You don't have to rely on your own strength to walk in holiness. Instead, rest in the finished work of Christ and let His life flow through you. When you focus on His ability rather than your own, you will see His nature reproduced in your daily life.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Let's pray. *Father*, I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you for who you are. You're good. You're wonderful.
Lord, and and you choose to use the foolishness of preaching to impact the world with your gospel, with your goodness, with your love. Lord, I pray that every person watching this, whether they're they're watching it, you know, or they're watching it, you know, in 10 years. Father, I pray that this is so anointed, so it carries your power and your love so much that when people watch it, they're impacted for *eternity* or things in their life shift every time they watch this because it's you speaking. It's your voice, Lord. We give this completely and totally to you.
In Jesus' name, amen. So the last message we did, we started a series on Ephesians. We started talking about the first 3 chapters of Ephesians, and and it really was all about our position in Christ. And we summed it up with 1 word, the word sit. Right?
Because we we sit in Christ. Now we're going to start talking about the next few chapters of Ephesians. Ephesians-4, 5, and and the first half of of chapter 6. And and that can really be summed up in 1 word, the word walk. And that's the title of the message today.
Walk. See, in the kingdom of heaven, we must "sit before we can walk". And every time that we try to reverse that order, it becomes a disaster in our life. See, last week, we we we talked about this 1 principle, and I'm gonna say it because it's so Every new spiritual experience you will ever have, every single new spiritual experience you will ever have in this life, in Christ, every step of growth you will ever take first starts by sitting and resting in Jesus. Sitting and resting in the finished work of Christ.
And it does not end there. Because describes our position with Christ spiritually. We're seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. We're sitting in his finished work. And walking is the practical working out of our position with Christ.
Walking describes describes the daily actions of our life here and now. See, as Christians, we're born again of the kingdom of heaven. We're seated in heavenly realms, but we're required, and we're required to exemplify that heavenliness in our earthly conduct day in and day out to show *Jesus* in our daily actions. Let's go to Ephesians-4:1-2. It says this, I therefore a prisoner of the Lord urge you to walk.
You could say that. Say walk. Right? I urge you therefore to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with 1 another in love. *Ephesians-5:2* says, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
And then we have *Ephesians-5* and verses 8 through 10. Really, the first part of verse 8 it says, walk as children of the light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And then we skip down to the last part of verse 10, and it says, And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. See, 8 different times in Ephesians, the word walk is used. And what Paul is getting across is the thought of our conduct in this life, our actions, our life's conduct.
So throughout Ephesians-4 and 5, we see and we're challenged specifically to walk out this Christian life with respect to our relationships. Like how we treat and respond to our spouse, our wife, our husband, our brothers, our sisters, our daughters, our sons, our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents, our coworkers, our bosses, our employees, our relationships. We must understand that Christianity is not something distant and unreal only expressed in these spiritual terms and heavenly words. You ever heard that saying, man, they're so "heavenly minded" that they're no earthly good. You ever heard that before?
You know, say, you know, maybe somebody says that about someone who reads the bible all the time constantly and they pray all the time, go to church all the time and their words are all of these spiritual words but really they don't know how to live life. Really they don't know how to relax and and have fun. They don't they don't know how to work. You ever you ever seen somebody that talks a a pretty good spiritual game but but has no idea how to really work? When the bible says that that we're supposed to work with everything that we have, that when other people see us working, they're they should go like, wow.
Why why are you doing all that? We're saying, we're working not for you, we're working for the Lord. So we're going all out in everything that we have. I wanna be I wanna be so heavenly minded, minded. Not that I'm no earthly good.
No. I wanna be so heavenly minded that I'm earthly amazing. Right? I wanna understand who I am in Christ and who Christ says I am, that it impacts every aspect of my life so that when people see me, when people hear me, they see and hear the goodness of Jesus, the completeness of what he's done on the inside coming out in every aspect of my life. I don't want just a heavenly mindedness that results in words but no life change.
I fear that many of us talk the spiritual talk and say that we're seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, but if we were to examine the scriptures on what a heavenly life actually looks like, and what it's supposed to look like in our home, with our spouse, with our kids, with our friends, our work, our worship, we may find that we really don't know how to walk that out, that heavenly out in our daily lives. It's time to grow. See, Christianity is not just a theory, it's not just a religion, it's not just this mental ascent type of thing. No, it's a lifestyle. Like, we're brand new creations.
*Christ himself has put all of himself inside of us so we can work all of himself out so others can see Jesus in our daily life. Look at what Paul says about walking this thing out in your daily life in Ephesians-4*. I just have a few different things that I've pulled out. Watch. He says, be completely humble and gentle.
Be patient. Put off falsehood and speak the truth. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry. Stop stealing and work. Don't let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, slander, and every kind of evil, bad intention. There shouldn't be a hint of sexual immorality among us, nor foolish talk or coarse joking. Don't get drunk, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Sing songs, love, and and be thankful. Like, Paul is pretty dang practical when it comes to walking out our spiritual lives in the here and now.
And Jesus really says the same things like what Paul's saying in Ephesians-4. Jesus says the same things in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew-5. You know what? Let's let's just look at it. Let's go to Matthew-5.
We're gonna read quite a bit, verses 38 through 48. Says this, you have heard that it was said, eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.
If anyone forces you to go 1 mile, go 2 with them. Give to the 1 who asks you and do not turn away from the 1 who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, Jesus, this is Jesus, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his Son to rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? And then catch this, verse 48. He says, be *perfect*, therefore, as your heavenly *father* is perfect.
Now hearing all that you say, well, wait, hold on. I've tried that. Like, have tried. I've put all of my effort into that and I just can't do demands. It's hopeless.
How can God expect me to do that? Did you hear what he said? Be perfect as he is perfect. What am I to do? What can I do?
And that second question is the right question. What can you do? Really, you can't. It's impossible to do that. Let me explain.
Because what I'm about to tell you is a mindset shift. It's gonna impact the way that you live your life for the rest of your life. Lean in. Listen. Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the knowledge of right and wrong.
And since then, has been overly concerned with what is right and not doing what is wrong. Right? Or making sure what is right is done to them. If somebody wrongs them, I gotta make that sucker right. You know?
But as Christians, we don't begin there. See, when we receive Jesus, we ate of the tree of life. Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the tree of life. So we don't begin with right and wrong, we begin with Jesus.
Nothing has done greater damage to our testimony as Christians than are trying to always be right and trying to get what is rightly ours and trying to make sure that everyone else, their wrongs are righted or the wrongs done to us are righted, demanding others to be right. As Christians, our standard of living cannot be anymore what is right and wrong. No. Our Christian as Christians, our standard of living is the cross. It's the father's perfection.
Let me explain. The grace that Jesus portrayed on the cross is the same grace that he has given to us, the same grace that's in us. Remember, as Jesus is on the cross, people are mocking at him. They're spitting at him. They're pulling out his beard.
These people betrayed him. And what was his attitude to them on the cross? His attitude was, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. Grace. See, with Jesus, it is always a question of grace and not a question of right and wrong.
And that is the standard of our life as well. See, instead of they wronged me and this needs to be made right, it's I can forgive them because Christ forgave me even when I was wrong. Right and wrong is a principle of the world, but our life is governed by the principle of the cross. Our life is governed by our heavenly Father's perfection. Remember chapter 5 of Matthew, Matthew-5 verse 48, it said, Be *perfect* as our heavenly Father is perfect.
In this whole series, the sit, this last week's sit, this week walk, and the next week's stand, comes from a book that 1 of my mentors wrote, really, Watchman Knee, Sit Walk Stand. And I wanna I wanna show you, I wanna give you an example that may help you to understand what I'm talking about from that book. See, he talks about and this is a true story. He talks about this man, and he had a rice field. Rice fields need to be irrigated heavily.
Right? And so there was this irrigation stream flowing by his rice field. This man was a Christian and and, you know, attended a local church there. So this Christian man with this rice field, he set up an irrigation method to to pull water from the irrigation stream into his rice field and and fill it with water. That night, his neighbor, who had 2 2 fields beside his, a little lower, busted down the levees of the man's rice field.
The water flowed from his rice field into the Christian's rice field into the neighbor's rice fields. The Christian man woke up the next morning, saw what happened, fixed the levees, and filled his rice field again. That night, the neighbor busted down the levees of the Christian or the levee of the Christian so that the water would run off into his fields. It's not right. Right?
It's wrong. So this happened 3 or 4 nights, Christian brother went to his local church, went to his other Christian brothers and sisters and said, Look, I'm and I'll just read what what what Watchman Neh wrote about it. He said, So he consulted with his Christian brothers. I've tried to be patient. I've tried to not retaliate.
But is this right? And after they had prayed about it together, 1 of the Christian brothers replied, if we only try to do the right thing, surely we are very poor Christians. We have to do something more than what is right. That man, that Christian brother was touched. The next morning, when he got up, first he pumped water into his neighbor's field, both of his fields first, and then he pumped water into his own.
Now that neighbor who had been knocking down the levees was puzzled. And he came asking why this Christian would do this. After many talks, his neighbor gave his life to Jesus. Remember, it's the kindness of God that leads a man to repentance, not forcing right. And this man showed a love and grace that is supernatural.
That is Christ's kindness flowing through him and impacting his neighbor in such a way that led him to Jesus. In the same way, he wants to show his kindness to you and supernaturally empower you to live out that kindness in a way that the world sees God's kindness and it leads them to repentance in your daily life. We can't stand in our rights. As Christians, we give up our rights, our very life, and conform to the love that Jesus displayed on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, he didn't die to defend our rights.
It was grace that took him there. It was grace that kept him there. And, it's through his grace that we live and breathe and move today. So we often fail at this.
And when we do, what do we do? When we fail at this,
we fall forward into our father's arms, get back up, and keep walking because of his grace and in his grace. And yet, as Matthew-5:48 says, it says, be *perfect* as our heavenly father is perfect. *Matthew-5 and Ephesians-4* all set this standard of walking out in our daily life, this Christian walk that is impossibly high. It's impossible for us to do this perfectly in our daily life, but yet God says be perfect. So what do we do?
You were right to ask it before if you remember. What can I do? It's the right question. How do we solve this? How do we walk this out in our Christian life in more than just spiritual words and theories?
The secret is found in Ephesians-3:20. Let's go there. *Ephesians-3:20*. You ready? It says, now to him this is the answer, so listen up.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to our willpower and our trying really hard and getting it right because we really tried, that's not what it says, is it? No. Watch this. Now to him who's able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is **at work within us**. It says according to his power.
Paul said the same thing in Colossians-1:29 and I'll read this. It says, to this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy that *Christ* so powerfully works within me. And now we're back to last week's message. What is the secret strength to the victorious Christian life walking this thing out? The secret is sitting in Christ and resting in him.
Our power comes from our God given rest in Jesus Christ. And as soon as we forget our place in Jesus, we trip and stumble in everything in this world. But, and I'm gonna give you this principle, continuously sitting in him, continuously sitting with Jesus ensures that we will continuously live like him in our daily life. We will continuously walk like him in our daily life. I'm gonna say it again.
Continuously sitting with *Jesus* ensures that we will continuously walk like him in our daily life. See, it's more than just talk. It's a lifestyle. It's more than just spiritual talk. It's "knowing him inwardly".
It's more than just getting around your brothers and believe and believers and brothers and sisters at church or your local church and talking the right talk. And when they're looking at you, you know, when they're looking at you, you you're obeying and and showing Jesus. No. It's more than that. It's getting alone in your closet when nobody is around and crying out to God.
*Father*, I need you. I want more of you in my life. I want to experience you. I want to hear you. And Lord, Lord, give me more of you, but yet knowing that you have all of him already.
So what did Jesus really mean when he said, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Remember, Jesus said, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Jesus knew, catch this guys, Jesus knew that this was impossible for us. Being perfect as God is perfect, really? Impossible.
*Jesus* didn't have faith in us to do it. Jesus doesn't have faith in you to be perfect as he is perfect. He doesn't have faith in me to do it because he knew that we couldn't. But he said this, he said for us to be perfect because he believed in his own ability to be perfect as the heavenly father is perfect. He wasn't Jesus wasn't afraid to put the demand of perfection in this life on himself.
But guess what? Jesus didn't just put the demand of perfection on himself, but then he put himself into us. **God does not command** what he does not perform. Did you catch that? God does not command what he does not perform.
We must simply put our trust in him and who he says that he is and who he says that we are with the knowledge that all of Jesus, all of his perfection, all of his goodness, all of his power to live the perfect life is inside of us and rest in that fact. Keep our eyes on that fact. Too many times as Christians we say the words, I trust Jesus, but our lives show the exact opposite. More and more in our lives, I want you to know, you will walk through situations that test your patience. You will walk through situations that test your reactions to things.
That that situations that try to prove that you're not really a Christian, that you're not really who you say that you are. What do we do when that happens? How do we respond? I'm gonna read this. We must realize that in and of ourselves we can't be perfect.
We can't get it right. But we are no longer in and of ourselves. *Jesus* in all of himself is in us. We must in each situation, in each moment, in each demand of godliness, each demand of perfection, we must throw ourselves on *God* and trust his ability to work himself in and through us by his grace. This is what it looks like.
God, I can't but you can. My eyes are on you. Help me Jesus. I trust you. Help me, Jesus, to trust you.
And that's how I live my life. Every single message that I write, every single 1, I realize that I can't write something that's going to save your soul. I can't write something that's gonna make you grow in Jesus. I can't write something in and of myself that's gonna make you see him more clearly. I have to trust in his power that's at work work within me, and the fullness of Jesus that's in me.
And so I just I grabbed, and I write 1 of these before almost every message. So I just went back to a random message a few months ago and copied it and pasted it to the end of my message. And I wanna read you my prayer. I say, *father*, thank you for who you are and for what you're doing in and through my life. "I can't, but you can".
I can't do this. I can't preach a message that will change lives. Holy Spirit, I can't preach a message that will cause everyone to desire more of you and that will cause people to wanna be baptized in you, but you can. You can draw all people under yourself. You can do this.
Holy Spirit, I ask you to do this. I ask you to speak through me. I ask you to prep me. I ask you to speak in such a way that tomorrow everyone desires a deeper touch from you, that everyone young and old desires to be baptized in your presence. Father, let this be clear and compelling.
*Father, I pray for a move of you that is greater than I could ask, think, imagine. You are able, God*. My eyes are on you. And then I I I just pulled another prayer from my journal that's of the same mindset from 2017. I think I remembered, you know, it coming up as a memory on Facebook because God had prompted me to to post it.
So I'll just I'll read this 1 to you. I say, father, I can't, but you can. I can't do it today. I can't get all the things done that are on my plate. I can't do those things without the grace and love that is a part of who you are.
I can't stop stressing. I can't but you can. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Therefore, I know you can. You empower me to do immeasurably more than I could ask, think, or imagine.
Thank you God. You are the God who works. You show me yourself then empower me to be who you are to my world. Thank you God. You can get all of the things done I need to do more efficiently and more effectively than I ever could and you can leave your fragrance on everyone I come in contact with during the process.
As I focus on you during the day, there is no room for stress because there is no stress and worry and fear in love. You are love. There is only trust that you will work out all things for your glory and use me as a part of revealing your glory to my world. Thank you God. You can and you are in me.
Therefore, my life is your life so I can. That's how we approach situations as Christians. Christians. We take our eyes off our ability and put them on his ability. His ability and his power which he has put in us.
When you live your life focused on Jesus, sitting in his finished work, sitting in his presence, knowing that he's with you, you can't help but "walk out what you know". You can't help but work out what God has worked into your life, the desires and the abilities abilities that he's placed in there. And as you sit in his presence and allow him to move in that way and walk out what he's put in you, others will see Jesus and be drawn. And like the man with the rice field, will see his kindness work through your life and say, I need to know this Jesus. See, the **fruit intimacy is reproduction**.
So when we sit in God's presence and relationship with him, it will reproduce his nature, his character, the fruit of the spirit through our lives, but it'll also reproduce other little baby Christians all around us. Amazing.
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