The Kingdom That Matters - Week 2

That we read, that we reapply our attention to the

places that it needs to be applied. Now, there are

a lot of people claiming, and I want you to

hear me, there are a lot of people now claiming that, oh,

we've been rescued, that all these things are happening. But

I want you to understand that an election does not

save a people, that an election does not save a nation.

Jesus saves people. Jesus saves people. And these are only

mere musings. The wisest of human thought is just a

mere musing compared to the wisdom and the intellect of God.

And everything plays out according to his agenda so that

he can receive the maximum glory for what happens. And

I want you to know that He has now positioned

you perfectly in time and space to maximize his glory

in your life. Let's pray, Father, I thank you for

your word. It's the only change agent that we have.

And I pray that today we're changed. That somewhere where

meekness dwelt, that boldness rises up. Lord, that some where

there was insecurity, confidence replaces it. Lord, that where there

was just a little bit of doubt, that faith rushes

in that where there was anxiety that hopes brings well. Lord,

I pray that today some of us, if not all

of us, leave this place looking a little more like

you and a little like us in Jesus' name. Amen.

You know, I think a lot of times when we

read scripture and listen, if you don't read scripture, you

need to read it. And let me tell you why,

because if you don't read it for yourself, I could

stand up here and say anything and get you to

believe it. We see throughout the history of the Church

where that kind of manipulation and those kind of things

happened when people didn't read the Word of God for themselves.

So you need to be actively engaging in reading the

Word of God. And listen, here's something else that I

want you to know. I don't care how you do it.

I don't care if you get on a January is

right around the corner. I know there's Christmas and Thanksgiving

or in between. But New Year's is a coming. Come

on now, and that's where you're all gonna make New

Year's resolutions and do all those things and give up

on them by February. And you know, all those things

are going to happen. Listen. That's why I'm losing weight now,

so that in January, if I get fat, it just happened.

I didn't fail at my resolution. Amen. So now I'm

just kidding. But uh, but you know, we always there's

always a big push from ministries and parachuri stations. Read

through the Bible in a year, read through the Bible

a year and one year Bible checklists, and listen. If

you want to read through the Bible in a year,

that's fantastic.

That's a great way to read the Bible.

If you don't want to read through the Bible in

a year, if you want to read the same passage

of scripture every single day for a week and meditate

upon that passage of scripture as you read it, that

is another That's the way I read scripture right now,

at this point in my life. I read one passage

of Scripture and I focus on one passage of scripture,

and that's how I read scripture. So if that's what

you it doesn't matter how you do it. If you

want to do the proverb of the day, in other words,

on the first of the month, you read proverbs one.

On the second, the must you read proverbs to I

also do that. That's another great way to read scripture.

But you need to be reading scripture. You need to

be reading it so that at a minimum, the principles

are buried in your heart. At best, you memorize some

of it and you can quote it. Amen. Amen.

So that's those are things that you need to do.

But when we read scripture, a lot of times we

read it like it's just any ordinary book. We start

in one place and we move to another place. But

the Word of God is a little bit different than

any other book ever written, because the Word of God

is a living, breathing word that it has life. It

doesn't just give you life. It has life in and

of itself. It has the ability for you to read

a scripture today and make application, and then tomorrow read

the same passage of scripture and make a different application

to a different need in your life. It's alive and

it's breathing, and it's active. And a lot of times

when we read scripture, we read it and we don't

think about why things are there the way they're there, Amen,

The way things are placed in the book. Make a

difference to that. Just between First Corinthians, Chapter twelve, which

talks about spiritual gifts, and then First Corinthians chapter fourteen,

which also talks about spiritual gifts. That and this is

something that the Pentecostal Church has missed for a long time.

That it's intentional that chapter thirteen is between those, which

is the great love chapter. That we can't just get

so caught up in those things that we forget to love.

Come on, somebody, and when we read things, sometimes we

don't actually also apply those things to our mind. We're

just checking a box. So I want to I want

to start in Genesis chapter one, and we're just gonna

read the revelation. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding us.

Genesis chapter one, verse three. Genesis chapter one, verse three,

it says, then God said, let there be light. And

there was light, and God saw the light that it

was good. And God divided the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.

So the evening in the morning were the first day,

the very first day. God moving through creation, he sees

this tiny planet without form and void, and he shows

up and he says, hey, let there be light. Everything

was illuminated. I want to show you something something that

I think we miss a lot of times. Go to

Genesis chapter one, verse sixteen. Genesis chapter one, verse six

it said, then God made two great lights. Now he's

already said, let there be light, and the world was illuminated.

Then God made two great lights, the greater light to

rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.

He made the stars also. God set them in the

firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth

and to rule over the day and over the night,

and to divide the light from the darkness. And God

saw that it was good. So evening and morning were

the fourth day. So God says let there be light,

and doesn't get around until creating the sun and the

moon until day four. So for those first few days

they were just illuminated by the glory of God that

everything was happening, because God said, listen, I'm not ready

to do that yet, but for everybody everything to be

able to see. Creation is very important. The reality is,

it's the one thing that God does that Satan cannot do.

God has the ability to create and the devil doesn't.

We were created in the likeness of God with the

ability to create, to have brand new thoughts that have

never been thought before. We have the ability to put

our hands to things that do not exist and make

them exist. God has imparted that into you as humanity.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to go as

far as to say that that you were created to create,

That you were created, and that that is the part

of our lives. That's the part of us that God

speaks to most clearly, is the creative part of us,

because after all, it takes a little bit of creative

intuition to really be able to trust and believe in

the invisible God. And is that creative part, that part

that's down deep on the inside that God speaks to

and he calls it out of us Because creation means ownership.

Let me say that again, Creation means ownership. God is

the creator and therefore the owner of everything. And since

that very first creative moment where God said let there

be light, the enemy has fought against it and tried

to deter and to distract and to beat creativity out

of humanity. He looked at Eve and he said, hey,

go ahead and eat this apple. Okay, hold on, I

always somebody always asks me this. I don't know if

it was an apple or not. Okay, it may have

been a banana. It might have been an orange, you know,

I don't know. It could have been any fruit, all right.

Most likely was a mango, probably in all actuality, because

they taste really good. But I'm gonna call it an apple,

just because that's the picture that we all have in

our minds, is the apple. So he said, listen, hey, hey,

look at this apple. It's beautiful, and it will make

you like God. She was already like God. She was

already created in his likeness, in his image. She was.

She was already like him.

And the enemy didn't have the ability to create anything new,

so he just used what was there, and he tricked

her into thinking that she would be more like God.

And she bit the apple, and suddenly she had the

knowledge of good and evil, and upon good and evil

rushing into her brain.

The fall of humanity.

The first thing Adam and Eve did was to begin

to create failing systems to cover themselves. And we talked

about this just a few weeks ago, So I'm not

going to go deep into that fig leaves and all

of the stuff. That was all an attempt of them

to cover the original creation and create a system of

their own power. And since that moment, humanity has tried

to create systems and structure that take the place of God.

Because it weren't that they were It wasn't that they

were uncovered. They were covered by His grace, they were

covered by His mercy, they were covered by His glory.

And that's the way humanity is supposed to walk and

believe and operate, covered in the things and in the

presence of God, rather than all of the trappings that

we have now. The things that.

We call success or not success to God.

Let me say that again. Somebody should have shouted the

things that we call success or not success to God.

Even in the church, I believe a lot of times

we walk out of here on Sundays after we do

our tiny little gathering break down, meeting our initial thoughts,

and we walk out we say today was a good day.

Sometimes I think God's up there thinking that was good.

Nobody got heal, nobody got saved. That was good, you call,

And then sometimes we walk out of here and listen.

There are days I walk out and I think, boy,

I can't believe anybody. May till the end of that message,

I explained it this way. I look at Clay and

I always say that one felt like work, and I think, man,

this was not a good day.

What in a good day?

Because you know this happened, and that happened, and that

didn't show up. By that, I mean, whoever you are,

and you didn't show up when you were scheduled. Come on, somebody,

I mean, all those things happened. That was a terrible day.

And then God's like.

No, that was beautiful. That was beautiful.

Did you not see that person three rows back on

the right wearing the Paisley shirt that was just weeping.

They were giving their heart to me, and you don't

know that because you're too engulfed in the fact that

the music was one and a half decibels too low

and I never think it's too high, and you missed it. Listen,

So and so came down to the altar and the

anointing hit them, and depression and anxiety was broken out

of their lives. They took a breath that felt like

an actual breath for the first time, and you missed

it because you were too busy looking to see if

so and so and so and so was there.

That was the best day we've had in a long time.

Keep up the good work.

And we look at things because we have been taught

to judge things and live according to the world's system.

But the creator looks at his creation and he judges

things according to his own agenda.

And we have empires.

And systems and nations and people that try to create

lames for us to belong in. That stifles the creativity

out of us because there is instruments used by the enemy.

The enemy can't create anything, but he can convince people

to use their creative ability for harm. And we think

that we have to line up with certain human values,

but the only values that matter are God's values. That listen,

when I'm gonna be honest with you, when when Terry

came up, let me read that. I knew I was

going to talk about that young man that that you know,

that's getting his life put back together. And I knew

I was going to talk about that. And the reality

is is this man is homeless. He was he was homeless.

That's that's that he had no home. He was less

a home. He was homeless, right, And the whole time

when I was walking up here thinking about it, Now, now,

what do I call him, don't you know even your

pastor struggles with these things. But because I think the

new that, I think the new terminology now is under home.

He's under homed, but he's not under a home. Come on, somebody,

he is less a home. He doesn't have it. And

I struggle with that. I'm like, oh no, I don't

want to get and I don't want somebody to think

that I'm And there are these lanes that are created

that try to shape and mold our mindsets. Children live

in a state of innocence that adults don't live in.

Our children, I believe.

Understand Kingdom things better than adults because they haven't had

it wired out of them yet. If you take any

kid and you give them the creativity test, ninety eight

percent of all kids in third grade or under score

almost perfect on the creative test. The creativity test, in

other words, is this person a creative or they an analytic?

You do that in high school and that number drops

to just over sixty percent, And then you give it

to those who have left college and the number of

plummets to thirty percent. Because we are taught to abide

by a system of principles that sucks the creativity out

of us, and we have turned over all of the

major lanes of influence to the enemy because God's people

have been choked out to think that I just need

to go to my nine to five so that I

can get a check to pay the bills. And there

is because I want my cost of living increase. I

just want to make sure that I don't get fired.

I just want to And every single time we think

those thoughts and we live in that model, creativity is

pressed out of us a little more. And in those

major areas of influence, the media, it doesn't matter what

area of media, it can be television, movies, music, those

things are dominated by the secular world. Finance dominated by

the secular world, government dominated by the secular world. Those

areas of influence in people's lives are dominated by systems

that are trying to choke and strangle the very essence

of the Kingdom of God out of us. And that's

our ability to see things that do not exist and

by faith, call them into existence through our prayer and

our effort. Because see, the reality is that the impossible

is possible when you work like everything's up to you,

and you pray like everything's up to God, and where

those two things intersect, that's where the miraculous happens.

That's the creativity that we live in.

That is the the ability to step out of the

world's kingdom and into God's kingdom, that we take back

authority over those influences and those major fears of control

that have established themselves in the world.

You know.

I pray for Jace every day because jas is an actor.

Pretty good little actor, you know. I mean, at least

it's smiling. He smiles all the time. And I pray

every day God make him the biggest star Hollywood has

ever seen, because I know the platform he stands on

and we need people like him that'll make a difference. Amen.

I pray for our school teachers every day. Pray for

our school teachers every day because my prayer is that

you don't just teach them to color in the lines,

but you teach them that the whole world is a

blank piece of paper and anything they see can be created,

anything they see can exist because God puts the ability

to dream things that have never been dreamt in our lives.

And when we tap back in to the power.

Of the kingdom and the principles of the Kingdom, be

fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth and have dominion over it.

Then God releases creativity on the inside of us. I

believe that there are ideas in this building right now

that would revolutionize and transform not only the Kingdom of God,

but also society as we know it. I believe that

what's on the inside of you is waiting to break

forth because we weren't called to follow the world's system.

We were called to lead the world's system, to not

be affected by culture, but to architect culture, to build culture,

to set the drum beat that everybody else walks to.

And the world does it without the power of the

Holy Spirit. How could they stop us with the power

of the Holy Spirit.

And God's just waiting for some of you.

To understand that it's not about staying in your lane anymore.

It's not about just making ends meet anymore. God has

the ability to move the shoreline closer together so that

the ends always meet. But we must live a life

where the Kingdom of God is firm as our foremost thought,

and not the kingdom of this world. Because you can

die rich and die miserable, and you can die pour

and be the most fulfilled, happy, joyful, life changing, mountain

moving person that's ever walked the face of the earth.

But it's all about the kingdom. It's all about the

kingdom agenda. In Romans chapter twelve, verse one, it says,

I beseech you there for brethren. That's pretty for that day.

That's like strong. That's like strong terminology. He's like, I'm

begging you and at the same time commanding you.

Just whatever works. I just need you too.

That's the language there. I beseech you there, for brethren,

by the mercies of God, not by your own power,

but by the mercies of God, that you present your

bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is

your reasonable service. Now, what do we all know about

a sacrifice? It dies. Sacrifices die at the end of

the day. If something's offered as a sacrifice, it does

not leave alive. There's blood spilled. There's a whole messy

problem that exists when you're a sacrifice. And he says, listen,

the only way you're going to get the next part

right is if you get this part right, and you

wake up every day and you die to the world's way.

You die to those desires that are anti kingdom, those

cravings that you have, those thoughts that you have, that

selfish ambition that you have, those things have to die

in order to get the next thing right. And then

he says, and do not be conformed to this world.

Let's stop right there for just a moment, because if

we're going to be if we're going to prioritize the

Kingdom of God, the only kingdom that matters, then we

have to see the difference between that kingdom and this kingdom.

We have to see the things that are opposed.

To one another. Where in this world it's a race

to be first, but Jesus says the first will be last.

In this world it's a race to be served. But

in God's kingdom, it's a race to serve. In this kingdom,

it's wealth. In that kingdom, it's giving. In this kingdom

it's vanity, and in that kingdom it's humility. And listen,

I'm not any less guilty. I'm preaching to me today too.

As a matter of fact, as I just said that,

words echoed through my mind that I said this morning,

I looked at my wife this morning, I looked at

the mirror and I said, baby, my hair is on

point today. I said, my hair, I mean that little

curve is perfect today. I hadn't had it like this

in weeks. I mean, it's just like bam, and I

got to figure out how to keep my hair exactly

this length and get the hair sprayed just at the

right I mean, everything just worked today. And I said

we should take a picture of this and make a

logo out of it. Not for the church, not for

the church, not for the church, because it's just right today.

Not just heard that. I'm thinking, you spent more time

talking about your hair this morning then you spent on

telling your wife how much you loved her. I love you, baby,

and your hair is on point today too. But vanity

instead of humility. They're opposing forces, and we're naturally drawn

to one and away from the other. We naturally are

drawn to those things that appealed to our flesh, and

our flesh will always move away from the spirit. Man.

And then in the middle is this wrestling the soulish

part of who we are, our mind, our will, and

our emotions. The spirit always sides with God, the flesh

always side, always sides with the world's systems because it

was created for the world system. But in the middle

there's this tug of war and our soul, our mind,

our will, and our emotions. And that's where the battle

of the kingdom is one or lost. It's in the

soulish part of who we are that we stop acting

reflexively because that's more fleshly, and we start acting purposefully

and understand that God created me for something more than

what there is right now. If that's the first time

you've heard about purpose in this house, then you don't

listen very good, because it's all we do here. We

want to build you towards reaching your purpose. Says, do

not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by

the renewing of your mind. Renew your soul. Teach your

soul that it's not about the world system, that it's

not about the lane that everybody's told you. You need

to stay in you your mind to think on a

kingdom level and according to a kingdom agenda.

And that kingdom level, and that kingdom.

Agenda says that you are more than a conqueror, says

that greater is he who is in you than he

who is in the world. That you're the head, not

the tail, that you're above and not beneath. That you're

the apple of his eye, the pinnacle of his creation.

Everything else he looked at and he said it's good.

But when he created you, he looked and said it's

very good. You're a very above everything else. That when

Jesus looks, he sees you who was worth giving his

life for. I watch, this is gonna blow your mind.

And if you're a believer, when the Father looks at you,

he sees his son, and.

We worry and we stress.

When you were created to lead and to rule and

to reign, do not be conformed to this world. Will

be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Watch this

when your mind thinks kingdom, watch what it does.

That you may prove.

What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

I want you to take ten seconds because I don't

want great sorrow to fall upon you. I want you

to take ten seconds, and I want you to think this,

does my life reflect the perfect and good will of God?

Pioneering spiritual things? Am I dreaming dreams that have never

been dreamed? Am I creating a better way for the

next generation? Am I doing those things? Am I making

the hard decisions and the hard choices to stay in

alignment with the Kingdom of God. It's just a question.

The reality is most of us can't answer yes to

that question if we're truly being honest, no matter how

good of believers we are. Clay, you guys can come

and get ready. You know, there have been so many

times I look back over my life that God has

dropped an idea, that God has dropped something just and

I thought, whoa God, that's got to be you.

I never did.

Anything about it, transformative ideas that shape culture. And I

thought to myself, I don't have the mind, I don't

have the money, I don't have the network to be

able to do those things. So and then the whole

time God is sitting up there, said I wouldn't have

gave you the idea if I wasn't gonna bring you

the rest of it. I just needed somebody crazy enough

to think it to start with. Some of you need

to get crazy enough just to think it to start with,

to say, God, here I am. I wrestle with that

passage of scripture in Isaiah. When Isaiah walks into the temple,

his cousin Eusiah had just died the king and he's

he's in turmoil because you know, basically he had the

job he had because of nepotism.

And he walks into the king. He sees the Lord

high and lift it up.

The angel flies down, touches his mouth with hot coals

from the altar. He says, woe am I from a

man of mon clean liss living amidst people of unclean lips.

And then the Lord says, whom shall I send? See,

this is kingdom right here, whom shall I send? And

he did not use. Isaiah didn't go through Robert's rules

of law. He didn't go through a decision making matrix.

He didn't do any of those things. He didn't say, oh.

Well you know what about this? And I have a

debt load and I don't know.

He said whom shall I send? And Isaiah just said

send me, I'll go. The man didn't even ask where,

He just said, I'll go. Will you go? Will you

be an ambassador of Christ in hostile places? If you

still allow the enemy to threaten you with heaven?

Do you really have a.

Great relationship with you? Listen, if I die, it's a promotion.

I mean good things.

If I die.

My family's gonna miss me. First of all, I got

an amazing funeral plan. You all need to be there.

It's gonna be quite entertaining. My family gets life insurance.

They're gonna be able to go on a nice, nice,

nice vacation. And I'm gonna wake up in heaven. Yeah,

I'm gonna I'm gonna wake up in heaven, and I'm

gonna be like, WHOA, I lost that other sixty pounds,

Just like that. Stop worrying, start worshiping. The Second Corinthians,

Chapter five, we read this last week. Therefore, from now

on we regard no one according to the flesh, even

though we've known Christ according to the flesh. Yet now

we know him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is

in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have

passed away, old mindset, old understandings, old way of conforming.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new.

That everything we look at as king citizens, we look

at in new ways that it's never been looked at

that way.

Before feeding the hungry, what's a new way we can

do it?

Taking care of the widows the orfice, What's a new

way we can do it, going to the incarcerated. What's

a new way that we can do it. Financing missions,

What's a new way we can do it, restoring relationships,

What's a new way we can do it. This whole

craziness of thought that's happening in the world, what's a

new way we look at that? So we can approach

these problems in a new way. Because we serve a

progressive God that has the answer for every single person.

But we have confined ourselves to the world system, and

we have become so afraid to hurt somebody's.

Feelings that we let them go to hell.

All things are made new, all those mistakes, it doesn't matter.

I wake up every day and try to make at least.

One mistake because I try something new.

You know, I got a this is it's dumb that

I'm telling this story, but you know, I got a

rabbit running around my house right now. Not inside outside

rabbits are outside animals at the Stewart Home. Got this

rabbit running around my house because I thought, you know what,

if I put that bucket on top of that rabbit cage,

it's gonna be better than hanging from that nail. Because

they're gonna have pressure on the handle.

So I put the bucket on top of the ravication.

Well, when I filled up the water bucket, the wire

cage mash down and it kind of cread a little

crack right on the edge of the cage, and that

rabbits this big around squeezed through that hole that big

and now he's just running around, eating and smiling at us.

Every time we go outside. He's like, what's up, Doc?

But you know what, I've made a lot of other

mistakes the states that have heard people, mistakes that have

probably gotten in God's way. You know, I've made a

few mistakes that have helped people, made a few mistakes

that got me in alignment with God. The reality is,

I just keep trying to be the best me I

can be for God. And that's a me that doesn't

stay the same day after day after day after day.

I wonder if you're here today, you're just tired of

being sick and sick of being tired. You know there's more.

You know God wants to use you, but you just

hadn't figured out how.

This may be your day.

Everybody's standing with me all over the building. You know, the.

Biggest jump you can get. It's being right with Jesus,

alter team coming down. It's making sure that your sin's

under the blood, making sure that that you've dealt with

your guilt and your shame. You're not that person anymore.

But today is your moment. Today is your day to

align your thinking with the.

Kingdom so that you can do things that have never

been done.

So, if you're here today and you want to, you

want to make things right with Jesus, you want to

ask you to forgive you of your sins, be the

lord of your life.

This is for you.

If you're here today and you say, hey, I just

want to step into that newness. I want to take

another step towards purpose. I want to I want to

align my thoughts with kingdom thinking. This is for you.

But on the count of three, if either one of

those things is, you want you to step out and

make your way to the front. One, two, three, step

out and come right now, come on, come on, man's

gonna sing, and our altered teams here waiting as you

step out of the rut that you're in and into

the new life of kingdom livingst que