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The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
On This Rock
What if everything you thought you knew about the Gospel was only scratching the surface? Join us as we embark on a profound exploration of biblical scripture, daring to question traditional teachings and seeking to unveil the true essence of God's Word. Our conversation starts with a fresh look at scriptures like 1 Timothy 2:1-4, pondering how past interpretations have often focused too heavily on the afterlife. Together, we aim to rediscover the present kingdom of heaven on earth, opening our minds to a deeper understanding of salvation as an ongoing transformation that enriches our lives today.
Salvation is not a mere ritual or a set of words; it's a transformative journey. We invite you to rethink what you've been taught about accepting Jesus's actions and how it shapes our lives right now. This episode challenges the misconception that salvation is solely about the afterlife. Instead, we explore how it restores us to God's original intent, allowing us to experience His gifts and peace in this life. We emphasize the importance of evolving our comprehension of the Word and nurturing a personal understanding of God's intentions, encouraging growth and change in our spiritual journeys.
Words hold immense power, and aligning our speech with God's promises can manifest His blessings in our daily lives. Through insightful discussions, we explore the authority granted through faith and declaration, urging believers to speak God's promises into existence. Consider how understanding Jesus's true nature helps us recognize our own identity in Him, unlocking spiritual truths and moving beyond outdated teachings. As we wrap up this thought-provoking episode, we foster a spirit of curiosity, encouraging open-minded dialogue and a deeper exploration of one's faith journey.
But I do want to start off in one verse, and I'm going to read this because I didn't give Ronnie this verse. It just came up a few minutes ago. But I want to read this verse to you, and mainly for the end of it. I want you to hear the end of it. It's 1 Timothy 2, verse 1 through 4. It says Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. Listen to this, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. See how good our team is. Ronnie popped that up and I didn't give him anything, so that's a blessing. All men to be saved in knowledge of the truth. That's the two things I want you to just saved in knowledge of the truth. That's the two things I want you to just keep in your mind as we talk this morning All men to be saved, but especially knowledge of the truth. Because when we go through here and we look, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1:We're talking about some things the last few months that it's a little bit different. It's biblical, but it's different because it's things that we haven't always taught. It's things that a lot of churches don't teach. Um, and when I say that, I have to be careful when I say that, because I'm not saying that I want people to understand. It's biblical, but so much and I'll say this about myself, so I don't include you with it so many times throughout the years I have taught the word of god, but I've taught it wrong. I've taught it out of context. I've taken verses and I've turned them and twisted them and I've tried to make them say what I've always heard. Another pastor said that it said instead of going to the word of God and saying what did God mean when he said this?
Speaker 1:Because I want a true interpretation of the word of God. I don't want to just hear how somebody else preaches it. I don't want to just hear what their meaning of that definition of that word is, or that or that scripture. I want to know what was God's intention when the writer of whatever writer was writing it, when he wrote that word, that scripture. What did God intend through that?
Speaker 1:And I believe we missed it. We've been going through many, many verses over the last few months where we can see that we've missed it in a lot of areas, and I've mentioned this many times about that. It's God's will and it's God's plan for all men to be saved. When we talk about that, that scares people, because when we start talking about things like that, people don't like to hear that, because we've been taught for so long that what coming to church is about, and most of the time we're just trying to get somebody out of hell and get them into heaven. So the salvation message and getting them saved so that they can walk through the pearly gates and experience everything that God has for us, that has been the goal. Now, hear what I'm saying right here, because I'm not saying that that's not important, but that has become the main focus. So much so. And this is what's so messed up about it.
Speaker 1:Paul and none of the apostles ever taught that the main point of the gospel was the afterlife. Nowhere in your scripture will you see that. Now, if you don't believe me, go back and read the Bible again. Go back and read the New Testament again and read what Paul said. Read what the other one said you will not see that the importance and the focus was put on the afterlife, on trying to get to a place or trying to stay out of a place. He talked about the kingdom of heaven. He talked about having the heaven on earth right now. Kingdom here, kingdom now on this earth, and we have missed that point so much.
Speaker 1:Does that mean that people that's missed that point is not saved? Absolutely not. Does it mean they're not's missed? That point is not saved? Absolutely not. Does it mean they're not good people? No, it don't. What it means is I don't believe that we have truly stepped in to everything that he has for us, because if we're not understanding the text, if we're not understanding what he meant by that text, how can we step into every promise that he has for us? See, we've just been taught just do enough to get to heaven, get saved, come up, repeat this prayer and you're good to go. I'm not satisfied with good to go. I'm not satisfied with just repeating a prayer after somebody and feeling like my life's good. Now I want to know that when I and number one, there's not even the prayer of salvation in the Bible.
Speaker 1:We've talked about that many times, sozo. The word salvation in the Greek is sozo, it's bringing things back into order. Sozo, it's bringing things back into order. It's taking everything that we've messed up on the earth and bringing it back into the order, into the thing that God created it to be. Because we can get out there.
Speaker 1:Sometimes as humans, we can think like we shouldn't be thinking. We can do things and say things and participate in things. That is not what God has intended for us. But if we come back to the original, this is not new. What we're talking about is not new. We don't have some kind of new. If you look at a court, they have a new gospel. You look at some of these groups they call it a new gospel. We don't have a new gospel. You look at some of these groups they call it a new gospel. We don't have a new gospel. We have the gospel.
Speaker 1:But we're just coming back around to a place of saying we want to read it and understand it the way God intended it, without all the bells and whistles and all the rules and regulations and all the things. You've got to do this and do that to meet the requirement of it. You might have to and you're still living in the law, if you do. But I'm living in a new covenant that said Jesus Christ died on the cross, that he died, he rose again and he is seated in heaven right now at the right hand of the Father, and I believe that what he did is sufficient, that I don't have to do anything else to try to add to or make what he did any better. He's already accomplished it. That's why he said it is finished, but we teach, and we have been teaching in the church for so long that, as a Christian, you got to do this and you got to do this, and you've got to do this and you've got to dress like this and you've got to read this kind of Bible and you've got to go to this denomination All these different things.
Speaker 1:And we have absolutely confused people to the point of some people that have been in church their whole life may say I don't know if I'm saved or not. I don't know if I'm saved or not, I don't know my relationship, I don't know what's right, I don't know what's wrong, I don't know what the Bible truly says and what just is something somebody said, and then they said it enough. And then one day they said well, the Bible says, and the Bible don't say nothing about it. You just said it for so long and it sounds good that you attributed it to the Bible. There's so many things that we say out there that is not biblical. They're good, there's nothing wrong with saying them, but we can't say what the Bible says, or God said this, because nowhere in the Scripture will you find some of those things, and I would start to give you a few examples, but some of them will make you mad because you'll be like that's got to be in the Bible somewhere. It's not. There's a lot of things that we say and a lot of things that we hear other people quote. That's not in the Bible. Don't mean it's not good, but it's not in the Bible. Don't mean it's not good, but it's not in the Bible.
Speaker 1:Salvation is a great thing. Coming back to the original of what God created is a great thing. But telling me that I have to repeat a prayer, I have to do it like this or do it like that, and if I don't, then I can't receive the salvation. Well, number one, you didn't die for the salvation, so you can't tell me what I have the right to receive or not receive. Jesus said when he died on the cross he just said it's for all men to be saved. Now does that mean that every person is going to come? This is the key I want you to get. I'm not sitting here saying that every person is born saved. Don't think that we have to come to an understanding and an acceptance of what he done for us. Okay, and some people will never do that, but that still, the fact that they will not do that does not change what the Bible says. I said it a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 1:You know we always make this comment when somebody turns their life around about they found Jesus. They found Jesus. He was never lost and he said in the Word that he chose us before the foundation of the world. We might have found Him, we might have finally come into an agreement and an understanding that he chose us, he called us, he selected us before the foundation of the world. People don't like to preach on that, because then that takes the responsibility off of what I'm doing and then you can't say, well, you've got to do this and you've got to do this and you've got to do this. Why? Because Jesus chose me, god chose me. It just brings a whole different outlook to it. And, as we say many times and I like to stress this, that's not saying another pastor is wrong and this pastor is right. It's not a competition of who's right and wrong. It's a matter of context and it's a matter of looking at the Word and truly understanding what does the Word really mean when we say it.
Speaker 1:Again, this idea of salvation, so-so, is about what you experience in this life right now. But we think we have been trained and taught for so long that salvation is about where I'm going in the future. It's about saving us back to the original intent of God, here and now. But our mind can't comprehend that because we think it's about one day. Think about how often we teach about what you're going to receive in the week by and by, write songs about it. We talk about it, when the fact is, most of us need these things right now. Some of those things that you're going to receive in the sweet bye-bye you don't need up there, you need them right now. You need peace, you need love, you need comfort. You need all these things right now. Not there, and I've said this many times, but it just popped in my head, and I don't want to say it again because it's important.
Speaker 1:When we think about the inheritance, we think about what an inheritance is, and he left us an inheritance. The inheritance is not heaven. Well, how do you know that? I can tell you that through Scripture. But I can give you a good example right here, just looking at the natural thing. If you are left in a will, you do not receive the inheritance when you die. You receive the inheritance when the person that left it dies and you now receive what they left. So we don't receive the inheritance that we're promised in the Bible when I die. What good is an inheritance when I'm dead? The inheritance comes upon His death. He left the inheritance to His sons and now I receive it. I open it up and I'm entitled to everything he left me, and even more. He said greater things shall you do, because I went to the Father.
Speaker 1:So we just got to wrap our head around this and I'm not trying to be one of these people who just throw this stuff out just to sound different than everybody else. I want to be right in what we're teaching. I want it to make sense. I want people to quit being confused because they've been in years and years of one kind of teaching. And then when you bring one little thing up, they're like oh Lord, I can't go with that. That is so against what I've always heard. Well, maybe it is, but could it be possible that what we've always heard has not always been exactly right? I mean, is it possible that it's not always been read and understood in the context of what the Bible is actually saying?
Speaker 1:So we talk about these things all the time and it really comes down to the knowledge of truth. That's why I started out with this verse right here Knowledge of truth. And when we think about that, I often remind myself that I have taught and preached many, many things over the years that I would come back now and say that wasn't the truth. Not that I intentionally tried to deceive somebody. I talked to the level of my understanding. That's all I knew at the time. And then as we grow, as we progress, as we gain more knowledge and wisdom and understanding, it changes. So we want to make sure that the Word don't change. Understand that the Word does not change, but my understanding of it changes.
Speaker 1:So I'm not preaching the same things I was preaching 10 years ago. I'm not speaking the same things. I was speaking. I don't think the same way that I thought 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:Everything has kind of shifted and it's okay, somebody is here, it's okay to shift. You're not turning your back on to shift. You're not turning your back on god. You're not turning your back on grandma because she taught you this. You're not turning your back on anybody because you're gaining knowledge and your mindset is shifting. I'm actually being biblical, doing that because the word says do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by a renewing of the mind, not the spirit. My spirit is perfect, holy Spirit living in me. There's nothing wrong with the spirit, but my mind is messed up, your mind is messed up because we live in this world.
Speaker 1:So what I want is I don't want to be conformed to the world, I don't want to be shaped just like everybody else. And that's what happens a lot of times in a church is we go to this location or that location and everybody molds and shapes together and, before you know it, everybody looks the same, dresses the same, talks the same and you can't identify anything different. What have they done? They have formed into something that looks one way and then you bring somebody in that says something just a little bit different, that kind of rocks the boat a little bit. Ooh, you are a heretic, you are a this, and that You'll never preach here again. Been there, been there. I'm okay with that now, used to, I wasn't okay with that. It made me mad. I didn't want to know. Why don't you want me preaching? Now, I'm okay with that Because I believe what we're saying is we're getting an understanding of the truth. Now we're getting a knowledge of the truth and what it really means.
Speaker 1:I'm going to jump over just a minute here and I want to talk about something. That that, why this is important. This has been on my heart the last few weeks. I don't know. We talked about it on Wednesday night some. When we come, we meet here on 630 on Wednesday nights. We have what's called a real talk. Anybody's welcome. I guarantee you may leave Sunday morning service and say I didn't really care for that. Well, if you didn't come on Wednesday, because we have more of an open discussion, people get to ask questions.
Speaker 1:If I say something up here today and you walk out of here and say that made absolutely no sense to me, nobody in here is going to stand up in the middle of a service and say but on Wednesday night, guess what you say? Hey, what you said made no sense. Can you explain that? And we'll sit here and we'll explain it. We'll go into detail on it, we'll talk about different topics, we'll talk about what we talked about on Sunday, and then that usually pivots off into life situations of how do I make this?
Speaker 1:Because this has been my goal from day one, of me stepping into a pulpit. If I'm going to stand behind a pulpit, if I'm going to teach the Word of God, it's got to be relevant. If you can't walk out of here and say that makes sense and I can use that in my life right now, I did not do my job. I don't want to teach it just to be a good sermon or just so you can say you went to church today. I want it to be relevant, to be practical. I can use this. This makes sense to me. Even though it may be something a little bit new sometimes, it makes sense to me. So I'm going to start out with a verse. Again, it's a familiar verse, but I want to show you something in it Matthew 16 and 19. It's actually right up here so it should be familiar to everybody. Right up here on our logo it says and I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Speaker 1:I asked this question before, but God's bringing me back to some of this stuff now because I'm getting more revelation on it. He's showing me things on it and I hate to go back and preach a lot of the same stuff that I preached before. But I'm okay with it. I used to. I would never preach the same sermon again. Now I'm realizing I'm going back and I'm picking up stuff from years ago that I've preached it, but I really didn't understand it. I just heard somebody else preach it. It sounded good and I turned it into a sermon that I understood, or thought I understood, but I really didn't.
Speaker 1:Now I'm in a place where it's making sense. So I'm revisiting a lot of these old things that we used to talk about, and I love this verse here because it says that whatever we bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever we loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And I asked a question when I read this one day and again, it's right here. When we started this church, that was the verse that laid the foundation of what the rock is all about. But I began to ask the question is it still relevant? And if it is, then maybe we need to help some people see the relevance of it. Because if I can't use this information to improve my relationship with God, to improve my relationship with other people, to improve my life, then guess what? It's not relevant. If it's not doing those things, it's not relevant. Sounds good, it's the Word of God, but if it's not changing anything, then it really has no relevance in your life. I mean, I'm just being real, it don't it should be impacting me in your life. I mean, I'm just being real, it don't it should be impacting me in some way. So what can a local church learn from binding and loosing? And that's what this is talking about. Whatever I bind, whatever I loose, what can we learn from that and what do I have the ability to bind and loose? I won't go into deep detail on this because we've talked about it a lot, but the answer to that question is yes, it's relevant today. It's relevant for today. It's been relevant all through the history of the church, in every age of the church.
Speaker 1:If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you're someone who says what the Bible says, do, I'm not worried about the repeat after me prayer. I'm worried about what the Bible says, and it says to believe and confess. Anyone who believes and confesses shall be saved. There's not a comment that says and say this prayer and do this and do this and do All. That's man made stuff. Nothing wrong with it. If you choose to do that says and say this prayer and do this and do this and do all that's man-made stuff. Nothing wrong with it. If you, if you choose to do that. But I'm just saying it's not, it's not in the bible. As far as I have to do this, jesus is god is very clear on what is necessary to believe and to confess. Now that sounds really simple. It almost sounds like Pastor Brian's watering down the Word. He's watering down what salvation is. But if you understand what those words mean to believe and to confess it ain't watering it down, it's actually opening it up and saying this means something we have to understand that word.
Speaker 1:Confession again means to say the same thing To speak what God has already spoke. I'm not speaking anything new. I'm coming into agreement with what God has already said. Homiligeo, same language, same speech. So I'm saying the same thing, which kind of ties into what it says here. Whatever you bind on earth, it means whatever you come into agreement with on earth, it's already been done in heaven. It's not going to be done one day. You go study this verse out and you'll see that it's already been done. Whatever you come into agreement with good or bad, because if you come into an agreement with negative things, you know what your life's going to manifest Negativity.
Speaker 1:But if I can begin to decree and speak and come into agreement with the Word of God, then I will begin to manifest what the promises of God. I've seen people throughout the years and I've been there myself, where I'm like God, where are you at? I'm going to church, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, but I don't see none of these promises coming forth in my life. And I believe I heard him so clear one day. He said you ain't doing it, you ain't speaking it. You're over here talking all this other stuff and expecting to get my promises. The only thing I will back up is my word. The only thing I will stand behind is my word. I'll use me again.
Speaker 1:Not my prayers, that was just repetitive. Not my prayers that was just repetitive. Not my wants that didn't line up with the Word. Not my desires that didn't line up with the Word. Now he says I'll give you the desires of your heart when they line up with the Word. Okay, okay, everything that he has spoken, when I can come into agreement with it and begin to speak it. Now I'm going to begin to manifest these things. This goes into financing. This goes into healing in our body, healing in our mind.
Speaker 1:Listen, if I'm sick and I'm walking around every day and all I'm doing is speaking sickness, and then I'm coming to an altar on Sunday morning saying God, why won't you heal me? My language has got to line up with His language. It's kind of like living in a house and you marry somebody that's from a different country and they don't speak English and you don't speak their language, and you're living in a house together and you're trying to function together, but y'all are always speaking different languages. There's no understanding. Relationship ain't going to really go too well because there's no understanding. You've got to speak the same language.
Speaker 1:And God's saying if you want what I have for you, if you want what I've promised you, if you want to manifest these things, he said in His Word I've already given you every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. You're not waiting to get them one day. I've already given them to you. Everything is already yours. It says in the Bible it's past tense I've given you every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. If you want access to it now, you've already been given access through what my son done. But if you want to grab them and manifest them, you got to speak, you got to open up your mouth and you got to begin to speak some things. And those things that you speak got to speak. You've got to open up your mouth and you've got to begin to speak some things. And those things that you speak have to line up with what I've already spoke.
Speaker 1:We have to be in agreement. You know, we always used to take the verse all the time and we would say where two people touch and agree, anything is possible. That's a verse, that's a scripture. I believe that Scripture and we used to always just think it, meant that if Cindy's got something going on with her. Then me and Cynthia both had to come over and we both had to agree and we had to touch and we had to lay hands. Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:But that's not only what it's talking about. Do you know? I can agree with God, I can agree with what the Word says, and as I agree with it and it gets down in me, I'm not talking about head agreement, I'm talking about heart agreement. I'm talking about that. It moves from here and it moves down into who I am, my spirit, and I begin to know it and I begin to believe it and then I begin to. What's on the inside will always manifest to the outside.
Speaker 1:I just can't figure out why I keep saying this stuff, because it's what's in you. I'm sorry, I know people don't like to hear that, but whatever's in you is going to come out of you in certain situations. So whatever's on the inside, the more word I can put in, the more things I can put in that he said, the more I can know and understand his promises and put them on the inside of me. What's going to come out when something happens? That's why, when the hurricane comes, that I can walk around my house and say you will not touch this house. Why? Because I know he's given me authority. He's given me authority. He said life and death lies in the power of your tongue. And some people say, well, that's crazy. And we had this conversation on Wednesday night, you know, and last Sunday we talked about it, you know.
Speaker 1:I believe there's power in our words. I believe it makes a difference when I believe His Word, I understand His Word and I speak His Word. I believe there's a difference in that. That don't make me perfect. I make mistakes every day. You make mistakes every day. You make mistakes every day. But it don't change the fact of what His Word says. When you can touch and agree and confess, anything is possible.
Speaker 1:Let me read a couple more. I'm going to go further. In verse 15. I'm gonna read through 19. I want you to see this whole context right here, uh, of what it's saying. I'm just gonna break it down a little and we're gonna get out of here the verse 15.
Speaker 1:He said to them but who do you say that I am? He was asking the question here. Simon peter answered and said you are Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him Blessed are you, simon Barjona, for flesh and blood, has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven, and I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell of Hades shall not prevail against it, and I will give my church, and the gates of hell of Hades shall not prevail against it, and I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Speaker 1:If you don't study any of the verses, study these, take these verses right here in Matthew and study them out, because I want you to picture this a minute. I'm not going to try to water this down, but I'm just going to try to make it simple. I'm going to tell you the way I see it and the way I understand it, and hopefully that'll help, because I try to keep it simple with myself. Jesus asked the disciples who do you say I am? I don't care what other people say. I don't care what other people say, I don't care if they think I'm a prophet, if they think I'm this or they think I'm that. Who do you say that I am See, he's getting at the core issue of discipleship, which is the identity of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:He's asking them. He's not saying do this or do that. He's saying when you look at me, what do you see? What is my identity to you? That's the question he's asking. That's the question that I hope all of us have answered the identity of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Whatever else Jesus teaches, it don't matter what he teaches, what subject he goes into. If they don't get this right, then they don't get anything right. That's tough to say, but it's the truth. I don't like to use the word right. If they don't understand this, there's a lot of other things they may hear and it's just not going to click with them. It's not going to make sense. Okay, it will all be distorted. It's not built on, because it's not built on, the central teaching of His identity.
Speaker 1:The whole core of what we're teaching here right now and what we're going into is our identity in Christ. I can't understand my identity in Christ if I don't understand who he is. I can't understand who I am if I don't understand the One who created me after His image and after His likeness. I have to understand. It's kind of like you image and after his likeness, I have to understand. It's kind of like you've got to go back to the one that made you. I always use the example before I say listen, if my truck tears up as a Ford, I don't take it to the Toyota dealership. They don't know how to work on a Ford. Okay, so if I'm trying to figure myself out, go back to the blueprint. If your house tears up and you've got to rebuild something, they might pour the blueprints back out and say let me look at these and see how it was laid out, how it was built. Let's go back to the one that created us to see how we were created and how we were built.
Speaker 1:So Peter answers correctly right here. He says you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, not just an ordinary man, you're not just some other dude walking around here doing miracles, but the unique divine Son of God. And then Jesus makes clear that Peter did not come up with this on his own. It wasn't just because Peter was smart. He didn't just come up with this. He said flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven, in other words, this central, bedrock, core of Jesus' identity is a work of God and not a work of the mind of Peter, not a work of man. Man had already said what they thought Jesus was. The Sadducees, the Pharisees, all the other C's out there, they all already said what they thought he was, and it wasn't good. Why? Because they wanted to kill him.
Speaker 1:This dude was messing up their plan that they had in place to control the people called religion. He was messing it up, and I love this because that's why Jesus would always say repent. Every time he preached, every time he prayed for somebody, he would say repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near, is at hand right here. And that repent meant he was telling them if you understand the word repent, change the way you think. It don't mean apologize, it means change the way you think. And he was saying to them think about what he was saying to them. Change the way you think, because I'm coming with a message that you will not be able to receive. If you keep listening to those jokers, if you keep agreeing with what they're saying, you won't be able to grab onto what I'm bringing. Change your mindset. Change your mindset. Repent, repent.
Speaker 1:So then Jesus makes a play on words, because Peter's name he changes it. He says now you're Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. Here's what I want you to see. If you look up Peter in the Greek it's Petros, p-e-t-r-o-s. Petros, it means little stone pebble, it's like a little tiny rock that you can walk outside and pick up off the ground, petros. And then when he says your name is this, your name is this little pebble, like a little rock, he said but on this rock it was a different word, it was Petra, and it means foundational stone. So he was telling him. He said you're like a little stone right here, but the foundational stone is what I'm going to build the church on. What was the foundational stone? The foundation was the revelation of who he was, because that's what he just asked Peter. He said who do you say that I am? And then, when he said that, he said you did not come up with this on your own. He said this only was given to you by my Father in Heaven. And he said now you're Peter, you're Peter, you're Peter, you're a rock, but on this rock I'm going to build the foundation of the church, and the gates of hell, the gates of Hades will not prevail against me.
Speaker 1:We're going to go into that teaching a little later, ronnie. I know, ronnie, he studied this out some because me and him have talked about it a lot. I've studied on it some and I've got some stuff I'm going to show you maybe next week or the week after. We're going to put some pictures up and we're actually going to show you some stuff over at Philippi, caesarea, in that region, what it looks like today. Because if you can understand what Jesus and his disciples are standing there looking at while he was telling them this, it makes more sense. So we're going to help you out and show you some pictures and stuff like that and really let you see it. Now we can't jump on a plane and take off over there, but we can put some pictures up. I want to make a couple of important points here and then we'll get ready to close.
Speaker 1:Jesus did not say on you, peter, on you I will build my church. Catholic Church will tell you otherwise. The Catholic Church will tell you that it was built on Peter. That's not what the Bible says. I'm not fixing to argue with the whole Catholic Church, but I'm just saying that's not what the Bible says. I'm not fixing to argue with the whole Catholic church, but I'm just saying that's not what the Bible said.
Speaker 1:He did not say on you, I will build my church. He very easily could have said that, but he said instead on this petro, on this bedrock, I will build my church. Even though Jesus says to Peter I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Even though he told him that, this very same thing Jesus says to Christians in general, he didn't just say it to Peter, he wasn't just meaning it for Peter himself, he was meaning it for everybody. Okay, that very same thing Jesus says to other people with the same words, two chapters later, in Matthew 18 and 18, he says truly, I say to you you in there, if you go look it up, it's plural he's not saying you, he's saying you Everybody, that he's talking to Everybody in attendance. But in Matthew 18 and 18, he says truly, I say to you who are gathered in my name, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. That's the second observation. That's the second time that he's done this. First he said it to Peter. Then he turned to the whole group of people that he was talking to and said the same thing again. So we can't just say it's a Peter thing and that's what the Catholic Church will do. It's just one man, st Peter. It's bigger than that.
Speaker 1:Okay, jesus does not say you are Petros, and on this, petros, I will build my church. You've got to understand those two words, because if I just read that without explaining to you the difference between Petra and Petros, it would make absolutely no sense. You'd think I was crazy. So when you understand that Petros is talking about just a little pebble or a little tiny rock, but Petra is talking about the side of a mountain, the bedrock, it's immovable. Petros is movable. You can kick a rock around. We tell people all the time kick rocks, you kick a rock around. You ain't kicking no Petra around. And there's a lot more. If you go and study that out, you'll see the difference in them and why there is a difference in there. It's not the same word. And if we understand it's not the same word, then it now gives us better clarification of what did he really mean when he said this? So Petra has a different connotation than Petros. Again, loose stone and a bedrock stone. Here's what I mean In Matthew 27 and 60, where it says it's Jesus' tomb. Listen to this. His tomb was cut out of Petra, the immovable, the side of a mountain. His tomb was not cut out of pieces of gravel laying on the ground, which is loose stones. So it makes a difference in how you understand the words. So what he means is that the side of a mountain is stone. When you look at that Now, some of the pictures I'm going to show you and everything in there, we could actually take a trip If we hopped on a plane today and we could go to the gates of hell.
Speaker 1:We could go visit the gates of Hades that he talks about in this verse that I just shared with you. You can take a picture of it, you can walk down there right beside it, and most of the time that's been down there where the old bad devil lives. It's not even the same thing, it's not even what it's talking about. But if that's our mindset, when we read that verse, we're thinking a place of eternal conscious torment and fire. That's never what Jesus even said so. Right there, our interpretation is so off that everything we read from there on out is going to be off. Think about it. We've got to understand what he's talking about in these verses. It makes more sense to us.
Speaker 1:Let me try to get to the end here. He told him. He said you are the Messiah, you are the Son of God, at the center of these teachings. That was the core principle that he wanted them to see. I want you to understand who I am and since Peter is the one who made that confession, in this case he's treated as the representative of all those who would faithfully lift up this teaching. Now, think about this. Because he told him. He said when Peter said this, he said you are Christ, you are the Son of the living God.
Speaker 1:Think about what Jesus said next Blessed are you? You just made a comment. So now, in return, I'm going to call you blessed Because you are blessed because of the understanding that you just got, the understanding that you have. I'm calling you blessed. He called him blessed because of that. So it's these teachings of Jesus that are the keys to the kingdom when it talks about. I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom. What's keys do Keys give access? Now I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom. What's keys do Keys give access? Now I'm coming to a point. I want you to hear this. Don't go to sleep on me yet or get ready to leave, because this all comes together and makes sense right here, because we're pulling four or five different things together and giving them meaning and giving them context the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Okay, he said I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1:Okay, he said I'll give you the keys to the kingdom, which means, according to Matthew 18, 18, when any faithful Christian believer who speaks the words with the bedrock of Jesus Christ being at the foundation of it, as the identity of it, when you speak those words faithfully, you're using keys. What does that mean? That's giving me access to something that I never had access to before. Hence, I said a while ago, when you begin to speak His Word, it opens things up that you don't have access to otherwise. So, beginning to come into agreement, understanding His identity in Christ, understanding who he is, his identity, and beginning to speak those agreement, understanding His identity in Christ, understanding who he is, his identity and beginning to speak. Those things. That's access he's given him that. He said I've given you keys, I've given you access. You can open up doors. You can open up things that other people don't have access to, and it's not just for me, it's to open up doors for other people don't have access to, and it's not just for me, it's to open up doors for other people.
Speaker 1:Here's a clue that I think confirms we're on the right track with what we're talking about. It's in Luke 11 and 52. Let's go to that verse. I want you to see it. He says Woe to you lawyers. Talk to some of the lawyers and the Pharisees and all them out here. He says Woe to you, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves and those who were entering in you hindered them. That's powerful. Right there he was looking at these religious people and some of the lawyers who was writing this law and different things, and he said not only do you not believe, but you are hindering the people who choose to believe. So not only are you cutting off your access, but you're cutting off the access of other people. You have taken the key of knowledge away from them. And I'm going to put it in my own words. They were teaching things that moved them away from the truth. He says you have deceived them. You have taught them things that took them away from the key of knowledge. And go back and read the Bible. I mean, read back about the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all that and what they were teaching and everything. They were teaching an old covenant. They were teaching old Mosaic law.
Speaker 1:Nothing wrong with reading Old Testament. Please understand this. I say this sometimes when wrong with reading the Old Testament. Please understand this. I say this sometimes when people take it the wrong way. There is nothing wrong with reading the Old Testament. I'm not just saying take the Old Testament and throw it away. But we're not living in the Old Testament anymore. We are now. We moved over from an old covenant with law, mosaic law, and we have stepped into, because of the cross, a new covenant with new promises and those things in the old covenant, those curses and all that stuff. They don't even have power over me anymore. That's why we got into this conversation one day about the.
Speaker 1:We get into it on Wednesday nights about the Ten Commandments and all kind of stuff you know and I. We get into it on Wednesday nights about the Ten Commandments and all kind of stuff. You know I won't get into it today from the pulpit, but a lot of that. We have some very, very good conversations on Wednesday nights and we talk about a lot of stuff that's relevant and it distinguishes the difference between Old Testament, old Covenant and New Covenant, the finished work. Why do we call it finished work? Because it was finished.
Speaker 1:It's not a finished work as far as I could, just throw my hands up and say I'm just waiting, I don't have to do nothing. That's not what we, that's not People who misinterpret the finished work. When you say that, that's what they think, that you're just saying you ain't got to do nothing and you're going right to heaven, don't matter how you live. No, that's not what we're saying. We're saying he finished it on the cross and now I've got to believe, confess, come into agreement with what he's already done. And I begin to manifest it now, not one day. Now I see the blessing, I see the promise right now in my life. So when Jesus says, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven that's actually the way it reads if you go back and study it out Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven. That's actually the way it reads. It's already done. We've just got to come into agreement with it here to make it to connect. Then we start seeing these things manifest. Let me finish the last thing right here Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Speaker 1:He means that in all of human, all the things that we try to do, we know we have keys. And think about how many doors in your life you've tried to open up with your own knowledge and your own whatever. I've tried to open so many doors up for myself when I should have just sat back and realized and said God, you've already given me these things. You have done this. I want to access the keys that you've already given me. My key don't work, but your key will work. So we try to do this on our own. We try to turn the key, but we realize that it's the keys of the knowledge of God. We are doing what God has decided should have come to pass. God has already decided this thing out. He said I've already given you this promise. I've already given you access to healing. I've already given you access to whatever it is you need in your life. Can you find the key to open it up? I believe that's what we're missing a lot of times. Is the key. We have access to it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm going to be bold enough to say this. If we don't have access to it already, then he died for nothing. He died for nothing. Now, believe me, I know it's hard to say that because there's people as I'm saying that. There's people right now that's struggling. There's people right now that's sick. There's people right now that's got things going on in their life. So it's hard to stand up here and make that statement when you know that people are going through things. And I'm never going to look at anybody and say make that statement, when you know that people are going through things and I'm never going to look at anybody and say you don't have faith, you don't have.
Speaker 1:It's not about that. It's about finding the right key, understanding it and unlocking the promise of what's already been established. That's our goal. My goal is not to judge anybody or look at anybody and say you're right, I'm wrong, whatever. My job is to help you find the key, and the key is the knowledge the Bible says we're destroyed.
Speaker 1:For what? A lack of knowledge Because we don't understand. But when we get knowledge and we get understanding, now all those things that come because we live in this earth, they don't control me anymore. Why? Because I have authority over them. But that authority only goes as far as you understand. Listen, a police officer can have a badge and a gun all day, but if he don't understand the authority that he has, because of it he ain't arrested nobody. He's got to understand the authority he's got with that. We have to understand the authority we have because of what Jesus Christ done on the cross. He's done and not will do. It's already completed.
Speaker 1:When we understand that and I'm not just talking about head knowledge Again, I mean heart when that thing moves from our head, it's got to move about six to eight inches. We get it here, we perceive it, and now we get that thing in down in our heart of who we are. And as we do that, we begin to manifest it. Now we begin to speak it, and as we begin to speak these things, you're going to see a difference in your life. I truly, truly believe that You're going to see it. Does that mean nothing's ever going to go wrong. No, there's some things. I don't know why they happen. I can't explain to you why they happen, I don't know. But I do know that a hurricane or anything else, or sickness, disease or whatever does not change the word of God. It does not make it less real because we go through stuff. It's still the word of God. But I have to real because we go through stuff. It's still the Word of God. But I have to see it that way and I have to understand it so we can all take a stand. When we stand on the bedrock of Jesus' Word, with the reality of Jesus Himself at the center, and speak it, we will see amazing things begin to happen. Also, because it's a key it's access to open doors up to the kingdom for other people.
Speaker 1:Why is this relevant? I'm going to end right here where I started. Why is this relevant? Why are we even talking about this? Because the conversation keeps coming up periodically on Wednesday night and sometimes on Sunday, and just out and about. This thing keeps coming up Well, wednesday night and sometimes on Sunday, and just out and about this thing keeps coming up. Well, if you're teaching this and you think what you're teaching is right. Does it really make a difference that you're teaching this and another church is teaching this? It don't make no difference to the people over there. It makes a difference to me Because I want everybody in this congregation and everybody that attends here, I want them to this congregation and everybody that attends here.
Speaker 1:I want them to have true knowledge of what the Word says Okay, and I don't mean that in the way of I've arrived and I've got it all. I'm learning every single day. There's something different. I'll come back next week and probably correct something I said today because I learned something else. But it does mean that we cannot just settle because somebody has always taught it like that. We've got to be willing and open-minded enough to say you know, what I've always believed may not be completely accurate and I'm willing to open my mind up and say give me a little bit more and let me study this thing out and let me see where I can go with it. Let me see the promises open up. Let me see how it transforms my life from the inside out. See, we've been taught too long to transform our life from the outside in. Get everything right and then everything. No, you change everything and then that'll take care of itself. So it's got to start from the inside. Understanding who I am begins with understanding who he is, and once I do that, beginning to confess the Word of God, things will shift. Things will change. You can stand to your feet. 12, 17. Things will shift, things will change. You can stand to your feet, well. So.
Speaker 1:So I want to challenge you again. If you have the opportunity, come on Wednesday night. We even changed the time, made it a little bit earlier. I know people, it's midweek, people don't like to come on Wednesday night. We even changed the time, made it a little bit earlier. I know people it's midweek, people don't like to be out real late. So we backed it up, starting at 6.30. Couldn't go any sooner because then people couldn't get here from work. But we kind of met in the middle and said we're going to move it back from 7 to 6.30. But I promise you you will have a good time. If but I promise you you will have a good time.
Speaker 1:If you're curious at all, if you have any questions going on, if something I said don't make sense, if something I said or right now in your mind, you said I don't agree with him. That's okay, because I'm not seeking agreement. Okay, there's a lot of things each one of us may not agree on. We may see things a little bit different, and that's okay, because the point is let's get to the truth, and I've said to y'all many times, there's things that I'm teaching and I have taught and I had to come back and say this has shifted. I'm seeing it differently now. Okay, it's not that I'm lying to you, it's just that's all I knew at the time and hopefully I'm going to continue to learn and gain a little bit more knowledge. That's all we want you to do. That's all we're trying.
Speaker 1:We're not telling you what to think. We're just telling you think, just think. Use your brain to think through this, because that's what the Word says. Do Be transformed by a renewing of the mind. Change the way you think. I wouldn't say any questions. I usually do that on Wednesday night, but I'm not going to do it here today. If you have questions, come on Wednesday night, we'll be here. 630. Let's pray real quick.
Speaker 1:Father. God, we thank you For the word. We thank you for what you're doing in this place right now, with every single person individually, but also, father, what you're doing with this ministry, the place that you have us in the season that you have us in right now. We thank you for the, the vision that you've given us, father, and we pray continuously for the provision to come to be able to fulfill everything that you've given us, every work that you've given us to do. We thank you, father, for the land that you've given us. We thank you for the building that I see on that land right now. Father, we thank you for the provision that's going to come to finance everything that you have called this ministry to do. We thank you for every person that's connected and every person that is not yet connected, but you have called to be here. You've called them to be in this place during this time and during this season. So, father, we thank you for each one, each person that's here today.
Speaker 1:I pray that this word, father, just begins to go with them outside of this building. It's not left here. And just even as they're laying down tonight, as they're just resting today, that something I said today will begin to provoke something in them. I ain't looking for it to make them feel good. I'm looking for it to provoke something that stirs something on the inside of them that causes them to ask more questions, that causes them to want to reach out and want to dive into the Word and wants to just get more and get a better understanding of what you're really saying, so they can understand who they really are in Christ. So we thank you. We'll be careful, father, to give you the praise, the honor and the glory in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.