Kings & Kingdoms: A Now Kingdom - Christmas

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Turn to Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 2, verse 12.

Matthew 2:12

You'll notice the kings have made their way to the manger.

And for you that grew up in certain churches, you celebrated Epiphany.

And Epiphany is always January 6th.

And that is customary in the church for when the wise men came.

If you note in our passage, you'll notice this, it talks about the fact that Jesus had already been born when the kings came.

So I'm talking about kings and kingdoms this morning.

So when you turn to Matthew 2, I want you just to note or circle or underline all the references to ruler, king, and kingdom.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

So they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determine from them what time the star had appeared.

And then he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the young child, for when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also.

So when the kingdom of God comes, it always troubles the kingdoms of this world.

When the Messiah shows up, wherever Jesus shows up, he stirs up strife with the kingdoms of this world.

Because the kingdoms of this world want control.

Don't miss that.

The government of the United States of America, founded from the people, for the people, by the people, has increasingly grown to a place where they want control over your children, over your genetics, over your medicine, over everything.

But when the kingdom of God shows up and you start living in the kingdom, you will trouble the kingdoms of this world.

So Herod is not stupid.

He's smart, and he goes, wait, you said there's a ruler coming?

So he goes to the scribes, he goes to his biblical experts and says, Now what is this?

So you see, Herod was a capital S secular religious leader of the Jews.

And so he was more concerned with his position and his power than he was with the promised Messiah.

And so he's troubled by it and he doesn't know.

And so you know the rest of the story about what happens with the slaughter of the innocents.

But men and women, kings and kingdoms of this world are primarily under the rule of Satan.

Matter of fact, when Jesus is getting ready to announce his mission, he's getting ready to go forth, what's the first thing that happens?

The one who really understood, besides these guys, besides these astrologers, these wise men or wise guys that are up here, besides them, Satan is probably the next one who understands the mission of Christ best.

And so he takes him out.

Remember that?

He takes him out into the wilderness, and his third temptation was, he says that he went up on the pinnacle of the temple, he showed him all of the kingdoms of this world.

And here's what he says.

Very interesting.

He says, they've all been given to me, and I can give them out to anyone who will worship me.

And so it shouldn't be a surprise to us that are kingdom people, that there's this warfare that goes on when the kingdom of God is advancing on the earth.

And that's what's happening right now.

And so God is moving and he comes to bring a kingdom to us.

It was prophesied that the coming Messiah would be a king ruling over a new kingdom on earth.

Now, church, men, philosophers, leaders have always wanted to see like a nirvana or a kingdom of heaven upon the earth.

Hesiod dreamed of a coming golden age.

Plato envisioned an ideal state based on philosophical principles.

Virgil sang of one who would come and deliver the whole world from its suffering.

He wrote, quote, the great line of the ages begins anew.

But the Hebrew Christian perspective has always been that there's a Messiah coming, that there's a Messiah who is a king.

And the first prophecy is Genesis 49, 10.

Genesis 49.10, we read the first cryptic passage given by Moses of this Messiah king that was going to come.

The scepter, and that's the key word.

That's the operable word here.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes.

So the idea was that this scepter, a king, a king was coming, and he was going to bring the kingdom of God upon the earth.

It will also be an eternal kingdom built on the throne of David.

Isaiah 9.

Isaiah 9.

You should read all of Isaiah 9, but let me just pick verses 6 and 7.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

And the government, so here we're talking about a new government.

The government will be upon his shoulder.

And his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Now some people take the Hebrew, and this is totally accurate to do this grammatically, to say it's wonderful counselor as one title, wonderful counselor.

So wonderful counselor or wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government, I love this.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.

Men and women, it's not going to end.

It's only going to grow stronger.

It's only going to take over more and more of the globe.

Upon the throne of David.

And over his kingdom.

To order it.

How many would like to see a kingdom that's really ordered?

Establish it with judgment and justice.

From that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord will perform this.

It's not your zeal, it's not my zeal.

It's the zeal of God.

It is going to move.

Right now, you guys, in India, the church is exploding.

Right now in China, the church is exploding.

In parts of Africa, the church is exploding.

It is increasing.

The zeal of the Lord is moving.

And today there are over two billion worshipers of Jesus meeting in churches across the globe today.

And on Christmas Eve service, over two billion from every kind of denomination and group, and some with incense and some low church like us, some high church, but they're worshiping Jesus.

They're worshiping Jesus.

It is moving across the globe.

Five principles.

Drop these down.

Five kingdom principles or five kingdom promises from Isaiah 9, 6, and 7.

Number one, the Messiah will usher in a kingdom that rests upon him.

So men and women, it's not upon a political party, it's upon a powerful person.

Hear what I'm saying?

It's not based on a political party, it's based on a powerful person.

This new kingdom of God that's coming upon the globe that started with Jesus, that started with the Messiah, is upon his shoulder.

It's based in him.

Number two, this is important.

Don't miss this.

The character of God's kingdom is embodied in the character of the king.

The character of God's kingdom is embodied in the character of the king.

So his name is wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

That's the kind of kingdom we have called the kingdom of God.

That's the kind of kingdom that lives in you if you're a Jesus follower.

That's the kind of kingdom you can have if you're not yet a Jesus follower, and you open up your heart to him today and you invite him in, and his kingdom comes in.

This is the character of the king.

Say, well, what's the kingdom of God?

Well, I'm going to explain more as we move along, and I've taught on the kingdom of God so many times, many times, but this is the main point is the character of the kingdom of God is stamped with the character of the king.

Number three.

The kingdom of God will never end.

The kingdom of God will never end.

It's going to continue to increase.

It will not end.

Jesus said of his church, this church I'm building.

The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven cannot extinguish.

On this rock I will build my church, and the kingdoms of this world cannot stuff it out.

So it's going to continue.

Number four, the kingdom of God will be established on judgment and justice.

On judgment and justice.

How many of you heard anybody say when you when you've been in a discussion of any sort and you have a different opinion, you're so judgmental.

Just anybody raise your hand?

Alright.

It's coming if you haven't had it yet.

Because man, the worst thing, by the way, the worst thing you can do in 2021 is offend someone.

That's the worst thing.

You could shoot someone with a 38-caliber revolver, and that's better than offending somebody.

But when God comes, he comes with judgment because there's a real right and wrong, there's really truth and falsehood, but he comes with justice.

Number five, this is the most exciting one in my opinion, the zeal of the Lord shall bring forth the kingdom of God.

The zeal of the Lord.

And so you might be here today and you're like, or you're watching, you know, online, and you may go, well, I mean, hear what Steve's saying, that's fine, but um, I'm not really into that.

Um, I see it's in the Bible and everything.

God works with those who want to work with him.

So if that's not you, that's fine.

You just miss all the movement, the greatest radical movement the world's ever known.

And he's just gonna work with people.

And he just works with regular folks.

He works with shepherds, he works with Mary, who's a peasant girl, he works with a carpenter, he works with anybody who's open to his kingdom, but it's gonna be the zeal of the Lord working through you.

It's the most exciting adventure you've ever been on.

Take it from me.

I've done it for over 40 years, following Christ.

The kingdom of God, through the zeal of the Lord flowing through us, is the most exciting adventure you can be a part of.

And the increase of this government will never, ever end.

It's just gonna continue to grow.

So I was in a discussion this week with one of my kids, and he asked the question what kind of a government is this like?

What is this kingdom of God government?

So I wrote down a few words.

I actually took a writing that I saw by a person, a man named Gail Erwin, and I reworked it.

It's maybe more for modern times.

Let me read it to you.

Politicians of our day look for what they can get from you.

Jesus looks for what he can do for you.

Leaders of our day surround themselves with servants.

Jesus surrounds us with his servanthood.

Leaders of our day use their power to build their empire.

Jesus uses his power to build us into men and women who can build and witness to the power of the kingdom of God on earth.

Leaders of our day trade their influence for money.

Jesus gives us influence so we can better society and give joy and peace to others.

Generals of our day need regular wars to keep money flowing into the Pentagon and ensure their own advancement.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace and desires peace to break out all over the world.

Leaders of our day are desperate to be seen and heard.

Just look at Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Jesus never boasted or tried to be noticed by the world.

He just changed the world through the power of changing the lives of the people that he met.

Jesus is not in charge of the halls of Washington, London, Moscow, Tehran, or Beijing.

It seems like Satan rules this world.

So how can we ever believe that his government will be upon his shoulder?

We see his government, the kingdom of God at work, when God miraculously restores a marriage, breaks an addiction to drugs or alcohol, that person, those persons have adopted a new form of government and God is ruling in their life.

Whenever loving Christians care for those less fortunate, helping those who have lost hope through giving, caring, and action, we are watching the government of God at work.

Whenever we see people eagerly studying the Word of God and joyfully worshiping God, we can see who the governor is over their life.

When we see bodies being healed, lives being changed, and families being reunited, we know those people are under a new governor.

Whenever we see people give their finances for the king to be lifted up and the kingdom of God advance, we know they're under a new kingdom government.

When we see pastors and churches training their people to be Jesus' disciples, we know they're under the king and his kingdom.

When we see a people spending hours in prayer, crying out to God for their friends, their neighbors, their city, and their nation, humbling themselves and believing God that He can intervene miraculously into any situation, we know the kingdom of God has come.

So indeed, the government of the kingdom of God is alive and working in over two billion people across the world today.

It is being noticed more and more across the world because the zeal of the Lord is present and his justice, mercy, and grace is unstoppable.

This Christmas, this Christmas, if you have not yet, vote for a new king.

A new king in your life, a new king in your family, a new king in your job.

Make a choice to join the most radical movement the world has ever known.

The movement of the kingdom of God.

God's kingdom, men and women, is going to have dominion over the earth.

Habakkuk 214.

Habakkuk 214.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Psalm 72.

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, to the ends of the earth.

Yes, all kings shall fall down before him.

Guess what, men and women?

All kings, all presidents, all leaders will someday, all of you will someday have to bow before him.

Either to eternal life with him or eternal life without him.

All nations shall serve him.

All nations shall call him blessed.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only does wondrous things, and blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory.

Amen and amen.

Men and women, the kingdom of God is moving across this globe.

Join the team.

Join the movement of God.

Become a part of letting God, letting Christ be ruler over your heart.

Watch what he can do with a messed up marriage.

Watch what he can do with messed up stuff in your life.

Watch what he can do to take these addictions and these struggles you've always had.

His power can break that addiction and set you free.

So, church, Jesus came proclaiming a kingdom.

Jesus came proclaiming a king.

It was his central message.

This church is built, our vision statement is a kingdom of God revolution.

We believe.

In 2021, 2022, 2023, if the Lord tarries, we're gonna, and I don't care who's in power in the federal government.

That kingdom of God is gonna move.

And a revolution in my mind is one where it is affecting every part of society.

That you are you you begin to discover that you're a missionary in your job, in your family, wherever you go.

And as you do that, filled with the Holy Spirit, you get to be a part of the exciting adventure of seeing the advancement of the kingdom wherever you are in your neighborhood, wherever you are at your job, wherever you are in your family, because the zeal of the Lord does it.

So the more, see, see, here's the thing: the more you connect with him, then the more he connects with you.

And when he connects with you, he fills you with his zeal.

Do you understand that?

Does that make sense?

So the zeal of the Lord is one of the advancement of the kingdom, and he doesn't do it through angels.

He doesn't do it through seraphim and cherubim.

He does it through people created in his image who just say yes to him.

And well, Steve, I don't know, man.

That sounds like a tall order.

It's not a tall order.

It's actually a low order because you have to get lower so that he can get higher.

And so when you humble yourself before him and give yourself to him, he comes, he fills you with the Spirit, he empowers you, and then miracles begin to happen.

All kinds of signs and wonders follow.

Jesus' first words at the beginning of his public ministry were a proclamation of the kingdom.

Luke mentions the kingdom of God 53 times in Luke and Acts.

Jesus called the gospel the kingdom of God.

Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God over a hundred times.

Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand through him as he saw the kingdom of God as a present reality.

Here's what's interesting.

Here's what's interesting.

G.

Elton Ladd was a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary where I graduated.

He had already left and retired by the time I got there, but his writings on the kingdom of God are fascinating.

He made this statement, I never forgot it.

He said, the kingdom of God is forever present and forever future.

Okay, it's the present and the future.

So what he meant by this is that when you receive Christ, when you become a Jesus follower, you come into the presence of the kingdom right now.

But it's not complete.

There's another kingdom, there's more to it.

That's why when we're up here and we're praying for people to be healed, we're praying for someone to be restored.

They are.

Many times they are, but it's not complete.

And the word he used with it's the already, but the not yet.

It's the already, but the not yet.

So already coming, we see a glimpse of the kingdom when someone gets healed of something.

But guess what?

They get sick again.

Right?

Because that's the world we live in.

We're all atrophying.

We're all getting older.

So we we pray for healing, we get sick again.

But there's gonna come a day when you're never gonna get sick anymore.

There's no coronavirus in heaven, okay?

There's no colds in heaven.

You're gonna be healed, you're gonna be completely healed.

And what we're doing every time we pray for someone, when we preach the kingdom of God or we live the kingdom of God, is we're taking the heavenly kingdom and we're bringing it down to earth as a glimpse.

Okay?

It's a glimpse.

And when you put your faith in Christ, and some of you in this room have not done that yet, but when you put your faith in Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit comes into your life.

And Ephesians 2 says it's a guarantee.

It's your guarantory, it's your certificate of deposit of the kingdom to come.

Does that make sense?

So when we talk about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, which is the fruit of the kingdom, you have that sometimes, right?

And then you mess up the next day and you don't have it.

Because that's the reality of the sinful world that we live in.

But there'll be a day when you'll experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and gentleness all the time.

Because you're in the presence of God.

So that's the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is where Jesus reigns.

You hear what I'm saying?

So when you accept Christ and you start to put Christ on his throne in your heart, then you start to embody the kingdom of God in your life.

And it's really exciting.

So Satan knew it.

Satan tempted Jesus not to do it.

But E.

Stanley Jones, in my opinion, has the best definition of the kingdom of God.

Let me read it to you.

The kingdom of God is God's total order expressed as rim and reign in the individual and society, and which is to replace the present unworkable world order with God's order in the individual and society.

And while the nature of the kingdom is social, the entrance into it is by a personal new birth now.

The character of that kingdom is seen in the character of Jesus.

The kingdom is Christ-likeness universalized.

While it comes on the earth, in the time process, it is eternal and is the same rule there and here because of the Christ-likeness that it makes in heaven.

And while it is a total order demanding total obedience, it brings total freedom.

This is really important.

So communism is built on a total order of a total obedience that enslaves you.

Only the kingdom of God brings a total order, demanding a total obedience, which brings total freedom.

So as imperfect as we are in America, and we are imperfect.

And why do I need to say that?

Because we're reminded of that every day on every newscast, how imperfect we are.

But I've been all over the world.

I've been to all the major nations of the world.

I haven't been to Russia.

I haven't been there.

But I've been to almost every major nation in the world.

And I can tell you the closest we have to the work of what the Spirit can do in the area of freedom is the United States of America.

But whether it's President Biden or whether it's President Trump, doesn't change anything with the kingdom of God advancing because my president is Jesus.

And so as we begin to become a worshiping, warring community that learns how to pray, that learns how to follow Jesus, that learns how to take the kingdom wherever we go, his kingdom through the zeal of the Lord is going to go forth.

So I want to challenge you today that you can become a part of the kingdom.

And you're here because I think you want to be or you already are.

And with a church of this size and with a variegated number of people that are in this room from different backgrounds, some of you call Jesus as Lord right now and you're just more fired up than ever.

And you've gotten more fired up by coming here, and that's awesome.

But some of you are tiptoeing in, somebody invited you, you wish you could leave right now.

Some already have.

Why don't you become a part of the team?

Why don't you become a part of the family?

It's the greatest adventure of your life.

And what is the kingdom?

If we could kind of sum up the kingdom in one phrase, and this is Luke 4, 18 and 19.

Jot down Luke 4, 18 and 19.

This is the mission of Jesus.

This is what the kingdom of God is.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus said, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.

And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

You see how much freedom is in that?

You see how God comes and He wants to break the shackles, He wants to break the enslavement physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually of our life?

That's the kingdom.

The kingdom is liberty.

Liberty in Christ.

But some of you here today, you need to repent.

You know what repentance is?

I was a skateboarder in my day.

I was pretty, I that's actually pretty good.

And what we used to do is we'd go out to these parking lots like Chapel Hills Mall at midnight.

Bunch of my buddies.

We'd all jump in our trucks and cars, we'd drive out because we liked all the big hills and everything, and no cars were in it.

And we go up to the top of the hill, and then we would just we'd take 30 minutes going down a hill, just moving back and forth and slaloming down there.

But we'd do 360s.

So these are 360s here, or we do it, you know, we tic-tac back with 180s and stuff like that.

Well, well, um, when we repent, it's not a 360.

That's what most Christians do.

Most Christians go, I'm gonna, like halfway through, I'm gonna repent, I need to stop doing that, that's bad, that's really bad.

Jesus is mad at me, and then you go keep doing the same thing you've been doing.

Alright?

But repentance is a 180.

So you come here, you actually start going in a different direction.

It's where you say, you know, I don't really want to keep doing that.

You see, I'm tired of the kingdom of me.

If you haven't gotten tired of the kingdom of you, just keep coming here and I'll make you really sad about the kingdom of you.

Or I'll make you so mad you won't keep coming.

Because here's the deal is that at some point you gotta get tired of you.

I'm sorry, that's not the message of psychology today.

You're supposed to love yourself and all that stuff.

No, I say you love Jesus and you'll find yourself.

So repentance means I'm tired of the kingdom of Steve Holt.

I want the kingdom of God.

And so we repent.

And so some of you need to repent today of jealousy, anger, fear.

Some of you are so uptight over the coronavirus.

It's coronavirus 19.

There have been 18 others, and we didn't all die.

Okay?

You're all gonna eventually die.

Don't fear death.

Be excited about death.

For for the kingdom person, it's a whole new, it's an even greater adventure.

Walk in courage, walk with faith, walk with joy.

But to break the shackles of the kingdom of yourself, sometimes you have to repent.

So repent means you turn around and you say, Lord, come.

And in Acts chapter 3 it says, repent so that you might be restored.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

That's the real you.

Hello?

That's the real you.

The real you is not focusing on you.

The real you is focusing on the creator of you.

And the more you get the creator into you, you find you.

Because he knows it, because he created it, he kind of understands how it works.

You know there's something in your life, and I don't want to know it.

It's between you and God.

I want you to repent right now.

You know that you'd say, Pastor Steve, if I could just get this area under control, I know I could be set free on another plant.

That's what I'm talking about.

Everybody's got stuff.

But not everybody here knows they've got stuff.

So if you know that there's stuff you need to repent of and you feel anointed enough to say, I want to repent, I want you to raise your hand right now.

Raise your hand for me.

All right, a lot of you.

So, Father God, you see our hands raised.

It's all you that are raising your hands, let's just do it together.

And let's just pray together.

Father God, I repent of.

And you place whatever that is, you can just do it under your breath between you and God.

What is it you're repenting of?

And it might be a paragraph, but give it to him right now.

Just give it to him.

Just give it to him verbally, to yourself before him.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.

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Go to the road.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.