Two Kingdoms: Week 1

Well, good morning, Welcome to Church at the Crossing. My

name is Andrew. If you're new, if this is your

first time here, I'm so glad that you decided to

join today. To be here today, we are beginning a new.

Six weeks spiritual growth journey.

And the reason that we call it a spiritual growth

journey is we're gonna grow spiritually. We're gonna grow in

our faith. We're gonna grow closer to Jesus. And some

of the ways that we're gonna be doing that very

intentionally building up to Easter is one. We're gonna gather

here to on Sundays Thursdays to hear from God's word.

We're also gonna grow together in small group community, So

if you're not a part of a class or a

small group, it's a great opportunity to try one of

those out for six weeks. And we're also gonna meet

with God every day. And when you leave today, there's

some free devotion booklets you can take home. There's also

a digital version in the Church at the Crossing app

where there's great prompts scripture to meet with God, to pray,

to receive from Him as we grow in our faith.

Now let me set up kind of an overview of

what today is going to include as we.

Look at God's word.

We're talking about in this series two Kingdoms is the title,

and for the next six weeks we're going to look

at what Jesus has to say about the Kingdom of God.

And today my goal is to provide a overview, a

systematic theology of what the Bible says about the Kingdom

of God. And one of the things that I love

about our church is that we don't shy away or

we don't shrink back from challenging theological topics. And today's

going to be one of those where we're going to

look closely at God's word, and it's going to be

very a systematic overview of the theology of the Kingdom

of God.

Because then in the following weeks we're going to.

Look specifically each week at one quality or one characteristic

of living in God's Kingdom and following his ways. So

that's kind of the outline for today. With that in mind,

would you join me in a word of prayer as

we prepare to hear from the Bible. God, thank you

for your grace and your presence, and God, we pray

that in these next few moments you would speak to us,

that you would draw our hearts and minds closer to you.

And God, would you change us? God?

We want, you know, false presuppositions to be challenged. We

want your truth to prevail.

God.

We want to be changed and shaped by your word.

And so God, would you guide us today? We submit

our attention to you, our concentration. We want ears to

hear and hearts to understand. We pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Well with this title to kingdoms in mind, I was

thinking this week, you know about in our world we

have that term superpower, you know, global superpower, world superpower,

And so I was trying to think, what are the

quality or requirements.

For a nation to become a superpower?

And it did a little bit of research and I

found that scholars, experts, they basically boiled down four criteria

for a nation to be a superpower. First being military power.

And here's what I thought. What was interesting about that

is it's not just military strength, but military power in

the sense that a nation can deploy its military globally.

To other places.

A second criteria for a superpower is economic dominance. So

that superpower has influence on the economy of other nations,

maybe in ancient times, treating trade routes or controlling how

shipping was done.

A third criteria that I learned about.

Superpowers is political influence. A global superpower can influence the

government and politics of even other countries. And the fourth

criteria that I learned is called cultural influence. Something as

simple as a superpower influencing cultures with a dominant language

or a preferred religion across other nations. So these are

kind of the four criteria that I came across. And

there's a lot of superpowers throughout history. Some of those

that we could highlight are the Roman Empire. For nearly

five hundred years, it dominated the known world, primarily controlling

trade routes and building roadways connecting Asia and Europe.

Powerful military.

Later into the Medieval Ages, there was the Mongol Empire

coming out of Asia under Genghis Kong. Violence and war

dominated Europe and Asia. In the not too far distant history,

the United Kingdom was a great superpower on the global

scale military, economic. In fact, there is a saying once

that the sun never set on the United Kingdom because

its territories and places around the world occupied more than

twenty five person of the land mass on Earth, from

Australia to North America to Europe. I mean, so the

sun never set on the United Kingdom. And then, of course,

in our modern time, the United States is regarded as

a superpower exerting influence on a global level. Now, all

of these different superpowers, whether they're ancient, medieval, whether they're

more modern, wherever you find them, whatever language they speak,

or whatever their currency might have been, there's a lot

of differences to these superpowers.

But there's always been one.

Trait that superpowers share in common, one similarity of every

superpower throughout history, and that one thing is they do

not last.

Superpowers do not keep power. The Caesars are.

No more, the Chinese dynasties are long gone, the Pharaohs

in Egypt, they're stuck in their pyramids, like the superpowers,

do not keep power forever. Kings come and go, empires

rise in fall. They do not last. The United Kingdom,

It's sun never sat in the United Kingdom. It's shrunk

to just a few islands, England and a few other islands.

Doesn't last. And so as we look at the talk

about the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus arrived on Earth in the first century, he

entered history at a very unique time. At that time,

his people, the Israelites, used to be a superpower. The

Kingdom of Israel was once a superpower. But at the

time of Jesus, Israel had been invaded conquered by other empires.

And at that time Rome was the reigning power, and

the Israelites were subject to the Emperor of Rome, thousands

of miles away from Israel. And Jesus arrives in Israel

in the first century, and he declares, there's a new superpower.

Look at his words in Matthew chapter four.

So Jesus began to preach repent for the Kingdom of

Heaven has come near. And so Jesus announces a new kingdom,

a new superpower, a new rule, a new reign. And

I want to be clear. When we open the Bible

and we read the words of Jesus, he often talks

about the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God.

And these are the same thing, interchangeable terms, Kingdom of

Heaven and Kingdom of God.

And for the rest of our.

Time today we're gonna unpack and look at an overview

of what a scripture teach us about the Kingdom of God.

This is a theological understanding of the Kingdom of God.

The first thing I want to say today is that

the Kingdom of God is in the world, but not

of the world. God's Kingdom is here in this world.

I mean, it is active in the world, but it's

not of this world. The Kingdom of God is substantially

different than the kingdoms and natural powers of this world.

Even Jesus himself, when he was arrested and being questioned,

he made this comment in John eighteen.

He said, my kingdom is not of this world.

If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my

arrest from the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is

from another place. The Kingdom of God is in the world,

but it's not made up of the world. So, as

I was studying and researching the Kingdom of God, I

realized and discovered that there there's a lot of different

beliefs about God's kingdom.

A lot of.

Different Christian scholars and Bible scholars have different theories or

ideas about the kingdom, and.

So I want to share from my research, there's a.

Few common misconceptions about God's kingdom, so we can have

some clarity. The first misconception about God's kingdom is that

the kingdom is only in the future, that the kingdom

is only when we die and leave this world we

go to heaven or some scholars, when they look at

the words of Jesus and he says the Kingdom of

God is coming, the Kingdom of God is coming, they think, oh,

it's the future. When Gesus returns and his rule is

established over heaven and earth, that's the kingdom.

It's only in the future.

Another misconception is that the kingdom is political power, and

when Jesus was on earth he encountered this misconception frequently.

Many Israelites believed and hoped and expected that there would

be a messiah who would come and overthrow corrupt government

and restore the powerful Kingdom of Israel. Even after Jesus

rose from the dead, some of his closest disciples even

then asked him, oh, is this the time? Are you

going to restore the Kingdom of Israel? Something it's political power,

And this is common even in our modern time. When

I was in undergrad I studied at a small conservative

reform Christian College, and there was one class that every

graduating senior was required to take. Didn't matter if you

were a ministry major or business major, oreering. Every senior

took the same class that was required, and it was

called political Science. And in this class, I learned about

this small faction of Christians who promote and advocate a

theistic form of American government. And I learned that this

small group was formed during the American Civil War in

eighteen sixty four, and ever since then, this group has

been advocating and promoting a constitutional amendment, a new amendment

to be out of the Constitution that recognizes Jesus Christ

as the Supreme Lord and Governor of the United States.

And this group has lobbied Congress and presented this amendment

even as recently as nineteen sixty nine, trying to get

it changed. Their objective is to Christianize the state. And

so there's these misconceptions that the Kingdom of God is future.

There's misconceptions that it is political power. And I want

to be really clear, we talk about political power. The

Kingdom of God is power. It's supernatural power, supernatural power

to change lives, to change and transform circumstances to reverse

the powers of evil.

It is supernatural power.

And there's another misconception that the kingdom is only personal ethics.

Another way to say this is that the kingdom is

just a private belief system, that the Kingdom of God

is what I believe, my ethics, my morals, you know,

my choices, but it does not impact society.

It does not impact the community. It's just my private

belief These are misconceptions.

When we look at the full Council of Scripture, when

we read and hear the words of Jesus, we see

that the Kingdom of God is something substantially different than

all of this. And so let me share my attempt

at describing the Kingdom of God.

I believe that the Kingdom of God is.

A supernatural reign of Jesus over our lives, our character,

and our conduct. It is the supernatural reiin because the

reign of Jesus is not natural. When we look at

the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter five Matthew chapter six,

we see that Jesus is advocating a type of kingdom

that is not natural to this world, where the humble

are the ones who are leading the meek are the

ones who have influence.

That forgiveness is the highest call.

Like like Jesus is a supernatural rain, it's not natural,

and it reigns over our lives. I means it rains

over our families, over our motives, our desires, our character.

His reign is over our.

Conduct, the words we say, the relationships we have, our

behavior at work, at school. Like his rain influences every

part of our community, where we go to work, where

we worship, where we live. So it's the supernatural reign

of Jesus. If you claim Jesus as your Lord and savior,

you are a member.

Of this kingdom. However, we have to reckon that there

is a second kingdom. There are two kingdoms.

It's the Kingdom of God and there's the Kingdom of Evil,

kingdom of this world. Notice what we read in Colossians

chapter one. We read thanks to the Father who has

qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy

people in the Kingdom of Light. For he has rescued

us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into

the Kingdom of the Sun He loves, in whom we

have redemption.

The forgiveness of sins So we see here in the

scripture that there are two types of kingdoms.

There is the Kingdom of God and there's the Kingdom

of Darkness, the Kingdom of Evil. And we need to

understand fundamentally to have this theological overview of systematic theology,

the Kingdom of God, we have to know that the

Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Evil are not

equal powers struggling to gain control. They're not equal powers

in this cosmic battle of good and evil. No, the

Kingdom of God is superior in every way to the

Kingdom of Darkness.

Kingdom of Darkness is inferior. Although it is powerful, there's

no match for the Kingdom of God. See, this Kingdom

of Darkness is ruled by the devil.

The devil has agents called demons that work evil in

the world. The Kingdom of Darkness is ruled by sin.

Sin is the constitution of this kingdom. Violence is the

rule of law, Injustice is celebrated.

Abuse is exalted in the Kingdom of Darkness.

The Kingdom of Darkness, the Satan's kingdom, is responsible for

every atrocity in human history, every injustice, every violence against

the innocent.

But we've been rescued out of that kingdom.

Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we've been

rescued out of that kingdom. When Jesus died on the cross,

he paid the price for our sins. He absorbed our

punishment so that we can be forgiven. And what he

did there as the innocent, perfect sacrifice, he defeated the

Kingdom of Darkness. Now it didn't appear that way because

as Jesus hung on the cross, dying, as he breathed

his last breath and yielded up his spirit when he

took his last breath, the kingdom of darkness celebrated Satan

and the evil kingdom thought they had killed and conquered

the son of God. But we know that that's not

the end of the story. That three days later the

stone rolled away, three days later Jesus took his next breath,

and three days later Jesus came back to life, coming

out of the gray, victorious over the devil, victorious over

the Kingdom of Darkness.

Our king is a resurrected king, and so a.

Natural question would be, if Jesus is victorious, if his

resurrection defeated the power of evil, why do we still have.

Evil in our world.

If Jesus is the all power, is superpower, the king,

why is there still sin? Why is there still violence?

Why do we see all that? I'll tell you why.

It's because the Kingdom.

Of God is both now and not yet.

The Kingdom of God is now and not yet. It's

already and it's yet to come. You see, Jesus's death

and resurrection sealed the deal on the devil, you know,

defeating him, and Jesus's reign will culminate when he returns

to Earth and reigns over heaven and earth. You see

on the cross, the devil is defeated. At Christ's return,

the devil's power will be destroyed. And until then, the

devil is trying his last effort to wreak havoc in

the world, knowing the end is imminent. I'll try to

explain this with an analogy. Who wants the National College

Football Championship?

Last month, the Great and Mighty Hoosiers that Indiana University.

Now, that game was played down in Miami, and when

the game ended, when the clock struck zero, the Hoosiers

were champions. No doubt, that is a fact. Coach Signetti,

quarterback Mendoza. They became champions there in Miami on the field.

When the clock hits here, they were champions. However, the

Hoosiers have one more event coming up, probably this spring,

and that is the ring ceremony, or the championship ceremony.

You see those players, those coaches, they have not yet

received their championship rings.

They're being designed made.

They've not received the prize, the award for becoming champions.

That's yet to come. When Jesus died on the cross,

he was champion. When he rose from the dead, he

is champion. And there is coming a day when he

will receive his prize, his reward, the bride of Christ,

the Church, when he returns and defeats and conquers and

destroys the.

Power of the devil.

Another way to think of it is to consider a

lesson that we learned from history. The kingdom is now

and not yet in history. We know that in nineteen

forty four, Nazi Germany dominated Europe. Up until then, the

Nazis had invaded other countries Belgium, France, Poland almost every

country in Europe except for Switzerland. Somehow they got out

of it, and they dominated until nineteen forty four. What

happened on June sixth, nineteen forty four. It was D Day,

codename Operation Overlord. D Day was the largest land, air,

and water assault in world history. In one day on

June six more than two hundred thousand Allied forces landed

on France's coastline, fifty miles of coast and began pushing

the Nazis back.

It was a bloody day.

In one day alone, nearly ten percent of the Allied

forces were killed or wounded. Twenty thousand or more killed

or wounded. And that incredible sacrifice launched the victory in

Europe into motion. It broke the hole that the Nazis

had on Europe. Within six days of D Day, more

than a million Allied forces had landed. In just a

few weeks, Paris was liberated and all of France was liberated,

and the Nazis were running and retreating. Now, my question

is was World War two one on June sixth, nineteen

forty four. Well, yes and no. But yes, without D Day,

there is no victory. Yes, that was the catalyst to

total victory. That was the moment the beachhead of pushing

back the Nazi enemy. But it would take almost a

year for that victory to be complete and for there

to be victory in Europe. D Days is an example

from history of a victory that is now and not yet.

Jesus's death was the ultimate day of days. Jesus's arrival

was the beachhead of the Kingdom of God into the

kingdom of darkness, and ever since that day, God's kingdom

has been growing and advancing.

The devil's defeat is imminent because the kingdom is growing.

We see the kingdom all around us. We see the

kingdom working. When someone's baptized into faith. That's the kingdom working.

When sin is forgiven, when sin is confessed, that's the

kingdom growing. When you forgive someone who's wronged you or

offended you, that's the kingdom growing. When a marriage is reconciled,

that's the kingdom growing. When a new church is planted,

what a missionary is sent, When there's a Christian school built,

and a part of the world where children don't have education,

that is the kingdom growing. When addictions are broken, when

diseases are healed, when miracles happen and illnesses are cured,

that's the kingdom growing. When a marriage is restored, that's

the kingdom growing. When a child is adopted into a

Christian family, that's the kingdom growing. We see God's kingdom

all around us. God's Kingdom is growing until Christ's return.

Returning to history, General Eisenhower was the commander of D Day,

the one who led the invasion, and right before the invasion,

he shared a stirring address with all the allied forces.

And this is what he said.

You are about to embark upon the great crusade. The

eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and

prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. You

will bring about the destruction of the German war machine,

the elimination of the Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples

of Europe. Full confidence in your courage, we will accept

nothing less than full victory. And let us beseech the

blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

His words set the tone for the invasion. His words

gave a vision to every man and woman. His words

outline the purpose of their work. The words of Jesus

set the tone for the kingdom. The words of Jesus

determine the purpose of kingdom people, and we find his

words in Matthew chapter five to outline what the kingdom

is all about, and for these next few weeks, we're

going to look specifically at Matthew chapter five, verses three

through ten to understand how Kingdom people live and operate

in the Kingdom of God.

So let's take a look here at Matthew five, verse three.

The words of Jesus.

He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs

is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for

they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger

and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed

are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed

are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children

of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for THEIRS is the Kingdom of Heaven. Notice that Jesus

begins these words and ends these words with the Kingdom

of Heaven. Blessed are the poor and spirit. Theirs is

the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted.

Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

He's describing kingdom people in God's Kingdom.

Now, these words are often called the beatitudes, which comes

from a Latin word that means happy or blessed. Blessed

are the people who live in the Kingdom of God.

Now, what I'm about to.

Say might be the most important comment of this entire

six week journey.

It is definitely foundational to our understanding the Kingdom of God.

What we need to understand is that these words in

Matthew five, verses three through ten, these words are not

requirements for entering the kingdom. These are not a prescription

of how you get into the kingdom or get eternal life.

We get into the Kingdom because of faith in Jesus.

Jesus did all the work. It's by his grace that

we come into the Kingdom. It's not by our good works.

And once we enter the Kingdom by faith through grace,

then what Jesus outlines here is how we live differently

than the kingdom of darkness, because the Spirit is living

in us, because he is enabling us, because he's.

The one who's motivating us. He's the one who's directing.

He's our king, and it's because of that we work

out and live these qualities. Just remember that these are

not requirements to get into the Kingdom, but they're descriptions

of Kingdom people as Kingdom people, as members of God's family.

We have a new value system. It's like a new

code of conduct. The Words of Jesus are a new

code for Kingdom people.

Do you have a code of conduct where you work

or where you go to school. A lot of organizations

have a code of conduct. Here at Church of the Crossing,

our employees and staff have a code of conduct. What

is a code of conduct? It's an agreed upon set

of norms, expectations. It's how we're gonna live together in harmony.

It's it's what I'm expecting from you and you're expecting

from me.

It's how we're gonna make this whole thing work, how

we're gonna get along. That's our code of conduct. The

Words of Jesus are like a code of conduct.

For Kingdom people.

And it makes me think about our ministry here called

Celebrate Recovery. We meet every Tuesday night and often we

review the eight Principles of recovery, and these eight principles

are like a code of conduct. In fact, the eight

principles of recovery are based on these words in Matthew five,

verses three through ten, the words of Jesus like the

first principle of recovery is realize I am not God.

That's a great place to start recovery. That's a great

place to start in life. I'm not God. And it's

based on blessed are the poor in spirit.

Our principle number four says, openly examine and confess my faults.

That's based on Jesus's words. Blessed are the pure in heart.

See the words of Jesus create a code of conduct,

a rule of life for the path of recovery. Jesus's

words are a code of conduct. And so if we

are a kingdom people, how do we live as kingdom people?

What does this mean for us practically when we hear

the words of Jesus.

There's a few things. One, we seek the kingdom of God.

We seek his kingdom. We look for his kingdom, we

work for his kingdom. Jesus himself says in Matthew six.

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else. I love

how that translation says, above all else. If you're a

follower of Jesus, of Jesus, the Lord of your life,

you were called to seek the Kingdom of God above

all else. Not seek the Kingdom of God and your

own interests. Seek the Kingdom of God and my agenda.

Seek the Kingdom of God and my comfort. Seek the

Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously.

And He will give you everything you need. Seek the Kingdom.

This word seek occurs in other places in the Gospels.

In Luke nineteen, Jesus says of himself, the son of

Man came to seek and save the lost.

How did Jesus seek after the lost?

Was he casual? Was he half hearted? What was he

seeking when it was convenient? No, of course not. We

know that Jesus was passionate about seeking the lost. Jesus

was committed to the lost. He was aggressively and actively

seeking after the lost. Nothing half hearted. In John chapter three,

Jesus spent all night in secret with Nicodemus, answering his

questions about the kingdom.

Seeking Nicodemus.

In John chapter four, Jesus went miles out of his

way in the hot afternoon sun in the Middle East,

sweating to meet the woman at.

The well, to share the good news with her. He

was seeking her.

Jesus was seeking Zachias, the hated tax collector, and he

didn't care that he was criticized for knowing Zachius in

that mob, in that crowd, he stopped the whole crowd

to find that woman who reached out and grabbed his robe,

hoping and trusting for healing. Like Jesus was actively aggressively

seeking the lost. Are we seeking his kingdom as urgently

as he sought after us? If we take an honest

look at our lives, if we look at our choices

or decisions, are we seeking his kingdom as he sought

after us. How we spend our time, how we spend

our money, who we spend our time with?

Are we seeking his kingdom? Or is it my kingdom,

my will, my desires. My wife and I own a

children's clothing store here in town. Well, let me rephrase that.

On paper, my wife and I own a children's store,

but in reality, it's Lauren's business.

Like she's the boss, She's in charge, she runs it.

I'm just on paper.

And at the beginning of this year, Lauren needed to

do an inventory audit.

What does that mean?

Every item, every piece of inventory in the store needed

to be accounted for, listed and assessed its price and recorded.

Sounds straightforward, right, Hardly We're talking over one hundred thousand items.

I mean every pair of socks, every baby onesie, every

burp cloth, whatever, all of it had to be scanned, counted,

and itemized.

And it took so long.

It took the staff several days working here around the

clock to complete this audit.

But at the end there was an audit. Here's what

is what belongs in the store. I want to encourage

you to do a spiritual audit. Take inventory.

To look at your choices, your decisions, where you're investing

your time. Are you seeking the Kingdom of God? How

are you using your resources your money? Are you seeking

the Kingdom of God? Look at your relationships, your relationships

here at church, relationships at work, your relationships at school.

Are you seeking the Kingdom of God?

What are you teaching your children your grandchildren? Are you

teaching them about the Kingdom of God? Do a spiritual audit? So,

as kingdom people, we seek the Kingdom and we also

pray for God's Kingdom to come. We pray for the

Kingdom to come to earth. And later on today in

a moment, we're gonna have an opportunity to do that.

We're gonna have an invitation for prayer and anointing for

the end of our time together.

But we can pray for the Kingdom to come.

In Matthew chapter six, Jesus teaches us how to pray,

and he says, to pray like this, our Father in Heaven,

your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as

it is in heaven. When we pray your Kingdom come

to earth, we're praying that Heaven come to earth. We're

praying that God's will be done here on earth. We

are like building a highway, a conduit to bring Heaven

to earth with our prayers. Theologian James Montgomery Boy says,

when we pray your Kingdom come, we ask first that

God's grace.

Rule may come in us, and second that it might

come through us to others.

Tell you a story that makes me think about bringing

Heaven to earth. You've likely heard me share about my

grandfather before. He was a spiritual giant in my life.

And my grandfather owned his own company and ran his

own business, and he had a lot of people working

for him and a lot of clients and customers in

our hometown. And my grandfather really believed that his work

was kingdom work because he was witnessing to his employees,

he was giving people jobs, he was.

Witnessing to the customers and clients.

And my grandfather had his own office building, and he

had his personal office, and it was a large office

that had a big desk and a conference table and

a couch along the back wall. And I remember visiting

his office often as a little boy. And I remember

one conversation that I had with my grandfather in his

office and he said to me, Andrew, you see that couch.

He pointed to the couch to the back wall, so

that couch is an altar. And he said, I've sat

at that couch praying with a fellow businessman who was

going bankrupt. He said, I've kneeled at that couch with

an employee in prayed whose marriage is falling apart.

He said that couch is sacred ground.

Because he believed that his workplace was a kingdom place.

It was like a kingdom outpost here on earth, bringing

Heaven to earth. When we pray, we are bringing heaven

into the lives of the.

People we're praying with.

I want you to think about your prayer a little uniquely.

Of course, we have reflective prayer and contemplative prayer and

prayer where we're listening to God or we're asking from God.

I also want you to think about your prayer as

a battlefield. That when you pray, you are praying with

battle language, our battle posture, our fighting posture is on

our knees in prayer. Because when we pray with somebody

who is fighting illness, somebody who's fighting cancer, we're praying

that Heaven do a work. When you're praying with a

coworker whose marriage is falling apart, you're bringing Heaven into

their life. You can pray with a family member who

is angry, who's had a relationship that's broken apart. You

can pray with and for people who are hurting, who

are broken. You can pray with somebody who doesn't know

Jesus to bring them to Christ. Like when we pray,

we are doing battle against the kingdom of evil.

Our prayers your Kingdom, come, bring Heaven to Earth. Let's

pray like that. There is one very, very important thing.

That we need to understand about God's Kingdom.

There is one critical fundamental.

Fact that we need to understand and we need to

acknowledge and wholeheardly agree with, and that is in the kingdom,

there's only one king, and it is King Jesus.

In the kingdom, there is only one lord. There is

only one sovereign.

There is only one boss in the kingdom, and it's Jesus.

In the kingdom, there is no democracy in the kingdom.

There is no voting in God's Kingdom. There is no

legislative branch in Heaven arguing over political lines.

In the kingdom, there.

Is one king and it is Jesus. And so as

kingdom people, we must obey the king. We must obey

the King. See, at the end of the day, what

the Kingdom of God comes down to is one decision.

It's a decision that you and I have to make.

We have to decide who is the king.

On the throne of our hearts. Who is sitting on

the throne of my heart? Is it King Jesus? Is

it his way? Or am I on the throne of

my heart? To my decisions, my comfort, my desires, my wants.

Is it me, or is it Jesus. It can't be both.

And the good news is that the way of Jesus

is the best way, that the commands of Jesus are

always for our good, that the power of Jesus has

no end, his authority has no limit.

The way of Jesus is the best way. But each

one of us has to make that decision for ourselves.

Who is the king on the throne of our hearts.

That's why Jesus is very clear at the end of

this Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven, He's

very very clear. He says in verse twenty one, not

everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter the

Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the

will of my Father, who is in heaven. Many will

say to me on that day, Lord Lord, did we

not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive

out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? Then

I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away

from me, you evildoers. What is Jesus saying here? He

is saying that it is possible for you and me

to do good things. We can do powerful things, cast

out demons, do miracles, powerful things. What he's saying here

is that we can do kingdom stuff and still not

belong to the king.

We can do kingdom work, we can work for the

kingdom and yet not belong to the king. He's saying,

you can like the king, you can believe in the king.

You can respect the king and still not belong to

the king.

He says, those who enter the kingdom are those who

do the will of my father, or what is the

will of father, the will of fathers. That we confess

and repent from our sin and receive Jesus Christ as

our Lord and savior, the supreme king of our lives.

That's the decision that we have to make. As long

as we are.

Competing for autonomy and control of our life lives, Jesus

is not the king. Earlier, I've mentioned General Eisenhower. When

I prepared this message and was studying, I did not

anticipate that Eisenhower would become a.

Theme in this message.

But did you know that Eisenhower had a unique title.

Do you know what his title was?

And during World War Two he was called the Supreme

Commander of Allied Forces. I don't know if anybody else

has ever had that title before. What does that mean?

He was the commander of the US Army. Yes, and more,

the US Army and the heir and the Navy, but

not just the US. He was a supreme commander of

European allies, of British allies, Canadian allies, French allies.

He was the supreme commander of all allies.

They all reported Eisenhower. He alone was accountable to Churchill

and Roosevelt. He was a supreme commander.

And on June.

Fifth, Eisenhower wrote a hand written note on a single

sheet of paper that is preserved in the US archives.

What did he write down on this little sheet of

paper the day before D Day?

He wrote down a.

Full confession and taking responsibility if the invasion failed, And

he kept it in his pocket all day on June sixth,

and here's what he wrote. Our landings have failed to

gain satisfactory foothold, and I've withdrawn the troops. The troops,

the air, in the Navy did all that bravery and

devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault

attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone. You see,

Eisenhower was the supreme commander, and so he took full

responsibility success or failure. When Jesus died on the cross,

he took full responsibility for our sin, full responsibility for

the sin of the world, and he prevailed. He is

the supreme Lord. Who else would you rather give your

life to? Who else would you rather serve? Who else

would you rather give your loyalty, your affection, your allegiance to.

There's only one resurrected King, Jesus, and until he returns,

will you not.

Give him your life?

And so that's the invitation today, as we turn our

hearts and minds to respond to what we've heard, invite

you to bow your head and close your eyes with me.

And if you're listening and you realize that Jesus is

not the savior and lord of your life and you

want to change that, I invite you to simply pray

this prayer after me, say, Dear God, I admit that

I'm a sinner and I need your forgiveness. I believe

Jesus died for me and rose from the dead to

save me. Today I confess Jesus the supreme Lord of

my life. Fill my life with your holy spirit. And

now for all of us, would you just take a

moment here to ask God's Holy Spirit to reveal is

there any part of your life that maybe you've kept

off limits to Jesus being king, there's a part that

you've been competing struggling for control between He and you.

Would you just allow him to speak to you, and

if he reveals that, would you surrender that to him?

Man, I want to invite you to stand.

Like I mentioned, we're gonna transition to an opportunity of

prayer and anointing.

I'm gonna invite our prayer partner team to come forward

and they would love to pray with you.

We talk today about praying your Kingdom come, your will

be done, and here's an opportunity for us to do

that very thing. I have no doubt that in a

group this number that there are some situations that need

a touch from Heaven. If there's a diagnosis, there's a

health issue that needs a touch from Heaven, that there's

a relationship that needs a touch from heaven, a parent

and child relationship, a marriage that needs some of Heaven,

or there might be just a work thing going on

where the seems like the Kingdom of the world is

dominating and you need Heaven to come into that situation.

Would you come forward. We want to pray Heaven come.

We want to pray your will be done. If you

want to receive prayer, I just encourage you to come

to this middle aisle and Genial help connect you with

a prayer partner. But let's pray today. Your kingdom come.

You're invited to come forward now