Truth Matters

Dr. Cheryl Davis: Ladies, we are gatekeepers of God's glory. Our families have purpose in the kingdom. Our children have gifts that need to be nurtured and developed. Our families are the crucible for the glory of God.

Guest (Male): In the Bible, gatekeepers were trusted officials and high priests in the sacred role of protecting the Lord's house. Their hearts were fully committed to the Lord. Likewise, women are ordained by God to be the gatekeeper of their family, recognizing and protecting themselves and their loved ones from the craftiness of the enemy and willing to deny themselves in favor of God's holy will.

It starts with you. You have to let your life go in faith and be reckless in your love for the Lord if you want your family to do the same. Ungodliness abounds, but righteousness must be pursued. Being a gatekeeper is intentional.

Welcome to Truth Matters, empowering men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and the marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth in sharing the message of Jesus. Our program host is Dr. Cheryl Davis. Dr. Davis is a wife, mom, speaker, and Bible teacher.

She is a graduate with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She is married to Thad Davis, pastor of Faith Assembly in Saint Pauls, North Carolina. On today's edition of Truth Matters, Dr. Cheryl Davis shares how women are gatekeepers of God's glory, nurturing and protecting their family for His holy purpose in the kingdom of God. Today's message is titled "Gatekeepers Part 2."

Dr. Cheryl Davis: Because of the constant influence of the world feeding our flesh to worship self instead of God, pressuring us to follow our own self-will and to improve ourselves by our own means, it is an uphill battle to deny oneself and follow the will of God. Ungodliness abounds. It is near to us, but righteousness must be pursued.

The role of wife and mother is the highest calling for a woman aside from her salvation. Ladies, mothers, you are a gatekeeper of the most precious gifts that God gives to us: the family. To be pleasing unto God, it requires a certain approach.

If you remember when the angel Gabriel visited Mary, he tells her, "You are going to give birth to the Messiah." This is the announcement that she has been chosen to birth the glory of God. What that means is that she was birthing purpose. She was birthing salvation. She was birthing the permanent remedy for the sin of humanity.

This is her response. She says, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word." "Handmaid of the Lord" means there is no gap between what God desires or His will for her life or Mary's life and what Mary is going to submit to. They are one and the same. God's word equaled Mary's desire.

For Mary, the Holy Spirit came upon her and that brought about the birth of Jesus. Through and by the Holy Spirit, God is in the business of birthing glory through handmaids whose calling is to be gatekeepers of God's glory. Through and by the Holy Spirit come gifts, callings, purpose, ministries, healing, and provision.

His Word says, "With God, all things are possible," and these are the very words that Gabriel told Mary: "With God, all things are possible." Ladies, we are gatekeepers of God's glory. Our families have purpose in the kingdom. Our children have gifts that need to be nurtured and developed. Our families are the crucible for the glory of God.

When it comes to being the gatekeepers of our family, I want to speak to you today about these three points. I'd like to begin with the end in mind. If you don't remember anything else, I want you to remember these three things about being a gatekeeper.

In order to function as a gatekeeper, you must be able to make a decision against yourself. My second point: You are called to be a gatekeeper, but the enemy will try to deceive you to be an entry point. And lastly, you cannot give to your family what you do not possess yourself.

In order to function as a gatekeeper, you must be able to make a decision against yourself. This brings us to our text. Today, we're going to examine John chapter 12, verse 24 out of the Message Bible. "Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground dead to the world, it is never anymore than a grain of wheat."

No one was driven, or more driven, than myself to succeed. My mother died at the age of 20, and I did not take a break to grieve because I was so driven to be a physician. I repressed it all and put my nose to the ground and kept climbing. I kept climbing with fierce resolve and had my sights set on the CEO of a local hospital system by the age of 43 when the Lord said, "Your time is up. My will for you has changed, and it is time to go."

Honestly, my reaction was, "I don't think I heard you right." Unless a grain of wheat is planted in the will of God and dead to the world, it is never anymore than a grain of wheat. When the Lord changes His will for us, the course direction changes. The current course that you are on becomes unsanctified and unholy because it is no longer blessed or ordained by God because its season has ended.

Notice I did not say that it was not good. Something can be good but it not be ordained. This is where I found myself. This was my life dream. I had dedicated my entire life to the pursuit of my own career. But right before my eyes, the leaves are falling off the tree. I had a decision to make.

Looking back, this was probably one of the most pivotal decisions of my life. I had to die to my own desires and a lifetime of work feeding those desires to be planted in the will of God. If I did not do that, I would have never ever have been anything more than a physician.

Please don't get me wrong. Being a physician was good. In my eyes, it was great. But God will ask you to give up great for ordained. He was calling me to operate in gatekeeping. That's what I was unaware of. He was about to birth glory into our lives. What I mean by "our lives" is my husband, myself, and my children.

What I could not see at the time was that the Lord had a calling for my husband. Therefore, He had a calling for me and our children, and my current position was a hindrance to His will. In faith, I walked away from my career in January of 2022. My husband became the pastor of our church, Faith Assembly of God, in March of 2023. Unless a grain of wheat is planted in the will of God and dead to the world, it is never anymore than a grain of wheat.

When it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In due season, the sprouting and the reproducing happen. Two years later, I have seen the Lord manifest in ways I never thought possible. Words cannot describe His faithfulness and His goodness. I have seen His goodness in the land of the living. I have seen His glory again and again and again.

By faith, I will continue to see His glory again and again and again. Remember, to function as a gatekeeper, you must be able to make a decision against yourself. Ladies, you are called to be a gatekeeper. Those of you that are listening, you're called to be a gatekeeper. But the enemy will try to deceive you to be an entry point.

When you make your decision against yourself in faith, you have to make that decision in the spirit. You don't make it in the natural. Your flesh will always desire what is best for you and no one else. This is a spiritual decision. As a result of that spiritual decision, you will have to subject your flesh to the will of God in the spirit. That is a daily task.

It is in our nature to hold on to what we perceive that we need and to not let go of it because our flesh thinks that the more we have, the better. John chapter 12 says, "Anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life." The enemy will come alongside of you as you are functioning as the gatekeeper of God's glory.

He loves to come when you are out there just killing it. What I mean by killing it is that you are moving in lockstep with God, you're advancing the kingdom, and you're taking territory from the enemy. Like I said, you are doing the best and the Lord's will is being fulfilled and you're enjoying it.

This is the prime time when Satan comes to deceive you into becoming an entry point. A lot of times, he will deceive you to get prideful, thinking that you've made this decision on your own and all of these things that have been accomplished for the glory of God really is because of you, not because of Him. What I mean is that Satan needs an entry point to rob you of the glory that God has given to you.

Satan cannot corrupt the glory of God. 1 John 5:8 tells us, "There are three that bear witness in earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one." The Holy Spirit answers to the blood of Jesus Christ. Satan cannot cross the bloodline. He cannot corrupt God's glory. But you, being the gatekeeper, can open the gate.

Satan can get into your mind, and when he does, he starts to sow seeds of doubt, disbelief, sorrow, loneliness, depression, anger, and the list goes on and on. He can then affect your choices, and then you are making decisions that are counter to the will of God. Pretty soon, you no longer value the glory anymore and you trade it for cheap.

Don't get me wrong. We all have our Garden of Gethsemane moments like Jesus did. He said, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." Jesus knew that he was born to drink the cup, but what troubled him so was the fear of the unknown. He had never been apart from the presence of God, and all that he had known was abiding in the Father.

He could not bear being apart from God, so much that he agonized drops of blood. We are the same. We want to hold on to the life that we have as we know it. Frankly and sadly, we would rather be comfortable and out of the will of God than uncomfortable and glorified. I'm going to say that one more time. We would rather be comfortable and out of the will of God than uncomfortable and glorified.

But in His mercy, He rolled back the curtain of all the blessings that I could not see and also the ones that I take for granted and reminded me that none of what I've experienced over the last two and a half years would have been possible had it been my way. Our salvation would have never been possible if Jesus Christ would have had his way.

Jesus would not be Jesus if he would not have died and resurrected. We would have no reason for faith, no reason for hope, and no reason to be here putting out this material to affect people's choices. Satan will tempt us to be an entry point, but Proverbs 16 tells us, "In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity, and by fear of the Lord one departs from evil."

We must be women who fear the Lord. We must recognize when and where we are vulnerable. Jesus was tempted in the garden not to drink the cup, but he purposed in his heart to submit to the will of his Father. When we are tempted to become an entry point, remember, we are guarding God's glory. And by our reverential fear of Him, we can depart from evil. Remember, Satan is roaming about seeking whom he may devour. Each day, he will tempt you to be an entry point. But remember, you must keep the gate closed.

And lastly, you cannot give to your family what you do not possess yourself as a gatekeeper. Ladies, we shape our husbands and our children more than we realize. When it comes to children, parents are the most important spiritual influences in their lives. We can't expect our children to obey Christ even when it hurts if we only obey Christ when it is to our benefit.

What I'm trying to say is you can't give to your family what you do not possess yourself. You first have to eat the Word, and eat it whole. You've got to clean your plate before you can feed your family. If you are a picky eater, your children will be picky eaters. If only certain parts of the Word apply to you, then only certain parts will apply to them. You have to remember, we're all born in sin, shaped in iniquity. They have their own individual wills. It's not a carbon copy of yours.

This takes us to the last verse of our passage in John chapter 12: "But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." Without faith, it is impossible to please God. This is how the will of God works. You have to agree to it before you know what it is. You have to make room for it before He pours it out. Therefore, in faith, you have to let it go. You have to make room for the glory of God. You have to be reckless in your love for the Lord.

God is reckless in His love for us. He left the 99 to go after the one. And I know you are saying, "Hey, that was Jesus and this is me." But there is someone like us who was able to be reckless in his love: Paul. Paul describes his reckless love in Philippians chapter 3:7-11. This is out of the Message Bible because I think it captures it the best.

"The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash along with everything else I used to take credit for." And really, it is in our nature that a lot of us take credit for the things that we do, not realizing and not remembering that it's God who even gives us the ability to will and to do His good pleasure.

Getting back to the passage. "And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life compared to the high privilege of knowing Jesus Christ as my master." Notice he did not say "friend." Notice he didn't say "confidant." Notice he didn't say "homeboy." Notice he didn't say "is my acquaintance." He said "as my master."

There's a different level of knowing Jesus as our master than even our savior. A lot of people are willing to take salvation as a positional point of sanctification but never submit themselves to the will of God to make Him their master, which then conforms them into the image of him. Many people stop just at the first step in salvation.

But Paul said, "I need to know Jesus Christ as my master firsthand. Everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant. Actually, he labeled it as dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I can embrace Christ and be embraced by Him." Many of us are trying to embrace Christ, and many of us are embracing Christ. But it's a different thing to be embraced by Him.

What that entails is pleasing Him by faith and Him embracing us, and it being a mutual submission. Jesus Christ has already submitted himself to the will of the Father, which made our salvation possible. But when we submit unto Him, that's when He embraces us. We submit to Him in faith. Therefore, we please Him. He embraces us by His approval.

Paul continues to say, "I didn't want some petty inferior brand of righteousness." And what I mean by a petty inferior brand of righteousness is like if you remember during the time of COVID, I think of this. During the time of COVID, remember when toilet paper was in a shortage and you were driving around? There were some of my friends who drove all around looking for toilet paper.

Really, before COVID, you had to have a certain type. But during COVID, you would take whatever was out there. Really, I didn't even know they made toilet paper that still had bits of wood in it. But you would take whatever there was because there was a shortage and you didn't know what to do.

A petty inferior brand of righteousness is like that. We don't want the type with the bits of wood in it. Really, we want the high-class stuff like the Charmin that's really soft. The petty inferior brand of righteousness that Paul was describing, it came from keeping a list of rules like the law.

But really what Paul wanted, and what I wanted, and what all of us should want: we want the robust kind of righteousness that comes from trusting Christ, God's righteousness. When we submit unto Him and we die unto ourselves, that's when the Holy Spirit comes and inhabits us and abides within us, and then the Holy Spirit manifests His glory in us.

Paul said, "I gave up all the inferior stuff so that I could know Christ personally." He said, "I gave up all the inferior stuff so that I could know Christ personally, experience His resurrection power." These are the three phases, I believe, in knowing Jesus Christ and being successful in this Christian walk. Salvation is experiencing His resurrection power. That is available to all. It is a free gift.

Salvation is by faith. It's not by works. By grace, we are saved through faith. It is not of the works of ourselves. It is a gift of God. The Word tells us that. That's very clear. We get to experience God's resurrection power. But what Paul said, he wants to be a partner in his suffering. To go deeper into Christ, there is a different level and the gateway to that is being a partner in his suffering.

There are many that do that. There are. I'm seeing that as I'm speaking at churches, ministering to people, hearing back from the podcast. There are many that are partners in his suffering, and God is fashioning you and transforming you into His likeness. But the way to go all the way that Paul's telling us is "I want to go all the way with him to death itself."

There's not many that are signing up for that. And actually, society is pushing us away from that, which is what I described in the beginning. It's pushing us to glorify ourselves just for the sake of glorifying ourselves. But really what that is, it's pulling us away from experiencing death in Jesus Christ.

And what Paul said is, "If there is any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it." Jesus Christ wants us to go with him all the way, just like he went all the way in the garden for our salvation. We need to go all the way with him in our walk with him.

The way to do that is that you let your life go in faith. When you let your life go in faith, then and only then will you have it forever, real and eternal. I know you may be thinking, "Well, what does it mean by forever, real and eternal?" This is what I mean. There are works of the Holy Spirit that are out there that will be done on your behalf because of your obedience that you didn't even know how to pray for or that you didn't even know that you needed.

But those things that you do need or are aware of and are seeking Him for, He will answer them when you least expect Him to. The Word says, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?"

After I made the decision against myself to bury myself and die to the world, the Holy Spirit manifested himself in my place. The Holy Spirit has returned blessings for my submission. The Spirit spoke to me around that time and said, "The generational curses over your children have been broken."

You see, this was the desire of my heart that I didn't necessarily verbalize in public. I wanted my children set free from the sin that had plagued my family and my husband's family, as well as myself and my husband, for generations. He is a generational God. When God does something, He does it forever, real and eternally. You are the gatekeeper to generational redemption in your family. It starts with you.

In my closing, when it comes to being a gatekeeper of our families, I want you to remember these few points. Ungodliness abounds. It is near to us, but righteousness must be pursued. Being a gatekeeper is intentional. In order to function as a gatekeeper, you have to be able to make a decision against yourself.

We must be willing to fulfill our God-ordained purpose, which is to bring God glory and not ourselves by any means that God ordains. The grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die. When it does, it reproduces itself many times over. You are called to be a gatekeeper, but Satan will try to deceive you to be an entry point.

The enemy will tempt you to be an entry point to corrupt the glory. You cannot hold on to your life as it is or you will destroy it. By walking in the fear of the Lord, you are able to depart from evil. And lastly, as a gatekeeper, you cannot give to your family what you do not possess yourself. Children learn what they live.

You have to let your life go in faith and be reckless in your love for the Lord if you want your family to do the same. For when you do, you will get a real, forever, and eternal move of God in your life. And lastly, I feel like Paul in Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 14, again by the Message Bible. He says it so wonderfully, as if I was saying it myself. So, I'm just going to read what he says.

"I am not saying that I have this all together or that I have it made." And I can say, some days it's a struggle. Some days it's easier than others. "But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong. By no means do I count myself an expert in all this. But I've got my eye on the goal where God is beckoning us all toward Jesus. And I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back."

I'm two and a half years into this journey, and what I wanted to ask is, will you join me? Like I said, I've seen and experienced the Lord in ways that I never thought possible because I was willing to let my life go in faith and answer the call that He had for my life. And I can assure you that the Bible is no respect of persons. His Word says that what He does for me, He will do also for you because He is faithful. Will you join me today on this journey to being a gatekeeper?

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis and today's message titled "Gatekeepers Part 2." In these changing times, there has been one thing that has not changed: the message in the Bible. The truth in God's word stands stronger than ever. Read it for yourself so that you may know and discern what is true, holy, and acceptable in the eyes of God.

Friend, if you're searching or confused in what to believe in this ever-changing modern culture, Dr. Davis would like to help you discover and understand what is true and genuine. You can reach her by email at CherylDavis@ProjectTruthMatters.com. Cheryl is spelled C-H-E-R-Y-L Davis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. You can also write to her at PO Box 159, Saint Pauls, North Carolina 28384. Or you can connect on Facebook at Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis.

And lastly, if you'd like to hear more of Dr. Davis's messages, the Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Pandora, and Castbox. Our website is ProjectTruthMatters.com. Truth Matters is made possible thanks to the prayer and financial contributions of friends like you and is a production of The Truth Project.