The Church Jesus Is Building | Tyrone P. Jones | Building The House | Full Service

music music music music music music music music music Good morning, CTC. Welcome to Fourth of July Weekend Church on Sunday. And if you didn't know, welcome to Happy Birthday, CTC. Yesterday marks 33 years of God blessing, anointing, and leading this church into the fruitfulness that we see here today. And so if that's not something you can praise God for, I don't know what is. If you're just joining us for the first time today, thank you for joining us today. Especially today, it feels kind of special. And if you've been part of that 33-year journey to any degree, thank you for joining us and being a part of that. I'd like to open up with one of my favorite verses. It's Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 8. Starting in verse 4, it says, But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ. But God is one of the most beautiful phrases in the Bible. Because everything switches right there. It dismisses everything that came before.

All of our death, our failure, our wrongdoings. And while we were dead, he said, But God came in and gave us life. So whatever you came in today with, just remember, But God is today. He can turn everything around because he entered the equation today. But God met a man who was watering his dirt 33 years ago. And we're here today because of it. So let's lift our hands and thank him. And come before the Lord as we come into service today. Father God, we thank you that you change the situation when you enter the equation, God. We thank you for today. We thank you for the last 33 years and what you have done. We thank you for the grace and the anointing that is in this church, Lord. And we pray that you continue for the next 33 and 33 after that, God. We pray for this service, God, that you would bless us today. That your word would reach our hearts in Jesus' name. Let's worship him. Spirit of God, you're here. The power of heaven. I proclaim. Every weapon formed against me. Must pray. In the mighty name of Jesus. When beneath our feet. The enemy has no right to come. Near my family. No sleep can ever undo God's grace. No matter the circumstance. Your promise has sealed my destiny.

In the mighty name of Jesus. I pray. Calling on the power of heaven. I proclaim. Every weapon formed against me. Must pray. In the mighty name of Jesus. I know. All the power of fear and darkness. I hold in the mighty name of Jesus I will not fear, I will not fear, when the enemy comes near On the door frame of my life It's the blood of Jesus Christ I will not fear, I will not fear, there's an army of angels here I'm protected on all sides By the blood of Jesus Christ I will not fear, I will not fear, when the enemy comes near On the door frame of my life It's the blood of Jesus Christ I will not fear, I will not fear, there's an army of angels here I'm protected on all sides By the blood of Jesus Christ In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, calling on the power of heaven I proclaim, every weapon born against me Must break, in the mighty name of Jesus In the mighty name of Jesus I know, all the power of fear and darkness It must go, He's every key to every victory I hold, in the mighty name of Jesus In the mighty name of Jesus In the mighty name of Jesus We thank you, we thank you We thank you, we thank you, Jesus We're distressed in your presence We're atoned in our presence We thank you, we thank you We thank you, we thank you, Jesus And all the saints and angels They bow before your throne All the elders cast their crowns Before the Lamb of God You're worthy of it all Yes, Jesus You're worthy of it all Only you, only you

For from you are all things Until you are all things You deserve the glory Yes, you do We glorify the name of Jesus Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Mighty, mighty name And all the saints and angels They bow before your throne All the elders cast their crowns Before the Lamb of God You're worthy of it all Yes, you are, Jesus You're worthy of it all Only you, only you For from you For from you are all things, till you are all things, you deserve it only, you deserve it all, you're worthy of it all There's nothing more worthy You're worthy of it all For from you are all things, till you are all things, you deserve it only Jesus, oh yes We rest in your Holy Spirit We'll do whatever you want to do We rest right here with you All being thrown, being thrown Day and night, night and day, let incense arise Day and night, night and day, let incense arise Day and night, night and day, let incense arise Day and night, night and day, let incense arise Day and night, night and day You're worthy of it all You're worthy of it all Yes, You are Jesus For from You are all things And to You are all things You deserve it all You're worthy, You're worthy, You're worthy

You're worthy of it all Yes, we sing it to You, Jesus You're worthy of it all For from You are all things And to You are all things You deserve it all Yes, You deserve it all You deserve it all You deserve it all You're worthy of it all You're worthy of it all Calling on the God of Jacob Whose love endures through generations I know that You will keep Your covenant I'm calling on the God of Moses The One who opened up the ocean I need You now to do the same for me Oh God, my God, I need You Oh God, my God, I need You now How I need You now Oh rock, oh rock of ages I'm standing on Your faithfulness On Your faithfulness I'm calling on the God of Mary Whose favor rests upon the lowly I know with You all things are possible I'm calling on the God of day Who made a shepherd boy courageous I may not face good life But I've got my own giants Oh God, my God, I need you Oh God, my God, I need you now How I need you now

Oh rock, oh rock of ages I'm standing on your faithfulness On your faithfulness Oh God, my God, I need you Oh God, my God, I need you now How I need you now Oh rock, oh rock of ages I'm standing on your faithfulness On your faithfulness Come on, we're going to celebrate a faithful God today As we watch someone go public with their faith Turn your eyes to the screen My name is Juliet Before giving my life to Jesus I was lost As a child, I witnessed drugs, alcohol, and neglect That left me feeling broken most of my life At 40, I was misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia I went to many doctors and specialists Every time I asked for answers or help I was prescribed pills And I became dependent on them In January 2018 Life changed for me I became sober Scared of rejection from my husband and family I pushed through it alone And sought therapy I thought this burden was my punishment I carried the weight for years But never waned from my sobriety However, I began to fatigue After I lost my dad in 2024

Last December, after closing his estate My guilt and shame became too heavy I fell to my knees Sobbing, begging, and pleading To God for forgiveness I heard, Seek Him, He's waiting In that moment, I surrendered my life to Jesus I felt Him again When my daughter played Reckless Love of God A passion ignited within me And I started reading my Bible Since giving my life to Jesus It's been a journey Of learning and growing God has placed the most amazing people In my path I'm still navigating life But I choose to trust God And place everything in His hands I know I'm His child And that He is teaching and guiding me Today, I'm going public with my faith Juliet, Jesus said Every disciple should be baptized In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit And because of your confession of faith Today I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ For the remission of your sins

And according to Scripture You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit You heard your children then You hear your children now You are the same God You are the same God You answered prayers back then And you will answer now You are the same God You are the same God You were provided then You are provided now Yes you are You are the same God You moved in power then God move in power now You are the same God You are the same God You were a healer then You are a healer now You are the same God You are the same God You were a savior then You are a savior now You are the same God You are the same God I need you, oh God, my God, I need you now How I need you now Oh, oh, oh Korah, Korah, God of angels

I'm standing on your faithfulness On your faithfulness Oh, God, my God, I need you now Oh, God, my God, I need you now How I need you now Korah, Korah, God of angels I'm standing on your faithfulness On your faithfulness Faithful God Faithful in the mountain, faithful on the mountain Oh, oh, oh You free the captives You're freeing hearts right now You are the same, God You are the same, God You touch the lepers I feel your touch right now You are the same, God You are the same, God Yes, you are Faithful in every age, every season, every generation I'm calling on the Holy Spirit Oh, mighty river, come and fill me again Come and fill me again Come and fill me again Hallelujah, shout hallelujah All to Jesus, all to Jesus Amen. It is great and greatly to be praised. Amen. Before we transition to the next portion of the service, go ahead and find three new people, three people you've never met before.

Tell them I'm glad you're here and I hope you've heard the message. Welcome to Church for the City, where we'll teach the word of God, where we'll encounter the presence of the Lord and we will spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glad you're here with us. Honestly, I told the first and second service, I'm just glad anybody comes to church on this weekend. It's a tough, tough weekend with everything going on, the heat. People can find many reasons to be at other places, but thank God you're in the house of God. How many are glad to be in God's house? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, I want to just remind you that this coming weekend, we have our serve day and family day. It's an annual thing that we do. The second weekend of July, we go out into the community as just a force of people. We go out and serve. We go help other nonprofit agencies. We go do some benevolent things, whether it's at a laundromat where we pay for people's laundry or we pull up to a gas station and pay for people's gas and various things. It gives us opportunity to show the love of Jesus and to pray for people. I think there's about 400 people that are mobilized to do this or 400 people that's needed. It's not too late to be part of this.

It really is a big reflection of who we are as a church. When we say we love our city, our whole intent really is to prove that. And so that's what we do on that. weekend. So I know the information is on the website. I also know if you tap the disc in front of you, it'll also pull up any information you may need. If you still desire to be part of that, if you don't have a We Love Our City shirt, we'll give you one of those and you'll have, we'll just all, we meet together and then we go to our various places of serving. And so that's Saturday. Sunday is our Family Fun Day. And those services are designed for, each service is about an hour. And we have food trucks from multiple places, all kinds of activity for the kids over in the yard and a lot there. And so after each service, we encourage you to go have lunch. If you invite somebody to the church, you can certainly take them to lunch with you. None of that is a cost to you. It's a great time, great event, and plenty for the kids to do. Obviously water, water stuff. So obviously you want to bring some stuff for your kids to change into. But that's a big day for us. We really, really look forward to it. And it's a great time to invite somebody to the church also. Again, it gives you an opportunity for them to see what the church is about and to have lunch with them at no cost. Now, on the screen, you'll see the various ways to give here at CTC. There's offering boxes also all around the building. It's your generosity, everything that we do, all of the ministry stuff we do from in-house to out-of-house and out around the country, around the world, stuff like Fun Day, Serve Day, that's all because of your generosity. Those of us that have a covenant relationship with the Lord, we understand what the heart of God is for us. It's to give out of our income for the work of the kingdom of God. But it's because of that response and faith and that obedience that allows us to do what we do. On the other side of that though, it is having that kind of heart of generosity and giving that you see the Lord keep his word in providing and caring for you. It's in that act of generosity, that act of faith, that the Lord promises to provide for his people. And so, that's why David was able to say, I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread because the God is a God that keeps his promises and he provides for his people through our faithful giving and faithful generosity. Can you say amen to that? Now, of course, yesterday, two things was being celebrated, two things that I love. One was America, 250 years of America being America,

a country that I love and a great land and I'm thankful with all of our problems. I'm so grateful to be in America, but also 33 years of CTC being a church and we're so, so thankful and grateful for that. God has been faithful throughout the years. Now, you're going to see a video that kind of gives some highlights over the years and I do want to let you know the song that's being sung is another one of the original songs that Pastor Phillip and Billy wrote. We're very close on releasing that whole album, but I think you'll enjoy this song also. It's the title song of the album called Castles. So, let's see what the Lord has done over 33 years. On a solid ground Jesus be my cornerstone All the world can give is sinking sand Every island we've made known will not stand So I won't waste my days on earthly things Jesus be my all in all All my treasures stored offshore of heaven In Your ways I'm where I can be You are all that matters You're all I'm chasing after All my dreams and all my seeking First belongs to You, Your kingdom You are all that matters ♪ You're all that matters ♪ ♪ You're all I'm chasing after ♪ ♪ All the wealth and power a king could want ♪ ♪ Can never satisfy my heart ♪ ♪ So I'm laying down my titles ♪ ♪ I'm surrendering my castle ♪ ♪ The only throne I seek is where you'll be ♪ ♪ I'm casting all these crowns at your feet ♪ ♪ I'm giving my life to the cause of Christ ♪ ♪ To the cause of Christ Jesus you're my all in all ♪

♪ All my treasures for the shores of heaven ♪ ♪ In your reign somewhere I've left them ♪ ♪ You are all that matters ♪ ♪ You're all I'm chasing after ♪ ♪ All my dreams and all I seek ♪ ♪ First belongs to you, your kingdom ♪ ♪ You are all that matters ♪ ♪ You're all I'm chasing after ♪ ♪ All the wealth and power a king could want ♪ ♪ Can never satisfy my heart ♪ ♪ So I'm laying down my titles ♪ ♪ I'm surrendering my castle ♪ And I think it's worthy of celebration. God has been so good to us for 33 years. And thank you all so much for being a part of that. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. So thank you and God bless you. I just am so, so grateful, so grateful. Well, I think we can go ahead and I know you just stood, but this time with your Bible. And we're going to go to Matthew chapter 16. And we're going to look at verses 13 through 19. And I'll pray also for some things that we need to pray about. Matthew 16, 13 through 19. Here's the word of the Lord. It says, When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist,

others say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered 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 tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So Father, reading of the word, can you say amen? Father, I want to thank you for this opportunity in sharing the word of God. It's a joy, honestly, to be able to stand in this place. Again, one of the freedoms that we have in America is to be able to stand together here in the house of God to sing the songs of Zion, to hear the word preached and to preach the word. So Lord, we're thankful for that, and we're thankful for what you have done over the 33 years, and looking forward to even more of what you would do even beyond that. And Lord God, I also just want to thank you for the opportunities we have that have an impact in our city. And I do pray, Lord, that our time on the weekend, with Serve Day, and, Lord, our Sunday Funday, Family Funday, that it will indeed, Lord,

as people are drawn to the house of God, they will hear a message that will liberate their soul as we go out and work in the community that the light of Jesus Christ will shine and reflect. And so we ask you for your grace for that. We do pray for our country and our land, that you will bless our leaders and give them guidance and wisdom on every level, national, state, county, city, every level, Lord God, as the scripture says that righteousness exalts a nation. I pray, Lord God, that every one of these leaders, male or female, will seek for the righteousness of God in all of the decisions that they make, that our land, O God, will be exalted before you, before your presence. Father, I do pray. for our team that's traveling from Indonesia. Lord, I pray that they arrive home safely. We're looking forward to hearing the reports of the work that you've done as they went from island to island, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray for Iglesia Apostolica, Lord, and their new building, their new endeavor. I just pray you'd be with them and Pastor Gregorio, that they would do the work that you've called them to do and do a great job in the part of the vineyard that you have placed. Father, may we receive from you. Lord, may I decrease that you might increase, that your word will be preeminent, and each of us can receive from it and grow by it. In Christ's name we pray. May the people of God say amen. Amen. God bless you. You can be seated. We're starting a new series, and it'll be four weeks. It's through the month of July, which every July we usually do a series on reflecting the church, something of that nature, mission, vision, values of the church, et cetera. Thank you, Philip. I will say we ended the series on family last week, and Pastor Tyrone, really, Pastor Ty done a

great job on his message last week on the family. And every one of those weeks certainly had an impact, whether it be the one on building the foundation of your family on the word, or the one that was regarding marriage, parenting, et cetera. You know, every time you hear a message, honestly, my prayer is that you would take something with you every week. There's 52 times that someone's going to stand here and bring forth the word. And I know this may not be quite the right kind of math, but it's Yuma High criminal math. But if you hear 52 messages, you're going to be 52 times better than you were last year. You want to be better. Amen? You want to be better. So you don't never have to memorize the whole message, but if you get something that the Lord deposits in you and you can build on that, you're going to be better. Can you say amen? How many want to be better? Amen. You're going to be better. So whatever you gained last week, man, please take that and say the same for here. Now, you know, we just prayed for our country and, of course, was coming off the heels of the celebration of it. And there's a lot of thoughts that I have about America. I have a great love for America and for the country. I certainly like the whole idea of the experiment of America. It was the first nation, and as far as I know, it's still the only nation that wanted to establish a nation and a government where people were conscious of God, of God being their authority. And that all of the rights that was given to the people of this land were God-given rights, not rights given to them by government, but endowed by the Creator and how they established, from Isaiah 33, the biblical principles of the three branches of government. I love the fact that one of the main missions of when America was being established or sought after was to establish missions works to spread the gospel. And as far as I know, by far, America still sends out more missionaries around the world than any other nation that I'm aware of. The fact that we have free enterprise and capitalism and we get to be generous out of our own individual blessings from the Lord and a Christian community can be established is what the Puritans and the pilgrims wanted from the beginning. So there's a lot of things for me that I certainly do love about America and I'm

thankful for. And of course, there can be some things that are grieving. We can start with slavery in the 1600s and we can even come all the way up to the day and see a degeneration of what I think is biblical morality and biblical truth, et cetera. I do think that the plagues that are upon our country, which a lot of those is because of the freedoms that we have, but a lot of the plagues that we deal with from pornography and prostitution and abortion and the rise of the LGBTQ ideology and all of the tenets with that and same-sex marriage, anti-Semitism and just violence that people can do to themselves through vices and addictions and et cetera. I do think obviously those are a major problem that's going to affect our country for years and generations to come. But it does remind you, it does remind us that no matter what... purpose was of America being established, no matter what the intent was, the nation is as fragile as the people that are in power. The nation is as fragile as the people that are in power. But while this is happening, while whatever course of life is going on, whether we can identify areas where we see that we have certainly digressed from either what the intent was, what the purpose was, or even what we desire as a nation, no matter how you view that, the one thing that is happening and still happening and will never stop happening is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is being built. And so as the nation goes, again, we can see things that, of course, we love and embrace and see things that we can be concerned about, but no matter what course the nation goes, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is still being built. He is doing His work, and it's because of that that my ultimate love and my ultimate hope is not in the experiment called America. My ultimate love and my ultimate hope is in Jesus Christ building this church. That's the ultimate for me. And so for 2,000 years, He's never stopped doing that. And even when I peruse the craziness of the world, I will tell you the church is the only thing to me that makes sense. The church is the only thing that makes sense because who's the head of it. Now, by no means is the church perfect. The church is not perfect because there's imperfect people in the church like all of us are, sinful people. If you ever find a perfect church, do not go to it because you will mess it up if you ever find one. And so, but even with that, with the church being imperfect people, the nature of its founder who is Jesus Christ, the church is

a community of repentance. It's a community of forgiveness. It's a community of reconciliation. And so when we gather here, the church is not just a crowd of people in a building with a bunch of independent, autonomous individuals believing their own thing. He's made us a family. The church is a family. The visible church is made up of believers and children of God throughout the world. That's actually the meaning of the word church. Our English word church, the Greek word ekklesia, is called out people, called out ones, called out of, out of darkness, out of sin, out of rebellion, called into community, called into a gathering, called into an assembly. And those of us that he's called out and placed in the community or placed in his family, the scripture says he's given us his word which is a great gift. He's poured his spirit into us and he's commissioned all of us to carry out his mission. And so the church again will be, always will be the light of the world. The church is the city that is sitting on the hill. And we're counter-culture community. The flow of culture does not include the mindset of Christianity or the mindset of the word or the principles of our God and father. So we're counter-culture. The message that we're bringing is a counter-cultural message, but it's a message of truth. As a matter of fact, in 1 Timothy chapter 3, this is what Paul says about the church. He says, it is the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. The church is. And the church should never be ashamed for speaking truth. The church should never be ashamed for declaring what is right and what is wrong. The church should never be ashamed or concerned about offending people when it comes to speaking truth. We should never be ashamed of that. No Christian should ever be ashamed or afraid. God bless you. God bless you. Should never be ashamed to speak what you know is right and what is true. That's part of your identity. You are in the family of God. Therefore, your DNA is of God. So what comes out of your mouth, the way you act, the way you do things is of your father's DNA. You've been cut from the cloth of the almighty God. And you know there's no falseness in Jesus. There's no untruth. There's nothing false in the word of God. about you. If somebody cuts you open, what ought to come out of you gushing is truth. That's kind of a graphic illustration, isn't it? But there it is. Y'all right? Am I talking to the right group? First and second service was horrible today. I need help here at this

third service. Don't tell them I said that, but they were bad. I want to go home and watch Mexico win. So give me something to be excited about so when I leave here, I'm in the right mindset. All right. So y'all all right? Yeah, tell me you're all right. And so I want to talk to you about four things that the church Jesus is building, four tenets of that. And one is this, the church Jesus is building is being built on a confession. I want to remind you of what we read in Matthew 16, 13. Jesus was in the region of Caesarea Philippi. There's some background I could tell you on why he was there and what he was pointing to when he stood there. But he was in that region with his disciples, a perfect place for him to ask this question. And he said, who do they say that I, the son of man, am? And they gave him these answers. Some say you John the Baptist, some say you Jeremiah, some say you some other prophet. They were actually being kind to Jesus because what people were saying about Jesus is that he was a lunatic, that he was a wine-bibber, that he was part of Satan's work. They were being kind to him. But Peter, but then Jesus says, but who do you say that I am? That's the question that he asked the disciples that honestly every one of us have to answer. It's okay, I guess, for you to say what you believe or what you've been told or who you've been told Jesus is, but there's going to be a time when you got to answer that question. You got to answer that question. Who do you say that Jesus is? So Peter says, who do you say that I am? And Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. What a revelation that he gave because it tells us that Christianity is built on a revealed identity, a revealed identity that our leader, the head of us, the head of the church is Jesus the King, the Savior. And so what Peter confesses, it's not a human insight, it's a divine revelation. His confession was an agreement. His confession was, I agree, you are the Christ, you are the son of the living God. I personally acknowledge that you are the Messiah, that that confession establishes for all of us who we truly believe Jesus to be. But that confession also leads to stuff. Everybody has to have a personal confession. Whether you say it out of your mouth or not, there are things you do believe about Jesus. You do have thoughts about Jesus. There's no reason for you to walk into a Christian church and think nothing about Jesus. You're smarter than that. You're smart people than that. You ain't just going to waste your time coming to a Christian church and have no thoughts about Jesus. Now I'm not saying all your thoughts

are right thoughts, but you got some kind of thought about Jesus. But here is where everybody has to land. No one goes before God on judgment day and he says, well, what do you think about my son, Jesus? I don't know. No, that ain't going to work. No, that ain't going to work. There is a confession that is to come out of you. Now here's what I know about our life being built on a confession. According to the Scripture, our confession of Christ leads to salvation. Our confession leads to salvation. Now follow me on this. That leads to salvation, not your water baptism. Now at your water baptism, you make a confession. That's what leads to salvation. It's not the great things you've done in the church over the years. That's not what leads to salvation. What leads to salvation and this alone is what you say you believe about Jesus Christ. There it is right there. Now this ain't something I made up. Here it is. Here it is, Romans 10, 9-10. Listen to this, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It's what you believe in your heart. Do you believe that Jesus died? Do you believe that he was buried? Do you believe... that Jesus rose from the dead. Now, you cannot, if you stop with believing, well, I believe Jesus lived and I believe Jesus died, but I'm not so sure if he raised from the dead, then you're still in a, you're in a fix. Because the only way that your sins are forgiven is if the one who took on your sins and was buried in the ground and rose again so your sins can be wiped away, that's the only way you can be forgiven. So that's why it's important that you believe that Jesus died, was buried, and he rose from the dead. If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus was raised from the dead, then the scripture says you will be saved. That confession leads to salvation, that confession.

Now, genuine confession never stops at conversion. Once you confess who Christ is, you don't just end there. In other words, the objective and the goal for our Lord, for you in your life, and even for the church, even for the word of God, is not just that you come to the point of conversion, because here's what confession does. Confession always brings us into the mission of Christ. I am going to do and I am going to follow the one I believe in. It's not even a far stretch to say if the man took on your sins and died for you, which is the greatest thing anybody has ever done for you, I don't care if somebody died and gave you a multimillion-dollar inheritance. It doesn't come close to Jesus dying on the cross and saving your soul. It don't come close. And if this man, Jesus, has died for me, cleansed me of all of my sin, forgiven me, what would I not do for him? Did y'all add that up? What he done, plus for me, equals me doing whatever he wants me to do for him. Salvation, that confession, leads to the mission. You personally, voluntarily offer yourself as a witness. God never reveals himself merely just to give us more information. No, no, he reveals himself to enlist us into the life of service for him,

giving ourselves to him. We see it with Isaiah when he was cleansed in the day that he was in the temple. Once he was cleansed, then the Lord says, who shall I send? And Isaiah then says, here I am, Lord, send me. Send me, why? Because that confession automatically brings you as a witness to him. And that's one of the things that we do with Serve Day is being people who we know who we are in Christ Jesus, going out to the world, saying, hey, yes, we come from CTC, we come from Church for the City, but honestly, we're representing Jesus Christ. When I go to that gas pump and I look that person in the eye and I say, hey, my name is Tyrone. I'm so glad that I caught you here today. First of all, I wanna know if there's anything I can pray for you about. Oh, yeah, usually we always do. We always have people pray. And then I say, guess what, I'm gonna buy you gas. Man, man, I'm so grateful for your church. Well, you can be grateful for the church, but I'm grateful for Jesus. That's why we're here. We're here because of what Christ has done for us. And that personal confession will strengthen your journey to eternity. You know as well as I do,

from the time you give your life to Christ to the time the Lord returns to take us home, there's a whole lot of life we're living in between. And that life ain't always good. There's stuff that takes place in life that can really affect us. I think probably all of us have had moments in life where you thought, this is the thing that's gonna break me. This is the thing that may bring me to the end. This is the thing that might finish me off. But you know what Paul said to Timothy about our confession? He says this, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. This is what Paul is saying. When you get into those moments, when you feel like it's the end, it's your confession that gets you through. Because even though the weight of the world may be on my back, it ain't gonna break my back. Why? Because I'm a child of the king. Because I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. This ain't gonna finish me off. Why? Because he's promised me eternity, which is still ahead of me. So I'm gonna get through this.

Why am I gonna get through it? Because my confession is unto the Christ and Lord who has saved me. It's the power of a good confession. And so, Jesus is. building the church on a confession, but Jesus is also building a church on himself. Matthew 16, 17, and 18, after Peter made that statement, Jesus said, Then blessed are you, Simon Barjona, the 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. On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Now, I've heard this taught in ways, different ways than I think what the text really is saying, and I've heard it taught that what Jesus was saying is that he was building the church upon Peter. First of all, I'm going to just tell you why that does not make sense. Why would Jesus build the church on somebody who's fragile, frail, and unstable? Why would Jesus do that? If Jesus came to me and say, Tyrone, I'm going to build the church on you, this thing will crack up before you get out of this building, because we're frail, broken people. That's not what he's saying. He uses two words there. Peter is the word petros, and the word for rock is petra. This is the statement that he's making. I'm going to build the church, but I'm building this church. I am the foundation of it. I'm building on the rock, but I'm building this church through confessing Peters, if you can say it. People who have a confession of who Jesus is, he's saying, I'm using you folks to build this church that I'm building. It's not built upon Peter. It's built upon the confession of Peter, meaning that Jesus is building his church through every one of us who confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. That's building on the rock of Christ through confessing people. Can you say amen? But he's the cornerstone. He's the cornerstone. First Corinthians 3.11 says, for no one can lay any foundation other on the one that we've already have, that's Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.20 says, together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ himself. So, the foundation is Christ. The builder is Christ, and Christ is building the church upon himself. Here's the third thing. Christ is building the church that's built to win. It's built to win. You notice these words he said here. He says,

the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. And you know as well as I do, gates are defensive. They're not offensive. Gates are defensive. Gates are designed to protect whatever is behind it. Gates…well, in the days of antiquity, when people built…and if you ever go to some…a lot of times, the cities in Europe, etc., maybe the Middle East, you can still see traces of the old wall because they built cities, and then they built walls to protect the people inside the cities and had gates to keep invading armies from coming in. If those gates was breached, then, of course, it's open season on what's on the inside. Gates are never on the offense. Gates are on the defense. By no means is Jesus saying the church needs to get behind the gates and protect itself from the devil or from the things of hell or from the people of evil people. No. He's saying just the opposite. He's saying the church is the one on the offense. It's the gates of hell that are on the defense. In other words, it's never the church that should be afraid of the enemy and his camp. It's the enemy and his camp that ought to be afraid of the church. It's the church that's charging. It's the church that's advancing. It's the church that's trying to protect all of those within it. Of course, the devil wants to protect people that's in addiction and people that's jacked up with all kinds of anxieties and fear. He wants to keep people in bondage. He wants to protect those. But the church of the Lord Jesus Christ storms the gates of hell. And by the preaching of the gospel, snatches people out of the hands of the devil, keeps people from death, taking them out of darkness into this marvelous light because the church of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be stopped. Hell can't stop it. Death can't stop it. Sin can't stop it. The church prevails. It's not Satan who wins at the end of this. Don't be deceived when people try to tell you the church is weak and this and that. Maybe there are people in the church that's not doing the things they ought to do. But I can assure you, I've read this book all the way to the end numerous times. I can tell you right now, we win. And not because of our goodness and grace, but the one that we're built on, the rock, the foundation. Jesus did not build His church to lose. We ain't serving that kind of a failure. We're serving a God that's absolutely victorious. Now, does the devil throw us some black eyes every now and then?

Yeah, yeah, there's some things that, you know, it looks like, man, this just ain't going the way that we think this ought to go for the sake of righteousness. I get that, but those blows don't come, anybody that's done any boxing, you know you're gonna get hit. You know you're gonna get, when we do our pre-game speech for the football game, certainly we tell them, this is the plan, this is what we're gonna do, this is what we're gonna do, this is how this is gonna work, but we usually always say, now they will get a big play on you. They're gonna get a big play and score the touchdown, but don't get your heads down as if that's the end of the game. That's just a play. The whole idea at the end of this thing, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we absolutely win. The gates of hell shall not prevail. The kingdom is advancing. The kingdom is increasing. And how is this kingdom advancing? How is this, how are we doing this? How is this church being built? It's being built on the gospel, the gospel message. It seem like every service, I get less time.

I don't know, what do y'all do, text each other? That's enough, go with this. No, just. It's built on the gospel message. Listen to this, Matthew 16, 19. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. I love this. Again, I didn't heard this, especially, oh man, coming out of Pentecostal church, or being in the Pentecostal church, I didn't heard this verse used in so many different ways, of binding and loosing and all of that stuff. But you know this, right? Keys open doors and keys unlock doors. Keys open, keys unlock. He says, I'm giving you the keys to the kingdom. I'm giving you the thing that unlocks the doors for people to get in. I'm giving you the thing that if people don't accept what I'm giving you, the door remains locked. He's not saying that we personally have the authority to determine who comes in and who doesn't. No way the Lord would trust us with that kind of authority to say who goes to heaven and who's going to hell. You may have a list of who you want to go to hell, but he ain't giving us that kind of key.

The key that opens this thing up is the gospel message. What we proclaim is the key that brings people in. It ain't the number of people that we raise from the dead. It ain't the number of blind eyes that we open. It's not the number of healings that we do that bring people in the kingdom of God. All of that is biblical and all of that is right. But the only thing that can bring people into the kingdom of God is the gospel message. The preaching of the gospel that informs people of what Christ has done for them so that they, yes, just like us, can also be saved. It's the preaching of the gospel. Listen, I know I may have Luke 24, but just go ahead to Acts 2, 36. It says, so let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucify to be both Lord and Messiah. Peter's words pierced their hearts and they said to the other apostles, brothers, what should we do? This was on the day of Pentecost. Spirit of the Lord came down. People were speaking in tongues, et cetera. Peter started preaching a message because they asked what's going on here? Are they drunk? He said, no, they ain't drunk. And he gave the history of Old Testament and the promise of the Messiah

and said what you're witnessing indeed is the spirit of the Lord and what you're hearing about is the Jesus that you crucified. You killed him. This is all possible because of Jesus. They heard these words. They were convinced now that this Jesus was Lord and Messiah. So they said, what should we do? Now they're asking the question. Okay, we hear this. We get it. This is about Jesus. So what do we do? Here's the key. The key is getting ready to unlock the door. Peter replied, each one of you must repent of your sins, turn to God, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You will receive the very thing that assures you that you have eternal life, the guarantee, the down payment. How do they do that? By listening to the gospel message that Jesus Christ is the one that died for them, took up on their sins, was buried, rose again. And so now what do I do if I want to become part of this Jesus?

Depend of your sins. Turn from who you believe Jesus was and what you believe about yourself and turn to Jesus who's the only one that's able to forgive you, the only one that's able to wash your sins away, the only one that's able to promise you eternal life. Be baptized in his name that declares that I'm now a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and be filled with his spirit. That's the key to the kingdom of God. That's the only thing that brings people out. That's the only thing. And so what Jesus is saying here is this, this key that I'm giving you is the one that absolutely brings people to the place of eternity. Now, if people don't accept that, if they don't accept that message, then there's no other key that can get them into heaven. Hear this, Acts 4, 8 through 12, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all of the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, that you crucify, but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures where it says, the stone that your builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. The one that you rejected, that's what your life has to be built on. That's the cornerstone of your life. That's the foundation that you got to begin your life on. And then he says this, there is salvation in no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. It's only the name of Jesus. You can call the name of Allah and be religious. You can call the name of Buddha and be religious. You can call on Mother Mary and be religious. You can call on Joseph Smith and be religious. But if you want to be saved, there's only one name you can call on for salvation, and that's Jesus Christ. That's Jesus Christ. And so, in closing this, 250 years ago, there was a nation that began to be built. Thirty-three years ago, there was a church here in Yuma, Arizona that was planted. Both of them are worth celebrating, but neither one of them is the greatest building project today. The greatest building project today is the building of the Church of the Lord

Jesus Christ. That's the greatest building project today. Jesus said, I will build my church. Kings can't stop him. Hell can't stop him. Death can't stop him. Satan can't stop him. Jesus is still building his church. And the greatest privilege that we have, honestly, is being part of what Jesus is building, being part of it, becoming one of the living stones in the building. So, we don't merely admire the church, we belong to it. You don't want to just visit the church, you want to build with Christ. I'd love for testimonies, if God gives me grace to live another 33 years, I'd love to hear the stories of people who say they're in CTC because some of you were here 33 years ago and still doing the work of God to build this church. God is building something that will last for eternity, that we get to be with him for eternity. Christ is certainly the foundation. You got to trust him, commit to his church, engage in a mission, and stand in victory. Stand in victory. There's no defeat for us in Christ Jesus. There's no defeat for us because we're on the winning side with our Lord and Savior. And here's what Paul said about it. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So, tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loved us. We are on the right team if you're on Team Jesus. The only way to get in on Team Jesus is to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust him, to give your life to Jesus, build your life on Christ, a foundation of the church that is the most glorious thing that this planet has ever seen. I want everybody to stand, and I believe in your hand, you should have a communion element. Now, I also believe that what you're holding in your hand absolutely represents the most important matter of faith that you can have, and that is that you truly trust in Jesus. Every time we come to the table of the Lord, it's... should be a reminder of what we've committed to and a reaffirmation of whom we committed to. That we have come to the table of the Lord to give Him thanksgiving for who He is in our life, for what He has done, and that I'm surrendered to that. These elements represent the body of the Lord and the blood of the Lord that allows

us to come before the presence of our God as His sons and as His daughters, experiencing the full blessing of what it means to be in the kingdom of God. You know, if you can think back on this when they crucified the Lord, of course, His body was already quite beat up, and they stuck a sword in His side and out came blood and water. You may remember that the temple curtain tore because before, nobody can go into the holies of holies except special priests. No one can get into the presence of the Lord except these priests. But when that curtain tore because of the broken body of the Lord and the bloodshed of Jesus, when that curtain tore, that means every one of us can go right into His presence. Every one of us can, and we do that with thanksgiving. Father, I want to thank you for the opportunity we have right now to reaffirm, to renew, and to reassure that we are your children. I am your son, we are your daughters, and we thank you for the blood of Jesus, the broken body of Jesus, that every one of us have the right to eternal life, and our life is built on a strong foundation. Let us eat together. Let us drink together. Can you shout, hallelujah? Prayer team will be here. We're going to go into a time of worship. God bless you. ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above you, heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above you, heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen, church. We'll see you next Sunday. Be blessed.