(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

If you have your Bibles with you today, I'm gonna invite you to open it up to a passage of Scripture found in the book of Matthew, Matthew 16, verses 13 through 20.

And here, a few weeks ago, for several weeks, we looked at Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, where Jesus says he's gonna build a church and the powers of hell would not conquer it.

And today, I wanna kinda speak back into that a little bit, but I wanna take it a little bit further of how that personally applies to your life and my life.

And again, this week is gonna be a great opportunity for the church to be the church in children's life and in this community.

It's gonna be a great and marvelous time.

So if you have your Bibles, this is about two years into Jesus's three-year earthly ministry.

And he has been walking with some folks for about two years, known as his disciples, and what he was steady doing was basically teaching these disciples who he was.

And then right here in Matthew 16, this is kinda when things begin to shift and not Jesus so much sharing about who he was, but sharing about who they were.

And one of the most important things you can ever understand as a human being is to understand who God is, but then let it shift and begin to help, let God begin to tell you who you are in Christ Jesus.

And so today we're gonna be looking a little bit about who we are in Christ Jesus and what that means in our life.

The Bible says when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the son of man is?

Remember, he had been revealing who he is.

Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others are saying Jeremiah or one of the other prophets, people who spoke about God in the future things about God.

And then he asked them, but who do you say that I am?

And I do believe we can not only take that question personally to those disciples, we can take that question personally to us.

Because it's really important for us to understand it's not only about who others say that Jesus is or others say God is, but at some point in time, you know what, God's going to nudge your heart and he's gonna ask you that personal question.

Who do you say that I am?

And so the Bible says that Simon Peter answered, well, you are the Messiah, the anointed one, the one that the prophets had been talking about all the days of their life.

You are the Messiah, you are the son of the living God.

And this is where it shifts.

Jesus is like, now that you have discovered who I am, let me tell you, Peter, who you are.

And so Jesus replied, you are blessed.

Any blessed people in this place today, come on.

Other words, it has been revealed to you, Peter, who I am and you are a blessed human being.

You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock, I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

I'm gonna give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

And whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

And then he sternly warned the disciples at this time not to tell anyone else that he was the Messiah.

It wasn't time for them to begin to go out and share, you know what, who Jesus was, because they hadn't yet been empowered and equipped to do all that God had created them to be and do.

And this is really important because now today, Jesus has resurrected from the grave.

He has ascended to heaven and the Bible says in the book of Acts, he has poured his spirit out on men and women alike and his spirit is the one that begins to equip us to do what God's designed us to do.

And so here he says, look, don't go and tell anyone yet, Peter, I want you to know who you are.

You are blessed, you are empowered, and you are entrusted to do great and mighty things.

Peter, you need to understand that I am going to build a called out people, a church, and the gates of hell will not win against this church, will not prevail against this church.

Peter, I'm gonna give you a set of keys for you to bring up there, down here, so the enemy don't continue to hold people hostage.

You can unleash the things of heaven into the earth, come on somebody, and begin to set people free to experience all God has in store for them.

And so literally he tells Peter, he says, I'm gonna entrust you with the keys of the kingdom.

And my friends, every believer here has been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom of God.

And today I wanna talk in the vein a little bit about what those keys are for.

Because you know, you can be given a set of keys and not know what they're for, and really miss a lot about life.

I mean, for instance, I could give you the keys to Ferrari.

But if you didn't know that those keys were Ferrari sitting outside in front of the church, and that Ferrari belonged to you, then chances are you'd never use those keys to discover what the power in those keys.

And Jesus says, I'm gonna give you the keys of the kingdom for a great, great purpose, and to do great, great things with your life.

Keep in mind, he says, I'm gonna build a church, a people to do some great and mighty things.

But in order to leverage those keys, let's begin to understand what those keys are all about.

And the remarkable thing about Jesus is he kind of does this shift in his ministry in Matthew 16, and begins to not only teach the disciples who he is, but begins to declare to them who they are.

Jesus begins to basically take them on a journey and give them life lessons.

And if we follow in context, the story of how Jesus taught them these life lessons after he revealed to them who they were, and the keys he had entrusted to them, he begins to teach them some lessons about these keys.

And so we continue to follow along with what Jesus is teaching, and while he's in that same region, teaching those same disciples after that day in Matthew 16, the Bible says that at another time, he does this.

It says about this time the disciples, Matthew 18, verses one through three.

About this time, the disciples came to Jesus and ask, who is the greatest in the kingdom?

You've given us some keys to the kingdom, now we wanna know who is the greatest in the kingdom.

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.

And then he said, I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

I wanna, Jesus is like, I wanna talk to you a little bit about what these keys are all about.

You need to begin to understand that these keys are a gift to you.

And what you need to do is receive these keys, like a child will receive a set of keys from their parents.

You need to be a person that comes and trusts what the parent is telling you as they begin to entrust things to you.

And then he continues on there in Matthew 18, verses four through six, he says, so anyone who becomes as humble as a little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is actually welcoming me.

Remember, he's teaching them what to do with the keys that they have been entrusted with.

But if you cause one of these little ones who trust in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large milestone, put millstone, put around, tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.

So Jesus says, if you don't use the keys properly that have been entrusted to you, that you've been empowered with, then it would be better for you just to be drowned into a water.

And then we continue following in chronological order as Jesus is traveling.

He then goes south to Judea with the same group of disciples.

And he runs across some other people and he's still teaching them about the keys.

And this is what he says in Luke chapter 11, verse 52.

He says, what sorrow awaits you experts in religious law, for you remove the key, the key to knowledge from the people.

And you don't take the key, you don't enter the kingdom of heaven yourselves and you prevent others from entering.

So basically what Jesus is doing, he's teaching them that you know what, you need to come to me like a little child, humble yourself and I'm gonna entrust something to you.

And when I entrust something to you, you need to go out and begin to open the door, open the door for others to meet your heavenly father.

Don't be like this group of people.

Take the key of knowledge that you have and never use it and never use it for yourselves or to help other people.

The Bible says then he begins to travel back north to the region of Perah and in Matthew 19, verse 13, the Bible says, one day some parents, then they brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them.

But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

And Jesus is like, no, no, no, no.

Don't you remember what I just taught you south of here?

Nothing changes as we go back up here.

Look what it says, but Jesus said, let the little children come to me.

Don't stop them.

For the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children.

And he placed his hands on their heads and he blessed them before he left.

And he says, you know what, we're here to basically help people and not stop people from coming into the kingdom.

Then he closes out kind of this whole teaching, teaching them about who they are and the keys he had entrusted them.

He closes it out in a passage in Matthew 23, verse 13.

It says, what sorrow awakes you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees, you hypocrites.

For you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.

You won't go in yourselves and you don't let others in enter either.

This is a really important passage of scripture because Jesus reveals to Peter who he is.

Peter, you are blessed.

Peter, you have been entrusted with a set of keys.

You have been empowered with a set of keys.

Let me demonstrate what that means to you, Peter.

And he goes on this journey with life lessons, teaching what this set of keys that Peter has in his hands or what we have in our hands is all about.

And it's simply this, for us to come to our heavenly father, like a little child would come to their father, trusting them with all that they have, learning from them, loving on them, learning to live life as these little children wanted to learn, to live life.

And then what you're to turn around and do is turn around and invite others into the house to meet the same heavenly father that loves on you.

It's a pretty simple teaching, but it's a pretty complex idea.

Because the reality of it is, is you need to understand that the reason God gives you the keys to the kingdom is so that you have total access to him and you realize that you belong to him.

Because isn't that what we do?

We give our kids keys when they belong.

I mean, I belong in my house.

So I got a set of keys to my house and I've been authorized to go in my house.

My son, he don't even live in my house right now, but he has a key to my house.

He can come into my house anytime he wants to come into my house.

And everything I have in my house belongs to him.

In other words, I don't care if he comes in and uses my shampoo.

Come on, somebody.

Because I trust him and he trusts me.

And understand that God is saying here to Peter in Matthew chapter 16, everything I have belongs to you.

You have total access to me.

You have a set of keys.

Every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies belong to you.

But are you accessing those blessings and leveraging those blessings and using those blessings and building my church as I intend for you to build my church because my blessings are there for you to receive.

And so what every person underneath the sound of my voice needs to hear today, if you have trusted Christ Jesus to save you from your sins, are you accessing the blessings that God has in store for you?

Because truly we are children that belong to God.

So what are those blessings?

Because God says, I am blessing my people.

We have total access to God's amazing wisdom.

And the question is, a lot of times people say, I don't know what to do in this situation.

I'm here to tell you, you can go into your heavenly Father's throne room through what Jesus Christ has done for you.

And you can access the wisdom that the Father has and it will get downloaded into you if you'll learn to operate by that amazing wisdom.

Wisdom is available to every single one of us because the Father wants to give it to those who trust Him, who believe in Him.

And the Bible says that God has given us His Word.

He gives us provision.

In other words, God don't want you to go without the things you need in this earth.

He will supply every need you have in this earth if you will so dare access Him through Christ Jesus and step in to the throne room of heaven and begin to ask your heavenly Father.

The Bible says that God gives good gifts to His children and so God gifts us with a, what the Bible refers to as a spiritual gifts.

He gifts us with the Holy Spirit.

Remember, He says, Peter, don't share that I'm the Messiah yet because I gotta equip you with the things you need in order for you to share who I am.

And the Bible says at Pentecost, you know what, just a short time later as Jesus was crucified and He was buried in a grave, He rose from that grave and He spent 40 days after He come back from the grave strictly teaching about one thing, not about who He is again, but about the kingdom of God and how we can begin to participate with the kingdom of God.

Then He ascended to heaven and then 10 days later, the Holy Spirit came at this event called Pentecost and the Bible says the Spirit of God came to be with men and women alike so that they can operate in their gifting and be this church that God is building with His blessing on it.

And the reality of it is, is you have a blessing that comes from the Heavenly Father, but you gotta step in, you gotta access it, you gotta believe it, you gotta trust it.

And when God gives you this blessing of the Holy Spirit, then we submit to Him.

The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to begin to help build me up in who God says that I am.

Let me say that again.

The primary reason the Holy Spirit comes into my life or your life is to teach you, counsel you, comfort you, coach you in who Christ Jesus defines you to be.

The Holy Spirit of God comes in to equip you to do every good work that God has called you to do, but you gotta submit to His authority, to His leadership, to the Lordship of Christ in your life.

You see, I've discovered that the Holy Spirit of God isn't so much into behavior modification as He is into life transformation.

Don't miss this.

And so many times we're trying to modify our own behavior or we're trying to modify somebody else's behavior.

When all we have to do is invite them to submit their life to the Holy Spirit of God, and here's what I know, is the Holy Spirit of God will do the same thing in their life and their heart that He's done in my life.

He'll begin to transform your thinking.

He'll begin to transform your purpose.

He'll begin to transform how you look at this world.

He'll begin to transform how you begin to see everyday life events.

He'll begin to help you operate in your purpose, not in His power, but in His power.

And again, we can begin to operate in our own power, but when we operate in God's Holy Spirit horsepower, I like to call it, when we operate in that power, God equips us to do everything He calls us to do, but you have to submit to Him by faith and trust that He is for you and not against you.

That's what it means to come to God like little children.

I trust you, God.

I trust you, Father, that you have my best interest in mine, that you're not holding out on me, but you have everything in store for me.

So I'm gonna come sit up in your lap, and I'm gonna receive from you your amazing love.

I'm going to begin to live life as you say I can live life.

I'm gonna receive from you.

I'm going to learn to walk with you.

I'm gonna learn to be everything you called me to be.

God, you have entrusted the keys of the kingdom to me, and every spiritual blessing belongs to me.

Do you really believe that?

Do you operate that way?

Do you get out of bed in the morning, or is oppression taken over you?

Is hatred and bitterness and envy taken over you?

Is what you did yesterday taken over you?

Why don't you let God's Spirit speak life into you?

You are a child of the living God.

You have been forgiven.

You have been set free.

No longer do you need to be held by the enemy.

See, this is what it means to be the church.

When he says the gates of hell will not prevail or hold my church back, think about that word picture.

It's a word picture.

It's like there's some gates that are holding something captive, and there's a church that is set free on the outside of it.

And what the church is to do is to go through those gates and loose the keys of heaven have been given to you for a reason, and it's to loose those who have been held captive by the enemy so that they can step into freedom and experience every spiritual blessing that the Father has in store for them.

This is what the church's responsibility is, is to step into this world and loose people that are held captive in sin.

Loose people that are held captive by the enemy's voice.

Loose people and speak into their heart and tell them no longer does the enemy have power over you.

There's no longer does oppression have power over you.

Loose them in the name of Jesus and bind them.

Come on, bind them with the things of heaven.

I hear people, I hear people using this language a lot of times, and they're really doing the opposite.

They're saying, I bind the enemy from you.

And really, the enemy, we have no authority to do all that.

But what we do have is the power, the empowerment of God as the church and our spiritual gifting to step into this world together and say, you know what?

Enemy, you no longer have a hold on them because our Father has given us the responsibility and the power to loose people that are held captive, to share the good news of who Jesus is and loose them.

And when it talks about binding, we're binding them like a book would be, the pages of a book would be bound to the back of a book.

In other words, we're binding them with the good things of God over and over.

We're telling them the good things of God, binding them with love, binding them with faith, binding them with hope, binding them with the spiritual blessings that come from heaven.

And this is the church's responsibility.

But so many of us, we're just thinking about, man, I got a set of keys and we don't even think about the keys.

We just leave them in the drawer.

Do you understand who you are as a child of God?

You have total access into the throne room of God because of what Christ Jesus has done.

He don't have to keep climbing back up on a cross.

The Bible says his blood sacrifice was sufficient enough for all sin, past sin, present sin, and future sin of all people.

But what you have to do is put your faith in him as a gift that come from God to pay the penalty of sin for mankind.

And whenever you put your faith in the one who came to forgive you of your sin, you can begin to step into this relationship with the almighty, powerful God.

You have total access to God.

But see, again, as a child of God, not only do you have access to him, you have a responsibility.

You've been entrusted, but you've also been empowered to invite people into the family.

There's an amazing historical, if you wanna go read it sometime, and again, you can go read about historical things on the internet and all these kinds of things, but there's a history about keys during this particular time and when a king would have a key.

And what the king would do is oftentimes he would entrust or empower his servant with the key.

And so this person would be a steward of a key in the king's courts.

And you read about the history of when Jesus says, I'm entrusting you with the keys of the kingdom.

He had this picture in mind, this is gonna be a steward in the king's courts.

And what that steward would do is have this key to the king's quarters hung on a sash, on a hook, on a sash that he would have on.

And what he could do is take that key at any given time as a steward and go into the king's presence and get wisdom and get understanding from the king.

But he also had another responsibility as a steward.

And by the way, you have a responsibility too as a steward.

You wanna talk about stewarding your spiritual gift in the church?

This is how you do it.

Is the responsibility of that steward that had that key, that servant that had that key was when people came seeking to see the king, that person was to basically discern and then escort that person and open the door and escort that person into the king's quarters so the king could begin to speak into their life.

That's the picture of the church.

You have a responsibility with the keys of the kingdom.

And when people come and they need to speak to the king, they need to speak to our heavenly father.

They need to begin to get a download of wisdom about how to do life from him.

And they're truly seeking.

Our job is to simply with our gift, open the door for them to step into the king's presence so he can begin to speak into their life.

And the king will begin to give them the same gifts that he has given you as a child of God.

And so we have a responsibility to help people get to our heavenly father.

And I love how whenever they were discerning how people could be a Christian or not be a Christian in the book of Acts, I love how James made this declaration.

When they were arguing back and forth in Acts 15, verse 19, he says, my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for those outside of Judaism, for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

I love that passage of scripture.

Because sometimes I think we as a church or as a church in America begin to think, hey, it's difficult for people to come to God.

No, when people have a crisis in their life, they are looking for some help in their life.

And with our gift, and I don't have all the gifts, but with our particular gifts, our job is together, everybody say together, because that's what the church is, is an assembly called out of darkness into the wonderful light, specially given gifts to help other people come to the same heavenly father that we know.

This is what it means to be basically empowered with this gift and carry the responsibility with the gift and with the keys, is helping them understand all the good things that God has in store for them.

So that's who we wanna be as a church.

We wanna deposit all the good things that God has in store for them.

And I can tell you some eternal things, because the Bible list is three eternal things that we should be depositing in people.

And it's found in 1 Corinthians 13, 13.

The Bible says there's three things that last forever, everybody say three.

He says there's three things that will last forever, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.

And so the reality of it is, is we have the opportunity in our gifting to come together with the other people and begin to rescue people out of darkness that are held captive by the enemy.

Working our gifts together in this world, God has given us the keys of the kingdom to bring up there, down here, in our special gift mix, and help other people step into this right relationship with God.

Come on.

But we all got to remember this too, that there's some things, you know, that my gift just don't work on.

And there's other things that your gift might work on.

This is why together, we're bound together to loose captives and set them free with love, with faith, with hope.

But sometimes I'm like, hey, you know what?

Love God, love God's over here.

I'm like, my gift don't work.

I need your gift, come on.

You know, Jeff, my gift ain't working your gift.

I mean, you just go across the room, Titus, I need your gift, come on.

And see, this is what it means to be children of the Most High God.

It means to be responsible, it means to be empowered.

It means to be, it means to be just repositioned in my heavenly Father's arm as a kid and recognize that God has given me some good gifts and I got to use those gifts to help set the captives free and be all God's created me to be.

And Jesus has given us that opportunity.

But the reality of it is this, is you and I have to step in by faith to that opportunity, to lead people like little children to the knowledge of who God is.

And so God's asking you and asking me, what are we gonna do with the keys that He's entrusted to us?

You have the keys of the kingdom.

The question is, are you going to leverage them?

Step into God's amazing purpose for your life and access all the good things He has in store for you and then begin to leverage them to help other people become all God has created them to be.

This is the calling on the church.

We say it here at Valorous Church all the time, we want you to know who God is.

We want you to understand who Christ Jesus is.

It's very important in your life because until you understand that He's a Savior that came to save you from your sin and put you in right relationship with God, none of this other can be possible.

But the second most important thing is for you to begin to understand who He says that you are.

So you can love the world around you like Jesus loved the world.

And the reality of it is, is we're big on that here at Valorous Church, helping you not only understand who Jesus is, but inviting you, empowering you, challenging you to be brave with who God says you are and come together with other believers and let's see what God can do in us and what God can do through us.

We have the keys.

The question is how we're gonna use them.

Would you pray with me today?

God, you're an amazing God.

I thank you for the ability to be able to share the good news of who Jesus is.

I thank you, God, for the special gifting you've given various people underneath the sound of my voice.

God, I pray that we would submit those gifts to you, to your authority and become all you have designed us to be.

And God, if there is one here today that hasn't stepped in that right relationship with you through Christ Jesus, through believing that He died for their sin and they could repent of their sin and turn their heart towards you and be forgiven by the power of the resurrection of Christ.

God, I pray today would be the day that they trust who Christ is and begin that journey.

God, I pray for us as a church who've been entrusted with so much.

God, may we leverage it and use it to bring your name honor and your name of glory.

God, brick by brick, day by day, you are truly building your church and building your story.

And God, it's all for your glory and it's all because of the name of Jesus.

We pray all these prayers in His holy name, amen.