1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,320 Alright, so the title of the sermon is fairly simple. 2 00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:20,600 The lighting point is a summary point that you can use to talk about it with others. 3 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:25,940 We started two weeks ago on a sermon series entitled Becoming a Fanatic. 4 00:00:25,940 --> 00:00:30,920 And you may have begun before that thinking, I'm not sure I want to be a fanatic. 5 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:32,400 But I want you to stop and think for a moment. 6 00:00:32,400 --> 00:00:33,400 A fanatic is this. 7 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:42,440 A fanatic is someone that people see as firmly believing or having great zeal toward religious 8 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:43,440 beliefs. 9 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,720 And there's one word in there that makes people stumble a little bit. 10 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:52,560 And it is, if you look up the definition, it is extreme religious beliefs. 11 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:54,040 That's the problem, isn't it? 12 00:00:54,040 --> 00:01:00,800 It has that intonation to say that it's just a little bit too much to be a fanatic about 13 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:01,800 Jesus. 14 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:04,080 But let's be really realistic, shall we? 15 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:09,160 We're talking about a being who created the universe, was present at its inception. 16 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,320 Without him, nothing was made that was made. 17 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:16,280 And then he came in the flesh to live on the earth, a sinless life, to die a sinner's 18 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:22,480 death, and to raise again on the third day, offering not a better life, not a better chance 19 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:27,880 at life, but truly a life, life and more abundant. 20 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:30,480 That we can be resurrected as he is resurrected. 21 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,480 And because of that, we said two weeks ago, we realized that we are dead in Christ. 22 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,920 For if he died for us, then all have died. 23 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:42,740 And if you have died, then all the things that you owned became an inheritance. 24 00:01:42,740 --> 00:01:43,740 That's what happens when you die. 25 00:01:43,740 --> 00:01:45,040 They become an inheritance. 26 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:50,400 And you are now using them, stewarding them, if you will, for the Lord, rather than actually 27 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:54,380 owning them the way you used to do before you were saved. 28 00:01:54,380 --> 00:01:58,760 For if one died for all, then all died. 29 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:06,920 Also, in that moment, if you will, he reminded us with absolute certainty that our great 30 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:12,520 storehouses, that place at which all the riches, all the wealth, all the power and authority 31 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:16,240 of our family is actually in heaven. 32 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:23,160 So we look to the storehouses of heaven, not to our storehouses on earth or amongst men. 33 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,320 Both of those teachings are extreme. 34 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,880 That you would divorce yourself of an attachment to things of this earth. 35 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,160 That you would instead do all that you do as if you do it for the Lord. 36 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:39,840 That you would instead do all that you do looking for the benefit that is to come in 37 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:45,200 the kingdom, that is to come to full culmination at his next appearing. 38 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:49,040 To be able to divorce yourself from an attachment to all things. 39 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:55,120 And the truth is, as much as anyone might not want to admit this, to if necessary detach 40 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,300 yourself from all people. 41 00:02:58,300 --> 00:03:03,560 You realize that if only you go to heaven, you must go. 42 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:06,760 Because the alternative is hell, literally. 43 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:13,760 And so for people to say that this is not an extreme position would be foolishness. 44 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,200 It is always spent in an extreme position. 45 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:21,080 Jesus was killed by the people of his day, the faith people, the religious people, the 46 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:24,440 people that were following God, God's supposed people. 47 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:30,800 He was killed by them and others who realized that this was an extreme position. 48 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:37,840 For a long time the way, the Christian faith as we understand it, was part of Jewishness. 49 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:40,000 It was part of the faith and religion that they held. 50 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:45,520 In fact, it was protected by the Roman government because in that day Christianity was considered 51 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:54,840 to be a sect, a spin-off, part of Jewishness, to be Jewish. 52 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:59,640 And therefore the Roman government said, well that's protected as we have given protection 53 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:01,580 to the Jewish religion. 54 00:04:01,580 --> 00:04:08,880 But eventually even the Jewish people said this is too extreme a sect. 55 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:11,640 Christianity is too extreme. 56 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,200 And because it is too extreme, we'll have nothing to do with it. 57 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:20,840 In about 70 AD, both all the Jews and all the Christians were kicked out of Rome because 58 00:04:20,840 --> 00:04:25,880 they were back and forth and back and forth over this extreme variation as far as the 59 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:31,760 Roman government was concerned, this extreme variation of being a Jew. 60 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:36,000 Being a Christian has always been extreme. 61 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,760 If you have managed to skate by not really talking to your friends about being a follower 62 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:47,160 of Jesus, if you have managed to work on the job alongside coworkers for years not bringing 63 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:50,760 up Jesus, not talking about what it really means to be a follower of Jesus, if you are 64 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:57,200 able to go out to restaurants and see your server and either pray silently without bowing 65 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:02,040 your head so no one will know or to pray when surely everyone is not watching or to not 66 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:07,480 pray at all, then you have missed out the extreme nature of what it means to be a follower 67 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:08,480 of Jesus. 68 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:13,240 Do you not understand that almost all of the disciples of Christ were murdered, let's call 69 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:17,200 it what it is, murdered for their faith and they did not recant. 70 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:21,340 And since then there have been thousands, maybe tens of thousands, maybe millions of 71 00:05:21,340 --> 00:05:30,120 people who have been killed for being Christians and they would not recant their faith. 72 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:38,680 This Christianity is an extreme belief and to follow it by definition would make us a 73 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:45,360 fanatic if we follow it the way it is real. 74 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,060 Which brings us then to walking it out. 75 00:05:48,060 --> 00:05:50,720 How do we do it on a daily basis? 76 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:55,600 And you will notice that I have given you everything and nothing in today's lightning 77 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:56,600 point. 78 00:05:56,600 --> 00:06:04,320 And we know what but not necessarily how or when we use boundaries, guidelines and priorities 79 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:06,000 instead of rules and ultimatums. 80 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,360 A rule is something that tells you exactly what to do, how to do it. 81 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:12,720 If I got out of bed this morning and I had the tenfold laws of Christianity and I followed 82 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,920 every single one of them, I could call myself a devout Christian. 83 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:17,600 But guess what you will never find? 84 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,560 The tenfold laws of Christianity. 85 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:21,160 That does not exist. 86 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,280 Are there things in the Bible that the Bible says you should do or don't do? 87 00:06:24,280 --> 00:06:28,280 Does the Ten Commandments do enough to tell you what it means to be a Christian? 88 00:06:28,280 --> 00:06:29,280 No! 89 00:06:29,280 --> 00:06:34,120 There are no ten or one hundred or one thousand rules of Christianity. 90 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:36,120 Also ultimatums don't really work. 91 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:41,360 If you don't do this for Jesus, you are not a follower of Jesus. 92 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:45,320 If I say to you, for example, as I just said, if you manage to avoid praying in public or 93 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:49,640 manage to not witness to your friends or co-workers, then you have managed to avoid the extreme 94 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:50,960 nature of Christianity. 95 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:55,480 I still cannot say to you that because you have not done that, that you are not a Christian. 96 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:57,120 That's not up to me. 97 00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:58,400 That's up to God. 98 00:06:58,400 --> 00:06:59,400 That's up to Jesus. 99 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:01,480 And we are saved by the standard that He sets. 100 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:06,280 And the standard that He sets is not a set of rules, nor is it an ultimatum. 101 00:07:06,280 --> 00:07:11,600 Jesus did not come to condemn, rather He came to save. 102 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:12,600 To save. 103 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,100 And He's still doing so today. 104 00:07:15,100 --> 00:07:18,840 So we're going to look at the third part of becoming a fanatic. 105 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:22,120 And I submit to you that Jesus says it very plainly. 106 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:27,080 It's in His words and we'll read it so we get every last little preposition and pronoun 107 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:28,240 out of there. 108 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:32,680 And maybe I think with a little excitement or a little bit of just let's focus on just 109 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:36,000 this what Jesus said about this. 110 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,640 And it's not maybe exactly where you'd expect to find it. 111 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,360 It's in the middle of a passage where He's teaching about something else, but He says 112 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:43,360 it very clearly. 113 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:45,880 I don't want you to hoot. 114 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,560 I don't want you to holler or say amen. 115 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:55,800 Let's just have silence as we look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 33. 116 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,400 Turn your Bibles here following along. 117 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:02,600 Matthew chapter 6 verse 33. 118 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:10,280 Now you may already know what this says if you like to study your Bible. 119 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:15,160 You may already know what this says if someone has taught this to you before. 120 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:21,960 Or if you discovered it on your own. 121 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,880 Jesus is in the middle of talking about worry and regret and I'll just kind of give you 122 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:27,040 just a little foreshadowing. 123 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:30,600 We will talk about that next week during the Sunday sermon. 124 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:37,760 But in the midst of that He says, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and 125 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,840 all these things that's talking about the other things of the world, the things that 126 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:45,800 you need on the journey, all these things shall be added to you. 127 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:50,880 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. 128 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:57,480 Now too many people, way too many people have preached this sermon this way. 129 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:04,640 That if you'll just do right, if you'll just be righteous, just always do the right thing, 130 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:07,520 you'll be a follower of Jesus and that's what He calls you to. 131 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:10,400 Now does He tell you to follow His commands? 132 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:11,400 Yes. 133 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:14,560 Does He say that it's He who follows the commands of the Father, not just He who says, 134 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:16,680 Lord, Lord, we'll enter the kingdom of heaven? 135 00:09:16,680 --> 00:09:18,000 Yes, He does say that. 136 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:24,880 But here He says, seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness. 137 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,720 And so then we ask ourselves, well, what is His righteousness? 138 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:31,480 Well, righteousness is that which you receive from God when you trust in the Lord Jesus 139 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:32,480 Christ. 140 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:34,120 And I'll come back to that in a moment. 141 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,560 His kingdom is that place in which He rules. 142 00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:42,240 Now I can't really do justice to the topic of His kingdom today. 143 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:43,640 I can't boil down on it. 144 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:46,000 I would encourage you to go back and look. 145 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:50,520 If you're a Tuesday night attender in your folder, you'll see we did three weeks on the 146 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:52,520 kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. 147 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:57,200 Matthew uses the term interchangeably just about a month ago. 148 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:03,120 And you can get really thickly into, we looked at it very thoroughly in those three weeks. 149 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:07,600 Or you can go online and listen to the podcast of those three same messages. 150 00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:11,480 And actually, you want to just kind of skip the, kind of do it quicker. 151 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:12,480 There's a transcript. 152 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:15,920 You can see a transcript of everything we talked about on those three nights and what 153 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:17,200 the kingdom of God is. 154 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,800 But very simply put, I'm going to give it to you in the very simplest boiled down version 155 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:23,560 for any of you that weren't already there and others are kind of got it ticking off 156 00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:26,160 in their head, the things that we talked about on those three nights. 157 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:31,240 But basically the kingdom of God is that person place a thing in which the Lord reigns or 158 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:32,440 rules, right? 159 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:33,440 That's what the kingdom is. 160 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:34,440 It's where God rules. 161 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:35,440 God rules there. 162 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:36,440 That's his kingdom. 163 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:40,880 And then we talked about how there's a problem with that simple interpretation because his 164 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:43,520 kingdom has come. 165 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:44,880 The kingdom has come. 166 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:47,560 And yet, it is yet to come. 167 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:50,800 And yet, even after that, it will come in its fullness. 168 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:56,000 And that's what we really spent our time in the last week talking about was how the gospels 169 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,840 teach and Jesus teaches over and over again through various parables. 170 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:03,120 The seed, the sower, the leaven, etc., etc., etc. 171 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:07,960 How the kingdom has already come, it is yet to come, and it is yet to come after that 172 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:08,960 in its fullness. 173 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:13,720 So we're talking about that person place a thing in which Jesus reigns. 174 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,760 Let's step aside for a moment. 175 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:17,760 I was five years old. 176 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:22,360 Now, I don't know if you know this about me, but I have memories all the way back until 177 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:23,360 I was two. 178 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:24,360 Now, most people don't. 179 00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:25,360 I understand that. 180 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:26,360 I don't know why I do. 181 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:30,480 I can't explain it, except possibly the Lord has blessed me with those things so I can 182 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:33,560 use them for sermon illustrations of how goofy I was. 183 00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:37,800 My earliest memory, I was a little over two years old, and my mom put me in the car, and 184 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:41,720 I put the car and drive and drove the car up onto the porch into the gas meter. 185 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:42,880 That's one of my earliest memories. 186 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:43,880 I take it back. 187 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:48,240 I just remembered one where I was crawling, diaper laid on the living room floor in the 188 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:49,240 house there. 189 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:50,640 But neither one of those is the memory for today. 190 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:51,640 This is the memory. 191 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:54,680 My dad said to us, he said, you know, money's been kind of tight. 192 00:11:54,680 --> 00:11:56,720 We've got this big space in the side yard. 193 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,440 You like to play out there, play frisbee, play football, these kinds of things. 194 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:02,280 Mind you, I'm five, so about almost five. 195 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,800 So the bigger kids did most of that. 196 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:10,440 I mostly would ride my big wheel around or my tricycle, that kind of thing. 197 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:12,160 But I would play with them when I could. 198 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:14,480 And he said, but you're not going to be able to do that anymore because we're going to 199 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:15,480 plant a garden. 200 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:17,520 And I said, okay. 201 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:19,240 I don't know what that means. 202 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:21,320 And he said, we're going to plant a garden in the side yard. 203 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:22,320 We're going to grow corn. 204 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:23,320 We're going to grow tomatoes. 205 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:24,800 We're going to grow green peppers. 206 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:25,800 We're going to grow onions. 207 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:27,920 We're going to grow all these things in our side yard. 208 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,600 And I'm going, I don't like corn or tomatoes or green peppers or onions. 209 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:32,640 I don't like any of those things. 210 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:34,320 I did not like vegetables when I was a kid. 211 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:37,560 I didn't, in fact, I didn't eat my first salad until I was 26. 212 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:38,600 No joke. 213 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:40,160 So I, that's not good. 214 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:41,160 Don't follow my example. 215 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:42,400 It's a very bad thing. 216 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:46,320 But that being said, I'm like, okay, but growing things sounds kind of cool. 217 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:47,680 And we're going to eat what we grow. 218 00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:50,020 I'm not sure I understand that exactly, but okay. 219 00:12:50,020 --> 00:12:53,600 So I go out in the side yard that afternoon, we're ready to start yet. 220 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:54,800 And I went out and I looked at it. 221 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:56,880 I'm like, this does not look like a garden. 222 00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:00,000 I don't understand how to make it look like a garden. 223 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:01,640 And then I asked my mom, my dad wasn't home. 224 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:02,640 I said, how do you do that? 225 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:04,560 And she said, well, you got, we're going to have to take a shovel. 226 00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:09,080 We're going to turn over the soil and bust it all up till it like you would with a rototiller. 227 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:12,000 That's pretty big yards, about 40 by 60. 228 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,880 And I'm going, that seems like quite a bit of work, but I'm going to get a head start 229 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:15,880 on it. 230 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:18,800 So I went in the shed and I got a shovel and I'm five years old. 231 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,560 And so the shovel, the top of the head of the shovel was almost up to my knee, I think, 232 00:13:22,560 --> 00:13:24,160 or it was pretty high anyway. 233 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:25,320 And I put the shovel in the ground. 234 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,440 The ground was pretty hard and I jumped up on the shovel to drive it down. 235 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:30,120 It went down about two inches. 236 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:33,460 I managed to pick up a piece of soil that was about this big and about, I just kind 237 00:13:33,460 --> 00:13:34,460 of laid over a flap. 238 00:13:34,460 --> 00:13:35,460 I didn't even cut it off. 239 00:13:35,460 --> 00:13:36,460 It's kind of laid over a flap of the ground. 240 00:13:36,460 --> 00:13:40,360 It was about, about as wide as a shovel and about that deep. 241 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:42,800 Which point in time I said, well, there's got to be a better way. 242 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:44,200 And I left the shovel laying in the yard. 243 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,000 I got yelled at for that later. 244 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:50,080 The next Saturday morning, about 7 a.m., my dad hauled my brother and I out of bed. 245 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:51,960 My brother's four and a half years older than me and my mom. 246 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:54,440 We all go outside and took some water out with us. 247 00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:56,440 We got a bunch of shovels and we go out there. 248 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:58,920 And mind you, I still didn't shovel a lot of ground, right? 249 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:01,960 Because I wasn't very big, but I helped as much as I could and they would get it. 250 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:04,280 So when they got those flaps, they'd flip them up like that. 251 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:07,560 I would run over and I would tear the flap off and turn it over for them so they wouldn't 252 00:14:07,560 --> 00:14:08,760 have to cut it on the other side. 253 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:10,480 That became my job. 254 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:14,060 When you're going to grow a garden, one of the first things you got to do is change it 255 00:14:14,060 --> 00:14:16,200 from a lawn into a garden. 256 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:17,800 A lawn is what happens. 257 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:18,920 Maybe it don't look good. 258 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:19,920 Some lawns look good. 259 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:20,920 Some lawns don't. 260 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:24,080 But the first thing you got to do is change it from a lawn over into soil that you can 261 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:25,800 actually plant in. 262 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:29,000 Then we got about half of it done on that Saturday. 263 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:30,000 It's about six or eight hours. 264 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:31,000 We got about half of it done. 265 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:35,760 And my dad said he was going to rent or buy or get from a friend a rototiller. 266 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:39,760 Now, a rototiller is a gas powered thing that's got these things on the front and you push 267 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:41,720 it and it turns over the ground. 268 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:42,720 And he got that thing. 269 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:46,640 And after we did six or eight hours on the yard the one week, the next week he did the 270 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:48,440 whole rest of it in like half an hour. 271 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:51,360 And I'm going like, I don't know why we didn't start with that. 272 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:54,680 But anyway, so we got the whole yard all tore up, dirts up and everything. 273 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:57,440 I saw worms, bugs, and it was awesome. 274 00:14:57,440 --> 00:14:58,680 We broke it up real good. 275 00:14:58,680 --> 00:14:59,680 And then we threw down some seed. 276 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:04,640 When you want to turn a yard into a garden, one thing you have to do is put down some 277 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:05,640 seed. 278 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,560 Now we didn't just go out and scatter the seed in just kind of chaotic places. 279 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:12,800 Right, there's some tomato seed, throw it out there and onion and corn and just like 280 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:13,800 that. 281 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:14,800 We laid out what was what. 282 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,520 So when the plants were coming up, we kind of knew what we were getting before. 283 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:18,720 So the corn came up. 284 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:20,280 All the tomatoes are starting to come up. 285 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:25,160 So you'd like when you want to build a yard into a garden, you got to have a little bit 286 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:27,880 of plan, some steps, some things that you're going to do. 287 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:28,880 Right. 288 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:29,880 So we're going to put the corn here. 289 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:32,880 We're going to put and we put the little packets upside down on a stick to mark. 290 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:35,360 This is the row of tomatoes, a little upside down on a stick. 291 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:36,600 Mark this is the row of onions and so on. 292 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:37,600 We did that. 293 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:38,600 We did it all out. 294 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:42,200 Lo and behold, some time passed, sun and water. 295 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:45,240 You want to turn a lawn into a garden. 296 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:47,600 You're going to need some sun and some water. 297 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:48,600 Right. 298 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:49,600 Plants need sun and water. 299 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:52,640 They pretty much produce their own energy, but they need plants. 300 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:56,540 They need sun and water and then they get the nutrients from the soil and that's what 301 00:15:56,540 --> 00:15:57,540 does the job. 302 00:15:57,540 --> 00:15:58,540 And we grew tomatoes. 303 00:15:58,540 --> 00:15:59,540 I don't like tomatoes. 304 00:15:59,540 --> 00:16:00,540 We grew onions. 305 00:16:00,540 --> 00:16:01,540 I like onions. 306 00:16:01,540 --> 00:16:02,540 All that we grew. 307 00:16:02,540 --> 00:16:05,000 I don't like, but you know what I did like? 308 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,040 I did like the praise. 309 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:11,960 The whole time it was growing, my dad was talking about how we helped plant that garden, 310 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:14,280 how we grew up those plants. 311 00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:18,400 When my mom and my dad were eating those tomatoes and stuff, they were talking about how good 312 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:20,720 they were and how we helped do it. 313 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:25,240 And for several years in a row, we planted that garden and we brought up those plants 314 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:28,400 and my parents ate them and my brothers ate, my brother ate some of them. 315 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:29,720 I never really ate any of them. 316 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:32,200 My mom tried to get me to eat them, but I didn't really eat them. 317 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,400 I fought back pretty hard. 318 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,280 But I really liked the praise. 319 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:42,080 I want you to keep that in mind then as we talk about the kingdom of God, because Jesus 320 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:47,880 very clearly in a number of parables talked about how the kingdom of God is like that 321 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:49,360 garden was. 322 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:57,880 It's a problem because it's something we need to take into account if we're going to live, 323 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:03,880 if we're going to live as a fanatic. 324 00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:08,280 And I've already explained to you that that is exactly what we're called to. 325 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:15,560 So Jesus gave one more kind of, let's say, qualifier, if you will. 326 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:17,760 And it's in Mark chapter 10. 327 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:23,040 Before I go any deeper in what it actually looks like to follow this lifestyle. 328 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:28,360 In Mark chapter 10, in verse 15, and again, you may already kind of know it. 329 00:17:28,360 --> 00:17:34,880 Jesus said, back to 14, but then Jesus saw this, which was that they were trying to bring 330 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:37,280 the children to them and then the disciples rebuked them. 331 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:38,280 And he was indignant. 332 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:39,280 Jesus was indignant. 333 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:43,120 That means he snorted through his nose, or at least he had the emotions that accompany 334 00:17:43,120 --> 00:17:44,120 that gesture. 335 00:17:44,120 --> 00:17:47,080 And he said to them, permit the children to come to me. 336 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:50,040 Do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 337 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:56,280 And then in 15, truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a 338 00:17:56,280 --> 00:18:01,560 child shall not enter it at all. 339 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:03,120 That's a qualifier. 340 00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:04,320 That's a requirement. 341 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:05,520 That's a restriction. 342 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:10,160 So then much conversation has gone into how does a child do things. 343 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:14,640 And so we say a child would receive the kingdom of God with adoration. 344 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:19,320 It's the greatest gift a person could ever have is the God of the universe reigning and 345 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:21,240 living in them. 346 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:25,800 A child would receive the kingdom of God with excitement because, yes, I've just received 347 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,480 the greatest gift and my father loves me. 348 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:35,120 A child would receive the gift with dependency, recognizing that they cannot do this themselves. 349 00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:38,320 They can't grow the garden that God is trying to grow themselves. 350 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:42,800 They can jump on the shovel, but they'll maybe just turn over a little flap, right? 351 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:45,320 They would be dependent on the Lord. 352 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:47,480 They would receive the kingdom of God with trust. 353 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,680 And we'll look at why trust is so important here in a second. 354 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:54,160 And also humility. 355 00:18:54,160 --> 00:19:00,720 This is how a child would receive the kingdom of God is with these traits. 356 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:05,280 And notice that he said, if you do not receive the kingdom of God this way, you shall not 357 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:06,880 receive it at all. 358 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:09,800 You will not enter it at all. 359 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:14,880 So your very salvation is at stake. 360 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:20,720 Over in the book of Romans then, Paul writes about the kingdom of God. 361 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:25,360 And I think we can with reasonable certainty say that the apostle Paul had received the 362 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:30,680 kingdom of God and maybe even was seeing it coming into further fruition on a regular 363 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:32,520 basis in his life. 364 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:38,000 And he wrote this about the kingdom of God. 365 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:43,060 And it's in chapter 14, beginning of verse 17. 366 00:19:43,060 --> 00:19:50,240 He said, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace 367 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:53,240 and joy in the Holy Spirit. 368 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:57,000 So when he's saying it's not eating and drinking, he's talking about it's not about what you 369 00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:58,000 do. 370 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:02,800 He's more clear about that in the other, in the rest of this paragraph. 371 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,260 But he says, it's not really about what you do or the choices that you make, but it's 372 00:20:06,260 --> 00:20:10,360 righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 373 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:16,680 For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 374 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:22,000 In other words, God will take you if you will do this. 375 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:29,280 Seek righteousness, combining the two verses together, seek righteousness and have peace 376 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:32,480 and joy in the Holy Spirit. 377 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:38,480 And then we're going to look at one more verse also by Jesus and it's in Luke chapter 17. 378 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:43,600 So if you're flipping around in your Bibles following along, that's great. 379 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:51,680 Luke chapter 17, a classic verse about the kingdom of God and it is verse 21. 380 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:52,960 And I'm going to go back to verse 20. 381 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:54,540 So we see the context a little bit. 382 00:20:54,540 --> 00:20:59,320 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, 383 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:03,200 remember kingdom of God, that's what we desire. 384 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:05,320 It's here, but also it's coming. 385 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:09,440 They weren't necessarily accepting that it was there in their presence, but they were 386 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:11,640 desiring it. 387 00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:17,440 The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. 388 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:18,440 That's what Jesus said. 389 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:23,320 The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, look, here 390 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:25,700 it is or there it is. 391 00:21:25,700 --> 00:21:29,400 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst. 392 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:33,520 Now this translation to American standards says in your midst, but that word there is 393 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:35,280 also translated within you. 394 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:36,600 It's a thing that's inside. 395 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:40,900 Caleb, do you have the kingdom of God inside you? 396 00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:41,900 Are you following the Lord? 397 00:21:41,900 --> 00:21:44,520 Jason, do you have the kingdom of God inside you? 398 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:45,520 Do you follow the Lord? 399 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:50,760 Then there should be times at which the Lord reigns in us and we see an outward display 400 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:54,120 of that obedience, but the truth is you really can't see that, right? 401 00:21:54,120 --> 00:21:55,120 And that's what he's saying. 402 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:56,120 You can't see it. 403 00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:57,120 It's within you. 404 00:21:57,120 --> 00:21:58,120 Also it's among you. 405 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:04,240 It's in your community over all other communities, all other people that you're connected to. 406 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:07,800 Christians have a community that is in Christ, that is the kingdom of God. 407 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,820 And also it is in the midst of you. 408 00:22:10,820 --> 00:22:12,880 It's between you, like connecting you. 409 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:18,320 It is what preserves our connections. 410 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:22,440 So the kingdom of God is in us. 411 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,720 The kingdom of God is between us. 412 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:28,280 And the kingdom of God is all of us together. 413 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:35,060 But the kingdom of God is already present in all of those places, but also yet to come 414 00:22:35,060 --> 00:22:40,120 in all of those places and also yet to come in full culmination. 415 00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:46,560 When Jesus comes again, the matter will be settled and the kingdom will be here in fullness. 416 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:52,120 So the first thing I want you to see as we put all these texts together is that the kingdom 417 00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:54,080 of God came. 418 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:55,080 It's in you. 419 00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,480 It's among you and it's within you. 420 00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:02,040 And if it came, then you must tend to it, right? 421 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:03,040 What do you do? 422 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:07,120 If you have a garden and it's growing, how do you tend to it? 423 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:12,000 You water it, maybe fertilize it, depending on what you know the condition of the soil 424 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:13,120 is. 425 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:14,520 You weed it. 426 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:21,120 There is work that is to be done to care for that which is already in place in you. 427 00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:23,200 It's in you. 428 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,960 It's also among you. 429 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,840 So there are relationships that we have in the church. 430 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:32,000 People in this room you know and don't know. 431 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:36,160 And the kingdom of God exists in the relationship between you and them. 432 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:37,160 So what do you need to do? 433 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:39,040 Well, you need to tend to it. 434 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:40,440 You need to take the weeds out. 435 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,800 That means you treat them with kindness, love, and respect. 436 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,480 And when they have something less than that for you, you hold them accountable. 437 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,320 You ask them to treat you with love and kindness and respect. 438 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:53,700 When a brother lies or cheats or steals, we hold them accountable and ask them to move 439 00:23:53,700 --> 00:23:56,900 in God's direction so that we can all be in community together. 440 00:23:56,900 --> 00:23:57,900 And then it's within you. 441 00:23:57,900 --> 00:23:59,800 It exists in those relationships. 442 00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:02,480 It exists in the lines between us. 443 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,040 And we must tend it. 444 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:06,680 We must preserve it. 445 00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:11,160 We must fertilize it. 446 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,720 Notice also that in this text, it's coming. 447 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,680 The kingdom of God is coming, which means it's coming in us. 448 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,960 So daily I am growing to be more like Jesus. 449 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:28,000 And if days or weeks or months go by and you don't become a little more like Jesus in that 450 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:33,140 period of time, then it is because something is not happening in the garden that is growing 451 00:24:33,140 --> 00:24:34,140 in front of you. 452 00:24:34,140 --> 00:24:35,140 There's no fruit. 453 00:24:35,140 --> 00:24:36,720 There's no steps forward. 454 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:37,720 There's no stretching. 455 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:39,720 There's no getting outside your box. 456 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:44,120 There's no challenges met and overcome in the Lord. 457 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:50,080 But the kingdom of God has come in you, but it should also be coming in you, so saith 458 00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:51,080 the Lord. 459 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:56,040 If it's coming yet, then we must be receiving that which is yet coming. 460 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:00,320 When the little plant comes up and there's no tomatoes on it, just a bud. 461 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:01,920 That's when we chop her down, right? 462 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:02,920 No. 463 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,520 When the little plant comes up and there's just a bud. 464 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,440 If there's a plant here that comes up and there's just a bud on it, and a plant over 465 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,840 here that comes up and there's no buds on it. 466 00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:13,960 This one over here has a bud on it. 467 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:15,200 We weed around it. 468 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:16,480 We fertilize it. 469 00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:17,480 We water it. 470 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:18,960 We make sure it's getting plenty of sun. 471 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:21,880 If the frost signal comes up, it's going to get frost. 472 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:26,420 We cover it, make sure the frost doesn't kill it off because it's on the verge of producing 473 00:25:26,420 --> 00:25:27,760 a tomato. 474 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:30,060 We're going to get a part of our salad, right? 475 00:25:30,060 --> 00:25:35,600 And so when what's in you starts to do something, what most people do is they get all afraid. 476 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,680 I feel the Lord telling me I should talk to people about Jesus. 477 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,100 I feel the Lord telling me I should be honest here. 478 00:25:41,100 --> 00:25:43,480 I feel that conviction that I didn't do what was right. 479 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:47,360 Instead of repenting, they go and pretend they can hide their head under their blankets 480 00:25:47,360 --> 00:25:49,080 and the Lord won't see. 481 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:50,920 And that's not how it works. 482 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:56,920 The Kingdom of God is coming in us just as it is already in us. 483 00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:58,120 And it is yet coming in us. 484 00:25:58,120 --> 00:25:59,120 We're going to grow. 485 00:25:59,120 --> 00:26:00,120 We're going to stretch. 486 00:26:00,120 --> 00:26:04,160 We're going to reach outside as we exhibit our spiritual disciplines, which means we 487 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:05,400 seek His coming. 488 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:06,400 That's weeding out, right? 489 00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:09,240 We read our Bible so we can see the things that we're going to weed out. 490 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:14,240 We seek in prayer, talking to God, explaining the difficulties that we're having and trusting 491 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:15,860 Him to deal with our problems. 492 00:26:15,860 --> 00:26:18,640 We stay ready for that growth. 493 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:19,640 We pray. 494 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:21,840 Remember, we pray every day. 495 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:22,840 Your Kingdom come. 496 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:27,420 Our prayer should be all around God's will being done here on this earth. 497 00:26:27,420 --> 00:26:29,280 That's what it's all about. 498 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:37,240 And especially in us and especially between us and especially in the relationships that 499 00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:39,120 we have with one another. 500 00:26:39,120 --> 00:26:43,520 It's coming and we should be ready to receive it and we should stay ready and we should 501 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:48,360 prepare the soil through prayer and Bible study and giving and service and worship and 502 00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:49,360 fellowship. 503 00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:56,040 And it's all of what it means to be the church as we realize it's coming not only in us, 504 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:02,880 but it's also coming in our relationships with one another and in our community at large. 505 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,720 And then also notice it will come completely. 506 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,160 Eventually there will be a full culmination of the Kingdom. 507 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:10,160 Here is the beauty of it. 508 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:11,160 Let me put it this simply. 509 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:16,360 There will come a time in which Jesus Christ's reign will be so total and so complete that 510 00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:19,560 there will only be two places left. 511 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:24,280 Two places geographically, spiritually, however you want to think of it, two places. 512 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:28,400 In his presence with him and the Lord, with God. 513 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:29,400 That's one. 514 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,080 And the alternative is not there. 515 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:33,360 It's just like a light switch on up. 516 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:37,240 You'll be with God for an eternity or you'll be elsewhere for an eternity. 517 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:42,440 And since you were created to be with God for an eternity, when that Kingdom comes in 518 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:48,360 culmination, when it comes in totality, when we can be with him forever and we have been 519 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:55,120 perfected and we have put on this incorruptible self and put on this incorruptible self and 520 00:27:55,120 --> 00:27:59,480 we can be with him for an eternity, there will only be there and elsewhere. 521 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:00,960 Now the Bible calls elsewhere hell. 522 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:06,040 We're not preaching on hell today, but the bottom line is it is coming in its totality 523 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,920 and it will come completely. 524 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:09,920 So what do we do? 525 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:14,640 Well, in us we look to growth until that day comes, but there's going to be a moment. 526 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:18,760 You could grow your whole life and grow to be a little bit more like Jesus all the time 527 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:19,760 and you're growing, growing, growing. 528 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:20,760 You always see a little bit of growth. 529 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,640 I'm studying, I'm reading, I'm praying, I'm growing, growing, growing. 530 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,440 And then when the time comes and Jesus truly comes in earnest, there's going to be still 531 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:29,440 stuff that's got to go. 532 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,920 Weeds that got to go out, fertilizing that's got to be done. 533 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,000 But it's going to be boom, here's all of it right now. 534 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,840 And it's just going to be an instantaneous perfection provided by Jesus. 535 00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:44,040 But because the Kingdom of God is already present, yes, we build it, we receive it, 536 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,920 we stay ready and pray and search it out and so on. 537 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,520 But because we know it will come completely and all of our efforts aren't going to be 538 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:55,640 enough, we look to the day of His glorious appearing at which our suffering finally comes 539 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:57,520 to an end. 540 00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,360 We go outside the gate to suffer with Him. 541 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:01,440 We talked about that in the last couple of weeks. 542 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,120 We go outside the gate to be with Jesus who suffered. 543 00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:06,280 Do you realize Jesus suffered? 544 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:11,800 This is an extreme faith to the point that if necessary, it would be better that you 545 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:19,840 cultivate the garden of growth of the Kingdom of God inside you than live. 546 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:22,040 And that's why martyrs die for the faith. 547 00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:26,120 Because it would be better that I say Jesus is Lord and be crucified or burnt at the 548 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:32,560 stake than I say, well, Jesus is somebody and survive. 549 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:37,920 We need the Kingdom of God and it has been delivered by the salvation, by being born 550 00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,920 again by the Holy Spirit coming and taking up presence in us. 551 00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:49,480 It is present and yet it is coming and ultimately is coming in fulfillment inside us, in our 552 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,400 relationships with one another and in our community. 553 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:54,320 And we look to the day of His glorious appearing. 554 00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,000 So somebody in the church bothered you. 555 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,040 They said something you didn't like. 556 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,400 They did something you didn't like. 557 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:08,880 That's a reminder that Jesus Christ's Kingdom is eventually coming in fullness but has not 558 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:09,880 yet. 559 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:12,600 Every time you run into anything, you don't like it, you try a food and don't like the 560 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:16,240 taste, you watch a movie and don't like the plot, you read a book and don't think it was 561 00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:17,240 worth the money. 562 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:23,480 All of that is a reminder that Jesus Christ's Kingdom is coming in fulfillment and we look 563 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,800 to the day of His glorious appearing. 564 00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,360 And if you believe God's promises, and you have to, because He promised He would send 565 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:30,880 Jesus and He did. 566 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:33,660 He promised Jesus would die on the cross and He did. 567 00:30:33,660 --> 00:30:36,360 He promised Jesus would be resurrected and He was. 568 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,640 He promised to send the Holy Spirit and He did. 569 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,640 And if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have to believe the promises of God and 570 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:47,400 if you believe the promises of God, then the fulfillment of the Kingdom is coming and you've 571 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:49,760 got to be ready. 572 00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:53,780 You look to the day of His glorious appearing. 573 00:30:53,780 --> 00:30:59,120 We elevate in the thinking, in our thinking, the value of the whosoever. 574 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:00,120 Who is that? 575 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:01,120 Who is the whosoever? 576 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:08,480 Well, before I got saved, the whosoever believing was me. 577 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:12,760 And then when I started believing, I realized I actually am in the whosoever. 578 00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:18,240 And your brother and your sister and your friend and your schoolmate and your workmate 579 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,920 and your person walking down the street that you just happened to bump into for a second 580 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:23,720 or the guy you bought your socks from. 581 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,560 They're all part of the whosoever and if we will elevate our understanding, our thinking 582 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:32,360 of the whosoever, then we realize that preparing for that day, don't you realize this is what 583 00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:33,600 I don't think people get? 584 00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,920 The moment that we stand before Jesus and He says, well done, good and faithful servant 585 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:38,280 or He says, well, this one belongs to me. 586 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:40,760 We're going to forgive all this and burn that stuff off one way or another. 587 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:44,560 You're going in because you believe, trusted in me and you said, I'm yours and you're 588 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,120 mine and I know this one and this one's mine. 589 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:52,120 And He says that there's going to be other people there and they're going to be judged 590 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:57,080 for their sins because of what they did with the Son of God. 591 00:31:57,080 --> 00:32:00,040 Because they refuse the salvation offered by Jesus. 592 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:04,480 And you just might see one of your workmates, your schoolmates, the person you brought your 593 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,440 socks from, they might be there. 594 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:10,920 And you think that the devil, evil spirits or even God Himself can't bring up in their 595 00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:16,800 mind at that moment that you brought your socks from them and never mentioned Jesus? 596 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:20,760 There are people that I remember that said things to me when I was unsaved, some of them 597 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:27,720 about Christ, some of them not, that I will never forget in my lifetime. 598 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:32,480 And it just well could be that one aspect of hell is that people who are burning there 599 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:37,360 for an eternity are thinking about the people who didn't share Christ with them and they're 600 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:43,960 in agony, mad, hateful, spiteful for an eternity because you didn't mention Jesus or I didn't 601 00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:45,280 mention Jesus. 602 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:50,680 We've got to expand in our thinking, to elevate in our thinking the value of the whosoever. 603 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:56,440 And if people will come to Christ, you, me, anybody will come to Christ, they will experience 604 00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,760 the kingdom of God when it comes in its fullness. 605 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:04,680 And they will experience it to some degree now in them and they will experience it to 606 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:08,800 some degree now in their relationships with others in the church and they will experience 607 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:15,680 it to some degree now in the church community as Jesus said. 608 00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:18,320 The kingdom of God has already come. 609 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:23,120 The kingdom of God is coming and the kingdom of God will come in fullness. 610 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:28,840 It has already come inside you if you've become a born again believer. 611 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:32,360 And it should be pretty easy to believe then that we store up our treasures in heaven and 612 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:40,440 pretty easy to believe then that the old man of us died away and we've become made new. 613 00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,720 And the kingdom of God is in our relationships with others. 614 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,180 And man, have you ever noticed how hard it is to communicate with people, to say what 615 00:33:47,180 --> 00:33:52,240 you really mean or how easy it is to say something with a little bit of intonation? 616 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,960 Just text somebody and then they get all mad because they say, what he said and he made 617 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,600 me feel and I like this is terrible. 618 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:00,640 Whatever, it's the end of the world. 619 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:05,040 It's so easy to do that because we are not living in the culmination of the kingdom of 620 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:06,040 God. 621 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,960 We've all still got flesh to interpret everything through. 622 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:13,560 It all gets messed up between people, but present in that between people is also the 623 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,560 kingdom of God. 624 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,720 And it comes to the point at which you will say of the person who loves you and you love 625 00:34:17,720 --> 00:34:22,600 them that you know, that you know, that you know, that you know that God put them in your 626 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:27,440 life and you for them and them for you and you know there's no more negative thoughts. 627 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:29,560 There's no more thinking, well they must have meant to hurt me. 628 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:35,400 It's all gone because the kingdom of God has been elevated to a position that it transcends 629 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:36,840 those issues. 630 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:41,760 But when those issues do arise, they arise to remind us that there will come a day when 631 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:47,020 the kingdom of God is in totality and there are only two places left. 632 00:34:47,020 --> 00:34:52,080 This brings us essentially to our conclusion, but there is a little something to it. 633 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:57,240 So first if you follow along your Bibles, go with me to Galatians 5. 634 00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:03,160 Galatians is one of those kind of small size-ish books in the middle of the New Testament. 635 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:04,160 Galatians 5. 636 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:12,960 We're going to read starting in verse 16 and it says as follows, Paul writing to the church 637 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:17,880 of Galatia, which is really multiple churches because that's kind of like a region of the 638 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,760 world if you will. 639 00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:25,280 Verse 16, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the 640 00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:29,600 flesh for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh 641 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:32,080 for these are in opposition to one another. 642 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:33,400 Now what spirit are we talking about? 643 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:34,400 We're talking about the human spirit. 644 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:36,040 Now we're talking about the Holy Spirit of God. 645 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,240 So we're talking about the kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit of God reigning and we're 646 00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:43,800 saying if we walk by the things of the Holy Spirit, that is in opposition to the things 647 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:44,800 of the flesh. 648 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,720 But if we walk by the things of the flesh, that is in opposition to the Holy Spirit. 649 00:35:47,720 --> 00:35:53,960 So if we want to cultivate the kingdom of God in us, he's saying walk by the spirit. 650 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:58,280 Verse 18, for if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. 651 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:05,160 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, 652 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:13,120 sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 653 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:20,000 envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these of which I forewarn you, just as 654 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:25,640 I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things shall not enter, I'm sorry, shall 655 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:27,680 not inherit the kingdom of God. 656 00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:32,280 Now I know the world wants to say otherwise and it's always been that way. 657 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,800 Anybody been on social media in the last week or watched a little TV? 658 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,080 Did you notice all the ads popping up? 659 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:40,280 That's a new thing, right? 660 00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:44,920 Like in the last 25 years or so, social media has really gotten going and now all those 661 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,320 ads always pulling at your mind trying to get you to buy this, that or the other thing, 662 00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:52,280 think that you can be a better person if you go after that thing or do these particular 663 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:57,040 episodes to handle your hanging tummy, you know, all of those things, that's a new thing, 664 00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:58,040 right? 665 00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:02,720 So I have before here, before me here, a book called Science and Mechanics. 666 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:04,640 It's a magazine actually, right? 667 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:09,400 This book is the, has, I don't know what actually Euro published in, but it cost 25 cents, it 668 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:15,000 was in the month of February and it has the performance report on the 1956 Ford. 669 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:16,480 So it's been around a hot minute. 670 00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:20,040 February 1956, that's when this was produced. 671 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:23,200 Now I want to show you, I can't show you right now, if anybody wants to look at it after 672 00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:24,540 you're welcome to do so. 673 00:37:24,540 --> 00:37:30,440 This here, this here, that's what you call classified ads, ads that somebody paid for 674 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:32,440 to try to get you to buy whatever they're selling. 675 00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:35,400 I'll take that out for a second. 676 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:39,840 Here's an ad where you can train at home to jump your pay. 677 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:45,240 And if you eat, sleep and live cars, turn your hobby into a career. 678 00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:48,160 There's eight more ads, ones for shrinking your hemorrhoids. 679 00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:50,600 You ever see that on social media? 680 00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:52,600 I have and I don't have hemorrhoids. 681 00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:53,600 I got it. 682 00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,000 Study at home. 683 00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,200 It just goes on and on. 684 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:01,800 Money in donuts. 685 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:05,760 National school. 686 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:06,760 One man sawmill. 687 00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,760 You can buy a one man sawmill. 688 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:11,760 There's a way to make money. 689 00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:16,040 Weld, braze, solder or cut, $14.75, buy your own welder. 690 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:20,360 It just goes on and on and on and on. 691 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:21,360 And that's my point. 692 00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:22,360 It just goes on and on. 693 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:27,040 As long as mankind has been trying to get ahead, and that pretty much dates back to 694 00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:33,400 the Garden of Eden, men who do not know the Lord have been trying to get people who do 695 00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:37,960 not know the Lord to give them their money or resources. 696 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,560 Because they've forgotten that the storehouses of what they get is actually in heaven. 697 00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,160 If you're a follower of the Lord, your storehouse is actually in heaven. 698 00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:47,000 Because they forgot that they died and it's now an inheritance and they're supposed to 699 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:48,000 be using it. 700 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:50,700 So every company has an allotted promo budget. 701 00:38:50,700 --> 00:38:55,120 I run a couple of companies myself and I have an allotted promo budget. 702 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:59,080 The bottom line is you spend that money to try to get others to recognize they can buy 703 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:01,380 something from you. 704 00:39:01,380 --> 00:39:05,400 This book is just the social media of 1956 February. 705 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,320 That's all it is. 706 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:13,160 And if you look in here, you'll find stuff trying to win people over to follow one religion 707 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:14,160 or another. 708 00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:21,040 My guess is you will not find anything here trying to win anybody over to Christianity. 709 00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:22,240 That would be my guess. 710 00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:24,800 Somebody could search it if you want to search the whole thing and try to find out. 711 00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:29,440 But you will find subtle things trying to win people over into Buddha worship, into 712 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,640 New Age stuff, and things like that. 713 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,280 False teachings. 714 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:41,940 What I'm getting at is always getting appealed to by all of these things of the world. 715 00:39:41,940 --> 00:39:45,000 We have instead a responsibility. 716 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,280 Our responsibility is to recognize that the Kingdom of God is the most important thing. 717 00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:51,900 It has already come in us. 718 00:39:51,900 --> 00:39:55,000 It has already come in our relationships with one another and it has already come in the 719 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:56,000 community. 720 00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:00,760 But it is still coming in all three of those places and it will come in its fullness at 721 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:04,680 the end of the road in all of those places. 722 00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:12,560 Right before those verses that I just read to you, going back to verse 12, it says, 723 00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:18,200 Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves? 724 00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:20,660 For you were called to freedom, brethren. 725 00:40:20,660 --> 00:40:24,880 Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one 726 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:25,880 another. 727 00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:30,840 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, you shall love your neighbor 728 00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:32,520 as yourself. 729 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:37,600 But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another. 730 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:43,560 But I say, this is verse 16, walk by the Spirit and you shall not carry out the desire of 731 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:44,560 the flesh. 732 00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:49,800 The bottom line is day in, day out, you're going to encounter your wants. 733 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:51,600 They're always going to come on you. 734 00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:54,480 You're going to want a little more food, something tastes a little better, something looks a 735 00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:58,600 little better, something makes you feel a little better, feel a little less alone, whatever. 736 00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,480 You're going to encounter your wants on a daily basis. 737 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:07,240 What you need instead is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God reigning in you, in your 738 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:10,040 relationships and in your community. 739 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:16,680 Jesus said, you will only get there by coming to it as a little child. 740 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:22,040 And a little child comes to it in adoration, excitement, dependency, trust and humility. 741 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,040 You heard that, right? 742 00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:29,360 If you're big enough that you don't need God to help you internally, then you're really 743 00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:32,080 not all that interested in the kingdom of God. 744 00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:36,120 If you're smart enough that you don't need God to clean your mind and set you on the 745 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:40,760 right path, then you really don't need the kingdom of God inside you, do you? 746 00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:45,560 And Jesus said, I didn't come for those who, I am the great position, I didn't come for 747 00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,200 those who don't need me. 748 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:50,960 I came for those who are just wicked enough, just foul enough to know that they do need 749 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:51,960 me. 750 00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:56,560 And when the Pharisees and the Sadducees were before him, he said, the tax collectors and 751 00:41:56,560 --> 00:42:01,440 the prostitutes will come and sit down in the kingdom of God before you will. 752 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:02,880 Don't be like that. 753 00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:04,520 Are you okay financially? 754 00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,800 Remember your treasures are in heaven. 755 00:42:06,800 --> 00:42:07,800 Are you okay in your health? 756 00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:09,440 You're strong enough to do the right thing? 757 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:13,920 Remember, you died and are now living a new life in Christ. 758 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:17,400 And the kingdom of God is in you and in your relationships and in the community and we 759 00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:19,680 are always seeking it. 760 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:23,400 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. 761 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,400 That's what Jesus said. 762 00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:29,560 All that stuff that in your flesh you want, all that feeling that you think you want or 763 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:37,480 need, all that absence, or as Charlie said, that hole in your heart, all of that is in 764 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:41,720 the kingdom of God and in seeking the kingdom of God and he will take care of it all. 765 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:44,160 The kingdom of God is not a band-aid. 766 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:48,200 It's a territorial land grabbed by the God of the universe. 767 00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:52,280 He has decided who he wants and he wants you. 768 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,360 And you're here today because he wants you and he's going to claim you. 769 00:42:55,360 --> 00:43:00,240 He's going to claim space inside you and that space is destined to increase or will increase 770 00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:07,200 constantly until that time at which you come into his presence. 771 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:13,120 By the road of death, your body stops working or because Jesus came again. 772 00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:16,600 But remember, it's not about what you eat because this is what people will do. 773 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:17,720 It's all about righteousness. 774 00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:20,000 So now it's all about whether I get it right. 775 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,060 Do I make the right choice, eat the right foods, go after the right things or not. 776 00:43:23,060 --> 00:43:26,600 What he's saying to me is if I would just stop being a sinner, I could be saved. 777 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:28,080 That's not what I'm saying. 778 00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:29,080 Not at all. 779 00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:31,040 It's not about that. 780 00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:33,400 It's about what you want. 781 00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:34,400 What is your heart? 782 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:35,520 What is your desire? 783 00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:36,920 Do you want the kingdom of God? 784 00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,360 Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God. 785 00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:44,760 One last verse, one last four verses actually, and it's in Titus chapter two. 786 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:52,120 So it's the tiny little books back in the tease. 787 00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:59,800 Titus chapter two, verses 11 to 15. 788 00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:01,480 Verse 11 starts this. 789 00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,720 It is a trustworthy statement. 790 00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:08,200 For if we died with him, we shall also live with him. 791 00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,920 If we endure, we shall also reign with him. 792 00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:14,240 If we deny him, he also will deny us. 793 00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:21,920 If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. 794 00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:26,440 Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle 795 00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:30,960 about words which is useless and leads to ruin of the hearers. 796 00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:38,560 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, 797 00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:44,720 handling accurately the word of truth, but avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will 798 00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:48,160 lead to further ungodliness. 799 00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:50,040 Here is the bottom line. 800 00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:53,840 I read the wrong verses, but that's pretty good verses, isn't it? 801 00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:56,640 I'm going to go read the verses I intended to read, but that's pretty good verses that 802 00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:57,640 fit. 803 00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:01,480 For the grace of God has appeared, here we go, Titus 2.11. 804 00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:05,960 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny 805 00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:08,720 ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly. 806 00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:12,040 That fits a lot better with the sermon, doesn't it? 807 00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:13,040 Okay. 808 00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:18,040 Righteously and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing 809 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:23,600 of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us that He might 810 00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:30,280 redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, 811 00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:32,800 zealous for good deeds. 812 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,160 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. 813 00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:38,400 Let no one disregard you. 814 00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:39,400 There we go. 815 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:45,120 A couple of quick illustrations and we'll be through. 816 00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:52,840 Before we even started, I told you, there's no set of rules to get it done. 817 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:56,640 There's still no set of rules to embrace the King of God. 818 00:45:56,640 --> 00:46:01,360 You can dig with a shovel and some days you can dig with a razor. 819 00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:06,200 You can organize your seed in nice, neat rows or you can scatter it. 820 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:11,620 And the truth is, there's a debate about which way you will get a better crop. 821 00:46:11,620 --> 00:46:15,320 If you would scatter it in the garden very chaotically and tomatoes grow right next to 822 00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,160 corn, some people think it might get better that way. 823 00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:21,600 Bottom line is you need seed. 824 00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:24,360 You need a garden. 825 00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:26,000 Can you get away without weeding? 826 00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,000 Some people think you can pretty much get away without weeding the garden. 827 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:30,080 You don't have to take the bad stuff out. 828 00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:33,000 In fact, there's a parable, right? 829 00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:36,040 Where the garden was sowed, the wheat and the tares grow side by side. 830 00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:37,280 So should we go tear out the tares? 831 00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:39,280 I said, no, don't do that because the roots are growing together. 832 00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:40,960 You tear one out, you'll tear up the other two. 833 00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:47,480 Some people say if weeds grow next to your crop, don't touch them. 834 00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:49,720 But the bottom line is this. 835 00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:55,840 The kingdom of God is in knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 836 00:46:55,840 --> 00:47:04,520 If you will seek Jesus, seek His will in your life, if you will apply the standards that 837 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:12,080 we've been talking about in that if one died for all, all died, you're now living after 838 00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:15,200 your own rebirth, after your own resurrection. 839 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,240 And that our storehouses are in heaven and that we seek, we desire most the kingdom of 840 00:47:19,240 --> 00:47:20,640 God, that's God's reign in us. 841 00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:24,440 If you will apply that standard on a daily basis, then when you run into something that 842 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:27,960 you shouldn't do, you'll be like, I don't think I should do that. 843 00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:30,520 And if you can find it in the scripture, the scripture says specifically that you will 844 00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:34,000 not inherit the kingdom of God if you do that thing, then it's pretty easy to go, there 845 00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:36,200 it is right there in black and white, I better not do that thing. 846 00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:37,640 But sometimes it's not like that. 847 00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:44,240 Sometimes it's just about what you should say, about how you should feel, about how 848 00:47:44,240 --> 00:47:48,620 you respond when somebody does a certain thing. 849 00:47:48,620 --> 00:47:55,740 So it's not laid out, it doesn't say here, Caleb should not say that, right? 850 00:47:55,740 --> 00:47:58,280 Or Haley should not go there. 851 00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:01,000 It doesn't say those things. 852 00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,440 It just says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto 853 00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:05,440 you. 854 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:07,760 In other words, you desire every day to do what God would want you to do, the best you 855 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:11,840 know how, and you keep doing that and it grows in you a little bit, a little bit, a little 856 00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:12,840 bit. 857 00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:16,600 And then ultimately, he comes again and it grows in you to its finality. 858 00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:19,480 It's done, it's finished. 859 00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:23,840 I asked Josh this morning to give me a simple definition of a word that I knew worked for 860 00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:26,680 what we're talking about in Excel spreadsheets. 861 00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:30,160 I'm going to try to explain, I'm not a big Excel guy, but Josh is pretty good at it. 862 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:33,280 So if you need a better explanation, you can get it from him later. 863 00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:40,040 Basically there is a command that checks three sets of data. 864 00:48:40,040 --> 00:48:47,020 So the first set of data compared to the second set of data and the third set of data is added 865 00:48:47,020 --> 00:48:50,840 in if the second set of data matches the first set of data. 866 00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:53,080 So basically you got a column, column and a column. 867 00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:57,120 We're going to add this in if this and this match. 868 00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:03,160 It's closer to what Christianity is than the Ten Commandments or a book of rules. 869 00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:06,840 Jesus Christ died for you, therefore you died. 870 00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:11,920 If we died, there is a way that we should make our going forward decisions. 871 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:16,760 If we know that the King of God, which we are supposed to seek first of all things, 872 00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:21,360 is in our relationship with each other, then there is a way that we should live those relationships 873 00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:22,360 with each other. 874 00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:25,960 And certain things are precluded and we don't turn it around and make it an ultimatum. 875 00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:28,560 If you don't treat me this way, you must not be a Christian. 876 00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:32,280 I can't tell you how many times I've heard things like that and it's just not right. 877 00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:33,920 Actually Jesus says this instead. 878 00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:36,000 He said, seek ye first the King of God. 879 00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:39,680 In other words, in your relationship with other people, let's see the kingdom growing. 880 00:49:39,680 --> 00:49:40,840 Let's see God reigning. 881 00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:42,800 Let's see those activities lining up more. 882 00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:43,800 So what did God do? 883 00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:47,440 He served, He gave, He died. 884 00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:49,440 He purchased with His own blood. 885 00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:53,120 What kind of person should you be in your relationships? 886 00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:57,560 And then in the community of the church, we together, when we pool resources that God 887 00:49:57,560 --> 00:49:59,520 has invested in us, what does that look like? 888 00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,240 Well there's rules, steps, things we've got to be. 889 00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:03,520 You can't have that and you can't do that. 890 00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:05,720 You can't be that way. 891 00:50:05,720 --> 00:50:06,720 We don't need those rules. 892 00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:09,280 Why don't we need those rules? 893 00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:13,560 Because the King of God is in our community and when we embrace the King of God, we seek 894 00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:17,320 the King of God, there will be certain things that are naturally forbidden, naturally don't 895 00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:18,320 fit. 896 00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:20,360 It just makes sense that it doesn't work. 897 00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:24,680 And that's what God has called us to, to seek first the King of God. 898 00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:27,040 How be a fanatic for Jesus? 899 00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:32,560 How live faithfully this very, kid yourself not, this very extreme version of faith? 900 00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:34,800 How do we do that? 901 00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:36,720 We remember that we died. 902 00:50:36,720 --> 00:50:39,800 We remember that now our treasures are stored up in the storehouse of heaven. 903 00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:40,800 That's where it's truly at. 904 00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:45,800 And we remember that the goal is not a set of rules or to never sin or anything like 905 00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:51,920 that, but to embrace the King of God and to desire it more than anything else in us, in 906 00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:55,720 our relationship and in our community. 907 00:50:55,720 --> 00:51:01,120 When we start doing that, I remember, and I've used this illustration before and we 908 00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:02,120 use it one more time. 909 00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:06,360 I had a teacher in Bible colleges, my Old Testament teachers, they taught Old Testament 910 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:09,520 one and he knew the Old Testament like nobody I've ever known in my life. 911 00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:12,360 Man, really knew the Old Testament really, really well. 912 00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:17,480 And he was majoring in the major prophets and then the law and like that. 913 00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:20,520 And then we had a different professor, we get into the minor prophets and so on. 914 00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:22,400 And he really, really knew the word. 915 00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:27,320 They told how he was a missionary in Russia and he went into a little house church in 916 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:31,920 Russia after the Berlin Wall came down and they kind of opened it up and Christians were 917 00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:34,960 no longer, you know, they were, they were allowed to be there now and you could take 918 00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:36,960 Bibles in there and stuff like that. 919 00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:40,280 And he went into this little house church and he was going to teach and he was like 920 00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:43,200 going down the hallway in the middle of the house to go to the bigger back room where 921 00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:45,740 they were going to gather and he was going to teach a Bible study. 922 00:51:45,740 --> 00:51:50,240 And on the wall were all these pictures of men and they were all like a picture of them, 923 00:51:50,240 --> 00:51:54,340 you know, it was clearly a portrait, like they stood up or sat to get their picture 924 00:51:54,340 --> 00:51:58,680 taken and there were dozens or maybe hundreds. 925 00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:01,520 And as he was walking down, he was like, wow, this church really is something. 926 00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:03,120 Are these all missionaries that you sent out? 927 00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:04,120 He said, no. 928 00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:05,840 He said, are these all deacons of the church? 929 00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:06,840 No. 930 00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:07,840 Are these all founders of the church? 931 00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:09,320 He said, no, they're none of those things. 932 00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:11,320 And he said, well, what are all these men? 933 00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:12,800 There's hundreds of pictures on the wall. 934 00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:14,000 What are all these men? 935 00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:18,120 And he said, these are the martyrs of the church. 936 00:52:18,120 --> 00:52:21,920 These are the people who died because the government found out that they were Christians 937 00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:28,400 and they came after them and they would not tell what church they were part of. 938 00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:30,920 They would not tell who shared Christ with them. 939 00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:34,640 They protected the church by being martyred themselves, even though they were tortured 940 00:52:34,640 --> 00:52:35,640 to death. 941 00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:36,640 They didn't just die, shot in the head. 942 00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:39,920 Most of them were tortured to death. 943 00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:44,560 Those men who were hanging on that wall were men who realized that Jesus died for all, 944 00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:47,520 therefore they had already died, that their treasures were already stored in heaven. 945 00:52:47,520 --> 00:52:51,200 And lastly, as we saw today, that the Kingdom of God is more important. 946 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:55,360 We've got a lot of people out there in the world today that don't think the church is 947 00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:56,960 important and that's just not a fact. 948 00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,600 That's not a fact because the Kingdom of God is in the church. 949 00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:02,040 He said, well, the Kingdom of God is in the world and every believer. 950 00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:03,040 Well, yes, that's true. 951 00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:04,840 Jesus said that as well. 952 00:53:04,840 --> 00:53:08,760 The Kingdom of God is in the world and relationships between believers, yes, that's true. 953 00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:15,480 But also it's in the community, the called out body of believers that we are. 954 00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:20,200 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and be a fanatic for Jesus Christ. 955 00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:25,160 If you're here today and you've not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior already, 956 00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:29,720 that means if you don't know that Jesus is telling you what to do and you're supposed 957 00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:36,040 to do it or you don't know that Jesus paid the price for your sins or maybe you do know 958 00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:40,920 that now, but for the first time, then as we have this song of invitation, which closed 959 00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:43,240 out our service, this is your opportunity to say, that's me. 960 00:53:43,240 --> 00:53:45,320 I'm living for Jesus from now on. 961 00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,760 Whatever anybody else thinks, I'm living for Jesus. 962 00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:51,160 And he says, if you confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father in heaven. 963 00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:54,320 But if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father in heaven. 964 00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:56,320 Jesus said, I didn't say Jesus said. 965 00:53:56,320 --> 00:54:00,640 If I get to heaven and you're there, whether you're going in or not, I will not deny you. 966 00:54:00,640 --> 00:54:03,760 If I can possibly remember your face or your name, I will not deny you. 967 00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:07,040 But it's not my job to decide who's saving or not. 968 00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:08,040 That's Jesus' job. 969 00:54:08,040 --> 00:54:10,560 And he didn't come to make anybody not saved. 970 00:54:10,560 --> 00:54:13,480 They're not saved already by what they've done with the Son of God. 971 00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:18,640 And so if you're willing to say the Son of God is my Lord and my Savior, then you respond 972 00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:20,440 at this time and find the people. 973 00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:24,120 And if you know something that God has been telling you to do and you're not going to 974 00:54:24,120 --> 00:54:28,240 be nurturing, not been weeding out, not been letting the Kingdom of God blossom in you 975 00:54:28,240 --> 00:54:32,920 or in your relationship or in your community, then you say, okay, I give in. 976 00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:33,920 I surrender. 977 00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:36,160 Lord, do in me what it is that you want to do. 978 00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:38,720 Do through me what it is that you want to do. 979 00:54:38,720 --> 00:54:41,920 Do in us what it is that you want to do. 980 00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:42,920 Whatever that might be. 981 00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:46,640 However the Lord's speaking to you today, you respond and make it public during this 982 00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:47,640 coming song. 983 00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:49,640 I ask the praise team to come forward and lead us. 984 00:54:49,640 --> 00:54:55,360 And as we sing this song, if the Lord is leading you to respond, you respond. 985 00:54:55,360 --> 00:54:56,360 Jason. 986 00:54:56,360 --> 00:54:57,360 Jason. 987 00:54:57,360 --> 00:54:58,360 All right. 988 00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:12,560 Would you stand with us and sing if you're willing and able to do so? 989 00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:25,440 And then if the Lord is speaking to your heart, you respond.