The Greatness of the Mustard Seed Matthew 13:31-33

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In the world we live in, it can be hard to find true Christians. A couple weeks back, as I mentioned, we had the
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Lepouches share about their ministry in Albania. What they showed us is that less than 1 % of Albanians are
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Christ followers. The Stout family that we also support used to serve in Macedonia, and now we're in Croatia.
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We just talked about them, of course. And in Macedonia, in a country of 2 million people, they have only about 4 ,000
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Christians. Now these two places were early Christian hotbeds.
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During the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys and acts, he preached the gospel in these locations.
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There were many people who came into a relationship with Christ during that time. But today, these places are religious, yes, but really it's full of dead religion.
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Very few true followers of Christ live in these places, which is why it's so important to support missionaries.
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As we think about places like Albania and Macedonia and this part of the world, it is common to hear stories like these all over the world.
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In America, over 70 % of the nation would identify as Christian. The problem is, most of those people are not real
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Christians. We don't know what percent of the world are true Christians and what percent are among the lost.
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But what we do know is that those who are on their way to heaven are a minority in the world.
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And we want to pull our definition of what it means to be a Christian, not from what the culture says, but from what the
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Bible says. That's the only true definition there is about who truly is a Christian. And when we think about the minority in the world of followers of Christ, we know this from our experience, but we also know this because Jesus told us it would be this way.
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In Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14, Jesus said, The gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
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For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
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But this does not mean the kingdom of God is small. It may feel small in the world as we see the unbelieving world as much greater in number, but this does not mean the kingdom of God is small.
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God is building an army that will outlast the evil power that we see in the world.
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This morning, we are going to see Jesus continue to tell parables as we have seen him do.
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And what he is going to do, once again, is use imagery of everyday life.
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And he is going to compare these images to what
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God is doing in the world through his kingdom. This kingdom that he is building.
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This glorious future that he has planned. So this time, I encourage you to turn the
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Bible with me to Matthew chapter 13. We only have three verses today that we are going to look at.
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Verses 31 -33. And if you are using a red Bible in the pews, it is on page 973.
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This sermon is titled, The Greatness of the Mustard Seed. The Greatness of the
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Mustard Seed. We will begin by reading the text. He, Jesus, put another parable before them, saying,
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The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
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It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
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He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened.
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Here is our big idea this morning. Understand that God's now unassuming kingdom points ahead to something incomprehensibly great.
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And we will see one reason why. Before we jump in, let's look at where we were one week ago.
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We looked at Jesus teach the parable of the weeds. And what the text called us to understand is that only for a short time do we live among the enemy.
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We saw one reason why. The reason we live amongst the enemy for a short time is that the mass divide awaits at the end of the world, at the final judgment.
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At the final judgment, the unbeliever and the believer will be separated. The unbeliever will be thrown into the lake of fire, while the believer will dwell with God forever in eternal glory.
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But in the present age, the believer and the unbeliever live amongst each other. But a day is coming in the future when this will not be so.
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And that comes at the end, where the wheat and the weeds will be divided.
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So that was one week ago. We already read the text this morning. Now we're going to dig into these three verses.
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And we've seen Jesus give parables. We've seen him give the parable of the sower, the parable of the weeds, the parable of the net.
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And today, the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven. And these two parables, the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven, are getting after the same idea, as we will see.
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But let's begin by zeroing in on the first parable, verses 31 and 32, where once again Jesus says,
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Here the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds.
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But when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nets in its branches.
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So as Jesus tells us this parable, the first question we need to ask is, once again, what is the kingdom?
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Theologian Graham Goldsworthy has written that God's kingdom is God's people, in God's place, under God's rule.
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The kingdom starts now and comes fully when Christ returns and establishes his kingdom forever on the earth.
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Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, we have seen Jesus explain how one becomes a member of his kingdom.
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In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5, verse 3, Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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But who are the poor in spirit? Who are these people who are going to receive entrance into God's kingdom?
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They are the ones who humble themselves in repentance.
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The poor in spirit are the repentant.
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I've been thinking about this in fresh ways lately. The people who dwell with God forever in his kingdom are not the ones who think they are good.
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There are lots of people out there who think they are good, who think
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God would never send them to hell. But these are the people who will be met with a rude awakening in the future, if they stay in this place.
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In Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23, Jesus said, On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy mighty things?
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Did we not do all these things in your name? And cast out demons, and then
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I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
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These are people who thought they were good. Many of them thought that only the worst people like Adolf Hitler go to hell.
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I don't belong in hell. These are the people, as we saw last week, will be weeping in hell.
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Lord, why did you send me there? There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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They'll be saying, I thought I was going to go to heaven. I'm a good person. I did good things when
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I was on earth. People liked me. But Jesus will say, I never knew you.
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These people thought they were good. But they weren't good. They were wretched. They were in need of a savior.
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Just like everyone else. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Do you know what people in heaven will be thinking when they get there?
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They'll be thinking, I don't deserve to be here. I deserve to be in hell.
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It is only by the grace of God that we are in heaven. That's a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
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That's one who is poor in spirit. That's one who knows how sinful they are. How much they need
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Jesus. But those who hear these devastating words from Jesus, as we just read in Matthew 7, will be the ones who think they should be in heaven.
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They are those who are completely blind to how sinful they really are. The poor in spirit recognize that without Him they are lost forever.
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They don't think that they deserve heaven, but are so grateful that God has graciously made a way for them to dwell with Him in this glorious place forever.
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So the kingdom of heaven is that which God is building. It is the people. We talk about how the church is not a building.
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The church is the people. The kingdom of God is His people, who will be gathered in His place under His rule.
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And right now, He is building that kingdom with people who repent and believe in Jesus.
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This is the only way one can receive entrance into His kingdom.
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There's a singer -songwriter out there by the name of Carolyn Cobb. She's not well known, but I highly recommend her music.
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It's outstanding. She wrote a song titled, There is a Mountain. In that song she wrote,
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There is a mountain only the lame can climb. There is a table only the hungry find.
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Only the beggar will have the currency when need is all you need.
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There is a victory only the conquered gain. There is a glory that you get when you give up your name.
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Oh, the peace when you finally yield your fight and surrender rise. It's well written.
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It is the poor in spirit who are being added to God's kingdom every day.
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And every time a person is added to the kingdom, Luke 15 verse 10 says that heaven rejoices.
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Angels rejoice over one sinner who repents. Who realizes,
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I'm not good. I can't do it on my own. I'm a sinner just like the Bible tells me
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I am. And I need Jesus just like the Bible tells me I do. In this parable, the parable of the mustard seed, in verse 31 and 32,
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Jesus is comparing his kingdom that he is building to a mustard seed. You might say, how many people are being added every day?
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Well, it's hard to see, but it's like a mustard seed. He compares the kingdom to a grain of mustard seed being planted in the field.
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Once again, he uses an agricultural illustration. We've already seen the parable of the sower and the parable of the weeds.
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Now we take a close look at the parable of the mustard seed. This would have connected with the first century audience that Jesus was speaking with.
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And as it connected with them, so it connects with us, right? We are an agrarian people. We live in a rural area. We're surrounded by corn fields and beans and gardens.
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All around us are seeds being planted and crops growing. And the people in Jesus' day would have been very familiar not only with the agrarian illustration but also mustard seeds.
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Mustard seeds were the smallest seeds of plants that were grown in Palestine.
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The region where Jesus preached. And when these seeds went into the ground, people would intuitively think that the smallest seed is going to produce the smallest plant.
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It only makes sense, right? But this was not the case with the mustard seed.
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Even though it was the smallest seed among the plants grown in this region, it would not remain the smallest as it grew.
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But it would surpass seeds that were much bigger than it.
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Jesus tells us in verse 32 that when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
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A mustard seed turned into a mustard plant. They grew to be so big that one can rightly call it a tree.
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And it would have been bigger than the other plants that surrounded it so that it would have looked like a tree. When we think about plants, we think of flowers and bushes.
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And the mustard seed would have grown into a large bush that would have had branches that could support birds.
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That could build a home there. We like it when birds make their homes in trees and not on our decks, don't we?
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Or our houses. The mustard tree was a place where lots of birds make their homes in the first century and in the present day in that region.
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It's a strong tree or a bush. It's strong where the birds could come and build their home there.
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The strength of the mustard seed, even though its seed is so small, is worth noting.
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And Jesus tells us about this here. He also uses another illustration to describe the apparent smallness of the
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Kingdom of God in the present as we look on at the world and look for it in the world that we live in.
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In verse 33, He says, the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened.
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I know that we have people in this church who make bread from scratch. I was hoping John would be here today. He's not here.
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John Chouinard makes bread from scratch. Did you know that? And it's very good. And I know others of you do too and probably in the cookbook, right?
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It's probably all over there. And when making bread, you can have flat, crusty bread without leaven called unleavened bread.
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And when making bread, you can also have puffy bread that rises. And that's what we call bread with leaven.
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When Jesus ate the Lord's Supper with His disciples, they ate unleavened bread because it was consistent with the
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Passover that was prescribed in the Old Testament. And that was an image of they left
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Egypt fast. God pulled them out of there quickly to bring them to the Promised Land.
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And so they were to have unleavened bread to show the quickness with which
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God pulled them out of there. And what Jesus says here, though, is that when a woman puts a little bit of leaven in three measures of flour, which would have been about 35 liters, so a ton of flour, what would have happened is that when you put a little bit of leaven in there, the whole batch would become leavened.
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The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5 -6 that a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
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What we see here is that Jesus has given us two illustrations. Both illustrations communicate something that started out small that became very big.
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The mustard seed is the smallest seed that grows into a tree. This large bush that is rightly called a tree.
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In the second illustration, a woman puts a little bit of leaven in the flour, and all of the flour, 35 liters, become leavened.
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And what Jesus is communicating is that this is what the kingdom of God is like in this world. The kingdom of God, by appearances, looks very small.
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In the introduction, I explained that in places like Albania and Macedonia, less than one percent can rightly be called
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Christ followers. Other places it is higher, but in every place on earth, true followers of Jesus are in the minority.
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Jesus said it would be this way, and we see it. China has over 100 million
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Christians, yet the population of China is 1 .3 billion. In America, the number of Christians is deceiving because many people who say they are
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Christians are not. So true, genuine Christians in America are a minority. As we look at the world, we shouldn't think, is there something wrong with God?
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Is there something wrong with Christianity? Why aren't more people becoming followers of Christ?
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Is not God all -powerful? Shouldn't He be bigger? I remind you,
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Jesus said it would be this way. Matthew 7, 13 and 14. He says, the way is narrow that leads to life.
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This is God's plan. This is the story He's writing. It is unimpressive to the eye.
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Like a mustard seed. Right now it is. Most of the world sees
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Christians as this fringe group that we just want to get out of our hair.
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I had a friend one time, he knew of a professor at a secular college who thought that Christians should just dig ditches.
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We're not going to wipe them out or anything, but let's just give them the most menial job there is because they offer nothing to society.
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The world thinks, stop telling us about Jesus. Stop forcing your morality on us.
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We just want to live the way we want to live without feeling bad about it. Back when it was discovered that Tiger Woods was living a secret life and having multiple affairs, political commentator
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Brit Hume, who is a Christian, said something that no one else did in the mainstream media.
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He said, Tiger Woods needs to turn to Christ so that his sins can be forgiven.
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Amen. A writer for ESPN by the name of Rick Riley said that no one has said nothing more outrageous about the
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Tiger Woods situation than Brit Hume. And we can be sure that countless others felt the same way.
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The response of the world in this episode is a common one. They think this small segment of people known as Christians just need to be quiet and go away.
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Keep your opinions to yourself. Keep your religion to yourself. Keep Jesus to yourself.
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The world certainly does not want to have us involved, nor do they think that a great army is being built under their nose.
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But what Jesus tells us is that He indeed is building a great army of people for His glory.
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He is building the greatest army in the history of the world.
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This made me think of the history of our country. The United States started out very small.
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About 100 pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock. They left their land because they wanted a better life here.
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They wanted freedom of religion. That was the main reason they came over here. It was from these and those also who came to Jamestown in Virginia who produced arguably the greatest country in the history of the world.
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America officially started in 1776 when the colonies declared independence from Great Britain.
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However, America really got its start from this small group of about 100 people who happened to be really strong Christians who sailed across the
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Atlantic, risked their lives going to a land that they knew nothing about. But they wanted freedom.
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So they came here. They wanted to worship God without people telling them how they can worship. And this small group of colonists started
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America. The envy of the world. You go to any country in the world, and if you're an
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American, they think you're a celebrity. I was in Southeastern Europe about seven, eight years ago, and they're like, oh,
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I'm American because we're the wealthiest country in the world.
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Everything comes out of America. That started from 100 people. This is what the kingdom of God is like.
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There's a handful of people here and a handful of people there. Look at us. It's not a full house today, is it?
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This is what the kingdom of God is like. But God is building it.
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Think about our immediate community in Eureka. Do people in our community realize what amazing things
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God is doing in our midst? There are about 1 ,300 people who live as far west as the
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St. Croix River, as far east as Milltown, as far south as Highway I, as far north as Highway G.
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Those are the boundaries for the town Eureka where these 1 ,300 people live. How many of those people are saved?
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We don't know for sure. But many are not. More are not than are.
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And it is our responsibility to tell them and those in the surrounding community about the good news of Christ.
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Every one of those 1 ,300 people will live forever. The question is, where will it be?
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Will it be in the blessing of God's kingdom or in the fiery furnace that Jesus told us about last week? We are here to lead as many people to heaven as we possibly can.
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But even though the number of true believers is small in our community and all around the world, God is building an army of people.
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He's building His kingdom. Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18, I will build
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My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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We can look at how dark the world is and think that He is not building His church. But we must understand that this is taking place.
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That's what Jesus is telling us right here. Every day that goes by, He is adding to His kingdom.
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In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah was very depressed, discouraged, because it seemed like no one was following the
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Lord in Israel. He would preach, and he wasn't sure if anyone was listening.
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But the Lord told Elijah this in 1 Kings 19, 18, I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed
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Him. The Lord did something similar with the Apostle Paul in Acts 18.
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As Paul was on his missionary journey, he came to Corinth, and this is what the Lord told him in verses 9 -11,
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Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one will attack you or harm you.
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For I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are
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My people. And he stayed a year and six months teaching the
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Word of God among them. God was promising Paul. They're out there.
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Just do what I told you to do. They will come. You know the old movie
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Field of Dreams? If you build it, they will come. Or he will come, actually. But let's use it here.
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If we build the right way, people will come. Because God will bring them.
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Jesus said in John 10, My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow
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Me. If the Word of God is preached, people will come.
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His sheep will come. Because they hear the voice of the Chief Shepherd. God knows those who will be
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His. It is our responsibility to be used by Him to build His Kingdom.
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What we must understand is that by following Christ in this world, we will continue forever while every other organization has an expiration date.
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All of these large companies that are worth tens of billions of dollars have an expiration date.
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All of these schools that are hard to get into and have endowments of tens of billions of dollars have an expiration date.
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Every nation on planet Earth has an expiration date.
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Think of like Walmart. That's close by. Eureka Baptist Church is more enduring than Walmart.
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Put that in perspective. It's true. It doesn't seem that way, does it?
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It is. Think about our country, as I've already mentioned.
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We're proud Americans. We love our country. We are citizens here. We're grateful for the good things this country has done.
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That's one of the sad episodes recently. The bad things that people say about America. We know it's not a perfect place, but let's not forget that God used this country to take
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Hitler out of the scene, to take out Imperial Japan, which was very wicked in the 1940s.
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That's World War II. Think about World War I. This is a country that has allowed freedom of worship and so many other great things.
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In all the things we love about our country, we can't love it to the point where it becomes idolatry, though.
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Because if we do that, we're loving something that has an expiration date. America has an expiration date.
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This country will not be here forever, but God's kingdom will be.
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Lastly, this world will not be here forever. Planet Earth, as it is, with all of its sinfulness, is passing away.
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The Apostle John warned us about this and is telling everyone in 1
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John 2 .15, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
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Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the
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Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires.
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But here's the important part. But whoever does the will of God abides forever.
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Everything in this world will come to an end, but Jesus and His kingdom will never have an end, but will go on forever.
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There is no expiration date with the kingdom of God. And with this in mind, we need to live for God's kingdom that will go on forever.
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When you give to a missionary, like the Lepushes, you're giving to something that is eternal.
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When you give your time, you're investing in something that is eternal. Think about that.
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And this is how we want to live. Invest for that which will go on forever. God's kingdom is unassuming in this world.
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It does not wow people. Secularists think that Christ followers are just a fringe movement in world history, but how mistaken they are.
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It is like a mustard seed that grows into the largest plant in the garden. It is like a little bit of leaven that is able to leaven 35 liters of flour.
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Understand that God's now unassuming kingdom points ahead to something incomprehensibly great.
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In this text, we have seen one reason why, and that is what grows for eternity outlasts all else.
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That's the one reason why. What grows for eternity outlasts all else.
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At the end of the world, Christ will reign with His people. First, during His 1 ,000 year reign, and second, during the eternal state that will go on forever.
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Let's read about this future. So we live in the present, but let's look at the future here. Revelation 5, verses 9 and 10.
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Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
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And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
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Then He will reign with His people in the eternal state that comes after, where John wrote, no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the
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Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.
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And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.
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Every earthly entity will perish, but God's kingdom will last forever.
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Remember that as you feel outnumbered. Remember that as evil looks so strong, as God's kingdom looks so small,
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God will win, and you will be victorious along with Him as you follow
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Him. Like the song we sang earlier, This is My Father's World, Pastor Melty Babcock, he wrote this over 100 years ago.
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Those two lines at the end. This is my Father's world, and let me never forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
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God is the ruler yet. And then the last line. This is my
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Father's world, the battle is not done.
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Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven will be one.
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That's the future. And let's rejoice and look forward and be encouraged with that truth as we hear this morning.
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Now next Sunday, Jesus is going to tell two parables. Both describe the value of the kingdom of heaven.
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And what he's going to explain is that the value cannot be measured by anything on earth.
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At this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, we need this word as we think of the world we live in.
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We should not be surprised to see pain, to see suffering, to see evil, but we see it.
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We should not be surprised to see that the evil looks so strong.
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It looks stronger than the good. But we must keep in mind what you promise.
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And hold on to your promises, realizing that it won't always be this way. A day is coming when you will officially triumph.
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You've already won the battle when Christ went to the cross and rose from the dead. But officially we will see it with our eyes when
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Christ comes and He establishes His kingdom forever. And so my prayer, Lord, is that everyone in this room would be in that kingdom.
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That everyone in this room would be among the poor in spirit who realize how much they need the
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Savior, who worship their Savior and King, and reign with Him forever.