Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church Podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
So if you can open up your Bibles to Romans chapter 15, I guess you could have guessed that,
but as this letter winds down, as I was reading, we're only going through 11 verses
hopefully, but and as I was going through this, it seemed like it was, it's so practical
and it's not Paul instructing the church in Rome to do anything. He's just talking to them
and he's talking about his plans and he's talking about situations that are going on
and it's amazing because as you're reading this, you're learning so much in what Paul is saying
about himself and about his ministry and as I was reading this, I'm like, this is such,
these are gems of practical application to our own lives as I was reading them and I'm thinking,
yeah, but is there one point, you try to get one point and really it seems that there's four points
within this and Paul just sharing, you know, it's interesting because he's not telling them
anything except what his plans are and so that's where this making plans, taking steps
actually came from because this is what we're going to learn from Paul about what he had planned
and so let's pray and just thank the Lord for using his word to do a work in us.
So Father God, we ask you to use this letter from Paul 2000 years ago almost to a church in Rome
to still instruct us today because your word is eternal. So thank you Lord that we can
glean something from this for ourselves here today in Jesus name, amen. So we're going to
start in verse 22 and end at the end of the chapter 33 and so let's dive right in verse 22.
Paul continues where he left off and he said, for this reason I also have been much
hindered from coming to you. So of course, you know, we start off this morning saying for this
reason, well, for what reason? You know, we're continuing on from where we left off last
week and if you can recall Paul was talking to the Romans and how he said it was his aim and
let's pull that one verse up Romans 15 20 and so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel
to where Christ was not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation.
So it was Paul's aim. The Lord had designed him to bring the gospel to unreached people groups
and in a way that's what Andrew and that team is doing right is bringing the gospel to Cambodia
where Jesus Christ is probably not known in much of the country. So it's a new word to them,
you know, they're learning this for the first time and Paul was chosen from his mother's womb
to bring the gospel to unreached people groups and our church has been very involved by the way,
as you know, in unreached people groups and so this is what Paul was designed to do. So
he says for this reason I've been hindered because he was planting churches. He was preaching
the gospel to where Christ was never heard about before, but during this process he met some people
from Rome. Remember Aquila and Priscilla? They were exiled from Rome by the Emperor Claudius.
He sent them away along with other people and so he was meeting Romans and he knew that Romans,
do you know Romans were there at the day of Pentecost? It was Romans there, people, well
Jews that came from Rome who received the Holy Spirit right there at Pentecost, right? So he had
gotten to know them and the Lord had called him to this burden to Rome, but so but in the meantime
he's planting churches. He doesn't have time to go to Rome. His design was to plant
churches in new places. If you can recall, Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3-6-7.
He says, I planted but Apollo's water, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants
is anything nor he who woulders, but God who gives the increase. So he was, as he was
planting churches, people were coming along behind him who were perhaps more suited for
administration, more suited even in shepherding and gifted orators like Apollo's. And so Paul
realized, you know what, I'm good here. I can move on. It's time to move on. My work here is
done, right? So Paul realized this as he's writing to the Romans that you know what,
I can really start to consider going to Rome. And so let's pick it up in verse 23,
but now no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire of these many years
to come to you. Let's just stop there for a second. That's an interesting thing he says.
Now no longer having a place in these parts. So what is he talking about? Well,
imagine being, Paul, you're planting churches and then people come in behind you that are even
perhaps better speakers than you like Apollo's and others. And as he's passing the baton,
he's like, well, what am I going to do now? Like they got this handle, right? So it's really
time for me to move on. You know, that's the first point is knowing your place. Paul
realized his place was no longer in this region. If you could put up that little title, knowing your
place, you know, and that sounds a little harsh. Don't you know your place? Well, let me get to
it a minute. He realized that it was time for him to move on. Let's put that map up.
And is that pretty clear to you? And I have a little laser pointer here. I keep losing these
things. But anyway, so the first missionary journey, second was in green. And what's great
is down here, you could actually read when these things can be read about in the book of Acts,
right? And so he had made it all the way to Corinth. Now by the third missionary journey,
he had left, he had come through all those same areas and ended up in Corinth.
And now from Corinth, he is writing to Rome, okay, the church in Rome. And he was writing this letter
here. And he was going to give it to Phoebe, who was going to deliver it up here to Rome.
Okay. And so here he is in Corinth, realizing like this whole area has been really established
for the church of Christ. Now, so has Rome been, but I just desperately want to go see them.
You know, he just knew it was in his heart to visit Rome. And you know, this isn't
something that he just dreamed up. Okay. The Lord gave him this desire to go to Rome.
Now he thought Rome was going to be a stopping ground on his way to Spain.
Okay. But he didn't realize that he would be one day imprisoned in Rome, preaching to the household
of Caesar. Can you imagine that? Like he had God's plans so much of a lower level than they really
were. He thought Rome was just merely going to be somewhere I'll stop by, I'll say hello,
and we'll hang out a little bit. And then I'm going to where I really want to go.
But no, God had better plans, right? To send him there as a prisoner. Well, I don't want to be
sent as a prisoner. Well, we're going to see all the great things that happened as a result of
that, right? And so he had a burden. And in fact, we can actually see this in Acts 1921.
When these, he was in Ephesus, great things were starting to break open in Ephesus.
When things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia
and Achaia to go to Jerusalem saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. So this
was a plan from God to go to Rome. Now perhaps Spain was his own plan. We don't know if we ever
got to Spain. Maybe you read so many different things about it, but we don't read in scriptures
that God said, no, you will go to Spain. Okay, but we knew God said, no, you will go to Rome,
right? But he's probably thinking, wait a minute, there's already churches in Rome. Why do you need
me there? God had bigger plans. He had better plans, amen. And so he's going to go eventually and
to Rome. As I'm reading this, and well, let's move on from there. So he asked that we have
to know our place. You know, I'll just mention something like knowing your place, he's realizing
it's no longer in Greece. It's no longer in Asia Minor. I need to be used by God. He just realized
that, you know, and God was going to move him on. And I was thinking, well, that sounds kind of like,
don't you know your place? Doesn't that seem kind of harsh? Well, you know, our place does
change. I was thinking about Jill and I, you know, we're parents, okay? We had four phenomenal,
wonderful kids. I'm sure all of you feel the same way, I hope, about your own kids. They're amazing.
They're the best. Your kids are the best. My kids are the best. Guess what God says about us?
My kids are the best, right? And so, and that's, you know, that's what God wants us to have this
just love for our own children and praise that the Lord has made them who they are, right?
But, you know, back in the day, you know, we used to say, stop picking on your brother,
stop, you know, yelling at each other, clean up your room. Well, our place in their lives
has changed, okay? Because now they're all married, okay? And now we're grandparents.
So our place in their lives has shifted, right? It's not the same place. Imagine if I went over
Jesse's house and started knocking on the door and said, yeah, I'm coming in to see if you
cleaned your room. Like Marie would be kind of like, what? This is weird. This is creepy, okay?
Because that's no longer our place to intrude on their family life, right? And that's the
idea. Like we all have a place to play and God sometimes shifts our place onward just like he
did for Paul. I no longer have a place here. Well, he has a place somewhere else, right? He has a
better place, right? So let's read on. Verse 24, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to
you for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you if first I may
enjoy your company for a while. Isn't it so funny? Like he's thinking, yeah, I'm just going to be
swinging by and we'll hang out a little bit, we'll have some coffee and then I'll be on my way
to Spain, right? Don't we make plans sometimes? Some of them are a vision from God,
but then we start embellishing and start embellishing and then I'm going to do this
and I'm going to do that. And sometimes that's not necessarily God's full plan, right? He may have,
like I said, even better plans, even better plans. I love this. As we could see, let me,
let's show that map up there again. And we could see, right? He had plans,
okay, as he was writing this, he's going to go to Rome, but really the prize where I
really want to go is beyond. And if you have that next map, this is a picture of
the Roman Empire by 117 AD by early second century of AD. And so he's writing from here
and he's like, like, I'm sorry, he's writing from here. And he's like,
yeah, yeah, so I'm writing to you from here, but I'm going to go to Rome,
but really I want to get to Spain, right? This is where I really want to get to. And we could see,
you know, that he's probably thinking, because the gospel hasn't been preached there, I want to get
there. Okay. And yet again, the Lord has even better plans for Paul. I love the verses that
talk about, you know, we make a plan, but God, what? Directs are steps, right? In Proverbs 16,
9, a man's heart plants his way, but the Lord directs his steps. A person's steps are directed by
the Lord, Proverbs 20, 24, Psalm 85, 13, righteousness will go before him and shall
make his footsteps our pathway. Don't you want to be walking with Christ? You know,
don't you want him to be carrying? You ever see that beach? You know, everyone has it up on their
wall, you know, the footsteps on the beach, right? And you've seen it. And it's only like one set
of footsteps. And the guy says, I thought you're going to care. I thought, you know,
you're going to walk with me through life. He says, Oh, I was with you. I was carrying you.
Those footsteps are my footsteps, you know, we want to be on Christ's step plan, don't we?
You know, we can make a lot of plans, but we want to be stepping with Christ. We want him to be
guiding our steps. And Paul is going to learn that eventually, right? That he's going to go to
Rome, but he's going to go as a prisoner and accomplish even so much more in chains
than he ever could as a free man. Isn't that amazing? You know, that's what the Lord does.
And so let's read on from there. Verse 25, But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the
saints for it please those from Macedonia and Akhaya to make a certain contribution for the
poor among the saints who were in Jerusalem. It please them indeed. And they are their debtors.
Now watch this for if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things,
their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Now we're going to touch on a touchy
subject and that's tithing. You know, Calvary chapels, we don't ask for money. In fact,
that's one of our distinctives. If you ever read a Calvary Chapel distinctives book,
they say we don't ask for money because the Lord provides. We don't have to beg for money.
I remember one time I was listening to this radio program and he was okay. He was a preacher
and he was having a whole program begging. If you don't give, this program might not
still be on the air. I'm thinking, well then maybe it shouldn't be. I mean, if that's what
it takes you begging and grobbling, you know, the Lord, he provides. He brings the increase and he
provides. He provides where he guides, right? And so, you know, we don't ask for money, right?
But when we read about it, we are reminded, you know, we have to be a giving church, right?
And Paul was saying, I'm traveling through if we could just show that,
sorry, one more time. You're gonna get sick of this map, but it's such a great map.
And he was going through and he was saying, all right, I'm collecting. I'm collecting from you
guys to bring it back to the poor Christians in Jerusalem who are being really persecuted.
And as he's going through, he's writing ahead, I'll be coming to you. When I get there,
I'm collecting. And so, he actually would say, when I get there and you're at your
normal meetings giving, make sure you set some aside for the poor people in Jerusalem.
But I'm just reminded, you know, we're all to be givers. And I believe first and foremost to our
church family. You know, sometimes we give to our pet projects, our pet preferences, but really,
to our church family, I mean, I've always given first to the church family I'm part of.
It just is the way it should be, right? Because I'm part of that network. It's my body, you
know, it's I'm a member of the body. But then you give beyond that and you give elsewhere just
like they were given to the church in Jerusalem because it's above and beyond, right? And we could
see tithing was established early in scripture. We don't live according to the law. We're not a
10%, you know, you must give, but why not give 30%. Why not give 50%. All right, where's
you going with this? But we could see in scriptures, remember, Malchizedek? That's
the first picture of tithing. Abraham rescues Lot. And as he's on his way to bring the stuff back to
Sodom and Gomorrah, he meets with Malchizedek and Malchizedek blesses him and he gives him a 10th
of everything. We see Jacob when he was fleeing from Esau on his way to Heron, right? As he was
leaving, he went to Bethel. He later named it. And he put that stone up and he Christened
that because of this ladder that came down from heaven and the angels were rising and
rising and falling on the ladder. And he's like, wow, this is the house of God. And he gave God a
10th. Again, it's a picture of a 10th of everything I get. If I come back, I will give you a 10th of
everything I have. It's just a picture. The Lord in the law said, the Levites, you are to
give the Levites a 10% offering. And guess what? The Levites give a 10% of the 10%. Everybody's giving
10%. And we can see that Old Testament, that's Old Law, when we're under grace, where we are,
let's give more. Because everything, just like Abraham, none of that stuff belonged to him.
It was all Sodom and Gomorrah's stuff, right? You know, when we're living here,
none of this stuff inevitably is ours. It all belongs to God, right? And in fact, Jesus even
spoke about this. Remember, he told the parable of the steward? And he says, you know, sometimes
Christians have to realize, be savvy, be shrewd. This stuff you have is only temporary.
It's temporal wealth. And he told the story about the shrewd steward who rumors had it that
he was embezzling. He was misusing his master's stuff. And so the master came to him and he said,
you know, what is this I hear about you? That's it. Close up these books. You're fire. And the
steward said, man, I have to like build myself a career outside here. I can't beg. I can't dig
ditches. I'm not in good shape. I better make deals here. So he sat down with all of the
people and he said, what do you owe? Oh, I owe 100 pounds here. I cross that. You only owe me 50 pay up
right now. And the next person, how much do you owe 100? Give me 80. And he was making deals for
the master because so many accounts receivable were out in the, in the town that they all owed
his master and he was just lazy. So finally he realized, no, I got to make, because I have to
make sure that when I get out of this job, I have somewhere else to go. You know, he can go over and see
Ken and say, hey, Ken, remember I hooked you up there? 150. Can you hook me up with a job? Right.
So he had to make plans. You think, well, what is Jesus? Is he, is he, is he suggesting that we
embezzle from our employers? No, he's trying to say none of it's yours. And he says this,
I love this in Luke 16 9. He says, and I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous
wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwelling. He's saying, look,
make friends for the kingdom of God with this temporary wealth you have, you know, invest.
Just like Paul was saying, you know, you should invest what's material because of all the spiritual
gain you're getting, right? And isn't it true? I mean, that's what happens, you know,
as we gain, the Lord blesses us. You ever notice the disciples caught more fish every time they
were with Jesus? Okay, they didn't catch a thing all night. They catch a plethora of fish, right?
We are more blessed when we are walking with Christ. And you know what he does? He gives you
more and more. I'm sorry, I'm not a prosperity preacher, but he does prosper you, doesn't he?
Because you know what happens when you're not walking with God, you're wasting your money on
foolish things. On idols, like we were talking about earlier, idols that have nothing to offer you,
right? Like cars, Ferraris and all that stuff, whatever. I saw all your Ferraris pulling here
to them. I don't even, well, I do know one person that has a nice car. But like it's a waste,
right? It's just idols, right? And he's saying, just don't get hung up on idols,
invest it for spiritual things. Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth eats it, rusts it away and devours it, right? And thieves break in and steal,
but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where none of that happens, right?
And so really, it's just that it's really an exhortation to give, give abundantly,
you know? And just, it's like the Lord has never, you know, was unfaithful to our family
by giving. And we see this picture of Paul going around and collecting for the saints,
because they benefited in spiritual things, invest the material things. I'll tell you,
you know what the Lord does? He re-structures your whole budget. He really does. When you
put him first, everything else falls in line. So do you have more than you ever had before?
All right? So that was the one message on tithing for the next couple of years. So did you enjoy it?
All right, so let's read all. So final point. Therefore, when I have performed this and have
sealed it to them, this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come
to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Verse 30,
Now I beg you brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit,
that you strive together with me in prayers to God. Now watch this, that I may be delivered
from those in Judea who do not believe, okay? That would be the Jews who are still living
according to the law. And that my service for Jerusalem may be accepted to the saints,
that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you.
Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So what is he saying? This next theme is called
bidding in. What is he trying to say? Pray for me that I fit in. Now some of you are saying,
I'm not going to be a, I'm not going to be a chameleon. I'm not going to be a chameleon in the
world and adapt to their ways. That's not what we're talking about. He's saying pray for me
that when I go to Jerusalem, first of all, the Jews don't kill me before I can even open
my mouth and deliver this gift, right? Because the Jews hated Paul. He was there, you know,
Paul was the man. He was actually persecuting the church. He was there holding coats while Stephen
was stoned to death. He's our guide, right? Now the city, he turned his coat. You know, he
switched sides and now he's with the way, the church, I mean the Christians, right? So
he is loathed, loathed by the Jews in Jerusalem. But not only that, but when he comes into town
and the Christians who have, who have been converted, most of them Jews see him. They're
like, yeah, he's kind of like too controversial. I don't even want to be associated with him.
I don't want to be anywhere near Paul because Paul has all this stigma attached to him.
I don't want to go near him. So Paul realized when he gets to Jerusalem, he's going to be
ostracized by just about everybody and he's bringing a gift for them, right? And so he's
praying for me that I fit in. You know, as he was heading to Jerusalem, he knew it wasn't going to
be a pretty thing. He knew that there would be a whole lot of mess going on. But he was hoping he
get through the mess and get to Rome someday, right? That's what his plans were, that's what
he was hoping for. And we can see this in a couple of scriptures. As Paul was going through
Malita, which is right near Ephesus, he sent away for the elders of Ephesus because if he
went into Ephesus, he'd never be able to leave in time. He wanted to get to Jerusalem by the Passover
to deliver it. So he said, you know what? I don't have time to meet with everybody. They're all
going to love me and I mean, that's great, but I'll never get out of there, right?
So he says, let me just come and meet with the elders. And when he was, when you get a
chance, read Acts 20, it's the most passionate. Just you're reading this. You're like, man,
this guy knows. He's heading into it just like Jesus did. Everyone kept saying, why are you
going to Jerusalem? You know, to raise Lazarus, you know, and Bethesda, that's right near
Jerusalem. Are you crazy? They're wanting to kill you there. I have to go through Jerusalem
to get to eternity. That's just the way it's going to go. Sometimes you have to go through,
you know, Winston Churchill once said, if you're going through, how keep going?
Because heaven is on the other hand, you know, there's something better beyond that.
There's a light at the end of the tunnel. It's not another train.
Okay. So anyway, Winston Churchill didn't say that, but anyway, so, but he said, you know,
be prepared, you know, so Paul is going through Ephesus and he met with them. He says, look,
you know, I know, I know some tough times I'm going to be heading into. Okay. And he
warned them and warned them. And then he said this, look at those verses in X 20 verse 22 to 23.
And he says, and see, now I go bound in this spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things
that will happen to me, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that
chains and tribulations await me, but none of these things shall move me. I'm going to keep
on going. And you know what? He had such confidence. He was writing to Rome saying, I'll see you
after I get through Jerusalem. Right. Okay. Now he'd see them again in a different context as a
prisoner, but still then when he was moving further, we can read about in Acts chapter 21,
when he was getting very close to Jerusalem and he went into a house by the name of
Philip the Evangelist. And remember he had four prophetic, prophetic daughters and they were prophesying.
Suddenly Agabus comes up. You remember this story and he comes walking up and he ties a belt around
his own. He pulls Paul's belt off ties it around his hand. Very dramatic. And he ties around his
hand. He goes, this is what's going to happen to the person whose belt this belongs to.
And they said to him, you see brother now many myriads of Jews. I'm sorry. That's something else.
So anyway, so he's getting prepared. Right. And so he ends up in Jerusalem. I'm telling you,
they didn't even hear quite yet that he was in town. But when he meets with the saints and,
you know, James, you know, who was then the leader, the half brother of Jesus was the
leader of the church and he met with him and probably Peter was there and others and he gives
them the gift and they're like super glad to see him. And then they're like, all right. Now,
listen, we just need you to dial things down a little bit. All right. Because Paul had one
switch and that was on. That was go. Okay. You know, for him to dial things down and
it's like, and that's, this is what they said. And they said to him, you see brother,
how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed and they are all zealous for the law.
You know, there's still compromise. There's still, you know, when you come out of religion,
it's tough to just escape and realize it's all about grace. You know, I got through religion,
you know, and it took a while to detox, right, from religion. I was even a very religious guy,
but still the rituals, all the things, the traditions, all these that distract
from the only important thing, Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus Christ. He's the only one who
saves, right? He's the only one who matters. You know, you have to go through him to get to
the father. And so they're still living according to the law. Paul's probably saying like, what?
You're like, how could you let this happen? But like, they're in Jerusalem, right? They're
surrounded. So they have to be careful. And so, and they are all zealous for the law,
but they have been informed about you that you teach all the laws who are among the Gentiles,
all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to
circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. Well, some of that's true,
right? They didn't have to. If you want to, okay, right? But not, you know, not to circumcise your
children. I mean, that was not a thing, right? But to Gentiles, you don't need to. But still,
it was this powder keg of conspiracy surrounding Paul. So now Paul's writing to the Romans,
say, you got to pray for me, man, because when I get there, I know all hell is going to break loose
in Jerusalem when I get there. And it did. And it did. He got there. Listen, this is what you
should do, Paul. You should pretend. It's a weird passage is pretend you're living according to
the law. Shave your head, put this on, go into the temple, like you're at the verge of an
ending of these vows that you took and all this. He's like, okay, okay, if you tell me,
I want to get along here. Okay, I don't want to cause any trouble. He was maturing his faith by
then and realized, I have to adjust to the circumstances. I have to adjust. I have to fit
in in order to accomplish what God wants to accomplish through me. I don't want to be offensive
where I'm not supposed to be offensive. Do you know what I mean? And so he let Jesus be the
offender, right? Not me, right? In my presentation of him. So, you know, they said, listen, do all
these things. Do you know he didn't even make it to the last day of his quote unquote vow,
and they burst into the temple and they grabbed him and ripped them right out.
And that's what started the whole rest and eventual trip to Rome on a ship.
And so this last point of fitting in, you know, it's important because Paul realized that he needed
to fit in in a certain way. It didn't work, even in his attempt to try to put on a pretense of
religion. It still didn't work, right? But he didn't want a purpose to be offensive. And,
you know, as I was contemplating this and really thinking about, you know, every environment
we go into, you know, it's okay to be a listener first, right? And to listen to where all the
dynamics are and just pray, Lord, I want to adjust to these situations because in the end,
the most important thing is that you are represented here. So I don't want to be offensive.
That's why actually a lot of missionaries go to foreign lands and they wear clothes
like the people of the mission field. Well, why? You're not under any kind of law. You don't
want to adjust to fit in. I don't want to be offensive where it's not offensive. I once,
well that's a long story, but, you know, we don't want to be offensive where we're not meant to be,
right? So we want to fit in in a way that the gospel is heard in a way that they can be. You
know, even Jesus did this, right? You know, he knew if he came into the world and looked
like God, nobody would accept him. So he had to come in and fit in like one of us, right? He had to
fit in. He had to empty himself in a sense of the glory and come down like a normal human being
to be anointed by the Holy Spirit to accomplish the things that we now are meant to accomplish
in the same power of Jesus Christ. You know, he had to fit in in a way that we could grasp
him, not to the point of not going to the cross and resurrecting and going to heaven,
not according to that, but in according to realizing that, you know, I don't want a
purpose to blow their minds, you know? And neither do we. And as I was thinking about this fitting
in, God gave me this picture and I used it before for something, but it was such a cool picture.
We have a brief video. Now, what is most important? You don't have to play it yet.
Do you have it though? Cool. So you could hold it for a second. But, you know, what's more important
than a key fitting, right? Have you ever had the wrong key? I'm sure you have, right? You know,
and the key just doesn't feel, I have some rings that I didn't label them. I have to go through
like 10 keys to get to the right one, right? It's like, no, it doesn't turn, okay? Because
it doesn't fit right. And I believe we have to pray, Lord, I want to fit right. Do you know
how a key works? Have you ever like looked inside of a tumbler? Well, let's look at this
brief video, very brief, like five seconds, but it shows the movement of a key, okay?
Some of you are saying, I know all this, but watch how the lines line up.
And then it's able to turn, right? Do you remember when Jesus said, after He said,
who do you say that I'm? Behold, I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you lock on earth will be locked in heaven. Whatever you loosen or unlock will
be loosed in heaven, right? We have keys. We are the key, right? And when we go into
environment, we need to fit in such a way to fit the tumblers that are in the environment.
For Paul, when he went into Jerusalem, it was going to be the religious Jews, the Jewish
Christians who were confounded by what his message even was. It was the zealots who were waiting for
the Jews to take over the Roman Empire in that land. It was all kinds of tumblers,
everywhere tumblers, right? And it would be coming down upon him, and Paul was praying, look,
help me fit in to open the door that's meant to be opened. You ever get a key cut in a hardware
store? And when they cut it, like, all right, make sure you bring it back with the receipt.
I'm like, that's not confidence there. In other words, because so often they don't cut the
key quite right, there's some edges, there's some whatever, and it might not open the tumblers,
right? And I'm just thinking, spiritually speaking, we got to pray, Lord, I want to be cut perfectly
to fit the tumblers that are in there. I need to turn the ceiling, I need to turn, open the door
for your gospel to be known. I don't want to be an obstruction. I don't want, you're going to
have it my way or no way. No, Lord, I want it your way. Help me, Lord, not be offensive where I'm not
meant to offensive. Cut me in the right way that the tumblers that are in that environment move,
and the door is open for the gospel, and perhaps the demonic and everything else
is locked away, right? As a worship team comes up, you know, I hope the Lord spoke to you
through these things, because these are things that we just observed Paul talking about,
regarding his own walk, his own ministry. But don't you want to open doors for the Lord?
You know, every environment we go into, I remember Mount Vernon, you remember any of you guys way
back at the Korean church in Mount Vernon that we were rented there, it was a great time,
but there was a keyhole that people would say, this key doesn't work. Well, yeah, it does. You just
kind of have to move it up to the right a little bit and jiggle it. Does anybody remember? And it
was like so, how did they live with this for 30 years? You know, everybody has to know the twist
and the jiggle. If you don't know the twist and the jiggle, you're never going to get in,
right? Well, you know, we don't want that, Lord, we want to slide in and we want to just open the
doors that are meant to be open and shut those who are meant to be shut. Amen. Let's all stand up.
Father God, we thank you, Lord, that you have truly given us keys, Lord God, and where we go,
we want it to be your plans and your steps that get us there. So, Lord God,
anoint us for great things. We thank you in Jesus' name. Remember at the end of this service,
if you want some prayer, and I know you do, come on up. We have some phenomenal prayer team up here
that really want to just believe that the Lord is going to deliver you, inspire you,
or fill you with what you're meant to have today, especially holy healing in Jesus' name.
Lord, thank you for this great body of Christ, Lord, and we want to serve you with diligence in
Jesus' name. Amen. Let's give the Lord a round of applause.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.