You are invited to view the testimonies of others as your own heritage, trusting that God desires to do the same supernatural work in your life. When the Holy Spirit prompts you to share your faith, overcome the hesitation and step out in obedience, even if it feels uncomfortable. Ask God today how He wants you to respond, and be willing to lay down your own preferences to follow His lead.
Amen. Okay. So we we have been in a series. Actually, this is part 2 of the series. Series titled testimonies.
I'm really excited about it. I think the rest of this series is gonna be very impactful because you're going to get to hear some testimonies of what God is doing in and through quite a few amazing mighty men and women of God over the next few weeks. But I I thought it important in order you know, for for last week, us to be on the same page as to what a testimony is. So I'll just take a moment to remind you of of what a testimony is. We we learned last week that a testimony is a written or spoken record of the the what God has said or what God has done throughout history.
And if he said it, because he's a supernatural God, it was supernaturally spoken. And if he did it, it was supernaturally done. Therefore, more succinctly, a testimony, as it says on the screen, is a written or spoken spoken record of the **supernatural working** of God. Amen? So we we know that a witness plays an intricate part of a testimony because, a witness is someone with a testimony.
And a witness had to have witnessed the supernatural working of God. So when they share a testimony, they're sharing about what God did. A testimony is not necessarily your story. It's the story of what God did in through or to or around your life. But in order to be a witness you had to it had to be a encounter, personal encounter.
You had to have experienced it to share about what God did for like secondhand information not you personally experienced it. You that means you're not a witness you're just a it's just a second secondhand information. Amen? So we want to be witness. We want to encounter the supernatural working of God because we have a personal *relationship* and then witness, share it as testimony so that others can can it can ignite faith in them for the same thing to happen in their lives.
Amen? Okay. And then we we talked about the purpose of testimony. Now I really want you to get this 1 deep down in your soul. Like, I really want you to understand this, the purpose of testimony.
In Psalm chapter 1 19 verse 1 11, we pull that up. It says, your testimonies are my heritage forever. This is a little bit of a review, but I'm reviewing on purpose because I want it to be deep. Your testimonies are my heritage forever for they are the joy of my heart. A heritage.
What is a heritage? It's something transmitted, something given to an heir. Okay? And we know if you're born again, if you follow Jesus, that you are an heir of God. So anytime that you hear a testimony of what God has done supernaturally in someone's life or actually anytime you read this testimony of Jesus Christ, because that's what it is.
What you're reading is your heritage. What you're reading is what God wants to do in and through and to and around your life. Now David, who wrote this King David who wrote it, he said, they are the joy of my heart. See, lot of times when we hear testimony, we say, oh, that's good for you. Oh, that's awesome that it happened to you.
But there's no, wait a second. That could happen to me, or that's what God wants to do in my life. Well, David understood, and that's what I'm trying to communicate to you that the testimony of God's supernatural working is your heritage. It is what God wants to do in, through, into your life. See, God is no respecter of persons.
He doesn't value me more than he values you. So if he did it in my life, he will do it in yours if you're willing. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, today, and forever. So if he did it in my life back in the day, then he'll he can and will and wants to do it in yours tomorrow. Your testimony, the testimony of your supernatural working in history is your heritage.
Amen? So David said, joy of my heart, what he did is he honored them. What you honor multiplies. What you dishonor dwindles. So when I hear about the supernatural working of God in someone's life, maybe God used them to help win somebody for Jesus, or maybe God used them to help pray for somebody and something as small as a headache was healed, or when maybe something major amazing happened, a financial miracle or this, that, and the other, maybe it was just the supernatural peace of God in the midst of a circumstance where they should be freaking out.
I don't wanna dishonor something that I say, well, you know, that's not my preference. No. I wanna honor everything that is that is God miraculously supernaturally working in someone's life because I know as I honor it, that very thing will multiply in mine because I'm I'm I have a posture of faith towards it. Recognizing that that supernatural working of God in their life is what God wants to do in mine. You guys follow me.
Another definition of *heritage* is someone that occupies a territory and and transmits it or gives it to a predecessor. Someone someone that's occupying a territory and trans transmits it or a predecessor, someone that's occupying a territory and and sorry. Giving it to someone else. So heritage would mean then that if I'm occupying this territory in the Lord because I've been walking with him maybe a little bit longer than you have or you're occupying a territory in the Lord, you've been occupying it a little longer than I have. When you share about God's blessing or God's *miracle* or God's working in through or to your life, what you are doing is you're showing me, you're transmitting to me something that you've been walking in before me.
And if I honor it and I I I receive it by faith, I'm acquiring from you something that God's doing in you or through you or to you or around you that God wants to do in me. It's very important how you hear testimony. Do you understand? You guys follow me?
Yes.
Okay. That's why we're doing this series, Because I want you to see how God is moving, how God is impacting people's lives in real ways in their daily life. And I want you to understand by faith that God can do and wants to do the same stuff in your life. I'll share a quick testimony before I call up our first person. Yesterday yesterday, I'm walking out of my office in the backyard.
I'm gonna go check the mail. So I opened the gate, and I look and there's a guy standing in my yard. You know? He's on the the little manhole cover thing. And and, so I walk out and I'm like, okay.
So I walk out to the to the mailbox. I just say, hey, man. How you doing? He's like, I'm I'm doing good. He said, I'm just waiting on a a friend of mine to come pick me up.
He said, you know, I can I can get out? I said, no. It's no problem. You know? What's your name?
His his name was Eddie. Man, Eddie, it's nice to meet you. It's awesome. So I go and I I pick up the the newspaper. I'm sorry, guys.
I don't read the newspaper anymore, so I will throw it away. And I felt in my heart, had a thought in my mind to tell him Jesus loved him. Well, immediately, there was a second thought. The second thought was, oh, he's that's not really gonna matter. You know?
Well, there's always a second thought when God speaks, and it's usually, did God really say? It's the same thing God said to Adam and Eve. Right? It's usually something to prevent you from doing that. Well, I recognize that.
So I just woke up to him and said, hey, man. Eddie, I just want you to know, I felt in my heart that that Jesus really loves you a lot. He's like, you know, I believe that. And he started talking about his beliefs. And, you know, I've been to church, this, that, and the other.
And I just asked him, I said, well, do you know Jesus? Do you have a relationship with him? And he's like, I believe about him. I said, just to be frank with you, my friend, like and I said it kindly. I wasn't and even demons believe about him.
You know? I said, but but there's a difference in believing about him and knowing him. And I said, do you know, do you know what it means to be born again? He said, no. I said, well, look, I know you're waiting on your friend.
Do you do you mind if I share why I think Jesus is so important? And he says, no, it's fine. And it's usually how I do it. It's it's permission based. Right?
I I ask if they want me to keep going. You know, that kind of thing. He said, yeah, sure. So I shared, look, man. I was depressed, insecure, and full of pride.
3 things before Christ. Man, and I had an encounter with Christ, and it turned me from depression to full of joy, insecurity to confidence in who he says that I am, and from pride to to understanding how to love others, instead of just loving myself and learning how to love others more than myself. So, man, that's Jesus. It's real. And I shared the gospel with him real quick, like, 3 minutes.
I said, man, you you do you wanna like, it's it's all about it's not just about believing Jesus died and rose again. Demons believe that too, but it's about confessing him as the lord of your life saying, I've been living for me, but I wanna follow you. And I invite you into my life. You wanna do that? Yeah.
So we grab hands right there in the by my mailbox. The dude is born again. You know? It's awesome. It's a big deal.
Praise the Lord. Yay. You're not praising me. You're praising what Jesus did. This is a testimony of what Jesus did in and through me.
It's awesome. Why why do I tell you that? Do do I know whether or not that seed that went in there, in that ground will produce fruit? Or if that was just an emotional experience for him? Or No.
I have no idea. I just know God told us to sow seed, to go and make disciples. So I'm gonna do that. I invited him to church today, invited him to our our our following Jesus 1 on 1 thing. It's amazing thing.
But what I know is you are all commissioned to do the same thing. Every 1 of you. If you follow Jesus, you're commissioned to do the same thing. And you can't say, oh, well, that's not my personality because we no longer live for ourself anymore. Right?
It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So I want you to know, my brother and my sister, even if you've always been timid, the spirit of boldness is inside of you the Holy Spirit and God this week is gonna put people in your life you're gonna remember the story that I just shared and if you received it and honored it today man, the Holy Spirit's gonna gonna challenge you to go tell them Jesus loved them, to go pray for them. And then you're gonna have the opportunity to reject it or to walk in it. And I would encourage you to walk in it. And here's here's my here's my thing.
If you reject it, here's what I want you to do. Therefore, there's now no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus. Lord God, thank you that I'm forgiven. Lord, I repent. Help me to do it the next time.
And then the next time, if you reject it, *Lord God*, help me to do it the next time. You know how many times that I've ignored that little still small voice? Too many. But praise the Lord. I'm I'm I'm getting better at hearing it and sharing Jesus with others.
Amen? Amen? Amen. Praise the Lord. You guys, man, God's gonna use you to impact so many people and it's gonna be so fun.
But I've I've went too long with my testimony. I want to call Daniel Mannix. Would you come up? Would you guys give Daniel a "big old" hand? I think your mic is right back there, brother.
But this is gonna be awesome, by the way. Daniel is 1 of our trustees. He's a investor. He's, I think he's a partner at a firm or or?
Not yet. Well, you're speaking prophetically.
I'm I'm in Jesus name. In Jesus name. Daniel is also on our speaking team and man, just full of Jesus. I love this mighty man of God. And so it's about testimony.
So I'm gonna give him the floor for a little bit. And I I just want to hear, and I haven't heard this story yet, so it's gonna be fresh. But I wanna hear a written or spoken record of the supernatural working of God in your life, brother. What's God been doing?
Well, thanks for having me, number 1.
Of
course. Thank you all for being here. Praise God. He's good. Right?
Somebody give God a
hand. Come on.
You give me a hand for coming up here. Let's give God a hand. Amen. So when you asked me originally when you told me about this, you said, so what's a miraculous thing that God has done in your life? Mhmm.
And the teacher in me automatically went to salvation. Right? Of course. I was like, well, there's this little thing that he rose me from death to life. Yeah.
There's there's that. So after we laughed about that for a second, he said, okay. Well, decide salvation. What what has he done?
Which is the biggest 1.
Of course. Yeah. Amen. That's the the biggest miracle God will work in anyone's life. It's you from death to life.
Amen. I mean, never become numb to that. Amen. That's amazing. My mind went to so many different places.
*God*'s worked healings in my life, and the people around me have seen incredible things. I mean, we can do that some other time.
Sure.
So many different, you know, prophetic gifts and all these amazing things that God has weaved throughout my life. But 1 area of my life specifically that I have seen him be very consistent in is in my career.
Come on.
He has positioned me in a way that I didn't expect. I never thought to be where I am right now, and and thank God it's just the beginning. He's he's got me, you know, in places going forward. But 1 thing that he has woven throughout that career has been he qualifies the unqualified. Okay?
The whole Bible is full of unqualified people. Right? I mean, it's all a band of misfits. It's all people that have screwed up. It's all people that are the least of these.
It's *God* calling people who are cowards courageous, God calling weak people strong.
Who's 1 that comes to mind?
Gideon. Gideon would be 1, right? Peter, who is such a wavering person, he says, You are the rock. Yeah. There are so many examples in the Bible of people constantly failing and God saying, I am not focusing on your failure.
I'm focusing on your future.
Come on.
And you have a future in me.
And and but we we so often wanna focus on our failure and be informed by our past instead by faith and what God says.
And there's 1 that speaks that failure into you. Right? The enemy. I mean, he will consistently remind us of our failures, as opposed to focusing on the future that we have in Christ. We all have a future if you're in Christ.
That's good.
So, if I just go all the way back to the beginning, I mean, I'm about to graduate college. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I know I have a finance degree. I'm about to have a finance degree, and I didn't even know what that meant exactly. I just was like, Well, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that, so let's do that.
Let's do finance.
Yeah.
And I'm trying to figure out, do I want to get an MBA, right, a Masters in Business Administration, or do I want to get a CFA, a Chartered Financial Analyst designation? This designation is the gold standard in finance. Mhmm. It's it's looked as highly, if not more, than a Harvard MBA or a Wharton MBA, let's
So an MBA would be like an entrepreneur type?
It's something that sets you up to be able to go into all different spheres of finance. Sure. If you go to an Ivy League school for an MBA, you basically have people waiting for you when you graduate to give you a job on Wall Street doing X, Y, and Z.
Okay.
So, right. So, but guess what? You have to take off work. You know, this is the beginning of the great financial crisis. I'm graduating with a finance degree in 2008.
Yeesh. It's not very good timing, okay?
*Faith* steps, I guess.
Right. So it's like, do I go that route and continue on in school and not work for 2 years and get probably 150 to $200 in debt, or do I get this designation that can be looked as highly upon and continue to work? Mhmm. So I'm praying about it. I'm talking to people about it.
And 1 day I'm praying about it, and I get a thought in my head that I need to talk to my professor, Doctor. Antia.
Mhmm.
Okay? So there's 1 or 2 routes you can go there. You can just ignore it, or you can ask God. Yeah. So I said, do I need to go talk to him?
Oh. And it's not that it was like the cloud split open and there was this audible voice that said, yes, go talk to him.
I think that's what we expect a lot of
times. Right. It was just a sense of "clear peace". It was a peace that, Yes, let's do this. You know in your mind where you can have questions and be wrestling with something?
Opposite of that. Complete peace with it. It's like, Alright, well I'm going go see this guy. So I go to his office, and I'm talking to him, and I ask him the question, and he is clear about it. He says, You need to get the CFA designation.
He says, You need to go after this. I believe that you can do it. You need to do it. And that's important to have people in your life that believe in you and and back you. And and God put this man in my life for that reason.
Well, if *God*
led you to him, then then he probably wants you to listen to him as Yeah. Amen. Okay. Yeah.
So then you would think I would say, praise God. Amen. Let's go. Let's do this. But of course, I answered with doubt.
Oh, right. Because I'm not perfect, in case you guys are wondering.
Ladies, he's perfect.
We can talk about that later. Sorry about that. So, I say, Well, I mean, that costs money, right? It costs $1,000 to take this exam. There's 3 exams.
It's going to cost me over $1,000 to take this first exam. Mean, it might as well be 1000000 dollars. I'm a poor college student, He you says, Actually, the CFA Institute allows us to give out a certain number of scholarships to take the exam every year.
Come on.
There is 1 scholarship left.
Go figure.
And today is the last day of turning in the scholarships to Come on. Yeah. I can't make that up. No. So then it was like, okay, I have no choice, let me go.
Right? But that is 1 of the stories of what I like to say, God gave me the "green light". You heard me talk about that with coming to real church, positioning myself in this church to be a part of this body. I wait on God for "green lights". It's so important to not move before God.
How do you know it's a green light? It's a green light because it is confirmed in your soul, in your *spirit*
Mhmm.
And it lines up with the word of God Mhmm. And it is then confirmed through other mediums.
Explain that, through other mediums.
So in this particular example,
it's like confirmed like mediums?
Bad joke. No. There's no necromancing going on.
No. Okay.
Yeah. There's people. There's signs. There's a song comes on that confirms what you were just praying about. There's a person that walks up to you and says, God put you on my heart to pray about you in this particular situation.
Yeah. And it's just supernatural, miraculous things that you can't deny. You can deny Him if you want. Yeah. But you have to have faith in this *relationship* with God.
Right?
Yeah. And there's something I wanna say on this. Like, Blackaby in the the devotion experiencing God, I don't know if anybody's ever done that before. Has anybody ever went through experiencing God before? A couple people.
He says, and I I agree with him. He says that in major life decisions, God will usually confirm it, by 2 or 3 ways. It'll be the "word of God". It'll be through prayer. It'll be through experiences or it'll be through, other people.
And it's probably it's usually a combination of 2 or 3 of those. So God God speaks and then he confirms these major life decisions, and that's what you're hearing here. God spoke to him kind of in prayer. He felt this sense of peace, but then he confirmed it through his professor as well. And I'm and and through the the the circumstances of the last time this 1 thing.
So it was pretty clear that this was the leading in the direction of God. And I I think it's pretty awesome.
And through scripture. Very important that God will never do anything that's opposed to his word. That's right.
That's right.
But 1 thing I just wanna note there is that God will give you those green lights in your life. It's so important to not hesitate. If I would've waited 1 day, I would've missed it. This exam's only offered twice a year. The second and third only once a year.
So
think of how silly it would look if you were sitting at a "red light" and it turned green and you just sat there. Mhmm. Right? But how often do we do that in our spiritual lives? Come on.
Right? Yeah. God wants us to act because our God is a God of order. He's a God of process. There's a rhythm to creation.
Think of the seasons. Think of day and night. Think of our bodies work on the rhythm of our hearts. If it's off by a split second, you need a machine, a "pacemaker", to reset that pace because the rhythm of God, it's so important. Amen.
And we can miss things if we don't jump when the light turns green. God can redeem the time, right? But sometimes we have to wait a little bit longer to get back onto that rhythm. He's not going to stop the orchestration of creation so that you can jump back in. Mhmm.
Right? I mean, there's a rhythm to this.
Yeah. If I would've you know, speaking on that, if I would've not went and talked to that guy, and I would've waited 10 minutes, he would've been gone. You know? And and who knows whether or not he would ever Right. Have come to the realization that Jesus is is is his lord.
Yeah. You know? So same thing in the little daily things and in the big life decisions Yeah. Which I guess that's a big life decision too.
So Yes. Oh, huge. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that might be the only encounter he would ever have with Jesus.
That's that's that's powerful. Would you guys give Daniel a big old hand?
And really, what Jesus is doing in and through him.
And if you can't tell, I'm being from Louisiana. Say big old. I don't know why. I just do. Gabe, would you come on up?
This is Gabriel Mullins and Daniel, you're have to scoot down. This is we're kind of doing talk show style. I love you, my brother. Yeah.
Bruce told me I look like Waldo today.
Where's Waldo?
That was not intentional. I did figure if I if I get lost though.
Somebody will I
have a
lot of people looking for me. So so Gabe Gabe is 1 of our trustees as well. This is trustee day. By the way, trustee, if you don't know, at Real Church, we can't make any major financial decisions with the back without the backing of our trustees in unity. So lease a space, buy a building, give them a major raise, that kind of stuff.
It goes through our board of trustees. Gabriel is also full of Jesus, him and his wife, Moriah. Moriah was the 1 who was helping to lead worship right up here on the right and Gabe was playing drums. They're extremely involved. I'm super thankful for them.
And I guess without further ado, Gabe, you know what, just so the so the congregation can get to know you, what's what's 1 silly fact about you?
I'm about to start "beekeeping". I've got many more. Could list it off like 10.
Alright. Well, give me a second. I'll put you on the spot. What what's what's another 1?
Like b for baby or b for bumblebee.
Just kidding. Like like bumblebees.
Yeah. That's true. Another? Yeah. Oh, another 1?
Just for fun.
Oh, I
was joking. He put me on this He
said he could.
My wife would have more. Don't embarrass me like that.
Alright. Fair enough. Okay. So let's continue with the testimony thing. Gabe, what's a written or spoken record of the supernatural?
Word of working of God in your life.
So I have a story. When I prayed about this, God kind of put this story on my heart. And it's a very small story of how he interacted in a very small way. But it's a part of a "tapestry that shows" how he interacts with me throughout my whole life and how he has interacted with with me throughout my whole life. I was around 18 years old, 19 years old, something like that, still living at home.
It was Halloween and Halloween day, and I was preparing to dress up as Flavor Flav. If if you don't know who that is
**Don't be blind**.
That's your that's your problem, not mine. You're not gonna learn about them here. Oh. So have to Google. So I was gonna drop some as flavor flav, and I had the whole outfit and had the clock off my mom's kitchen wall and everything else.
And I realized that I didn't have these glasses. I wanted this pair of glasses because he usually wore like big crazy glasses. So like a procrastinator, you know, it's Halloween day. I drive down to the Halloween store and figure I'm gonna pick up some glasses. So I went in there and flipped around, found a good pair.
And then when I'm like about to leave, I'm looking at them realizing there's a line out the door, you know, around the corner. And I'm like, oh my Lord, just this 1 pair of glasses. And, this is probably the time to tell you that I had a history of, stealing when I was in high school. When I told pastor David this, he's like, you're a trustee. He's like, how long ago was this story?
I'm like, don't worry about it. So, I did it. I don't know why, but I I mean, I kinda know why. I I never it's it's not like I stole big things, but I always wanna steal, little things, like, especially if I went to the grocery store, I would steal an apple, like something stupid and weird like that. And it was mostly, like, "testing out what I could do" and what I couldn't do.
And at by this point, when on this Halloween story, I'd started I'd been starting God had been convicting me about it. So it was past the innocent thing, and it was past like and I had started to be convicted about it. And I'd started to be like, okay, it's time to grow out of this. Like, I need to be done doing that. And but of course, I'm like looking at this line and I gotta go and I'm like, come on.
And so I kind of sneak the glasses into my pocket and I just walk out. And I head home and got got my outfit and I got everything and I'm getting ready to go to this party and and I and I'm looking around and I realized I don't have my wallet and I can't find it. And the second that it wasn't like where I expected it to be, I was like, **God did this** to me. I just knew. Like I knew.
Like the Lord was like, you're gonna steal? Okay. I'll steal from you. Like it was that it was that simple. I was like, oh, dang it.
I'm experiencing a lesson. And so I was like, oh, whatever. So I went to the party, drove real careful because I didn't have my license. I went without my wallet. And I went to the party, had a good time, came home, slept the next day.
I'm like looking for my wallet. I'm like, it's gotta be somewhere. I would typically pray about those things, by the way, too. Would typically say, you know, Lord, help me find my wallet, and not this time. I'm like, I'm gonna find it.
I'll find it when
I feeling condemned.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so I'm looking around. I don't see it, whatever, whatever.
And I'm finally like, you know what? I don't know about the wallet, but I know I need to take I need to go back to Halloween store and buy these glasses because I need to at least do what I can to right the wrong that I did. So I'm driving back and I'm thinking like, oh, wouldn't it be something if my wall was at the Halloween store? And so it's like I go back and I sneak the glasses into the Halloween store, like reverse stealing. And and so I and so that I pretend it ends, like, then I go and I check out and, hey.
Yeah. You don't you don't have a wallet here. Did anybody leave any wallet here, by the way? And so they look around, no. No wallet.
I'm like, oh, dang it. It. So pay for the glasses, buy them, leave. I don't even want the glasses, but I bought them. And I'm like, you know what?
It's all good. And I just was praying on the way home. I'm like, man, Lord, just thank you. Thank you for doing what you do with me, for fathering me, for disciplining me, you know. And I just felt relieved.
I felt right. I'm like, this is good. And and it's like like a storybook. Like, I get home. I open my door.
It's fall in Michigan, and there are leaves everywhere, brown, red, orange. And I looked down on a pile of leaves. On the very top is my brown leather wallet right outside my door. If I didn't look at it, I would have stepped on it. And I'm like, I looked there.
I looked there. I looked everywhere around there.
So so Hebrews-12:5, and it says, have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be nor be weary when reproved by him for the Lord disciplines the ones he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline?
If you're left without discipline in which all have participated, all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seems best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later, it yields the peaceful fruit of *righteousness* to those who have been trained by it.
And a loving father disciplines his kids not to punish them, but so that they will they will become like him.
Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly right. And like through this story, I felt *fathered by God*. And there's something about that.
Like, there's something about that relationship when *God isn't just someone out there, but He's your Father*, that emboldens you as a son or daughter. It makes you live in your purpose like where you're supposed to be. And so even in being disciplined, like I said, it's not pleasant at the time, of course. But even that, it's just like how children come back and love on their parent excessively after they've been disciplined. And that's how I felt.
I felt loved and I felt the desire to go back and love on God even more. And to know God cares about me enough and loves me enough to challenge me on things, to discipline me on things. And I think it's a great reflection, know. There was long seasons of my life where I didn't have a good relationship with my natural father or I had an okay 1. And then I would also have times of I mean, I saw him once a week.
So there's this absence there. Like 6 of the 7 days, I didn't have a natural father in the house. And in that absence, the Lord fathered me. And it was through these little ways. It's like you talked about like it like it's almost like coincidence.
Right? And you could look at it as coincidence. But it's not coincidence because I had a relationship with God during that coincidence. See through *prayer* and through expectation and through the things that were going on inside of me, when that coincidence happens, it's very much more so that it's God speaking to you. And so this is the problem.
I was talking with my wife about this and how, you know, if you're an atheist or if you're someone that just doesn't believe in God like, you would look on that and just say, well, it was a coincidence. And that's because you only see the exterior, but you don't know the interior of what's happening. Because faith And then we will say, well, you have to have faith. But "faith is not blind". It's not blind.
*Faith*
is something that you put in something through through through evidence that you've gathered. So I had numerous evidence for the Lord working in me. That's a very very small story, the wallet story. But that happened all the time with me. He All the time, he would show up in the littlest of ways.
He would show up and he would teach me lessons through those things in the littlest of ways. And that's how you're fathered by God. And everyone needs it. Yeah. Like everyone needs it.
You don't just say, like it doesn't matter if you had like the worst possible father, whether completely absent or whether the father you know beat you or sexually molested or anything. You know, they have the worst possible father all the way up to the best possible father of you know, like that that you could never even think of a complaint about him. He loved you so well and so well and so good. All all through that spectrum, you both you need to be fathered by God. And he can supplant any lack of a natural father anyway.
So it's a it's it's a it's the reason why I had such a great relationship with God and why I have such a great relationship with God now.
Yeah. Yeah, please.
Yeah. You. Number 1, I think it's important. I wanna distinguish between *discipline* and punishment. Yes.
**God does not punish** us. He punished Jesus. Jesus took all the punishment.
That's right.
So what we receive is discipline. That's right. As children, as beloved children. That's right. And number 2, what exactly what you're talking about on faith, you know, no faith is blind.
Even atheists have faith. Mhmm. We all have faith in something. And it actually takes more faith to not believe God, if you ask me, than it does to believe in God.
Gabe texted me something on that, and I think it was when God was downloading that, faith is not blind. He texted me, faith is not blind. *Pride*
is. Amen. I would drop the mic, but I don't wanna break it.
Gabe's text was the 1, but, I mean, faith is not blind, pride is. Pride sees only what self wants to see and is ignorant to the truth.
Alright. Amen.
Amen. Any other thoughts? No?
I mean, I have a ton.
Okay. I
mean, we can be back on 1 day if
you want. Well, would you guys give them them a big, big, big old hand? Yeah. You guys can just and thank you guys. It was that was amazing.
Did you guys enjoy that? Yeah. Man, I I'm excited because I have a a an awesome lineup over the next couple of Sundays. Well, then and it'll look like that too. I'll I'll give a, just a a truth about testimony, maybe a new 1, maybe maybe, well, I've already kind of reminded you guys for the last 2 Sundays about testimony.
So I'll probably give a new truth about testimony, and then we'll have a couple of testimonies just sharing from from their life. Why? Because I want to I want them to impart into us, myself too. I wanna learn from their relationship with God. See, this is the right heart when when they're speaking like that is is God, you you I see you doing that in them.
Oh, God, would you do that in me? God, I see how they heard you in that way. Lord, I wanna hear you in the same way. *Father*, I know that you can. I know you love me that much.
Teach me what it means to hear you in that way. *God, I see how you disciplined them. Forgive me, Lord*, for shirking your *discipline* in areas of my life. Teach me what it means to follow you so I can walk in righteousness in every every area. God, I see how you led him in into his purposes.
That was years ago. He's been following him that way and now, you know, God has really blessed his career. He wants to bless you too. Why? So you can be a blessing to others but sometimes we reject the blessing because we're so comfortable in our misery.
Lord God let me let me respond to your leading in every area of my life even if it looks like you're leading me the opposite way of where I want to go because I lay down what I want to do just like Jesus did when he laid down what he what his flesh felt before the cross. Before the cross Jesus said, "not my will". If there's any other way, do it father. Nevertheless, not my will be done but yours. What if right now, right here today, we all made up our mind?
I I believe I believe that was that was like probably the hardest part. The going to the cross and everything was was hard for sure. But Jesus had had made the the statement there that it was a done deal. Well, what if we made the statement here today, no matter what, God, if I know it's you, I know you're leading me, not then, and it's not what I wanna do, not my will be done, but yours. No matter what.
That's Christianity and and just a hard statement, but it's truth. Anything less isn't. If it's if you only follow Jesus when it's convenient for you, then he's not the Lord of your life. And you can only have a relationship with him when he's the lord of your life. That's being born again.
I'm not saying you don't make a mistake. You know? Like, we you in the moment, you get distracted, whatever, and and then you fall forward into his arms and realize that you're forgiven and you're loved and you stand up and you keep following him as the Lord of your life. But if you've never really confessed with your mouth that he's the Lord of your life and made that decision, then you need to be born again. You need to make that declaration and ask him to lead you in that way.
See a lot of people I talk to people all the time like you heard at the beginning. People say, well, you know, I grew up Catholic or I grew up this or I grew up that. You I've gone to church a lot. I hear that all the time when I ask them about Jesus, and it's a signal that they don't have a relationship with him. If they tell me about what they've done or they tell me about what other people believe or the church they go to and they don't tell me about their relationship with him, they probably have never been born again.
So my next question is always, have you ever been born again? And they'll usually give me another religious statement. I read my Bible. I was baptized. I was this.
I was that. And here's what I'll say. In John-3, *Jesus* said that you can't know him unless you've been born again. Do you want me to tell you what that means? How to do that?
And they'll either say no or yes. And if they say yes, it's almost a done deal every time. That was Saturday, so that was yesterday. Let's see. Thursday, Veterans Day, I went to Applebee's to get my free Veterans meal, which was great.
And I was sitting in my waitress was there and we just connected, struck up with this conversation and it was awesome, know, the conversation and and everything and she asked me about the military And I said, you know, really, I I prayed and asked God for discipline in my life because I felt like I was didn't have any discipline in my life. You know, I just graduated college, and and 2 weeks later, God answered my prayer by sending me to recruitment station and me signing up to be in the Navy. And and so I told my my military story, but woven in it is my relationship with God. And so she says about, you know, I've I've really been getting into God. I'm going to AA and other things.
And so we start a conversation. And then next thing you know, I ask her, well, do you really know him? Just like I did. It's a pointed see, it's a lot of people say, well, I can never do I I'm uncomfortable doing that. And you're just uncomfortable because you haven't done it consistently enough.
I'm not I'm not trying to to to condemn you at all. I as an older brother in that area, I want to encourage you forward. See, the Holy Spirit's called the *comforter* because following him is uncomfortable for your flesh. So we have to reject who we always thought we were in order to follow the leading of spirit so that we can become who he's called us to be. So usually when you feel when you feel a thought or or a leading to go do something that's loving someone else and you're uncomfortable with it, I always assume when that happens to me, that's God.
If it's in line with Bible. And it's like it's like I'm and I I came up with this when I was like in 12 or 13 years old, 14 years old. It's like I'm standing on the edge of a 20 foot cliff about to jump into water that I know is deep. It's fine. But you have that uncomfortable feeling deep down.
You know? And you're like, you know what? When you just jump, it's exhilarating. You hit. It's refreshing.
As you hit the water, come out. You're like, wow. That was amazing. Following the Holy Spirit is the same way in every area of your life, whether it's Daniel making the choice to go and talk to the professor or it's Gabe being willing to go back to the to the store and God rooting out that stealing stuff from his heart and every you're going to be uncomfortable but you have to choose by faith to follow his leading instead of your flesh. And you said, well, but I'm a timid person.
No. You're not. The Holy Spirit is inside of you, and he's not giving you the "spirit of timidity", but of law of power and a sound mind. Stop confessing who you used to be and realize that you're born again. Amen?
Alright. I wanna invite you guys to stand, to just close your eyes, and I want you to ask God, how do you want me to respond today? I want you to say that out loud. Say say, Holy Spirit. How do you want me?
How do want me? To respond today? To respond today. And respond as he says in whatever way that is this week. *God* loves you and God cares for you.
If you don't know Jesus in the way that I was talking about today, if you need to confess him as Lord of your life, Jerry, would you raise your hand real high? Heidi, would you raise your well, she's holding my baby, but see these 2 right here? Come talk to them afterwards. They will lead you into a relationship with Christ or anybody with a with a tag on that says, how can I help you? They'll lead you into a relationship with Jesus.
It'll be awesome. Don't leave here without that. 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.usgiving or you can text any amount to 840-0321 and then just search in the link that comes up, search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you and the "best is yet to come".