Seek the Kingdom

How everybody doing this morning?

Oh, awesome.

All right then.

I like that.

We're doing awesome.

Well, this morning, my wife uh always talk about my introduction.

She said I be dragging it, so I'm gonna try something different today.

Now I gotta tell you something.

This is a very, very special month for me.

And I'm very grateful.

I had another birthday.

I turned the big five forward, so I had to give God thanks.

Amen.

And I know we already done it, but uh, we gotta do it again.

The doctors are in the house.

The doctors are in the house.

We thank God for Dr.

Danny and Susan Lovett, our pastors.

We love them, we miss them.

And I was telling uh Dr.

Susan, I said, Well, I hugged her the neck this morning, she said, and she said, Well, I'm looking forward to you preaching.

I said, Well, I really gotta preach.

Because I know Pastor Danny.

He's been out the pulpit a month.

I know he done preached some sermons to you.

So I won't be before you long.

But I will, I do have a message today.

It is a word from the Lord.

Um the first thing I'd like to tell you is uh, let's uh also I want to go by but not mention uh Pastor Rick.

We really enjoyed that series on relationship in the book of Ruth.

You did a fantastic job.

And now I'm gonna dive right into my message.

Now, my message, it was birthing.

I listen to the news, but I don't listen to the news.

Now, as a man, a woman of God, we need to know what's going on.

Because technically, you ought to be able to take the Bible and see what time we're in, based off of the word.

So now, me, I always asked a lot of questions.

My mom used to talk about the God bless her soul.

She went to be with the Lord last year, her death anniversary was coming up for heaven on the eighth day of August, actually on my birthday month and our anniversary month, but she's in a better place.

She made that transition because she was a kingdom citizen.

But I was just talking to God and I was like, it's a lot of stuff going on, God.

I don't like it.

I talk to young people every day in my job.

Most of you know that I work for SERPO.

I'm in sales, so I go from different communities and different businesses, and I meet a lot of people.

And I hear people talking about the church, they talk about the racism, they talk about the division.

I mean, they're just asking all types of questions.

Why all this fighting?

What's going on?

Then it's a statistic show that a lot of people attend church.

I never get the guest evangelist that Pastor Dana had in the first of the year.

They attend church every week, but they don't know Jesus.

That's right.

They have not been born again.

But they confess Christianity.

And I was just like Marvin Gates, God, what's going on?

So I was studying this uh guy by the name of uh Kenny Hagen.

He's deceased now, he's transitioned to heaven, but he was a faith minister.

And uh I ran across something, he said, do.

And I said, Why?

You know, you can hear the word, but you gotta be a doer.

And so it was in uh Ephesians, he said, a prayer that Paul prayed daily, and he told the church of Ephesus about it.

Now don't go to sleep because your life can depend on this.

Please don't go to sleep.

All right.

Now, this is a prayer he prayed every day.

And so I started praying this prayer.

It's in Ephesians, the first chapter, it said, The eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know the hope and the calling of what the riches and the glory of the inheritance of the saints.

But before you go to that though, this is the part that really got me.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation of his knowledge.

Now, I believe we come to church all the time.

We know the word.

And I was blessed, I got a chance to go to Bible college.

Uh, many people have been to seminary, but Bible college and the seminary will teach you education.

It's intellectual, but the Holy Spirit will give you revelation.

And I started reading the book.

I had it before.

Actually, uh, the founder of this church had the same book.

He used to talk about Kingdom Prince all the time, David Wilson.

But I found the book by Dr.

Monroe.

I had it for years, I had read it, but I didn't get it.

So God had me to go back and read this book again.

And it was by Dr.

Monroe, and this is where my sermon was coming from.

This is where the material is coming from, because he encouraged people to go and preach this.

And this morning, my sermon is entitled, The Kingdom of God.

Now, I have a short video where I was studying, I ran across, and I want you to look at this short video.

Churches are full of people the broken, the lonely, the wanderers, the hopeful, the enthusiastic, the lost, the passionate, and the faithful.

For many, this gathering represents the whole of their church experience.

They'll listen attentively to a message, they'll sing a few songs, they'll be invited to pray, and then they'll return to their lives.

But for some, questions will start bubbling to the surface of their faith.

Is this the extent of what Jesus intended for his followers?

Who is the church for?

Why does the world need the church, and what is the church after all?

Well, the church isn't the building where people attend weekly services.

It's not a program, a list of rules, or a philosophy.

The church isn't a political affiliation, a country club, or a holiday tradition.

The church was never intended to be just an assembly of people wearing nice clothes and saying nice things.

The church is all the followers of Jesus everywhere.

The Greek word for church is the word ekklesia.

It's the combination of two words, ek, which means out, and coleo, meaning called.

Thus, the church, the ekklesia, means the called out ones.

In other words, the church, the collective body of all the followers of Jesus everywhere, is called out by someone for something, for a purpose.

The beginning of the book of Acts has Jesus calling his disciples to a task, bringing something called the gospel, the good news to all the world.

And this gospel would go out to all the outsiders, the forgotten, the abandoned, and the excluded.

And they, those outsiders, would see and receive that good news as actually good.

When Jesus talked about the gospel, it was always in conjunction with something else, something called the kingdom of God.

In the kingdom of God, God's purposes are made apparent.

There's justice and righteousness, there's hope for the poor and for the oppressed.

And under the kingdom of God, mercy and forgiveness take precedence over bitterness and resentment.

People previously deemed to be far from God are brought into his family, adopted as his sons and daughters.

The fullness of the kingdom of God, according to Jesus, is not merely expressed as a way for people to escape an evil world when they die.

Rather, the good news of God's kingdom is about the announcement of God's eternity moving into the present world and carrying on into the life to come.

The people who belong to Jesus join him in his world-wide restoration project.

And the called out ones, the church, are committed to advancing this good news of God's kingdom into the world, not as a means of helping people avoid the world, but rather to see God's kingdom life being made real here and now.

The whole church with the power of the whole gospel for the whole world.

It was relevant with the message today.

I like what the video said about what the church really is.

It's not this building, it's the Ecclesia.

It is the called out, chosen ones.

The Bible said we were chosen before the foundation of the earth.

Before you even got in your mom's womb, before your mom met your dad, you was called out.

You was chosen.

Then when you said church now, you know, uh back in the 90s, uh the church was kind of going through a transition and they came up with this uh what they call the mega churches, mega churches.

There's nothing wrong with the mega churches, because the first mega church was actually in the Bible.

Because Peter was anointed.

3,000 came and thousands and thousands came.

So that's the first mega church.

But I want you today to think about what he said on here about the church.

We need to make sure that we the egg classia, because see, you can join the church.

But today, I'm gonna let you know you can't join the kingdom.

You can join the church.

So a lot of times the megachurch says I have 20,000 members.

But my question is, how many of them are in the kingdom of God?

And they had me even question myself.

So all my life, I you know, I grew up around religion, whole life.

I heard about it.

I heard about the death, burial, and the resurrection.

But I didn't understand the kingdom of God.

I didn't understand it.

And it's amazing.

I had heard all these scriptures.

Like, like I said, I was praying for God, give me revelation.

I had heard all these scriptures.

Just like this, they say, you know, people come in every Sunday.

You you hear the word.

Pastor Daniel preached, Pastor Rick preached, dynamic message.

Benjamin and the worship team come in, these great songs.

Then we got to go back out to life.

That's right.

We got to go back out.

Now, what are you gonna do now?

In the midst of everything that's going on, because remember what he's saying is true.

Because we became citizens of the kingdom, he's not taking us out of the world.

We still gotta deal with all this stuff.

So, I was looking at it, I said, this is a great example.

And then it was talking about the kingdom.

I like the part where he on this film when he said, and we're gonna talk about it during the summer, where he said we're supposed to bring heaven to earth.

You know, the way it is in Christian society, which is they teach more religious belief than the kingdom of God.

The way it is in Christian society, we were when I die, I'm gonna go to heaven.

Read your Bible and ask God for an understanding, that he enlightened you, that he gives you revelation.

Because actually, it's just like it said, we're supposed to bring heaven to earth.

So, like with Pastor Dan and them, they went on a vacation.

They took heaven with them.

Wherever they walked, they was taking heaven with them.

The kingdom.

When you and I go places, you should take them with you.

And so that's what we're charged to to do as believers in the body of Christ.

But the last thing I want to say about that, I'd be remiss if I ain't say, because I work for a company called SERPRO.

And it said, Surpro is about being the number one restoration company in the world.

Now I know next week it's gonna be our sixth anniversary, but we had a man with a vision.

He was in the restoration business for a surpro, but he also was in the restoration business versus souls.

He was in the restoration business, but according to the Bible, every believer should be in the restoration business.

We should be telling other people the truth, don't lie to them.

If they are wrong, you need to tell them they're wrong.

Because really, it's not love.

Because if you don't get in the kingdom of God, you're going to hell.

That's right, that's right.

So, do you really love that person?

You know they're doing wrong, but you're going along to get along.

Is that really love?

I don't think so.

I don't think so at all.

So this morning, my main text is coming from Matthew, the sixth chapter.

And we're gonna start at the thirty-first verse.

Okay, Matthew six, thirty-three is saying Therefore, do not worry, saying, What shall we eat?

What should we drink?

Or what shall we wear?

For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly father knows that you these are these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God.

That's what we need to seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And then it said, All these other things are be added.

Amen.

Okay, let's look at this scripture.

But seek ye first the kingdom, the kingdom.

Let's look what seek means.

Seek means to attempt to find.

But when I said attempt to find, it's to find something that already exists.

It's not look like looking for a lost treasure that never existed, never existed in your life, but it's something that already exists.

And so that's very important when I talk about the seek.

And obviously, the verse is telling you what to seek, the kingdom.

But what is the kingdom?

But whatever it is, Jesus is saying here on the mount, and that's who preaching this sermon.

This is first sermon.

He said on the mount, this should be our first priority.

The kingdom, not church, not sports, not relationships, not hobbies, but the kingdom.

It should be first.

It should be first.

And then it talks about righteousness.

Now, when we talk about righteousness, we're not talking about my righteousness.

You know, uh, throughout the book of Matthew, and it's the book, it's actually the main theme, it's the kingdom.

It's the kingdom.

But in that book, it promotes the kingdom, but at the same time, it talks about don't have the righteousness of a Pharisee.

And the Pharisee's righteousness was this type: it was self-righteousness.

It was based on the things they had done.

But we have to have the righteousness of God.

And the only way you get in righteousness of God, it deals with right standing.

You have to be in right standing.

And to be in right standing, God, you remember I told you I read the book by Dr.

Monroe about rediscovering the kingdom.

See, the kingdom was lost.

But Jesus helped us rediscover the kingdom.

So what he did, he had to get on that cross over there.

Years and years ago, he died, they stretched him like this, hung him high, and then he took my sin, your sin, and he's changed his righteousness.

And it was imputed.

So those of us that are believers and in the kingdom, we have righteousness, his righteousness, not based off of anything that we done, though.

And then it said, all these things, all these things shall be added.

What things?

Food, clothing, shelter.

Yeah, we need them.

I I I think in Maslow when I was studying in school, Maslow, that's that's part of his needs.

Everybody needs, I don't care what country you go to, everybody needs food, clothing, and shelter.

But he said, don't make those things your priority.

Don't make them your priority.

Let my kingdom be your priority.

I don't care if you're young, and I'm talking to my young kids too.

As once you once you become the level, the age of accountability, you're accountable.

Once you know the truth, it's based on you, whether or not you follow the principles of God.

So you too can enter into the kingdom of God.

So that has to be our first priority.

And I'm gonna tell you something, boy.

It's tough.

And those of you that are parents, you really know because like when your kids, they get ready to go to school, they're looking for a career.

Look what it's saying, though.

Seek the kingdom.

Seek him first.

If you seek the kingdom, I can assure you you'll find your answer.

Seek the kingdom.

When you get sick, whatever, seek the kingdom.

You need money, finances, seek the kingdom.

Let it be first, because everything else is gonna be added to you.

Now, I know last week uh I was it's one of the sisters, uh, she just had a little baby, and I was looking at that baby.

I said, Woo! That baby has it going on.

And what I was thinking about was discernment.

Now, that baby doesn't have to ask for food.

I never seen a baby ask, mommy, where are we gonna live tonight?

The baby don't have to ask for anything.

And we're natural parents, you know, mom and dad.

Now, what do you think about our heavenly father?

What do you think about our heavenly father?

So we make the kingdom our priority, all the rest of our needs are gonna be met.

Everything, and that's an absolute, that's not a maybe, that's an absolute.

So, my assignment today is to make sure that every person in here know what the kingdom of God is.

And oh, by the way, how to enter into the kingdom of God.

It's not from church membership either.

It could be 10,000, 10 billion.

It does not matter.

It does not matter how big the congregation is.

It's about have you been born again?

Is he your Lord?

Which means ownership.

Does he own you?

That's my assignment to make sure everybody in the kingdom, that everybody gets in the kingdom.

I'm gonna offer invitation.

Because that's what we want to be kingdom citizens.

Because now I'm and I'm perplexed, and I know I say it all the time.

If you read now and you look at the news, everybody's a Christian.

Everybody's a Christian, and I know it's mentioned three times in the Bible, in Acts twice, and then Peter mentioned it.

But now you go to the four gospels, it's mentioned 53 times.

So it might, I think it might be important.

I'm just saying.

I'm just saying.

Now this brings me to my first point about the kingdom.

Why is the kingdom of God important?

Why is it important?

Like that presentation said, we go to church every Sunday, we sang songs, hear all these nice sermons, and name it and claim it.

Five steps to prosperity.

All that.

But let's talk about why it's really important.

When you open up in the book of Matthew, it was this crazy man they called him.

He was out there eating honey and local.

Preaching like a wild man, like a madman.

He said, Repent, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That's what he said, oh John.

And you know who his first cousin was Jesus.

John was anointed.

The brother was anointed.

And and you know, I learned this in school.

They were talking about Moses was the greatest prophet that was until John the Baptist came.

Why?

Because the dispensation he was giving us the kingdom of heaven.

That's how we was able to reconnect.

That's how we was able to reconnect.

That's what he did.

And then you know what he did?

Since Jesus was his cousin, he passed the baton to Jesus.

When he passed it to Jesus, Jesus said, I'll tell you what, cuz you're preaching the right message.

So I need to continue on.

Jesus came and said the same thing.

Jesus said, Repent.

For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And when he said at hand, he wasn't talking about time.

No, no, no, no.

He wasn't talking about time here.

No, he wasn't talking about time.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So he wasn't talking about hand.

This is what he's talking about.

If you go back and look, and I'm gonna tell you a little later in the sermon what a kingdom is, but the reason it was at hand is you got to remember, go back to Genesis.

In the book of Genesis, you know God created the heaven and the earth.

Y'all know the story.

Adam and Eve, they sinned.

But what they did, they lost fellowship with God.

And one main thing happened here now.

Make sure you get this.

Go back and read it.

Go back and read it.

Okay.

Not until they sinned.

They operated straight in the spiritual realm.

Everything was spirit to spirit.

And when they did sin, they lost their ability to communicate with God.

Because God cannot deal with sin.

Now for me, he's not going to tolerate from anybody.

So he cut them off spiritually.

They died, but they died physically.

They was going to die physically.

But what they really lost was the ability to communicate with God, spirit to spirit.

So what needed to happen now, even though man had lost fellowship with the God, the king of kings, they needed to get back.

In some way, they had to be restored.

And so when you start talking about kingdoms, to understand the kingdom, he had to wait basically, one theologian was saying that he waited until the Roman, uh the Roman Empire was on top.

Because one thing you got to notice about the kingdom.

Like we in America, now, I know I study history and they they mentioned kingdoms, the colonial system.

But we under democracy system, democracy.

No know about no kingdom.

But one thing about the Roman kingdom, it's the closest kingdom that's set up like God.

And I'm gonna talk about that.

That's why God waited all that time, even though it's about a 4,000-year period between when we lost the kingdom and when it's restored.

He wanted something that we could be able to relate to.

So when he's talking to the readers, because at the time you gotta think about it, Rome had a king, Caesar.

They even had a governor, and that that's gonna come in and so that's what Jesus meant by the kingdom is at hand.

Then Jesus went on to talk about it.

Now it was so important to Jesus.

Not only did he preach it about the kingdom, but then he taught us to his disciples.

Now he started his ministry off talking about the kingdom.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Then, you know the story, he went to the cross, he died.

But after the resurrection, Jesus walked around for 40 days.

But let me tell you something he did when he first got up.

He blew his breath.

That's about the 20th chapter of uh John.

And he blew his breath on his disciple, and that is when they got the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit came back in man then, because everybody in the Old Testament, after Adam, nobody else was filled with the Spirit.

Even though these men and women did great feet, but right, it would come on them, but it didn't dwell on the inside, like you and I have.

Now I know it's a little slow now, but I want you to see it, and we're gonna follow me.

It's gonna get the moving here.

So that's where we at with that based on that.

So once he did that, that was uh really good for the the disciples.

I'm gonna do it on the house.

Okay, and the other point I'm gonna bring out, not only did he start his ministry, but he ended with that.

You go to Acts.

If you go to Acts the first chapter, Jesus said, now, I tell you the best way to picture this.

Those of us that are parents or you're a teacher, you're talking to your kids, you're talking to your kids, and you told them to do this chore, and it's just a plethora of things you told them to do.

You told them to take care of this test, take care of this test.

But when you get ready to go, you say, wait a minute.

I want to make sure that you remember this.

So even though Jesus started his ministry preaching the kingdom, guess what?

When he got when he was raised up for those 40 days, that's what he preached.

It says here in Acts.

Okay, it's in Acts the first chapter, the third verse, to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by infallible proof, being seen them 40 days and speaking of things pertaining to God.

Now, if we said Jesus is a central theme of the Bible, now that's what he preached.

And he started his ministry off with it, and he ended his ministry, wouldn't you think that's pretty important?

If the four gospels, I'm telling you about the four gospels, if that's their main theme, I think it's pretty important.

Then he passed that torch on down to Paul.

And Paul preached the same message about the kingdom.

The kingdom.

Everything was the kingdom.

And then Brother Paul was so convinced with the with the kingdom, he was on house arrest, and he spoke about the kingdom.

So it's the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom.

So what I want to tell you today, if you're in the kingdom, your primary focus needs to be kingdom.

I remember I went to this military school, and I mean there was the repetition was nothing for them.

Repetition was nothing for the people in the military.

And so it was called airsaw, but that was for crazy folks, and I was crazy then, for real.

You would jump out of an airplane, well, not an airplane, but out of helicopter, you repelled off a helicopter.

But they wanted to get it ingrained in our spirit.

So what they did is, you know, in the military, you do all them running and marching, and everything's about the left foot.

Some of your soldiers know about this.

So every time your left foot hit the ground, you say, airso, air so, air so, air so, air so.

And so you you might go to a place like that.

Man, they are crazy.

Air so, air so, air so.

But, tell you how much Paul had got it got it into his spirit about the kingdom.

Now, Paul is on house arrest.

He can't go nowhere.

He's a prison in his own house.

But he's going around saying, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, because that's what he was still preaching.

The king, the kingdom.

Boy, and the kingdom, then you go in Revelation.

They talk about the kingdom.

I'm like, okay, God, I got the message.

It's kingdom, kingdom, kingdom.

And Jesus, it was 46 parables, but seven of them, they're with the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And that's the same thing as kingdom of God when I said kingdom of heaven.

Then he came back in Matthew, where our central text comes from.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God.

Then he gives all these types of parallels, how it's easy for a rich man to go through a needle to enter into the kingdom of God.

So, as you see, everything is kingdom, kingdom, kingdom.

Then let's look at something here.

Now, everybody has a mission.

That's one thing about God.

Everything has a purpose.

Look what Jesus said, why he was sent.

You have to go to Luke the fourth chapter and the 43rd verse.

Now, Jesus here just basically finished preaching, and uh the congregation, you know how somebody preaches a good sermon, it's like, more, more, more, they want him to stay.

Jesus said, No, no, I gotta go.

I have to go.

And so the reason I have to go is he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities.

So it's just not for your local body.

So a lot of times we come to church and hear the message.

That's great, but we gotta be like Jesus.

Take it to other cities, and many of us might not travel, but your city is gonna be where do you live?

Now, you know, I used to say something, and God convicted me with this lesson.

I said, Well, I'm not in full-time ministry.

I said, Okay, yeah, Pastor Dan is in full-time ministry.

Pastor Rick is in full-time ministry.

And the Holy Ghost said, now, do you understand the kingdom?

Do you really understand the kingdom?

Because if you understand the kingdom, you will know that you were called, and one of your purposes to be in full-time ministry.

Full-time, not part-time.

Because see, that's what got the world confused.

See, we'll come to church on Sunday and shout and run and quote scriptures, and Monday through Saturday raise hell.

Don't look nothing like what the Bible says.

A Christian should.

They head to other church, they're not around here.

Say we represent the king.

I'm a representative of the king.

I'm an ambassador of Christ.

Really?

So if people had to look at you, I'm talking about all of us to include me.

The question you ought to ask yourself, could they tear you in the kingdom?

Are you part of a social club?

Or is it your political party?

Are you liberal, conservative?

What is it about though?

What are you putting first?

There's nothing wrong with politics now.

But what are you putting first?

Who you representing?

It was this old comedian you used to say, who you with?

Who you with?

Bernie May.

Some of you didn't catch that.

It's okay.

Who you with?

You represent the kingdom.

Because the king said to seek the kingdom first.

I didn't say it, and you got to watch the kingdom now.

The kingdom is different from that old religious stuff.

There's a lot of religion out here.

Whoo, it's a lot of religion.

Religion, religion, religion.

I know some more people in the Bible that were religious.

We're gonna talk about them a little later.

And they knew that word too.

They could quote it verbatim, especially the first five books of the Bible, they could quote it verbatim.

All right.

So basically, the origin of the first kingdom.

Let's talk about, let's switch gears here.

Okay, we saw how important it was to Jesus ministry, and then you know you want to talk about.

So that's just in the New Testament, Pastor Sylvester.

Yes, it is, but it's also in the old.

It's in the old.

And and we're gonna jaywalk through some scripture real quick.

We're gonna jaywalk.

Get it going here.

We're gonna jaywalk.

Now, here it is in Daniel.

If you read the book of Daniel, all he talks about is kingdom, kingdom, kingdom.

And one example he said is in Daniel 7th chapter and the 14th verse, and he said, There were given to him dominion and glory, and a kingdom to all people, nations, and language should serve him.

His dominion is everlasting.

I think I want to say that again.

His dominion is everlasting.

That means his kingdom won't change command.

Like now we got President Trump.

Then before we had President Obama, then we had President Bush.

He's not gonna change.

His command.

Caesar used to be in charge of Rome.

He's not gonna, it's not gonna be a chain of command.

He's gonna rule forever, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that shall not, it shall not be destroyed.

Even as great as the Roman were, they got destroyed.

But the king that paid for us with his blood, and you know how that cross is that's that's it's vertical and it's horizontal.

Our vertical king is gonna rule forever.

Now, these kings down here, when they come horizontal, they're gonna change.

It's gonna be a chain of command, but not the king of kings.

And that's the one the kingdom, people that in the kingdom of God, they try to obey because it's all about obedience.

The king of kings.

Now, not only that, you can't leave David out.

All David talked about was uh what was the kingdom?

The kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom.

David talked about that kingdom.

In fact, dealing with the king, it was prophesied in the Old Testament that the king had to come from David Linnach.

Now let's talk about the first kingdom real quick and we're gonna move right along here.

The first kingdom was created by God.

Now I used to ask my mom, well, who created God?

She said, I don't know.

And I read the Bible, it said, He always existed.

That's why he's God.

Yes, he always existed.

It wasn't no creator of God, he's self-existent, self-sufficient.

But this is what God did.

The act of creation initiated the concept of the kingdom, and what he was, he was a ruler.

But he's a ruler in the invisible world.

You see, now you can see me.

This is the physical world, but it's another world out there.

It's called invisible world, and that's what he's the king of the invisible world.

But then I don't know what it is.

I guess God got lonely.

Because I read in the Bible where it says God is a God that uh he's a God of love.

But I also was studying love because that should be the culture of the kingdom, love.

You know, when I say kingdom, they go, they go hand in hand, kingdom love, kingdom love, kingdom love.

Because God is love.

But I don't know if God, I know he created angels and talk about it, because we know Satan is a fallen angel.

I don't know if he got bored with him or what.

I don't know, that's a mystery.

When you get to heaven, you ask them.

So God said, Well, look at here.

He got he said, let us make man.

He said, I'm gonna make a first he created another universe which is earth.

So he said, Let us make man, and then he made him man.

And when I said man, it's woman and man.

And he gave them a mission, he gave them a mission to rule, to dominate, to rule and to dominate.

Guess what?

The earth.

That's our mandate.

We're supposed to rule and the earth and dominate it.

That's one of our main purpose.

I think we lost our mandate.

That's our first mandate.

Now you look at that word dominion.

Uh now in the Greek, the real the word for that is mancalash.

I got close to it.

If I'm wrong with Pastor Dan and Dr.

Love and nobody, so everybody else said, praise the Lord.

No, I had to throw that one in.

But but but anyway, dominion actually means kingdom.

Now that's English.

It means kingdom.

Yeah.

It means kingdom.

And so in the kingdom, our job is to rule in a sovereign territory.

Yeah, we're supposed to rule in a sovereign territory and basically be in control of it.

All the way, in total control of it.

That's our mandate.

And then what we got to realize, everything you see now around us, everybody was, it was made by the invisible God.

Everything, every person you see around you was made by God.

He stepped back and made man in his own image with a purpose to dominate and to rule this world.

But the thing about it, just like in Jesus' day, just like in Paul's day, they started telling the message one by one.

And people started being restored into the kingdom.

They was coming to the kingdom.

They was coming into the kingdom one by one.

And the kingdom is totally different.

It's really different from democracy.

Now let's talk about some of the major differences in the kingdom versus what we're accustomed to.

And one of the reasons God would show me how you understand the Bible, because this is what I was doing, and I know none of you guys are doing this.

I was taking my concept I have of America, which I grew up, I've never been in no kingdom.

It was democracy.

Now, some of you guys, I don't know where you come from, or if you had a chance to be calling, come up in a colony.

And so I was looking at it through the eyes of democracy when I read the Bible.

But that's dangerous.

That's dangerous.

Real dangerous.

Because communication is about concepts.

It's all about concept.

So if you and I don't have the same concept, you're gonna interpret it something totally different.

Like I give you an example.

One of the major differences in the kingdom is it's similar to a democracy, but okay, in the kingdom they have a king.

What the kingdom says is the Constitution, which is our Bible.

Now, in a kingdom, once it's said, it's no changing.

Now, here in America, we live in a democratic society.

We vote on the Constitution.

And it starts off, we the people.

We declare our different rights for this, this, and that.

And guess what?

They even go back and change some of it.

They can do that.

That's the law here in a democratic society.

We can do that.

But now, guess what?

In the kingdom of God, he is the king.

Now, let's look at this constitution here you got your Bible.

I don't know all of it, but I know this is important.

Now, this is the part you you really need to listen to.

Because this is why I was so confused.

Because, see, if you look at the landscape of America and the world, so we said we're believers, and we believe in the king, and we're gonna make the king our first priority.

So his first pride is his word.

And it does not change.

It does not change.

You know, like now we're dealing with all kinds of issues, even with marriage.

What did God say about marriage in the Constitution?

That's a legal document.

He said he married a man and a woman.

Now, in America, our president can change that law.

That's fine.

However, what did the king say?

Now we got, okay, you got the government.

We're going back to the government.

Now you got the vertical and you got the horizontal.

Now the horizontal say, change it.

Because we live in democracy, so we change it.

And then it creates all types of division.

But now those of us that know the word of God.

Say, and they even got churches like that.

They might have a church.

They just not part of the eclasia.

They not the call-out chosen one.

Because they're doing their own thing.

They're not in the kingdom of God.

So you can go to church all you want to, pay all the tithes, go on your mission trip.

It doesn't make a difference.

You're not in the kingdom.

Because the constitution is the constitution, it can't change.

And in fact, it said his word, don't add nothing to it and don't take nothing away.

And then let's get back on members again.

Some of the major differences.

We talk about members, members, members, everybody.

I got 15,000.

I got this many, Doc.

Again.

Now, in democracy, in a democratic society, that's no problem.

You can do that.

You can get all the members you want to.

But now you can't join a country.

Because the kingdom of God is actually a country, it's a government.

You can become a citizen of a country, but you can't join it.

It's right there in your Bible.

That's why it said we are citizens of heaven.

So we here say we are of this world, but we're not in this world because our citizenship is in heaven.

And so when you see people doing wrong according to the Constitution, not according to your personal ideology, but according to the Constitution.

If you're going to make God kingdom your first priority, you need to tell them the truth.

Don't you really love them?

Because guess what?

We're made in God's image.

And one of the things about being made in God's image, we're never going to die.

So everybody has eternal life.

But it's where?

And what kingdom?

Y'all know about the other kingdom, right?

It's what kingdom.

And this thing was just enlightened me on so many things and how religion taught things.

And this other revelation, it just hurt me.

It hurt me bad.

Because I'm guilty.

Guilty.

It talked about the army.

Because you got to figure a way a colony is set up.

A colony, they have an army to protect them.

So the citizens don't fight.

Now that messed my theology up when I ran across that.

And then he had the scripture to bang it up.

I said, what do you mean?

I always said I was in the army of the Lord.

Yeah, that's what you said.

That's religion, though.

Because in the kingdom, we have somebody that'll fight for us.

That's why you got to know the Constitution.

You remember when uh they they came to get Jesus in the gospel, they came to get Jesus and old Peter, boy, he was fast.

I know I had some Peter here.

Peter's chopped his head off.

Angels chopped it off.

But God was telling him, you don't have to do that.

If I want to, I could call angels.

10,000 angels that come down.

The spirit world is real.

And even when we pray, Pastor Daniel just did a marvelous series on putting on the whole armor of God.

But look what it says at the end.

Pray.

Oh, here we go again.

Now we're talking kingdom.

You don't have to fight.

Because one thing that's similar to a kingdom, like when I joined the military, I lost, I wasn't a civilian anymore.

The military owned me.

That's who owned me.

It's just like one example they use now.

How many people been to combat?

Raise your hand.

How many?

Okay, put them down.

So the rest of y'all hadn't been to combat.

So while you was in combat, guess what the other citizens were doing?

They weren't fighting.

The country was at war.

The king said, go get them, and that's what he did.

And so that's what we gotta do.

We have to commission our angels.

Because they there.

But they won't move unless we do one thing.

That's why prayer is so important.

Prayer.

Prayer.

Prayer.

That's why he said, if you don't pray, you're powerless.

That's what that's how that's what we do when we make heaven come down here.

Because we have to speak his word.

The angels hearken to his word.

That's what they hearken to.

And then it's the culture of the kingdom.

And this is really big.

I told you it's kingdom and love.

Kingdom and love.

Kingdom and love.

Okay.

I know every day because I, well, now I'm on that Sergeant Bracer come at me in a minute.

So I don't like Sergeant Brayson.

I like being a kingdom citizen, being Sergeant Brayson.

That I don't like that dude.

That's that flesh I'm in the process of crucifying.

But uh, yes, with that.

So I'm supposed to walk in the spirit of love all the time.

That's how you represent it, you're an ambassador.

And when they say you're ambassador to Christ, let me tell you what you're doing.

Our ambassador is not a person, which I thought it was.

An ambassador represents a country.

So that's why I say when Pastor Danny and uh Dr.

Susan went to, they represent the country or heaven.

Guess what?

When you go place, you represent the country of heaven.

And that's how we're gonna take back our world.

We don't have to sit there and argue with them and win and take a stance when it comes down to the law, and we have to live in this world.

This horizontal law.

This law supersedes the horizontal.

It supersedes.

Yes, even little boys did that in the old testament.

That's what Daniel Daniel did it.

They told Daniel, you can't pray.

That was a decree from a king.

You can't pray.

Daniel said, I'm gonna pray.

Why?

Because the kings of kings said, pray.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got thrown that fire and furnished for disobeying the law of the land.

So what we gotta stay focused on is the kingdom.

The kingdom.

What does it say in the kingdom?

The kingdom.

And lastly, we gotta communicate the kingdom.

That's what we were commissioned to.

To communicate the kingdom.

Now, the way you communicate the kingdom, let me tell you about the Pharisees now.

The Pharisees were like this.

They was all talk.

Oh, they could quote some scriptures.

And they pay their tithes, they could say those loud prayers in front of people so people could look at them.

But one thing was wrong.

They're hard.

They're hard.

Dead bones.

Just empty on the inside.

Totally empty on the inside.

We can't be empty inside.

Because one thing God did when he reconnected us with when Jesus did that, he allowed us to put the Holy Spirit on the inside.

And so that's why we gotta focus every day on the kingdom and do the great commission.

Go ye down for and make disciples.

We got to tell these people in this dying world, yes, you're gonna die one day.

And if you don't know the kings of kings, and it's it's permanent too.

Yes, you're gonna die.

Now, speaking of communicating the kingdom, one of the major obstacles that we have today, but it's no different what Jesus had.

Guess what it was?

Religious people.

People that go to church every Sunday.

Preachers.

Preachers, and I'm one.

Teachers.

It was those Pharisees.

They went every week.

This is what Jesus told the Pharisees.

He said, not only you don't want the kingdom, but you stopping other people from the kingdom.

Because see, they had them in religion though.

Because they would say, you know, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm following the law to a T.

What about you, Pastor Danny?

You're not following them.

In Matthew, the 23rd chapter and 13 verse, it talks about, he said, but woe unto you, the scribes and the Pharisees, hypocrites, for you set the kingdom of heaven up against men.

For ye neither go in yourself, neither suffer ye the things in the other people to go in.

So you don't want to go in, but that ain't bad enough.

You want the other people to go to hell with you.

So I thank God that we're in the kingdom church.

We're in a kingdom church.

Uh the founder we lost last year, he was all about kingdom.

He used to say some things to me.

He talked about uh we were riding, we all know Surpro is a very prosperous business.

But he said, I don't own nothing.

And I looked at him, because we used to do visitation together.

What you mean you don't own nothing?

He said, uh, I'm a steward.

He said, God owns everything I have, Sylvester.

Yes, he does.

My job is to use it for the kingdom.

That's what my job is, to use it for the kingdom.

And that was absolutely amazing.

Because he was so convicted.

Uh he was telling me about when uh he used to be at another church, the church before this was Brook Island.

And he ran to this brother by the name, I think his pastor was David Platt.

And David Platt was the kingdom man.

And we all know that David was a man of God, but David Platt enlightened David even more.

And so you look around this building, that's where it was birthed for him.

His vision to sow more into the kingdom of God.

And just like you said, bring heaven to earth.

And to show it.

See, it's one thing, and see, that's our best witness is being obedient to the word.

And see, we invite blessings in when we obey the word, when we obey his constitution.

Now, sir probably, I used to have people ride, they come from all over because he had a traineeship too.

I have people come from all over there, what is his secret?

I said, he believed in God.

I ain't talking about no Sunday thing either.

I said, He's God first all the way.

He believed in the kingdom.

Now, the amazing thing about the kingdom, it talks about treasure.

And it tells us, don't sow all your seeds in the stuff that's temporal.

You need to sow them in eternity in the kingdom of God because can't nobody steal that.

Don't sow them there.

But what David did, he got with one of his friends by the name of Pastor Danny.

And they planned a church.

In fact, next week is gonna be our sixth-week anniversary.

But I'm gonna show you how powerful this kingdom thing is.

Pastor Danny, y'all know he can preach and teach.

But it was this sister we had in church.

Oh, she just died.

Uh what's her name?

Miss Pat, yes.

I missed Dr.

Susan's message uh on Mother's Day, and I enjoyed the message, but uh I did hear this part.

It was coming in and out because I was on the highway.

I had to go to my daughter's graduation.

But this is the part that stuck out with me.

She was talking about how Miss Pat had gone on to be with Heather, but her son wrote a letter.

You remember she read that letter?

Now, I don't have this great memory, but I do remember one thing about that young man.

So I told you, uh, they planned the church.

Pastor Dan was preaching the word, he's preaching the kingdom message.

Miss Pat got saved.

She got saved.

Love the Lord, beautiful lady.

I mean, she totally changed.

And by the way, repent means to change, you know, turn away from sin.

See, just going up to the altar don't mean anything.

And the proof is in the action.

But anyway, Miss Pat got saved and her son was incarcerated.

But Miss Pat, she couldn't go sin.

So she had to do like Paul.

She had to write some letters.

And she wrote a letter to her son.

Don't miss this.

This is good.

She told him about the king of kings.

You know what that young man said on that.

I still remember to this day.

He thanked his mama.

He was hurt because she died.

But he said, Mama, I'm gonna see you again.

Because of you, I have kingdom reservations.

Kingdom reservations.

You know, like you go somewhere and you travel and you done made the reservation for the hotel room and you go to the front desk.

I challenge you.

When you die, you don't want to get there, and your name, you have made kingdom reservation.

Because it's only one time.

And you can say, Well, I ain't here, Sylvester, he didn't preach like this.

You got the message.

The kingdom ought to be first.

It needs to be first.

Because I'm gonna tell you what, your life, your life depends on.

If or whether or not you're in the kingdom of God.

So if you're not in the kingdom, I wouldn't leave here without being in the kingdom.

Because even though my mom was 91 when she died last year, it happened quick.

She was old, but she was in good health.

I'll never forget.

In fact, a year from today was the last Sunday that she attended church.

And she died on a Tuesday morning.

But my siblings were telling me how excited she was.

But I had talked to her on that Monday.

She died that Tuesday morning.

Normal conversation.

She went in the hospital, she wasn't hurting.

Next call I get, mama's gone.

And you don't know how you're gonna act.

Till it happens.

You can read scriptures, you can pray, but now how you feel about it.

My mama that I love, that taught me about God, that was a good provider, she was gone.

Now I had a great father.

I could pray on my mom.

And the thing about it, I'll tell you, I ended up preaching a sermon at a funeral.

But my daughters had just left.

So I wanted to fly them back down because they said they wanted to come.

So instead I ended up having to go and uh get them in the truck.

So my wife and I, when we made it back, it was that Sarah the day of the funeral.

I had seen the body and she was laying there.

I had cried, I lived two and a half hours away from here.

I had cried all the way from Birmingham to Groveville.

I got there.

I kissed her on the forehead.

The Holy Spirit told me, Your mom is not in there.

That's just dirt.

Her spirit is with me.

She's in the kingdom of God.

That's why today, if you don't know Jesus, I would make sure that I know him and the power of his resurrection.

I would know that I know that I know.

Because there's no second chances.

Ask the rich man when he was talking to Lazarus.

It's one and done.

The question is do you know it?

Do you want to be in the kingdom of God?

You can't buy your way in, and you can't work your way in.