You are valued not by your performance but by the price Jesus paid for you on the cross. Stop fighting the truth that you are God's handiwork and start using the gifts He has placed inside you for His kingdom. Today, choose to move past fear and step into the purpose He has prepared for you.
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.
I want to invite I believe well, she she is. She's my favorite speaker of all time. She's the most beautiful woman in the world. Sorry, fellas. Your wife is second best.
My wife's more beautiful than yours. I am the man I am today because of her prayers for me, and I'm not joking. I'm not just saying that. I learned to love. You know, we love because he first loved us.
I learned to love because God first loved me through her. That's pretty amazing. She challenges me. She encourages me, and and she's anointed by God. And so I know I just encourage you to "sit on the edge of your seats" today and and just ask God to speak to you because what you're gonna hear, you're not you're not just gonna hear my wife, Courtney Phillips.
You're gonna hear a mighty woman of God, and every word that flows from her mouth is going to penetrate because it's truth. The Holy Spirit's gonna speak through her, and it's gonna be amazing. You're gonna walk away today with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. So would you guys please, give a big hand just welcoming my beautiful wife? And, baby, I'll get the, the thing for you.
It's muted. There you go.
Did I unmute? Oh, hey. Good morning. Hi. My name is Courtney, and before I get into what we're talking about, I wanted to point out something that happened during worship, and and maybe some of you come here and you're like, like what you're doing, but why is that guy dancing around the front?
I wanted to talk about brand for a second. So something really cool about the church of of Jesus, those of us who belong to the household of Jesus, we are a worldwide body of believers, and I'm actually going to go into that in my message today. He and his family are from Zimbabwe, Africa, and there is something that we can learn as believers from other churches, from other communities, from other cultures. We can learn something that that maybe in our culture, it's not really the norm. You know, normally, unless you're at a youth rally, it's almost like that freedom to just say, God, I'm I'm here, and I'm gonna give what I have, and and the cultural aspect of the dancing and stuff in Africa is huge.
We should learn from people. I am encouraged by your joy. I hold back. I hold back, and I know most of y'all probably do too. I hold back what's happening inside.
Like, sometimes I'll be like because but because of, I don't know. It's kinda stupid, right? What has god done for you? That's good. Like, I don't I think of what god has saved me from, what god has brought me through, and where god has taken me and like, I I need to start dancing some for Jesus too.
Maybe y'all don't wanna see me doing it because I don't do it as cool as he does, but but there's joy in him that is contagious. And so remember when we when we're worshiping together, and maybe you see people's hands raised, look, you don't know what God set them free from. When you see someone dancing or just weeping at the feet of Jesus, weeping in church or weeping when they hear a worship song, just remember that we don't know where they've come from. We don't know what God has brought them through. And so that's encouraging to me.
I just wanted to point that out because I think that it's important that we learn from 1 another. So like he said, I belong to him. That's my husband. He he asked me to speak and I was excited because we are in the series called characters and up until today, we've been learning about people. I don't even like the title characters really because we've been learning about people that god used throughout history in the bible, those people's stories in the bible, and we've been learning about them and how God used broken people to bring his kingdom to earth.
Isn't that good news? I I think that the most impactful thing about this series and about reading throughout scripture is that the people that God used to do mighty things were screw ups. They had families. They had houses. They had jobs.
They had kids. They had drama. If you go back to Genesis, and you read in Genesis, you're like, man, I if I compare my life to their life, like, they were crazy. If God can use them, God can use me. Just read the story of Abraham or Paul, and you will really be encouraged through what God can do through broken people.
And so, as we move forward today, I'm actually going to be, for the first time in this series, speaking about actual characters, not real people. It's actual characters from the bible. I'm gonna be sharing about the parable of the talents and breaking that apart and how is it applicable to my life. And it's said that this is 1 of the most influential and the most impactful parables. I've read this I've been reading on, like, forums and ministry blogs and and looking throughout history, and this is 1 of the most taught and the most applicable teachings in scripture for us today.
So I think it's important that we dive into. And all a parable is is a human story with a heavenly meaning. That's it. See, Jesus was here doing ministry for about 33 year or about 3 and a half years. He lived about 33 years.
And for 3 and a half years, he was tasked by God to bring the message of the *kingdom of heaven, deep spiritual truths* to a bunch of fishermen, prostitutes, and broken people. And I don't think that he could have taught any clearer than using things that made sense to them to teach them the deeper truths of heaven. Right? So, I love parables. If you've been here for any period of time, if I'm speaking, it's usually about a parable and we're gonna be in Matthew-25:14-29.
I'm gonna use my phone. I use the Bible app. If you don't have the Bible app, I highly highly encourage you to download it. It is amazing to have scripture with you all the time, and I am going to take a moment to lay the groundwork for the message. I have the longest intro and the shortest message ever.
So, I'm going to be laying the groundwork for the majority of this message so that you can learn how I read the Bible. You can learn how a lot of other people read the Bible. I've taken a lot teachings on reading the bible and kinda made them practical to me and how I learn. So when I read the bible, I need to understand context. I need to understand why does this matter for me.
But in order to understand that, I ask myself 5 questions. Who is speaking? Who is being spoken to? Where are they? What's the backdrop?
Where have they been? What's their day look like? What are they talking about? Because that's important. And how is it applicable to me?
So, like I said, I'm using the Bible app. You can use our website, realchurch.us on your phone. Tap on this Sunday and then view sermon notes and you'll pull up everything that's gonna be on the screen behind me. This is a really practical way to get into the word to understand what's going on because if you are like me and you scroll or you you flip through your Bible and you just point to a verse, it can really screw you up if it's not directed by God. There's a comedian I like and he said he was signing autographs, this Christian comedian, signing autographs, and the guy said, hey, just put your favorite Bible verse, and he blanked.
So, he just wrote wrote the first verse that came to his mind. He's like, god will use this. I don't know what I'm writing but I'm just gonna write this verse and then, so, everybody's asking him for his favorite Bible verse. So, he went through hundreds of autographs signing his name. I think it was John *Christ* and his favorite bible verse.
And then he goes home and he's like, I really need to know what I was writing. Like, I hope god uses it and he opens his bible and it says, low, I have a painful disease in my loins. And so I I don't usually do flipping point in the bible. It's okay if you do. Sometimes God will put a verse on your heart and it'll be on time and it'll be really good, but I choose to understand what's going on.
So I ask these questions, and we're going to be in Matthew-25:14, but before I get there, I need to answer these questions. So who is speaking? My first question, who is speaking? I see in my bible, on my app, in my bible, my paper bible, that the red the letters are in red. And anytime you see red letters in the bible, it is Jesus Christ speaking.
If your Bible isn't in red letters when Jesus is speaking, do a little digging and just make sure you know who is speaking. So if you're reading about John, it's not gonna be in red letters. If you're reading something that John wrote or said, it's not gonna be in red letters. So you should probably find out who is speaking. But I know, I've already laid the groundwork.
I've already looked up the context for you. So John or I'm sorry, Jesus is speaking. Aw. So I'm a mama, so I hear babies, I'm like, so cute. So who is speaking?
So who is being spoken to? If I look at Matthew-25 verse 14, all I see is what is being said, but I don't know the context. I don't know if Jesus is talking to prostitutes, if he's talking to businessmen, if he's talking to disciples. I don't know the context of this. So I have to go back to Matthew-23:1.
In Matthew-23:1, it says, Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, now nothing in scripture is put here by accident. It could have just said, Jesus was talking to a bunch of people, but it differentiated between 2 different groups of people. Why is that important? Now, again, parables are meant to make deeper truths come alive to to the people that they're being spoken to. And so for me, to make these deeper truths come alive, I really need to understand, like, what is the difference between a a crowd and a disciple?
And I look at it something that's practical to me as like a "fan and a follower". So you've got a fan. You've got these guys that Jesus is teaching to, and they're like, yeah, I like what you're doing. This is good. I like listening to you.
It's a good word. I I could I could I I like what you're doing. But then you've got followers who take it another step. You got followers who are devoted. They're consistent.
The followers are with him and say, I don't wanna just listen to what you have to say. I wanna be a part of what you're doing. And I have a really practical example in my life of a fan versus a follower. Several months ago, a couple in our church took David and I to a hockey game. It was my first hockey game.
It was Tampa Bay Lightning. It was a lot of fun. I had fun. Do y'all like do y'all like a hockey? Whoo.
Okay. So, it was my first gap from Louisiana. Like, we, I wouldn't think that Florida had ice but there's a big slab of ice. So, so, my first game, it was so much fun. I wanna go back just so you know.
I wanna go back. It was a lot of fun. I didn't so they didn't win when we went and so the whole season, they wouldn't take us back because so, but I would be considered a fan. I like it. It's fun.
It's it's entertaining but then you got Mike and Angie Gabbert and anybody that knows Mike and Angie Gabbert, they are followers. Now, they're followers of Jesus but they are lightning followers. They they work out their budget. They're good stewards of their money but they work out their budget to buy season tickets. They go to every game that they can.
They know, they were telling us, oh, this guy just moved here from so and so. I'm like, how do you, are you friends with them? Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's he's out because he hurt his leg.
He's he's here in his healing process and I'm like, how do you even know that like, they are followers. So, I would be considered a fan of hockey, a fan of the lightning. They have 2 types of clothes, real church and lightning. Like, they are followers. So, that's a difference between a fan and a follower.
The fans of Jesus are the people who show up and they're like, yeah, good. I like I like what you're teaching. I'll sit and listen. I'll take it in. I might put some of it into practice or something but yeah, it's good but then you've got followers who take it a step further.
So, we've answered 2 questions up to this point. *Jesus* is speaking, who he's speaking to are crowds and disciples, fans and followers. So where are they? Like, what did their day look like? *Matthew-24* verse 1, it says, and Jesus left the temple and was going away.
So we know that he had been in the church teaching a bunch of people. And you can go back even further and see that this was a long day of teaching. He laid out so much stuff. And when you read it, it might take you 30 minutes to read it all but when you think about just teaching, you gotta take into account there were a bunch of people there. They they were probably asking a bunch of questions.
They might not all be recorded but like it seems like from scripture, it seems like the context of this was Jesus was teaching for a long time to a bunch of people. So Jesus is speaking to his crowds and his disciples, and they are in the temple, but he left the temple. *Matthew-24* verse 3, it says, so he went away and he sat on the Mount Of Olives. And this is where we're gonna pick up the story. So he went and he sat.
I feel like because for me, I'm a visual person. Like, I like to picture it. I love the movies that are made about bible times because it makes it come alive to me. And so I picture him sitting on this grassy hill with a tree. I know it's just what I see in my head.
Get this. So, you've got his fans who stayed or probably went home, took care of the kids, and all that stuff but you've got his followers. *Matthew-24* verse 3, as he sat on the Mount Of Olives, the disciples came to him privately basically saying, tell
us
more. That's the difference in a fan and a follower. A follower wants to know more. After a long day of minute, Jesus had to climb a mountain to get alone, to get away. Like, he was probably tired.
I mean, he was a man like us, and he was probably tired, and his disciples were like, we're not done. I need more. They left church, and on Monday, we're like, alright, let's get in this word. Let's let's start learning what my master is teaching me. And so we are going to answer our last question.
I'm sorry, our fourth question, what was he talking about? *Jesus*, at this point, he's teaching his disciples, his close, those that are closest with him. He's on a hill under a tree, at least that's what I see in my head, on the Mount Of Olives. What was he talking about? In Matthew-25 verse 14, all we see is it says, for it will be like or for it is like.
That's what we know. I don't know what it is. He could be talking about anything in the universe and so I have to, again, context. It takes a little time but it's worth it. I have to go back to 25 verse 1 and see that he's speaking about the *kingdom of heaven*.
I my friend Kayla is doing this bible study. She invited me to do this bible study. It's like a 90 day bible study and I realized it's gonna take me 900 days because I can't just read the bible. I have to dive in and I have to get the information. Like, I want to learn and so, I've been doing it a month.
I should be like halfway done and I'm in like Exodus. So, I've got a long way to go but to me, it's worth it because I I I try and just absorb as much as I can and I encourage you when you read the Bible to do that as well. So, he's talking about the *kingdom of heaven* and the last question is, why is this applicable to me? If he's talking about the kingdom of heaven, what a lot of us understand heaven to be is when we as believers, we give our life to Jesus, and we live our life. Of course, we love him, and we pray, and we do all these things, but but then we die and we go to heaven.
Heaven is this far off place, and yes, that is true, and that's a whole another teaching. But yes, heaven is a far off place but but scripture tells us that the *kingdom of heaven* is now for those who believe. Once we cross that line of faith, we were implanted with the Holy Spirit and he says that you are citizens of heaven today And so the teachings are applicable to us about the kingdom of heaven because we are in the kingdom of heaven today, and I'm gonna prove it through scripture. *Matthew-25* oh, I'm sorry. Let me go back.
*Philippians-4* I'm sorry. Philippians-3:20. My notes are a little frazzled. I was typing them as my kids were asking me for dinner. It's real church light, right?
Like, happens. Philippians, I believe it's 3 20. It says, our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is, not will be. Our citizenship is in heaven.
*Ephesians-2:19*, the second half of 19, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God**. You are members of the household of God. You are citizens of the *kingdom of heaven, those of you who have given your life to Jesus*. *Matthew-6:9*, the disciples were saying, how should we pray? Like, how are we supposed to pray?
He said, you should pray like this. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's good. We live in the kingdom of heaven today.
In fact, because we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven but we live on Earth, did you know that we are ambassadors of heaven? We are representatives of Jesus Christ here. Amen. So, everything that is taught to us is for today and everything that I'm gonna teach to you is in love and I pray that it is challenging and it stirs something in you to say, you know what? I can't just sit back anymore.
I gotta be a follower. I gotta dive into everything that god wants for me. There's a song, So, I might not look like it but I listen to a lot of Christian hip hop. I'm not gonna rap. Y'all don't want me to rap.
I'm not good at it. David can rap. Believe it or not, y'all gotta rap and pastor but there's a song that 1 of my favorite rap artists did years ago. It's kind of embarrassing. I'm like, so it's called aliens and I'm gonna speak it because I don't wanna risk like trying to rap it and y'all laughing at me.
I mean, y'all can laugh at me if you wanna laugh at myself all the time but the song is called aliens and here are the lyrics. Aliens, strangers in places foreign in lands that we are and call us peculiar, but know that we are aliens. We are citizens of heaven, living on Earth, *ambassadors* for Christ here until we get to heaven, to our final destination. So, let's dive into the teaching. I told you, I was the longest intro, shortest message ever.
*Matthew-25:14*. I'm talking about the parable of the talents. Now, to the people then, this 2000 some odd years ago, a talent was something that made sense to them. It was just a it was a form of money. Our message really isn't even about money today which is funny but a talent was a form of money because Jesus taught a lot about money because that is a practical way to see the heart of the believer, right?
But it's also a practical way that that it it makes sense to us when we put a dollar sign to something because especially especially me in America where everything has a dollar sign attached to it and so, to them, the talents were very applicable to their day. And so I needed to understand, for me, how this teaching about talents would would make sense to me. And so I did some research and saw that the value of a talent, he could've used a silver coin, he could've used a gold coin, he could've used a denari, heck, he could've used a dollar, but he used talent and the value of the talent really changes the meaning of the story for us. 1 talent today would be worth 08/04/2019, 1 talent would be worth $1.4000000 US dollars and so when we're reading this, the story that Jesus is teaching to them to teach a deeper spiritual truth to them, we can replace talents with $1.4000000 dollars. So, I'm gonna read them as talents but I just want you to remember the actual value that was given to these guys.
So, 25 verse 14, for it, the *kingdom of heaven*, will be like a man going on a journey, who caught his servants and entrusted to them his property. To 1, he gave 5 talents, to another 2, and to another 1, each according to his ability. I don't know what abilities they had. It's not recorded but what I do know is the the master that left this money to them saw something in them and even the guy that got 1, what he saw in him was valuable because he gave him 1,400,000.0. That's a lot of money no matter no matter who you are.
So, it says, he went away on a long journey. He who had received the 5 talents went at once and traded with them and made 5 talents more. So also he who had 2 talents made 2 talents more. But he who had received the 1 talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, his master came came back to settle accounts.
Basically, and I'm gonna summarize because that's a lot of a lot of scripture, but I do encourage you to read and study this. Don't take my word for it. So, the master comes back he goes to the guy who had 5 talents. He's like, here master, I had 5. Like, you gave me $7,000,000 and I've made you 7,000,000 more.
I went out and I used my gifts, talents, and abilities to to bring this to you. He says, "well done", my good and faithful servant. You have been you have been faithful with a little and I'm gonna give you more. That's awesome. We see also the guy that was given $2,800,000, 2 talents, 2 point or $2,800,000 brings back 5.6 and says, here, I've I've doubled what you gave me.
It wasn't as much as the other guy but the master still said, well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a little. I will bless you with more. But then what the other guy did that was given the 1 talent said, master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seeds. So I was afraid, and I went and "hid the talent" that you gave to me.
Here, have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seeds. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to the 1 who has 10 talents.
To everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But to the 1 who has not, even what he has will be taken away. How is this applicable to us today in 2019? The master didn't expect for them to bring this. He didn't expect the guy who had $14,000,000 to bring back 14,000,000.
He even told him, the least you could do is put it in the bank. That's easy. You hid it. You didn't do anything with what I gave you. *God* has blessed every single 1 of you.
Blessed me with unique gifts, talents, and abilities to use for him. To use in his body David was talking earlier about getting getting involved, getting connected. Real church, real church is a group of people who've just said, you know what? I don't I don't know what I have. I don't know how it's valuable but but I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna do what god wants me to do even if I'm not real sure what it is and so my challenge to you is I want you to look within yourself.
Ask God. Search me, God. What have you given me that you're asking me to give? And this is not even about money. If that's what God tells you, okay, but I'm referring to the gifts, talents, and abilities that he's given to each of you.
The Bible calls us the body of *Christ* and it can take everything that I've shared about this this parable, this story that is intended for us. It can take it and make it make sense for us today. *Ephesians-4:16* says, from the from the whole body, it's referring to the body of Christ, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Our goal is not to have a big church. Our goal is to impact Clearwater.
When we moved here, David and I, we couldn't do this ourselves. Are you kidding me? It's taken more people than we can count to start this this particular ministry. If you belong to a different church, this applies to you in your home church unless god calls you to go somewhere else. This is not about building up our ministry or anything for us.
This is about teaching you the word of God. There is something that "comes alive". Miss Heidi said it 1 time, there's something that comes alive when you understand all the principles of scripture and you start putting them into practice. There is something that comes alive in you that you can't put words to. I asked a guy this morning.
I was like, so what has what has being a part of what God is doing here in this local body, what has it done for you? Just out of curiosity, it's not that we do to receive, but I'm just curious what has being a part of it done for you. And he was almost speechless, everything. I I gotta be a part. He said, I'm a get here when y'all get here, and I'm a leave after y'all leave.
Like, I'm I'm in. That is an incredible servant's heart and whenever he was invited to be a part of this ministry, to be a part of it, to come and serve and be a part and serve you guys and serve everybody that has come through here. He was like, I don't know what I could do and it's like, well, you can do something, man. You have got a gift in there and I don't know what it is but we're gonna help you find it and he is a rock star at what he does at Real Church. I've got another example of someone.
I told her that I was going to share with you. So, it's not going to catch her off guard but it's about a lady named miss Loretta Keith. She met us. When we moved here, it was just David and I. We moved here with our 3 kids.
I had a 2 year old, a 3 year old, and a 5 year old. We moved halfway across the country from Louisiana about a 15 hour drive to start a church where we knew our realtor and that is it and when we moved here, we started like, we gotta, like, what are we, I mean, are we just gonna meet in a field and just hope people come? Like, what are we gonna do? And so we had the tools and stuff that were encouraging us, bring people in. This is this is not about you, Courtney and David.
This is not about me and David. This is about my kingdom, and I want other people to be a part of what I'm doing. I want them to be the ones that are like the disciples, and whenever everybody else goes home, they stay and say, I gotta know more. I gotta be a part of this thing. And so we started praying and we started having interest socials, just getting the word out, giving away free coffee and saying, hey, if you wanna be a part of this, come on and I met Loretta at the House Coffee Shop in Largo, awesome place by the way.
If you got a gift bag, you got a gift card in there for the house coffee shop. So, just wanna let you know that but she came to me 1 time and she was like, well, what can I do at 1 of our launch parties at 1 of our launch team trainings and and I was like, well, I don't know? What can you do? And she was like, I don't really know. So, we we started her off greeting and then she was like, I really wanna do this.
I mean, she's physically 1 of the strongest people I know because she was out in the parking lot in the heat last summer setting up stuff, setting up flags, setting up signs. I mean, working her fingers to the bone to the point of hurting her foot, breaking her foot, and then putting a boot on and getting out there moving signs. We had to force her to sit down because she knew that there was something in her that God wanted to use. And as she was developing and learning over these last 11 months, now she's my go to girl. She's my girl that I'm like, you have a lot of gifts, talents, and abilities.
And I don't know that you are that person who who needs to be in 1 place all the time doing the same thing every week, and she's like, I know. It's like I'm I'm just getting to know myself. Something awakens in you. The gifts that God has given you are meant to be used, not squashed down, and this isn't a con convicting or a con condemning message. This is not, hey, if you haven't done this, this, and this, you're wrong.
Listen, God loves you. But fear, like this guy had, will paralyze you. Fear of serving, fear of using your gifts, fear of what God is going to say, fear of getting it wrong will paralyze you. But *1 John-4:18 says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love* casts out all fear. And you, my friends, are perfectly loved by our perfect father in heaven.
And everything that he has asked of us is not to to beat you in the ground and say, you have to do this, you have to do that. It is for you. Everything that he does is for you. Everything that we teach is for you. My passion is that people rise up in their gifts, talents, and abilities and use them for the kingdom* of *God.
And you are invited to do it here at Real Church if you want to, if God has led you to. If you are visiting from another church, hey, I invite you on behalf of your church to get involved. And if there is a church that you're going to and they say we don't need you, then say, I gotta use what God's given me and go somewhere where you can. We are 1 kingdom. I was referring to to the churches in Africa.
We are 1 kingdom under God. Just like The United States is 1 nation under God, we are 1 kingdom under God. So if God has given you something valuable, and I believe he has, even the 1 who was given 1,400,000.0, 1 talent, that's very valuable. That's significant. That is life changing.
But he hid it, and he never got to use it. So what has God given you? Have you have you hidden what God has given you because someone told you that you sucked at it? Pardon my French, but it is what it is. Have you taken something that God has given you, and maybe you've been told that you're worthless?
Maybe you've been told that you're you're not good enough to to use this gift. I was told that. When I was in elementary school, my mom had me in piano with my aunt Chris, my aunt Christine. And I would go to practice every week and I would have my sheet music there and I would play my song and I would go home. And then I'd go back the next week and she'd, I'd be like, could you just play it for me real quick so I can hear it?
And so she'd play it. Okay and then I play it. So, as time went on, I had a recital coming up and I she told me, now, this week, you have to practice every day. She didn't know that for the year that she'd been teaching me piano, I didn't have a piano. I played by ear.
It was a it was a god given talent. I would have her play it to me and then I'd play it back to her. I didn't know I was supposed to be learning how to read the stuff on the paper. I just knew if you put a song up there and you play it for me, I'm a play it back to you but that week, she told me that I had to practice and all of a sudden, I was like, I don't, how do I practice? I don't have a piano and she lived across the street and I I didn't tell David this story.
I got in big trouble for this. So, I went across the street when she wasn't home and we lived on a gravel loop in Louisiana. Nobody locked their houses like we're we're all family living on the same loop. I went to her house, and I I was probably 9 years old, and she had a keyboard. I knew she had this keyboard in a in a bag, and so I went and I took it, and I lugged it across the street, and I put it under my bed, and then I would practice all week.
And she's like, I'm missing my keyboard, and I was feeling so guilty. But I didn't know what else to do. Fast forward a few years, she moved away and I started taking piano from another lady once a week at my school. And I kept doing the only thing that I knew how to do. I'd get her to play me the song and I'd play it back to her.
If it was a song that was like on a movie, I'd listen to it on the movie and then I would play play what I heard. She told my mom, I was 11 at the time. She told my mom, just take her adolescence. She's never gonna be able to play music. She's never going to be able to do this.
And it crushed me, and I didn't put my fingers on a piano for years because the gift that God gave me was squashed. The gift that God gave me, I felt like it's not a gift. It's a curse. It's a curse that I can't read music because of what someone else said to me. You're not valuable.
You're not valuable enough to play the piano. You you she told my mom, and I overheard her, and it crushed me. She said she will never learn. A few years later, my mom is a thrifter, and she went to a garage sale and bought this upright piano. And I started playing again, and I started doing something as a, I don't know, 14, 15 year old kid.
I started writing my own music because it was fun. Started writing my own music, playing, and everything, and fast forward, God has me playing in church. Fast forward again, God's play has me playing in a really big church. And what I'm saying is a lot of times those gifts, either we've squashed for fear of failure or someone else has squashed because they don't understand them. But I wanna encourage you that if God has put something inside of you, use it.
Use it for his kingdom. Fear will prevent you from doing what God wants you to do. I'm gonna turn it over to David.
Thank you, baby. What I hear and I've heard this over and over and over is, oh, that's good for you. You can play piano but I'm not valuable. I I can't do that. I don't have any gifts.
I don't have any talents. I don't have any abilities. I hear that over and over and over and first, I just wanna rebuke the lie with truth because that's a lie. It just is and truth sets you free. See, the truth is that Jesus* *Christ, *Bible says in the beginning was the word, the word was with god*, and the word was god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
That means god became flesh and dwelt among us. *Jesus*. Jesus died for you. Someone's only worth what someone else would something's only worth what someone else would pay for it and someone in the same way is only worth what someone else would pay for them and Jesus, the son of god, god in the flesh, paid his life for you. How dare you say you're not valuable?
You're worth the very life of Christ. *Ephesians-2:10 says, you are god*'s handiwork created by him in advance prepared in advance to do good works, good amazing things. God has so many amazing things that he's put inside of you that you're not gonna understand and you're not gonna realize until you walk in relationship with him and believe who he says that you are. Rest in the fact in who he says that you are, and stop disagreeing. There's so many Christians I talk to all the time that they fight their value, and they're fighting in their head.
People tell them, no. I'm not. No. Stop fighting and just agree with what the word says about you. If everybody would take a moment and just close your eyes, I wanna invite.
I believe that there's people in here, they hear all of this stuff, and they just heard what I said, and they heard what my my wife was saying, and they realized for the first time that they're valued by god and they want a relationship with the creator. Like, they used to think god hated him but now they realize that god loves him. Now, you realize that god loves you And you want a real relationship with the creator of the universe. That only happens through Jesus. I'm a I'm ask if that's you, if you want a relationship with God through Jesus Christ**, you wanna start a real relation, not religious, you know no.
I'm talking real relationship, knowing God personally, entering into eternal life, knowing God now. If that's you, I'm gonna count to 3. If you want to know him and you you don't, but you want to, I want you to raise your hand. On the count of 3. 1, 2, 3.
Anybody at all that needs to give their life to Jesus needs to know it. I see it. I see your hand. Nobody else is looking, but would you look at me? Do you believe the Bible says that you you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again, confess him as lord, that you'll be saved, you'll be born again, you'll be brand new.
Do you believe that Jesus died for you? Yes or no? Yes? Do you believe that he rose again so that you can experience his life? Yes.
Are you ready to give him your life? Confessing his Lord says, I'm following you. Following me hasn't worked at this point. I'm following you now. Yes or no?
Yes? Alright. We're gonna pray a prayer. And in praying this prayer, just meet it with your heart. Right?
It's it's relationship. Okay? So meet it with your heart. Meet it with everything you have inside of you. If you guys would pray this with me just to encourage, let's just pray this out loud.
*God*, I need you. I've been running from you, but today I choose to run back to you. I believe you you, Jesus, died for me. I believe you rose again, And today, you are my Lord. Teach me to follow you.
Forgive me, God. Thank you that you paid for my forgiveness. I receive that. I'll make this confession and believe it. I am forgiven.
I am new. I am yours. Thank you, Jesus. Thanks for
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