You were created for relationship with God. Through daily prayer and listening to His voice, you can experience the love and guidance He has for you.
Good morning. Lord Jesus, we thank you. Wow. You honor well. Let's give honor to Jesus.
Lord, we thank you for your goodness. We honor you. You are Lord over all. And you're the you're the pastor of this church, Lord Jesus. You're you're the the lead pastor, father, and we we follow you.
Thank you for the opportunity, Lord God, just to play the role that you asked me to play. Lord God, thank you for our leaders. Thank you for our dream team. Thank you for those that have chosen to come here and spend their Sunday morning here with us. I pray that they encounter your presence and your power and your love in such a way they walk away never the same.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Alright. You may be seated.
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. I'm so thankful that you would choose to spend your Sunday morning here with us.
And as I prayed, my prayer is that if this is your first time or you've been coming here for a long time, first time gracing the church in a long time, or for the first time ever, or maybe maybe you've been going to church for 60 years, my prayer is you walk away having encountered the power and the presence of God in such a way, his love in such a way that it leaves you never the same. Walking in deeper levels of surrender, deeper levels of, yes, Lord, I'm gonna follow you with everything that I have. Amen? Amen. Amen.
Okay. So before I get into the announcement, because there is a big announcement today that I told you about. I would be announcing today, March 1. Before I I think I need to address some things that are happening around the world. There was a, if you if you haven't watched the news, there was a raid in Iran where The United States went in and took out their leaders.
And for me, I know this. I know that the church of Iran has been praying for revival for years. If you didn't know, Iran, holds the fastest growing revival in church in all of the world started by women. The very ones that the oppressive regime tried to silence were the ones that God used to confound the wise and multiply his church under the radar. So there's revival happening in Iran, and when revival happens and the church prays and calls for revival, and calls for the government to be blessed, and the government to experience the goodness of God, for the goodness of God to happen, those that are evil must be overthrown.
It's what happened in Venezuela. And God uses, if you look throughout scripture, God uses nations as his judgment against nations. And so I'm very thankful that we have a president that stands for *righteousness* and justice and a regime that's murdering tens of thousands of their people just for standing in the streets calling for freedom. I'm thankful that we took them out. And not only that, the women are dancing in the streets taking their hijabs off because there's freedom again.
So my prayer is, any nation around the world that persecutes Christianity, any nation, my prayer is that there would be a movement of revival of people under the radar that are willing to pray and stand for God, no matter the cost. And my prayer is that God would move in such a way that governments hopefully willingly bow their knee to Christ. But if they begin to persecute God's people, you can you can bet you better believe it that throughout history, God has toppled those regimes using 1 way or another so that the gospel can move forward because God's will is healthy government. I'm not saying we have the healthiest government. I'm not saying that at all.
But his will is healthy government. That's why we are to pray for our governments. Amen? So our prayer is for God's *righteousness* to rule, and that regimes that hold back and persecute Christianity would be toppled so the gospel can go freely everywhere around the world, including places like North Korea. Amen?
Alright. So Lord Jesus, we pray and we thank you for what you have done in the revival of your church in Iran over the last couple of decades. Lord God, the underground movement that they have been multiplying rapidly and praying for change. And Lord, I pray that this isn't just a 1 time thing, but Lord, I pray that this takes away, Lord God, the the covering that has caused persecution for Christians in Iran, and I pray that we're there preaching the gospel openly. Lord, I pray for Jesus festivals, I pray for multiplication of disciples, I pray that Iran becomes a nation that impacts all of the Middle East as it bows its name, and it bows its knee to Jesus, and I rebuke the demon God Allah that they serve, that is a false God, and I thank you, Lord Jesus, for your goodness, that you are Lord over all, In Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Alright. Also, 1 of our own, Melody, was in the hospital and had a crazy scare, some infection, and some emergency heart surgery, and God moved in a powerful way. And I'm very thankful for what he did, and it was his goodness too.
Even in all of that, that there was there was something that they wouldn't have found, and she would have at any point died had it not been for that surgery. So thank you, Jesus. Your ways are higher than our ways. Amen? So we we pray for a rapid recovery of of her, and I love it when God miraculously heals instantaneously.
He does it a lot. You hang around this church, you'll see it a lot. But man, God can use doctors and wisdom too. Not that miracles aren't wisdom, I'm not saying that, but you you get what I'm saying. Anyway, God can use and wants to use both.
So thank you Jesus for what what he does and is doing. Amen? Amen. Okay. You know what?
It's time. Let's cue the video. Real Church, we have a big announcement. Are you ready? Imagine a location of our own, a place filled with history of deep wells of revival that I believe God wants to build on to bring a lasting movement that will be a blessing to both Clearwater and the surrounding areas.
In 1955, there was a tent revival here where Jesus healed many. A young girl who was blind received sight and that testimony was reported on the front page of the Clearwater Sun newspaper. This brought many coming seeking healing and receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior. Out of this movement was birthed Clearwater First Assembly in 1956. For over 60 years, Clearwater First Assembly impacted thousands through revival outpouring and serving this community.
Our own Chuck and Shirley Grossman and their family were a part of Clearwater First Assembly for over 20 years. As a matter of fact, in 2017, the very year that my family moved here to Plant Real Church, it was prophesied over them that they would be a part of the coming revival that would happen on this property. In 2022, Radiant Church merged with First Assembly Clearwater to revitalize the location and to continue having amazing impact in the community. Now, Radiate Church is being radically generous in offering to sell us the location as is. All of the equipment, the chairs, everything.
Real church, it already looks like us. Once we purchase this place, we can have service there the next Sunday. Imagine not having to be portable anymore, Real Church, but having buildings of our own that we can use as our base of operations as we serve our city, praying in clear water as it is in heaven. Real Church, this is a gift from God with nice kids rooms and youth rooms so we can disciple the whole family. A place for our young adults to have services and hangouts to multiply their impact.
A place for our belong and outreach ministries to have a base of operations to multiply disciples continuously, a place for our boiler room worship and encounter nights to be filled with people worshiping Jesus and praying for revival, then see it come to pass as our location is filled with people hungry for God. This is a gift from God, and gifts aren't earned, but they are participated in. The cost of $3,500,000 is naturally more than we can handle as a church, But my God is a supernatural God, and you're invited to participate in this supernatural miracle. Please pray and ask God how he wants you to participate in this miracle at Real Church that's gonna impact Clearwater, Florida. Gifts aren't earned, but they are prepared for and participated in.
And, we see that throughout scripture. Gifts from God. God told Abraham to pick up his family and go to a place which I've called you, the promised land, the place that he was gonna give to him. Abraham had to hear from God and then believe enough to obey with his life, with everything that he had. So he picked up and he went based on God's word, not what he saw.
The natural, it made no sense, but the supernatural is on the other side of obedience. In the steps of obedience on the journey, there were pitfalls, there were mistakes, but God demonstrated himself to Abraham on the journey of obedience. As deliverer, as provider, as comforter, as friend, and as helper in time of need. God did amazing things. And then you fast forward.
God wants to give the promised land more fulfillment of the promise he told Abraham generations before to Joshua or to Abraham, and then he's given it to Joshua. So God says, be strong and courageous and take the land. This is a gift, but Joshua has to move forward in obedience to take the land participating in the gift that God wants to give. The people have to follow and walk it out. There's giants in the land.
There's people who have fortified cities. It looks impossible. And God says, I'm a send my angel before you to cause terror in the land, to prepare the land for what you're gonna do, and they have to move forward in steps of faith and fight battles that God really fought through them. It just took faith. By we live, we move and have our being in Him and we come to know Him and continue in Him by grace through faith.
Every word that God gives is wrapped in the grace necessary to carry it out. Grace is God's power empowering us to do what we can't do on our own and to be what we can't be on our own. And it requires us hearing his word, knowing that we heard him enough to believe what he said and take steps of obedience. And I'm telling you, God, I'm God has made me. I I didn't make myself the pastor of this church.
God called me from Clearwater I mean, from Louisiana to pick up my family and move to Clearwater, Florida and plant the church. It was a step of faith, a radical step of faith that he confirmed over and over and over. So my choice was here, believe and obey or disobey and stay the same. And as I walked that out, I'm like a "turtle on a fence post". How's a turtle get on a fence post?
He didn't get there himself. God put him there or the the farmer. For us, we're all turtles on a fence post. The place that God's put you, God put you there. Recognize that.
Don't pretend that you made it yourself. Rejoice in what he's done and continue to stand there confidently in the post that he's put you. Amen? That's all I wanna do. The post he's put me is as under shepherd.
He's the shepherd, pastor of this church. And as the pastor of this church, I believe with my whole heart that this is God's word for our next season. Pastor David, how how do you know that God's saying that? You just pray and believe that's what he said? Well, many of you know this, but if you don't, you will now.
I've I've prayed for most vacant buildings in Clearwater, Florida for our church. Believing big things, had hope in many situations. But really, *faith* always moves the mountain. If the mountain didn't move, it wasn't faith. Not because he's not good and not a provider, but because maybe specifically he didn't say that.
Does that make sense? So I can pray in hope and his character nature as my provider knowing that he has a place, a home for our church 1 day. But until he specifically says it, and I hear or we hear believe and obey, the mountain's not gonna move because either the mountain stands or faith does, not both. Amen? Amen.
So how Pastor David, how do you know that this is faith that God spoke this? Well, I'm gonna share with you because it's more than me just praying and hope. And what I'm gonna share with you, yes, it's about the building, but there are principles of relationship with God that you all, all of us need to take away because it's applicable to every aspect of our life. Okay? So you guys ready?
So how does God speak when God wants to do something big in your life? How does he speak? Remember, when you gave your life to Jesus, when you surrendered to him as Lord, you were born again, born of the spirit. If you've never surrendered to Jesus as Lord, if you've never said, I believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again so much that I'm willing to follow you instead of myself. That's surrendering as Lord.
You can believe Jesus died and rose again, and not follow him. Even demons believe Jesus died and rose again, but they don't follow him. You to be born again, born of the spirit, you have to believe so much that you're gonna say, I'm *surrendering* my life to you as Lord. Okay? That I when I surrender my life as Lord, then I receive you as my savior.
He's Lord before your savior. Most Christians, I said this last week, although there's a lot of church that just teach accept him. We're not just accepting him into our life and then living how we want. Christianity is deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow him.
He's the Lord of your life. You come to the altar to die. An altar is for death. No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Amen?
Do you get it right from day 1? No. Born again, born of the spirit, spiritual infant. A spiritual infant still poops on themselves. They still cry and whine about what they need and they want until they grow to maturity.
And then they get to a toddler, and they think they're grown. They ain't. And they fall over and over and over. And by the way, myself included, we're all supposed to view ourselves as babes craving the spiritual milk of the word. I'm just quoting scripture to you.
Amen? But there is maturity as we grow in him, learning who we are in Christ and walking that out over time. Now, a baby learns to hear their father's voice. They don't know what he's saying. But over time, spending time in his presence, getting time, knowing his word, day in and day out, learning to put it into practice.
You learn just like a baby when they get 2, 3, 4 years old, they learn everything daddy's saying. Now River knows what I'm saying as a 4 year old. She knows what I'm Does she know the big words? Not yet. But she understands my heart.
She spent time with me. It's the same spiritual infancy growing to maturity. Amen? Now, when we learn to hear his voice, yes, we put it in practice. The Holy Spirit speaks and that's "still small voice".
It's a beautiful thing, and he wants you to walk by faith. He wants you to know that you know that you know that you've heard his voice, especially when you're making big life changing, life altering decisions, like picking up your family from Louisiana, moving them across the country to Clearwater, not knowing anybody, not even knowing that Clearwater was by the beach when you said, yes, you'd come. That was me. So God confirmed us coming and planting this church 8 and a half years ago, when we moved, and 7 and a half years ago, we started the church supernaturally in many of the same ways I'm about to tell you that he's confirmed that this is the building. Okay?
Now, these principles you can take in hearing God in your daily life. Alright? Big things, he wants you to be confident that you've heard so you can stake your life on it. Now, God speaks in many different ways. Okay?
Number 1, he speaks through his word. He speaks through prayer. Number 2, he speaks through other people. Number 3, and he speaks through circumstance. Number 4, and every other way you're thinking about can be in 1 of those 4 categories.
I'll show you how. When it's big, life altering decisions, he will use all 4 of those to confirm that he's saying what he's saying. Let me show you how. For the building. Number 1, the Bible.
He'll never You you might think you've heard him through prayer, through circumstance, and through other people, but if it dis if it disagrees with the character nature of God, the principles as shown in his word, the principles of his kingdom in the way that he's worked for generations, you're wrong. If your friends come to you and say, heard God said, and it's not in line with the characters of the and the nature of God, be a good brother and say, I think you're wrong. I don't think you actually heard God. Or if you did, there's some kind of mixture in it, where your emotions and your desires are getting caught up with what you think is God's emotions and desires, and we need to process this together. Is that okay?
Be a good enough friend and a good enough maybe mentor in the Lord to to test because every word from God should be tested. And, if people aren't willing to have their words from God tested, they're not humble enough to really grow and mature. Amen? Amen. Okay.
So it always in line with the character nature of God's plan as laid out in scripture. Many times, he'll highlight stuff in the Bible that's like seems really applicable to your situation, and a lot of times that is God speaking, and even that will be in line with his character and nature as shown in the word. You don't just take 1 random verse, and it's not in line, you know, for your situation, and it's not in line with the character nature as shown in the whole of scripture, and say, oh, that was God. No. No.
If it ain't aligned with who he is, it wasn't God. You're deceived. Amen? And how many know people can be deceived? And when you're deceived, you don't know you're deceived.
You think you're right. That's why, especially in making life altering decisions, we need to make sure it's in line with his word. Well, guess what? God's plan for all of time is that he would tabernacle with his people, meaning his presence would be in the community in the midst of his people. That's his plan.
And Jesus came to build his church and to multiply his church to disciple all nations, not just people on a pew, but to disciple governments, to disciple culture, to impact and change and pray on earth as it is in heaven. And we, as the church, are carriers of his presence, ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven, sent into places that need him to make disciples and multiply disciples from glory to glory. The principles of his nature as seen throughout scripture, seed, time, and harvest. It's multiplication. Crazy multiplication.
So if you think he sent me and Courtney here as a seed, Look at the fruit so far. Now, you're all seeds he wants to plant in this community. Can you imagine the multiplication of fruit that comes later? Do you understand? So it's in line, him blessing his church, Jesus died and rose again for his church to be multiplied.
He birthed it to be multiplied throughout the world. Calls it his body and his bride, not to dwindle, but to multiply. Those of you that think the church is dwindling, you're wrong. Dead aspects of the church are dwindling. Absolutely.
People that have left what the kingdom wants to do, and have iced out the Holy Spirit, and then and are just doing some kind of form of religion, yeah, that's dead, and that's going to be pruned. *John-15*, he talks about what's healthy, he prunes. And we've been through through some pruning multiple times as a church. What's healthy, he prunes. What's dead, he cuts away.
So Lord, bring the pruning because pruning helps to bear healthy fruit. Amen? Okay. So the Bible in line with the character and nature of God. I'd say us having a home in the place that he's called us to impact this place is in line with the character nature of God because he wants his church to multiply.
Would you agree? Yes. Okay. So that's a check. Number 2, prayer.
Now, is personal, corporate too. But when I say prayer, of course, I'm meaning that still small voice. I'm praying to God, of course, asking for every every other building down the street. But, I I never prayed for radiant church. When I pray for churches, I pray, Lord God, whatever is healthy in that, multiply it.
Lord, you multiply your kingdom. And Lord, any aspects that's not of you, prune it away. And it's the same thing I pray for our church. Lord God, multiply. And it was pastor Aaron that texted me about this church.
So I'm I'm I'm not praying that, you know, other churches would fold into I mean, that's that's not the body of Christ and multiplication. I'm praying for health. But this is a supernatural thing. Prayer includes to me prophecy and dreams and visions and and all of the supernatural things that God said he would pour out in the last days through the Holy Spirit. If you don't believe that, read the Bible.
It's there and I believe it's real and we walk in it day in and day out. I'm crazy enough to think God's supernatural stuff happens in reality today. Amen? Amen. I think you guys are that crazy too.
We see it all the time. Anyway, so in prayer, also in prayer, Colossians-3:15 says, let the peace of God rule your heart. Right? So I'll never make a decision moving forward outside of his peace. If I don't have his peace yet, maybe it's the right thing, but the wrong time.
Maybe it's the right thing, the right time, wrong way. Gotta find the right way. But I'm never moving forward outside of his peace. That word rules like an umpire calling strikes and balls. If I have his peace deep down, logically, it may make no sense, but I'm I'm moving forward as long as I know it's his voice.
I'm moving forward because I'm letting his peace rule and guide my heart. I'm taking a swing at that sucker. You know, strikes and balls, anyway. So that's that's prayer. Okay?
And prayer for me, check. But it ain't all about me. This impacts many people. And even if your decision is all you think it's all about you, it's not. It's a part of his kingdom.
You probably need some other confirmations. Alright? So Bible, check. Prayer, check. People, check.
What do I mean? Number 1, as a church, we can't buy a building, land, other things. Our bylaws, as a nonprofit in The United States Of America, require us to have a board. We have a board of elders. This board of elders, why did I put elders on the board?
A lot of times that you just have trustees that are money guys and elders that are spiritual guys. I'm thinking, man, as a church, if we have spiritual guys that can't handle money, they're not too spiritual, are they? If we have guys that can handle money, but ain't but can't counsel somebody, they're they probably shouldn't be handling our money. So I wanted both. So I combined the elders into a board of the trustees and elders are are 1 in our bylaws.
Okay? And I put this before them, hey, let's pray about it. We don't we move forward in unity on these things. We all have a peace from God. They've they've heard in prayer the same way.
They see it's biblical the same way. So it's it's yes, we move forward. But at the same time, I am the CEO of the Board of Elders. So I probably need some people that are over me to confirm too. And here's why this is important.
Every 1 of you need to understand this principle. This is vital. Everyone in here, as a Christian, you need people that can tell you no, and you listen to them. You need mentors. I have them.
You need leaders. Everyone should be submitted to someone because this is a kingdom, not a democracy. Jesus is king. So I have overseers in my life. I call them overseers.
They're my mentors. But they're also people that when I don't know how to lead you guys in certain ways, having troubles, I call them. Hey, tell me what to do because I I can't hear from God in this circumstance. You know? And they help me.
There's safety there. It's a big deal. Why is it important? Because you need people that have been walking with Jesus longer than you, and know the word better than you, because when you think you hear God, sometimes there is mixture of soul and spirit. Hearing God is walking by the spirit, the Holy Spirit.
But sometimes, there's a mixture that you don't perceive because you haven't grown that way yet. Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. So you think you hear God, but your emotions and your will and desires are kind of connected there, and you're kind of conflating some stuff. So you need mentors in your life that that have walked with Jesus longer than you have, and can say, nah, actually, a lot of what you're saying is right, it ain't time yet, or some of that's your emotions and your desire, you're just frustrated, or or you know, that that's kind of connected with this stuff. Let's go back and check the word out and see.
That can tell you no, so that you don't make stupid mistakes and fall on your face when you didn't need to. You know? It's kind of important. This is this is why discipleship matters. So for me, doctor Philip Brasfield, who leads the network relational network our church is connected to, network of about 250 churches, he's a personal mentor of mine.
Man, he's excited about this for us. He's excited. Doctor Leon, you guys know has come done stuff here. He leads a network of churches too. Missionary, mentors, pastors.
He's excited for us to move forward in faith, which is awesome. So I got 2 spiritual fathers who can tell me no, and a brother who's an overseer too, who can check me hard. Chris Donald, he's been wanting us to get a building for a long time. Okay? So do you have that in your life?
If you don't, you probably need to seek that out. Whenever the student is ready to learn, the teacher's always waiting and willing. You don't have teachers in your life, maybe you weren't teachable. Be humble enough to be teachable. God will send the teachers.
Amen? Amen. Okay. Bible, prayer, people, check. Now, the people have also had dreams and visions and all kinds of stuff too, not just the elders and the overseers, which is kind of cool, like, didn't even know this was happening and then there's this dream or this vision which is biblical.
In the in the book of Joel, it says in the last days, he'll pour out his spirit on all flesh and they'll have dreams and visions and so that means that'll happen more and more and less and less. It's pretty awesome. Then also, number 4, circumstance. What I mean by circumstances? A lot of times, when God wants you to move in a certain way, not only does he confirm through the Bible and through prayer and through people, but there's also a grace and there's a circumstances that that just moved together to show you, yeah, this was God for sure.
Let me share with you some of those circumstances. Number 1, you already saw it in the video. We have a family here, Chuck and Shirley Crossman, their kids, their kids kids, and soon to be their great grandkids are all gonna be in this church, 4 generations. They served at Clearwater First Assembly for 20 years, which is awesome. Chevy was the youth pastor there.
Pastor Chevy there, our children's pastors, youth pastor there. Robert gave his life to Jesus there. First time he ever led worship was at that church. It's kind of a big deal. But check this out.
In 2017, a group from Washington DC. Right? Was it DC? Washington State. Came in and they were sitting in the in the church and that group came over to them sitting at their table and said, hey, we got a word for you.
See, there was deep wells of revival here and there was. In 1955, you heard the story. Blind girl sees people flock, people give their life to Jesus and first Clearwater First Assembly is born out of that movement. *Healing* is real, it happens. It's awesome.
We've seen it a lot. God's done a lot in that in that church. They prophesied in 2017, the very year my family moved here to start a church. They said, you will be a part of reopening those wells of revival. Miss Shirley, kinda tucked that away and then things happen at the church, the church kinda died and she thought, well, that must not have been from God.
So, they came to real church, you know, God did some healing stuff, some reconciliation stuff, it's beautiful. Amazing, mighty man of God family. And now, the possibility of going back there and reopening those wells, that prophetic word that seemed to die be resurrected. Oh, wait. Let me let me share this other circumstance with you.
As we're making the video, sharing about these things, Robbie, you bring up that picture of Robbie praying for the guy? This is on the property as we're doing this. He's praying for this man who has a bad back who can't stand up stand up straight. He prays for him, the pain goes from a 10 to a 5. Prays for him a second time, goes from a 5 to a 3.
Prays for him a third time, the pain goes away, the man's back is supernaturally healed. How do you know? He gave his life to Jesus after that surrendering to Jesus as Lord on the property as I'm making a video sharing about this. You can't make this stuff up. Then right afterwards, another woman approaches approaches him struggling with addiction, but they talk and she had already given her life to Jesus a long time ago, I think.
So, he was able to minister to her and remind her that she's forgiven, which really impacted her. She just walked up to him and said, hey, can I talk to you too? Or can I I wanna talk to you? So there is this draw, a supernatural draw in the area. So that's couple of circumstances.
Let me give you a couple more because they're important. Pastor Aaron Burke, the lead pastor of Radiant Church. When we first moved here 8 and a half years ago, the lead pastor of this is 1 of their campuses. Their main campuses are in Tampa. When we first moved here, I had scoped out Radiant Church and pastor Aaron because I saw a man which seemed like he had a heart like mine for missions and raising up volunteers and leading like Jesus did.
You'll do the same things I do and even greater, not to hold people down to push people forward. So I saw that and I wanted to meet him, scheduled a meeting with him. By this time, we had already been here for a little by about a month and we had 40 to 50 people come into our house who had just led to Jesus in Starbucks or prayed for him or whatever and told him we're planting a church and would you come come to a party we're gonna have, you know. Met with him and kinda shared my story. He goes, man, you can do 2 1 of 2 things, you can either stop what you're doing or you can keep doing what you're doing and plant a church now, or you can stop what you're doing according to, you know, I'd planned on not planting for a year and serve at a church you trust, "plow another man's field" before you plant your own, and then let them send you.
So I stopped what I was doing. I went and served at their church for 6 months, plowing his field before we planted our own, help them build a children's worship team. He let me preach the first Wednesday night of they had a first Wednesday service, 6 months later. And then, he sent me 2. So I was sent by the church in Louisiana, my dad's church, and sent by pastor Aaron.
As he's sending me, he says, hey, you need a a church truck, you know, to be able to carry if you're gonna be portable for a while. So they needed 1, so he went with me to the U Haul place. And they were purchasing 1 and they sold $3,000 into our first property, a real church truck that would hold our stuff for the first time. So it was a $12,000 truck, they sold 3,009 thousand dollars. And then I was so grateful.
It's very generous. So I'm in the truck, excited. This is the real church truck we have. You know, we got our logos and stuff on it now. I'm driving home from picking up that U Haul, and I'm calling my friend in Louisiana to tell him the story of what God did and how God radically provided.
He was radically generous for us. You know, he's like, well, how much you owe now? 9,000. He goes, you know, God has put it on my heart to sow into what you're doing there. He said, man, I'm gonna pay for the rest of the truck.
Don't you see God's doing the same thing now? The same guy being radically generous with our next property. It's gonna hold our stuff. Know, given it for a price that is less than it should be given for. So he's sowing into it.
God's gonna move on people's hearts. And I'm in a radical way. And I'm excited to see what and how he does it. It's gonna be fun. Number 4.
You gotta hear my heart when I say this. This church came out of there's a guy, my dad in Wentzboro, Louisiana, as a pastor but vision, visionary guy, had vision for a drug rehab. Started this drug rehab. It became, for a long time, 1 of the largest amazing drug rehabs in Louisiana. People sent from all over Louisiana to it and from other states.
And a guy from Clearwater ended up going through there. God set him free, got out, asked me to pray for him and mentor him. Like, dude, Jesus is your mentor. I'll be your friend. So he asked me to start praying for his hometown, Clearwater, wherever that was.
This is how real church happened. What you pray for, lot of times you participate in. I didn't see that at that time. And he asked me to pray for his little brother who was getting out of jail. And then, put me on the phone with his little brother, his little brother's weeping under the power of the love of Jesus.
Was ministering to him on the phone. Another principle where you see God at work is your invitation to join him in what he's doing. So, I take Dre with me. I pull him into youth ministry with me. Our our ministry at the time was 95% of white people.
And as parish, Louisiana's parishes, I was 50 50 black and white. And I knew God had called me to lead a multicultural youth ministry. So I pulled Dre in with me. And man, we we start ministering together and God starts moving. Next thing you know, we grow from 40 kids to 100, probably our biggest nights, 110, 120 kids on fire for Jesus, multicultural.
I mean, we were probably 50 50, maybe 60 40. God was moving in power. Ended up going with Dre to Sowacha, which is the the hood of Bogota, Colombia, the heart area. We're in Sawacha, and we were rapping and preaching the gospel in the streets of Sawacha. And there were not not tens, not hundreds, thousands of people in the streets.
And, supernatural, I mean, as we're ministering and and and rapping for Jesus, there's anointing hitting and they're hitting their knees and giving their lives to Christ in the hood of Colombia, of of Bogota. And a Venezuelan pastor prophesied over our team and said, Jerry's gonna go back and lead a bunch of his friends to Jesus by the sea. Didn't know where he's from. He said, David, you're his pastor. That's where real church came out from.
I didn't know what that meant. When you know God's gonna do something, you don't know how, you don't know what, you start fasting and praying. I started fasting. God moved on my heart and told me to pick up my family, moved to Dre's hometown and start a church, and then confirmed over and over in the same ways I'm telling you, supernaturally cool stuff. So when we moved here, just to be transparent, you have to hear through this.
When we moved here, I knew that's how it happened in my heart. I knew God was calling me to reach every type of person. God was calling me to reach the rich, the middle class and the poor. But he had given me a specific anointing for the hood. God was causing me, calling calling me to reach the white, the Latino, and the black, and every other race in between.
Multicultural, multigenerational church. And knowing that, I was looking for a house in the hood when we moved. That's where I wanted to buy. My wife wanted a fence with a safe backyard. So this church, by the way, is in the immediate blocks right around, is in the hood.
2 blocks away, probably some of the richest people in Clearwater. God's called us to reach everyone because everyone needs Jesus. There's no less need for those in the hood than those in who have all the money. They just they're probably more prideful because they don't realize how much they need him. Amen?
So we're called to reach everybody and I have a specific anointing for that place. Okay. So as I'm writing all of this out, I get a FaceTime call. This is yesterday, I'm writing a lot of this out. I've been processing for a while.
I'm writing out in Starbucks. I get a FaceTime call from a number that I don't recognize and have saved in my phone. I get done writing out the mess so I ignored it. I get done writing out the message. And I was like, I wonder about that number.
So I look on my text messages to see, and it was a guy I had led to Jesus in August 2023 in the hood. He's calling me. And I hadn't heard from him since that day, you know, 2 and a half years ago. So I text him and say, this is David Phillips, pastor. I'd send him a picture of me and him together, you know, after I led him to Jesus.
I said, you know, did you mean to FaceTime me? He said, yes. He said, I've been struggling. I've been struggling with lust and drugs or alcohol on the weekends. So I need you.
I FaceTime. Get to minister him for a second. Goes, he goes, David, I need you, man. That's a Macedonian call for me. Like, for me, all this other stuff was already confirmation enough.
For me, that's a nail in the coffin. It's done. Like, this is God. And, When I was meeting with Clearwater City, when we first moved here, I'd go into the meetings in Downtown Clearwater, sit around a big table. I said, hey guys, come to plant a life giving church and I wanna make an impact in your city.
I wanna I wanna bring the prosperity of the kingdom of heaven. Where we go, there will be transformation. Where we're planted, we will bring transformation to that area. Crime will go down. Property value will go up.
Where do you need us? I asked them. They said this area. Just kinda tucked it away in the back of my heart. Here it is.
*Faith* comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith requires believing what you heard when you know you've heard it, and faith is completed by obedience. Now, we move forward, we take the land. But pastor, what about the $3,500,000 mountain? Good question.
I don't know what God's gonna do, but I know he's gonna do something. Let me share a testimony with you. Remember Psalm 1 19 1 11. Your testimonies are my heritage for they are the joy of my heart. Okay.
So the testimony of what Jesus has done, if you're a believer, if Jesus is the Lord of your life, that is your heritage. Not that you get envious. No. You celebrate and honor. It's the joy of my heart.
I'm leaning in. I'm honoring what you've done, and I know if I've never experienced that in my life, I will because I'm a son too. Let me tell you a testimony that just happened with pastor Aaron Burke, by the way. All of their 13 campuses, amazing church, God has just blown up in an awesome cool way. We're a different church.
We're different. We're called to a different way of ministry. It's fine. But I I honor, you know, the disciples they're making. Anyway, so they didn't have a main campus of their own and they need a quite large 1, probably much larger than what we need right now.
Definitely. But they're also in Tampa, and God provided a building for them, $15,500,000 without renovation that they needed. And they had a building fund, but like us, we had a building fund, got probably a $155,000 in the building fund right now because there was nothing to actually give to. It's just like, hey, we're want a building 1 day. Praise the Lord.
We got that. They didn't have the money for buying that building. And then, when they had the opportunity to buy the building just like this, pastor Aaron got up before the congregation said, we can have this if we get the money. He presented, painted the picture much like I'm doing. God did a supernatural miracle and people gave little that could give little.
It was a lot to them. And others gave what people would consider much. Thousands? 100 thousands? Millions.
And they paid for that building in cash. If God can do it for them, I'm not envious. I celebrate what God's done. I honor that. Praise the Lord.
God can do it for us. We're sons and daughters. The testimony of what he's done is our heritage. It's the joy of my heart. So, don't let the building price take your faith.
It's been prophesied over us. When it happened, it'd be easy. When it happened, people would be astonished at how already set up it was. This checks all of those boxes. I got a whole lot more of a message, but I'm not gonna be able to give it to you.
Here's what I am gonna give to you a couple different things. Number 1, if you ask anything according to God's will, 1 John-5:14 and 15, he hears you. And if you know that he hears you, you know that you have what you've asked. I know this is God's will now. I've asked.
But I've also learned some things because my friend Bart asks a lot of questions. Daniel, in the book of Daniel, when he perceived through the scriptures that the 70 years at 70 years, they would be set free, the Israelites would be set free from Babylon, there was prophecies that happened hundreds of years before that showed that. Daniel perceived it and he's like, it's about time. Knowing God's will, he didn't just sit back and wait. When God gives a gift or God does something, he invites his people to participate in it, and that begins through prayer and fasting.
So I'm calling Real Church to a fast. Real Church is your home where you want it to be, I ask you to fast with me. Fast corporate fast in prayer. What does this fast look like? On Fridays, until we get the building.
No food, just liquid. From the time you wake up until after boiler room. And I'm asking you as a church, sacrifice your Friday nights, come to Boiler Room from 8 to 9PM and let's worship and pray. We're not just praying for a building, we're praying for revival. We're praying for God's will what he prophesied in 2017 for the Wells Of Revival to be reopened such that Clearwater has a massive move of God that impacts the city, impacts the surrounding county area in the world.
And we get to co labor with him in it. So I'm asking you to fast and pray. What is fasting do? Fasting doesn't move God, it moves you. Fasting takes away some of the mixture so you can hear him clearly.
Fasting causes you to focus on him, hear him and increases belief which increases *faith* and to do this we need faith. Amen? Amen. So we're every Friday night boiler room, we're fasting and praying until we see on earth as it is in heaven because this is God's will. But pastor, how is he gonna do it?
Just by fasting and praying? No. It's gonna happen practically through giving. Money is required. But let me show you.
There's no arm pulling, no leg pulling, no manipulation. I just wanna give you truth, and you take it before the Lord. Here's what happened, and I'm wrapping up. Thank you for your time. God promised Moses that he would go with them, and God's plan is always his presence with his people.
In Revelation-21, the end of times, that's it. I will be their God. They will be my people. I will dwell with them. All of scripture is making a way for that to happen.
The Old Testament is a physical representation of what it looks like in the future. So God's on a mountain meeting with 1 man, revealing himself to some of the leaders, which is pretty cool. Read Exodus-26. No. Exodus-24.
I mean, God reveals himself to 70 leaders and others, but I don't have time to go through all that. Verse 25, the Lord gave them instructions on how to build the tabernacle. Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone, listen, whose heart prompts them to give. These are the offerings you ought to receive, gold, silver, and everything else that was needed for the tabernacle.
Alright? So God's gonna move on your heart. Here's what happened next. Watch this. By the way, I'd love to teach you guys on the tabernacle and all the stuff in it because it represents his presence with people.
It's beautiful. Just didn't have time today. 27, 28, 29, all that stuff. 30, it's great. 31, I really wanted to go through some of it.
32, before Moses even tells the people, the people get impatient while he's on the mountain getting the instruction, and they give an offering, but they give it for a golden calf, the God that they were comfortable with back in Egypt. What they were used to. So they give the offering, but they give it for the wrong thing. Now, sin requires judgment. God judges them.
Right? 3 Moses comes down and gives the law, and 3 and they were condemned by the law. 3,000 people died on the day the law was given. Praise the Lord, we're not under that covenant anymore. New covenant happens, Jesus dies and rise again, which means Jesus took the judgment of our sin and our mistakes and patience, you know, and then he gives the Holy Spirit, and 3,000 people are saved and born again, come to life.
It's a perfect showing that the law brings death and condemnation, but the spirit brings life. *2 Corinthians-3:6*. It's beautiful. So praise the Lord for that, you know. And after the judgment, and they missed it.
God didn't say, you filthy rotten people. I'm done with you. No. In mercy, he let Moses still give the instructions. And in Exodus-35, Moses said to the whole Israelite community, this is what the Lord commanded, from what you have, take an offering for the Lord.
Everyone who is willing, bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver, and bronze, and whatever. So everyone's heart moved them, everyone's willing after mercy. And you know what the Israelites did? 3520, the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence. Everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for work on the tent of meeting, for all of its service.
All who are willing men and women alike came and brought gold, jewelry of all kinds, broaches, all kinds of stuff. So they begin working on it. Watch what happens. *Exodus-36* verse 4. So all the skilled workers who were doing all of the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, the people are bringing more than enough for doing the work God commanded to be done.
Then Moses gave an order and they sent word throughout the camp. No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary. And so, people were restrained from bringing more because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. That's our heritage. God has blessed you and I'm gonna pray for miraculous blessing for you.
And some of you, maybe all of you, I don't know. He's gonna move on your heart. Whether it's to give pennies or to give millions. Praise the Lord. We prepare and we participate.
And when you participate, you enjoy the gift way more. Amen? Amen. Because you got to participate in it. So, we're gonna fast and pray, invite you to fast with me on Fridays.
No food, just drink, seeking the Lord. I invite you as a church to come on Friday nights, we're praying for revival, the boiler room, breaking our fast at 9PM. Many might go to Culverbs after that, I don't know. That's where they go, a lot of people. And, we have we have a letter of intent that we've signed.
They want to sell it to us. Okay? We have 90 days and then 30 more for the closing. And then, if all goes well, which I believe it will, January 15, they'll be out of their church. July.
Sorry, not January. July. July. And, we'll be able to start impacting that community in a way we never have before after that. So, on the March, which is March, I want you to pray and prepare over this next month.
And on March 29, the fifth Sunday, we're gonna have a miracle building offering which will show us where we are. Deal? That's how God's gonna do it. He's gonna move. We're gonna see what happens.
We're gonna prepare and participate. I want I want to pray for you. And if it's okay, if you don't feel comfortable standing at this, that's okay. But I wanna pray a prayer of just miracle provision, specifically, if you own a business or if if you're an entrepreneur or you want to be an entrepreneur, you believe you have that calling in your life for the future. I want you to stand.
Lord Jesus, you've put this in these amazing mighty men and women of God. You've called them to entrepreneurship to be to be business owners. Lord God, I pray first that they see themselves as the pastors of their business. Lord, they're called to impact the families that they lead. Some of them lead many, some of them lead few.
Lord, let them steward those families well, bless their business so that they are blessing to those families. Lord God, those families see Jesus in the way that they lead. Lord God, let them impact the business culture. Lord God, in such a way that they lead other businessmen to you. Lord, and it multiplies your kingdom through businesses.
And Father, I pray for miracles. Lord, I pray that any curse from the enemy is broken in Jesus name. Lord God, that anything that's held them back from the dreams that they have in their heart. Lord, I pray for a grace and anointing that they haven't experienced yet. Lord, a miraculous thing that they could take back to only God could have done that.
Lord to bless their businesses and to multiply it. In Jesus name I pray. Lord God, I thank you for what you're gonna do. Wanna play every I wanna pray that for everybody and whatever you do, if you stand stand up. Lord God, you've given many people, even if they don't own businesses, positions and places and families, Lord God, whether they make money or they don't.
Lord God, they serve and bless people. So Lord, I pray you bless them. Bless this church, Lord God, so that we can be a blessing to the place that you've put us in Clearwater, Lord God, and we wherever we go, Lord God, we can bring, Lord, not just salvation. That's a lot. But also, Lord God, healing, deliverance, and the prosperity of the *kingdom* to transform cultures, Lord God, to be able to experience the full life that you want for them.
Lord God, healthy marriages, healthy families, healthy work, Lord God, and just health in every area of their life. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Everybody say, amen. I want to invite the altar team forward. We're closing.
If you need ministry or prayer, please come forward. They will pray for you. If you don't know Jesus and never been born again, they will pray for you and lead you into a relationship with Christ. Thank you for coming today. The Lord is with you.
Have an amazing Sunday.