You are invited to stop striving for spiritual maturity on your own and instead embrace the simple dependence of a child. Let go of fear and timidity by renewing your mind to the truth of who God says you are. Start trusting Him with the same honesty and joy that a little child offers their parent.
And so Mariah, my
sister in Christ.
Thank you, brother. Man, that's encouraging. Thank you. Praise the lord. We're going to pray again because we're in church.
That's what we do. Oh lord, we're here for you. We are here for you and you alone. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you. Holy Spirit, thank you for who you are. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your presence. I'm not going to say amen.
I'm not going to do it. We're not done. Yeah, my name is is Mariah Mullins. My family, we've been coming to Real Church for about 2 and a half years and Gabe, my husband, he he's not here right now. He he wanted to be but he worked last night.
He works at the hospital. He works night shifts every once in a while and sometimes we get this beautiful moment where he gets to sleep through some of the night and last night was not 1 of those nights. So, he is sleeping. Should be in church but he's sleeping. Gabe and I, we have 2 sons.
We have Isaiah who's 2 years old. Today, it's his birthday. I know. Precious boy and I also have Judah who is 6 months old hanging out with Veronica back there. She's momming for me.
And and I love my boys. I love being a mom. The Lord talks to me a lot in the relationship that I have with them and the relationship that he has with me as his child. Which is wonderful because today, I'm going to talk about being children. We're starting a new series.
It's who we are. Well, we are his children. We're his sons and daughters. Praise the lord. Let's open up to Matthew-18.
We're going to read 1 through 5. Get us going. Says, at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Then, Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them and said, assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever receives 1 little child like this in my name receives me. So, there's a couple things that's that that's happening here. Couple things that are happening. The the first 1 is you have to be *converted* and **become as children** in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. So, we must become as children and then the other thing that's happening here is we must receive children.
So, those are the 2 things we're going to dig into. You know, the natural realm, it often reflects the spiritual realm. So, when we say we're going to be like children, I don't mean that we're going to age backwards. There's a lot of creams on the market that we could use to try that out. That's not what we're doing.
But we are wanting to reflect it spiritually. We're not trying to be age backwards or look younger or anything like that. We're trying to spiritually be childlike. And there's a couple things that children do really well that I want to highlight. Children are really good at being dependent.
There's this passage in Matthew-23 and it lands around the part that I I love. It's 37, *Matthew-23:37*. I didn't give this to to them. I I think. So, I'm just going to tell you about it but Jesus is talking to the Pharisees in this passage and Gabe pointed this out to me.
He said, look, the the Pharisees are being talked to as if they are like their great grandparents as if Jesus is talking to their ancestors, right? And then also, he's talking as if he is god and he was there with their ancestors and he says, how often I wanted to gather your children being Jerusalem together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing. There's a dependency where where you *surrender* and you're willing to be *dependent* on the the lord. My son, Isaiah, I'm going to talk about him a lot because he's 1 of my favorite children. And he's he's 2 years old.
He wakes up in the morning and he walks out to the kitchen. This is our routine. He walks out and he points at the shelf where the bananas are and he goes, mama, nana. Like, like, I don't know where the bananas are. Like, I don't do this every morning but he cannot reach the bananas by himself.
He needs me. He says, mama, nana. Get the get the banana, mom. He needs it and he needs me to get it. Be inappropriate if he got it himself.
It's way too high up. He shouldn't be climbing up there and if he had free range of the bananas, there'd be peels all over my house. It it's not, he's, it's not okay and and when my boy wants comfort, it doesn't matter if I'm in the house or if I'm gone, if I'm there, he falls down. He goes, He cries out to me. If he wants comfort, it's an immediate reaction for him.
It's immediate. I need mama. I didn't even think of something else that would come for me. The only thing that can comfort Isaiah is mama and dada. The other thing that children are really good at is they have unadulterated joy.
Have you ever heard a child laugh? Oh, it'll melt you. Their joy. When I give my boy that banana in the morning and every single morning, he goes, nana. And he goes like this.
This is his dance. Like, thrilled. You've never seen anybody so excited about a banana before. He he understands joy entirely. There is this couple of nights where my husband and Isaiah, they had to go to a wedding.
I'd gotten sick. I stayed back and they went by themselves and they were gone for 2 nights without without us and without me and and they drove back 2 hours to come back to me after their trip and and they landed at like midnight. It was late and I looked in the window of the car when they came and Isaiah, his eyes are hanging low and he's like, he's either asleep or he's almost asleep and he's got his passe in his mouth and he sees me in the window and his eyes get huge and he smiles big and he takes out his passe and he just chucks it at the seat in front of him and screams. He's so excited. He went from a sleep to just pure joy in a moment.
Children are so honest with their emotions. They're so honest with their joy. I had this this vision and and let me explain what I mean by vision. It's not like I was sucked into heaven. It's not that fancy but I had this this image in my head just as if I would say, imagine a a purple elephant.
You you know, you see it in your head, in your mind, and and the lord speaks to me a lot in that way. He gives me this image and and I was talking to the lord 1 day and he he gave me this image or vision of everyone just filing into church, Sunday morning like we just did and walking in and saying hi to the greeting team and walks in *Jesus* filing it, coming to church and Jesus goes to kids church. Like, that's where Jesus has church. It's with the kids who are full of joy, who worship him with with pure joy, and and who are very with their emotions and they're dependent on him and they treat him like a superstar and he is. Like, that's honest which which is the other thing I want to talk about is children are honest.
I think honesty is 1 of the the most valuable things that you can give god. You know, we can't lie to god. He knows everything. So, we're not getting away with lying to him when we do. But it gives us this this false understanding.
It's lying to us when we lie to God. And it gives us a false understanding of the relationship that we have with God. Honesty. It's seeking the truth. It's very anti pride.
*Luke-1:51* says, he has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. We're casting down imaginations. We're not trying to put on airs when we're honest. You know what I notice about all these things?
Dependency, joy, honesty. They're all very life giving. Like they're all very freedom oriented. I'm not working hard at any of these things. I'm actually just surrendering more.
I'm just giving more to him. I'm just I'm just being more honest, right? We're called real church. We're like, we're honest church. We're children.
We're dependent. We're we're just "giving it all away". We're just giving him our lives and he just gives us all the good stuff. So that leads me to, are we supposed to be childlike in every way or children in every way, I should say? *1 Corinthians-13:11* says, when I was a child, I spoke as a child.
I understood as a child. I thought as a child but when I became a man, I put away childish things. So, you know, there's a difference between childlike and childish. There's a couple things that I want to break down when we're trying to be childlike but not childish. 1 of those things is selfishness.
There's some selfishness in our children. All the parents said amen. There's some selfishness. I I'm going to bring up this verse. Mark-9:33.
You can turn to it with me if you want. I love this. Mark-9:33. This is Jesus with the disciples. Then he, Jesus, came to Capernaum and when he was in the house, he asked them, the disciples, what was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?
But they kept silent. For on the road, they disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. Can you imagine? Like Jesus knows. He knows what they were talking about.
And he's like so time to learn a lesson. What were you guys talking about? And they're like, I'm not going to say it. You say it. Like, like it dawns on them, right?
They're like, oh, yeah, that was probably inappropriate. That was, that was childish. That's what that was and Jesus just goes on teaching. He says, and he sat down, called the 12, and said to them, if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all. Then he took a little child and set him in the midst of them.
And when he had taken him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives 1 of these little children in my name receives me. And whoever receives me, receives not me, but him who sent me. So he's saying, y'all being childish. I've been hanging out with Courtney. Y'all being childish.
But yet we're supposed to be converted to be like children. So don't be childish but be childlike. Don't be selfish. Don't try to promote yourself. Something else that that I see children do is pretending to be pretending that they're not dependent.
Right? So, like, boasting yourself up to a position that that's not appropriate for their age or their what their their maturity level. Right? And you see that in John-13, Jesus is washing the disciples' feet And Peter says, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus responds, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me.
See, it's it's not honest to say that I I'm not dependent and I think what Peter was trying to do was like, oh lord, like you're too wonderful for me compared to me. Like, I shouldn't even allow you to and I think it's like this attempt at humility, right? Where it's like, let me lower myself and and remove myself. But it's not honest with the relationship that he has with Jesus which is, yeah, wash me. I need you.
I cannot reach the bananas. Like, you have to get them for me. And if a 12 year old just takes the car keys and goes to drive, you'd be like, what are you doing? It's inappropriate. We need the lord.
We need to to be honest and be *dependent* and what a joy to just have that freedom. So, let's look at somebody who who I think is really good at being childlike. We're going to go through the story of Mary Magdalene. I love this story. This is a story that's told all 4 gospels.
It's told 4 times and I'm going to just tell you where they're all told but we're going to read 1 portion but I I would love if you go home and just read all of these. Because the you'll see like overlapping details and you'll see differences even. So, like some of them say that Mary anointed Jesus' head and then some of them say that Mary anointed his feet and and some of them he heard different comments. So, you have like, you can almost picture how they're sitting in the room. Like, Jesus is sitting here and those people, you know, they leaned over and they like saw his feet being anointed and those people were behind so he saw when his head was anointed and those people were sitting by each other.
It's it's just really fun. You feel like you're in the room with them. Like you can see it. But those are found Matthew-26:6. Mark-14:3.
John-12:1. And we are going to read from Luke-7:36. I'm reading from the Passion Translation. So, it might look different from yours. You can follow along on the screen.
*Luke-7:36*. It says, afterward, Simeon, a a Jewish religious leader, asked Jesus to his home for dinner. Jesus accepted the invitation. When he went to Simeon's home, he took his place at the table. In the neighborhood, there was an "immoral woman" of the streets known to all to be a prostitute.
That's Mary Magdalene. When she's heard when she heard that Jesus was at Simeon's house, she took an exquisite flask made from alabaster, filled it with the most expensive perfume, went right into the home of the Jewish religious leader, and in front of all the guests, she knelt at the feet of Jesus. Broken and weeping, she covered his feet with the tears that fell from her face. She kept crying and drying his feet with her long hair. Over and over, she kissed Jesus' feet.
Then as an act of worship, she opened her flask and anointed his feet with her costly perfume. When Simeon saw what was happening, he thought, this man can't be a true prophet. If he were really a prophet, he would know what kind of sinful woman is touching him. In *John-12* verse 4, Judges Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him says, that perfume was worth a year's wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.
A little bit down in John, Jesus replies, "leave her alone". She did this in preparation for my burial. *Mark-14:8*, Jesus says, she has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed. So these are some different perspectives all coming together to 1 story.
Let's let's just think about this a minute. Mary Magdalene. Some some versions say that she was a woman of many sins. She was known in the town for being a woman of many sins. She's a prostitute.
And she comes in with her perfume that costs a year's wages. Like, this is savings. This is a lot of of it's worth a lot and you would think that, you know, maybe she even used it in in her career as a prostitute. That's what she did for work. Maybe she used it in her career of sin.
You would think that she'd wanna hide it. Like, oh, now that I know Jesus, I'll just get rid of this and and pretend and act like it's not there and Judas' idea of it, you know, like, sell it and give the money to the poor. That's what works looks like. Like, I can fix this myself. I'm just going to sell it and I'm going to give it to the poor and look, I fixed it.
I'm I saved that and you I'm the *savior* of this. That's what that is. It's works. But Mary, she says, I'm willing to surrender the things that I have that are dirty to him. She takes this this perfume that she works in her career.
It's the outcome of her sin. It's her sin. She anoints Jesus with her sin. She anoints him. She she creates a scene where they're sitting down to eat to have dinner and she fills the room with this perfume that she got doing her line of work that everyone knows.
And she takes it and she anoints his feet with it. They know who she is. That's why he says, well, if this man was a prophet, Simeon says, if this man were a prophet, he would know. He wouldn't let a woman like that touch her. Be associated.
But but it's honest. And her honesty is the sweet aroma to Jesus. He says, this is a good thing. He says, this is what I came for. This honesty, it's so childlike and it's dependent on Jesus.
She calls him her rabbi, her lord. She loves him. And you know what? Jesus loves her. He loves us.
He's not ashamed to be associated with this woman of many sins. Mary, in this scene, she's this beautiful example of the bride of Christ. That's what we are. When we're honest, we anoint him with our sin and then it prepares him for burial. And he takes that perfume, that anointing from his head to his toes, and he brings it to the grave.
Oh. It's the honesty where she weeps. And he's not ashamed of her to the point where where he seals it to the gospel. He says, wherever the good news is preached, this will be preached. Wherever this is told, she will be talked about.
He's so not ashamed to be associated with her. Jesus, the centerpiece of of our faith. He's so not ashamed of her. He desires it. He says, this is a good thing.
He, she's, she's preparing me. This is it. This is the moment. It's going to be told forever. All around the world.
I like want to cry about it. You know, to this day, people will say it's it's this rumor that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married like husband and wife and and they weren't. But how beautiful is that? That Jesus, he's not even concerned. He's like, I'm not even going to take a moment and say, oh, a minute.
Like, I know she's a prostitute. I know what you think of her. It's not how it is. No. He says, no.
This this is important, and this needs to be told. This moment needs to be spread around the world. *Jesus*, he dies for us with that sin. He takes it all. He raises from the dead and Mary Magdalene is the first 1 that meets him.
She meets him at the grave and they talk. And then Jesus says, go and tell the others what you've seen. And Mary Magdalene, the prostitute, the woman that caused the scene. She is the first preacher of the gospel ever. She just goes and ministers immediately.
I don't think she changed all her wardrobe first. I don't think she changed like, let me tell everyone first. I'm not a prostitute. Now, I've changed. I'm different.
Now, let me tell you the good news. No. She runs out of there and she says, "I have seen the lord". I have seen him. That's all you need.
Once you have Jesus, you have everything that you need. And now she's she's the first preacher. That's honest. It's honest. She has Jesus.
From the place of knowing him and meeting him, she goes and says, I have seen the lord. There's this thought process that I think a lot of Christians have where you say, oh, I need to fix myself first before I go to church. And I I should, you know, I should stop doing all those things that I do and and then I'll lead a small group. And and I should read my Bible more and then I'll talk to my neighbor. It's not being honest with who Jesus is.
He's full and he's complete and he makes you righteous. He made Mary Magdalene righteous and she's a preacher. You know, if you're trying to clean yourself, you'll you can't. You're never going to wash yourself enough. You'll you'll start working.
You know, you don't have to work for Jesus. You do have to give him your life. You you have to surrender everything but what a joy. And it's always worth it to give him your life. The heartbeat of this church is discipleship.
It's who we are. Jerry, Hunter right here, Heidi's husband. He pioneered a group called Belong. It's amazing. He goes door to door and tells people about Jesus.
He brings somebody with him. He goes out and shares Jesus. That's who we are as a church. He led the the water meter reader to the lord the other day. That like he wasn't even knocking on that person's door.
They were just in the neighborhood and Jerry's just out there being Jesus. *Evangelism*, it's really, it's really hitting our church as a whole. I I know that for myself. I'm I'm feel convicted and excited of the people that I've talked to, that I'm friends with, like they're passionate and excited. Evangelism is happening.
So, so we have to be ready to be like Mary Magdalene. We have to be ready to just go out and say, I've seen the lord. I know what he looks like. It's amazing. He's beautiful.
He took everything. I gave him everything. I'm honest with you, right? You don't have to be perfect at it. You don't have to be completely mature yet.
That'll come. It's just what happens when you spend time with him. The more you look at him, the more you look like him. Yeah. But we've gotta be friends to sinners.
We've gotta reach out to the people around us because *Jesus* loves them. He loves them and he died for them and and people are going to hell. So, we are a church. We are childlike. We are honest.
We are dependent. We are joyful because of it. Oh my goodness. And we also receive children, right? As evangelism is hitting our church and we were understanding that we don't do it for for us but we do it because we've seen him.
That means that we're going to have what I would call spiritual children in our church. You know, people will come. They might not even look like they belong in church. They might have tattoos. They might cuss.
They might be wearing some inappropriate clothes. You don't know. But it's not about the church protocol. It's about Jesus. So we are a church that receives children.
That's who we are. Mark-10:13 through 16 says, 1 day, some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, "let the children come to me".
Don't stop them. For the **kingdom of god** belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth. Anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of god like a child will never enter it. Then, he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.
Our church is the kingdom of god. I hope that our church knows how to receive them. Amen? Amen. That's right.
So, we need to be ready to receive them. They might, you know, get messy but they're going to grow. That's what children do. They just keep growing. I keep thinking if Mary Magdalene walked into my church and everyone knew, like, you could look at her and tell that she's a prostitute.
Right? I just think, oh man, I hope that I would receive her. And not only that, but I hope that I would allow her to become a minister immediately. That I wouldn't say, oh, wait till you're older. No.
All you need is you just need to see him. *Proverbs-14:4* says, "without oxen", a stable stays clean but you need a strong ox for a large harvest. We're not scared to get messy. We got work to do. There's been a couple of moments in my life where I've thought to myself or even dreams that I've had where I've thought, man, this really feels like heaven.
And every single time, it includes children and they're running around like they're acting like children act and they're very free to be children in the space. Last week, we had Sabbath Sunday and all the kids were in service with us and they were running around in the back and they were laughing and they were tripping over each other and they were having a great time dragging each other on the floor and I leaned over. I'm like, oh my goodness, Gabe. This feels like heaven. Like, this is what heaven looks like.
Oh, it just makes you want to laugh and be joyful. It makes you want to join in. There's certain environments that allow children to be free. Like to be free to act like children. And I I like going to a coffee shop.
I think it's fun. I like sipping on a latte. But when I bring my 2 year old Isaiah to a coffee shop, he loses a lot of his freedoms. And it's a little stressful even to bring a child into a coffee shop. There's all these hot drinks in breakable cups on low tables.
Nightmare. That's right. It's a nightmare. And and all these conversations are happening, and they're facing each other away you know, 1 big room, but they're all facing each other. And Isaiah just wants to walk up to somebody and stare at them.
That's all he wants to do. Like, that's a great time for him. But that's not his environment to be free. He can't run and play and and talk to everybody. But this church, he walks in.
He says, hi to everybody. Everybody says hi to him. You know, when when a spiritual child walks into a room and people are facing each other and you're wondering where do I go? How do I sit? Can I touch that cup?
Can I do that? It's it's an uncomfortable environment for a child. So, when they walk in, the first thing we do is receive them. That's why the greeting team is powerful. That's a powerful team.
You should be a part of it if you're not But really, you all should be on it whether you're on it or not. Right? Because that's who we are. We're a church that receives children. I want to pray for those who feel like they haven't been able to be childlike.
So, we're going to have a time of ministry. Is Robert around? I'd I'd love for you to play piano. We're going to we're going to minister. That's what we're going to do.
We're going to talk to the lord and we're going to dedicate ourselves to being childlike. I think that there are chains that can be formed on those who aren't practicing childlikeness. Chains can form and suddenly you're like, I just don't do that. I just don't laugh. Well, we're supposed to be childlike.
I don't I don't cry anymore. We gotta be honest. Well, I don't really like to raise my hands. Hey, that's okay. We're going to practice being children.
So, so if you want just a new dose of child like this and trust me, I'm going be up there with you because I just, I want to tell the lord the truth. I want to be honest with him. So come on up and I'm gonna pray. Stand up. Let's just let's just stand up all together whether you're coming down or not.
But just come on down. Let's be childlike together. Let's just be childlike. *Lord*, just pray pray whatever is in your heart. If if you agree with me, then then say it out loud for yourself.
*Lord, I want to be dependent* on you. Lord, I want to be joyful for you. Lord, I want to be free. I want to dance with you. I want to spend my time pulling on your robe.
I want to play at your feet. *Lord*, I'm sorry for anytime that I turn to something else for comfort. I want to be dependent on you. When I fall down, I hope that I yell out immediately, Abba. "Abba Father".
When I don't feel good, when I when I have a a belly ache, when I feel anxiety, when I have worries, when I'm sad, when I don't know what to do with my emotions, I hope that I am honest and I bring them to my father. *Lord*, I give you myself. I surrender. I'm going to stop working for it. Thank you that you call me a son and a daughter.
I command chains to be broken. I command chains to be broken and for freedom to reign in this place. That this is a church of freedom and of childlikeness in Jesus name. Thank you, lord, that I can dance in this place. Thank you, lord, that I can be childlike and I can receive children.
Man, children receive children so well. *Lord*, I I pray that I hunger for you more than anything. I I would rather be hungry for you than to be satisfied in anything else. I would rather be hungry for you than be satisfied in anything else. I'm done seeking satisfaction in anything else.
Thank you, Jesus. We love you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being associated with us. Thank you that you call us your bride.
Thank you, Lord.
Continue to receive his goodness. 2 stories I wanna share with you. In *John-3*, it says, this is the verdict. Verse 19, light is coming to the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not will not come into the light for fear.
Their deeds will be exposed. Hide. You may be seated for a moment. That's fine. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be see seen plainly what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Give you 2 examples of this from yesterday. I get on the plane. I'm flying back in from Kentucky. I went to a short little conference. And as I get on the plane, I sit by this lady and I say, we sit down and after a moment, I just say, hey, ma'am.
What's your name? She says her name. I said, my name is David. I'm a Christian. Because I'm a Christian, I love to say Jesus, just wanted you to know "Jesus loves you" so much.
And she says, well, I'm this and blah blah blah. You know? I won't say exactly what she said. And and I I said I said, well, well, ma'am, you know what? I just know that God loves you a lot and and if if you need anything, if you need any prayer or anything, I'll be here the whole flight.
And she just, you know, put her ears in her ear and did her thing. Next lady sat beside me on this side. I'm in the middle. I don't mind being in middle because I get 2 people to talk to. She sat down and guess what I said?
I said, ma'am, I'm a Christian, which means I just love telling people how much Jesus loves them. I said then she said, that's interesting. You know, I've been trying to get back in my in the faith and stuff. Going to this church, you know, for the year last year, the I said, ma'am, have you ever been born again? And she says, you know, I'm trying to be, but but no.
So I I get to share Jesus. She said, no. I just I just wanna I wanna be ready. You know? Said, well, man, you're ready.
I said, but you need to confess with your mouth that he's your lord. She said, you know, I'll do it when I'm said, praise the Lord, I'm glad. But she you see her stepping into the light where the other was like, I don't want no. A childlikeness and openness? And the other one's like, no.
Right before I got on that plane, I was in Charlotte. It's a connecting flight. And I'm walking through the airport and there's these Navy guys everywhere. These young navy guys because they just got done with boot camp. And so they're everywhere going home before they get sent to their first a school.
I'm like, yeah, because I'm in the navy, I got a connection. I'm gonna talk with somebody. I get to my gate where we're about to go to Tampa and there's a couple Navy guys there. The first 1 I sit down, I said, hey man. I said, what are you guys doing?
He said, we just got done with boot camp, this, and the other. And I'm just asking him questions about who he is and what he's done. And I said, do you I'm a Christian. And because I'm a Christian, I like to tell people Jesus loves them. Because I know how much He loves me.
You know Jesus? He goes, I know I know He I said, have you been born again? He says, yes, I have. He said, my middle name is Emmanuel. I said, you know what that means, don't you?
He said, what? I said, it means God's with you. Emmanuel says, God's with us. So he's with you. You know, a lot a lot of people aren't willing to be childlike because they think they need to prove themselves.
They think they need to earn something, even born again Christians. I told him, I said, I said, son, because he was a lot younger than me. So I'll pull that out every now and then. I said, I was a submarine submarine officer in the Navy. He said, oh, I'm sorry, sir.
I said, no. No. No. No. I'm telling you this for a reason.
I said, where you're going, you need to understand who you are before you get there. Because if not, the people around you will try to change your identity. Where you're going for the next 6 days, you need to understand who you are before you get there. Because as you go back in your home, some of you, in your job, your workplace, other people will try to change your identity so that you're not *childlike* and constantly going in with the joy of the Lord. Constantly going in trying to cover up
who you, who, who everybody else says that
you are and present something. No, no, just be real. Just be who you are because that authenticity shows Jesus. I said, you need to understand you're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You're forgiven in your love because you're born again.
He's your heavenly father, and you can go to him at any time. And when you do that with authenticity, everyone else sees it, and they want some because there's a joy and a peace that there that's nowhere else. He said, thank you, sir. I get to pray with him and encourage him and sitting right beside him. He's this big dude, but he's the same age.
They're about to start the navy. Said, hey, Greg is his name. I said, Greg, this was yesterday. I said, were listening to us? He said, no, was actually listening to here.
I said, man, I was telling him about how much Jesus loves him. You know how much Jesus loves you, Greg? He says, I do, sir. I said, that's great. Have you been born again?
He says, no, sir. I said, do you know what it means to be born again? He says, no, sir. I said, well, because you can know Jesus and believe Jesus and have covered up all of your stuff hiding or trying to sell your sin away or give your sin away so that you can clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. And that's not how it works.
That's a Judas thing. We don't want to be Judas thing. We don't want to be Judas people. That's betrayers. We want to be people that willingly bring everything to Him.
Walk in, come into the light as He is in the light. Right? Instead of hiding. I said, I said, Greg, in John-3 it says, *Jesus*, this religious person came to Jesus and he said, you gotta be born again. Religious mind don't understand it.
He said, what are you talking about? I gotta crawl back into my mother's womb? Kinda funny, right? He said, no. Gotta be born of water.
And I said, Greg, and I'm saying to you, have you been born again? Just like I asked Greg. I don't care if you've been to church for 20, 30 years. Maybe you're coming to church to try to prove yourself. Maybe you're going to church because this or that and the other.
Or or maybe you've never been and you just happen to come in here. Maybe you believe in Jesus, but you've never been born again. There's there's a difference. There can be. Here's here's what it means.
I said, Greg, *Jesus said, born of water and born of spirit*. You know what that means? No, sir. I don't. I said, well, your your mama's water broke broke, didn't it?
She said, yeah. I I he said, yes. Said, mine too which means we're both born of water. Oh, you're born of water. It's pretty great.
He said, but born of spirit, we were separated from god at birth. *Sin* nature. Have you sinned, Greg? Yes, sir. Well, it's separated from God.
And God who is life, if you're separated from God, that means walking in death. So what does it mean to be born again? We believe Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sin, but not just to pay for our sin, to make us new, to restore our created value, to make us like children again in his sight, which is pretty awesome. And then he rose again 3 days later so we can experience that life. He puts his life in us.
He takes our "heart of stone" and makes gives us a new heart. A heart that instead of beating for self beats for him. And he puts his spirit inside of us. So God who is life, his spirit in us connected with us. That's born of spirit.
That happens when you believe Jesus died and rose again for you. But then also, here's the kicker, Greg, because even demons believe that. You believe, you confess him as your Lord. You say, I'm tired of living for me. I'm gonna live for you, Jesus.
I don't know what that means completely, but I'm just gonna say, you're my Lord, I'm following you, and I know when I fall, you're gonna "pick me up", and I'm gonna keep walking. I'm starting today. I said, Greg, do you wanna do that? Greg said, yes, I do. It's that simple.
I said, that's awesome, Greg. Are you sure? He's like, yes, sir. I said, well, man, we're gonna pray a prayer. We're gonna pray this prayer.
It's not a prayer that saves you. It's the attitude of the heart, confessing him as Lord. You wanna do that with me, Greg? Yes, I do. Yes, sir.
We grab hands right there. And I'll share what the prayer I prayed as I lead some of you in that prayer. How many of you, you'd say, you know what? I don't care if anybody's looking at me. I know I need to be born again and I'm ready right now.
If that's you, raise your hand high. Who would say I need to be born again? I see you. I see you. That's 2.
Come on. There's more in here. Those watching online, you can do this too. It works over the digital airwaves. Yes.
*Jesus* is awesome. Alright. I want you guys all to close your eyes and just to support them. Pray this from the heart. Say Jesus, say it out loud.
Jesus, I've been living for me, and I don't wanna do that anymore. I believe you died on a cross to forgive me of my sin and to make me new. And you rose again so I could have your life. Come into my heart and make me new. I receive you.
You are my Lord. I will follow you. Teach me what it means. Now I want every single 1 of you to do this next part with me, including the 2 that were just born again and those online and maybe some more in here. Who knows?
See, the Bible says, you will not see the kingdom of heaven unless you've been born again, which means you will not have a relationship with God, consistent relationship unless you've been born again. You will
yeah, like, because you're born again, you can see God in every aspect of every part of your life. You could see him and see him moving and follow him and walk with him because you've been forgiven for as far as the the your past sin as far as the "East is from the West", your present and your future. And so if God doesn't count it against you, then stop counting it against yourself. What God sees and what God says is truth, not how you feel. And what his word just said
is you are forgiven and you are clean, man. You are clean, purified and holy in his sight because of Jesus. So he wants to speak to you right now. I want you all to close your eyes. Imagine a heavenly father, not your earthly father.
You might have had an amazing 1 or you might have had a terrible 1. He's not a reflection of your father. He's the heavenly perfect father. And imagine the best father you could possibly imagine standing before you. And I want you to ask him this question.
Ask him this. How do you see me? Out loud, how do you see me? Might have had an image pop in your mind. You might have just had a knowing, a sense, a feeling.
You might have had a thought. But usually the second or third thought after that is, did God really say that? Don't listen to that. What was the first 1? It'll line up with scripture.
Who heard something? What did he say? Are you will are you willing to say, man? What did what did you hear? You are my child.
What about you? What did he say? I love you, and I'm proud of you. You ever thought God said that to you before? No.
It's because she's his daughter. I love you, and I'm proud of you. He loves you as his kid, and he's proud to be your daddy, your heavenly father. And he wants you to know that always in every situation, in every circumstance. Because when you understand that and you're confident in that, everything that goes on here can't shake you because he's good and he's with you.
Like little Izzy.
Dada. Stuff's going on. Dada. And then you see him and you're like, full of joy. And now I can walk through whatever's going on around me without complaining and without being depressed or or whatever.
I can tell that junk to go away because I got my daddad with me. But you know what else? When a kid gets excited about something. When a kid's really excited about something, every person they meet they say, "look what I got". My my 10 year old got
some popcorn socks and he loves popcorn. There's odd socks. It says popcorn all over it.
Boy, first day, he put them on warm like high, got his got his shorts and he's got popcorn all over his and he's running around. Look. Like Izzy with a banana. Banana.
You got God living in you. Let's be kids. Let's run around and say, look what I got.
My heavenly father loves me, but here's here's the truth. He loves you just as much. Let's go back to being like a kid and stop thinking, oh, I gotta prove myself and show show that I'm cool or show that I'm I'm an adult now. I'm gonna get joyful and happy and all that stuff.
I'm sure it's grace. No, man. Let's be like kids, man, and just show the joy of the Lord and and reflect his goodness everywhere we go. Because when we do, the world and the culture of our homes, the culture of our
jobs, the culture around us will shift because they'll be dumbfounded by what's going on. And some people will be like,
"get away from me" like that woman on the plane.
So what?
It's who we are. And
if you've been born again, whether you believed it before this moment or not, it's who you are. Watch this. And I'll be done, and I'll give it to my wife. She'll close this out with some announcements and stuff. Do you know fear is not in you If you're a believer, it wants to be.
See, fear is a spirit. The Bible says God has not given you the **spirit of fear**. You can let it come in you. But, yeah, I would tell you that every time you start to feel fear, start to sense it, tell it to get away, and put your mind back on what he says about you. See, God has not given you the spirit of fear, but of love.
**God is love**,
of power, God's power, and of a **sound mind**
or self discipline, depending on the translation you read. Which means whenever you feel and you say, well, I'm just a other versions say, God has not given you the spirit of timidity. So I'm just a timid person. Yeah. But that's who you were.
Now you're in Christ. And the Holy Spirit is this there's a bold he gives you the spirit of boldness and of love, of power, and a sound mind. So we are new creations and we begin to shift what we always thought about ourselves to what
he says about us. And the more we stand
in it, the more we step out and the more we reflect his goodness.
So all of that thinking,
what my my wife was saying in the beginning, renewing our mind to the reality of who he says that we are so our *life* shows it. You saw such a powerful message today. We need to be like kids.
I am **dependent on hearing** you. I'm dependent on following you. And whatever you say, daddy, I'm doing it. When I see you move, I wanna follow you with my hands on your hand. When I hear you speak, I wanna repeat what my daddy's saying.
My mind is focused on you. And And to the extent it's not, daddy, discipline me. To the extent it's not, I receive a spanking so I can stand up and keep walking like you because I know you love me. And now I'm walking with you, and I wanna have the mindset of a little 3 or 4 year old for the rest of my life just joyful about my daddy and following him because I know you've forgiven me. I know you love me, and I'm a walk with you, and I'm a follow you for the rest of my life and invite all my friends
to do the same, daddy. And when I'm childish, spank me because that selfishness ain't good, And I'll respect you for it. Because that's what his word says. Amen? Praise the Lord.
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, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, 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".