You are invited to examine the lens through which you view your life today and ask if it is rooted in God's mercy. Trust Him with your security and be willing to break the alabaster box of comfort to worship Him with your whole heart. Whether you come forward or stay seated, take action to respond to His call on your life right now.
What is up Real Church fam? How you guys doing? Good. Did you guys have a good week? I did.
It's been a great week. My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing.
And so, thank you so much for choosing to spend your Sunday morning here with us. And, I I do have to say, if this is your first time, no matter who you are, what you've done, where you come from, what you look like, smell like, doesn't matter to us, we love you where you we "love you just as you are". That was a little funny. Right? No.
But, it's true. We really do. And, we want you to experience the love of Jesus in a real way that impacts every aspect of your life, where you walk away never the same, and with a hunger to seek after him for yourself. Because I know when you do, you'll find him. And, when you do, inside will change.
And, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, which means the way you speak will change. And, when and when you when what you say changes, that means your home, the atmosphere of your family, the way you treat your wife, the way you treat your kids will change. The way you lead will change. Your job will begin to shift. And others will be again to be impacted by the very same encounter with God that you had through you.
Thank you for teaching us. Hey. Wow. Praise the Lord. Amen.
So, it's an honor. Thanks, Gio. That's my buddy right there. If you guys haven't met Gio, he's awesome. Would you guys give Geo a big old hand?
Alright. So, I want to, today, first make sure my phone's on airplane mode. You guys should do that too. I I first want to today I wanna invite you into a story. I wanna take you on a little bit of a journey with me as we start this new series.
I want you to picture this. It's about 2000 years ago, and we find ourselves in Jerusalem. And, we noticed that the city is beginning to swell quite a bit, to well over 2,000,000 people. And, it's that time of the year, that Passover feast where everybody from multiple different backgrounds are coming in in order to celebrate the fact that thousands and thousands of years ago, their ancestors were delivered from slavery in Egypt. And, you and I, we find ourselves in the home of a guy named Simon.
We call him Simon the leper. Probably because he was a Pharisee, he was a super religious man who had leprosy, but then was healed by Jesus. And now, Simon's throwing a party that you and I were invited to. And we're hanging out, and all the guys are sitting around the table, and they're excitedly talking with Lazarus and Jesus. And it's interesting because not too long ago, Lazarus was dead.
So I'm imagining the conversation was, hey, what was that like? Like, you were dead, and now you're here. It's amazing. And he's sharing his story of coming out with the grave clothes wrapped around him and stinking and having to take a bath. And, mean, it's kind of funny and silly, but all inspiring at the same time.
You look around, you see Martha, she's serving, and you kind of wonder where Mary is because Mary and Martha and Lazarus, they're family, they're siblings, sisters, a brother. And this was a big ordeal. And the fact that you see Martha serving tells you something about her, she's not rich. Maybe middle class, lower middle class, maybe even poor because she's serving, they couldn't hire a servant. So, they had Martha, probably Mary do it too, but she snuck off again.
Then, all of a sudden, as everybody's talking, you notice before everybody else does, Mary walks in and she's holding a jar. You're not really sure what she's holding. Oh, but then it becomes clear. It's a really nice jar. It's an alabaster jar.
And you realize that it's filled with about half a liter of of really nice perfume. I'm talking really nice. Like, she shouldn't be holding this because, you know, she's more of a servant type person, and this would be the equivalent today in Pinellas County of something like $54,000 that she's holding right there in this jar walking up to Jesus. What in the world is she doing? Nobody is really noticing yet until she makes herself known and tears are streaming down her face as she walks up to Jesus standing over him.
Everybody, the whole attention of the room begins to shift to Mary holding this $54,000 jar of perfume over Jesus' head and Jesus seems to just let it happen. He sits there. And then the sound fills the room. She breaks it, and perfume pours out all over Jesus' head, and he just sits there. And she falls to her knees with the rest of it letting it pour out on his feet.
And Jesus just sits there. And tears flowing down onto his feet. She takes her hair and she wipes up the excess. And you notice that it's not sadness but it's joy. That's why she's crying.
Tears of joy. Tears of finally living out complete surrender. See, just a few days, maybe a few weeks before she accused Jesus in her heart because Jesus didn't come when he wanted she wanted him to. Jesus was supposed to be there when Lazarus was sick. If only he would have been there, then Lazarus would have been healed.
Her doubt and unbelief caused her to lash out in anger because Jesus didn't do what she wanted him to in the moment that she wanted him to do it. When Jesus got there and he wept with her and despite her doubt and unbelief and accusation, his merciful love caused him to raise Lazarus from the dead. So now, she can't help but to view him through the eyes of mercy. That because he viewed her through the eyes of mercy. The compassion he showed to her, she can't help but to lavish back on him.
And, the only way that she knew how to do it was to take that was that was was most precious to her and break it on him, and pour it and give it as an act of extravagant worship. The solemnness of the moment is interrupted because the disciples at the table, Judges and the disciples, their annoyance is palpable. Their indignation there. Why in the world? And they're mumbling to 1 another, I don't understand why she would do this, and the mumblings grow to a war until someone speaks up and said, that's what a waste.
Why would you $54,000, why would you break it and pour it out on his flesh? What a waste. We could have sold it and given it to the poor. It has such better use. We could have used it much better.
Why would you do that? And the indignations continues to rise. The annoyance, Jesus lets it go for a moment, but then he breaks up the tension in the room. With these words. Truly, I tell you, whenever this "gospel is preached" throughout the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.
Why did Jesus say that? It's very interesting. He would say this gospel that before Jesus even died on a cross and rose again, he made mention of the gospel considering his death and resurrection that would be spread all over the world, that over 2,000,000,000 profess to believe in today, saying wherever it is preached, what Mary has done today, the testimony of of her action will follow it. Why? Because the gospel is meant to produce the same response in each of us.
Let that sit. The gospel is meant to produce the same response in each of us, not just with our mouths, but with the output of our lives. A response that demonstrates *Jesus*' worth to a world that is constantly devaluing him. A response with the action of our lives that screams, "Jesus, you are worthy of it all". Amen?
Amen. That's a life of worship. So today, we're starting a series titled, worship. And, I can't help but start with Romans-12:1. *Romans-12:1* says, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, *holy* and pleasing to God.
This is your true and proper worship. So, in light of everything that we just said, my question to you is, what is the perspective that instigates your worship? Let me ask it a different way. What is the lens that you have to view a situation through in order for it to begin you worshiping Him in the midst worshiping Jesus in the midst of that situation? Like, what type of situation uses usually causes you to worship Jesus?
Is it is it a situation where you're in a service with other people that are doing it, and you see it, and and now now you want to worship Him in some way? Or is it when, like, the bottom falls out of your life and and it just really causes you to hit rock bottom and you can't help but look up, and you're like, God, I need you finally. Is it when everything's good, and so now you feel like God's blessing you, so now it it pushes you into response of of worship? What is the situation? What is the lens that you have to see the situations of life through in order to begin you worshiping Jesus in the midst of that season?
Think about it. Because Romans-12:1 says, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, therefore, the starting point of our worship, the viewpoint that should start our worship is an understanding of his mercy. His merciful love. So let's talk about it for just a minute. What is mercy?
Mercy covers. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Mercy is the compassion of someone to not punish you when they have the ability and the right to do so. That's mercy. Amen?
Amen. And the Bible says his mercies are "new every morning". That means we can worship him no matter how glim the circumstance because the heavenly father has declared himself merciful towards us by sending Jesus to die for us and cover our sin. Romans-4:7 says, blessed is the person whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. But I wanna stick here for a second because we may, if we just hear that and don't understand it, we may think that mercy is no big deal.
It's just like throwing the rug over something and covering it. But, I have to tell you that mercy costs something. Mercy costs something. And, let me explain. Let's imagine that you had a son, and your son was murdered.
And, they went through the investigation, and they found the killer. And now, you're in the court of law, and you're watching the trial as the parent. And, the judge it's a sentencing time. The judge calls the person up who murdered your son, and it's proven. It's fact.
Everyone knows it. He says, hey, man. This time, no big deal. Go free. It's okay.
How are you going to feel? You're going to cry out justice. Where's the justice? Is is that a the judge that did that, is that a just judge? Is it?
Who would say, yes, that's a just judge. Just let the murderer go free. No big deal. Nobody? It's not a just judge.
It's the judge's decision is wrong. It's unrighteous. It's an evil judge. It's who he is. It's what he did.
He there should have been justice. There should have been just *penalty* for the murder of your kid. *God is a righteous* and a just judge, and the penalty for sin, for the littlest and the biggest, is separation from God, for He is perfect and He is holy. And we expect God to just excuse our sin as no big deal, and swipe it under the rug as if it's, oh, 0, it's nothing. And we hold everyone else accountable for their sin, but we excuse our own and expect God to treat it like it's nothing.
Right? See, God is a just, *holy, and righteous judge, and he has to punish sin to the fullest extent. But see, that's the beauty of his mercy*. For God so loved the world that he sent his 1 and only son, Jesus Christ. He did punish sin to the fullest extent.
He took all of your sin, and he punished *Jesus*, his son, in your place so that he could give you mercy. Isn't that beautiful? Some people and I I thought it before, like, why would the father send the son? Why wouldn't the father come himself? Anybody ever thought that before?
Was it just me? Yeah? You thought that? I I'll tell you why. I know I know now because I'm a dad.
If either me or my son had to die for you, and it it was a must, I would choose me because I love my son more than I love myself. So, it's more it would be more loving of me to allow my son to die for you rather than me. So, the father sending his son was the ultimate demonstration of his love for you, making you as valuable in his eyes as Jesus. *Mercy* costs something. And so, it was a just judgment.
Jesus had to die because God is a just judge And, it's a free gift of His mercy today. And, so, when we live life knowing that His mercies are new every morning because of what Jesus did, and we live life every situation from the viewpoint of His mercy, then in every situation, we can offer our bodies as a living sacrifice willingly knowing the price he paid for that mercy. In every situation, it's God, whatever you want, thank you for your great love and your great mercy. The more clearly you see his mercy, the more clearly in every situation you can worship worship him, knowing that he loves you and he cares for you. So I don't care if it come hell or high water in this situation or in this situation, if things ain't going the way I want to here, I can worship him in the highs and I can worship him in the lows, because I view everything from the perspective of his his merciful love.
Amen. It takes the focus off of you and puts it back on Jesus. You ain't created to live like you're the center of the of the universe. And, when you do, it's gonna suck for you. You will live a life of pain, and depression, and shame because you ain't created to live for you.
You're created to live for Jesus. Let's keep talking about it. Is that alright? *Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins* are covered. That's you because of Jesus.
I'll just read a couple of things I have written here. When our point of view is filtered through His merciful love, our response in every situation is worship. *God showed us mercy by showing us compassion when it was His right for Him to punish our sin*. So worship is our response of compassion to God because of our realization of God's compassion towards us. To the depth that we understand, the depth that we understand the lavishness, the abundance of his compassion towards us, we will overflow with compassion and passion towards him, and our singing, and our speaking, and our work, and our relationships, with all that we hold dear with our very lives.
Amen? Amen. Cool. You wanna keep going? I know it's a little more heavy today than normal.
Alright. And, we see Judas and the disciples. Because Judas wasn't really disciple. He betrayed Jesus. He just was a poser.
Never really called Lord, never really loved him. So, it's it's kind of, yeah. I mean, the poser annoyed that Mary wasted all of this on Jesus. But then, the the other disciple's annoyed too? Isn't that interesting?
See, they thought it was a waste, but Mary was declaring Jesus' worth. She could have sold it and given it to the poor. She could have done something more useful. In their eyes, surely, was a better use. And too often, as Christians, we're overly concerned with how we are used or how we use the things that we have.
So much so, that we neglect spending time in his presence, using our time, and our talent, and our treasure to pour out our worship on him. Thinking, maybe, oh, ain't got time for that right now, that would be a waste. Am I the only 1? Have you guys been there before? **Complete surrender** is never a waste.
You can just write that down in your, like, principle journal. Complete surrender is never a waste. It's never a waste to spend the most treasured aspects of our lives waiting on Jesus, because being with Jesus is more is worth more than being ahead of Jesus, and it's worth more than being without him. So then, I guess we probably need to talk about, like, what is waste. Right?
Waste means giving more for something than is necessary. Right? So, if if something costs a dollar and I give 10, then that was a waste, Cause I gave more for that thing than is necessary. If something takes an hour of work to do, and I put in 10 hours of work on it, it was a "waste of time". Cause I put in more than was necessary.
And, God wants the preaching of his of the *gospel* to cause in you the same response that it caused in Mary, such that you live your life in a way where the world sees it and considers it a waste. Amen. Why would you do that? Why would you give so much time, like, to reading your Bible and and worshiping Jesus alone when nobody's looking? Like, you're wasting your time.
Like, why would you spend time on Sundays going to church? Why would you spend time in small groups? Like, why would you, like, pick up your family, move across the the The United States to plant a church? Why would you take a group of people to Pakistan? By the way, we're going to Pakistan in the May to do a 15,000 person crusade.
Yeah. Why would you get baptized? Like, that's just weird. Why would you pray with people? They don't deserve that.
Why would you tip big at at the restaurant when she doesn't deserve it? Well, it's because God gave me what I don't deserve, so when I love others in the way they don't deserve, they experience the love of God through me. You don't understand it until you've surrendered. Living our life in a way that the world thinks it's a waste until they're touched by the love of God through it. People who do not understand what it means to have really surrendered their all will think your surrender is too much.
But, if Jesus is really worthy of it all, then how could it be a waste? If you think that someone else is wasting their life worshiping Jesus, you don't value Jesus as much as they do. He is worthy for me to willingly serve him even to the point of being seen as 1 who wasted his life. He is worthy to be worshipped with everything that I have even if I've made fun of by onlookers. He's worthy for me to live for him.
He's worthy for me to die for him. He's worthy. What others say about this does not matter. Jesus told the complaining disciples who didn't understand Mary's ways. Jesus said these words.
He said, in Mark, he said, leave her alone. She did what she could. Leave her alone. She did what she could. Meaning, she gave all that she had.
I wanna live my life in such a way as an extravagant act of *worship* in every aspect of my speech, my thinking, my intentions of my heart, the way that I play, the way that I laugh, the way that I joke, the way that I help, the way that I father, the way that I lead, the way that I follow. In such a way that when I finally see Jesus face to face, he says, what he told Mary. He did all that he could with what I gave him. He surrendered all. Amen?
I'm gonna read you a couple more things I wrote. There are many services that we can have. There are many areas to serve and help. There are many places to go and do outreach and share Jesus. Many poor to feed, many things to do and we can do that.
We can work hard to be used by God. But, the Lord is not first concerned with our exhausting ourselves to work for him. He wants us to serve. He wants us to do those things, but that's not his first priority. The Lord's first concern is our position with him.
Is it really the Lord we worship? Are we breaking the treasures, the "alabaster boxes" that we hold dear to pour onto him and to worship him first? When Jesus approved Mary's action, the breaking of this expensive perfume and pouring it on himself, Jesus was saying these words. He was saying, or he was implying this, that the basis of how you worship God isn't first you're serving of him, and you're doing things for him, it's first you're pouring out all you have, all that you are loving and worshiping him. And if that's all he allows you to do, then that in itself is enough.
The all the other things are important and they'll get done out of the overflow of what happens when you sacrifice your all to worship Him. Whatever we have as an alabaster box, whatever the most precious thing in the world to us, we gladly give it to worship him first. And, it will seem like a waste to some, but he wants our whole heart as demonstrated by living a life of worship. Sometimes, *God* will even ask you to stop serving in the ways that you love just to see if it was the serving you worshipped or if it was him. *Mark-14:9, wherever the gospel* shall be preached, what this woman has done will be spoken of.
Because it's supposed to produce the same response in every 1 of us. I've never met anyone who decided, and not just decided, and not just said, but did go all out in their worshiping of Jesus, and they're living for him, and they're and they're following him to the best of I've never met anyone that did that and wasn't fulfilled in and of themselves. I've met many people who went all out in their self care, over and above in their self care, who always needed more self care, and were empty, and couldn't ever give out. But, I've never met anybody who went all out pouring out in their relationship, in their worship of Jesus, who weren't themselves filled all the way to overflowing such that their life became a became a reservoir of life for everyone around them. I think Christianity is all about It's a life of wasting yourself at the feet of Jesus.
Have you ever given too much of yourself to Jesus? You know why? Because you can't. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. All these things.
So as you give of yourself to Christ, he gives of himself to you more than you could ever give, so you can't help but overflow to everyone around you. People say, what's different about you? And it's just Jesus. I don't know. I just spend time with Jesus, and this love pours out.
I'm just more kind. I don't know. I just give more. I just I just I don't know. I I love to do things for people.
I I don't get as mad as I used to anymore. Don't know. His life flowing out of our life, impacting the world around, drawing them into relationship with Himself. People will be around you and be hungry for what you have, because their desire is the love of God, and you have it, and it's flowing out of you. But it takes breaking every alabaster box, everything that we hold dear, that we wanna control, we wanna hold onto, and trusting him with the most precious, and the best, and the most secret of our self.
In serving God, the principle of waste is the "principle of power". Your ability to be used by God is measured by your willingness to waste your life in the worship of him. Your ability to be used by God is measured by your willingness to waste your life in the worship of him. Your work for God flows out of your worship of him. *John-12:3*.
I'm not mad, I'm happy. I know I'm serious, but this is good. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard and expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the "fragrance of the perfume". That last sentence.
That's what I want to focus on for the rest of the message. That the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Everybody noticed. It's important. Whenever you meet someone who has really surrendered, someone who has gone through tough life experiences with the Lord, and instead of trying to break free in order to be used, instead of trying to get around the process in order to accomplish their dreams, and accomplish what they want in their timing, they've surrendered to the process and allowed his work to cut them deep and cut out the junk, and they've been willing to go through that even if they never see their dreams happen?
Because they trust him more than they want what they want? Have you ever been around someone like that? They've been willing to walk through the breaking process with him, and in that process, they've learned to find satisfaction in his presence, instead of satisfaction in the fulfillment of their dreams. They've learned to find satisfaction just being with him instead of in getting what they want. They've learned to find satisfaction in relationship with Jesus instead of just having a better day.
When you're around a person like that, you immediately become aware of something. Immediately, your spiritual senses detect the sweet fragrance of Christ. Something has been crushed. Something has been broken in their life, and so you smell Jesus. The fragrance that filled the house that day of Mary is the same fragrance that fills the room when you're around that person.
It's the very life of Christ coming out of the cracks. It's biblical. 2 Corinthians-2:14. But thanks be to God who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal possession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. We're we have this treasure, the Bible says, in jars of clay.
It's the Holy Spirit. It's his love. It's his goodness. And, we're whole in Him, but yet, He crushes the selfishness of us. And, the more we allow ourselves to be crushed and submit to His process, the more the cracks in our earthen vessel allow fragrance of the Holy Spirit to impact those around us.
It's my prayer for my own life and for yours. That when you walk in a room, when I walk in a room, people don't notice me. But, they see me and they think of Jesus. When when people hear me talk, hear you talk, because of your relationship with Christ. That your words aren't drawing them to you.
You don't even have to say Jesus. It's just the way and the intention to love flowing out of your heart. It causes them to notice something different. And, it draws them into relationship with Jesus. It creates in them a hunger.
And, you know what happens when people are hungry? They seek to be filled. And, so, that causes them to seek after God. And, the Bible says, if you seek, you will find. For this to happen, there must be a willingness to surrender, a breaking and a pouring out of our everything.
Can I get the worship team to come back up here? I wanna sing that run to the Father again. And, we'll close out. I wanna talk to you guys a little bit. I wanna tell you about some alabaster boxes that are common that need to be broken, and that God is consistently breaking.
And don't worry, I'm gonna be gentle because God loves you. I'm telling you, because I love you, And, I care for you. And, I want you to experience the fullness of Jesus. *Luke-9:57*. It says, As they were walking along the road, a man said to Him So, a man is talking to Jesus, and he said, I will follow you wherever you go.
He's saying, Hey, I surrender. Like, I break all my alabaster boxes. He said it with his mouth, but Jesus questioned it with his life. Jesus said, foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. Translation.
Hey, following me is not gonna be comfortable. And, if comfort is your alabaster box, you're gonna have to break it in order to be my disciple. Otherwise, you ain't gonna cut it. *Luke-10:1* says, after this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them out. Meaning, that man, comfort was his God.
Comfort was his alabaster box. And because of it, he didn't get to be used You turn it down quite a bit. He didn't get to be used in the way that Jesus had intended him to be used because he wasn't willing to submit what was most precious to him and worship to the Lord. Jesus is merciful and he loves you. And he will always come back and try to get you to worship him with that 1 thing you're holding on to.
But in the meantime, he's using somebody else to do your purpose. 72 others. He sent them. So comfort. 59, he said to another man, so Jesus told another man, follow me.
This is the next verse. But the man replied, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their dead, their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Translation, because of the laws of that day, the man was saying, hey, let me go take care of my inheritance, My safety net for my future. And Jesus said, nah.
Break that alabaster box. Trust me with your future. You can go do that, but you're gonna miss out on the purpose I have for you in this season. You know what the man did? Skip down a couple verses, 10 verse 1.
After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them out. The man cared more about his alabaster box of security than he cared about following Jesus. And he missed out on the purpose that God had for him in that season. Comfort? Security?
61. Still another said, I will follow you, Lord. But first, let me go back and say goodbye to my family. *Jesus* replied, oh my gosh. No 1 who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.
Translation, I don't care what your family says. What I say, *Jesus*, what Jesus says is more important than what your family thinks. And if your family is preventing you from following Jesus, follow Jesus and your family will come along. If you prevent if you prevent yourself from being obedient and worshiping the Lord with the alabaster box of what your family or those closest to you think, You're calling them Lord and not Jesus. Guess what happened?
After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them out. Meaning, that young man missed out on the purpose God had for him in that season because the alabaster box of what those closest to him said mattered more to him than what Jesus said. So I guess my question is, 1, is Jesus your Lord or is something else? Number 2, if the Holy Spirit, and he'll always, there'll be new alabaster boxes, new treasures that the Holy Spirit brings to the surface and says, hey, break this over me. Hey, break this over me.
I want you to experience more of my goodness, more of me. But you have to trust me with what you've been holding on to. And this 1 you've been holding on to for the last 10 years of our relationship. Why don't you just stop? Why don't you just break it?
Trust me. I wanna bless you actually in this very thing. But I can't until you let go of control so I can have control and fix it. I wanna invite you to stand. This is the first part of our series on worship.
And I guess the the theme of this message is worship him with everything, with your whole heart. Worship him first. And all these things, everything else you can trust him with. So I guess my question to you and my request to you is to take a moment to ask the Lord, how do you want me to respond today? Because we should all respond in some way.
Maybe you're living a life of complete surrender. Praise the Lord. *God*, let me reflect your goodness more clearly in every aspect of my life. Or maybe there's areas of your life that as I'm speaking, it's like, woah, ouch. Well, if that's the case, like, don't be condemned.
*Jesus* already paid the price for your holding on to that. He's you're been forgiven 2000 years ago. Just receive that fact, break it over him, worship him, and move forward. Yeah? It doesn't have to be all like, oh, no, Jesus.
Can be like, man, praise the Lord, and tears of joy as you finally walk in complete surrender. It's called Christianity. It's free. Like, I'm all light and fluffy every day. Can jump around joyful, excited.
Ask Courtney. I'd "dance around the house" all the time. I just do. Because I'm not weighed down by all the junk. And if there ever is some junk weighing me down, I wanna throw it off as fast as possible at the feet of Jesus and worship him.
It's just the way that we live. It's beautiful. I wanna ask you just to "close your eyes" and just say this with me. Say, heavenly father, what are you saying to me today? Do you want me to respond?
As we sing, we're gonna have this little area here. We'll call it the *altar* as they used to. If you wanna come forward for prayer, you can. If you wanna do business with God right there where you are, you can. But I would ask you, don't just "walk away having a feeling".
**Take action** to respond. I have Jerry and Heidi, ministry team, deacons, elders, leaders. If you guys come forward, respond in the way that you want, but then just be ready to pray for others if they need prayer. And let's worship him together and respond in a way that causes others to see Jesus through our life for the rest of our life starting today. Amen?
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding 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".