Kingdom of God 4 The final lesson of four parts

Okay, and in the story, the seed is what?

The word of God.

I was going to say, well, the word of God.

We already have the word of God, but we don't have it to its fully understanding.

To its fullest extent.

Okay, good.

Larry, you with me?

Yeah, well, and that's where lost people are, right?

So they encounter the word of God and they have no idea what God's intentions are.

And sometimes as young Christians or as a Christian in a certain area of your life,

you run into God's word, it's clear he wants something to happen.

He's making a change and you don't know what the change is until God reveals it.

That's good.

Okay, last one, wheat and tares.

I'm trying to get through this.

We do have the other part to do yet.

This is the summary part.

Okay, wheat and tares.

So this is the one where the guy has a servant's quilt and so he buys good seed as far as he knows.

And then he hasn't gotten so, but when it comes up, it comes up full of wheat and tares.

Tares look like wheat, but they aren't edible.

So it's wheat and tares.

And then he says the enemy did this.

The enemy sowed the tares.

And they said, well, should we just tear out all the tares then?

They're no good to tear them out and burn them.

And he says, no, no, wait until the harvest.

Then at the harvest, we'll tear out the wheat, we'll burn the wheat,

tear out the tares and burn them and we'll harvest the wheat into the barns.

So they'll sort the wheat and tares at the end.

Okay, and so is this already or not yet or both?

It's not yet.

The sorting hasn't been done yet.

Right, sorting has not been done yet.

I don't think I slept on angels harvesting and taking everything from us.

Yeah, so not yet is pretty clear.

How about as you see already, Jace?

I can see already because...

It's basically what the will is today because we already have all that we think we have,

that we all we have, but we're not yet to what we all have.

And once the tares get harvested, once we all get harvested and go live with him,

that's when we have a free life with him and that is representing the wheat being put into the barn

and the tares being grown, which represents...

Okay, so yeah, that last part you got into not yet, so you were talking about both sides of it,

but he's saying that already the wheat being already present, we're already here, Christians are already here.

And so that means already is true because we have the wheat already,

even though it's still mixed in with the tares at the moment.

If we didn't have any wheat, if no one was Christians, then that would all be not yet.

But since some people are and some people aren't, then that's already not yet, it's a few.

Josh?

I have something like that here.

Sure, please do.

So it's already been sown, our this is already in process and we...

There you go, beautiful.

Okay, now we're going to follow, you'll see a kind of goofy looking arrow that goes out to the right.

So that whole box has an arrow that goes up and up to the right and to the right and then down.

And it's the big fat arrow on the right hand side.

Okay, so now what we're talking about is in light of the last three lessons.

And so if you have to play catch up in your mind to kind of combine them all together in light of already not yet,

in light of the idea that if you're in one place, you might not understand the other.

Did Jesus do something, did something happen?

So we talked about, for example, which I didn't put on here, we talked about how exorcisms is a sign of the kingdom of God coming

because it affects the demons and evil spirits, chases them away.

So that's a sign of the kingdom of God like that.

So we're putting all that together now in what we're going to look at right here.

And the first where it says NM, that first blank is Nature Miracles.

Okay, and so...

And then under it you can put IE and it says calm storm.

So for example, you remember this story, Jesus, now it's not a parable.

It's about Jesus, he's a sleeve in the back of the boat,

we wake him up, Lord, we're drowning, it's terrible.

Jesus gets up, walks up and says, oh you little faith, and he calms the storm.

He says, stop, all the winds and the rain, stop.

So Nature Miracles such as calming the storm, but that's not the only one that he did.

Right?

Argue for an inaugurated kingdom of God.

At least when Jesus was on the earth, he was controlling things.

The earth responded to his commands.

The earth recognized him as king.

There's a bunch of those things.

There's one in particular, the madman that comes out of the decapitalists.

Does the priest of spirits and the pigs...

Yeah, same story.

But the guy says, why are you accosting us?

He said, are you going to torment us before the day?

And the demons recognize Jesus.

So he is a recognized king, and if a recognized king enters the kingdom

and begins to do things and there's no one stopping him, then his kingdom has begun.

His kingdom is doing something, it's starting, it's moving.

Right?

And so the Nature Miracles, exorcisms, recognized by demons, all of those things

instigate that Jesus was the king and he was invading, if you will.

So the kingdom was inaugurated, and I gave you the word inaugurated there.

Then it says, in Christ.

The capital C there is Christ.

I probably can let you guess that one because that would have been a pretty easy one.

For in Christ, then equal sign, it says N-C.

Anyone take a stab at that one?

If we're in Christ, then N-C.

In the reference of the Sanctiurethians 517 for the Bible people, you'll get there, no problem.

New creature, right?

A new creature or a new creation, right?

Depending on your translation of the Bible.

So that also speaks of an inaugurated kingdom of God.

Paul is talking about, if you're in Christ, then you are a new creation.

You've been made new, right?

So that's indicating that you're now in a new kingdom.

You're a new place.

You're part of something new or different from what you used to be.

Right?

You could say translated, but he didn't say that.

You could say transformed, but he didn't say transformed.

He said made a new creation.

So we're human beings.

We were created by, you know, the way God wired the universe.

DNA goes together.

Papa sperm and mama egg and it starts to grow and then pretty soon you got a human being, right?

While it's still in the womb and then it's born and then you got a child and a child grows to be a man and so on.

That's a creation of God.

It's the way God set it up.

But when you accept Christ and begin to live in Christ, you become a new creation.

Okay?

And that's 2nd Corinthians 517.

All right.

Then the New Testament also talks about dying with Christ in baptism.

I gave you that one.

Go ahead.

Is that something you say when it's baptism?

Yep.

Buried with him in baptism, risen again in new life, right?

And that's based on the scriptures.

And then I gave you the capital I there.

Because that's, what do you think the capital I stands for?

I've said it like five times since we started.

Inaugurated.

Right?

So our baptism into Christ inaugurates or begins the kingdom of God's work in us.

Not that you have to be baptized to be saved.

Right?

You can be baptized into Jesus without water.

You get that happens when you get saved.

But the baptism that we do here is a picture of it.

It's making it clear to everybody that now I'm not living as I was, but living as I am now.

Okay?

And Paul uses the phrase, newness of life.

And I know there's only two blanks there, but you can squeeze it in.

No problem.

Newness of life.

Okay?

So under that capital I, you're going to put newness of life.

I'm actually going to read the verses because he doesn't use those exact phrase.

I'd like you to be familiar with it if you ever need it down the road.

Okay?

Romans 6.

Praise the Jesus.

Praise the Lord.

Okay?

Romans 6.

And verse 3 says, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus

have been baptized into His death?

Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death in order that as Christ

was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might lack in newness

of life.

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall

be also in the likeness of His resurrection.

So Paul there is equating, connecting, coming into Christ, becoming a Christian with newness

of life.

Okay?

So you're not what you used to be.

And then we get capital S. Give me a word that always begins with a capital S. Think

about your Vivals for a second.

Salvation doesn't always begin with a spirit.

It's correct.

So the word spirit when it's referring to the Holy Spirit is always with a capital

S.

Yes, capital S.

From?

Yes, from Romans 6, 3 to 5, all around to the left and back.

And it's spirit.

And then the second word is pledge.

P-L-E-D-G-E.

Pledge.

Like the stuff that you clean, like you dust with.

Pledge.

Spirit pledge.

Pledge.

P-L-E-D-G-E.

Pledge.

It's like wedge with a P-L. Okay?

Spirit pledge.

And so the idea is that as we achieve newness of life, we have been given the Holy Spirit

that God pledged to us.

And that kind of cements the deal.

So we become, we're anchored into the kingdom if you will.

The Holy Spirit has a lot of ministry in us, but he is the pledge of what's coming.

And something else happens, which I'll get to in a second, but I want to look at that

verse real quick, so I make sure I give you the right reference.

I can remember it was 1 Corinthians 5 or 2 Corinthians 5 right now.

1 Corinthians 5 says...

Oh, that was going to be 2 Corinthians 5.

Yes.

It says here, 2 Corinthians 5, 5.

So that reference is 2 Corinthians or just C-O-R 5, 5.

And it says, Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit

as a pledge.

And that Spirit is capital S and it's talking about the Holy Spirit of God.

Okay?

So this is the part of the equation when you talk about the kingdom of God that's really

important.

We always think of the kingdom of God like the Holy Spirit is in charge of me.

But Jesus is the king of the kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit is not the kingdom of the kingdom of God.

Jesus is.

So what's the difference between Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

Like Jesus being in you, not a lot of difference, right?

When we say God is in me or Jesus is in my heart, we're talking about the Holy Spirit

really has taken up residence.

That's what we're talking about.

But there is a difference in this thing that we're going to look at right here.

Okay?

So then it says H, 2 blanks, H, S and it's Holy Spirit.

Places in agreement and it got chopped a little bit on the photocopy there.

Can you see agreement?

Can you see the whole thing?

Okay.

With, so it's Holy Spirit places in agreement with creation, that C word there in the middle

is creation, groaning, G-R-O-A-N-I-N-G, groaning for renewal.

I submit to you, let your mind grasp what I'm about to explain, okay?

Dig deep for here for one second.

I submit to you that all creation before the fall was the kingdom of God.

Back the fall, it was subjected to the death of Adam and Eve and it has been in trouble

ever since.

God makes that very clear in Genesis 3 when he explains how the creation will suffer.

Paul is saying all creation is groaning for renewal, with creation groaning for renewal.

So that's what tornadoes are.

That's what earthquakes are.

That's what diseases are.

All of that, all of those are natural examples.

Now can they be the wrath of God like God sends a disease wipe?

Absolutely.

Can God send an army to wipe out another country?

Sure, he can.

All of that's possible.

But the natural suffering and punishment and yuckiness of creation, a good part of it

is the groaning for renewal.

So what is it groaning for?

It's groaning to be made again into the image, if you will, of the kingdom of God.

Do you understand?

So it desires to be God's kingdom.

It was created to be God's kingdom.

It desires that.

It's aching for that.

Lost people are the same way, whether they'll admit it or not.

They yearn for a proper relationship with God.

Then you get saved, you get the Holy Spirit.

So it's perfect from then on, right?

No.

No, it's not.

The Holy Spirit, actually what the Holy Spirit does is it fills us with a desire, if I can

say it that way, it gives us a true yearning, a godly yearning for the fulfillment of the

kingdom of God.

So you're going to suffer in this lifetime in basic things that go on.

There is sorrow and sighing on the highway of holiness.

With basic things going, you're going to suffer.

But in the middle of your worst moments, you have kind of two roads that you can go down.

You can go, well, I'm going to try to meet my own needs.

I'm going to stab people in the back.

I'm going to step up people's foreheads.

I'm going to steal.

I'm going to, whatever, I'm going to sell drugs.

I'm going to be a prostitute or use a prostitute to feel better.

We get all these different options that you can do, right?

But if the Holy Spirit is in you yearning for renewal, so you want to be with God, that's

what you really want.

So you're yearning for renewal, then it overcomes the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes

and the pride of life.

And instead, we walk in the pathway that is the kingdom of God that will take us where

God is eventually going to be.

Now, creation is the same way.

So in some sense, we are in correlation or connected to the way creation is.

Creation is stuck waiting for God to do the final work.

And so are we in a sense.

But we have the down payment, the pledge.

We know it's coming.

We've got it.

It's sealed.

It's done.

The contract is signed in blood, right?

So when you get in that moment where you feel like you could do something that you shouldn't

do and your flesh tries to lead you in that direction, instead you lean into the Holy Spirit.

You let the Holy Spirit lead you and you will feel, man, like when I have to resist sin,

like sin comes in and I know I'm intentionally choosing not to sin, that's tiring.

It's hard.

It's like, well, this would just be so much easier to just yield or give in to do that.

And then I'll feel a little better for a while and then I'll pay for it later kind of thing,

right?

But when you realize that the Holy Spirit within you is really yearning for a time where it's

not going to be like that anymore, then it's easier to walk that road, right?

It's easier to just say, well, I'm just not going to do it and just go to bed, you know,

or just go eat something healthy or whatever.

And so the idea is not that the Holy Spirit comes into a person and makes everything perfect,

because you'd expect the Kingdom of God would be like that.

Now the Holy Spirit's in me, now the Kingdom of God is in me, everything's perfect, because

this is all subject to the Kingdom of God, right?

Except this is also still the creation.

My body is still flesh, so I'm still yearning in the flesh for the things and my eyes are

still eyes and so on.

I'm still yearning for the things that I shouldn't in the flesh.

And that's what it talks about when Paul talks about simple desires, talks about the flesh,

talks about, you know, fleshly desires, that kind of thing, because those things all lead

to death.

And we want to know, I don't want to yield to that, I want to walk in the Holy Spirit.

So that's where the Holy Spirit brings us to a place.

If he could fix everything, boom, he would do that.

But if he does that, the moment he does that, nobody else gets saved.

That's it, it's done.

Once he does that, nobody else gets saved.

I'll say, real quick, God is perfect, His Kingdom is perfect, but we can't hone in or

handle it on His perfection.

We have to wait for us to be perfect, to be in that perfect Kingdom.

And that's the idea of already not yet, exactly.

And I just want to say real quick, I was working with him.

If Holy Spirit places an agreement, then what's that whole thing?

I didn't see it.

Okay, but with creation, groaning for renewal.

Groaning for renewal.

Okay, then the arrow is just a little over to the right and down.

Now giving you this, finally, what we'll get is the new heaven and the new earth.

So remember, this is all about the Kingdom of God.

It's not about us, even though we're learning a lot about us, it's really about the Kingdom

of God.

So finally, the final resting place, the final permanent place of the Kingdom of God is the

new heaven and the new earth.

Okay?

And it's laid out clearly in Revelation 21.1, which I'll read to you real quick.

Revelation 21.1, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and he goes on to say, and there is

no longer any sea, and he describes some more.

Okay?

So the point is, that's the final resting place, or the final fullness of the Kingdom

of God is in the new heaven and the new earth, which, nice to know, we will also be there

if we are followers of Christ.

Right?

So we'll be in the new heaven and the new earth when the time comes.

And then I put here the word presence, and we will have open access to God in the new

heaven and the new earth.

So there is no temple.

See, they have the temple, and if you'll recall, the Ark of the Covenant was thought to be

like God's footstool on the earth.

So they were going into the presence of God.

Well, now you don't have to have that anymore, because in the new heaven and the new earth,

we have the full presence of God.

You have any time.

You can walk up to God anytime and say, hey, he doesn't go.

Right?

And you probably won't, because he's much more reverent than that.

But the point is, you will have full access to God.

And that's made clear in Revelation 21, 3, and 22, and I'm not going to go and read that

right this second in the interest of time, because you're welcome to read those verses

later.

And then there are some things that will not be present.

And we'll play a little game here.

So what is the first thing that will not be present in the new heaven and the new earth,

and it starts with a D?

Death.

Death.

Very good.

No death.

What is death?

No death in the new heaven and the new earth.

Interestingly enough, until the fall, there was no death in this heaven or earth.

Adam and Eve didn't have death before they sent against God, so there was no death.

So the death that we deal with now has become a regular occurrence to us, and it's because

of the fall.

But there's another one.

This one's harder.

It's kind of almost the same thing in a way, but it's on a very intense scale.

Something else that there is no, and it starts with a D?

The function.

No, not disease.

There is no disease, you're right.

Nope, not destruction.

There is no destruction, probably.

It could be vision, but it could be an inner and on something.

It's decay.

No decay.

So the idea is, so mostly things die and then decay.

That's how that mostly goes, so now you're not going to have that anymore.

But also means no aging.

So you don't get old and moldy.

You don't get creaky bones.

So there's no death and there's no decay.

And then the S, we probably could get pretty easily.

There's no sadness or sorrow.

Now there's definitely no sin, right?

But what's listed there is no sadness or sorrow.

And it even says that even if you should find a reason to be sad, God will wipe the very

tears from your eyes himself.

So there's no sadness or sorrow in the new heaven, the new earth for sure.

And it is filled with light and the light is from God's glory.

The throne does shed the light, but it's from his glory, right?

And God's throne is in part the eminence of God's glory or the vision of God's glory.

So let me just, we're going to go aside for a minute.

Let's put our thinking caps on again.

Why would God's throne be the perfect semblance or the perfect example of God's glory?

Yeah, it's this kingdom.

The throne represents the fact that it's God's kingdom.

This is all we're talking about, the kingdom of God.

So God's glory.

And when you see the glory in the Bible, it's a shine of light on something.

In this case, the throne shines a light.

Well, what is it shining a light on?

Everything.

Because once you get to the new heaven, the new earth, it's all good.

There is no bad anymore.

It's all good.

So it shines a light on everything.

And that is clear in Revelation 21-23.

So now, say that again.

On the line that says light from God's glory.

So the whole thing was there's no death, decay, sorrow, and then light from God's glory.

And it's Revelation 21-23.

Yep, no problem at all.

The first, it is 2 Corinthians 5-5.

I had to look it up, the 2 Corinthians 5-5.

Or just second, 2 core.

I always put 2 core.

So now we're going to get into the possible for a second here.

Because there's a possible stopping point between here and what we just saw.

So what did we say?

The kingdom of God is already here, but not yet here in its fullness.

When will it be here in its fullness?

Completely everywhere in its fullness, the new heaven, the new earth.

But there is a possible stopping point between here and there.

It's not purgatory.

That's not biblical.

It is what's called the literal 1000 year reign.

So if you follow the arrow over, it says literal.

The first line is 1000.

That says year.

And then it's reign.

The blank is reign.

So the first blank is 1000 and the next blank is reign.

R-E-I-G-N.

Not reign like falls from the sky, but reign of a king.

R-E-I-G-N.

Probably wouldn't you say R-E-I-N.

No, R-E-I-G-N.

Don't mess with my spelling because I'm not that good of a speller.

Give you doubt in myself.

I misspelled what?

Where is it?

Oh, excuse me.

I don't see it.

Thanks to that.

Thanks to you.

Thanks to you.

Thanks to you.

Thanks to you.

Thanks to you.

Oh, I see.

Yes.

There we go.

All right.

I see it.

Pro positive.

My spelling is not always great.

I love word for the spell checking feature.

So in Revelation 20 verses 1 through 10, it talks about a literal 1000 year reign.

Revelation 20:1–10

So there is, it could be based on what he saw, and I'll just give you a little, just

a snippet of it.

You can see, and I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and

a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who was the devil and Satan, and bound

him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over,

over him so that he should not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years

were completed.

After these things, he must be released for a short time.

And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and it goes on down to verse 7.

It says, and when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and

will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog,

Magog, and so on.

So here's the problem.

There is a raging debate amongst theologians and has been since 80, 90.

So there literally has never been a time when people had a complete unified agreement about

what those verses actually mean.

And in particular, in one way.

The question is, based on what Revelation says, between three little, what are called

pre-fixes.

There we go, pre-fixes.

And I put them at the top under the arrow.

The first one is pre, then it says post, and then it says a-dash.

So if there is a literal thousand year reign on the earth, then the question is, do we

leave first or does it happen first?

So in other words, do we leave, go to heaven, get pulled out by Jesus as a church, get pulled

out, and then there's a thousand year reign of Christ on earth and we come back with him

in reign or the martyrs come back with him in reign, sort through that kind of thing.

So one possibility is what's called pre-millennialism.

So you hear people say that, pre-millennialism means you believe in a literal thousand year

reign of Christ on the earth and you believe that we will be gone first, possibly returning

to reign during that time or not, whatever you believe about that.

But the point is that the church will be called first before the literal thousand year reign.

Then there's post-millennialism.

These guys will punch each other in the face.

They feel so strongly about these two positions.

It's that bad.

The black rooms have erupted into not shooting each other but yelling at each other at the

very least over whether they were pre-millennial or post-millennial.

Post-millennial means we will be, stay here, the church will stay here, Jesus will come,

bind Satan and reign on the earth for a thousand years at the end of which only the church

goes to heaven and then you have a new earth and everybody else goes out.

So that's the difference between pre or post-millennialism.

The millennial is the thousand years.

A millennia is a thousand years.

The millennial is a thousand years of Jesus reigning on the earth.

Pre-millennial, we leave first.

Maybe we come back with him and reign.

Post-millennial, we don't leave first.

We come back after a thousand years.

That's those two positions.

So I bet you Josh can tell us what a millennial means.

Neither.

Yeah, it means neither.

So the a millennialists do not believe in a literal thousand year reign.

They think that John was seeing the church age, the reign of the church, the way the

church was going to work and bring the kingdom of God, etc.

That God's people would bind Satan.

God's people would overcome.

That Jesus initiated it.

Now the issue is, you could take this into a room of five or six guys who love Jesus

and have studied their Bibles a lot and even in that same room to this day, 2024, people

will still disagree on it.

Now what did I say about disagreeing on these kinds of doctrines?

When we talked about that, do not divide over them.

There's a pastor at a conference.

I don't stand up in a room with 5,000 people there when he's speaking.

He says, well for all you post-millennialists, he says, I'm sorry, I'll see.

We'll be gone by then.

So you just have fun during the millennial or during the tribulation or whatever.

And so because they usually believe it's the pre-millennialists believe that the church

is pulled out, then the tribulation, then the thousand year reign.

And the post-millennialists believe the church stay through the tribulation, then the thousand

year reign, and then the church is vindicated at the end of that.

So there's different ways to do it.

The bottom line is I would not fight over it.

Is there a literal thousand year reign?

I mean, if you read the Bible, it looks like there is a literal thousand year reign.

He said he saw a literal thousand year reign, so a thousand years of Satan being bound.

So what we know for a fact that would be worth fighting over is the kingdom of God, Jesus

comes and reigns.

And so if you assume Jesus comes and reigns, then it's going to go the way Jesus wanted

us to go.

And so there's three things that are always the case.

The first one is starts with a J. Talk about Jesus.

Jesus would bring what?

Starts with a J. Justice.

That's right.

So justice would be supreme.

There would not be anymore getting away with anything.

Justice would reign.

Okay?

So that's what it looks like.

So if Jesus came, something starts with a P. You would expect?

Peace.

Very good.

So it's justice and peace.

The last one, I would be amazed if anybody could get it.

Starts with an F. It's a weird word that we hardly even use anymore, but it's...

Prohibition?

No, it's not.

It's a good word, though.

It is flourishing.

As I said, it's a weird word that very few people even still use.

O-U-R, like flour.

I-S-H-I-N-G.

Flourishing.

That's the word.

Flourishing.

Okay?

And what it means is that people will do well.

The planet will do well.

Everything will do well.

And you would expect that under a just and peaceful ruler who can enforce everything

that he says.

It will go his way.

And when things go his way, people prosper.

Okay?

All right, that takes us to the two, the number two.

And we've only got just a little bit left.

Okay?

And so really what we want to talk about now is based on everything that we've seen,

Kingdom of God, it is present already, but not yet.

We have the Holy Spirit pledge in us, so we are yearning for the final renewal.

New heaven and the new earth will bring it about completely.

So it really comes down to what do we do about it?

Okay?

And this is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.

All right?

So you've got a two down there.

If you go up on the left hand side of your page, you'll see a two and a circle.

We're jumping to the two.

Okay?

You see a reference there.

It is Luke 17, verses 1 through 21.

Luke 17:1–21

And he said to his disciples, it is inevitable that stumbling will come.

Stumbling blocks will come, but woe to him through whom they come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, down to verse

4.

And he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I repent,

forgive him.

Skipping down to verse 7.

But which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he

has come in from the field, come immediately and sit down to eat.

But will he not say to him, prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself

and serve me until I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink.

That's talking about the relationship between a servant and his master.

He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?

So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded, you say, we are unworthy slaves.

We have done only that which we ought to have done.

And it goes on from there down through verse 21.

20 and 21 say this, now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of

God was coming, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs

to be observed.

Nor will they say, look, here it is, or there it is.

For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

And that's that word that I told you when we studied it before.

It means in you, among you, and within you.

And so now we're going to talk about, based on those 21 verses, there are five points.

And if you meet these five points, you're following the core values, if you will, of

the kingdom of God.

Based on those 21 verses.

The first one is, starts with an F, of course.

No, does not follow.

Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins.

So as he forgive, we must forgive.

The kingdom of God includes forgiveness.

You must forgive.

In fact, what does he say after he teaches them the Lord's prayer?

If you cannot forgive, you cannot be forgiven.

So forgiveness is a core value of the kingdom of God.

So go around forgiving people.

Forgive them for what they've done to you, absolutely.

But if they say, I'm horrible, I lied, I stole, I cheated, or I did these bad things,

then you tell them, look, God will forgive you if you just accept Jesus Christ your

Lord's.

Your sins can be forgiven.

So we not only pronounce forgiveness when we forgive people, but we also pronounce forgiveness

of sins so that people can be forgiven.

Forgiveness is a core value of the kingdom of God.

The next one also starts with F. It is faith.

So we are a people of faith.

And everything in the kingdom of God should be founded on faith.

In fact, anything that is not faith is doubt or sin.

So if it's not faith, it's doubt.

If it's doubt, it's sin.

So basically everything we should be believing, faith, trusting God, trusting His promises,

walking in faith.

We walk not by sight, but by faith.

So everything is faith in the kingdom of God.

The next one's a little trickier.

Starts with an H. Good.

Very good.

Humility.

That's amazing.

Yes, humility.

Humility is H-U-M-I-L-I-T-Y.

Humility.

Now somebody will remember that I've taught on humility a couple of times and I remind

you that humility is not the same thing as any kind of humbleness.

It's not saying I'm no good.

What is the definition of humility, biblically speaking?

Properly placed confidence.

I like that one.

What?

Yes, knowing your place.

So we know our place.

God is God.

I am not.

You'll hear me say that often.

That's biblical humility.

God is God.

God is perfect.

I am not.

God is righteous.

I am righteous only because God makes me righteous.

So we know where we stand.

Humility is a core value of the kingdom of God.

In fact, Jesus exhibits it beautifully.

Does he not?

He submitted himself to death, even death on a cross.

Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

He submitted himself to death, even death on a cross.

He did not consider equality with God.

A thing to be grasped.

That's the kingdom of God.

That's humility.

Understand your place.

His place was to come and die for sins.

He understood his place.

Good.

Good word.

All right.

Next one starts with an S.

Kingdom of God, core value?

Salvation.

No, not salvation.

Salvation is the door, if you will, or the way in.

But once we're in, service.

God is a servant.

Jesus is a servant.

The greatest amongst you shall be your servant.

It's service.

We serve.

That's what we do.

If you die serving and you're doing it because you're serving Jesus, you will be considered

a martyr in the faith.

If you die stealing or if you die lying or whatever, not so much.

So we serve.

That's something we do.

It's service.

Or servanthood.

Jesus was a servant.

In fact, the Old Testament very clearly paints a picture of him as the suffering servant

of mankind.

And God was a servant.

God created everything that we have and then started Adam and Eve to enjoy it.

He did that for them.

And then after they sinned against him and they needed salvation, he killed an animal,

the first ever sacrifice, and made them clothing.

He pronounced what we call a curse, really, but it's not really a curse.

He told them how things would work now.

He gave them a new picture of what marriage would be like so they could survive under

the circumstances they've now put themselves in.

He took them out, cast them out of the Garden of Eden.

That was a service because if they had eaten of the tree of life after they'd eaten the

tree of the Knowledge of the Good and Evil, they'd have been like that forever.

And eternally condemned.

Crazy.

Thank you, Jesus.

So it's all service.

The core value so far is forgiveness, faith, humility, and service.

And the last one, I'm grateful for this one, starts with a T.

No.

Although the kingdom of God is all about truth.

You're right.

Trust.

Nope.

Not trust.

Trust would fall under faith, I think.

Not teaching.

Thankfulness.

It's gratitude.

Right?

So the core value of the kingdom of God is thankfulness.

If we know where we stand and we know what we got, we darn well should be thankful for

it, right?

If you have humility, it'll lead you to thankfulness.

And when you serve, you should be grateful that you were allowed to serve.

Okay.

So in that passage of scripture, he did say very clearly that his kingdom is not of this

world and yet it is already amongst you in you, in midst of you, and so on.

And I put there internal and not of this world.

And then you got just a little passage there, which you may know enough, Galatians 5.

Okay.

So Galatians 5, 15 to 25.

And in light of the lateness of the hour, we won't go there and read it.

I encourage you to take a good look at it at some point in time.

And I broke it down here enough for you.

The first part, 19 to 21, is about the flesh, and you know what?

We are going to read the excerpts, just because you need to hear this, because it's just that

good.

I need to hear it again.

I've read it 50 times and I need to hear it again.

Okay.

So here we go.

So this is Galatians 5, 19 through 21.

And it says, now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality,

idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,

factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I forewarn you,

just as I forewarned you, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the

kingdom of God.

So in other words, if you were doing these things, even though you claim to be a Christian,

according to what it says here, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Which will be a real problem when there is only the kingdom of God and hell.

It's going to be a problem.

And then it goes into 22 to 25.

This is the other side of it.

It says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So we put to death our flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

And the last blank on your page, if you didn't fill it in, it's there.

Capital S, Spirit.

So the key then, I mean sum it up and we're done.

Here we go.

The key is this.

In my understanding, my best understanding of the Scriptures, the kingdom of God is already

and not yet.

But what we do have in fullness is the pledge of God in his Holy Spirit in us.

And we must subject ourselves to the Holy Spirit.

We must resist or put away the deeds of the flesh.

That is the other kingdom.

It's very clear.

If you choose the kingdom of Satan over the kingdom of God, then you will get what you

chose.

It's that simple.

And so don't choose the kingdom of Satan over the kingdom of God.

Rather choose the kingdom of God.

Walk in the Spirit.

The Spirit, of course, is of the kingdom of God because he is the pledge of God.

His main purpose, he does give us gifts.

That's great, he gives spiritual gifts.

He heals us and he seals us.

I mean he regenerates us from our sin.

He seals us.

He protects us from falling.

He does a lot of things.

But his main purpose is to bring us into agreement with creation that we also will groan for

the final revealing of the kingdom of God.

If you're satisfied with the things of this earth, then you're not groaning for the kingdom

of God.

If you're searching after a car and you get a car and you're like, yay me, got a car,

that's great, I'm living the high life now, everything's perfect.

And that day you're great.

And then the next day you have an opportunity to serve Jesus and you choose not to do it

because you're great, you got a car.

You're choosing the kingdom of the world over the kingdom of God.

So be aware.

In fact, it says he who is friends with the world is the enemy to God.

So we choose to kingdom of God.

We set our standards accordingly and that is we allow, as His Holy Spirit reigns in us,

He leads us to guide us to help us understand, to convict us of sin, help us understand scripture

and that kind of thing.

And then with the ultimate goal of we desire the coming of the kingdom of God, we want

the fulfillment of it.

Now you have the ability to extend the kingdom of God on earth already because you can tell

people about Jesus, they get saved, they get the Holy Spirit now there in the kingdom

of God.

You can do good and overcome evil.

You can walk in these core values, practice forgiveness toward people, help people be

forgiven, help people forgive each other.

You can practice faith, you can practice humility, you can practice servanthood, you can teach

others to do the same, you can be grateful, you can teach others the same.

You have the ability to extend the kingdom of God in your sphere of influence now.

And amazingly, the more you extend the kingdom of God, sometimes the more doors God will

open up to so you can extend it even further.

But that being said, understand that choosing the kingdom of God, choosing the Holy Spirit,

choosing God's fruit of the Spirit and walking by the Spirit, that's necessary.

If you don't do that, if you choose the deeds of the flesh, you could be called to account.

You will reap what you sow, God is not mocked.

He's not playing.

He didn't die so you could play your way through life.

He died so you could be part of the kingdom of God and come to be with him in eternity.

Okay?

So that's the kingdom of God.

So real quick, two things.

One, I get candy to young people.

So I'm trying to say I'm old.

I'm a little old here.

Yes you are.

For local bread, you're very old.

Yes, so local bread, you're very old.

Okay?

Alright.

Let's see.

So we need Danny.

Okay?

When a person is in Christ, he would be called what?

I'm going to shotgun the candy because we were running a long time.

Very good.

Anybody that gets it gets it.

Ready?

Here it goes.

Sorry Hannah.

I, Ashley Dan loves you very much.

Okay.

Alright?

Um, Chris, give me any two core values of the kingdom of God.

They're under the two on the right hand side.

Any two core values.

Oh okay they do.

Some.

Go ahead.

One!

Cure them with a sponge.

So guess what.

5 or 6?

3.

And.

There you go.

5 or 6.

5.

Hmm.

Thanks.

Josh totally knew I was gonna over throw it. Okay. All right. Who do we got so?

Okay

You still need candy. All right, but I got one big one

That I'm not sure anybody can get it'll be for anybody in the room because I'm not sure if anybody will get it's a hard one

All right, so three things that will not exist in the new heaven on the earth Jason. Okay

Look at that. He got two of the three. Okay, here we go. All right now

There's a time limit on this question 90 seconds

Okay, if you'll notice there is a phrase

That is completed on this page in the background

It began three weeks ago

No, it ends with ME exclamation points, so

No, if I were if I were trying to figure it out, I'd be doing what Alicia's doing and Chris my kingdom come yes