TV 1767 | I Will Build My Church Part One

You know, I've had the privilege of traveling overseas a number of times and usually wind up getting called to speak to a bunch of pastors and teach them a little bit or try to. And just about every time I've gone to a new group, my mind has gone to the same passage and it's in Matthew chapter 16. Because we have, we are so attuned to life in a visible world, a world we touch and see and hear and our own abilities to do stuff, that I don't think we really understand the nature of God's kingdom. And my prayer, and I believe the Lord's heart, is that we learn more and more. I thank God for everything that He has done. I thank Him for what He is doing. But I want to be more attuned, and I feel my own need to be a whole lot more attuned to that, to understand it in a way where I can participate in everything that He is doing. Because that's the only thing that matters, isn't it? So remember in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asks His disciples, I believe it's in verse 13, who do people say the Son of Man is? Now Son of Man, obviously He was referring to Himself, but He's wanting to know what's the opinion of the people. They've been going around doing miracles and teaching, and there's obviously something unusual going on. So what do they think? Who do they think I am? And of course, the various opinions were recounted that some say you're John the Baptist, who had been dead at this point, so he's been raised from the dead, here he is. Or some say Elijah is here, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. So they were coming up with human evaluations. But Jesus asked them, who do you say that I am? And Peter jumps in and he says, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. So Simon got it right, didn't he? In this case, right afterwards he messed up, but nonetheless, right here, he had some truth, didn't he?

All right, so how did he have that? How did Peter know something that they didn't know? Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Boy, that is a central truth right there. Because it doesn't matter who I am or what I say, what words come out of my lips or anybody else's. If God does not reveal himself to a human heart, they're lost. You've got to have that. You know, I've heard many times that the rock upon which he goes on, well, let me go ahead and read it. But my Father which is in heaven, and I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. All right, now in the first place, I think we know the rock is not Peter. The name Peter meant a little stone. So in a sense, Peter, the Lord was saying, hey, you're part of this, but there's a rock. I'm here to build something. I've come into this world for a reason. Something is going to be built, and it's going to be built on a solid foundation. And the foundation is not just the fact of revelation. The fact is what does revelation reveal? It reveals who the Son of God is, and what he is about, because that's the key to everything. Every human being who truly sees that from their hearts, and really gets it, and surrenders to that truth, and acknowledges who he is, becomes a part of something that's eternal. Everyone who hardens their heart and says no, winds up, as was expressed earlier, being destroyed in the end. And all of this is for nothing, no matter what they do in this world. But oh, what a blessing there was when the Lord had revealed this simple truth. But what a promise it was, okay? Oh, by the way, I'll drop this in here for those who are familiar with the idea that,

well, Peter is the rock. Peter himself spoke about the foundation, didn't he? If you go into 1 Peter, I think it's early in chapter two, he talks about the building, the temple that the Lord is building, and there's a ... Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. But he also says, you as living stones are what? Builded together for a temple. So he got this, he understood something a lot of people don't understand. Hey, I may be a rock, I may be a little stone here, but he's the rock. He's the one, you know, the Old Testament says, one of the prophets, the Lord himself will lay in Zion a cornerstone, a sure foundation, and those who put their trust in Him will not be ashamed or not be put to whatever, several different translations. So I thank God that in the midst of a world that is getting crazier by the minute, all the cracks are beginning to show in a greater fashion, we have a hope that goes far beyond anything that anybody could possibly dream up in this world. There are no solutions. The world exists for one reason and one reason only, because God saw the condition of mankind, sent His Son to do what He did to finish a perfect work on the cross, declare it is finished before He gave up the ghost, and then was put in a tomb but rose again in victory over all this power of darkness. Praise God. Don't worry, I'll try to get it out without all the stuttering, but that's okay. You get the point. I'm more interested in the Spirit that God wants to project than I am in the perfection of the words. And there's a lesson in that for us. We don't have to be so perfect. We just have to be what we are, but be surrendered and understand the process, okay? But the thing that has captured my attention so many times over the years is the simple promise of what He's going to do on this rock. He says, I will build my church.

And you can take every word there and build a message. I, God never told me or you or anybody else to build Him a church. We need to realize that what God does is Him doing it. And what He has given His Son to do is the Son actually doing it. I will build my church. When the ... How did Jesus do what He did? These are things we've talked about many times. But you remember that not only did He do and say so many things at the end, He said the words that come out of my mouth, they're not from me. The Father who is living in me is doing His work. So Jesus understood, I'm not coming here with a manual and I'm supposed to try to figure it out and do what I'm supposed to do this or that. I literally have an inspiration, the God who is Spirit lives in me. And everything that He calls me to do, He's there and it's really Him doing it and not me. Boy, what a simple lesson about how the kingdom of God works. That's what God is wanting from every one of us. Because when Jesus was here, the Father was in Him doing His work. Well now, what's going on? Jesus is here to do His work, but how does He do that? Through us. Oh, may God burn this truth into our hearts because if that's not what our life is about, what is it about? And God help you. If you don't know Him, oh God, cry out. If you've never been born of His Spirit, if He's never revealed these, the reality of who Jesus is and what He came to do, oh God, your life is worthless. I don't care what you accomplish in your life. If you're not part of what He has set in motion and what He is doing, nothing else will last. But oh, what a promise there is, I will build my church.

I'm going to do it. That's what God wants me to do when I get up in the morning, especially when you come into here and He brings us together. The only thing that matters is, is He here and is He active? Are we listening to Him? Are we conscious, Lord, I can't do anything and I don't know what to do. But Jesus said, by myself, I can do nothing. Well, that kind of puts us in the same boat, doesn't it? And more so, how can we do anything that accomplishes anything? Now, we can kind of reduce it to a religion and do all the outward stuff, but that's not what it's about. The whole business of being the people of God is for Him. Him to dwell in us and do His work and empower us to do our part. And to be a part of the process. And all that He's called us to do and to be is Him in us. He put you and me to death at the cross. As Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ, that's a fact. Whether we want to admit it or not, that's a fact. But the life I now live, he says, I live by the faith. Of the son of God. It's not it's no longer I, but Christ, who lives in me and the life I now live. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Praise God. God has not just called us to a religion and say, here's the man, you'll do it. He's come to inhabit a people to empower us, to change us, to give us new hearts and new spirits and new lives, to give us things that to do that are meaningful for all eternity. Just in our everyday relationships, in our everyday lives. He wants to live in us.

Here we're coming into a meeting. How many of you believe the Lord wants to be in our midst? And be recognized. That's the thing we can he he's promised to be with his own, but I wonder if his own are with him sometimes. God wants the people who will just look to him with faith and respond and say, Lord, here's my life. It doesn't belong to me anymore. I get it. I understand who you are. I understand why the father sent you, because any other result, if he hadn't done that for somebody like me. Oh, my God. What what hope would I have had? But now I have a hope that goes beyond imagining. Praise God. Praise God. May God just burn these truths into our hearts so that that becomes the very definition of our lives. That he has come to live in us and to and to do his and to do everything, do his work. OK. Now, as I say, you can emphasize every word, the second word is will. Praise God, what an awesome word. It's not I'm I'm going to try. I'm going to see if I can persuade a few people to go along with me. I will. Yes. There is a definiteness to what he promised to do. There was no uncertainty in it. He I mean, we live in a to say that the obvious, we live in an extremely uncertain world. Nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow.

I mean, our society could crumble. I don't want to say that just to just to be sounds scary, but I mean, my hope is not here. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. But it's the promise of somebody who has all authority. In heaven and in earth. There's nothing that can stop him from doing what he has promised to do. He will do it. I want to sign up for something like that with all of my heart and say, Lord, you look at me and you looked at me and you saw somebody who had no qualifications for this. No way could I be look at myself and say, there's somebody who's who deserves to be part of this. Oh, my God. If there's anybody who thinks it's that way, you're you're you're in a bad place. But, you know, there's a the flip side of that is that there's nobody who can look in the mirror and say, well, I couldn't possibly be part of something like that. I'm too bad. I'm this. I'm that. I don't have what it takes. No, I don't either. There's not a single person here who has what it takes for what this is talking about. We're made we were born into a family that is of rebels that just doesn't all it wants to do is please self. It takes a supernatural work of God, but he has promised I will. So I pray if anybody hears this and you think he couldn't be possibly talking about somebody like me. You're the very one. You're the very one that this is talking about. Because I'll tell you, if you have that kind of a a heartless say somebody who knows that you don't deserve it.

That just might be the Lord's mercy to show you that. And when God shows us. Our need, what kind of a heart is behind that? Is it a heart that just says, straighten up and fly right, what's the matter with you? If God has shown you that you don't deserve Him, if He has shown you your need, that's a pretty good reason to say, I have hope. Because what about people who don't know they have a need, they're just going to blindly go along and they resist that idea, no, I'm this, no, I'm that. I'll tell you, the one who has a sense of their unworthiness is the very one He came to save. That wouldn't happen if God weren't at work. In fact, what He's talking about here, I will build my church. This is not just theology, folks. This is not just a statement of history, some little truth we believe. This is happening right now. This is a description of something that is happening here this morning, right here, right now. He is here. How could that be? I thought He was on a throne somewhere. Yeah, but He is in perfect harmony, joined together with His Father. Well, what's His Father like? God is Spirit. There is no place where He is not. He inhabits eternity. He is everywhere at all times and all places, I mean, beyond our understanding. And the Father is operating in harmony with Him, so that gives the Son power to sit on a throne somewhere, and yet to be right here, living, active, not just somebody we talk about. He is here.

And God wants us to live with that realization. He is present, active, working. What He said to Peter is happening right now. We're in the middle of something that is eternal that is happening, and God wants us to be alert, aware, and say, oh God, I want to completely be part of what You're doing. But oh, what an incredible promise of the scriptures we've quoted so many times, where Paul was persuaded that He who has begun a good work in you is going to do what? He's going to carry it out until the day of Jesus Christ. And I'll just drop this in there. I thought about that years ago and said, wait a minute, I thought it was just until we die. But he says, till the day of Jesus Christ. These people were gone almost 2,000 years. I believe our brothers and sisters in heaven are still learning. They may not be facing temptation. They are beyond the power of sin and death and all of that, but there's stuff that they don't know that we're still learning. They're still learning. God has got a, boy, He's got a job on His hands. But He is able to do it, and Jesus' promise was, I will. How could He be so sure? Because it wasn't His plan to begin with, it was the Father's plan. The very heart of God Himself saw our need, sent His Son, entirely an expression of incredible love beyond our imagining. I will, I will build my church. Folks, regardless of what happens in the circumstances of our world, there is something that is absolutely eternal that's going on. And He wants us to be a part of that with every fiber of our being and say, Lord, help me to find my place in all of that. Oh God, live in me and help me. It's not like I'm asking for power to go raise the dead, I'm just asking to deliver

your life flowing through me. So it isn't me coming out all the time, it's you more and more. Praise God. Is that what He wants? Well, do we have the right to ask Him for what we know He wants? It's His will, isn't it? What happens if we ask anything according to His will? He does it. Yeah, we can know that He's going to be at work. I will thank God for the certainty of what He's doing. That's why Paul could say, I'm persuaded that He is able to keep what I've committed to Him against that day. Paul just absolutely ... Christ was revealed as to who He was and He knew what that meant in light of who He is and what He's done and what God has done. planned that what else can I do but just hand my life over to him. You know, there's so many people out there, there are many people out there who just have a very shallow idea of salvation. Well, just believe in Jesus, accept him, I'll tell you, until we bow to him as Lord and hand our lives over to him, we're still lost. Now I thank God that we don't suddenly jump from being what we are to what we will be. That's a process, undoubtedly. God goes to work on our lives and he wants us to cooperate with that. But I mean, the whole idea that I could come to him as Savior and not come to him as Lord? Give me a break. You know, I recall from time to time a song that we sang when I was growing up. It's a very simple chorus, Lord of all, and it's Lord of all, Lord of all, Christ must be Lord of all. Lord of all or not Lord at all. Christ must be Lord of all, very simple chorus. I tell you, is he Lord, is he worthy?

Is he worthy of everything we could possibly give him? Is he worthy of our lives? Is there something else that's more valuable? You want to cling to this and not him? I want what he wants, and I want to be somebody he could live through. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, the Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, NC 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.