You are invited to step out in faith and experience the same transformation seen in these testimonies. Whether it is finding salvation, receiving healing, or obeying through baptism, Jesus is ready to meet you right where you are. Don't settle for a religion that points to Jesus, but encounter the God who saves.
Well, good morning, and thank you for coming and choosing to spend your your Sunday, your Easter Sunday here with us. My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. No place I'd rather be. Nothing I'd rather be doing.
And, man, we I get to pastor an amazing church full of of people who are all out for Jesus. They love him. They serve well. We couldn't do what we do without them. Every life that's transformed, they're a major part of it.
So would you guys give just just the dream team, our church a hand? Thank you. And so, I I want you to know if this is your first time here, we pray that you encounter the love of Jesus in a very real way. Because we know that when you encounter his love and everything changes, everything shifts. And so on that note, I want to share a video with you.
This is 1 of my best friends in the whole world. He's 1 of the elders at this church. He's a leader in this church. And what I'm sharing with you happened this past week, and I'm sharing it for a reason. You'll see.
So if you well, go ahead and play the video.
I was walking by this 5 minute oil change, and I was had the direction to come behind here, and I saw God. But all of a sudden, I walked up and saw Amos. And so I shared the gospel to him. He told me he was Muslim. And so I I told him the truth of what it felt like.
And I said, can I pray for you and let the Holy Spirit show you how much he loves you? And I was all I was praying for him. The Holy Spirit touched Ahmed in a way that only he could do and made Ahmed know the truth of the love that Jesus had for him. And so I'm gonna let him tell you a brief description of what he felt. *Lord* has touched my heart.
He came to me and told me, he'll pray for me and then I'll bring you back to Jesus Christ. He he grabbed my hand, put my hands on my shoulder, he prayed, and I felt the spirit all over my heart. Amen. Thanks to Jerry. Amen.
Today, Amen is born again. He moved from "death to life", the truth, the way, and the life. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
It doesn't matter your religious background, what you look like, smell like, what you've done, what you haven't done. Jesus loves you where you are. And the only way to have a relationship with Him, the only way to encounter the heavenly Father in a way where you can know His voice and walk with Him is through Jesus. That's it. I mean, just a thought.
Every other religion in the world points to, hey, Jesus is a good teacher, a good prophet. Problem is, Jesus said He's *God* and the only way to know the Father. So either every other religions in the world is wrong because Jesus is actually a lunatic and not a good teacher or a good prophet, or every other religion in the world's wrong because Jesus is who he says he is, and he's much more than a good teacher or a good prophet. He's God in the flesh, and the only way that you can have a relationship with him is to know him and to follow him. Amen?
Amen. I wanna I wanna share just a a couple of brief testimonies, before I get into the message. Number 1, miss Bianca, would you stand up? This is miss Bianca. She encourages me.
I talked to her. She was 1 of the first ones here this morning. And I asked her, said, when did you give your life to Jesus? And she said, I think it was 05/01/2022. 05/01/2002.
'20 So a year, almost 2 years old in Christ. And I said, I said, miss Bianca. And she said, you know what? I couldn't sleep last night. I woke up at 03:30AM, and I couldn't go back to sleep.
You know why? Because she was so excited about Easter Sunday. So excited about the resurrection life of Jesus Christ and what that's gonna mean for people who walk through our doors. And that's the testimony of someone who's been captured by the life of Christ, and it's changed everyone. So I just wanna celebrate what Jesus has done in you.
You can have a seat, miss Bianca. Another another testimony, last night, I I had the desire to go get some shoes. I just wanted to go buy some shoes. Well, I was like, baby, I think I'm gonna go get some shoes. It was 08:30 or 07:40 no.
07:45, I think, was the time. And so I went to Largo Mall, 1 of the shoe stores there I hadn't closed, and I was looking for a white pair of sneakers. These aren't them. These are my old ones. I washed them.
They're white. And I I was looking for some some white sneakers, because I like white sneakers now. And and I didn't find anything I like. And I realized I probably went there because the Lord was leading me to go get some shoes, but not really to go get some shoes, but because of somebody in the store that needed to know him. And so as I was walking out, I went to the Rosalinda, who was at the front desk.
And I said, Rosalinda, she said, did you find anything? I said, no, I didn't. I said, but I want you to know that Jesus loves you a lot. Would would you mind if I took a moment before I left just to share the gospel with you? She said, sure.
And I I let her know it was 90 seconds, so it wasn't gonna take her whole night. And I'm gonna share the gospel with you too. It's gonna take a little longer than 90 seconds because I have a Sunday morning. But so I shared the gospel with her, and I asked her if she she'd ever done that. She said, like, have her given her life to Jesus?
She told me she had prayed a little bit, you know, but didn't really feel a consistent connection with Him. And I said, there's a reason for that. Because Jesus said no 1 can see the kingdom of God, meaning experience the kingdom of God now and eternity in relationship unless you've been born again. And I explained to her what it means to be born again, and she I said, are you ready to say I'm gonna follow you Jesus instead of myself? She said, yes.
She was ready. She was sincere in her I I said, okay. Well, I'm gonna hold your hands. I'm gonna pray with you. And I only want you to repeat after me if if you believe everything that you that I'm saying.
Because this is real. This is a big deal. And you're gonna sense the presence of God coming to live inside of you. You're gonna sense the weight of guilt and shame falling off of your shoulders. You're gonna be forgiven.
*God* loves you, and you're you're you're gonna be His daughter. He's gonna lead you like a father leads a daughter. I said, you ready for that? She said, yes. So I grabbed your hands across to the counter, and she prayed with me, and and gave her life to Jesus.
And then after, I said I said, so as we prayed, what happened? Did you sense anything? And and she was just kinda like, I don't know. My my mind was was blank. And then her while we were praying, her coworker walked up.
And so I said, do you know Jesus loves you too? And she goes, yeah. She's I said, have you ever given your life to Jesus? She said, I did about a year and a half ago at a camp. And so we start talking.
And as we start talking, Rosalinda starts crying. It took a little bit for her senses to catch up to what had just happened. The love of God touched her and impacted her. So I shared 2 testimonies, the 1 Jerry shared, and then the 1 that I just shared. As I was sharing the gospel, God had impacted her and drew her into relationship, and then she sensed the presence of the living God.
The 1 Jerry shared, the guy was closed off to the gospel. I'm Muslim. And I've heard the longer testimony. He put his hand on his shoulder, and he said, I'm gonna pray for you if you'll let me. And as I pray, *God's gonna speak to your heart, and you're gonna sense the love of God, the love of the Father that he has for you, that Jesus* is real and he really loves you.
And he he he said, okay. And he prayed, and the man goes, Ahmed goes, he goes, did you did you sense that? He goes, yes. Jerry says, can I share the gospel with you now? He goes, yes, please.
And Jerry shared the gospel and he gave his life to Jesus. So the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation says that. Meaning the story of what Jesus has done in the past is shows you His will, what He wants to do in your life now and in the future. So I'm gonna pray for you, And you're going to encounter the Holy Spirit.
You're you're gonna know in your heart because He's gonna speak to you that God loves you and God cares for you. And then throughout the message, you're gonna be confronted with the "love of Jesus". Because every time you have an encounter with the love of Jesus, every single time, you're forced into the "valley of decision". Because you can't have a loving relationship without choosing to love back. So you're gonna be forced into the valley of decision where you have to choose whether or not you explain what happened in your heart, and what happened in your life, what happened today, as just some stuff and go about your life, or you choose to follow him.
So, Lord, I thank you for your goodness, and I thank you for who you are. I thank you that you are the risen Lord. Lord, and I I rebuke every distraction, every lie that people brought in that's been hindering them from knowing you, every thought, every person that's deep down angry at you because they're blaming you for things that you didn't do, but that the power of sin did that's in the world. Lord God, I pray your peace just overcome people right now. I pray that they sense by the power of the Holy Spirit, your love in a real way.
Holy Spirit, come speak to their heart. Let them know you love them, and prepare them, Lord God, to hear your *truth* so they can make an honest decision either rejecting you or following you all the more. In Jesus' name. And everybody said? Amen.
You know what amen means? Amen. Amen means let it be, or so be it. So if you said amen or somebody else did, they agreed. I know.
I already know. I'm gonna share the gospel with you today because it's Easter. It's resurrection Sunday. I'm a share who, what, when, where, and why. Because you probably need to know the answers to those questions if you're gonna make a decision to give your life to something.
You probably need to know who, what, when, where, and why. People all throughout history have given their life to follow Jesus. Even those beforehand in the Old Testament, those that were saved, they lived by faith. Faith comes by hearing the word, believing the word, and then obeying it. Abraham and and and the saints of of old, they heard the word of the Lord and put faith.
They were putting faith in Jesus because Jesus is the word. We just happen to look back and put faith in Jesus. They looked forward. Does that make sense? Okay.
So throughout history, people have given their lives for Jesus. And even when they face death, renounce Christ or follow Him, they choose to follow Him because He's worth following. And they know why. I think there's a lot of people in the world that don't know why Jesus is worth following. And so they they pretend that, you know, they come to church on a Sunday once a week or a few times a year or whatever it is, and pretend like they're all good, like they enjoy it.
But they don't really give their lives to it. Let me explain what I mean. See, who is Easter about? It's not about an Easter bunny. It's not about chocolate and eggs and hiding things, although those things are can be good.
They're not a distraction from the resurrection. K? They can be good. My kids woke up and had gifts and stuff. It doesn't bother me.
They're just things. You know? Easter bunny doesn't bother me. It's just a thing. But the focus is not him.
The focus is Jesus. Who is Easter about? It's about Jesus. And it's also about you and how you respond to his *resurrection* and his life. See, there's a lot of people that respond to Jesus, like my wife and I respond to our favorite TV show.
Let me explain. My wife's 1 of her love languages is quality time, and she enjoys before she goes to sleep, winding down to watch a little TV or to watch some videos on her phone. So, 3 or 4 nights a week, we spend about an hour, watching whatever TV show that we have got caught into at the time. So we just finished a series called La I don't know if you've seen La Brea or not. It's a sci fi TV show.
My wife likes sci fi stuff, and so I have learned to like it with her because I love her, and she's amazing. And I'm pointing here like she's here, but she's carrying the baby somewhere. She's out there. Anyway, she was the beautiful 1 on the piano. Anyway, so so we've watched La Brea and and, you know, it's we look we look for something that's that's been clean that we can watch and not have to turn off.
And so we only had to fast forward a little bit over the the seasons, which was great. And La Brea is about these sinkholes that swallow people and things and but they're really time warps that take people back to 10,000 BC. And so, you know, the whole storyline is people whose families were separated by these sinkholes and these other scientists who are keeping this thing going, but but because of that, they're separating families and causing a bunch of pain and suffering, so they're trying to get their families back together in the appropriate time while shutting off the ability to do these, you know, time travel stuff. Sounds interesting. Yeah?
No? My wife likes sci fi. Okay? I either way, I was sucked into it too and believed that it was good enough to devote 2 to 3 hours of my week, 3 to 4 hours of my week to spending time with my wife. I as I watched it, I enjoyed it.
It impacted my life, but it impacted my my life minimally. I believed in La Brea enough to do that. So a lot of people who treat Jesus like we treated La Brea. They believe in Jesus enough to maybe crack their bible a few times and look at it, go to church once a week or a few times, whatever, you know, a couple hours a week. They spend time doing it, smile and enjoy because it brings them some comfort as they do it.
Pray maybe when it gets tough in life. But so they believe in Jesus enough to enjoy aspects of Him. That's not the type of believe in Jesus that changes somebody's life. The type of belief in Jesus is this type of belief. See, I believed in La Brea enough to do that, but I didn't believe in La Brea enough to live as if he was La Brea was real.
As if when I leave church today, there might be another sinkhole that swallows Clearwater, and I might get sucked into it. And there's all of these people from multiple different times that are stuck in 10,000 BC. And so, man, I I need to reorganize my whole life in order to help and join the fight of making sure that that these scientists are stopped and and everything hinges on this for the rest of my life. So that would be crazy if I really lived as if it were real. But that's really believing in Jesus.
It's not just devoting a couple hours because it's beneficial for you, and then going about your life and incorporating Him into your life. That's believing in like you believe in Christmas or a fairy or or sorry, Santa or or mermaid. A mermaid. That's that's like believing in something where it impacts aspects of your life, but you don't really devote your life to it, every aspect of it. Yeah.
Sorry, not sorry, parents. Anyway, but when when you believe Jesus is who he says he is so much, like he actually is the risen savior and the risen lord, then you devote every aspect of who you are. You reorient your life to say, "yes, Lord", and you walk with Him and talk with Him. And if He says something that you don't feel and you don't want, you say yes to Him and no to you because He's actually the Lord of your life. Your job, you do with Him and for Him.
And if He says, that's not what's best for you, you do away with it, and you do what He says because He created you on purpose and for many purposes. And the only way that you're gonna experience that is following Him. It's more than just believing in Him like you believe in a TV show. It's devoting your life to Him. Who?
We answered the who. It's Jesus, and it's how you respond to Him. The what? Jesus was born of a virgin. He lived the perfect sinless life.
He performed miracles that were real. He healed. He really healed the sick. He really healed blind eyes. He really healed the deaf.
He really cast out real demons. He really raised the dead. And then he really chose to obey his father even to the point of death, living life, dying for us, for God so loved you that he sent his 1 and only son. So he died in our place. He really died.
He chose. He didn't have to. He could have used his godhood at any time, but he chose to live life as a man and died on a cross, chose to get up there, allow them to beat him, to crucify him, and gave up the ghosts and died. And then he really, 3 days later, Friday, Saturday, Sunday on the third day, **really rose again**. This is reality.
It's not just some TV show or story. So who and what? When did it happen? Approximately 2000 years ago. Where did it happen?
It happened in Jerusalem, modern day Israel. But where does it matter all around the world today? As a matter of fact, we are setting a world record right now. Right now, Easter Sunday, there's more people celebrating the resurrection of Jesus than ever in the history of the world. Ever.
See, His church is going from glory to glory. You might have seen this church or that church die, but it's because probably many in the church or most in the church were living like it was a TV show instead of devoting their life to it, so there was no life in "dead religion". But see, when you devote your life to Him and you follow Him, you experience His resurrection life in you, and you can't help but reflect it to those around you. And that's happening all over the world. There's more people than ever following Jesus in Africa, in Asia, in South America, in Central America, and there's people in America and Europe that are waking up to the fact that this isn't some dead religion, but it's life.
Many. Many. Who, what, when, where. But I guess the most important would be the why. Why is most important?
I got a story for you. It's true story. I I was at 1 time pretty good at baseball. I grew up in the country in North Louisiana, Northeast Louisiana, and I played sports because we didn't have much else to do. And so I played a lot of soccer because my dad played college soccer, and I played a lot of baseball because everybody there played baseball.
And so as a 12 year old, I was on the All Stars team, and and, you know, our group of guys, the All Star team, were a lot of the same guys all throughout. We were really good. You know, a lot of years that the team won state and even went to the World Series a couple times. Usually, actually, we got second place in state because we always lost to this 1 other team. Anyway, the 1 of the most famous hitting coaches of college baseball, Beetle Bailey, he was the hitting coach for LSU when they won the World Series.
And they were hitting all these bombs, all these home runs, and he came when we were 12 years old and taught us how to hit. And I remember him making us put our feet a little greater than shoulder width, turn toes in just a tiny hair, pushing your knees in, tense down here, you're sitting down or you're squatting down just a little bit. You put your hands on the fence, and then you had to pick a spot on the fence, and and then take a step, not too big of a step, just enough to shift your momentum, and then turn your back knee and your toe to point at that step. But you had to keep your shoulders square with the fence. And he made us pick another spot, maybe a little further to to show an inside ball.
Turn. Pick another spot, maybe a little further back. Show an outside ball. Turn. And you had to do this over and over, and we did it hundreds of times.
I remember standing in lines in the lines in the middle of the field imagining a fence in front of me, And we're all doing this over and over, picking the spot, dedicated, focused. And I'm thinking, this is so boring. Why am I doing this? Well, first, because he made because he told us to, and he was the coach, and our coach brought him in. So we're just doing it because he said.
But he wanted us to go home and do it 30 minutes a night. Why would I do this at home 30 minutes a night when I could go play video games, when I could do other stuff? Like, how is this gonna matter for me? There's a lot of people that don't understand the why, and so they don't put any time into following Jesus, and they don't get any fruit in their life. And they wonder why?
Why? Why? It's because you don't understand the why. So then, coach Beetle Bailey, before we left, he told us why. He said, you know, the reason we hit so many line drives and home runs and won the World Series is because the way we hit.
And the reason our guys hit so much like this is because they did this drill over and over and over. So what happened is it taught their body to do what's unnatural and act like a rubber band, so their lower half went first, and then their upper half was jerked around by the lower half, which created power and force and caused the ball to go way further than it would have. So if you do this and you get good at it, it doesn't matter how much of a "skinny stick figure" you are, you're gonna have more power than the biggest guy on your team that doesn't know how to do it. Well, I got the why. So I went home and I started doing 30 minutes every day, doing all of the drills that he was showing so that I knew how to hit well.
Well, it worked. When I was 14, as a freshman, I made the varsity team, 1 of 2 people to make the varsity team. As a sophomore, I hit 450 batting average, and I was the number 1 hitter on the team.
And I, as a 6 foot, 1 2, 155 pound soaking wet skinny stick figure, I hit home runs and line drives and and was the
best hitter on the team. Why? Because I understood the why of what he was teaching me and devoted enough of my life to it to get the results. Now, there's a lot of people that don't understand the why of the gospel. They've heard what?
They've heard people talk about it. They've seen people
say life changed. They're like, I've been there, tried that, but they don't really why, and so they don't devote their life. Man, if Jesus really died and rose again, and he's really your creator, and he's really good, then he created you. And in order to experience all of the good he has for you, it's it's worth saying, yes, Lord, in every aspect of my life. And he didn't just create you for you.
He created you to be loved. He created you to experience his love and to show his love to the world, to to live for him and not for yourself. But you're not gonna do that if you don't understand the why. You're gonna think this world's still all about you, and it's not. You weren't created for you.
The biggest problem in the world today is we wake up for ourselves. We wake up to have a better day. *God didn't create you for a better day. He created* you to know him. And when you know and live for him, man, his love and his life begins to flow through you and you begin to have better days than you ever thought possible because you're you're living the way you were created to.
You're living
for him and not for yourself. So why? Oops. Why did Jesus die and rise again? Let's get there.
Why is the the resurrection important for your life? I'm gonna breeze through a few *scriptures* and explain them. They're they're important. I'm a explain them with an analogy at the end. Let's go to Romans-5:19.
It says, for as by the 1 man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. Stop. Question. Are you a sinner because you sin? Think about it.
Are you a sinner because you sinned? Not according to Scripture. It says, for as by 1 man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. You're a sinner because you were born a sinner because 1 man sinned. Then it says, so by the 1 man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.
Are you righteous because you do good things? No. Doesn't matter what you've done or do. That doesn't credit you righteousness at all in God's sight, and it's not going to. It's because of 1 man's righteousness, whether or not you believed it and received it, whether or not you've chosen to live like you believe it.
*Romans-5:18 says, therefore, as 1 trespass led to condemnation* for all men. What's a trespass? Trespass is if there's a line right here that's set up and I'm told not to go over this line, I trespass over the line. It's crossing the line. Sin.
*God* set up laws to show us that we have a nature that's bent to break God's law and to trespass over the line. So are you a sinner because of your trespass? No. You're a sinner because of 1 man's trespass. Therefore, as 1 trespass led to condemnation for all men, so 1 act of righteousness leads to *justification* in life for all men.
So do you get justified because of what you do? No. You get justified. Justified means just as if you'd never sinned, just as if you'd never screwed up, just as if you'd never lived the lifestyle that you lived and are ashamed of, just as if you've never made those mistakes. Justified.
Why? Because of what 1 man did, 1 man's act of obedience. The many are leads to justification and life. Life. His life.
*Condemnation* results in death because of 1 man. *Obedience* results in your *justification* and life. Potentially. *1 Corinthians-15*. Just stay with me.
We're gonna go through this. 1 Corinthians-15 verse I think it's 20. Yep. 21. For as by a man came death.
Why did death come in the world? Because of 1 man. So as by a man has come the resurrection of the dead, who that come through Jesus Christ. For as in Adam, all die, the first man, so in Christ all shall be made alive. Now, *1 Corinthians-15:45-49*.
I'm a read this, and then I'm gonna do an analogy to explain it. It says this. Listen. Thus, it is written, the first Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit.
By the way, Jesus is called the last Adam. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven, Jesus. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of dust.
This is important because this is the the crux of the analogy. Okay? This is this is it. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of dust. This is where the why for why Jesus rose again is there.
So I want you to hear this. Okay? As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, that's Jesus, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of man, of the man of dust, we shall little superscript in my Bible says, man some manuscripts say, let us, so we shall or let us also bear the image of the man of heaven.
That's beautiful. And when I first read it, I didn't understand it. I've been reading this for many, many years, and God, praise the Lord, through mentors of mine, through the Holy Spirit, has shown me what it means in my life. And as you grow in your understanding of the Holy Spirit, you can read Scripture and those verses that always didn't make sense. He will reveal them to you because when you are born again and you have the the Holy Spirit in you, man, that same Holy Spirit, He's the teacher.
"He's the comforter". He wants to guide you into all truth. That's what Scripture says. Amen? Amen.
Alright. So I need 10 good volunteers. Alright. You you you 2 can come. Come on, Selah.
Yeah. Please come. First the first 10. Come on. Doing great.
Come on. 123456789. Got a timid crowd. There we go. There's our tenth guy.
Give him a hand. We saved the best for last. Absolutely. Okay. So, Trip came up and said, let me be Adam.
Alright, son. You can lay down on the ground. Don't worry, I'm not gonna make all of you lay down. Just him. In the beginning, *God created* the heavens and the earth.
He created all the animals. He created light, darkness. He created everything by His word. Remember in John-1:1, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That word is Jesus. Everything that was created was created through Him, by Him, and for Him. And when God created mankind, it was a
little more
intimate. He created him by his hands. He formed him, and then he leaned down and he breathed his life into him. So the first thing Adam saw when he opened his eyes was what? The face of God.
Pretty cool. So Adam became a a man with the the breath of life straight from God inside of him. Okay? Now, God gave Adam, Eve. This tough for his sister.
*God* gave Adam, Eve, and said be fruitful and multiply. They were created in the image of God. Okay? Alright. Alright.
So so they had Cain and Abel. Right? But before they did, God gave them a line not to cross. He said, do not eat of the "tree of knowledge" of good and evil. Why would God give them a line?
Because God is love. And in order to have a loving relationship with the 1 He created in His own image, you have to have the choice not to love. In order to love God because He's all knowing and He's all good, well, that loving God back, there's nothing we can do to surprise Him. Loving God back looks like obeying Him because He's all knowing and He's all good. He tells us something.
He doesn't have bad intentions for us. He has nothing but good plan for us and good intentions for us. So when we tell when he tells us something and we disobey, we're saying, I don't trust your good. I trust what I say is good. My truth over what you say.
It makes sense? So when God tells us to do something, he's not telling us just to be a dictator, although he could if he wanted to, but that's not who he is. He's love. He's telling us something that's what's best for us because He is love and He is good. To disobey is to say my truth.
Well, God told them, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He put a line not to trespass. Why? Because it's not what's best for mankind. Adam and Eve stepped over the line.
They trespassed. They they were saying, I'm choosing my knowledge of good and my knowledge of evil irregardless of what you say is good and evil. I'm gonna be like my own God, and we see it today. People only follow God if it's good for them, if they think it's good for them. Otherwise, I'm gonna do what I feel.
What I feel is good and what I think is good. So there is a nature that because of sin in mankind, it infected sin that sin is choosing not God, choosing yourself. Sin infected mankind, and so now by the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners. So by his disobedience, a nature to sin was there. And so when they reproduced and out came Cain, What multiplied through them?
*Sin*. By the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners. And you see sin full grown as it grew up, you see murder even in the first family. You think you have a problem family? You you don't.
Not as bad as Adam and Eve did. Their kid, their firstborn murdered their second born. Pretty crazy. And so they had another. They had Seth.
But there was still a sin nature in them because that by the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made *sinners*. Okay? So as Seth multiplied and multiplied, as man filled the whole earth, what else filled the whole earth? Because of the disobedience of 1 man. There was a nature to sin.
So it got to Noah. I'm gonna make you someone else. You're gonna be Noah. *God* was grieved that he had made man because of their choice to choose themselves, because of the nature to sin. So he judged the world, and the flood happened.
The thoughts of man heart was on evil all the time before the flood, and the thoughts were on evil all the time after the flood, which means the judgment of God didn't change man's heart. Judgment of God doesn't change man's heart. It's the kindness of God that leads a man to repentance. It's His grace and His mercy. He flooded the earth in order to judge sin, but also to teach mankind a lesson that it's not judgment that changes somebody.
It's His grace. It's pretty awesome. Alright. So then Noah had kids and filled the whole earth as well. And when the whole earth was filled from Noah, as man multiplied, what else multiplied?
*Sin*. Sin multiplied. So the whole earth was filled with sin. So now, you got Africa and you got oh, wait. You're Eve.
And you got Asia, full of sinners. I'm America. Okay. You're America. Guess what America's full of?
Football. Sinners.
You know why? Because of the disobedience of
the 1 man. The many were made sinners. Yeah. This guy too. Then you got this guy.
He's South America. Same thing. The whole earth is full. There's an issue. There's a problem.
And it's by the disobedience of the 1 man, sin, condemnation, and death filled the whole earth. For God so loved the world that He sent His 1 and only Son. I like the hair, so He's gonna be Jesus. So Jesus was not born of Adam, so He's not in this line. The word of God, the seed of the word was planted inside of Mary, born of a virgin.
So *Jesus* is doesn't have a sin nature. He has the nature of His heavenly Father. Jesus grows up and doesn't sin at all because He doesn't have the nature to sin. And He chooses instead of being swayed by temptation, he was tempted in every way, just like everybody else was. Instead, he followed the nature of his father.
He was obedient to his father even unto death. Well, see, the payment for sin is condemnation and death. So Jesus, instead of just living holy for and unto Himself, He is love incarnate because He was God. So He died not for Himself, but He chose to die on a cross for all of them, for all of you. He died as the substitute in your place, so the payment of the nations of the world's sin fell onto him, and he became sin for us on the cross.
And then he took that sin in himself, was buried,
and because he had never sinned,
**death could not** hold him. So the Holy Spirit rose him from the grave. 3 days later, he was resurrected and alive. And then the disciples who were in this line saw the risen Lord in the room in John-20, and they fell to his knees, and they worshiped him. "My Lord and my God".
My Lord and my God.
Amen. Well Amen. This is not a speaking part, so you guys gotta stand up.
My Lord and my God.
He's a good actor, but not a speaking part. Well, what does the Bible say? When you believe he died and rose again and you confess him as Lord, you're born again. Right? So they began to believe in him as like, this is the only thing that matters in my life.
And they dedicated their life to follow Him. They they went from denying Him and running from Him in fear to filled with boldness by the power of
the Holy Spirit and boldly proclaiming Him in the face of death. And so they go and they begin to proclaim to the nations, hey, Jesus loves you, and he cares for you. And when this 1 believes the message of the *gospel* and understands that this 1 died and rose again, now he has the right, John-1:12 and 13, to become a child of God. He dies to himself in this 1 because this 1 died as his sin, and then he is born again, born of the Holy Spirit. His sins are washed away, and he's born not of natural descent or a husband's decision, but born of God.
So now, he's in this line of people. He's transformed from death into life, and he and he can have the life of God, the resurrection life of God that transforms him into a new creation. Now, begins to live like this is the only thing that matters. His life empowers him to be impactful impactful in his job, in his family, and people see the way that he lives and like, man, what's going on? And he shares the same gospel with this 1.
And this 1 says,
no, I reject. Well, he it's love,
so there's no forcing. So if he rejects him, he stays in this line and gets the punishment for sin that he paid for, but he's rejecting his punishment. So he gets death and hell and separation from God and condemnation. But this 1 said, yes. Yes.
I choose, and this 1 is moved from death to life because worships this 1 as Lord and God. This is Christianity. Do you understand? It's not it's not just that you incorporate Jesus into your life. It's that you give him your life, and he transforms your life from death to life.
He gives you a new nature, the nature of your heavenly father so that you can live over and above the way that you used to as empowered by the very life of God.
Give these guys a hand. You guys can go sit down. You're a good actor, brother. You may have a future. The why, *God* doesn't want to condemn you.
*John-3:17* says you're already condemned if you don't believe in Jesus because you've been rejecting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. God sent Jesus to save you from condemnation. You're not a sinner because you sinned. You're a sinner because you're born that way because Adam sinned. And there's nothing that you can do in and of yourself in order to earn being changed from death to life.
Those that think they can earn it are spitting in the face of God saying that Jesus wasn't good enough. I can do it on my own. You don't clean up to take a shower. You just get in the shower and let Jesus wash it off. So my challenge to you, my my ask is do you understand the why?
And is he, the resurrection and the life worth you giving your life to? Is he worth you saying, I'm all in. I believe you died for me and I believe you rose again, and I'm ready to be transformed from death to life. I'm ready to give you my life. I may screw up, but if I screw up, I know you're a good heavenly father.
So you're not gonna kick me while I'm down, you're gonna pick me up. I'm gonna fall forward into you and keep walking. See, that's how your heavenly father looks at you and loves you and wants you to believe him enough to follow him so you can experience his life. Amen? Amen.
I wanna ask you all to stand. And I wanna ask our, prayer team if you would come forward, prayer ministry team. Please come forward. Don't be intimidated by these guys. They love you so much.
We got more. Awesome. I have them up here for a reason because many times giving your life to Jesus or walking in repentance in an area so you can experience the life of Christ, man, takes a brother or sister that's been walking a little longer than you in this thing to help walk you through. And also, you have to understand that Christianity, no matter what culture says, is not a private religion. That's a lie from the pit of hell.
*Jesus* says, if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father in heaven. Cause denying Him before men, being scared of it, and and intimidated and not talking about it shows that you don't really know Him. Or it was more about you than it was about Him. That's that's why you a lot of people just say, oh, no. It's all it's all personal.
But we don't live this life for us anymore. It's I'm coming out boldly saying I was I was I was a sinner and I need a Savior. Oh, *Lord*, I thank you for your love. I thank you for your goodness. And Holy Spirit, I I want you I ask you to just remind everybody how much you love him.
Like, if I as as I'm talking, you know that you have never given your life to Jesus. You might have watched like the La Brea thing you've you've watched on TV, but you've never said, you know what? I'm gonna live every aspect of my life, follow you because you're real. I'm gonna devote my life to you as the Lord. Believe you died for me, you rose again, and and I understand the why, so I'm ready to follow you.
If you've never been born again and you're ready to do that, you're ready to give it, go all in for Jesus. I want you to raise your hand right now, Boldly. Who's my bold 1? I see you, son. Who else?
Raise it up high. I see you. Who else? I see you in the back. Praise the Lord.
Come on. There's more. I see your hand. That's 4, 5, 6. There's more than that.
Here's what I want you to do. Can we play some music? Those of you that raised your hand, I want you to take the boldest step of faith that you've ever took in your life. I want you to unashamedly come forward and talk to 1 of these so that they can lead you to Jesus, so they can help you to move from death to life? Who's the first one's always the boldest.
Who's gonna be the first? Who's gonna say, I I don't care. I'm coming? Here they come. Come on.
Come on. Come on. Praise the Lord. Let's give them a hand. Come
on. Come on. There's more. If you really meant it, I
want you to come forth.
There's there's people in in there, your heart is yearning
because you know God is calling you. Take a step. Take this step and come forward and talk to them about Jesus. There's others in here that as I talked today, you know you gave your life to Jesus, but you haven't been living for Him. It was real 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 5 years ago, but you know that right now today, you haven't been living for Him.
I want you to know God's not mad at you. He's not angry with you, but he does want you to repent. Repentance means "turning from yourself" and following him. He wants you to confess, God, you're right. I've been I've been living for me, and that's not who you recreate born again recreated me to be.
I'm turning to you. If that's you, if
you know you're it's time for you
to repent in areas of your life and and to live like he's the resurrected resurrection in life in those areas, would you raise your hand? You know, you've been you've been far from God in areas of your life, but you know it's time. Come on. There's more than that. Raise your hand.
Who is it? Who else? Raise it high. Alright. I want you, even if you didn't raise your hand, but you know that's you, I want you to come forward and let let them minister to you.
Come on forward. Robbie, would you come forward too and and help us minister? Praise the Lord. Saints in the room, you guys just be praying. God's doing work right now, and it's a big deal.
There are there are times, you guys keep keep ministering, there are times see, that resurrection in life doesn't just restore you into salvation. The word saved means saved, healed, and delivered. It delivers you from addictions and also Jesus, the "resurrection life" gives life to your mortal body, means he heals your body. How many of you how many of you would say, I I have addictions in my life or things in my life that I can't stop doing, but I know it's time for me to give those up. And I'm ready today.
I don't care. I I'm I'm ready today to to give those up. I'm done. Who would say that? They need to they need the life of Jesus to deliver them in certain areas.
From habits. Come on. I see you. Praise the Lord. Who else?
I'm gonna ask the same thing. Come forward, be ministered to, and and talk to them about it. Come on forward. Be ministered to. We got we got areas that are open.
Come on. So the other thing would be healing. I'm a start with this. A "word of knowledge" is when the Holy *Spirit* calls 1 of Jesus' disciples here and says, hey, I see them in their pain, and I wanna heal them. Jesus wants to confront that sickness.
That's all it is. So there was somebody here who had a word of knowledge about pain in the lower right back, maybe sciatica in the right side of the hip. In the right side. Is there anybody in here that would say, that's me. I have sciatica.
Lower right. Lower right. Is there is there anybody else with sciatica? Could you come forward? Jesus wants to heal you.
Anybody else with sciatica? Come forward. *Jesus is our healer*. For you guys, if it's okay, I'm gonna pray, and I'm just gonna pray for from here. Okay?
Because I I got other stuff I'm gonna do. A lot of times when we pray for people, it's not because I'm super special. You can keep the music going, please. It's not because I'm super special. It's because I have the Holy Spirit, and there's many people that do.
Right? So it's Him touching. But as we pray, we sense sometimes people, about 50% of the time, they sense heat. They sense coolness. They sense tingling, and that's just the Holy Spirit showing you that He's touching you.
About 50% of the time, they don't sense anything, but in both times, they're healed. Sometimes it gets a little bit better. Sometimes it gets a lot better. We keep praying and believe that Jesus heals them. Amen?
And so, I'm gonna pray for you, and I just want you to put your your hand on the spot where it is right now. *Jesus is the healer, the gospel* heals. Okay? And if you have pain in your body right now, and it's not the sciatica, man, you don't have to have a word of knowledge to be healed. So I want you to put you believe Jesus is your healer, I want you to put your hand in whatever spot you have pain, or whatever spot's going on, and just receive it by faith.
So heavenly Father, I thank you that you're the Lord of our life. Jesus, you are our healer. So in the name of Jesus, right now, rebuke that sciatica, the pain in the lower right hip. In the name of Jesus, by the authority of Christ, I say, "go now and be healed". Lord, we thank you for your goodness, and we thank you for your love.
In *Jesus*' name. Amen. Robbie, if you don't mind, would you talk to her real quick and just kinda see what God's doing? Is there is there anybody in the room that that as we prayed for the sciatica, is there anybody in the room that that you sensed God moving in your pain when you when you when you laid your hand on him? Anybody that would that was you?
Okay. Test it out.
Is
is if if the pain was at a 10, where's it at now? It's gone? It it it's at a 4 or a 2. Okay. There's still pain there.
So put your hand on it. What was wrong with it? Okay. Alright. So just put your hand on it.
*Lord, I thank you for your goodness. I thank you for your healing. I pray it's completely healed. In Jesus*' name, all pain lead. Now I I wanna wanna do that again for anybody that has pain in their body.
If you have pain in your body, want you to raise your hand because I wanna pray for you. Raise it high so I can see. Okay. Now, this is not a magic trick. Look, this is just what Jesus did, and he commanded his disciples to do the same, and we're just disciples of Jesus.
I want you to put your hand on where the pain is, and I'm not doing it because of my name or anything like that. I'm not super special other than I'm a son of Jesus because of the authority of Jesus. We're not a fake it till you make it church either, so I don't want you to fake it or anything like that. If nothing happened, praise the Lord. We're gonna believe that it's healed over the next 3 days or 7 days or healed in eternity.
We're just doing what Jesus said to do. So put your hand on it. *Lord, I thank you that you are our healer*. In the name of Jesus, I rebuke pain by the resurrection power of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, bodies be healed.
In the name of Jesus, all pain go away. Shoulders, pain be gone in Jesus' name. *Lord God, I thank you for who you are. Holy Spirit*, come. Lord, any any shoulder that's prone to be dislocated, I rebuke it, Lord God, and I I rebuke the whatever's wrong, and I pray that those tendons are strengthened in Jesus' name.
*Lord*, sciatica completely go in Jesus' name. Lord God, I thank you for your love, that the gospel is the power under salvation, Lord God, and that we're healed and delivered by that same power in Jesus' name. Amen. So once again, we're not a fake it till you make it church, but I just want you to be honest. I want you to test your body.
If it's at least 80% better go ahead. Test it. If if there's anybody in here that's at least 80% better or more, I want you to raise your hand. Like, raise it high so people
[Speaker 3] [01:00:38] can see. Come on. Come on. The sciatica? Oh my gosh.
**[Speaker 1]* [01:00:47]*
Now, look, we call it real church for a reason because we don't fake it. But at the same time, you're confronted with the reality of healing, and you're gonna have the opportunity to just explain it away or to believe that Jesus really impacts your life. I want you to process with the Lord. And if this is your hometown, you're invited to come back. "Real church should be your home".
If not, go find a church that's alive and believe that Jesus is full of full of life and really impacts every aspect of who you are. I'm done. Chevy, would you close us out? Yeah. Alright.
Come on. I'll tell you what. We got the we got the full gospel experience today. We have a young man who just gave his life to Jesus. We did baptism in the first service, but he wants to get baptized right now.
Amen. Baptism is a step of *obedience* to Jesus. When you really give your life to him, you really wanna obey him, and 1 of those things is following in a baptism. So we're gonna get Myles ready and anybody else that wants to be baptized because it's a baptism of repentance. Right?
You're you're saying, I'm turning my life to you, and it's also a baptism that declares that the old you is gone, and the new life is here. We're gonna baptize him. You're welcome to stay around. Those of you that need to be baptized and you're ready, let's we'll baptize you too. Other than that, he's gonna close us out too.