You are invited to stop inspecting your own faith and instead fix your eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of your belief. As you walk by faith rather than sight, commit to connecting with a local body where you can be established and grow together. Allow Him to perfect what He has started in you as you encourage others to do the same.
Lord God, we just thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your blood that was spilled for us so we could be clean, forgiven, loved, and restored to our created value. What sin did us. Oh, God, you restored completely and put yourself into us so that we could know you and shine bright. Thank you, Jesus.
"Shine like stars" Reflecting your goodness, with thankfulness, rejoicing in all things. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Lord, thank you that you gave us your word. Lord, let us be believing believers, not unbelieving believers. Lord God, let us believe everything you say and walk it out.
To the extent our life's not walking it out Lord, teach us and discipline us so that we can. In Jesus name. Amen. Well, real church, you look great today. I'm so glad you're here today.
My name is David John Phillips. I get the joy and honor of being the pastor here and there's no place I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing except this right here and I say it every week. So if you've been here every week, you heard it every week, you might be tired of me saying it, but I don't care. Because I'm a continue saying it because I mean it. So thank you for coming.
You know, I haven't done a dad joke in a while. I'm having trouble remembering 1. But, it's interesting that that, you know, the adjective of metal is metallic. But for iron, you just have ironic. Anyway, it's bad.
It's terrible. I I didn't remember how to do it. I'm sorry. I'm just lightening the mood anyway. Yeah.
Know it's terrible anyway. We're in the middle I should've I should've read the joke before I came up here. That way it was would've came across correctly. It's good to laugh in the house of the Lord. Amen?
We're in the middle of a series titled who we are. And we've we've covered our vision and our mission statement well. Vision being whatever it takes for you to know the love of Jesus and live your God given purpose. Whatever it takes because Jesus did whatever it took for us and then commanded us to go and do likewise. Laying our life down so the people God puts in front of us may experience his love.
Right? Come to know his love, which is relationship with him because he is love. And then become that by living out their purpose. The purpose is that God has for them. Amen?
That's our vision. Whatever it takes. Do you you wanna know why we do something? That's why. Because we're doing what we know to do, whatever it takes to lay our life down so you could experience a relationship with Jesus in that way.
Amen? And then our mission is how we carry that out. Engaging the culture with the love of Jesus. Equipping the believer to engage the culture with the love of Jesus. Oh, wait.
I missed 1. Engaging the culture with the love of Jesus, establishing the believer in the body of Christ, which is important. Then equipping you to go back in your daily life and engage the culture around you with the love of Jesus. Because if you're a believer, then you're a minister of the gospel in your daily life. Called to be a missionary at your job and in your family and in your neighborhood, everywhere that you go.
We're supposed to shine bright. And then empowering the ready because there's a process to being ready to live your God given purposes. Amen? Amen. Well, in the series, you've heard from multiple people.
You've heard from Moriah, from Gabe, you've heard from my wife, you've heard from myself. And I just figured we'd continue in that vein. I want you to see we have an amazing speaking team. We have many leaders who God's called to preach. And so if we're gonna do a series titled who we are, well, you shouldn't just hear from me, you should hear from all of us.
Who we are. And by hearing the different leaders hearts, you're hearing the heartbeat of this body. Amen? So, man, I wanna invite another 1 of my favorite preachers in the world. His name is Daniel Mannix.
He's 1 of our elders at church. He's awesome. He's he's got that teaching gift, you know. So buckle up. I know he's teaching on faith and something.
I'm gonna go ahead and take notes, and I encourage you to do the same. Amen?
Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. Good morning, church. Good morning.
As the pastor said, my name is Daniel Mannix. Actually, next month will mark-3 years since I've been coming to Real Church, which is hard to even believe. And I've known David for about a year or so before that. So as he likes to joke, I was called to come to Real Church and then a year later I came, which isn't the whole story, but it's been amazing to be a part of this body. It's amazing to see the growth, not only in the number of people, but in the maturity of the people in here.
Amen? And the maturity in myself as well. We are in a series called Who We Are, and we are a people of faith. That's who we are. And most of us are are pretty sure about what faith is, I would say.
We all know that faith is believing in something. Second Corinthians five:seven, we "walk by faith" not by sight. We heard in the Hearing from God series that it's really important to have faith because it's impossible to please God without it. Hebrews eleven:six. But is faith observable or measurable?
And where does faith come from? Is faith something that we muster up in our spirits? Is it something that we're born with or not? Is it something that we grow in and learn over time? So that's that's kind of what I want to dig into this morning.
And I want to start, there's a there's a scripture that's found in only 1 of the gospels, and it's a really fascinating story. It's an interaction between *Jesus* and Peter. And I think it's a really interesting story in terms of where does faith come from and what exactly is my faith. *Romans-12:3* says that God has given each 1 of us a **measure of faith**. So we have each been given a specific individual measure or a portion of faith.
So this means that you can't live off of your grandma's *faith* or your spouse's faith or your kid's faith, but your specific faith that God has given you. Meaning you don't work for this. It's not by works. Right? Ephesians-2:8-9.
It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, but is a gift of God, not by works that no 1 may boast. So it's a gift. And I don't fully understand it. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you I totally understand how God apportions what he does to who, but I know that we're not supposed to compare our faith among ourselves. You're not supposed to say, well, how does mine measure up against yours?
Right? 2 Corinthians-10 says that we are not to compare ourselves amongst ourselves, and it's not the 1 who commends himself that is approved, but who the Lord commends is approved. Amen? So the next question usually is, how do I figure out my measure of faith, and am I living up to my measure of faith? Is that something that I'm supposed to be working on?
Is that something I'm supposed to be growing on? And that's something that *Luke-22* really dives into. I think it's a really interesting story, and I want to go over it. It's going to be the centerpiece of our discussion here today. It's Luke-22 starting in verse 31.
But before we get into it, let's pray. I haven't preached in I was trying to think back. It was somewhere around Christmas, so it's been about 9 months. So have some grace if there's some rust here, but Holy Spirit just preached today and yesterday and the day before. He preaches every day.
My prayer is that He speaks through me, and it really doesn't matter what I say anyway. And that is what God says, right? I'm not gonna do anything here but give a speech, but Holy Spirit can actually change lives. So that's what he's gonna do today. Amen?
Let's pray. *Lord, thank you so much for these people of yours, Lord. These people of faith that have gathered in this house, in this school, a middle school, will gather anywhere to hear your word, Lord God*. As Dolores was talking about the word that is refining, that it's a fire, that it actually changes us. It's something that consumes us, that removes every impurity, everything that's not of ourselves, Lord God.
I pray that that word would hit every 1 of us upside the head here today, Lord. That it would change the way that we think if it's not according to your word. That we would not put you in a box and based off of convention or anything that we've been taught, but solely on what your word says. And I pray, Lord God, that people would have willing ears to hear, and I pray that it would be something that will become who we are and change our everyday lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. Amen. Luke-22, starting in verse 31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, "strengthen your brothers".
There's so much meat in there, guys. There's a lot of meat on that bone. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and when you have turned again, **strengthen your brothers**. Can you guys imagine this scene? Think about what Jesus is saying here to Peter.
He's saying, *Satan* has asked to attack you, but I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Now verse 31, there is 2 you's in there, and the 2 you's in verse 31 are in the plural. So likely speaking about the disciples as a whole. So Satan is asked to sift all of the disciples, But then in verse 32, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Those 4 are singular.
*Jesus is talking specifically to Peter. He's specifically talking about Peter's measure of faith*. He has prayed for Peter's faith. Okay? Now my question is, who did Satan ask?
*Satan* has asked to sift you as wheat. Who who did Satan actually ask? The answer is God. Satan asked God the father. Imagine this scene.
*Satan asks God the father, and Jesus* is right there in the holy in the spirit praying for Peter's faith. It's incredible when you really think about this imagery that Satan would approach the ancient of days and ask to attack Jesus' disciples, but Jesus is there in the spirit and he's praying for Peter. And we have a precedence for this actually. It's almost hard to believe, but we have a precedence for this and it's found in the book of Job. Flip with me to the book of Job, which I know we don't go to a lot.
*Job-1*. When you have it in paperback, say amen. It's right before Psalm, it's after Esther. It's a lot easier on the phone, isn't it? Job amen.
*Job-1* starting in verse 6. Now there was a day when the "sons of God" came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, from where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You've blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land, but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. So Satan approaches *God* with the sons of God and the sons of God is referring to angels or angelic beings. Wherever you see sons of God in the Old Testament, it usually refers to angels and in the New Testament, it refers to believers, it refers to sons and daughters of God. And angels are not really what we think they look like in popular culture today. They're not fat little babies in a diaper playing a harp on a cloud.
Okay? That's not what angels are. Actually, the Bible describes angels in a lot of detail, in a couple different places in the Bible, and that is not how they look like. As a matter of fact, I want to show you what they look like. So there's a computer generated few images of what angels look like according to what the Bible describes them as.
So they're biblically accurate angels, and our amazing production team was working hard on it this morning to get that up. So if you could play it now, that would be great. Do you see the the man at the bottom of the screen? Look at the scale. Look at the difference in size.
That's pretty intense, isn't it? It looks a little different than what we think they look like. Now can you imagine there are hundreds of millions of these in heaven, and they all glorify God? How amazing is that? There's several different kinds of angels, and and a couple of these angels, these angelic beings approached the throne of God, and *Satan* joined them.
Satan comes to the throne of God and Satan actually was the greatest angel of them all. Satan is a fallen angel. He's a cherub angel. A cherub is the type of angel that's on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. It's the angel that was put in the Garden Of Eden to protect the tree of life when Adam and Eve sinned and they were kicked out of the garden.
*Satan* also doesn't look how we think he looks like. He's he's probably not some red creature with horns and a and a tail. Satan was the greatest of all God's creation. Isaiah describes him as a "morning star". Now Jesus is the bright morning star, amen, that John talks about in Revelation-22, but Satan was a morning star, and he was very powerful.
Jude says that the archangel Michael, who is the warrior angel, the protector of Israel, wouldn't even dare to rebuke Satan when they were fighting over the body of Moses. He said, the Lord rebuke you. That shows the subordination of Michael to Satan. And Ezekiel talks about Satan. He says that he was the covering cherub or the guardian cherub.
Imagine that Satan is on top of the throne of God reflecting the glory of God back onto him as hundreds of millions of angels are are worshiping God. And the translation is kind of uncertain, but he might have also been the choir master or the worship leader in heaven. So he is he is leading this song of these hundreds of millions of beings that are worshiping the creator, and he's in this place of authority, and he gets pride swelling up in him, and he says, I can be "like God". And that's when he gets kicked out of heaven, right? As Jesus says, I saw him "fall like lightning", he fell from his place because he tried to be like God.
And that's what he tempted Adam and Eve with, right? In the garden, he said, no, no, no, you're not going to die if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you're just going to be like God. So the pride swelled up in Adam and Eve as it did in Satan because of his deception, and he's still trying to deceive us today. But despite all the power that he has, he is nothing against God. Amen?
Amen. So this being attacked Job, and now he's asking to attack the disciples. And look at look at Peter's response in verse 33. Let's go back to Luke-22. Are you guys with me?
Yes. Alright.
Look at verse 33. Peter said, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. He says, you don't have to worry about my faith, Jesus. I'm all in. I will not leave you.
But look at Jesus' response. I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny 3 times that you know me. That must not have been easy for Jesus to say. And Peter was 1 of Jesus' closest friends, and yet he knew that Peter would deny him. So Jesus was right.
Right? I mean, that very day, Peter denied Jesus 3 times. So the implication of that then, we have to think about that. Did Peter not measure up to the *faith* that he was given by God? Or better yet, did Jesus' prayer for Peter go unanswered?
The answer, of course, to that question is no. That's borderline blasphemous. I thought somebody was gonna say no pretty loud there. Pastor David looks like he was about to come up here and tackle me. Let me bring this thing home.
Alright? Yeah. The answer, of course, is no. I mean, Jesus prays God's perfect will, the father. His will completely in line with the father's will.
Everything that he asks comes to pass because he is 1 with the Father. So how do we reconcile these 2 guys? I mean, you have Jesus praying the perfect will of God, everything that he prays for is answered, and you have him praying for Peter for his faith to not fail, and yet Peter's faith seems to fail. How do we reconcile those 2 together? What's that?
His choice.
Let's go back to verse 31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. Notice how Jesus addresses Peter. He calls him Simon. This is very important.
Names are very important in biblical times. You were careful on how you named your child. When Mary was pregnant with Jesus, or before she was even pregnant with Jesus, the angel said, You will be pregnant, and the Holy Spirit will come upon you. This is the child of God, and you are to name him Jesus. She was told specifically you have to name him Jesus.
Why? Because the name Jesus means he who saves. When Jacob wrestled with God and got a blessing from God and then his lineage was blessed by God, which Jesus would come into later down the line, his name was changed to Israel, wrestled with God. So what does Simon mean? Simon means wavering 1.
Wavering 1. That's not a very becoming name, is it? I mean, his parents didn't really do him a lot of good there. I mean, that's just setting your kid up for failure, isn't it? But Jesus changed Simon's pre Christ name to Peter.
Let's read about that in Matthew-16. Flip over to Matthew-16, starting in verse 13. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or 1 of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am?
We all must answer that question in our lives. Who do you say that Jesus is? Is he a great teacher or a prophet or a crazy man, or is he the son of God? Well, Peter spoke up. Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, or Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. Your carnal mind did not reveal this to you. Your flesh did not reveal this to you. This faith did not come from you, it came from your father in heaven. This came from God.
Running back to Romans-12:3, right, that you've been a you've been given a measure of faith according to God's will. And I tell you, you are Peter, or Petros, meaning little rock, and on this rock, Petra, big rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Amen. Amen. So *Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter in Matthew-16*.
This is before Luke-22. So why is Jesus now referring to Peter in his pre Christ name after he changed his identity? The answer is found in verse 32. Let's go back. We'd be flipping around today, folks.
*Luke-22* verse 32. But I have prayed for you, I I should be separated from God. I my family should be estranged from me. I I should be full of this or that. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.
Amen? Amen. Thank God for the but. But the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Amen?
But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. When you have turned again. What does repentance mean? Repentance means to turn.
So Jesus knew that Peter was going to fail, okay? And he's not mad, he's not disappointed, he's not thinking, Peter, you haven't measured up to the faith that I gave you. He's actually praying for Peter on the other side of his failure, praying for when he turns back, that he would strengthen his brothers. And he's praying in faith when you have turned back. Not if you have turned back, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.
*Jesus* is praying in faith for Peter's faith. He's looking beyond the disappointment. He's looking beyond the short term seemingly failure of Peter in his life. And he's saying, am praying for you, Peter. I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.
How much did that encourage Peter? I mean, after he's denied Jesus 3 times, he must have thought to himself, man, I really screwed up. Right? He says he went away weeping bitterly. But something in his head, something in his spirit must have brought back these words from Jesus.
I have prayed for you, Simon. When you have turned again, when you have repented, strengthen your brothers. So why is this important to us? Some of you probably feel like you have failed God, that you haven't lived up to the measure of faith, that behind closed doors you haven't been who you are maybe on Sunday. Maybe Friday night wasn't the way Sunday morning is.
Maybe you've given into fear or temptation. But the amazing thing is that this is not just for Peter. This is not just for the disciples. This is for you and I. This is for you and I.
Jesus is praying for us. In Romans-8, it says that Jesus is interceding on our behalf. So Jesus is praying for us to the Father, and it actually also says that the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf to the Father, and groanings that can't even be understood, and that the 1 who searches hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, meaning that the Holy Spirit knows the Father's perfect will, and he's praying that perfect will on our behalf to the Father. So we have 2 parts of the Holy Trinity praying on our behalf, interceding on our behalf, constantly. Paul told us to pray without ceasing, right?
Well, do you do that? Pastor Davis talked about it before, that prayer is communication with God. It's speaking and it's also listening, but Holy Spirit is also praying for us without ceasing, all the time. If that doesn't encourage you, I don't know what will. I mean, you have 2 parts of the Holy Trinity that are praying on your behalf to the Father.
So it really doesn't matter if Satan's attacking us or not. Right? I mean, maybe Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. Maybe he's asked to sift me like wheat. Maybe he's approached God and said, I want to attack Daniel.
Whether he has or not, I really don't care, to be honest with you, because it doesn't matter. Because *Romans-8* also says that all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord who are called according to his purpose. So it really doesn't matter what Satan is doing or what he wants to do because greater is him that is in me than he who is in the world. Amen? And it's the same for you.
It's the same for you. Take that as your own. Claim that as yours. So we are a people of faith. What is faith?
*Faith is believing that God has given me a measure of faith. That is not something I'm mustering up on my own. Any faith that I'm growing in is born out of me by the Holy Spirit. It's sanctification. That's the process, becoming more like Jesus*.
Getting to the point where we can have complete faith in everything that God says, and we can walk in a way that is so different from this world because we are not tossed to and fro by the waves. If you guys remember my last sermon that I preached about Jesus being with us in the storm, we can be asleep in the back of the boat because we're not afraid about the storm because we know that God has us. Amen? Amen. And it's really important not to forget that last part of verse 32.
When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Strengthen your brothers. If you're being built up in faith, build up your brother's faith. Right? That's that's what this body is all about.
That that's why we do life together. It's it's to build up each other's faith, to encourage each other, to stir each other up, to exhort 1 another. Right? To encourage 1 another. Seeing someone else's faith builds up faith in you, am I right?
When you see people go through incredible things and stay strong in their faith. We have a perfect example that I wish we didn't have, but we do. I mean, we have the the Wiser and Crowsman families that had a huge tragic loss just recently here. Right? They lost their 1 of their sons to a horrific accident.
Ethan Weiser. And there was a candlelight vigil for Ethan last week, and pastor David spoke at it. And he said something in there that really resonated with me. He said his father is a pastor. He's been a pastor for some time now, and he's seen many families go through tragedies and loss, and that he's never seen a family remain strong in their faith the way that this family has.
And I I couldn't agree more. And that has actually strengthened my faith. I gotta be honest with you. I mean, that has built up my faith that somebody can go through something like that and then show up to church on Sunday. That somebody could go through something like that and still have grace and kindness and love and still believe that God is good despite the circumstances, despite what's happening.
That builds up my faith, and that should build up your faith. *Jesus* is praying for that family. He is interceding for that family right now. And so is Holy Spirit. And he's praying for you, and he's praying for me.
Let's encourage 1 another when God increases our faith. Okay? Let's do this together. Let's run this race well together. Amen?
Amen. Let's pray. *Lord*, thank you so much for the measure of faith that you've given us. Whatever it is, Lord, we've all been given a hand. I I pray that that you would help us be confident in the hand that you've given us, that we're not comparing ourselves amongst ourselves and and that we're not in fear, concerned that we're not living up to what you've you've given us, Lord God.
It's a gift. It's a gift that comes from you. We are a people of faith because you said so, because you put it in us, Lord God. You have given us this beautiful gift, god, and any increase that we have in it comes from you and having faith in that is what draws us into you and what pulls us forward in the the growth and the the beauty of of understanding and knowing more of who you are and walking this thing out like your son. The greatest faith that you've given any of us is salvific faith, The faith to *believe* that Jesus, you are the son of God, that you died for our sin, that you bore in your body the punishment for our sin.
You were buried and you rose again in *resurrection* power, conquering hell, death, the grave that you are seated at the right hand of the father right now. *God, I pray for any that you have called into that salvific faith* that have not proclaimed that truth yet, that you would speak to them right now. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would "prick their hearts". I pray that you would speak to them, that you would that you would give them the green light. *Lord*, that, like, when Peter preached to to the masses on Pentecost after denying you 3 times to having 3,000 *saved*, a 1000 percent return, Lord God, that that it says when Peter spoke that the people were "cut to the heart".
I pray that people are cut to the heart right now. If you're in the room right now or you're watching online and you have not made that decision, but you say, Lord, I wanna give you my life right now. It's not, God, I invite you into my life. That that's not how this works. God doesn't fit into your life.
You give your life to Jesus. Totally, completely. That's it. I pray that that you would prick their hearts right now, Lord. I pray if if you are in the room right now and you you say, it's time.
I'm ready to make that decision. I'm ready to give my life to Christ. I'm ready to become a new creation as all these shirts say, a new creation in Christ. Lift your hand right now. I see your hands.
I see your hands. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for pricking the hearts here, Lord. Let's all pray this prayer together.
Thank you, Jesus, for your love.
Thank you,
*Jesus*, for your faith.
Thank you, Jesus, for your
Thank you for dying on the cross for me specifically.
Thank you for dying cross
for me And thank you for raising to new life.
Thank you for raising to new life.
I raise with you in new life.
Raise new life.
Leaving everything else behind.
Everything else behind.
And I trust you to follow you all the days of my life.
And I trust you to follow you all the days of my life.
Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. *God* bless you guys. If you gave your life to Jesus here today, that's a huge deal.
Can we give a hand? We had 5 or 6 hands lift lift their hands here. How amazing is that? I mean, that is resurrection power. That is people going from death to life spiritually.
We love to see it in the physical, but even more so in the spiritual. Right? I mean, that's forever. Amazing that you made that decision. Please see Jerry and Heidi.
If you 2 can raise your hands here, please see them after the service. They just wanna talk to you. They wanna hug you. They wanna celebrate with you. I love you church.
I'm so glad to be a part of this. And, God bless you guys, man.
Yeah. Here's a beautiful man for 1 last quote. Love you, man. He's a a gifted teacher. And I'm I love getting to sit and hear what the Lord wants to speak and teach through him.
*Hebrews-12* says, *Jesus* is the *author* and perfecter of our faith. So in hearing this and in the measure of faith and how he amazingly let laid it out, I don't want you to become faith inspectors. Inspecting others or your own. No. No.
He's the author and he's the perfecter. And right before it says "fixing our eyes" on Jesus. So I wanna fix my eyes on Jesus allowing him to take me through the process of perfecting what he authored in me. Amen? And when I see you, I wanna fix my eyes on Jesus in you.
And I wanna hear his voice on how he wants me to speak to you so I can encourage and exert exhort. Euphorred, exhort means to rebuke or or or push strongly. Right? Whereas that's what we're supposed to do as brothers and sisters in Christ with 1 another in the church. Encourage and exhort forward in Christ.
And when you take your eyes off of Jesus, that means you're not walking in faith. So as a brother I'm just supposed to put your eyes back on Jesus. So you can keep walking with your eyes fixed on him allowing him to perfect the faith in you. So that we can hear, *believe*, and obey. Whether he authored your faith today, you gave your life to Jesus today, or he did 70 years ago.
We wanna continue to let him perfect it and encourage 1 another forward in him. Amen?
Amen. Powerful.
I just want to before I I ask Rebecca to come up and close close us out. So you can be making your way forward. She's an amazing host. She's hosting today. She was the 1 that encouraged us and called us to worship.
She's got some announcements for us. But I I want to celebrate something. We have established happening tonight. It's part of our mission statement, establishing you in the body of Christ. And, we've kind of been promoting it, you know, it's a way to to find out how to to get established in this church if this is where God's calling you.
And we have it, around the first Sunday of each month, you know. And and I think we have how many signed up for it, baby? 29 adults confirmed. 27 adults confirmed, most of which are brand new in the last few months to this church, wanting to be established in the local body of Christ and learn what it looks like to be established. Would you guys just give God a big hand for what he's doing?
That's something to celebrate. And I know that not only our local body, but the local body of Christ in Pinellas County, because there's many amazing churches. I believe we will continue to go from "glory to glory". And as we do, as we unify together in Christ, not only in this local body but in the local bodies around together, can you imagine, like, synergy is a natural phenomenon where people come together to work together and there's a an amazing miraculous output that's higher than just the sum of the 2 parts coming together. Can you imagine the supernatural phenomenon of the synergy of the body of Christ unifying together and impacting the world?
*Jesus prayed in John-17, Father, make them 1 as we are 1 so that the world would know that you sent me. That would mean that unity in the body of Christ* is the most effective form of evangelism. Unity in the body of Christ is the most effective form of the world knowing that the father loved it so much that he sent his 1 and only son. That whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. How could we say, no, I don't wanna be a part of the local body of Christ when it was Jesus' prayer for unity?
So if this isn't your local body, go unify with a local body wherever it is. Get connected because God has stuff in you that that local body needs in order to be what God's called it to be. And God has stuff in that local body and the relationships that you need in order for you to be what God's called you to be because this is a relational thing. It's the body of Christ and relationships are the currency of the kingdom. God gets stuff done through the connection of the body of Christ in connection with the head, Jesus.
Amen? Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect.
And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, can do so at www.realchurch.usgiving, or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you and the best is yet to come.