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So, there's another doctor pastor. This man of God is is 1 of the leaders of destiny net destiny leaders, which is the relational network our church is a part of. He also has pioneered DLI, which is what we're using for real university. So many of you in here that are going through DLI know him well. You know what's about to happen.
It's gonna be awesome. And then this is his beautiful wife, which is the the prayer foundation behind everything that this family does. And so I'm excited. What you honor, you're able to receive from. So honor him well.
You already have, but honor in your heart. Listen. Because he's gonna bring a message that's gonna challenge you and encourage you forward. Amen?
*Amen*. Amen. Thank you, pastor. Bless you, dude. Wow.
What a day. Good morning. Good morning. Man, you guys are amazing. We just have been so blessed and enjoyed what's happened and I've enjoyed what's happening here at Real Church.
I can tell that there is a "real presence" of the real Jesus in this real house. And, man, I have on I'm just honored. We we're here visiting from Houston, so same weather, just, same flat area, just, except you guys have a beautiful beach and we have Galveston. So Tampa scores 1. But we are so so happy to be here.
I always like for to pray for me before I preach because at our house, she does all the preaching and I do all the praying. But whenever we're out, I love for her to pray, just kinda reset the atmosphere for what God wants to do in this place. So why don't we just pray?
Before we pray, I just wanna say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us here. We love your pastors. They are amazing.
And you know, like the name real for some people images be a word, but words have power in it.
*Amen*.
And that word have anointing and I see that word. It's like, if you put like a ink in water, it just spread and that word have it's just spreading. And each 1 of you all have the DNA in that word and God gave you all that anointing to be all that he have called you out to be. Amen. Yeah.
*Amen*. Amen.
Could we stand, please? We are here to receive what God is gonna do today. So let's open our hearts and our hands. A posture of receiving. Let's put up our hands.
Father, in the name of Jesus, God for you are good. For you are good, good father. And God, are holy and you are worthy God. God, there's none greater than you. So, father, in the name of Jesus, God, we come before you and we ask you, oh Lord, oh God almighty, to take full authority over each person in this room, Lord God.
We I surrender them at your feet in the name of Jesus. Their heart, their mind, their soul, their spirit, their thoughts. God, I ask you, oh, God almighty, in this moment, Lord, Father, may you reset them. May you help them, Lord God, to acknowledge, God, that the word is being taught today. It's for them, Lord God.
So, I pray, God, that they would have a receiving heart and and mind, Lord Jesus. God, every destruction, we ask you to pull it down in the name of Jesus, Lord Father, and help them, God, to to be sink in and deep in in what you are doing, Lord Father. Father, your word is God is that will set us up to move forward for your kingdom. It will align them, God, to to break chains, Lord Father. It will help them, God, to do to accomplish your will, Lord Father.
So, God, have your way in each 1 of your people today, God. Let your word, God, bring healing, bring purpose, bring clarity, bring hope, bring deliverance, bring freedom, God. We need you, God. We need your word, God. We empty ourselves this morning, God, and we say have your way, God.
We surrender all to you. In Jesus' name, amen.
*Amen*. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.
*Amen*. You guys may be seated, and I wanna reiterate pastor DJ DJ Courtney, we love you guys. And I don't know if you guys know this, but you have the best pastors on the planet. I just love love them so much. And yeah.
Yeah. And we're actually and were talking on the way over here that I'm in the middle of a pretty busy travel, preaching, teaching. I'll actually leave here and go to Southeastern University in Lakeland for a week of lecturing, a master's cohort, and I've just been in the busy where I'm pouring out a lot. And just in I just had dinner last night with your pastors. We felt poured into.
We felt encouraged. And it's amazing whenever you go somewhere to give a gift, instead you receive a gift. And that's just the kind of pastors you have that are just brimming with faith, brimming with encouragement. And they're the kind of people that after you've been around them, you're like, I was thinking about, you're not Jesus. But still, the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, when Jesus was talking, they when he was talking, there was just weren't our hearts, you know, "burning within us"?
And there are voices in your life that whenever you're with them, their your heart comes alive and and burns, and that's what your pastors are to us. And so I wanna let you know, you have a gift. In the book of Ephesians that we've been in for the past several weeks talking about the church, it talks about the fivefold ministry gift and that these are are gifts to you. They're not just your pastors. They're not just your errands.
They're not just your chaplains. They are your gifts. Amen? Amen. So, Sarah and I, we came from Houston.
We have 2 daughters. They're 8 and 9. They're 13 months apart. I have PhD in bible. I know a lot about scripture.
I know very little about family planning. 13 months apart. And our oldest is a lot like me, just a little little sarcastic. She looks like me, about the same personality, and our youngest 1 is a princess like her mother. So the other day we were upstairs in her room and we were like, doing some things and she said, she said something to Alexa, and then Alexa answered back, yes, highness.
She, 8 years old, literally changed Alexa to call her your highness. That is what Alexa knows her name as. And so, yes, first of all, for me. And second of all, there underneath the egotism, there's a morsel of truth that I wanna get at this morning is that she does understand her identity better than a lot of people understand theirs. That she truly is royalty when she thinks about her father being the king of the universe, the "king of kings", the lord of lords.
And often as followers of Jesus, we underestimate the significance of what it means to follow Jesus. That we're not just Christians, we're not just church attenders, that we are part of God's plan to set the world right. The church is not just a thing that happens on Sunday, and it's not just what we go do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The church is actually the multifaceted *wisdom* of God, as you've heard the last several weeks. I think back to whenever Jesus was outside of Caesarea Philippi, and he looked at his disciples and he said, who do who do people say that I am?
And they gave all kinds of answers. Well, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says, yes. And I tell you, you're Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Many people think that Jesus says upon this rock, referring to Peter, and that perhaps is part of what's happening. But I think what Jesus is primarily saying is upon this declaration, upon the declaration that Jesus Christ is the only son of God, not a son of God, but the son of God, not a messiah, but the messiah, and upon that rock, he is building his church upon a group of people who will say, there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved. There is no other way to the Father. There is no way to eternal life other than Jesus Christ. We have sold out, we have bought in, we believe this, we know this, and we are confident in this expression that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
He is. It's built upon the foundation. Earlier in Ephesians, you heard that that the church is built on the apostles and prophets, and Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone. He is the foundation of the church. And not only the foundation, but he is also the builder.
Now, that should give you some some relief because it's not your job to build his church. He's not sitting nervously anticipating whether or not you have the aptitude and the skills to contribute to his kingdom. Instead, he is confident he will build his church. So my position and my demeanor is not, oh God, you need me, but oh God, I need you. Oh God, let me be a small part of what you're doing on the earth.
*God*, let me be a small part of what you're doing here in Florida. God, let me be a small part of what's happening around the world because you are building your *church*. And so, Jesus gives us beautiful vision of the church. And then Paul, the book of Ephesians, has picked up on this and tells us what the church is and what the church is about. And last actually, over the last several weeks, Pastor DJ has told us about the church, the multifaceted *wisdom* of God.
And the book of Ephesians is all about who the church really is, what the church has really been called to do. That that the church is not despised, the church is powerful. The church is what Jesus said that the gates of hell will not overcome it, will not prevail against it. I love the translation though that the gates of hell will not overcome because it means that hell will come, but it will not overcome. It means that the enemy may rush in like a flood, but the Lord himself will raise a standard.
It means that weeping may come for the night, but joy will come in the morning. Hey, don't miss this. Weeping may or may not happen, but joy absolutely will come in the morning. That hell will do its best, that you do have an adversary who is roaring around like a lion seeking whom he may devour, but the Lord himself will step up because he is like a lion, but Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. The devil is like a lion, Jesus is a lion.
Hell may come, Jesus will overcome. Trials will come, but take heart, Jesus says, but he said, I have overcome the world. Don't be surprised when hell comes against you, but be confident that it will not overcome you. You will not sink, you will not drown, you will not end, you will see the goodness of God in the land of the living, you will not go under because the gates of hell itself cannot prevail against what God is doing in the church. And that is so much more powerful than sitting and sipping coffee for an hour and 15 minutes on a Sunday morning, patting yourself on the back and going to eat lunch.
To know that I am part of God's plan to redeem and restore the world. I am part of the only organization that has never failed and will never fail. Kings have come and kings have gone. The the businesses have been built and businesses have fallen. I grew up watching blockbuster movies.
And, blockbuster is not here. Right. We are part of the only thing that was established at the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that is still here today. Amen. That's why I love the church.
It's not perfect, but I love her. She she she has her problems and her people that mess up, but I but I love the church. So so Paul, he picks up on this thought and he's like, no, you gotta realize what you're part of. This is God's plan to make the whole world right. That whenever Jesus died, it wasn't just about you personally being forgiven of your sins so that you can live your best life now.
That's right. It was about God setting the whole world right and inviting you to be part of it, and this is what the church is. So the first, about about the first half of the book of Ephesians, Paul is giving you this this glorious vision of the church and what it looks like for the believer. And in the second half, says, now let's talk about how you can walk that out. In theology, you guys want a little theology this morning?
I can just tell you're there's just something in you. I just need it. Just want it. We have 2 terms, 1 is orthodoxy and 1 is orthopraxy. Orthodoxy is is thinking right.
It's it's believing right, and you have to believe right. You you have to think right. If you haven't been to establish yet, you need to go to establish to know what this church believes because what you believe matters a lot. And we live in a kind of a "post truth culture" where it says what you believe no, what you believe matters a whole lot. But it's gotta be more than what you believe is orthopraxy is praxis, like proper practice.
So Paul has this pattern in most of his letters where the first roughly half will be about orthodoxy, about here's what we should believe to be true about Jesus and this church. And then it moves to, now here's orthopraxy, what you're supposed to actually do about it. We we live in a generation with a lot of orthodoxy and little orthopraxy.
That's right.
It has never been easier to take in truth about God's word. I was on a run this morning and I heard a sermon while I was running. I've got 14 bible apps on my devices. I I can listen to podcasts because I knew I was coming here. I listened to pastor DJ last week to make sure I was flowing well in in your series, and it's just easy.
It's just a "click of a button". And we have so many resources. The problem isn't information, it's transformation. The problem isn't that we have access to the information, it's just that we don't have the willpower to put it into practice and see actual transformation in our lives. And so Paul is not content by telling us this beautiful artistic vision of the church, he says, okay, now you have to "walk it out".
You've got to become who you are. It's not just about God's glorious vision, it's about your participation in the vision.
That's right.
And so all throughout, starting in chapter 4, he begins to tell them to walk, and the word walk shows up several times. He says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord. Oh, I don't want to run out of time here, but he's he's actually in jail when he writes this. He's actually chained to a a Roman centurion, likely a prison guard, where they are actually in cuffs connected to 1 another. And he's writing saying, well, he probably needs to be he's right handed because, you know, only left hand, you know, weirdos are left handed.
No. I'm just playing if you're left handed. I was just he's he's chained here and and so while he's chained to a a warden of the Roman prison system, he says, I am a prisoner of the Lord. He said, you don't get to dis you don't get to give him my identity. I'm not a prisoner of Rome, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
My circumstances might be that I'm in a Roman prison, but my reality is that the only person that I am actually indebted to and imprisoned to is Jesus Christ. You may hold me right here, but my identity will not be where you put me, my identity is in him. And so, I'm prisoner for the Lord, and I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the *calling* to which you have been called. I'm asking you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Now here's the thing about the Greek, the word for you is in the plural.
That's right.
But we don't have a good plural you in the English language. That's why Southerners, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, came up with the word "y'all". Amen. Because sometimes you need a you in the plural, and it's weird to say you guys or you guyses. You need a plural you.
But because the translators of the Bible aren't from the South, and they're ivy league towers, they don't translate the plural you, and then we read the bible thinking that it's written to me as an individual When it's really written to us as the church. So really Paul is saying, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, I urge y'all to walk in a manner worthy of the call into which y'all all, you all all, y'all all have been called because it's in the plural tense because as a church we have to walk this out together. I cannot I cannot walk in the manner of worthy of my calling by myself. That's right. That the only way to walk this out is to walk it out together.
Same theme in chapter 5 verse 2, and and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Yeah. At some point, your theology has to move from Jesus loves me, this I know, to Jesus loves us, this I know. That Christ didn't just die for me, he died for us. He died for me because I'm part of The Us.
He died for his church. He's coming back for a bribe without spot or wrinkle. He's coming back for a church. He's not coming back for me individually. He's coming back from the church, and I get to go because I'm part of the church.
I'm part of y'all, and y'all are part of me, and we just met each other, but we are part of the same body of Christ. And so I've gotta walk in love because he's come back for the church and I and we've gotta do this together. That's right. The Christian life is personal, but it's never private. It's personal, but it's never private.
There's another walk where he says you have to walk as children of the light. Here's what I wanna show you about walking though. I grew up in a in a Pentecostal style *church* and we ran, we jumped, did some cartwheels. Yeah. I I remember there was a lady in our church.
She had her hair that was really high with like a lot of bobby pins in it, and she'd get going in circles, and those bobby pins look like missiles, you know, just like you're like dodging. But she only did it when I invited a friend to church. You know, like, she was only bring your friends to church, like, no. Like, what do I do? Y'all do something weird.
No. But for a lot of people, the Christian life is a lot about the hype. It's about that going from glory to glory. I love those moments. It's about that radical transformation.
It's about that moment that someone puts their hand on your sweaty hand that gets on your forehead and everything that's happening in your life is just made better. And those events and occurrences happen on occasion, but so much of the Christian life is described as walking, just 1 step at a time. That's right. You wanna be free of your addiction? It's possible that you say a prayer and you're instantly delivered.
But more often than not, you're gonna have to wake up tomorrow and make a good decision. And the day after that, you're gonna wake up again and make another good decision. And you're gonna stack good decision upon good decision upon good decision until you're free. It's it's a walk. It's a walk.
And we like to run. Pastor DJ is actually training for his first marathon. Oh, yeah. Orlando is coming up. I'm also a runner.
I'm a little bit faster than him. Just felt the need to put that out there. I just needed you guys to know. But but also but also all that really means is because we really just run around in circles, like, trying to get miles in. It just means that I get nowhere more quickly than he does.
It's like that's all that's all it means. But we we like to run, we like the excitement, but so much of the Christian life is just walking it out. *Sanctification* is just it's just a day by day walk. Like, I get a little more like Jesus every single day. Whenever Abraham was called to go to the prompt to Canaan, he he he walked.
He took it took him 1 step at a time. When God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, they had to walk to the promised land and 1 step in front of another, and that's what Paul's wanting us to see, that God has this glorious vision for his church. And you look at that, you look at your life, and you're like, wait, I'm part of the multifaceted wisdom of God? Oh, boy. If he's counting on me to be multi I don't even know what those words mean.
Like, if he's counting on me to be the multi It feels so intimidating. Well, how do you get there? 1 step at a time.
That's right.
I I wanna look at this final passage from Ephesians-5. This is the last time he uses the word walk, I believe, in Ephesians or at least it's the 1 that we'll focus on. If you find another 1, then just act like that it was the last 1. Ephesians-5:21, he says, be careful then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit, "addressing 1 another" in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to 1 another out of ***reverence for Christ***. This is a vision of how the church walks out its purpose. If we've told you about the church being God's solution for the world, If we've told you that you are part of the multifaceted plan of God for the for the cosmos, how do you do it? You've you've walked wisely. Yeah.
He says that you have to be be diligent. I love that. Be careful then how you walk. That the Christian life is is strategic. It's every morning I wake up and go, okay, Holy Spirit, what what do you want from me today?
And we live in an age of distraction where normally the first thing we do, like over 80% of people read this stat recently, over 80% of adults, the first thing they do in the morning I don't even have it with me pick up the phone and they scroll. And you start your day with a lack of being aware of the time. That it's not diligent. It's not careful. It's not saying, okay, Lord, where do you want me to go today?
What do you want? I'm part of this big plan. How can I just be careful about my life and be diligent about my plans? I really believe that the successful Christian life is 1 of diligence, not brilliance. Like, I think that God honors people who say, I'm gonna make the best use of what I've been given more than those who have been given a lot.
I see this in the parable of the talents, that there was 1 given 5, and 1 given 3, and 1 given 1. And God did not judge them based on how many talents they had, He judged them based on what they did with the talents they were given. That's right. And I believe that whenever we get to eternity, God's not going to say, well, you you know, he's not gonna judge you based on the talents that I've been given. He's gonna judge you based on what he gave you and what opportunities that he gave you.
And so I have to be be careful about how I walk, strategic, praying every single God, where do you want me to go? How do you want me to steward this relationship? How can I use this gift? How can I be strategic for your kingdom? Be careful then how you walk, and many of us do not give much thought to our lives, that we wake up and just do whatever is presented to us.
We wake up and we check our email, and we spend the entire day just responding. Anybody else? We don't actually do what we wanna do or what we're called to do, we respond to the needs of others. So he says, be careful in how you walk, **redeeming the time**, as 1 translation says, for the days are evil. That the the church, we realize that we are living in an in an evil day.
Now, he wrote this about 2000 years ago, and the days were evil then, and they're evil now, sometimes we can overstate the particular evil of our own generation. Every generation has had its ills, but it's looking around going, hey, the world is not getting better, so the church needs to be the church. That's right. The the chaos is not calming, so the church needs to be the church. So make the best use of your time because the days are evil, redeeming the time.
Now, in the same letter, Paul says, you have been redeemed, that you were washed in the blood and redeemed of all time. The word redemption is a is a market term where if a slave was for sale, someone could could buy the slave and set them free. That is what redemption is. He bought you and purchased you with his own blood. You were a "slave to sin", you were a slave to your own desires, you were a slave to your own lust, and then 1 day, although you could not afford it yourself, *Jesus Christ* stepped up on the auction block and said, I'll take that 1 and set them free, and who the son sets free is free indeed.
*Amen*? Amen. Okay. And then all this time later, he says, now you've been redeemed, but has your time been redeemed? Come on.
You've been redeemed, but has your life been redeemed? You've been redeemed, but are you spending more time hitting the button that says, are you still watching? Don't you hate when Netflix judges you? You're like, why are you even like, come on, am I still watching? These are 30 minute episodes.
It's not that long. Don't judge me. Look, iPhone has a feature where it tells you how long you've scrolled all day. That that many of us are are making a living but not making a life. And what we're being asked to do is, no, as the church, as as this glorious plan of God, am I making the best use of my time in the in the evil days?
Am I spending it well? Imagine someone deposited $86,400 in your bank account every single day, But the only thing is you had to spend it by the end of the day. You would be very strategic about what you spent that money on because you know that the that when the day is over, it's gone. In the same way, you've been given 8 86400 seconds every single day. How are you how are you spending it?
So he says, be careful then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, redeeming the days. And then he says and then he gets to this point. He says, and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but instead, be filled with the spirit. This is an instruction as a church, how do we walk out our calling? How do we walk in wisdom?
He says, don't get drunk on wine, that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. Now this phrase, do not get drunk on wine, feels a little off, like it feels like kinda random, like of all the things he could have picked, why did he pick that 1? Why did he choose that 1? And I believe the reason why is that Ephesus was the home to the Greek goddess Artemis, or Dionysus is the Roman name. And she was the goddess of wine.
And they would have these incredible large festivals that all kinds of sexually perverse things would occur. And the technical term for the way that worshipers would behave in this sort of revelry was debauchery. The word debauchery is only used 1 other time in the New Testament, and that's whenever the prodigal son, it says he squandered his life in reckless living. It's this sense of out of control, I'm compelled by forces outside of me, I'm doing something that I would not do otherwise. And that is the picture of drunkenness, especially in the context of the worship of this Greek god.
That that I I'm intoxicated by a substance that makes me do something that I would not do otherwise. Okay, no 1 drinks too much and eats a salad. You don't drink too much and be like, you know what, I'm gonna be a better father today. That just feels like feels like the thing to do. It's what this alcohol is.
You don't make good decisions, but instead, people will say things like, well, I didn't mean it. I I'd had too much. You know I'm not really like that. It was just it was just the alcohol talking. And what this mean what it shows us that the parallel that Paul is making is just like wine or any other hard liquor or drink can fundamentally change the kind of behavior you engage in, so does the spirit fundamentally change the behavior for the Christian.
That's right.
So, I know I used to be too timid to go "share the gospel", but after the Holy Spirit came into my life, now I will speak boldly and with courage. I used to not wanna stand up for what I believed in, but now I am filled with the Holy Spirit, and I'm acting in a way that I would not act otherwise. That Peter, before the upper room and before Pentecost, was too scared to even confess his faith to a teenage girl. But after he is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, he steps up in a room full of hundreds and even thousands of people and says, this is what you have to do to follow Jesus. You crucified him, but God raised him from the dead.
And if you will repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, you can be filled with the same Holy Spirit that I'm filled with. Peter the coward goes from Peter with courage because the Holy Spirit fundamentally changed who he was on the inside. Thomas the doubter becomes Thomas the missionary. He filled with the spirit and it changes you. So how do I walk with wisdom?
I have to constantly be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet, we're all full of something. We're all full of something. So just imagine, I'm holding a cup of coffee and someone bumps into me and I spilled the coffee. Why did I spill coffee?
There's coffee in the Because there's coffee in the cup. You guys ruined it. Thank you. That we would like to think that I spilled coffee because someone bumped into me. No.
I spilled coffee because that's what was in the cup. And if I had something else in the cup, that's what would have spilled out and that's what would have spilled over. So often, we blame life for "bumping us", but life didn't cause anything. All that happened is what was already inside came out. I tell our children all the time, no, they did not make you hit them.
You did it because there was something evil on the inside of you that we either But what was already there comes out. And and so what does it mean to be filled with the spirit? It means that I am I am brimming that whenever life bumps me, my response is not hatred, it's love. And that whenever someone rejects me, my my my "gut instinct" is to forgive instead of to hold the grudge. That that my my gut instinct is is to do things that are righteous rather than evil.
Whenever I'm tempted, I'm not always saying, man, just having to pull myself up by the bootstraps and run. Sometimes you need to do that. There are sometimes sometimes you'll be tempted and you go, man, I just I need to like literally just throw my phone into the ocean. Sometimes that's good. Just take that take that wisdom, gentlemen.
Just sometimes just the But then ultimately, the longer you do this and more you're filled with spirit, your immediate reaction is gonna be that's not righteous, that's not holy, that's not good for me, and I don't want it. Being filled with the spirit. And then he says this, addressing 1 another, I'm almost done, in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Giving thanks always and for everything to God, the father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to 1 another out of *reverence for Christ*. So I'm walking in wisdom.
I'm part of God's multifaceted vision for the world, and and I'm living strategically, intentionally, trying to maximize the gifts I've been given in order for what God said about me to be true. And I'm not participating in the revelry of this world, but I'm allowing the spirit to transform my behavior. And then what's the result of that? He says it's it's that you begin to address 1 another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That the natural outflow of your condition is worship.
That that you can't help but sing. Yeah. That that pastor Courtney doesn't have to like, hey, could you please just lift your hands? Do you mind, like, today? But instead, you come in just ready to worship because you are filled with the spirit.
How much would the atmosphere here change if we didn't spend the first couple songs trying to convince you, is this okay? That it's time to worship. But instead, you came in already full. So you didn't come in empty waiting to be filled, you came in already full saying, I'm gonna enter into his gates with thanksgiving. I'm gonna enter into his courts with praise.
I've been waiting all week to get into the house of God with the people of God to give the best sacrifice of praise that I have. I'm filled already and now I'm here to express my gratitude to a God who has preserved my life through another week, who has helped me do things that I could not have done for myself. I'm I'm ready to sing. But notice the singing, that there's always a vertical element in worship where it's it's me singing to God. But Paul doesn't talk about this vertical element.
He says, no, spirit filled believers, we worship in a way that benefits the people that are sitting next to us, addressing 1 another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So whenever you were declaring that God is holy and wonderful and magnificent and omnipotent, The person next to you needed to hear that God was holy and wonderful and magnificent and omnipotent and their breakthrough, their deliverance, what they needed from God came because you were willing to open your mouth. So it's not just about those on stage singing, it's about all of us creating an atmosphere of worship that builds the faith in the room. And the way you sing it, you sing a song that I can't sing. You're saying the same words, but you're saying them differently than I am.
Because God has been wonderful to you in ways he has been wonderful to me. And that's why it's not enough for me to sing, you have to sing as well, because you have a praise that only you can give. God's been good to you in ways he has not been good to your neighbor, and it creates an atmosphere where people are edified and encouraged because of what's happening in the room. Addressing 1 another in Psalms and Psalms, making melody in their heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God, the father, in name of the Lord Jesus. Spirit filled Christians are grateful Christians.
Yeah.
We we are always aware of how good God has been to us. The *spirit* is full, and gratitude just spills out. When I was on my run this morning, I was running over the bridge and just had this beautiful ocean view. And and my my first instinct, thankfully, had a good day today. My first instinct wasn't like, why is this hill so long?
It's like, you know, because when you're from Florida or Houston, it's like anything that but that's probably the most elevation I've gotten in a month just walking up this little ramp back here. But like this this hill that's or my first it isn't like, hey, let let me stop and take a picture. My my first inclination is, Lord, thank you that I'm here, that I'm getting to see this and experience this. Lord, thank you that this is what my life is and I don't deserve this. I don't deserve the beauty that's all around me, but I'm just I'm just grateful that that sometimes I I look at my wife and my little girls, and I'm just overwhelmed that me, knowing who I am, that God has gifted me with so much love in my house.
Growing up in a home without a lot of love, you kind of think that that's the norm. And then I I look at my home and I go, man, there's so much love here. God, thank you. When's the last time you've allowed yourself to be overwhelmed with gratitude for the good things in your life? Because that is what a spirit filled believer does.
It just just bubbles out and say, I thank you, Lord. I thank you for the gifts. I thank you for the blessings. I thank you for the burdens. I thank you for the blessings that don't look like blessings.
I thank you for the unanswered prayers because it just means that something better is coming down the road. Lord, I thank you for calling me, for loving me, for saving me. I know I did not deserve this or earn this, but while I was yet a sinner, you died for me, and I'm just grateful, God.
Yeah. Amen.
That's a spirit filled life. So we sing, we encourage 1 another, we give thanks. Oh, then you're gonna love this 1. And we submit to 1 another. Oh, pastor DJ, if this causes problems, I apologize.
My own personal experience has been this, that people who claim to be the most spirit filled often have the most difficult time submitting. That's right. Wow. Because we hear directly from the spirit, why would I have to do what you know I know you've prepared all week long for that sermon and studied and prayed and but you know what the Lord told me it meant? I know that that this *church is a burden and you've you've you've put it on your shoulders and you know that you see where God* is taking us, you know our mission and our vision, but what what the spirit told me we should do.
And so often, we use the Holy *Spirit* as an excuse Yeah. To not submit to the leadership that God has given in our lives or to the processes that God has given to our lives. He says, no, you have to submit to 1 another out of reverence for Christ, yet to God. So here here's here's what I want you to think about. Chapter 5 verse 1, we won't we won't go there right now.
5 1, a lot of you know this 1. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands. But husbands, listen to me. He only tells wives that after he's told us all to submit to 1 another. So submission always has to work 2 ways.
For husbands, it looks like love your wives as Christ loved the church. For wives, it looks like submitting and honoring your husband, but it's still submission, it just looks differently from which from whatever lens you're looking from. But but here's what want you to see is 5, he just spells out what submission looks like, that in some ways, submission looks like employers doing good jobs their employees doing good jobs for their employers, and employers treating their employees well, and children obeying parents, and parents not provoking their children to wrath. All of this is a picture of how we walk out the vision of God. As the worship team joins me for a moment, what we do is we we begin to say, God, how can I walk out the high calling that you've placed on my life?
Lord, I I wanna be filled with the spirit. Lord, I I know that I'm not living up to the grace that you've given. I I I wanna I wanna walk it out. I I wanna take some more steps. And sometimes in church, we can feel frustrated because we think that everyone else around us is advancing in big leaps.
And for us, progress seems slow. Progress seems difficult. What I'm encouraging you this morning is you just gotta walk it out 1 step at a time. How do you get closer to your calling? 1 step at a time.
How how do you how do you overcome that addiction? Just 1 step. I know you wish that you could defeat it, but but, you know, you you've spent several years fostering the addiction. Don't blame God that he didn't just take it away in an instant and he asked you instead, you just walk it out. Just just 1 step at a time.
That God says, no. I I've got a journey for you, but you have to you have to get there. You have you have to walk it out. So, yes, this glorious vision of of the church that is true of you, you are the apple of his eye. You are a royal generation.
You are a a a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. Everything the Bible says about you is true. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You you are the head and not the tail.
That that you are the the church upon which the gates of hell may come but cannot overcome. All that's true. And it's also true that you have frailties, weaknesses, and difficulties. So then how do we bridge the gap between what God says is true of you and what is actually true of you? 1 step at a time.
And said today, I'm I'm gonna just take a step. I'm not gonna take a leap. I'm gonna take a step. Maybe you're here today, and you're not in a not sure what you think about Jesus. Not sure about where your relationship with him is.
And you're like, man, that's seems like a lot. Talk about covenant membership. Talked about serving and giving and belonging and believing. And it feels like, that's that maybe that's a lot for you today. Cool.
But can you take a step? Can you just open up your heart just a little bit and say, God, if if this is for me, speak to me. Yeah. I'm standing on this stage today because I took a step a long time ago when I was 20 years old. I was kind of agnostic, nothing to do with church or ministry, angry at God for not answering prayers that I thought he should have answered, skeptical mentally because I thought I was smarter than everyone around me.
And so if they believed it, then it couldn't be true because I'm much smarter than they are. Disappointed and hurt, and God came through a prophet and turned my life upside down. And as I was giving objections to what the prophet was saying, the prophet would answer those objections that are only happening in my mind. And because I was so stubborn, I'm sorry, I'll tell you I'm not stubborn at all anymore. I'm just easygoing.
But back then I was so stubborn. I still didn't submit to God's plan for my life. It took another few weeks, and I remember I was in a dark room all of myself, and God presence of God just came in that room. And I told God, I said, God, don't want any of this. I don't want to pastor.
I don't want to preach. I don't want to teach. I don't want to be I don't like people. I don't want to I don't want to help your people because I don't even like them. I don't like, I don't want to do any of this.
And the it's the clearest I've ever heard God speak in my entire life. He said, okay. But can we just be friends again? And brought to mind the intimacy I had with him when I was a child. And in all the really dark and hard seasons how he was always there for me.
And at some point I got frustrated and walked away from him though he never walked away from me and and he said, hey, can can like look, you're trying to jump. You know, you're trying to leap from where you are right now. Talking about pastoring and ministry and I'm just asking if you'll take a step. Will you just walk with me? And then whenever you start walking with him and you become filled with the spirit, then you're able to do things you couldn't do otherwise.
But don't try to do it all right now. Just take a step. Why don't you stand with me, every head bowed, every eye closed as you stand. I'm going to call the altar team to the front as well. Let's do all this in 1 motion.
If you're here today, every head bow and every eye closed, I would need you to lean in for just a moment here. And you'll say, hey, I I know I'm not where I need to be with God. I either really don't have a relationship with Jesus or it's very stagnant. And I have a lot of questions about how it will look, but I wanna be part of what God is planning for the church. I wanna be part of what we've heard the last several weeks, but it just feels so far from my everyday life.
But today, willing to take a step. Can I just see your hand? Yeah. Let's see those hands. Let's see those hands.
Lord, do you see every hand in this room? People that are willing to give you a chance again, who are willing to take a step towards you. Lord, I pray that you'll rush them just like the prodigal son as he took steps back to the father. He found a father who's willing to run towards him. That we do the walking, but you do the running.
That we take a step towards you. And as soon as you just see us take those first few steps, your presence and your grace surprises us with how quickly it rushes up towards us. For the rest of you, if you're here today, you have an area in your life where you need the spirit just to work. You don't you don't you feel like you feel empty or frustrated by slow progress. And today, you're saying, hey, I wanna I be filled with the spirit again.
I I wanna be brimming with joy again. I've I've I've felt anxious and empty, and today I wanna be filled. Or relationally, I have nothing else to give. I'm empty. Spirit, won't you fill me up so I have "something to give" again?
So the altar team is ready. Go back into worship for just a moment. If you wanna come forward, you can, and then pastor DJ will come and take the service after that.
Wonderful, marvelous, magnify. We glorify. We exalt you. We extol you. We adore you.
Hallelujah. *Glorify*. We exalt you. We extol you. We adore you.
Hallelujah. If you responded in any way, when you raise your hand, I'm gonna ask you not to leave. When I dismiss, I'm going ask you to come forward and ask for people to pray for you. Because it's the body encouraging 1 another that helps people to grow. Discipleship happens in the context of relationships.
So please don't walk out of here just saying, raised my hand. I'm good. But connect and let them pray for you because discipleship happens in relationships. And if as he was talking and some of you are like, man, that's me. I need to a fresh, just infilling of the Holy Spirit in my life.
There's areas of my life that I need more. Don't walk out and say, oh, I said that in my heart. Respond by coming forward and letting them pray for you. And if you need any type of other ministry, they're ready to "lay hands" on the sick to be healed. They're ready to minister to relationships.
Whatever is needed, please don't leave without coming forward. Number 2, this Saturday morning, what time is Saturday morning outreach? 09:30 at Largo Central Park is our first Saturday of month morning outreach. If you want to learn and grow in how to share the gospel, go. It will challenge you.
You'll be nervous, and you'll hang out and watch somebody else do it. Catch it. It'll be beautiful. Go learn how to share the gospel. Saturday morning at 09:30, We'll be sharing the gospel all over the city.
And then we have a baptism right after this. So as you walk out to the right, there's baptism. If you're not receiving ministry, if you need to receive ministry, receive ministry. If you need to go because you got something, I get it. We're not judging you if you got to walk out, but we also have a baptism that's very important.
*Amen*? Father, thank you for this amazing church. Thank you for what you've done. Thank you for our team. Thank you for our members.
Thank you for those that just came to check it out. But we love them. We pray they grow in you. Bless them this week. And bless those, Lord God, with boldness to respond.
In "Jesus' name". Everybody said, amen.