of what it looks like.
But then it goes into Jesus, who the Bible says we're to be imitators of God as dearly beloved children. The Bible says in 1 John-4:17 that in this world we are like Jesus. Crazy to the religious brain, but it's in there. 1 John-4:17. Go read it.
So that it shows us what how Jesus did. And we're supposed to love. Jesus said, a new command I give you. To love others as I have loved you. So here's the real example of the way we're supposed to live our life.
Here it is right here. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Let's let's let's Google just to be real clear about what endurance is. Endure.
Google. "Suffer patiently". Last, for the joy set before him. What was the joy set before him? What was the joy set before him?
He endured Jesus, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. What happened on the cross? Remember in the in the garden, Adam and Eve? God created Adam. It's not good for man to be alone.
Took a rib out of his side. His bride Jesus on the cross, dying on the cross, went to sleep, died. Soldier pressed his spear into his side, and "blood and water" gushed out. He was birthing the church. Birthing his bride.
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. You're the joy. He endured for. You're the joy. The next word it says, scorning, it's shame.
You realize it was shameful for him to be on a cross? The word scorn. The feeling or belief that something is worthless. Let me explain. Jesus carried the cross through the streets naked, bruised, bleeding.
Says not even looking like a man because he had been beaten so much. For you, right? His body is broken for your holiness. They spit on him. They mocked him.
And he got on the cross to pay the price for us. Part of that was paying the price for our shame. It says, "scorning its shame". The shame of the cross, all that shame that Jesus went through, he considered worthless. He considered it it had no weight compared to the value of who he was doing it for.
The shame had no worth compared to the worth of who he was doing it for. You guys. And sat down at the right hand of the throne of god. Sitting down mean it's done. It was good enough.
It's finished. It's over. Like, he paid the price so you could be forgiven. He paid the price so you could be loved. He paid the price so you could live a life without shame, without fear, without regret.
You know Jesus paid the price for your past. The enemy just brings your past up to get you stuck so you can think about what you don't have, or what you do, or what you didn't do, or what you did do. But Jesus paid the price for it. So you don't have to worry about that anymore. It's always standing in him and moving forward in him, forgetting what's behind.
Period. No matter the difficulty, I'm forgetting what's behind so I can only see what Christ has for me so I can endure. And then in the next sentence it says, consider him who endured such *opposition* from sinners. Why do we consider him? Consider Christ.
So that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Let me let me just make that a little bit more clear. And the other version says, so that you will not grow weary and faint hearted. Okay? Fainthearted.
I encourage you to do this. Just Google words that's that kind of seem nebulous or out there to you, right? Fainthearted, real clear, lacking courage. Another way to put that is discouraged. Consider him who endured such *opposition* so that you will not grow weary and faint hearted, weary and lose heart, weary and discouraged.
Meaning, when you're weary in something he told you to do, you're not considering him. You're considering yourself. When you're *discouraged* in something he told you to do, you're not considering him. You're considering yourself. You're considering what happened to you or what didn't happen to you.
What you're not getting or what's not happening in the way that you expect it. But if we shift our focus from self back to considering him, we won't grow weary and lose heart. But we will be able to stand and endure and *persevere* through the difficult times, through the delay in seeing the fruit of what we know he wants to do. See, he's our strength. He's enough.
He's everything. He's with us. He's in us. We live in him. We live and move and have our being.
So I don't know about you. I wanna live a life that is fixed with my eyes fixed on him. Jesus said, I am the light of the world, a city on a hill. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. But then he turned and he said, you are the light of the world to the disciples.
You reflect what you focus on. And if you're focused on him, you're gonna reflect his light everywhere you go. And as soon as you take your eyes off of him, you begin to reflect what you focused on. You know what happens when I take my eyes off of him? And as soon as I notice a lack of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self control flowing out of my life, lack of the fruit of the holy spirit.
As soon as I notice that, you know what I do? I just simply repent. All I do is I in that moment, wherever that lack of fruit started coming from, I turn my eyes back to him and shift my mindset back to fixing my eyes on him so that in the midst of the trial and the circumstance, I can *persevere* and still bear fruit because my eyes are reflected are are fixed on Christ and my life will begin to reflect what my eyes are fixed on. Amen? It's Jesus.
So let's end like this. I I meant to go through quite a bit of Hebrews-12, But it's time to end. So, Rebecca, would you come up? She's our host, so she's gonna close us out. Before she does, and she's gonna do it quick, so she ain't gonna leave you standing much.
But I wanna invite you to stand for for a moment. And there are people in here that have never given their life to Jesus. You came just because somebody invited you. You came just because maybe you've been coming for a while and and but as I'm talking today, you realize you don't know Christ the way that that you you just never been born again. The Bible says unless you've been born again, you won't see the kingdom of heaven.
So I'm not talking about being baptized when you're a baby. I'm not talking about, you know, going to church multiple times. I mean, that's all good stuff and it's important to do. You know, but being born again is I believe you died for me. I believe you rose again, Jesus.
And I've been living in sin. I've been a sinner living for myself. And I I need to be forgiven. So Lord, I repent. I turn my life to you.
I confess you're my Lord. And at the moment, your heart will be supernaturally transformed and the god of the universe will come to live in you. It's an amazing thing. If you've never really been born again, Jerry, would you raise your hand? This man in the pink shirt like Santa Claus when you're coming in, jolly face, happy man.
Not not like Santa Claus but like Santa Claus. If you have never been born again and you want to be, it's going take some humility to go talk to him. But go do it. He will lead you in a relationship with Jesus. You're gonna just find him after we dismiss.
The rest of you, I just want you to to take a second and close your eyes and just put your hands out like this as like a receiving, like I'm open. And I just want you to say with me, say, heavenly father. Teach me what it means. Teach it means. To follow you.
To follow you. And to pursue you. And to pursue *repent*. I repent. And I wanna say that if you mean it.
And I'm a I'm a get you to repent of of anything that the Lord brought out in the message that is not of him, which means it's not of who you are. K? So right now, I repent. Go ahead, Adam. Of the things that are not of you.
Of the things that are not Teach me to fix my eyes. On you, Jesus. On you, Jesus. Like Peter. When he walked on water.
When he walked on water. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged 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, 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.