You are invited to stop focusing on your own limitations and start listening for God's voice. When you choose obedience over obligation, you will find that following Jesus energizes you instead of draining you. Trust that walking with Him is the path to fulfilling your purpose.
Amen. **God is good**. All the come on church. God is good. "All the time".
And all the time. My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing. And you guys look great today.
It's an honor to get to be your pastor. And, so thank you for choosing to to spend your Sunday with us. And if this is your first time, we pray you experience the love of God like never before. That you encounter his love and walk out of here knowing him more. And the Bible says we love because he first loved us.
So if we if you know him more, you know his love more, you'll be able to love better. You'll be able to represent his goodness in your home, at your job better by knowing him. Amen? Amen. Awesome.
Well, I get the joy and the honor of introducing 1 of my favorite people. We're continuing the who we are series. We went through our vision, mission, and values the first month and we got quite a few people who god has gifted this body with. They they they have an amazing speaking gift but they don't just have a gift. They have the character necessary to back it up.
You know, there's a difference in speaking with a gift with no character behind it. There's no authority. There's no anointing. There's no, oh, it just sounds good and it's awesome. But then when the person's really living out what they're saying, well, that's a whole different story.
You know? And this person, her and her husbands are her husbands. Lord help me. Her and her husband are key leaders of this church. 1.
1 husband. As a matter of fact, they're they're they're y'all can make fun of that 1 as much as you want. It's funny. It's good to laugh in Jesus. Okay.
So there are elders they're on our elder team, and and she's just a critical part. But also God has just gifted her gifted her with the ability to speak from the heart. And I I know that that's what you're gonna hear. She she puts her heart and soul into it because she lives at what she says. And and this is an overflow of what God's been showing her in her walk with with him.
And I know it's gonna overflow all over you and impact your life. Amen? So without further ado, miss Heidi Hunter.
Don't leave. While I start talking, will you make it where this doesn't go off? Because I thought I did it, but it
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Got you.
You know, I'm I'm an elder, but I'm also an elder. So, pastor, can you help me out here and make it where my screen don't turn off? Basically, what I said. Good morning, Real Church.
Good morning.
What a great day it is today. My name is Heidi Hunter and I am 1 of the elders at Real Church. What a blessing. It's really cool to be part. I was thinking about actually, I was talking to Mariah and Courtney about thank you.
About the different kind of speakers we have. So, we have pastor David and he's amazing at all things preaching but we have about 4 or 5 people and like, I was, so, I just started going through em. So, Mariah, anybody listen to Mariah when she preached recently or have heard, man, that woman's anointed. She's anointed teacher, right? So, when she gets up, like, you're getting the whole package beginning and end.
Everything's all nice and fancy and and it's just so good and it's so deep. Mighty woman of *god* and then you have Daniel Mannix. Anybody heard Daniel Mannix speak? Daniel is also, to me, a teacher, right? But Mariah says she's like, yeah.
We're both teachers, but I'm more like the elementary school teacher. Daniel's like the college professor. I'm like, you're right, girl. He's up here throwing out scriptures and pulling things out of "I don't know" where and pictures of what angels look like and I'm like, you know, so powerful and so amazing and then we've got pastor Courtney, 1 of my best friends and Courtney labels herself. She gives the longest introduction like her whole, almost her whole message is this introduction and she and she'll tell you while she's doing it.
I'm introducing it and I'm doing my introduction and I know it and I get it. So, hold on. So she does this long introduction, and then bam, you get the word. And then she's like, I'm out. Like, that's it.
We're good. So powerful. And so I was like, I guess I'm I guess I'm like the "testimony act" because I feel like every time god asked me to speak, I'm given a testimony of what the pastor's been preaching or what other people have been preaching and what god's been doing in my life. Like, I get up and I'm just like, all I know is Jesus and him crucified. All I know is once I was blind and now I see and I'm gonna and I'm gonna share with you my real life examples of how all of that has happened.
I'm the testimonial, testimony act. So that's me. But anyway, I wanted to also give you hold on 1 second. I wanted you I wanna give you a little short testimony because I there's probably a lot of people in here that don't know me. Just since I've been coming to Real Church 4 years ago.
So we had lunch at our house with pastor David and Courtney when we first came and David's like, this short version. David's like, man, why don't you come and greet? And I'm like, no, man. You know, I'm not I don't like people. I don't you Jerry will Jerry will greet.
Jerry loves being out there. He let he's an evangelist. He loves doing all that stuff. I'm kinda like, yeah. I don't even like to shake people's hands.
Like, when they get up and they say, okay. You know, stand up and greet the person next to you. I'm sitting in my chair, looking down, and hoping nobody talks to me. But now, if if god puts somebody in front of me that I love, now, I'm going love him hard but yeah, I'm not really. So, David challenged me with that and I think I served that first week.
Y'all, I realized *Jesus loves* people and if I have Jesus in me, I love people and I went to church for a long time and I had this belief and this mindset it was okay to be who I was because I have more kinda on the prophetic side, and that's how the prophets were. Like, people don't like the prophets. So they can be mean and not really like people. Right? That was a lie.
And and and my favorite thing is serving people now. Like, if you guys come up in this church, I'm out there with my husband and the and the bad thing about it all, is not only was I like that, I have mister evangelist who everybody *loves* as my husband. I have Santa Claus. Everybody loves Santa Claus. At least all the kids in Pakistan think he's Santa Claus because of his white beard.
So that made me even look worse. But it was so cool, and I'm like, you ain't the only 1 now. Look at me. I love people too. But anyway, so in the in the 4 years that that I have been growing through real church, the message is real, and it's life changing and it's god and I get so excited every single time I come and and and get to move and flow.
You didn't, it didn't work but I caught it.
I did the best I could.
Good job And and I get to move and flow in that. And I'm gonna share with you a little bit about what that looks like. But to get started, I need my glasses. You know, when I was thinking about the the testimony about how I didn't like people, I was thinking about it and I could almost hear Loretta. So, I don't know if you know let the people that knew Loretta.
She's gone on to be with Jesus, mighty woman of god too but I could hear Loretta because anytime we were in a small group or at church, anytime anybody brought up, man, y'all should have seen Heidi when she first came. Loretta would be like, oh my gosh, she was terrible. She was terrible. She's completely changed And I swear y'all, I could she was up there at the throne. Man.
*God*, you're gonna let her. She was terrible. But God has changed her life. I just wanted to share that. In *Matthew-16:24* to 25, it says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Now, I asked I hope the scriptures are out there but the the passion translation, I wanted to read that because man, it's going to get you. So, just listen. Read it if it's up there.
If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject or disown your own life, and you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own. Offer yourself up to death is basically what that means as you continually surrender to my ways. For if you choose self sacrifice and lose your life for my glory, you will continually discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will forfeit you will forfeit what you try to keep. Woah.
It got quiet. How excited are you about today's message? That's what god's been doing in my life and I'm like, oh man, you're going to make me talk about that but it's so good. So, I promise you that if you just let the Holy Spirit speak to you this morning, you're going to be *blessed* because what feels like an awful thing brings so much life and that's what he's done to me. Lord, I just thank you for this morning.
*Holy Spirit*, I thank you that you are here. I thank you that this is your message and that every bit of it is bathed in love because you know what it looks like for us to walk in freedom and in *deliverance* and what our purpose here on Earth is and how the the things that we hold value to are dead and they're not not even worth anything but lord, what you have is so much greater. We welcome you to do what you want in us and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
So, Follower of Jesus, that's a disciple. So, pretty much, Jesus was saying, if you want to disciple, if you want to be my disciple, you have to die. I mean, that's pretty much what it said, dude, me. deny yourself, your wants, your emotions, your feelings, everything that you've ever known. If it doesn't line up with god, it's the dead man.
Amen. That died when you became his. Amen. Right? In dying to self life, we discover an abundant life by depending on god who provides much more than we can imagine.
We put others before ourselves always. Man, he's just been, he's been walking. I just, I've, I feel this on the inside of me because he's just walking me through this every single decision that I make. In Galatians-2:20, it says, I have been crucified with Christ. I've been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life that I live in that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the cost of discipleship says this. I wanted to read it to you. I thought it was amazing. The cross is laid on every Christian.
The first Christ suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of the world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter of with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship, we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death. We give over our lives to death. Thus, it begins.
The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god fearing and happy life but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave their home and work and follow him or it may be a death like Luther's who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world but it's the same death every time. Death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. We live in a world right now that is all about living for self.
Self love, self this, self that, selfie. Everything is self. But the word of god says, **"die to self"**. That's right. The world is saying, it's all about living the self.
The word of god says, I'm calling you to die to self. Many people come to Jesus, but they don't want to do what it takes to be his disciple. Dying to self is never optional in scripture. Die to self, **take up your cross**, and "follow Jesus". That's what he says.
Recently, this is something most recently that happened with me. So I have I'm a banker and I manage a brand a bank branch and my branch is closing and I've been there for 20 years. And I have an option to do pretty much whatever I want, you know, because they want me to keep me there. But I remember the day that I found out and this has been a couple months ago. The day that I found out that the branch was closing and I found out the date, I just I I had to go outside because I couldn't hold myself together.
And I called Courtney because I was just a wreck. And I'm like, I have to talk to you. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I can't stop crying. I mean, I felt like I was I felt like I was dying. And as I was talking to her, said, and the Holy Spirit showed me and I said, I know what this is.
My **whole identity** is in what I do. I grew up in the hood of Northeast Minneapolis. I didn't have a good home life. I didn't grow up in church. Just a lot of really really bad, awful things that god has healed me from and set me free from and I as I'm walking with Christ, you know, in the last however many years it was, I I started, you know, feeling better about myself.
The more I got to know him, the more and like things were really good. I just told you how much god has changed me from the 4 years that I've been with the real church. Well, a couple of months, I'm like, I don't even know who I am. Was hysterical, was I not? I was hysterical and I said, the lord just showed me that my identity is in what I do because I came from nothing.
I was a bank teller. That's not nothing but before that, you know, I came from the bottom. God moved me to the top and my whole identity was in what I do which is why work would upset me so much when I didn't perform or when I wasn't at the top of the company or whatever. That's good. And I had to make a choice that day because I I knew that that's what god was doing.
I said, lord, I see this and I don't want my work. It broke my heart and I don't want my work to be my identity be in my work. Did god do a lot in my life? Yeah, he did. Did he show me a lot of who I am and his him?
Absolutely. But he was doing something deeper. He was like, alright, Heidi. You're ready for this and this is gonna be tough. So guess what?
When my bank closes, I'm not gonna be there because I know that he told me, you're gonna be done. And I'm like, hold up, god. Like, we got a house to pay for. We got grow. We got all this stuff.
What are we going to do? And but I just had such a peace that I knew it was god and I walk with him enough and I can rest on that and people are like, what are going do? And I'm like, I don't know. It's a wonderful testimony for people in the banking industry because everybody wants to know where you going. I don't know.
You're not staying here? No. What are you going to do? Well, I prayed about it and I just have peace. I don't know.
I think god has something completely different for me. That's 1 testimony of the fruit of walking with god. Do I know what he's going to do? No. Am I afraid?
I'm not. Was there a time when I was afraid when I would be obedient to god? Absolutely but I made that choice anyway because I said, god, I know you're faithful. I don't know what you're going to do or how you're to do it but I know that your plan is better than anything that I know.
That's right. Yeah.
Right? And that's what I want. I want to be in the center of god's will for my life. I want to be doing what he wants me to do because if I get afraid and I step in, okay, y'all take that position. I'm gonna miss out.
That's right. That made me thirsty again. So, he has me walking through a deep season of opportunities to deny myself and take up his cross and follow him, to trust him. But I have been doing this so much that I know he is always faithful. It's not complicated.
The when I started studying about this and, getting ready for my message, I'm like, this is really elementary. This is what denying myself, taking up the cross, and following him is so elementary because all we gotta do is look at, turn, open your Bible and look and see what Jesus did. That's right. Like all of the other things that we make everything so complicated, look and see what Jesus did and do that. He constantly abandoned all of his self will and did whatever it takes.
That's 1 of our core values. We want to do whatever it takes for you to know the love of *god* and live according to his purpose for you. Is that close?
Simplicity
of the gospel. That's what it is. Look at Jesus. Look at his life. How he loved.
How he served. How he handled circumstances. And he had more enemies than any of us ever will. He was god but he was man. When he came on this Earth, he left his godly not authority because he had the authority in god but he left his he he became man.
So, everything that he was experienced was the way we experience it but he knew who he was. Everything that he did was a 100% motivated by love. Jesus didn't have anywhere to even live. The Bible said he had nowhere to lay his head. He was here for a purpose.
This is not about getting something from him. It's about being *transformed* by him. Embracing simplicity and childlikeness. This is about embracing simplicity and childnice. Self feeds on the grand and the glorious.
*Christ* likeness is "childlike and simple". Mariah talked about that a couple of weeks back. Don't be childish. Be childlike. And that's what I was saying.
I was like, man, god, this is so simple. Why are we making it so hard? He's like, I don't know. That's why I'm telling you this. 1 of the main things for me and I'm sharing you my experience.
So, things might look a little bit different for you but the first thing is you have to know him. You have to spend time with him. You have to study him like it's the most important thing you've ever done in your life. You have to read the word of god. That is him and that word isn't where I meant to bring my Bible but that word is not words on a page.
It is alive. When you start spending time with him so here's another testimony. A couple of months ago, I heard a sermon and I already know this but I'm like, you know, I spend time talking to the lord and all of that kind of stuff and I'm like, I want to be intentional about creating a specific time of day that I just get with Jesus. Now, the way that he wanted me to get with him, I was like, can I do that, god? Because like, you don't want me in a closet like with on my knees with scriptures on the wall, like or you don't want but it was basically in my car, which I already talked to him in my car.
But it was like, no, I had to turn off all of my music. I love worshiping on the way to work and stuff, and I had to turn off all my music. And when I'm in my car, am intentional about spending that time with him and sometimes, I would talk to him. I mostly would start glorifying him, praising him for who he is and then sometimes, I would just say, *Holy Spirit*, I'm just gonna listen. And I would just list, I would just sit there and listen and he would give me so much revelation.
He would tell me who to pray for. I would be praising who he was and then he put a name in my head and so I'd start thanking god for them and then as I'm thanking god for them, he would give me a prophetic word to speak over them and sometimes he would help me but that's what you have to know who he is because if you don't know who he is, you're not going to be able to believe that what he has for you is good because he's asking you, he's telling you, he's not asking you. He's telling you to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him but how you going to do that if you don't trust him if if you don't believe him? That's right. You have to spend time with him.
My when I was praying, my perspective and my circumstances changed because I was denying my time and giving it to him. When I wanted to do something else, he'd be like, no. And I had a choice. Because I really wanted to turn on the radio y'all. I love to worship.
And that's a holy thing. And that's a good thing. And God is in that. But I had to be obedient to him. The next thing is you have to be obedient.
*Obedience* doesn't mean the circumstances are going to change because you are obedient. The circumstances might be the same. They might not change but god is still good. Following *Jesus* is gonna cost you. Said, take up your cross.
In the garden when Jesus was about to die, he prayed not my will but thine be done. That's what it's all about. My husband was an entrepreneur, a businessman before god called him into full time ministry. I was, I think I was a bank teller. I was making nothing and he was a business owner, sold his business, decided to follow Jesus.
And the short version because god redeemed our complete marriage through all of that and everything is that he had to give up something. He had to give up what was the most important thing to him in the world and that was being a businessman and being noticed by men. Because he was and he was good at it. God said, are you going to follow me? And we both said, yeah, that's what god wants and we gave it all up and we lost our house and we lost a car we had and we moved to an he moved us to another state.
He had always lived in South Georgia. I traveled all around but we left. We left everything that we knew and and moved. I mean, our furniture was like, we had wine crates for end tables. Like, he rid us of everything and we got so satisfied in that.
But I know to this day, if we would have not been obedient to to to move, I don't think we would be married right now. I think it was critical for what god did in our marriage and what he began in ministry for the both of us and I can't imagine and we say this over and over again because we have a lot of opportunities to make a choice and follow him. I can't imagine if we would have done what we wanted. And didn't deny ourself. Say, god, I don't know how you're going to do it but you do but we say yes and he always always does.
He's he's never not been faithful. So, god might ask you to give up some things. He might ask you to give up a relationship. He might ask you to end a relationship. He might ask you to talk to a stranger on the street.
Something like that, I've learned because I've had to walk through this. When he tells you, pastor David gives testimony about it all the time. Jerry does. There's so many people that do this. It was uncomfortable for me.
But when I when I started being obedient and doing it, then my whole thought process changed about the whole thing. So he he was always faithful and understanding the end result is not my problem. It's god's problem. My problem is to be obedient to god, right? That's right.
So, I be obedient to god. I'm like, hey, Jesus loves you. They're like, you're crazy. I'm like, "crazy in love" with Jesus. But it doesn't matter but as I was walking in obedience and the different things that made me uncomfortable, my heart started changing and all of a sudden, I started seeing people and I'm like, oh, god loves him.
I gotta tell him. I gotta tell him what I know. I gotta tell him that he desperately wants them. That he was, they were created for him. It is so weird because that process doesn't work in our real world but it works in his world.
Humiliation This is the essence of Christ's life. The actual death is self the the actual death part is done by god. Because he said, when you're, when you, when you get saved, you die with him. He does that and when you raise, you raise. It's not like we're going to have baptism.
It's not like I was thinking about this other other day. I don't know why. I think I've even looked. I knew what baptism was but the picture, my mom was like, if you're dirty and you get in the water and it washes off and then you're good. You you're all clean, smelling good.
It is death. Like, when you go down, it represents in that water. When you go down, every single thing inside of you dies. You, yourself dies. And when you're raised, you're new in him.
You have new life in him. The in him is important. Our job is to humble ourselves. *Romans-8:14 says, for all who are led by the spirit of god are sons of god*. You can't do this unless you let him lead you.
Unless you are in relationship with you. There's not 1 single thing that I can do today whether I'm buying, grow, whatever I'm doing. I need to do it in him and let him empower me. *Galatians-5:1 says, for freedom Christ* has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
That does not even sound like a choice to me. That sounds like a command.
Yep. Yeah.
*1 John-3:16* says, by this, we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Jesus served constantly. I just encourage you, try him. See the fruit of serving, of laying down your life, denying yourself. A few weeks ago, we we just had a tough week in this church and it was and and my work was really real.
I was short staffed. It was really physically exhausting. We were, I was physically exhausted. I was emotionally exhausted. And we went to a funeral, Ethan's funeral, and I was so, I mean, I just, I don't even know how I was functioning.
And and Jerry said, babe, why don't you just go home and and rest? And I said, no. I'm going to go help set up because I know when I get there, I'm going to get so energized because I've experienced god do that over and over and over in my life and when I came here y'all, it was like the Holy Spirit just, I mean, I was dancing and jumping. If you've ever been here on Friday nights, you need to come. It's pretty fun.
I was having the best time. I was so energized and I learned that because I went to small group and when I didn't want to go to small group because I had a hard long day, I would say, nope, I'm going to go because I know when I get there, I'm going to be so energized. Every, it does not make sense. Well, really it does because pastor David helped me with some scripture on that. *John-6:35* says, I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. So, what does food do? It nourishes us and it energizes us. Yeah. He is the bread of life.
That's why it works. See, we're looking at things from a self perspective or from experiences that we've always experienced. I have, I deal with a lot of people that aren't so happy when they call the manager of the bank. And some of them are are not nice, And I would get so offended. And I'd wanna be like, Jude, you know, I mean, cussing and doing all of this stuff.
Well, couple months ago, this lady called and oh my goodness, and I just let her go. Nothing rose up in me. And I let her go, and and I said, ma'am, I'm gonna do whatever I can to help you. I my identity, my value was a 100% love. And while she I don't even know what she said.
Because while she's talking, I'm like, *god loves* her. Like, I'm not gonna respond to this. "God loves her". So I did and then by the end of the conversation, she's like, thank you so much. I just haven't had any and then I hung that phone up and I'm like, Jerry.
Like because all the time like, I'll be trying to talk over em. I'm like, I didn't react like that but I didn't know how I was I was going to respond until I was faced with an experience, a circumstance of the world and I saw the fruit of god coming out of me. That was from spending time with him. That was from being obedient and serving. That was from doing all of the things that I don't want to do.
Then, recently, this is just when god starts changing you, you will not even recognize yourself. You won't even know. I didn't even know that was a thing. I said something not nice. I know it's hard to believe that and 1 day, everybody's not going to believe that because they're going be like, oh, I didn't even But I said something to my husband, to to my spouse.
This is probably gonna hit everybody. And it wasn't kind. And it was sarcastic. And it was kinda tearing them down. And as soon as I said that, I went and I and I went outside, and I I just started crying, and he came out here and outside, and he's like I said, Jerry, I am so sorry.
I love you. I don't know why. I don't know where that came from. I didn't even, I couldn't even stop it before it came out. In the past, when something like that would have happened and I made a choice, I would have made that choice and I and I still might, sometimes I didn't but when I did make that choice, it was out of, man, I'm pretty not, you know, this this was terrible, maybe a little condemnation.
You know, I'm apologizing but don't really want to but I'm but I'm doing it because I'm being obedient to god and that's okay because that's a step but every time that I didn't feel anything in me and I was obedient to god and I'm, you know what, Jerry? I love you and I did but this time, I my heart was different. Yeah. I didn't feel bad because of what I said. I felt bad because I absolutely love him and I wanted him to know, I don't know why I said that because I love you.
It wasn't, I don't know why I said that because it was mean and I know I'm not supposed to and I'm, you know, why am I even an elder? I don't even know how many times. Why are we even an elder? I mean, I just don't even know why. It was because god changed my heart.
So, god's going to give, we're going to have circumstances. We're going to have all of the circumstances. They may or may not change but how I choose to walk it out. The decision that I need to make is, am I going to lay my life down like Jesus Christ laid his life down for me? Well, what about me?
What about me? What about my needs? What are, I'm giving up. I'm giving up. I'm giving up on this marriage.
I'm giving up. I I'm tired of just being the 1 following god and serving. I'm giving up. When when somebody asked me this week, when do you when do you "call it quits"? I said, when did Jesus call it quits?
That's right. You don't.
That's right.
You serve, you love a 100. That's right. But the main point I'm trying to get across here is that I am seeing a Heidi that I have never known. And I think I probably say this every time I have an opportunity to speak. But seeing characteristics and seeing a love that is so foreign and and seeing myself being *transformed* into the image of God is because I am receiving his love.
That's right. I am receiving everything that he is and as he's pouring it into me, I am able to give it out. I can't give out something I that I'm that I'm not receiving. He does what he says he's going to do. His Bible is true and it's good And he and he means every single word.
And it's not gonna make sense to you. It may not make sense to you. But try him at his word and let him show himself faithful. And you're gonna have the greatest experience of experiencing his love. Denying myself, denying ourself is a command of God.
If you are his disciple, it's not a choice. You have to deny yourself. And if you're not denying yourself yet, you need to start practicing. That's right. You need to start practicing and let him do.
Otherwise, I mean, that's what Jesus did. The entire time, that's what Jesus did. He denied himself. I encourage you to just get before the lord. And you and even if you don't understand it, just get before him and say, just like I did with my job.
Lord, don't know what you're doing. I don't know how it's going to happen but I I'm I'm here to I give you I give you my life. If I end up having to shack up with somebody, I'm okay with that. Whatever you want, lord because that's all that matters. I'm not going to shack it.
Shack up means like if Jerry and I were living with somebody else like in a room in their house. I didn't mean I was going to shack up with Lord, have my, my mind is so clean. I just don't even think like that. What you talking about? Anyway, really quick.
Jerry said, thank you pastor. *Matthew-28:18 through 20, Jesus came and said to his disciples and this is how you're going to do it. All authority in the heaven and on earth have been given to Therefore, go and make disciples* of all nations. That's your job. Baptizing them in the name of the father and the of the son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always.
He is with you always. He will do it all. I want to end with a quote from Dan Mueller that Bart shared with me. Following Jesus and denying yourself, it's going to cost you everything. It's gonna cost you everything that you aren't supposed to be.
That's all it's gonna cost you, the dead man, and he's dead anyway.
Jerry, she did this little Facebook thing where she asked a question and to Jerry and he'd answer and, you know, it's 1 of those little fun things. And it said, if I'm in trouble, who am with? Jerry said, Phillips. They're they're like "peas in a pod", but it's a powerful message. And I want I wanna just tag on for a second.
We're about to do baptism. So, miss Anna, it is time. So if if you need to get changed, if not, you you're good right where you are, and we'll we'll do baptism here in a second. Oh, I want you to know denying yourself doesn't mean focusing on yourself to see what you can deny. Okay?
Denying yourself means *obedience* to Jesus. It means having a relationship with him where you walk with him. And when he tells you to do something, you say, yes, Lord. So your focus has to be Christ, not self. Otherwise, it's just religion.
Religion focuses on self and what I can do for God. *Relationship focuses on what Jesus has already done and walks with him. The law of the spirit is listening to the Holy* Spirit and obeying him when he's what he says because what he says is law. That's the law of the spirit. So so denying yourself is is not it's it's focusing on Jesus and walking with him in relationship.
I love her message. Like, the first 20 minutes, she's talking about how she hears God and and she's just saying like it's normal. Well, for a lot of Christians, that's not normal. And I'll tell you why. Because it just takes time listening and obeying.
That's it. Day in and day out, here, *faith hears, and then faith believes and obeys. That's it. "walking by faith"*. So if you're if you're having trouble hearing God, and you're like, wow, how did she hear God like that?
It's the product of consistent obedience to what he says, stepping out even when it's uncomfortable, which is denying self. It's relationship. That's it. Christianity is all about denying self because it's all about obeying Jesus. And you can obey him not by your self effort, but because he put his spirit in you, enabling you by his grace to do what he says.
All we have to do is trust. Like, her message is so powerful. That's what it looks like walking this thing out day in and day out. The other little thing I wanted to to tag on as the kids and everybody's coming in, we're about to do baptism, is people a lot of people may it it might have maybe it just went over when she said this or maybe it hit, but you're like, no, that's not possible. When she was talking about when she was talking about how, you know, she didn't feel like, you know, long day, a hard week, everything, And I I just need to go serve.
It wasn't obligation that she went to serve. There's a lot of people when you serve out of obligation instead of obedience, you're you're you're you're going to get drained. When we serve out of obedience, it's a trust and a faith. That that's the difference. So Jesus said these words.
First, he said, man will not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of god. Okay? So, reading his word, learning to hear his voice, it's energizing. So 1 of the things that's energizing is relationship hearing hearing him through the word, through relationship. But here's what she was getting at.
Second thing. He's at the the well with the lady and he ministers to her. She goes back to share the testimony and the disciples come up and say, hey, you're probably really hungry and Jesus like, no, I have food. You don't know, you don't, you don't know about and the disciples are like, what? Did he go get like a snack pack or something?
Like, did did he get a Big Mac from what did, where'd you get this food, Jesus? And Jesus says, my food, remember, food gives you energy. My food is to do the will of my father. So you want do you feel down constantly? Or have you been doing your will and not his?
Denying yourself doesn't leave you drained. Denying yourself doing his will, what he tells you to do, actually energizes you. It gives you the nutrients and the the energy you need in order to live out the purpose he gave you. It impart through *obedience, the Holy Spirit* empowers you to do what he wanted you to do in the first place, and then you get fulfilled because you're living the life he created you to live. It's beautiful.
Amen?
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of 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 you 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.
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