Pastor Tim Dunn "Believe" (Sunday 6-1-25)

Welcome to Life City. This podcast was created to celebrate

what God is doing and what protects us. Our vision

is to reach the hungary, the hurdy, and the hopeless.

God has given us our heading. Join us today as

we listen to the Word and we pray that God

speaks to you in this message.

Before you're seated, let's go ahead and read Matthew Chapter sixteen,

Verse thirteen says when Jesus came into the region of

Saie Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, who do people

say that I am? That I the son of Man Am?

Who do they say I am? He asked his disciples.

You're out there, you're in the marketplace, you're in the

society of the cities. Who do they say that I am?

So they answered him verse fourteen. Some say that you're

John the Baptist, Some thank you Elijah. Others think you're

Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And I don't know

if he was satisfied with that answer or not, because

he really doesn't address that answer. He turns that question

to them, to his disciples, his close followers, those that

have been with him day in day out the.

Eight with him.

They watched him perform miracles. They were there when he

broke tradition and all of those things. And he looked

at them and he says, but who do you say

that I am?

Who am I? To Youlujah?

And on point Simon, Peter, to everyone's surprise, spoke up

and answered and said, you are the Christ, Amen, the

son of the Living God. And Jesus answered that statement

by Peter, and he said, blessed are you, Simon Barjona,

for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,

but my Father, who is in heaven. He and I

also say verse eighteen to you that you are Peter.

And on this rock, on this understanding, on this.

Revelation of who I am, I will build by church.

Amen.

I'm gonna found it.

Upon who you say that I am, who I have

been revealed to you. That's what is going to be

the foundation of my church. Your church, Peter, not your church. Andrew,

not your church, John or Paul to come. It's not

anybody's church. It ain't Tim's church, Amen, it ain't Larissa's church,

it ain't John's church. It's the Church of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

And he said, I will build my church and the

gates of Hell are not gonna prevail against it.

Amen.

This building is not the church because this building is

going to change.

Our address is going to change as.

To where we have worship, where we come together for worship.

So this can't be the church.

You, your flesh and blood, your temple, your body, is

the church.

Amen.

He says, the gates of Hell will not prevail against you.

Somebody needs to start believing.

That that the gates.

Of Hell will not prevail against you, no matter what

you feel, no matter how you feel, the gates of Hell,

it's already been shuttled. The gates of Hell will not

prevail against you.

Amen. You can be seated. Hallelujah. Amen.

We'll fired up this morning.

So wats out? Amen.

All the young people are sitting in the splash zone,

so amen, I'll try to stay back.

Amen. Let's see none of you, oh chases wearing glasses. Amen.

So he's the only one that may need wipers. Amen. Hallelujah.

The gates of Hell will not prevail against you.

Amen.

No weapon that is formed shall prosper.

Amen. It's not like the gates of Hell are not

gonna try. Amen. It's not that the weapons aren't formed. Amen.

They just have no power over you. Amen.

They do not have the ability to overcome Church of

the Living God.

Amen. That's already been settled. There is no question about it.

Amen.

Whether you doubt it or not, it is true.

Because Jesus said it.

It is written in red.

Amen.

It is settled, and it has been sealed by His

blood that was poured.

Out on Calvary. Amen. Nothing.

I love this story. It's one of my favorite stories.

I got a lot of favorites, but this is one

of my favorites. Man, he asked these two questions, who

does society say that I am? What do they believe

about me? Is basically what he was saying. And they

they believe You're just another.

Prophet, they and I.

It made me wonder what if if this question was

posed to society.

We love polls, right, We're a poll society.

We pull everything and everybody about everything.

And so if there was.

A poll sent out to every human being alive that

could open an email or open a text message and

read it and respond, what would that What would the

answer to that question be today? I wonder what would

the world What would people say about Jesus? Would they

say ah, he's just a good man. Would they say

he's a preacher? Would would they say he's just a

historical figure that impacted the society then, but has no residual.

Effect or impact. Amen. I do believe this, though.

It's important that the church we don't let society define

who Jesus is for us.

Amen. Amen. They do not.

The Church cannot give society the permission to define Christ

for the church.

Amen.

Why, because he's already been defined here hallelujah. And in

going a little bit further than that, it's important we

don't let the voice of unbelief define him for us.

Amen.

There's plenty of voices of unbelief in our world today, Amen,

And we cannot allow those voices to begin to speak.

Into our mind and into our life.

And define Jesus as something less than what he truly

is for.

Us and in us.

Amen.

We can't even allow the hurt that we have to

define who Jesus is. We can't allow circumstances and situations

and trials and storms to define him, Amen, Because he

is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Amen.

He's already been defined as faithful, He's already been defined

as good He's already been defined as Savior and King. Amen,

And so I don't need a brand new definition. I

just have to believe what I've read in his book.

Amen.

Amens, struggling with doubt, struggling with unbelief, find your way

into this book and learn who Jesus is because it matters.

It matters what we believe. So who do you say

that I am? He asked that question to them, what

do you believe about me? Disciples? Peter said, we believe

your Christ.

The anointed one.

You're the Messiah, save You're King. You're the one we've

been looking for. You're the one that all the prophets

spoke about. You're the one that's going to change everything.

Amen.

And that's still true today. He is the one that

can change everything in your.

All you have to do is believe.

That's such an easy word to say.

Believe. Hallelujah.

Jesus responds Peter by telling him, Peter, you are exactly correct.

You're right. That's who I.

Am, and that's the belief. I'm going to build my

church upon. The belief of who I am is what

I'm gonna use as the foundation of my church. And

as long as my church continues in that belief that

I am the I Am, the gates of Hell will

never prevail against it. As long as my church stands

upon the foundation of who I am, whatever comes against.

Them will not defeat them. Amen. My family and I

were in Mississippi this past week. We went to Biloxi, Mississippi,

or as Grayson said, Biloxi. She said it how it's spelled, Amen,

It's like caramel.

Caramel's pronounced caramel because that's the way it's spelled.

Caramel is Mount Carmel in the Bible.

Anyways, so we went to Biloxi and we were hanging

out on the beach and uh, water's not very clear there,

and so my girls were like Nat London was like, no,

I've seen too many shark stories, watch too much shark television.

I'm not going out in that water that I can't see.

So I called her a chicken and I went out there.

And so I was waiting out into the water.

It was.

Anywhere from about just above my knee, and then it

started to get above, like right at my.

Shoulders, and I stopped.

And I sat there and I looked, and there wasn't

a whole lot of waves coming through, And I just

looked out at the horizon of the water, and I thought.

Man, how easy it is to feel in life.

That the smallest wave is going to overtake us. And

I sat there and I watched, Lord, how many times

do people feel like, just one more step and I'm

gonna sink.

I felt the gradual deepening of the water.

I would take a few steps and it would come

up a few inches and.

I stopped, and I thought, how.

Quick we feel like everything is gonna just completely overwhelm us?

And then I thought of his goodness, and I thought,

but Lord, you are the keeper of the waves. I

sat there and I watched, and a storm had just

blown through. A good storm is lightning and thunder is

cool to watch. And man, the storm had just blown

through Key Point blown through. Man, it didn't last very long.

And man, and after the storm had come through, the

water was so still. There were no white cap waves.

It was just this little ripple. As far as I

could see, it was just this little ripple.

Amen.

And I thought, Lord, you are still the peace speaker.

Amen, you are still.

You still have power and authority over the storms of life.

You still have the authority to speak to the wind

and the waves, and they must obey, they must listen.

Amen.

And I was overwhelmed, not by the waves, but I

was overwhelmed in that moment.

By his sheer power and authority. Amen.

And the thought hit me, God, I can't even imagine.

What your true power is like.

My mind has its limits, our imagination has its limits.

But you do not have any limitations. Amen.

And it was just this realization of the magnitude that

is our God, hallelujah. And I was overcome by it.

I stayed out there for a while.

I look back. My wife was.

Waving at me, like, hey, don't get eaten by shark

that you can't see.

Amen.

But in that moment, I felt no fear.

Amen.

Now, probably because there was no hungry sharks around.

Amen, it didn't matter. In that moment, I felt.

The presence of God settle on me standing out there

in that water.

Amen. Why because of who he is? Amen?

I asked this question as I began this series. Who

do you believe he is? What do you believe about him?

John calls him the word In John chapter Paul said

he was the son of God with power. In Romans

one four, Paul tells us that in him dwells all

the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

In Colossians two nine.

One, Timothy he sixteen says he is God manifest in

the flesh. Hebrews one three says he is the brightness

of His glory, the express image of God and upholding

all things by the word of His power.

Amen.

I don't have to come up with some new definition

of who Jesus is. This book defines him in more

ways than we can count. I we just have to

believe it and submit ourselves to it.

Amen. That's how this works.

Jesus tells Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this

to you.

This is a heavenly revelation.

Amen.

Your revelation of who he is must be burst out

of the Word of God and from the.

Voice of God. Hallelujah. It can't be what somebody says.

It has to be what the words and what God says.

Because as the.

Church, who we believe him to be, matters even today.

It matters.

We can put our mission and our vision on the

wall the hungry, the hurting, and the hopeless.

We can put it there all day long.

But if we truly don't believe that he feels the hungry.

If we truly.

Don't believe that he heals the hurting, if we truly

don't believe that he is the hope for the hopeless,

it's just words on a wall.

Belief matters. What you believe about Jesus matters.

It matters to your relationship with him.

It matters in your marriage, It matters in your kids

and to your kids.

It matters. Amen. I know that I know that he

is a healer. Amen.

I know that I know that he men's broken hearts.

I know that I know, as my good friend Roy says,

that he satisfies the hungry.

I know that I know that he is our one

and only hope.

I know it.

I don't have to be convinced of it. I'm not

almost persuaded like King Agrippa.

I know that I know that I know.

Amen, there is an absolute resolve settled in my life

that I.

Know who Jesus is. Hallelujah. What do you know about

him today? Amen?

If you met somebody this afternoon, when you go to

the restaurant and you're sitting there and you're talking in

conversation with the people, with your family or friends. Whoever

goes to lunch with you and a waiter or waitress

walks up to you and in conversation she asked you

the question, would you.

Tell me who Jesus is? What would you say in

that moment?

What's gonna be your response? I've never met him. I've

heard about him, but I don't know him. Who, Who

is he? What is he about? What does he do?

Could you answer that with conviction? Or would you just

repeat what a preacher said? Hey man, it can't be

just what a preacher says. It has to be spoken

from a convicted heart that has experienced who he is.

Amen.

Yeah, would you speak to him out of revelation of

who he spoke and how he showed and revealed himself

to you? I hope so, Amen, And I hope that

conviction was so strong that that waiter a waitress walked

away with an understanding. Wow, I've never heard him explain

that way. When they begin to talk, there was so

much fervor in their spirit. There was so much conviction

in their spirit that I felt it. Amen, Ause, you

never know when that question will be presented to you. Why,

because there are people in this world.

That have yet to meet him.

Amen, and it may be introduced to him through you.

So who do you say that he is? Hallelujah.

Now that Peter had spoke up and declared his revelation,

Jesus responds with his statement about the church, about building

the church, and then he makes another very important statement

for every one of us.

In Matthew sixteen, verse nineteen, he.

Says, and I will give you.

The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatever you

bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever

you lose on ears will be loosed in heaven.

Keep that verse up.

That statement by Jesus is a transfer of authority.

Man, That's what it is.

He told the disciples standing there that day, and is

telling us even now today that our belief of who

he is is what unlocks his authority in our life.

Amen. And we stand upon.

Those absolutes of his word, the power and authority.

Of Heaven becomes available to us.

That's how this works. It's a transfer of authority. Let

me give you a story that Matthew tells us in

Matthew chapter eight, verse five. This is a prime example

of what I'm talking about in a transfer of authority.

Now, when Jesus hindered Copernaum.

A centurion came to him, pleading with him, saying, Lord,

my servant is lying at home, paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And

Jesus to him in verse seven, I'll come and I'll

heal him. And the centurion had a very interesting response

to that. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not

worthy that you even come under my roof, but only

speak a word and my servant will be healed.

Why would he make that kind of statement.

Verse nine tells us why. He says, for I also

am a man under authority, man having soldiers under me.

And I say to this one go and he goes.

I say to another come and he comes, and I

say to my servant, do this, and he does it.

And when Jesus.

Heard it, he marveled, and he said to those who

followed assuredly, I say to you, I have not found

such great faith, not even in Israel. First, this centurion

recognizes Jesus's authority by stating, I also am a man

under authority. We have to understand that in order to

walk in his authority, we first have to place ourselves.

Under his authority.

Amen, Because authority can only be transferred. It can never

be earned or demanded. It must be transferred. So if

I want to walk in his authority, I must submit

my life and surrender my life under his authority over me.

That's the only way this works.

Amen.

I cannot you serve his authority and command things when

he has no say in my life.

Amen.

And that's what this society wants. They want the power

and authority of God without the surrender and submission to God.

Amen.

But the church must remain under his authority.

Amen, hallelujah.

And this centurion understood that, and he tells Jesus.

You don't even have to touch them to heal them,

just speak the word.

I believe in your authority.

I understand your authority.

Lord. I know what it means to be someone that's

in authority because I am someone under authority.

Amen.

And I will tell I will tell you this. All

the promises and all the things and speak in the

name of Jesus, and all of the things that we

say that are available to us are only available if

you have made him lord and king of your life.

Amen.

If you are still lord and king over your own life.

Your authority is limited. Amen.

But when you make him lord, savior, king over your life,

and he gets to govern you.

See.

That's what having a lord over your life means, that

he governs your life.

Hallhelujah.

Let me show you his document of government right here,

every page is his document of government. This is his

Bill of rights.

Amen.

This is the declaration of independence. Spiritually speaking, that's what

this is. He governs according to this, not separate from

not in spite of it. He governs from this. And

so if this does not have authority in my life,

then he don't have authority in my life. If I

don't place myself under authority of his word, then I

haven't placed myself under his authority because he governs by

the word.

Of his testimony. Amen.

That's how it works.

Amen.

And so we have this power and authority available to us.

And the Satyrian understood this transfer when he said, I

say to this one go and he goes. Why, Because

I'm under authority and authority has been transferred to me.

So I can speak to this one that's under my authority,

and it's just this passing down. And that's how it works.

Amen.

He said, I can tell him to go and he goes,

Come and he comes and do this, and he does that.

Amen.

And that transfer of the authority of God to his

church is available when we stand upon who he is

and we submit that.

Word, submit, surrender who. That's a tough one.

When we submit ourselves to His word, his will, and.

His ways, Amen, it unlocks that transfer of authority, Amen,

the authority to bind and loose.

Amen. That's what Verse nineteen says. I give you the

keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

And whatever you bind on earth and whatever you loose

on earth will be loosed in Heaven.

Amen.

And so let me show you how this works. He

gives us that authority when he he is in authority,

His authority transfers to us to speak with authority.

Amen.

And then Heaven confirms the transfer of authority by it

being responded to in Heaven and on earth. He says,

whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.

When we operate under his authority.

Amen.

And we begin to speak with authority with his authority.

Amen.

Heaven responds, and Heaven confirms his word by making it so.

That's how this works, Amen. But I want to show

you something.

The key that unlocks that door to his power and

authority is submission, always has been, always will be. Submission

to be under authority is to place yourself in submission

to him, not to me.

But to him.

Okay, so let me let me James Chapter four is

my wife comes. James Chapter four, verse seven says, therefore,

submit to God. Pretty clear, right, pretty easy to understand.

Submit to God. Resist the devil. That's a good thing

to do. And he will flee from you. Why not

because you resist, but because but because you are submitted.

You see, he didn't say resist the devil and he'll

flee without first telling us to submit to God. It

is our submission to God. It is placing our life

under his rule, under his rulership and his authority and

his kingship that allows us to resistible. And because of him,

not us, the devil flees. It's all connected. And he says,

draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.

You double minded. That word submit.

Was a Greek military term. I love this, found this

and this is great. It's a Greek military word that

means to arrange troops in a military fashion under the

command of a leader.

So when we submit to.

God, we are arranging our life in a position to

war against our adversary.

Amen. That's what submission does.

It arranges our life in a position to attack under

the command of the King of kings.

Amen. When you submit.

Your storm, your trial, your problem, your battle to him,

you arrange his battle plan to bring you victory.

And I'll tell you this as you stand with me.

Hallelujah. There is no victory without submission. There is no

victory without submission. Why because of the very definition of

that word. Submit to arrange to position ourself in a

way where God can reign supreme. You want to walk

in authority, place yourself under his authority.

Hallelujah. Amen. That's how this works.

Amen, Submit to God, place your life at his feet.

Surrender everything to him. Surrender your questions, surrender your fear,

surrender your past, your future. Surrender it all to him,

place it under his authority, and watch how He goes

to work in your life.

See, our society is.

Very careful.

With authority. Yeah, nobody wants to be told what to do,

whether it be physically or spiritually.

We've seen this digression.

In society, the figures of authority.

There's no.

There's no honor, there's no place there. But if we

allow our society to define who Jesus is for us,

we remove ourselves out from under his umbrella of authority.

You see.

The thing is that umbrella of his authority carries with

it his provision.

And his protection and his safety. What it psalms?

Was it ninety or ninety one?

Say? Under his wings? Under the shadow of his wings? Amen?

You see, if we don't become an become absolute on

what we believe him, it can be very easy to

remove ourself out from under his covering. And his covering

is in this place today, hallelujah.

And if you're here this morning and there is something.

In your life, there is an area of your life

that you have not submitted to him, I want to

give you that opportunity today, right now, to submit that

to him, Submit it to God, submit it to his

authority and his power and his voice in your life. Man,

because when you do, victory is coming. Victory is coming.

There is no victory without submission. I wonder if we would.

Thank you so much for being with us today. We

hope you were blessed in some way by the message.

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