October 30, 2025 • 50 mins
If you've ever felt like you're not good enough, not spiritual enough, or not qualified enough to approach God, this message will WRECK you in the best way possible! The curtain is torn! The rocks are split! The walls are DOWN!
It's time to stop living like you need permission and start walking in the ACCESS Jesus died to give you.
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, subscribe, and share this with someone living behind their walls of religion.
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
It's time to stop living like you need permission and start walking in the ACCESS Jesus died to give you.
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, subscribe, and share this with someone living behind their walls of religion.
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Listen, I need you to do something for me right now,
wherever you are. Grab your Bible, grab your sword, I'm serious,
Grab your phone, grab your tablet, grab your leather bound
King James, whatever you got, and grab something to write
with because what we're about to unpack, I believe, is
going to shift your entire spiritual paradigm. Shout out to Shannon,
(00:35):
Shout out to my little cousin Kayla. So appreciative of
her for what she was about to do for us. Listen,
our powerword for tonight is access. If you take a notes,
I need everybody to write that down. Access. That's the
power word that we're going to be looking at tonight.
(00:55):
Access is just simply the ability to enter without barriers,
the ability to move about freely, the ability to move
without checkpoints without somebody checking your credentials. And I want
you to hold on to that word and hold on
to that mean because we're going to be coming back
to that word. So family, your mission, should you choose
(01:17):
to squabble up, is this. I need you to identify
one religious wall you've been hiding behind, and I want
you to prepare to watch God tear that wall down,
not tomorrow, not next week. But today, let's go to
Matthew chapter twenty seven, verse fifty and fifty one. Shout
out to Pops and Danam for being here. We'll let
(01:38):
you guys in on some things, on some matters before
we get up out of here. We're going to be
in Matthew chapter twenty seven. We're looking at verse fifty
and fifty one. And Jesus cried out again with a
loud voice and yielded up his spirit, and behold the
curtain or the veil. If you read from the King James,
the curtain of the temple was torn into from top
(02:02):
to bottom. Please underline that, please get the direction of
this tear. It's very important that you see the direction
of this tear from top to bottom. Then verse says,
and the earth shook and the rocks were split. It's
interesting to me when I was even looking at these
two verses, I'm like, okay, Lord, you got me here. Now,
(02:23):
what do you want me to say about these two
verses because it seems on the surface, it just seems
somewhat abstract. But I want you to understand something. I
want you to see something. We are standing at the
most dramatic and most important moment in human history. Jesus
is nailed to the cross, son of God, just exhaled
(02:45):
his last breadth, and Heaven responds with the most aggressive
divine demolition project ever recorded. And so God rips this fabric,
this curtain, this veil. It's not a fabric from Joanne's
fabric story. That's not what we're talking about. It wasn't
(03:06):
just a little tear at the scene. The Bible says
that this veil, this curtain was torn from top to bottom.
That simply means that God is the one who ripped
this veil, not man, not the earthquake, but God. But
here's what's really about we're going to be talking about today.
We're going to be talking about these walls of religion.
(03:27):
These walls are religion because that curtain, that veil, that
wasn't just fabric. That curtain was a wall. That curtain
was a barrier. That curtain was a barrier that said
you can't come in here. That curtain was sixty feet high,
thirty feet wide. Historians said took over three hundred men
(03:51):
to hang that curtain up. So when Jesus died, God said,
we're done with barriers. We're done with wall. We're done
with restriction. So let me give you a little intel
right now about religion. Religion loves walls, Religion loves barriers.
(04:12):
Religion loves to tell people who's in and who's not,
who's favored and who's not, who's clean, who's dirty, who
can approach and who has to stay back. But that's religion.
But when we're talking about the Gospel, the Gospel is
access and not just any access. We're talking about access
(04:34):
to God. So hear me clearly, because some of you
have been so conditioned by religion that you don't even
know that you're living inside of a cage. You've been
told know so many times that you forgot God's default
answer is yes. You've been pushed back so often that
you think distance from God is normal. Well it's not.
(04:55):
But I'm here to tell you today that's not the
heart of your father. That's not the plan of heaven,
that's not the purpose of the cross. When Jesus hung
on that tree, bleeding in battered, he wasn't just dying
for your sins. He wasn't just dying for my sins.
He was demolishing every single system, every single structure, every
(05:17):
piece of religious framework that ever told you that you
couldn't come close to God, every barrier that whispered you're
not enough, he was tearing it down. From that cross,
every wall that screamed for you to stay back, he
was ripping it apart. So him being on that cross,
God ripping that curtain that gave you access to God.
(05:40):
And I need you to understand something. These walls of religion,
they're not just historical. We're not just talking about a
historical act that happened two thousand years ago. These walls
of religion are personal. I've seen these walls of religion
up close. I've seen what these walls of religion have
done to people, how they have destroyed people. Because these
(06:02):
walls of religion can get in your mind, it can
get in your heart, it can get in your spirit.
It can even prevent how you approach God, because you'll
approach God timid, you'll approach God scared. You'll approach God
apologizing like you're bothering him. But God didn't tear that
veil so you could tiptoe into his presence. He tore
(06:25):
that veil so you could run into his presence. Wall
number one, if you're taking notes. Write this down, the
wall of separation, the wall of separation. We're gonna break
these two verses down. Let's break down the first verse,
verse fifty one eight. And behold, the curtain of the
temple was torn into This curtain was called the veil.
(06:50):
The veil separated the Holy Place from the most holy Place,
the Holy of holies. In that room behind that was
the ark of the Covenant. The ark of the Covenant
represented the very presence of God and nobody, I mean
nobody could go back there except the high priest. Now
(07:13):
here's the thing. Under this religious system, the high priest
could only go behind that veil once a year, and
it was on the day, the highest day for Jews,
it was called the day of Atonement. And even then
he had to go behind that veil. He had to
bring blood, he had to bring a sacrifice. Even then,
(07:34):
Get this, the priest had bills on his robe. Do
you know why he had bills on his road Because
if he died in the presence of God, no one
could go into that room. They had a rope tied
around his ankle just in case he died in the
presence of God, they would drag his body out because
(07:57):
God struck him dead. Nobody could walk into that room,
and then they would send the next Priescin to the room.
That's how serious. I need you to understand how serious
this was. That's how serious this religion was. But check this.
That curtain, it was blue, it was red, it was purple.
(08:20):
All these colors pointed to Christ. But something else was written,
was designed on that veil. It had a charitable woven
into that veil. What is that? Terrible? Terrible? My angels
the same angels. The first time we see angels, these
cheruble angels, is in Genesis chapter three, verse twenty four.
(08:44):
And it's just a little small footnote. I don't think
it's something that anyone really notices or anyone really talks about.
But after Adam and Eve were evicted out of the
Garden of Eden, after they had sin, they were evicted,
God put them out. Genesis chapter three, verse twenty four
says this, And I want you to pay attention. He
(09:06):
God drove out the man Adam, and at the east
of the garden of Eden, he placed the Cherubim and
a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the
way to the Tree of life. I want you to
see that same angel that's preventing Adam and Eve from
(09:29):
coming back into the Garden of Eden. It's keeping the
same assignment on this curtain, and that assignment is telling
the people to keep out. You can go and read
a description about that angel over in Ezekiel Chapter one.
Ezekiel describes what the Cherubim angel looks like. Isaiah chapter six,
(09:51):
Isaiah talks about the Seraphim angels. These are two different
distinct angels. You gotta go do your homework and check
them out. So in the garden of Eden, there was
a cherubum angel guarding access to the Tree of Life.
The temple had a cherub them angel woven into the
(10:12):
very fabric of the veil, guarding access to God's presence.
So get this. From Genesis to Matthew, humanity was on
the outside looking in. Everything that you read in your Bible,
from Genesis to Matthew, please keep that in mind. Humanity
could not approach God. They were on the outside looking in.
(10:34):
They were locked out, they were separated, they were cut
off from God. Sin built the wall between us and God,
and religion tried to manage that wall. Religion said, okay,
you can't get to God. But if you follow these rules,
if you do these rituals, if you bring these sacrifices,
then maybe, just maybe you can get close. But guess what,
(10:57):
that's exhausting a spiritual that's a religious treadmill. It's a
treadmill with no finish line at all. That's relationship based
on distance, not intimacy. But here's the revelation I want
you to get. The wall of separation was never supposed
to be permanent. The wall of separation was a placeholder.
(11:22):
It was a temporary barrier until the real solution showed up.
And do you know what the real solution was was named?
His name was Jesus. In Galatians, chapter three, verse twenty four,
Paul says something very powerful. Paul says, wherefore, the law
was our school master to bring us to Christ that
we might be justified by faith. That word school master
(11:42):
means a substitute teacher. So Paul is saying that the
law was a substitute. A substitute teacher. That means that
the law was temporary. Substitute teacher is temporary, it's not
a permanent teacher. And that's what the law was. That's
what the law was designed to do. The law was
this to show mankind just how sinful we really are.
(12:04):
The law was never meant to deal with sin. The
law was never meant to eradicate sin. The law was
simply meant to reveal mankind's fallen nature and show us
how badly we needed a savior. So when Jesus died
on the cross, God tore down that wall of separation.
(12:25):
God said, no more barriers. He said, no more distance,
no more you can't come in here. My presence is accessible.
Why because of jesus atoning death on the cross. Look
what the Right of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter ten,
verse nineteen and twenty. And I want you to really
get what he's saying to you. For those of you
(12:47):
that struggle going to God, for those of you that
struggle telling God about your problems or your issues, or
your temptations or your brokenness, this is what the Right
of Hebrews had to say. It says, Therefore, brothers, since
we have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the
blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that
(13:07):
he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through
his flesh. So Jesus didn't just open the door. He
became the door. The Right of Hebrew says his body
was the curtain, his death was the tarring, his blood
was the access code. Here's a challenge for you. Stop
(13:29):
living like you need permission to approach God, because you
have access. Whenever you feel like going to God, you
have access. You don't have to wait for a service.
You don't have to wait for a pastor, you don't
have to wait for anyone. You have access. God is
as close to you as your breath is. Okay, the
Bible says, the word is nigh unto thee even in
(13:52):
thy mouth. Question for you, are you still standing outside
when the door is already opened for you. Let's look
at wall number two. This is the wall of self righteousness,
the wall of self righteousness. Emphasis on the word self. Now,
let's talk about verse fifty one B again, going back
(14:14):
to this curtain. From top to bottom four words, but
they're loaded from top to bottom means God initiated this.
Because if it tore from the bottom to the top,
you could argue humans did that. You can argue the
priest did that. You could argue that the earthquake ripped it.
(14:34):
Maybe somebody pulled it. But top to bottom. A sixty
foot curt thirty feet wide. Took three hundred men to
hang it. Four inches thick. That curt, that veil was
ripped from top to bottom. Jesus is on the cross,
and then Matthew pans into the temple. He's the only
(14:55):
writer that gives us this. Mark doesn't give us this,
Loop doesn't give us this, and John doesn't give but
Matthew gives us this. And for me, it's one of
the most important moments in scripture because while Jesus is
on that cross yelling out it is finished declaring victory.
We go inside the temple and we see something that
(15:18):
no one has ever witnessed before. From top to bottom.
That's divine intervention. That's God saying I'm handling this. And
here's the thing about religion. Religion always tries to build
from the bottom up. Religion says if you work hard enough,
Religion says, if you pray long enough, religion says, if
(15:38):
you fast enough, religion says, if you give enough, Religion says,
if you serve enough. Religion says if you come to
church enough, then then and only then can you reach God.
That's bottom to top thinking that's human effort trying to
bridge a divine gap. But the gospel, that's what we're
(16:02):
talking about. The Gospel, the gospel, the good news. As
Paul said, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
I think there's Romans one, sixteen, sixteen one seventeen. The
gospel is good news. The gospel is top to bottom.
How was it top to bottom? Because God reached out,
(16:24):
God toward the veiled God made the way. You didn't
earn it. I didn't earn it. We don't deserve it,
we didn't work for it. God did it. Somebody say
God did it. We didn't do it. We didn't have
anything to do with this. And you know what that happened.
And you know what happens That destroys the wall of
self righteousness when you realize that, when you understand it,
(16:45):
when you can appreciate the fact that God did this.
I get no credit for it. As Paul said in
Ephesians Too eight, I believe by grace are you saved,
not of works? It is the gift of God. Lets
any man shu both. Self righteousness is a lie, self
righteousness says I'm good enough on my own. It's the
(17:06):
pride that says I don't need God like those other people.
I got this. It's that Pharisee over there. Luke chapter eighteen.
He's praying, and he's praying a prideful prayer. He said, God,
I thank you that I'm not like other men. You know,
they extortioners, they unjust their adulterers. Meanwhile, there's a tax collector,
(17:28):
one of the most hated men in Jewish culture. But
there is a tax collector. The Bible says he is
smoking his chest and he's simple. His prayer is this,
God be merciful to me a sinner. That was his prayer.
And guess what Jesus said about these two different prayers.
(17:50):
Jesus said that tax collector went home justified, not the
religious churchgoer, but the man who acknowledged he was a sinner.
See the walls of self righteousness keeps you from receiving
what you can earn. It keeps you performing instead of resting.
It keeps you comparing yourself with others instead of confessing
(18:12):
your own issues. And guess what, that's exhausting. That'll wear
you out. Isaiah sixty four to six. The prophet Isaiah
writes this. He says, but we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousness, all our righteousness, he says,
are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as
(18:36):
a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken
us away. So get this your best effort, on your
best day, your most spiritual moment without Jesus. Isaiah said,
it's just filthy rags. It's nothing for you to brag about.
It's nothing for me to brag about. And it's not
(18:57):
to discourage you. I'm not saying that to discourae. I
am saying that to liberate you. That shall get out
of jail free card. Because if your righteousness isn't good enough,
then guess what. You can stop trying to manufacture it
on your own. You can receive and rest in God's righteousness.
And his righteousness isn't bottom up. His righteousness is top down.
(19:23):
Look at what Paul writes in Romans chapter three, verse
twenty two. Paul says this, and it's so interesting when
you read the very next verse after it. Romans three
twenty two, he says, the righteousness of God through faith
in Jesus Christ for all who believe, and then the
(19:44):
next verse he says for all his sin and comes
short up the glory of God. So again we have
nothing to brag about the righteousness that you have received.
The righteousness that I have received, we receive. It is
placed into our account because of what Jesus did. You
don't climb to God, God descended to you. You don't
(20:04):
build your way up to God. God tears his way
down to you. So here's a challenge for you. Stop
trying to impress God with your resume. You know why,
because he's not hiring. He's adopting. Question for you, what
are you still trying to prove to God that Jesus
(20:27):
already finished? Remember what he said, it is finished. The
debt has been paid in full. Wall number three. Let's
look at this wall, the wall of religious performance. Oh yes, boom,
shock of lack of lack of boom Verse fifty and
Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded
(20:47):
up his spirit. Jesus didn't whisper, he didn't fade out quietly.
The line of the tribe of Judah cried out loud, intentional.
He said, it is finished. And right before this moment,
it's recorded in John chapter nineteen, verse thirty, Jesus said
(21:08):
it is finished. In the original language, it means paid
in full. In fact, he said, you didn't. You won't
take my life. I'll lay my life down, and he said,
and I have the power to pick it up again.
So when you're talking about paid in full, that's a
term used when a debt is completely settled, no balance remaining,
(21:31):
no payment plan, no layaway. Done, paid in full. And
that's what he's saying on the cross. But here's the problem.
Religion doesn't want to hear that. Religion doesn't like done.
Religion likes do more. Religion builds the wall of religious performance.
It says you're not doing enough. You're not praying enough,
(21:54):
you're not fasting enough, you're not serving enough enough, you're
not giving enough, you're not holy enough, you're not speaking
in tongues enough, you're not committed to the pastor enough.
Religion is always putting the onus on you that whatever's
wrong in your life is because of something that you're
(22:15):
not doing. That's religious performance. It's never about resting in
the finished work of Christ. No, it's about looking at
your life and pointing a finger at you and saying
this is your fault. And guess what. There are people
who actually walk around We talked about this last week.
There are people who walk around as Christians, who walk
around feeling condemned. So you end up on this proverbial
(22:39):
hamster wheel and you're running hard and you're getting nowhere fast.
But let me tell you something. I think this will
help you. God is not impressed by your exhaustion. He's
not moved by your burnout. He's not looking for you
to perform. He's looking for you to believe. Without faith,
(23:00):
it is impossible to please God. Doesn't say all these
other things. It says without faith, it is impossible to
please God. The religious leaders who are around in Jesus'
day they had it all figured out. They were some
of the most religious people that you will ever meet.
They had six hundred and thirteen laws. You all though
(23:22):
about the ten command Oh, now, they came up with
six hundred and thirteen laws. They would even go to
the minutia of tithing their spices figure that one out.
They prayed on street corners because they wanted to be
seen by the people. They fasted twice a week, they
(23:43):
looked apart. But guess what Jesus called these religious leaders.
He called them whitewashed tombs. What does that mean? Past
the ten they were clean on the outside, but dead
on the inside. I don't care how much you clean
a tomb. Inside of that tomb is death. And that's
(24:05):
what Jesus described them as, because performance without relationship is religion,
and that's all it ever will be. And guess what
religion kills. That's what drove Jesus to the cross. Religion.
Religion was behind that. Two Corinthians, Chapter three, verse six,
(24:26):
Paul says this for the letter kills, but the spirit
gives life. So you got the law, the rules, the rituals,
the regulations. They all can expose sin, but they can't
fix sin. The only one who can fix sin is Jesus.
Only the spirit. Jesus said, the spirit will lead you
(24:49):
and guide you into all truth. So when Jesus cried
out and when he died on that cross, he wasn't
starting a new religion. He was ending the need for
any religion. He wasn't giving you a new checklist. He
was checking every box for you. What he was giving
you and I was relationship. Relationship. You don't have to
(25:14):
perform to be accepted by God. The Bible says you're
accepted in the beloved. Jesus is the beloved. So now
you can serve God, not out of obligation, but just
simply out of love. By this, man will know that
you're My disciples by the love you have one for another.
So here's a challenge for you. I need you to
(25:36):
audit your spiritual life. When the last time you just
took an audit on your spiritual life where you just
look at your spiritual life in its totality, what are
you doing out of fear versus love? I want you
to take a look at that question for you. Are
(25:58):
you serving God? Are you trying to survive Him? There
are people again who think, who feel that God is
angry with them. So anytime there's a ripple in their life,
anytime there's a little problem, anytime there's any kind of
curve curve wall is thrown in their life, they point
(26:21):
the finger of God. God is doing this to me.
It's because I didn't do this, It's because I didn't
do that. It's because I didn't do this. And so
what you begin to do is you begin to run
further and further away from God. Let's look at wall
number four, the wall of exclusivity, the wall of exclusivity.
Taking those write that down. Now, let's go back to
(26:43):
this charublem. We touched on this briefly in the beginning.
We talked about these angels, the chair of them angels,
because this angel on this veil, on this curtain wasn't
just decoration. It was a message. It was a message,
just like it was a message to Adam and Eve
(27:03):
back in Genesis chapter three, verse twenty four. And here's
what the message said. The message said, this is guarded,
this is restricted, this is not for everyone. In Genesis
chapter three, the cherubm angel kept Adam and Eve from
returning to Ed and the temple. The Cherubim angel kept
(27:26):
people from entering God's presence. So the message was clear,
It was emphatically clear, access denied. Your access to God
is denied. Its blocked. But when that curtain tore again
from the top to the bottom, those cherubms were split
(27:49):
in half, The guards were removed, the gate was opened,
the wall of exclusivity came down. And here's what religion does.
Religion creates insiders and outsiders. Religion creates hierarchies, it creates classes.
(28:10):
It says you're in, but you're out. You're worthy, but
you're not worthy. But the Gospel says, whosoever will let
him come, whosoever will let her come. John three point
sixteen for God soul of the world, that he gave
his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should
(28:31):
not perish, but have eternal life, or as King James says,
everlasting life. Look at that verse. That's a promise, not
just for the Jews, not just for religious folks, not
just for the Sunday Aints, I mean saints, not just
to cling whoever believes in him. The thief on the
(28:54):
cross he got in. The woman at the whale, she
got in. The tax collectors and sinners they got in.
Old zach Key is up in the tree he got in.
Why Because Jesus didn't die for the qualified. He died
for the disqualified. He didn't come for the healthy, He
(29:15):
came for the sick. And when that curtain was torn
from top to bottom, God was saying, the door is open.
No more velvet ropes, no more vip sections, no more bouncers,
no more you can't sit with us. Every one is invited. Galatians,
chapter three, verse twenty eight. Paul writes this. He says,
(29:37):
there is neither jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free.
There is no male and female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus. Jesus levels the playing field. See,
we're the ones who get caught up in all these
hierarchies and all of these titles and all of this
(29:58):
privilege that we like to see in our churches. That's
not the word of God. The ground is level at
the cross. Get this. If you go back and if
you reach your Old Testament Bible, from Genesis to Malachi,
guess what all of the Old Testament saints are doing.
They're all pointing forward to the cross, every last one
(30:20):
of them. They anticipate the cross. They prophesied about the cross.
Isaiah talks about it explicitly. David talks about it emphatically.
I believe in Psalms, I want to say twenty two
somewhere around there, when he talks about when Jesus is
betrayed by Judas, David prophesies about that. He prophesies about
(30:42):
how they were going to take his clothes and gamble
for him, and Isaiah talked about how they were going
to rip his beard out of his face. All of
these things were prophesied. So they point forward to the cross.
Guess what we do as the church, as believers, as Christians,
we point to the cross. And I know it's fashionable
(31:02):
once a year on Easter we acknowledge the cross, but
I try to acknowledge the cross every single chance I get.
So we point back to the cross. So if we're
pointing back in the Old Testament, saints are pointing forward
to the cross. Guess what that means, everybody. That means
we all meet at the cross. The ground is level.
(31:23):
Nobody is above you. I don't care what their title is.
Nobody is above you, nobody is below you. We're all
beggars telling other beggars where to go and eat some
bread because Jesus said, I Am the bread of life.
So stop gatekeeping the gospel. Stop acting like you own
(31:47):
access or your church owns access. You're just a witness.
You're just a recipient of God's love. You're a recipient
of God's love for this entire world. Let's keep going.
Verse fifty one ends with this, and the earth shook
and the rocks were split. This seemed like such an
arbitrary thing for Matthew to rite. But when Jesus died
(32:10):
on the cross, what you're seeing here creation is responding.
It also went dark during this hour, the earth shook,
the rocks split. Even nature knew that something cosmic just happened.
Here's the rug. If rocks can split at the death
(32:30):
of Christ, so can your issues. If the earth can shake,
soa can your life. If a sixty foot curtain can
tear from the top to the bottom, so can every
wall that you've ever built in your life. Because God
is not just interested in tearing down religious walls in
the Temple, Oh Nude. He wants to tear down the
(32:51):
walls in your life right now today, the walls of shame,
the walls of guilt, the walls of condemnation, the walls
of forgiveness, the walls of bitterness, the walls of fear.
Look at what the prophet of Ezekiel writes over in Ezekiel,
chapter thirty six, verse twenty six. Ezekiel says, well, God
says through the prophet Ezekiel, he says, and I will
(33:13):
give you a new heart and a new spirit. I
will put within you, and I will remove the heart
of stone from your flesh and give you a heart
of flesh. So many times in the Gospel, you will
hear Jesus say this today. If you hear the voice
of the if you hear the voice of God, harden
(33:34):
not your heart. God is talking about breaking up that
hard ground in your heart, that hard ground in your life.
Because if you go out the planet of seed and
the soil is hard, that seed is just going to
sit on top of that soil. The birds of the
air come and eat that seed. The wind will blow
(33:55):
away that seed. But when your heart is heart of flesh,
when it's a heart that is ready to receive from God,
trust me. God will split rocks, he'll shake foundations, he'll
tear down walls. But you gotta let him. You have
to let God into your heart. See what happened back
(34:18):
at Calvary wasn't just a religious moment. It was a
cosmic disruption. That's what you see in verse fifty one.
It was Heaven invading Earth, and Earth was responding to
that invasion. It was eternity breaking into time. It was
the invisible becoming visible. So when that curtain tore something
(34:39):
shifted in the spiritual realm. Something shifted in the spiritual
realm that the natural realm had to respond to. Because
the earth didn't shake because of an accident. The rocks
didn't split because of a coincidence. Creation was reacting to
the death of its creator. Alb says about Jesus, all
(35:01):
things were made by him. So creation is responding, is
reacting to what's happening to its creator. You need to
understand these laws are religion. They weren't just keeping you
from God. They were keeping you from your destiny. They're
(35:23):
keeping you from your purpose. They were keeping you from
the fullness of everything that God has designed for you
to be. Because here's what religion does. Religion gives you
just enough to keep you coming back, if you just
enough to make you come back next week. But guess what,
you're never enough. It's never enough to set you free.
(35:47):
Religion creates an addiction for a proof. It gives your
rules but no relationship. It gives you ritual but no reality.
It gives you a form of godliness, but as Paul says,
denying the power thereof But when Jesus died, he didn't
just crack the door open he kicked the door off
(36:10):
the ches. He didn't just make a way, he became
the way. I am the way, the truth in the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me, and
everything that tried to stand between you and you're heaving me. Father.
Every wall, every barrier, every limitation, every prophet be destroyed
and on that cross. So I need you to hear me.
(36:32):
Some of you all have been living small because religion
told you that's all you deserve. You've been living in
the shadows because religion told you that you're not qualified
for the life. You've been living defeated because religion told
you that victory is only for the suit of spirits.
But I need to make one thing, absolutely, unequivocally clear.
(36:55):
When that curtain ripped from the top to the bottom,
God was declaring that everything changes right now. There are
no second class citizens in the Kingdom of God. I
need somebody to get that there are no second class
citizens in the Kingdom of God. It might be that
in some of these churches, it might be that in religion,
(37:15):
but not in the Kingdom of God. No more. Maybe
one day, no more. If you're good enough. Conditions no
the access that Jesus purchased. It isn't partial access, it's
not limited. It's not restricted, it's full access, it's complete,
it's unlimited. And I need you to hear this. The
(37:36):
same power that toward that curtain is the same power
that's available to tear down every wall in your life
right now. The same authority that shook the earth. It's
the same authority that can shake your situation. Same force
that split those rocks, it's the same force that can
split open your breakthrough. But you have to stop living
(37:58):
like you're still on the outside. You got to stop
praying like you're begging God for scraps. You got to
stop approaching God like he's annoyed by your presence. For
some of you, these walls of religion have convinced you
that God is distanced when he's not, that he's hard
to reach, that he's difficult to please, that he doesn't
(38:19):
hear your prayer, that he's not concerned about you. You
mean to tell me every bad thing that happens in
your life, you think that's God's fault. Oh see, that
rip curtain says something different. That rip curtain says he
is accessible. It says he is available. That rip veil, says,
He's waiting for you to come to him boldly. If
(38:43):
you don't believe, I've got a scripture for you's found
a Hebrews chapter four, verse sixteen says, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of Grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time
of need. When you see how you are instructed to
approach God, God is telling you to approach him with
(39:05):
some boldness, not timidly, not apologetically, not with fear, with boldness,
with slagger. I need you to walk to that throne
like your name is George Jefferson, And y'all know George
knew how to put something on their walk. That's how
you walk to that throne. Why because the blood of
Jesus didn't just forgive you. The blood of Jesus qualified you.
(39:29):
The blood of Jesus didn't just pardon you. It positioned you.
The blood of Jesus didn't just save you. It seedd
you I e Ephesians chapter two. It seated you in
heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, not in the future. Right now.
(39:49):
That's your position. So when you pray going forward, I
need you to pray with confidence. I need you to
pray like you got access. When when you worship, worship
like the walls are down. Worship in your freedom. When
you approach God, approach him like you are his favorite child,
(40:11):
because you are. These walls of religion, they've been standing
in many believers' lives for too long, and it's time
that they come down. So let's recap these walls. Wall
number one the wall of separation. Wall of separation, that's
where Jesus toward. Now you've got access right now. Wall
number two the wall of self righteousness. That's where God
(40:34):
works from the top to the bottom, not bottom to
the top. So stop trying to earn what God has
already freely given to you. Wall number three the wall
of religious performance. It's finished. Somebody say, stop, it is finished.
Stop trying to earn rest in what God has already,
(40:54):
what Jesus has already provided. Rest in that. Wall number four,
the wall exclusivity. Doors open. Stop blocking the door. When
Jesus died on that cross. God didn't renovate the temple.
He demolished the barrier that separated you from him. He
(41:14):
didn't patch up the curtain, he ripped it he didn't end.
He didn't just a justice system. He ended that religious system.
And he's calling you from behind these religions, these walls
of religion. He's calling you right now into a relationship
with him. Not rules, not regulations, not rituals, just relationship.
That's what God wants from you. He wants to commune
(41:38):
with you. Over in the Book of Revelation, I believe
to the churchill layout to see you. He said, Behold
I stand. Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door
and knock. He said, if any man opened the door,
I will come in to him and will sup with him.
That means I will sit down and fellowship with him.
I'll sit down and have communion with I'll sit down
(42:00):
and have dinner with That speaks of intimacy. Some of
you have been living behind walls for so long you
think they're protection, But they're not protection. It's a personal prisoner.
You've been told for so long that you're not good enough.
You've been told for so long that you're not worthy,
you're not clean enough, you're not spiritual enough to approach God,
and you believed it. You've believed a lie. But today
(42:24):
I'm telling you right here right now that the veil
is down, The veil has been torn, the wall has
been eradicated, whatever wall you've been dealing with, because now
you have access to Heaven. It belongs to you wherever
you are. Whenever you feel the need to talk to God,
you can. You don't need a priest, you don't need
(42:46):
a pastor, you don't need a prophet, you don't need
a ritual, you don't need to get yourself together first.
You know what you need. You just need Jesus. That's it.
And the thing that I love about Jesus, just even
in my own life, from my own experiences. You can
come to him broken, you can come to him imperfect.
(43:09):
You can come to him as a hot mess, and
he won't turn your way. You know what he does.
He pulls you in, He pulls you close. Bible says,
draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.
Imagine that all that stink on you from the world,
and God draws you close. James Chapter four, verse eight.
(43:32):
So if we are moving towards God, guess what he
moves closer to us. If you feel distant from God
right now, he didn't move you did. His blood is enough,
His death is enough. His resurrection is enough. So these
walls of religion have tried to keep you out, and
(43:53):
they've kept some of you out long enough, but Jesus
has kicked the door down. Let me give you three
call to act. Call it action number one. Identify your wall.
That's how we started this. I want you to identify
just one walk. Name the wall that has been separating
you from God. Is a shame? Is it pride? Is it? Performance?
(44:17):
Is it fear? Name it? Name that wall whatever it is,
and ask God to tear it down. Whatever has been
hindering you from drawing close to God. I want you
to write it down, and I want you to pray
and ask God, God tear this wall down like you
(44:40):
tore the veil in the temple down. Okay, be honest
with God. That's all I'm asking you to do. Be
honest with God. Some of you all are more honest
with your social media followers than you are with God,
putting all your business out there on social media, and
you won't go to God, the one who can help you,
(45:02):
the one who can direct you, the one who can
lead you and guide you into all truth. So identify
that one wall and write it down, and then pray
over that wall and pray over with boldness and with
confidence that God can tear that wall down. Number two
call the action number two. Walk through the door. Very simple, right,
(45:23):
walk through the door. Stop standing outside. Stop acting like
you're not worthy. Stop waiting for somebody to give you permission.
Jesus has already given you access. Remember what the Right
of hebrew says, come boldly to the throne of grace.
So you got to walk into God's presence with confidence.
(45:47):
That means you gotta pray. That means you gotta worship.
That means you have to talk to him like he
is your heavenly father. You don't have to go to
God with all his pretense. You can just yell out
to God like God, listen, this is what it is.
This is what's going on. I need some help. I'm confused.
He's right there, He's in the room with you. He's
(46:09):
your father. That's how you need to talk to him.
Talk to God like he's your father, because he is.
Number three, The only thing I need you to do
after we get done is share this teaching, share the podcast.
Dani's dropping the link in the chat. Can you all
please help me to help some other people who are
(46:30):
living behind these walls. The only way we're going to
do this is through multiplication. Can't through this, We can't
do this through addition. We have to do this through multiplication.
So please grab that link. All the heavy listening has
been done. The only thing I'm asking you to do.
If this has been a blessing to you, then share it.
(46:51):
If this teaching knocked down at least one wall in
your life, share it please, Facebook, family. I need you
to like, comment, share tag five people living behind their
Walls of religion. To all of the podcast listeners, thank
you so much. Those of you all who are on Spreaker, Spotify,
Amazon Music, iHeartRadio. I need you to subscribe to those platforms.
(47:12):
I need you to like, and I need you to follow.
Give five stars you want to give four stars. I'm
inclined to believe you are a hater. Share the podcast
with your family and friends. New podcasts will drop every Friday, Kyle,
every Friday. So don't you hit me tomorrow talking about
uncle you got that new drop. No, I don't have
that new drop, Kyle, and will drop Friday. Listen, Let's pray,
(47:37):
and then I want to let's give a little time
to something that brother Dannia's dealing with in the moment, Father,
we honor you, we think, and we bless you. God, Man,
thank you for this moment of just being able to share.
Got to thank you that you have torn down the veil,
You have torn down the separation. And now God, we
can come before you and freedom. God. We're free to worship,
(48:01):
We're free to pray to you. We're free to cry
out to you God. And I thank you God that
your word says that we are to stand in our liberty,
that Christ has made us free and not to be
entangled again with any any yok of bondage. So God,
right now I pray for my brothers and sisters. I
pray for this word, that it will go out and
(48:21):
that it will be a seed that will be planted
in the hearts and the minds of your people, and
that that seed will germinate, and that that seed will
bring forth fruit in its season. So God, we thank you.
We honor you. God. We love you. God. Forgive us
for what we fall short. Forgive us God for not
believing in You God and our prayers. God, I pray
(48:43):
that you will remove any doubt in our mind. And
so Father, I just pray for those who may be
without employment. I pray, Father, for those who may be
going through in their bodies. I pray God for those
who may be going through and sickness. I pray for
those who may be going through in their relationships. God,
(49:04):
I thank you that in all these things, your word
says that we are more than conquerors. So Father, we
love you, and we thank you in advance for what
it is that you're going to do in our lives. Father,
continue to bless brothers and the word. Continue to bless
everyone who is connected to this platform that you've given us. God,
(49:25):
we lift it up to you, Father, and I pray
Father that you will bless it. I pray Father that
men and women will come from the north to south,
to east and the west, God, to just simply gather
around your word, no religion, no pretense, no money laundering schemes,
none of that. God, Just opening up your word God
and pointing people to You. That is our goal, that
(49:47):
is our objective, that is our mandate. So Father, we
love you, we bless you, and we honor you. And
it's in Jesus' name that we do prayer Amen, and amen.
Listen, I need you to do something for me right now,
wherever you are. Grab your Bible, grab your sword, I'm serious,
Grab your phone, grab your tablet, grab your leather bound
King James, whatever you got, and grab something to write
with because what we're about to unpack, I believe, is
going to shift your entire spiritual paradigm. Shout out to Shannon,
(00:35):
Shout out to my little cousin Kayla. So appreciative of
her for what she was about to do for us. Listen,
our powerword for tonight is access. If you take a notes,
I need everybody to write that down. Access. That's the
power word that we're going to be looking at tonight.
(00:55):
Access is just simply the ability to enter without barriers,
the ability to move about freely, the ability to move
without checkpoints without somebody checking your credentials. And I want
you to hold on to that word and hold on
to that mean because we're going to be coming back
to that word. So family, your mission, should you choose
(01:17):
to squabble up, is this. I need you to identify
one religious wall you've been hiding behind, and I want
you to prepare to watch God tear that wall down,
not tomorrow, not next week. But today, let's go to
Matthew chapter twenty seven, verse fifty and fifty one. Shout
out to Pops and Danam for being here. We'll let
(01:38):
you guys in on some things, on some matters before
we get up out of here. We're going to be
in Matthew chapter twenty seven. We're looking at verse fifty
and fifty one. And Jesus cried out again with a
loud voice and yielded up his spirit, and behold the
curtain or the veil. If you read from the King James,
the curtain of the temple was torn into from top
(02:02):
to bottom. Please underline that, please get the direction of
this tear. It's very important that you see the direction
of this tear from top to bottom. Then verse says,
and the earth shook and the rocks were split. It's
interesting to me when I was even looking at these
two verses, I'm like, okay, Lord, you got me here. Now,
(02:23):
what do you want me to say about these two
verses because it seems on the surface, it just seems
somewhat abstract. But I want you to understand something. I
want you to see something. We are standing at the
most dramatic and most important moment in human history. Jesus
is nailed to the cross, son of God, just exhaled
(02:45):
his last breadth, and Heaven responds with the most aggressive
divine demolition project ever recorded. And so God rips this fabric,
this curtain, this veil. It's not a fabric from Joanne's
fabric story. That's not what we're talking about. It wasn't
(03:06):
just a little tear at the scene. The Bible says
that this veil, this curtain was torn from top to bottom.
That simply means that God is the one who ripped
this veil, not man, not the earthquake, but God. But
here's what's really about we're going to be talking about today.
We're going to be talking about these walls of religion.
(03:27):
These walls are religion because that curtain, that veil, that
wasn't just fabric. That curtain was a wall. That curtain
was a barrier. That curtain was a barrier that said
you can't come in here. That curtain was sixty feet high,
thirty feet wide. Historians said took over three hundred men
(03:51):
to hang that curtain up. So when Jesus died, God said,
we're done with barriers. We're done with wall. We're done
with restriction. So let me give you a little intel
right now about religion. Religion loves walls, Religion loves barriers.
(04:12):
Religion loves to tell people who's in and who's not,
who's favored and who's not, who's clean, who's dirty, who
can approach and who has to stay back. But that's religion.
But when we're talking about the Gospel, the Gospel is
access and not just any access. We're talking about access
(04:34):
to God. So hear me clearly, because some of you
have been so conditioned by religion that you don't even
know that you're living inside of a cage. You've been
told know so many times that you forgot God's default
answer is yes. You've been pushed back so often that
you think distance from God is normal. Well it's not.
(04:55):
But I'm here to tell you today that's not the
heart of your father. That's not the plan of heaven,
that's not the purpose of the cross. When Jesus hung
on that tree, bleeding in battered, he wasn't just dying
for your sins. He wasn't just dying for my sins.
He was demolishing every single system, every single structure, every
(05:17):
piece of religious framework that ever told you that you
couldn't come close to God, every barrier that whispered you're
not enough, he was tearing it down. From that cross,
every wall that screamed for you to stay back, he
was ripping it apart. So him being on that cross,
God ripping that curtain that gave you access to God.
(05:40):
And I need you to understand something. These walls of religion,
they're not just historical. We're not just talking about a
historical act that happened two thousand years ago. These walls
of religion are personal. I've seen these walls of religion
up close. I've seen what these walls of religion have
done to people, how they have destroyed people. Because these
(06:02):
walls of religion can get in your mind, it can
get in your heart, it can get in your spirit.
It can even prevent how you approach God, because you'll
approach God timid, you'll approach God scared. You'll approach God
apologizing like you're bothering him. But God didn't tear that
veil so you could tiptoe into his presence. He tore
(06:25):
that veil so you could run into his presence. Wall
number one, if you're taking notes. Write this down, the
wall of separation, the wall of separation. We're gonna break
these two verses down. Let's break down the first verse,
verse fifty one eight. And behold, the curtain of the
temple was torn into This curtain was called the veil.
(06:50):
The veil separated the Holy Place from the most holy Place,
the Holy of holies. In that room behind that was
the ark of the Covenant. The ark of the Covenant
represented the very presence of God and nobody, I mean
nobody could go back there except the high priest. Now
(07:13):
here's the thing. Under this religious system, the high priest
could only go behind that veil once a year, and
it was on the day, the highest day for Jews,
it was called the day of Atonement. And even then
he had to go behind that veil. He had to
bring blood, he had to bring a sacrifice. Even then,
(07:34):
Get this, the priest had bills on his robe. Do
you know why he had bills on his road Because
if he died in the presence of God, no one
could go into that room. They had a rope tied
around his ankle just in case he died in the
presence of God, they would drag his body out because
(07:57):
God struck him dead. Nobody could walk into that room,
and then they would send the next Priescin to the room.
That's how serious. I need you to understand how serious
this was. That's how serious this religion was. But check this.
That curtain, it was blue, it was red, it was purple.
(08:20):
All these colors pointed to Christ. But something else was written,
was designed on that veil. It had a charitable woven
into that veil. What is that? Terrible? Terrible? My angels
the same angels. The first time we see angels, these
cheruble angels, is in Genesis chapter three, verse twenty four.
(08:44):
And it's just a little small footnote. I don't think
it's something that anyone really notices or anyone really talks about.
But after Adam and Eve were evicted out of the
Garden of Eden, after they had sin, they were evicted,
God put them out. Genesis chapter three, verse twenty four
says this, And I want you to pay attention. He
(09:06):
God drove out the man Adam, and at the east
of the garden of Eden, he placed the Cherubim and
a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the
way to the Tree of life. I want you to
see that same angel that's preventing Adam and Eve from
(09:29):
coming back into the Garden of Eden. It's keeping the
same assignment on this curtain, and that assignment is telling
the people to keep out. You can go and read
a description about that angel over in Ezekiel Chapter one.
Ezekiel describes what the Cherubim angel looks like. Isaiah chapter six,
(09:51):
Isaiah talks about the Seraphim angels. These are two different
distinct angels. You gotta go do your homework and check
them out. So in the garden of Eden, there was
a cherubum angel guarding access to the Tree of Life.
The temple had a cherub them angel woven into the
(10:12):
very fabric of the veil, guarding access to God's presence.
So get this. From Genesis to Matthew, humanity was on
the outside looking in. Everything that you read in your Bible,
from Genesis to Matthew, please keep that in mind. Humanity
could not approach God. They were on the outside looking in.
(10:34):
They were locked out, they were separated, they were cut
off from God. Sin built the wall between us and God,
and religion tried to manage that wall. Religion said, okay,
you can't get to God. But if you follow these rules,
if you do these rituals, if you bring these sacrifices,
then maybe, just maybe you can get close. But guess what,
(10:57):
that's exhausting a spiritual that's a religious treadmill. It's a
treadmill with no finish line at all. That's relationship based
on distance, not intimacy. But here's the revelation I want
you to get. The wall of separation was never supposed
to be permanent. The wall of separation was a placeholder.
(11:22):
It was a temporary barrier until the real solution showed up.
And do you know what the real solution was was named?
His name was Jesus. In Galatians, chapter three, verse twenty four,
Paul says something very powerful. Paul says, wherefore, the law
was our school master to bring us to Christ that
we might be justified by faith. That word school master
(11:42):
means a substitute teacher. So Paul is saying that the
law was a substitute. A substitute teacher. That means that
the law was temporary. Substitute teacher is temporary, it's not
a permanent teacher. And that's what the law was. That's
what the law was designed to do. The law was
this to show mankind just how sinful we really are.
(12:04):
The law was never meant to deal with sin. The
law was never meant to eradicate sin. The law was
simply meant to reveal mankind's fallen nature and show us
how badly we needed a savior. So when Jesus died
on the cross, God tore down that wall of separation.
(12:25):
God said, no more barriers. He said, no more distance,
no more you can't come in here. My presence is accessible.
Why because of jesus atoning death on the cross. Look
what the Right of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter ten,
verse nineteen and twenty. And I want you to really
get what he's saying to you. For those of you
(12:47):
that struggle going to God, for those of you that
struggle telling God about your problems or your issues, or
your temptations or your brokenness, this is what the Right
of Hebrews had to say. It says, Therefore, brothers, since
we have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the
blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that
(13:07):
he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through
his flesh. So Jesus didn't just open the door. He
became the door. The Right of Hebrew says his body
was the curtain, his death was the tarring, his blood
was the access code. Here's a challenge for you. Stop
(13:29):
living like you need permission to approach God, because you
have access. Whenever you feel like going to God, you
have access. You don't have to wait for a service.
You don't have to wait for a pastor, you don't
have to wait for anyone. You have access. God is
as close to you as your breath is. Okay, the
Bible says, the word is nigh unto thee even in
(13:52):
thy mouth. Question for you, are you still standing outside
when the door is already opened for you. Let's look
at wall number two. This is the wall of self righteousness,
the wall of self righteousness. Emphasis on the word self. Now,
let's talk about verse fifty one B again, going back
(14:14):
to this curtain. From top to bottom four words, but
they're loaded from top to bottom means God initiated this.
Because if it tore from the bottom to the top,
you could argue humans did that. You can argue the
priest did that. You could argue that the earthquake ripped it.
(14:34):
Maybe somebody pulled it. But top to bottom. A sixty
foot curt thirty feet wide. Took three hundred men to
hang it. Four inches thick. That curt, that veil was
ripped from top to bottom. Jesus is on the cross,
and then Matthew pans into the temple. He's the only
(14:55):
writer that gives us this. Mark doesn't give us this,
Loop doesn't give us this, and John doesn't give but
Matthew gives us this. And for me, it's one of
the most important moments in scripture because while Jesus is
on that cross yelling out it is finished declaring victory.
We go inside the temple and we see something that
(15:18):
no one has ever witnessed before. From top to bottom.
That's divine intervention. That's God saying I'm handling this. And
here's the thing about religion. Religion always tries to build
from the bottom up. Religion says if you work hard enough,
Religion says, if you pray long enough, religion says, if
(15:38):
you fast enough, religion says, if you give enough, Religion says,
if you serve enough. Religion says if you come to
church enough, then then and only then can you reach God.
That's bottom to top thinking that's human effort trying to
bridge a divine gap. But the gospel, that's what we're
(16:02):
talking about. The Gospel, the gospel, the good news. As
Paul said, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
I think there's Romans one, sixteen, sixteen one seventeen. The
gospel is good news. The gospel is top to bottom.
How was it top to bottom? Because God reached out,
(16:24):
God toward the veiled God made the way. You didn't
earn it. I didn't earn it. We don't deserve it,
we didn't work for it. God did it. Somebody say
God did it. We didn't do it. We didn't have
anything to do with this. And you know what that happened.
And you know what happens That destroys the wall of
self righteousness when you realize that, when you understand it,
(16:45):
when you can appreciate the fact that God did this.
I get no credit for it. As Paul said in
Ephesians Too eight, I believe by grace are you saved,
not of works? It is the gift of God. Lets
any man shu both. Self righteousness is a lie, self
righteousness says I'm good enough on my own. It's the
(17:06):
pride that says I don't need God like those other people.
I got this. It's that Pharisee over there. Luke chapter eighteen.
He's praying, and he's praying a prideful prayer. He said, God,
I thank you that I'm not like other men. You know,
they extortioners, they unjust their adulterers. Meanwhile, there's a tax collector,
(17:28):
one of the most hated men in Jewish culture. But
there is a tax collector. The Bible says he is
smoking his chest and he's simple. His prayer is this,
God be merciful to me a sinner. That was his prayer.
And guess what Jesus said about these two different prayers.
(17:50):
Jesus said that tax collector went home justified, not the
religious churchgoer, but the man who acknowledged he was a sinner.
See the walls of self righteousness keeps you from receiving
what you can earn. It keeps you performing instead of resting.
It keeps you comparing yourself with others instead of confessing
(18:12):
your own issues. And guess what, that's exhausting. That'll wear
you out. Isaiah sixty four to six. The prophet Isaiah
writes this. He says, but we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousness, all our righteousness, he says,
are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as
(18:36):
a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken
us away. So get this your best effort, on your
best day, your most spiritual moment without Jesus. Isaiah said,
it's just filthy rags. It's nothing for you to brag about.
It's nothing for me to brag about. And it's not
(18:57):
to discourage you. I'm not saying that to discourae. I
am saying that to liberate you. That shall get out
of jail free card. Because if your righteousness isn't good enough,
then guess what. You can stop trying to manufacture it
on your own. You can receive and rest in God's righteousness.
And his righteousness isn't bottom up. His righteousness is top down.
(19:23):
Look at what Paul writes in Romans chapter three, verse
twenty two. Paul says this, and it's so interesting when
you read the very next verse after it. Romans three
twenty two, he says, the righteousness of God through faith
in Jesus Christ for all who believe, and then the
(19:44):
next verse he says for all his sin and comes
short up the glory of God. So again we have
nothing to brag about the righteousness that you have received.
The righteousness that I have received, we receive. It is
placed into our account because of what Jesus did. You
don't climb to God, God descended to you. You don't
(20:04):
build your way up to God. God tears his way
down to you. So here's a challenge for you. Stop
trying to impress God with your resume. You know why,
because he's not hiring. He's adopting. Question for you, what
are you still trying to prove to God that Jesus
(20:27):
already finished? Remember what he said, it is finished. The
debt has been paid in full. Wall number three. Let's
look at this wall, the wall of religious performance. Oh yes, boom,
shock of lack of lack of boom Verse fifty and
Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded
(20:47):
up his spirit. Jesus didn't whisper, he didn't fade out quietly.
The line of the tribe of Judah cried out loud, intentional.
He said, it is finished. And right before this moment,
it's recorded in John chapter nineteen, verse thirty, Jesus said
(21:08):
it is finished. In the original language, it means paid
in full. In fact, he said, you didn't. You won't
take my life. I'll lay my life down, and he said,
and I have the power to pick it up again.
So when you're talking about paid in full, that's a
term used when a debt is completely settled, no balance remaining,
(21:31):
no payment plan, no layaway. Done, paid in full. And
that's what he's saying on the cross. But here's the problem.
Religion doesn't want to hear that. Religion doesn't like done.
Religion likes do more. Religion builds the wall of religious performance.
It says you're not doing enough. You're not praying enough,
(21:54):
you're not fasting enough, you're not serving enough enough, you're
not giving enough, you're not holy enough, you're not speaking
in tongues enough, you're not committed to the pastor enough.
Religion is always putting the onus on you that whatever's
wrong in your life is because of something that you're
(22:15):
not doing. That's religious performance. It's never about resting in
the finished work of Christ. No, it's about looking at
your life and pointing a finger at you and saying
this is your fault. And guess what. There are people
who actually walk around We talked about this last week.
There are people who walk around as Christians, who walk
around feeling condemned. So you end up on this proverbial
(22:39):
hamster wheel and you're running hard and you're getting nowhere fast.
But let me tell you something. I think this will
help you. God is not impressed by your exhaustion. He's
not moved by your burnout. He's not looking for you
to perform. He's looking for you to believe. Without faith,
(23:00):
it is impossible to please God. Doesn't say all these
other things. It says without faith, it is impossible to
please God. The religious leaders who are around in Jesus'
day they had it all figured out. They were some
of the most religious people that you will ever meet.
They had six hundred and thirteen laws. You all though
(23:22):
about the ten command Oh, now, they came up with
six hundred and thirteen laws. They would even go to
the minutia of tithing their spices figure that one out.
They prayed on street corners because they wanted to be
seen by the people. They fasted twice a week, they
(23:43):
looked apart. But guess what Jesus called these religious leaders.
He called them whitewashed tombs. What does that mean? Past
the ten they were clean on the outside, but dead
on the inside. I don't care how much you clean
a tomb. Inside of that tomb is death. And that's
(24:05):
what Jesus described them as, because performance without relationship is religion,
and that's all it ever will be. And guess what
religion kills. That's what drove Jesus to the cross. Religion.
Religion was behind that. Two Corinthians, Chapter three, verse six,
(24:26):
Paul says this for the letter kills, but the spirit
gives life. So you got the law, the rules, the rituals,
the regulations. They all can expose sin, but they can't
fix sin. The only one who can fix sin is Jesus.
Only the spirit. Jesus said, the spirit will lead you
(24:49):
and guide you into all truth. So when Jesus cried
out and when he died on that cross, he wasn't
starting a new religion. He was ending the need for
any religion. He wasn't giving you a new checklist. He
was checking every box for you. What he was giving
you and I was relationship. Relationship. You don't have to
(25:14):
perform to be accepted by God. The Bible says you're
accepted in the beloved. Jesus is the beloved. So now
you can serve God, not out of obligation, but just
simply out of love. By this, man will know that
you're My disciples by the love you have one for another.
So here's a challenge for you. I need you to
(25:36):
audit your spiritual life. When the last time you just
took an audit on your spiritual life where you just
look at your spiritual life in its totality, what are
you doing out of fear versus love? I want you
to take a look at that question for you. Are
(25:58):
you serving God? Are you trying to survive Him? There
are people again who think, who feel that God is
angry with them. So anytime there's a ripple in their life,
anytime there's a little problem, anytime there's any kind of
curve curve wall is thrown in their life, they point
(26:21):
the finger of God. God is doing this to me.
It's because I didn't do this, It's because I didn't
do that. It's because I didn't do this. And so
what you begin to do is you begin to run
further and further away from God. Let's look at wall
number four, the wall of exclusivity, the wall of exclusivity.
Taking those write that down. Now, let's go back to
(26:43):
this charublem. We touched on this briefly in the beginning.
We talked about these angels, the chair of them angels,
because this angel on this veil, on this curtain wasn't
just decoration. It was a message. It was a message,
just like it was a message to Adam and Eve
(27:03):
back in Genesis chapter three, verse twenty four. And here's
what the message said. The message said, this is guarded,
this is restricted, this is not for everyone. In Genesis
chapter three, the cherubm angel kept Adam and Eve from
returning to Ed and the temple. The Cherubim angel kept
(27:26):
people from entering God's presence. So the message was clear,
It was emphatically clear, access denied. Your access to God
is denied. Its blocked. But when that curtain tore again
from the top to the bottom, those cherubms were split
(27:49):
in half, The guards were removed, the gate was opened,
the wall of exclusivity came down. And here's what religion does.
Religion creates insiders and outsiders. Religion creates hierarchies, it creates classes.
(28:10):
It says you're in, but you're out. You're worthy, but
you're not worthy. But the Gospel says, whosoever will let
him come, whosoever will let her come. John three point
sixteen for God soul of the world, that he gave
his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should
(28:31):
not perish, but have eternal life, or as King James says,
everlasting life. Look at that verse. That's a promise, not
just for the Jews, not just for religious folks, not
just for the Sunday Aints, I mean saints, not just
to cling whoever believes in him. The thief on the
(28:54):
cross he got in. The woman at the whale, she
got in. The tax collectors and sinners they got in.
Old zach Key is up in the tree he got in.
Why Because Jesus didn't die for the qualified. He died
for the disqualified. He didn't come for the healthy, He
(29:15):
came for the sick. And when that curtain was torn
from top to bottom, God was saying, the door is open.
No more velvet ropes, no more vip sections, no more bouncers,
no more you can't sit with us. Every one is invited. Galatians,
chapter three, verse twenty eight. Paul writes this. He says,
(29:37):
there is neither jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free.
There is no male and female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus. Jesus levels the playing field. See,
we're the ones who get caught up in all these
hierarchies and all of these titles and all of this
(29:58):
privilege that we like to see in our churches. That's
not the word of God. The ground is level at
the cross. Get this. If you go back and if
you reach your Old Testament Bible, from Genesis to Malachi,
guess what all of the Old Testament saints are doing.
They're all pointing forward to the cross, every last one
(30:20):
of them. They anticipate the cross. They prophesied about the cross.
Isaiah talks about it explicitly. David talks about it emphatically.
I believe in Psalms, I want to say twenty two
somewhere around there, when he talks about when Jesus is
betrayed by Judas, David prophesies about that. He prophesies about
(30:42):
how they were going to take his clothes and gamble
for him, and Isaiah talked about how they were going
to rip his beard out of his face. All of
these things were prophesied. So they point forward to the cross.
Guess what we do as the church, as believers, as Christians,
we point to the cross. And I know it's fashionable
(31:02):
once a year on Easter we acknowledge the cross, but
I try to acknowledge the cross every single chance I get.
So we point back to the cross. So if we're
pointing back in the Old Testament, saints are pointing forward
to the cross. Guess what that means, everybody. That means
we all meet at the cross. The ground is level.
(31:23):
Nobody is above you. I don't care what their title is.
Nobody is above you, nobody is below you. We're all
beggars telling other beggars where to go and eat some
bread because Jesus said, I Am the bread of life.
So stop gatekeeping the gospel. Stop acting like you own
(31:47):
access or your church owns access. You're just a witness.
You're just a recipient of God's love. You're a recipient
of God's love for this entire world. Let's keep going.
Verse fifty one ends with this, and the earth shook
and the rocks were split. This seemed like such an
arbitrary thing for Matthew to rite. But when Jesus died
(32:10):
on the cross, what you're seeing here creation is responding.
It also went dark during this hour, the earth shook,
the rocks split. Even nature knew that something cosmic just happened.
Here's the rug. If rocks can split at the death
(32:30):
of Christ, so can your issues. If the earth can shake,
soa can your life. If a sixty foot curtain can
tear from the top to the bottom, so can every
wall that you've ever built in your life. Because God
is not just interested in tearing down religious walls in
the Temple, Oh Nude. He wants to tear down the
(32:51):
walls in your life right now today, the walls of shame,
the walls of guilt, the walls of condemnation, the walls
of forgiveness, the walls of bitterness, the walls of fear.
Look at what the prophet of Ezekiel writes over in Ezekiel,
chapter thirty six, verse twenty six. Ezekiel says, well, God
says through the prophet Ezekiel, he says, and I will
(33:13):
give you a new heart and a new spirit. I
will put within you, and I will remove the heart
of stone from your flesh and give you a heart
of flesh. So many times in the Gospel, you will
hear Jesus say this today. If you hear the voice
of the if you hear the voice of God, harden
(33:34):
not your heart. God is talking about breaking up that
hard ground in your heart, that hard ground in your life.
Because if you go out the planet of seed and
the soil is hard, that seed is just going to
sit on top of that soil. The birds of the
air come and eat that seed. The wind will blow
(33:55):
away that seed. But when your heart is heart of flesh,
when it's a heart that is ready to receive from God,
trust me. God will split rocks, he'll shake foundations, he'll
tear down walls. But you gotta let him. You have
to let God into your heart. See what happened back
(34:18):
at Calvary wasn't just a religious moment. It was a
cosmic disruption. That's what you see in verse fifty one.
It was Heaven invading Earth, and Earth was responding to
that invasion. It was eternity breaking into time. It was
the invisible becoming visible. So when that curtain tore something
(34:39):
shifted in the spiritual realm. Something shifted in the spiritual
realm that the natural realm had to respond to. Because
the earth didn't shake because of an accident. The rocks
didn't split because of a coincidence. Creation was reacting to
the death of its creator. Alb says about Jesus, all
(35:01):
things were made by him. So creation is responding, is
reacting to what's happening to its creator. You need to
understand these laws are religion. They weren't just keeping you
from God. They were keeping you from your destiny. They're
(35:23):
keeping you from your purpose. They were keeping you from
the fullness of everything that God has designed for you
to be. Because here's what religion does. Religion gives you
just enough to keep you coming back, if you just
enough to make you come back next week. But guess what,
you're never enough. It's never enough to set you free.
(35:47):
Religion creates an addiction for a proof. It gives your
rules but no relationship. It gives you ritual but no reality.
It gives you a form of godliness, but as Paul says,
denying the power thereof But when Jesus died, he didn't
just crack the door open he kicked the door off
(36:10):
the ches. He didn't just make a way, he became
the way. I am the way, the truth in the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me, and
everything that tried to stand between you and you're heaving me. Father.
Every wall, every barrier, every limitation, every prophet be destroyed
and on that cross. So I need you to hear me.
(36:32):
Some of you all have been living small because religion
told you that's all you deserve. You've been living in
the shadows because religion told you that you're not qualified
for the life. You've been living defeated because religion told
you that victory is only for the suit of spirits.
But I need to make one thing, absolutely, unequivocally clear.
(36:55):
When that curtain ripped from the top to the bottom,
God was declaring that everything changes right now. There are
no second class citizens in the Kingdom of God. I
need somebody to get that there are no second class
citizens in the Kingdom of God. It might be that
in some of these churches, it might be that in religion,
(37:15):
but not in the Kingdom of God. No more. Maybe
one day, no more. If you're good enough. Conditions no
the access that Jesus purchased. It isn't partial access, it's
not limited. It's not restricted, it's full access, it's complete,
it's unlimited. And I need you to hear this. The
(37:36):
same power that toward that curtain is the same power
that's available to tear down every wall in your life
right now. The same authority that shook the earth. It's
the same authority that can shake your situation. Same force
that split those rocks, it's the same force that can
split open your breakthrough. But you have to stop living
(37:58):
like you're still on the outside. You got to stop
praying like you're begging God for scraps. You got to
stop approaching God like he's annoyed by your presence. For
some of you, these walls of religion have convinced you
that God is distanced when he's not, that he's hard
to reach, that he's difficult to please, that he doesn't
(38:19):
hear your prayer, that he's not concerned about you. You
mean to tell me every bad thing that happens in
your life, you think that's God's fault. Oh see, that
rip curtain says something different. That rip curtain says he
is accessible. It says he is available. That rip veil, says,
He's waiting for you to come to him boldly. If
(38:43):
you don't believe, I've got a scripture for you's found
a Hebrews chapter four, verse sixteen says, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of Grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time
of need. When you see how you are instructed to
approach God, God is telling you to approach him with
(39:05):
some boldness, not timidly, not apologetically, not with fear, with boldness,
with slagger. I need you to walk to that throne
like your name is George Jefferson, And y'all know George
knew how to put something on their walk. That's how
you walk to that throne. Why because the blood of
Jesus didn't just forgive you. The blood of Jesus qualified you.
(39:29):
The blood of Jesus didn't just pardon you. It positioned you.
The blood of Jesus didn't just save you. It seedd
you I e Ephesians chapter two. It seated you in
heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, not in the future. Right now.
(39:49):
That's your position. So when you pray going forward, I
need you to pray with confidence. I need you to
pray like you got access. When when you worship, worship
like the walls are down. Worship in your freedom. When
you approach God, approach him like you are his favorite child,
(40:11):
because you are. These walls of religion, they've been standing
in many believers' lives for too long, and it's time
that they come down. So let's recap these walls. Wall
number one the wall of separation. Wall of separation, that's
where Jesus toward. Now you've got access right now. Wall
number two the wall of self righteousness. That's where God
(40:34):
works from the top to the bottom, not bottom to
the top. So stop trying to earn what God has
already freely given to you. Wall number three the wall
of religious performance. It's finished. Somebody say, stop, it is finished.
Stop trying to earn rest in what God has already,
(40:54):
what Jesus has already provided. Rest in that. Wall number four,
the wall exclusivity. Doors open. Stop blocking the door. When
Jesus died on that cross. God didn't renovate the temple.
He demolished the barrier that separated you from him. He
(41:14):
didn't patch up the curtain, he ripped it he didn't end.
He didn't just a justice system. He ended that religious system.
And he's calling you from behind these religions, these walls
of religion. He's calling you right now into a relationship
with him. Not rules, not regulations, not rituals, just relationship.
That's what God wants from you. He wants to commune
(41:38):
with you. Over in the Book of Revelation, I believe
to the churchill layout to see you. He said, Behold
I stand. Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door
and knock. He said, if any man opened the door,
I will come in to him and will sup with him.
That means I will sit down and fellowship with him.
I'll sit down and have communion with I'll sit down
(42:00):
and have dinner with That speaks of intimacy. Some of
you have been living behind walls for so long you
think they're protection, But they're not protection. It's a personal prisoner.
You've been told for so long that you're not good enough.
You've been told for so long that you're not worthy,
you're not clean enough, you're not spiritual enough to approach God,
and you believed it. You've believed a lie. But today
(42:24):
I'm telling you right here right now that the veil
is down, The veil has been torn, the wall has
been eradicated, whatever wall you've been dealing with, because now
you have access to Heaven. It belongs to you wherever
you are. Whenever you feel the need to talk to God,
you can. You don't need a priest, you don't need
(42:46):
a pastor, you don't need a prophet, you don't need
a ritual, you don't need to get yourself together first.
You know what you need. You just need Jesus. That's it.
And the thing that I love about Jesus, just even
in my own life, from my own experiences. You can
come to him broken, you can come to him imperfect.
(43:09):
You can come to him as a hot mess, and
he won't turn your way. You know what he does.
He pulls you in, He pulls you close. Bible says,
draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.
Imagine that all that stink on you from the world,
and God draws you close. James Chapter four, verse eight.
(43:32):
So if we are moving towards God, guess what he
moves closer to us. If you feel distant from God
right now, he didn't move you did. His blood is enough,
His death is enough. His resurrection is enough. So these
walls of religion have tried to keep you out, and
(43:53):
they've kept some of you out long enough, but Jesus
has kicked the door down. Let me give you three
call to act. Call it action number one. Identify your wall.
That's how we started this. I want you to identify
just one walk. Name the wall that has been separating
you from God. Is a shame? Is it pride? Is it? Performance?
(44:17):
Is it fear? Name it? Name that wall whatever it is,
and ask God to tear it down. Whatever has been
hindering you from drawing close to God. I want you
to write it down, and I want you to pray
and ask God, God tear this wall down like you
(44:40):
tore the veil in the temple down. Okay, be honest
with God. That's all I'm asking you to do. Be
honest with God. Some of you all are more honest
with your social media followers than you are with God,
putting all your business out there on social media, and
you won't go to God, the one who can help you,
(45:02):
the one who can direct you, the one who can
lead you and guide you into all truth. So identify
that one wall and write it down, and then pray
over that wall and pray over with boldness and with
confidence that God can tear that wall down. Number two
call the action number two. Walk through the door. Very simple, right,
(45:23):
walk through the door. Stop standing outside. Stop acting like
you're not worthy. Stop waiting for somebody to give you permission.
Jesus has already given you access. Remember what the Right
of hebrew says, come boldly to the throne of grace.
So you got to walk into God's presence with confidence.
(45:47):
That means you gotta pray. That means you gotta worship.
That means you have to talk to him like he
is your heavenly father. You don't have to go to
God with all his pretense. You can just yell out
to God like God, listen, this is what it is.
This is what's going on. I need some help. I'm confused.
He's right there, He's in the room with you. He's
(46:09):
your father. That's how you need to talk to him.
Talk to God like he's your father, because he is.
Number three, The only thing I need you to do
after we get done is share this teaching, share the podcast.
Dani's dropping the link in the chat. Can you all
please help me to help some other people who are
(46:30):
living behind these walls. The only way we're going to
do this is through multiplication. Can't through this, We can't
do this through addition. We have to do this through multiplication.
So please grab that link. All the heavy listening has
been done. The only thing I'm asking you to do.
If this has been a blessing to you, then share it.
(46:51):
If this teaching knocked down at least one wall in
your life, share it please, Facebook, family. I need you
to like, comment, share tag five people living behind their
Walls of religion. To all of the podcast listeners, thank
you so much. Those of you all who are on Spreaker, Spotify,
Amazon Music, iHeartRadio. I need you to subscribe to those platforms.
(47:12):
I need you to like, and I need you to follow.
Give five stars you want to give four stars. I'm
inclined to believe you are a hater. Share the podcast
with your family and friends. New podcasts will drop every Friday, Kyle,
every Friday. So don't you hit me tomorrow talking about
uncle you got that new drop. No, I don't have
that new drop, Kyle, and will drop Friday. Listen, Let's pray,
(47:37):
and then I want to let's give a little time
to something that brother Dannia's dealing with in the moment, Father,
we honor you, we think, and we bless you. God, Man,
thank you for this moment of just being able to share.
Got to thank you that you have torn down the veil,
You have torn down the separation. And now God, we
can come before you and freedom. God. We're free to worship,
(48:01):
We're free to pray to you. We're free to cry
out to you God. And I thank you God that
your word says that we are to stand in our liberty,
that Christ has made us free and not to be
entangled again with any any yok of bondage. So God,
right now I pray for my brothers and sisters. I
pray for this word, that it will go out and
(48:21):
that it will be a seed that will be planted
in the hearts and the minds of your people, and
that that seed will germinate, and that that seed will
bring forth fruit in its season. So God, we thank you.
We honor you. God. We love you. God. Forgive us
for what we fall short. Forgive us God for not
believing in You God and our prayers. God, I pray
(48:43):
that you will remove any doubt in our mind. And
so Father, I just pray for those who may be
without employment. I pray, Father, for those who may be
going through in their bodies. I pray God for those
who may be going through and sickness. I pray for
those who may be going through in their relationships. God,
(49:04):
I thank you that in all these things, your word
says that we are more than conquerors. So Father, we
love you, and we thank you in advance for what
it is that you're going to do in our lives. Father,
continue to bless brothers and the word. Continue to bless
everyone who is connected to this platform that you've given us. God,
(49:25):
we lift it up to you, Father, and I pray
Father that you will bless it. I pray Father that
men and women will come from the north to south,
to east and the west, God, to just simply gather
around your word, no religion, no pretense, no money laundering schemes,
none of that. God, Just opening up your word God
and pointing people to You. That is our goal, that
(49:47):
is our objective, that is our mandate. So Father, we
love you, we bless you, and we honor you. And
it's in Jesus' name that we do prayer Amen, and amen.
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