You are invited to step out of fear and doubt and into the public joy of your relationship with Jesus. Start by sharing what He has done for you and connecting with a community that supports your growth. Whether you are seeking salvation or deeper obedience, let your heart be transformed from the inside out.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Well, good morning. My name is David John Phillips. I get to be the pastor here at Real Church. And as I say every week, and I mean it with everything I have inside of me, there is nothing that I would rather be doing than being here getting to share the "good news" of Jesus Christ with you. Almost every Sunday we have more and more speakers that that God has brought and they're being raised up and man I just I can't wait to share the pulpit.
I can't wait to give it my wife gets speak from time to time, and she's awesome. You guys enjoy it when she gets to speak? Yeah. She's awesome, isn't she? You better clap.
That's my wife. No. If this is your first time, this is exactly what he said. We pray that you felt the love of Jesus from the moment that you drove into the parking lot. And I know as you encountered our dream team, you saw the love of Jesus flowing through them.
Jesus changes people from the inside out. And when your relationship with Jesus is personal, when you have a personal relationship with Jesus, when when you know him personally, it has to come out publicly. It just does because he fills you with with his presence and with his goodness, and and you can't help but to share it with those around you. It's an amazing thing. So we pray that you felt his love from the moment that you drove in to the time that you made it to your seat, and I wanna make a guarantee.
I guarantee that you will walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Wouldn't that be amazing? Yeah. If if wouldn't it be amazing if every time you went to church or every time that you got around another believer, every time you got around another person that was that that was a Christian, you walked away from from being with them encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Wouldn't that be amazing?
That's the life that we're called to live. We we carry *Jesus* with us. You if you are a believer, you carry Jesus everywhere that you go, and your world is waiting for you to share Jesus with them. The people in your family are waiting for you to become the love of Jesus to them. The people at your job are waiting for you to become the love of Jesus to them.
This is not a Sunday morning thing. This is a lifestyle. This is who we are day in and day out because we follow Jesus. And in this world we are 1 John-4:17, in this world we are like Jesus. People need are begging to see the love of Jesus in a real way that impacts every aspect of our lives.
They don't even know it yet and they're begging for it. They need his joy. They need his peace. They need what you carry. Amen?
Amen. Alright. So today we're going to get into the series on the monster series was supposed to end last week, and we just didn't quite get through all my notes on the "monster of fear". So we're gonna get into that again today, and we're gonna talk about it, maybe go a little bit deeper. Let's pray before we do.
It's my prayer, and I say this almost every Sunday too. It's it's my prayer that you guys wouldn't just walk away hearing a guy who has a talent to speak, walk away and say, hey, man, that was a decent message, and then just not think about it again. If if if it's me speaking, that's what will happen. You'll walk away, you know, feeling good about the message and and nothing will change. But if it's God speaking through me to you, if you're open to have ears to hear what he wants to say, then you're gonna walk away forever changed, eternally impacted by the love of Jesus.
Do you agree? Let's pray right now. And I want you to pray for me that I would get out of the way and communicate the gospel clearly as I should. That's what Paul Paul asked for that prayer. And I'm gonna pray for you that you would get out of the way and hear the gospel clearly as you should.
Amen? *Father*, I just thank you for who you are, and I thank you for what you're doing. And Lord, just as we said, I I pray that that we just get out of the way. Every distraction, every bit of confusion, every bit of wrong thinking, of wrong belief, we just reject it. Lord, and we we wanna open our ears to the gospel, to the good news of who you are.
We wanna open our ears to what you want to say to us. Encourage us, challenge us, exhort us, and and compel us to move forward in knowing you and moving forward in living a life of worship. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Alright.
And last but not least, if you would, pull out your phones, go to realchurch.us, click on this Sunday, you'll be able to pull up your notes which will be awesome. And I'm sorry I left you. But I almost forgot. Loretta Keith, are you in here? Would you come here, please?
I almost got into the message without doing this, and I shame on me. No. No shame on me. I'm in Jesus. But so at Real Church, we have a little something called leadership 1 0 1.
Those people that, man, you you are serving or you're involved, you're like, man, I want to I just wanna be a little more engaged. I wanna be a little more involved. I wanna understand what it means to serve people in a way that we're leading at Real Church. We we have something called Leadership 1 0 1. If that's you, if as I'm saying that you're like, man, I wanna do that.
In email info@realchurch.us. Ask me about Leadership 1 0 1, and I'll tell you, you know, the what we do there. It's a couple of books that you that you read. It just shows us, shows you the heart, make sure that we're moving in the same direction, the same vision there. But Loretta Keith, she completed leadership 1 0 1, which is a big deal.
And our prayer is God would send us more and more leaders, more and more workers for the harvest because the harvest is ripe. People are ready to receive and to know Jesus. Right? And and so Loretta did that and she understands who Jesus is, who Jesus says that she is, and how He's called us to move forward and reach in this city. And so she's going to be helping to organize and administrate the care team, which is when when people are are sick and and need meals cooked for them, or when people are, you know, maybe they just had a baby or something like that, and just needs, you know, to be served because maybe they don't have family in the area, or maybe they do, they just need need more help.
She's gonna organize people who can be a part of the care team and to cook meals and just to serve people that are kinda down and out for whatever reason. So Loretta, thank you for for being consistent. Thank you for serving people in the way that you do. She has a heart to serve. She serves in our cafe, and then just wherever else we need her.
And her consistency in loving people is amazing, and God has transformed her from the inside out. So we wanna honor the Jesus in you. Would you guys give her a a big old hand? Alright. So monsters.
We've been in a series called monsters, the monsters of the mind that attack our faith. In the first week, we talked about the monster of doubt, and we learned that despite our doubt, even in in our doubt, when we doubt, God reminds us of who he is, and then he reminds us of who we are, and then he commissions us to move forward in our destiny despite our doubt. Amen? Number 2, in the monster of depression, we learned that depression is a state. Sadness is temporary, but depression is a state of being.
And if you're a child of the king, then you're a part of his kingdom, and you are called not to live in the state of depression, but in the state of joy despite your sadness. If you missed that 1, I encourage you to go to the podcast, www.realchurch.us. Click on podcast and and watch the monster of depression because it will what what God showed will will free you. Let him free you of depression so that you can move forward in joy. Amen?
And then is there a little echo? Can we take a little the echo off of off of this? Anyway, and then we we talked about last week, we talked about the monster of fear. And we learned in that when we looked at the definition of fear that worry and anxiety are part of the definition of fear. And it's it's so interesting because we think about, you know, the culture today, and the culture today almost accept worry as something normal.
Hey, everybody worries. Don't worry about it. That you're worrying all the time or people call you a worrywart or whatever they call you. Or anxiety, we accept, I'm just an anxious person or people just make it okay to be anxious, but it's not. It's not a part of the kingdom.
It's just not. The Bible says, because you're a part of the kingdom, you're a son or daughter of the king, and his kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, of peace, and of joy. Righteousness means "right standing" with God. We learned that because we're in right standing with God, not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus has done and our faith in him, we can know that he's standing right next to us in the middle of everything that we're going through. And because we see him right next to us, we can walk in peace and in joy because his kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy.
Amen? You know, literally, the Bible says in *Philippians-4* let's go there, or you can on the Bible app or whatever. But Philippians-4:6, it says, do not be anxious about anything. There you go. We don't have a license to live in anxiety.
So don't call yourself an anxious person anymore. You're taken on an identity that is not from Jesus. You are called to live in peace. Period. Do not be anxious about anything.
If you look at the sentence right before it says that, it says the Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. We cannot be anxious about anything when we understand that the Lord is right next to us in the middle of the trial. And then it says, but, instead of anxiety, but in every situation. You know, it it it doesn't say do not be anxious about anything unless nobody around you has ever been through what you're going through, so then you can be anxious about that because they don't get it.
It doesn't say that. It says do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation think about the situation you're going through. That is included in every. In every situation, by prayer and petition.
What is prayer and petition? Speaking to him because you know he's near and listening to him because you know he's near. But in every situation by speaking to him and listening to him because of your relationship with him, with thanksgiving, thank you Jesus. I I know, man, the enemy's coming against me hard right now. I got this and this and this and this going on, but I know you're good, and I know you can work out all things together for good because I love you, and I'm called according to your purpose so I can be thankful in the midst of this situation because it's gonna press me, but it's not gonna crush me.
And impressing me, it's just going to squeeze Jesus out of me and impact those around me so that they see Jesus through me. Thank you, Jesus. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So when you're going through those things and Jesus is standing right there, he says, hey, I'm with you. You can walk through this trial.
I'm you know what? I'm gonna walk with you through the trial. And as we're going through the trial, you may be pressed, but I am your peace. Don't let your heart be troubled. *Jesus* said, I I give you my peace.
Don't let your heart be troubled, which means no anxiety, no worry, neither let it be afraid. So I'm with you. You can have my peace in the midst of this. And as you're walking through this, the others around you are gonna see you walking through this and see your peace and your joy and say, man, how are you living life like that? I need the Jesus that you have.
Amen? You guys are quiet this morning. It's tough, but it's truth. Remember we talked about Psalms-23 last week. It says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even though I'm going through possible time that you can think of in life, I will.
I'm choosing. I will fear no shadow evil. Why? Because you are with me, knowing he is with you, knowing you're in relationship with him, keeping your focus on him, communing with him at the table he's prepared before you in the presence of your enemies. Being in relationship is key to walking and experiencing his peace and joy despite your situation.
Amen? You don't have to fear anything. But, pastor, but doesn't the Bible say over and over and over, fear God? But but, pastor, doesn't it say over and over and over, fear God? Yes.
Yes. It does. And we're gonna look at the word because I believe that there's some assumptions that we've been taught all our life, but we haven't seen clearly from his word. And I think because of our misunderstanding about the "fear of God", we fear everything else in our lives. But we when we understand what the fear of God means and what that means for us as sons and daughters, we don't have to fear anything else in our lives.
So stick with me and be Berean, which means search out scriptures with what I tell you. Because if I'm challenging your assumptions and I'm challenging what you've always been taught, then I I want you to not just take my word for it, but look into scripture. Okay? Because his word trumps everything. Okay.
Am I I sound a little different. Am I loud? You guys okay? Sound good? Okay.
Cool. I guess it's just reverberating. Okay. Here we go. Ready?
*1 John-4:16* says this, **God is love**. And then in 1 John-4:18, says, there is no fear. Everybody say no fear. There is no fear in love. So who is love?
God. So basically, it's saying there is no fear in God. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The 1 who fears is not made perfect in love. And everybody immediately takes that as an excuse.
Well, hold on. Well, I'm not perfect yet, so it's okay for me to fear. Right? Nope. *Hebrews-9* or chapter 10 verse 14 says this, for by 1 sacrifice, he, Jesus, has made everybody say has made.
Has perfect forever those who are being made holy. So who did Jesus make perfect? Let me read it again. For by 1 sacrifice, Jesus is that 1 sacrifice. He, it's Jesus, has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
So by his 1 sacrifice, he has perfected everyone who is being made holy, who has received what he did for them. So who has he made perfect forever? *Believers*. Alright. The 1 who fears is not made perfect in love.
You are perfected in love, and you're perfectly loved by your father in heaven. You don't have to fear anymore. But pastor, hold on. The Bible says over and over in Old Testament and the New Testament, fear God. I get it.
Stick with me. It sounds like a bit of a contradiction, but it's not. In the Old Testament, they were so afraid of God. They didn't even want to hear his voice. They were scared of being punished for their sins.
They were scared because the punishment was death. Let's go to Exodus-20:18. Stay with me. They're at Mount Sinai here. The law has just been given.
God has spoken, and God has spoken in a way that everybody can hear. In Hebrews, it talks about them literally hearing God's voice as he shared the 10 commandments. It rumbled. It was fire. It was crazy.
Let's read. And he just shared all 10 commandments in Exodus-20:18. When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they "trembled in fear", and they stayed at a distance. Why? Because they had just heard the 10 commandments, and they knew that they were deserving of punishment.
See, the punishment for sin is death. Period. And they just heard the tenth commandment, the last thing out of God's mouth, which says, thou shalt not covet, which means you shall not desire what someone else has. Everybody says, oops. Yeah.
Right? So everybody said, hold on. I'm guilty, and the punishment for that sin is death, and they backed away. I can't be near this God because the punishment for sin is death. "I deserve to die".
And and, you know, a lot of people, especially today, like, and I've I've talked with a lot of atheists, a lot of people that believe that there is no God. And when you really get down to it, they know that there's a God. When you really ask them all the why questions, they really know that there's a God, but they don't wanna be held accountable for their sin. They wanna live as if there is no God so that they can be their own God and live in whatever way that they want. So they just make a making excuses asking, well, what about this and what about this?
What about this? When they know deep down so that they can live however they want. And a lot of times as Christians, we do the exact same thing in many different areas of our lives. We have a an area of our life that, man, the Bible says this and this and this about it. And but you know what?
Culture says this and this and this about that area too. So I'm just gonna pretend like that doesn't exist. I'm not even gonna worry about it. Does that make sense? So what happened?
When when that happens, in fear, they back away from him. They don't want to to even be near him. But see the Israelites, unlike a lot of atheists today or unlike a lot of Christians that just don't wanna believe that that exists. The Israelites are standing in front of the mountain. They are literally seeing the mountain shake.
They're literally hearing God's roaring voice. They're literally seeing the fire of God, the smoke of God. They're literally seeing all of these things happen, and they can't say that he doesn't exist, so they back away of fear knowing that he does. And here's what they say. Verse 19.
Let's read 18 again. When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain and smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, speak to us yourself, and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die. And there's a lot of people that live like that today too.
They say, I'm gonna go to church on Sunday, and I'm gonna have the man of God, the pastor, speak to me. But I'm not gonna have relationship with him on Monday through Saturday. Right? I'm gonna I'm gonna do whatever I want. My relationship with God is gonna go through the pastor.
The problem with that is that's not Christianity. You are called to have a personal relationship with God. You are called to know him in the same way or even greater than I do. You are called to live that life, period. You can't you can't just expect to hear what I say to you.
It it pierce your heart, and then you walk away and not have a relationship with God, period. That's what the people of of Egypt were doing. So look at this. Verse 20. Moses said to the people, do not be afraid.
God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you and "keep you from sinning". Now hold on a second. It almost seems as if there's a contradiction in these 2 sentences. Please follow me here. Do not be afraid, but yet the the fear of God keep you from sinning.
But if you're afraid of God, you run from him. You don't have relationship with him. And if you're running from him, then you're not gonna reproduce his nature in your life because there's no relationship. You follow me? Do not be afraid.
And then it says, the fear of God has come to keep you from sinning. Did the fear of the being afraid of God, did that type of fear keep them from sinning? Did the Israelites stop sinning? No. As soon as all of the commandments were given, they broke the number 1 commandment, which was making an idol to the Lord.
They had a different God before him. Over and over and over, they rejected God. Over and over and over. Like they're walking through the wilderness and there's there's fire in the day. Literally, a pillar of fire from God that's leading them in the wilderness.
And and I mean, a fire in the night and then smoke in the day or a cloud in the day. Literally leading them and still they're rejecting him over and over and over because there's no relationship with him. You can see miracles. You can see god move and all kinds of stuff but if you don't understand the love of god, you're not gonna follow god. You're gonna follow at a distance and really not know him.
But pastor, but but pastor, it says fear God over and over and over. I'm getting there. *John-14:15, Jesus* says, those who love me, obey my commands. Right? Those who love me are the ones who it doesn't say those who fear me are the ones who obey my commands.
It says those who love me obey my commands. And there's no fear in love because fear has to do with punishment. In Christ now listen to that too. 1 John-4:18. There is no fear in love because perfect love casts out fear.
Fear has to do with punishment. The 1 who fears has not been made perfect in love. Fear has to do with punishment. Now what did Jesus do? In Christ, we don't have to fear punishment anymore.
*Jesus took away all of the punishment of our sin*. *Isaiah-53*. Follow me. We're gonna get real practical here in a second. Promise it's gonna be encouraging.
*Isaiah-53:4*. Surely he, Jesus, **took up our pain** and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. So Jesus took up our pain and our suffering. What's pain and suffering? It's the consequences of sin.
*Jesus took the consequences of sin* in himself. Stricken by him and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. So the spear was pierced in him, blood and water poured out. Why? For our sin.
He was crushed for our iniquities, for our sin. And the punishment that brought us peace was on him. Did you catch that? The punishment that brought us peace. So the punishment that you deserved for your sin, if you are living in sin and not in relationship with Jesus, then you are living as an enemy of God, an enemy of the God of the universe.
But the punishment that brought us peace was on him. The punishment that you deserve was given to Jesus so that you didn't have to be punished for your sin anymore but you could receive mercy which is getting what you don't deserve. Outside of Christ, James talks about if you're living a life outside of surrender to Jesus, outside of a relationship with him, not knowing him, you're living under the curse of sin, living as an enemy of God. But in Christ, we're free from the punishment of sin. Free to follow him, to be disciplined in love, not punished.
You don't have to fear punishment because Jesus became your punishment so that you could have peace. But but but, pastor remember, fear has to do with punishment. But, pastor, the Bible says to fear God. Yes. It does.
And let's get to it. *Matthew-4:10*. You guys are quiet. *Jesus* was just baptized by John the Baptist. When he came up out of the water, the father said, this is my son out loud.
This is my son in whom I am well pleased. It's what he said. *Jesus*, understanding his identity, was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, and he overcame the temptation of the devil, which is something for us to realize. When you understand your identity, when you understand how God sees you, when you understand that he's pleased with you, not based on what you've done or haven't done, but based on the fact that you're a son and a daughter, then it helps you to live out the life he's called you to live. So then Satan came to him at the end of his fasting when he's weak.
He's physically weak, is which when Satan tries to trip us up as well, when we're weak. Tempted him with 3 different things. Jesus, with each thing, came back with the word. He responded with the word. Same thing for you.
When you are tempted, the enemy tries to attack your mind, you respond with the word of God, which means we must know his word. We must get in, get to know him. Okay. And in the third 1, in verse 8, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all the splendor. And he said, all this I will give to you.
He said, if you will bow down and worship me. Verse 10, Jesus said to him, away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship everybody say worship. Worship the Lord your God and "serve him only". What does this have to do with fear in God? Jesus is quoting the Old Testament.
If you have a paper Bible, you see the little d there. That's a superscript that shows you. If you go to the bottom and look at the d, it'll show you the little verse at the bottom. If you're on your app in your phone, you'll see a little letter. Click on the letter, and it'll take you to the verse in the Old Testament.
*Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy-6:13*. Jesus says, worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. *Deuteronomy-6:13*. Let's see what it says. Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only.
Jesus said, worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. Deuteronomy-6:13 says, fear the Lord your God and serve Him only. Jesus changed fear to worship. Relationship with God through Jesus changes fear to worship. We don't have to be afraid of God anymore, but we walk forward in him through worship.
Now actually, if we look at the word that's used for fear in the Greek and the word that's used for fear in the Hebrew in the Old Testament, part of it does mean be afraid. But the other definitions of it mean mean reverence, mean worshipful awe, mean like, oh my gosh. He's an awesome I revere you. I I hold you special. I hold you in in I hold you close.
I mean, I'm in awe of who you are. I worship you. When you see fear of the Lord now in Christ, it's worship. It's awe. It's reverence.
*Jesus, a relationship* with Jesus changed fear to worship so we don't run afraid from him anymore. We run to him. When you don't know God, when you don't know him as father, you fear punishment. But when you know him as your loving father, you realize Jesus took all of your punishment. There's no fear in love.
So all your fear melts to deep honor, awe, reverence. It melts into worship. Now as you realize that he is here with you, you are no longer afraid, but you expose the hidden parts of yourself, your sin to him. Jesus forgives you. He's paid the price for your forgiveness already and makes you clean so that you can move forward in him not back in sin.
What is our response? Let me prove that 1 more time before I go to our response because some of you, I think, don't believe yet. Let's go to Hebrews-12. Start in verse 18. And talking about Exodus-20, and this is what it's talking about.
It's talking about exactly what we were talking about. Says, you have not come to a mountain that cannot be touched or that can be you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, to a trumpet blast or such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them. That's exactly what happened in Exodus-20. It's referencing exactly what we talked about. The trumpet from heaven that was blast, the fire, the smoke, the mountain, Mount Sinai.
You have not come to that mountain because they could not bear what was commanded. If even an animal touches the mountain, it was stoned to death. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling in fear. Verse 22, but so that's what we haven't come to. That's what was in the Old Testament.
That's what was before Jesus. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, Jesus, and you are the church. Jesus is the firstborn, you are his church. Whose names are written in heaven.
You have come to God, the judge of all, to the *spirits* of the righteous made perfect, which is you if you've been born again, you've given your life to Jesus, you know him. To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant into the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You haven't come to fear. You've come to worship. The blood that speaks a better word than the than the blood of Abel.
*Jesus*, the blood of Abel spoke vengeance, cried out vengeance, but the blood of Jesus cries out mercy. *Father*, don't give them what they do deserve. I paid for that. So what is our response? Remember, Jesus changed fear to worship.
*Romans-12*. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, in view of not getting what you do deserve, in view of you not being punished, separated from God for eternity, and death and hell and separation from him, in view of him paying the price, the punishment of your sin. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a "living sacrifice", holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. What is my true and proper worship?
How do I fear God now? As I offer my body as a as a living sacrifice, *holy* and pleasing to God. What is worship? Is it singing songs and lifting our hands? That's part of it.
That's a little bit of it. It's the overflow. Worship is I'm living a life, I'm offering myself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him, set apart from him because I see in view of his mercy, in view of what he's done for me, in view of him not giving me what I do deserve, but given me a relationship with the God of the universe so that I can be in right standing with him and him standing next to me in the midst of everything that I'm going through. So I can experience his joy and peace in everything. He gave me all of these things and in view of that, I don't deserve that but in view of that, I offer myself as a living sacrifice.
My body, So, father, I offer you my eyes. *Lord, I wanna see what you want me to see. I I I give you, I sacrifice* what I want. I sacrifice the TV shows. I sacrifice the movies that that I used to to watch.
God, I only wanna put in my mind, in my eyes what you have for me to see. Lord, and if you don't like this show, let me know because I'm going to sacrifice it because I'm offering my eyes to you because I want to see and put into my mind what you have for me. God, I offer you my ears. Every everything that I've used to listen to, every music, every every peep that people that I used to be around that just gossip or down or discourage. Lord, teach me who to hang around and who not to hang around.
Teach me what to listen to. I sacrifice. I offer my ears as a living sacrifice to you in view of what you have done for me. I want to worship you with everything. My mouth, what comes out of my mouth, and what goes into my mouth.
God, I give you every aspect of my mouth. God, you said, course joking and and all of that stuff is not a part of who we are in you. So, father, change my mouth. Change my tongue to be an encourager, to encourage the brothers and sisters, to speak love, to show those that don't know you forgiveness and honor when they don't even deserve it just like you show me the same thing. God, I give you my mouth.
I offer my mouth as a living sacrifice to you. My feet. *Lord, I I offer my feet as a living sacrifice to you, as an act of worship because of what you've done for me. I see it. Father*, I I dedicate my feet to go where you say to go, to do what you say to do.
*Lord, let me run into places where people need you and speak the love of Jesus. I offer every aspect of me as a living sacrifice* to you. My hands. God, let this not be hands of destruction anymore. Members are hands of unrighteousness.
No. Hands of righteousness because you have made me righteous on the inside. Let it come out in my hands so that at my job, now nobody I'm not complaining with my mouth anymore. No. I'm thanking God for the job that he gave me no matter how little or how big.
I'm gonna when people see me, when my boss sees me, or my coworker sees me, or those under me see me coming, they don't sigh, oh my gosh, but they sigh of relief because, man, I work with everything that I do with my hands as an oh, as worship. And they know that I'm working with everything and consistent, and they say, man, I want him on my team. There's something different about him. He's offered his hands as worship to God. I've served Lord, let these be hands that serve people, not just serving myself because you serve me by giving your life for me.
I give you my hands as an act of worship. Every aspect in view of what you've done for me. My body, my privates, I offer as a living sacrifice to you. You said sex before marriage, and sex outside of marriage is not acceptable. I give this to you.
I offer it as a living sacrifice. It's it's not mine anymore. God, it's yours and you want me to wait until I'm married? I'm gonna wait even if I haven't been. Lord, I know that I'm forgiven and you say that I'm brand new right now.
So, moving forward, I'm gonna be chaste virgin in your eyes and in my own and I'm gonna act the same way because you said to offer myself as a living sacrifice to you holy and pleasing and acceptable in light of what you've done for me. I no longer live for myself. I live for you, and I want to be holy. And I want your fire to purge me of everything that's not of you so people can see your fire and be revived to life. My mind, the things that nobody else can see.
I offer you my thoughts. Teach me to renew my mind, to put my mind on your word and what you say about me and what you say about others, what and to take captive every thought because I offer you my mind as a living sacrifice to you. That is my act of worship. It's not out of religion. It's relationship.
It's not because I have to. It's in view of what he's done for me. It's in view of his mercy, of his grace, of his goodness. The fear of God is worship. I'm running to him.
See the fire that fell in the Old Testament and consumed people and killed them and all of that, the fire of God, it's the same fire today. See, the difference is we're different because God's changed us from the inside out. The fire that fell on Mount Sinai is the same fire that falls on Mount Zion, but we are inhabitants of Mount Zion, and we say revival fire fall. Because when his fire comes, it burns up everything that's not of him and revives us to life so everyone that looks at us sees Jesus. God loves you.
And *Jesus* paid the price for you so that you could be *forgiven* of all of your past, present, and future so that you could walk in *relationship* and so that you could be conformed, *transformed* to his image. You're made perfect here, and it's coming out. And as it does, the fire of God, his love and his passion is gonna flow out of you more and more. And those around you are gonna see it. They're waiting.
And when they see it, they're gonna want it because this is life. This is the life we're created to live. Guys, something shifted. Like and I want you guys to be a part of it. It's not because I'm special.
Like, Jesus is in me. He's in you. But something shifted in the last few days. Guys, 3 of 4 people that I've asked if they want to **know Jesus** have said yes in the last 3 days. At Starbucks, on the street, I took my neighbor.
I was was gonna go on a prayer walk just to go and pray for you guys and pray for our team. I walk outside and my neighbor says, hey. Where are going? I said, I'm going on a walk. I said, really?
What you gonna be doing? Praying? I said, can I come? This is a a kid, 15 year old. I've been praying for for a year and a half, 2 years.
Absolutely, you can come in. We go and I'm at first, the first half of the walk, I'm just praying out loud. So that 1, praying what I would normally pray, but 2, I want him to hear me because I want him to learn to pray. We get halfway down the Road. This we're about probably 15, 20 minutes into the walk.
And he says, hey, Dave. Yeah. Can we go pray for my friend, Sam? Where does he live? 4 houses down.
Alright. So we go and we knock on Sam's door. Sam comes out. Hey, Sam. It was kinda felt awkward.
Right? I just want you to know we Omarion and I were praying for people and are just just praying, you know, on this walk and and wanted to come pray for you and I just want you to know god loves you a whole lot and I asked if I could pray for you. I said, okay. Sure. Cool.
Can I can I hold your hand while I pray? Yeah. Okay. It was that awkward guys. I grab his hand.
I just pray, father, I pray that you show him how much you love him. God, open his heart to the gospel. *Lord, give him a desire to seek after you and to know you in Jesus' name. Let him see how loved* he is by you. In Jesus name.
Amen. Hey, Sam. Being really honest, man, just like don't I'm I'm talking to a 16 year old kid. I said I said, don't bullcrap me. Okay?
What are your honest thoughts about Jesus? He says, well, think, you know, I believe in him. You know, I believe I think it's good to believe in something. And he talks about his parents being atheist and tells me some tragic stories about the church doing some crazy stuff. It was it was not Jesus.
And I look at him and said, so you believe you believe in Jesus? He says, yes. Said, do you know him? He says, no. Even demons believe, but demons don't know him.
There's a lot of people that believe in Jesus but don't have a relationship with him. So do you know him? No. Do you wanna know him? Yes.
It's that simple. I said, you believe Jesus died for you? Yes. You really rose again? Yes.
Are you ready to con confess him as your Lord? Which means to give your life to him, to say, I'm following you. I might not know what it means yet, but I'm committing my life to you. Yes. Let's pray.
Pray. Hey. I'm gonna have a bible study at my house and Marion's gonna come get you. Would you come? Yeah.
How you feel, man? Different. You carry life. The world is waiting for you to show them that they don't have to run-in fear anymore because Jesus paid the price of their punishment. They can run to him and fall prostrate in worship and live the lives of worship.
You carry that. Let's take a moment to pray. If you guys would bow your head and close your eyes. I believe, I don't believe, I know. There's some people in here who believe in *Jesus* but don't know him.
And it's time to know him. And if you're ready, you're like, you know what? I need to know Jesus. I need to to have a relationship with God where I don't run-in fear anymore, but I run to him. It's time for me to to get right.
If that's you, if you're ready to know Jesus, I'm gonna count to 3. I'm just gonna ask you to raise your hand high. 1, 2, 3. I see you. Anybody else?
Raise your hand high. Wonderful. I see you in the back. Anybody else? Alright.
If that's you, everybody else keep your head bowed, eyes closed. Just look up at me. I wanna talk to you. Just me and you. Hello.
Hello. You guys are beautiful. Do you believe that Jesus loves you? Just shake your head yes or no. Wonderful.
Do you believe that Jesus died for you to pay the price for your sin? Do you believe that he rose again? You know why he did that? So that you could have his life. It's so simple.
It's a great exchange. We give him our life and he gives him he gives us his. It's amazing. Are you ready to confess him as Lord? Meaning, I'm gonna follow you instead of myself.
And I don't know what that completely means, but I know you're good, and I'm gonna seek you. Are you ready for that? Yes? Okay. We're gonna pray, and I just want you to pray with me.
And this, as we're praying, there's a miracle that's gonna take place. Bible says you're gonna be born again on the inside. He's gonna give you a new heart, a relationship with God. It's gonna start now. Do you want that?
Yes? Alright. Bow your head and close your eyes. Everybody else, keep your eyes closed and just say this with me. Say, Jesus, I believe in you.
*Jesus*, I believe in you. I'm ready to follow you. I've been living for me. Forgive me. I give you my life.
Thank you for dying for me. Thank you raising again. I *confess you as my Lord*. Thank you, Jesus. And I want everybody to look at me.
Everybody. This this part's for everybody. You ready? Bible says "blessed is the person" whose sin is never counted against them. Who is that person whose sins never counted against them?
That's you guys. Because of your faith in Jesus, your sin is never counted against you. It was counted against Jesus. So if it would be counted against you, it would be saying Jesus' payment was not good enough, but it was. So your past, present, and future sin completely washed away as far as the "East is from the West".
So we're gonna pray again, all of us together. We're just gonna thank him for forgiving us. Okay? Let's pray. Close your eyes.
Imagine your heavenly father before you. Just thanks. Thank you, God. Everybody say, thank you, God. That I am forgiven.
That I forgiven. That I'm loved by you, that I'm your daughter or I'm your son. *Holy Spirit*, invite you into my life. Lead me. Show me your way.
Show me to how to hear your voice. *Jesus*' name. Amen. It's the biggest, most important, amazing thing in the world. Tell somebody.
Tell the people that invited you. Tell them it's important. It's not personal. It's public. And, God, that this change, something that happened on the inside, it's gonna come out as you grow in your understanding of who he is and who God says that you are.
So get around some other believers. Get connected to this church. We have a foundations class. I encourage you if you have time on Tuesday nights to come to that. You can sign up online, realchurch.us.
Get in the word. And for the rest of you, what I just did, you can do that. All you gotta do is share what Jesus has done for you with others. Pray with them. Talk with them.
And if what I talked about today really, really, really hit home talking about worship, here's what you do. If I as I was talking about our ears, my eyes, my body, and you're, like, "cut to the quick". Oh my gosh. You know what? That was the Holy Spirit saying, hey.
I've been telling you, that's not who you are. It's not you're you're forgiven and you're loved. Time to start living that way. You're righteous. You're in right standing with me.
Time to start living that way. Let's leave the old things behind. Let's fall forward in worship instead of "running back in fear" and guilt and shame, and let's live holy. Let's make those decisions. That's what that was.
So now you have the opportunity to confess, which means to agree with god what god showed you, and to move forward in *obedience* or to run-in fear. But you're a son. You're a daughter. You're not gonna shrink back in fear. You're gonna confess to agree.
Repent means to turn back to the 1 who called you and move forward in obedience.
Thanks for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching real church clear water or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
Go to realchurch.us and click the give button. Whether you're praying, giving, or serving with Real Church, you are "playing a part" in every life being changed. Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next time.