Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Okay, let's make a start. I'm preaching this morning on one of the most exciting things that I love to preach about the kingdom of God. I love the kingdom of God. And, um, we're gonna explain next week, Phil is going to speak on the kingdom of God in our workplace, all right? And he's gonna come and bring some incredible stories and make it very practical next week about, um, following the kingdom of God in the workplace, in, in, in places, uh, that we find ourselves in during the week. And, um, before I do, I just want to, I wonder, we haven't got, have we got, we haven't got Rupert here today, have we this morning? No. Okay. So, we'll, yeah. Okay. Um, we finished our new believers, uh, course last on Monday. And, uh, we've taken a couple of people, about three people through a new believers class, and some of them haven't come this morning, so I, I won't do it.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 But, um, you know, it's amazing that God's changing lives. Yeah. Come on. That is the kingdom of God when we see people's lives being changed. And, um, so next week, probably when they're here, I'd love us all just to clap them this morning, you know, clap them next week, um, as a sign of just well done, um, for all that you've done and been through. And it was lovely to see those baptisms a couple of weeks ago. Incredible. And I, I can't wait to baptize people in the ocean. That'll be stunning. It'll be hopefully warm. Will it be warm in August? Little bit.
Speaker 2 00:01:24 It's the warmest <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:01:25 Warmer than Bobby swimming pool <laugh>. Maybe. Maybe. I dunno. Okay, so let's come around. The kingdom of God this morning. The kingdom of God is such a vast subject. I possibly can't cover it in all of 35 minutes this morning, but I'm gonna try and do my best to kind of, um, present it to us this morning. What is the kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God's simply put in its simplest terms, is the reign and rule of Jesus Christ. It is a very real kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom. It is an eternal kingdom, and it is a very real kingdom where a king reigns. And that is king Jesus. Where is the kingdom of God? Somebody say, where is it? The kingdom of God is wherever the reign and rule of Jesus is my title this morning. I haven't got, um, many slides or whatever.
Speaker 1 00:02:21 We'll send out all the key verses for life groups this week. But the title is This is Jesus, king is Jesus king. So the kingdom of God is wherever Jesus is allowed to reign and rule wherever he is Lord and master, that is where he reigns. That is where the kingdom of God is. That's why you see we can go, if you are in Christ Jesus this morning, you can go in your workplace and change atmospheres because you carry the kingdom of God. Jesus said that, you know, the kingdom of God doesn't come by carefully observing is it going to come. The kingdom of God doesn't come by looking at the calendar and saying, oh, I wonder when the kingdom's going to come. Jesus said, the kingdom is at hand, the kingdom is within you. So that's why we go to work. We can change atmospheres, we can change, um, atmospheres in our homes if we are in Christ and we carry his kingdom with us.
Speaker 1 00:03:31 So the kingdom of God is the reign and rule of king Jesus in our lives. I wanna say that we find this concept hard sometimes, and particularly young people are, as I put this together, I really thought of you today. We are so physical, aren't we? We see a lot of physical things in the world, but I think sometimes we forget in the church that we are spiritual people. I think too often we head out into the week on Monday observing things with our natural eyes and not our spiritual eyes. There is a very physical reality. Sorry if I go tempero because I get passionate about this. You're good because this is a matter of life and death of Jesus's king or not. Come on. We have a very physical reality. We are here on the earth. You look around with physically here. But our spiritual reality is that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.
Speaker 1 00:04:35 And we looked at this at new believers last week, okay? Paul says, set your minds, set your hearts on things above because we are raised with God, with Christ in God. Okay? We are raised, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. Now, you may be physically here, but spiritually as citizenship is with the Lord Jesus Christ and where the Lord Jesus Christ is, that is where we are. If Jesus is king, okay? Consistently set your minds, your hearts because the kingdom is within you. A flesh reality, but a very spiritual reality. You know, my heart really breaks for a generation coming up behind us be because I look at my children and their generation and everything is about sight. So many young people are spending so much time, money, focus, energy on building the right physical body, building the right physical image, wanting to get this, wanting to get that. Now, do we keep our bodies? Yes. Do we exercise? Do we put good food into us? Absolutely. Because this is the temple of where the Holy Spirit dwells.
Speaker 1 00:06:07 But the focus be has become more about the physical realm than the spiritual realm. Scripture tells us that the flesh, what you see is rotting away. That's why when I look in the mirror at 46 years of age, you kind of have a joke. You think I'm not in my twenties anymore, but I tell you what, I'm closer to. Glory <laugh>. The physical is rotting away, but the spiritual is being renewed day by day. There is this incredible scene in acts. Well, it's an incredible and also quite a, an excruciating scene. And there is a young man called Stephen, and Stephen is the very first martyr of the early church, okay? And he's preaching the good news of the, of the kingdom. And as his flesh, and I want you to get this this morning, as his flesh is being stoned, here is a young man who knows what it is to live in the spirit realm as his flesh is being stoned spiritually. Now this is at the same time spiritually, he's able to look up and see the son of man
Speaker 1 00:07:21 Seated at the right hand of the Father. How do you do that when you are on the earth? It didn't just happen in that moment. He was a man the minute he accepted Christ as Lord. There is a man who said, I know where my life is now hidden. I know where I'm seated. I might be here on the earth, but I know where my home is. I know where my citizenship is. And it's not here. It's in the kingdom of God. A young man who said, Jesus, you are king of my life. Jesus, you are king.
Speaker 1 00:08:01 The unseen is temporary. The unseen is sorry. The scene is temporary. Let's just think about that for a moment. The scene is the scene. What we see is temporary, but the unseen is eternal. The unseen is eternal. Revelation one, it says, behold, I see the son of man coming and every I will see him. In other words, what is unseen now will become seen, will become visible. Is Jesus king, is our heart mind on the flesh? Or is it on the spirit? Do we see the spirit this morning in worship? Do we see the king in faith this morning? The only thing that's going to matter at the end of our lives is this. Did we make Jesus king of our lives? Was he reigning and was he ruling in all areas of our lives? That's the only thing that's going to count in the kingdom of God. The beginning of scripture there is in Exodus, do you remember the scene where Moses, God calls Moses up the mountain? Yeah. And he receives the 10 commandments. God says to Moses, he says this, he says, I want a people for myself. God wants you. He wants you for himself.
Speaker 1 00:09:48 And he said right at the beginning of the time, in Exodus, I want a people for myself. I want a special treasure. I want a possession. And he said to Moses, he said, if the people will fully obey, but here's the word, fully, fully obey fully, follow fully, be devoted to me. This is what I'm gonna make them. And I text you, didn't I uh, ke you about this? You can think, why'd you text me that <laugh>? I'm gonna make you a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Speaker 1 00:10:25 Right at the end of scripture, in Revelation it says this, it says, he has made us to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Do you know what a kingdom of priests does? Right? Please don't think about the old priesthood, people with colors and all that kind of stuff, Vics and right. We are. If you are in Christ this morning, we are the royal priesthood. We are the kingdom of priests. This morning, the kingdom of priests has gathered to worship. And this is what the kingdom of priests does, okay? The kingdom of priests serve, love, honor, worship, exalt, magnify the king because they see him high and lifted up. Come on. That's what the kingdom of priests does.
Speaker 1 00:11:19 A kingdom of priests. It's so glorious. And I believe it is the task of every generation. That's why as a family, we have given our lives to this. It is the task of every generation to see the kingdom of God preached, taught, lived, out, demonstrated where we live and where we are. We don't always get it right, but that is our task. It's not our task to fall asleep on our watch. It's our task to say, okay, Lord, you've called me to be a kingdom of priests. I might be here on the earth, but I'm seated in heavenly places. I belong to you. I belong to another kingdom. I'm under your reign and rule. And I wanna see your reign and rule come upon the earth. When we pray, kingdom of God come. We're praying for the reign and rule of, of the kingdom of God to come in every heart and life that we meet. Okay? What are some of the key elements of the kingdom? Are you all okay? Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:12:24 Come on.
Speaker 1 00:12:25 Are you okay?
Speaker 4 00:12:26 <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:12:27 Are you hot? You're okay? Good. Brilliant. <laugh>. Okay, some key elements of the kingdom, here we go. There are conditions for entering the kingdom. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 00:12:38 <affirmative>, Ooh,
Speaker 1 00:12:41 Thought everything's free what it is. But there are conditions, and we've looked at some of those conditions, okay? So we looked at, at the start of what it makes to be a disciple, repentance, faith in Jesus Christ. We've looked at that conditions for entering because Jesus is the only way.
Speaker 1 00:13:02 We will not enter the kingdom another way. People will try to get into the kingdom of God. They will, we know they will. They will try and give you their version of the gospel. They will try and do things their way in order to access the kingdom. But let me tell you, Jesus will not allow it because Jesus is the only way into the kingdom of God. There is no other way. He's either going to be Lord of your life and you are going to devote your whole entire life to him. Or he's not Lord at all. Because that's the cost. And sometimes we don't hear the cost being preached because we want all the gift. So gifted up and packaged lovely and say, well, I don't have to do anything because Jesus has done it all. And that is absolutely true. Jesus has done it all. But there are warnings for us as a church as well, to continue to live out your salvation with fear and trembling. Come
Speaker 4 00:14:05 On.
Speaker 1 00:14:07 So there are conditions to follow, the bits that we may not like and we may struggle with. I imagine it's so hard for new believers at times to accept the message of the gospel in today's society. It it really is, isn't it? It really is a move of the Holy Spirit to enlighten people's lives and their eyes to receive this gospel message. See, the gospel message and the way to the kingdom requires radical change. Radical change. Not becoming weirdos, <laugh>, but radical change. If you were to move to a new country, I dunno, into the Middle East somewhere, culture is completely different. We would have to learn a new language. We would possibly have to drive on the other side of the road.
Speaker 1 00:15:08 Nightmare. <laugh>. We would have to change our passport. No, we wouldn't have to change our passports. No. What would we have to do? Give me another one. What would we have to do? Residency? Yes. All of, yeah, all of that. Okay. So we would have to, we have to change certain things to belong to that place. Okay? And it's like that with the kingdom of God. Certain things have to change. And I wanna say to new believers in this place this morning, some of that change will not happen overnight. And that's okay. But as you pursue the Lord, as you pursue his kingdom, those things will start to drop off your life. Foul language will start to go. Sexual immorality will start to go. You'll find that suddenly the people you used to hang around with that just aren't sharpening you anymore. They will start to go.
Speaker 1 00:16:05 Things will start to drop off you as we pursue him. Second thing, there are many who will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Some just will not enter. Jesus talks about some where the kingdom of God will be taken away from people. Anybody read the parables recently? The parables really challenge me. Make it maybe an an aim over summer. If you do any kind of different reading or you do some study different in, in summer, go and read the parables. So the parables paint this wonderful picture about the kingdom of God, but with so many challenges and warning, the kingdom of God is like a man who he found a precious pearl in a field. And this is what he does. He puts it back. He goes and sells everything he's got in order to purchase that field with the precious pearl in. In other words, the kingdom of God is so important to him.
Speaker 1 00:17:11 It's everything that he gives everything away in order to get that. One thing that's going to count is Jesus king. Jesus talks about the parables of the 10 virgins. We know the story. The virgins are on their way with their lamps to see the bride groom. Five of the virgins are so prepared, like they're ready to meet Jesus. They're ready to meet the bride. Groom five are on their way also to meet the bride groom. But they are not prepared. And what happens is time goes by by, they start to fall asleep and get a bit drowsy. And then suddenly the bride groom is here. And five of the virgins who have oil in their lamps, in other words, are prepared for the coming of the bride groom. Go straight in to meet him. But there are five. Jesus says that they, they didn't have enough oil. They were unprepared in their life. And they said, oh no, we, we need to go and get prepared. But it was too late. You see, when Jesus comes again in all his glory, are we going to be ready? Is Jesus king? Is he raining? Is he ruling in your heart and life?
Speaker 1 00:18:37 The narrow road leads to life, but few find it. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard. You know, Sundays might be great and we, we want to encourage and build up as we meet. But your Monday tomorrow might be really, really difficult. If Jesus came today, would we be ready? Do we know him? Because this is what he said. He said to the, the virgins, and he said to the two sons, I haven't got time this morning to go into it, but he said, away from me. I don't know you, but they were trying to pursue their way. They were trying to do things their own way. I'll just do it like this. I'll, I'll, I'll be okay, I'll, I'll just, I'll just get along like this. But then the day came church, I want to tell you, the day is coming where every eye will see him.
Speaker 1 00:19:44 Every eye. We sang it this morning. Every tongue confessed, every knee will bow is Jesus. King is Jesus king. The next one, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Phil's gonna talk a little bit more about that this week. Uh, next Sunday. Sorry. Seek first his kingdom. The reign and rule of God come in my home. The reign and rule of God come in my workplace, the reign and rule of God come in my relationships, the reign and rule of God. Will you come in my jobs, in my job situation, the reign and rule of God, where you come seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Can I tell you, the world is looking for peace? Yeah. Your neighbors are looking for peace. I just want peace. I just want to be able, able to go through a day without any trouble. I just want to feel at peace. There is no peace without the righteousness of God.
Speaker 1 00:21:00 There is no peace. Jesus is righteousness. The remedy for the whole human race is Jesus. Christ is Jesus King is Jesus King Jesus in our marriages, the kingdom of God in our home. The fourth thing, and then I'm gonna show us a little video in a moment. The fourth thing about the kingdom of God, I love this Paul. And the great apostle would go around some of the early churches who were scattered around, um, in the early, during the early, um, the birth of the early church. And, um, he didn't turn up and go, oh, what a great job. I imagine he probably did at some point, but he didn't go, ah, you're just doing really great. Great job. Carry on. Your services are great. Um, some great programs for summer. Awesome. This is what he said. He said, we're gonna have to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 3 00:22:00 Wow.
Speaker 1 00:22:01 <laugh> kind of puts it a little bit in perspective here. We're going to have to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. If as a church we don't experience hardships, then I think we're doing something wrong. If we are not hitting some challenges and we are just fitting in with the culture of our day, then we are doing something wrong as a church. But a church you see that goes on her knees, A church that intercedes a church that is desperate to see the lost one. A church that is desperate to see the kingdom of God come upon the earth will experience hardships. Now, I'm not to say we go around and say thank you, Lord for the hardships. No,
Speaker 1 00:22:51 But there is a confidence when you are in Christ that you belong to the kingdom of God. Our citizen citizenship is in heaven. Come on. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places. Now. I am a kingdom of God carrier. Wherever I go, I believe I can bring the peace and reign and rule of God on the earth. We may go through hardships church. We may have struggles, we may have lost one. Sorry. Um, family loved ones that are lost right now. There may be all sorts going on in our homes. But let me encourage you this week to say, okay, Christ is in me. I'm going to carry the kingdom of God into these situations with me. We have all of heaven backing us up wherever we go. Yeah, all of heaven backing us up is Jesus king, is Jesus king. Just got a couple more and then we're gonna, um, just move on. Five thing. The fifth thing, wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 3 00:24:09 Now,
Speaker 1 00:24:09 This is where the tension is in society today. And the tension is this. And I believe it's a, it's this massive great deception that's coming over the church today is where people have made up their own version of the gospel.
Speaker 3 00:24:26 Jesus
Speaker 1 00:24:26 Is so loving, so he would allow me to live this way.
Speaker 3 00:24:32 Jesus
Speaker 1 00:24:32 Is so kind that, you know, there's plenty of forgiveness to go around and, and there is, but not so that we carry on doing whatever we want. If we want the king to reign, if we want Jesus to truly come as king in our lives and in our situations and circumstances, we've gotta bring our whole lives under, under his lordship. Do you know what lordship means? It means he's master. It means he's ruler. I would not want my life to be in the hands of anybody else but Jesus. Don't care how much money you've got. Don't care how perfect you think your world is. I'm running to Jesus because my life, I feel so safe in his care. And this is what it says. Let's just turn to it quickly because young people this morning, I don't want you to go to TikTok to get your ideas on what things are wrong in life, okay? Don't listen to any YouTuber to, to kind of tell you what is right and what is wrong. Let's go to the word of God this morning. Turn really quickly. One Corinthians one Corinthians six, everyone got their paper copies.
Speaker 1 00:26:00 Six verse nine.
Speaker 1 00:26:08 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Lord, help us. This isn't the church standing in judgment this morning. This is the word of God that's come to wash us clean, purify his bride because he knows what's good for us. Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor adult, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor coverers nor drunkards, revelers nor extortionist will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Do you remember a time, some of you may remember a time when you were, when you were in your sin <laugh>. So remember a time when we slandered people, but that's not us anymore. Jesus is king. Some of us remember our sexual immoral lifestyles. That's not us anymore. Praise God. <laugh>, come on, Jesus. Some of us were spending our Friday night, Saturday nights absolutely drunk.
Speaker 1 00:27:17 It's not us anymore. Praise God. We're drunk on the Holy Spirit. Yes Lord. Some of you remember those days, Jesus, when you're doing things that you shouldn't have done. But it says here, as such, were some of you, but everyone say, but, but you and I, we were washed, sanctified, justified. In the name of Jesus, name of the Lord Jesus. And by the spirit of our God, thank God we are not what we were. Yeah, thanks. God is Jesus king. Because when Jesus is king, Lord, I'm not going to gossip anymore because I'm the, I'm a carrier of your kingdom. I'm not gonna go, um, with a coffee with people and just talk about other people because I'm a carrier of the kingdom of God. I'm not going to pull things down and I'm not going to give my opinion on things that I shouldn't do because I'm carrying the kingdom of God. If I need to grab my tele and throw it out in the garden, I'm going to because I'm carrier of the kingdom of God. I'm gonna do what it takes is Jesus king is Jesus king. Final thing. The kingdom cannot be shaken. Hebrews 12. It's a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Speaker 1 00:28:46 I wanna say young people this morning, throw everything, everything that you are, every day on Jesus Christ. Love him with all of your hearts. Choose to listen to his voice above every other voice around you. Follow him. Be fully devoted to him. It won't be perfect. There'll be some abuse. There might be some, um, language thrown at you in the school playground or the college or university. But that's to be expected, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> expected. And Paul says, be counted worthy of the kingdom of God. Be counted worthy as a church. Are we going to be counted worthy? Paul says this, how do we know we're live in lives worthy of the kingdom of God? First of all, our faith has grown more and more tomorrow morning. Some of you, there's going to be a phone call. There'll be things that will probably hit you as they do all of us. Cause that's life. And I, some of you are gonna make that decision to say. But I'm going to in faith, declare what God says over my situation, over my situation. Sometimes the outcome might not be here on earth what we want. Sometimes we pray really hard. Sometimes we have strong faith. Sometimes the answer doesn't always come as we want. But is Jesus king
Speaker 1 00:30:32 For that young man Steven just starting out on his journey? I mean, he could have become a church leader, an apostle like Paul, you know, something amazing in the kingdom on the earth. And I imagine it probably shook the early church. Imagine if one of our young people today was dragged out stone to death shot, knife. Whatever they do today, how many of us in this room will be going Well, where was, where was God like? Where was he? We're gonna have to go through hardships. But what is unseen right now will become seen. Incredible thought. Our faith is growing more and more. Our love is increasing. May our love for one another increase. The church has been at war for too long over silly niggles and politics and denominational stuff and all this kind stuff. Let our love for each other because the king is reigning and ruling in our hearts. Third thing Paul says is, persevere through all the trials, persevere through all the trials because of Jesus. We go through some of those conditions again. Jesus is the only way. There will be no other way. Second thing, there are many who will not enter the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of heaven will be taken away from them. What a warning to us this morning.
Speaker 1 00:32:12 I pray that we are not people who just give lip service to the king. We don't just turn up and it's on a Sunday. It's all great. But on a Monday, he's far from our hearts. Wrongdoers won't inherit the kingdom of heaven. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and expect hardships in the kingdom of God. Jacob, can we just play that video? Just watch this video. It's about three minutes.
Speaker 6 00:33:11 I got it. You opening? Yes. What is it? A map. The what
Speaker 7 00:33:19 Directions where people should look to find me.
Speaker 6 00:33:24 Okay. Give me a moment
Speaker 7 00:34:02 In spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed they shall healthy earth blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed the merciful for shall receive mercy, blessed, pure, and heart. For shall God blessed the peacemaker. For they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for their is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revive you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice
Speaker 0 00:35:37 And be glad
Speaker 7 00:35:40 For your reward will be great in heaven.
Speaker 0 00:35:50 Yes. <unk>
Speaker 7 00:35:55 If someone wants to find
Speaker 0 00:35:56 Me,
Speaker 7 00:35:58 Those are the groups they should look for.
Speaker 0 00:36:09 And then
Speaker 7 00:36:13 You are the sort of the earth.
Speaker 1 00:36:29 Yeah. Is Jesus king. Let's just bow our heads this morning as we close is Jesus king. Just this morning as um, we're bowing our heads, maybe in your own hearts, just have some time with you and the Lord. Maybe there's some places in your heart and life where Jesus has not had full reign. It might be an area of your life might be in a relationship or whatever it is. And this morning, before you leave this place, just give that area, that part of your life to the Lord This morning. Yeah. Calm Holy Spirit. Lord. Thank you. Yeah. Ban. Do you wanna come and just, I think it'd be lovely if maybe we could finish up with that all hail king Jesus again. Um, yeah. Father Lord, I just pray in this place this morning. Lord, pray over your church in these days, Lord,
Speaker 3 00:38:30 That
Speaker 1 00:38:30 Jesus would find room in our hearts and lives that he would find room around our dinner tables. That Jesus, you would find room in our marriages with our children in our conversations, even in our holiday times. Lord, that Jesus, we would give you room and place that you would not be the last thought on our mind, but you would be the first thought when we wake in the morning, Jesus, that you would be on our heart. That when we put our heads down at night to sleep, that Jesus, you would be the last again thought on our hearts.
Speaker 3 00:39:26 Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:39:31 And Father, I simply ask that your kingdom would come in our homes, that your kingdom would come across this region. That we would be a people who produce kingdom fruit in our lives. That our faith would increase more and more. Lord, I thank you for the testimony of those years ago when the hardships really hit them. Their faith just increased. Pray that we would be a people Lord, that when hardship comes, that our faith, our trust, our reliance, would be on you. That Lord, we would be a people where our love increases day by day. That we would go above and beyond to make sure that people are okay, that our neighbors are loved, that our brothers and sisters are taken care of, that the least are noted. Pray Lord, as we go this week, that we would rejoice that we have been washed, we've been cleansed, <laugh>, we have been raised. And it's all because of King Jesus.
Speaker 3 00:41:16 It's
Speaker 1 00:41:16 All because of King Jesus. We are so loved because of Jesus. A treasured possession, a royal priesthood today,
Speaker 3 00:41:30 Jesus,
Speaker 1 00:41:34 As we go this week, Lord, I pray that we would recognize, remind us Holy Spirit, because we forget so often that we are spiritual people. The flesh is rotten away, but the spirit is eternal. Help us to see with kingdom eyes this week. Give us kingdom hearts this week. Help us to be a people who are pursuing you. Be the desire of our hearts, Lord, be the desire of our hearts. In Jesus name, we ask our amen. Amen.
