But God Had A Church I Lions, Giants & Bears, But God I Joey Santora

I'm telling you this this morning. Jesus is not still hanging on the cross. Jesus is not still in the ground. Jesus is alive today. And the bible says, because he lives, we may live also. He's alive. He's alive this morning. He's not dead. He's not he's not still in the ground. I'll tell you this. If Jesus did not get back up, g, Christianity is false. Because the very fact that he defeated death is proof that we too shall defeat death. Why? Because the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is on the inside of us. And if he was defeated, then we are defeated. But the good news this morning is that Jesus did not lose, he lives. [00:16:34] (44 seconds)  #JesusIsAlive

Hell can try all that they want to. Hell can try to slow us down. They ain't gonna stop us. Because Jesus said, I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against us. Why is the church unstoppable? Because of what Jesus said. Jesus didn't say Peter would build my church. Jesus didn't say pastor Frank would build my church. Jesus didn't say Joey would build my church. He said, I myself will build my church. And guess what? Since he's building it and he is the victor, there is nothing that can stop him. He is the all powerful one. He is Jesus. [00:24:20] (34 seconds)  #UnstoppableChurch

The most important question for us to answer in life is not who do people say that Jesus is, but who do you say that Jesus is? Everybody must personally answer this question. This doesn't change who Jesus is. It changes what he can be in our lives. How you answer that question determines who Jesus can be in your life. Jesus, you can you can you know, Jesus is a healer. It's very clear. But if you don't believe him to be a healer, then he cannot be a healer in your life. [00:14:01] (35 seconds)  #WhoDoYouSayJesusIs

Jesus actually gives us the ability to do something about the devil. We are not powerless. We it's not just like, oh, the devil, if only we could do something about it. No. There is something that we could do about it. And this is the third thing I wanna show you this morning. I'm excited. It says Jesus gave his church the authority to operate in victory. Jesus gave his church the authority to operate in victory. That's the third thing I wanna show you. Look at what verse 19 says. Jesus said, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven. Whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Say keys. The keys, what are they? The keys are a symbol of authority. [00:27:28] (59 seconds)  #KeysOfTheKingdom

And that's a question that each and every single one of us need to answer. Who is Jesus? It doesn't change who he is, but it decides who he can be in our lives. To some, Christians, Jesus is still hanging on the cross. He's still hanging on the cross in defeat. Almost as if the cross is defeat, which it's not. He's still hanging there on the cross. And so guess what? Because they have the mindset that he's still hanging on that cross and he never got back up again. Guess how they live their life? They live their life in defeat. Because to them, Jesus is a defeated, weak being, but that's not how the bible teaches him. Who is Jesus to you? Is he still hanging on that cross, or is he, or is he exactly what the bible says? [00:15:44] (50 seconds)  #JesusIsVictor

It sounds so silly to us, but in the same way, it's so silly that we wouldn't use the authority that Jesus has given to us. We have been given the keys. We have been given the ability to operate in the authority that Jesus has given to us. Why wouldn't we use it? He's given it to us. We it's our job to actually use it and access it. The church of Jesus Christ has been given the authority of Jesus Christ. What what do I mean when I say that? You actually have the authority to do what Jesus did. You have the authority to do what Jesus did. [00:30:59] (39 seconds)  #DoWhatJesusDid

I'm not concerned with all of that other stuff. You had people and I'm not getting into Halloween or anything like that, but you had people around Halloween that are afraid to go buy Snickers because, you know, what if it's like cursed king? What are you doing? If you use the same mental energy to advance the kingdom of God and enforce your victory in Christ, we would be in a better state right now. Use your victory. Use it. Use the authority that's been given to you. We have to choose to stand in victory when lions, giants, and bears rear their head. I'm not here to tell you this morning that that, you know, you're never gonna face anything. Nothing's ever gonna happen. That there is you aren't gonna have to stand in victory for a while. I'm not here to say any of that. I'm here to say that that's exactly what you should do. You should stand in that victory when these lions, giants, and bears, or whatever you wanna call them in life begin to come our way. [00:38:31] (55 seconds)  #StandInVictory

Say this. Say I win. I win. If you are a believer, if you are a Christian, you are a part of this church, and that means that you win. Jesus did not promise a trouble free church. He promised a victorious church. And so this morning, I wanna show you out of this text in Matthew 16 that I read to you before. I wanna show you this victory that we have available to us, how it happens, and how we can walk in it. Look at the first thing I wanna point out to you this morning is victory begins with knowing who Jesus is. [00:10:07] (36 seconds)  #DeclareIWin

I don't care because I have the power of the living God on the inside of me. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. I'm not concerned with what the m on a monster can means. I'm concerned with the victorious church of Jesus Christ and seeing it advance forward by any means necessary. That's what I want. That's what I want. I want to be a victorious Christian. [00:38:03] (28 seconds)  #GreaterIsInMe

You know what they actually attempted to be able to burn the bible? But you know what they found out about the word of God? Is that you can't get rid of the word of God. The word of God is unburnable. You can't get rid of the word of God because the bible says that the word of the Lord will remain forever. Know what they tried to do? They tried to in the Roman Empire, they tried to persecute Christians so harshly, hoping that this movement would go go away. They tried to scold them. The religious leaders of of, the the days of Peter and of the days of Paul, they tried to stop them and silence them. But can I tell you this? All those religious leaders and all those empires are dead, but we are still here. The church is still alive. We're still moving. Why? You cannot stop the advancement of the kingdom of God. You cannot stop us. We are moving forward and we cannot be stopped. We are an indestructible unmovable force. [00:23:29] (51 seconds)  #WordOfGodEndures

mallet's our authority as the believer. Those moles are when the devil tries to pop up in our lives. We have to take our authority, and we have to whack it right back down. That's our responsibility to do. But if we don't use our authority, those things just do whatever they want. Walk all over us. We must actually enforce this authority. The thing that that is is amazing to me is there's so many believers that are so consumed with the power of the devil and not the power of God. [00:34:34] (29 seconds)  #EnforceYourAuthority

We have to believe Jesus to be who he said, Jesus is savior. I'm telling you, this is a fact. I'm not telling you that it's a suggestion. He is savior, but he must be savior to you. You must decide that he is a savior so that he may save you. Everybody must decide for themselves. People have this understanding. I was born in church pastor Joey, or my mom prayed for me. My grandma prayed for me. My grandma has faith in Christ. That's great that other people in your life have faith in Christ. That's amazing. But can I tell you this? Jesus is not gonna ask you when you stand before him. He's not gonna say, what did your grandma say? He's not gonna say, what did other people say? He's gonna say, who did you say that I am? This is a question we'll all be confronted with and that every human being is confronted with anybody that is intellectually honest will say that Jesus existed. [00:14:36] (54 seconds)  #MakeJesusYourSavior

People that have not graced the doors of a church building in years. Not a single person that DM'd me attended church, which by the way, let me just help you as somebody that actually went to bible school. Let me help you for a second. The m in monster does not say six six six in the in the Hebrew. I know that people try to make it up. Pastor K. Sean's like, amen. Amen. It does it does not say that. It's people just fishing for anything these days, but this is what I learned from that, and this is what God actually showed me through that, that people are more worried about the power of devil, than they are about the power of God. [00:37:18] (38 seconds)  #PowerOfGodOverDevil

What does that imply? That means that believers are gathering and assembling together. And so while as soon as we give our life to Christ, we are a part of the church. In order for us to continue to walk in accordance with our faith in Christ, we must assemble and gather gather together, which is why the bible says in Hebrews to not neglect the assembling of ourselves as we so often do. And so it's very important to gather just like we're gathered here this morning on a Sunday and being in the presence of one another. So but the church ultimately is the body of believers. And if you are part of this church, you have overwhelming victory. [00:07:22] (38 seconds)  #WeAreTheChurch

But we have a responsibility as believers to not just sit back and take it, but to do something about it, to enforce the victory that God has given to us. We don't have to be one of those gentle parents that just allows our kids to throw a temper tantrum when they they do that. You know, they're just expressing their self. Tell your child to stop it. not a parent yet. I'm not a parent yet, but oh, when I am. There will be no gentle parenting where where you know, let me just come down to their level for a second. They're just you you know, I know that they just, you know, threw threw a rock at me, but, you know, we have to understand. No. [00:26:25] (40 seconds)  #ActToEnforceVictory

Victory is a reality in our lives, and I understand that we live in a very crazy world. We and and here's the truth. The world is always crazy. Ten years ago, I'm sure when pastor Frank was up here, he was addressing crazy things happening in the world. Twenty years ago, things were crazy. You know, century ago, things were probably crazy. The world is crazier crazy and can and continually gets crazier. Right now, we have the war in Iran or whatever's going on over there. We see gas prices going up, and the temptation can be to panic and to forget the very truth that while we all face lions, giants, and bears, there's always a but God. And today, what I wanna remind you of is this. I wanna remind you that God had a church. [00:04:21] (46 seconds)  #ButGodAlways

Christ was a prophetic title. In the Old Testament, it was prophesied that the Christ, that the anointed one to keep things simple, the savior of sin would come. And what Peter is saying in that moment, he's saying that you are exactly who the scriptures promise. You are the Christ. You are the one who is going to save us from our sin. And he's understanding, you're the Christ. You're the Christ, your savior. And he confesses this. It's a powerful confession. You are the Christ. [00:18:50] (30 seconds)  #YouAreTheChrist

when I say church, I am not merely just speaking of a building. The church is the body of believers. What does that mean? If anybody receives Jesus Christ into their heart, they are a part of the church. They are part of the body of Christ. However, I do wanna say this real quick because there's a lot of false information out there about Christianity. People say, oh, you don't need to really go to church to be a Christian and all that type of stuff. Well, actually, the bible calls the church. The word for church is ecclesia. What that means is gathering or assembly. [00:06:47] (34 seconds)  #ChurchIsThePeople