The Open Door: Jesus Holds the Keys

amen amen well the best is yet to come do you believe it the best is yet to come here's what we mean when we say something like that it means your best days are not behind you it doesn't mean uh doesn't mean that you won't have hard times ahead it means you have the hope of heaven so when we say that the best is yet to come we take jesus at his word we we believe in jesus that is not how you start your life is not what someone else says about you that matters what matters most is jesus for he gives us an unshakable hope and one place that we find that hope is in the book of revelation the book of revelation is the last of 66 books in the bible i hope you brought your bible turn to the book of

revelation if you didn't or you're joining us for the first time here at journey and you need one we've got a bookshelf in the back with bibles take one of those that's our gift to you if you're watching home at home go get your bible turn to the book of revelation everyone shout revelation revelation it is the revelation singular comes from the first five words of the book john the author tells us in revelation chapter one verse one the revelation of jesus christ the book is about jesus so if you'd like to get to know jesus greater you can read this book if you'd like to have some more hope read this book the word revelation comes from the greek word apocalypses it means to unveil or to reveal this book reveals jesus christ this is a great way to get to know god even greater if you're just joining us

we haven't made it very far yet we're just in chapter three so if you want to catch up you could read chapter one the author john is given the task to write down everything that he sees this is the impossible task for he's going to write down the revelation of jesus so he writes down the indescribable description of of jesus and as he does so he's in awe of who jesus is you ought to go read revelation chapter one as we get to know god even greater then in chapters two and three were introduced to seven letters to seven churches from jesus the number seven means complete in the scriptures and what's amazing about this book is that these letters were actually written to seven churches in seven cities on the same trade route what was then known as asia minor today if you visit the ruins of these cities and some of these cities still exist today

just with new names you can actually see these were actual cities and god is speaking to these churches but it was not just for the church in the past it's also for us in the present today god is still speaking to us today he will speak to us through this word through his church today now although these letters are short god has a lot to say he wants us to know who he is he wants to know there's something wrong in our lives that we ought to correct it he wants to he wants us to know that there's a reward to obedience that it's okay to to work hard even if you're only a part of the few and so as we get into this book we want to say god we want to grow in our faith because according to hebrews chapter 11 verse 6

it's faith that pleases god without faith it's impossible to please him which reminds us that god doesn't put a burden on you to be more religious god's not asking you to follow more rules or laws or commandments god's not asking you to to bear the burden to be good to get into heaven that's not how you get into heaven it's through faith in jesus christ so what we want to do is say we want our faith to increase we want to know jesus even greater we want god to reveal himself and and in doing so that we would respond with who god is that's our theme for this year at journey church is faith we want to know what does it mean to live by faith because according to these seven letters if you go back and start reading you can lose your first love

and you can do it not even know you missed it you can compromise in your faith you can get distracted by the things of this world you can start living like the world thinking that somehow it's going to make the church more relevant or maybe more comfortable but jesus lets us know there there may be a cost of following him but it's absolutely worth it so we turn today to the to the sixth church of the seven revelation chapter three starting with verse seven and we'll look at number six of the seven churches and to the angel the word angel means messenger some speculate this could be the pastors of the church into the angel of the church in philadelphia write the words of the holy one the true one who has the key of david who opens and no one will shut and who

shuts and no one opens today we turn our attention to the church in philadelphia now this is not the church in philadelphia pennsylvania this is the o.g philly this is the original there are a lot of cities named philadelphia today over a dozen just in the united states alone it's a cool name it just simply means the city of brotherly love it actually comes from this city specifically comes from the greek word philadelphos which means brother lover the city was named after king adelus who loved his brother literally and so it was named after this devotion it was a really important city it was a large city on what we today would call a freeway it was uh in between rome and the middle east it was named

the gateway of the east that if you want to get to a place like jerusalem from rome you would go through philadelphia it was known as a mission city now the word mission did not come from christian roots the word mission comes from missio which is where we get the word missile which means to be thrown it means to be sent so the city of philadelphia was a city that was a mission city for the greek culture it would send out the greek culture they would spread the arts the language the the religion if you will these different gods and goddesses and so it was essentially a poster child for a hellenism this greek culture now within the city of philadelphia they called it little athens because it had so many temples to gods and goddesses throughout the city it was a beautiful region in

philadelphia the the the soil was fertile and they grew vineyards of grapes and wine was a major part of the industry in philadelphia which of course dionysus the god of wine was worshiped in philadelphia it was also an earthquake city there was frequent earthquakes it's a lot like napa valley it was beautiful had wine but it be forewarned there are earthquakes in this particular place and even today in this region which is now turkey there are still earthquakes there's these major fault lines and what would happen is when there was an earthquake the people would head up into the hills and they would live in caves until everything was settled or they would make tents or if they were wealthy they would make temporary houses and then they would come back and rebuild the city

so this is a really important city yet this is a small church in this big city to each of the seven letters jesus reveals himself the number seven is complete so jesus reveals himself seven times he is completely perfect when he reveals himself he's letting us know who he is jesus is who we need him to be and to the church in philadelphia he writes the holy one the true one he tells us who he is he is holy the word holy means to be set apart he is completely sacred completely pure completely perfect there is no one like jesus since he is holy that means he is holy in all his ways he doesn't try to be holy it's who he is it's his character it's his nature he is holy in all of his

actions and all of his thoughts and all of his deeds and what he does that's why the the song of heaven is holy holy holy come on would you say those three words with me holy holy holy it's the song that should never get old it's the song that we will forever sing because he will always be holy and one day you're going to see exactly what this looks like when you see these angelic beings that you can imagine in your mind declaring with a loud voice holy holy holy and jesus tells us he is the holy one he also says he's the true one he's completely true in all of his ways at a time in philadelphia where there was false gods and goddesses everywhere just like today there are false truths out there we've

got to be aware what's the truth jesus steps forward and says i am the one true god just as he told his disciples in john 14 6 when he declared to his students i am the way the truth and the life no one gets to the father referring to god as father except through me he is the truth there's no falsehood found in him it's why we can trust in jesus he's trustworthy and everything he does everything he says who he is he is true later we see in revelation chapter 6 those who were slain because of their faith in jesus they asked god uh specifically in verse 10 they cried out with a loud voice o sovereign lord that means the one that's completely in control that never stops being in control sovereign lord holy and true

those true two attributes we see of those who are slain because of their faith in jesus you are holy and true and then they ask this how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth because jesus is holy he can judge rightly because he is true he is the only one that can vindicate the wicked and so we see the in the in the not too far future we're gonna see that god is going to have his way for he is holy and true john writes several other books in the new testament he writes several letters first second third john at the end of first john here's what he concludes in chapter 5 verse 20 and we know that the son of god referring to jesus has come and has given us understanding

so that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true and his son jesus christ he is the true god and eternal life he's not a good guy he's not a good teacher he's not one of many gods he is the true god and when you know him you know the truth and john says when you have him he's not a distant deity he's not the big guy in the sky you are in him and he is in you and you have the truth that's why jesus says in the book of john and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free and in fact jesus says in a prior verse he says if you take my words if you obey my words you're my disciple and if you're my disciple you know the truth because you're hearing my words and if you hear my words and you do them you're truly set free you're not stuck

caring about what others think about you or what the world says you want what god wants and he is the holy one and the true one revelation 3 7 he continues this is jesus describing himself the holy one the true one who has the key of david who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one will open this book is written in what's called apocalyptic literature there's much symbolism throughout this book it's not to be read as just a normal book you want to look for the signs you want to look for the symbols and one symbol is a key it means authority jesus has the key of authority he has full authority just by a way of confession since his church how many of you have lost your keys before come on okay we all should raise our hands at some point let's get relentlessly real

in this confession how many of you lose them regularly come on there's usually one in every house right i'm the one in our house and i know i'm the one because i'm constantly looking for them my wife she puts her keys in the same place every time just seems simple and boring i love adventure just keep them in your pant pocket sometimes put them on a table sometimes and do you know when you've lost your keys when you need them and it's always when you're running late to to an important meeting or you want to go somewhere and how many you're like me you look in the same place over and over as if somehow the keys are going to magically appear like i'm sure i put them on the table i'll look again still not there all right i'm going to come back and try that three or four or five more times i even leave mine accidentally in the

car sometimes by the grace of god the car hasn't been stolen but jesus has a key and he will never ever ever ever lose the key it's his for good it's a picture it's a symbol of authority and it's an interesting phrase he has the key of david david was the second king of israel the greatest king that's ever lived it's a reflection of kingdom he has full authority over the kingdom of god and it causes us to look back at a really interesting story in the book of isaiah isaiah was a prophet which means to speak forth god's word and so sometimes he would say some hard things he would say if you don't follow god's ways there will be consequences and he warned the jewish people that if they don't follow god's way there will be there will be harm that is done and the assyrians came and they invaded a judah which is the the southern kingdom just

as isaiah told them would happen and there was a jewish financial minister called shebna who was not a good guy he was a selfish guy all he cared about was himself he didn't want to help the people of god and during this season where the leadership was poor the people did not turn to god they did not trust god they they sought the things of this world they turned to egypt instead of god now all they had to do was look back and see that god delivers his people when they pray god delivers his people when they confess their need for him god helps his people but instead of turning to god they turn to themselves now in isaiah chapter 22 we see a transition from shevna to a godly man named eliakim there was a passing of the torch you know at any time you can stop sin at any time you can be the one that changes the

trajectory of a people and eliakim became the financial minister under king hezekiah of judah and here's a guy that has the keys of the kingdom literally he is a king to he has a key to the treasury you want to see all the gold you can't see it without eliakim and god speaks in isaiah 22 22 and i will place on his shoulder speaking of eliacham the key of the house of david he shall open and none shall shut and he shall open and none shall none shall open he shall shut and none shall open here's what he's saying here you can't open a locked door unless you have the keys now eliakim is a picture of jesus as we look back we look forward and this

is what i love about the book of revelation there are hundreds of references to the old testament because the bible is the whole story of god and as we look here we see jesus has the ultimate authority over all john was a student of jesus he walked with jesus he talked with jesus he touched jesus but in john chapter one when he turns to see jesus he gets a glimpse of jesus in a way that he's never seen before and he falls down as though dead i'll tell you why because god is greater than you could dream or fathom one of the lies of the enemy in the church is somehow you have god figured out we somehow think that we're going to get to heaven we're to ask god all these questions why'd you do this why'd you do that no you're not going to fall down as though dead

he's that great he's that glorious he's that mysterious and wonderful and majestic and glorious and holy holy holy and john falls down as though dead and jesus puts his right hand on him and in revelation 1 17 he says fear not i am the first and the last he's eternal and the living one i died which god shouldn't die but he did because he took our sins he made what's wrong right on the cross he died once and for all for sins but he says behold i am alive forevermore he did what's never been done once and for all and then he says i have the keys of death and hades so he went to the depth of hell to lock it so that by believing in him there's no way you're getting there you are sealed with the holy spirit you have the gift of eternal life

so you can know that there's no need to fear because perfect love as john says cast out fear he has the keys and if he has the keys you go where he goes look what he says who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one will open jesus has a plan and a purpose for our lives he has a plan for the church the first time we see the word church mentioned is in the book of matthew matthew writes the biography of jesus life and in chapter 16 jesus is speaking to peter about what he's going to do and he tells peter this in chapter 16 verse 18 i will build my church the church is jesus idea it's his plan it's not a man-made religion

it's not a social club it's not a group of good people the church is jesus idea and he says 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 when you have jesus you have the keys because you become a child of the king and that's who you are you have a great inheritance it's greater than you can fathom see when you have jesus it's not just the forgiveness of your sins it's so much more and the church is all about jesus jesus doesn't walk away from us when it gets tough he builds us up he invites us to

experience his kingdom come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven so when jesus says he's the holy one the true one when he says he's the one that has the keys that he has all authority we come before him and we want to be like him just as peter proclaims in first peter 1 15 but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct you should want to be more like jesus you see you can fool everyone you just can't fool jesus seriously you can fool everyone you you can fool your spouse you can fool people at church you can fool all your friends on facebook you can fool all your friends or your

followers on instagram you just can't fool jesus seven times he says i know he is infinite in knowledge he knows your thoughts he knows your sins he knows the hurts that were done to you he knows every single thing about you and as he writes to the church he wants the church to know who he is he says i know your works i know what you've done he says to the church in philadelphia behold i have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut i know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. he says i know what you're going through but but i've opened a door it may not look like it

but no one's going to be able to shut it the as i mentioned the city was known as a missionary city for the greek culture they were called the gateway the gateway to the east this was the open door that if you wanted to get to other places in the world you'd go through philadelphia jesus said i'm going to make you an open door for my gospel i want to make you an open door for good news that's what gospel means i'm going to give you an open door when we read through the new testament the phrase open door it is typically an opportunity to share about jesus that's what the word open door means we see that when paul writes to the corinthian church he says in first corinthians 16 9 for a wide door of effective work has been opened to me but when you you do the work of god here's what happens and there are many

adversaries the more work you do for jesus the more enemies you make that's why he prays for more open doors to the church in colossae he says in colossians 4 3 at the same time pray also for us that god may open up to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of christ on account for which i am in prison here this guy his name is paul he was in prison for sharing jesus he says hey will you pray i have more opportunity to share jesus in the book of acts chapter 14 paul and barnabas they were partners in crime starting churches all over the place and they headed back to antioch which was the first city uh that that followers of jesus were called christians and they're in antioch sharing what god

is doing and it says in acts 14 verse 27 and when they arrived and gathered the church together they declared all that god had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the gentiles so as a church here's what we do we look for open doors as a follower of jesus you look for open doors as a follower of jesus you pray for open door even when it doesn't seem like it for this church was small jesus acknowledges i know you have but little power the word power here in the original greek is dunamis it's where we get the gree uh the english word dynamite he says i know you don't have dynamite power right now i know you have little strength right now i know it's been hard anybody feel like that the last year or so come on i know you don't have a lot right now but i'm giving you an open door so what does an open door

look like when things are hard well i tell you last year during the pandemic the whole world seemed to be shut down at the same time you remember that last march it seems like 10 years ago and for the church it was a significant time because the church was told they could not meet for easter easter is the super bowl of all sundays how could the church not meet on easter so we were stuck with the dilemma what were we going to do and here's what we did at journey church we decided we got to do something so we went and invested in some more cameras and then we we took our superheroes we couldn't do what they they typically do our superheroes are volunteers and we said hey instead of great people at the door could you be behind a camera could you be a camera crew and so people volunteered their time and and instead of coming to church instead

of people leaving their homes to come to church we said we're going to go into homes we want to get into as many as we can so we said well how are we going to do that well we already do it on facebook and youtube we do it on our website at journeyandbend.com we do it on our app we do it many different ways but we said let's go on television because some people don't have the internet so how can we get into more homes like nursing homes how can we get into more places so we decided to go on tv for easter i never dreamed of being a tv preacher but it happened and then we saw the results they they told us the numbers and we we were stunned because we we reached more people in one year than we ordinarily would for weeks and weeks and weeks in meetings so then we said you know what happened god gave us an open door that we got

into homes we never would have gotten into because of the obstacle god gave us an opportunity and i'm not here to tell you that last year was easy listen last year was hard last year was horrible it's easy for a preacher to say after the fact but in the middle of it i was the same one whining and complaining i was the same guy on my knees praying god why are you making this happen lord please how could you do this to the church i was the one missing that god had opened a door for us to do something we ordinarily would not have done and god will do the same thing in your life because that's what he does and ultimately so you would know who he is jesus says in john 10 verse 9 says i am the door he's the door if anyone enters by me he will be saved

and will go in it and out and find pastor see the point is this is not to just look for open doors of opportunity so you have a successful life god's not asking you just get busy get busy get busy jesus just wants to know you he he wants you to know him he wants you to see what you would only see through him the the point of this open door is it's all about jesus he's the reason we do everything we do here at journey and for this church in philadelphia they had a lot of obstacles they had many hurdles yet god says i'm with you i'm for you look at the end of verse 8 you have kept my word and have not denied my name i know you're hurting i know this has been horrible but i do know this you did what matters most you kept my word you see what's

successful for jesus is not success for us we often love strong we equate strength with success we often think the young are more successful we often think the financial more successful we think the bigger the better but with jesus he actually says this he flips upside down our understanding and he says this the first actually be last and the last will actually be first and in fact you want to get to heaven it's not the ones with all the credentials and the intelligence of the world you've got to be like a child you've got to be childlike to enter the kingdom of heaven so some of us overthink things and jesus lets us know that his ways are not our ways you want to be blessed be poor in spirit empty yourself then you'll see you have the kingdom of heaven mourn then you'll be comforted hunger

and thirst for righteousness then you'll be satisfied jesus listen hold fast to his keep his word paul who writes a number of the books in the new testament confesses in second corinthians 12 that he had a thorn in his life that he didn't want and he prayed that god would remove it three times please remove this god he please god get rid of this thorn and then a third time lord remove this thorn and then jesus speaks to him in second corinthians 12 9 says my grace is sufficient for you for my power jesus said is made perfect in weakness so paul concludes therefore i will boast all the more gladly in my weakness so that the power of christ may rest upon me you see when you follow jesus you realize when you're weak you need a

dependence on god when you're sick you're just getting closer to heaven see often we we fear those things in life weakness or we fear death but with jesus we actually can look forward to these things for in my weakness he is made strong and when you know the words of jesus like the church in philadelphia did you see that you have all that you need in jesus and so he tells them in verse 9 behold i will make those of the synagogue of satan who say that they are jews and are not but lie behold i will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that i have loved you jesus tells them the reality i know you're being slandered i know people are saying things about you i know this is

hard but he said this is spiritual this isn't just bad people behind all this is satan see when people speak ill of you when there's division in your marriage when there's division in your family when there's division in the church when there's division in a nation behind all this is spiritual there's a real enemy of god that wants to try to stop what god's doing paul talks about this to the ephesians in chapter 6 verse 12 when he says this for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood your battle is not somebody else even if they vote differently even if they think differently even if they've offended you behind that offense is this it's against the rulers against the authorities against cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places jesus let them know behind this is satan now synagogue is like a jewish

church it should be the place of worship but these jewish people were not worshiping god for they neglected the messiah jesus christ himself and instead they slandered those who followed the messiah that's against god and jesus although they're against you now one day they're going to see one day they're going to know you see you you don't need to fight your own battles god is big enough he doesn't need you to defend him i've had many people say negative things about me and journey church we first started journey i heard a lot of it it started with our first billboard 11 years ago that we put right above star strip club and all we put was the naked truth with our website and i wanted to stimulate something inside of people to let them know that what you're going for god put inside of you i want you to know the truth of who god is and i got some

negative emails do you know who the negative emails were from yes right religious folk the people that should be nice aren't so nice sometimes and so i've had over the years and sometimes it stings and in my young naive self this is what i did in the early days i tried to defend myself as if somehow god needed me to like stick up for him like oh what would god do without me to defend his church he doesn't need us you act like a if a fool argues with you and you try to argue with the fool you start to look like the fool so you don't need to argue with your uncle on facebook you don't or your friend's cousin who calls you something inappropriate that gets you burning on the inside jesus one day they're going to see so just let god do his thing do you remember joseph in the book of genesis joseph was one of 12 brothers he

was favored by his fathers his brothers hated him he got the cool coat with all the colors and joseph has a dream that hey bros you guys are going to bow down to me someday and if that wasn't bad enough he has another dream about this and he even tells his mom and dad and his dad's like yo joseph that's not cool man and and and his brothers they're so mad at him they want to kill him they want to get rid of joseph because he said you're going to bow down to me so they said let's kill him i said then maybe we shouldn't kill him because then his blood would be on our hands they threw him into a pit they sold him into slavery and things just keep getting worse it was like 2020 relived back in joseph's day he gets falsely accused he ends up in prison his life was like one bad thing after another but god continued to elevate him over time don't when you go through hardships your hardships are not in vain with god you can rejoice in your

suffering because it's producing something inside of you you never would have had with hardship they don't teach you this in marriage class but when you have a miserable marriage you will be stronger if you make it through it there's no such thing as the fantasy of what hollywood paints for us that that somehow your life is just going to be all easy and you should just love somebody you're attracted to it doesn't work that way and joseph lives that out he lives a life of integrity and character at the end of his life he ends up being elevated second in charge of egypt and his brothers need food and they come and they end up bowing down before him and joseph did not gloat he did not get proud this is what he said as for you you meant evil against me but god meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today

another way to put this it looks like an obstacle but god meant it as an opportunity and you start to see this when god gives you a revelation as a young boy my dad left when i was two and i just always had pity parties on myself or my whole childhood oh i'm the only kid without a dad right every family's perfect but mine right and you don't realize that every family is dysfunctional until you join the church and we put the fun and dysfunctional around here we recognize that we're all broken we're all in need of a healer we all are in need of a savior and you start to realize that was an obstacle with jesus is an opportunity it is an open door and so what i'm going to do is i'm going to humble myself like jesus because one day the world's going to go man my god loves me my god loves me do you see what he says here

look what he says in revelation 3 9 they will learn that i have loved you do you know today you are loved by god that's the most important message you could hear today you want to know how jesus loves you he's shown you for god so loved the world he gave his son god loves you he loves you so much god forgives you do you know how you're forgiven through jesus god gives you hope through jesus anytime there's an obstacle in your life god's going to turn it for good revelation 3 10 because you've kept my word about patient endurance i will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth church if there's something we should be doing

right now literally right now is keeping god's word this is it if there's one thing that god wants for his church is for us to keep his word never did he say this life would be easy he said i know you're going through some patient endurance do you know what that is it's called stuff and we all got stuff jesus never said you just have an easy life but what he said is through the stuff you kept my word through that difficult time you kept my word when everyone else said don't do it you kept my word when everyone else came up with their own way of living you kept my word see john the whole reason he's he's writing this book is he's on an island called patmos because he he was persecuted for following jesus and he says in revelation 1 9 i john your brother and partner in the

tribulation and the kingdom and patient endurance that are in jesus he says i'm right with you i know we've been through it i know this is hard and i'm with you i'm with you i know this is difficult but we're brothers in this we're together in this now the tribulation that john says in revelation 1 9 is not the great tribulation he's talking about the trials of life we're in this together and the promise to the church is this that they won't experience the hour of trial now the hour of trial is a reference to god's judgment we'll see these phrases woven throughout the book of revelation it's god's wrath poured out on those who have rejected him who have not received the free gift of grace now god gives this free gift to anyone

that would receive it it's through faith in jesus christ and he says to the church you will not experience this great tribulation which we will study in depth in in chapters 6 through 19. there will be a judgment upon those who don't believe now it's not in one specific region it's those who dwell in the whole earth there's going to be a trial there's going to be a time that's coming upon those that say i don't need jesus and that's this tribulation but but jesus tells the church i'm going to keep you from that this supports the view of what's called pre-tribulation that the church will not go through the ultimate tribulation it doesn't say the church won't go through hardships it says the church won't go through the judgment wrath of god and this supports this idea of what we read about in first thessalonians that there will be a rapture that means caught up in the air with jesus as we

look at revelation 3 11 i am coming soon that's a promise of jesus remember he is the true one he cannot lie i'm the i'm coming soon hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown oh this is a promise of god we should look forward to the early church look forward to this paul looked forward to this john was looking forward to this mary was looking forward to this and so often the church loses this promise he is coming again now it may feel like it's been a long time 2000 years might feel like a long time but to god who's eternal that's not a long time with him he could come at any moment and we can't allow the world to be distracted to take from us what god has given us and here's the promise of reward it's absolutely awesome look at verse 12 the one who conquers

he says this to the entire church we are more than conquerors we are victorious because of jesus i will make him a pillar and the temple of my god never shall he go out of it and i will write on him the name of my god and the name of the city of my god the new jerusalem which comes down from my god out of heaven and my own new name now remember this philadelphia was constantly threatened with earthquakes and when people would leave the town would get shaken up and the only thing that would be left in the city were the pillars the pillars of these temples to false gods and goddesses they would get ruined they would get wrecked but but they would still be erected in fact you can go visit this place today what we see here is philadelphia go visit this in eastern turkey today and there's

ruins from 2000 years ago of pillars still there today that's all that's left from those earthquakes but here's what jesus says you never have to go out of this city you never have to run in fear when it gets hard when things get shaken up you don't need to run you are the pillar people will look to you in ancient days they would write the name of a god or goddess on the pillar and if that's all that was left it would represent that particular place but jesus says something even greater here he says i'm gonna place on you a name what's with the name it's everything it's who god is see it used to be in the

days of old you'd have to go travel to go meet with a god even if you want to meet with the one true god you would you would go to the temple and prior to that you would go to the tabernacle but now because of jesus christ you are the temple the holy spirit dwells in you god wants to be with you so so jesus reward is this you don't have to go someplace to meet with me i want to meet with you and when this world gets shaken i am with you i am for you you are more than a conqueror you're going to get through this so just hold strong stay fast keep my word and you're gonna have the name above all names written upon your life there's gonna be a new hope of heaven

see jerusalem is the city of god it's referred to as zion this is the place the dwelling place of god and god says i'm with you in the days past emperors would change names of cities they would name them after themselves they would name them after lovers they would name them brotherly love but jesus says no no no you have my name so there's an invitation in each of the letters to each of us he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches you have an opportunity to receive this invitation to receive the hope of heaven found in jesus it's no one can force this on you i can't preach it to you i can't teach it to you

you have to receive it and accept it and respond today i want you to know this this is so important you're never too old to accept this invitation you you've never send too much to be forgiven by jesus [Music] you've never gone too far that he he won't rescue you you're never too lost that you can't be found you're never too dead that you can't be made alive well love with jesus is you're never too young as well you might be depressed and say i'm not sure god could love someone like me elijah was depressed and suicidal god loved him moses made some huge mistakes in the bible rahab was labeled a prostitute and is still called that today yet she was a woman of god in the lineage in the family of jesus line

and god can get a hold of any of our hearts but it's up to you david was overlooked remember joseph was thrown in a pit even his own brothers called him a dreamer you dreamer yet god had a plan an open door and this is your open door right now to receive jesus in matthew chapter 11 jesus says these words he says come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest come to me that's the invitation but you got to stay connected jesus he says take my yoke upon you that that means you cannot keep doing life on your own like the days of old they would yoke animals together they would have the synergy works together jesus you put my yoke on your life he says i'm

gentle and lowly in heart i will give you rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light this is what happened when he saves us he removes the burden of your sin he removes the burden of your shame he removes all of your sin as far as the east is from the west now you have god on your side he saves us but then he sends us out he doesn't leave you where you are matthew 10 16 behold i'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves not everyone will love what you have in jesus but jesus says you can be wise as serpent and innocent and doves we're living in that day church we're living in a day where you have to determine am i willing to surrender my life to jesus and if you do i'm telling you it's worth it but i'm also telling you it won't be

easy i want to give you that opportunity right now i want to turn our attention toward heaven that you would get in your mind who god is and that you would respond would you just for just a moment right where you are would you close your eyes i want to ask you in your heart have you received jesus the reason i ask you to close your eyes just turn our attention to god right now so right where you are do you know with confidence that you're safe from hell do you know that you're forgiven of all your sins jesus died once and for all for you he loves you that much if you want to receive jesus today i'm going to do something while we have our eyes closed i'm going to ask you to be bold

i'm going to ask you to raise your hand in a posture of surrender saying i want to follow jesus from this day forward maybe you grew up in church and you wandered maybe you never went to church and you weren't expecting to do this today but god's gotten a hold of your heart i'm gonna count to three at the end of three with every eye still close this is just between you and god i want you to surrender your hand to heaven so when i say three i want you to be bold i want you to raise it high i want you to say acknowledge your need for a savior today [Music] one you do it because god loves you two because jesus died and rose from the grave to forgive you of all your sins and set you free get ready i want you to raise your hand if that's you when i say it three he gives you the gift of eternal

life raise your hand if you want that gift today praise god amen yes praise god thank you jesus yes lord all over the room if you're watching online come on we want to connect with you praise god anybody else just surrender your hand towards heaven saying i need this jesus you're done doing it on your own you want this friend that's found in jesus praise god praise god i want to pray with you if you if you made that decision in your heart just with every eye closed you know when you pray it's just talking to god it's not complicated it's not magic there's not the right words it's getting real with god because he can handle every bit of your heart would you get real with god in your heart this has to be personal from you just pray lord jesus come into my life

i surrender everything my hurts my pain please lord forgive me of my sin from this day forward i'm following you my friend if you prayed that prayer god gave you the gift of grace which is his favor the gift of forgiveness the gift of an inheritance he gives you the gift of eternal life and the gift of the holy spirit himself and it's in jesus name we pray so be it amen come on can we celebrate life today oh