You are invited to stop waiting for relationships to find you and instead intentionally build the connections that fuel your spiritual growth. It is time to lay down your need for control and trust Jesus as the true Lord of your life, even when it feels uncomfortable. Sign up for Establish tonight and invite Him to master every area of your heart.
Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Real Church. I'm gonna scoot this back because I'm probably gonna need this this space as I jump around all all over the place as I speak. 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, nothing I'd rather be doing. This is my beautiful wife, Isn't she amazing? Y'all Yeah. Didn't clap for me.
If this is your first time, we pray that you encounter the love of Jesus in a very real way. And, that not only do you encounter his love, but you choose to follow him as the Lord of your life. Because when you do that, you're left never the same. And, he begins to lead you towards all of the purposes that he created you for, and it's an absolute beautiful thing. Everybody that knows, say amen.
Amen. Amen. Okay. A couple little things before we get started. Number 1, the last couple weeks have been amazing.
Like, first, those of you that don't know, we had who I call my African dad. He's just like my American dad, except he's black and speaks, you know, with an accent, Ugandan accent. Yeah. He's awesome, doing amazing things. He leads he started 675 churches throughout Central And Eastern Africa, has a network of much larger than that.
He's doing, I mean, just a lot of fun stuff we're gonna be a part of in the future. 1 of the things we asked you guys to pray about and sacrificially give last week, to help him start a training center, which is gonna cost about $20,000. You guys were radically generous and gave 13,552. Come on. So, it's an honor to lead such a such a radically generous church, and and that will be a beautiful thing.
*Lord* willing, we'll be able to to get that started and going. And like I said, Lord willing, we'll we'll get to go in July and put the roof on the building so that they can have that training center, which will be multipurpose for them, which would be awesome. So start praying about if God's sending you to Uganda. Alright? Number 2.
Do you guys enjoy Diane and Todd Harrison? Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. The worship and prophecy night last Friday night was Friday before last, however you say that, was full of Jesus.
It was amazing. I mean, if you missed out, you missed out. I'm sorry. Come to the next 1. There will be more.
And and I'm just very thankful for how Diane, who is a prophetess. Right? There there are those in in scripture. There are those in the New Testament. There are those today.
And how healthy and real she is. And the way that she teaches and trains it, I'm thankful for Gabe raising up a prophetic team here where it can be healthy and accountable. You know, prophecy gets weird when it's not accountable. When people just start saying all kinds of words and don't wanna be held accountable and don't want to be submitted to a local church. That's where it gets weird.
But praise the Lord, we're we're raising up a healthy prophetic culture here. And so very thankful for Diane and Todd sowing into that and for for Gabe leading that in this in this church. Would you guys give Jesus a hand for what he's doing? Another thing, I hear this sentiment a lot by people that come from other churches and even people that have been at church for a while, whether in this church or they're in another church. They say, it's just so hard to get connected.
I'm just really having trouble getting connected. As your pastor, I wanna pull the rug out from under you because I love you. I want you to know that's a lie from the pit of hell. At Real Church, we want you to know that you will be as connected as you really wanna be. Yeah.
And don't play victim and blame everybody else for your lack of connection. Okay? Because that's not healthy. The way to get connected at Real Church, number 1, is to go through establish. You wanna understand the vision, the mission, the values of who we are, and and find your place and how you fit, how God has uniquely designed you to connect to this body of Christ, go through the process.
It's healthy. If you're not willing to go through the process, check your heart because it's probably a rebellious spirit. And come under what God wants to put over you so that you go through the process because the body submitting 1 to another is a healthy thing. If that causes you to feel uncomfortable, man, that's good. Lean into it.
Ask the Lord why. Repent and shift because God has uniquely created you to fit in to a local body, and it's probably not the 1 that you just really makes you feel the most comfortable. Because church isn't about what makes you feel good. It's about what makes you grow. And, you will only grow to the extent that you're connected, and connection happens in the context of relationships.
Everybody say relationships. Relationships. You can't just sit back and wait on relationships to come to you. You gotta be intentional about connecting to them. So, a lot most of the people that complain about not getting connected haven't been to establish, or they come for church on Sunday, they get here at 10:10, and they leave as soon as service is over.
And so, they're not creating opportunities in their life in order to "build relationships". They're not on a serve team, didn't go to a small group, and then they play the victim and say, why am I getting connected? That's because you're not creating opportunities for you to connect in relationships with other people. Makes sense? The best way to be connected is going to establish and getting on a serve team because you serve together, you stick together.
Getting in a small group and coming a little early and staying a little late, taking somebody to lunch, stepping outside of yourself to be intentional to build relationships. Because here's the deal, relationships are the currency of the kingdom. God wants to get something done, he does it through the context of relationships. And, there's stuff in people in this room that God will not speak to you except through them because he wants you to connect with them relationally. So, you're 1 relationship away from a deeper revelation of Jesus.
You're 1 relationship away from the next step in your calling. So, be on the lookout to listen and to hear and to lean in obediently outside of your comfort zone and to and to connect with the body of Christ. Because how can you really be healthily connected to the head unless you're connected healthily to the body? Yeah. Amen?
Amen. So, Yeah. If you love the church and you hadn't been through establish, it's tonight. Sign up. You can go on your phone.
You can go to the little Safari if you're an iPhone user. If you're not, I'm sorry. You need to get saved. I'm kidding. Realchurch.us, even the Android users, you're welcome.
The top right, level 3 hamburger, like hamburger thing or whatever it is, click on it, click connect, scroll down and click on establish. Sign up. You sign up by 01:00 today. You're welcome to come tonight. We'll get you the info.
We just wanna make sure we have enough food for you because there's food and childcare for free. So, we take away all of the excuses. The other thing, there's people that's been through Establish that don't feel connected, and it's because you haven't connected after going through Establish. We've every opportunity, serve teams, I mean, all kinds of stuff. There are people that have been going to this church for 2 years and are not as connected as people who's been going for 3 months because the people that were they've been coming for 3 months were intentional to build relationships with other people.
Be intentional and don't play victim. Amen. Amen? Amen. Is it okay if I just am straightforward and pastor you a little bit like that?
She's up here for a reason. Baby, you have anything to say on that? No? Was that too harsh? Too harsh.
That was a little harsh? I'm sorry. She said I was a little harsh. Look, I love you. I'm not I want what's best for you, and sometimes, as a pastor, I gotta tell you the truth so that it can cut away the junk, and you can be set free and walk in freedom.
Amen? Amen. If I was scared to tell you the truth, I'd just leave you bound up. Right? So, *Lord*, I thank you for these amazing people that you love, Lord, and they're sitting in this place for a reason.
If this is their local church, Lord, I pray whatever it takes for them to get connected. But, Lord, if they're sitting here just to hear that word so that they can go back to their local the local church you've called them to and to plug in hardcore and get rooted and connected there, so be it. Lord, I just want your kingdom to advance, whatever the cost, and that takes the giftings and talents and abilities that you've put in them. Lord, I thank you, and I pray you bless them in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Alright. So so she's up here for a reason, and that's because I've known for a long time that we would be speaking together and kind of co speaking. And, this is a message today. By the way, what I just said was was part of the message because it had some principles in there.
Amen? Okay. But moving forward, she has she has so much wisdom that God has given her on many subjects and specifically this subject that I didn't even ask her to prepare for this. I told her, I'll do all the prep. All I want you to do is when when you hear something and God starts to bubble up in you, you you wanna say something, just interrupt me, and I'll be quiet, and we'll all listen to the wisdom of God that's gonna pour out your mouth.
Okay? So you guys good with that? She's full of Jesus. Now, will ask you though, and I told her I was gonna ask her this, but I want you to hear it too. I I do need to set a little bit of a a foundation so we're on the same page.
So to hold off a little bit until after maybe the the first verse or so. I know. And then we'll we'll we'll run together. Fair enough? Okay.
So, we're in, still, the Corinthians series. You guys remember that? Yeah. Hallelujah. We've been in this series for well over a year.
We hit it from time to time, verse by verse. And actually, I want you to I want you to start by reading this passage. Remember, we warned you. This is probably at least a p g 13 message. So if you kid you hadn't had the sex talk with your kids, you're probably gonna wanna take them to children's church yesterday.
Okay? Alright. Here we go.
That's why that's why I told you to let me announce it because it was a little more dangerous.
Alright. Well, you gotta speak in your microphone so everybody can hear you. Okay. So, if you'll read *1 Corinthians-6:12* through 20, so we can have context for what we're talking about, and then we'll get going. Alright.
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both 1 and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes 1 body with her? For as it is written, the 2 will become "1 flesh", but he who is joined to the Lord becomes 1 spirit with him.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, So glorify God in your body.
Alright. You guys ready? Are you sure? Now, I'm I'm gonna lay a a bit of a foundation here on what Paul is talking about in the beginning where it says, in 1 Corinthians-6:12, it says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. The first parenthesis, all things are lawful for me, sometimes it's said all things are permissible for for me, and then Paul kinda responds.
It's like what the Corinthians were saying, hey, Paul, but all things are lawful for me, but all things are permissible. And then his response is, yeah, but not all things are beneficial. Okay? So in this, you have to understand that that Paul taught by the Holy Spirit** 2 things that the Corinthians understood to an extent but were getting wrong in the in the aspects how they lived it out in their daily life. And I want you to I wanna show you these 2 things, and these 2 things might be it might challenge some of your theology if you hadn't been coming to this church for a while, but don't believe me unless you see it in Scripture.
Okay? 1 of the things, the first thing that Paul taught is when you are born again, you have been freed from sin. As a Christian, you are and you have been freed from sin, and to say and declare anything else is ignorance, is is not understanding and is actually keeping you in in maturity, in immaturity, in your daily life, in your relationship with God. Ignorance means not knowing. Right?
The Bible says my people perish for lack of knowledge. I want to us to all get on the same page and then understand how to live that out healthily in our daily life. The first thing, you have been freed from sin. Let me show you in Scripture. Romans chapter chapter 6 and verse 7.
It says, for 1 who has died has been set free from sin. But, pastor, I thought I thought that meant like after we physically die, I'm finally set free from sin. No. That's not what it means. Let's look at it in context.
Like right before in verse 6, it says, we know that our old self was crucified with Christ, with him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For 1 who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. That's why the Bible says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
I died to sin when I gave my life to Jesus. Period. That's why when I explain baptism, I say it's a burial ceremony. When you go under the water, you're declaring, I'm no longer what everybody says about me, or even what I feel about myself. I am only who Christ says I am.
And when I come up out of the water, I'm raised to his new life going forward in what he says about me. Period. The old is gone. Dead to sin, and set free from it. The Bible says, he who the Son has set free is free indeed.
Where the Corinthians were getting it wrong and where many Christians get it wrong is you are set free from sin, not free to it. Free from sin, not free to it. For example, the the rest of Romans-6, it talks about being a you were once a slave to sin, but now you're a slave to righteousness. Think about it like this. You were a a slave to sin and free from righteousness.
Okay? Where you could choose before you were born again to do right things from time to time, but there was a chain that was always pulling you back to selfish to selfishness. Make sense? Now, when you gave your life to Jesus, that chain was chopped off, and you became a slave to righteousness, born right, born of God with the very nature of your heavenly Father. So you are free from sin, and in being free from sin, you have the freedom to choose.
So you can choose sin from time to time. I wouldn't recommend it. But you will always be, because of your new nature in Christ, pulled back to the relationship with Jesus, pulled back to to righteousness. And if you continue to try to act outside of who you are, you're going to feel ripped up and cut up because you're acting opposite of who you are in Christ. I'm gonna show you this.
You've seen it before, but I'm gonna show you in the context of this. Right? This shoe is created in the image of my foot. This shoe is not my foot, just like you were created in the image of God, but you are not God. That lie of culture that says, you know, we're all it's a lie.
It's you're not God. This shoe would love to run, jump, dance, do all kinds of amazing cool stuff because it was created to do those things. But, without surrendering to the foot, receiving the foot, being filled by the foot, and completely surrendering to it, it's going to suck at life. It's not going to be able to do everything that it was called to do. Many people are living that way, have all of these purposes and desires they want to do, but are not feeling fulfilled because they're not living surrendered.
But then, when the shoe finally, hopefully, *surrenders*, allows the foot to completely fill it and completely surrenders to the foot. Now, it's able to run, jump, jump, dance, do all all of the things that it was originally wanting to do as empowered by the foot. You are called and created to surrender, to be completely filled by the presence of the Holy Spirit* and to surrender to God*. And to the extent that you do, that's the extent you will experience *freedom* in your life. Yeah.
If the the the shoe only partially surrenders to the foot because usually, *God*'s not gonna force himself in your life. Say usually. God's not because because he would break the shoe. The foot would break the shoe. So, if the shoe only partially surrenders, now it can only partially do everything that it was created to do, and it feels hindered.
Why? Because it's hindered by its lack of surrender. With greater surrender comes greater freedom, not less. With less surrender comes less freedom, not more. Jesus is your Lord, and as you surrender to His Lordship, you experience greater freedom in your life.
Does that make sense? So, you are free from sin, not free to it. Now the other aspect that is important for this foundation, remember in 1 Corinthians-6:12, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful, not all things are beneficial. First, Paul taught by the Holy Spirit**, so it was Jesus teaching through Paul that we're free from sin. But 2, he taught this.
We're free from the law. The Corinthians took this thought and said, well, all things are lawful for me. Let me explain. Let me show you. Free from the law.
*Romans-7. And you can find it in Galatians, you can find it in Corinthians, you can find it in most of the letters, but what do I mean by free from the law? Romans-7* and verse 4. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
But now, we are released from the law. Everybody say released from the law. Released from the law. Having died to that which held us captive, so that we may serve in the new way of the spirit. Say, new way of the spirit.
New way of the spirit. And not in the old way of the written code. So the law, the purpose of the Mosaic law was to bring out our sin more, to bring out those passions. And just a a a reminder, an example of that is if you have a group of kids walking to school by mister Jones' garden and its gorgeous garden, they're probably not gonna recognize the garden because they're talking about what's going on. No big deal.
But as soon as mister Jones puts a sign up that says, don't touch my tomatoes, those 8 and 9 year olds, what are they gonna do? Hey, I dare you to touch the tomato. Hey, get that tomato and throw it against his house. The law brings out the rebellion in the heart and reveals the need for a savior, reveals that there's a sinful nature that needs to be dealt with, the person needs to be dealt with. Do you understand?
Free from the law. Now free from the law, but still a slave to obedience. We are now under not the written code, but we're under the law of the spirit. Everybody say law of the spirit. Law of the spirit.
Who gives life. Who gives life. Right. So when you're born again, he puts the Holy Spirit** inside of you, gives you a new heart, and by the Holy Spirit, writes his law on your heart and leads you day in and day out and empowers you to live that out. And the Holy Spirit's the very 1 that wrote the old Mosaic Law.
So don't you think that he's going to lead you over and above it That's right. Yeah. And empower you to live that way? Yeah. For instance, the old law said, don't commit adultery.
*Holy Spirit*'s never gonna lead you to commit adultery. You can't say, well, I'm not I'm free from the law, so I don't have to what? That's so much junk. It's kinda what the Corinthians were doing. No.
No. No. The Holy Spirit**'s not only gonna not cause you or lead you to commit adultery. He's actually gonna lead you to bless that other man's marriage, to be thankful for the wife that He gave you, and to help to counsel other marriages so that they don't commit adultery. He's not gonna lead you to lie.
He's gonna lead you to tell the truth and teach others not to lie. He's not gonna lead you to dishonor your parents. He's gonna lead you to honor your parents and go outdo 1 another and honoring each other. The Holy Spirit** will empower you not just to fulfill this, but in you will lead you above it to the very intentions reflecting the character and nature of your Creator. You guys follow me?
Almost done with my foundation, baby. Okay. So, 1 Corinthians-6. The the Corinthians are saying, well, all things are lawful for me, and you hear how they get it from what Paul was teaching. Right?
They were confusing some stuff about freedom from sin and freedom from the law. But Paul said, but not all things are beneficial, guys. See, there is sin that people get stuck in. The Holy Spirit** will only lead you to do things that are beneficial for His kingdom and beneficial for your life in His kingdom. And the sin that's not beneficial, let's say, for example, sexual immorality, sex outside of marriage is never beneficial for His kingdom or for your life.
Right? Being a a lack of soberness, like drunkenness, drugs, getting high, it's never beneficial for your life. Never. So the Holy Spirit** will never ever lead you to do things that are not beneficial for his kingdom and not beneficial for your life in his kingdom, not beneficial for relationships in a healthy way towards His kingdom. So, every sin that's not beneficial, the Holy Spirit is going to cut out of your life and say, give it to me.
I paid for that. Stop it. It's ripping your life to shreds. Amen? Amen.
The other thing that they were messing messing up with is they would say, all things are lawful for me. Right? So I can I can do anything? And Paul took it a step further. He said, yeah.
But I will not be mastered or dominated by anything. Meaning, not just the things that are not beneficial. No. You can even take something that's beneficial and then overindulge in it such that you're mastered by it. And as soon as you become mastered by something beneficial, that, it becomes sin.
Because now, you have a different lord* of your life* and an area of your life that is preventing you from experiencing the full *freedom* that comes with *surrender* to the *Holy *Spirit. So if I'm mastered by something, it looks like my my my foot is only half in my shoe in that area of my life. So I'm preventing the full freedom of running and dancing and jumping in that area of my life. When I'm supposed to surrender fully to the Holy Spirit even in that area of my life. Practical example, and then I'll turn it over to my beautiful wife.
For me, just real practically, I God made me fast caffeine for 24 hours before preaching this message because that was an area of my life that was in danger I was in danger of being mastered by. Caffeine's beneficial. It's beneficial for for Americans. I mean, shoot. We we a lot of Americans, 80% of Americans live off of caffeine day in and day out.
But, when you become so mastered by it that you can't be at peace without it, it has become the lord of your energy. And anything that becomes Lord over something will become more and more and more important in your life until it eventually kills you. Jesus wants to be the only Lord of your life. So in any area where I've been mastered by something or am in danger of getting that way, the Holy Spirit** brings it to the surface, I fasted. Food, another example of something you can be mastered by.
Like, food is beneficial. I need food to live. But how many of know that you can love food so much that it becomes your comfort? You can love food so much that instead of empowering you to do your purpose, it actually prevents you from doing your purpose in your fifties, sixties, and seventies because of how it mastered you in your thirties and forties. And now when you're supposed to go on a mission trip when you're 60 years old, you can't go on a mission trip because you weren't disciplined to hold food in its rightful place under the Lordship of Jesus.
Instead, you continually gave yourself to it and were mastered by it, and it it killed you before you were ready. In every area of your life, we wanna be disciplined disciples of Jesus and only do what's beneficial as led by the Holy Spirit**, and never let anything that's beneficial master us except the Holy Spirit. Amen? Yes, ma'am. What are your thoughts?
So the only instructions I was given is, hey, we're gonna talk like we talk at the kitchen table. So, this is our kitchen table.
This this is it. This is the kitchen table. Okay. But, at the kitchen table, usually, like, she's she's probably got so much. That's why I asked her.
Because a lot of times, man, she'll just start pouring out truth, and I'm like, I wanna get the whole story out. So, anyway.
Yeah. So, this is something, this verse in 6, what is it? 6 12? Yeah. Chapter 6 verse 12 is also in 1 Corinthians-10:23, and it says, everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is lawful, but not everything is good for building up. Like, do you hear the the kingdom talk? Like, it's it's not benefit like, I have a plan, and I wanna use you for that plan. Is what you're doing taking to center stage in your life for you to be able to do what I've asked you to do, for you to build up, for you to honor, for you to be able to follow through with the mission that I've given you. And this is near to me in that verse.
It actually wasn't this 1. It was the 10 23 that the Lord, like, solidified in my heart when it came to eating, exercise, and fitness. All good things. Like, we need to be healthy and strong. We need good nutrients.
We need to eat, but I had kinda become a little obsessed with it back in I don't know if people say this still, but back in the gap, that's what I say. And, I was constantly watching everything, and paying so close attention to everything that it had consumed every second of my life, and and exercise, and and supplements, and all of that. All great things. Not bad, it is lawful, and it's okay for me to have that as a part of my life. But because it had gotten so heavy, I was sitting on the couch, and this had been years of this.
I was sitting on the couch, I had just had my third kid, I was tired, and I was like, God, what do you think about this? And I learned since then, like, that's a beautiful question to ask God if you're ready for him to answer you and you're willing to be obedient. Like, what how do you feel about this? Like, I ask him all the time because I care what he thinks about what I do. I'll be like, hey, what do you think about this?
What are what is your opinion on this? I asked God, and it was like he just laid out this beautiful picture of, hey, these things are good for you, and and you're kind of consumed with them. I created your temple for a reason. You get 1, that's all you get, to fulfill the call I've given you on this earth. You know, we're gonna get new bodies in heaven.
This is the only time that we can steward this 1. And so, that all just came just almost instantly, and I was broken of the bounds of that. But then, because, like you said, now he's called me to a higher standard of positioning everything before him, laying everything on the altar, Lord, what do you want me to do with this thing? Fill in the gap. And, it set me free, but it also called me higher.
Does that make sense? I ask that a lot because I wanna make sure I'm clear.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, this is "near and dear" to my heart, and and I learned that when it came to fitness, and and eating and all of those things. And I started applying it in everything, like, in in how I entertainment is another 1. Like, hey, it's okay to to be entertained. It's okay to watch TV or to listen to music or listen to podcasts, but is it beneficial to what God has called us to?
We can tend to get really religious about it and and almost take that and turn it into an idol, but instead, we should be open to what the Lord is instructing us to do and have everything on the altar ready for him to burn up.
That's right. We we watch TV together, but if it ever becomes a a distraction from our calling, God will call us to fast it.
Or "turn it off" completely.
Or turn it off completely. Social media is so beneficial. It's amazing. It can be a great tool used to engage culture with the love of Jesus. But as soon as it becomes a distraction from my calling and prevents me from going getting my word or or, you know, distracting me from relationships that God's put in my life, God asked me to fast it.
Why? Because he wants me affectionate for him first. And and he wants me to commune with him only. Let's let's keep going in in scripture so that we can talk about what it's talking about here because all of this is relating to the same principles. Verse 13, you know, they would say, food is meant for the stomach and stomach for the food, meaning my body, specifically, in the context here, is meant for sex and and sex for my body.
So so why can't I just do it when I feel like it? Didn't God give me these urges? Well, what Paul say? And God will destroy both 1 and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
So the culture of sexual immorality that is in America is satanic. It's not from God. And you don't need to shack up with your girlfriend in order to see if she's right before you marry her. That's not the culture of the kingdom of heaven. Stay pure.
And if you haven't been, praise the Lord, it's time to repent, change. God will set you free and move forward because watch what the dangers of not doing it are. And God raised the Lord and will raise you up by his power. Verse 15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I then take members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that 1 that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes 1 body with her? For as as it is written, the 2 will become 1 flesh. So when you have sex with somebody, whether they're your spouse or someone else, you God created it in such a way that you're becoming 1.
And so whatever is a part of her or him is going to affect you physically. Now, the detriments of that, just real practically, sexual STDs, you know, sexually transmitted diseases. Whatever you are affectionate for and commune with will produce fruit in your life. So if you're physically, you're affectionate for somebody and commune with that person, if it's a man and a woman, it will produce a baby. Right?
*Communion* is designed to produce fruit. So so there will be that, and there are bad consequences of having sex and having a baby outside of marriage because there's not a healthy dad and a healthy mom to raise the the kid as is as is supposed to be. But then also, emotionally, you're becoming 1 with her. So whatever is affecting her emotionally, there's a supernatural connection that it will begin to affect you emotionally even if it's a 1 night stand. Right?
Whatever's affecting her spiritually or him spiritually will begin to affect you spiritually because you're becoming 1. God created that kind of oneness to represent his relationship with us. Right? Because what does it say next? But he who is joined to the Lord becomes "1 spirit" with him.
When we give our life to Jesus, it's like we're becoming married with Jesus. And he puts his spirit inside of us. Our spirits are in communion becoming 1, which is beautiful. Now, it's a process of renewing our mind and disciplining our body to get in line with the leading of the Holy Spirit that's in communion with our spirit. As we learn to commune with the Holy Spirit in every aspect of our life, communion produces fruit.
We experience fruit of the Holy Spirit** in every aspect of our life. And that's why a physical physical communion with people that are not your spouse, it will produce bad fruit in your life. It's never okay. It's sin, and it must stop. Otherwise, you're allowing your life you're opening your life up to the demonic, you're allowing your life to get cut up by sin, and you're exposing yourself to all kind of emotional pain and hurt.
The beautiful thing is, if this has been your past, even up to 10 minutes well, an hour and a half 2 hours ago. Anyway This is real church. Real church. Repentance means changing your mindset and turning. And the beautiful thing is the blood of Jesus Christ can break all evil connections, all consequences of sin.
Right? Can break it and wash it away so that you can experience full freedom as a new creation moving forward.
Yeah. I was thinking of repentance in that, and I was like, this can sound really condemning if this is where you've been, or if, you know, in the past, you've connect you you have had sexual immorality with someone, and and, oh my goodness, this is gonna continue affecting me. I love the picture of of repentance in scripture is very much like, we're the ones that turn from God. Right? Like, God never turns away from us.
Like, God is always like this. Like, I'm here. Like, I want you to turn back to me, and I want to pick you up, and I wanna walk with you. And sometimes, I'm gonna I'm gonna be like, hey, I'm putting you down, and I'm gonna hold your hand, and I want you to take those steps forward. And I love that we can repent, turn to him, and he's not like, you screwed up too much.
Like, you you have the life that you've lived is so far removed from what I've called you to, like, you you are too far gone. He doesn't do that. He's like this, and he's waiting, just like the the story of the prodigal son where he's like, the father saw when he was a long way off, and he was like, hey, I'm "running to you" because I'm excited that you've turned to me. Isn't that a beautiful picture of repentance? So, if you've been walking in these sinful things, fill in the blank on sinful things.
If you've been walking in them, you can turn right this second with your heart, and say, okay, Lord, this is on the altar now, burn it up and make me look more like you.
Amen. So so verse 17, I've already we've already read, but he who has joined the Lord becomes 1 spirit with him. Verse 18, flee from sexual immorality. Don't make excuses for it.
That means haul, tail, and run.
Haul, tail, and run. Louisiana that's Louisiana right there for you.
I even I've I've like, I don't want to slip into any kind of sexual immorality, so I put up big old barriers, like, around my life, so that I don't even have to I don't want to have to struggle. Like, there's a lot of weight that comes with struggling with sin, and so I put up like major barriers in my life for this, and I'm like For example You want an example? Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, they're probably wondering.
Okay. Now, this can seem a little extreme to some people, but if we're watching This is something I started doing when I was a teenager because I was so, like, I I wanna be pure. I wanna live a pure life for the Lord. So when I'm watching a TV show or a movie, and I see actors kissing, well, I know that they're probably not married because they're actors, and I don't watch. And I'm not saying that y'all have to do this, but I'm like, I don't wanna watch somebody kissing that's like not even married.
Like, that's just not enjoyable to me, and I'm like, I don't wanna slip into like desiring the romance of what I'm seeing on TV, and the excitement that could possibly come from those kinds of things. I'm just like, is it really a big deal to look away? Is it a big deal to not watch a show because it's filled with all this junk? Is it am I really sacrificing a whole lot with my entertainment?
And, I can feel some of the thoughts, are you prudes or are something like that? Let me
I'm okay if you call me a prude, I really don't care, I'm pure.
Look, we we have grown, and I say for for me specifically, grown in purity over time as I grow in my communion with the Lord. So, you know, I can't believe I'm saying this. But, you know, 15 years ago, I'm 21, 22, 23 years old, I used to like Family Guy. It's a terrible show. I mean, it's terrible.
I used to laugh at it. And then, 1 day, the Holy Spirit** said, hey, I read that verse about coarse joking and that it's not okay in my life. And so then I'm I'm As I repented of it personally, now I'm watching it on TV. If what I'm watching is influencing my thoughts, then it's probably gonna come out my mouth. And the Holy Spirit's like, hey, you gotta stop that.
So, yes, Lord. So, the Holy Spirit** will you will grow in as you commune with the Lord, personally, you get alone with him in your word and prayer, he will ask you to take off that next barrier so he can get his foot in your shoe a little bit more and and give you more freedom in every area of your life. Am I missing out because I'm not watching Family Guy anymore? No. Actually, my mouth's a whole lot more pure.
There's a lot more there's a lot less awkward situations and dirty jokes coming out my mouth. Right? And have been, praise the Lord, for at least a decade, 12, maybe longer. Who knows how long? Fifth I don't know.
Anyway, just saying that as you commune with the Lord, the Holy Spirit** will show you what's beneficial and and only do that and cut away the unbeneficial things, but then also what's beneficial and is mastering your life and what to do with that. It says, verse 19, or you do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within whom you have wait. Within you. Yeah. Whom you have from God.
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, command, glorify God with your body. So, we do sexually, nonsexually, in every aspect of a body, this the principles are the same. The Bible says actually, Jesus said that he gives the Holy Spirit "without limit". Jesus gives the Holy Spirit without limit.
You know, like, woah. Why am I so limit? Why don't I'm I'm not experiencing the Holy Spirit** in my life as much as that guy or that guy. Well, 2 Corinthians-6:12 says that you're limited by your affections, restricted by your affections. So the things that you're affectionate for that are not what he's affectionate for or what he's designed you to be affectionate for, those things are the things that are limiting the Holy Spirit in your life.
Why? Because once again, He's not gonna usually break through what you don't want Him to break through. He wants you to willingly choose Him to be Lord over every area of your life and give him your affections and cut off the affections even if your flesh likes them that are not of him so that you can be fully surrendered because only full surrender experiences full freedom. Yeah. You got something else?
I just had a full thought.
Go ahead.
So we we hear lots of terminology about straddling the fence on on, like, the things that we're like, this is probably not something God wants me to do, but like, it's okay. Right? Like, it's not it's not that bad. Has anyone here ever had that thought? Yeah.
Y'all be honest. It's real church. You can't lie in church. So, we're we're straddling the fence of And, I just had a memory, and sometimes my my face shows what I'm thinking, and Dave's like, do you wanna talk? And, I'm like, oh, okay.
So, if we're straddling the fence on, okay, God, like, *holiness* is over here, and then we're like, we're just kinda like leaning on the fence a little bit, like, this isn't that bad. And I mean, I know Christians that do this, and I I've I've had that thought before, like, there are other Christians that do this. Like, it's it's not It's technically not a sin. That word technically will get us in trouble every day. It's technically not a sin.
If you have kids, and your kids are like, it's technically not disobeying if I x y z, and you're a mama, you're like
Just the
fact that you thought that, like, need to fix your mind because technically, it'll get you in trouble. But if you're leaning on the fence, like, you can't forget that satan owns the fence. Like, he wants you leaning on the fence. He wants you peering over and being like, I'm gonna just gonna tiptoe into this a little bit. God will forgive me tomorrow.
Right? His mercies are new every day. Right? No. Where is our heart in that?
And the thought that I had when you were like, Courtney, what are you thinking? Uh-oh. Was fleeing from temptation, and I looked back and I happened to see Deasia, and I thought about When I was pregnant with River a couple of years ago, we went to a to a lake, and we're walking around this lake, and there's like gators everywhere. And and then, I'm looking out we're watching this gator, we hear them bellowing, it's dusk, there's like no 1 there, and there's like a lot of gators. And then, this 1 gets up on its feet like this.
We're on a walkway, and he's on what I thought was water, but it was like only this much water. And I look, we're having a great probably a holy conversation, everything is great, and that sucker is running this way, and I'm talking like fast speed, like warp speed coming. And my brain just turned into, "get away". And I love you, Deasia, but I did not care about you in that moment. I needed to get my baby and me away.
And you can ask her.
Can can you show us what that was like?
I I Angie says that it didn't happen because I didn't film it. I was running for my life. Okay? And I have never run faster in my life, because I was like, he's a good distance away, like, we can outrun him. There's a barrier between us now, but like, if he cuts us off at the pass, we're screwed.
So, I turned around, and I didn't look back. I don't know how long he chased us. I don't know that Deja saw this thing running after us. All I know is I was running, and she was like, Courtney's running, I'm running, and so she's running after me. And I didn't stop.
I didn't stop to look back. I just barreled through big pregnant. I get there, I'm like, I'm gonna have this baby that's 7 months pregnant. And I get there, and I'm like, didn't get us. Like, as I'm running, I'm not just running straight, I'm looking at trees to climb.
Like, I'm I am focused on getting out of there, and that's how we should be with those temptations of sin, where it's like, flee from sexual immorality. Flee from sinful things. Don't even tiptoe into them because God is so good. He wants to set us free from them, and I want my mind so far removed from the gator. I want my body so far removed from the gator that I don't have to worry about him to when I can stop, I can rest and be like, got away.
Amen. So that's what went through my head.
So so, that was good. Let's let's close this way. I wanna ask you all to stand. You guys remember that? I will build my life Mhmm.
Upon your word. It is a "firm foundation". I will put my trust in you alone. I will not be shaken. Maybe there's aspects that you've not let him be the Lord of your life in because you didn't trust him in his goodness in that area.
You trusted your ability to control it. Hey, it's time to really let that go. Or there's Maybe the Holy Spirit** brought things to the surface as I'm speaking that have mastered you. It's time to fast those things or put them away completely in order to demonstrate that your affections are only for the Lord, So you can experience the full freedom of him in every area of your life. If they're beneficial, praise the Lord.
Bring them back. But you want to only be mastered by Jesus. Yeah. Amen? Amen.
So let's if Jesus is your Lord, I just want you to lift your hands as a sign to his like, you're surrendering to his lordship. And I want you to bring whatever it is, if there is something that doesn't have to be, that comes to mind. And and I want you to say, Jesus. Jesus. You are my Lord.
You are my Lord. I give this to you.
I give this
I ask you to show me. I ask you to show me. How to follow you. How In this area. In this area.
And I dedicate my life. To And I dedicate following you. I will not be mastered by it. I will not be it. Because I'm mastered by you.
Because I'm mastered by you. And even if you want me to give it all to you. And if you want give to And never go back in this area to it again. You're my Lord. I *trust* you.
Let's just sing this together. And I will build my upon your. It is a firm foundation. I will put my *trust* in you alone. Come on.
1 more time as a declaration in that area with all your heart. I will build my