You are called to step out of spiritual infancy and into active obedience, starting with how you lead your home. Whether it is loving your wife like Jesus or respecting your husband, your daily choices shape the atmosphere of your family and community. Stop waiting for perfect circumstances and take the next step of faith today.
I want you guys to know that I am who I am today in many ways because of this woman's *prayers* when I wasn't who I am today. You know, we've been married over 17 years, 17 and a half years, almost 18 years. We dated 3 and a half years before that, so it's been over 20. I met her as a sixth grader. Kissed her on the cheek in junior high.
She don't remember, but I do. But even when I was young and dumb because we got married at 20, so 20 to 25, I mean, we can we can debate on how long I stayed dumb or if I still am. Either way, the first 5 years of our marriage when I was really young and dumb in our marriage, she prayed me through. She's a **mighty woman of God** and an amazing preacher as well and speaker. And I'm very thankful to get to be her husband.
Amen? And fellas, you change your heart to begin to think and speak about your wife in that way, and you'll be part of the reason that she is empowered into her calling and purpose. Amen. But if you speak to the complaining heart that a lot of people have and down her with her your words instead of washing her in the "water of his word", then you're prophesying over her what you're gonna get. You understand?
You are the leader of your home. And a leader doesn't have to be in charge of everything at all times. A leader serves, humbles himself, submits 1 to another and washes feet and leads like Jesus does saying, you'll do the same things I do and even greater. So men, step up. There's a lot of you that are the culture of your home has shifted and transformed because the culture of your heart did.
And if it hasn't yet, repent. Amen. Repent which means change your way of thinking and begin to to love her like Jesus loves you. And if the way that you're speaking about her in private and in public doesn't look like what Jesus is saying over you, repent and change. You want a healthy marriage?
You want something that looks amazing and raises children to be mighty men and women of God, it starts with you men. So get over yourself and start walking humbly because the light that shines the brightest at home shines the greatest and shines the furthest. It's a call to the men. If you if you can't lead your wife in prayer and you call yourself a Christian, you are an infant and you need to grow up and become a man of God. If you can't lead your wife in communion, you are an infant and you need to grow up and become a man of God.
You understand? I am speaking to the men here. If you can't if you can't ask your wife about her Bible study and what she's she's learning in the Lord because you're you're worried that because you haven't been getting in the Word, you're an infant, you need to grow up and become a man of God. You wanna see this culture change? You wanna see Pinellas County change?
It starts with you. Most families who have a man of God who's leading their home follow Jesus. But if the man is being a wimp of the world instead of a man of God the family is not gonna follow Jesus. You are the spiritual head of your home. It's time to start living and leading like it.
He loves you, He cares for you and this is a healthy holy kick in the butt. Amen? Amen. Hey, another thing while I am on it. If you have a problem with your eyes, which most men do in America because we are in a culture that is filled with lust, If you have a problem with your eyes, I wanna teach you the weapon that I use.
It's the weapon of gratitude. You can't be thankful for what you have and envy what someone else's has at the same time.
Say that again. I
use the weapon of gratitude. It's a sword God put in my hand. You can't be thankful for what God gave you and envious of what someone else has at the same time. We live in a crazy world and we live in Clearwater. You go to the beach, there's butts everywhere.
How are talking like this in church? It's because we're real guys. But are you going to get distracted by what God created for someone else or are you going to be thankful for the gift that He gave you and say how dare I in my heart envy what someone else was given. Instead, Lord, thank you for the beautiful gift that you gave me. You can't be grateful for what God gave you and envious of what someone else has at the same time.
But it's hard, Pastor David. Good. You're a man. Man up. Man up.
Stand. You're a warrior. God created you as a warrior to win the battle. And you can't do it in your own strength. So trust in Him because He gave you His Holy Spirit to empower you to live like Him so that you can lead your wife well by serving her in prayer like she serves you behind the scenes.
That's a
whole different
That's not your message.
That's not my message. I love you. You you got anything you wanna say on that?
That was fire.
I I was mean, do you have anything to add? You can if you want, you don't have to.
I mean, I always have something. Alright. I just said I always have something, so I have to have something. Ladies, since he's talking to the guys, I will talk to the wives, the future wives. There's an issue that happened in the garden when Eve and Adam sinned, and a part of the curse was that the woman would be in opposition to the man.
There would be a divide in marriage. That's 1 of the aspects of the fall. But, for those of us who've been redeemed, we're not under that curse anymore. Do you understand that? So you don't have to be in opposition to your husband and?
Biblically, I know this is a is like a messy thing to say in 2024 in America.
Uh-oh.
Submission is a bad word in our culture, but it's a beautiful word in the kingdom of God. And, the most challenging part of being a wife is submitting, not to abuse, not to You're not under his thumb, or less than him in submission. In fact, the verse before it says, wives submit your husbands, it does say submit 1 to another, but what happens if he's leading you poorly? You have the honor of letting him learn to lead well through his mistakes, by submitting to him, even if he's making poor decisions that don't benefit you. And, how the kingdom works is the same in the military.
If someone on the lower end, which not saying that wives are on the lower limb, if someone who is under *submission* honors the person that is above them, it's the person that is above them that takes the brunt of the discipline of the action. So, I love being a wife, and I love I'm I'm fortunate I get to serve a mighty man of God. I'm very fortunate, and as he is even learning and growing today, the mighty man of God that he is, he's learning and growing, even if I think, I don't think that this is the best thing for you to do, or I don't think this is how you should lead us. It is my joy and my honor to say, but but you know, I trust the Holy Spirit in you more than I trust me. And to be able to say, I love you, I respect you, and I I want to serve you, and serve the call on your life, I can submit even when I disagree.
And that, ladies, shows spiritual maturity if you can submit to your superior when you disagree with them fundamentally.
What if I was leading you into sin?
Not leading me into sin. Never.
Never if I was leading into sin.
So that's my 2¢ on that.
Yeah. And and by the way, the the "helpmate thing", her being my helpmate, it's it's the same word that that was used for God too. So it's not making her less than. She's created in the image of God just like me, but in a in a relationship, there's this there's this necessary necessary thing in a kingdom relationship where there is a line of authority that's important. And if you can't if you can't come under authority that God has put over, then then you don't know what it looks like to live and be a Christian.
Because being a Christian is submitting to His Lordship and then submitting submitting to the people that God has placed over you in the kingdom in order to learn and grow into the place that God has put for you. And if if you are constantly, it's all about what I think and all about what I want, you got a rebellion issue. And and that's the same issue Satan had and was kicked out of heaven. Rebellion is I know what's best. I'm not gonna trust the place that God put me.
But when you humble yourself in the in the hand of God and trust the place that He put you in, and as far as it is with you, you be obedient. And as long as whoever God has put over you, your boss, whatever it is, they are not leading you into sin and you humbly submit even when you disagree, God will be your protector. They will be the 1 that gets disciplined when they are wrong or removed and you'll be the 1 promoted. It's just the way the kingdom works. But if you're constantly trying to promote yourself, God will demote you because that's what he did to Satan.
What a bunny trail. We didn't shoot that rabbit, we went down the trail. Alright. My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here.
If you're new, welcome. We pray you encounter the the love of Jesus in a real way. We hope we don't we don't hold we don't "pull no punches". We don't hold anything back. We're just real and honest and and do it in love because we think it's the best way to be.
We're in the middle of a series. I'm gonna give a brief a brief overview of what we went down because I have somewhere that I need to go, somewhere that I need to take you today. And and if you feel like I'm going too fast, maybe it's because it's a it's a pull to go back to the podcast. So just search Real Church Clearwater and on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts and pull up the last few series, the last few messages from the Glory of Living and listen to them. There's some principles there that are important, but I'm gonna fly through them real quick because I got to take you somewhere today.
Okay? And I'm excited about it. Now, *glory* of living. All creation was created. Every aspect of creation was created to manifest the glory of God.
Every creation, every ounce, every every part of creation has an aspect, a kind of the glory of God within it. And when that aspect of creation is fully mature, it will **reflect the glory** of its Creator. A bird, it's glorious when it's flying. You look at it, you say, wow, it's beautiful. It's reflecting the creativity, the glory, the goodness of God.
A fish in the proper environment. People pay thousands and thousands of dollars to get tanks full of water and fish, and you sit in their living room and you look at it and say, wow, that's so beautiful, so cool, because it's glorious. It's reflecting the glory of the Creator. Amen? Okay.
So for something to to reflect the glory of God, it needs 3 things. What are those 3 things? Time is 1 of them. The environment. The right environment.
And, yeah, nutrition. Nutrients. The right nutrients. Right? So so if you take something out of its proper environment, then it will do what it was created to do, but it will not reflect the glory of God that it was created to.
If you don't give something the proper nutrition, it will get sickly or die prematurely, and all of the glory that God put in that thing will die with it at the same time. And it will not manifest the glory that God put in it. If you if you don't give something the proper time, but you you cut it short prematurely, then the glory that God put in that thing to manifest His who He is and what He does will die with it. Right? You put you take a fish out of water.
Water is the environment necessary for a fish to reflect the glory of God. You take it out of water, put it on land, it's gonna do the exact same thing it would do in water because it's natural to it. It's its nature. And when it's on land doing that thing, it's flopping around, shaking its tail. Right?
But it's it looks kinda dumb, and it's moving its gills, but it's in the wrong environment. So eventually, if it stays there too long, it will die, and all of the glory that was in it will die with it. So what is the environment for mankind, the environment necessary for mankind to reveal the glory that God put on the inside of us? The proper environment like water for a fish or an air sky, open open air for a bird, the proper environment is God's presence. You were created to live in God's presence and it's from that place that you're capable of reflecting the glory that God put inside of you.
The good works that he created you to walk in. Amen? Amen. Amen. So we learned last week, I mean, you knew this, I'm just connecting it with everything.
Right? The Garden Of Eden, the word Eden means delight. It's the "Garden Of Delight". It's also called the Garden Of God. It was the place of unbroken fellowship between God and man.
God walked in the cool of the day in the garden. Mankind recognized the voice of the Lord, which would imply that this was the place where heaven met earth. It was the place where the supernatural met the natural. It's the place where mankind walked in his purpose with God. God gave him work to do in the garden.
He created it, and it was beautiful, and it was good. But mankind was not supposed to stay there. God delegated His authority to mankind, gave him dominion over the earth. And then God said, be fruitful and multiply, Genesis-1, fill the earth and subdue it, which would imply something. The rest of the earth outside of the garden was unruly.
It was not subdued. It was not cultivated like the garden was. You catch that? You good there? The rest of the earth.
God God is a good leader. And a good leader creates something. He does it, he lives it, it's who he is, and then he invites somebody else. Watch me do it. Let's do it together.
Now I'll watch you do it. Now go do it. It's discipleship. What did God do? Created the garden, and it was good.
He put man in the garden, see the way that I created it. Then He invited him to work the garden with him, to cultivate it with him in His presence. And then He said, not just man, man and woman, created in the image of God together. Then he said, now be fruitful and multiply, fill the multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Take what you learned here, go out there and do the same thing.
And he was supposed to be a carrier of the presence of God because that was the place of unbroken presence with the Lord. The only way that we are able to do the supernatural work that God delegated us to do is to be working from and in and through his presence. But remember, Romans, is it Romans-3:3? 6 3, 1 of them. For all have sinned and Remember, up, would always quote, for all have sinned, and then I'd just say, and fallen short of the glory of God.
Because I didn't understand what that meant. But we've all fallen short of the glory of God because we were booted from the place of unbroken fellowship and presence with God because of sin. Not able to walk out the glory of God. What is the glory of God? This is all a review guys.
From from the previous messages. If it's fast and you're like that there's a lot there. That's correct. Go back and you'll see it peeled back in each each message that we we went through. Go to the podcast.
But the glory of God is who God is and what he does on display for all to see. The presence of God is not the glory of God, but the presence of God is a pre sense that God is going to reveal who He is or what He does. It's the environment necessary for His glory to be revealed, and God put His glory in you and wants you to live in the environment and from the environment of His presence, so that in your daily life, your life is revealing who he is and what he does. That's why Ephesians-5:1 says, you're supposed to be an imitator of the father as a dearly loved child. Every time God gives you a heavy revi, I call it, a "heavy revelation", every time you you get a revelation from Scripture or from somebody's life or prayer or whatever of who God is, every single time, that's an invitation from the Father for you to live in that place as your new normal, and then to communicate that to others, so that it becomes their normal.
When you experience in a deeper way God as your peace, he's inviting you to live in that place of peace, more deeply than you ever have, and to take that place of peace everywhere that you go, so that others are captivated by the peace that you're walking in, and begin to desire it, and you begin to disciple them and show them what it looks like. It's *Christianity*. It's the way that we live. So Adam and Eve were supposed to live in the place of unbroken fellowship and presence of God, and go outside of the Garden of Eden, taking that that fellowship and that that presence of the Lord, and subdue the rest of the world to look like the garden. That was their job.
God co laboring with them filling the earth. Making the whole earth reflect the glory of God. Which is why in Romans-8, it says, all of creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. Why? Because the sons of God fell short of the glory of God.
But it's through the sons of God, the sons and daughters of the king that we cultivate the rest of the earth to reflect the glory of God. You good with the review? Okay. So man fell short. Adam and Eve chose themselves instead of God, causing nature to sin that was passed down from generation to generation, so all are born separated from God.
You don't teach a 3 year old to disobey. They naturally do. So we need to be changed. We can't change ourself. We can't be good enough.
But we need a savior. We need to be saved from ourself. So the father loved us so much he sent Jesus, died on a cross and rose again. That death on the cross was the payment for our sin. He died for us and he died as us.
He died as your sin so that you could be restored to the heavenly father and live again in the place of unbroken fellowship with God. When Jesus died, he screamed out on the cross, the "rock shook". Light turned to darkness because Jesus, the word become flesh, was the 1 that held it all together. And in that moment, he was becoming your sin. And in that moment, the foundations of the world shook.
In that moment, light became darkness because it became your sin. And when he screamed at which is means it is finished and it will continue to be finished in the presence of the verb, Meaning, it's finished for you, for all who will receive, for it, whosoever will. And in that time where the garden represented the unbroken fellowship with God, in that time, the holy of holies, the center of the temple where the Ark of the Covenant was, that represented unbroken fellowship with God. It was the place where heaven met earth and it was separated by a big veil that man couldn't reach to the top of. It was too high, so thick, no 1 could get in except the high priest at the right time.
And Jesus being our high priest died as the sacrifice in our place, satisfying the payment for our sin. So in that moment, God was wait the Father was waiting for this. In that moment, God reached down and ripped from top to bottom the veil that separated for us from His presence, saying whoever, all whoever will, you have to go through the veil of Jesus' broken body and blood. And when you receive what Jesus did, then you can confidently walk into the presence of God. Not just walk in there from time to time, but live there.
When you give your life to Jesus, you become the Garden of Eden. You become the place of unbroken fellowship with the Father because He makes His home in you. Theologians say the Garden of Eden was a temple. A lot of theologians would say it was like a temple, the place of of unbroken fellowship. The Bible talks about you after you've been born again, after you've given your life to Jesus as God's house, as God's temple.
The place of unbroken fellowship where you have eternal life, you know Him. *Jesus* talked about it as a spring. You take a drink of Him and it's a spring welling up to eternal life and into relationship with Him. You guys good? We're just flying through.
That's all review. But it's good to hear it again over and over until you can go back there and then teach it to others by the way that you live, the way that you experience him. Last week, we did an exercise. *James-4:8 says, *draw near to God** and he will draw near to you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
So as a child of God, as a son of God, or a daughter of the king, because *Jesus* has paid the price for your sin, At any moment you turn your heart to him, you're going to experience God. Doesn't matter what you're going through, doesn't matter the circumstance, it doesn't matter if you're in your quiet closet prayer space, or wherever that is, or you're at church, or you're in the midst of your job and your boss is railing at you, and you have every excuse not to draw near to God. In that moment, in that moment, you turn your heart to the Lord. You draw near to Him in your heart, in your spirit, in your soul. You're going to experience the manifest presence of God.
He's going to draw near to you. And it's only from that place, the environment of His presence, that you'll be able to reveal the glory of God. But if you begin to do that everywhere that you go, then others will begin to see the glory of God from your life because you're "living from his presence". And what is the glory of God? Who he is and what he does.
What are you supposed to be? An imitator of your heavenly Father as a dearly loved child. Walking in the revelation, the knowledge of God that He's given you so far and living from that place in a way that the world around it, that's not the world around you that's not there wants to be like you because they're seeing the goodness and glory of God from your life. Amen? Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
So we did this exercise, this practice. I wanna do it again just for a moment. We're not gonna go as long as we did last time, but No. Before we do that, let's do this. Crowd this size, there are people in here that have not given their life to Jesus.
I wanna speak to you. My question to all of you is do you know what it means to be born again? Think about it. If you've heard me say this 500 times, good. Listen again and learn to say it yourself.
Because there's people around you that need to know what it means to be born again, and God's waiting to for them to know him because he's waiting on you to tell him. K? For all of you, I want you to ask yourself this question. Do I know what it means to be born again? Go ahead.
Ask yourself. I ask people this all the time. You know what most people say? Yeah. I know.
And here's what I do. So what does it mean? I ask them. And they say, I don't really know. And then I ask, would you mind if I tell you?
So do you mind if I tell you? Okay. Jesus said these crazy words. No 1 no 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Nobody.
And he was talking to a religious dude, a leader of what would be the Jewish church of that day. Someone who would have known the scriptures, the Old Testament, as good or better than anyone else, and even he didn't know what it meant to be born again. And today, the similarity for a lot of people is there are lot of people that are church dudes. Church people, men and women, who know the bible as good or better than anybody. They grew up with a praying grandmama.
But they've never been born again because they just go to church and experience God on the outside, but have never really experienced what it means to be born again. They're as religious as the best of them and can put on the religious face and everything, but they're not experiencing the righteousness, joy, and peace that comes with a real relationship with God. So let me tell you what it means to be born again. And then there's others that have just never heard about Jesus or never heard the gospel. There's more around here than you think.
I encounter them all the time. God loves them so much. He loves you so much. Here's what it means to be born again. Jesus said, no 1 can see the kingdom of heaven unless this happens.
You must be born of water and born of spirit. Born of water does not mean baptism. Born of water means your mama's water broke when you were born. You're a human being. Born of spirit, so you gotta be a human, but you were born wrong.
You need to be saved from yourself. Born of spirit means that you believe Jesus died for your sin and rose again. But here's the kicker. Every religious person believes that. But not everyone follows him.
You gotta like the biblical sense of belief is believing that he died and rose again so much that you're willing to say, instead of going my way, I'm going yours. I'm going to follow what you say instead of what I feel. That's hard for Americans. It's hard for a rich person that gets everything they want at any time. Harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of *heaven* than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, as the scripture says.
You gotta say, I'm gonna follow what you say instead of what I feel. What you think instead of what I think. I'm trusting you as my Lord. I'm taking myself off the throne of my heart and putting you on. And I might mess up, but I know you're a good father.
I'm gonna keep falling for you. In that moment, and and by the way, it's believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. There's a lot of people say, well, believe in my heart. Guess what? The Bible says, believe in your heart and you're justified, Romans-10:9.
Romans-10 and the rest of 9 is, confess with your mouth and you're saved. For with the heart you believe and are justified, and with the mouth you confess and are saved. If there's no confession of the mouth, it's not full faith because it's not obedience. True belief is manifested by action. You understand?
You say I believe all the time, but if your life ain't lining up with what you believe, you don't really believe it. Amen? So what does it mean to be born again? You believe so much that you're willing to say because you believe it in the heart. Jesus, I'm following what you say instead of what I think.
What you say instead of what I feel. You're the Lord of my life. In that moment, he forgives you of all of your sin, past, present, and future, because that's what he died for. And he puts the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the living God, instead of outside he puts him on the inside. You become a temple of God where you can live in a place of unbroken presence with the Father.
Draw near to him, and he will draw near to you in every aspect of your life, every place of your life. And when you learn to do that, you can sleep in peace, and in joy. You don't have to have despair anymore when everyone else is freaking out, because you got the God of peace living in you, and you will learn to live from that place. So my question is this, you know what it means to be born again. Have you?
After hearing that, are you ready to really surrender it all to Jesus? And I'm going to compel you. I don't compel people to give. I don't compel people to do anything, but man the Bible says compel them to salvation. Because the opposite of of of this is you living for yourself and from yourself and being your own God and doing what you want and following the Bible and being religious is all only as long as you agree with it.
If you don't understand it, then you ain't doing it because you're still the Lord of your life. And those people will end up dying separated from God because they were their own God, and live in eternity in hell because God gave them what they lived for. Please don't be that person. And I got good news, but to go into the rest of the service, I gotta do this. So if you know that you've never been born again, you've never truly surrendered your life to Jesus as the Lord of your life, and as I'm speaking to this, you know in the inside that this is you, and you are unashamed.
You're ready to make the change. You're not offended or afraid at what everybody else thinks anymore. You might be nervous at me saying this because most people are, but you're ready to take a step of faith. If that's you, I just want you to stand up. Shoot up.
I see you, man. Come on. Who else? Who'd be bold enough and say, I it's me. I'm ready.
God loves that man. Come on. There's more. I'm compelling you. Don't sit back.
Please. Please. Who else? I'm ready. I'm gonna give my life to Jesus.
Praise the Lord. Come on. Keep standing. Keep standing. We're gonna pray.
Who else? Okay. I want you guys to pray this with me, and only pray it if you mean it. And in this moment, you're gonna sense the weight of shame and guilt falling off your shoulders. You're gonna sense the presence of God coming to live inside of you.
And it's gonna be a supernatural thing. Only say this out loud if you mean it, but I want you to say it out loud. The rest of you, don't say anything. Y'all just pray for them and bless them. Okay?
But I want you to say it like you mean it. Okay? Say this, Jesus, I've been living for myself, And I believe you died for me. Go ahead and say it out loud if you mean it. Let's let's let's start over.
I want you to say it out loud. Say, Jesus, I've been living for myself. And I believe you died for me. To save me from me. And you rose again so I could experience your life.
So right now, choose to follow you instead of me. Thank you *Jesus* for loving me. I trust you. If I fail, say if I fail, I'm gonna fall forward because I know you love me. Thank you, Jesus.
Let me pray for y'all. Lord, I thank you for these 3 standing up. Bless them. Lord God, let them grow in you. Father, I pray that they sense your peace and your presence, that they're forgiven, that you love them.
Lord God, that you look at them right now and see them as clean and pure and holy. Your righteousness, your goodness has been credited to their account. Lord, bless them. Father, let this be the beginning of the rest of their life, living from the place of your presence in Jesus' name. Everybody said Amen.
Amen. You can be seated. So we're about to take communion. I wanna give everybody the opportunity to to be born again before we take communion because otherwise, this doesn't matter. If you if you're not born again, you take communion, it's just bread and juice.
But if you've given your life to Jesus, then this is a declaration that what Jesus did 2000 years ago matters for you today. Right? The bread represents his broken body. Jesus' body was broken so you could be whole. Spirit, soul, and body.
That's why by his stripes, we are healed. Man, a lot of times, if I have pain or stuff in my body as I'm taking this, I'm just declaring and thinking about that pain. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that I'm whole in you. I think about you a lot of times. Lord, thank you that our church is whole in you.
I trust you, and I speak that over you by faith. Cancer's healed in Jesus name because you paid for it 2000 years ago. You're not just Lord over over the soulish aspect of my life, but you're Lord over my body too. Amen? Amen.
What happens if you pray that and you don't see instantaneous healing? Is there something wrong with me? No. Is there something wrong with you? No.
We're gonna trust him regardless. We're gonna trust him regard we're gonna claim what the word says, we're gonna trust him and we'll either see it in heaven or see it here. But I'm gonna keep praying until I see it here. Amen? So just hold this up.
Lord, thank you Jesus that this represents your body that was broken for our wholeness in you. Thank you, Jesus. Lord God, we're proclaiming that what you did 2000 years ago matters so we can be healed and whole physically, emotionally, Lord God, in our mind, in our thinking, in our desires, and spiritually. Lord, we take this in remembrance of you. Let's take it together.
And this blood, it's juice, by the way. But this represents Jesus' blood that was poured out for you. There's a lot of people when they draw near to God, as we talked about last week, they don't sense the presence of God because they're living in unrepented sin. They are living consistently in disobedience. Now, the promise is God will draw near to you.
But a lot of people, they are not able to experience the manifested presence of God in their life consistently because they're consistently being disobedient, and that disobedience is causing them to have a a guilty conscience, the Bible calls it. You have a guilty conscience. What's happening is you're subconsciously or consciously hiding from God in shame and guilt. That's what Adam and Eve did in the garden. K?
Now, what we do is we remember. You have to remember that you've been forgiven, and we're doing this to remind ourselves that what Jesus did 2000 years ago when he shed his blood, it matters for us today. K? It matters for you today. That was good enough to pay for your sin.
And so this remembering if before we take the the the blood the blood of Jesus, the the juice here, I want you if there's anything as I'm talking about that, there's there's areas of your life that you've been holding on to that that you've just been making excuses for and and he's asking you to give to him in areas that you're guilt you you feel guilty for, you feel shame. If that's it, I want you to I want you to go there in your mind. I want you to confess in your heart. You're right. That's not of you, Jesus.
And I want you to repent, which means turn in that area. Lord, I I don't wanna live this way anymore. I can't not live this way or in and of myself or I can't do the thing you're asking me to do in and of myself, but you can do it through me so my eyes are on you. Heavenly Father, I trust you. I give this to you.
See when we take the the the body and the blood of Jesus, we're supposed to look down and discern Christ. And as we as we look down, if there's any area where we're we're feeling guilt or shame, well, that's an opportunity to place it before Christ and confess and repent. Praise the Lord. But he he covers us in every area that we don't see. And And in every area that we do see, he covers us, but we got shame and guilt that are causing us to hide and not draw near to him.
So we need to let our conscience be cleared by the sprinkling of blood. In Hebrews, it talks about sprinkling blood from a guilty conscience. And God who is greater than your heart, so if you it says if your hearts condemn you, God who is greater than your hearts, what does that mean? That means that when you gave your life to Jesus 2,000 ago, he already had in mind the future areas that you would make a mistake. But he saved you anyway because he's greater than your weakness.
So you can put your guilty conscience at rest knowing His blood paid for it. Then get up and start living as 1 that's forgiven and quit repeating the same thing over and over. Amen? Amen. So just say thank you *Jesus* that because of your blood I'm clean.
I've been forgiven. So guilt and shame have to go. But I repent of any area that's not of you. My eyes are on you. Let me pray for you.
Father, I thank you for this blood that you shed for us so that we can be clean in you, so we can walk forward confidently, boldly stepping into your presence day in and day out, moment by moment in every aspect of our life. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We gather we get to do that as sons and daughters of God. We love you and we take this remembering that we're because of this, we're forgiven, and we're whole in you. In Jesus name, amen.
Let's take it. I would ask you to maybe take it with you and throw it in a trash can when we leave in a little bit. You know, man, I had a whole another message. Let me give you just the principle, basically. I'll give you the principle, and then we'll move on because we got baptism out there, and God wants to do some stuff here.
Here's the principle. If we are going from the Garden Of Eden, the place of unbroken fellowship, which you're walking in right now, If we're going from that place out into a outside of the garden, we're sent from this place out outside of the garden into a place that's not subdued by the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven which is in you because of the Holy Spirit is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy. Okay? Right standing with God, peace that passes understanding in the midst of every storm, and joy, unspeakable, full of his glory.
If we're going into a place that's unsubdued, your job, family reunions, maybe your home, some of you, different areas or whatever of your life, those places are going to reflect the opposite of the kingdom of God. You're gonna see unrighteousness. You're gonna see the opposite of peace, is anxiety, stress, worry and depression, which is magnified in our culture as normal. It shouldn't be normal for a Christian. K?
You're gonna see the opposite of joy, which is despair and sadness, grief. Does that mean as Christians we can't mourn? No, doesn't. We mourn. Jesus wept.
We face those things down, and we look through them to what God's saying about the situation. And then we stand from that place in faith. Amen? Okay. So the only way that you're going to be able to bring what God has put in you out there is 1, to continue in the right environment, the place of His presence with nourishment and time growing, but also to be a carrier of his presence everywhere that you go, understanding that no matter what environment that God sends you into, your job, family reunion, I say that because that's a lot of place where a lot of fights happen, you hear about on social media or whatever.
Like wherever you go, you are called as a carrier of his presence, not to bow down to the forces that are around you, but to reflect his kingdom and overflow the presence of God that he's put on you. And so your life should cause others to sense the presence of God because His presence is emanating from you. So you become the catalyst for other people when they see you, they get a pre sense that God wants to do something in their life or through their life, and the only way that you're going to live like that is to live from the place of righteousness, understanding your right standing with God, from the place that you're forgiven and you're loved, and confidence in the authority he's given you as 1 in the great commission where Jesus said, just like God said to Adam and Eve, Jesus said to his disciples, fill the earth, Make disciples of every nation. All authority in heaven and on earth, I've given to you. Now go make disciples, and I will be with you always.
Meaning his presence is following you, and you're supposed to take that into every place, and cause it to look like a place of the kingdom of heaven. Quit making excuses that your job is so hard, and the people are so tough, or your your family, and find these trauma groups to to sit down and just complain about everything that's going on. That's American culture. That's not kingdom culture. And you're a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
You're supposed to look through that stuff and see God because God's in you, and prophecy, speak over it saying, no. The peace of God is here. You're someone that God wants to use to shift the atmosphere of your job, if or your company or whatever God's called you into, and the only way that's gonna happen is you begin to walk in the authority of a son or God because you're unashamed about what God's done in you, and you're believing it so much that you're confessing it around you. Which is walking by faith. You're not bowing down to culture anymore, but you're standing.
The gates of hell will not prevail. Will not. So the only way that the enemy can can cause the gates of hell to look like they're prevailing in your life, is to get you to believe a lie that he who's in you is not as powerful as he who's in the world. But when you believe he who's in you is more powerful than him that's in the world, Jesus is more powerful than the culture around you. You will live from that place by faith, and things will shift, and people will begin to follow you as you follow Jesus.
This is not a church where you can just sit on a seat and go away and feel good about your checking it off the box. Cause if it was, it wouldn't be a kingdom centered church. It would be a you centered church. This is a kingdom centered church where you're gonna come here and you're gonna be challenged to walk in the kingdom of heaven. To walk it out and go out and be the light everywhere that God calls you.
And if you're uncomfortable with that, then and God draws you back. Keep coming even in your uncomfort. But if you complain about it, go somewhere else because we're making disciples who make disciples. And if you're not willing to be a disciple who makes disciple and you just wanna suck, suck, suck and make it all about you, bro, you're stuck in immaturity for the rest of your life. Man, I wanna I wanna lead people to Jesus.
And when I lead people to Jesus, they're babies and they make it all about them, and so we serve them and love them and help them to grow to maturity. And ultimately, at some point, when you when you grow to maturity, there's a time to say, hey, go into the harvest field. Go make it about the kingdom of heaven. Be commissioned. Because if I continue just to to give give give to your neediness, instead of challenging you to be more mature, then I'm enabling your immaturity, and making you suck for me instead of going to Jesus.
A revived church, a church of revival is a church where the saints are growing to maturity and starting to give out in their daily life, and making the places where God sent them look like heaven. And this is a church where revival is happening. Man, we got so many. I'm so proud of you. We got so many mighty men and women of God that are changing the atmosphere of their home.
They're changing the atmosphere of their jobs. They're changing the atmosphere of the grocery stores. We got a testimony page on Slack, which is for the members of Real Church. By the way, if you're just sitting in a chair and you're not going to establish and becoming a member and God's called you here, you're missing out on community. You gotta get involved.
We got a testimonies channel that are just popping off almost every day, people giving their life to Jesus in Pinellas County. People getting healed, words of knowledge happen, prophecy happening. I mean, you read it and you're just encouraged and stirred into faith and to walk in in the kingdom of heaven being a carrier of the presence of God. You're missing out, man. God's doing so much, and the best is yet to come.
We ain't going anywhere. We "stuck our flag", not just real church, the kingdom of God. Every church that's growing and living, we stuck our flag in Pinellas County and says, this will be a place on earth as it is in heaven. Eventually, Scientology will bow to the kingdom of God, because the gates of hell will not prevail. Eventually, on the '19, you'll see more churches than strip clubs.
Eventually, we're gonna see the kingdom of heaven in such a way that people will be begging to get in the doors, and there won't be enough room. But that's not because we got a bunch of pew sitters. I want mature people, or people that are passionate about Jesus to lay their life down and go all out because it's only them that's gonna change the world like that. But people that make Christianity all about them. Bruh.
There's people that's been following Jesus for 30, 40, and 50 years and they're still infants because they never got outside of themselves and in the harvest field. They never followed the great commission and they just wanted to go sit in the Garden Of Eden on a hammock and never do the work that God called them to do. Man, we have worship services, we have encounter nights, we have prayer nights. Man, would you come and encounter the presence of God and get your healing and do all this stuff, but that is to in in encounter God in a real way so that you can take that same thing everywhere he sends you. If it just becomes all about me me me me me.
Selfishness. That's not us. That's not you. Man, I'm so proud to get to be your pastor. And those of you that this is challenging, like all of us, man, good.
Let it challenge you for it. Men, step up. Love your wives like you're supposed to. Women, step up. Respect your husbands and move forward like you're supposed to.
And if they're not doing it, then pray them into it like my wife did me. Let's have healthy families and turn the culture of family around in Pinellas County. Be a "city on a hill". People want to come and experience because you're "living out loud" so much. From the place of his presence, taking the glory of God everywhere we go.
Amen? Amen. I had a different message, but that's all I got. Praise the Lord. Courtney, do you wanna close us out and make sure you give the the altar ministry team the opportunity, because I think people probably need to be ministered too, because God loves them and he wants to meet them where they're at.
And then we also have a baptism, I believe. Do do we have a baptism? Good to go? At least 1 baptism. By the way, baptism is a physical step of obedience.
If you've been born again, you've repented. The Bible says repent and be baptized. So your baptism when you were an infant doesn't count for what the Bible said. Be repent and be baptized because you couldn't repent at that time. So no matter what your theology is, if that was it, it's not biblical.
Okay? So if you have since given your life to Jesus and been born again, and he like, he loves you, but the next step is to be baptized. And you don't have to wait till all the circumstances are right for that to happen. K? It did like the the the full what's his name?
The the Ethiopian, He was baptized in a ditch after he gave his life to Jesus immediately. Got down out the chariot and was baptized in a ditch. I've baptized Pakistanis in the ditches of Pakistan. Okay? You can get in the water in your jeans, but what I'm tell I'm challenging you to do is to be obedient.
Amen. Because without the step of obedience, it's not faith. So as much as you say you believe Jesus, until your life starts being obedient, I don't know. I don't know. Alright.
I'm done.