Amen. Again, we are in Acts chapter
14, verse 22, where the apostle Paul and Barnabas on their way
back to Antioch of Syria, where much fighting is taking place
presently in the Middle East, where the church began to be
called Christian first and where predominantly what was established
was a Gentile, not exclusive, but a Gentile arena, a Gentile
church. The apostles are making their
way back there But on their way back, they are strengthening
the church. We are told in verse 22, confirming
the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in
the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into
the kingdom of God. Then two weeks ago, we began
to talk about that concept of the kingdom of God in contradistinction
to the idea of the church, though they are not far Different there
is a difference between the church and the kingdom and it's important
for us to think them through or work them through under our
first PowerPoint last week or two weeks ago We dealt with the
idea of the kingdom of God and the strengthening of the church.
I made some comments What is a kingdom and we talked about
a kingdom being a rule a dominion a sphere of a reign of a person,
a monarch over a people or a territory and or a territory. That is what
a kingdom is. It is the presence of an authority,
the presence of a rule, the presence of a dominion, a kingdom over
a people and a territory. And primarily under a monarchical
model where one individual possesses sovereign authority through whom
he would then delegate powers under him for the government
of the kingdom. So we have, what is the kingdom?
When was it announced? And I shared with you that the
kingdom of God in terms of the Bible in the New Testament was
announced in Matthew's Gospel chapter 3 where John the Baptist,
the forerunner of Jesus, announced the presence of the kingdom of
God. He said, behold, the kingdom of God is hear, repent, and make
straight your paths, prepare you the way of the Lord. In John's
acknowledging the presence of the kingdom, I want us to kind
of talk through a little bit today of what the nature of that
kingdom is. And the reason I want to do that
is because I want to make sure that we are grasping the importance
of the term kingdom with regards to our own life. our own calling. I think when we understand the
idea of the kingdom scripturally, it will give us a little better
framework on what the role of the church is, what the significance
of the church is, and what the goal of the church of God is. And so when we raise the question,
why a kingdom, especially in the New Testament era, we want
to be able to answer that question. especially in light of the fact
that we don't live per se in a kingdom. So a kingdom concept
is not something that we readily grasp as a reality in our life. If it's true that you and I individually
don't operate at a sufficient level of a monarchial or a kingdom
model, then it's very possible that the practice of our life
is in contrast to the nature of the kingdom of God that should
have an influence over us. Is that possible? If I really
don't know what a kingdom is, if I don't understand the implications
or inferences of a kingdom to which I am supposedly espousing
myself to by saying that Jesus is Lord of my life, and yet because
on an everyday Level and experience. I am fundamentally free to do
whatever I want to do without any accountability or consequence
of actions towards anyone that would even parallel the idea
of Someone having a dominion over my life at the level of
Lordship. Am I making some sense? I So
I'm laying a foundation to press home some things about the scriptures
that I think will serve us in the long run as people of God,
especially as you read your Bible. Let me make this assumption,
and then we'll continue to work through our outline. We've got
four points that we have to consider today, and then we'll be on this
subject maybe one more week. If in fact I'm the kind of Christian
that has never experienced the rule, the influence, authority
of a kingdom model over my life so that I'm just basically living
life willy-nilly kind of just a free radical an autonomous
being roaming the earth doing what I want then it's possible
when I read the Bible that wherever the Bible makes the assumption
that I am part of a kingdom I will miss those subtle or radical
Signals that underscore a relationship between me and God am I making
some sense for instance? I may miss When the Bible says
in John chapter 3 verse 5 except you be born again You will not
enter into the kingdom of God now I may be completely sensitive
to the concept of being born again because we have worn that
a Nomenclature out throughout the evangelical church for the
last hundred and fifty years. You must be what born again But
attaching the concept of being born again to a kingdom Is something
I think that we all have either missed or paid little attention
to does that make some sense, right? so if I think I know what
it means to be born again, and I'm not sure I do I Whatever
it means to be born again. I don't see it inextricably tied
to allegiance to a kingdom So I really think it's incumbent
upon me to understand that if I've been born into something
called the kingdom I better know what that kingdom is, right?
I think that's relative to actually Determining whether or not I've
been truly born again. I Think if I actually miss the
concept of the kingdom and don't understand its nature its origin
its its manifestation, those tangible concrete factors that
determine the presence and power and influence of the kingdom.
I may say I'm born again, but if I don't know those evidences
of the kingdom of God into which I am supposed to be born again,
then I'm probably not born again. It's possible, isn't it? That
if I'm actually on the outside of the kingdom and don't know
it, And I don't know it because I don't know the evidences of
a kingdom Even though I call myself born again because I made
a decision for jesus I walked down an aisle. I remember when
the pianist was playing just as I am I cried big crocodile
tears and accepted jesus into my life. I made him my lord and
savior Did that mean that i'm born again Does it mean that
I've actually entered into the kingdom? Does it mean that anything
about the kingdom of God, if it's a reality, is a reality
in my life simply because I can affirm that I went through those
bodily exercises? And the answer is no. Louis,
can you do me a favor and cut this heater off if we haven't
already cut it off? So I think it's important for us to kind
of, again, exercise our senses around the concept of the kingdom.
And we will be touching on, as we talked about two weeks ago,
the entrance occupancy and apprehension of the kingdom. So if you will
pull up our PowerPoint, I'm just going to work through our PowerPoint
from the first one, if it's still connected, which would mean you
would want to go to the next point if it's there. All right.
So last time we talked about the kingdom of God and strengthening
the church. And if I use that proposition,
what I am distinguishing is the nature of the kingdom from the
church. that the two are not synonymous,
though, watch this, you cannot affirm the kingdom without the
church. That if there is no church, there
is no kingdom, not because the kingdom is dependent upon the
church to exist, but that the kingdom has declared that the
church will be the evidence of its presence. the kingdom of God is going to
be manifested in the world is going to be manifested through
the Ekklesia, the called out ones, the body of Christ, the
church. We will be the manifestation
of the kingdom and therefore those attributes and characteristics
of the kingdom of God, if they're going to be found anywhere, they're
going to be found where? In the church. Secondly, the
subpoints that we dealt with, I think we dealt with 10. The
kingdom of God is a king and a Lord, a sovereign. And we would
have said that that sovereign is God himself. Is that right?
God himself. And that would mean we would
include all three persons, right? Father, son, and Holy ghost,
simply because the Bible calls them Jehovah and calls them curious,
both in the old and the new Testament. If we were dealing exegetically
with the ontological nature of the triune God, the tri personal
God, father, son, and Holy ghost, we would be able to demonstrate
explicitly and implicitly and incontrovertibly that the Father
is called Lord, the Son is called Lord, and the Spirit is called
Lord. All three of them are Lord. They are Jehovah in their own
individual right and collectively in nature. It's impossible for
the three persons to not bear the same authority since they
bear the same equality though they are distinct persons. Am
I making some sense? Right, so then when we say the
King and Lord, we are talking about all three persons. However,
when you are reading your Bible, sometimes the text will be dealing
with the father and not the son. For example, when Jesus taught
us to pray and we'll be going there again, he said, pray in
this fashion, our what? Father, who art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. So the primary objective of our
focus is the father. not exclusive, but primary. And
the son is the means to him. And the spirit is the efficacious
power by which we get to the father through the son. The son
is teaching us that father, papa sits on the throne and runs the
universe through his son and by his spirit. And therefore
as children of God, we get to call him father. So we go to
our father in that terminology, and when we go to our father,
we acknowledge his holiness, and then we declare, thy kingdom
what? And we're gonna be talking about
that in a little bit. Secondly, then it's a territory or domain.
What did we say last time was the domain or sphere or realm
of the kingdom of God? Does it have limitations? Does
it have boundaries? To what extent does the kingdom
exist? What sphere and realm of God's
world of God's universe does the kingdom cover? And the answer
is what? Everything. The earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. God sits on the circus of the
universe. He dwells on heaven and earth,
dwells in heaven and earth, and he encompasses eternity. If that's
true, and those are explicit biblical terms, he encompasses
eternity, then his dominion is everywhere. His kingdom influence
would be everywhere. Then we said the constitution
of the kingdom or the royal covenant of the kingdom would have been
what? The bible the word of god, right? So god's word is his constitution
It's his rule of law. It's his system of government.
It's his legislature It is his Will then we said also then the
citizenry our community of subjects would be called the what? The
ecclesia, that's right Distinguishing us from the world, though God's
kingdom has influence over the peoples of the world too, it
has influence of the people of the world in a different way
than it does in the church. The world does not acknowledge
God's rule and reign. And because of that, the world
is a transgressor. The world is a rebel. The world
system is in hostile rebellion against the kingdom, which establishes
what we call the conflict arena in which we live. That means,
as Jesus said in John chapter 16, verse 33, in the world you
shall have what? And this is partially what Paul
meant in verse 22 of Acts 14, through much tribulation do we
enter into the kingdom. And so we accept the underlying
fact that the kingdom of God Exists within a conflict and
that there are those who are not in the kingdom in any saving
and redemptive and Favorable way whose conduct in character
Evidence is that they are not in the kingdom. Then we saw that
the law of the kingdom are Acceptable principles of the kingdom were
what the law and acceptable principles of the kingdom were what the
obedience of faith? You know what we said the obedience
of faith you can mark that down Romans 1 5 and Romans 16, 25
and many other passages. I wanna reiterate that for our
new listeners. If you've never heard of the
idea of the kingdom of God, I wanna just simply talk about it and
we're gonna go deeper into it. How do I know that I am part
of the kingdom of God? Because the principle of faith,
which is a gift of grace given to me in the new birth, if I'm
born again, is the basis of my obedience. The principle of faith
given by grace, if I'm truly born again, is the basis of my
obedience. You can outwardly obey and not
be in the kingdom because your outward obedience is legal, moral,
self-motivated, self-driven, and not based upon love or faith
at all. And for God, that would not be
obedience in terms of the kingdom. Am I making some sense? So now,
just in case you struggle with that, Understand then Hebrews
11 6 which is an axiomatic statement the one that comes unto God must
believe that he is That's where faith comes in and is a rewarder
of them that what diligently seek him. That's where obedience
comes in The one that comes unto God must believe that he is in
other words. You cannot say that God is not a yet believe that
you're in the kingdom of God. So it's a what we will call a
an a priori assumption that God is. And for us as believers that's
faith. Faith is God is. Now that's raw
in itself because the nature of God ontologically is that
he's invisible. Right? Because the nature of
faith is the substance of things what hope for and the evidence
of things what not seen then I am declaring by faith that
God is and My faith then is going to work by love in a way of obedience
Because I actually believe that he is and I believe the promise
that he is a rewarder of them that do what? right, and that's
the character nature of the obedience of faith there that we diligently
Seeking him that's the essence of what Jesus meant in Matthew
6 33 when he says first seek That's diligently seeking seek
first Seek foremost the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness
Everything else will take its proper place in your life. So
the priority of every believer is the reality of the kingdom
of God That's an imperative. Matthew 6, 33 is an imperative. Whatever you're going to seek,
the first thing you seek is the reality of the kingdom. I think
that makes good sense. Don't you? All right. So then
it goes on to say privileges. We talked about that. So if the
law of acceptable principles is the obedience of faith, without
which, you know, we can't please God. Privileges rights and benefits
fell into what category redemption grace forgiveness eternal life
That's the way I put it and you could write those down if you
don't already have them forgiveness It's a powerful concept that
is one of the monikers of the kingdom of God grace Redemption
Eternal life and for those of you again who were in our women's
theology class last year you understood covenant terminology
as embracing all four of these that a man or a woman or a people
who experienced the forgiveness of God are simply beneficiaries
of a covenant promise forgiveness is a Covenant promise that's
part of the benefit of being in the kingdom The rights and
benefits of being in the kingdom of God is that you have the forgiveness
of sins That ought to have you running around the building right
now burning a hundred calories thanking God the forgiveness
of sins and it's not arbitrary or whimsical or Merely a theory. It's part of the covenant benefit
of being in the kingdom God knows that you and I need the forgiveness
of sins to work out the kingdom realities in our life without
him having to excommunicate us. Hallelujah. And then the same
thing with grace and redemption. Grace is God doing for us what
we don't deserve. It's the unmerited, demerited
favor of God. God smiling, showing favor, promising,
giving, doing what he does for us on the basis of nothing but
who he is. But that grace had to be paid
for that's where redemption comes in at Does that make some sense
like grace is not free? Grace was paid for by the blood
of Christ But that too is a covenant framework The Bible is clear
without the shedding of blood. There is no remission of what?
Oh That's right. So all through your Bible, you
see the blood paradigms, the blood motif, the offering of
sacrifices, the death necessary for life to be recovered. And
what that simply means is that God provided through the merits
of Christ's blood, the grace needed for God to deal with us
without throwing us out of his kingdom. And so he constantly
forgives us on the merits of Christ's work for us. You guys
see that? And what that basically amounts
to is eternal life. What that amounts to is eternal
life. The believer that says he has eternal life has eternal
life because of this, this, and this. I want you to think it
through. And fascinating, if this concept
actually enters into the framework of your thinking, becomes principles
by which you better interpret the Word of God. You're going
to read passages that talk about continuing, persevering, holding
on, not turning back, not giving up. In theology we call that
the perseverance of the saints. Here is the grounds of the perseverance
of the saints. A price paid, a grace given,
a a standing of forgiveness that allows us to sustain our relationship
with God until eternal life is realized. Did you guys get that? Did you get that? See, because
one of the things we're going to talk about here in a moment
is again, making sure that we don't overemphasize the entrance
doctrine over the consummation doctrine, because the consummation
doctrine is really the emphasis of the scriptures. What the scriptures
would have you and me do is to make sure we believe unto the
saving of our soul. Right? He that endureth to the
end, the same shall be what? Right. And so those passages
that are driving home the eschatological reality of the promise, we call
it in theology, the eschaton. Those passages that drive home
the eschaton are wanting to make sure that we actually obtain
eternal life. And so some Christians will really
struggle with why the Bible uses terminology that almost appears
to be talking about working for your salvation, because the only
aspect of the kingdom they know is the entrance doctrine. And
they don't always get that right. But when once a person has entered
into the kingdom by faith, then inside the kingdom, you are told
to constantly make your calling and election what? Right. And the reason why you are called
to do that is because you and I still live between heaven and
earth, between time and eternity. And we live in a dimension where
we could actually be wrong about our own personal assessment as
to where we are with God. And the Bible does not leave
room for presumption or the arrogance of assumption lacking the evidence. If a person cared about you,
They wouldn't let you walk across a precipice where they know that
a slip over the side is your mortal doom without warning you
to stay in the center. Stay in the center and make it
all the way through. And when you're all the way through,
then you can boast that you're all the way through. But while
you're walking, you are to be sober, be vigilant, And understand
that this is a straight and narrow way with all kinds of warnings
along the way, because as the Pilgrim's Progress so eloquently
puts it, many have fallen on the right side and on the left.
And when you look down, you see casualties everywhere of men
and women who pretended or took lightly the journey from I do
to it is. I do believe to it is true. So when we're talking about the
kingdom of God what we're trying to do now is just get a little
handle on the reality of that kingdom in our life so that we
can actually Think it through and talk about it and embrace
it a little bit more concretely. Is that okay Saints you have
to if we do this, right the kingdom of God will take on a psychological
and a Philosophical as well as a theological sort of formation
for you. It'll become more concrete for
you and That way God and the Lord Jesus and the Holy Ghost
are not some ethereal Formless entities with which you kind
of just hope that one day you come into reality They are persons
God is a person is he not you know what the Bible says the
father is a person son is a person And the Spirit of God is a person
they bear all three what we call personalities personhood is an
individuation of the species and in the context of humanity
personhood means that that species has Existence it has Self-indexing
existence. It knows that it exists. I am
God the Father. I am God the Son I am God the
Holy Ghost and distinct among themselves. They possess an intellect. They possess a volition They
possess a wheel they possess a rationale and they actually
act out of that personhood That's what it means to be a person.
In other words. God's not a tree He's not the wind He's not a
river Those are what we would call metaphors and analogies,
but they don't constitute their real ontology. Like you as a
person, you have a personality, you have a volition that is a
will, you have an intellect that is a mind, you have drives and
aspirations, you have goals, and you also know who you are
to some extent. Self-indexing is critical to
your individual Existence self indexing. I am Jesse You are
what you are you are You are young lady. Who are you? Huh? Shiny way back there bless you
and every one of you should know who you are if you don't know
who I am You may not be And the emphasis of that point
is that When God began to deal with his people in a larger covenant
paradigm and Moses asked God, who shall I tell? Pharaoh has
sent me. Tell him I am that I am. I know who I am and I am always
who I am and I'm never going to change who I am. Right, so
God was affirming his own autonomy and existence and unchangeableness,
his immutability, a conscious awareness of his own existence.
And when he created you and me in the image of God, Genesis
chapter 126, he created us with that same kind of self-awareness
so that we know our own personhood. Our personhood, therefore, has
value. There is no other person in the
universe that is you. And that's important. That's
very important. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Very important. So when it comes to God, we don't
want to leave any room for thinking that God is not. Because we wouldn't waste one
picosecond raising the question whether or not we are not. Why
would we waste a picosecond wondering whether or not the God that created
us of whom our us-ness is never in question? but we're going
to question the God that created us, perish the thought. I know
he exists because I exist. Now my existence does not make
his existence dependent upon me, but I am the affirmation
of his existence as the church is. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? This is crazy. So God has called
me to be his witness. But if i'm questioning the existence
of god, i'm questioning my own existence I didn't mean to take that side.
No, but it's so important to do sometimes to drive home basic
philosophical arguments essential to a basic understanding of who
we are in this matter of the kingdom of god because we get
really really sort of um theoretical and vague about god if we're
not careful to understand that god is actually He has actually
accommodated the whole of humanity with really tangible, incredible
evidences of his existence by virtue of our own existence.
by virtue of what we do few more and then we'll move on so we
said that the privileges and rights and benefits are rooted
in a redemptive grace forgiveness paradigm that constitutes eternal
life and it's certainly going to result in eternal life and
you guys know in your Bible eternal life is understood in terms of
what we have at the point of conversion and also what we look
forward to on the last day right so the Bible will talk about
unto eternal life the Bible will talk about he that believe in
half eternal life right eternal life abides in those that love
God the man that does not love God does not abide in eternal
life so eternal life is a past fact a present reality and a
future reality to come is it not all right so it's important
to know that threefold aspect so a code of ethics acceptable
lifestyle and conduct we talked about that before what is the
code of ethics and and acceptable lifestyle in the kingdom of God.
What is the fundamental thing that marks out the nature of
the kingdom? Remember what we said? What? Righteousness. You want to find a very real
and quick way to determine whether or not you are in the kingdom
of God. Do you understand righteousness as the foundation of your acceptance
and your relationship with God? If we don't then we are in danger
of missing that point. There's only one place in the
universe where righteousness exists and that's in God. And
righteousness then becomes the foundation of the relationship
that we have with God that affirms the reality of the kingdom of
God in our life. Everything outside of God or outside of God's approval
is unrighteous. Am I making some sense? So Romans
14 17 plainly says The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost. Where righteousness is absent,
right doing based upon the principles of God, then the kingdom of God
is not there in favorable authority and influence. In other words,
if I'm not living right, there's a good likelihood that I don't
have the kingdom of God in my life. Are you guys hearing me? If I'm not living right, And
really, I'm using a very sort of adolescent way of expressing
it. But if you wanted to work your
senses through in a book of the Bible that would kind of really
challenge you on the concept of righteousness, read First
John. First John teaches you about
what it really means to truly be in the kingdom of God. It's
a great book that we theologians call the test of authentic faith. Because in First John, It deals
with three categories. It deals with light, who God
really is, not who we think he is. And then it deals with love,
the basis of our relationship with him. And then it deals with
faith, light, love and faith. And that's why John closes out
saying, what is it that overcomes the world? Is it not even this,
even our faith? And so he talks about light,
love and faith as the sort of foundation for authentic Christianity. And what does he say in 1 John
3? Beloved, it's very clear and it is manifested. He that doeth
righteousness is of God. The one that is not practicing
righteousness is not of God. And John had to lay that down
and press that home because he had learned that from his master,
didn't he? The one thing the Lord Jesus
Christ plainly taught is that if our righteousness does not
exceed the righteousness of the fat scribes and Pharisees, we
would never enter into the kingdom. That's Matthew 5 22. So when
we talk about the, um, the kingdom of God in terms of its basic
code of ethics, understand that the driving motive, the driving
motive of every believer is to do what's right in the sight
of God. You don't even have to fool yourself
as to whether or not you're in the kingdom if you don't have
a driving motive to do what's right. In fact, we would call
that a cheap evidence of conversion, wouldn't we? Before being saved,
I didn't care about doing what's right. All I wanted to do is
what I wanted to do. And what I wanted to do was what
I thought was right. But once God saved me, conversion
wrought in me an awareness that I am not the orbiter of right. God is. At that point, repentance
is working to change my mind and make me want to do it God's
way. Is that right? Right. So now
we're talking about the characteristics of a person who is in the kingdom.
Righteousness just it permeates your Bible along those lines
Okay, and in fact the way the Bible closes out in the eschaton
2nd Peter 3 It says this present heavens and earth will be burned
up and God will create a new heavens and earth where in dwells
what? righteousness That word then
becomes a big banner over the new heavens in the new earth
where everything that offends is kicked out and the only thing
that dwells is righteousness when you and I are born again
the seed of righteousness is planted in us it's in our new
nature it's that which cannot sin first John 3 9 he that is
born of God can not practice a lifestyle of sin anymore because
he is born of God you guys got that that's one of those verses
that just is supposed to stop you in the track and ask yourself
cause you need to ask ourselves am I born again Did I have this
radical turn that put me on another path so that I'm going this way
albeit as shaky And troublesome as it is. I'm on the path of
what? That's exactly right The lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want he makes me
to lie down He leads me in the paths of what for his name's
sake. Yay, though So the point is is
that every child of god knows that path because that's what
conversion did it put him on the path And it gave him a mind
to want to walk that path. And walking in the way of righteousness
is a critical concept for evidencing the presence of the kingdom of
God. We're almost done with what we
were repeating last week, and we'll be able to advance the
thoughts a little bit. Okay, so then I talked about an army.
Did we talk about an army? Is that where we are now? I talked
about an army or security because in every government you gotta
have a means by which you secure and protect the Commonwealth.
Is that right? And what is God's army? It's
his angels and his what believers his angels and his people we
serve on the celestial terrestrial level of being God's army in
the sense that we fight a spiritual warfare through prayer and proclamation
while the angels fight a real Spiritual and terrestrial warfare
against the foes of God and against the foes of our soul And so the
security of the kingdom of God is underscored in such places
where Jesus said When he was talking with Pilate little peon
Pilate and he was talking with Caiaphas little peon Caiaphas
both little peon rulers opposing him and And the threat was I
can let you go or I can kill you. And they both had power
to do that. And our master said, what if I wanted to, I could
ask my daddy. That's good. If I wanted to,
I could just say, daddy, show these fools who I am. That's
good. And let me say something about
that just for a second, because I love this. He said, I will
ask my father, not because he couldn't tell the angels to do
it himself, but because he couldn't tell the angels to do it himself
because he was the son and not the father. And to be an obedient
son is to always acknowledge the rule of the father. He was
there to teach us what we should have known in the first Adam.
that everything we need and have comes from father. And all we
have to do is ask father and he will do it for us. You believe
that? Without a doubt. Jesus was so
confident. The Lord Jesus was so confident.
All I got to do is ask him. He'll send a legion of angels
down here and we'll clean house, clean house. And every believer
has that right and privilege as a son of God. Did you know
that you could call on the father to deliver you? in the midst
of trouble when authorities oppose you. In fact, that's what you
are supposed to do. So going back to Matthew 6, when
we say thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven, give us, forgive us, deliver us. Give us, forgive
us, deliver us. Why deliver us? Because thine
is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. You see how that prayer reinforces
the reality of the kingdom? That as children of God, we acknowledge
the father, we want his kingdom to come, don't we? Now that's
the verse you really want to sort of start wrapping your mind
around as we work through the idea of the kingdom over the
next several weeks so we can massage it into our thinking
as Jesus said, you want to learn how to pray? You really want
to learn how to pray? Acknowledge God in all of his impeccable
glory and splendor and beauty and tell him to make the kingdom
of God a reality in your life. And as he makes the kingdom of
God a reality in your life, depend upon God for everything like
a little boy or a little girl must depend upon their parents.
Daddy, give me my daily bread. Daddy, forgive me of my sins.
I just messed up. Daddy, deliver me from evil because
I can't deliver myself because only you have the power. Now
what I love about what I'm doing right now, and I'll tell you
I am so thankful for the assignment God has given me to be the pastor
of Grace Bible Church, because after 20 years of working with
most of our members here, most of our church members are so
solid in the word that I don't even have to question whether
or not they can track with me in concepts that are generally
way over the head of a lot of church folks. I just came back
from a conference last week preaching in the Virgin Isles, and enjoyed
it thoroughly. It's a new group of people that
I'm learning to preach and teach to. And as the case is always,
they are impacted with a kind of awe at my teaching only because
my teaching is, uh, it's intensive and it's very introspective.
I actually go deep with people and hungry souls are ready to
go deep. Hungry souls are ready to go
deep. Even if it's challenging your mind, even if it's stretching
your mind, even if it's pushing back on your assumptions, you
want to go deep with God. And this is the problem with
our present culture. People are not going deep enough with God.
And you and I know our Bibles, when that book is opened up wide
open, you know, it's saying come. Come drink, drink deeply. Oh, daughter of Jerusalem, drink,
drink abundantly and come to know who I am in the fullness
of my glory and in the fullness of my sufficiency. Only our leaders
don't take the people deep enough for the kingdom to be that kind
of reality for us. And as a consequence, we suffer
for it. Because our secular system in which you and I live coexist
is by nature superficial. Is that true? We live in a superficial
world. And so the idea of going deep
anywhere without us getting paid, it's just a, it's a daunting
task. It's a daunting task. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us From evil for thine is the kingdom, power and
glory forever and ever. This is a powerful, powerful
framework for prayer. Father, you are my father. You
made me born again. You made us. We did not make
ourselves. Isn't that the way the psalmist
puts it? He's our God. We are his people. We are the
sheep of his pastor. He made us. We did not make ourselves. That's the nature of prayer.
Okay then, so let's continue to wrap this up. What did I say
last week was the commonwealth or the economical security in
the kingdom of God? the spirit of God, which bestows
upon the kingdom, the gifts necessary for the kingdom to advance and
prosper and sustain itself. This is something we will work
through more fully over time too. And you're going to enjoy
this as we continue working through the series on David. Do not be
bored. Do not get distracted from my
series and David because narrative theology is God's kindness to
us. To help us ride along with God
as he tells us who he is and what he's up to in a story format. Because he made us for conversation. You know how you can sit up with
a girlfriend and talk for hours without breathing in? You know
what I'm talking about? Y'all can just go! Because your
interest has been peaked. And you don't even want to get
off the phone to go pee. You keep talking. Hold on, girlfriend. You're running right back. You're
talking. And even a partner, it may be that same way. When
you and I have something that is interesting to us, we can
go and go and go. And what you discover in your
being is this reserved energy to get at it. Even to the point
of hurting your own body. The same thing is true when you
fall in love. I know y'all don't remember what
that was like. But when you fell in love, there was this, this
amazing energy pack that sustained you in your focus with that person. And you just, it was an inexhaustible
longing to be with them. And both of these concepts underscore
the nature of our salvation with God. This is what I love about
David. When you read the Psalms, David
has such a deep longing for God That is crazy. And you're not
going to see that worked out between him and his partner,
Jonathan. And far be it from any child of God at grace to
think homoerotic, but rather a covenant love based on a kindness
and relationship that goes so deep between two people that
they're both willing to die for each other. Powerful, powerful
concept. And I'm simply saying that in
the commonwealth, the Holy Spirit gives us tools and gifts to take
us that deep with God. Does he? Does the Holy Ghost
pour in the heart of his people levels of love for God that caused
them to do exploits and works for God that are that amount
to amazing? Does the spirit of God pour into
us the supply of grace that causes nobody's to become somebody for
the one person who is the most important person of the universe.
Does the spirit of God do that? Yes, he does. He pours that into
and he's designed to be present to pour that into us through
us for one another so that God gets the glory. It's called the
Commonwealth. And the more we learn about the
Commonwealth, the better we will be in the kingdom of God. So
he gave us his spirit. This is the way the apostles
talk about it all through the New Testament. The last one was
a social cultural or protocol and procedure by which the kingdom
of God is also manifested. And I said that was love, faith,
hope, giving and service. And you can write that down too,
just to fill in that blank. What are the things that are
going to hallmark the culture of the people of God? Love, faith,
hope, giving, and what? Right. And I did these advisedly. I
did not do these arbitrarily just to get as a 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, a five-point note on what the culture of the kingdom is.
I've thought about these five. First and foremost, You have
the first three in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, right? And now these
three abide. Faith, hope, and love, right?
Faith, hope, and love are a triad that run all the way through
the New Testament to the end of the Bible. But that faith,
hope, and love is worked out in two areas that we would call
the practical manifestation of these inward, emotional, volitional
dispositions. Giving and serving. Giving and
serving. giving and serving. How do I
know I've grown up into Christ in a way where my life now is
actually operating out of the mandate of the gospel? I'm giving
and I'm what? Serving. Giving and serving.
Again, David is going to teach us this. He's going to teach
us this. You want to see a Christian that's
jacked up Find a Christian that hasn't actually tapped into the
reality of the nature and character of God, have drunk from the well
of grace and experienced the abundance of God's love. Jesus
said it in John chapter four and John chapter seven. Out of
your belly shall flow rivers of living water. It will mount
up like a geyser, welling up to those who want it. where the
grace of the Spirit will make you so efficient in your walk
with God and capacitate you with everything you need to be a giver
and a server. And you don't want to stop in
your relationship with God until you realize that. You don't want
to be a Christian who doesn't have a basic resume of giving
and serving. Because giving and serving It's
Christ. That's Christ. Y'all got that? That is Christ. That's fundamental
to the reality of who we are. Now, outside of Christ, we took
and we ran things. This is why we're going to see
the wonderful dichotomy between King Saul, who was a false prophet,
and King David, who was a true prophet. The false king, true
king antithesis is going to be there. Saul takes. David gives. False prophets and false teachers
take. You're going to learn this Sunday.
Faithful preachers give. The assumption then is that you
have something to give. And you do. Because you're a
vehicle of the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost comes bearing
gifts to give to men and women that they might know God. Am
I making some sense? That's right. So when Jesus tells you and me
the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, But to what minister
as a father has sent me so send out what I want to see giving
in my life. I want to see service in my life.
I want to see that as an overflow of my relationship to God because
if I am giving and I am serving outside of the supply of grace
that God is pointing to my life. I'm working legally and I want
to get paid Who didn't understand that right
there I taught this many years ago so one of the things we don't
do in our church and You're gonna see this when we work through
the Saul David paradigm is We don't let people come into grace
the first week say hi And then the next week actually put them
to work because people will quickly come in and want to do something
No, we don't do that. We ask you to sit here for six
months or a year or even ten years, not ten years, but long
enough, long enough for you to find out whether or not you're
serious about God. Let me share something with you.
I've learned that all it takes for me to know who you really
are is about a year. Generally, it happens in three
months, but I give it a year because after the kind of zeal
wears off for being in a new environment, Whoever you are
is going to show up. And we want the real you. Because
when we get the real you, we can help you. We don't want,
as I was saying to my brothers and sisters in the Virgin Isles
last week, weather was pristine and perfect. Can I tell y'all
what was going on? Pristine and perfect. We could see down to
the bottom of the ocean. Didn't do no snorkeling, none
of that. I had to preach every day. As I told them, God doesn't call
for Mary Kay Smiles and salesman tactics and putting heavy burdens
upon people too grievous to be born to do his work for him. If you don't love God, you can't
serve God. Did y'all hear what I just said? If you don't love God, you can't
serve him. And we don't want you to serve here if your service
is not rooted in love. Now, if you're not connected
with God, we're here to help you, but you can't help us. I'm just keeping it real. You
understand what I'm saying? You can't help us until you really
actually understand where you are with your savior. Because
if you come into a church and start working empty of the resources
of the kingdom, you're going to want to get paid some kind
of way. And that's how a lot of churches
are built today, are they not? Where everybody are paid employees
in the ministry. Attitude is as funky as all get
up. There are no fragrances of grace,
no evidences of the spirit of God in terms of the fruit of
the spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering, temperance, goodness,
meekness, and self-control. They are cantankerous, they are
agitators, they are fighters, they are all sorts of carnal
things dominating them. It's all because they are working
out of an energy from the flesh. And whenever we work in the flesh,
we must get paid. Can I tell you why? Because when
you are working in the flesh, you are operating out of a deficit. Whenever you are working for
someone, out of the flesh or out of a reciprocity principle,
that person then owes you. You may not say it with your
words, but you'll say it with your attitude. Am I making some
sense? So there are people who will
come in and I mean, in one, two weeks, pastor, I wanna work,
pastor, I wanna work. I'll tell you what you can do. Work hard
at sitting down and not working, and we'll see what we can do
in six months. And some people actually are offended and get
up and leave. Good, the sooner, you get offended, get up and
leave, the better. Because we're about making sure
your soul is right with God. See, we're not into a numbers
game. We're not trying to get notches on our belt and build
the biggest church. I think I told you a couple of
weeks ago, we're not counting sheep, we're weighing sheep.
I wanna see how fat we can get you in Jesus name. Fat. Next PowerPoint, I got 20 minutes
with you guys. Is this a good class you guys?
All right, so we'll be able to run through this one quickly
because we dealt with this one last week too. Three aspects of the
kingdom of God to be taken seriously, entrance, occupancy and apprehension. Entrance obviously has to do
with conversion. Occupancy has to do with commitment.
And apprehension has to do with consummation. I want to ultimately
realize the kingdom of God. The language around consummation
is in 2 Peter 1. We'll go there in a moment. The
language around commitment is in 2 Peter 1 as well, where it
talks about making your calling and election sure. And conversion
has to do with the radical metaphor that our Lord used about being
born again, which means If you think that you got into the kingdom
of God by something you did, the likelihood is you're not
in the kingdom. You guys understand that? Right,
so entrance into the kingdom and conversion will always be
acknowledged by the recipient understanding that he is simply
or she is simply the object of God's mercy and grace in a radical
transformation that took place monergistically on God's part
towards you, by which he raised you from the dead, opened your
eyes, gave you life and faith in Jesus, caused your heart to
say yes to Jesus, and by the time you said yes, you were already
alive. By the time you said yes, you
were already alive. Because to say yes requires a
new heart. And a new heart is the work of
God. Am I making some sense? By the time you say yes, Lord
Jesus, you're already born again. And that yes, then will work
itself out in a daily longing for him and a desiring him, which
is the commitment factor, which is what Jesus meant when he said,
now watch this, follow me. Now we're going to be disciples.
That's the term math, the tail, our method time. And he was confirming
and strengthening the disciples. Now you're, you're a lifelong
learner of your Lord. That's what you do. You spend
the rest of your life following Jesus. That's what that means. That's
good to hear. So to which of these is the Apostle referring
that was an aside a couple of weeks ago contextually conceptually
The idea of entering in I think I'm gonna deal with that next
time and the fact that the kingdom of God is a term I'm just gonna
put this in your head just in case you don't know it if you
think that I am dealing with an incidental concept I am NOT
a hundred and sixty three times is this word the kingdom of God
or heaven and in this terms of God or heaven they are synonyms
of The kingdom of God is used 163 times in the New Testament
alone. And more than two thirds of that
term is used in the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
What that means then is there was an underlying assumption
in the gospel language of that first century about the kingdom
of God. Like when Jesus rose again and
he was with the disciples for 40 days, One of the critical
questions that was raised by the apostles when Jesus was about
to take off in Acts chapter 1 was when is the kingdom going to
manifest itself? Remember that? That's around
Acts 1-6. Jesus said don't worry about
that, which is where I'm getting ready to go now into the nature
of the kingdom a little bit. But in the book of Acts, the
term the kingdom of God is used four times and I want you to
see all four. Acts chapter 1 verse 6. Acts
1-6 is where I want us to see this term. Acts 1 6 and then
after acts 1 6 is just one a visual in your head when they therefore
came together They asked him say Lord wilt thou at this time
restore again the kingdom to who? Right. See their assumption
was that Israel had a right to the kingdom But if you read read
Matthews 21 clearly the kingdom is actually being taken from
Israel and given to whom the church That's exactly right The
next time we read it is in our account in Acts chapter 14, verse
22. The next time after that is Acts 20, verse 25. Pull up
Acts 20, 25. There's four times in the book
of Acts. Five, I mean, five. And I want
you to see this, Acts 20, 25. Here's what the apostles say.
This is the apostle Paul in the book of Acts chapter 20, verse
25, where he is speaking to the church at Ephesus these words. And now behold, I know that ye
all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see
my face no more. Now notice what Paul says. I
know among whom I have you. I know you are among whom I have
gone preaching the kingdom of God. So now that you're sensitive
to the term mark that Paul had no qualms saying I preach the
kingdom of God. Are you guys with me? I preach
the kingdom of God. Now watch this. Acts 28, Acts
chapter 28, verse 23. I want you to see this, Acts
28, 23. Watch what he says again. Acts
28, verse 23. Here it is. And when they had
appointed him a day, there came many to him his lodging this
is where Paul now is in Rome about to face his first trial
under the Roman government and he's in his own house under lock
arrest to whom he expounded and testified what the kingdom of
God persuading them concerning who Jesus both out of the law
of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening was
that brother hot for Christ or what now mark what he's doing
he's explaining the kingdom and He's dealing with the king and
the text that he's using is the whole Bible The length of time
that he's using to explain the kingdom and the king from the
text is morning and evening Every day all day long all Paul
is doing while Awaiting trial is talking to the people about
the kingdom and the king from the scriptures See how important
the subject is Do you see how important the subject is? One
last time in verse 31 of the same chapter. Acts 28 verse 31. Here's what
it says. And this is the last verse in
the book of Acts. And you guys are privileged to
see it because it's going to be about two years before we
finished the book of Acts. So you least know how this thing
going to end. Verse 30, and Paul dwelt two whole years in his
own hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching
the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the
Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. See what
he's doing? Teaching the kingdom, the lordship
of Christ every day, the kingdom, the kingdom. So now, Before I
open the floor for a few questions, what was the kingdom that Paul
was teaching? What was the nature of that kingdom?
What was the reality of that kingdom that he was teaching
that for Paul was so real That was the way he entitled his delivery,
his message, his charisma, his Caruso. He was teaching the kingdom. What is the manifestation of
the kingdom that he was talking about for which he was so constantly
compelled to use that terminology. We want to think that through
for just a moment. So I will say that the kingdom
has certain Tangible manifestations when you read your Bible by which
we know the kingdom of God Was present in any dispensation What
would you say? the kingdom of God is today by
way of manifestation, how would we talk about it in terms of
its nature not necessarily its form yet, but its nature its
Ontology the word ontology means nature the the substantive part
of a being what we really are That's what on toss means that
which is true to the thing that has a form like you can have
a humanoid robot where from a distance you look at a thing and it looks
real and But the inner parts, the inward parts, are all mechanical
and electronic and wires. And we would say that that's
not a human, right? And the reason it's not a human is because it
doesn't bear human ontology or nature. Right. So when I say, what is the kingdom
of God? What are those tangible evidences
of the presence of what Paul and Christ and John called the
kingdom? What are those tangible evidences?
It's the presence of the Spirit of God working in the lives of
men and women, illuminating their hearts and their minds to the
reality of God by His power to commit themselves to Him as an
allegiance to Him as Lord and then to take on the mandate that
that Lord brings about in their life. The kingdom of God is evidenced
by the presence of the third person influencing people's minds
and hearts, illuminating them to the reality of God in Christ,
and then leading them in a life of commitment to the mandates
of the kingdom of God. This is the work of the spirit
of God. when he rushes in through the
work of preaching and opens people's eyes to the reality of God. Those people then become affected
by the presence of God morally and ethically and spiritually. When a man or a woman has experienced
the presence of the kingdom They have been impacted by what 1st
Corinthians 4 7 pull up 1st Corinthians 4 7 calls the power of God Mark
how Jesus put it While she pulls up 1st Corinthians 4 7 we'll
go there in a second. Let's do the 2nd Corinthians
4 7 2nd Corinthians 4 I think it's 2nd Corinthians 4 7 in Acts
chapter 1 verse 8 Jesus said Terry here until you receive
from on high, the spirit of God, the promise of my father, you
guys remember that? And when you receive the promise of my
father, you shall receive power to be my what? Witnesses. The presence of the kingdom of
God is the presence of power. First Corinthians. Okay. I know
what I did wrong. Go back to, that's a good word,
but go back to first Corinthians chapter four and give me verse
17. Because this is where Paul makes a very categorical distinction. And he's echoing what Christ
said in Acts chapter one, verse eight. Stay in Jerusalem till
you be endued from on high. Why am I not getting my verse
right? Stay in Jerusalem till you be endued from on high. You
will receive power to be my witnesses unto all the world, right? The
operative word is power. Okay, so it's 1st Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 20 1st Corinthians chapter 4 verse 20. Let me start
at verse 19. We'll close here Look with me
at verse 19 20 and 21 of this text and hear what the Apostle
says is actually verse 20 He's warning the church at Corinth.
I'll use this as a sort of object lesson a warning when the churches
were started all of these gospel churches Corinth and Thessalonica
and Ephesus and all of that It was not long at all before the
enemy entered into those churches seeking to destroy the witness
of those churches. The one thing you see very clearly
in the epistles is a constant battle to correct error, to correct
bad conduct, to correct false teaching in those churches. Corinth
was really a mess. Paul is writing to Corinth warning
them about a Failure to realize the kingdom and here's what these
verses say when he says I'll be there I will come to you shortly
if the Lord will and I will know not the speech of them which
are puffed up Who is he talking about here the false prophets
the false teachers of which I'm gonna talk about on Sunday. I
He's actually going to develop this in 2nd Corinthians chapter
11, where he warns the church at Corinth that I have espoused
you as a chaste virgin unto Jesus. I don't expect you sleeping around
with no one. I expect you to be a virgin until
Jesus comes. But I am afraid, lest as the
devil deceived Eve, you too have been deceived from the simplicity
of the gospel unto another gospel. And then he began to explain
the character of the false prophets that had entered into the church
at Corinth. And here he's talking about the
same. Their influence was so powerful that they were willing
to reject the very apostle that had established that church.
What does that mean? If a local gospel church gets
established, The only way it's gonna stay solid is for strong
men in the church to deal with error and keep false doctrine
and false teaching out so that the presence of God stays there.
If we allow heretics and false teachers and false prophets in
this church, the spirit of God will leave. Do you hear me? He will leave because he will
recognize that there is no allegiance in the church to the kingdom.
And he will give that church over to the strong delusion of
which the Bible warrants. And again, you're going to see
a graphic contradistinction between the character of King Saul, demon
possessed, King David divinely possessed and the attributes
of the two Manifesting what it means to be a false prophet versus
a true prophet Here's what he says but I'll come to you Charlie
if the Lord will and I will know not the what of them the speech
and Mark what he's saying here. This is why this issue of the
kingdom is so important to me Some people think that the only
thing that matters is what we say and some people think that
the kingdom of God is largely about preaching and teaching
as if all the church is is a school of words Where we sit around
scholastically and talk about ideas and concepts Are you guys
hearing? Oh, I see us now. This is Very
important. This is very, very important.
The kingdom of God is not evidenced by merely talk. It's not evidence by talk. As
important as talk is, the end of the conversation is not, that
was a good message. That's not the kingdom of God.
He says, I will know these fellows, not the speech of them that are
puffed up, but the what? What he said was I'm coming That's
what Paul said I'm an apostle he said I've been born again. I Have the Spirit of God He said
it several times to the brothers and sisters and all the epistles
He says now I know I have the Spirit of God when I come I'm
gonna find out whether they have it You see Paul was serious about
the territory of He says when I come we're gonna make a distinction
between people who have the gift of gab and those who have the
gift of the Holy Ghost Because there's a radical distinction
between the gift of gab and the gift of the Spirit of God He
says when I come we're gonna find out see these fellas are
puffed up But I'm gonna find out if there's any real substance
behind their puffed upness now watch what he says in the next
verse verse 20 for the kingdom of God is Not in word, but in
what? See what he says? See what he
says? He's saying that don't look for
the real estate of the kingdom to be merely what you say. And the word is dunamis there.
And the word dunamis has to do with the energy and the life
that actually materializes in the believer morally and ethically,
making him a new creature and living out the cause of the gospel
for which he was taught. Am I making some sense? The radical
transformation that comes through preaching changes the life. Got that? It changes the life. Now, Saints, we've got a good
70 folks here. Think about this with me as we
close. When God talks about giving us power, is he just running
off at the mouth? This is a very serious subject,
don't you think? Dunamis is a very, very, very volatile term. And Christ used it in Acts chapter
one. Paul is using it here. He used it again in Romans 14,
because the enemy loves to substitute falsehood and facsimiles and
appearances over against the real thing. So now follow me for just a moment.
I'll make this as, as factual as I possibly could. What evidence
did King Saul have that he had the spirit of God? What did he
do that was an exploit? that made it evident that the
supernatural presence and power of God was upon him. Nothing. I'm gonna show you that when
we go through the book. God's gonna intentionally give us a catalog
of things that Saul pretended to do that made him look like
he was anointed, but wasn't anointed at all. And the first thing you
and I see in the life of the little shepherd boy, is the taking
out of the man in the middle. The first thing we see is the
tangible, credible evidence of the Spirit of God. In the ability
of a boy who had no position, he wasn't a soldier, he wasn't
a military man, he was nothing but a shepherd boy. And he had
an anointing to defeat God's foe, which was an affirmation
of God's presence in his life. You know what we call that? Power.
power. And God's going to let that display
manifest itself for 10 chapters. From chapter 18 to chapter 28,
we're going to see the difference between what it means to have
the Lord with you versus not. And saints, you get this free
because y'all came out tonight. Rest in church, they just have
to starve. This is the way the scriptures work in manifesting
the kingdom from Genesis to Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, all the way through, you see the Spirit of God operating
upon a person or a people doing these exploits that demonstrate
His presence. Are you guys hearing me? Demonstrating
His presence. And what we want to know is,
what is the tangible evidence of the presence of the Spirit
of God in the life of a Christian today or the Christian church
versus not. Because either the kingdom is
present in our midst or it's not. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? Either the presence of the kingdom
of God is in our home or it's not. Either the presence of the
kingdom of God is in the church at large so that it impacts the
culture with not only the mandate to go, but the power to retrieve
sinners and bring them out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Or it doesn't. Either we are salt and light.
Either we are fishermen and laborers for the kingdom of God. Either
we are witnesses for Christ or not. Am I making some sense? The Spirit of God is either working
through us to influence people for the kingdom of God or not
So when I ask that question, I am I'm not saying it to intimidate
you guys I'm just like you guys I'm a mortal soul breathing in
and out right now. Just like you hoping to get the
glory one day, aren't you? I I'm hoping to get the glory
one day. I am not Not confident in the
Lord Jesus. I know that he can't lie change
or fail I know that his promises are true and right I believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, but he has taught me Every day of
my Christian life for now 35 years To keep it real with him
To keep it real with him. Don't play games with the Lord
Jesus. I Don't play games with the Lord Jesus in the make my
calling in election. Sure. You guys hear what I'm
saying? He has, he has taught me, Jesse,
don't you be a lying sign and wonder. Don't you be a false
prophet. Don't you be a huckster. Don't
you be telling these people one thing and doing another. Don't
you have men and women looking towards heaven and you're headed
towards hell. Don't you tell others to do something and get
yourself be a castaway. Don't you be an empty vessel
having nothing to say of any eternal significance to the souls
of men. Don't you be a sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal moving the flesh. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And so this is where you'll get
your pastor from time to time pressing you, pressing you, pressing
you past the form of religion that we all have, because we
all have a form of religion and we get comfortable in our forms.
But what we need is substance. We need the reality of God in
our life, working in our life, transforming us, conforming us
to the image of Christ, holding on to our hearts, holding on
to our hands, shaping our thoughts, keeping us sensitive, drawing
us not to him. Don't you think? And working
through this humble process, because this is humbling what
we're going through. Anybody know what I'm talking
about? It's humbling being a Christian. I told you now, you got to listen
to my teaching 10 times to get my principles, because God has
revealed to us the way of Christ. He's called from heaven. He assumes
a human nature and he takes on the role of a what? Servant.
He suffers even unto death as a servant before he's exalted.
And you know what he told us? The same way he went, we got
to go. You don't get to go any other way. You don't get to shine.
You don't get to bling. You don't get to live large.
You don't get stars and lights. Not when you come to Jesus. When
you come to Jesus, he's going to take you through a course
of humility. Never Never humiliation Never humiliation Always humility,
that's why it feels so What's the word what's the word it's
it it it's like it's just out of reach I Don't know if you
guys know what I'm talking about It's like just out of reach.
That thing is right there. That ain't it, right? You get
right there, but it's not it. I mean, it's good. I'm good.
I'm good. I like what I got, but I'm not
satisfied. Like there's something that I
have to break through still until I see the reality. And until
then, I'm not going to be satisfied with the possibility of missing
it. You guys hear what I'm saying?
Sin ain't worth it. Sin is not worth it. This life
is not worth going to hell. Am I telling the truth? The pleasures
of sin are not worth going to hell. It ain't worth it. Solomon already told you. He
didn't did it. He said, Jesse, don't, you ain't gotta go. I
did it for you. I didn't mess it up. The only reason I'm in
heaven is because God saved me. Believe me, you're gonna waste
a whole lot of time trying to get where I got. Spend your time going
after God Spend your time Going after God That's what you want
to do Do you guys hear me? Spend your time going after God
and in the process of going after God watch how God blesses you
With life And all kinds of discoveries and pleasures and blessings that
come with it but those are secondary benefits to the one thing that
Jesus said, get that. See, our master said this, our
master says, make sure you get in the kingdom. That's what we
want. Amen. Father, we thank you for
this time. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters. As we go home, give us traveling mercies, prepare
our hearts to worship you on Sunday. Grace us to show up,
Lord, and you show up too. We want to worship you. We love
you because you first loved us. Amen.