For King And Kingdom

[0:00] Last week, I talked about for Christ and the gospel. This week, I'm going to talk about for king and kingdom. Two messages similar in one sense of just laying foundations.

[0:15] What are we motivated in? What is our aim, our focus? I want to talk to you about the king and the kingdom this morning. I'm starting in Colossians 4, verse 11.

[0:29] At the end of Colossians there, you see Paul talking about some different people. He says, These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

[0:42] These are fellow workers for the kingdom of God. And that's who we are. Fellow workers for the kingdom of God. That we are living for the kingdom of God.

[0:53] What is the kingdom of God? Kingdom definitions. Jack Taylor says, God's rule over everyone and everything for all time and eternity. Wolfgang Simpson says, The realm of God's uncontested rule.

[1:09] So if we're starting a church, and we're seeking to seek and save those which are lost, we're basically looking for this particular area we live in.

[1:19] We're looking for people who are not underneath, who are not submitting themselves to the rule of the king, and saying, Hey, where are the people who are not under the realm of God's uncontested rule?

[1:32] Where are those people who have not submitted their lives to Jesus? And we want to see them through the gospel of the kingdom, come out from underneath the kingdom of darkness, and into and under the kingdom of light.

[1:45] Okay? We want to see God's rule extend to those who are bucking his rule. We're saying, Jesus is not my king. You know, just like, it's kind of similar, different seasons of time.

[2:00] Right now, you might have Republicans saying, Biden's not my president. Or last time with Trump, you have people saying, not my, hashtag, not my president. All right? Which is kind of a dopey thing, because he is.

[2:12] Right? But it's the same thing with God. Like, it's like, well, he's not my God. Well, he actually is. You just don't recognize it. You don't submit to it. You don't live like it. So there's a lot of people out there who might say, hashtag, not my king.

[2:26] Okay? Jesus isn't my king. I'm not submitting to his rule. I'm living underneath my own rule. And, um, essentially the kingdom of God is what the king wants, the way he wants it.

[2:38] And so whenever you care about what the king wants, and you care about the way the king wants it, because you can't care about what the king wants and not care about the way he wants it, because the way he wants it is what the king wants.

[2:50] Follow me on that, Sam? Okay. Sam's awake. So if you care about the kingdom of God, you care about what he wants, and you care about it being done on earth as it is in heaven.

[3:03] Right? That's what you see in Matthew 6. It's essentially the same way of saying that. Say, I want to see what the king wants in heaven, because what's going on in heaven is what the king wants.

[3:13] When I'm saying, I want it done on earth, I'm saying, I want this vision of what I see in heaven, God ruling and reigning, I want to see that come down to earth, where he is exercising that rule, that reign over every single person, every single thing, all creation.

[3:29] And so that's why we pray, let your kingdom come, right, on earth as it is in heaven. Okay? Just as it is in heaven perfectly, we want that to be here on earth.

[3:41] And we, as a church, are, you know, it's all kind of ethereal, and kind of out there, until there's an actual church that says, hey, we want to be the embassy of that kingdom, so to speak.

[3:55] You can basically look at churches as like these, these embassies of the kingdom. These are the pockets of God's rule, where the way it is in heaven is how it is on earth. People come into the church, they should see a picture of heaven.

[4:09] They should see, oh, this is what the king wants. This is the way that life underneath the king's rule is going to look like in the future, when he's ruling over it all. Here's a little pocket of it, in this embassy of the church.

[4:23] Much like if you go to Iraq, where I think we have our largest embassy, America's largest embassy, at least we used to, this massive, almost like mini city there, all the laws of America are true in that little piece of land in Iraq, even though it's in another country.

[4:41] How things are done in America is done right there in Iraq. By putting that embassy there, it's like America's will is being done in Iraq as it is in America.

[4:53] Do you hear me on that? And so in the same way, we're saying the church is like an embassy of the king in the kingdom, where everything that, the way things are supposed to be done, the way they are done in heaven is done just like that in this little picture of heaven in the church.

[5:10] And our job is to be his ambassadors, right, of that kingdom in that embassy and say, we want to bring other people.

[5:21] We are going out to preach about the benefits of the kingdom that we are under, the rule that we're under. We're saying, hey, come underneath this rule. There's actually, I want to give you some good news of the kingdom.

[5:34] As an ambassador of Christ, I want to give you good news about the kingdom that I represent and that I live under. I want to invite you out of the kingdom of darkness that you're living under, whose ruler is the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the kingdom of the air.

[5:48] I want to invite you to come out from underneath his rule, which is bondage and slavery. It's stealing, killing, and destroying. And I want to invite you into this invitation that my king has made to you that he could give you citizenship in heaven as well.

[6:05] Does that make sense? Do you see the, there's that language littered all over. I just quoted a bunch of scriptures. Your citizenship is in heaven. You're not of this world, right? We're just sojourners, alien earthlings, so to speak, right?

[6:20] Aliens and strangers on this earth. And yet, we are not just from some mysterious place, we're from a specific place.

[6:31] We are citizens in a specific kingdom with a specific king, bringing a specific rule that is to be extended. It is to be advanced. It is to be moving forward.

[6:42] And it comes to the good news or the gospel of the kingdom. Does that make sense? So the kingdom or the king's domain, the domain of the king, the domain of Christ's uncontested rule is what we should be about.

[6:59] And you've heard me talk about this before. I'm going to get into it a little bit deeper. Every kingdom has three essentials. Okay? The ruler, the ruled, and the rules. Okay?

[7:09] If any one of those three is missing, it's not the kingdom. Does that make sense? If there's no ruler, nope, that's not a kingdom. All right? Or if the ruler is usurped and there's some other ruler, that's not Christ's kingdom.

[7:23] Christ's kingdom has to be ruled by Christ. If you're on the throne, that ain't his kingdom. If you're doing what you want, what you want, when you want, how you want, the way you want, sorry, it's not the kingdom.

[7:37] You can't say, oh yeah, I'm about the kingdom and do what you want, when you want, how you want, the way you want. No. You do what the king wants. You're submitted to the king.

[7:49] If he's not the ruler and you're not submitted to him as the ruler, whenever you're talking about the kingdom and that isn't the case, that's not the kingdom of God. Okay? Starts with the ruler.

[8:01] This one's for Adam. The preeminent potentate. Okay? Adam likes that. I know he does. Okay? The one whose rule is above all, all-powerful, all-mighty, ruler, preeminent, potentate of everything, everywhere, for all time and eternity.

[8:23] Okay? That's Jesus. And if you try to, like, kind of dial down his rule just a little bit and say, well, yeah, he was a prophet. He's a good guy.

[8:35] Someone I want to emulate. You know? No. There's an unbeliever I've chatted with many times and he says he's a Christian, but whenever he talks about Jesus, he does not talk about him as the preeminent potentate, the ruler over all creation, the king of kings and the lord of lords.

[8:53] He talks about him just like he's a cool dude. You know? Like, I'm just like, this is not some cool spiritual doji here. Like, this is the ruler of heaven and earth.

[9:04] This is Jesus, King Jesus. The way you talk about him makes me think the kingdom of God has not come to you. You may be close, but you are not yet in this kingdom you speak so familiar with.

[9:18] Okay? 1 Timothy 6, 14 to 16 says, Our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 15, He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and the lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion.

[9:42] Okay? Forever rule, that means. He's the ruler. Revelation 19, 16, on his robe, speaking of Jesus, and on his thigh, he has a name written.

[9:54] King of kings and lord of lords. All right? King of kings and lord of lords. So, essentially, you could even say he's more than a king. What is someone who's a king of kings?

[10:07] The emperor, right? I mean, he's bigger than a king. He is the king of kings. Even the kings of the earth are underneath the rule of the emperor. King Jesus, the king of kings.

[10:20] Right? Revelation 1, verse 5, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on the earth. Ephesians 1, 19-23, What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named.

[10:52] He's not just a little bit above. It's not just there's the kings and then there's Jesus. He's far above all rule and authority. There is no comparison. You don't even, it's even hard to even put them in the same sentence.

[11:05] Okay? That when you talk about rules of kings and then the rule of the king, it's so incomparable, it's hard to even say them in the same sentence. Right? Because he's far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

[11:26] So not just now, but forever. The next age, every age that is to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

[11:41] Put all things under his feet. All things. Not some, not most, all things. He is the ruler. Okay? If you're going to talk kingdom, you must talk Jesus is the ruler, the king.

[11:55] He rules over all. We don't negotiate with him. We don't try to say, well, I kind of, you know, yeah, I like a couple things about Jesus, but like, I kind of want my way in this thing.

[12:08] I don't know. He's the ruler. He's above all rule. You don't, uncontested. It's not like the devil and Jesus are in this like neck and neck race and it's kind of close and it looks like the devil won that one.

[12:21] Never, ever, ever, albeit to think that, to utter that. Never. Never. There is no, he is uncontested in his rule. That's why I love Wolfgang's definition of the kingdom.

[12:33] The realm of his uncontested rule. There is no competition. There is no contest. No one challenges his rule. It's not even possible. Okay? He is the ruler.

[12:45] When you think kingdom, you think that. Okay? The second thing in a kingdom, the ruled. Psalm 103, 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all.

[12:58] Okay? All. Psalm 22, 28, for kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. You might say, well, even the nations that are totally godless, you bet, every nation he rules over.

[13:13] Is there anything he doesn't rule over? No. I think it was A.W. Pink who said if there was one rogue molecule in the entire universe, he would cease to be God. Not one rogue molecule.

[13:25] He is king over all. He is ruler over all. There's not one molecule that is not under the sovereign rule of King Jesus. Do you hear me on that? Okay?

[13:36] And so we are under his rule. Revelation 1, 5, the ruler of the kings on earth. All right? So there's the ruler and then there's the ruled. Those who are a part of his kingdom are ruled by King Jesus.

[13:50] You can't be in his kingdom and not be ruled. You can't say, I don't believe he's the ruler and I'm not underneath this rule. You know, I think I can do what I want to do.

[14:00] It's like, that has to hit every area. Okay? It has to, the rule of God hits your checkbook, your bank account, your sex life. Okay?

[14:11] It hits your marriage, your parenting, your single life. Right? It hits your work life. It's how you use your time. Are you ruled or are you not? Who's ruling?

[14:23] Is he the ruler? If he's the ruler, then you're the ruled. That means nothing is your own anymore. Your time isn't your own. Your money isn't your own. Everything is his. Right? By nature, in a kingdom, nobody owns anything but the king.

[14:36] Did you know that? In a real kingdom. We don't know that because we live in a republic where we care very much about our property rights. Right? In a kingdom, there's only stewards. There is no owners other than the king.

[14:49] He gives property and things for you to use, but you do not own them in a kingdom. Okay? For God to be a king and to be the ruler, nothing is yours anymore.

[15:00] It's all his. By nature of him being king and you being the ruled. All right? And then three, you have the rules. If you remove any of these, you don't have a kingdom.

[15:12] Okay? You say, yeah, God's the ruler and I'm the ruled, but I play by my own rules. No. Ipso facto, not the truth. Cannot happen. There's no, it doesn't work that way. If he is ruling, then he sets the rules.

[15:25] You cannot make your own rules. You might say, well, I want to do, handle my money this way. No. You have to go by the rules of God. Well, I want to use my time this way. No. God gets to decide that.

[15:38] I want to do church this way. No. He's the head of the church. He's the ruler. The rules must be God's. Leviticus 18.4, you shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them.

[15:52] I am the Lord, your God. Ecclesiastes 8.4 and the CEV. The king's word is law. Okay? In a kingdom, whatever the king says is law.

[16:02] That's why when Daniel got thrown into the lion's den, it was just like, he made this declaration and it became law as soon as he said it. And so he had to throw him in the lion's den.

[16:13] And remember when he apologized to Daniel and he's just like, oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't, you know, this wasn't really, I didn't think this was going to be directed towards you. But that's the nature of the king's word.

[16:23] The king's word is law. Okay? Psalm 119 verse 20, my soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all time. Who says that?

[16:36] People who are ruled by King Jesus and who know that he is a good ruler. Right? They say things like, my soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.

[16:47] Do you think that way? What a weird statement to say. Lord, I'm consumed with longing for your rules. That's so un-American. It's not even funny.

[16:58] Right? It's like the antithesis of what it means to be an American. To long for rules. Americans long to break rules. Kingdom citizens of Christ's kingdom say, I am consumed with longing for your rules.

[17:16] Do you care about what his rules are? Do you care to obey them? Do you care to know them? Psalm 119.43 Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth for my hope is in your rules.

[17:34] My hope is in your rules. Who says that? Someone who believes that he's a good king. Someone who is content to be under the rule of King Jesus and say, hey, my hope is in your rules because I know you're a good ruler.

[17:50] Psalm 119.52 When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. You take comfort in the rules of God. Is that comforting to know that God has rules, that God has ways, that God has a will?

[18:02] Does that give you comfort? It should. It would not be comforting if he wasn't in control of everything. If he wasn't sovereign, that wouldn't be comforting. And if he was sovereign but not good, that wouldn't be comforting either.

[18:14] I'd say, well, okay, I know he's in charge of everything but if he's not good, how in the world does that give me comfort? It has to be both. You will never be comforted by his rules if you do not believe he's both sovereign and good.

[18:27] And I got good news of the kingdom for you. He is. He is good and he is sovereign. He's not just good like that manager who was always nice to you but never had the authority to do any of the things he wanted to do.

[18:41] I'd love to give you a raise but I just don't really have the authority, you know? God is not just good. He's not just the kind of manager you love to have. He also has the authority to execute his will.

[18:53] We've all had managers who had good intentions but no authority. Right? We've even had good government officials. Man, I wish I could do this but I don't have the authority. Right? Maybe you've experienced that at the DMV.

[19:03] Yeah, I know this doesn't make much sense but I don't have the authority to change it. You just have to deal with it. Right? God has the authority to execute his good purpose and will and he does as he pleases and what he pleases is best for you and me.

[19:21] That's why we can say I take comfort in his rules. Psalm 119.62 At midnight I rise to praise you because of your righteous rules.

[19:33] Have you ever praised God for his rules? Have you ever praised God for the things that he has set up for your good and his glory? That's why they're there.

[19:45] His rules are there for your good and his glory. Every kingdom must have these three things. You can't say you're about advancing his kingdom seeing his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

[19:57] If you yourself are not submitted to the king you're not ruled by him you don't believe that he is the ruler and you don't adhere to his rules. You are not submitted to the king if you're not adhering to his rules. And if you're bucking that and walking in darkness and trying to avoid that and trying to get around it that's not the kingdom of God.

[20:15] The kingdom of God must be obedience to the rules of God. And you only do that when you know that he's good. Alright, what the kingdom is and what it isn't.

[20:26] Romans 14, 17 says the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

[20:37] In the Bible they got really hung up on a lot of things when it came to eating and drinking. What you can eat what you can eat. Right? He says what this is really about is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

[20:49] When you experience righteousness and you experience peace and when you experience joy in the Holy Spirit that's the kingdom of God that you're experiencing. You ever experience that when you come into a home where there's righteousness there?

[21:02] Things are being done right according to God. There's peace in that home. There is joy that comes from the Holy Spirit in that home. What is that? It's an embassy of the king and the kingdom.

[21:15] His rule is present there where there's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Now, have you seen in a family or a home or a business or a geographical area or in a nation where there is not righteousness and there is not peace and there is not joy in the Holy Spirit?

[21:31] What is that evidence of? That the kingdom of God is not there. Not in, at least not in the fullest sense. God is sovereignly ruling but we're not at present seeing that rule manifesting itself.

[21:44] in that particular time. Okay? Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. You should look for that to identify it and when it's not there, you as an ambassador of Christ can and should bring that wherever you go.

[22:01] You start working on a new job, what should you bring there? The kingdom of God. Well, what does that mean? Don't just say I'm bringing the kingdom of God. What does that specifically mean? It means righteousness. It means peace.

[22:13] It means joy and the Holy Spirit. Is that evident in your life? Does it go where you go? If it doesn't, perhaps one of the three aspects of the kingdom is missing.

[22:26] What the kingdom is and what it isn't. 1 Corinthians 4.20 The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. Okay? And say, okay, we're a church now.

[22:37] We're going to, here I am, talking. I'm talking about the kingdom. But make no mistake, that's not what this is ultimately a matter of. It's a matter of power.

[22:48] If my words are just words, it's not the kingdom. Kingdom is not just a matter of talk. It's a matter of power. Okay? And when the disciples were sent out as apostles of Jesus, he said, wait in Luke 24.49 until you're clothed with power from on high.

[23:06] And then in Acts 1.8, he said, when the Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses. And then in Acts 4.31, they were filled with the Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly. What do you see in all three of those instances?

[23:19] Power. Not just talk, power. Those same ones who were yelling, crucify him, crucify him, are all of a sudden among the 3,000 who are getting saved after the guy who preached was the guy who denied him three times.

[23:35] The same guy who denied him three times is now saying to the people who yelled, crucify him, crucify him, you killed the author of life. What is that?

[23:46] Power. That's power. You see the difference? We need power. The kingdom is not a matter of talk. If you think we're going to start a church and you're going to go evangelize by just saying the right words, you are sorely mistaken.

[24:01] That's not how this works. It's a matter of power. Power. You need power. I need power. You're going to go evangelize? You're going to be a missional community and get on a mission? You better have power. You better have power.

[24:13] You better have boldness to be his witness. You better not just give them words. They don't need words. They need the power of God in your words. They need words but not words without power.

[24:28] Okay? They need the gospel. They need the power of the Holy Spirit. That should make us dependent. Okay? We have to be emptied of our self-confidence and say, okay, I think we're getting this.

[24:43] We figured this out. I mean, this week we have chairs. We're doing it. All right? Like, no self-confidence in anything. All right, we're starting this missional community. We've done missional communities before.

[24:54] No big deal. No confidence in the flesh. Confidence in the Holy Spirit saying, God, we need you. We need you, God. We need you. If you don't give us your power, those words are going to fall on deaf ears.

[25:09] We're going to go to the wrong people. We're going to go to the wrong places. We want to be precise, God. We want to be powerful in our presentation of the gospel and to the people who are the ones that God is drawing.

[25:24] God, send us to those people. No one come to the Father unless you draw them. God, we need the power of God to actually see and hear where we are to go, who we are to speak to. You know, when Philip's walking along, the Spirit says to him, hey, go talk to that Ethiopian.

[25:40] Go talk to him. Who said that to him? The Spirit did. Remember? Do you hear the Spirit saying to you who you should go talk to? That's why you need power because when God's power comes, you hear stuff.

[25:55] You hear the Spirit saying, hey, go talk to that guy. And then you go up and he's reading Isaiah and says, who is this about? And you're just like, okay.

[26:08] Talk about a divine appointment. That's a divine appointment. Okay, that doesn't happen to people who aren't walking in the power of God and aren't hearing the Spirit of God. We need that. We can be like Philip.

[26:19] Did Philip have a different version of the Holy Spirit than you have? Absolutely not. You young cats? Is there a junior Holy Spirit? No. There's no like version of the Holy Spirit for kids and then an adult version.

[26:32] It's the same Holy Spirit. It's the same Holy Spirit. What the kingdom is and what it isn't. It is a matter of power. How does the kingdom come? Right?

[26:44] Matthew 6, when he tells them, he says, let your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So the concept of the kingdom coming. It's come. It is coming. And it will come.

[26:55] Right? So it's like three tenses just like salvation. Then saved, being saved, will be saved, has come, is coming, will come. How does it come? Matthew 6, 9-10.

[27:09] I just read that. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 13, 31-33. He said, the kingdom of heaven is like grain of a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in its field.

[27:22] The smallest of all the seeds. But when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Then he told them another parable.

[27:33] And he says, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leaven. Right? So leaven working through dough, a mustard seed, which is the tiniest one, growing into a big tree.

[27:47] That's what the kingdom of God is like. That's how it comes. It starts small and grows bigger. Okay? So what do we take from that? Don't despise the days of small beginnings.

[27:59] Don't be discouraged because we're starting off small. Don't be discouraged when you just see a little bit of fruit. Okay? You just keep sowing seeds of the kingdom. You just keep preaching the good news, the gospel of the kingdom and believing that it's going to bear fruit.

[28:16] Believing that, oh yeah, it starts small. It's just a little leaven, but it's got to work through the batch of dough. You've got to believe that when you see it in the people of our church. Say, wow, they need to grow. Yep.

[28:26] But I know the leaven is there. It just needs to work through the whole batch of dough. There's some parts of the dough that have not been reached by the leaven. Okay? But I trust that the kingdom will come and I'm going to pray.

[28:38] I'm going to pray to my kids. I'd say, God, is the kingdom in my kids at all? Maybe not yet. All right? Do you pray that it comes? And when it comes, it's going to take time to work through the whole batch.

[28:49] Our whole life is that sanctifying process of us submitting in every single area to the King of Kings. Okay? That's how it comes. Matthew 12, 28 speaks of how it comes.

[29:01] Jesus says, if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Okay? That's kind of an obvious one. If the kingdom comes, then demons go.

[29:15] Right? If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, you know, he's basically saying this is what it looks like, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When the kingdom comes, demons go. Because demons are from another kingdom.

[29:28] Kingdom of darkness. When the kingdom of light comes, they don't have any authority. You know, Bellicose is going into that new building, right? That, what's it called? Shriner.

[29:39] The Shriner building. And, you know, people are like, there's some people who get almost like a little afraid of that because Shriners are Masons.

[29:50] Masons are not of the kingdom of God. Okay? Let's just say that. It's a lot of demonic stuff there. All right? And, people get a little freaked out about that.

[30:01] Like, what are we going to do? How are we going to pray that? You know, are we going to use this room and how are we going to do that? And I'm just like, when the kingdom of God comes, demons leave.

[30:13] And, if it's not theirs anymore, it's now ours, they gots to go. Right? Like, I'm giving their eviction notice. Sorry, you got to leave.

[30:26] This house is the Lord's and everything in it. You got to go. And you got to believe that when you say that, they have to go. And it's the same way. It's James 4, verse 7.

[30:36] When someone submits to God and then you resist the devil, where does he go? He's got to flee. We do deliverance ministry. I don't, I never doubt that the devil is going to go when I see someone submitted to God.

[30:51] Because, the word of the king, which is law, in James 4, verse 7, lays it out really plain for me. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. What is he going to do?

[31:02] If that person is in repentance, if they submitted to God, and then we resist the devil, he's got only one place to go. Far from there. When he's resisted, he has to flee.

[31:14] It's not that we have to, like, talk louder, yell, and do some kind of weird, you know, spiritual, you know, gymnastics, or, you know, ninja skills here.

[31:25] We're just, we just resist him. He's got to go. Because the kingdom of God is here. Does that make sense?

[31:37] And the word of the king is law. And his word says, submit to God, resist him, and he has to flee. Okay? Luke 10, 9, heal the sick, Jesus says.

[31:47] Heal the sick in it, and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. Okay? When sickness is healed, that's the kingdom of God. The way it is in heaven is done on earth. Okay?

[31:59] Why doesn't everybody get healed? Because his kingdom isn't yet here in fullness. But it is here. It came with Jesus. It's here in some larger doses in some areas.

[32:11] There's always the possibility of kingdom breaking in in power. One day it'll be here in total, and there'll be no more tears. There'll be no more sickness. There'll be no more pain. But in the meantime, we pray that it comes now.

[32:23] We believe that it can come now. We believe that it does come now. That it is coming now. We also live under the futility of this world and the consequences of our sin and its effect on the world.

[32:35] But that should never stop us from praying that his kingdom will come in healing. Even if we've seen it not happen. You might say, well, I've done that many times. I haven't seen it happen. Is he king?

[32:47] Is his kingdom here? Is his kingdom coming? And does it not come through his saints who lay hands on sick people? Yes. But we keep trying. We keep doing it, knowing that ultimately, one day, he's going to make all the wrong things right, including sickness.

[33:04] Number five, the priority of the kingdom. Okay? Priority of the kingdom. Seeking isn't enough. I say, I'm seeking the kingdom. Okay? You're not seeking the kingdom if you're not seeking it first.

[33:17] Because the king who said to seek the kingdom said to seek it first. So to disobey the king and putting it at the wrong priority is not obeying the king, which means it's not the kingdom. Do you hear what I'm saying?

[33:29] It's not okay to seek the kingdom second, third, fourth, or last. It must be sought first. Matthew 6.33 says, seek first the kingdom and his righteousness.

[33:39] Seek first. If it's not sought first, it's not his kingdom. The kingdom of God is the priority. It should be the priority for every Christian. How can I bring all things, how can I do my part, my participation, my gifts, my one life that I'm given, how can I use it to help bring things underneath the rule of King Jesus?

[34:00] How do I do that? Let's start with your bedroom. Okay? You hear that, Max? Let's start with our bedroom, right? Let's bring the kingdom of God to our bedroom, right?

[34:11] Let's bring it to our home. Let's bring it to our individual lives. We have families. Let's bring it to our marriage. Let's bring it to our kids. Are there things that we've been tolerating our marriages for many years that need to be brought into submission to the King that we're okay with, that we seek is not really that big of a priority?

[34:29] The kingdom must be sought first. We can't seek our own desires when there's things that we are neglecting. We have to seek first this kingdom and say, God, where do I need to obey your rule?

[34:45] Priority of the kingdom. Cost determines value. Value determines priority. Okay? What does the kingdom cost? Matthew 13. Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up.

[34:57] Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. What does it cost? It costs all. You sure about that? Let's look at 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.

[35:12] When finding one, one pearl of great value went and sold all he had and bought it. What does it cost? It costs all. The cost determines the value.

[35:24] The value determines the priority. If it costs everything you have, it should be a pretty high priority, right? But the good news is is he sold it in his joy. Why? Because the pearl of great price, the kingdom of God, is better than what you have.

[35:40] And until your revelation, your perception of all that you have is less than your perception of the kingdom, you'll never sell all you have to get it.

[35:53] Okay? If you think what you have is worth more than the kingdom, you're always going to be holding on to it and not wanting to let go. You think your time, your stuff, your relationships, what you want, you think that's more valuable than what the king gives you in his kingdom, then you hold on to it and you won't sell all to get it.

[36:11] But if you believe that the kingdom is better, that the king has your best interest in mind, it's your joy to give something worth less for something that's far greater.

[36:22] No one would ever have a problem giving all that you have for something way better if you knew that it was way better. And it becomes difficult to give our lives to God and to give our time to God and our money to God and whatever else it might be that's difficult to give to God.

[36:39] You have to know that behind that, you don't really believe that God is good or that he has the ability to give you all that he promised to give you. You think in some way, some form, you're being ripped off.

[36:50] And it's not true. That's not the good news of the kingdom. Another reason why it's priority. Jesus talked about the kingdom more than any other topic. And he spent his last days on earth speaking about it.

[37:02] Acts 1.3, he appeared to them during 40 days and spoke to them about the kingdom of God. He's got his last days on earth. What's he going to speak about? The kingdom of God?

[37:14] He could have spoke about anything. What did he spend his last 40 days speaking on? He spoke to them about the kingdom of God. What do you speak about? Do we speak about the kingdom of God? Paul also talked a lot about the kingdom of God and spent the last two years of his life proclaiming it.

[37:29] Acts 19.8, he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. Acts 20.25, and now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

[37:45] Okay, speaking to the church in Ephesus. He went about in Ephesus for two years. What was he doing? Proclaiming the kingdom of God. Acts 28.23, when they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers.

[37:59] Paul was in house arrest. From morning till evening, he expounded them. What did he think he talked to them about? When he's at the end of his life, he's on house arrest, what did Paul spend his time talking about?

[38:11] Testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. He's speaking of the king in the kingdom, Jesus in the kingdom.

[38:23] You see that again in Acts 28.30.31, he lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

[38:37] And we should teach the same. We should be proclaiming the kingdom of God and we should be teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Very important. If it was important to them, it should be important to us.

[38:48] If it was important to Jesus, it should be important to us. If it was important to Paul to spend his last days and Jesus to spend his last days on earth, speaking of the kingdom, it should be for us as well. The fact that it's eternal takes priority of the temporal.

[39:02] Daniel 7.14 says, To him who was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him, his dominion is an everlasting kingdom.

[39:14] Everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Psalm 119.160 Every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

[39:27] Psalm 145.13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. His kingdom is forever. His kingdom is eternal. And the eternal always trumps the temporal.

[39:41] What is eternal? His kingdom. Many things will pass. Many things you enjoy that I enjoy will pass. One thing that will live forever is the rule of King Jesus. His rule is everlasting.

[39:53] I love Psalm 145.13. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. That's why it takes precedent.

[40:04] That's why it takes priority. That's why when they preached the gospel, it wasn't just called the gospel. What was it called? You see it in Matthew. You see it in Luke. You even see it in Acts.

[40:15] It was called the gospel of kingdom. It's called the good news of the kingdom. Okay? When you hear the gospel, it's the good news of the kingdom.

[40:26] That's what it is. Every good thing about Jesus Christ is about the kingdom. Why? Because he's the king. All that stuff in the gospel we love so much. We say justification, expiation, propitiation, all the Asians that we say that are so great.

[40:42] Why are they great? Because they are executed by a king. If he's not king, none of those great things come to us. I love it when people say, I think this guy has accepted Jesus as Savior, but not Lord.

[40:58] As if that was possible. As if there's some guy named Jesus who's not Lord. There probably is, but that's not Jesus the Christ. The Christ is the anointed ruler.

[41:11] If he can't, if he's not Lord, he can't be your Savior. How would he have the authority and the power to save you if he's not Lord, if he's not king? You can't separate them.

[41:22] Jesus isn't some person you can like split up into multiple things and just say, I'll take this part about you, Jesus, but not that part. It's got to be all. So you can't say, well, I think that guy, I think he believes that Jesus is the Savior, but not his Lord.

[41:36] It's not even possible. The only one who can save you is your Lord. The only one who can save you is the one who rules over and has defeated death. How could he save you from death if he doesn't rule over it?

[41:50] He must. Okay? Seven, it pleases God to give you the unshakable kingdom. I love Luke 12, 32. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

[42:02] Do you believe that? When you pray Matthew 6 to say your kingdom come, your will be done, do you believe that it pleases him to give it to you? That he's not thinking, well, you know, Chris hasn't really been a good boy this week.

[42:17] I don't know if I'm going to give him the kingdom. No. It pleases God to give Chris the kingdom. It pleases God to give you the kingdom. Why? Because he's a good king.

[42:29] And he knows that his rule is the best thing for you. So it pleases him to give you all the benefits of the kingdom. Because he knows as a king who's a good ruler, he knows that his rule is best for people when he's a good king.

[42:43] And so to give it to them is to give the best thing possible. As kids, sometimes we don't understand when our parents are telling us to do something and they provide rules and we say, oh, I want to do something else that seems more fun.

[42:57] They don't realize that the parents know what's best for the kid. And it's the same thing with your father in heaven. He is the king and he knows that his rules are good for you and so it pleases him to give you the rules.

[43:10] Because they are for your good. They comfort you. Pleases God to give you the kingdom and it's not just any kingdom. Hebrews 12, 28 says it's an unshakable kingdom. Daniel 7, 27 says the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.

[43:30] He's giving it to us. There is a soon and coming kingdom. Jesus is returning and he's going to give us this kingdom. We cannot plant a church that doesn't have as its focus the kingdom.

[43:44] Church without kingdom is humanism. It has our ends as the end. Stop. It has our pleasure as the end. Right?

[43:55] A church that is focused on the kingdom has the king's will and pleasure first and foremost. You have church without kingdom, it's humanistic. Okay? And then you get this weird sacred secular if you don't have the kingdom being the focus of a church where you think, oh, this is important and this is not.

[44:13] This is ministry, this is not. And then full-time ministry becomes the end-all, be-all. And if you work a job, it's like, that's no big deal. That's not that big of a deal. A stay-home mom, are you kidding me?

[44:24] What significance would that have? But when your focus is the kingdom, then you realize that all of life is sacred. All of life has purpose. All of life has dignity and value because I can bring the kingdom, the rule of God, into every single area of my life.

[44:43] Therefore, everything has value, everything has purpose, and everything is infused with something bigger than myself, which is what you were meant to live for. You want to live for something small and impish? Live for yourself.

[44:55] The church can't live for itself. It will implode on itself. It needs to live for the kingdom. Okay? And kingdom without church is not possible because the church is the physical outflowers of that kingdom.

[45:10] It's the embassies of the kingdom. It's the actual demonstration of what that invisible kingdom is in the visible. Otherwise, it's just this invisible reality. We make the invisible visible as the church.

[45:22] We take this rule of God that you can't see and say, this is what it looks like. This is what it looks like among a group of people living by the rules of the ruler. We make that practical.

[45:36] You can't have kingdom without church. We know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom. 1 Corinthians 6, Galatians 5, Ephesians 5 give this list of different people who will not inherit the kingdom of God.

[45:51] Okay? And he says, you can be sure of this. Those are lists we should read. Those are lists you should study because the church has started to think that you can be a part of the kingdom and be in those things.

[46:05] And the Bible is explicit that there are certain people who will not inherit the kingdom of God. We don't want to be those people. How do we do something about that? We remember the Lord constantly.

[46:16] That's why we take to the Lord's table. We say, God, apart from you, I have no good thing. We say, God, but by the grace of God, go I. And we don't live in our own self-righteousness.

[46:26] We don't live in our own strength. We trust that our only hope is Jesus. Number 11, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom. It says in Acts 14, verse 22.

[46:39] This is what they preached. This is what Paul was preaching. He would strengthen the souls of the disciples, encourage them in the faith. And he said, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. That means it's not easy.

[46:50] That means there's going to be trouble. Jesus said a similar thing. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart. I got good news of the kingdom that we overcome because Jesus is overcome, right?

[47:03] We're not comer-unders, we're overcomers, right? We're not comer-unders, we're overcomers. Obstacles of tribulation comes, we overcome by the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb.

[47:15] Right? And we do that and that's how we enter the kingdom. It's through tribulation, it's through hardship, it's not going to be easy. Right? Lastly, number 12, big picture.

[47:26] Ephesians 1.9, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ. As a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

[47:39] This is the mystery of his will. He's bringing all things in heaven and earth, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That the culmination would be that all things in heaven and earth would come under one head which is Christ.

[47:51] That's where this is all going. Why are we all about the kingdom now? Because that's where it's all going in the end. Right? That's the mystery of his will. Jesus came to bring all things underneath the headship of Jesus.

[48:05] Colossians 1.18-20 He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

[48:19] For what? That through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth they're in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross. You see where this is all headed?

[48:31] You see where this is all going? The blood of Jesus reconciling people, bringing them underneath the rule of God, connecting heaven and earth together. Hebrews 2.6-8 It has been testified somewhere, What is man that you are mindful of him?

[48:46] Or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.

[48:59] This is such a practical verse here. And he says, Now I'm putting everything in subjection to him. He left nothing outside his control. You think, Yeah, but it doesn't seem that way. What does it say?

[49:10] At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. Okay? So he put everything in control, but we don't see it yet. It's here.

[49:20] It's like a mustard seed. It's like yeast. One day it will infect the whole world completely. Jesus will return and rule over this earth and make it new.

[49:32] We see that in Revelation 11.15. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there was loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.

[49:46] That's where this is going. That's where we're headed to. 1 Corinthians 15, last verse, 24 to 28, Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

[50:02] For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.

[50:14] But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.

[50:34] Isn't that amazing? Even Jesus gives the kingdom to the Father and says, This is all for you. That's where the culmination of this is going. The last thing to be destroyed is death.

[50:46] Okay? We sell the beginning of that with the resurrection of Jesus. That was our down payment. And one day we will be resurrected as well. In the meantime, we preach the gospel to as many.

[50:57] We become all things to all men that by all means we might win as many as possible so that as many as possible will be resurrected to that day unto eternal life.

[51:09] Does that make sense? That's where we're going. Amen? Amen. Amen.