The Kingdom of God: Arrived

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Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. What I wanted to do today is

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I wanted to speak about our mission, the mission of God that He called all of us to, related to each of us individually as God uses us in the respective realms that He's put us in, but also as a church, as a body, as we serve

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Jesus together to bring the good news around the world. And so I thought the best way to do that actually is to stay in the text that we're in as a church because everything we have to learn and we need to say really relates directly to what

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Jesus talks about here. So if you heard the messages, by the way praise God for Claudie and Zach and the wonderful messages, challenging messages preached and taught while we were gone, but if you heard the message from Claudie specifically in Matthew chapter 12 related to the kingdom of God and them saying that He was working as an agent of Satan himself, then you're familiar with where we're going.

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Powerful stuff here. So what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna read the text first and then begin to unpack a few things and get that right into applying that to us as a church.

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Matthew chapter 12 starting in verse, let's start in verse 18, a little longer, but I think it will help to get the context of the

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Isaiah passage that's quoted there. So Matthew is quoting here from Isaiah chapter 42. We did a passage on, a message on that, so I encourage you to listen to that as well.

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So Matthew chapter 12 verse 18, hear now the words of the living and true God. Behold my servant whom

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I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the

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Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

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A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory.

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And in his name the Gentiles hope. Then a demon -oppressed man was blind and mute, who was blind and mute, was brought to him and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw.

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And all the people were amazed and said, can this be the son of David? But when the

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Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

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Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

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And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

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And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

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But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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Or how can someone enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strongman?

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Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

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Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, people, but the blasphemy against the

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Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the

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Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together.

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Father, I ask God that you please help. Please help us now, Lord, to understand your word.

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God, I can't communicate your word in a way, Lord, that brings any transformation or any understanding,

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God, apart from your Spirit. And so, God, we ask as a church that you help me today.

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Help me to teach your people. Guard my mind, my mouth, my heart from error. Bless us now to understand your word.

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Bring light to our understanding. Teach us, God, by your Spirit. Thank you for your word.

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Cause me to decrease, Christ to increase. In Jesus' name, amen. So, moving up to where we are now,

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Matthew 12. Of course, you have the entire history that we've done the last couple of years as we've done this exposition of the gospel according to Matthew.

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You have, of course, the understanding that Matthew, of course, being the most popular gospel in the second century of the church, is a gospel that actually emphasizes from the very start the kingdom of God, the rule of God.

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Don't become jaded or indifferent to that truth.

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The kingdom of God. Because you see, here's the thing. That's the emphasis of the Old Testament and New Testament.

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The kingdom of the Messiah. The rule of God in history, in individuals' lives, in the world itself.

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The rule of the Messiah bringing salvation and bringing justice. That is, in fact, the story.

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I'm gonna encourage you, if you don't have a deep passion and love for the kingdom of God, I want to encourage you to reconsider whether you've really plumbed the depths, whether you've really gone into the text of Scripture to see the entire thing that's being held together.

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The emphasis over and over and over is the kingdom of God. And for Matthew, in the first century, he wants to emphasize that all that God promised about a

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Messiah has come to fulfillment in Jesus. Let me start and tell you how. And he starts off with the genealogy, and then he moves in to unpacking texts of the

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Old Testament to show you explicit answers to prophecy with verses pulled from the

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Old Testament saying, this was Jesus. And then also the symbolic prophecies of Jesus, the patterns in the

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Old Testament that point to Jesus. Israel wandering in the wilderness, being tried. Moses going and almost being killed as a baby.

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God calling his son out of Egypt, talking about Israel, but really it was about Jesus. You know the story.

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It's picking up already. It's about Jesus. Jesus is everything the Old Testament was focused upon.

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Jesus is everything we ought to be focused upon. And that's where Matthew is going. And you start to see immediately pointing towards the kingdom of God as Jesus comes out of the wilderness in a temptation.

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He defeats Satan. Satan says in his final temptation in Matthew, he says to Jesus, here's all the kingdoms of the world.

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I'll give them to you. If you do one thing, bow and worship me. No cross, no suffering, no resurrection.

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Just bow to me, worship me, and I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. It's what you came for, Jesus. Satan knows his

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Bible well. Very, very well. He knows his Bible. He knows what Jesus came for.

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He came to win the entire world. I was asked this week, one of the first questions this week when

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Vice made it to the studios and they turned the mics on and got the cameras set, one of the questions was related to whether I believed as a

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Christian that Christianity was going to dominate the world. You know where they're going with that, right?

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Oh, here's these Christians over here believing that Christianity's gonna take power in the world and force these laws upon people.

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And my quick answer is, trying to be as respectful and gracious as possible, is yes.

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Now, it's not so much Christianity. It's the fruit of Jesus' rule in the world. He saves people, and as he goes about saving people,

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Jew and Gentile in the world, his rule fills the entire earth. And so, yes, I believe

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Matthew 28, 18 through 20. I believe when Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all my commandments. I believe that.

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That's the mission of God. That's the mission of Jesus, the kingdom of God. Now, that's the background moving up to Matthew 12.

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It's not just appearing. Remember that. I'm emphasizing what you already know, many of you, to get to a point here.

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Matthew 12 doesn't all of a sudden introduce this concept of Son of David and kingdom of God.

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It's not just now getting there. It's starting to heat and hit a fever pitch in the text, and you're gonna see it go there.

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But Matthew 12 is an important text, because Matthew just quoted Isaiah 42, a massive text with massive implications in the

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Old Testament. It says that this Messiah is gonna come, the coastlands wait for his law, that God himself was gonna bring salvation and, listen, justice.

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Justice in all the earth. That's massive. That's not a small promise. That's not a Bible study in a basement.

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The Messiah is gonna come into the world. He's gonna save the world. Salvation's gonna come.

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He's gonna establish justice, and he'll never grow weary of it. He is going to accomplish his mission.

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That's the entire world under the rule of the Messiah. And Matthew quotes from that text right there in Matthew chapter 12.

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We just read it. That's one of those massive texts about the Messiah himself and his salvation going everywhere, and the world literally being transformed by the

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Messiah. And now after Matthew quotes Isaiah 42, he then moves us into this moment where you've got a person now who's oppressed by demons.

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Do you notice down the first, in the first century of the New Testament record, you notice this, this activity, this demonic activity that is, it seems to be hitting a climax in the first century.

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And you wonder like, well, is that like today? So you see, you even see people today. Famous television preachers that actually have ministries specifically directed toward demonic possession, right?

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You see them on television, right? These charlatans going into rooms full of deluded people, professing

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Christians, even many of them, and saying, well, you must have the demon of lust. And all of a sudden now they get into this experience where they're falling on the floor and kicking and screaming, and all of a sudden everybody in the room has a demon, right?

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Christians have, oh, you have the demon of cigarettes, right? That's true. There's a demon behind every possible sin and scenario.

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You have the demon of cigarettes, you have the demon of pornography, demon of lust, you got the demon of overeating.

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And so you have this thing, and people have these ministries today specifically related to demonic possession, right?

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Now I do not believe that we should expect, under the rule of Jesus, the same kinds of instances of demonic possession that we see in the first century.

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But you do see it in the New Testament record, because the demons knew. Satan knows the future of the world.

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He knows the Messiah's mission. And so you have this moment where Isaiah is quoted,

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Messiah is going to win the world and establish justice, and then a demon -oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus.

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And Jesus heals him. So the man spoke and saw. Now watch what they say when

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Jesus is coming now and destroying the works of the devil. Sound familiar? When Jesus is coming to destroy the works of the devil, and they now see this person having more power and having victory over the demonic, their first response is amazement.

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And they say, can this be the Son of David? Now there's some phrases, terms about Jesus that are used in the

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New Testament. What are some of the phrases? Yeah, Son of David here. What's another popular one? Son of Man, the most popular one in the

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New Testament. Jesus most popular, this is the one he uses most about himself. So Son of David, Son of Man, and of course the

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Bible calls Jesus the Son of God. So Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God.

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But in this instance, Matthew records that their amazement leads to them saying, could this be the

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Son of David? Why is that important? Why does that matter?

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Recording Isaiah 42, justice established in the world, salvation going everywhere, the coastlands waiting for his law, and now we move into people seeing

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Jesus destroy the enemy, and they say, ah, could this be the Son of David? It's really a unique title for the

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Messiah, the Jewish Messiah. So Son of David is used actually in Matthew by a woman in Matthew 15, 22.

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She refers to him as Son of David. And then you know the famous scene in Matthew 20, verse 30 of the two blind men, right?

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The two blind men that call out, they can't even see Jesus, but when they want Jesus to come and take notice of them and to heal them, they call him not

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Son of Man, not Son of God, they call him Son of David. You see, they knew the

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Messiah coming into the world, it was going to destroy the works of the enemy. They know their Bibles. Genesis, the first couple of chapters, when the fall enters into the world,

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Genesis chapter 3 is that amazing promise. It's like the first proclamation of the good news.

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God says that the woman shall conceive, the woman's seed will do what?

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Crush the head of the serpent, but he'll be bruised on his heel. They knew the Messiah was coming into the world, watch, not just for private individual experiences with God.

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They knew that the Messiah was coming into the world to deliver the death blow to Satan and what he brought into the world.

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And so now you have these blind men saying, Son of David, have mercy on us. We're afflicted.

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We're victims here of all of this. And they say what? They say, have mercy on us,

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Son of David. They call out specifically with that, but what does it mean? I'm going to show you what it means. Why is it so significant?

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Why is it connected to Isaiah 42? Why is it connected to Son of David? Second Samuel 7. Go left.

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Second Samuel chapter 7. Old Testament. Second Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 16.

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I'm going to read the text to you. This is actually a rather well known text.

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It's about God's covenant with David, King David. Now not long after this, you have the text about what happens when you're with Uriah and David's own son dying.

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But in Second Samuel chapter 7 verse 12, it says, When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,

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God speaking to David, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

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He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom, what? Forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

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When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him on the rod of men with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom

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I put away from before you. Watch. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.

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Your throne shall be established forever. Now we know from the texts of the Old Testament, you have these prophecies about a future king, a future

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Messiah, a Lord, a leader, that oftentimes had a deeper fulfillment and meaning than just the moment.

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Like the text we sang today. What was the word that we use today in the song? Emmanuel. What's that mean?

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If you read Isaiah chapter 7, you read that text, there's an immediate fulfillment of that, but it can't just be that, because the implications are too large in the text.

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So there's confusion. How could this just be referring to this man in the Old Testament? It's got to be bigger. And here in this text in 2

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Samuel chapter 7, what do you know about the kingdom God's gonna establish through David's seed? It's a kingdom that'll be established forever.

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One that will never end. That David's own descendant is gonna rule on the throne.

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And what does Matthew show you? He starts the text with Matthew 1, showing that Jesus has a legal right to the throne of David.

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He's a descendant of David and of Abraham. And then in Luke chapter 3, you have the literal genealogy of Jesus through Mary that shows he's directly related to David, King David.

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And so what do we know about the Messiah? He's the seed of David. He's the son of David. He will be given a kingdom that will last forever.

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And so watch what Matthew's doing. He's pulling all these concepts together. Isaiah 42, son of David, and he's squeezing them in upon Jesus and now you see it.

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But when the Pharisees heard it, watch, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

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See, they know when they call Jesus son of David, they know they're saying he's the king of the world.

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He's the Messiah. And so they want to fight against Jesus' rule? They want to fight against his mission?

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So what do they do? They say, no, he's actually working with the devil. You see, Jesus is casting out demons because he's actually bedfellows with Satan.

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He's working with the devil. And of course, Jesus refutes that. How can a kingdom stand if it's divided against itself?

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How can Satan cast out Satan? So he refutes him with this amazing wisdom and logic, of course, and then he moves into a powerful syllogism.

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But before we get to the syllogism, understand that these Pharisees, these religious leaders, know that if this is truly the son of David, there are massive implications for that and they're warring against Jesus.

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They're blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God by attributing, watch, his work, the

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Spirit's work, with the work of Satan. And so ultimately when we talk about blasphemy of the

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Holy Spirit, it's a direct resistance to the work of the Spirit of God and actually relating the

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Spirit of God with the work of the devil. And Jesus says, that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

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And we will talk about that later, but that's not the emphasis today. But I wanted to talk for a moment quickly about the kingdom expectation.

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I'm gonna go fast, so we're not gonna spend a lot of time in these texts, but I want you to have them ready to understand that, watch, when

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Jesus is referring to disrupting the devil's kingdom and he moves in a moment to a logical syllogism about his kingdom as arrived, there's a context here about expectation.

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And here is the expectation. One, Abraham. Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the what?

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Stars. It's a lot of stars. I love to hear the kids say stars. Genesis 49 10, same text,

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Genesis. The promise is that one is coming, Shiloh, and to him shall be the obedience of the nations.

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So we know from the first book of the Bible, the devil's gonna be delivered the death blow. He's gonna be defeated by the

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Messiah. Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars, and he is going to have the obedience of the nations.

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Psalm to a warning to the kings of the earth. The father says to Jesus, Ask of me,

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I'll give you the nations for your your inheritance. The very ends of the earth for your possession.

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And he says to the kings, Be wise, O kings, obey the sun or you'll perish.

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And then, of course, the text move on. Psalm 22, the text about the passion of the

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Messiah. It says that all the families of the earth will return to worship

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Yahweh. Psalm 72. He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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He's gonna have dominion. Psalm 1 10 1 says clearly, The Lord said unto my

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Lord, Sit in my right hand until I make your enemies a what? Footstool for your feet. You see, they understood.

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They know this vision of the Messiah's kingdom is massive. The implications are everywhere, and they know it.

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Son of David. They go, What? No, no, no, no. He's working with Satan. This isn't the kingdom we were to expect.

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This isn't the kingdom we're looking for. It's not this guy. This can't be the one that rules the world, that brings justice and peace and salvation everywhere, that brings

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Jew and Gentile together, that brings all the families of the earth back to worship

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God. Isaiah chapter 2. During the time of the fourth kingdom,

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God himself is going to establish a kingdom that will fill the entire world. It's gonna start like a little rock, and it's gonna end up filling the earth like a mountain.

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And we know the timing there lands on Jesus, the kingdom of Rome. Isaiah 9.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David, to establish it with justice forevermore.

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Isaiah 9, 6 through 7. Isaiah 42, in Matthew 12, quoted there. Establishing justice, the coastlands waiting for his law.

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Daniel 2. Well, Daniel 2 was actually, sorry, the text about the kingdoms, the four kingdoms.

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Isaiah 2 was the text about God drawing all the nations up to his mountain. Daniel 7.

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What's Daniel doing? He's looking in the night visions, and behold, one like a son of man was coming.

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And he came up to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before him. And to him was given what?

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Dominion, glory, and the kingdom, that all the peoples should serve him.

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You see, that is what they knew was coming. That's what they knew the expectation was. The implications are massive.

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And so get it, watch. When they say, son of David? Wait. No, it can't be him.

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It can't be the carpenter from Nazareth. It can't be this one. So what do they say?

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Oh, he's a bastard. His mother, she was involved in other relationships.

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The Jews are making these accusations. Of course, they have through history. She wasn't really a virgin. He's working with the devil, right?

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And they're doing everything they can to come against his kingdom, because it cannot be Jesus. It can't be this one, coming in lowly, riding on a donkey.

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We need the war horse. You see, we're under the boot of Rome. It's got to be political, geo -political.

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That's the kingdom of God. It's the Messiah ruling with an iron fist, and taking out the nations, and slaughtering them, beating them, physically, militarily, right?

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This can't be him. And here comes Jesus, God himself in the flesh, humble, lowly, broken, suffering, right?

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He's casting out demons. He has full authority and power over the demonic. He can say to demons, a man that nobody can tame, who is living among the tombs, and cutting himself with rocks, obsessed with darkness.

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No one can contain this man, and control him. And Jesus can say, go.

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And all legion goes into this herd of pigs, and Jesus sends these things off a mountain, and they die.

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Peter is ticked. But you get the point.

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This is Jesus coming against their established kingdoms, their expectations.

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Jesus comes to bring salvation and his rule, and they don't like it. It's not their expectation.

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So what? They say, well he's working with Satan, so Jesus beats him. And what Jesus does after he destroys their argument, is he says this, logical syllogism, if then.

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This is important. People ask, like, what do you think is wrong? Like, why are we failing, like, so much?

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Christians in history changed the world. They've turned it on its head. They've brought salvation to entire tribes of people, and turned those people from God -haters, and polytheists, into lovers of God, and full transformation.

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What happened? Why are we this way? What, why have we lost our salt?

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Why have we lost our light? And I think there's so, there's so many reasons.

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Sin. We're dealing with our own personal sin. Cowardice. Fear. Right? Love of comfort.

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Idolatry. There's a number of reasons. You could say, why are we losing our salt? Why are we losing it? What, why have we fallen down so far?

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What happened to us? But I do believe this is core. So, I just hope you listen, and consider it.

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Meditate on it. I truly believe this is core. If we think that the kingdom of God, his rule, did not arrive in history, in the first century.

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We think that it didn't come. He's not truly ruling and reigning in that promised kingdom, today.

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Then, of course, we wait for its expectation. We disengage from the world.

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We're not so interested in actually bringing the authority of Jesus, and his message of salvation and rule, into the culture around us.

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We're not really interested in it. Because what? It's coming later. Right? So, you have even popular views by professing

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Christians today. They'll say things like this. Well, Jesus was supposed to bring his kingdom then. But, the

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Jews rejected him. So, his kingdom was put on hold. And it'll be brought back later.

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But, I want you to listen to the syllogism. Listen to what Jesus says. It's in Matthew chapter 12, verse 28.

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And those of you guys who don't know what a syllogism is, in logic, you have propositions.

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Right? So, just for those of you guys who like to think this way, you'll have someone say something like, in a logical syllogism, if P, then

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Q. P, therefore Q. And the P and the Q could be, can mean any proposition. Right?

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So, let's say, if P, then Q. P, therefore Q. Your conclusion. So, Jesus says, watch.

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If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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So, Jesus asks you, work through the logic here, boys. If I cast out demons by the

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Spirit of God, then, logical conclusion, the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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Not will. Not might. It has. The rule of God has come upon you.

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It's entered now. It's happening in front of your very eyes. Sounds like John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3.

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Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Sounds like Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, when he comes out of the wilderness.

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Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus says to these religious leaders now, if then.

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Now, question. Answer this with me. Because, watch. If you answer this the right way, and I answer this the right way, then

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I surmise that we're gonna change the world with the gospel.

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Here it is. Ready? If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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So, did Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God? Yes. Then, the kingdom of God had come upon them.

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The rule of God was there. It was in their very midst. What are the implications if you know the expectation?

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If you know what the world is gonna look like under the Messiah, then what should you expect now in the future?

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Total transformation. Justice. Mercy. Salvation. Everywhere. Victory.

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Full authority. Everywhere. For me, in my life personally, his rule over me.

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His reign over me. My family. My friendships. My relationships. My church.

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The community around me. Every system and realm under the authority of Jesus. That's the perspective.

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And so, watch. If then, if I do A, then B. Did he do it by the

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Spirit of God? Yes. That means the kingdom of God had come upon them. That is massive, and it has implications that we can just begin to draw out forever.

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So, here's what I want you to see in terms of where that starts to come out in the New Testament record. Colossians 1 .13.

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Just write it down if you like. The Apostle Paul says that God has delivered us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his dear

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Son. Has delivered us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his Son.

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That's past tense. They saw the kingdom of God has arrived. Jesus' rule as present in the world.

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What are the implications? Because you can't, watch, you can't just start stating these things and saying that's just it.

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That's the way that it is. You have to ask the deeper question. How does it actually relate to me and change my life? So, can I ask you beyond just like the intellectual aspect of this, that the kingdom of God's arrived and Jesus is going to change the world through his gospel.

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Can I ask you how that changes you? How does it change you and how you live personally now?

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How does the rule of Jesus actually affect your life? You can talk all day about Jesus changing the world. I don't believe you if he's not changing your life.

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If he's not working in your life and mine, then what does all this mean? It's just motivational speech. It's gobbledygook.

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It means nothing. So, can I ask you, is the kingdom of God, the rule of Jesus changing your family?

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All of us are sinners. None of us are completely perfect dads and moms and children, but is the rule of Jesus affecting your life and your home?

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Don't talk to me about Jesus bringing justice in the world if there's no standards of justice in your family.

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If we're unjust in how we treat our wives as husbands, don't tell me about how wonderful Jesus justice is and how it's going to change the world.

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It's not even happening in your world. Is it changing how we actually minister to and love and show justice towards our children?

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Because watch, if he has taken us out of the domain of darkness, we aren't under the rule of the devil.

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We're not under his oppressive power and spirit in any way. We're under the rule of Jesus delivered out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son.

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So, has it changed you? Has it affected you? Do you see the world in a new way? Is your life being transformed daily because Jesus rules you?

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He saved you. In Revelation chapter 1 verse 6, you can go there or just listen right now.

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Revelation chapter 1 verse 6, it's actually an awesome text. Listen, I'm gonna, I'll read it to you.

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John says this. He says, so it'll start in verse 5 actually, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

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Did you catch it? Jesus is the ruler of kings on earth. Someone said to me, actually it was

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Jamali this week and when Vice was here, it's on the radio show. He said, you really expect me as somebody who's not a

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Christian, not a believer, you really have an expectation that like society will be Christian and I have to live under like a

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Christian society and rule? Now some Christians might say, oh no, we want more of a secular society and those sorts of things, but I think if Jesus is ruler and he's the one that brings salvation and he's saving people, then yeah,

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I do believe the nations will be discipled. You know what it says here? It says in Revelation chapter 1 verse 5 that Jesus is the ruler of kings on earth.

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That means that Jesus today has full authority over these United States. It means that Jesus has full authority over the

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UK, over Africa, over Canada, over South America, over Papua New Guinea, over New Zealand.

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He's the ruler and he says here, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priest to his

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God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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That's the son of David, y 'all. That's the kingdom of Jesus, guys. And I want to tell you one last thing about this week that I was planning this message in light, in the midst of this, they said this.

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Went to the abortion mill yesterday. All this is up. You can watch. You can actually watch this. Near the tail end of yesterday's live stream, they brought me and Errol, a regular

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Planned Parenthood supporter. They brought us over to the side to have a discussion, and as we're talking, we're going through point by point.

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Errol's challenging me. I'm offering answers, trying to be faithful, trying to be loving, trying to be respectful.

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Jamali's trying to bring challenges. I'm answering those challenges best way I can, trying to be a witness and a light, and I think that they were falling dead.

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And you know where he went? Jamali went right to this point.

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He essentially asked something like this. Are you scared? Like, what are the implications of this kind of Christianity?

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I'm not going to quote him perfectly here, but Errol said something to the effect of, it's terrifying.

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It's terrifying. Now watch. I don't want to be prideful or haughty in that, like, yeah, you better be terrified.

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But in a sense, if you hold to the truth in Scripture that his kingdom has arrived, that he rules over the kings of the earth, that his kingdom lasts forever, his dominion is from sea to sea, that he has all authority in heaven and on earth, then you're right you should be scared.

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Because if you're part of that domain of darkness and you're still resisting the Son of David, then be wise,

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O kings. Obey the Son lest you perish. It makes sense, doesn't it?

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When you have a consistent Christian witness in the world, where you actually tell the truth, yeah, he has all authority.

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Yeah, Jesus has something to say to you. Yeah, Jesus has authority here in this discussion. Oh, and in this discussion over here.

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And yeah, you have to obey Jesus. He's the Savior. He's the ruler. Come to Christ for life or you'll perish.

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When you come as a witness, as a Christian witness into a culture that is totally opposed to Jesus, you are seen as terrifying.

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You are seen as frightening. You are seen, in many respects, listen closely, as even an enemy of the state.

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Can I say this to you? If you read the book of Revelation, even, and you see

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John and Patmos because of his witness and testimony in Jesus, Nero sent John to Patmos.

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Why? Because he didn't want people to worship Jesus. They didn't care. Rome doesn't care who you worship.

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You got people worshiping sticks and rocks and hay and stubble and stone. They don't care what you worship.

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Rome doesn't care. They're a pagan society. Why is Rome killing Christians? Why is

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Rome killing Christians? It wasn't because of who they worshipped. They were killing

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Christians because Christians wouldn't say Kaiser Kyrgios. They wouldn't say

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Caesar's the ultimate. Caesar is Lord. They said Jesus is Lord.

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They're not gonna say it. And so Christians were seen in the first century and the second century, listen, as enemies of the state.

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Why? Because you've got ultimates vying for power. You've got Jesus who says he's the ultimate.

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He's the ruler. He's the Savior. And you got someone over here saying, no, I'm the ultimate. I'm the ruler.

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I'm the Savior. And so, yeah, when you have a consistent Christian witness in the world and you come into a culture and society and say

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Jesus is the king, you're either with him or against him, the world sees you as, listen, dangerous. They use words about you like extremist and hipster.

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But here's what I wanted to emphasize, and I gotta stop here today because of time.

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If we focus in upon the kingdom of God and what God is doing in the world, we'll say things like Paul in Romans 1 5.

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The mission is to bring about the obedience faith among all the nations for his namesake.

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Same thing in Romans 16 25 in the doxology, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations.

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We'll do the sorts of things like Paul was doing the last chapter of the book of Acts.

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Acts chapter 28. Listen closely. Verse 30. He lived there, Paul, two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him.

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Listen, here's what he was doing. Proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the

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Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. If we believe the truth that he was casting out demons by the

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Spirit of God and the kingdom of God had come upon them, it'll affect us in our individual purpose.

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So can I ask this very personal question? So I just want to ask, I can't ask you to you right now and have you call out, but I'd love for you to really try to answer this question in your mind right now.

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Think about it. So if Jesus brought his kingdom, he did, and if that rule is going to go over the entire world, it will.

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And if it's going to ultimately change everything for the glory of God, it will. Then we have to recognize that we're the means of that taking place.

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So can I ask you individually, what are the gifts that God has given to you for his purposes and his kingdom?

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I want you to think just for a moment. Because I have to, as a pastor, do the right thing and impress upon you something very important.

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This can't just be theological gymnastics. It can't just be intellectual, where you can recite these things, right, and spit them back out.

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I know the Bible says, hear this. Has to be, I know it says, hear this, and this is how it's changed me.

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And this is my part in it. So what are your giftings for the kingdom of God? Second question, what are your passions for the kingdom of God?

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Some of you guys might be saying things like this, and I don't want this to happen. You might be saying things like, well, I'm just a mom, right?

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If you're thinking something like that, I'd encourage you to listen to Nate Wilson's message from ReformCon last year,

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I'm just a mom, right? Yeah, you're just raising heroes that change the world, right?

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You're just raising the next giants that Jesus is going to use to change everything.

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But what are your passions, right? What's the little realm that God has given to you, right, to use for his purpose and his kingdom and glory?

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And watch, I gotta say this as an aside, this is a deep encouragement for all of us, because you might say, well, it doesn't seem like a lot is happening, right?

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Doesn't seem like big things, like, are before me. Well, don't despise the day of small beginnings.

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That's from the Bible. But next, don't forget that the kingdom's pattern in the world, the rule of Jesus, his pattern in the world,

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Jesus says it's like this, mustard seed to large tree. So maybe that's you right now with your individual purpose for the kingdom of God.

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Maybe you don't see much before you right now. Maybe you have a lot of suffering, a lot of strongholds in your life, a lot of difficult things to face, and maybe you don't know the future.

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Maybe you aren't patient right now. Maybe you're struggling with, like, I want it now. I want to serve God now. Don't despise the day of small beginnings, and don't forget the kingdom is like a mustard seed that grows into a large tree.

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It's a seed you can barely see in your hand, and in a list of seeds of the Jews, it was, like, the lowest on the list.

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You could barely see it, and when it grew, it would get bigger than a man. That's the kingdom's pattern in the world.

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It's mustard seed to large tree. It's like leaven and a lump of dough, right? You can't hear it working.

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You can't hear the hammers banging and the saws going, right? You don't hear the labor, but that leaven moving out through that lump of dough ends up permeating the entirety of the loaf.

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My wife, right now, is feeding these weird little science experiments.

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She's making, like, true sourdough bread, and so what she's done is she's bought, like, an ancient wheat.

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She's like, all the all the new wheat is nothing like the old wheat. The real wheat, right?

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Totally crunchy thing to say, right? It's all been changed, and so she, like, went and found online some special place that sells, like, ancient wheat that, like,

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Jesus used, right? And it really is, actually, right? But she's been investigating, like, how do

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I do this? And so she's discovered, like, oh, you, like, create a culture, right? And it, like, can live, like, forever.

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You just have to keep feeding this culture. So every day this week, she said, I've been feeding my cultures, right?

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Every day she's like, I fed my thing. Last night, I was late. She's like, oh, I forgot to feed my thing. It's totally weird.

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I love you, babe, right? And I can't wait to eat that sourdough bread, right? I really, I love it, actually.

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I'm excited she's doing it. But the point is, is that, like, there are chemical things happening in this that create the properties that make it grow.

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And it grows. It permeates. It fills the loaf, right? But you don't get to stand in front of it and actually see right before the naked eye what's taking place.

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But what is taking place is something chemically that changes everything. And that's how the kingdom of God grows, like that.

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Small seeds that become large, leaven and lumps of dough, permeates everything.

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It literally changes everything. So individually, your calling, your gifts, your passion, what is it?

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Because I can tell you right now, I know for a fact that God did not call you into His kingdom for you to be an indifferent, lazy

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Christian. And He didn't give you the gifts that He has so that you would sit by on the sidelines and do nothing for the kingdom of God.

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And corporately, I want to say this. God has given us a corporate purpose that we as a church are supposed to be together.

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We're supposed to love one another, serve one another, outdo each other with honor. We're supposed to forgive one another.

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We're supposed to put away bitterness and sin and strife and gossip. And we're supposed to, as a church, take care of each other's needs.

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Acts chapter 2, there wasn't a need among them. They took care of each other's needs constantly. They were together breaking bread.

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They were in the apostles' teaching. And they were being multiplied. They were growing as a church, as a church body.

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Our life in the kingdom of God is to expand the kingdom of God into the world through the proclamation of the gospel.

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So we're as a church growing spiritually together, being sanctified. We're sinning.

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We're getting up. We're sinning. We're repenting. We're growing. We're growing spiritually. Sanctification.

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But then also we're growing numerically, proclaiming the gospel. People come into Jesus. The kingdom of God is growing. And then we're raising people up as a church.

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We're raising them up in Jesus. And then we're saying, okay, now you guys, you go. And you spread the gospel over there.

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And we grow and grow and grow. And you guys, you go. And you spread the kingdom of God over there. We're supposed to be raising up and sending.

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Raising up and sending. Raising up and sending. And as these people over here that were sent, they start doing the same.

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Raising up and sending. That's the mission. And praise God, I want to report that by our eighth birthday as a church,

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God willing, as we're moving forward, we are planning to plant a church on the island of Kauai.

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Eight years. And we're planting our first church in Kauai. The island of Kauai.

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And as a church, you might say, what's your reasoning behind that? Why do you want to focus on church planting? Why would you want to emphasize that aspect?

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Because I'm going to say this. The kingdom of God is going to spread across the entire world. He uses us as the means of that grace.

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And that's our duty before God. And God has given us an amazing opportunity. And I want you to hear about it.

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You guys ready to hear about it? Yeah? Okay. So let's pray. Let's end the message here for the live stream. And let's bring everybody up.

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Father, thank you for this truth. And God, I don't,

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I never know, God, if I'm doing this justice. I never know if I really am.

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And I do ask God, do you make me better at communicating your truth so that, Lord, it'll be used for your glory and to change us.

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And so, Father, I do pray that today's message that was given, I pray that you'd use it to change us.

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Change our minds. Change our perspectives. Convict us of our sin.

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Forgive us. And bless us. Bless us individually in what you've called us to. And bless us as a church in what you've called us to.

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Help us, Father, to be faithful to the mission. Give us encouragement when we're down.

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Give us courage when we're scared. And give us hope.

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And give us hope, God, where we're distraught, perplexed, confused, saddened, in despair.