You are invited to respond to God's overwhelming love by opening your heart in prayer today. Whether you are seeking healing, forgiveness, or simply a deeper connection, take a physical step toward the altar to consecrate yourself to Him. Remember that every act of worship, from prayer to giving, is your way of saying I love you too back to the Father.
Happy New Year, Real Church. Pastor David John Phillips here, excited about our new series titled I Love You. The premise for the series is this, **God forever demonstrated** his love for us in sending his son so that we could live through him. We never have an excuse to doubt his love again. The question is, how do we say "I love you too"?
In part 1, specifically, how do we say I love you too, God, in prayer? God bless you and enjoy. Good morning. My name is David John Phillips, and I have the honor of being the pastor here. You guys look good today.
Yeah? You feeling great? Feeling spunky in in 2021? Ready to go? Yeah.
"New year? New you?" No. I'm it's an honor to be your pastor and just super thankful for all that that God has done, all that God's brought us through in 2020, which, man, for some of us, it was it was really tough, but yet we're here. We're standing here and and super thankful.
So, God bless you guys. And, if this is your first time or, you know, you're you're new to Real Church, we pray that you walk away encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. You're welcome here. And and, yeah, as she said, we pray you felt the love of Jesus from the time you walked in. And also, you know what?
I'm super thankful for all of our dream team. That's the the greeters, that's the the people in here that or or production, the band, the kids team. Would you guys just give the dream team a big old hand? We love you guys. Couldn't do this without you.
Sound, everybody. Thank you guys so much for for what you do. Okay. So, we are starting a new series titled, I love you. If you would like, if you feel so inclined, if you would pull out your phone and you can share it on Facebook.
We have the live feed going right now. Hello, everybody online. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in, whether you're tuning in on Facebook or on YouTube. Also, we have I have all of the notes for you online if you'd like to to find that.
You can find it on the Facebook, or you can go to realchurch.us, which is our website, and scroll down, you'll see message notes. If you click on it, it's like magic. It'll open up right there on your on your phone, and you'll see all the notes, all the scriptures going through right there on the Bible app, which will be amazing. So, you're invited to do that as well. New series.
Once again, the title being I love you. The premise for this is this, 1 John-4:9. That's John-4:9. But, we're talking about first John. So, if we can pull that down, I'll read it.
Sorry about the little technical difficulties. I should've went through the notes, which is my bad. Alright. *1 John-4:9* says this, this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his 1 and only son into the world that we might live through him.
So, God's already said, I love you. God's already demonstrated once and for all that he loves you. He sent his son in the ultimate demonstration to die for you. So, you never have to doubt, you never have to question, no matter what you're going through, whether or not God loves you. He's already declared it.
You might say, but wait a second. You don't know what I've been through. You're right. I don't know what you've been through, and I don't have to know what you've been through. I already know that the father sent his son.
I'm sorry. That threw me off. A phone in here said, listen to me. I'm like, no. Listen to me.
Recovering now. No. The father's already already declared his love for you in sending his son. So, no matter what you've been through, right, Jesus paid the price so that you can be born again, be made new, and move forward in his love for you. But pastor, you don't know what I'm going through.
No. I don't know what you're going through, and I don't have to know what you're going through Because Jesus has already died for you. The father sent his son to die in your place so that you could experience the life of Jesus right now in the midst of what you're going through, and he can hold your hand and empower you to make it through what you're going through, and experience and know the love of Jesus despite what you're going through. But, pastor, you don't know what I've done. You're right.
And, I don't have to know what you're done you've done. Because Jesus already knew what you would do 2000 years ago and still died in your place to pay the price for what you've done so that you could be made new. He could credit to you his righteousness and his goodness, wash you as white as snow, wash you clean, pure, and holy in in God's sight so that you could move forward, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and live a righteous life. I mean, that's awesome. God has already, once and for all, declared his love for you, and he still goes over and above showing his grace and mercy.
So then, if you doubt God's love for you, it's basically just your unbelief or ignorance. Ignorance is not knowing, or it's just unbelief, not believing that he really loves you that much. Believe. And, anytime doubt comes up in your mind, repent of unbelief and say, God, help my unbelief. I I know you've already demonstrated I can rest in your love for me.
Amen? So God's already declared, I love you. 1 John-4:19, probably has John-4:19, I would guess. So if it's John-4:19, don't pull it up. But 1 John-4:19 says, we love because he first loved us.
So, therefore, our capacity, our ability to love is dependent on our understanding and seeing his love for us. Right? So then the question in this whole series is, God has said, I love you. He's already declared it. What does I love you too look like for us saying it to God?
Amen? And that's the series for the next 9 weeks. What does I love you too look like? Specifically today, what does I love you too look like with regards to prayer? Amen?
So, the question would be then, what is *prayer*? A lot of people would say, if you just ask random people throughout America or throughout the world, Judging their practice of prayer, a lot of people would say prayer is throwing your wishes, throwing your wants, throwing your desires heavenward, hoping it gets past the expanse of the ceiling and makes it all the way up to God, and hopefully, it hits his ears, and he hears it, and has time, or it's weighty enough in order to respond positively towards what we said. Wouldn't wouldn't you say that's about what most random people would say prayer is? If you look at the Gallup poll, it says that 91% of American women pray. For America, 91% of women pray, and 85% of men pray, which shows that men are more prideful than women.
You're welcome, ladies. Now, in all seriousness, that's that's hundreds of millions of people. What are they? 350,000,000 people in America? Something like that?
So that's, you know, what, 300,000,000 or more people praying in America? That's a that's a big deal. But only fifth the same poll shows that only 15% of people who pray consistently see results, see the answers to their specific prayers. Only 15%, which would mean there's a whole lot of praying going on, but very little know how, very little effective prayer happening. So, we need to figure out how do we pray effectively.
How do we respond to God saying, I love you too in prayer? In order to understand or in order to know how to effectively pray, we must or we probably need to know, like, a tight grasp on what prayer is. Would you agree? Alright. So, let's let's let's define it.
Let's talk about prayer. And once again, would you mind if I "geek out" a little bit? Sometimes I like to just geek out on Scripture. Do you mind if I geek out defining prayer to you? Okay.
*Prayer*, when it's written in Scripture, Scripture is written in Greek. So the the Greek word for prayer is So, you split that into 2 different words. It's and meaning towards, and meaning to will or to wish. So, if we just put that together, you would think it means to will or to wish towards, what most people say prayer is. I'm just throwing my wants and desires heavenward.
Right? However, geeking out a little bit, there's that my at the end, proscuneo my. Prayer is written in the middle voice. And, with respect to prayer, that means that someone is not just actively throwing prayers heavenward, there's actually the person is participating in the results of the prayer. It is not the sole 1 responsible.
Right? Prayer is *partnership* with God. It's more than just talking, but it's hearing His will and praying for His will to happen here on the earth. Cool. But, most people view prayer as a path to getting some kind of, like, selfish gain.
It's this, you know, this miracle formula. You know, I wish I had, I pray I had, you know, I hope that this happens in my life in 2021. I hope that this happens. I hope that this happens. Or, it's kind of a last ditch effort effort to save yourself.
Right? Car crash. Oh, God. Help me. Almost everybody prays in that instant.
Yeah? Oh, yeah. For for those, right, the motive is is self, which is why the percentage of people that see regular *prayers* answered is only 15%. *James-4:3* says, when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. *Selfish* prayers are not answered.
Only 15% of people get what they pray because only that many people know how to pray unselfish prayers. Fair enough? So, remember the series is titled, I love you. The question is, how do we respond to God, to his love for us by saying, I love you too, in prayer? People do not realize the purpose of prayer is love.
Would you guys say that with me? Say, the purpose of prayer The purpose of prayer. Is love. Is love. I just have you repeat it.
1, because it helps things stick. So, hopefully, you guys will remember that. Number 2, I know you're awake. You're listening. It's a good thing.
So prayer is communication with God. For communication to exist, there's more than just speaking. Right? There's there's there's speaking. There's 2 things that include, you know, in communication.
Actually, there's more than 2 things. There's a bunch of different types of communication. But for the purpose of the the sermon or the message, there's speaking and there's listening. Right? We got 2 ears and 1 mouth, so we're supposed to listen twice as much as we speak.
God created it that way. Make sense? So, is talking to God and listening to him. There is the partner as *partnership* aspect. We do this out of a loving relationship with him.
And, it takes patience to listen. Doesn't it? You're right on a in a heated conversation with your wife? It takes patience to shut your mouth and actually listen. Yes.
I know it does. Which means it takes love because the Bible says love is patient. So, if we're not willing to patiently listen, that means we love communicating what we want and what we desire, but we don't wanna hear what the other 1 wants and what the other 1 desires, which isn't love. Did I hit a little bit? Yeah.
Hit me when I wrote it. Effective prayer takes learning to listen to the God of the universe, learning to hear his voice, and learning to move forward in response to what he says. So, part of I love you too is effective prayer. And, if prayer is twice as much listening as it is speaking, then maybe I should show you that it is possible to hear God. But, not only is it possible, he wants to speak to you clearly and consistently.
Remember, Jesus said, "my sheep know my voice". Right? My sheep know my voice, which means if you've been born again, then the Bible says in Ephesians that the Holy Spirit has sealed you. Right? He's marked you, welling up to eternal life.
It's Eternal life means knowing God. So, you have the capacity to hear his voice. You have the capacity to know him. But, when you're born again, you're like a little baby infant spiritually. An infant, they can hear their father's voice, but they can't really discern what their father is saying.
They're captivated by their father's voice many times. You ever heard, you know, or seen an infant around their father when he's speaking and he stops and listens? Some sometimes, maybe sometimes he just cries more loudly. But, an infant knows their father's voice, but yet doesn't have the maturity yet to distinguish between the syllables or to distinguish exactly what he's saying or even to put into practice what he's saying. The infant needs to be around the father for a good amount of time in order to grow and to mature and to understand and listen and learn what he's saying, how he's saying it, and how to put it into practice.
Amen? Good. Same with us. We need to spend time with the Father. So, what does it look like hearing the voice of God?
It's it's spelled out in Scripture, and I'm thankful for it, so we're just gonna read it. *1 Corinthians-2*. I love this. Verse 9 says, however, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, The things God has prepared for those who love him. These are the things God has revealed to us by his spirit.
So he wants to speak to you by His Spirit, by the Holy Spirit inside of you, hearing His voice. And what does He wanna share with you? He wants to share what no eye has seen. He wants to share what no ear has heard. He wants to share what no human mind has conceived.
I've heard sermons before talking about how we can't hear the voice. We we can't know. It's what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard. You know, and they're making it sound as if you just can't understand. No.
The Bible says, no, these are the things that have that God has revealed to us by His Spirit. He wants to show you these things freely, and it's awesome. Let's keep reading. The Spirit, talking about the Holy Spirit, searches all things, even the "deep things of God". For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them?
In the same way, no 1 knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit knows the very thoughts of God. And then it says, the very next verse, what we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. So that we may understand what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no mind has conceived. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit wants to communicate to you God's thoughts. That's awesome. That's clear. Right? The heavenly Father thinks amazing thoughts.
The Holy Spirit communicates what he thinks to us. And then, what do we do? We speak. Verse 13. This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the spirit explaining spiritualities, realities with spirit taught words.
If I'm speaking to you stuff that originated in my mind, you might walk away and say, hey, that was a decent speaker. He was alright. You know, I gotta feel good. You know, I felt good, you know, after I walked away or whatever. But, if it's if I'm speaking to you words that originated in God's mind, and they're they're from God himself speaking by the Holy Spirit through me as a vessel, then they have the the capacity, the the power to impact your life for *eternity* if you would hear them and understand what they are and put it into practice in your life.
Amen? But, this isn't just for the preacher. Like, it's not just for the the super holy people. No. It's for everyone who has been born again.
Everyone who has the capacity to hear the Father's voice. God wants you to understand him clearly, and not just understand him, not just personally know him, but to speak what he tells you. To speak to others around you and to be a a vessel of of use for him so that others hear and see his goodness through you in your daily life. It's so much more than a come and hear the pastor what the pastor heard from from from God religion. No, this is a relationship where I'm trying to spark in you the same kind of relationship that I have and maybe even greater so that you can walk with him day in and day out, hear his voice, and God share with you some amazing things.
So, when you share your testimony, I go, wow, and I learn from God too. Amen? That's Christianity. The person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the spirit. Maybe some of you are thinking what I'm saying is foolishness.
If that's the case, you need to be born again. God loves you. God cares for you, and he wants to redeem you so that you can walk forward in him. He doesn't condemn you. He says, I sent my son to die for you so that you can receive my life and walk in me and know me.
Some of you, what I'm saying doesn't really make sense to you, but you know it's from God. You you hear it and you're like, I I I I wanna know more about this. It's like an infant or like a baby hearing their father, but not completely understanding, but knowing that what their father is saying is important and want to hearing wants to hear more. Continue spending time with your heavenly father. Continue getting in his word.
Continue being around others that are getting in his word, that have his presence. Continue going to church. When you're at home, turn on some worship music. Spend time in his presence because the more you hear his voice, the more you'll be able to understand it. And the more you'll be able to walk in it and apply it to your life.
Amen? Yeah. The person with the spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments. You know, when when when God told me and my wife to come here and plant the church, there's a lot of people that thought we were crazy. Right?
But, I had to follow what the Holy Spirit said. And, if you follow what God said and originates with him, you're gonna bear fruit that lasts. Right? And many of you are some of the fruit of that decision, that *obedience* to what God said, which is awesome, which meant we heard God. But in your life, when you follow the Holy Spirit's leading and it's Him, it originates with Him, you're going to bear fruit that lasts too, and it's gonna look like transformed lives through you.
And, it's gonna be awesome. Amen? Amen. And then, as I'm just on this passage, we'll we'll end on this passage and keep moving. But, it says, for who, verse 16, for who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?
So many people just stop there. Who could know the mind of the Lord? But, the very next passage says, but we or the very next phrase, but we have the "mind of Christ". You can know the mind of the Lord because you have the Spirit of Christ in you, and the heavenly Father communicates His will to Jesus who shows his will to us by his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ within you, which is awesome. Amen?
Amen. Come on. That's good stuff. It's fun. I love communicating.
How does this happen? How do you grow in this? How do you grow in your ability to understand this? *Romans-12:2*. Man, I I feel like I've quoted this verse probably once a message for the last 6 months.
*Romans-12:2*, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So, I'm getting my mind out of the world's way of thinking, and I'm being transformed by the renewing of my mind. How is my mind renewed by washing of the "water of the word"? Right? So, I'm I'm continually changing the inputs, what's in my eyes, what's going in my ears, what's going in changing the inputs and some some people say, well, that's brainwashing.
Absolutely. Man, I want my mind washed by the water of his word and not brainwashed by the world's way of thinking. I want to be washed pure and clean by his word so that I can clearly understand and hear my father's voice in everything and test and approve what's from him and what's from me. *Hebrews-4:12*. I don't have this on the computer, don't think.
*Hebrews-4:12* says that his word is sharper than a 2 edged sword, dividing and cutting between soul and spirit. It's very applicable to what we're talking about here. Right? Because we wanna follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. And his word divides what soul and what spirit.
What soul is from your mind, your will, and your emotions. Right? And, we want to understand, sometimes we get all excited and giddy about what God's doing, and we want to go do something for God, and it it comes from our emotions, or it comes from what we want to do, or what we cook up. But, his word, when we understand his word, and the character and the principle of who he is, we're able to test and say, wait a second, that was my soul. That was my mind, will, and emotions.
His Spirit says, wait, or His Spirit says, do this. And so, we're able to submit what we think, what we feel, and what we want to what He thinks, what He feels, and what He wants, and that is the Christian life. Living a life of humble submission as we learn to hear His voice and separate ourselves from him and submit ourselves to his will. Amen? Praise the Lord.
Okay. So, if you take the plunge, if you dedicate your life to knowing God more, to communicating with him, to hearing him, what will happen? Like, people are left with the question, does God consistently communicate to us if we do that? You know, does does he want to? I got good news, and it's straight from scripture.
If it wasn't, don't believe me. *Amos-3:7*. I love the fact that the Holy Spirit put the word sovereign in this verse. Because the **sovereign Lord** sovereign means all powerful, all know you know, he's like all powerful, all knowing, everywhere he can do what he wants. So, because he can do what he wants, he does this.
He chooses to do this out of great love for his people. He says, surely, the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants, the prophets. Out of his love for his creation, for his people, he does nothing without telling us first. Who's a prophet? A prophet is someone who waits to listen, hear what God wants to do, and then speaks what God wants to do.
Right? Now, that what a prophet is? Waits to hear what God wants to do. When God speaks he to him, he speaks out what God wants to do. That's a prophet.
God doesn't do anything until he finds someone willing to wait and listen to what he has to do, which is love. Right? Love is patient. But, not only that, love him enough to speak his will over the his own will. Makes sense?
Yeah. That's awesome. Does nothing. Well, pastor, this is Old Testament, and these are those Old Testament prophets. Well, let's look at the New Testament.
Let's look at what Jesus says. *John-15*, starting verse 9. In his sovereign power, he chooses to partner with mankind in that kind of a way. What a loving God. As the father verse 15 verse 9.
As the father has loved me, so I love you. Now, remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. So, love for God looks like obedience to his will. Love for God looks like I'm laying down what I want in order to do what you want.
Somebody may be thinking, well, wait a second. And, I've heard this kind of thought process before. Alright. I gotta I gotta settle down. I gotta, you know, get back to church, go be a Christian again, so I'm gonna live a boring life now.
All my *joy* is gone. Just gonna go, you know, sit on a church pew and live this boring life, you know. But but, it's it's what's better for me. It's the good thing. It's the good life.
I I don't mean to offend you by saying this, but but that's ignorance. Ignorance means not knowing. Okay? I'm not I'm not calling you dumb if that's you. Ignorance means not knowing.
That's a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding. And if you don't mind, I would like to show you the better way. The understanding is is this. See, if God is really good and he's really the creator of all things, and he really created you, and he really is love, then he he he created you as he said. He created you for a purpose.
And, the only way that you're gonna fulfill that purpose is by listening to what he wants you to do, by following his plan for your life. And, satisfaction and *fulfillment* comes when someone is walking in their purpose. Right? So, true joy comes then when we quit trying to do what we want to do because we can never walk out our purpose apart from the Creator who created us for His purpose. And, we start being obedient and trusting what He says to do, and then all of a sudden, our joy is complete.
Now, I'm not just making this up. Look at the very next next verse. I have told you this, so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. Thank you. Yes.
Amen. You want to keep going around circles in life and be like, oh, me and and wanting to kill yourself and do all this and that and the other? Depression and blah blah. Keep following your own will. You wanna be fulfilled and satisfied in life?
Yeah. There's gonna be some suffering and some tough tough tough stuff as God's developing his character in you. Absolutely. It's part of it. But, man, you're gonna be walking out your purpose, and your joy is gonna be complete.
That's what you're created to do. It's how you're created to live. It's awesome. Alright. You're my friends.
Oh, wait. Verse 12. My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no 1 than this than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants. So, right here is kind of he's almost prophesying a little bit about he's gonna lay his life down for us. I I I don't call you I I call you a friend. Right? And greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for a friend.
Jesus is gonna lay down his life for us. That's pretty amazing. But it goes on to say, he no longer calls you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends. For everything that I learned from my father, I made known to you.
Wait. God does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants, the prophets. But yet, he's elevating us from servitude to a friend because we know his plans. You guys see the connection there? That's pretty awesome.
What do we do with that kind of responsibility? What is our responsibility with God not doing something until he reveals his plans to now his friends? You see the connection? So, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, **fruit that will last**. Our responsibility is bearing fruit that will last.
Fruit that comes from self is burned up and doesn't last. Might taste good in a moment, but eventually, it will rot and will cause death because anything from self is sin. But if it originates with him, it's fruit that will last. So he shares his will with us so that we can produce fruit that will last through our life and have complete joy in him. How what's our responsibility in that?
The very next thing, he says, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. This is my command, love 1 another. He's talking about prayer there. He shares his will with us so that we can speak it out, so that his will comes to pass on the earth, partnering with us out of love. Part of that is through prayer.
Pretty cool, So, this is effective prayer. This is proscuneomai. *Partnership* with God, hearing his will as a friend of God, and then speaking his will in prayer over our will. Because when his will is asked for, it always comes to pass. And, what is love?
*Love is listening* to someone else's will, laying down what you want to do what they want. How do we say, I love you too, to God? Part of it is in prayer, is listening to his will and praying his will. By doing this, we're loving him, and we're loving others because his will originates in love because God is love, and our joy will be complete. We have to get over our selfishness so that we can live the "abundant life" he's called us to live, and it comes from laying down our will.
Alright. *Obedience* to God's will over our own will, obedience to what God wants over what we want is part of having a loving relationship with God. Right? And, for love to exist between 2 persons, there must be a willingness to choose what the other wants over what you want. And, prayer, once again, is proscumnaumi.
Most people want pray their own wants, their own wishes, their own desires with no concern for God or for others. But to pray and you have to understand this. To pray another person's desire, what another person wants, is a demonstration of love. To listen and to pray God's desire is showing love for God over love for self. And, God, once again, always Everybody say always.
Always. Always responds to this type of prayer. God always answers prayers that communicate what He wants to happen. Always. Some people some people, you know, like, woah, woah, hold on.
Always? Always. Yes. And, we can know and rest in this that what he wants to happen is always best because he's good. He created each and every 1 of us, and praying that way takes trust.
And, it's the only way to guarantee that your prayer will be answered. Now, let me prove it to you. Don't just take my word for it. There's a there's a verse for that. First John, if you've been to real church any amount of time, you have heard me quote this verse.
Hear it again, I have no problem in reminding you. If you haven't been here, listen, this is cool. 1 John-5:14 and 15. Ah, there it is. This is the confidence we have in approaching God.
You can have confidence when you're approaching God according to His will, not your own. This is the confidence, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. You're wondering if God hears you? If you're praying selfish prayers, maybe He don't. But, you're praying according to His will, He always does.
And, here's the confidence we have. If we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him. You want your prayers answered? Pray His will a 100% of the time and a 100% of the time your prayers will be answered. How do you know what His will is?
Learn to hear His voice. How do you learn to hear His voice? Don't just spend time with Him at church. Spend time with Him at home by yourself, the secret place, getting in His Word. Turn on some worship music by yourself, feeling like you're an idiot because it's the first time you ever done it and raising your hands and singing out loud when nobody's watching.
Knowing that your heavenly Father is watching and says, you love me. Yeah. I dare you to try it. Christianity is not about other people seeing you. It's about your relationship with the Father.
That's *love*. This is just an overflow of that. This will get really good when all of you are doing that. Ben, you can come on up. It's a demonstration of the love of God.
Oh, gosh. It's 11:08. I'm sorry. It's a demonstration of the love of God to say, heavenly father, what do you want to do? Then listen and hear what he wants to do.
And then, even if it goes against what you want, "not my will" be done, "but yours be done", God. And praying that. Think about your enemies. God, what do you wanna do in their lives? God says, bless them.
Woah. Alright. Lord Jesus, well, bless not not that kinda like, you know, passive aggressive prayer either, but like, really? Lord bless them, Forgive them? Well, what do you wanna do in my in my home?
You wanna move across the country and plant a church? Not my will, but yours be done. And, next thing you know, I'm walking in my purpose, and there's more joy here than ever before. What do you want to do, God? Oh, you want me to do this?
Not my will. Jesus, ultimate example of that, Garden Of Gethsemane. Jesus, fully God. Please don't ever question me on on whether or not I believe Jesus was fully God. Absolutely.
But, he was also fully man. Yeah. Yeah? Wrapped in flesh, as we talked about the Christmas message. Wrapped in flesh, the human experience.
Right? Did not account equality with God something to be grasped, but rather made himself nothing. He lived life as a man filled with the Holy Spirit, fellas. And, in the Garden Of Gethsemane, his flesh doesn't wanna be crucified. You know how I know?
He said, Father, if there's any other way, would you let this cup pass from me? And then, said, out of love, not my will, but yours be done. And then, he did it. He laid his flesh down. He "laid himself down" for you.
That's amazing. And that's how he said, follow me. Do what I do. We lay ourselves down in prayer first, and then in our life in everything that we do. That's awesome.
Praise the Lord. We're about to worship, which is adoration, which is loving God. Some of you need to pray. And I would challenge you. Say, Father, what do you want me to do?
Maybe you don't know Jesus. Maybe it's I hear this and I realize I don't need I don't know you. I need to know you. I need to know your love. I realize that you love me and I've always doubted that.
Maybe you need to give your life to Jesus. If that's the case, mister Jerry, miss Heidi, would you guys go over there? And and Daniel and Wanda, would you guys go over there? And you'll probably see if if you're praying, somebody may come and pray for you. That's just because we love praying for people because prayer matters and it works and it's amazing.
If you need prayer, if you need a you need a relationship with Jesus, I encourage you to go talk with them during worship. We we like to move during worship. You don't have to just stand in your seat. As a matter of fact, we encourage it. You know how we do it?
We got these little things over here. *Communion* cups. There's something about taking a physical step to match what God is spiritually doing in you. Jesus instituted communion. It's communion.
I'm gonna take communion in front of you so that you can repeat and go do it by yourself personally with God or with your family. And just do it during worship. Right? So during the next we're gonna sing about 3 songs during the next 3 songs. As you feel that, go go take communion.
Saying, thank you Jesus that your body was broken for my healing. Lord, I take this in remembrance of you. Lord, so this back pain that I have, it's not of you. 2000 years ago, you paid the price for it. I just rebuke it and say, thank you, Jesus, that I'm healed.
And I I do this to remember that instead of focusing on the back pain. I'm focusing on what you've done, Jesus. And if you need healing, get 1 of them to pray for you too. It's humility to ask for prayer. It's pride to say, I don't need that.
Right? As you take the the the the juice, Lord Jesus, thank you that your blood was poured out for my forgiveness so that I can be clean. When I look down, I discern Jesus because I'm brand new in you, because of your blood that paid the price for me so I can walk pure. You cleanse me of a of a of a guilty conscience by your blood, and I'm remembering that so all my my conscience is clear, knowing that I'm in right standing with you. Thank you, Jesus.
You don't have to say all those words if that overwhelms you. Just say it in your own way, personal with God. If you don't know Jesus, ask them. If you don't know how to do it, ask them. Maybe some of you just need to repent, like which means turn, change.
Take a just like this, take a physical step. We call this the altar. It's basically an area of consecration, saying I'm consecrating myself in this area or this area. I just need to spend time and, you know, I just wanna take a step to what I heard today. This you can do that here or there or go pray for somebody or whatever you wanna do.
And then we also have giving boxes, which is an "act of worship". We do that during this time too. You know, my, my daughters started their first business yesterday. They they they they said, daddy, we wanna do lemonade. We're gonna do a lemonade stand.
Alright. So I take them, I get 1 gallon of Publix lemonade. Get some 20 Styrofoam cups, and we put a little table out by the road. And I I was gonna call a friend and maybe sell 1 thing of lemonade, you know. Well, you know, my little girl, 6 year old and 5 year old made a sign.
And on the sign, it said, lemonade, $1 crossed out 50¢. And they were standing at the road, you know, holding their sign, and they come 1 little gallon of lemonade, and I thought, you know, okay. They made $34.76. He was just driving by. Don't even give me lemonade.
Here's $10. And I'm like, these little girls. Well, I taught them. I said I said, babies. I said, look, it's your first time ever earning money.
Part of what we do is we tithe. We give the first 10% to God to show that everything that he's given us is we recognize it's his, and he calls that his. So so I taught him about tithing. Without even I didn't even tell him to do this. I just they so what's 10%?
$10? Okay. I said, no. $3.50 about. So next thing you know, they had their 2 little baggies.
They had the money, and then they had their tithes set aside. And first thing they woke up this morning, and Selah, first thing said, I get to give my money to God today. I get and then the first thing Eden said, I love going to church, daddy. Let's learn from them. You know?
It's it's an act of worship. It's part of saying I love you too. 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, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, 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 come.