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"What is up", Real Church? I'm so glad you're tuning in to the podcast today. I guarantee you'll walk away, number 1, encouraged. Number 2, with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. We are wrapping up the blessed life series today with part 5 of the blessed life.
And I'm excited because I got to tag team preach with my dad. So my dad, pastor David Phillips senior, is going to open up, and it's amazing everything that he shares. And then we have a super big surprise for what God did this Sunday. So you don't wanna miss out. Check it out.
Well, praise the Lord. I I am pastor Dave, but not that pastor Dave. I'm pastor Dave's dad. So, hello. Real church and I'm glad to be here.
Man, what a yes. Yes. Glory to God. You know, I you know, our church River of Life in Winnsboro, Louisiana, you know, help to plant real church. We're connected with you.
We're 1 in spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, last couple times I preached here, we were at the high school, but you know what? God did a miraculous thing. I think this is beautiful. I think this is wonderful.
"Hallelujah". So through all of that COVID things, all things work together for good, And he turned it around and made it good, and it's right here and it's beautiful, and his presence is in this place. Amen. I'm happy to be here. Glory to God.
I want you to open your Bibles with me to Colossians. Colossians, and we're gonna look at chapter 1, and I'm gonna go through verse 3 through 6. We are here visiting for Thanksgiving. I've got a family here in Clearwater with David, John, and Courtney, and the kids, but also my daughter Jesse and her husband Skyler, and their 3 kids are in up by Fernanita Beach. And my nieces, Paige and Peyton, twins, are also here from Daytona Beach area, And my wife, my lovely wife, Faye.
Faye, why don't you stand just for a second? She's not gonna let you Amen? Yeah. So, you know, so we we have to make several trips through Florida to see all the grands. So we enjoy that and enjoy being with you.
You know, I'm I'm excited what God is doing around the earth. Let's open with this verse. *Colossians-1* and verse 3. As we say this, I want you to know this is what we're speaking over you as well as river of life is always connected with you and praying for you. We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus *Christ* when we pray for you.
Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints. The faith and love that springs from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth. All the gospel has come to you. All over the world, this gospel is "bearing fruit" and growing just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace and all its truth. Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord. You know, so we're praying for you as we pray for each other, and thankful for what God is doing right here at Real Church. We're thankful for all of you here, for the beautiful worship, thankful for those that are gonna be baptized. Hallelujah. Outwardly expressing what has already happened in their heart as they've given their life to to Christ and been transformed.
But, I like what it says here, and I wanna testify as an eyewitness of what God is doing around the world. In our ministry now, the river of life, we planted that church in the year 2000, so I can keep up with it easy. It's 2020, so we've been there 20 years. But God's used that little country church to now reaching people all over the state through our drug and alcohol recovery center fresh start. But also now, he's put it on our hearts where my passion, church, my passion is to speak what I've learned over 25 years ministry into the lives of pastors.
So, we travel a lot and we do pastor conferences Africa. We've been to India and Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Mexico and other places. 12 nations now in Africa. And, it's just such a joy to see this word right here *alive* and well and really happening. So, what's what's prophesied in the word because it's the
word of God.
What's prophesied in the word is taking place in these days rapidly, and the church is multiplying and accelerating around the world. It says this. Praise God. It says, all over the world, this *gospel* is bearing fruit and growing. Now, this was written 2000 years ago.
So, Jesus Christ, the gospel, the good news, the good news of his grace. Okay? Ever since you heard it and understood the truth of his grace see, people don't want religion anymore. It's not about being religious. It's not about going by a code of man's religion.
See, all religions try to say, you know, if you if you do more good than bad, then 1 day you can, you know, balance the scale where you're a little better than than the bad deeds you've done, and you can reach karma, or reach a higher power, or have a better life in the future. No. That's not what it's about. True Christianity is not about us trying to reach God. It's not about us trying to be good enough to get to God.
It's not about us quitting all our bad habits and starting to go to church or how many times we read our Bible. True Christianity is not really about us reaching him. It's about God so loved the world that while we're sinners, he sent his word to become a man and walked among us, and we beheld his glory, and it's about him reaching us. See, while we're in the middle of our sin, our fallen nature, while we're struggling, God so loved us. The 1 true God, Not many gods.
The 1 there's 1 who created it all. He created it all, and he desires a *relationship* with his people he created. And he made a way, you see. We were separated from him, separated by the sin that's in us, that the sin that came down from Adam, it was inside of us. And no matter how hard we tried, no matter how many rehabs we went to, no matter how many churches or religions we tried to join, we can't get ourself right with God.
So he made a way for us by sending his 1 and only son who came in the form of a man. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. And, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
And, he walked the perfect life that we couldn't do. Praise the Lord. And, then, he took the place He's the atonement sacrifice in our place, our **substitutionary atonement**. That simply means, He became 1 of us to take our place. He lived the perfect life that we could not live.
And then, He paid the penalty of the sin of the whole world. So, the wrath of God, the justice of a just right judge did fall, but I praise God it fell on his son instead of me. Hallelujah. And because of that, we're gathered here today and we're honoring him with our worship. We lift our hands to him.
We praise him. We're thankful that he made me. You see, I'm not trying to get right with God. I am right with God. I'm not trying to be righteous or holy.
I already am. But see, it's not based on what I do. It's based on what he has already done. *Jesus Christ did it. So, my salvation*, my righteousness, my right standing with God is based on what he has done.
He cried out on the cross, Tetelestai. "It is finished". Everything the world needs to have a relationship with the 1 true *God* has been done in Christ Jesus. And, when we receive that, we are **born again** into a new family. 1 family belonging to the 1 true God.
And, folks, I got good news, man. We're going to live forever with him. Not in heaven as an angel playing a harp. No, on earth, a new heaven and a new earth with mountains and streams and people. And, I'm gonna be me, and you're gonna be you, and I'm gonna know you.
And it's gonna be a joy forever. And, God's gonna dwell with us forever. It's the truth and we worship him. And, I'm telling you, this gospel of the kingdom, the **kingdom of God** has been bearing fruit and growing ever since it says, praise the Lord, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's *grace* in all its truth. See, it's not about understanding religion.
It's not about understanding all the codes of a man's religion. You've got to do this or do No. No. No. It's understanding God's grace.
*Grace* is getting what we don't deserve. I have a relationship and right standing with God, but all of my trust in *righteousness* is based on what he's done. You know, I'm not waiting till I die to start my eternal life. I've already died with Christ on the cross. I've already been buried with him in baptism.
The baptism you're about to do today is symbolizing death to self and resurrecting to the new life. So, you know what? I've already begun my eternal life. I've already crossed over. The promised land of the kingdom is in me, and I'm living my eternal life now.
Hallelujah. And, 1 day, I'm a lay this body down, and I'm a keep on living. It's not gonna be such a shock for me because I've already begun. Hallelujah. I'm walking eternal life right now.
Hallelujah. And it's so good. This river that's in me, he who believes in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of "living water". It's in us. The life of Christ is in us.
It was coming out of your praise team. It's a joy and it's flowing from us now. Here, have some. Take a drink. Praise the Lord.
It's the glory of God. The words that I speak to you are not to your mind, not to your intellect. The words I speak to you is the living word of God, and the very word has the power to transform your life. Amen? See, he is the living word of God.
So, this gospel has been going on around the world. The gospel of grace. *Acts-20* 24, in that line, he calls it. Paul is saying, however, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.
The task of testifying to the good news of what? *God's grace. The gospel* is the gospel of grace. Grace is not a 1 doctrine of Christianity. Grace isn't a doctrine.
*Grace* is a person, And, his name is Jesus. See, grace and truth came to this earth. He came to this earth and walked among us, and we beheld his glory. Just to testify that this *gospel* is bearing fruit and growing all around the world. As 1, praise God, who gets to travel and see for myself.
You know, we connected. I believe God gives us some kingdom relationships. And, a lot of the relationships that we've connected with, we've just made covenant like He's made with us a covenant for life. I've made covenants with some some kingdom works for life. River of life, we're covenant with you, with your pastor in this church, not for us, for for life, forever.
We have a covenant together, with you together in the kingdom forever. We've covenanted with some overseas that God has shown us, and 1 man named John Wandera out of Mbala, Uganda. We've been going over there for a number of years, and he connects us with Kenya and other nations. Praise God. This man has, over his life, he and his wife have taken in 23 orphans into their home, and have been raising them and blessing.
He's a blessing to the church. Praise God. He's traveled extensively and ministered, it's just amazing. But, I wanna tell you a little bit of his story, so you can see the truth, this gospel bearing fruit and growing. When he was in junior high, a missionary came from The US and preached at his school.
And, he was 1 of the few that gave their life to Christ, and when he did, it was very real. He was born again and Christ was in him. And, the spirit of God, as we just sang about, began to reveal truth to him. And, he knew as a young man, he needed to find a home church. You see, his mother was a witch doctor.
I mean, it's it's very common in Uganda, you know, praying when you're sick or taking your kids to You go see a witch doctor who does different spells over you and does different potions and that kind of thing. It's very common in that area. We don't see it here in The US. But anyway, so he knew he had to find a church. There was no Christian church in his home village.
There was no Christian church in the next 1. Or, as he continued to walk another 5 miles, not the next 1 or the next 1, this young man had to walk about 19 kilometers to get to the first Christian church where he could continue to hear the word and grow. But, I wanna tell you that's 30 years ago. Today, he took me to his hometown and there's a strong spirit led Christian church there. There's 1 in the next village.
There's 1 in the next village. And, all the way, the 19 kilometers to the church where he went, there is a Christian church, and this is happening all over Africa. Not only is it happening all over Africa, praise God, I just met minister here and his wife who say it's happening all over Venezuela, in Iran, in Iraq, Muslim nations. The news won't tell you this. They're coming to Christ by the thousands daily.
It's happening underground. They're sometimes hidden from the government. They're meeting in homes. It's happening around the world. We support a mission.
The most the most probably, most productive and fruitful ministry that we're connected with is a mission in India. And, in that mission in India, a man who was born again came over here to The States and was educated at 1 of the Christian universities, and went back with a vision in his heart to win his state for Christ. And, he began planting churches over 25 years ago. And today, this 1 man with his team that we've been supporting regularly has now planted **10,000 village churches** in It's amazing. It's amazing.
And we're connected to him, and my son's connected to him because this idea of world outreach of kingdom is in your pastor's DNA. Amen? Hallelujah. Why? Because it's Christ.
Go into all the world, he says. Preach this gospel, the good news of the kingdom. Don't preach religion. He rebuked religion, and he reached out to the lost with the good news of the gospel. Young people out here, they don't want religion.
They're fed up to hear they've left the churches. What they want is what's real. They want what's real. You see, we believe God is real, and then we've looked into it enough to know. I challenge people.
We get new guys in our fresh start program all the time, and some of them are a blank slate as far as religion. I like that. So, we can begin to show them. And, I challenge them. Hey, this person, Jesus, even if you're an atheist, is the most famous person that ever walked the earth.
You just have to come to Intellectually, you have to come to know that. Jesus *Christ* is the most famous person. Why? Well, what year is it? It's 2020.
2020 years since what? Or since who? Since this person, Jesus Christ. No 1 else in the history of the world has ever split time in half. Not Julius Caesar, not Alexander the Great, no 1 else.
He's the most famous person. He's well known, hallelujah, as the 1 who founded Christianity, which is the number 1 largest religion in the earth, you know, if you count them all, you know, probably a lot of them maybe aren't really Christians, just been named or were born to it or whatever. But also, he's the most quoted person. *Love* your neighbor. Love those who persecute you.
Someone smites you on the right cheek, turn to him or the other. Do unto others as you would have them. He's the most quoted person on earth. He's the most famous. It is historically a fact that he was crucified on a Roman cross.
It's historically a fact that he lived, but what we gotta do where the rubber meets the road is look into it for ourself as a young man or woman growing up. Hallelujah. It's not just what grandpa believed or what the preacher said, but we all have to come to a conclusion ourself looking at Jesus, reading his story, and do we believe it? Do we believe he's the son of God or not? Now, most of you in this church have come to that conclusion already.
Well, praise God. We've come to know him. That Jesus really is the son of God. That he really did die on a cross. But then, when we recognize he did that for me.
Yeah. And then, we recognize I need that. Because right now, I'm not right with the God who created us. So, I need what he did to pay for what I've done that I could receive his righteousness.
Amen.
When we believe that in our heart and confess it with our mouth, Jesus is Lord, we are transformed, born again, recreated into a new person that God is our father. We may look the same outwardly. We may have some same struggles in our mind, but our spirit is made alive, and that's who you really are. You are a spirit, You have a soul and you live in a body. But the spirit on the inside is the real you.
Hallelujah. It's kinda like a peanut, you know. The real nuts on the inside. Hey, look. You're you're seeing this shell but I'm telling you the real nuts on the inside.
Amen? But, my *spirit* Now, follow this thought. My spirit has been regenerated, made alive, made new, and connected with the Holy Spirit of God. So, I wanna say this to you. My spirit is holy.
You who are in Christ are now holy and righteous. Amen? We have this treasure in this earthen vessel. We have got lots of ways we grew up and lots of ways of thinking and lots. Our mind is not fully renewed yet.
And, we live in a body that 1 day, praise God, we're gonna need a new 1. But, amen, we're learning how to follow the spirit of God who's in us. And, I just wanna tell you by that same spirit who's speaking right now through me to you that his *gospel* of the kingdom that I just summed up in a nutshell. This gospel of the kingdom is advancing mightily around the earth and you're a part of the "winning team". You're a part of the winning team.
Amen? It's not governments. We're not looking for the answer in governments. Okay? Every nation, every government is gonna fall except for the 1 true kingdom that Jesus Christ has already established on Earth by the spirit.
The kingdom of God is within you. It's gonna continue advancing rapidly, and I'm here to tell you that it's accelerating faster than ever before. Nations. It's going on quickly. You're a part of something much bigger than yourself.
You're a local church with a big vision. Hallelujah. That's connected, and I'm telling you, you're gonna win. The saints of the living God are gonna inherit the whole earth. Amen?
Because Jesus is real. Praise *God*. You know, I've been preaching this identity in Christ and his righteousness for many years. And, some of the men of our our church, the men and women of our church received this message a long time ago. I have some that have been walking with me for over 20 years.
They've been on mission trips with me and preaching to pastors in Africa and speaking, and and it's become a part of them so much so, I know your pastor, David, has been teaching you the blessed life series on the giving and tithe of putting God first in everything. Well, I have a video of these 2 men. I'm gonna introduce the first 1. Jeff Boughton, praise the Lord, is a farmer in Louisiana with lots of cows and lots of land. And, he has heavy equipment that goes and fertilizes other people's lands for their farm.
And, man, he has began coming to the church many years ago and connected with this truth of this message. And, praise the Lord, you know, he he just got the revelation of God's first. So, really, my farm belongs to Him. It's all his. And, he says to give a tenth back to him, the tithe actually belongs to him.
It's not mine, it's his. So, return to God what is his by faith, and he's going to use that to help spread the gospel around the nations. And, Jeff decided, you know what? I want my farm and my life to be a part of this kingdom thing. And, he began to tithe, not also also off his personal finances, but praise God, he began to tithe off his business profits.
And, you know what God did? He doubled his business. And, man, it's just and then it then again, years later. And now, he's 1 of those of many in our church, so in in a way where we can go to Africa and India, and we can share this truth. And, when your local church is globally connected to the kingdom work, it's amazing what God does.
You see, God has big plans for this church. He moved you here to this building for a special reason. It's centered here on the Big Highway. Hallelujah. It's perfect location.
*God* is blessing. He's already bringing people in because, hallelujah, he wants to bless your home, your family, your marriage, and through you bless the nations. Let's hear the first testimony of my friend, Jeff Bowden.
Good morning, Real Church. My name is Jeff Bowden, 1 of the leaders at River Life and at Fresh Start and also on the board of Real Church. Just excited to be with y'all this morning. Greetings to David, John, Courtney, and the kids and got a request to share a little bit of a testimony on the blessed life on giving and tithing. Just a little background on me, I got a farmer, rancher, got cattle.
I also have a custom application business which we do commercial fertilizer on row crops, agricultural crops. Man God just radically changed my life about 20 years ago. Through that process, he started teaching me on giving, on tithing, and with being faithful. The message here, David John's teaching y'all by Robert Morris, the blessed life. Brother Dave preached this message probably 10 years ago, maybe a little longer, can't remember the exact date, and he preached a series on this message.
I remember him talking about it in a board meeting, and I asked him to preach a series on it, not just 1 Sunday. About the second Sunday of the series, God spoke to me and said, Jeff, I want you to increase your giving. I want you to start tithing off your gross income. Man, I said, wow. So I did.
I started giving and the first year, our tithes, me and my wife's tithes increased 100%. We doubled our giving. And man, it was being obedient to the voice of God, being obedient to what he's told us to do, And man, we just started seeing the blessing of God come upon us and increase in our business and everything we've done. We was able to build a home, a house, property started coming up. We were able to purchase.
It was a radical transformation in our life. The understanding, 20 years ago God showed me and I understood the principle of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is all about the "heart of God", and the heart of God is people. Through that God showed me that I died to myself, I realized that everything I had in my life, even my wife, my children, my home, the possessions I had were really not mine. God had given them to me.
When I realized that through that revelation of *Jesus Christ* he was revealing just how much he meant to me in my life and what he had done in my life, I said Lord I'm not worthy of anything you've ever given me and I wanna give it back to you. I wanna give you my wife, my children, my home, my business, my cows, everything. And man, when I made that decision, really transformed my life and showed me that he said, Now you realize, Jeff, that I am Lord and that everything I've given you is a blessing for me. That changed my life because now I understand it's not my cattle, it's not my application business, it's not my wife or my children, but God has called me to
be a steward over thee. And it takes *faithful* believers sowing into the kingdom to see the effects of what the gospel of Jesus Christ can do. And that's what he's called us to do. So as you be faithful with your tithes and with your giving, you're gonna see those benefits. It's about us.
Yeah, we do get the blessing, we do get some favor, and we get some benefits. But man, the best benefit is seeing people's lives transformed. It's about seeing these pastors in Africa, India, Mexico receiving this message of the gospel of grace and it's transforming their churches, it's transforming their people, it's transforming nations, transforming this country. And that's the goal. The heart of God is people.
And man, as we go on these mission trips, *God* is just you hear and talk about about the blessings or the the treasure that's stored up for us in heaven. What we're gonna receive when we get there. And, man, I you know, God, through this revelation, has showed me it's not about the possessions. It's not about the money. When I stand before him, I want him to say, well done well, good and done, my faithful servant.
And I believe those possessions in heaven is gonna be people standing in front of us saying thank you. Thank you for sowing. It tears me up, you know, just to see it, but it's gonna be people standing there saying thank you for giving. Thank you for sowing that I could hear this message of grace. And that's what that's what moves me, being faithful, being
Hallelujah. My good friend Jeff Bowden. And we have 1 more from other good friend Matt Clark, and he started with me as a young man. God transformed his life out of everyday drug addiction, and God blessed him through this truth of his grace. And, he began to step out in business, and I was able to purchase his uncle's real estate business, and then God began to multiply it, and now he's even blessing pastors with businesses in Africa.
So, let's hear the testimony of Matt Clark.
Yeah. I wanted to share a little short testimony today with you. I jotted down a few things I was thinking about this morning. You know, the Lord radically transformed my life and from from darkness to light. 22 years ago, I was a everyday user.
The Lord radically transformed my life, called me into ministry, started going into the prisons and sharing testimony and preaching the gospel. And and 1 morning, was in a small country church, and, you know, we were worshiping the Lord not long after I'd given my life to Lord, and the preacher got up and and it was offering time. And he said, just pray and ask the Lord, you know, what he would have you to give. And I was praying, and and, man, the Lord just spoke to me. I heard the Holy Spirit say, give it all.
And I mean, it was radical. And I and in my mind, I remember saying, Lord, but I don't have my wallet. I don't have the money on me. And I heard the Holy Spirit, I believe, say, well, your your checkbook's in the glove compartment of your truck. So I go out to my truck.
I write the check. I didn't have a lot of money, but it was, like, $400 in my account. And I I wrote that check, and I remember giving it and just praising God that for what he'd done in my life and wanted to be obedient and and step out in faith in whatever area he wanted me to. And I believe when I released that seed, something happened in my life, and god began to bless me. And that very night, as I went back to church, an elder of our church, and brother Ed Southern, who's gone on to be with the lord, came to me, and he's like he's like looking straight at me when I got there.
He walks up to me, and he's got something in his hand. And he said, I just wanna tell you that the Lord's gonna take care of you, and he's gonna bless you. And he handed me $50, and it was it was just something how as I stepped out in faith that morning and and and believed God and was obedient to what he was speaking in my life, then immediately God confirmed it there. And I just think something was released in my life at that moment 22 years ago. The Holy Spirit was speaking to me about giving it all, and I I did.
It was an act. It was a step of faith, and it changed my life. You know? And I began to realize that it really wasn't about the money with God, but it was about putting him and his plan above my plan. And and and I began to to just seek him and put him first in my life, and God began to bless us.
He blessed me with a wife, 2 beautiful children, a business, began to work and get my education, and got my my license to to be an appraiser and a and a broker, and I own a few different businesses now. But but God blessed us, and we believe that he blessed us to be a blessing to others. And 1 of the mottos that my wife and I live by is kingdom first out of Matthew-6:33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And he just began to bless us, and we begin to tithe, and we begin to give.
The tithe was, like, automatic. I mean, it was like we've been given this guideline of 10%, and that was easy. I mean, we let that go. But we have more fun giving by revelation as the Lord begins to put people and ministries on our heart, as we give to the local church and we connect with other ministries around the world and other people, God begins to put it on our hearts to give to some of these ministries through our local church, and we begin to sow, and and it's just a joy. And we are so blessed to be a blessing.
And we found out that when we give more, *God* gives us more, and he gives us more to give, and we become a channel of his blessing. We become a conduit of his blessing. You know, when Jesus came on this Earth over 2000 years ago and he walked in a physical body, He walked and talked to meet the needs of people. See, his *kingdom* is about people. It's about putting others ahead of ourselves, and Jesus gave us the ultimate example, and he walked this Earth.
And now we are the body of Christ. We are the conduit. We are the channel of his blessing to flow through us. And I want to just encourage you today that you can be blessed to be a blessing, and you are the **body of Christ**. And he can share his love, his compassion, his mercy, his *grace* through you as you give.
You give and you are a blessing to his kingdom, and his kingdom advances through you. Hallelujah.
Glory to God. Amen. You know, I know my son David struggled with deciding when or if or what to start preaching tithing or giving to y'all. He even called me and said, dad, you know, I've kind of been a hypocrite. I said, what do you mean, Dave?
He said, well, since you taught us this as young kids with my very first job as a lifeguard, I've always been a tither and a giver. But, I've been kind of concerned to teach it to people at a new church, whether they'll look at me as just wanting money or something like that, you know. And all a lot of pastors go through that. But praise God, I'm over it. I just I just preach the word and let it go, man.
Whoever wants to hear the word, hear the word. Because listen, listen, God has 1 1 method 1 method of **financing his harvest** of all the earth. It's tithe. 1 method. It's tithing and giving.
So so and it is. And he doesn't need our money. So this series about that, you know, if you're new here or just visiting something, this is not what they preach every week. Okay? It's just a series because it's part of it.
Because I told you before, if you've come to the conclusion that Jesus really is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Son of God who created all and he walked this earth and you've come to receive him as your savior. If if you've come to believe that, then wouldn't now everything Jesus said be now the most important thing you want us to figure out? You want to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? You wanna study what Paul said in Acts and Romans? You wanna go to a church that's talking about Jesus that has pastors and leaders and teachers, praise God, that he's called out and set apart to study and learn so they can help you grow in the knowledge of him.
Amen? So, it's good to be a part of a local church and a local church that's connected to a kingdom vision. And, praise God. So, learning a series on giving and tithing and stepping out in faith in that is also a blessed thing. You know, and you can step out in that as as the Lord leads you.
Some folks, you know, mean, you got a budget wife and kids and you know, business and all these things and you might be over stretched right now. Well, man, just set it from your heart. Lord, what would you have me to do? He might start you out at 3% and then have you grow as he you go and step out in faith in the knowledge and wisdom. He begins to help you pay off that crazy credit card or drop this bill or get a you know, he'll give you an increase here and then you build yourself.
You know, my goal is, Lord, I wanna be a tither at 10%. And, praise God, that's the easiest thing for me. It's a little harder getting up early or coming to serve or doing this. But, simply write a check, that's easy. It doesn't take no time.
You just do it. And, I've been doing it for 40 years. And, I tell you what, I'll never regret it. It's a blessing. So, it's advancing the kingdom.
These 2 guys have been with me for over 20 years. I mean, look, you know, well, in this church, this local church, there's bills to pay. There's rent, there's lights, there's this, there's that. There's advancing the kingdom and sow into nations, and you're already a part of something big. So, this is God's intention of how He harvests, how He finances His harvest in the nations, And, you're all a part of that.
Ain't it beautiful? Hallelujah. I just wanna close with this thought. Go with me, praise God to Exodus-13. And, I know we got some more worship and some baptism and excited about that.
*Exodus-13*. You know, everything in the old *covenant* is principle and truth. Everything in the old covenant happened physically to show something deeper and spiritual of the new covenant. You got that? So, God's ways, God doesn't change.
He establishes a pattern and sets things in the old covenants that we can see and feel and touch, it really happened. But, it's all pointing to a spiritual truth in the new. So, it's a deeper revelation in the new covenant. You know, your Bible is divided, old covenant and new. So, we look at *Exodus-13* verse 1.
The Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me every firstborn male, the offspring of every womb of the Israelites, belongs to me whether man or animal. Consecrate to me. When you consecrated something to the Lord at that time, you sacrificed it to Him, killed it. It's no longer yours. It's his.
And, he was saying every first I'm going to bless as these tribes of Israel move into the promised land, and I bless their land, and I give them rain, and I give them crops, and I give them power to get wealth to establish my covenant, it is he who gives us power to have a business, to have wealth. It's him. We recognize, we humble ourselves. Lord, this isn't come from my hand of how smart I am, but it's come from you. We humble ourselves and acknowledge there is a God who has blessed us.
So, he's saying, when I bless your sheep and your cattle, every firstborn male belongs to me. You consecrated the best of the crop, the best of all. The first belongs to me. And, they they went in there and they they recognized this and he's telling them again in verse 11. And, the Lord brings when you the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you as he promised on oath to you and your forefathers, you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb.
All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. So, really, the tithe isn't yours to give, it's His that we return to him. Hello? Amen. It already belongs to him.
So, we were returning back to him what he says is his. So, that's a good thing to begin to step into. Amen? He says, all firstborn males of your life that belong to the Lord. Then, says in verse 13, redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey.
But, if you not do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. So, even the sons of firstborn belong to the Lord, but he didn't want you to kill them. He wanted you to redeem them with a lamb. So, he's showing from the old covenant that 1 day the lamb of God, Jesus is gonna come die on the cross to redeem us.
Amen? Amen. So, he's establishing that principle in the old covenant pointing to a spiritual reality of the new. Amen. So, so then he says this.
Now, watch. This is interesting. Verse 14. In the days to come, when your son asks you, what does this mean? What is he saying?
So, your son is helping you raise those cattle and those sheep, and he's going to feed them, going to help. And then, every time that cow has a firstborn, each cow has a firstborn and the sheep does, you're taking it and you're going and you're killing it. And the son's like, dad, what are you doing, man? I'm working hard with these cows, and, you know, we've been helping that mama cow or that. And now, you're taking the best of the livestock and you're killing it.
What does this mean, dad? Why are you doing this? So, God is saying, your son's gonna ask. You know? It's kind of like I'm sitting there 1 day in my church and I'm writing a check, and my my younger son and daughter look at it and say, dad, that's a lot.
Why are you doing that? Why are you going to give that? You could have bought me a new bike or something, know, you could have done this, We could have a new car. Why are you doing this? Okay.
So, it's the same principle. Why are you coming to this local building? And, why are you gathering here and worshiping? And, why are you giving? So, your children ask you.
And, here's what he told them. He said, when your son in days to come, when your son asks, what does this mean? Say to him, with a mighty hand, the Lord brought miss out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrificed to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeemed each of my firstborn sons.
He's saying this, look son, I haven't always been blessed in this promised land with all this land and cattle. It wasn't this way. I was a slave in Egypt and **strong and mighty hand** brought us out of Egypt and put us in this place of blessing. So, when I'm giving, I teach my sons, your dad wasn't always a preacher. I wasn't always blessed with a marriage and family and hope and a future and eternal life and this joy that I have knowing I'm right with God.
No. I was a sinner and bound into sin and under slavery and bondage. But the Lord Jesus with a strong and mighty hand, he set me free from the bondage of Egypt, and he brought me to this promised land. So, I'm gladly gonna sacrifice the first of every 1 of my checks, the first 10% of every. I gladly give it to him because look what he's done for me.
And, I've taught my children that from day 1. And, they will teach theirs and the blessing will continue. But, praise God, more importantly than that, we'll continue to be blessed. And, this church will continue to be blessed. But it's in order to be a blessing to others.
As they said it so beautifully. I recognize that we're blessed with this building, so we can invite others and see them baptized. We're blessed to be a part of a kingdom that's connected, that's growing around the world, and we're a part of sowing to the nations. So, we're blessed. So, he said, consecrate the firstborn.
So, I just wanna pray over you. I know it's a kind of a different series message anytime a pastor decides, hey, it's time to teach on the giving. We got new folks who maybe don't know the Lord yet. It's kind of scary. What are they gonna think?
Are we gonna run them off? No. No. No. Whole message is part of the gospel.
Amen. It's really about the heart. See, the tithe is really about the heart. It's putting, Lord, you're first in my marriage. You're first in my home.
How I raise my children, and what I do with my money. Lord, if I'm faithful with this thing, you can show me true riches. Lord, I give it all to you. Father, I pray right now, in the name of Jesus. Lord, the revelation of your kingdom has come to this earth.
*Jesus*, you walk the earth as a man, 1 of us. And, Lord, you made a way for us to know the Father. You are the way. You are the truth. You are the life.
Father, we thank you that we've received you as our savior. You've caused us to be born into the kingdom. Lord, we gladly return to you, the first of all of our life. Our time, our talents, our giving. Lord, we thank you.
Lord, use this. Use this to bless the nations. Use this to bless this church, to multiply, Lord, the rooms in this building, Lord. The outreach around the neighborhood and to the world. Father, we thank you that real church is connected to the global church around the world and we're part of the winning team, the kingdom that will have no end.
In Jesus name. Hallelujah. Thank you for allowing me a chance to be with you again, David John.
I love that guy. He's amazing. If you haven't noticed, we kinda speak alike and preach alike. I don't know. I'm a little connected.
So I want to I just thought this was the perfect time in part 5 of this series, the final part of of the blessed life. After this, we're gonna start a series called Advent, which is important. But also God kinda set this up. I wanna introduce you to a friend of mine and some friend friends of mine. And I think it'll touch your heart as much as it's touched mine.
Over the last 1 to 2 years, I've been God has been connecting me with some new believers and leaders in Pakistan. And especially over the last year, have have been getting to to know them quite a bit and and minister to them, they minister us, and just brothers in Christ. And the man named Daniel is this man. He's a he's a pastor and he also leader and leads a team and stuff. And he asked me to to speak to his team.
And so I got to over Facebook messenger speak to his team there in Pakistan which was awesome. And and it was it was amazing to see their team and and what they're doing in ministry. And then little while later, he said he he called me on Facebook Messenger. He said, you know, would you speak? We're doing an outreach.
And would you speak to these people? And and I said, yeah. I said, are they are they believers? And he said, no. There's they're not believers.
They haven't heard the gospel or maybe maybe just a little. He said, they they will not have heard Jesus and and you're gonna be preaching the gospel. So I got ready to to preach and they were late, you know, was about 20 minutes. And and so then I got to preach the gospel to them and there was no video. I was just on the phone and they were translating in Urdu to the people there.
And now it was kind of confusing and I wasn't under sure sure what was going on, but I just preached my heart out, you know, the gospel and people received Jesus. It sounded like I wasn't sure, you know. I got a video later and you'll hear me on this video. But what happened was they had planned this crusade and persecution broke out. That, you know, people Christians are persecuted all over the world, especially Muslim nations and some sometimes in radical Hindu as well.
And so they the persecution broke out. Found out later there was some, like, rape and and, you know, it was it was tough. But the the people that wanted to hear about the "good news of Jesus" found a home, and they're in a in a building, and you're gonna get to see them receiving Jesus. I had those that that wanted to to experience a relationship with Jesus raise their hands, and you're gonna hear me on the phone and them translating and them repeating. Would you guy would you guys show that video?
How
cool is that? Yeah. Would you have like yeah. So I was really touched by that, you know. And and over the course of time, began to build more relationship with Daniel.
And he he said, you know, God had put on his heart to do an outreach. It was about 14 hours from where he lives. He lives in a in a bigger city, 14 hours closer to the border of Pakistan and India. And a lot of Pakistan's Muslim. This this area where he's going is 80% Hindu and about 20%, you know, mixed back and forth.
And so anyway, I talked with the elders about what we could do and we we decided because I'd found out some numbers and and they wanted to they thought they'd have about 4 4 to 500 people in a crusade. And so, it costs about a dollar ahead to to get a bus ride to get them get the people from the 15 villages that they were going to to the crusade. So we paid $500. We bought these vans. I think the vans are of next.
Yeah. So these next next van as well. Maybe maybe 1 more picture, I think, as well. So we bought those vans and they the crusade, they went for 3 days. At at 1 event, they had 4 to 450 people show up right there.
And that's you guys sowing into that. Right? And and a 110 of those gave their life to Jesus, received Jesus as the only their only Lord and Savior, which is amazing. Over the course of 3 days, 300 people received Jesus in these 15 villages. And so I began to talk with with Daniel and I was like, hey, you know, is there a church in these 15 villages?
He said, no. Is there a pastor in these 15 villages? He said, no. We have somebody on our team that's about 4 hours away who was gonna travel from time to time. I said I said, well, what if and we're just what if *God* laid on the heart of somebody in your team to go and stay.
I know it's a big ask but to go and stay for 6 months and raise up leaders in those 15 villages and maybe anoint a pastor or a 5, you know. Because a lot of times in in villages like that, 1 pastor can can lead 3 villages and then raise up other leaders. And he said he said, that God put that on my mind last night. I said, well, who is it? And he said, was the guy who translated me because he speaks Urdu.
These a lot of these I think speak Hindi. And the guy who translated me, I've been discipling him. He's like my spiritual son. I said, really? I said, amazing.
And so we got excited about it. Oh, we found out it the the guy has a wife and 2 children. They're gonna move from the city to the they didn't have even have any electricity at this village. You know, they're gonna move from the city that they decided to go. This was last week.
And they're they're gonna go and live here for 6 months and disciple and raise up raise up pastors and leaders. And what what we found is gonna count cost the family about $1,000 a month for 6 months, which is $6,000. And then it's the the there's an issue with the water. And we figured out if we put 5 hand pumps, 1 hand pump can cover 3 villages. And if we put 5 hand pumps maybe hopefully at the spot of the future churches.
Right? So the people are coming for bible studies and stuff to the hand pumps. The the guy is is teaching them of the 300 believers that are already there now, raising them up, baptizing, teach them about Jesus. Next thing you know, maybe down the road, we get to have 5 churches that our church has got to be a part of. How cool is that?
So in line with what we taught last week, multiplication. Right? Which is giving over and above. You guys have been you guys have been radically faithful. The first 4 Sundays, we're we're we're we've been radically blessed.
So I talked to our leaders I said, what if we just give the whole offering for everything that goes for this Sunday? What if we just give that whole thing to sow into these new believers, sending this family to go raise up leaders and and to put put water wells or the hand pumps around to sow into this village and expand the kingdom over there in Pakistan? Would you guys be would you guys be excited about that? Yeah. So I wanted to give you the opportunity.
You heard the heard the need. It's $6,000 for to to cover the family for 6 months and it's about $1,500 for the for the 5 water pumps presenting that. Whatever is given for this Sunday, that everything that goes into this Sunday whether in service or if those you watching online, we or if you give online as well, everything that goes for this Sunday will be just taken and we will wisely, we will sow it into into them and and help to see and I'll I'll be able to report to you back and you guys will see pictures of everything going and and wonderful. So I was excited about it. I just thought this was the perfect Sunday to do it, you know, with everything that we've been learning about multiplication.
Amen? Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much **God loves you**. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect.
And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321, and then just search in the link that comes up. Search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you, and the "best is yet to come".