Understanding the Kingdom of God

A little over 2,000 years ago, there was a Jewish rabbi named Jesus, and he delivered this incredibly powerful and what became incredibly popular statement about the kinds of people that can consider themselves blessed by God.

And the word for this sort of a statement is become a beatitude, which is a Latin word, and it means supreme blessedness.

It essentially translates literally to blessed are.

And you'll see that a lot in this statement.

So a little over 2,000 years ago, this rabbi named Jesus tells people who the blessed ones really are.

And this is what he said.

Blessed are those who rejoice in their children.

Blessed are those who live to see the downfall of their foes.

Blessed is the man who lives with an intelligent wife.

Blessed are those who have not made a slip of the tongue.

Blessed are those who do not have to serve someone inferior to them.

Blessed are those who have gained good sense.

Blessed are those who speak to attentive listeners.

Are you listening?

Then I'm blessed.

There we go.

Blessed are those who have gained wisdom, but no one is more blessed than the person who fears the Lord.

Does that sound familiar to anybody?

Or not quite familiar to anyone like want to say that doesn't sound quite right, anyone at all?

Alright, okay, cool.

Well, the reason it doesn't sound quite right is because this was this was spoken a little over 2,000 years ago by a very famous Jewish rabbi named Jesus.

It's just not our Jesus.

This was a rabbi whose name is Jesus ben Sirach, and he lived about 150 years before Jesus.

And he was very popular, very highly regarded, and by the time that our Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, by the time our Jesus stepped onto the scene, the teachings of Jesus ben Sirach were widely known and distributed.

And anyone who began by saying, blessed are in Jesus' day would have had these words ringing through their minds.

I want us to think about this list for just a second.

These are the people that, according to this, this Jewish rabbi, are blessed by God.

And there's things on here.

Let's find out if we're blessed.

Like, I'm not going to ask who has an intelligent wife.

That's a trap.

I'm not going to go there.

Let's just skip that one, right?

But you're blessed, according to this teaching, you are blessed when you get to see your foes fall, fail, and defeated.

If you get to live long enough to see the people that you don't like fail, then you know God blesses you.

So I don't know if anyone would be like, yeah, that's me.

You know, maybe, I mean, what for us?

You have a rival sports team and uh they lose, you take joy in that.

I know I do, right?

Or there's that person at work that you can't stand, and if they get fired, you're like, Yes, God has blessed me.

According to this, that would be true.

It says, Blessed are those who have never made a slip of the tongue.

Can anyone here say, I am very blessed?

If that is the standard of blessing.

I, ooh, I cannot.

Talking is the only thing I've ever been good at, and the only thing I am better at than talking is putting my foot in my mouth and saying things that I shouldn't say.

So I apparently am not blessed.

No, no, this, what's interesting is that this teaching, which again, in the time of our Jesus, the Jesus, was widespread.

And it very much lines up with the way that people were taught to see God.

That look, you know, you know you're blessed by God when you're more successful than other people.

He says, Blessed are those who never have to serve someone inferior to them.

In our day and age, I might be saying, hey, blessed are those who don't have to work for an incompetent boss, right?

Like if you've ever had a boss that you know is not as good at their job as you are at yours, and it should be flipped.

If that's your situation, apparently you're not blessed.

Because you're having to serve someone who in your mind is inferior.

Like those, those are the kinds of things that people were conditioned to believe about God, that you know you're blessed by God if you are doing well in life, better than others.

You know, so if you had lots of children, you're blessed by God, but if you didn't have lots of children, if you couldn't have kids, you're not blessed.

You see this with Jesus and his disciples.

There's this rich man that comes to Jesus.

And it doesn't go the way this conversation doesn't go the way that the disciples expect it to go because in their minds, this man is rich, he's wealthy, so he is absolutely blessed by God because otherwise he wouldn't be.

And Jesus makes the statement saying that, man, it's actually really difficult sometimes for rich people to receive the kingdom of God.

And they're blown away by it.

How could this be?

They're wealthy, they've already been blessed by God.

Clearly, God has shown them favor.

Everything in their culture was all about measuring yourself against others and finding out if you're blessed based on what you have, what others don't have.

It's all like honor and shame, power and service dynamics.

So I'm gonna read this one more time.

Same thing I just read.

Blessed are those who rejoice in their children, blessed are those who live to see the downfall of their foes.

Blessed is the man who lives with an intelligent wife, blessed are those who have not made a slip of the tongue, blessed are those who do not have to serve someone inferior to them, blessed are those who have gained good sense, blessed are those who speak to attentive listeners, blessed are those who have gained wisdom, but no one is more blessed than the person who fears the Lord.

About 150 years after this was said, Jesus of Nazareth came forward.

And at this very famous gathering that we often call the Sermon on the Mount, early in his ministry, Jesus began with these words.

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

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, or we might say the humble, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

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

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

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Now, these are very different statements of blessing.

And I don't know about you, I'm I'm grateful that it's this list of beatitudes that has become the list of beatitudes that it has trumped the previous list.

But this is a very different understanding of who is blessed by God.

Now, for some context, we've spent this entire year doing something called the whole story.

And if you haven't been here, here's what we've done.

We've been going through the entire story of the Bible since February.

We broke it down into 14 different series.

We've been making our way through it bit by bit.

Last week we finished our first series in the New Testament, which was called The New Human, and it's all about who is Jesus.

Like, who is Jesus really?

And we really examined for five weeks who Jesus said that he is.

And so we kind of tested that and tried to wrap our minds around that because we've got to know who we're dealing with, with Jesus.

And today we start the next series.

We only have four left.

By the way, I'm just gonna say this.

Um, we're gonna finish with Revelation in December.

It's a real Christmassy.

Um and you know, I have never uh never taught on Revelation.

It's probably the only book in the Bible that I've never I've referenced it, I've I've done verses from it, but I've never like seriously taught the book of Revelation because I haven't wanted to.

I've avoided it my whole life.

I've just been like, no, not gonna do it.

This year I decide to do that.

This year.

And there just so happens to be this like major war in Israel, and like, so that's gonna be that's gonna be really interesting.

That's gonna be fun.

I'm like, wow, okay, Lord, thanks for the timing on that one.

Um, it's but it's gonna be interesting, though.

The rest of the year we've got a lot of stuff to cover.

This is, and by the way, on that note, I don't want to get into that.

Hold on, that's that's a whole different thing.

I gotta save some stuff, I guess, for for December.

I'm super excited about what we've talked about.

I'm very excited about what's to come, but this series that we're starting today is it's so important.

This name of this series is A Kingdom Come.

A kingdom come.

We're gonna be talking about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.

You see that in the words of Jesus over and over again.

What we just read multiple times he referenced the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.

And as we see from his description of who is blessed by God, it's a kingdom that doesn't look like what we might think it looks like.

It doesn't operate in the way that we might assume that it operates, it's a kingdom that catches you by surprise.

If there was one core element of Jesus' teaching, it would be the kingdom.

If there's one thing, if you could take all the things that Jesus ever said and try to boil it down into what is what is the core message that Jesus gave, it's all about the kingdom.

So we began that last section by reading Matthew 5.3.

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

Matthew 4, 23, Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom.

Matthew 6, 33, Jesus says, Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything that you need.

Matthew 10, 7, he told his disciples to go and announce to them the kingdom of heaven, that it's near.

Mark 4.30, Jesus said, How can I describe the kingdom of God?

What story should I use to illustrate it?

And if you keep reading, Jesus has all of these stories, these parables, and he says, The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

The kingdom of God is like a man who's sowing seeds in a field.

The kingdom of God is like a man who sold everything he had to purchase a field that contained a treasure.

It's just all about the kingdom of God.

Mark 4 26, Jesus said, The kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground.

That's one of those.

John chapter 18.

John 18 · chapter mention

Jesus is in front of Pilate.

He's being tried, he's about to be executed.

It says, Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him.

Are you the king of the Jews?

He asked him.

Jesus replied, Is this your own question?

Or did others tell you about me?

Am I a Jew?

Pilate retorted.

Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial.

Why?

What have you done?

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.

If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders, but my kingdom is not of this world.

Matthew 4, 17 sums it up brilliantly.

It says, From then on, early in his ministry, Jesus began to preach, Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

It's all about the kingdom.

Everything in Jesus' mind, as he teaches, as he does miracles, as he heals people, whatever he's doing, it's all about bringing in the kingdom of God and helping people understand what this kingdom is all about.

Because the people in Jesus' day, just like us, very often have a very specific picture in mind of what God is like and what his kingdom must be like.

And Jesus does a lot of work to change that, to turn it on its head, to show us what God is really like and what being part of his reality in this world, what he's doing in this world really looks like.

And if we want to be Jesus' followers, if that's something we're passionate about, we have to understand the kingdom to the best of our ability.

And so for the next several weeks, we're exploring what is the kingdom of God, what is it not?

What does it look like to live as part of it?

What are the values of the kingdom?

How do we receive the kingdom of God in our lives?

And so today's kind of like a primer.

I want us to just kind of attack it and walk away today with a general understanding of what Jesus is referencing when he says kingdom, because let's face it, we're Americans, we don't live in a kingdom.

Like we haven't had a king in a long, long time.

America runs a little different, right?

Like we elect a person so that we can make fun of them for four years and talk about how bad of a job they do so that we can replace them with another person that we can also make fun of.

I mean, basically at this point in time, we just elect presidents to see who's going to do a really good impersonation of them on television, and we mock them, and then we move on to the next, right?

Very different than living in a kingdom.

When whatever that person says is law.

When there is a single person who has ultimate authority, and what that person says goes, what they say happens.

There's no, there's no there's no ifs, no ands, no buts about it.

It's just authority and control.

It's hard for us to sort of step into that mindset.

But Jesus talks about the kingdom all the time.

So I want to start by looking at just a few basic questions.

Today we're gonna look at where is the kingdom, when is the kingdom, what is the kingdom, and and who is the kingdom all about.

So where, when, what, and who.

But not why.

We'll get to that on another day.

So let's start with where, like, like where is the kingdom of heaven?

Because if you're like me, when you hear heaven, you probably think of heaven, maybe?

Like, you know, it's it's heaven.

And we all have really weird mental pictures of heaven because, well, we've we've seen paintings, we've seen art, we've seen movies in heaven, you know, usually like someone, if someone in a movie dies and they go to heaven, like there's that instant moment, they're just sort of like looking around, like, where am I?

And they're standing on a cloud, and there's some person in a robe in front of them, and and they've got to like, hey, I'm I'm supposed to be here, and then sometimes they're like, actually you're not, and they go somewhere else, and it's like, haha, funny.

You know, we have all these ideas of heaven, most of which are more informed by pop culture or like art than they are scripture.

But when we we hear kingdom of heaven, what we naturally think of is heaven.

And heaven to us is someplace that's out there.

It's it's up there, it's far away.

But that's not how Jesus spoke of the kingdom.

So, for example, Luke chapter 17, verse 21, Jesus said, You won't be able to say regarding the kingdom, here it is, or it's over there, for the kingdom of God is already among you.

Luke 17:21

Jesus is saying the kingdom of heaven is here.

It's here.

Mark chapter 1, verse 15, the time promised by God has come at last, Jesus announced.

Mark 1:15

The kingdom of God is near.

Repent of your sins and believe the good news.

Jesus doesn't really talk about the kingdom of heaven as being something that's that's out there, that's far away, something that is in another place.

In fact, Jesus uses language all the time where he's saying, the kingdom of heaven has been has been brought, it has arrived, it's it's here.

How is that possible?

Well, it's it's important for us when we think about heaven to recognize that we tend to think of a kingdom in terms of geography, right?

Like we tend to think of a kingdom in terms of a place.

And so it has borders and boundaries and a capital city, and that that is where that kingdom is.

But in reality, a kingdom is wherever a king has authority.

Like wherever a king has authority, that's where that kingdom stretches.

There's an old phrase uh from about a hundred years ago, but it said a little over that the sun never sets on the British Empire.

There was a time, not that long ago, when Great Britain was the preeminent, dominant empire in the world.

And they literally had territory all over the world, to the point where the sun actually never set on the British Empire.

It was the sun was always up somewhere because they had that much territory.

Wherever the the rule of Britain was noticed and known and obeyed, that's where the kingdom of Britain was.

It wasn't really about a boundary, it was about wherever their authority was.

So the question we have to ask with Jesus is, where is his authority?

Where does Jesus have authority?

And Jesus actually tells us this in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

He says, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

So you can't have a kingdom without a king.

And Jesus is saying that the kingdom of heaven is ultimately wherever I am.

Wherever my presence is, wherever my presence is known, that is the kingdom of heaven.

That's why he looked at the Pharisees and said, Hey, the kingdom of heaven is among you.

I'm standing right here.

And so the kingdom of heaven is not, it's not some far-off place that we're gonna experience when we die.

The kingdom of heaven is it is right here.

And all these questions sort of layer into each other.

So I want to move on to the next one.

I want to talk about when.

When is the kingdom of heaven?

Because again, we tend to think about something like the kingdom of heaven as not just something that is that is far away in space, like it's up there, but we also tend to think of the kingdom of heaven as something that is future.

That the kingdom of heaven is something that hasn't come yet, that we're waiting for, and partially that's true.

So we go back to that Luke chapter 17 that we looked at a second ago, but I'll back up a verse.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

In verse 20, the Pharisees asked Jesus, When will the kingdom of God come?

When?

When will it arrive?

And Jesus replied, the kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs.

You won't be able to say, here it is, or it's over there, for the kingdom of God is already among you.

This just wasn't a question of where, this is a question of when.

This is timing.

They say, hey, when is the kingdom?

We're waiting for the kingdom.

When is the kingdom going to be here?

And Jesus says, right now, because I'm here with you, right now.

Jesus does speak about the kingdom in sort of future terms, like in Matthew chapter 6, verse 10, he prays, May your kingdom come soon.

Matthew 6:10

Praying to God the Father.

May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

There is a sort of future kingdom coming in its fullness, but Jesus always talks about the kingdom of heaven as like now.

So to answer that question, when is the kingdom?

Well, it's it's both, I was gonna say now and later, but it made me think of those candies.

I don't know if any of you guys know now and later candy.

Does anyone like now and later candy, just out of curiosity?

Yeah, but does anyone like love now and later candy?

Like it's your favorite?

Like, one person.

True story, I pulled one of my baby teeth out in third grade with a now and later candy.

Literally bit down on it, came out, tooth was in it.

It was great.

Uh, very efficient.

So it just made me think of now and later, and that's at the very least, second tier level candy.

I'm so sorry, ma'am.

It's your favorite, that's fine, but like consensus.

It was no one's favorite but yours.

Okay.

So instead of just saying now and later, because I can't get that out of my mind, we'll just say that the kingdom of heaven, it is it is present and it is future.

It is both now and then.

Said it later.

So I can and that's an interesting, I'm not just trying to give a non-answer, by the way, to say, is the kingdom of heaven now or is it later?

It's both.

How can that be?

How can something both be present and future?

And the truth is, we actually have lots of things in the world like this.

For example, I'll give kind of a sappy one.

Um I fell in love with my wife when we were in high school.

And we got engaged.

Her dad didn't know this, but I was a year older than Megan, so I was a freshman in college when she was a senior in high school.

And when she was still in high school, I bought her an engagement ring, uh, which is a little early, I know, but I just I had to lock it up.

You know what I mean?

It's like I knew she was out of my league and I had to get it done.

And so uh so I didn't do it in the order that you should do it.

I went and bought, I put a deposit down on an engagement ring, and then I went and got a job, like right after that.

You should do it the other way around, but who cares?

So we fell in love young, and man, I just I wanted to marry her so badly.

Her dad had actually asked us, you know, will you guys wait until at least one of you is out of college, preferably both.

And I was like, yes.

And then later I was like, no.

Um and and it wasn't out of defiance, I just I was I wanted to marry her so badly.

So I ended up calling him when we were both still in college, and I asked him for his permission to marry his daughter.

And I even had a plan for how I would be able to afford, you know, providing for her, and I worked at Chili's, and he had to have looked at my plan and laughed, but in my mind it was gonna work.

Um, all we had to do was live in an incredibly dangerous place for a few years, which we did, and it was it was fine.

Um, it was cheap.

But but I just I needed it.

Like I just she was my love.

And so he said yes.

I don't know why, to this day.

He said yes, but he did.

And so I proposed to Megan in my dorm room, the most romantic place that a man could ever propose to a woman.

I mean, ladies, which of you would not, when you think about the perfect proposal, you don't picture a dorm, a men's dorm.

I know, it was awesome.

And she said yes, again, I'm not sure why.

So one of the first things we did once we got engaged was we had engagement pictures made.

Like we we got our engagement photos taken, and I got her permission.

I I have one of these, okay?

So here we go.

This is our engagement photo.

Uh we were children.

When I look at that, I am like, wow.

If you're like Justin, you shaved.

No, I could not grow facial hair.

I couldn't.

It's not that I chose not to have it.

I still sort it, it's very patchy today, but it works.

It hides neck fat really well, so it's great.

But like back then it was just, we were kids.

In that picture, in that picture, I am 20 years old.

She is 19 years old.

We were we were young.

But you know, the moment that that ring was on her finger, and and we had the engagement photos, and we had the date, were we married?

Were we husband and wife?

And the answer is like, well, yes and no.

No, no, it that that That marriage hadn't happened yet in its fullness.

No, we hadn't entered into the full measure of the seriousness of the relationship that we had.

But yes, we were more than just dating.

We were more than just people who liked each other.

There was commitment.

We were beginning to step into a more full relationship in that moment.

And so what we actually have right now is this interesting time where the kingdom of heaven has come.

Jesus came and he began to establish his kingdom in this world.

And now 2,000 years later, we're still waiting for the moment when it comes in its fullness, which by the way, spoiler alert, that is a lot of what Revelation is about.

And you might be thinking to yourself, well, man, that's a really long engagement.

You know?

I mean, we get when someone tells you that they're getting engaged, you're like, oh, when's the day?

And they're like, oh, like seven years from now, you're like, that is an interesting way to go about it.

2,000 plus years?

You might think that, oh, this is failing.

It hasn't happened yet, it's never gonna happen.

Don't think that for a moment.

When Jesus said the words that he said that we're reading, when Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, when he said, Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, they will inherit the kingdom of God.

Do you know how many people were following Jesus at that time?

I mean, a handful.

A few dozen, maybe.

At most a hundred.

Two thousand years later, as we're still waiting for the kingdom to come in its fullness.

Do you know how many people today consider themselves followers of Jesus?

It's 2.4 billion people.

It is one-third of the entire earth's population.

Amen.

That's amazing.

When you think, I mean, honestly, that's amazing to think about.

And so the kingdom of heaven, it is it is now.

It is now because Jesus is moving now, and his kingdom is growing now, and it's growing in the hearts of people left and right, but we're still waiting for that moment later when it comes in its fullness and its final experience.

Let's keep going.

Let's talk about what real quick.

Like what is the kingdom?

I've been talking about the when and the where, what, what is it?

If it's not a place, if it's not like a city, if it's not an exact time, then what in the world is the kingdom?

And thankfully, Jesus defines that for us.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 10.

Matthew 6:10

I just read this a moment ago.

This is part of Jesus' prayer when people asked him how to pray, and he says to the Father, May your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is actually a really specific form of Jewish teaching.

And it's called parallelism, where you put two statements next to each other, and the second statement defines the first.

We see this, for example, in Psalm 46.1.

It says, God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

That second statement is defining what the first statement is all about.

What does it mean that God is our refuge and strength?

It means that He is always ready to help us in times of trouble.

So what does it mean?

The kingdom of heaven, what is it?

Jesus said, May your kingdom come soon.

Well, what is the kingdom?

He says, May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is wherever God's will is done.

It's that simple.

If God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, that is what the kingdom of heaven is.

And that when you really think about this, that's amazing.

Because that means that this church can be the kingdom of heaven, provided that we're just doing what God asks us to do.

That we're not just doing our own thing, but that everything that we do is submitted to God.

And everything that we do and everything that we talk about and teach and all the effort that we give isn't just us trying to be a thing or do a thing, but it's actually us saying, Lord, what would you have us do?

If that's the guiding question on our hearts, then this church, it's it's the kingdom of God.

That means that your home can be the kingdom of God.

Your home, your house, your apartment, your dorm room.

I mean, I've been in all those.

It can be the kingdom of God.

It can be a place where the will of God is done.

If what guides your home and the environment in your home is the will of the Lord, if you say, God, how do you want this home to be?

What do you want this home to feel like, Lord, how should I parent my children?

How should I speak to my spouse?

Lord, how should we operate financially?

What do you want us to give to?

What do you want us to be part of?

Like if that's the way you run your home, that means your home is the kingdom of God.

Your job can, your cubicle can be the kingdom of God.

Your desk can be the kingdom of God.

Your classroom can be the kingdom of God, your car can be the kingdom of God, and that doesn't even mean you have to listen to the fish in your car for it to be the kingdom of God.

Alright?

I'm not saying you play Christian songs and it's the kingdom.

It's just wherever you are, if if your greatest desire is to do the will of the Father.

To say, Lord, I want what happens in my life to be what you want.

Your will done in my life as it is done in heaven.

Look, in heaven, guys, God is obeyed.

Like when when God says something in heaven, it happens.

It happens.

God sends a messenger, you read about it all the time in scripture.

He's like, go tell this person that, boom, there's an angel.

People freak out when they see angels all the time in the Bible.

Every time someone sees an angel, it's like they fall down, they think they're dead.

It's got to be super annoying to be an angel.

And I was like, ah, again, you know, like, come on, buddy.

Your life, your home, your business.

Maybe you own a business.

Your employees can actually experience what it's like to be part of the kingdom of God.

If your guiding filter is just, Lord, what would you have me do?

How do you want me to treat people?

How do you want me to behave?

What do you want me to focus on?

That is the kingdom of God.

If God's will is done in your life as it is in heaven, that's what the kingdom is.

And I don't know about you, but that's amazing to me.

It's amazing that my life can be the kingdom of God, that my home, that anything that I'm part of can be the kingdom, that I have the opportunity to bring the kingdom with me everywhere I go.

And I so often fall short of that.

Like I struggle with that so many times in certain situations, usually involving a basketball.

Like, I have not brought the kingdom of heaven to many basketball courts in my life, but I want to.

I'm gonna try to.

Last year, no interactions with referees that were bad.

Zero.

Well, hold on, wait.

I lied.

I got one technical foul in a first-grade basketball game.

But that's just one.

If you know me, that's a lot of improvement.

Um this year it will be zero for real.

Sorry, early.

I did I didn't try to trick you, I just I just lied on accident.

So uh but I honestly like it's a it's a desire that I have, okay, Lord, could it be such that everywhere I go, I bring the kingdom?

It's hard to bring the kingdom of heaven to work on a Monday.

That's hard.

But you can't.

And even if that convicts you a little bit, if you're like, man, is my home the kingdom of heaven?

Is my office the kingdom of God?

Is that how it feels?

And if if you feel like it's not, well, just make adjustments.

And here's the adjustments you make.

You just start praying, God, what do you want me to do?

Lord, what do you want me to change?

What adjustments do you want me to make?

And he might tell you something bigger, he might tell you something, he might just say, you know what, smile more.

Pray for your friends, pray for your coworkers, pray for your boss, pray for your children, like whatever he tells you, just say, done.

And if that's your response to God, that's the kingdom.

All right, we're gonna wrap up with one more question.

Who?

Who is the kingdom of God?

And here's the cool thing: there's there's two answers to this question.

Number one, it's us.

Like, we are citizens in the kingdom of heaven.

If you've given your life to Jesus and you've put your trust in him, you are a part of the kingdom of heaven, and that is an amazing thing.

Because look, I am I am very proud to be an American most of the time.

Like, honestly, most of the time I look at human history, I love history, I love studying history, and there's there's we have lots of we have lots of bad stuff in our history for sure, but so does every nation that has ever existed, ever.

And I am so proud that this is my home.

Like I said, most of the time.

But then there are certain times when things happen and you're kind of like, ooh, you know, America, not a good day.

Not not moving in the right direction.

You have those moments and you think that, and it's like I'm I'm proud most of the time.

You know, I am I am proud.

I'm proud to like even live in the part of America that I live.

I'm proud of Georgia most of the time.

Game two of the playoffs.

I was really proud.

I'm sorry, too soon.

Sorry, too soon.

Halftime of that Super Bowl a few years ago.

Um I know, still too soon.

It's too soon.

It's always too soon with Georgia teams, right?

But we've go Bulldogs.

We've still got hope, okay?

Yeah.

But but like, no, I most of the time, like, I'll even go really micro.

Um I'm really proud to even live in the the slice of the community here in Cherokee County that I live in most of the time.

Most of the time, but there are times that I'm not.

My my son, you may not know this, but I have a son who plays basketball.

And uh, if you're new, that's a stupid joke that I say over and over again.

And he plays on this really awesome team, and everyone on the team, except for my son, lives in Warner Robbins.

Warner Robbins, Georgia.

And like, it's it's a really great group of kids.

But they're they're they're they're different.

They they come from a different area, a little different culture, and it's been awesome for my son to be part of this team.

Last summer, so almost two years ago now, so not this past summer, but the summer before, uh, that team, we played in a tournament up here in Cherokee County, and we got to play against the team that is the most local to where I live.

Like those kids go to the same high school that my son could go to.

And I'm sitting on this side with my fans and across from the fans that live in the same neighborhood as me.

And the way that they were behaving, the things that they were saying to 12-year-old boys, the intensity, and I'm not talking about competitiveness, I'm not talking, I'm talking petty, mean, horrible things.

I felt ashamed of living in the same neighborhood that I live in.

Like it was, like I had words with a dad.

I don't do that very often, but that day I did.

Because it was out of line.

And in that moment, I was, I told that, I just felt so bad because I told all that, all the people in the team, oh yeah, the team that we're playing, that's all I live in the same neighborhood as most of those people.

Like, like, and ooh.

That day I was not proud to be part of my community.

Here's why I'm saying that you're part of the kingdom of God.

There will never be a moment that you feel ashamed of being part of the kingdom.

Even if people try to make you, even if people try to paint Jesus.

Like he even said, you're you're blessed if you're persecuted, and people say all kinds of things about you because you belong to me, but it's not true.

Like Jesus is amazing.

There is no one like him.

And you get to be part of his kingdom, he's your king.

There's never a day in your life where you don't have to be anything but beaming, proud, and honored to be part of that.

There is nothing in your life you will ever be part of that is greater than the kingdom of God.

And if you belong to Jesus, you're part of the kingdom.

In fact, you're not just like citizens of the kingdom, that's true.

You're not even subjects of the king.

Scripture tells us that when we give our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

And it says that if we're children of God, that means we are heirs.

That we are actually co-heirs of the kingdom of God with Jesus.

And scripture tells us that God, the Father, will actually share all the glory that He has that is due to Him with us.

So we're not just citizens of the kingdom, we're like, we're kind of important.

We are children of the King.

We are we are co-heirs with Jesus the Son.

That's amazing.

You're part of the kingdom of God.

And that should fill you with joy and the right kind of pride.

Not just some of the time, but all the time.

And last, when it comes to who, there's us and then there's him.

There's us and there's him.

Like I said earlier, you can't have a kingdom without a king.

And oh, Jesus is our king.

Amen.

And I hope you think about him that way, as a king.

And it's tough, right?

Because I think of Jesus in a multitude of ways.

He's my savior, he's my friend, he's my brother.

Like if he's the son and I'm a co-heir with him, I'm he's my brother.

I was talking with a friend of mine this last week, and he asked this interesting question: what's your favorite way of addressing God?

What's your favorite way of thinking about your relationship with God?

And he said that his is Lord.

Like Lord, like master.

That there's such a spirit of obedience in him that it's like, I just I love thinking about the fact that he's my master, that he's my my king.

Jesus has to be your king.

Because he is the king.

He is the king of kings.

And if he's your king, if he's your Lord, oh my goodness.

You will be so blessed.

Because no one is like Jesus.

No, no person with authority behaves like Jesus.

No king in history has ever been like Jesus.

Like, think about this in a war.

Who's the last to die?

It's the king.

Right?

You don't get to the king unless there's layers and layers and layers of others that have fallen.

But in the battle that Jesus took part in on this earth, he died first.

For us.

How many kings go first?

Not many.

But our king did.

We began by reading the beatitudes of Jesus, well, the second set of beatitudes of our Jesus.

And I don't know if you've ever thought about it this way.

I want to go back and read it one more time.

Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 through 11.

Matthew 5:3–11

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

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

They will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy.

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

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

And blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Most of my life I've looked at this kind of like a menu of like, which one do I need to be more like?

Do I need to be more meek, right?

More humble?

Do I what does it even mean to be poor in spirit?

Like, I do I need to be more like that?

I haven't been persecuted much lately.

Maybe I need to change some things.

Maybe I need to make some really interesting Facebook posts and bring on some persecution.

You know, like what do I need to do?

A few years ago, I was I was listening to a pastor named Tim Mackey, and if you've ever, uh there's this really interesting resource called the Bible Project.

If you've never seen it, I highly encourage you to check it out.

He's the one who started that, and he said something that blew me away.

I'd never heard this before.

He said that when it comes to this statement of Jesus, what we have to realize is that Jesus is actually giving us an incredibly complete picture of himself.

And he went on to say this, I'm just gonna quote him directly.

He said, Can you think of someone who came from poor, insignificant circumstances, who mourned and grieved over the state of this world and over the people he met.

He was extremely important but did not think of himself as important.

And he longed to see God's world set right.

And so, with small acts of mercy to hurting individuals, he showed his pure devotion to the cause of the kingdom, and he inserted himself into dangerous situations between people who hated each other.

He got persecuted and in fact was killed for it.

That is our king.

That is my king.

I don't know about you, I am so proud of my king.

I am I'm not always proud of myself.

I'm not always proud of my community.

I'm not always proud of my country, I'm not always proud of my president.

Some of those are pretty rare.

I am so proud of my Jesus, of my king, because he is unlike anyone else that has ever lived or will ever live.

He's amazing.

And if you know Jesus, if you've given your life to him, then the the takeaway today is live as part of the kingdom.

That's your king.

That's what he's like.

Who wouldn't, like, who wouldn't want to have a king like that?

Who wouldn't want to have a leader like that?

Who wouldn't want to have a boss like that?

Who wouldn't want to be raised by a father like that, someone that's that humble, that's that good, that's that servant-hearted.

Next week we're gonna talk about the fact that the kingdom of heaven is upside down, that it just works so opposite of the way that the world works.

We're gonna dive into that.

I really hope that you're here for that.

But today I just want you to have joy and pride and to walk out of here beaming over the fact that Jesus is your king and you can be so proud of him, and there's no one like him, and you can just live your life in awe, that that's the one that you follow.

And you live your life trying to imitate him in every single situation that you have, often falling short, but that's okay because you're not the king, he is.

He's your king.

So so if if you follow Jesus, man, follow Jesus.

Like if we call ourselves Jesus followers, at some point in time we actually have to follow Jesus.

Make him Lord of your life.

Even rededicate that.

Like maybe this is just normal.

Maybe you get pulled in different directions and life gets crazy and you get concerned with everything happening in the kingdoms of this world.

It's very easy to get distracted by all of that, and you've just forgotten that Jesus is your king.

And today, you just need to make this decision in your heart to say, Oh, yeah, Lord, I haven't been treating you like my king.

I haven't.

I've been treating you like an advisor, I've been treating you like a distant relative, I've been treating you like someone less than you are, and today I just want to rededicate in my heart that you're my king, and I'm gonna listen to you, and I'm gonna follow you, and I'm gonna do what you say.

Man, if you do that, you will be blessed because how could you not be blessed living under a king like that?

He will lead you well.

And if if you haven't given your life to Jesus, if you haven't made that decision yet, he is worth living for.

He's worth living for.

He's worth living for like no one else in this world is.

I I am not worth living for, and I have lived for myself far too often.

And if I live for myself, I'm I'm living for someone who's not worth living for.

I love my family, I love my wife, I love my children, they're they're amazing.

But even they're not worth living for like Jesus.

Like everything has to come second to him.

And if you've never given your life to Jesus, what I just want to encourage you to pray about, think about is well, okay, if not him, who?

If not Jesus, who are you living life for?

Everyone lives for someone.

Everyone lives devoted to someone, even if that someone is themselves.

Who are you living for?

And if if that's not Jesus, if you've not given your life to him, then just do the basic equation in your mind.

Is who I'm living for better and greater than him?

Is who I'm living for someone who will love me better than Jesus will love me?

Is who I'm living for wiser than Jesus?

Is who I'm living for more kind, more generous, more gracious, more merciful, more forgiving than Jesus?

And the answer to all those questions, I'm telling you, it's no, there is no one like him.

Give your life to him.

And watch what he does with you.

Watch what he does as he leads you.

He will transform you into the person that you are meant to be, and only he can do that.

We're gonna wrap up, we're gonna pray.

And we've got some people getting baptized, which is really exciting.

And these are people going all in with Jesus.

These are people doing what we're talking about, they've committed their lives to him.

And I'm telling you, if you haven't done that, sign up to get baptized.

Make that decision.

There's no pressure ever, but but man, sign up to get baptized, take that step, and you'll experience what we're talking about.

He's your king.

Because he's the king, he is the king of kings.

And the kingdom of heaven, it is right now, it is right here, it is it is your life if you follow the will of the Lord.

You're part of it, and he's the king.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you so much, Lord, for this amazing group of people.

Where there is nothing that I love and enjoy more than being in this place, singing to you and about you and praying to you, Father, talking about you, talking to you.

I pray, Lord, that I pray, Lord, that you would bless each and every one of us as we uh, Lord, as we just consider where our heart stands with you.

Lord, you love us so much.

You're so good to us.

Thank you for all that you do.

Help us to submit our lives to you if we have not, and if we already have, help us to keep submitting our lives to you daily because you lead us so well.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.