Spiritual Responsibility and Keys

Let me get my, okay, there we go. So we are recording. Several of you have stopped me and said, what's that website again, Brother Johnson? And so it's Barry's Bureau. It's on the board up here. All right. If you go to Barry's Bureau, there's a little menu at the top. You choose Bible classes, which will give you another menu. And then you'll choose Schrader Lane when you go to that menu. And underneath Schrader Lane are all the Bible classes that I participated in and have tried to help to promote here in the congregation. And you'll see Kingdoms of the Bible in there. Once you choose Kingdoms of the Bible, then you'll get another. The last menu will allow you to pick the actual class that you want to study. So if you want to do last week, you'll choose June 8th. If you want to do this week, you'll choose June 15th. And on that page is a summary of the class and audio of the class. Except for last week, I forgot to press the button. But there is still a summary on there. And then I use AI, artificial intelligence, to create a podcast. for the class. So you can listen to a computer generated podcast of the class which is really, really very good. As a matter of fact, as of late, the program I'm using is a two person podcast. I don't know how they do it, but one person acts like the host and the other person is the guest. It's really, really good. So if you get a chance, check that out and leave me a comment. I've also left a way on there for, let's say you wanted to get an email about the upcoming class or the materials, you can leave your name on there and I will email you because I can automate that. It does require some work, but I'm just trying to help us. I think growth is not just numerical, it's also spiritual. And if you're going to grow spiritually, you have to learn. Christianity is a learned religion. It's not, it doesn't come to us naturally, which is why we have to be taught. So if we're going to grow the church, there's going to have to be some teaching, and that's what I'm trying to promote with the website there. Okay? All right, so with that being said, let's turn our attention back to this Keys of the Kingdom, and we're talking about responsibility. And I notice a lot of you taking pictures of the slide. The slides are also on the website. Oh, you're trying to get the board. Okay, I'm sorry. So I appreciate people who take notes and take pictures, and I love those kind of Christians. All right. So when we talked about the keys to the kingdom and the responsibility, we're thinking about this idea of, because we want to look at the responsibility right here, right? And all of us have been given the keys to the kingdom, not just Peter, as we talked about. And as we looked at that, we recognized that we have a responsibility to teach and to guide people. Right. Because that's what the responsibility is that lies on us who have been given keys, because this kingdom that our creator has brought into existence, that our savior is now Lord over is not a kingdom where we got the keys and the kingdom is just for us. Right. He wants us to use the keys to bring others into the kingdom. Now that's different than our human perspective of ownership. Oftentimes when we get keys to something, we claim ownership to it. Amen? And mine. Matter of fact, we know that's a human characteristic because little children, when you give them something, what do they often say? Mine, mine, mine. And so they take ownership to that and they'll take it away from you because they feel they have ownership to it. God's kingdom doesn't operate that way. God's kingdom operates in a way where he's trying to bring everybody underneath the full living, underneath his stewardship and underneath his sovereignty. that we can experience the benefits of being in the kingdom and not just living. So we have a responsibility once those keys are given to us to teach and to guide. And we looked at several scriptures where that was concerned. One of those was in Luke 11, 52, where if you remember, Jesus chided the scribes and the leaders of that day. He says, woe to you lawyers, all right? For you have taken away the key of knowledge, right? So lawyers are trained to know what the contract is, right? And then it is their responsibility then to bring that information that's in the contract to people. That's what lawyers do, right? And so Jesus says, woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in. You know what I've been teaching. You know what I've been promoting. You know what God's word is. You haven't entered in because you have followed God. the teachings, the doctrines, and the commandments of men. Amen? And not my teachings. So you didn't enter in and you hindered those who were entering. You're keeping others from coming in because you are not teaching and guiding in the way that my word teaches. All right? We looked at that last week. Then we also looked at in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. We know this from the Great Commission, right? And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore. So here's the Lord commanding us. This is not a heavenly suggestion. This is a command. Amen. We recognize that. We also looked at Acts 2.42 last week, and we saw that The keys of the kingdom, that teaching and guiding continue. And we see it happening here in Acts 2 42. They that will be those who were coming into the kingdom, those that were members of the church of Christ. What did they do? Devoted themselves to the apostles teachings. What are those teachings? Those are the keys to the kingdom. All right. And the fellowship to the breaking of bread and of prayers. Those are the things that are happening in the kingdom. We briefly look, mentioned John 16, 12 through 13. It says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. And when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, which is the keys to the kingdom. All right. And so there were some things that Jesus wasn't able to tell them at the time. He said, there's more to this kingdom living. There's more to these keys. But you're going to get that information later. And how did they get that? Through the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit revealed to them the things that Jesus was teaching them and brought them into a better understanding, a deeper understanding of that. And why did he do that? Because there was a responsibility that lied on the apostles to teach the kingdom, to deliver the keys of knowledge. The woe that Jesus gave to the scribes and lawyers of that day. Okay. And so he says that the Holy Spirit is going to come and guide you in all truth for he will speak. He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Right. And so that brought us to this idea of binding and loosing is where we kind of ended last week. Now, how many of you, give me a show of hands, have ever rented an Airbnb? How many of you have been to an Airbnb? All right, so three of y'all will understand this illustration. When you go to an Airbnb, what happens is the owner of the property will... will have an apparatus, a way for you to get to the keys to the property. Okay? Now today, it's not a literal key for a lot of places because we have smart homes and stuff. You get the code, right? And the code will let you into the building. Now, when you go to that Airbnb, do you live according to your rules for that property? Whose rules do you live according to? The owner of the property, right? There's a contract that, you know, and very few of us read the contract, right? Because we just want the house. We just want the property. We're going to be there a few days. I don't need to read no 18-page contract, right? But there is a contract. And you are bound to that contract. And how you use that property, how you operate in the property is based on that contract. The church operates in a similar way. Okay? Once we get the keys of the kingdom and we come into the kingdom, we don't get to operate the way we want to operate. If we want to be in the kingdom, we have to operate according to the contract. Okay? And that's what binding and loosing is. When the Lord spoke to the apostles and to Peter and says what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, that was a Jewish legal term. And basically what they're saying is you're going to interpret the contract. You're going to bind what's bound in heaven and you're going to loose what's loosed in heaven. Now, what we wind up doing in the church is the same thing we do with Airbnbs. We don't care what the contract says. We're going to live how we want to live, right? Because in the contract, it might say no pets allowed. Amen. Y'all know what I'm talking about? But see, we got a dog and we don't want to pay for boarding the dog and stuff. And we figure that my dog is neat and clean and he won't mess up in the house. It'll be fine. We'll only be there a couple of days. But is that according to the contract? No. Right. And that's how we do in the church. The Lord understands. I'm not going to make a mess. I'm going to bring this in, you know, because I like it. It's important to me. I'm going to do this. But that's not according to the contract. Right. In the contract, it might say no more than four people. If you read your contracts, most all of them have a limit on how many people you can have in there. No partying, no smoking, no whatever, this, that, and the other. But we'll do it anyway because we figure we'll get away with it. Essentially, it's what's in the back of our mind. And what we say is kind of the same thing we say in the church. He'll understand what my heart is. The Lord understands my heart. I'm really just trying to, I'm just, I'm just trying to take a vacation and I got to bring my dog. I can't afford the kennel. So I'm going to bring my dog. He'll understand. You know, the Lord understands. So we have to be very, very careful where that's concerned because what the keys, when we are teaching and guiding with the keys, we are binding and loosing not from what our opinion is. Not because we say it's okay to bring the dog or to invite 12 people or to throw a big party in somebody else's house. What we have to do is we have to follow God. We have to teach. We have to bind what's already been bound. And then we loose what's already been loosed. And the Lord knows we messed that up, which is why our salvation operates according to grace and not according to strict justice. We had that in the Old Testament, right? Right. If you brought the dog and the owner has a camera in the house, underneath the Old Testament, he will come to the house and kick you out. The contract says no dogs. Amen. And underneath the Old Testament, if you sin underneath the witness of someone else, and that was brought to the attention of the community, for a lot of sins, you were taken outside the camp and stoned to death. Amen. Now, some people say that's how the church should be. Right? But we're operating underneath grace right now. Grace and truth. All right? And we see that binding and loosing wasn't just given to Peter. And this is really important for us to understand because some of us study with people who labor underneath a Catholic understanding of Christianity. All right? Now, Whether we like it or not, the world, I'm talking about the world now, right? The world sees Christianity through the lens of Catholicism. And we have proof of that. Because just recently, what happened in the Catholic Church? They got a new pope. Got a new pope. And who was watching that whole thing? The world, right? And so the world thinks that's how Christianity operates. And Jesus. and Chicago. Now, Brother Crowder don't talk about Chicago. We got a gangster up in there. Y'all better watch out. So it's good for us to understand this binding and loosing wasn't given to Peter specifically. And this scripture backs that up because Jesus is not just talking to Peter. He's talking to the disciples. And he says, truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. All right. And he's talking to the disciples, not just Peter, where he was talking about our Peter in Matthew 16 verses 16 through 20 there. And particularly in verse number 19, our Peter. And upon this rock, I will, you know, build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So the church was never built on Peter. It was built on the teaching, the keys of the kingdom, the things that allow you to gain access to the kingdom and the things that allow you to operate in the kingdom. Because there's some things in the kingdom that we're not necessarily ready to understand, just like Jesus taught his disciples, right? Like, all of us want this understanding, don't we, Brother McCleskey, of revelation. We want to know when every last thing of revelation means some things you're not going to understand. Boy, I teach it as often as I can teach it. There are some things that you are going to have to take to the grave, and faith will make it all right. I believe that. I don't know why people act the way they act. And I'm gonna die with that misunderstanding. But I know it's gonna be all right. I trust, I'm willing to let God be the judge. He's much better than any human judge that I've ever run into. And I'm gonna trust him with that, all right? That's the things we have to take to the grave. And using my Airbnb illustration, for those of you that didn't have an operator, there is almost always a room in the Airbnb that you don't have access to. Ain't that right? And you might even try the different keys to try to get in there, right? I wonder what's in there. It might just be the water heater. And we got this whole house that we can operate and enjoy in, right? It might have a hot tub. It might have a nice backyard. It might have a patio screened in and all this kind of stuff. But we're worried about the one room we can't get into. We try to figure out, I wonder what's in there. You know what's in there? We'll put our ears to the door and say, it's humming. So we just worry about the keys to the kingdom that we have. And enjoy what God has given us more than enough to enjoy. And quit worrying about the things that have to be kept away. Because I'm telling you, there's a time coming when everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay. And then you're not going to have no, you know, I like what one of my elders back home said, when he gets to heaven, he only got one question. Can I stay? He ain't worried about who came, married, and all that kind of, you know, all that kind of, can I stay? And when we get to heaven and all is revealed, that's going to be the only question we got, too. All right. And we have to recognize that. So Jesus was talking to the disciples and allowing them to bind and loose what is already bound and loose in heaven. We have to recognize that. And then in John 20, verses 22 through 23, we see the scripture says, and when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them. And let me tell you why this scripture is important. Peter and the disciples had never been to heaven. They didn't know what it looked like. They didn't know where it was. They didn't know the boundaries of heaven. They didn't know who could be allowed, who couldn't be allowed. Matter of fact, if you left it up to them, it might have just been, especially Peter, right, Brother Pinkerton? It would have been just Jews, right? Because he even had a problem with Cornelius. Amen? Amen. So he had to get that knowledge some other kind of way of what the keys to the kingdom was. It wasn't based on his own knowledge. And even Paul, who was probably the most educated of them all, right, Brother Crowell? Educated man. Even he had to get the Holy Spirit in order to know what the teachings and the doctrines of the kingdom were, what the keys to the kingdom were. And And so Jesus, he said, receive the Holy Spirit. Right. And if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. Now, notice he didn't allow them to forgive sins until they had what? The Holy Spirit. Because your forgiving shouldn't be done according to your knowledge. Somebody needs to understand that. Some of us are holding on to some things because we think we we have the right to. to our anger we have the right to our uh you know fear or the right to hold this against people no we should forgive according to the spirit according to the keys to the kingdom the teachings of the kingdom and not man's opinion And whenever you, has anybody ever been in a class on forgiveness? That could be so powerful. And it is, you know when people are struggling because you get questions about, well, what if? What if they did this, right? We think our situation is a unique situation to everybody else's situation. But in order for the apostles to actually do give and use the keys to the kingdom, they had to do it with the Holy Spirit. Now that's important what binding and loosing is concerned is because then with the Holy Spirit they can bind what's already bound in heaven because the Holy Spirit knows what that is and they can loose what already has been loosed in heaven. The Holy Spirit knows what that is, right? Which is also why when we are baptized, what do we receive? The Holy Spirit. So that we can also be led and guided into all truth so that we can use that truth, not for ourselves, not just for ourselves, but to use those keys, that truth, God's word, the doctrines and the commandments of our Lord and Savior to help bring others into the kingdom. And he says, receive the Holy Spirit. And if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. And they do that through the power of the Holy Spirit, not of their own. And so that's where our responsibility lies and particularly where binding and loosing is concerned. So now let's talk a little bit about... Yes, ma'am. Question. This Holy Spirit that's with me. Let me tell you, I love the word that you use because that's how I teach it. Measure. Right? Because I believe that the apostles got a greater measure of the Spirit than we did. Right? Which is why they knew some things we didn't know. Which is why they were able to do some things that we can't do. Because they had a greater measure. Because who gives the Holy Spirit? God does. So who gives gifts to men? God does. So who decides who gets what gift? God does. So God, in those scriptures, which are several that we're referencing, it is God that determines the measure of the spirit because that's what that is. Different gifts are different measures. And so he, the apostles, received a greater measure of the spirit than we do today. So when men today want to ascribe themselves to be apostles, we know that's not true because they didn't receive the measure of the Spirit that the twelve got, right? Or we can say the thirteen, including Paul as well, right? Yes, sir. I have read somewhere in the Bible where it says that Even when God creates man, anybody that is born, he's already given them a gift. That's right. They don't come into this world without a gift. Let me tell you where knowledge is concerned, things like that. Man does not create knowledge. We discover it. That's right. Amen. Always remember that. We discover knowledge. We don't create it. God is the creator of knowledge. And because he is, certain things are. That's right. Amen? Amen. Brother, I watched it. Yeah, I like to look at that idea of the measure of the Spirit, that the apostles got something different in that they were empowered. Yes. They were empowered. We have the Holy Spirit, but the abilities that the Holy Spirit gave them that others didn't have was the ability to do things differently. designed specifically for them. That's right. They had a different task, didn't they? They had a different task. And guess what? We got a different task. But we have the word now. But we have the word, right? Which brings us into a greater knowledge of the scriptures as well. We're looking back on some things. We should be able to speak even more more authority because of the word not with less authority and you know why man speaks with less authority today we don't know the word if you don't study the word how are you going to have the knowledge it's not last week I used the term it served me well 30 years of ministry this idea that that knowledge and you're studying that knowledge that without that word you can't come into an understanding of what God's word is. It's our, there's a knowledge that comes with our first birth, right? And then there's a knowledge that comes with our second birth. And too often we try to operate in the kingdom of God with our first birth knowledge and not with our born again knowledge. And once again, it's not mystical. You gotta study. You gotta read. You gotta be taught. Why do you think he said be faithful? Don't forsake the assembly. All those kinds of things. Because that increases your knowledge. And when your knowledge increases, your ability to operate in the kingdom also increases. You know, going to my Airbnb illustration, sometimes you might go to Airbnb and there's something in the house that you don't know how to operate. Right? You have the full authority and the access to the thing. You don't know how to use it. Right? And so what do you got to do? You got to go to the teachings. The rules and the contracts to the Airbnb will tell you, right? How to operate it. On the counter, there is a crew egg and there are K-cups, you know, so that now you can use a crew egg. How many of y'all even know what a crew egg is? See, not everybody knows what that is. Right? So you've got to get the keys. You've got to get the keys to the property, keys to the kingdom to know how to operate in the house. And the more knowledge you have, the more intimate you are with the contract between you and the owner, the better you can enjoy the blessing of being in that beautiful home that you're in. Amen? Does that make sense? Do I have a hand back there? I was going to say also that we are also under the command to add knowledge. Command again? Say again? I'm sorry. To add knowledge to our faith. Yeah, and that's not adding our knowledge. That's adding the things in the contract that we didn't know, that we didn't understand. That's adding to our knowledge. We don't add to, because I went to the greater school of Church of Christ preachers or whatever, doesn't mean that I have better understanding than anybody else. It's how do I know that book? How do I know that Bible? That's the measure of how we know the knowledge there. So when we're utilizing the key, we recognize that it went to everybody. Right? Not just Peter, but to the disciples. And then after the disciples, that key has also been given to us. Amen. And we are not applying the keys with our human understanding of ownership. This belongs to me. We're applying it with our second born intellect, our knowledge, the indwelling of the spirit that's in us, that the kingdom's for everybody and we should be inviting everybody. Right? And some of us worry about who we invite. I don't worry about that anymore. I used to use my firstborn knowledge, right? I understand that the wheat and the tares are going to grow together, right? But a day will come when the tares will be separated. And there's somebody that knows what a tare is and a wheat is. A wheat and a tare look very similar. right but the Lord knows the difference and he'll separate them right but what we try to do is we and man we've done this throughout history right Sarah tried to help out Abraham right we're always trying to help out God we're going to help God out by eliminating some folks from coming in the gate not right can't do it if this is the kingdom From an earthly perspective, there is going to be some people in it that don't belong. That's vital. But a day will come when the chairs will be taken care of. So once again, we're going to the grave, not understanding and knowing everything. Everything's not going to be perfect. If you believe in God and if you've been living with those keys to the kingdom, you're going to be alright. You're going to be all right. God will take care of it. Sister here. And when you said that, I thought if I was in a very small week and trying to keep other people out, trying to decide who to call in, Yeah, we're stumbling block. Or even Luke 11, 52. That's right. I think we mentioned last week, didn't the disciples, they tried to keep the little children coming out, and Jesus said, don't suffer the little children that come out to be. Let them come, right? If we go back in the Old Testament, it's Isaiah... The scripture leads me, we may or may not have read it last week, but Isaiah says that the keys will be given to his servant and he will open and he will lock. And when he opens, nobody else will be able to open. And when he locks, nobody else will be able to lock. Okay. And so I'm very comfortable with God as being our judge. Not just mine, but the whole human race. And I've also come to learn by the crowd of Tetanus over some years of preaching, not everybody wants to go to heaven. That was a tongue in the swallow. Not everybody wants to go to heaven. And God is not like a jealous boyfriend that's going to follow you around. I'm going to make you love me. The ladies know what I'm talking about, right? Because if you look at that person, that's a creep. And we go to the police and we get a restraining order from people like that, right? Oh, maybe every time you turn around, there he is in the distance. You're like, oh my God. No, that's not God. Not everybody wants to go to heaven. And so I believe that's why our Lord said, you know, Knock the dust right off your feet. You just say about my business that some people that don't want to hear it, just knock the dust off your feet and go on to the next one. Right? And so we can have some faith in that. Can I have a hand up? I'm just going to say that's the principle of God giving men free will. He's not giving no back. Exactly. No back. Exactly. And brother, we get a lot of things out there. Some of my favorite teachings. Love requires a choice. Without choice, there is no love. That's why God doesn't make you love him. He could have raised up rocks, right, Brother Pinkerton, to worship him. They wouldn't have had a choice. But love requires a choice. And what does the Bible say about God and love? God is love, right? We have a choice. And so choice is what we now call today from our understanding, free will. We have free will. We get to choose whether we obey or not. And your obedience is your declaration on whether or not you want to live according to the keys of the kingdom. When you do not obey, what you are declaring is, I'm not going to live by the contract. When I bring my pet to the Airbnb, And it clearly says in the contract, no pets. We have disobeyed. And in essence, even though we are in the Airbnb, we have made, by our choice, the contract null and void. But most of us get away with it all the time. And so we think, because we got away with it, that we can do that in other places as well. Right? We're going to... Live by our rules and not by the rules of the owner of the house. Go ahead, sir. You know, what I tell people all the time, too, is that, you know, in this life, we're living in Revelation, and we're also living in the book of life. God has recorded everything that we do. That's right. We're being judged now. Our judgment is really now. That's right. So, I mean, there's no other way to look at it. Exactly right. All right, let's look at Matthew 13, 10 and 11. All right? Then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them. He says to you, it has been given to the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, it has not been given. And what we're talking about now is utilizing the keys to the kingdom. Right. He's speaking to them in parables. And but the apostles said, are also they're giving an understanding sometimes the crowd is getting an understanding as well and so they then become responsible for bringing that understanding of those keys to the kingdom those parables and and saints that's still happening today we have parables in the bible is that not right yes and i'm specifically thinking of the new testament right now that we are explaining to the masses What the Lord meant. What are we doing when we do that? We're utilizing the keys. We're utilizing his teachings to bring about access and admittance into the kingdom because they don't have the keys. They have the parables. Anybody can read the Bible, but they don't have the keys. Right. And so we did come and give them the keys. So we this goes back to our responsibility. We have got to use the keys. You've got keys and you should be using them, not just for yourself. You should be bringing others into the kingdom. Don't be like the lawyers who study the contract and keep the understanding to themselves and don't help others get into the kingdom, hindering people and get in the kingdom. You have to share this. Right. And we have to be wise enough to see the opportunities that are literally God established in our lives to administer the keys to the kingdom. There are things going on in your life that are opportunities to give the keys to the kingdom so that somebody could be saved. And when we're not doing it, we're being just like the lawyers. that Jesus said woe to. Okay. In Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6, goes on to say, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean what? To your own understanding. Right. This is what I was ascribing this idea of firstborn intellect. You know, we try to use human wisdom and understanding to to navigate and create access into the kingdom, right? And all of us know a big one is, right? I don't know why you got to be baptized to come into the kingdom, right? Why is that? Well, the Lord said. And so we go to the keys. We don't lean on our understanding. We lean on the contract. We lean on God's word. All right. And the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that's in us, that's leading and guiding us into all truth. Right. That's not my rule. So when you come, if I'm at the Airbnb and, you know, I got four people there and the contract says no more than four. You come and you want to stay. I have been given the authority with the keys of the kingdom to keep you out of that house. You can't stay here. Hey, you know, we can go back to high school. We can just go to the end. I just want to spend two nights in there. I'm sorry. These are not my rules. The rules say, if I let you in, I could be kicked out. But we don't look at it like that, where the church is concerned. We go back to that thing, God understands my heart. They needed a place to stay. You know, do kids ever say that to you? Right? You got somebody in the house, and you say, when I'm gone, there should be nobody in the house. Right? You come back home, they got a friend in the house. I felt sorry for them. Aren't you a Christian? Aren't you worried about them? They were out in the rain and stuff. They needed some safety to get in there. Sister Grace. Matthew 7, 21. Yep. Yeah. You've been here doing all this stuff, but you ain't been abiding by the contract. I never knew you. It's as if you didn't have those things. So we're not to lean on our own understanding and utilizing the keys. But in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Okay? That's what we have to do. I'm trying to watch my time. And then there we, I still got some few minutes. There's a need for us to use the keys. As well, too. All right. How many of you have had the experience of teaching somebody the Bible and then they were baptized and added to the church? How many of y'all have had that experience? Was it a bad experience? That was a good experience, wasn't it? It was exciting, wasn't it? It makes you want to get back out there and do it again, don't it? Right? There's a need for us to use the keys because it benefits us as well as us being faithful to the Lord's commands. We always want to make sure that we are using those keys. All right? And then we have to proclaim the contract faithfully. Now, what does that mean? We have to do it. We may not like everything. I don't like everything that the Bible says. Now, I'm a preacher. Let me ask some more preachers. Brother McCuskey, do you like everything the Bible says? He says, is this a trick question? Let me not put you on the spot. Go ahead. I was going to put Brother Crowder on the spot. I try to understand everything. Amen. Amen. And when I say I don't like, it's probably, I'm thinking I understand, but I'm not so sure I like the whole thing about, you know, loving the enemies. That's good. That's when you have the right kind of enemy that you feel has robed you, okay? It is good. I've come to a better understanding of that. You know, when I don't like somebody, I'm greedy. That's right. And it bothers you. It bothers me. I learned this as a child. I used to get so mad. Oh, see, you learned. I came to that thing late. There was some madness to all of that. Yeah. And I would fight. Yes. I soon realized I couldn't beat everybody. But once I learned to just try to accept that there are going to be some people that don't like me, I get angry at some things. There are things that displease me just very much. Okay, we'll take that. But I learned that if I do what God said, I'm going to feel better, period. All right. That's what 80 years of living will do for y'all, church. Be faithful. Sister Perry. You know, I agree with Tim. On the mundane things, things that happen every day, you know, you cut me off in traffic, you know, you say something bad about me. I got that. By the other token, I'm looking at TV and I see some of this egregious stuff that people are doing to each other. That really caused it. But I tell myself that God still expects, if I were in that situation, for me to forgive someone. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. And I'm not going to tell you I'm going to like you. I know that's my commandment. Absolutely. And that is my mandate for me to do that. You understand what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Some of the things that folk are doing to other people, it's not cutting me off in traffic. I can deal with that. Yeah. But... killing somebody or hurting somebody they've done nothing to you yeah that's a higher mandate i think in which you have to you have to call them absolutely the word in your life to help you forget those absolutely yeah some of some of us have created eternal enemies you know we have this thing in our world called divorce right yeah and then it's like moral enemies then wind up happening and but i i got our god said love your enemies right Amen. I like that. God would have it there for a reason. And there's nothing new under the sun. People were being mistreated, killed, just like today, even in biblical times. So God allows that to be known for a reason. So I respect what the Bible says. I like that. I like that. Y'all helping me out. Thank you. I'm glad I was here. The Lord has placed some boundaries in his kingdom, not because he's a bad God, but there are boundaries that are protections for us. They are for our good. He wants to prosper us. He's not trying to be mean or grievous to us. There are boundaries, and then we'll come along a boundary, and then we'll wonder, well, I don't know why that's there. And then we move it. And when we shouldn't be moving it, we should just respect the boundaries that the Lord has placed there for us. OK, so we have to proclaim the truth and we have to proclaim it faithfully. All right. Then we also I'm just going to give you I got a lot more scriptures, but I'm just going to give you titles. When we use the keys to the kingdoms, according to our responsibility, we are then sharing in this very same role of the Apostles. Right? Whose role it was to help bring others into the kingdom. So when we use the keys to the kingdom, we are sharing in the role of bringing others into the kingdom. And that's how God's kingdom operates. It doesn't operate like we operate our properties. It's my key. It belongs to me. And only what I say goes. And you know, only certain people could come in. No. The kingdom for now is open to everybody okay we also operate the kingdoms with the Holy Spirit now thanks I know most of y'all know that the Holy Spirit ain't about what crossed your mind when you woke up in the morning right it's nothing mystical right God's Word was given to us by the Holy Spirit and so when we talk about using guiding by the Holy Spirit we just simply talking about being guided by God's Word God is not a respecter of persons. He didn't tell Sister Parham one thing, Brother McCluskey a different thing, Sister Heron something else, and so Sister Heron can use what she knows, and Brother Peggy can use what she doesn't know. We all have to be guided by the Holy Spirit. And that means being guided by God's Word, because God's Word came to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moved faithful men to reveal the things that God chose to reveal to mankind. He didn't choose to reveal everything to us. Going back to my illustration, Airbnb, for those of you that have been in it, there's always a room that you don't have access to. It's locked for the owner's reason. And you don't have to know the owner's reason because it's his house or their house or her house. I'm being politically correct. Okay, my time's almost up. And then we have to remain faithful. Okay? The word steadfastness comes up. Because I like when you use the word steadfastness, it kind of implies additional, doing something that goes along with the knowledge that you have, not just standing still. You know, we talked about parables earlier. Jesus has a parable of the talents, right? And he gave different talents to different people. the one that got say ten talents remember the exact numbers the ten talent he went out and gained ten more talent the one that got five talent he went out and what did he do? got five more the one that got one talent what did he do? he buried that's what most of us do with the keys to the kingdom we go out and bury them and it's not necessarily because we're lazy we're fearful Yeah, some people are lazy. Amen. Okay. All right. So it's our responsibility. Brother McCleskey or Brother Thomas will be back with you next week. And we'll continue our study in the kingdoms of the Bible. We've taken a little time to study the keys of the kingdom. And then Brother Thomas wanted me to dwell even deeper our responsibility of those keys of the kingdom that we have. All of you who have got keys, go out and use them. Don't be a one-tallied Christian. Be a five or a ten-tallied Christian. And go out and bring more usually. Amen? Amen. Brother Crowder, can you close us with a word of prayer, please? Heavenly Father, we call upon your powerful name. We ask forgiveness of sins and we're most grateful for the blood of Jesus that reunites us to you. We're thankful, Father, for the berry and all that has been given to us. We pray that we will effectively use the keys of your kingdom. We thank you, Father, for the opportunity to have this gospel meeting that's coming up. Continue to be with each and every one. And we're thankful, Father, for your word being carried at this point in this congregation. When this life is over, may we hear you say, well done. Bless us all. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen.

Let me get my, okay, there we go. So we are recording. Several of you have stopped me and said, what's that website again, Brother Johnson?

And so it's Barry's Bureau. It's on the board up here. All right. If you go to Barry's Bureau, there's a little menu at the top. You choose Bible classes, which will give you another menu.

And then you'll choose Schrader Lane when you go to that menu. And underneath Schrader Lane are all the Bible classes that I participated in and have tried to help to promote here in the congregation. And you'll see Kingdoms of the Bible in there.

Once you choose Kingdoms of the Bible, then you'll get another. The last menu will allow you to pick the actual class that you want to study. So if you want to do last week, you'll choose June 8th.

If you want to do this week, you'll choose June 15th. And on that page is a summary of the class and audio of the class. Except for last week, I forgot to press the button. But there is still a summary on there.

And then I use AI, artificial intelligence, to create a podcast. for the class. So you can listen to a computer generated podcast of the class which is really, really very good. As a matter of fact, as of late, the program I'm using is a two person podcast. I don't know how they do it, but one person acts like the host and the other person is the guest.

It's really, really good. So if you get a chance, check that out and leave me a comment. I've also left a way on there for, let's say you wanted to get an email about the upcoming class or the materials, you can leave your name on there and I will email you because I can automate that. It does require some work, but I'm just trying to help us.

I think growth is not just numerical, it's also spiritual. And if you're going to grow spiritually, you have to learn. Christianity is a learned religion. It's not, it doesn't come to us naturally, which is why we have to be taught.

So if we're going to grow the church, there's going to have to be some teaching, and that's what I'm trying to promote with the website there. Okay? All right, so with that being said, let's turn our attention back to this Keys of the Kingdom, and we're talking about responsibility.

And I notice a lot of you taking pictures of the slide. The slides are also on the website. Oh, you're trying to get the board.

Okay, I'm sorry. So I appreciate people who take notes and take pictures, and I love those kind of Christians. All right.

So when we talked about the keys to the kingdom and the responsibility, we're thinking about this idea of, because we want to look at the responsibility right here, right? And all of us have been given the keys to the kingdom, not just Peter, as we talked about. And as we looked at that, we recognized that we have a responsibility to teach and to guide people. Right.

Because that's what the responsibility is that lies on us who have been given keys, because this kingdom that our creator has brought into existence, that our savior is now Lord over is not a kingdom where we got the keys and the kingdom is just for us. Right. He wants us to use the keys to bring others into the kingdom. Now that's different than our human perspective of ownership.

Oftentimes when we get keys to something, we claim ownership to it. Amen? And mine. Matter of fact, we know that's a human characteristic because little children, when you give them something, what do they often say? Mine, mine, mine.

And so they take ownership to that and they'll take it away from you because they feel they have ownership to it. God's kingdom doesn't operate that way. God's kingdom operates in a way where he's trying to bring everybody underneath the full living, underneath his stewardship and underneath his sovereignty. that we can experience the benefits of being in the kingdom and not just living.

So we have a responsibility once those keys are given to us to teach and to guide. And we looked at several scriptures where that was concerned. One of those was in Luke 11, 52, where if you remember, Jesus chided the scribes and the leaders of that day. He says, woe to you lawyers, all right? For you have taken away the key of knowledge, right?

So lawyers are trained to know what the contract is, right? And then it is their responsibility then to bring that information that's in the contract to people. That's what lawyers do, right? And so Jesus says, woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

You did not enter in. You know what I've been teaching. You know what I've been promoting. You know what God's word is. You haven't entered in because you have followed God.

the teachings, the doctrines, and the commandments of men. Amen? And not my teachings.

So you didn't enter in and you hindered those who were entering. You're keeping others from coming in because you are not teaching and guiding in the way that my word teaches. All right? We looked at that last week. Then we also looked at in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. We know this from the Great Commission, right?

And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore. So here's the Lord commanding us. This is not a heavenly suggestion. This is a command.

Amen. We recognize that. We also looked at Acts 2.42 last week, and we saw that The keys of the kingdom, that teaching and guiding continue. And we see it happening here in Acts 2 42. They that will be those who were coming into the kingdom, those that were members of the church of Christ. What did they do?

Devoted themselves to the apostles teachings. What are those teachings? Those are the keys to the kingdom. All right.

And the fellowship to the breaking of bread and of prayers. Those are the things that are happening in the kingdom. We briefly look, mentioned John 16, 12 through 13. It says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. And when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, which is the keys to the kingdom.

All right. And so there were some things that Jesus wasn't able to tell them at the time. He said, there's more to this kingdom living. There's more to these keys.

But you're going to get that information later. And how did they get that? Through the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit revealed to them the things that Jesus was teaching them and brought them into a better understanding, a deeper understanding of that. And why did he do that?

Because there was a responsibility that lied on the apostles to teach the kingdom, to deliver the keys of knowledge. The woe that Jesus gave to the scribes and lawyers of that day. Okay. And so he says that the Holy Spirit is going to come and guide you in all truth for he will speak.

He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Right. And so that brought us to this idea of binding and loosing is where we kind of ended last week. Now, how many of you, give me a show of hands, have ever rented an Airbnb?

How many of you have been to an Airbnb? All right, so three of y'all will understand this illustration. When you go to an Airbnb, what happens is the owner of the property will...

will have an apparatus, a way for you to get to the keys to the property. Okay? Now today, it's not a literal key for a lot of places because we have smart homes and stuff.

You get the code, right? And the code will let you into the building. Now, when you go to that Airbnb, do you live according to your rules for that property? Whose rules do you live according to?

The owner of the property, right? There's a contract that, you know, and very few of us read the contract, right? Because we just want the house. We just want the property. We're going to be there a few days.

I don't need to read no 18-page contract, right? But there is a contract. And you are bound to that contract.

And how you use that property, how you operate in the property is based on that contract. The church operates in a similar way. Okay?

Once we get the keys of the kingdom and we come into the kingdom, we don't get to operate the way we want to operate. If we want to be in the kingdom, we have to operate according to the contract. Okay? And that's what binding and loosing is. When the Lord spoke to the apostles and to Peter and says what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, that was a Jewish legal term.

And basically what they're saying is you're going to interpret the contract. You're going to bind what's bound in heaven and you're going to loose what's loosed in heaven. Now, what we wind up doing in the church is the same thing we do with Airbnbs.

We don't care what the contract says. We're going to live how we want to live, right? Because in the contract, it might say no pets allowed.

Amen. Y'all know what I'm talking about? But see, we got a dog and we don't want to pay for boarding the dog and stuff. And we figure that my dog is neat and clean and he won't mess up in the house. It'll be fine.

We'll only be there a couple of days. But is that according to the contract? No.

Right. And that's how we do in the church. The Lord understands.

I'm not going to make a mess. I'm going to bring this in, you know, because I like it. It's important to me. I'm going to do this.

But that's not according to the contract. Right. In the contract, it might say no more than four people. If you read your contracts, most all of them have a limit on how many people you can have in there. No partying, no smoking, no whatever, this, that, and the other.

But we'll do it anyway because we figure we'll get away with it. Essentially, it's what's in the back of our mind. And what we say is kind of the same thing we say in the church. He'll understand what my heart is. The Lord understands my heart.

I'm really just trying to, I'm just, I'm just trying to take a vacation and I got to bring my dog. I can't afford the kennel. So I'm going to bring my dog.

He'll understand. You know, the Lord understands. So we have to be very, very careful where that's concerned because what the keys, when we are teaching and guiding with the keys, we are binding and loosing not from what our opinion is.

Not because we say it's okay to bring the dog or to invite 12 people or to throw a big party in somebody else's house. What we have to do is we have to follow God. We have to teach.

We have to bind what's already been bound. And then we loose what's already been loosed. And the Lord knows we messed that up, which is why our salvation operates according to grace and not according to strict justice.

We had that in the Old Testament, right? Right. If you brought the dog and the owner has a camera in the house, underneath the Old Testament, he will come to the house and kick you out.

The contract says no dogs. Amen. And underneath the Old Testament, if you sin underneath the witness of someone else, and that was brought to the attention of the community, for a lot of sins, you were taken outside the camp and stoned to death. Amen. Now, some people say that's how the church should be.

Right? But we're operating underneath grace right now. Grace and truth.

All right? And we see that binding and loosing wasn't just given to Peter. And this is really important for us to understand because some of us study with people who labor underneath a Catholic understanding of Christianity.

All right? Now, Whether we like it or not, the world, I'm talking about the world now, right? The world sees Christianity through the lens of Catholicism. And we have proof of that. Because just recently, what happened in the Catholic Church?

They got a new pope. Got a new pope. And who was watching that whole thing? The world, right?

And so the world thinks that's how Christianity operates. And Jesus. and Chicago.

Now, Brother Crowder don't talk about Chicago. We got a gangster up in there. Y'all better watch out. So it's good for us to understand this binding and loosing wasn't given to Peter specifically. And this scripture backs that up because Jesus is not just talking to Peter.

He's talking to the disciples. And he says, truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

All right. And he's talking to the disciples, not just Peter, where he was talking about our Peter in Matthew 16 verses 16 through 20 there. And particularly in verse number 19, our Peter.

And upon this rock, I will, you know, build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So the church was never built on Peter. It was built on the teaching, the keys of the kingdom, the things that allow you to gain access to the kingdom and the things that allow you to operate in the kingdom. Because there's some things in the kingdom that we're not necessarily ready to understand, just like Jesus taught his disciples, right?

Like, all of us want this understanding, don't we, Brother McCleskey, of revelation. We want to know when every last thing of revelation means some things you're not going to understand. Boy, I teach it as often as I can teach it.

There are some things that you are going to have to take to the grave, and faith will make it all right. I believe that. I don't know why people act the way they act. And I'm gonna die with that misunderstanding.

But I know it's gonna be all right. I trust, I'm willing to let God be the judge. He's much better than any human judge that I've ever run into. And I'm gonna trust him with that, all right? That's the things we have to take to the grave.

And using my Airbnb illustration, for those of you that didn't have an operator, there is almost always a room in the Airbnb that you don't have access to. Ain't that right? And you might even try the different keys to try to get in there, right?

I wonder what's in there. It might just be the water heater. And we got this whole house that we can operate and enjoy in, right?

It might have a hot tub. It might have a nice backyard. It might have a patio screened in and all this kind of stuff.

But we're worried about the one room we can't get into. We try to figure out, I wonder what's in there. You know what's in there? We'll put our ears to the door and say, it's humming.

So we just worry about the keys to the kingdom that we have. And enjoy what God has given us more than enough to enjoy. And quit worrying about the things that have to be kept away. Because I'm telling you, there's a time coming when everything's going to be okay.

Everything's going to be okay. And then you're not going to have no, you know, I like what one of my elders back home said, when he gets to heaven, he only got one question. Can I stay? He ain't worried about who came, married, and all that kind of, you know, all that kind of, can I stay?

And when we get to heaven and all is revealed, that's going to be the only question we got, too. All right. And we have to recognize that.

So Jesus was talking to the disciples and allowing them to bind and loose what is already bound and loose in heaven. We have to recognize that. And then in John 20, verses 22 through 23, we see the scripture says, and when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them. And let me tell you why this scripture is important. Peter and the disciples had never been to heaven.

They didn't know what it looked like. They didn't know where it was. They didn't know the boundaries of heaven.

They didn't know who could be allowed, who couldn't be allowed. Matter of fact, if you left it up to them, it might have just been, especially Peter, right, Brother Pinkerton? It would have been just Jews, right? Because he even had a problem with Cornelius.

Amen? Amen. So he had to get that knowledge some other kind of way of what the keys to the kingdom was. It wasn't based on his own knowledge. And even Paul, who was probably the most educated of them all, right, Brother Crowell?

Educated man. Even he had to get the Holy Spirit in order to know what the teachings and the doctrines of the kingdom were, what the keys to the kingdom were. And And so Jesus, he said, receive the Holy Spirit. Right. And if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

Now, notice he didn't allow them to forgive sins until they had what? The Holy Spirit. Because your forgiving shouldn't be done according to your knowledge.

Somebody needs to understand that. Some of us are holding on to some things because we think we we have the right to. to our anger we have the right to our uh you know fear or the right to hold this against people no we should forgive according to the spirit according to the keys to the kingdom the teachings of the kingdom and not man's opinion And whenever you, has anybody ever been in a class on forgiveness? That could be so powerful. And it is, you know when people are struggling because you get questions about, well, what if?

What if they did this, right? We think our situation is a unique situation to everybody else's situation. But in order for the apostles to actually do give and use the keys to the kingdom, they had to do it with the Holy Spirit.

Now that's important what binding and loosing is concerned is because then with the Holy Spirit they can bind what's already bound in heaven because the Holy Spirit knows what that is and they can loose what already has been loosed in heaven. The Holy Spirit knows what that is, right? Which is also why when we are baptized, what do we receive? The Holy Spirit.

So that we can also be led and guided into all truth so that we can use that truth, not for ourselves, not just for ourselves, but to use those keys, that truth, God's word, the doctrines and the commandments of our Lord and Savior to help bring others into the kingdom. And he says, receive the Holy Spirit. And if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. And they do that through the power of the Holy Spirit, not of their own.

And so that's where our responsibility lies and particularly where binding and loosing is concerned. So now let's talk a little bit about... Yes, ma'am. Question.

This Holy Spirit that's with me. Let me tell you, I love the word that you use because that's how I teach it. Measure. Right? Because I believe that the apostles got a greater measure of the Spirit than we did.

Right? Which is why they knew some things we didn't know. Which is why they were able to do some things that we can't do. Because they had a greater measure. Because who gives the Holy Spirit?

God does. So who gives gifts to men? God does.

So who decides who gets what gift? God does. So God, in those scriptures, which are several that we're referencing, it is God that determines the measure of the spirit because that's what that is.

Different gifts are different measures. And so he, the apostles, received a greater measure of the spirit than we do today. So when men today want to ascribe themselves to be apostles, we know that's not true because they didn't receive the measure of the Spirit that the twelve got, right?

Or we can say the thirteen, including Paul as well, right? Yes, sir. I have read somewhere in the Bible where it says that Even when God creates man, anybody that is born, he's already given them a gift.

That's right. They don't come into this world without a gift. Let me tell you where knowledge is concerned, things like that. Man does not create knowledge.

We discover it. That's right. Amen. Always remember that. We discover knowledge.

We don't create it. God is the creator of knowledge. And because he is, certain things are. That's right.

Amen? Amen. Brother, I watched it. Yeah, I like to look at that idea of the measure of the Spirit, that the apostles got something different in that they were empowered. Yes.

They were empowered. We have the Holy Spirit, but the abilities that the Holy Spirit gave them that others didn't have was the ability to do things differently. designed specifically for them.

That's right. They had a different task, didn't they? They had a different task.

And guess what? We got a different task. But we have the word now.

But we have the word, right? Which brings us into a greater knowledge of the scriptures as well. We're looking back on some things. We should be able to speak even more more authority because of the word not with less authority and you know why man speaks with less authority today we don't know the word if you don't study the word how are you going to have the knowledge it's not last week I used the term it served me well 30 years of ministry this idea that that knowledge and you're studying that knowledge that without that word you can't come into an understanding of what God's word is. It's our, there's a knowledge that comes with our first birth, right?

And then there's a knowledge that comes with our second birth. And too often we try to operate in the kingdom of God with our first birth knowledge and not with our born again knowledge. And once again, it's not mystical.

You gotta study. You gotta read. You gotta be taught. Why do you think he said be faithful? Don't forsake the assembly.

All those kinds of things. Because that increases your knowledge. And when your knowledge increases, your ability to operate in the kingdom also increases.

You know, going to my Airbnb illustration, sometimes you might go to Airbnb and there's something in the house that you don't know how to operate. Right? You have the full authority and the access to the thing. You don't know how to use it. Right?

And so what do you got to do? You got to go to the teachings. The rules and the contracts to the Airbnb will tell you, right? How to operate it. On the counter, there is a crew egg and there are K-cups, you know, so that now you can use a crew egg.

How many of y'all even know what a crew egg is? See, not everybody knows what that is. Right? So you've got to get the keys. You've got to get the keys to the property, keys to the kingdom to know how to operate in the house.

And the more knowledge you have, the more intimate you are with the contract between you and the owner, the better you can enjoy the blessing of being in that beautiful home that you're in. Amen? Does that make sense?

Do I have a hand back there? I was going to say also that we are also under the command to add knowledge. Command again? Say again? I'm sorry.

To add knowledge to our faith. Yeah, and that's not adding our knowledge. That's adding the things in the contract that we didn't know, that we didn't understand.

That's adding to our knowledge. We don't add to, because I went to the greater school of Church of Christ preachers or whatever, doesn't mean that I have better understanding than anybody else. It's how do I know that book? How do I know that Bible? That's the measure of how we know the knowledge there.

So when we're utilizing the key, we recognize that it went to everybody. Right? Not just Peter, but to the disciples.

And then after the disciples, that key has also been given to us. Amen. And we are not applying the keys with our human understanding of ownership. This belongs to me. We're applying it with our second born intellect, our knowledge, the indwelling of the spirit that's in us, that the kingdom's for everybody and we should be inviting everybody.

Right? And some of us worry about who we invite. I don't worry about that anymore. I used to use my firstborn knowledge, right?

I understand that the wheat and the tares are going to grow together, right? But a day will come when the tares will be separated. And there's somebody that knows what a tare is and a wheat is. A wheat and a tare look very similar. right but the Lord knows the difference and he'll separate them right but what we try to do is we and man we've done this throughout history right Sarah tried to help out Abraham right we're always trying to help out God we're going to help God out by eliminating some folks from coming in the gate not right can't do it if this is the kingdom From an earthly perspective, there is going to be some people in it that don't belong.

That's vital. But a day will come when the chairs will be taken care of. So once again, we're going to the grave, not understanding and knowing everything.

Everything's not going to be perfect. If you believe in God and if you've been living with those keys to the kingdom, you're going to be alright. You're going to be all right. God will take care of it.

Sister here. And when you said that, I thought if I was in a very small week and trying to keep other people out, trying to decide who to call in, Yeah, we're stumbling block. Or even Luke 11, 52. That's right. I think we mentioned last week, didn't the disciples, they tried to keep the little children coming out, and Jesus said, don't suffer the little children that come out to be. Let them come, right?

If we go back in the Old Testament, it's Isaiah... The scripture leads me, we may or may not have read it last week, but Isaiah says that the keys will be given to his servant and he will open and he will lock. And when he opens, nobody else will be able to open.

And when he locks, nobody else will be able to lock. Okay. And so I'm very comfortable with God as being our judge.

Not just mine, but the whole human race. And I've also come to learn by the crowd of Tetanus over some years of preaching, not everybody wants to go to heaven. That was a tongue in the swallow. Not everybody wants to go to heaven. And God is not like a jealous boyfriend that's going to follow you around.

I'm going to make you love me. The ladies know what I'm talking about, right? Because if you look at that person, that's a creep.

And we go to the police and we get a restraining order from people like that, right? Oh, maybe every time you turn around, there he is in the distance. You're like, oh my God.

No, that's not God. Not everybody wants to go to heaven. And so I believe that's why our Lord said, you know, Knock the dust right off your feet.

You just say about my business that some people that don't want to hear it, just knock the dust off your feet and go on to the next one. Right? And so we can have some faith in that.

Can I have a hand up? I'm just going to say that's the principle of God giving men free will. He's not giving no back.

Exactly. No back. Exactly. And brother, we get a lot of things out there. Some of my favorite teachings.

Love requires a choice. Without choice, there is no love. That's why God doesn't make you love him. He could have raised up rocks, right, Brother Pinkerton, to worship him.

They wouldn't have had a choice. But love requires a choice. And what does the Bible say about God and love?

God is love, right? We have a choice. And so choice is what we now call today from our understanding, free will.

We have free will. We get to choose whether we obey or not. And your obedience is your declaration on whether or not you want to live according to the keys of the kingdom.

When you do not obey, what you are declaring is, I'm not going to live by the contract. When I bring my pet to the Airbnb, And it clearly says in the contract, no pets. We have disobeyed.

And in essence, even though we are in the Airbnb, we have made, by our choice, the contract null and void. But most of us get away with it all the time. And so we think, because we got away with it, that we can do that in other places as well.

Right? We're going to... Live by our rules and not by the rules of the owner of the house.

Go ahead, sir. You know, what I tell people all the time, too, is that, you know, in this life, we're living in Revelation, and we're also living in the book of life. God has recorded everything that we do.

That's right. We're being judged now. Our judgment is really now. That's right. So, I mean, there's no other way to look at it.

Exactly right. All right, let's look at Matthew 13, 10 and 11. All right? Then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables?

And he answered them. He says to you, it has been given to the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, it has not been given.

And what we're talking about now is utilizing the keys to the kingdom. Right. He's speaking to them in parables. And but the apostles said, are also they're giving an understanding sometimes the crowd is getting an understanding as well and so they then become responsible for bringing that understanding of those keys to the kingdom those parables and and saints that's still happening today we have parables in the bible is that not right yes and i'm specifically thinking of the new testament right now that we are explaining to the masses What the Lord meant.

What are we doing when we do that? We're utilizing the keys. We're utilizing his teachings to bring about access and admittance into the kingdom because they don't have the keys. They have the parables.

Anybody can read the Bible, but they don't have the keys. Right. And so we did come and give them the keys.

So we this goes back to our responsibility. We have got to use the keys. You've got keys and you should be using them, not just for yourself.

You should be bringing others into the kingdom. Don't be like the lawyers who study the contract and keep the understanding to themselves and don't help others get into the kingdom, hindering people and get in the kingdom. You have to share this.

Right. And we have to be wise enough to see the opportunities that are literally God established in our lives to administer the keys to the kingdom. There are things going on in your life that are opportunities to give the keys to the kingdom so that somebody could be saved.

And when we're not doing it, we're being just like the lawyers. that Jesus said woe to. Okay. In Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6, goes on to say, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean what? To your own understanding.

Right. This is what I was ascribing this idea of firstborn intellect. You know, we try to use human wisdom and understanding to to navigate and create access into the kingdom, right? And all of us know a big one is, right?

I don't know why you got to be baptized to come into the kingdom, right? Why is that? Well, the Lord said. And so we go to the keys. We don't lean on our understanding.

We lean on the contract. We lean on God's word. All right. And the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that's in us, that's leading and guiding us into all truth.

Right. That's not my rule. So when you come, if I'm at the Airbnb and, you know, I got four people there and the contract says no more than four.

You come and you want to stay. I have been given the authority with the keys of the kingdom to keep you out of that house. You can't stay here. Hey, you know, we can go back to high school.

We can just go to the end. I just want to spend two nights in there. I'm sorry. These are not my rules. The rules say, if I let you in, I could be kicked out.

But we don't look at it like that, where the church is concerned. We go back to that thing, God understands my heart. They needed a place to stay. You know, do kids ever say that to you? Right?

You got somebody in the house, and you say, when I'm gone, there should be nobody in the house. Right? You come back home, they got a friend in the house.

I felt sorry for them. Aren't you a Christian? Aren't you worried about them?

They were out in the rain and stuff. They needed some safety to get in there. Sister Grace. Matthew 7, 21. Yep.

Yeah. You've been here doing all this stuff, but you ain't been abiding by the contract. I never knew you.

It's as if you didn't have those things. So we're not to lean on our own understanding and utilizing the keys. But in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Okay?

That's what we have to do. I'm trying to watch my time. And then there we, I still got some few minutes.

There's a need for us to use the keys. As well, too. All right.

How many of you have had the experience of teaching somebody the Bible and then they were baptized and added to the church? How many of y'all have had that experience? Was it a bad experience?

That was a good experience, wasn't it? It was exciting, wasn't it? It makes you want to get back out there and do it again, don't it? Right?

There's a need for us to use the keys because it benefits us as well as us being faithful to the Lord's commands. We always want to make sure that we are using those keys. All right?

And then we have to proclaim the contract faithfully. Now, what does that mean? We have to do it. We may not like everything. I don't like everything that the Bible says.

Now, I'm a preacher. Let me ask some more preachers. Brother McCuskey, do you like everything the Bible says? He says, is this a trick question? Let me not put you on the spot.

Go ahead. I was going to put Brother Crowder on the spot. I try to understand everything. Amen.

Amen. And when I say I don't like, it's probably, I'm thinking I understand, but I'm not so sure I like the whole thing about, you know, loving the enemies. That's good.

That's when you have the right kind of enemy that you feel has robed you, okay? It is good. I've come to a better understanding of that. You know, when I don't like somebody, I'm greedy. That's right.

And it bothers you. It bothers me. I learned this as a child. I used to get so mad.

Oh, see, you learned. I came to that thing late. There was some madness to all of that. Yeah. And I would fight.

Yes. I soon realized I couldn't beat everybody. But once I learned to just try to accept that there are going to be some people that don't like me, I get angry at some things. There are things that displease me just very much.

Okay, we'll take that. But I learned that if I do what God said, I'm going to feel better, period. All right. That's what 80 years of living will do for y'all, church. Be faithful.

Sister Perry. You know, I agree with Tim. On the mundane things, things that happen every day, you know, you cut me off in traffic, you know, you say something bad about me. I got that.

By the other token, I'm looking at TV and I see some of this egregious stuff that people are doing to each other. That really caused it. But I tell myself that God still expects, if I were in that situation, for me to forgive someone. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. And I'm not going to tell you I'm going to like you.

I know that's my commandment. Absolutely. And that is my mandate for me to do that. You understand what I'm saying?

Oh, yeah. Some of the things that folk are doing to other people, it's not cutting me off in traffic. I can deal with that. Yeah.

But... killing somebody or hurting somebody they've done nothing to you yeah that's a higher mandate i think in which you have to you have to call them absolutely the word in your life to help you forget those absolutely yeah some of some of us have created eternal enemies you know we have this thing in our world called divorce right yeah and then it's like moral enemies then wind up happening and but i i got our god said love your enemies right Amen. I like that.

God would have it there for a reason. And there's nothing new under the sun. People were being mistreated, killed, just like today, even in biblical times. So God allows that to be known for a reason.

So I respect what the Bible says. I like that. I like that. Y'all helping me out. Thank you.

I'm glad I was here. The Lord has placed some boundaries in his kingdom, not because he's a bad God, but there are boundaries that are protections for us. They are for our good.

He wants to prosper us. He's not trying to be mean or grievous to us. There are boundaries, and then we'll come along a boundary, and then we'll wonder, well, I don't know why that's there. And then we move it.

And when we shouldn't be moving it, we should just respect the boundaries that the Lord has placed there for us. OK, so we have to proclaim the truth and we have to proclaim it faithfully. All right.

Then we also I'm just going to give you I got a lot more scriptures, but I'm just going to give you titles. When we use the keys to the kingdoms, according to our responsibility, we are then sharing in this very same role of the Apostles. Right? Whose role it was to help bring others into the kingdom.

So when we use the keys to the kingdom, we are sharing in the role of bringing others into the kingdom. And that's how God's kingdom operates. It doesn't operate like we operate our properties.

It's my key. It belongs to me. And only what I say goes.

And you know, only certain people could come in. No. The kingdom for now is open to everybody okay we also operate the kingdoms with the Holy Spirit now thanks I know most of y'all know that the Holy Spirit ain't about what crossed your mind when you woke up in the morning right it's nothing mystical right God's Word was given to us by the Holy Spirit and so when we talk about using guiding by the Holy Spirit we just simply talking about being guided by God's Word God is not a respecter of persons.

He didn't tell Sister Parham one thing, Brother McCluskey a different thing, Sister Heron something else, and so Sister Heron can use what she knows, and Brother Peggy can use what she doesn't know. We all have to be guided by the Holy Spirit. And that means being guided by God's Word, because God's Word came to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moved faithful men to reveal the things that God chose to reveal to mankind. He didn't choose to reveal everything to us.

Going back to my illustration, Airbnb, for those of you that have been in it, there's always a room that you don't have access to. It's locked for the owner's reason. And you don't have to know the owner's reason because it's his house or their house or her house. I'm being politically correct. Okay, my time's almost up.

And then we have to remain faithful. Okay? The word steadfastness comes up.

Because I like when you use the word steadfastness, it kind of implies additional, doing something that goes along with the knowledge that you have, not just standing still. You know, we talked about parables earlier. Jesus has a parable of the talents, right?

And he gave different talents to different people. the one that got say ten talents remember the exact numbers the ten talent he went out and gained ten more talent the one that got five talent he went out and what did he do? got five more the one that got one talent what did he do?

he buried that's what most of us do with the keys to the kingdom we go out and bury them and it's not necessarily because we're lazy we're fearful Yeah, some people are lazy. Amen. Okay. All right.

So it's our responsibility. Brother McCleskey or Brother Thomas will be back with you next week. And we'll continue our study in the kingdoms of the Bible. We've taken a little time to study the keys of the kingdom. And then Brother Thomas wanted me to dwell even deeper our responsibility of those keys of the kingdom that we have.

All of you who have got keys, go out and use them. Don't be a one-tallied Christian. Be a five or a ten-tallied Christian.

And go out and bring more usually. Amen? Amen. Brother Crowder, can you close us with a word of prayer, please? Heavenly Father, we call upon your powerful name.

We ask forgiveness of sins and we're most grateful for the blood of Jesus that reunites us to you. We're thankful, Father, for the berry and all that has been given to us. We pray that we will effectively use the keys of your kingdom.

We thank you, Father, for the opportunity to have this gospel meeting that's coming up. Continue to be with each and every one. And we're thankful, Father, for your word being carried at this point in this congregation. When this life is over, may we hear you say, well done.

Bless us all. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen.

Transcript for:Spiritual Responsibility and Keys

Transcript for:
Spiritual Responsibility and Keys