You are called to rise above the darkness of guilt and circumstance to shine as the light of the world in your daily life. Stop letting shame keep you hidden and instead trust in the power of the Spirit living inside you to change your atmosphere. Let your life reflect Christ's glory so others can be drawn to Him.
What is up, Church? Thank you for tuning in to another Real Church podcast. This is David John Phillips. I get to be the pastor at Real Church, and I'm so thankful that you would take your time today to listen. Listen.
I'm excited about this message because the title is Rise and Shine. It's gonna be an encouragement and a really kick in the butt in the best of ways for you as a Christian to move forward in what Christ has called you to do. Also gonna give a a pretty cool update about what God is doing in and through Real Church in Pakistan. You don't wanna miss out. God bless.
Enjoy. *Isaiah-60:1* says, arise, shine, for your **light has come**. Everybody say has come. Has come. And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
You know, the context of this verse God led me to this verse. This was where He led me to shift the message to. And when I read it, you know, those of you that have grown up in the church, you know, maybe there's a couple eighties and nineties Christians, you know, you grew up in the church, so you'll know the song that I'm about to sing. But when I read it, I thought about this song, and if you don't, that's okay. But I thought about, rise and shine and give God the glory glory, rise and shine and give God the glory glory, rise and shine and Give God the glory, glory, children of the Lord.
If you don't know that song, that's okay. That's that's for those eighties and nineties Bible Belt Christians. But man, there's a message there. Rise and shine for your light has come. And and reading the context in Isaiah-59, if you read through Isaiah-59, man, this is just a bunch of darkness.
It talks about darkness and being separated from light, and and and people just focused on junk, and that's what a lot of people in the world are in right now. Separated from God because of their sin, and pridefully saying they're good enough, and rejecting going to Jesus. The problem is, if you live that way I mean, and you can choose to live that way, but if you live that way, in the end, you will get what you choose. You will either get to be judged by how good you were, which is never good enough, and so you'll be separated from God for eternity, or you'll be able to you'll be judged by how good Jesus was. Because his goodness credited to your account.
So, you either trust in what you did, or you trust in what Jesus did. And when you trust in what Jesus did, man, everything changes. You you the Bible says in Isaiah-59:20, the Redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who repent of their sins, declares the Lord. Who repent. That's saying, hey, I've been living for me, trying to be the best that I could, trying to do a bunch of good things, but I realize I'm not created to live for me, so I'm going to repent.
I'm going to turn to you Jesus, and and I'm going to ask you, hey, to to you to be my Lord, to to make me new, to make me clean. In that moment, he enters into your life, you're "born again", and he invites you into his covenant. Now, his covenant, when God makes a covenant, he doesn't break it. You know what that covenant is? It's gonna be encouragement for some people.
There are some people in here. You gave your life to Jesus 15 years ago, or 10 years ago, or 5 years, and you've been far from him for a while now, and you just happen to come here today to check this thing out, I got good news for you. God never broke his covenant towards you. Let me tell you what his covenant was. Verse 21, this is for those who have been born again.
As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. My Spirit, Isaiah-59:21, my Spirit who is on you will not depart from you. And my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children, on the lips of their descendants, from this time on and forever, declares the Lord. Now, that doesn't mean that you didn't believe a lie. You know, that's the power that satan has over you, by the way.
The only power he has is he's the deceiver, the father of lies. So, brings all of these deceptions at you in order to get you to believe them. And, when you believe them, then you're under the power of the lie instead of living under the truth.
Right? And, so you believe that you're a product of your bad choice that you just made, so you can't go
to the Father because of your guilty conscience and you fall back, and
now you're in guilt and shame and completing a circle, and instead of rising and shine shining. Satan wants you to believe a lie so that you don't shine anymore, so that the light that's inside of you never gets out and changes the world around you. But, the truth is God doesn't break his covenant to you and he's saying to you again, rise and shine for the light has come and the glory of the Lord is rises upon you. Why? There's a purpose.
Verse 2 of of I'll just read 61 again. Arise, shine, for the light has come. The glory of the Lord rises upon you. Verse 2. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but But the Lord rises upon you, and His glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. I think of it as as, you know you know those bug zappers? And bugs don't even know why. They're gonna die if they touch the light, but they just and they're dead. You're you you are the "light of the world".
Yeah. And there are people there might even be people in here who don't know Jesus, which is awesome. You are drawn to here like a bug drawn to *light* in order to be zapped by the light, and die to yourself and live for Christ.
You are the light of the world. You're created to shine. Rise and shine for the light has come. There's darkness over the earth. You're not supposed to be scared of the darkness.
You know what? You're not supposed to complain about your job being so hard because so the people are just so evil and and so I mean, they're just my boss is so bad and all Man, praise the Lord your that your job's dealing with darkness. That's awesome. Because you're a light, you're created to shine in the darkness. Go shine.
That's awesome. Change your perspective and you'll change the atmosphere of your job.
Oh, it's so hard in my home right now because of this. I bet it is. It is. But you're supposed to rejoice in the midst of that circumstance and shine. Because you know what?
The the the enemy wants you to think it's too hard for you to shine. But Jesus says, keep your eyes on me.
I can't wait to see you shine because I put my light inside of you. And, when you shine consistently, it's gonna change the atmosphere of your home.
Yes. Might take time, but it will come. Amen? Amen. So I'm gonna give you some stories of shining.
Because in Matthew-5:14, which I already read, it tells me, you're the light of the world, town built built on a hill that cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Man, if we got a bunch of lights in this church, man, think about how bright that is. That's awesome.
In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify God. I'm about to share with you some testimonies, quite a few testimonies actually. And I'm not sharing them with you as a pastor. I'm not. My role as a pastor is not to do ministry.
My role as a pastor is to equip you to do ministry. It's Ephesians-4:12, by the way. *Ephesians-4:11* and 12. Go go look it up later. My role as a pastor is to equip you to do ministry.
Our role as believers in Christ is to do ministry in our daily life. So I'm sharing these testimonies with you. As a believer in Jesus, this is how God's been using me to do some ministry in my daily life. And, as a pastor, I'm sharing it with you to equip you and to incite you to good works, so that you let your light shine in ways that you never dreamed of. And, maybe God put this seed in my heart because Chevy likes stories, so I don't know.
But, I'll I'll start. You know, you haven't seen me wear a hat in this church yet, preaching. I like hats. I wear this hat all the time. It says Jesus on it, or g I don't I don't know which way it is.
Anyway, he says Jesus 1 of those ways. And, I wear it because sometimes it brings questions, and sometimes it brings controversy. And man, when Jesus walked into a room, or even when Paul walked in a room to to be a light for Jesus, man, there was revival and riot everywhere he went. So, if I'm if I'm bringing the good news of the gospel of grace to people, there's gonna be revival and riot. I mean, it just will.
I'm good with it. So this was Thursday, actually. I took my kids to the the park, Highland Park. And I'm I'm sitting on my bench, and and and they're playing.
Really, if I'm honest, I was
a little self absorbed. A lot of times, I'll talk with people, but this time, I was just kinda looking at some YouTube videos and didn't feel like talking with anybody. And this guy, this awesome dude, walks up and he strikes up a conversation with me. And I look up, and at first I was like, And I just started asking questions, and I'm I'm engaging with him. He's amazing, amazing man.
I think his name was Scott. And maybe he'll come here 1 day. But, so I was I was talking with him, and and we were talking about life, and and just all kinds of stuff, and I'm really asking questions and getting to know him, getting to know his heart. And about 5 minutes in, he says, you know, he he made reference to my hat that that was the reason that he struck up the conversation. So I said, open door.
So, Scott, do do you know Jesus? Know what? God has not given you the spirit of fear. He's well, another version says of timidity. It's okay to ask people that question.
Somebody just somebody needs to hear that and just, hey, it's okay to ask somebody, are you born again? Do you know Jesus? That might be the 1 thing that they need. I asked, hey, do you know Jesus? You know what he said?
He said, you know, I'm trying. Usually, that is a sign that they need to be born again. I'm trying. It ain't about trying. It's about receiving and knowing.
I didn't say that. He said, I'm trying. I said, man, tell me, like, you know, so I just asked some more questions and listened. I said, you know what? I think God brought you up here to me.
I think I think I think you were drawn into this conversation and we began talking because God's got a plan for your life, and he wants you to know him. He wants you to be born again. And I shared the gospel with him. Just simple. I said, man, would you like to be born again right here?
Would you like to receive Jesus? He said, yes. 2 grown men are he was he was ready to leave, but but in the conversation, he he stayed there. He made reference to it after. He's like, I'm glad I stayed.
2 2 grown men holding hands in a park on Thursday, and and he's receiving Jesus. I get done praying, and and I just after he receives, I I lay my hand on him, I pray for him. God bless him, and just fill him up with the Holy Spirit, and you know, blah blah blah. I get done, and he's just sit there kind of stunned and silent. I'm like he's like, it's just really emotional.
You know what? Because it was real. And, I sent him home with homework to read John-3 to see what happened, and to read Acts to see what how we should live. You know? Did I tell you that to say,
look at me. I'm a "super holy Christian".
No. I told you that to say, hey, I'm a believer in Christ Jesus created to shine just like you are. And the same Holy Spirit that's in me is in you. You are created to shine for Jesus. And the more that you shine, the more the world around you will be transformed to darkness to light, from darkness to light.
Amen? Amen. I got another 1. I was driving about a month ago, and this story is "in process", and I love stories that are in process. I'm a get to Pakistan.
Don't worry. I was driving about a month ago, and I it was actually right across the street here. There's a bus stop on this side of the street, but there's also a bus stop across East Bay. And so I was driving on the other way going to turn into where I live. We live half a mile that way down 6th Street.
And so, I'm I'm driving. It's Thursday. On Thursdays, I prep my message. Just so you know, I usually don't schedule a meeting on Thursdays. If you call on Thursday, I'm probably not gonna answer because my focus is on prepping the message so that I can come here prepared and ready and just asking God what He's gonna do.
So usually, my Thursdays are wrapped. It's me and Jesus time. So I'm driving. I just dropped the kids off at school. I'm going back home, about to go into my office, and I look, and there's a guy sitting on the bus stop, like an older gentleman, and I heard in my *heart* when I say that and you hear people say that, you're like, what do they what do they mean?
Really, it was a thought that came into my mind that I knew was not my own. And it the thought was, I "love that man". I knew that wasn't me. I don't even know the dude. You know?
And so, I was like so I engaged with the Holy Spirit. I said, you know, we're always pray continually means continually listening and conversating with God of the universe. You know what? If you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit in you, you can do that. You learn to hear his voice more clearly over time, but it's just part of the process of learning to walk with him.
So I engaged with him. I said, oh, do you want me to stop and tell him? Yes. And then, of course, you know, flesh tries to make excuses. But Romans-6 says, I've died.
I've been crucified with him, so I don't have to choose what the flesh wants. I can choose what the spirit wants. I'm free from that. Right? So
flesh tried to make excuses. Well, I gotta go write a message,
and this, that, the other. And, I'm like, wait a second. God just said yes. So, I turn in 6th Street, turn, park in the little parking spot that's behind the bank, and I walk up to him. I say, excuse me, sir.
I said, I I just believe that that, you know, God I felt this in my heart as I drove by, and I came to tell you that God loves you a lot. He looks up at me. He's got something hanging out of his hat, and he says, I said I said, sir, I God loves you a lot. And I believe he told me to come and tell you.
You a pastor or something?
Well, but I'm not telling you as a pastor. I'm just telling you as a as a as a believer who follows Jesus. Where your church at? Right. Actually, right there.
You see you can
see the back of the truck right across the street.
You guys believe in the Holy Spirit? Like, I mean, literally like that. And I'm like, well, yeah. He's like, you speak in tongues? I said, well, I mean, you're probably not gonna hear the whole church speaking in tongues all together, but but, I mean, it's in the Bible.
It's a gift of the spirit. I I do all the time. Like Paul said, probably more than all of you. But, I mean, that's just part of the Bible. You my man.
You my man. You my man. I said, I said, okay. And, he takes his phone so he had his phone in his hat, like right here. And, he was listening.
It was up in here, and he was listening to whatever he was listening to. Right? So, he takes it out and he shows me, and he's he's listening to Grace or no, Grace Church out of Kentucky preaching about preaching on the gospel. He says, this is what I'm listening to, man. He said he said, we started talking, we started talking about grace, and righteousness, and and life change, and everything, man.
And, this guy knew Jesus, and it was awesome. A lot of the books that I like that are foundational to me, Destined to Reign by Joseph Prince, Watchman Needs the Normal Christian Life, this guy's read them. I'm like dumbfounded. So, I'm here I am, he's in a in a bench. And, a lot of times, when you minister to somebody, don't stand over them.
I sat down and was looking up up at him, you know. I mean, it's just kind of like it's it's a good posture to honor the other person. Right? So we're we're talking back and forth, and and we get done talking about 20 minutes, and I said, man, you know, gotta go. And and so I go to get in the car, and it starts sprinkling.
So I rolled the window down and said, hey, and his name he had told me his name at the time was Anthony. Anthony Thompson. And I said, Anthony, do you need a ride somewhere, man? And he says, I said, where are you going? He said, I'm trying to get my ID renewed.
I said, okay. I said, where can I take you right now? He said, just take me to the gas station. I said, I can take you to the gas station. So he hops in the car, and we're driving.
And in the course of our conversation, sitting on the bench beside him before he got in my car, there was an open bottle or open can of natty ice, our natural light, you know, a beer. And so, as we're driving, I felt prompted again by the Holy *Spirit* to ask him. So I did. Right? Sometimes, loving someone is a little nerve racking because you don't know how they're gonna respond.
But if you love someone, you love them enough to ask them about truth. Right? So I said, hey, Anthony. I noticed the open container you had. Do you have a problem with alcohol?
And Anthony goes, yeah, man, I do. He said, man, been to rehab after rehab after rehab. Man, all they teach is legalism, and like performance based junk. And I tried that for years, and it made me lose my mind. But you saw me listening to this thing because it's teaching me righteousness and grace, and I literally got my mind back.
My mind was healed from like mental junk to to I can think clearly now after reading, you know, Destined to Reign and Watchman Knee and all these things. He's like, I'm healed there, but I've given up on going to rehab because I just figured there's nothing but the legalistic rehabs out there, and I didn't wanna lose my mind again. I I didn't think I could find a rehab about grace and righteousness. I stopped. I looked at him and I kinda laughed.
I said, Anthony, you're in the right car. I said, my dad and some of you know this, not all of you do. I said, my dad started, and my best friend runs the largest faith based drug rehab in the state of Louisiana. And the curriculum is grace and righteousness, my friend. I said I said, you'll 7 months, you'll be there, and it'll be like a a seminary for you of of learning who you are in Christ.
Not just showing you who Jesus is, which is important, but that's the first half of the gospel. The second half is Jesus showing you who who he's created you to be in him. A lot of believers believe in Jesus and believe who he is, but they when it they they don't receive by faith that we're new creations in Christ Jesus. The old is gone, the new is here. Righteous and holy in him, not because of what we did, but because of Jesus did, and believe that so that the practical aspects of our life actually change.
He's like, what? I said, yes. I said, if I called and there was an open room, would you go? He said, yeah. So I called while he's in the in the room to my my friend that runs it, Clay.
Clay says, hey, we started a class 2 2 2 nights ago. How fast can he get here? I said, gripper, if I find a plane ride for you, could you get there today? Would you go today? He said, yes.
I said, alright. So, went, we drove to the Clearwater ID place. The test was, I'm gonna see if he was really getting his ID done. If he wasn't, then maybe I don't I don't know. You know, probably couldn't buy a plane ticket for him.
But he was telling the truth. Clearwater was closed. We had to drive all the way to Pasco. Right? Sometimes when God asks you to do something, it's out of your way.
But, oh, over never ending, overwhelmed, reckless love of God, how it chases me down, fights till I'm found, and leaves the 99, that's how you're called to live. So, we drove to Pasco, sat in the DMV thing for a while, and he he renewed his ID. As soon as that was done, made a phone call, got some plane tickets, he flew out. So, I met him at 9AM, he was on the plane at 5PM, he made it in Louisiana by 7PM that Thursday. Fresh start picked him up, drove there, not done.
He gets there and he starts having second starts having doubts. He calls me, he's like, man, could you fly me back? This is just too quick. And he starts making complaints about this, that, and the other. And I'm like, oh my God.
And by that time, had got to know me a bit, so he had introduced himself as gripper. That's what he really went by. Gripper Anthony Thompson. You know? And so, he really let me know his identity, if you will.
I said, well, Gripper. I said, man, it it it really concerned me. So I actually called my dad. It was 09:15 at night. My dad got up, drove 20 minutes to go talk to him.
I got off the phone and I start praying. Let me tell you the power of prayer. It's not just because I'm a pastor, it's because I'm a believer and I understand my identity in him and you have the same power. I prayed that God would change the situation and change his heart. And whatever the enemy was doing to try to rip this change from him, God had given him this miracle and the enemy wanted to steal it so it didn't produce fruit.
So I prayed. 10 minutes later, gripper calls me back. Completely different attitude. Instead of putting up the front a lot of people, they they wanna be free deep down, but they put up a front and never tell you the truth. You can't be free with putting up a front.
You gotta get down and and see the truth. You wanna be free? Stop fronting. Tell the truth. Gripper says, if I'm honest, man, I'm just I'm scared of the COVID test.
That's what all the other was. I was I'm just scared I got a COVID test tomorrow. I had some issues. You know, I don't I don't wanna be quarantined and all this kind of stuff. I said I said, man, fear is not of God.
It's not who you are. You're a new creation in Christ Jesus. Let me pray for you. Prayed for him. He took a COVID test.
All was good. He's there. He's been there for over a month now. He's in second phase, passed all his tests, God is doing an amazing thing. I
don't tell you that to brag on me, I'm bragging on God. Hey, we are lights in this world created to "shine for Christ Jesus". And you are not created to go to a church and say, I don't like this, I don't like that, I don't like that. If the love of Jesus is not in that church, you're there, so it should be.
Amen. Yeah. That's right.
Quit complaining about it and "help it to grow". It's the religious division crap that needs to get out of the church. *Jesus rebuked the Pharisees*. Some of them listened to
it and came to it and say, you know what, Jesus? I'm a follow you. The rest of them crucified him. Which 1 are you? Are you a Pharisee, a religious person that thinks you know a lot of scripture but is gonna crucify the the move of God?
Are you gonna join and follow him? Just telling you the truth because I love you. Amen? Alright. I need to update you on Pakistan.
I'm gonna take the next 10 minutes to do that, and then we're gonna close. Okay? Praise God. Because God's doing some cool stuff in Pakistan, and we get to be a part of it. Not only are we called to shine a light here and and by the way, the brighter that you shine, the more we'll impact people in Pinellas County.
But, just so you know, as your pastor, part of your pastor's call is to cross cultures around the world. That's what I was doing before I planted this church. And, I wanna live out my call. He's given me the freedom to do that. So, you will notice that we will impact more people around the world than we do right now increasingly, because I'm living out my call and inviting you guys to be a part of it, which is awesome.
And, together, we will continually impact more people in Pinellas County as you and I, in our daily lives, shine bright and are obedient to what he tells us to do. Amen? Yes. Okay. So, just as a quick review, I've been praying for Pakistan 5, 6 years.
And a lot of times, when you pray for something God puts on your heart, He uses you as part of the answer to your own prayer. He just does. It's awesome, and it's a wonderful thing. And so, I encourage you to pray for the things that God puts on your heart. I shouldn't eat this.
This will be loud in the microphone. And so, I started praying for Pakistan, and then back in October, God gave me the freedom to move forward with connecting with them and and inviting you guys to be a part of it. And so, this first picture is connected with a guy named I'm a call him Sagar, that's the name he goes by in ministry, and his wife, Pooja. Amazing people. I had been building relationship with him over time, testing it out.
This first picture is he invited me to minister to his small group that he has on Wednesday nights. And so, this is that picture in the top right. I know it's really small. I ministered to them, and I I just shared my heart. And, in sharing my heart with them, part of that is I shared the testimony about India.
And, a lot of you guys have heard this testimony. If you haven't, I apologize. I'm not gonna have the time to go into it. But, basically, back in 2017, I was in India and was preaching before a crowd, more than this, about a 180 people. And, man, they all gave their life to Jesus, which was cool and awesome.
And, I knew that there were people in the in the crowd that were sick. And, I asked if you're sick, raise your hand. About 80% of them raised their hand. And, I just proclaimed in the name of Jesus, be healed. 1 person was healed in that crowd.
And, I was so glad it was just 1, and I'll tell you why. I asked him to come forward. It was something wrong with his foot, and it was healed completely. And, I looked at the crowd, and I I shared this testimony with that that group of people, the cigars, small group on Wednesday. I looked at the crowd, and I said, this didn't happen.
He wasn't healed because I'm a super holy white American westerner. He was healed because I'm a Christian and I'm full of Jesus and I believe what he says about me. And, I'm walking in in what he commanded us to do. I said, but the crazy thing is you're all Christians now. You all have Jesus in you.
You're 5 minute old believers. I said, so the same power that rose Jesus from the dead is in you. Do you believe that? They all shook their head yes in India. And this is how they shook their head, yes.
I said, awesome. I said, great. So how many of guys are still sick? 80 percent of them raised their hand. I said, so why don't you lay your hand on the person beside you that raised his hand on it and command them to be healed in Jesus' name?
They looked at me like I'm crazy, like they're a bunch of American Christians. I said, you just told me you believe Jesus is in you. Is that right? See, they don't have any theological training to say that's not right. They just believe believe God at His word and move forward in what He says to do.
We just have all the excuses because we haven't seen it in our experience, so it must not be true instead of trusting God at what His word says and making all these theological excuses for why. So, I said, you you told me that that the same Jesus that's in me is in you now.
Is that do you believe that? Yes. I said, great. Lay your hand on the person beside you and pray that they're healed, and the same power that flowed through me for this
man will flow through you and impact them. Amen. They did it. And about 8 or 10 of them were healed. Amen.
It wasn't me, it was these brand new believers. Called them up, they shared some testimony, just did that to build faith.
They did it again, 8 to 10 more were healed. And I said, praise the Lord. Go back to your villages, preach the gospel, proclaim the the kingdom has come, heal the sick, raise
the dead. Jesus is here. That's what Jesus told the disciples to do. Right?
They did it. So I
I shared that with that that small group on Wednesday night, and I said, you're a minister of the gospel. I said, you're a missionary everywhere that you go. I said, you you you believe this, go do it. Your actions will show what you really believe. And I commissioned I prayed for them and commissioned them to go.
You know what they did? That night, 1 girl's mother tumor healed. They began to "walk in the belief", the understanding, the word that they heard by faith. Telling you, same thing church. If there's doubt in you, say, God help my unbelief.
And go to him and hear his word, and over time, you will begin to walk
like Jesus. Because you're called to shine.
What if you spent time in his presence and really believed what he said about you, instead of making excuses for what you don't see? Amen? Amen. That's what we're called to do. Moving forward, Daniel I mean, sorry, Sagar, saw that, and he invited me to preach the *gospel* to some unreached people in India or in in in Pakistan.
And, I was gonna preach video again, and he called me 20 minutes later, like, I'm I'm ready to preach the gospel. I know I'm preaching to to non Christians, and and the time came and didn't come. You know, nobody called. 10 minutes later, nothing. 20 minutes later, finally, I get the call, and it's just audio.
I'm like so I'm he said, they're ready. Preach. I'm like so I preached my little heart out. I have no idea who's in the room or or who you know, what's going on. I have no idea whatsoever.
And, I preached, and I was like, are they receptive? They go, yes. I said, okay, we'll do an article. So I I, you know, I had them, you know, raise their hands if they wanted to receive Jesus, let them in the prayer, and then hung up. And I had no idea what had happened.
About about a day or 2 later, I get this video. And this video, you're gonna hear them speaking in Urdu. And I I shared this back in November with you guys. I'm just giving you a reminder and refresher for those that are new. You're gonna hear them speaking in Urdu, and you're gonna hear me on the phone leading them to Jesus in English.
And, what had happened, just so you know, the reason he didn't call me 20 minutes before was because there was some persecution that had happened. It was like a a rape, some crazy stuff. Right? And, these people ran in fear but still wanted to hear the gospel. So they congregated in a little building area, and that's when they called me.
And these are the people that had congregated. Let's let's watch the video. Alright. You can you can bring that down. Ain't that awesome?
*Jesus* is good. He's amazing. And so, that built our relationship stronger. Through that, Sagar asked me, hey, would you guys like to partner with, you know, like a mini crusade we're doing in these 15 villages that a lot of you guys know about? We said yes before we really brought it to the church.
I talked to the leaders, and we just we gave $500 in order to bring in to bus in the people. They didn't really have any electricity. They just used kind of lights of the vans, and this this is that that small crowd. And, a 110 gave their life to Jesus. And, this is an area of 15 villages where there's no there's no I mean, they're unreached.
There's a translation of the Bible in this language, in the New Testament, not in the Old Testament, not even audio Bible. They need the gospel. So, a 110 gave their life to Jesus. Over the course of the next 3 days, 300 people gave their life to Jesus. I I asked Sagar, said, well, there a church?
Is there a pastor? You guys might remember this story. I've I've shared this with you. He said, no. Closest is like 6 hours away that I know of.
I said, well, what do they need? He said, Bibles? I said, no, they don't. I said, first, they need disciple makers. They see they need pastors.
Church existed for 1500 years without a printed bible. They need leaders who can "show them Jesus". I said, what if God put on somebody in your team's heart to move there for 6 months? This was 14 hours away by train, to move there for 6 months and and raise up some leaders.
He said, oh, that's it. God put it
on my heart yesterday. I know the person. Let's do it. So we prayed, and and the man Faruk you can show the next picture. I think it's Faruk.
Oh, wait. There's the buses we bought. Keep going. There's Faruk and Sagar. The man Faruk Faruk's on the right.
He and his wife and 2 children quit their job, moved 14 hours away, and decided to begin discipling these guys for 6 months, which was about 5 and a half months ago. We, as a church, we gave the fifth the fifth Sunday offering of November to to that. I shared all this with you. You gave we we needed $7,500 to pay for Farooq's 6 months, and for water pumps in the 15 villages because those new believers were kicked out of the Hindu temples and had no access to clean water. So, we you guys gave, instead of 7,500, you gave 15,600.
So, not only did we have money for that, we also had money to buy Farooq a motorcycle or a motorbike. There we go. So that he wouldn't have to walk, so he could ride to the 15 villages and spend more time with them. We also built 15 hand pumps that are called the water of life hand pumps. And, of and they not only do Christians come, but they they open it up to others.
It's given them more influence. We just sent Sagar back. He's gone a couple of times. You know, they went for Christmas and and some other things. They they had a funeral since then for 1 of the believers and other things, it was just beautiful.
We sent Sagar back a week before last and taught them something called t 4 t, which is like multiplication and discipleship, preparing them. There's now 431 *believers* instead of 300. Praise the Lord. They're multiplying, and it's just gonna happen more rapidly. And God put on my heart, you know what?
Because the sixth month is coming to a close. We have a good foundation. What if we ended with a big old crusade? In in American terms, it's a big old revival service. What if we what if we ended in these 15 villages and and we invited every single person in the 15 villages and paid for their bus to come in, is over 3,000 people?
I said, what if we did that and preached the gospel and every single person in those villages gave their life to Jesus? How awesome would that be? And not only if they gave their life to Jesus, now they have other believers who are a couple steps ahead of them that know how to disciple. How that would transform 15 villages and would spread from there like wildfire. I said, what if?
That would be amazing. God put in my heart. But then, he also I knew that unity between churches is kind of a big deal. Right? And, a lot of times to unify, you need to be on the same mission together.
So, I've been building relationships with other pastors in the area, some deep ones with pastor Josh Pool of Mission City and pastor Steven Holly of Generation Church. Been meeting with pastor pastor Josh since before he was even the pastor there, weekly, every Tuesday, the house coffee shop. I told him all of these things. He's like, man, that's awesome. I said, I'd love for you guys to be a part.
I said, you know, it's gonna cost us $15 to do this this big crusade. I said, what if what if you guys were a part and you guys sowed a third of it, generation sowed a third of it, we sowed a third of it, and then I invite you into relationship with Sagar and Puja, and and we see what God does. Man, he could he could transform a lot of Pakistan if we're working together, you know, with him and learning from him and learning from 1 another. He's like, I'm in. Would you come preach at our church?
So, I went and preached at Mission City last week. Mission City is partnering with us, sowing at least 5,000 in, which is exciting. Generation Church, didn't even have to go preach there. They just said, yes. You know, heart for missions.
I love it. A heart for this. So, they're sowing $5, and our church is sowing $5. Not gonna we're not taking up an extra offering or anything like that. It's from tithes and offerings.
Our church tithes off of your tithes and offerings. If we're gonna teach tithes, tithing, giving 10%, and that's what we do as believers, then the church body as a whole should probably do the same thing. Right? So, as a church, we take 10% and we give it to other ministries and churches that are not under us, in order to sow into the kingdom of God around the world. Not just 10%, because we do tithes and offerings.
So, we give over and above that too. And, that's what this says. It's going be an offering from the church, $5,000. You don't have to sow directly into it. Don't ask if you can.
You can sow into real church, your tithes and offerings, whatever God puts on your heart, and we'll take from that pile and and write a 5,000 check, and and figure out what else is needed, and just move forward. Man, I I believe God is going to do revival, and he's already doing revival. It's already started. Their light is beginning to shine in the darkness there, and the darkness cannot overcome. 2 more minutes.
I gotta share just a couple of testimonies of of some things that have happened. 1 of on 1 of the trips that Sagar went, there was a woman who was in her bed, demonically possessed. Yes, it's real. For 10 years. People would come into church or in her home, and she'd attack them.
Bedridden. I don't know how she attacked, but she did. Went to the black magic people, went to the imams, went to all kinds they couldn't do anything. They they would say they could, and nothing would happen, nothing would change. Sagar and Puja walk in, in the name of Jesus.
Instantly, she's healed, she gets up, and she starts fixing them dinner. We actually have a video testimony of her and her husband. It's in Urdu. It hasn't been translated, but that's pretty cool, you know. So there's 1 of them, 1 of the testimonies.
Another testimony, Sagar actually started working in this area before us. He he had a couple of seeds that he'd already planted about a year and a half ago. And, which is awesome. We got to partner with with some work that was already a few believers, but not many. And, there was a man, he shared the testimony this past trip.
They got a picture of a baby that I saw, and they named the baby. And, they named the baby I forget what the name of the baby was that they named it. But, the mom had asked them to name the baby. The husband and wife had came to Sagar and said, look, for years we've been trying to have a kid and we can't. I've I've went to witches and warlocks and paid for their incantations, you know.
I I even worked a whole year in order to buy a goat and then sacrifice the goat and let them drink the blood and, you know, do their stuff. And, I still couldn't have a kid. Nothing nothing has worked. Would you pray? And, he prayed, she got pregnant.
She had the baby, she's holding the baby, and then, he named the he got to name the baby. Ain't that cool? God does miracles, and he he he wants to do it, not only there, but here. Just so you know, it's not a miracle that changes a person's heart. It's the love of God that changes a person's heart, and he shows his love sometimes through miracles.
But, he wants to do that through you guys. Why? Because, you're the light of the world. Yeah. A city on a hill that's not supposed to be hidden.
Let's not be basket cases anymore, focus on our self. Let's lay our life down and shine his light bright. Amen? Ain't that cool? Yes.
Alright. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna close, and when I close actually, I'm gonna pray for you, and I'm gonna let Chevy close, because Chevy's gonna close. We're not gonna we're not gonna do worship this time or anything like that. But, am I am I I'm gonna pray for you, and Chevy's gonna come up.
But, I just want you I mean, I said a lot of things today. You know, maybe there was 1 little piece that hit here or 1 little piece that maybe you didn't catch everything. You're not supposed to, really. You know? Hopefully, something hit home.
But, my question to you is what is God asking you to do as a result of the word today? How is He asking you respond? You know, what does that look like for your daily life? Don't just walk away from here today and say, man, that was cool. I heard a lot of awesome stories.
That was awesome. And then, forget about it and go on about your life. That's the foolish man who heard the word, built his house on the sand, and when the storm came, it came with great crash. The wise man hears the words and puts it into practice, builds his house on the rock. So, why don't you be a wise man, woman, today.
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, 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.
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