Kingdom Metrics 1

Music

Alrighty. Okay, so I think some teachings are teachings that affect the life of a church, and this might be one of them.

So, this is the title, and we'll keep switching between oneness and this one. So, Kingdom Metrics.

So, if you want to go to Daniel 2, verse 44, Daniel 2, 44.

Daniel 2:44

It says in Daniel 2, 44, and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.

It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.

Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold,

a great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.

So, this was a dream Daniel saw, and he said there is a kingdom that God is going to establish here on earth, a kingdom that already exists,

but a kingdom that will be established on the earth, and no other kingdom will be able to stand in its path. It will advance, it will fill the earth.

Now, go to Revelation 11, 15. Revelation 11, 15. Revelation 11, 15. Revelation 11, 15, and here's what it says.

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying,

the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

The kingdom, all the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever.

So, you see these two scriptures. One is Daniel 2, 44, and one is Revelation 11, 15.

And in these scriptures you find that there was and has been a kingdom as in, how do you define kingdom?

In the simplest English way of defining it, a king who has domain.

So, you take the word king, and you take the word dome, and you make it kingdom.

This is how most kids are named in India, but that's a different story.

There was and has been a kingdom, a king who has a domain.

And this kingdom, according to Daniel and according to John, will be the only one left standing.

So, that's one of the things we wanted to establish.

Before the church existed, there was a kingdom.

Go to Psalm 145, verse 13, Daniel chapter 4, verse 3, and you'll see that the church didn't come first, the kingdom came first.

Psalms 145:13 Daniel 4:3

Psalm 145, Psalm 145, verse 13.

Psalms 145:13

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, just like God is everlasting without beginning or end.

The same way, the kingdom of God is everlasting.

It has always been around. Your dominion, as in your rule, endures forever.

So, let's look at Daniel 4.3.

How great are his signs, as in God's signs? How mighty is his wonders?

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

So, another way of looking at it is from 2016 to 2020, it was the presidency of Trump.

And then from 2020 to 2024, it was the presidency of Biden.

And then from 2024 till date, it is again the presidency of Trump.

What are we trying to say here? That there is a rule that these presidents exerted.

And in the same way, when we talk about kingdom, we're not talking about a presidency.

We are talking about the rule of a king which has been from forever to forever.

And that king is obviously Christ Jesus. That's how we look at this.

So that we don't get confused by the word kingdom.

We have to understand it because most of the time when Jesus preached, this is what he talked about.

So this existed before the church.

The rule of God or the kingship of God existed before the church.

It existed before the earth was created.

We only know what lies between Genesis and Revelation.

We don't know what lay before Genesis 1, nor am I hazarding a guess.

Nor am I hazarding a guess after Revelation 22 in terms of what will be and how and what we'll be doing.

But his rule or his presidency or his kingship has existed forever.

So it existed before the church and it will exist after the church too.

Go to 1 Corinthians 15, 24.

The kingdom is what will happen after the church.

After the church, again we go back to the kingdom idea.

1 Corinthians 15, 28.

Sorry, 15, 24.

1 Corinthians 15, 24.

Let's go look at that.

1 Corinthians 15, 24.

It says,

It says,

And so there is going to come a time when Christ will have won over every kingdom,

the satanic kingdom, the counterfeit kingdom, the religious kingdom, the traditional kingdom,

the kingdom of death, the kingdom of the power of rebellion.

All of it will end. All that will be left standing is the kingdom of God.

And so we have to understand how the church fits into all this because sometimes it's so easy to get completely church focused and not kingdom focused.

And that's not how Jesus was.

So before the church, the kingdom existed. After the church, the kingdom existed.

And while the church is here on earth, the kingdom exists.

You see that in Matthew 12, 28.

You see that in Revelation 12, 10.

So let's have a look at that.

Matthew 12, 28. Jesus says,

If I cast out demons by the Holy Spirit, then you should know that the kingdom of God is in your midst.

Meaning, now that I have begun to come and express my rule and reign in your midst, he's telling the disciples.

And then he goes on to tell them, it's beneficial that I go away because the Spirit of God will come and you all can do what I'm doing.

But what is he trying to say? That my rule and reign is actually active in your midst, as it is today.

Now go to Revelation 12, 10. Revelation 12, 10.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ have come.

For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God.

And that's again in the context of the church being present on earth.

So the rule and reign of Christ the King existed before the church, existed now during the church's life, and it will exist after the church.

So, it's done.

So how are we to position ourselves knowing all this? If you look at Matthew 16, 19, you'll see Jesus saying two things at once.

Let's start at Matthew 16, 19. Let's start at Matthew 16, 18.

Or let's start at 17. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And then look at 18 and look at 19. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So you've got Matthew 16, 18 where he says, I will build my church.

And so he's the one who builds. And then Matthew 16, 19 he says, you will open the kingdom to the world.

This is critical, guys, for where we are going.

Matthew 16, 18 says, I will build my church. So he'll take care of that. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

That's his responsibility and he's doing a brilliant job.

Matthew 16, 19 says, you will open the kingdom. I will build my church, you will open the kingdom.

You will open the kingdom to who? To the world. Not to each other.

Any questions before we go on?

Any questions?

Go ahead, Nick.

When the church is removed from the earth, when the Holy Spirit leaves the earth with the removal of the church,

when the new heavens and new earth are just about to happen, 1 Corinthians 15, 24 says that everything will be returned to the Father because Christ has reconciled everything.

He has exerted authority over everything. He's defeated death. He's taken away the sting of death.

Everything is complete. And he returns the kingdom back to the Father.

So here's the thing, guys. What happens is the reason we struggle with this and the reason we sometimes don't even walk down this road is because salvation has become personal decision.

When it never was, Jesus, you are not inviting Jesus into your life.

Jesus is inviting you into his rule or kingdom.

At some point about 100 years ago, or not 100, maybe 60 years ago, we shifted from Jesus inviting us into the kingdom to you and I inviting Jesus into our lives.

That shift has been disastrous because now salvation is a personal thing.

Where I invited Jesus into my life. No, no, no. Jesus invites you into a kingdom.

And he says so in John chapter 3, where he says, unless you be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 3 · chapter mention

Unless you be born again of water and of the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

So he's inviting you into his presidency or his rule or his kingship or his reign.

And God is saying, hey, I want you to be part of the kingdom. When I created you, this was my intent.

So let's assume she doesn't know the Lord. And so forever since she is born, God's intent is, can I invite and do everything in my power to invite Evelyn into my rule, my reign?

Because it is so benevolent, so brilliant. Can I invite her into my reign? My presidency, my rule, my kingdom.

And because he keeps running after her, wooing her, at some point she begins to ask questions.

And when she begins to ask questions, the answer is simple. When you recognize my son, Jesus Christ, as the one who lived, died, resurrected and ascended.

When you believe that, you now enter the kingdom of God. Because only the Word can do it and the Spirit can do it.

That's why it says, unless you be born again, of the Word, water and of the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

You know, Trump talks about birthright citizenship. Jesus started that long a time ago.

Birthright citizenship is a kingdom principle. You cannot enter unless you were born again.

But about 60 years ago, it changed when we became Personal Salvation. The intent was, let's get saved.

It's the difference between someone wanting to become a citizen in Canada, just to enjoy all the benefits, versus someone who wants to be a citizen of Canada, because Canada matters enough to pay any cost to enter.

One is for personal benefits, one is for the benefit of the one who's inviting you.

In a sense, it's perverse, it's a distortion. One is for personal benefits. I want to go to heaven. One is different. I want to serve a king who is inviting me into his reign.

We look forward to rewards in heaven, but those rewards absolutely pale in significance to relationship with him.

I want to be like children looking forward to toys. But my God, haven't we heard horror stories of children who have all the toys they want but don't have their dad?

Any questions on this? Is there anything here that's not as clear as mud? Sorry, not as clear.

Okay, we'll repeat this a hundred times so we get to know it. So then look at Matthew 423. Matthew 423.

Matthew 423. And he went, as in Jesus, and he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Go to Matthew 935. 935.

And while Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

Go to Matthew 2414. Matthew 2414.

Jesus again. Matthew 2414. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

We keep hearing this word.

We keep hearing this word, gospel of the kingdom, which shall be henceforth referred to as GOK. Okay, gospel of the kingdom.

So what is this gospel of the kingdom?

One, all creation.

You, me, us, them.

All creation belongs to him.

He reigns as absolute sovereign

over everything, everywhere.

All the time.

Crazy, eh?

Crazy that though this is the truth, he allows us free will.

That's the first statement of the gospel of the kingdom.

That child in Lenny's womb is going to be born because he has decided that child will exist.

That the child will have a certain number of days that the child will come to the earth at a particular time, will have opportunities to find him.

He is so sovereign. His will is so absolute.

He can do whatever he wants, but he also in his sovereignty decides to give us free will.

And the same applies to everything, everything in creation.

Second statement.

Since the fall,

his creation

is in open rebellion

against him.

Not submitting to his reign.

That's the second statement. Since the fall, his creation is in open rebellion against him.

Not submitting to his reign.

Third statement.

In the process, they forfeit his blessings

and are enslaved

by tyrant masters.

Fourth statement. Jesus through his life, death, resurrection and ascension

broke the power of, broke the sin, broke the power of the sin

of rebellion. He broke it.

The consequence of death, which was what would happen if you rebel

and ended man's blindness to his kingdom.

This is what he does.

Any questions thus far?

First step, he rules everything. There's nothing outside his rule.

Second step, even though he rules over everything, those that he created are in open rebellion against him, not submitting to him.

Third step, because they don't submit to him, they have ended up being enslaved by tyrant masters and they have forfeited all their blessings.

Fourth step, Jesus turns up and he through his life, his death, his resurrection and ascension breaks the power of the sin of rebellion.

And then he pays the consequence of death, which is what happens if you rebel in any country.

The reason is usually death or life imprisonment. And then he opens their eyes to the fact that there is a kingdom around.

That's what he does.

This is the gospel of the kingdom. We rarely preach it.

Think of that for a second. We rarely preach this.

Fifth step, he displays or leaves behind his presence.

He displays his presence and benefits of the kingdom, which is what we celebrate during communion, benefits of the kingdom.

And then, how does he do it? Through his people and the spirit.

He displays his presence and the benefits of the kingdom through his people and the spirit.

And then the last one, he commands us

to announce and demonstrate his reign.

Why? So people can repent and bow.

So people can become citizens of this kingdom by faith alone.

Is there any chance that this church can preach the gospel of the kingdom instead of the gospel that presents Christ as personal savior only?

Can we make this shift? To make this shift, we'll have to learn this.

To learn this, we'll have to put in effort.

Any questions?

Got to keep getting more and more accurate, guys.

We move from incompletion to completion. Go ahead.

So what part do you say the church misses?

The only part that we get right here is the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

And we say, now you'll go to heaven. We do not talk about the kingdom.

We do not talk about open rebellion. We talk about sin. Sin is actually rebellion against God.

The best explanation of sin. Missing the mark and all is depends on your mark.

Rebellion against God is so clear and what he does in the bargain.

And then this then brings us in also that he wants to display this and demonstrate it through us and the spirit.

This is the power of the gospel that saves.

It does include the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. But this is what he went around.

Read Acts chapter 1. It says, before he ascended, he spent 40 days teaching this.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Usually when a man begins to leave the earth, he's got 40 days before he leaves the earth.

He'll usually teach on the more important things.

Any questions?

I'm going to go to the next panel.

It is important.

No other questions.

Go ahead.

Can I change my pen? I desperately want to. I hope I know how to.

This is what's her name's work.

The guilty party has arrived.

Back to bad handwriting, but big bold handwriting.

Hey, so when you get born again, you enter the kingdom.

Those that are born again constitute the church.

So Evelyn got born again. When she got born again, she became a citizen of the kingdom.

Tooney got born again, citizen of the kingdom.

Sheldon got born again, citizen of the kingdom.

Now those that get born again and enter the kingdom constitute the church.

We are like a specimen on display to show the world what the kingdom looks like.

Those that get born again constitute the church.

The church is supposed to show the world what the kingdom tastes like, looks like, feels like, what are the benefits.

It shows them that.

In Matthew 13 and 33, it talks about the leaven of the kingdom.

That a woman took a small pinch of leaven and put it in three large buckets of dough.

And over a period of time, it began to cause the dough to rise.

Later on in Matthew 13, it says that the seed of the kingdom is sown in the world, not in the church.

The seed of the kingdom. Let me give you the scripture so you see it.

Matthew 13 and 33 talks about the leaven of the kingdom.

And then in Matthew 13, 37 and 38, it talks about the seed of the kingdom.

And look at it, look at the scriptures.

How do I make this a little thinner?

Matthew 13, 37 and 38. Go ahead, one of you.

Matthew 13, 37.

He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man.

The field is the world.

And the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.

The weeds are the sons of the evil one.

We are what he puts on display.

And we are supposed to show, thanks, the world what the kingdom looks like.

So let's look at this idea of the leaven of the kingdom and then we'll stop.

OK, so one of the things we need to know about the leaven,

the leaven of the kingdom of the yeast or the kingdom of the seed of the kingdom,

is it's visible and it's hidden.

It is personal and it's public and cultural.

It is strongly influential and it is quietly transforming.

That's how this works.

Sometimes it's visible, often it's hidden.

Sometimes it's personal, other times it's public and it affects culture.

Sometimes it's strongly influential, sometimes it's quietly transforming.

That's the nature of the kingdom.

All those parables in Matthew 13 are trying to explain this.

It's like a little mustard seed, almost invisible, thrown into the ground.

Nobody sees it, but quietly it's working.

It becomes a big tree in which the birds sit.

But when you hold it in your hand, you can hardly see it.

A church that tries to focus on church growth and does not make a cultural impact is not kingdom.

Which means Acts 29 has to up its ante a little.

A church that only focuses on church growth and does not focus on cultural impact is not kingdom.

Because Jesus said that we are sown in the world and we are the seeds of the kingdom.

So let's look at what are the internal kingdom metrics, internal kingdom metrics,

henceforth called IKM, and external kingdom metrics, which shall be called EKM,

which is also the name of a place in Kerala.

So here's the internal kingdom metrics, so IKM and EKM.

Guys, the church must, we are supposed to develop internal kingdom metrics within the church.

Here's internal kingdom metrics.

Righteousness, peace, joy, power, rest.

That's it.

This is what we are supposed to do when we meet and when we build each other up.

What is righteousness?

Righteousness is right relationship with God, right relationship with myself,

right relationship with others, right relationship with creation,

and therefore the ability to live right.

Right relationship that leads to right living.

What's peace?

The ability to have the peace of God mount God over my heart and mind in any situation, any situation.

This is how we are distinct from the world.

This is developed among believers in the church.

How do I, how can you make visible the kingdom?

First, this is how we test it.

In circumstances, in daily life, is this being exhibited in your life and my life?

That is the measure of the work of the kingdom in our personal lives.

Joy, things that are completely missing in the world.

Joy, not when I have lot or when I have little joy under really good circumstances, difficult circumstances.

Power, the demonstration of power, the display of power, not even for my sake but for the sake of others.

And rest, where we know how to walk in the inheritance that we have in Christ, every need met.

This is what we develop inside the church.

And the stronger the church grows in this, the more visible the activity of the kingdom within us.

Where do we find all this?

First Corinthians 14, 20, which says,

the kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking, but it is about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And Romans 14, 17.

What does Romans 14, 17 say?

That the kingdom of God is not about talking, but it is about power.

This is the metric.

So if I took the Dishalti, Zia, Mike, Dillna, Tuni, Sheldon, Shreen, and I say,

okay, let's measure the activity of the king in their lives, that's how you know.

And this is not during a church service.

This is during daily life.

It's brilliant.

This is who Christ is.

This is maturity.

This is the maturity of Christ.

Any questions?

Where is the fruits of the Spirit?

In this.

So when you talk about right relationship, oh my God, all the fruit,

no fruit of the Spirit can be practiced by yourself.

Patience? Who needs patience with yourself?

You do whatever you want. Patience is with others.

Love? You don't love yourself, you love others.

Kindness? We have to show it to others.

There's not a fruit or a gift other than the gift of tongues that is meant for anything else but others.

This is how we measure IKM.

You know those things that they used to check how much oil there is in cars?

Do they still do that?

Yeah.

Dipstick, yeah.

Well, this is your dipstick.

Then we have external kingdom metrics.

What are external kingdom metrics?

Righteousness?

Justice?

Shalom?

Equity?

And I'll explain each one.

That's external kingdom metrics.

You know what external kingdom metrics means?

External kingdom metrics means these are the things that the people with the internal kingdom metrics are doing.

And a church that does not practice this out there in the world, in our streets that we walk in, in our workplaces, in the segments of society that we occupy, in the strata of society that we live in, in the

in the

In our spheres of influence, a church that does not practice it is not actually living the kingdom out there.

What is righteousness again?

And this is outside, right relationship with God and with yourself and then with your neighbor.

This is what the Samaritan is doing.

If you read Matthew 1034 or Luke 1034, it says, and he saw him, he saw him beaten down, he picked him up, he bandaged his wounds, poured oil and wine, took him to a place, put him there in the inn, and then went back to check if the bills were paid and he kept paying until the man recovered.

And he was a Samaritan.

So righteousness as in right relationship and right living with others, with your neighbors.

Second one, justice.

You know the beautiful definition of justice is found in Hebrews 13, verse 8 to 10.

Hebrews 13:8–10

Hebrews 13, 8 to 10.

All justice is based on that simple scripture, Hebrews 13, 8 to 10.

Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

In that, all justice is fulfilled.

Because it is impossible to oppress, it is only possible to help when that golden law appears.

We were justified as in made right with God so that we could make the world right with him.

Do you know what this means, guys?

It means there's only, this is supposed to happen in the world.

The job of the church then becomes how can we equip Dilna to, how can we train Dilna and release him to practice these four things in the street, in the workplace?

And what if we stop doing it just personally and do it corporately?

That is developed in the church.

This is practiced in the world.

Shalom.

Shalom, you read it in Jeremiah 29.

Jeremiah 29, verse 7 to 11.

Jeremiah 29:7–11

Jeremiah 29, 7 to 11.

You'll get an idea of what God means by Shalom.

Jeremiah 29, verse 7 to 11.

Jeremiah 29:7–11

Crazy man.

Shalom is wholeness, is welfare.

Not for you.

You already have it.

The Prince of Peace lives in you.

But for the world.

What does it take to bring Shalom into the life or the wholeness or welfare into the life of a neighbor?

Remember, the second is like it.

As in, Jesus said, the first commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind and strength and soul.

The second commandment is like it.

And what was it?

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Not instead of loving yourself.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Just like you seek security.

Will you seek security for your neighbor?

Just as you want a stranger who just as you as a stranger would like friends, would you make sure that strangers have friends?

Just like when you go to a party and you're the odd man out and nobody's talking to you.

Will you make sure that when you see an odd man out, you will go and talk to him?

Just as you want education for your kids, will you find ways to help someone else have education for their kids?

Just as you have warmth in winter.

Will you look for ways to help someone find warmth for them?

Just like you want a stomach that is full, would you look for ways to provide someone else a stomach that is full?

Love your neighbor as you would love yourself.

We get afraid because the word comes in as instead.

I can't hear you.

Yeah.

This is not easy.

This is the hardest thing in the world, which is why IKM is so much better.

Come, worship, learn those things, live happily ever after, go to heaven.

It's the second part that is so difficult because your kindness may be rejected many times over.

You know what kindness is, guys?

Kindness is the expression of God's goodness.

Kindness is how God's goodness is expressed.

The goodness of God is expressed in kindness.

Titus 2, 4, Ephesians 2, 7.

Want some water, man?

Anthony, want some water?

You got? Okay.

And the last one, equity.

You know what equity means?

Equity means fairness.

Fairness.

Fairness.

As in fair distribution of resources.

Of how people are dealt with.

It matters to God.

Let's look at some scriptures.

I'm reading from the ESV.

Psalm 45, 6 will give you righteousness.

Psalm 45, 6.

Psalm 45, 6.

Your throne of God is forever.

The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of righteousness or uprightness.

And remember the word for righteousness and justice is the same.

Sid Kenu.

Let's see another scripture.

Matthew 5.

Matthew 5.

Matthew 5.

You want to know what external kingdom metrics look like?

Matthew 5, 1 to 10.

Beatitudes.

Who's the targeting, man?

The mourning, the weak, the bankrupt, the poor, the persecuted.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after.

What if you replace righteousness?

And this is an accurate replacement.

It's not something I'm pulling out of the air.

Some Bibles translate it like this.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice for they shall be satisfied.

And whenever we think of justice, remember we have to think of justice in these ways.

We have to be just.

We have to be wise.

We have to show mercy.

And we have to say maranatha.

As in come Lord Jesus.

Because only then will perfect justice come.

Meanwhile we show mercy.

We are just and we use the wisdom of God.

You take any of these parts out and you either have justice distorts.

Let's look at another scripture.

Isaiah 58, 6 to 12.

It's basically about EKM.

Practicing Kingdom Metrics Outside.

If you will now help those that are oppressed.

If you help set break chains.

If you help the naked.

If you help feed the poor.

If you help those that are being trodden down.

If you do all this.

And if you become restorers of streets to dwell in and repairers of the breach.

Then this and this and this and this will happen.

Isaiah 58, 6 to 12.

What about Isaiah 61, 1 to 5?

Open the eyes of the blind.

Set prisoners free.

Set captives free.

Preach the good news to the poor.

Bring the oil of joy to those that are sad.

The spirit of gladness to those that are heavy hearted.

To make oaks of righteousness out of those that are broken.

What do you think Jubilee was?

Your bell.

It was the great reset.

Where God disrupted status quo and said I'm bringing back things to normal.

I'm restoring people's heritage.

I'm restoring people's dignity.

I'm giving them back everything they've lost.

Any questions? I'm going to conclude.

I got...

Where does humility fit in? Micah.

Micah.

Brilliant.

He asks a question and answers it himself.

Where does humility fit in?

Brilliant words that talks about how to live both internal kingdom metrics and external kingdom metrics.

Listen to this.

Walk humbly.

Love mercy.

Act justly.

James 1.27.

This is pure religion.

Taking care of orphans and widows.

The way the scripture is so overwhelming that this church will not be able to escape it.

God set us up, man.

He asked us to come to Richmond and Victoria and places like this.

His intent was not just worship.

He asked us to come to the church of Jesus Christ.

He asked us to come to the church of Jesus Christ.

He asked us to come to the church of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 99.4.

Beautiful words.

Psalm 99.4.

Nobody reads Psalm 99.

I'm reading from the ESV.

The king in his might loves justice.

You have the power to do what you want.

The king in his might loves justice.

You have established equity.

You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

He loves equity.

He loves fair dealing.

He loves fairness.

He loves it.

And all of this, all of these things we are talking are in the Holy Ghost, if I may use an old term.

Go to Isaiah 11.

Isaiah 11.

Verse 1 to 6.

Or 2 to 6.

Beautifully.

Isaiah 11, 2 to 6.

He is the one who makes all this possible.

Internal kingdom metrics, external kingdom metrics, all brought together by him.

And here's an explanation of it.

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

The spirit of wisdom and understanding.

The spirit of counsel and might.

The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear.

But with righteousness he shall judge the poor.

He shall decide equity for the meek of the earth.

He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth.

And with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist.

Faithfulness the belt of his loins.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb.

The leopard shall lie down with the young goat.

The calf and the lion, the fattened calf together.

And a little child shall lead them.

Beautiful.

We are heading there.

Where the wolf and the lamb will lie together.

A child will play at the hole of a serpent.

But we will begin that here.

Read Titus 3, 4.

Titus 3, 4.

Titus 3, verse 4.

Titus 3:4

Starting at verse 3.

Let's look at Romans 2, 4.

Romans 2, 4.

You, most of you know this verse.

Romans 2, 4.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience

not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Kindness is an expression of God's goodness.

You know, there's a guy in Ontario who went knocking on all the doors in his neighborhood.

And they would insist that someone come out.

They wouldn't leave. They would keep knocking.

And they had flyers and all this stuff.

And on the flyer was just the simple question.

Can you be kind to your neighbors for the next one week?

And guys would open the door and they would see these guys and think,

OK, they're trying to sell me something or they're trying to get me saved or they're Jehovah's Witnesses.

And then they would give them flyers and posters and banners to stick in their garden.

And all it said is, I will be kind to my neighbor this week.

It changed the little town.

I can't hear you.

But for equity, God can deal with fair game and show equity because he hears what we do not hear.

He sees what we do not see.

But how do we display that?

How do we display fairness?

Let's assume there's a storm coming tomorrow and we all go to Walmart and there are four toilet rolls left.

And you can grab all four or you can grab one and pray that the storm passes before that roll runs out.

Equity is when I do not take what I can take because I think of someone who may not get it if I take it all.

Equity is what happens in Exodus and in 2 Corinthians 8 where God says,

Today my plenty will supply your lack because tomorrow your plenty will supply my lack.

So that nobody who collected a lot of manna had too much and nobody who collected little had too little.

Fairness, equity breaks covetousness.

It is not possible to be fair and covetous.

You have to choose one.

Can the kingdom impose its will on people who do not want to follow?

Good question.

Can the kingdom impose its will on people who do not want to follow?

That is done by other kingdoms of the world.

But this kingdom influences.

It never imposes.

I'll take it just to push it back a bit.

What about America founded by Christian values became the most powerful because it held to a standard of a kingdom, maybe not a whole kingdom.

But every other kingdom bowed down to it because it held a state of justice and mercy above most of the kingdom.

Mark, to push back a few.

There were groups amongst the pilgrims like the Moravians, like certain Anabaptists and others who held on to Christian values.

Otherwise, those values are not these values.

We are so starved for values that we applaud anything that is Christian nowadays.

But when you look at it, this involves such sacrifice that I wouldn't call it Christian values.

I don't think there's a nation in the world that practices these values.

I agree, but what about the point you said that the kingdom is not Christian?

You said if you see a guy taking three toilet papers, do you not have a responsibility to stop that guy taking all the toilet papers?

Yeah, so a time may come when you may have the ability, because you're the manager of Walmart, to tell someone, hey, could you leave two for others?

Or you may be a friend or you may carry the weight to save.

But feeble is not imposed on.

You cannot force anybody.

There are religions that practice imposed kingdom values.

They're called certain laws that you impose on people.

This kingdom only does influence.

Remember, it's leaven.

Leaven never imposes.

Leaven ferments.

One last question.

What about that verse that says, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven?

Yeah, whenever you bind on earth bound in heaven immediately means that you have to know what is bound in heaven before you can bind it on earth.

You can't willy-nilly bind things and think that heaven will follow suit.

It is what, oh, God is bound in heaven.

What, oh, God is loosed in heaven.

That which is bound in heaven, I can bind here on earth.

That which is loosed in heaven, I can lose here on earth.

So it's top down, not from here.

So I can't bind certain things if Christ does not think it's legit.

So I can only bind or forbid things that Christ forbids.

And one of the things Christ will not play with is free will.

And so going back to the toilet roll, yeah, you can put on a really kind face and say, maybe we can give, not even you, we can give one of the toilet rolls to Mike.

And then when the guy says, what's it to you, I'm going to walk away with my toilet roll, you take the one toilet roll that you had taken and now you give it to Mike and you go home and hope that you...

Life becomes very difficult.

This kingdom, this kind of kingdom living is very difficult.

We're born in sin because of what Adam did.

And when I accept Jesus, accept his sacrifice, accept that he's risen again, the power of sin is broken.

Right.

So then why am I still struggling with choosing one toilet roll over four?

Yeah, because let's put the toilet rolls aside for a little while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Why do I still choose to do things that are not Christ like?

Very simple guys, as you begin to like him more, you become more like him.

As you begin to like him more, you begin to become more like him.

So this is why it says delight in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart.

Why?

Because as you delight in him, your thoughts, your likes, your dislikes, your enjoyments, your disinterest, your interests all begin to matter.

It's what happens in love.

When someone falls in love, you change.

You begin to eat what they eat.

You go to the places that they go to.

You watch the movies that they watch.

Why?

Because your heart begins to change.

You become like them.

People fall in love with their dogs.

My God, some of them begin to look like their dogs.

I've seen pictures.

No, really.

So the point being, the only way I change is when I begin to like something so much that I begin to change.

Go ahead.

But when I'm born again, I'm done with the whole and I get a new nature.

Yeah.

So is there a difference in...

Yeah.

The new nature does not abrogate your free will.

The reason we will go and be with the Lord instantly if I die in the next two seconds, one, two, still alive.

And so if I were to die, the reason I will go to heaven is go and see him face to face is simply because I've got a brand new spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit.

But I still have free will.

I still can choose every moment of the day to behave like God with my new nature or default to how I used to be.

That's completely up to me.

Free will will never be taken away.

If new nature makes you a robot, then he might as well have created you a robot so he didn't have to come down and die and give you a new nature.

This is like alpha intelligence.

It's getting so annoying to the point that really free will, it kind of sucks.

Free will sucks, but if I took away your free will, let's take away your free will for the next 24 hours.

Okay?

You will have to now do everything that we tell you.

Trust me, man, you won't enjoy it.

If I imposed my free will on you, you wouldn't have breakfast tomorrow, you wouldn't have lunch.

You would have to drink black coffee.

You would have to get up at 6.30 tomorrow to do a meeting at 7.

You would have to, I take away your free will.

You now have the very personality of Meera disappears.

But then I'm questioning why are you tumbling the tree of knowledge and evil and the plant of the tree every time for me to make a choice?

Because if there is no choice, there is no love, and if there is no love, then there is no free will.

So it's like, God wants me to build character through these choices?

No, God wants you to just freely love Him.

It's beautiful, actually.

God gives you a choice so that you can choose to love or not love.

And He is the most brilliant being, the most fatherly, the kindest, the best you can ever find in the entire universe.

And He presents Himself.

And He says, I'll come and live in you, Jacob.

And if I begin to explore Him, I'll begin to like Him more and more.

As I begin to like Him more and more, it will be so easy for me to choose that which He likes.

Why? Because I've fallen in love with someone, and what He likes becomes mine.

The Song of Songs is completely about that.

A woman who falls in love with a man that she adores.

Once that happens, that's what love stories are.

And that's the one thing religion will always avoid.

Religion will banish two things, loving Him, enjoying Him.

And if you can banish those two things from our lives, then you have religion.

It doesn't matter whether you're a Pentecostal or Baptist or whatever.

Banish love and joy, and you have it done.

Let me end with these questions.

Is it possible for you, and for different of us, it will be different answers.

Is it possible for you to enjoy people without wanting to get them saved?

Is it possible for you to enjoy people without wanting to get them saved?

Please don't conclude a quick yes answer, because some of us who've been believers for long

will have a real struggle with it.

Because some of us who've been believers for long will have a real struggle with it.

When you read Luke 19 and then you read the story of Jesus with Levi,

or Matthew the tax collector, and Jesus with Zacchaeus, it's crazy.

He went there because he really wanted to spend time with them.

He wasn't preaching, he wasn't asking them to give their lives nothing.

Can you spend time and enjoy time with people without wanting to get them saved?

That's the first question.

Second question, could you begin to show kindness for six months without talking about Jesus?

Could you go to a certain neighborhood in Richmond and for six months

spend time with people showing them kindness, whatever it be, taking care of orphans, feeding the hungry,

anything out of Isaiah 58, keep doing it for six months, but you do not talk about Jesus till they ask you.

Till they ask you, why are you doing this?

And even when they ask you why you're doing this, could you answer and say,

I want to show you what the practice of God's love looks like.

This is practical love.

Could you not talk about Jesus?

Please don't assume that, yeah, I could do that easily.

There's something in us.

You know, many years ago, I sat at McDonald's here.

I prayed for my burger.

A guy comes over from another table, sits with me and says, looks like you're a Christian.

He says, how did you become a Christian?

And I tell him my story.

He sits and listens for 35 to 40 minutes because I don't know how to make short testimonies.

And after I finish, he tells me how wonderful it is that I'm a pastor.

And he says that for your ministry to succeed, he wants to sell me Amway.

I'm thinking to myself, you sat through 40 minutes of me sharing my testimony,

and all this time you did it patiently because you wanted to sell me Amway to promote my ministry.

You don't know how let down I feel.

I didn't tell him that.

Then he said, what could you do with a million dollars?

I said, buy season tickets to the Canucks.

That's when he realized this guy's no good.

And he walked away.

But the point is this.

You don't know how let down I felt that this guy sat so carefully paying attention for 35 minutes,

and all he wanted to do was sell me Amway.

You know, is it possible for you to actually enjoy show kindness,

enjoy people without your end game being, I'm going to get him saved?

Is that even remotely possible?

I know your question is, but shouldn't we get them saved?

I know all those questions, but I just want you to think of it.

Is it even possible for you to do that?

No, see.

Hey, till your kindness is rejected again and again and again,

we do not know what external kingdom metrics is.

God is doing this continuously.

Do you realize that God shows kindness to everybody,

knowing that many of them will not turn to him?

I told you about that story in Colchester where a man came in with a leg that's swollen because he fell into a gutter.

He comes in for a full gospel businessman breakfast.

My friend Roland Tan is praying for people.

I'm standing there watching Roland prays for his leg.

It heals instantly.

And he asks the guy, now that Jesus has healed you, would you like to receive the healer?

And he says, no, breakfast was good.

The healing is done.

I'm good.

And he walks out of there.

I was highly irritated.

How dare he get healing and breakfast and walk out without getting saved?

He didn't even want to hear it.

He said, no, this is enough.

But after that, when I thought of it, I thought of this.

How come God, knowing that, still healed him?

The number of people that God is kind to is eight billion.

Last question.

Absolutely.

But I'm asking a question to trouble you without you asking a question back.

There's a flip side to this, Dhillna.

The flip side is we need, I mean, everyone belongs to Christ.

We need to announce the kingdom of God to them.

But can you do it if you want?

Can the end goal be kindness?

Can the end goal be enjoying people?

Can our minds even compute that?

And then when we do this, what if they respond the same way that Matthew and Zekias respond?

Oh, God, anything that I've stolen, I'll give back four times.

And what does Jesus say?

Today, salvation has come to this house because the kindness of God leads to repentance.

What we don't realize is that the kindness of God is one of the things, Ephesians 2.7.

I have raised you up and seated with me in heavenly places to do what?

To show you kindness.

So I'm not saying you're wrong.

I'm just saying, can we think differently?

Because otherwise, the external kingdom metrics will become a means towards an end.

When people find out that you're trying to sell Amway, it can be disgusting.

We think Christian, right?

Think of going up to a Muslim, to a Hindu, to an atheist, to a Buddhist,

helping them for three months, hoping that you'll get an opening where you can present Jesus.

Is it possible not to think like that?

You were going to say something?

She's taking up all the time. I'm almost done. Go ahead.

It's not my job to save people.

It's not your job to save people. It is your job to open the kingdom to people.

Yes, it's my job to lead us all in the light, to show kindness, to show God's love.

And to proclaim and announce the gospel of the kingdom.

Yes.

Yeah.

You can't save people. The spirit of God saves them.

But that's not how most of us think we want to get people saved.

Go ahead, Anthony.

One thing I noticed that I think it's very profound that God could keep on helping others.

Because if I fund myself... I can't help someone for six months if they can't save them.

Because if I, for example, help someone for a long time, but they're ungrateful about it,

or they're mean to me, I'll be like, you know what? I'm wasting my time.

I'll use this time to help someone who deserves it.

Yeah, I'm totally with you on that, though we are both wrong.

God helps people that don't deserve it too.

It's just crazy. Yeah, I totally agree, Anthony.

Six months of helping someone and if they reject me, I can get quite upset.

Last question.

May I challenge us that most of us have a biblical worldview, some of us have a cultural worldview,

almost none of us have a kingdom worldview.

May I challenge you that most of us have a biblical worldview, most of us at Acts 29 have a biblical worldview,

some of us have a cultural worldview, whatever the culture is around us, we have that view.

But almost none of us have a kingdom worldview.

Jacob, that's because we teach people to be not to be disciples, but just to be followers.

Could be, but not in this church. This church disciples people, but I'm only talking about Acts 29.

This church disciples people, but in this church we have a biblical worldview.

Some of us may have the same view that the culture around us has, but very few of us,

I'm not counting myself amongst them, very few of us have a kingdom worldview.

We love churchy things and the church is divided into two halves and both are absolutely irrelevant.

Very churchy, where the very sound of secular music troubles the Holy Spirit within you.

So you've got that extreme where the church behaves like the world or the church looks so churchy

that it doesn't represent the king and doesn't practice kingdom metrics in the world.

So shall we take an axe and chop that tree down?

Okay, what? 6.30, go ahead.

What are the key distinctions that separate the kingdom worldview from the biblical worldview?

Oh, okay.

This we learn in the church. This is the discipling of the church.

And then we release them to practice this.

A biblical worldview is incomplete.

Sorry.

Is what the church practices outside because they've gotten this in them.

Within families, within a Christian family, these internal kingdom metrics is a measure of whether a family is living kingdom life.

Biblical worldview versus kingdom worldview.

Biblical worldview would be everything that Jesus says from the Bible for our growth.

But we then become the ones who keep growing, keep loving the Lord, keep increasing in the Lord.

But us being seed, being sown into the world is not part of it.

So we grow, we get to love the Lord, we worship God, we become more like Christ.

And yet it is possible to be more like Christ and yet not die outside the city.

Hebrews talks about it.

Can you wrap your head around this?

That in your street, in your sphere, in your segment of society, at your workplace, that continuously you're looking for the four EKMs and internally you're increasing in your IKMs.

Do you know when we will know that we've hit a certain mark?

It will be when someone in the city of Richmond calls us and says, hey, can you guys do neighbor fest again?

Hey, can you do this feeding program?

Because when the city authorities begin to see that they can use you, trust you, then you know.

Then you know.

You know, I better stop because it keeps adding an extra sentence.

No more questions.

May is looking at me like, when are you going to stop?

Go ahead.

The second half of the people that live like the world.

So the irrelevancy of the church is this.

You have some churches that act and behave like the world.

So it's not relevant.

And then you have some churches that are so dirty that the king and kingdom are not represented, but they're very dirty.

Both are absolutely irrelevant.

We are somewhere towards the churchy side.

So Tony, if you can come up, just imagine if Tony was a tree.

And this was an ax.

And so we're going to chop the tree of biblical worldview down.

Yeah.

And so no, really, I just want you to remember that I won't hit him.

I really meant to do this.

I don't have an axe, but here's what we're doing.

Here's what we're doing.

Here's what we're doing.

We are deciding that in this church, we are going to chop the tree of being churchy, not being seed sown into the world.

Then out of that tree, you stay down.

Out of that tree will rise someone who is both internal kingdom metrics and external kingdom metrics.

That's how we need to think.

Yeah.

So let's go.

We'll keep talking about this in the weeks ahead.

Tony, stay.

You can go on.

Okay.

We are done.

May.

I tried stopping, but people kept asking questions.

If you don't go, I can keep going.