Gateway Church's Podcast
On Earth...As It Is in Heaven
A Gateway Sermon
Let me, let me read you some advice from children just in case you're ever wondering about some things that happen in your life. Here's some do's and don'ts from, from children. Number one, never trust a dog to watch your food. Patrick age 10 writes that. Never tell your mom her diet is not working. Probably pretty good advice. Never hold a dust buster in a cat at the same time. You cannot hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk. That's good advice. I never try to baptize a cat though some of you might try. I've tried before. It's not a pretty thing. I was going to introduce, there's my wife. Lexa, most of you get to see the pastors because we're up in front of people so much but you don't see so much our families and I want to introduce my wife. This is Lexa, my wife and you stand up right quick and and Bethany our four-year-old and we've got our fourth that is on the way around Labor Day sometimes so we're doing our part for church growth and we're excited about that. Have you been blessed by Pastor Robert's series? Isn't that been good? It's been so good to be reminded again in such an acute way from God's Word that God really does have a purpose for your life and it's bigger than you think it is and I've been so stirred over the last three months or so as Pastor Robert preached about what God is doing in my own life and what God is doing in your life and I want to remind you that it really is God's plans for you are bigger than you think and that's exciting news I want to tell you this morning did you know that the devil also has a plan for your life you know that you know what the devil's plan for your life is his plan for your life is anything but the plan of God his plan for your life is to do whatever it takes to get you misaligned from the purposes of God and he does even mind organizing a set of circumstances where you take a job making a little more money if that's what it takes to get you misaligned from the purposes of God do you realize that not every job offer for more money is a job offer from God and it may be but just because it's more money doesn't mean it's God and the devil doesn't mind you making a little higher paycheck if he can get you misaligned from God's purposes for you he attacks in all sorts of subtle and not so subtle ways when I was 12 years old I was raised in a very strong Christian family we spent lots of time together when I was 12 years old my family and I had been out to see a play it was a Friday night we'd been out till about 11 o'clock and about 11 11 15 we come home from this play and I was the first one in we came in through the garage and I came in around the corner going to the kitchen to get something to eat and when I rounded the corner there in front of the refrigerator was a bowl of jello upside down on the floor and a 12 year old mind the first thing that I thought of was in about eight seconds I'm gonna be blamed for that and I wasn't even here but all of a sudden it occurred to me if we weren't home how did that get there for some reason I looked over at the window and there below the window was broken glass and the curtains were blowing in the breeze and there's been a couple of guys that broke into our house and had ransacked the place looking for any cash they could find and evidently were hungry at the same time and we had surprised them coming in they had still been there when we had come in and evidently as we came in through the garage they had left through the front door we found more food ribbons on the front porch when the police arrived but I'll never forget the feelings of fear and insecurity that began to wash over me to the extent that that I was unfamiliar with it took me years to deal with insecurity but do you realize that the very scene that I just described to you plays out time and time and time again spiritually in the lives of God's people that the enemy of your soul comes to steal and kill and destroy it's what Jesus said about him and he breaks into the security of our lives in order to follow up everything that he can touch and while the people of God are well acquainted with how to protect themselves physically we have alarm systems on our cars and our office in our houses we know how to protect our stuff one of the most painful things that I see as a pastor that the body of Christ is largely inept to defend themselves spiritually you realize that you've got an enemy his intent is clear we need wisdom to know the difference between an attack of our enemy and simply when we reap the harvest of our own bad decisions like the old boy that he never services his car and one day he's on his way to a prayer meeting and this car breaks down breaks down the side of the road and he says spiritual warfare you know what that's not spiritual warfare that is a harvest of his own bad disease sewn and now he's reaping and and we make we make all sorts of silly decisions financially and then we get in a financial crunch have to go into a little credit card debt and sometimes falsely identify that as an attack of the enemy it's not but I think we would have to admit today we do have an enemy he's made his intention clear the podium said the goal of warfare is victory but the goal of victory is occupation in other words we don't fight just to win the reason we fight is to win so that we can then occupy the place as David did where his borders were peaceful that's God's intention for you not just a fight and not just a win but so that you can move in and live in a place where there is peace at your borders that's God's intention for you and I'd like for you to open in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 8 we're gonna get to Romans chapter 8 here in just a few minutes I want to explain a couple of things to prepare some groundwork for where we're going this morning we'll begin our study in Romans chapter 8 there's a couple of scriptures I want to share with you first but just to lay the groundwork for kind of where we're going and Genesis chapter 2 way back in the beginning of the Bible God took Adam and placed him in a garden and he said Adam this garden is your realm of influence this garden is your place of authority and I'm giving this garden to you and God's instruction to Adam was the tended and to keep it in the original language those two words literally mean I am charging you to watch over this physically and spiritually and everything that you have whether your family your car your house whatever it is your job your career whatever it is God charges you this is your realm of influence this is your place of authority and God charges you to keep these things both in a physical way and in a spiritual way tend them keep them protect them watch after them this is God's instruction but when Adam and Eve submitted to the devil what they essentially did was to hand over the rulership of their lives to the devil and it costs no less than the life of the son of God to win that back for you but it's why the apostle Paul likens Jesus to the second Adam and he says what the first Adam lost in disobedience the second Adam won back in his obedience and so complete is his finished work on the cross that it says he set down at the right hand of the father and even before he died he said it's finished and before he ascended to the father he said to his disciples he said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and I give it to you to go and make disciples everywhere the kingdom of God is a coming kingdom Jesus said it's it rains wherever you go but your job is to enforce the realm and the reign of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in the realm of authority that God has given you as an inheritance now let me let me explain a couple of things about about what God's intentions are and I want to say to you that the treasures of heaven are within your reach I'm not talking just simply about money that's way too simplistic for all that's involved in the treasures of heaven but they are within your reach Psalm 115 verse 16 says the heavens even the heavens are the lords but the earth he is given to the children of men second chronicle 7 14 says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land but do not miss the very first word if Ezekiel 22 30 says so I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it but I found none verse 31 goes on to say that God did pour out his wrath on the earth friends you do not have to look like Samson to pull this off you can look like peewee Herman in the spirit and still get this done that's good news because it's not dependent upon your strength it's dependent upon the strength of the Lord Jesus and you and I don't fight for victory we fight from victory that's who we are Jesus said it this way if anyone has ears to hear let them hear and all he's looking for is for somebody who will stand in the gap between God and his people in his sovereignty God has set the treasures of heaven within your reach but he will not try open your already full hands and force you to lay hold of him he places them where you can get to them if you will obey what he says Robert ended a sermon last week by saying that God determines the direction but you determine how far you'll go the Bible is very clear friends you can have as much of God as you want you can have as much of God as you want I want to share with you this morning how to lay hold of the treasures heaven number one is this to pray in the spirit pray in the spirit Romans 8 28 says and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are the called according to his purpose now I think if you were now we're honest with each other we'd have to admit we're not really sure exactly how this all works out exactly how it is that God would take even the misery of my situation and somehow turn all the ever all the circumstances around for my good we know that it's largely bound up in the fact that God is bigger than the devil and you we can say him into that but I want to tell you that Romans 8 doesn't say the verse verse 28 is not a stand alone verse but the context makes it clear how exactly God works things out for your good we give verse 26 with me likewise the spirit also helps in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we are have you ever been in that situation have you ever engendered a situation and God don't you know Lord I this is so bad I don't even know how to pray for this I don't know well but the spirit himself makes the intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God friends the fact of scripture is that it takes intercession for all things to work together for your good now you've been in church long enough to know that there's some there's some cliche that floats around church folk that's represented as theology one of them is this well we know that everything happens for a reason really my Bible says that that bad things sometimes happen to good people and if you're hungry to look for a reason for why everything happens I'll give you a reason you've got an enemy you've got an enemy and he wants to foul things up that's why a lot of bad stuff happens to good people but here's the good news of the word of God that if you find yourself in a situation that is opposed to the will of God it is because God has put you in a window of intercession essentially saying I have a person there that's full of my holy spirit and I want that situation to change and so if I put one of my children there I know what they'll do they're gonna ask me to fix it and God's promise to you from heaven is is that if you will call out to him he will answer you and the reason God puts you in situations is because he wants that situation to change that's how all things work together for good is because we intercede you have the authority to pray with confidence that since God put you there he wants it changed you cannot govern without God but God has promised to move where you ask him to I'm talking about a real live relationship with the creator of all things I'm talking about relationship with a church a relationship with a man who's a pastor I'm talking about a relationship with God you know God would have a real he would be he would have he could make a an airtight case if he decided today you know people have really messed things up on the earth I mean world events look around look at all the fighting going on you know God would but he could make a strong case to say you know what I think I'm just gonna turn the light out on this deal scrap it and start over you know I didn't do that because God has chosen to be not just a creator but a redeemer and I would suggest to you that if there's anything that's difficult for God that redeeming something is a whole lot more difficult than creating something because he's got to get people to cooperate with him difficult in terms of it just takes more time but the purposes that God has set over your life friends you have not sinned so badly that God cannot redeem it if you could that would make you greater than God God's not finished with you God is a redeeming God and God is infinitely interested in redeeming our situations pray in the spirit number two friends we need to learn how to pray with purpose to pray with purpose I encourage you to turn in your Bible is over to Matthew chapter 11 let me set the backdrop for you before we read together John the Baptist is in prison he's about to have his head chopped off and he knows it so the scene is a couple of his disciples come up outside the window and he you can almost see him grabbing the bars and pulling up and what he says to them is I'm about to die here go ask Jesus if he was really the one or if we should be looking for another and so off they scamper verse three they come up to Jesus and they say are we use the one or we should be to be looking for someone else what John the Baptist is asking is he's asking look I gave my life telling everybody that you're the one before it's all over I want to know if I wasted it and what Jesus says and verse six is he says blessed is he who is not offended because of me in other words Jesus does not have to meet your expectations in order to answer your prayers have you ever been offended by God I have and I've told them so you know I was offended at him because he didn't do what I asked him to they still answered my prayers he doesn't have to meet our expectations in order answer our prayers but when John's two disciples walked back off Jesus turned around and he said in verse 12 and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force you tell you what Jesus is saying here he's saying that nobody accidentally goes to heaven a lot of people go to hell that way but nobody accidentally gets close to God and nobody accidentally enforces the authority of heaven in their situation and Jesus so strong this is a motion at this point that he uses the word violent to describe people who are set on enforcing the rule of God in their realm of influence because their their purpose is to change their environment that you may have heard about the the meeting in hell Satan called a meeting of his three top demons and he said he said we've got to figure out how to stop the church so one of them says well let's tell them that there's no God and the old devil said I don't think go by that so second demon says well let's tell them that there's no heaven the old devil said I don't think they're that gullible and the third demon said well let's just tell them that there's no hurry and the old devil smiled and he said I think that might work so much of the heartache of God's people is because they sense no urgency in the kingdom of God to move in in a place of authority in their realm of influence. Praying with purpose means praying and believing that what you're praying for is God's will even if you don't see an answer yet. It tells you the most dangerous thing you can do in your prayer life is to evaluate your effectiveness according to what you can see with your eyes. A lot of times God gives me one little thing to pray for and I'll I'll just go to work on this one little thing and it just honestly a lot of things God's given me I've walked away from because it took so long for the pieces to fall into place and my wife Lexa she starts praying for something and 10 related things get answered in the meantime. If I wanted to say would you take this one for me too? Friends do not ever evaluate your effectiveness in your prayer life by what you can see with your eyes because Revelation 5 says that your prayers are like golden drops of incense filling up golden bowls and they are ever before the father. In fact he says that your prayers remain as a fragrant aroma before the God of heaven and that every prayer you've ever prayed even when you felt like the ceilings were brass every prayer you prayed remains before the father to this very minute and they are a fragrant aroma to him. Your prayers remain don't give up praying violently praying with purpose means I will not give up. I know this is God's will how will not stop until I see answers from heaven. Pray with purpose finally pray with authority we need to learn how to pray with authority. I want to look together at a text at a Matthew chapter 16 beginning in verse 13 when Jesus came into the region accessory of Philippi he asked his disciples saying who do men say that I the son of man am and so they said some say John the Baptist some Elijah others Jeremiah are one of the prophets and he said to them but who do you say that I am Simon Peter answered and said you're the Christ the son of the living God and Jesus answered and said to him blessed are you Simon bargeona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven let me make a couple of things clear on the way to where we're going the rock upon which Jesus promised to build his church is not Peter the rock is Peter's confession of who Jesus is nobody ever gets saved until heaven reveals to them who the son of God is the Lord Jesus Christ but when that revelation comes and that confession is made salvation comes and what Jesus says is that when this is confessed that he gives you keys keys give you the right to operate keys give you the privilege of access in your purse or in your pocket right now you've got keys to your to your cars to your office and to your house and to your storage unit and to whatever else it is that you have the privilege of access to and you don't trust your keys to just anybody you only trust them the people that you know personally and that you believe to be responsible with your things now Jesus goes on to say how he'll build his church with human beings and incidentally this is the only passage in scripture for Jesus says he will build his church and how he says he will do it is with people who know who he is he says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven now let me explain what this means this does not mean that heaven obeys you what this means is is that in fact literally what Jesus said was whatever you bind on earth is that which is already bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth is that which is already loose in heaven now I wasn't raised in a spirit field church and so when I first started coming to spirit field prayer meetings I heard some things that I didn't understand one of the things that I heard was we find you devil only the very next day to have him right back in the very same place I thought that's that's not thing I heard somebody else saying we lose the Holy Spirit I thought you know I'd like to see the dude that could have tied him up in the first place and so I decided I needed to find out what they were doing I understand Jesus words binding up the strongman okay he didn't mean that you're going to shackle the devil so that he can't get loose again bind in Greek and loose or are legal terms where you have the authority to enforce the legal claims of Calvary you have the authority to enforce what Jesus did on the cross the word for bind means to confine or hinder its legal language as in a binding contract that carries with it the idea of the way things ought to be how does God want things to be in your life and losing me is simply legal language meaning to let go now let me explain to you what a contract is a contract is simply a legal document between two parties so that after they've left the table if there's ever a disagreement all they have to do is come back to the document and through legal means the contract settles all the arguments friends what you have in your hands it's a love letter from heaven but among other things this is a binding con it's not just black ink on white paper this is a binding contract between two parties heaven and earth and first John to says that Jesus is your defense attorney the keys of the kingdom of heaven are not given so that you and I can simply do a drive by prayer and say God help them because they're so messed up but it's given so you can say God I come upon this situation and I see the evidence of hell and so I take my place beside them in prayer and I will not leave until I see the evidence of heaven in its place God I want to recall the contract that you have with me from Matthew article eight and paragraph 17 that says by his stripes we were healed and so God make it binding now I don't know how you pray for people I don't know how you pray for the elders of this church a lot of times it's God blessed them and God blessed them and God blessed them and I think I see God saying okay how he wants to bless and he wants you to tell him how you want him to bless them let me tell you the main that this is the way the ministry of the devil functions he's a squatter he comes in and he squats down where he has no right to do it and if somebody came into your house and squatted down and you told him to leave and he didn't leave you'd call the police I got news for you friends the police had make him leave but in John 5 Jesus asked a man who had been lame for 38 years do you want to get well you know why he made friends with his sickness Satan comes in and he squats down and we for for I think when it first happens we say well now what are you doing here and we sort of politely ask him to leave and he says ain't leaving and so before long we start bringing him a glass of tea and making him feel it on God says you don't have to put up with that unless you want to Luke 19 before Jesus left he says now do business until I come back you know God has a family business it's called almighty and sons and you're in it and his commission to use to do business until he comes back in fact when when disciples ask him how do we pray and Jesus your prayers really work how do we pray just what he said pray like this on earth as it is in heaven and so I want you right now to take an inventory of your life what is it in your life it's not the way heaven would say they want it your marriage kids the finances your job your career what is it where Satan has come in and squatted down and said I ain't leaving because I believe with all my heart that Jesus comes today to