You are called to move beyond the basic milk of the gospel and digest the solid food of Christ's righteousness. Make a daily routine to wake up earlier and spend time with God so you can share His love with others. This foundation will empower you to bring revival to your city and family.
Well, good morning and happy New Year. You guys look great this year. My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be.
There's nothing I'd rather be doing than getting to do this in Clearwater, Florida. Getting to to be the pastor of this amazing church. You guys are awesome. And I'm thankful that God has brought you here this Sunday. Thankful that you chose to spend your Sunday here this morning.
And my prayer is that you walk away experiencing the love of God, experiencing the love of Jesus so clearly that you're "never the same". No matter if you've experienced his love and known and has known have known his love for the last 55 years. Or this is you just coming here as a New Year's resolution to try to get back into church. Either way, I pray you experience his love in a way that it leaves you never the same. Amen?
Well, I'm excited about today. But before I tell you about today, I did remind remember 1 thing. The beginning of every year, I I want to make it a point, and we we've made it a point at the beginning of every year so far, and we'll continue to be intentional in prayer because **Prayer precedes revival**. Prayer precedes God's movement. *Amos-3:7*, the Bible says, surely the sovereign Lord puts that sovereign word in there for a reason.
But it says, surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants, the prophets. So he shows what he's going to do before he does it. Why? Well, New Testament, he says we're his friends so we can know his will. But then he says, if you ask anything according to my will, I hear you.
And if you if I if you know that I hear you, you know that you have what you've asked. So he invites us to participate in what he's doing through prayer. And like a good father, many times he waits to move until we will respond in prayer. And so I want to encourage you to stand with me in prayer, to take extra time every single day. Wake up 5 minutes earlier, 10 minutes earlier.
Maybe your next step is an hour earlier. But wake up some time and spend some time. This importance of routine in relationships. Make a routine with Jesus today so that he can encourage you to be spontaneous around that routine. Amen?
I think that's important. In line with that, on Friday nights, every Friday night here, after the set up team sets up at 07:30, we're going to have a time of prayer. From 07:30 till we're done, probably about 08:30. And I would encourage every single 1 of you, those that are watching that couldn't make it today, you're all invited to come and pray. And I believe that you will see answers to your specific prayers, not only in your family, in your lives, in our church, in our city, and around the world.
It's vital. Friday nights, 07:30, come pray with us. Amen? Amen. Awesome.
That being said, Gabe would you come out here? Gabe Mullins is amazing. You might remember him. He looked like well, where's Waldo on the testimony series? He's 1 of our trustees, but he's also just a mighty man of God and a good and a good brother.
His wife was 1 of the ones leading worship up here expecting miss Mariah. I think it was 3 or 4 months ago. Do you do you remember? Was it 3 3 3 4 months ago we started talking about righteousness?
Yeah. September.
September. August. September. And and God just put a a passion and a desire to seek out and to really understand righteousness in him. But not only did he give that desire to him, the Bible says when you delight yourself in the Lord, he gives you the desires of your heart.
And over the last few months, God has really gave him an amazing and powerful revelation of righteousness. And I thought, you know what? Righteousness is a great foundation. So the foundation of 2022, 2022, should be righteousness. So I would love.
We I wanna learn. We wanna learn and and hear God as he speaks through Gabe and helps us to grow in our understanding of righteousness. Amen? Amen. It's all yours, brother.
Thank you, man. Thank you. Do you guys mind standing 1 more time real quick for me? We're gonna stand. I just wanna pray.
I wanna pray for *hunger* to fill the room. I want increased hunger in the room. You know, Jesus said, man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. And and 1 of my calls, of my missions in life is to increase hunger in myself and in others for the word of God and for God himself. You know, so if if you're if you're not hungry, I could I could lay before you a banquet, a beautiful, fine chef prepared cuisine, and you might pick over it or you might send some of it back or it might just be okay.
But if you're hungry, I can lay before you a plate of green beans, and you will eat it up, and you'll taste things that you hadn't tasted before because you were really hungry. And so, I wanna increase the hunger in the room today. That way, no matter what I give you, you'll love it. Alright. Lord, I thank you Jesus for this morning.
Thank you for that incredible worship, God. It's so good to touch the hem of your garment and be in your presence, Lord. I just pray for hunger to be filled in this room right now, God. That we would be hungry for the word of God. That we would desire it like we desire bread when we need bread.
God, we some of us have gone far too long without receiving a word from you, without receiving the the word from your mouth which sustains our bones and gives us life. And we are hungry this morning. So God, we pray that our our spirits would be attuned, our mind would be attuned in what is about to come, and that the devil's distractions would would cease, and that this room would be filled with your word, God. It And would be planted deeply into our hearts. So I pray for that in Jesus' name right now.
Amen. Alright. You guys can have a seat. Let's go to Hebrews-5:12-14. So here's your here's your hors d'oeuvre.
Okay? Here's your appetizer. For though by this time, this is Paul speaking, you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is those who by **reason of use** have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. That's all for that's all for that. So the word of righteousness is what moves us from milk to meat. So it's obviously extremely important. When I was studying this, I noticed that I came across some parables that all, you know, they kind of repeated themselves and related, and yet they weren't all told by the same person.
I thought it was really interesting. You'll do that occasionally. You'll find in the bible that there's multiple ideas that continue to be brought through the same vehicle of parable, whether it's seed time and sowing and harvest and and faith or or or you connect it to the vine, Jesus. And you'll you'll see that that the similar imagery is being used. And pastor David has been recently talking about Jesus preaching, saying, if you build the person who hears my words and does them is like the man who builds their house on the rock.
When the winds come and the storms come, the house doesn't blow down. Right? And then the when the person who doesn't do what I say, in other words, hears my words and doesn't do them, is like a person who builds their house on the sand. And when the winds come and the storms blow, their house blows down. I think we all know that parable pretty well.
So let's go to Isaiah-28. If I'm going to Isaiah, that means that 700 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah is speaking and he's quoting God. Okay? And this is what he says. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
Whoever believes will not act hastily. Also, I will make justice the measuring line and *righteousness* the plummet. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Isn't that interesting? So we have a parable where you have a stone which is the foundation.
And then we're building on that stone. And once we're done building on that stone, a storm comes. Storm comes to test what it is that we've been building.
That's good.
And it says that a tried and true cornerstone, a precious cornerstone. So Jesus was basically repeating this story and saying you the words of mine. It was a very messianic type of thing to do for him to say, I am the chief cornerstone. Right? And it says, I will make *righteousness* the plummet or the plumb line.
Okay? So it's important to know what that is. A plumb line back then was essentially what you do is you take a line, a string or rope of some kind, and you hang it on the corner of where you're gonna build a building. Okay? The cornerstone is here at the bottom, and at the bottom of that rope, you hang a weight, a plumb, and it it keeps that rope perfectly vertical.
Okay? And then as you go to build, you're starting on the cornerstone and you're building your wall, and every time you go to the corner, you check if it's plumb. Right? You check according to your plumb line. So we're talking about building and he says, *righteousness* is gonna be the plumb line.
So you gotta think. Imagine you're building a building and you start to, you know, veer off of the plumb line a little bit or a lot. Let's say you just ignore the plumb line. You just put your bricks, hobnobby, however you want. Well, are you even going get the building done?
Probably not. But let's say, okay, you care about the plumb line, but it's just like you you see it and you're just not paying that much attention to Well, what's gonna happen? The storms are coming. Everybody say this with me. The storm is coming.
The storm is coming.
So we need to make righteousness the plumb line in how we build. Let's look at 1 more scripture. *1 Corinthians-3:9* through 17. You are God's building. This is Paul talking now.
According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid this foundation and another builds on it. But let each 1 take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Okay. This is sounding familiar.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. And if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, yet as though "through fire".
So isn't that amazing? Now, is Paul speaking. This is after Jesus and he's recycling this similar parable with a few minor changes. So we've got Christ as the cornerstone per usual. We're building our house on Christ only.
This time it's very clear. You are the building. Right? You are the building. So you're not just building on it, you are the building.
And you are building on it, but you are the building. And as you build, you're building with different types of materials. And instead of a storm this time, we have a fire. It's kinda similar, but it's a fire now. And the materials that you're building with really matter suddenly.
It's like some of them are flammable and some of them aren't. Gold, silver, and precious stones, wood, hay, straw. So it depends it's very important how we build our building. It's not just that we are building a building, and it's not just that the building doesn't matter. We are building a building, it's very important.
You know, there's a few scriptures that like still kinda freak me out a little bit. Or I don't know if freak me out is the right word, but that's the way I would put it. I I think of, you know, when Jesus says, you know, man will there will come a day where man is to hold an account for every "idle word" that he ever spoke. It's like everyone in this room will have a day when they sit down with Jesus and have to kind of give an explanation for that thing you said that 1 time or that thing you said that didn't even really produce much fruit. That makes me like that check that like scripture stays in my mind and it checks me next time I wanna go run off at the mouth or next time I wanna not produce fruit with my words.
Right? Idol. Or how about, let not many of you become teachers knowing that you will receive a stricter judgment. And I take it seriously. Like, that's why I dug into this message.
That's why I'm digging in. I "take it very seriously" that you all would take your time out of your day to sit here as the bride of *Christ* and listen to the words that I have to say. I take it really, really seriously because God takes it seriously. And so that mess, that that scripture stays in me as I continue to go. And this is 1 of them.
The day will declare it. The day will declare it because your works, who you've built yourself to be, will be tested. There will be a day where there will be a test, and it will be by fire. I mean, what does that mean? If anyone's work endures it, he will receive a reward.
If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet as though through fire. I don't want to experience that, and I don't want you guys to experience that. And my thing that I'm trying to paint here right now is that **righteousness is not optional**. It's not an option. That's right.
It is extremely important. In fact, it's vital for our future and for the church as a whole. It's not an option. And so the argument then would be like, okay, well, righteousness is not an option, but well, what are you saying, man? Don't know.
What are you, perfect? It's like, everybody *sins*. Right? And it's like, okay, there is a truth to that. The bible says that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
So we know that we've all sinned. And so then it like leaves us in quite the predicament. Right? It's like, on this side we've got the unbearable burden of righteousness, and on this side we have our hopeless inability to perform it. It reminds me of Romans-7:24.
Oh wretched man that I am, Paul says, who will deliver me from this "body of death"? And then the next verse is I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we can kind of feel it coming. Right? Those of us in the room who know the Lord, Jesus did it.
It's not our responsibility to gain righteousness, it's because Jesus did it. And let's prove it to you. So let's go to Romans-5:17 through 19. This is Paul speaking. He's talking about Adam.
For if by 1 man's offense, Adam's offense, death reigned through the 1, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of *righteousness* will reign in life through the 1, *Jesus Christ*. Therefore, as through 1 man's offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so through 1 man's righteous act, the free gift, the gift of righteousness, came to all men, resulting in *justification* of life. And lastly, 1 For if by 1 man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by 1 man's obedience many will be made righteous. Okay. So let's define righteousness for a second.
There's the the When you say righteousness in the biblical sense, there's kind of a 2 fold definition. It's very important for us to know this. On the 1 hand, you have *righteous* being, right standing with God. Right? So if you are righteous with the Lord, you are now right standing with him.
That's who you are. That's your structure. That's who you've been made to be. On the other hand, you have "right doing", that means living out righteousness, that means avoiding *sin* and living righteously. Right?
So that's a 2 fold definition and it means both of those at the same time. So there's this saying in science, in biology, and in anatomy that structure equals function. This is like a just generalized truth about the earth. Structure equals function. And in reference, it's usually towards, you know, biological things like the structure of a heart determines its function.
Because of its shape, because of its electrical connectivity, because of all the ways that it's built, it it pumps blood as it should. So structure equals function. It's so funny to me because that's like to me, that's like you're screaming design. There's a designer. But, you know, I have a master's degree in science.
So I like I went through a lot of science classes talking about designer. Hello. I went through that a lot. So a light bulb displays its function because of its structure. It's glass, it has a filament in it, and because of that structure, when it's connected to electricity, it displays its function.
It always happens. It always works that way. Structure equals function. So let's go back to righteousness. Right standing is your structure.
Right standing with God, who you are now before the presence of God. God sees you as righteous. And it's not just God sees you. Okay? Because he's not wearing rosy colored glasses.
You're not a sinner, but he sees you as righteous. You are righteous because he's made you righteous. And that's a really important clarification. So righteousness is now who you are. It's your structure.
Let's go to second Corinthians. I'll just I wanna back everything up with my with the word. 2 Corinthians-5:21. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Okay?
We are righteous. It's now a noun. It's who you are. Right doing is your function. Right?
So structure equals function. So go to Ephesians-2:10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Okay? So we are created to act out righteousness, to live out our structure as a function of who we are.
That's right.
So it's really important to clarify this because I think a lot of times what happens is Christians flip it and they think function equals structure. And it's not in that direction. It's only 1 way. So it's like, say you've got somebody and they, you know, struggle with some sin or they fall into sin. Right?
And they just do the thing that they maybe struggled with a long time ago or maybe they're caught in a cyclical sin. And as they sin, what happens is they feel bad, they feel the condemnation, and because they feel that way, they assume or they must make the logical conclusion that I am not righteous. Well, how could I be righteous? I just sinned. Right?
But it's not that way. Your actions doesn't determine who you are. Who you are determines your action. It's a 1 way thing. But so the next question is, well then, why am I sinning?
Right? Like, why do we still struggle with sin? If our structure equals our function and our structure is righteous, our function should be righteousness. So why are we still sinning?
It's good.
So let's go back to the garden. Right? What did Satan say to Eve just before the fall. He said, eat this and you will be like God. And so she eats it and of course, you know what happens next.
But the problem is, what she didn't realize, if she could have turned the page 2 pages back, would have seen, that God said, when he was creating man, let us make man into our own image according to our likeness. So Eve already was like God. And this is 1 of the most deceptive things that the devil does. This is like, if you could like spot an issue as the devil's coming. It's like, he will frame a question or a statement in an improper frame.
It's 1 of the most deceptive things that people can do. And if you answer the question or if you even engage, you're already in the frame that's a lie and you can't and you can't find your way out.
That's right.
What Eve should have known is that I'm already like God. I don't have to do anything to be like God. I don't need to grab the apple in order to be like God.
That's right. Right? And
Satan is still doing that to us this very day. Because if he can get you to to to believe, well, I'm just a dirty rotten sinner, know, thank the Lord he loves me. It's like if he can get you to believe that, then you will always stay there. Because if anything, you're gonna just try to do your best. And try to do your best doesn't work.
That goes back to the law. It goes back to acts of works. We're no longer under that law. We're under the law of the spirit. See, God's biggest challenge is not Satan.
Like, God's number 1 challenge is getting Christians to believe what he said about them. That's right. So God called you righteous, like, how dare you say you're anything else. Right? Alright.
Let's bring out the wine here. Not for you guys, you bunch of winos. I need some help in this message. Let's bring out the wine. I'm gonna give you a little illustration here.
We'll see how it goes. I got my little bag of goodies here. Okay. We'll do a we'll do a little reveal here. That'll be cool.
Okay. So, hang on. Give me a second. I'm struggling here. So you were living your life and what you were was this jar of oil.
You were like an oil can. Right? That's what's in here. Dirty motor oil. And then, you came to Jesus.
Alright? As this dirty oil can. And you got born again. You gave your life to the Lord. And so, what he did, whether you realized it or not, you thought it was a simple prayer, you were born again and you became
a wine glass. And
a wine glass has a specific structure. Right? It's like everything about it, you all know that's a wine glass. It's made to hold wine. This is very thin because the thinness of the rim is able to give you the best tasting wine.
You've got a large body so you can aerate the wine, you've got the stem, you've got everything about it that has the purpose for bringing wine to the drinker. Right? But you didn't know that you became a wine glass or let's say, you thought you still were an oil can. Right? So like, you everyone you are around you is an oil can, you always see people filled with oil, whether they're wine glass or not, they have oil in them, your old pastor had oil in them, your wife, your your your your cousin, everybody got oil in them.
Alright? So what you do is you go back to the oil. Right? And you're supposed to say,
No. Boo.
And so that's "viscerally disgusting". Right? It's like and now, if structure equals function, like if you perform what you were supposed to, you'd kill me. Right? Because you're full of rotten, dirty sin.
Now you you can't live out your function. You can't do what you've even been called to do. And so, you come to the Lord. Right? You come to church, you remember.
And even I would say, as your new structure, you said, this doesn't feel right. This is gross. I don't like it. You're not the same as you used to be because you can you're like aware of it. You're like, ugh, I don't want this.
Right? So your heart's in the right place. So you come to Jesus, and so he washes you out and cleans you.
The blood of Jesus.
Alright? And he cleans you out and you sing,
oh the blood of Jesus. Oh the blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood of Jesus. You "wash me white as snow".
And it's beautiful. It's like a miracle. It's still a miracle. Like, that's why you guys sing that with me. Because it's like, oh, I know that song.
I know that in me. It's deep in me. It's a miracle. And he would clean you better than I did. And so he cleans you.
He washes you clean. And the problem is that that is is basically where a lot of the church stops. That's where we leave off. Know, we never realize our change and so we go back to the oil and we go back to the water, and we go back to the oil and back to the water. And and and it moves a lot of people to sing that song and to understand, and it is still a miracle, it's still beautiful, and he will always and continue to do that.
He will always continue to wash you clean. Right? But if you want to know how to "move from milk to meat", if you wanna know how to get beyond that cyclical cycle and get broken free, if you want to understand the word of righteousness so you can finally build your house in accordance with the plumb line of righteousness, you can have a house which stands against the storms and the floods. If you want to know what the understanding of righteousness is, it is that you are a wine glass. You have been made *righteous*.
That's the understanding of righteousness. This is what you're meant for. I gotta be careful which 1 of these I drink here. Always with this. Let's go to Romans-5:1 through 2.
I'm just gonna prove it to you here. We'll finish off. It says, therefore, having been justified, that means like justified by the Lord, made righteous by God, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So we have to understand what he's saying here. He says, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
Let's see him backwards. So in other words, you stand in a grace, but you don't access it unless you have faith. Right? So, you access the grace by faith. Well, what is grace?
*Grace is the empowerment for you to live out righteousness*. It's the empowerment for you to live as Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's great. Grace is what hell is what enables you to do that. So it's no longer about, well, what?
Did you sin? Have you never sinned? It's like, it's so that's an old conversation. The new conversation is, I am righteous. I'm not even talking about, have I sinned or haven't I sinned?
I'm righteous. I stand in righteousness, and therefore, when I know that, I believe it and I behave like it. I behave like a wine glass. I go to the wine to get filled up, and I live it out. I'm telling you guys, it's not just and I don't want it don't reduce it down to a mental exercise because it's not.
It seems like it could be, but it's not. When you understand, it's an understanding deep in your spirit. Right now, I'm giving you guys a lot of, like, you can agree with it up here, but until you live it, it's it's not in here. And you have to move it from here down to here. And once it's in here, you live it and you breathe it and you can't help it.
And it's like, I'm righteous. Like, so if an old, like, thought or sinful a thought or, let's say an old temptation or something comes back, I can say, that's not even my thought. Whose thought is that? It's not mine. I divorce myself from the thought.
Why? Because I am righteous. It's not a mental trick. I know who I am in Christ. And when I know who I am, I say I lose all condemnation.
That's why he says in Romans, there is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ. Because you've been changed. There's no condemnation. You get to walk in righteousness and live it up. Amen.
Oh, man. Is it heavy or is it
So good.
Is it good? Let's have Zech come up. The wine didn't do it, maybe the keys will do it.
So
I that's the message. Okay. Right. That's the message. And I want to move I want I wanna help you.
I wanna just wanna give you some practical ways to move it from here down to here. Me and pastor Dave were talking about this not too long ago and there's basically 2 ways I think that we know of, that you can move from head knowledge to real faith living it out knowledge. Because I think a lot of people in this room, there's probably material in this that I gave you, that you are like, I know. I've heard that before. I get it.
I've read it before. I'm still not seeing it. And so I want to give you the 2 ways that you're gonna move from here to here. 1 is by reason of use. Right?
So let's go back to *Hebrews-12*. Go go to verse 14 on on that. And it says, but solid food is for those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to deter discern both good and evil. You have your senses exercised, right, by using it. So next time you have a temptation or you're going along and you're it doesn't matter what it is, bad attitude, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be some grandiose thing.
Maybe you're tempted with all sorts of things, pride or whatever. Pride is no small thing. It's the biggest thing. So you you have these temptations. When you recognize them, you can say, that's not me.
You don't have to go, oh, I'm sorry, Lord. I'm so bad. I don't know how you love me. He already showed that he loved you. So we don't go backwards.
We say statements of faith which bring you into faith and faith grows. Right? Like, so faith is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It grows. It becomes big.
That's why he said it starts small but it becomes big. So to move faith from up here to down here, what you do is you use it, you exercise it, you say, I I don't care how I feel, that's not me. And I feel the Lord on that. That's not me. Why don't you guys stand up with me?
It's like, no mat no matter what you feel like, and that's the walk of faith. It's like the feelings, that's 1 of the devil's biggest ways that he that he attacks you is just to make you feel bad. And it's like we're so consumed by our feelings. And it's like the the truth of God. The truth is what we need to be consumed by.
And so, you move you grow it like a muscle and don't be hard on yourself. Just grow it like a muscle. Just stay in the fight. Right? And say, "I am righteous".
Like, the preacher said I'm righteous. If nothing else, Gabe said I'm righteous. Gabe said God said I'm righteous. You at least know that. The other way is when you've when you've done all, to stand.
Okay? So you've got the active way of of exercising your faith and determine demanding that I am righteous no matter what I feel like, matter what I've done, no matter what I supposedly struggle with. I don't struggle with it anymore, but you just did it yesterday. I don't struggle with it anymore. Why?
Because I am righteous. It's like God did it. I don't have to work for it. You don't have to believe the lie anymore. You don't have to believe the devil lie.
But you know, keep trying. Keep trying. You got you ought to try harder. You're obviously not righteous. Like, such a lie, man.
Throw it out. You are righteous. The work is done. So when you've done it all and then you've done all and you stand. You "stand in it".
So that's it. So I was gonna have everyone take communion and then we already took communion. So I'm gonna just have us pray. What I want you to do, put your hand over your heart or on your mind or just on you somewhere. I want you to move in faith and practice exercising the seed of faith that you've been given.
So think of whatever area, if you do have an area that you have struggled with, you can bring it to mind so that you can show it off to the devil and say this isn't mine anymore. Okay? You're not bringing it to mind to bring condemnation and guilt. You're bringing it to mind and in faith, practice with your muscle to say, *Jesus*, thank you that you made me righteous. It's in the past tense.
It's already been done. Thank you Jesus that you made me righteous. I'm no longer this x y z thing. I'm no longer my past, and my past is not my future. My new past is the cross.
Like, your old past died, your new past is the cross. Wrecking yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God by the cross. Man, I thank you, Lord. I pray that this would be dug deeply into our hearts. I pray that this message would grow like a seed, that the faith of understanding righteousness would grow like a seed, and we would begin to develop teeth so we can have solid food.
I'm declaring right now in Jesus' name that our real church going into 2022 is gonna be chewing on some solid food. We're moving past milk. Okay? And we're moving deeper into the things of God. These are the things that are gonna "shake nations", that are gonna shake clear water, and that are gonna shake this area.
These are the things that are gonna move us and move the people around us into actually bringing *revival* to a place. Remember when people talked about revival? Like, remember when we used to talk about it? When we expected it? When we thought about it?
When we prayed for it? Not when we went to church to hopefully get a good day. Like, hopefully, we can figure out how to have a better day. It's like, that is low level, man. That's milk.
Let's go to meat. Let's move beyond that. Let's go for revival in our cities, in the people that we work with, in our own lives, in our families. *Righteousness* will bring us there.
I first wanna turn the microphone on. And number 2, I want you to understand the reason I had him preach this message today is because *Jesus Christ* is the cornerstone. His *righteousness* and off of that, he builds according to plumb line, according to his righteousness. Everything is built in and through that. If it's built based on self righteousness, it's gonna burn.
It's not gonna stand the test of time. And so the foundation of our life is the righteousness of Christ Jesus just as he preached. The foundation of 2022 for real church is the righteousness of Christ Jesus. You understanding that you're a wine glass will make you go to his new wine, the presence of the Holy Spirit day in and day out. And to be filled up with that day in and day out.
Be to recognize what you have access access to and to seek after it when you understand your structure and you actually believe that. And just when you do that, what he was saying about milk and meat, I want all of you to eat meat. Meaning, the deeper things of the Lord. To to understand your I want all of because and here's the reason. Because there's a lot of Christians out there or a lot of unsaved people that need the milk of of Jesus.
Right.
That need the milk of the gospel. And I can't be the 1 that constantly shares it. What does a bride, a newly married bride do that has a baby? She eats meat, digests it, and then gives milk. Every Christian is called to get alone with God day in and day out, fill up, eat meat, and "give out milk".
You all are. You are all called to give out the milk of the gospel to everyone in your daily life. If you're not a Christian, you don't know Jesus, and the milk of the gospel is Jesus loves you. He died for you. By faith, understand, receive, and move forward in him as we impact Pinellas County in a way that is unfathomable for you right now.
But God's gonna use you to do
it, and it's gonna come through the foundation of this message for 2022.
Amen? Good word, Gabe. Powerful word. We're gonna close out. I don't want you to forget, and I wanna ask Chevy to come up and close us out.
I don't want you to forget, Friday nights, 07:30, we're gonna meet here and pray. And I want you to take time day in and day out to allow him to fill you with his, the wine of his presence. Make make, you know, usually we fast and pray. And I was praying about that. You can, I encourage you to fast if you'd like to fast?
But here's the fast that I want you to go on. I wanna encourage us as a body to go on when we fast and pray together. Fast, staying up that extra 30 minutes so that you can wake up 30 minutes earlier every single day to spend time in his presence for the month of January. I want my challenge to you as your pastor at real church is is wake up 30 minutes extra and spend 30 minutes a day in the word in prayer. Let that be your fast, and then show up on Fridays, and let's pray together at 07:30.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and 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.
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