Seven :: An Open Door (Philadelphia)

The church in Philadelphia was a small church. They didn't have much influence, power, or resources, but Jesus celebrated them and, because of their faithfulness, presented an open door of opportunity to advance the mission of Jesus in their city. 

I couldn't help but think of our young church as I read, studied, and preached on Revelation 3:7-13. We are young. We don't have much power or influence. We don't have many resources. Yet, I truly believe God has given us an open door of Kingdom opportunity in our city. But we must walk through it together. 

Where is God giving you opportunities to partner with Him today? I pray you see them and walk through them!

To connect, take a next step, or find out more information, click here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Revelation chapter three, verse seven through thirteen. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open. I know your deeds, see, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan who claim to be Jews, though they are not, but are liars, I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command, endure patiently, or to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what I have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God. The new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God, and I will also write them my new name. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

We knew it was risky putting a mic in his hand, but he did great. Can we give it up for Zach? Man. Well, good morning, everyone. If we haven't had the chance to meet, my name is Blake Rogers, and I get to serve as a lead pastor here. About two years ago, my family and I here made Shambly our home because, well, we love it. We fell in love with it. And we want to give our lives to it, and we long to see God move in it. And God gradually called others to join us, as you've kind of heard throughout the morning. And we launched Kingdom City Church about six months ago. And every single one of you are answers to prayer. And the reason we gather is because our hope for you is that you encounter God, you find a family to belong to, and you find a mission worth leveraging your life for. We use that language all the time because we want people to know that's what the church is. It's a family you belong to, it's a mission to leverage your life for. It's not an event you casually attend. And so if you're here and you're ready to take a step with Jesus, maybe today you decide to give your life to him or you get baptized to get baptized or join a community or serve on a team, whatever that step is, we encourage you to fill out that connect card, drop it off in the new here next steps area in the Atrium because we want you to become who God created you to be and live the life God longs for you to live. And we are here to help make that happen. So this is week six of our seven series through Jesus' letters to the seven churches of Revelation. Has anyone been enjoying this series? Has it been helpful? Yeah, praise God. And the reason we're looking at this section of this book, specifically this section of this book, is because not only do we believe that these were Jesus' words to seven specific churches in the first century, but we believe that these are still words to the church today, and even words to our church, words to you, words to me. And these letters are filled with warnings, challenges, encouragements, and comforts because the book of Revelation, though it wasn't written to us or about us, it was written, recorded, copied, and spread for us. It is for our benefit. John actually starts out in Revelation chapter one, and he promises that there's a blessing for those of us who would read this and would heed what it says. And so even as we read this out loud and you receive it, you listen to it, you apply it, he's saying, Amen, you will be blessed as a result of this, because he knew that although he was writing to these seven churches, people like you and me would gather around this word and hear it and receive from it today. And his hope, his longing as a pastor is that you would be blessed as a result of it. People get a lot of people get really stressed out when they come across the book of Revelation. I don't know if you're that person, but there's a lot of people who do. And so I always like to start kind of every single week with kind of walking through a little bit of a foundation of what is this book and how should we kind of apply it. Uh, first and foremost, revelation, literally the word uh in the Greek, is apocalypsis, where we get the word apocalypse from. So maybe when we take words and then those words get twisted over time and they become something that that they were never really meant to become, and they bring an imagery that they were never really meant to bring. And so when people start talking about the apocalypse, they talk about the ending of the world, right? Everything coming to a close. Maybe you grew up in the generation of like left-behind books and movies and stuff, and it kind of really stressed you out, and you got a little bit of religious PTSD as a result of that. But literally, all it is is it's a revelation. It simply means that there's an unveiling, a disclosure, or making known of something previously hidden. And so Jesus, through the Apostle John, is writing to these people and he's saying, Hey, I want to unveil to you the ultimate purposes of God in his kingdom and throughout human history. I want you to see something that not everyone else has has seen or has gotten access to. He wants to give you access. Paul throughout the New Testament says that he longs to proclaim the mysteries, the mysteries of Christ. And he's letting us in. He's kind of getting a peek behind the curtain of what those mysteries are, something that he's doing throughout human history. The book of Revelation is a four-part revelation. It's a four-part unveiling or a four-part communication from God to Jesus, from Jesus to the angel of the churches, from the angel to John, and from John writing these letters to the churches. In Revelation chapter one, John writes, he says, the revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave to him in order to show his servants, talking about the churches, what must soon take place. He's trying to unveil something. And he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who now testifies to everything that he saw. That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. John isn't making these words up, he's communicating something from Jesus to these churches. And once again, the promise attached to it is blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. Blessed are those who hear it and take heart what is written in it, because the time is near. And when he talks about the time being near, I know you're you're you're maybe thinking about this and you're going, man, wasn't this written like almost 2,000 years ago? Has the time passed? What does that mean? That uh phrase is used all throughout the New Testament to simply say that the next thing in the story of God is the return of Jesus. They're just saying all of human history has passed, that there's been creation, there's been fall, there's been redemption through the work of Jesus. And the next thing in the history, the story of God is Jesus returning to renew and restore all things. And so in the grand scheme of the story of God, yes, it's coming soon, and it and it is coming soon. And they were always looking forward to that day because they knew that that was the next thing, and they didn't know when it was coming, but they knew that it was going to come. Revelation, ultimately, this book is an extended letter to specific churches, to actual first century churches. This is written around the mid-90s. So this is this is being written to actual people who are gathering just like you and I are gathering right here, right now. And I want you to imagine the elders of these churches meeting with John on the island of Patmos, where he had been exiled, receiving these letters, taking them to their churches, opening them up, and then reading them just like we're reading right now. And the uh the book of Revelation is a prophecy, the revelations of God and his redemptive purposes throughout human history. Once again, it's a great unveiling, and it's a witness to Jesus and his authority. The grand theme throughout all the book of Revelation is Jesus is greater. That's the grand theme. Jesus is greater, and he's gonna be faithful to his promises. He's greater than culture, he's greater than the Roman Empire, he's greater than persecution, Jesus is greater, and and a witness to Jesus and his authority for those who surrender to him. This is gonna lead to suffering for those who are allegiant to Jesus as Lord, but knowing Jesus is in authority. And then lastly but not least, it's all about Jesus. His supremity and his supremacy and the inevitability of his kingdom is central to this book. This is revelation. And so I always like to start there as our foundation for what we're reading, so that you can know that these are actual people receiving actual words from an actual pastor who received an actual revelation from Jesus and that they can actually benefit us today. And today we're looking at the church in Philadelphia, the ancient church in Philadelphia, which is in modern-day Turkey, not Pennsylvania. And Jesus is speaking through the writing of John, and he begins with this to the angel in Philadelphia. I want to throw up the map real quick. The yellow dot is the island of Patmos, and that's where John is exiled to, and he's writing this letter to the church in Philadelphia, which is right there on the map. And he begins with this to the angel in Philadelphia. To the angel in Philadelphia. It seems that every church, every single letter starts out this way, to the angel of, to the angel of, to the angel of. And it seems that every church had its own angel assigned to it, to look over it, to protect it, to be God's messenger to it. In the Greek, it literally means messenger. Some people have argued that maybe he's just talking about the elders or the pastors of these churches. Other people believe that genuinely that Jesus actually assigns angels to look over every single church. That it's quite possible that Kingdom City Church has an angel assigned to it by God to look over us, to protect us, to communicate, to be God's messenger to us and on our behalf, to convict us and draw us back to him. And the main thing to realize is that for each of these churches, as well as ours, is that God has his eye on us. That's what it's what he's trying to communicate. God has his eye on you. God sees you. God knows what's happening. His eye hasn't been taken off of you. He's not ignorant of what's happening to you or what you're going through or what's going on in your personal life. He knows you. He sees you. He sees you and he sees us. He knows what Kingdom City Church has gone through and he knows what you have gone through. He knows what Kingdom City Church is dealing with. He knows what you are dealing with. He knows what we are burdened by. He knows what you are burdened by. He knows the opposition that is facing us, and he knows the opposition that is facing you, because he has his eye on you. And Jesus gives very specific, detailed messages to each of these churches, and it's because he's actually with them. He's actually among them. He's actually looking over them and he's actually involved in what they're doing. Our mission statement here at Kingdom City is we learn to be a local church partnering with Jesus for the renewal of the city. And that middle part is the most important part that we are partnering with him. This isn't something we are doing on our own. This isn't something that we have chosen to do as a result of our own idea. This is something that Jesus has commissioned his people to do. And now we are saying we are in a particular place in a particular moment at a particular time in history, and we are partnering with Jesus, locking arms with him to do what he wants to do in the place that we call home. And we genuinely believe this, that this is an intimate partnership with Jesus through the Holy Spirit as we continue his ministry and mission in our city in this historical moment. And it's exactly what they believed. He was with them, he was involved in the day-to-day, not only of their everyday lives, but of their church. He knew it was happening. And Jesus starts out and communicates a very specific thing to them. And he says, These are the words of him who is holy and true. Jesus is talking about himself. To every single church, Jesus reveals a particular, a particular description of himself to every single church. Every time he introduces himself to a church, it's a little bit different. And it's very specific in detail to this specific church and to this one, Jesus says, these are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open. Jesus wants to be very clear about something is that he is God. He is God. Jesus isn't just a good teacher or a messenger. Jesus wants to communicate to each and every single one of these churches, he is God. He wants to remind this weak and vulnerable church that he is who he claims to be. An interesting fact about the church in Philadelphia is that they were actually on in an area where they were very prone to earthquakes. And so something that had happened over the course of the hundred years before this letter is that they had experienced earthquake after earthquake after earthquake after earthquake. And the Roman Empire had to rebuild every every few years in order to replace what had been broken or what had fallen down and the ruins that were that were in place. And so and so this church, as a result of that, they were weak. They had a lack of finances, they had a lack of security, they had a lack of stability, as did the entire city. And so Jesus wants to proclaim to them, in the midst of their uncertainty, in the midst of their instability, in the midst of their insecurity, he wants to remind them that he is in authority. He is in authority. That whatever, whatever's in your life, he wants you to know that he has authority. And this can go one of two ways. This can be very, very comforting, right? This can be extremely comforting that you can know that despite all the chaos and all the suffering and all the things that are happening in your life, that he is God and nothing can get to you unless it passes first through his hands. And that he is in control. And the one who is in control and in authority is one who loves you, who has created you, who longs for you to have, to be who, to become who he created you to be and to live the life that he's calling you to live. He wants that for you. But it can also be a little bit scary if you're not someone who loves Jesus and is committed to following Jesus. That man, if he has all authority in his hand and he is moving all of human history towards his ultimate ends and purposes and his means, if you are not, if you're not committed to him, you are constantly going to face resistance and you are ultimately going to end up wasting your life. And so Jesus is wanting to remind them, and even in the face of temptation, in the face of discomfort, stay faithful to me. Why? Because I am in control. I see you and I'm in control. He is who he claims to be. He has done what he claims to have done, and he will be faithful to do what he promises to do. And then he quotes directly out of the book of Isaiah, chapter 22, verse 22. He says, I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. And here's the verse I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David, what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. What is Jesus claiming to be right there as he quotes this verse? Well, the context of this in the book of Isaiah is he's writing about God taking the keys or taking authority away from an unfaithful steward and giving them to a faithful steward. And so this is this is what Jesus is claiming God has done for him. Is that the faithful one, Jesus, has received the keys, has received authority. And what does he receive authority to? What does the temple represent? It represents the presence of God. He's saying that he has the keys, he has the authority, he has the access to the kingdom, he has the access to the presence of God, he has the access to the authority of God. And the faithful one that God has honored and rewarded is Jesus, just like it was Eliakim in this scripture. Why has Jesus been rewarded? Why has Jesus been honored? How did Jesus receive the keys and receive the authority? Well, Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2, therefore God has exalted him. That's what's happened to Jesus. He's been exalted to the highest place, and he gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is saying, I have been elevated by God because I've been faithful to him. That he stepped into human history with a specific calling and purpose from the Lord, and he was faithful to that calling and purpose. And then God raised him from the dead as evidence of his faithfulness, evidence that he is who he claimed to be and that he would do what he claimed to do. And God elevated him, raised him. That's what we're going to celebrate in a couple weeks on Easter. And that Jesus' resurrection is proof that he has authority over all things, including death and the grave. So because of his faithfulness, God exalted Jesus and gave him the name above all names, and now every knee has to bow and every tongue has to confess that Jesus is Lord. Jesus has already told us in chapter one of Revelation that he holds the key to life and death. And so Jesus is essentially saying the same exact thing here. No earthquake can shake his authority. No diagnosis can shake or thwart his authority. No lost job can shake or thwart his authority. No opposition can shake or thwart his authority. No scheme of man or devil can shake or thwart his authority, and not even death itself can shake or thwart God's authority. And once again, Jesus introduces himself very specifically to this church. And I believe that Jesus longs to introduce himself to you in a very specific and particular way. It's been amazing to me the different ways that you can preach about Jesus and the different ways that people respond to him. The different truths. It's like a diamond. The more you turn it, the more colors and the more angles you see, the more beautiful it gets. And that's the same way with Jesus. I've seen people respond to the idea of Jesus as a healer. I've seen people respond to the idea of Jesus as a king. I've seen people respond to Jesus being a teacher and having all truth. I've seen people respond to the fact that Jesus was a servant who had the audacity to get on his hands and feet and wash and wash the feet of his disciples and ultimately lay his life down out of service to you and to me. People respond to Jesus in all kinds of different ways. Why? Because we need Jesus. But we all need him in specific and unique ways, each and every single one of us. And so Jesus reveals himself according to what each church needs to see him as. And you do too. Jesus introduces himself based on who they need him to be. Why? Because he knows them. That's the very next thing he says. He says, I know you. I know your deeds. I know your life. I know your heart. I know what you're going through. I know what you're feeling. I know what you've done. I know I know what you've faced. I know what you've endured. And then he says, I need you to know that I am the Holy One. I am the true one. I am the one with authority in heaven and on earth. He wants them to know. Yes, I see all these things that have happened to you. Get your eyes off of those things and get your eyes on the Holy One, on the true one, on the one who has keys to all things and authority over all things.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

So let me ask you, who do you need Jesus to be for you today?

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Who do you need Jesus to be for you today? And this isn't because Jesus changes who he is. It's because the totality of his character is so beautiful and deep and multifaceted that he can be all that and more, whatever it is you need him to be. Whatever it is the depth of your soul aches and longs for. Jesus is the fulfillment and fruition of that. There is no depth. For all of eternity, you will you will get more and more and more revelation. Even as you see him face to face, he will only get increasingly more beautiful. Something we talked about in our in our team rally. We gather every single morning at 9 a.m. for 30 minutes. We sing, we worship, we pray, we saturate this place, we we we welcome the presence of God. And we do this as a team together. And we were meditating on this on this quote. It says, worship. What is worship? Worship is the feast of the soul on the beauty of God. Worship is the feast of the soul on the beauty of God. When's the last time your soul feasted on the beauty of Jesus? When's the last time Jesus became so personal and near and dear, and he was exactly who you needed and longed for him to be, and your soul feasted on him? You just looked at him and he was just beautiful, and you worshiped him and you thanked him and you honored him. When's the last time that happened to you? Who do you need Jesus to be for you today? Because he is all that and more. And then Jesus moves into a second thing and he talks about a door, talks about the door. He says, I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, that you have kept my word, and you have not denied my name. So he says to them, first thing he says, he says, I know your works, I know your deeds, I know the things you've done. Well, what works is he talking about? What has this church done? This is only one of two churches in all of these letters that Jesus doesn't critique at all. He only commends them, he only celebrates them, he only honors them. So what is this church doing, even though they are weak, even though they are feeble, even though they don't have a lot of influence, even though they're not in an influential city, what are they doing that Jesus honors and celebrates? Well, he describes three things. He says, one, that you have kept my word. You've kept my word. What are the works of you? He says, You've kept my word. What is it like to keep his word despite temptation? Can you imagine Don't Don't you all, all of us, we have disordered desires within our heart, right? We all, we all, we all long for things and want things that sometimes surprise us, even as followers of Jesus, right? That deep down you love Jesus and you want his will for your life, but then you wake up and you want things that you don't want to want. Have you noticed that? Paul describes this in Romans. He talks about the war between the flesh and the spirit. There's an old there's an old proverb that talks about talks about two dogs constantly at war together. And you feel that, right? Who you long to be, and you know who Jesus is inviting you to be, and then what your flesh desires and craves and is holding you back from what you know God wants to do in your life, and yet you give to you give into it so often and you hate that. And what Jesus is acknowledging to this church is he's saying, Man, you've kept my word, even though even though you've endured all kinds of temptation. There's been all kinds of temptation for you to cave, and you've kept my word. You've held fast. And he says, Man, I want to honor you for that. I want to celebrate you for that. I know your works. The second thing he says is you've not denied my name. This city, just like all the other cities in Greek culture, had two huge influences, Greek culture and Roman Empire. And these two things had external pressures caving against, coming against this church. And then there's a third one that we that we also that we also read about in this text, and that's the Jewish synagogue. So you have Greek influence, Greek culture, Roman Empire, and the Jewish synagogue all coming against this little weak church. And Jesus says, and you have not denied my name, despite all that pressure. Have you noticed? Maybe, maybe it's happened to you. Where if the right pressure comes at the right time, you kind of cave. Maybe you're here, man. You think the thing that Jesus is wanting to bring about in your heart is courage. You're going, man, I just want to be the real deal. I want people in my office to know that I love Jesus. I want people in my life to know that I love Jesus. I want my family to know that I don't just go to church. I love Jesus. I want I want people to know that I'm that I that I really am after Jesus with all my heart. And yet when external pressure comes, you just cave a little bit. You don't necessarily deny Jesus, you just you just kind of cave a little bit to the external pressure. And Jesus says, Y'all haven't done that. You've not denied my name. And then the last thing he says is you've kept my command to endure patiently. Despite all the uncertainty, they've endured patiently. They've been faithful. Man, I'll be honest with you, this past six months has felt like six years. It has already. In some ways, it's felt like six days, but it's also felt like six years in some way. And man, every week there's like a new layer of uncertainty. There was so much uncertainty throughout all of our pre-launch experience. And there was so much uncertainty all throughout, like every single week, there's another layer of uncertainty. The future is still so much uncertainty. We don't own anything. We don't have anything. So we're we're very much like dependent upon other people and other forces that we can't control or guarantee. And so there's a there's a layer of uncertainty. And yet Jesus is saying to this church, he's saying, even in the midst of your uncertainty, maybe an earthquake's gonna come tomorrow, or people are gonna come against us and persecute us tomorrow. But he says, even in the midst of that, you've endured patiently. You've endured patiently. He says, Man, I see that and I know your works and I love it. And Jesus says, the next verse, he says, Behold, I have placed for you an open door that no one can shut. Now, now he doesn't, he doesn't necessarily say that, hey, because of your good works, I've placed an open door that no one can shut. But I think it is implied. Jesus is saying, You've been faithful. You've been faithful. So guess what? I want to give you opportunity because you've been faithful. I want to open up a door that no one can shut because you've proven yourself faithful. Do you think that Jesus really loves to reward the faithful people? Don't you think that that probably pleases his heart? Jesus even teaches in the gospels. He says, Man, those who are faithful with little, I'm gonna give them more. Why? Because he's like faithful leads to more faithfulness. If you've been faithful with little, I'm gonna assume that you're gonna be faithful with much. And man, he's saying, look, you've endured through all of this, even in your weakness, even in your small, even in your frailty. And so guess what? I'm gonna open up a door of opportunity. I'm gonna open up a window of opportunity where you can have influence. This this word door is used kind of all throughout scripture to mean a bunch of different things. We we preached the very first series we preached through as a church was the I am statements of Jesus. And one of those statements, Jesus says, I am the door, I am the gate. And I remember kind of, we we kind of talked about how a door is an access point to get from where you are to where you want to go. Or it's it's something that you want to shut to keep things out that you don't want to get in, right? That it's a door. It opens up and it shuts. It opens up and it shuts. Have you ever felt trapped? You ever felt stuck on the outside or stuck on the inside? Stuck on the outside, longing to get in, stuck on the inside, longing to get out, but no access point, no door to get through. Seeing everything you long to have but can't have. Everywhere you longed to be but couldn't get to. On the outside of life, purpose, joy, family, flourishing, hope. On the inside of loneliness, isolation, fear, despair, purpose, purposelessness. And what we found out in that series is that Jesus promises to be the door, to be the door that leads you to flourishing, that leads you to purpose, that leads you to peace, that leads you to become who God's created you to be, to live the life that He's called you to live, and ultimately have access to God and access to His kingdom. Jesus, Jesus points us back to that reality in this text. He says, I am the one with the keys to the door. I'm the one with the keys. I'm the one that gives access. I am the door. He's saying, No one can shut what Jesus opens. No one can open what Jesus shuts, because Jesus is the door. Jesus is the one with the keys to the door of the kingdom. He is the one with royal cosmic authority to grant or deny access. Not the culture, not religious works, and not the enemy. Jesus alone. And so Jesus tells them, Because I am who I am, I can open for you and I have opened for you a door of opportunity. He's saying, Man, I give access to whom I want to give access and I restrict access from who I don't want to grant access. And you've been faithful and I want to give you access. You've been faithful, I want to open up a door. You've been faithful, I want to give you more. I've opened up a door for you, and it is wide open, and no one can shut it as long as I have it opened.

unknown 26:03

N.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

T. Wright on this text writes this equipped with regal power, Jesus has just opened a door right in front of the Philadelphia Christians, and he is urging them to go through it. They have an opportunity not just to stand firm, but to actually make advances, to take the good news of Jesus into places and hearts where it is not yet reached. The qualifications are all in place. They have some power, not very much, but with the backing of Jesus, they have all they need. They must take courage and go through the door. They must grasp the opportunity they have while it's still there. And so he's saying, this church in Philadelphia, they've been weak and they've been feeble for a long, long time. They've endured patiently, and now Jesus is saying, But I'm giving you an opportunity. I'm giving you a wide open door. But here's the reality of an open door. You can't get to the place it's leading you to give it's giving access to unless you what? Walk through it. Unless you walk through it. You know, I I was reading, we've I've kind of been reading through the book of Galatians with a group of guys, and there's a there's a there's a verse in that, uh, there's a text in that in that book that has always kind of haunted me. And he says, he says, why have you submitted again to a yoke of slavery? Because Jesus has set you free. He says, Man, Jesus has died to set you free. And then he says, but you've chosen, for whatever reason, to submit yourself to a yoke of slavery. Why have you chosen to submit yourself to a yoke of slavery when Jesus has set you free? And the picture he paints is like they're inside a prison cell. The sentence has come and they are free to go. The door is wide open and they choose to sit there. They choose to stay within that prison, even though the door has been wide open. And that's kind of the temptation right here with the church in Philadelphia. Is he saying, You have been small, you have been weak, you have had a lot of circumstances coming against you, and now there's a door that's wide open. And my question to you is, are you gonna stay where you've been because you've now taken your circumstances and your frailty and made it an identity? Or are you gonna walk through a door of opportunity? Have you have you now embraced an identity that, yep, we are weak, we are feeble, we are just gonna suffer, we're just gonna make it, we're just gonna, we're just gonna grit our teeth and make it to the end until we get to see Jesus face to face. Or, or he's saying, Man, will you believe me and will you step through an opportunity to advance the gospel? I truly believe that we, as our church, that we have a door of opportunity that God has opened to us. I truly believe it. I truly believe that we planted this church and that there is a door of opportunity that God has opened to us. There are six million people in Metro Atlanta. Over four million of them don't know Jesus. There are a quarter of a million people within five miles of where we are right now, and only 30% have any kind of faith or relationship to the local church. We have come here because we believe God is presenting a great opportunity. Not for Kingdom City Church, not for some brand, not for some thing, but for the gospel of Jesus to save people, transform lives, and impact a city. There's a reason that when people come to us, and even if God has transformed their lives and they come to us and they say, hey man, I think I want to look for another church, there's a reason we print out a big list and give them a list of churches. Why? Because we're here to see the kingdom advance and the gospel transform people, not to get credit. We're not here because we want to grow a brand. We're here because we long, we see we we see darkness and we see brokenness in our city and all around us and even within our own hearts, and we're going, Jesus, I'm daring to take your word for it that the gospel can advance in the human heart and in a city and transform it all. And there's an opportunity. The question is, will you walk through an open door? Every single one of you, you have opportunity in your life. Every single one of you, there's been a great door open to every single one of you. I truly believe this. If you're walking with Jesus, he longs to open doors for you. He longs to. Why? Because Jesus loves saving people. You don't have to twist Jesus' arm to save. The Old Testament says, is his arm too short to save? No. His arm is not too short. There's a reason that he's so inclusive. Everyone, everyone who will who will confess the name of Jesus, everyone who will bow to him. He will save everyone. Whoever. Doesn't matter what your story is, doesn't matter where you came from, doesn't matter what you've been through, doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter what your rap sheet is. If you are willing to say Jesus is who he says he is, and I'm willing to surrender my life to him, he will save you. He will save anybody. We don't have to try to get him to want to do that. And so there's a door of opportunity open to every single one of us. But there is one threat to us getting where God wants to take us and seeing what God wants to show us and becoming who God wants to make us. Us. Us. Not even the enemy. Why? Because he has defeated the enemy. If the Holy Spirit's within you, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So the enemy is not powerful enough to take God's hand off of your life. Not powerful enough. However, you can repeatedly choose not to walk through doors that God opens for you. So something I was thinking of is, man, what keeps some of us from walking through open doors? What keeps some of us from walking through the opportunities that God has placed in front of us? And I think there's a list of things I think that'll be up here. I think one of them is fear. I think specifically fear of what will or won't happen. Like I think some of you that there, that there's an opportunity to advance the gospel, maybe in your family, or maybe with a friend, or maybe someone who's been in your life for a long time, and you have a lot of fear because you don't know how it's gonna go. You don't know what will or what won't happen if you walk through that door. Or maybe some of you it's an opportunity, maybe it's a career thing, maybe it's a vocational thing, maybe it's a relationship, man. I don't I don't know what it, but you but you look at it and you go, man, if I walk through this, I don't know what will or won't happen. And that scares me. And so what we do instead is because we can't guarantee the results, we stay. We put our feet in concrete because of fear. You know, a lot of times fear doesn't lead us to do a bunch of crazy stuff. A lot of times fear just locks us up. But there's usually two responses to fear, right? Fight or flight. You either run away, you stand your ground, or some of us we just stall out because of fear. The second thing is I just think doubt, specifically in God's goodness. Specifically that God will come through for you. And this has been the lie ever since the beginning with the enemy, right? He says, he's Eve says, No, I can't do, I can't disobey God. Why? Because I'm gonna die. There's gonna be consequences of that. What does the enemy tell her? That's not gonna happen. God's not gonna do that. God's not gonna take care of you. God's not for your good. God's not for your flourishing. God's trying to take from you and he's trying to keep from you. You can't trust him with your sexuality, God's trying to keep from you, he's trying to take from you. You can't trust him with your future, God's trying to take from you, he's trying to keep from you. You can't trust him with your relationship. Why? Because God's gonna God's gonna trying to take from you, He's trying to keep from you. You can't trust Him with your with your with your uh children. Why? Because God's gonna take from you, He's gonna keep from you. You can't trust Him with your finances, why? Because God's gonna take from you, He's gonna keep from you. And you doubt. And so you keep from walking through. The third thing is idolatry. In his book, in his in his book, Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller talks about that there are deep idols in there are surface idols. And he says that really every human heart has, there's really a couple of deep idols that we all have, and that's security or significance. And they manifest themselves through a lot of different surface idols. But there's a lot of little things that we kind of cling to. Like it's not really money that's your idol, it's the security that money gives you. Or it's the significance that money gives you. It's not sex that's your idols, it's the significance that sex gives you, or it's the security that it gives you. Whatever, whatever that thing you say, man, that there's a couple of deep idols that we all have. And man, I think for a lot of us, we don't walk through, we don't walk through doors that God opens for us. Why? Because because we have idols in our lives. And rather than walking through the door that God opens for us, we're over here trying to pry one open that we want with a crowbar. And God's saying, here's an open door for my kingdom and for the gospel and for your true and deeper purpose. And you're going, no man, I got to get this one open with a crowbar. And you're missing, you're missing out on the opportunities that God's placed in front of you because of idols. Distraction. You just miss, you just miss open opportunities because you're distracted by stuff. You're distracted by your phone, you're distracted by other agendas, you're distracted by what's going on in the news or what's going on in the world. And you're distracted. Things are weighing your heart down and keeping your eyes off of what really matters. A lack of discernment. Man, I've had so many conversations with people who just have a who just have a lack of discernment. When they're given options, they don't know what to do and they lock up or they make really, they make bad decisions or rash decisions because they lack discernment. There's too many voices in their head. They're convinced that God's speaking to them over here, and then they've got this thing over here, and then there's this other thing that's speaking to them here, and then they saw this TikTok by a guy over here, and they're going, like, I don't I don't know what to do because you have too many voices and you lack discernment. There's a lack of, there's disordered desires that we talked about earlier. You just have misplaced priorities. It's hard to be obedient to what God calls you to do if he's third in line. If there's other things that are more important than him, you're not gonna, you're not gonna walk through the doors that he opens. Control. Man, a lot of people they just try to control their own lives. And what it really is is you're using God for your own desires and purposes. And you're trying to go, hey God, if I do X, Y, and Z, then that guarantees that you'll do what I want you to do, right? And listen, man, God's not a puppet. He's a king. He doesn't exist for your every desire, want, and whim. He wants to partner with you for the sake of his purposes and his agenda. You can't control your own life, but you can surrender it to one who is good. And then the last thing I think is missional amnesia. You just forget your purpose. You forget why you're here, you forget, you forget what's what your life is really about. What it means that that you've surrendered to Christ and you no longer, you're you're you're not your own, but you belong heart, mind, body, and soul to him. What it means for the fact that he's filled you with your with his spirit. Why? For the sake of advancing his mission, not for the sake of building your own castle. We just forget. You kind of get in the grind and the day-to-day routine of things, and you get so caught up in being a provider or being a protector or being a mother or being a father or being an employee or being in all these other things that are absolutely aspects of your life, but those things become supreme, and you just forget why you exist. And those things can't bear the weight of your purpose. We can't let ourselves get in the way of God's opportunity because he has presented an opportunity. And let me tell you this: the only way that the church in Philadelphia advances is if the men and women who call the church in Philadelphia home advance through their lives. Like that's what the church is. It's a gathering of people, it's a family of people who lock arms together and it's each and every single individual pursuing the way and the work and the power of Jesus and committing themselves to the mission of Jesus. And as each individual does that, the church advances. And Jesus' main agenda, once again, isn't that the church in Philadelphia gets big and gets influence and gets platform and gets power. He wants to see his kingdom advance, and his kingdom advances through the gospel being advanced through the church. And so the only way, the only way that this door that we're that we as a church are able to step through a door of opportunity is if you step through a door of opportunity with us. It's the only way. If you live disobediently, we live disobediently. That's how this goes. But if we do this together, if we take initiative together, if we obey Jesus together, then the kingdom grows. The kingdom expands. And that's what he's saying. He's saying, Man, there's a door of opportunity, and you all have to walk through it. You all have to walk through it. In seasons of uncertainty and opposition, this is what Jesus kind of starts to land the plane with is that even though there's a door of opportunity, that they're still in the midst of uncertainty and opposition. And when that happens, the only way that you're going to walk through it, the only way that you're going to be faithful is if you cling to the promises of Jesus. And so Jesus makes some promises. The promise of Jesus. He says, Note this, I will make those from the synagogue of Satan who claim to be Jews and are not, but are lying, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you. Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth. When Jesus talks about the synagogue of Satan, he's talking about Jews in the community who refuse to believe in the Messiah and oppose the Christians. God is ultimately saying that true Jews, the true people of God, are those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah. And they refuse to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and thus oppose their work. Right now we're in the book of Acts in our in our Bible reading plan as a church. And I don't know if you've noticed this pattern throughout the book of Acts as Paul journeys on his missionary journeys, but he has he has a rhythm that he constant that he does. When he comes to a town, the first thing he does is he goes to the Jewish synagogues to preach the gospel to the Jews. And then usually what happens is he's opposed, sometimes beaten, sometimes dragged out of the city, sometimes they riot. And then when that door is shut off, he then moves to the Gentile marketplace and he begins to share the gospel with the Gentiles in the marketplace. And this is the same pattern that we're seeing here. More than likely, the church in Philadelphia was planted by Paul as an expression of his work in Ephesus. We actually think that in 1 Corinthians 16 9, when Paul uses this same language, uh writing to the church in Corinth, he says, I'm in Ephesus and I'm going to stay here. Why? Because there is a door that has been opened to us. There's a great opportunity that's been opened to us, but it's with great opposition. And the opposition that he's facing is this opposition. There's an opportunity, but that opportunity comes with opposition. But what Jesus loves to do is he loves to vindicate the faithful. He loves to vindicate the faithful in the face of opposition. There's a couple of a couple of easy stories. I'll kind of point out in the Old Testament, there's this guy named Joseph. And Joseph was called by God and was a little bit naive and told too many people about the dream that God had given him. And as a result of that, he was thrown into slavery by people who betrayed him. Ultimately, it was his family. His family threw him into slavery, betrayed him. And then when he when he gets taken to Egypt as a slave, he eventually works his way into Potiphar's house. And Potiphar had some authority and influence into Egypt. But then Potiphar's wife lied about Joseph and claimed that he uh tried to do something that he didn't, and was and Joseph, as a result of that, was thrown in prison unjustly. And while he was in prison, he was forgotten over the period of years. And then eventually he was remembered and he got promoted. And then in that promotion, his brothers, his family actually had to come to Egypt as a result of a famine. And guess what? They had to ask for food. Their brother that they betrayed and threw into a pit. And Joseph says these words What the enemy meant for evil, God has used for good. What the enemy meant for evil, God has used for good. And this is what Jesus is telling this church. He said, Man, I will vindicate you. And what they mean for evil, I promise you I'm going to redeem and use for good.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

The stories and the chapters in your life, that all you can do is look at them and go, that is just death and destruction.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

And I think for some of you, man, the word that God has for you today is that he will vindicate, he will redeem every broken thing in your life, and he will show you that what the enemy meant for evil, you will get a fresh look on this and you will see that he redeemed it and used it for good. Jesus, we see the example of Jesus, that Jesus is rejected, Jesus is accused, Jesus is arrested, Jesus is abused, Jesus is murdered, and then eventually Jesus is resurrected and once again vindicated. And so this opportunity is not without opposition, but he says, Take heart. If you are faithful in the face of opposition, the Lord will be faithful in vindication. And he then promises something interesting. I will keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the world to test those who live on the earth. Now, depending on your theological bent, you may interpret this a couple of different ways. I'm going to tell you what I believe he's promising. In the book of Jude, Jude, Jesus' half-brother, writes, and he says to those who have been called, loved, and kept by God. And he says, Now to him who is able to keep you. And so when he uses this language, I'm going to keep you from the hour of testing. I don't believe Jesus is promising to be a helicopter from testing or suffering. I believe Jesus is promising to be an anchor in the midst of testing and suffering. He's saying, I'm going to keep you in the midst of it. I'm going to keep you in the midst of it. And so a lot of us, what we long for Jesus to be is a helicopter to keep us from the bad things in life. You go, man, I want to be faithful. I want to step through this door of opportunity, and there's going to be opposition, but Jesus is going to be a helicopter and he's going to save me from that opposition, right? And Jesus goes, No, no, no, no, I'm not a helicopter, I'm an anchor. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you courage, I'm going to give you boldness. I'm going to weigh you down to faithfulness to me as you trust in me and I'm going to keep you in the midst of your opposition. In the midst of your pain, in the midst of your testing, in the midst of your suffering. I'm going to keep you. Which means in the midst of your testing, in the midst of your pain, and in the midst of your suffering, you have to remind yourself that He is keeping you. He hasn't abandoned you just because life hurts a little bit. He hasn't abandoned you because you've suffered. He hasn't abandoned you because you're trying to be faithful and things aren't bearing fruit the way that you thought that they would bear fruit. And so many people, what happens is they doubt God's goodness and God's faithfulness. And what do they do? They quit. They quit. And they quit before they can actually see the harvest or reap the harvest of what the what they've been working for. In in Galatians chapter 6, Paul writes to the church in Galatians, and he says, he says, Do not grow weary and doing good. Why? Because there's a harvest to reap if you keep going. There's a harvest to reap if you keep going. He says, Don't quit. And that's why he says what he says next. He says, I am coming soon.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

What are you hoping for?

SPEAKER_02 44:39

What are you hoping for? What are you doing? Why are you following Jesus? Because I promise you the reward that you're hoping for is something something material or something for yourself. Some kind of guarantee that you're gonna get all the all the dreams that you wanted to have, or have all the stuff that you wanted to have. Then I'm sorry to tell you, you'll likely be disappointed. But if the reward you're hoping for is that you'll be able to stand before Jesus and you have him, and he has you, and he says to you that you have done well, my good and faithful servant. And he says, Come into the joy and the pleasure of your master. If that's the reward you're hoping for, he says, You can guarantee you're gonna get it. You can guarantee it. The one who is victorious, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God, and I will also write on them my new name. Jesus promises to make them pillars in the temple. Can you imagine that that was probably pretty comforting to people who lived in a place where there was a lot of earthquakes that brought down buildings? And he said, No, no, you you're gonna be pillars. You're gonna be pillars. And what is the temple? The temple is the place where the presence of God resides. And in Hebrews, God says about his kingdom that his kingdom is an unshakable kingdom. What do earthquakes do? They shake things until they collapse. And he says, But my kingdom cannot be shaken, and you will be pillars in that kingdom. Throughout Scripture, we see different places where the presence of God dwells. We see it in the Garden of Eden. We see it in the tabernacle, we see it in the temple, we see it in Jesus, we see it in the church, in you and me. He says, Man, my presence resides in the temple, the church. But he also says, You are a living temple. That his presence resides in you. And he says, You are pillars of an unshakable kingdom. And then he talks about a city, and he says, In that city, my presence will be unleashed in its fullness and totality. To the point that you won't even need a son because I will be the son. You know what this provides? It provides safety, it provides security, it provides stability. And here's what he says you know those deep idols we were talking about? He's saying, Man, you keep trying to get all these other things to be your security, to be your significance, to be your stability. And he says they won't work, but I can be your safety, I can be your security, I can be your stability, and I will make you pillars. You've seen that with all the things that are going on in your life. Is this place is shakable? But he's saying, Man, I will make you pillars of an unshakable kingdom. And then he says, and I will ride on you. I will ride on you the name of God, the name of the city of God. And then Jesus says, I will write on you my personal new name. And what's he saying? He's saying, Amen, you belong to me. You belong to me. Your future is secure in my unshakable kingdom. And then when he talks about writing his new name, name is an idea of identity, and it carries a weight. And what does he say? He's saying, and you will be fully and totally transformed into my very image. You will belong to me, and everybody will be able to see that you belong to me because you will look just like me. You'll be an heir, a co-heir with me. Um in Isaiah 43, 1, there's an amazing, amazing line that I want I want you to just for a moment, if you if you have to close your eyes, if you're one of those people, you can close your eyes. But I want you to just imagine Jesus speaking this directly to you. Just like he could speak this directly to this church. And I think that's what Jesus is kind of pointing back to. And the prophet says this, but now thus says the Lord, the one who created you, the one who formed you. In the garden, he breathed his very breath into you, and your heart began to beat. And he says, Fear not. For I have redeemed you, I have saved you, I have rescued you. And he says, I have called you by name, and you are mine.

unknown 49:23

You are mine.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

We're gonna move into a time of response. And there's three kind of there's three different people that I really have on my heart this morning. I think one, maybe maybe you're here and there there's a door that has been opened to you, but you haven't walked through it yet. And let me tell you this if you're in Christ and you claim to be a follower of Jesus, there are doors that have been open to you. And if you haven't walked through them, then there are doors that you haven't walked through yet. Yet you're here and you can sense the Lord calling you to himself. And we want you to walk through it. And so we're gonna have a team up here, and we want you to come and let us pray with you as you open the door to Jesus and surrender your, surrender your life to him, surrender your future him, and surrender this opportunity to him and walk through that door. Secondly, I think there are people in here that there's someone in your life who doesn't know Jesus, that you really long to know Jesus. Maybe you've been praying for them for a long time and you've lost faith. Well, we would love to pray for them by name with you. Maybe you struggle to even pray their name. Let us do that for you. We'll pray their name with you. And then lastly, I think some of you have probably been submitting to a name that has not been given to you by Jesus and you've been doing it for far too long. Maybe it's something you've done, maybe it's something that's been done to you. Maybe it's something someone else has spoken over you. Maybe it's something you've spoken over yourself, maybe it's something the enemy himself has spoken over you, and you have you have worn it as an identity, and it has become your name. My friend, if you're in Christ and you belong to him, then your identity is son and daughter, not slave, friend, not enemy, beloved, not forgotten. And if you need identity spoken or prayed over you this morning, please come forward and let us do that for you. Simply say, This is the name that I feel has been spoken over me, and let us pray the promises and the identity in the word of Jesus over you. Jesus, we ask you, we invite you, Holy Spirit, to come and move in this place. We've said a lot of words that that ultimately we we pray is just is just leading the human heart to you. God, there are people here today that there is a there's a door that's been opened, and maybe the door is you. And they have yet to walk through the door that is you. They've yet to receive you, they've yet to be saved by you, they've yet to have a new name, a son or daughter, proclaimed over them by you. God, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would lead their feet so that they would take a step to walk through that door and respond to you. Jesus, there are people in our lives that we long to see come to faith in you. And God, maybe we've we we've allowed ourselves to lose faith, and we want to pray for those people. We want to pray for them by name. God, there are people that we believe you long to save. That maybe we've just grown weary, we've lost faith. And God, the word that you have for us today is don't grow weary in doing or praying good. There's a harvest to reap if you don't give up. And then lastly, God, I just pray new names over people in this place today. God, if there are old names that you are longing to set them free from, that you were longing to remove from them in order to seal a new identity and a new name in their hearts and over their lives. God, I pray that you would speak it loudly and clearly. And I pray that they would receive it. We pray that there were old names that would burn today, so that new names could be sealed by the Holy Spirit. So, Jesus, would you come and move in this place? We belong to you. We welcome you, Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name.