You are invited to intentionally reflect on the specific ways God has moved in your life and within this community over the past year. Share those stories with others, for remembering His faithfulness is the key to preparing your heart for what He will do next. As you look forward to 2024, let your testimony fuel your anticipation for the best yet to come.
You look great this year, church. You look great, Bart. I might need 1. Yeah. Thank you, Bart.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There is no place I'd rather be. There's nothing that I'd rather be doing. And I'm telling you, if you've never experienced this before, it is fun getting to be in the "center of God's will", doing exactly what he called you to do in the exact moment, exact place, at the exact right time.
Thank you, my brother. It's amazing. There's there's a a a sense of joy and peace walking in the pleasure of God, and man, that's what he wants for every single 1 of you. Every single 1 of you as a son or daughter of God to be confident in the presence of God, and to "walk in His presence", in the purposes He created you for in every aspect of your life, in your relationships, in your friendships, in your job, in your church, in your in your recreation, him being the center of everything for 2024. Amen?
Amen. And the rest of your life. Yeah? Amen. Alright.
So if this is your first time, Praise the Lord. We're we're glad you came. Welcome. If this is your second or third, you're you're kinda still relatively new, man, we pray you become like family. You you look like family to me already.
So amen? We pray you experience and you encounter the love of Jesus in a real way because when you do that, everything will shift, and your life will become a *testimony* to others of how his goodness transformed you to experience life the way He created you to. It's just fun. How many how many have experienced that before? You know that?
Come on. If you if you haven't, look around and ask somebody about it. Alright. If you haven't caught on, today, we're going to be talking quite a bit about *testimony* because it's important to remember what god has done before we look forward to what he's going to do, alright? Psalm chapter 1 19 in verse 24 says, your testimonies are my delight.
They are my counselors. Your testimonies, the story of what you did and the story of what you've done in my life and in the lives of others, I delight in them. If you don't delight in the testimony of what Jesus has done in your life, in the lives of others, and what he did 2000 years ago, you need to learn to delight in it. It's important for you to train yourself, allow the Holy Spirit to train you to delight in the testimonies of God. And it says, they are my counselors.
So when I look back at the life of Christ, the Bible says that *Jesus* is the **exact representation** of the father at he's he's the exact in bodily form. So when I look at the life of Christ, I see the father. And then it says in Ephesians-5:1, we are to be imitators of God as dearly loved children. So when I see the life of Christ and the testimony of Jesus, I'm supposed to shift my life to imitate the way that Jesus lived, and the way that he lived is when he heard the father say something, he said it, and when he saw the father do something, he did it like a dearly loved child, and that's the way we are supposed to live. Amen?
Amen. That's Christianity. It's beautiful, and it reflects the character and the nature of the Father to the world around us. That's my my counselors. I also have the picture in my mind of like a boat.
Anybody ever been boating before? Right? Go fishing. Go out. When you when you look at the front of the boat and you look down as you're going in the water, if you're going really fast, you can't tell what direction the boat is going.
Right? It it it just looks like you're going straight. You just see a bunch of water rushing by. But if you look back 500 yards, thousand yards, half a mile, you can see the wake, and you can see maybe the wake is just has a gentle turn to it. So then you can look back at the testimonies of what God's done over the past decade or 20 years or 30 years or 6 months, depending on how long you've been following him, and you can see his working in your life even before you gave your life to Jesus.
And you could see the wake of his working in your life, and it can help you to predict or to see what direction he has you moving in the forward. Amen? If I see a a gentle curve here in the wake from my boat, I can say, well, he's probably leading me to continue in that direction. Does that make sense? So the testimony of what he's done is the counselor for me and kind of shows me the direction that he's leading me.
Amen? Alright. Let's just let me just share a little bit of a testimony. Hopefully, you laugh at this and are encouraged by it, at the God working in and through my life and the enemy trying to rip away the word that he shared. So how many of guys were here for Christmas Eve service?
Alright. Many of you were here. I I preached a word on joy to the world, *Jesus* being our joy, and I had Dolores, which the worship team today, the worship was amazing, Come on. There's something about singing together in unity, worshiping Jesus together corporately where you experience the presence of God when it's unified. And here's a a side note, just a kind of a bunny trail, if you will.
If you come in to a corporate gathering and you only do what you feel and you only sing when you feel like it, then you're being rebellious to God. Yeah. That's right. Like, some people just got what? You're being rebellious because rebellious resist unity.
**Rebellion resist unity**. And so if the worship leader who is the person delegated by God to lead the congregation of worship says, hey, let's all lift our hands to the Lord, and you say, no, I'm not lifting my hands because I don't feel like it, you're being rebellious to the God directed delegated authority in the room, and you're causing disunity in the room. So there's gonna be a lack or less of a manifestation of the presence of God in the room because of your rebellion. If the if the worship leader says, hey, come on. Let's sing with all our heart, and you're like, well, I don't do that.
That's out of my comfort zone, and you don't do it. You're missing out, and you're causing those around you to miss out on the glory of God because there's a synergy synergistic effect of you the unity of the body of believers together, worshiping in unity. Look. In Acts-2, they were together in 1 accord, not a car. They were together in 1 accord, and that unity, the Holy Spirit came down in power.
Man, I want to see the power of God work in and through our church, and we're seeing it more than ever before in our church because our leaders are unified and rowing in the same direction. So I challenge you, if you're just visiting here and you're just hearing this for the first time, and you usually go somewhere else, or you live somewhere else, when you go back to your church, as you worship corporately, worship with all your heart as led, Be willing to humble yourself and submit 1 to another, and watch how God moves in power. As we worship together in unity, like next week when you come, don't just do what you feel. Do what the Holy Spirit tells you to through the leadership that is here and those around you, and watch how God moves in power, not just in your life, but in the room and impacts everyone around you. True.
Did that hit some people? I feel like it did. It's okay. If that's the way that you've been approaching church in the past, here's what you do when you learn something new. That's that's true.
I repent. I turn, and I try the right way next time because there will always be fruit of repentance. If you just say, oh, you're right. I'm sorry, and there's no fruit, there was no repentance because there's "fruit of repentance", and the fruit of repentance is the result. It's action in the opposite way.
You can hear truth and just say, I'm sorry all you want, but if there's no fruit, that means you didn't repent. Amen? Amen. Man, where did that come from? Alright.
*Jesus*. So back to Christmas Eve service, we preach joy to the world and how Jesus is our joy, and we can have joy in the midst of every circumstance, and Dolores got up and sang Joy to the World like 70,000 times in the middle of the service. It was kinda great, and I preached about rejoicing always, and that there's never an excuse not to rejoice because God is with you. Now, when you have a revelation of something, when God reveals something to you about himself that you've never seen before, not that it's new. Man, it's in scripture.
People have seen this, but it's revealed to you. Right? Don't you know that the enemy is going to try to steal that word from your life? When you have a deeper revelation of something, and I'll just tell you, when you begin to make disciples in your life, when you stop sitting on a seat, which most of you, I would say most of you, and I don't know, hopefully all of you, are not just sitting on the seat, but everything that you receive, you're giving out to your wife, and to your kids, or to your husband, and you're ministering. As you begin to teach others what you're learning in the Lord, you'll begin to grow more than ever before, and the lessons that you thought you knew before will grow so deep in you that you'll it will be like you never knew it before because you're just learning more and more of Jesus.
Does that make sense? Yeah. Like, you learn the most when you give it out. So on December 24, when I'm talking and preaching a message about rejoicing, which I've done many times if you've been at real church, I'm giving out a word that's not new to me, but it's going deeper in me than ever before. So don't you know the enemy is gonna try to test it?
Because he doesn't think we believe what we say we believe. He's gonna try to make my life look like a hypocrite. Yeah? So December 24, we already had our family van loaded up because we were ready to go see the grandparents in Louisiana. My family and Courtney's family live within a 7 mile radius.
I mean, everybody lives together. We're from the the sticks, from the boondocks from the country. Okay? If you those of you that don't know, if you've ever seen Duck Dynasty, that's what my whole family looks like and sounds like. And I might as well just say this 1 too.
You know you're a redneck when you have an aunt Bubba. And she told her daughter to put her teeth back in. True story. And, aunt Bubba is a nice lady. Okay?
We just couldn't say Donna when we were a kid, so we called her aunt Bubba as a 2 year old, and it stuck. Poor lady. Poor girl. Okay. Anyway, so we get in the car.
I'm tired from preaching. It's about 01:00 because that's when the second service had ended, and Courtney offers to drive the first couple hours, let me rest, and then I'm going drive. We're going to make it the rest of the way. It's a 12 hour, 12 and a half hour drive, no stops, with kids probably 13, 14 hours on a good day. But man, we're gonna make it by like 3 3AM, you know?
High hopes, wake up Christmas morning with the grandparents, hadn't been there in a couple years, it's gonna be So we get in the car. 2 and a half hours down the road, we're just past Live Oak, so about 8 miles past Live Oak, and a red battery light comes on in the van Christmas Eve. So my she's things start shutting down. It's like, what what do what do I do? Was like, just keep driving.
Lord Jesus, heal the van. In Jesus' name. Van dies, comes on the side of the road. We swap we swap points. I'm like, you know, what just happened?
I'm not a car guy, so I don't automatically know that the red battery light means anything other than battery. So punch the button, it cranks back up, and we search. There's a Walmart that's about 8 miles back at Live Oak, and we're in the Panhandle in the middle of nowhere. So I get on the next little exit, overpass, we go across and start going the other way towards Live Oak. The van dies again.
We're on the side of the road. It's Christmas Eve. It's about 05:30 at this point. Start looking. Okay.
It's the alternator, probably. It's the the little red battery light means charging system. Pop the hood. Look at the battery. But there's a sticker on the battery that says 10 22, which means, you know, the battery's old.
Maybe all the cells are out is what I'm thinking. You know? That could be it, and then alternator can't charge it because the cell's old. I was not smart. So so I get back in the car, and the van won't crank at all to get us to Walmart, and we have the opportunity to freak out.
It's Christmas Eve. We got 4 kids in the car, me and Courtney. I just preached a word on rejoicing, which is good because God was preparing me for the test. If I hadn't preached a word on rejoicing, I might not have rejoiced. I might have freaked out.
I was tempted to. But praise the Lord, we still had peace. Our and our kids were all good. You know why? Because their parents were good.
Don't get mad at your kids when they're, you know, acting a mess at 8 and 9 and 10 years old because maybe in the stressful situations, you acted a mess. Right? Well, we're we still have the peace of the Lord. Praise the Lord. Because in the word that I preached, which is the word of God, every word that God has wrapped in that word is the grace, which is the empowerment, the "supernatural empowerment" to empower you to live out the word.
All it takes is faith. Hearing the word, believing it enough to obey it in the moment. And as you take the steps of obedience, His grace that's wrapped in that word empowers you to reflect His character nature in the moment. That's by grace through faith. Does that make sense?
So so, it's 05:30. Baby, see if there's an Uber. We're in the middle of nowhere on Christmas Eve. There happens to be 1 Uber, like, in the area, and she happened to keep her phone on. So, calls the Uber.
The Uber driver takes me to Walmart 8 miles down the road. Walmart closes at 6PM. We get to Walmart at 05:55PM. I had already called, praise the Lord, was the wisdom of God because I'm not that smart, had already called the battery area or whatever, and they had a battery ready for me and the tools necessary to change it out on my van, so I had to buy all of that. Uber driver takes me back to the car and leaves.
And then the Road Ranger pulls up behind us at that exact time, holds a flashlight for me as I change out the battery. Praise the Lord, it cranks up, no little red battery light. We're in the clear. Right? But I was hoping it wasn't the charging of the system, the alternator, because I was hoping my theory was right, although it wasn't.
We drove to Live Oak, and we stayed in, the Holiday Inn Express, which would mean you can do anything the next day, if you remember those commercials. I stayed in the Holiday Inn Express last night. We got some Chinese from this little country town. We got some some Chinese country fusion, a Chinese country fusion buffet. Yeah.
So so there was like sushi and fried chicken. My kids loved it. So then we slept and woke up the next day. I cranked up the van multiple times. It was good, no charging system light.
So, hey, let's go for it. Christmas morning, it's raining, we get in the car, we drive 50 minutes down the road, and the van goes, and it won't crank back this time. 10 minutes in silence on the side of the road, we're trying to rejoice in the Lord. Courtney is like, what are we gonna do? I said, I don't know, baby.
Because we're, at this 0.3 and a half, 4 hours from home in the Panhandle. Called my dad. We were 8 hours from home at this time. No. No.
It's it's about 4 hours because it's the side of Tallahassee. 8 hours from Louisiana. Yes. Yes. 4 hours from here, from this home.
So so I called my dad. He's looking in we're looking into rental cars and all that kind of stuff. And there's a little town called Monticello that's about 10 minutes away. So I'm thinking, man, maybe we can get a tow truck. Christmas morning, it's 9AM.
It's raining. Ain't no tow trucks working. But maybe we can get a tow truck to tow us to, like, a closed auto dealer, and I mean, we're just working through trying to figure this thing out. About 10 minutes later, alright. Alright, Lord.
Punch the button again, it cranks. We drive. We take the exit to get to Monticello because I'm just hoping to make it at this point. And we get by the prison, and the van dies. And we start coasting.
And we coast into, wouldn't you know it, this little church called Macedonia Church. We we coast into the parking lot, and we sit, and it's raining, and it's cold, and it's Christmas morning. And we look around, and we see in the fellowship hall, it's a little bitty country church, fellowship hall, there's a there's movement. So I go over. The lady says, hey.
You know, we're here. We're we they they didn't celebrate Christmas, and so they were treating it as a normal day. Hey. Your family can come in and and hang out with my kids. They lived on the on the the part on the campus.
And so my family went in, hang out with the kids. I called Tallahassee Airport to try to get a rental to see if there was something, and and no Uber drivers were driving, so we couldn't get to the airport. Kinda like, alright, Lord, what are gonna do? We're stuck. And they happen to have a minivan.
So, hey, would you guys mind taking us to the airport? It would it was able to fill all of our stuff. And they said, yes. So the pastor gets in the the van, we load up everything, and he drives us to the airport. In that moment, because we're not freaking out, and I'm not complaining about what happened or what didn't happen to me, I'm able to talk with him about ministry.
We're encouraging 1 another. He's tearing up at all that God's doing. It's a beautiful thing. Man, there's ministry happening because God sets up unique, amazing situations when you're willing to see him in the middle of everything. He happens to look at the van and says, hey.
You know, I can change out that alternator for you if you'll just leave it here. I said, okay. At this point, I'm like, maybe God provided him for you. I'll I'll just trust him. Said, okay, man.
And there there happened to be an auto Riley's in that town that happened to have, the the alternator that I needed. So I bought it. He picked it up a couple days later and changed it out for us. Praise the Lord. Amen.
But I'm not done. So we get to the airport. We're supposed to have, there was no vans, so we were gonna have to rent 2 cars to drive. You know, Courtney would drive the rest of way, I'd drive the rest of the way, you know, and drop it off at the other airport in Louisiana. Don't worry, I'm almost done with the story.
Don't check out yet. There's a point to this. So, go to all the different rental companies, nobody had a van, went back to Hertz and said, hey, would you check 1 more time? They called the lot, happened to have a van. Go figure.
Praise the Lord. God provides. As they're going to get the van, the the girl will say, hey. You know? Because I'm still rejoicing in the Lord in my heart.
I know his presence is with me even in the midst of the crazy circumstance when we're supposed to be all stressed out and stuff. Right? Because praise the Lord, God, the grace was in the message that I preached, which was in the word of God that's in his word. Amen? All I had to do was believe it and walk it out in faith in the midst of the situation.
Praise the Lord for the testimony. So so I'm instead of complaining, man, I'm looking for Jesus. Hey. I think her name was maybe or is it I just believe Jesus loves you a lot. Is there anything I can pray for you for while they're getting the van?
She said she thought about it for a moment. She said, understanding. Pray for me for understanding. I said, do you know what it means to be born again? She said, yes.
I do. I said, have have you been is Jesus your Lord? She says, yes. It is. I said, okay.
Well, I'll I'll I'll do you mind if I just talk to you a little bit about understanding? She said, please. I said, you know where understanding comes from? She said, nope. I said, well, Hebrews-11 chapter 3 0, chapter 11 verse 3 says, by faith, we understand.
So **faith comes** by hearing, requires believing what you heard, and then is completed by obedience. So a lot of times, we have to hear, believe, and obey before we understand. But then on the other side of the step of obedience, God gives us understanding so that can become our normal way of life. So we can begin to live in the way of the father as he's teaching us to walk by faith. But we always have to obey in faith because without faith, it's impossible to please God.
You guys follow me? Yes. Amen. I'm just quoting scripture at you. And so I encourage her with that, and she's she's like, thank you.
I said, okay. Before I pray for you because I wanna pray for you. There was a guy listening, and I could feel it. I don't know if you ever talked to somebody, you just know this guy is the person here is is really taking in everything and kinda sucking it from you. If you've never experienced that, it's an interesting feeling.
So I looked at him. I said, hey, man. What about you? I just believe Jesus loves you a lot. If I was gonna pray for you for anything, what would it be?
Kenneth said, understanding. I said, I said, do you know what it means to be born again? He said so I got to explain what it means to be born again to him. That that man, when you believe Jesus died and rose again, but not just believe because even demons believe. But demons don't follow him.
You also confess with your with your mouth, but it results in your life following Jesus as Lord, saying, I'm gonna follow you instead of myself. Have you ever done that before? Kenneth said, no. Well, man, would God loves you. Would you like would you like to follow Him now?
Would you like to for the God of the universe to come and live inside of you by the Holy Spirit and lead you toward the purposes He has for you? Yes. Let's pray. Kenneth gave his life to Jesus right there. Now, if I'm living the normal world life and complaining and fussing and fighting, it's Christmas Eve, is all this happening to me, God?
Kenneth would have never gave his life to Jesus because I'd have been so focused on me. Amen? Now, not only that, *James-1:2* or 1 2, 1 3, something like that, says, "count it all joy" when you face trials of many kind because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And perseverance, when it's when it's finished its work, you will be mature and complete, lacking nothing. K?
So don't worry. You're gonna be tested in your faith, and that will never stop because God wants you to be mature and complete, lacking nothing. But every time you go through a test and pass and persevere, you grew. So your capacity to have joy in the moment next time when the similar situation happens, you have it. You're already there.
So when something worse happens, now it's testing or or or challenging in a different situation. It's gonna stretch your faith even more. Well, praise the Lord. You got the word. You got the grace because you've heard it.
Now you can hear it, believe it, and obey it, and watch as He moves in your life, and you show less and less anxiety and more and more peace and joy because of your relationship with the Lord. Amen? Amen. Okay. So, the end of the story is we got we dropped off the rental car in Monroe, spent, you know, a week and a half or so with my parents.
It was amazing. Had a great time. God did a lot of cool stuff. Ended up driving back to Tallahassee, saw again, Kenneth wasn't working, encouraged her to disciple him. She had already looked up our church and and told her about the Purple Book, is a book we use to disciple new believers, and commissioned her to disciple Kenneth as a new believer.
Then got back to the van. Pastor Job had already fixed the van, worked like new, and man, we got to drive back. All is well. Praise the Lord. God worked out all things together for his goodness.
And you have to hear that through the eyes of I'm not bragging on me. I'm bragging on what Jesus has done in me and is doing through me. And, man, you know, sometimes I still sometimes I still get frustrated at my son and and respond out of anger. And then I have to apologize and and and repent, you know, and then grow in him. But, man, he's continuing to stretch me and grow me to look more like Jesus.
And, hopefully, you can hear the *testimony* of what God did in and through me, and it helped encourage and grow your faith to be able to rejoice in all circumstances. Just like it says in Philippians-4, rejoice always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all because in those situations, we don't like to be gentle. We like to go.
Why? Because the "Lord is near" is what it says. Then it says don't be anxious about anything. He wouldn't give you a command to not be anxious unless he's already given you the ability to not be anxious about anything, which that grace is wrapped in his word. All you gotta do is believe what he says over what the world says.
Amen. Yep. And walk by faith in those areas. Amen? And hearing the testimony is gonna build your faith, give you the a greater capacity to do so.
And I'll show you how because today is all about everybody say testimony. Testimony. Thank you, Jesus, for what you did and what you're doing. *Revelation* chapter 19. John the revelator, as he's called, wrote Revelation.
It's the revel it's it's not the revelation of doomsday. K? It's the revelation of Jesus. Yeah. And it's written to be an encouragement to you and an encouragement for you.
Now, this angel had appeared to him and was taking him through this vision that he saw. Now, I'm just gonna start in Revelation 19 6. It says, then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out. "Hallelujah". For the Lord our God, the almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come. Like, when the saints worship together in unity, it's like the roar of many waters and the sound of filling thunders. It's there's there's a power to it. Our church, you guys do this, and I encourage you all the more to worship the Lord in unity. Now watch what he says.
For the marriage of the lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. You are the bride of Christ. I am the bride of Christ if you've given your life to Jesus, if you've been born again. Here it says, we have the capacity to make ourself ready. Hallelujah.
Wow. What does that look like? Verse 8, it was granted to her to "clothe herself" with fine linen, bright and pure. What is that? Says it in the next line.
For the linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Make ourselves ready by clothing ourselves in fine linen, which is the righteous deeds of the saints, righteous acts. Now, wait a second. Is this saying, pastor David, that we earn our salvation? No.
Not in the least bit. But let me tell you, when you believe Jesus is Lord, your life will respond like Jesus is Lord. Look at your life and the output of your life, the fruit of your life, and it will show you what you really believe. Because spiritual decisions and spiritual thoughts, spiritual beliefs are always reflected in the physical, eventually. So what you really believe is shown by how you speak and how you live.
If you believe that Jesus is Lord, you make that decision in your heart, your life will begin to line up and shift more and more day after day to reflect Jesus as Lord. So that eventually when others see your life, they'll say, man, Jesus is your Lord. You follow him instead of yourself. If you believe what the word says, Jesus *2 Corinthians-5:21*, he who knew no sin became sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So you're in Christ.
*Christ*'s righteousness credited to your account, washed clean, Romans-4:8, *forgiven*, blesses those whose sin is never counted against Him. So you believe that Jesus' righteousness has been credited to you like it was to Abraham, that when he looks at you, he sees the righteousness of God? If you really believe that, then guess what? Your life will begin to reflect righteous acts and righteous deeds. You'll begin to live righteously.
If you don't believe it, if you just take it as a cool thought, then you won't begin to live righteously. Now does that mean you don't fall? No. It doesn't mean that because in Psalms, it says, though a righteous I think it's Psalms, maybe Proverbs. Though a righteous man falls 7 times, he gets back up.
So when a righteous man falls, he realizes this is not who I am. He gets back up in the Lord because he's been forgiven. Because those who really believe that they're forgiven, they live a forgiven life. Yeah. And they begin to forgive others because you can't help it if you really believe you've been forgiven.
What what you believe will be shown by the fruit of your life. So say, Holy Spirit, would you show me what I think I believe but I really don't and help my unbelief? I wanna grow in you. I want my life to reflect your goodness in every way. That's living with a humble, repentant heart.
Amen? Okay. Let's keep going. You guys good? Yeah.
Alright. Verse 9. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Then, John, then I fell at my feet to worship him, to worship the angel.
What did the angel say? Woah. Wait. You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the *testimony* of Jesus.
*Worship God. Everybody say hold to the testimony* Hold to the testimony. Of Jesus. Of Jesus. What does it mean to hold to the testimony of Jesus?
It's a good question that I put in your mouth. What does it mean to hold to the testimony of Jesus? Well, we have to understand what is testimony again. The test and what is the testimony of Jesus? Now when we think back to what Jesus did, the whole thing, for God so loved the world that he sent his 1 and only son, Jesus, that whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life.
What did Jesus come and do? He came and gave his life away. He died for us and then rose again so we could receive his life. Amen? That's the gospel.
First John says that that act is love. What is love? Jesus sacrificed himself for us, so we should do the same for 1 another. So love is the sacrificing of yourself for 1 another. Amen?
Now looking back at what Jesus did, that's the testimony of Jesus, and we need to hold to that. What does that mean? Well, you know, the New Testament was written in Greek. K? When all these English translations we have, they come from, the Greek manuscripts.
When John wrote this, he probably wrote it in Greek. K? That's the the letter he wrote was in Greek, Revelation. Now the word for testimony used is martyria. Martyria.
What does martyria sound like? Martyr. Martyr. It comes we get the same word. As a matter of fact, if you look at the definitions of testimony, it even talks about in in the big Greek book I got, it even talks about being a martyr, holding to the testimony even unto death.
So wrapped in testimony is the word martyr. Think about Jesus. Jesus laying his life down for his father and what his father said to do. He only did what his father said, only did what he's he saw his father doing and only said what he heard his father saying. So Jesus was holding to the word of his father even unto death.
Even though his flesh was tempted and did not want to go to the cross, the night before the cross, Jesus said, if there be any other way, let it be that. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Even though my flesh doesn't want to, I'm choosing what my father says because it's right. Going to the cross, and as a result of his obedience, his surrendered, submitted obedience to the father, we get to experience the very life of Jesus. And wrapped in that life and the word of the gospel is the grace to do the exact same thing.
Holding to the testimony of Jesus produces the same life in us because Jesus gave us the command to love God, a friend of God obeys his commands, and to love each other as he loved us. So Jesus said that I give you a new command to love 1 another as I have loved you. So he's commanding us to hold to the testimony by repeating the testimony in our life and being a martyr for 1 another. What is love? Sacrificing yourself for each other.
Sacrificing yourself for the sake of another. Right? You follow me so far? Now, what does that look like? Let me tell you.
A friend of God is not somebody that is buddy buddy with God. That's not the definition of being a friend of God. A friend of God is defined in John-15, I think, maybe 14, is 1 who obeys his commands. So obed a friend of God is 1 who's obedient to God, not buddy buddy. That will result in closeness, but it's 1 who is obedient to his words.
What does it look like to be obedient as a believer? It looks like holding to the testimony. It looks like being a martyr because when you give your life to Jesus, it's no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. I was crucified with Christ. I died with Christ on the cross when I gave my life to Jesus.
When I took the step of baptism, I was saying, it's no longer I who live. I'm not what everybody else thinks about me, what everybody else said about me. I am who he says that I am, and this is a representation of a death of my old me. I'm resurrected to new life in him. His life is now my life.
Amen? K. So what does that look like? What is obedience? We are supposed to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh.
*Obedience is walking by the spirit. The Holy Spirit leads you to something, and you hear, believe, and you obey. You're walking by faith*. So the Holy Spirit tells you to do something. The Bible says the flesh is at war with the spirit so that you don't do what you want.
Every time that you obey the Holy Spirit, your flesh is gonna say, no. Every time God wants you to move in him in some way, your flesh is gonna say, don't do it. There's gonna be a fight from your flesh, and you have to know that you're dead to that, so you don't have to choose that. You can choose to walk by the Spirit. Does that make sense?
So every time you obey, you are declaring that I have died with Christ. It's no longer I who live. You're choosing day in and day out to deny yourself, pick up your cross, and and follow Jesus. You're living a life of a testimony, of of holding to the testimony and being that martyria. Does that make sense?
You guys follow me? It's deep, but it's good. K. So living a Christian life is daily denying yourself. Jesus said it.
You cannot be my disciple unless you first, what, deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow me. So Christians who hold to the testimony, remember what Jesus has done, and become an imitator of the father as dearly loved children, and daily pick up their cross, deny what they do want and what they don't want, and obey the Lord moment by moment. And in that obedience, his grace empowers it. So, on the other side of obedience, there's supernatural results. We see and experience the life of Christ in and through us, and others around us experience it and want to change too.
You saw that in my testimony. What did my flesh wanna do? Whine and complain about what I'm not getting and not being at the place that I'd planned to be at 3AM 3AM in the morning. And it's Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Everything should be going right.
Oh, that's what my flesh wanted to do. But instead, I was obedient to his word by his grace. Praise the Lord. And on the other side, there were supernatural results. Somebody gave their life to Jesus.
Amen. What would it look like for all of us to grow in our willingness to follow him day in and day out like that? Well, I'll tell you. We got quite a few testimonies of that. Before I get to that, I wanna say 1 more thing.
Everybody following me so far? Yes. Okay. Just making sure that's all, like, cohesive and connected and stuff because I'm delighting in the testimony. This is fun.
The way that the kingdom works is this. Revelation 19. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. *Worship* God. Now what is what is worship?
It's another example of everything I'm saying. Revelation I mean, Romans-12:11 I mean, 12 1. Sorry. Romans-12:1. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, *holy* and pleasing to God.
That's living a testimony, being a for *Jesus*, being obedient day in and day out, moment by moment, being a Christian. Okay? It's what it is. *Worship* God. Why?
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Okay. So when we remember and honor, we give weight to. That's what honoring is. We're giving weight to what Jesus did, how he laid his life down for us.
We remember that. It's the *spirit* of what of prophecy, what he wants to do in our life and through our life. We worship just another little bunny trail for a second to kinda help bring this out and tease it out. We worship God in spirit and in truth. You've heard me say it before.
Man, I can give my life for truth and speak truth and live truth, but do it in the wrong spirit, say the right things and do the right things, but push people away from God. Amen? I can say the right things and do the right things, but but never draw them into a relationship with God because I wasn't doing it in the way my father wanted to say it, in the way my father wanted to do it. I was doing it the way that I wanted to say it, the way I wanted to do it even though I was saying the right things. Makes sense?
I can say the right thing to my wife in the wrong way, and it'll offend her. But I can say the right thing to my wife in the right way, and it will help her. Still may offend, but it will help and encourage and move forward. Amen? Okay.
So we worship in spirit and truth. We we grow to know the truth of God, and then God disciplines us to live out that truth in the way that he would live it if he were walking in us because he is the Holy Spirit. Make sense? You guys you guys with me? Yes.
Okay. So then the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. What we see Jesus has done shows us what he wants to do in our life and the way that he wants to do it in our life. But not only that, when he does something, the kingdom always multiplies every time. So when I look back to what Jesus has done and I remember it, God reveals it to me or something like that in my spirit or in the word or whatever, it's a seed that I can receive by faith knowing that he wants to produce that same singular fruit in my life, but he also kingdom always multiplies.
He wants to multiply it in my life, so my life is producing that same singular and multiple fruit. From that seed grows a tree that produces multiple fruit and impacts the world around me. That's why Jesus said, you will do the same things I do and even greater. He was living a life that was supposed to be multiplied in us and through us to the world around us by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see it?
The *testimony of Jesus* is the spirit of *prophecy*. Okay. So I want to spend a little bit of time just going through the testimony of what God has done in real church in 2023 because I want you to spend this week reflecting on your life, on what God has done in you in 2023. Write out a couple of paragraphs or more, however much you're willing to to remember all of the things that He brought you through. Be thankful for them, to honor the testimony, and know that if Jesus did that in you, then that's a seed of what He wants to do even greater and multiply in 2024.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. But then, call your friend. Say, hey, what did God do in you? Well, what did you see him how did you see him work in you in 2023? And listen and hear what God did in them.
Because if he did it in them, then he'll do it in you, and let that build faith for what he wants to do in you in 2024, and let the seed of the testimony of what they're saying bear fruit in your life because you honored it, you listened to it, and you prayed into it, and allowed it to take root in your heart. Amen? Amen. Okay. Do you mind if I give you 1 more thing?
Sure. Come on. That's right. *Testimony*, martyria, death to self, doing what we don't wanna do, what our flesh doesn't wanna do in order to be obedient to God. Science is catching up with the scripture.
So cool. There's an area in the brain called the anterior mid cingulate cortex. We'll just say an area of the brain. The interior mid cingulate cortex. You have 2 of them, 1 on the left side and 1 on the right.
This area of the brain, for those nerdy people like me, it grows when you do choose to do what you don't wanna do. And it shrinks if you never choose to do what you don't wanna do. So for athletes that continually create new disciplines and get up at 4AM when they don't wanna do it and all this kind of stuff, the anterior mid cingulate cortex is growing larger and larger. For those that maybe you you go on a diet and you're choosing not to eat that food when you really wanna eat it, your anterior mid cingulate cortex is growing larger and larger. Those of you that are creating a new habit or it's especially large in those that see themselves as challenged, and they do what it takes to overcome the challenge.
The mid cingulate the anterior mid cingulate cortex is growing larger and larger. Now, if you quit challenging yourself to do and and never again do what you don't wanna do, it will shrink back down to size. And those that live long lives, like very long lives, the anterior mid cingulate cortex is very large. And these are new studies, but lots of studies. They're saying that this area of the brain is the seat of willpower and the seat of your will to live.
Isn't that interesting? And the Bible says we're supposed to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, follow Jesus, and be obedient to him. So as we are obedient to our creator, our will to live is growing. We're experiencing and enjoying more life as we're saying no to the flesh and yes to him. Man, that's so cool to me.
Anyway, it's like if we just follow the Bible, we'll be healthy. Healthier than we're not don't fight me on that theologically. Anyway, I still get a cold sometimes. Okay? Alright.
So what I'm about to read to you is the testimony of what we did collectively as a church. If if real church is your church home, you played a part in this. Like, when we operate in unity in the body of Christ, we operate together and accomplish things together. It's like the hand. When everything's healthy in the hand, man, it's strong.
If there's something broken and operating in disunity from the hand, it's weak. So as we, as a body of Christ, are unified, operating in the same direction, there's a synergistic effect that causes us to be more effective for His kingdom in the world. And the testimony of what Jesus is doing grows stronger and stronger and stronger when we see more and more righteous acts that we're clothed with as his body, and we reflect the righteousness and character of Jesus to Pinellas County and to the world more effectively than before, aka we need you guys. We won't be as effective impacting Pinellas County without your full involvement. Amen?
Amen. Here's the testimony or some of the testimony. This is not a a, exhaustive list, but some of the testimony of what God did in 2023 through Real Church. We we got all of our leadership together in December, our elders, our deacons, and our staff. And I just had them list out what they remember God doing, and I took notes.
Hey, we appointed 3 new deacons. Praise the Lord. We appointed a new elder, which is awesome. We hired Deasia as our established pastor, which is a big deal. Our ability to hire people to serve in different capacities is based on your tithes and offerings.
Our ability to do everything is based on your willingness to serve and give and be in line and carry the mission forward. And so because of that, we're able to do these things. And Deja is amazing because she carries multiple things and empowers multiple people. We've put many new leaders in the different places on the teams, which is awesome. Bart started running the wrecking I mean, there's many different people.
So we we married 2 couples in services. So just to those of you that are like, what? These 2 couples heard the word of the Lord at a Sunday prior, *repented* of living together in immorality, and the fruit of repentance was being married. And so they chose to be married either in the dream team service or at church. I didn't force it.
They did. And it was an example of repentance and righteousness and holiness. I mean, how cool is that? Amen. God's good.
Okay. We appointed a new overseer. So, if you don't know what overseers, elders, and deacons are at Real Church, you need to come to Establish. Establish is tonight. You can sign up for that.
If you're interested in being a member or or Real Church being your home church, you want to come to Establish. It's at 05:00, and you can sign up on our website. Just click the little hamburger link in the right. Click get involved and sign up for Establish. You have to do it before 1PM today in order to come to Establish because we have food and child care and all of that.
But this is if this is your home church, this is your next step to becoming connected is going to Establish. You get to see the ins and outs of who we are and and really make a informed decision, seeing the the vision and direction God has given us. Amen? Alright. So we had a "making disciples event" in June or July that launched evangelism and discipleship and then that ministry called Belong in a real church.
Through that making disciples event, there were many people that came that had never shared the gospel before, and on that Saturday shared the gospel, and people gave their life to Jesus. So, they shared the gospel for the first time and led people to Jesus for the first time just because of that Make Disciples event. How cool is that? So, we started a ministry called Belong. It meets on Tuesdays where we gather, we pray, we go out and share the gospel, not in a forceful God hates you kind of way, but in a loving people and serving people and praying for them and and God supernaturally impacts them.
We've seen since we started that ministry in July, over a 100 people get born again. And we've had some of them. It's it's it's really it's really hard once when they give their life to Jesus, God impacts them. You know, Just being honest, it's hard to connect them to discipleship, and we try and we're growing at that. So please pray.
Pray for that. But we've had multiple people be discipled and be connected. You guys know our drummer, Aiden, which wasn't did play today, but man, you know, he gave his life to Jesus at the Make Disciples event. And he's disciple. Now he's connected and playing the drums and God's moving in his life.
Just an amazing thing. So we're gonna continue Belong. Belong is this Tuesday night. We're starting to back up this Tuesday night. We took 2 weeks off.
So if you wanna come to Belong, you wanna learn how to share the gospel, that makes you uncomfortable right now. Hey. Let's grow that anterior mid cingulate cortex. Do what you don't want to do. Right?
And and I promise you'll see supernatural results on the other So you can sign up for Belong on our website, and Belong is Tuesday night at 6 06:30. It'll be amazing. Okay. We started a prayer team, so praise the Lord, we we put a major emphasis on prayer, and as a result of that prayer, God started moving in amazing ways in in May. Our elders and leaders decided in February we needed to really call the church to prayer.
We did a prayer series in March. This is all testimonies of what Jesus has done. The church began to pray intentionally. Prayer precedes movement. In May, We started to see "words of knowledge", miracles, and healing, break out in our church multiple Sundays, and people have been being healed consistently in our church ever since, which is pretty awesome.
As a matter of fact, let's just do this. If God has healed a physical ailment in your body this past year, would you raise your hand? Look around. How cool is that? *Jesus* heals.
It's awesome. Let that testimony build faith in you. We'll pray for the sick at the end of the service today. Okay? So if you if you have if you see Jesus did that, that's amazing.
If he did it in them, it's a spirit of prophecy. He wants to do the same and greater in you and through you. Amen? Amen. Alright.
So but we also have a prayer team now. So at 09:30, the prayer team meets in the other side of the cafeteria. This is a cafeteria. The other side of the cafeteria to pray for the service and stuff. You're invited.
So we started a prayer ministry. We also started a prophetic team. K? We had Diane and Todd Harrison, which equips churches and "healthy prophetic ministry" come, and we had a prophetic conference. And Gabriel Mullins, where are you, Gabe?
Would you stand up? He's full of Jesus. Look at that guy. He started a prophetic team and trained and equipped about 20. About 16 made it through and, are on the prophetic team, and we're looking to incorporate them into normal ministry at the church in a healthy way, as well as growing the team in 20 24.
We had a prophetic *worship* night, which was amazing. How many of guys came? Was that good for you guys? It wasn't awesome. Had about 80 or 90 come and 90, I think it was.
And, man, that was so powerful as our church is growing in that. Those of you that are kinda freaked out at me saying the word prophetic, guys, 1 Corinthians-14 says, eagerly desire the gifts of the spirit, especially prophecy. Okay. So I'm almost done. We began began a youth ministry.
So we have a a junior high youth ministry that meets right now on Sundays, every other Sunday. We're looking to grow that. This is just the bones. This is this is the structure. I'm very thankful to Keith and Mallory for for pioneering it.
They're pioneers for our church, and what they they pioneer grows and matures and becomes and becomes grows from infancy to healthy. And so I'm very thankful for that. I'm excited for the future youth ministry that will come from that as well. There Mel Mallory is also ministering and helping to start a group and disciple students in Oak Grove Middle School every week. How cool is that?
Amen? We hired new staff, so Katie, Alex, Ashley, and so we have a new kids director and stuff, which is awesome. New team leaders appointed, already said that. I I became a doctor this this year. Praise the Lord.
That was a 7 year process because I planted a church in the middle of the studies, and so very thankful for for God doing that. Our church grew from about a 150 to 200 on Sundays. And, that growth consists of many strong families, I'm very thankful for that. Women at the Well, our women's ministry was established and stronger than ever. If you haven't been a part of our women's ministry, ladies, you need to become a part.
They meet about once a month, it's so strong. They did a retreat. It was wonderful. Our worship, worship team has had a focus of of purity and simplicity. And, man, it's really impacted our congregation.
Amen? Yeah. Strongholds and chains, broken in families, in general. I won't be specific there, but man, God has done amazing things. On on the healing thing, just a simple 10 second story.
I mean, here's an example. 1 guy, Fred, was diagnosed with epilepsies, like seizures. His brain had showed that he had like 20 something seizures. We prayed for him. Specifically, I think it was Gabe Gabe Rogers and Mike Gabbard laid hands on him and prayed for him.
He went back to the doctor the next day. They rechecked his brain, and it showed as if his brain had never had seizures before. The doctor didn't believe it. Checked it again. No seizures.
That's 1 example. Jesus is our healer. Okay. We ordained 3 people. That's cool.
Praise the Lord. It's kind of a big deal. Lots of baptisms. I don't have the number on that. Words of knowledge and miracles and healings, we talked about that, which is pretty amazing.
So God's God's done a lot in 2023. I I challenge you this week to spend time reflecting on what he's done in your life and what you've seen him do in the church. In missions, continued salvations in Pakistan. We we pioneered a ministry in Pakistan 3 years ago. At the beginning of the year, there was about, I'd say, 20,000 believers in Pakistan from 1 3 years ago.
We went in March, preached the gospel to 47,000 people. And 21,000 gave their life to Jesus. Over 18,000 documented healings and and deliverances, which was amazing. I know that's crazy numbers, but as of as we speak right now, there's at least 54,975 new believers in unreached people groups being discipled by over 1,100 leaders that have you, church, have helped pioneer in Pakistan. We had our first group mission trip.
So me and Jerry went as like an insurgency, I guess, into Pakistan. We had our first group church mission trip to Uganda, and God did amazing things. Many people changed on our trip and also in Uganda. So much on that trip. And you guys got to meet my African dad, doctor John when he came.
It's not an exhaustive list, but it's a seed of what's to come. Yeah. The best is yet to come, church. Yeah. We're a 5 year old 5 and a half year old little baby church, and we're just getting started.
And he did all of that. Guys, the best is yet to come. Yeah. Next next couple weeks, we'll talk about what's happening in 2024, but I want you to prepare your heart. I want you to prepare your heart by remembering the testimony of what God did in 2023, writing it out.
Okay? Being thankful, being intentional in that, saying it out loud, telling people about it, asking them about their test. What'd God do in your life? Learning from it, asking the Lord to do the similar stuff in your life, k, as you prepare for this. And then pray about *fasting* and what it looks like to fast.
We'll we'll probably start a fast here in about 2 weeks. But I just want you to pray about, hey, God, would you like me to fast? What is what does that look like to fast? The Bible commands us to fast. It says when you fast.
So I'll I'll I'll share a little bit more about that next week. But just as you remember the testimony, we wanna prepare ourselves to be able to to look forward to 2024. In