The Unshakable Kingdom (Hebrews 12:28) | Worship Service

Good morning and welcome to Kootenai Church. We're glad you're here today. Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning with a call to worship from the book of Colossians.

And it says in chapter 3, verses 16 to 17, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the

Father through Him. So today we're going to sing together in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and we're going to start with Christ Our Glory.

He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near?

He's still and dependent, the worst that can come.

But shortens our journey and hastens us forward.

He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near?

He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near?

He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near?

He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near?

He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? He's not here, then why should we tremble when trials draw near? Christ our glory, Christ our hope,

Christ our King forevermore.

Christ our glory, Christ our hope,

Christ our King forevermore. Come joy or come sorrow, whatever befalls.

The light of the Savior will outshine them all.

He surrounds and my heart grows faint within.

When the darkness overwhelms and my fears are pressing in.

I will trust in you O Lord. In the silence

I will wait. I will stand upon your word.

You're my solid rock and my salvation. My steadfast hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you.

My stronghold and my shield. In the midst of every threat.

Though we'll vanish like a breath.

Yes I know the outcome's sure. Satan's evil plans will fail.

In your power I'm secure. You're my solid rock and my salvation.

My steadfast hope that won't be shaken. My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you.

You're my comfort when I feel forsaken. My refuge and my sure foundation.

My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you.

This is love I can't explain. This is mercy undeserved.

Through your sacrifice so great. I have peace that's undeserved.

For the battle has been won. And I fear no shame or loss.

Now the sting of death is gone. You're my solid rock and my salvation.

My steadfast hope that won't be shaken. My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you.

You're my comfort when I feel forsaken. My refuge and my sure foundation.

My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you.

Hearts before you. We'll trust in you.

Perfect savior. Strong defender.

We will trust in you. Hearts before you.

We will trust in you. Perfect savior.

Strong defender. We will trust in you.

You may be seated. Well, good morning.

There are three announcements that I want to draw your attention to that pertain to the next seven days. First, on Tuesday evening of this week, we are going to be showing the movie

The Essential Church, which is a production of Grace Community Church and Grace Productions. That was in theaters recently, and there's no cost of admission for that.

You just get to show up and enjoy that movie, really a documentary of what the state of California and the county of Los Angeles tried to do to John MacArthur and Grace Community Church and how they triumphed over those restrictions during the

COVID lockdowns. And it will be of great encouragement to you and very informative if you come to that movie.

That's this coming Tuesday night at 6 p .m. And then on next Saturday at 10 a .m.,

we have our membership class. So if you're attending that, we need to know how many people to expect because we will serve you lunch for that class on Saturday.

That's October 21st. And then next Sunday is going to be a bit of a different service.

We have a baptism service planned for our normal part of our worship service, so the music will be a little bit different and the format will be a little bit different.

We're going to have some baptisms after the message next Sunday morning. And then following that, we have our harvest dinner.

So the information about what to bring and what to expect is in your bulletin. I would just turn your attention to that.

We have a missionary presentation at this point in our service. I want to introduce to you, well, many of you know

Gordie and Nancy Hunt who served on the mission field faithfully for 40 years, translating the New Testament into the

Monhui language and establishing a church there and raising up elders there in that church. And then they have retired from the mission field and still contribute to the work back in Paraguay in many different ways.

And while they live here and of course attend here, and Gordie, you have seen preached from this pulpit a number of times.

He's something of a folk hero amongst us. And his son, Jamie, well, actually two of Gordie's sons are on the mission field carrying on the work there in one form or another.

And one of his sons, Jamie, is here to tell us about his work and his ministry there and what he's doing with a different people group.

So, Jamie, will you come up here and share with us now? Well, good morning.

It is such a blessing to be able to worship with you all this morning. We're delighted to share briefly about what

God is doing in Paraguay for two reasons. One reason is that this church, as Pastor Jim mentioned, is home to our very first, our faithful, and our most favorite partners in the ministry, my parents,

Gordon and Nancy Hunt. They worked alongside of us there with the Monhui and mentored us for our first few years there in Paraguay, and they have supported us through every step of the way.

Another reason we're here with you today is to once again help the church remember that over 2 ,000 years ago,

Jesus Christ gave his church a great task to take the gospel to the utter ends of the earth.

And with 6 ,000 people groups still without a gospel witness and 1 .5 billion people without a full

Bible in their heart language, the church faces a massive task unfinished.

For 12 years, doing translation and literacy, and then in 2010, we moved over to another tribe that speaks a totally different language, and they're called the

Nivacle people, and that's who we minister to now. They're a tribe of approximately 20 ,000, and the mission organization we work under is

Ethnos 360. And the goal of Ethnos 360 is to see a thriving church for every people, and this is a huge task, far from unfinished, far from finished.

And what does this task of seeing a thriving church look like in the Nivacle context? One aspect is evangelism and discipleship.

This is so needed amongst the Nivacle people in order to see a thriving church established.

There actually are infant, immature churches established amongst the Nivacle. However, most of the church members, including pastors, can't even communicate a gospel of grace apart from works.

The good news is the Nivacle are very teachable and very eager to be taught the

Word of God in their own language. And we're so thankful for the many opportunities that we do get to teach through sermons and weekly

Bible studies. However, our ministry is Bible translation.

Our goal is to see the whole Bible translated into the Nivacle language, so that the

Nivacle churches will have the whole counsel of God available to them. And we're thrilled to report to you, as of today, 50 % of the

New Testament is done. The Old Testament, with triple the amount of verses, is only 16 % done.

So a great task before us, yet unfinished, but we are eager to press on.

And that's just a brief update of our ministry. We also wanted to just help you visualize the context in which we minister, and put faces on the dear people that we do serve.

So we've prepared a short PowerPoint at this time to show you. We sure identify with the opening words to the songs on our

PowerPoint, facing a task unfinished that drives us to our knees. And the task before us does drive us to our knees.

Char and I have never been so aware of our inability to complete this task before us.

And in our own strength, it is impossible. However, we're becoming increasingly more and more aware of God's inexhaustible power and might.

And we rest in knowing that He delights in taking the weak things of the world, and use them to accomplish

His tasks. And this way, He will receive all honor and all glory when the Nivacle Bible is completed, and a thriving, healthy church is established amongst the

Nivacle. And in closing, I just wanted to leave you with a couple well -known verses that God has recently challenged me with.

One of the last books I got to translate this year into Nivacle was the book of 2 Timothy. The tone of Paul's epistle is urgent and at times sobering.

And these are the words of a dying man awaiting execution, nearing his finished line.

And he's writing to his dear son in the faith, urging him to continue on and finish the task before him.

And the whole letter was a timely challenge to me, but for the sake of time, I'm just going to read two verses. 2 Timothy 4, 7, and 8.

It says, And as Shar and I approach 50, our finished line is a much closer reality than it's ever been.

And our burning desire is to get to the end of our lives and be able to say with Paul, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. And this isn't going to happen by happenstance or coasting through life on autopilot.

Paul says we must fight the good fight. And as we minister with those belonging to the kingdom of darkness, we have three enemies of the gospel, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we must fight against each one of them.

And Paul also encourages us to keep the course. The course God has set before us is the translation of the word of God into Nivacle.

And to see a thriving church planted and flourishing, we must keep this course.

No turning to the right or to the left or turning back. And then Paul tells us to keep the faith. That is to protect it, to live it, and to preach it.

All this we do because we know that life is temporary. And one glorious day in eternity, we will all stand before our righteous judge and give an account of how we spent the life that he gave us.

Sadly, worldwide, no matter the mission board, there is an epidemic of missionaries quitting long before the task is finished.

So we would ask you guys to pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send more laborers to the field and pray that those that are sent will endure hardship like a good soldier and finish the task before them.

So thank you all. We have prayer cards in the back, too. Feel free to take one.

If you're interested in receiving our newsletter, the address is on the back. Just email us. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Jamie. Kootenai Community Church has a long history with the

Hunt family. Back when I was a kid attending vacation Bible school here, Gordy and Nancy would come back when they were on furlough, and the kids, of course, would come back with them.

And so Jamie and I would attend vacation Bible school together. It's hard to believe that he's old enough to have grandchildren already.

I didn't realize you were getting so old so quick. Will you please turn in your Bibles to the book of Psalms, to Psalm 112.

Psalm 112. It's a short psalm. We'll read all 10 verses together. And I would invite you to stand with me as we read this passage together,

Psalm 112. Praise the Lord.

How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth.

The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.

Light arises in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.

It is well with the man who is gracious and lends. He will maintain his cause in judgment.

For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings.

His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.

He is given freely to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor.

The wicked will see it and be vexed. He will gnash his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish.

Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for the work that you do through your servants, faithful servants around the world.

We have here, again, another reminder that as we are in this country living with such abundance of your word in front of us and abundance of translations that there are people groups yet to be reached.

And so we would pray that you would continue to do that work and hasten the day when all in every tongue, in every tribe, among every kindred will have heard that gospel message and have the word of God in their own language so that they may respond to the gospel and embrace free grace in Christ and be saved and join the everlasting throng that will worship and praise you.

We pray that you would keep us diligent to pray, to give, to sacrifice and to go to that end so that your gospel may be preached, your kingdom may be expanded, your grace may be proclaimed.

We thank you that we can enjoy this time of worship and fellowship together and as we sing, we sing as redeemed, as those who have received much mercy, as those to whom you have given such amazing grace.

Our hearts are lifted up in praise and adoration to you, a great God. We thank you for the blessings of salvation that we enjoy.

We pray that you would strengthen us to make your name known and to make it great among the nations. In Christ's name, amen.

Let's sing together Psalm 147. Oh, praise the Lord for it is good. Oh, praise the

Lord for it is good to sing unto our

God. It's fine and pleasant for his saints to tell his praise abroad.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He seeks her exiled sons.

He binds their wounds and gently heals the broken.

For his praise he calls by name and counts the stars of night.

His wisdom is unsearchable and wondrous is his might.

The Lord lifts up the poor in need. He brings the wicked home.

Sing praise to him and give him thanks and all his goodness show.

Oh, severe his odds, his love.

Oh, Zion praise wondrous love confess.

He makes your glory and your strength. He will your children bless.

Come, thou frowned crown of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy praise.

Streams of mercy never ceasing. All for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it. Mount of thy redeeming love.

Hither to thy love has blessed me. Thou hast brought me to this place.

And I know thy hand will bring me safely home by thy good grace.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God.

He to rescue me from danger, bought me with his precious blood.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.

Let thy goodness like a feather bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the

God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it.

Seal it for thy port of love. Freed from sinning,

I shall sing thy lovely praise. Form of rain and blood washed linen,

I'll now sing thy sovereign praise. Come, my Lord, no longer tear me.

Bring thy promises to pass. For I know thy power will keep me till I'm old with thee at last.

In Isaiah 30, verses 18, it says, Therefore Yahweh waits with longing to be gracious to you.

And therefore he is on high to have compassion on you. For Yahweh is a God of justice.

How blessed are all those who wait for him. Join us as we close our music service this morning and sing,

Turn Your Eyes. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim.

In the light of his glory and praise.

Turn your eyes to the hillside.

Where justice and mercy embrace.

There the Son of God gave his life for us.

And our measureless death was in vain.

Jesus, to you we lift our eyes.

Jesus, our glory and our pride. We adore our

Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn your eyes to the morning.

And see Christ the Lion awake.

What a glorious dawn. Fear of death is gone.

For we carry his life in our veins.

Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our pride.

We adore you, we hold you. Our Savior ever true.

O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn your eyes to the heavens.

Our King will return for his own. Every knee will bow.

Every tongue will shout. All glory to Jesus the

Lord. Jesus, to you we lift our eyes.

Jesus, our glory and our pride. Behold you, our

Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

O Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our

Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn now in your copy of God's Word to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12.

We're going to read together verses 25 through the end of the chapter. Hebrews chapter 12.

See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven.

And his voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.

This expression, yet once more, denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our

God is a consuming fire. Let's pray together. Our Father, we pray that our minds may be fixed upon your word this morning, that our hearts would be changed by your word this morning, and that our will may be quick to obey your word this morning.

I ask that you would give us grace as we meditate upon these things and look at this passage, that we would be able to appreciate what you have given to us in Christ and blessed us with in the kingdom, and that we may be transformed according to your purposes, by your spirit, through your word, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. It seems to me that every subject that we encounter as we're working our way through the book of Hebrews has been timely.

We are now in the fifth passage that deals with apostasy, and it seems as if every time we come to a passage on apostasy in Hebrews, there is some figure in Christian circles who decides to deconstruct their faith and leave

Christianity and second -guess everything they were raised to believe, and that makes headlines. And then going through the passage on discipline earlier in Hebrews 12,

I found that very timely, as many in our congregation were going through afflictions and difficulties and sicknesses and suffering all kinds of discouragements of one sort or another.

And now here we are in a passage that describes the entire world being shaken in judgment.

It describes the judgments of God and the reality that all of creation is temporary, that nothing is certain, and that sometimes it feels as if the ground underneath our very feet is shaking.

And while we've been considering this for the last couple of weeks, we've watched nations go to war against nations and war break out in the

Middle East and the largest ethnic group, the largest country on the planet is licking its chops at the possibility of invading

Taiwan, and everything is up in the world and up in the air in the world, and it seems as if nothing is solid and nothing is sure and nothing is certain.

And all this is taking place right before our eyes as we're studying this passage that describes all of creation being shaken.

So I've decided that as soon as we're done with Hebrews 12, I'm going to preach a series of messages on the rapture.

Just in case, by the off chance, there is some mysterious connection between what

I'm preaching on and what's going on in the world, I figure we might as well roll our dice and see what happens.

But while the nations rage and while the Lord pits, in judgment, pits nation against nation, and while people are attacking one another and everything feels so uncertain,

God is working out His sovereign purposes, all of His redemptive plans, and as I've said before, and this is not unique to me,

I borrowed this from somebody else, everything is falling apart right on schedule, exactly as God would have it to be.

He's sovereign over all of these events, nothing that is happening is escaping His notice, and it is certainly not outside of His plan or what

He has ordained or what He intends. He is not running around heaven, pulling out His hair, trying to figure out how to fix the issues in the

Middle East, how to get Russia to stop invading Ukraine and to go to war with those people, how to keep

China from invading Taiwan. He's not anxious over any of those things.

Everything is happening on schedule, everything is happening according to His promises, and everything is unfolding according to His purposes.

And you and I, in the midst of that, are called to fix our gaze upon Christ and to run the race that is set before us with diligence and faithfulness and to serve our

King in gratitude and reverence and awe. That is what He has called us to do.

No matter what else happens in the culture, in the government, in politics, in international affairs, among the nations, no matter what else transpires, our duty is the same, our calling is the same.

Fix our eyes on Jesus, run the race set before us, serve our King with gratitude because of all that He has given to us.

And our passage today is Hebrews 12, verse 28, Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our

God is a consuming fire. These closing verses, verse 25 through 29 of Hebrews 12, they give to us four very great motivations for serving

God and loving God and obeying Him. We've looked at two of them so far. The first in verse 25, the past acts of God's judgment against disobedience.

God has a great track record, and we can look back at how He has handled those who will not repent, will not obey, will not come to Him for forgiveness, and you can see how

God judges disobedience all the way through Scripture. Second, we looked at God's promise of future judgment upon all of creation.

That's verse 26 and 27, His promise to shake the heavens and the earth, and eventually everything is coming undone, everything will be destroyed.

The third reason is because of the pledge of an unshakeable kingdom, that's verse 28.

Therefore, since you receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken. And the fourth motive for obedience is the promise or the perfection of an unchanging

God, verse 29. The perfection of an unchanging God. I want you to notice that verse 28 begins with a therefore, because the author is drawing us to a conclusion.

He is fixing before our minds and our hearts some concluding exhortations, some concluding ideas that we are to have fixed in our hearts and in our minds, things that we are to act upon.

He is now, for the rest of this epistle, going to enjoin us to obey God, to serve

Him with reverence and with awe. 4 verse 29 says, our God is a consuming fire. So even though we have been given a kingdom, and even though we have been blessed with all of the spiritual blessings that are entailed in the new covenant that come to us completely by grace, though that is true, the nature of God has not changed.

He is the same God that He was under the law in verse 29. It says He is a consuming fire.

He is the same God who is angry toward the wicked each and every day, who will not leave the guilty unpunished, who will justly execute

His wrath upon every sin that has ever been committed. That is the same God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

His nature does not change. His standards do not change. Why is it then that you and I are not consumed for one reason and one reason only?

Another has borne that wrath, that consuming fire on our behalf, so that you and I can stand righteous in His presence, forgiven of our sin, showered with mercy and grace, not because of anything we've done, but only because of what another has done in our place.

That is Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. But God is the same consuming fire that He has always been.

We're going to look today at verse 28, this grand blessing of the kingdom. We have been given the pledge of an unshakable kingdom.

I've been going through this and kind of talked a little bit about this kingdom, and some of this is going to overlap with what we have dealt with previously.

But I want you to fix your mind and your heart and your meditation upon this reality that God has pledged to you an unshakable kingdom.

If you're in Christ, He has pledged to you an unshakable kingdom. And because it is unshakable, it is an inevitable and unalterable promise that He has given to you, the blessing of a kingdom that is to come, an unshakable one in an unshakable creation.

So verse 28, you'll notice again, the therefore signals a conclusion, and really, the therefore at the beginning of verse 28 is the gateway, listen carefully, it is the gateway to the rest of the epistle, not just the rest of the sentence or the rest of the chapter, but the rest of the epistle.

The therefore is the concluding sort of summary statement where He is going to say, therefore, you have been given this unshakable kingdom, and since you have been given this unshakable kingdom, you are therefore to do certain things.

And then He gives us a list of moral commands, moral commands that are incumbent upon those who have been given this unshakable kingdom.

It starts in verse 28, since we have received this kingdom, which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude.

There's the impetus, there's the statement of here's what you are therefore to do. Let yourself show gratitude.

Show gratitude as you serve Him with reverence and awe, remembering that our God is a consuming fire.

That's the first moral imperative that you and I have in light of the fact that we have been given this unshakable kingdom.

But that is not the only moral imperative that we have. All of chapter 13 is the continuation of that idea.

So look at verse 1 of chapter 13. I've said this before and I want to impress it upon you again.

Ignore the chapter break. It wasn't there in the mind of the writer when he wrote the book. It wasn't there in the minds of the recipients when they originally read the book.

It wasn't there in the minds of anybody for seven centuries after Scripture was written. It was added much later.

So ignore the chapter break. And now read with me the first few verses of chapter 13.

In light of that statement in verse 28, since you have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, chapter 13 verse 1, let love of the brethren continue.

Since you have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Since you have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill -treated, since you yourself also are in the body.

Since you have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled, for fornicators and adulterers

God will judge. Since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, make sure that your character is free from the love of money.

Be content with what you have, for He Himself has said, I will never desert you nor will

I forsake you. Listen, you can read verse 5 again, at least consider verse 5 for a moment again.

Since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, be free from the love of money. Do you see the connection between those two things?

You've received everything that is unshakeable and eternal. So what are you, what are you striving after in this world for then?

Verse 6, so that we may confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what will man do to me?

Since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and consider the result of their conduct, and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.

Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

So since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.

Look at verse 14, for we do not have a lasting city. In other words, we don't have a kingdom here. But we are seeking the city which is to come.

We haven't received it yet, we haven't enjoyed it yet, but there is a kingdom, a city that is to come, and since that is vouchsafed to you, since that is promised to you,

He has pledged this to you, verse 15, through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

Since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, verse 16, do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices

God is pleased. Since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.

Let them do this with joy, not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Since you have received an unshakeable kingdom, pray for us, for we are sure that we have good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things, and I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner."

See how all those moral commands in chapter 13 flow out of this truth?

God does not command us to do things in a vacuum. In other words, without any other considerations.

We always have before us one or two or both of these things. The truth of what

He has done to us and for us. Through the gospel, the theology that underlays all of what is true regarding God and redemption and salvation, we have that upon which we build our obedience to His commands, and then we also have the looking forward to the reward that is to come.

What He has promised us that is yet future. So considering everything that He has done in the past, and considering everything that is to come in the future, we are therefore to offer to Him praise and to obey all of these moral commands.

We're not commanded to obey these things and to live a righteous life pursuing holiness without which no one will see the

Lord. We're not commanded to do that in a vacuum. As if there's nothing else to consider. All of our acts of obedience come, first of all, out of a heart that is overcome with gratitude for all that He has done for us.

Looking forward to the reward with the confidence that we will receive what He has promised to us.

Just as in a family, family members have obligations to other members of the family. So you and I have been adopted into the family of God and we have obligations one to another.

And we have obligations to the Father who has adopted us into His family. Just as in a marriage relationship spouses have obligations to one another, so it is that you and I as members of the bride of Christ have obligations to serve and to honor

Him and the Father who sent the bridegroom to redeem His bride. We have obligations. As citizens of this country, we have certain obligations to our government.

As citizens of the kingdom of heaven, you and I have obligations to the one who is the king of that domain and the one who will bring that kingdom to pass.

So all of our obligations that we have to obey, to praise, to honor, to glorify

Him and to live righteous lives are based upon what He has done, what He will do, and the reality of our relationship to Him in various capacities.

So we receive a kingdom. Verse 28. This is already mentioned back in verse 22.

You've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the myriads of angels. There it's past tense.

You have come. Because it is appropriate to speak of coming to this kingdom as something that has already happened to us in the sense that we have already been positionally made partakers of that kingdom.

So there is a reality there that is fixed and unalterable. But it is also appropriate to speak of this in the present tense, which the author does here.

Since you receive, and that is a present participle, you receive or are receiving this kingdom.

It is not that you have already fully received it. The kingdom is not here. If it were, the entire world situation that I started talking about at the beginning would look a lot different.

Look a lot different. But that the kingdom is not here. So we haven't received it fully. We don't participate in it fully.

We don't enjoy all of the benefits of it yet. But we are, present tense, receiving. We receive this kingdom.

And it is so certain for us that we can speak of it as something that we currently have and possess by virtue of our position and what

Christ has done. It is also possible to speak of it as something that has already been given to us. If your parents give you an inheritance before they die, it might be locked up in estates and accounts and different investments.

And you don't receive it until they actually die. But it's already been given to you. It's already yours. Your name is on it.

But until they die, you can't really access it or use it. It's the same thing with the kingdom.

Until it actually comes, we are not going to enjoy all of the fruit and the experience of that.

But it is ours. Our name is written in the book, in that kingdom.

Our name is written down, and we get to enjoy it. It is ours. By faith, by faith, we treat the kingdom which we do not yet enjoy as having already received it.

This is treating with substance something that is merely hoped for in the moment. By faith, we apprehend these things.

And Christian, your life will be transformed. Your life will be transformed if you can fix your mind on what is to come.

And if you can live every moment of every day in this world in light of what is promised to you to come, your life will change.

Your perspective will change. Your battle against sin will change. Your priorities will change. The way you spend your time will change.

The way you think about others will change. The way you view everything will change. You and I are to live our lives in light of the fact that we receive a kingdom.

And by saying that we receive a kingdom, the author is encompassing all of the blessings that attend that kingdom.

See, the kingdom is the thing that comes for us in terms of from where we're at in the timeline of events, the kingdom is something that is yet future to us.

So that is something that is future. We would almost consider the acquisition and the being given and enjoying that kingdom as sort of the last thing to happen on God's redemptive calendar.

In a sense, it is in terms of this world and this timeline. But when we receive that kingdom, it's only the beginning of a whole other era of our history and our lives together.

But the kingdom, because it is future, sort of is that thing that is toward the end of the way that we see our timeline in life.

And so the author is asking us to look forward to that. And those who receive that kingdom are the ones who have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

So when you think, when you read about you're gonna receive the kingdom, you ought to, in your mind, understand that receiving that kingdom, that idea encompasses everything else that God has given to you.

Who gets to enjoy that kingdom? Only those who have been granted repentance, granted the faith to believe, who have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, adopted into his family by a work of sovereign grace, who have been sealed by the

Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, justified, sanctified, and eventually glorified, resurrected and given new life and new bodies.

Those are the ones who receive that kingdom. And if you are not in that grace, if you have not trusted in Christ in that way, you are outside of that grace, there is no kingdom for you.

The kingdoms of this world is all that you get. But those who receive the kingdom, we must be fully redeemed, fully transformed, fully changed before we can inherit that kingdom.

Because 1 Corinthians 15 says that flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. So, if God is going to give you the kingdom, he has to take you from being a child of Satan to being a child of God, take you out of the kingdom of darkness and put you in the kingdom of light.

He has to turn you from being an unbeliever to a believer, a citizen of this world to a citizen of the next.

He has to make you a citizen of heaven and transfer you from the domain of darkness and hell to the domain of light and of heaven and of his dear son.

This kingdom is not just the possession of some of the redeemed, as if it just belongs to pastors, missionaries, super spiritual people who know a lot.

The kingdom is the possession of every last believer. It is my conviction that every

Old Testament saint, every Old Testament righteous person, from the time of Adam and Eve until the kingdom is established, every last one of them will enjoy every promise and every blessing that was pledged to them in the

Old Covenant, in the Old Testament. Not only that, but every believer who has trusted in Christ in the church age will also enjoy that kingdom.

And every believer who is in the millennial age will enjoy that kingdom. So that every righteous person who is saved by faith will enjoy the kingdom that is to come in some measure.

Either as a glorified person in their eternal and glorified bodies or as those who are saved later on, after the coming of Christ and end up living and residing in that kingdom with the king himself.

Every righteous person gets to enjoy it. And then, when all of this creation is consumed by fire and judged by fire and everything is destroyed and undone and the new creation is made and the new

Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem comes down out of heaven and sits on that new creation and all of the saints are there with God and there is no unrighteous and none of the unrighteous enter into it.

And there is no sin and no death and nothing to ever pollute it or destroy it or pervert it ever.

Forever and ever and ever. We will enjoy that new creation with all of the blessings of that and that kingdom and that king in a new creation forevermore.

Get your mind around that. Fix that in your heart.

That is a tremendous motivation for purity. John gives us that, 1 John 3. Seeing that all these things are going to come to pass, what manner of persons ought we to be in holiness and conducting ourselves in this world?

What type of person should we be in light of what is to come? You fix that in your mind.

Transform your life. Therefore, there is an immeasurable obligation that is upon us.

Because you and I are given not some earthly inheritance, not a parcel or a piece of land in this world which will be consumed and burnt up.

We're not just given a bank account with some numbers attached at the end of it or a bunch of riches that are going to perish with the using or with inflation.

We're not given just a portion of the Father's domain. Every individual believer receives the kingdom.

The entire kingdom. I don't know how it's going to work out that I get all of it and you get all of it.

I don't know how that's going to unfold. But I believe that it will. Jesus said in Luke 12, verse 32,

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.

Matthew 25, verse 34, The King, that is Christ, will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed of My Father.

Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. James 2 .5, Listen, my beloved brethren.

Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which

He promised to those who love Him? 1 Peter describes that inheritance as being imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.

Revelation 1 .6 says He has made us to be a kingdom and priest to His God and Father.

Daniel 7 says the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all the ages to come.

Daniel 7 .27, Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.

His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey Him. Every believer receives the entire kingdom.

So now I ask you this. What does it matter what a pagan thinks of you? Why do you care what somebody destined to destruction thinks about your conviction, your testimony, your gospel, or the way you live your life, or what you say?

Why does that matter to you? Why would it matter to any of us? You're going to receive the kingdom. Can you see why it is then that Moses chose rather to endure ill -treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin since he regarded the reproach of Christ as being greater riches than the treasures of Egypt?

Moses made that equation, that transaction in his own mind. I can have all of Egypt or the kingdom to come.

You know how many people there are in our world that would choose the kingdom that is and trade that for the kingdom that is to come?

They're the Esau's. They're the Esau's who would trade away their birthright for a bowl of soup.

Would it matter if you spent 80 years in a prison in this life, owning nothing, receiving nothing, but spend 80 years of your life in a prison here if you receive the kingdom that is to come?

Or would you rather live 80 years as a king in this world and perish everlastingly?

Which one of those would you choose? Does it matter how short your stay here is?

Does it matter how much of your time here is filled with sorrow and affliction and poverty if the kingdom is yours?

If the Father is pleased to give you everything in the new heavens and the new earth? Does it matter what passes away here, what is taken from us, what is inflated away, what is destroyed by bad management by others?

Do those things matter? If indeed it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom that is to come?

Haggai 2 describes this coming of this kingdom and because it is unshakable, because it is a kingdom that is unshakable, cannot be shaken, it is therefore a kingdom that will destroy and supplant every other kingdom on the planet.

Haggai 2, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders and the horses and their riders will go down every one by the sword of another.

That is God's promise. This is what He is going to do to all of the power of all of the kingdoms of the world.

Psalm 2, verse 4. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury saying,

As for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the

Lord. He said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will surely give you the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment.

Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the

Son that He not become angry and you perish in the way. For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are those who take refuge in Him.

Psalm 110. The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion saying,

Rule in the midst of your enemies. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations.

He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. Revelation describes the return of Christ prior to the establishment of this kingdom.

When He comes back, He will come back with a flaming sword in His hand and His word will deal out retribution in flaming wrath to all of His enemies and every country, every nation, every king, every judge, every potentate, every system on this planet will be instantly destroyed and annihilated.

It will not be reformed. It will not be Christianized. It will be supplanted. He will destroy all of it and establish

His King from Mount Zion who will rule even over His enemies and every corner of this globe, every tribe, every tongue, every kindred, every parcel of land in this creation will worship and serve that King forevermore.

At the end of that, there will be a war, there will be a rebellion which He will put down and then there will be a great white throne judgment when

He will resurrect all the Old Testament wicked and they will stand before Him and they will receive their just judgment according to the deeds that are written in the books.

And they will be judged according to all that they have done and then they and death and all of Satan and his angels will be thrown into the lake that burns everlastingly and the end of Isaiah says that the righteous in the new creation will look upon the corpses and the punishment of God's enemies and we will rejoice and delight in that forevermore.

That my friends is your God. This is what He has promised. If you're not in Christ, that is a warning to you of what is to come.

I promise you it is to come. I will bet my life it is to come. But if you are in Christ, what a glorious future you have.

New creation, new heavens and a new earth. Daniel 2 describes the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his vision.

Verse 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed. And all of those you remember represent various kingdoms throughout time from the time of Daniel all the way through to the end of time.

It says that they are crushed all at the same time and become like chaff from the summer threshing floors and the wind carries them away so that not a trace of them was found.

After the recreation, all of creation will belong to the people of God. We will reign as kings in the new earth.

Our inheritance will never be threatened. No usurper will ever rise. No army will ever invade.

No foundation will ever be shaken. There will be no turmoil, no uprisings, no revolutions, no usurpations, no disobedience.

Nothing wicked will enter into it forever and ever and ever. Daniel 2 verse 44

In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. And that kingdom will not be left for another people.

It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.

That is the promise. That is the pledge of an everlasting kingdom. That is a grand motivation for you and I.

That you and I have received the greatest motivation possible in the gift and the pledge of this kingdom. Notice the order of events.

Verse 28 says We receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken therefore what? Let us show gratitude.

One of these things comes before the other. We receive first then we show gratitude and offer to God service. The receiving of something must come first.

You must first receive from Him before you can serve Him acceptably. The service that is offered to God though may be motivated as far as the person who offers it does as purely as possible.

The service that is offered to God from outside of Christ by people who are not in covenant relationship with Him, who have not been blessed by salvation, repenting of their sin and placing faith in Christ, those who have not been born again, service that is offered to God by those who are outside of Christ is unacceptable to God at its very beginning because it comes from an unacceptable source.

So no matter what you sing, no matter what you give, no matter what you offer, no matter how you strive, no matter how much you work, it is unacceptable to God.

What must come first is that we have received a kingdom. Then we show gratitude and offer to Him sacrifices of praise.

Then we show gratitude and offer to Him acceptable service with reverence and awe. But we must receive grace before we are ever enabled and strengthened to serve

Him in an acceptable way with reverence and awe. We do not get the kingdom because we serve for it.

It doesn't say therefore having worked for the kingdom or having earned the kingdom or having warranted the kingdom or deserved the kingdom or merited the kingdom.

It doesn't say any of that. It says you and I have received a kingdom. How do we receive that kingdom? The same way we receive all the blessings that God has given to us in Christ by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And there is no greater motivation for acceptable service than this reality. Fear of hell is not as great of a motive for gratitude and service.

Fear of loss, even the fear of God as a consuming fire is not as great of a motive for gratitude and service as the realization that we have been gifted with all of this grace and the promise of every good thing that is to come belongs to us.

But when you and I consider that God has taken worms that are fit for destruction and turned us into heirs of the kingdom, that He has taken those who are under His wrath and placed us with seats at His table so that we may rejoice with Him forevermore, that He has plucked from the ruined heap and dunghill of humanity men and women from every tribe and tongue and nation on the face of the planet and appointed us to serve and to honor and to glorify

Him and made us His sons, that is a motivation for service. Knowing that we deserve none of that and that we have been given all of that.

And there is no possibility, friend, that you can miss this. Because it is unshakeable, it is inevitable. His purposes cannot be thwarted.

He who promised is faithful. He is true. He cannot fail. He cannot be overthrown. His purposes will not change.

His plans for you will not be altered. His design for you will not fail. It's an unshakeable kingdom.

It's an unshakeable gift. None can question any of His ways. None can hold Him that is our

God to account. Nobody can alter His plan. Nobody can say of that coming kingdom, no,

I have a better idea. In wisdom, I have crafted a better design. Everything that He has planned for the future of His people is infinitely wise, infinitely good, and infinitely glorious.

And He has pledged this to you who are in Christ. He will establish His unshakeable

King on an unshakeable throne to rule in an unshakeable kingdom in an unshakeable new heavens and new earth.

You and I, a million years from now, we will marvel at this time in our lives and in the history of creation when everything seemed so uncertain, when everything seemed so unclear.

Now this truth, I want you to notice how contrary it is to everything that you and I are told by the world.

By the world, we are told that the only things that last forever, the only things of an enduring nature are the solid things of this world.

Cash, investments, the stock market, the U .S. dollar, the American government, the

U .S. military, NATO, the U .N., all of these things.

It's the things that we see, the things that we touch, the things that we handle, the things that we experience. These are the lasting things.

These are the enduring things. All of your wishes, your affections, your desire for holiness and righteousness, your ideas about spiritual things, these ideas that you have of the future, those are all passing fancies.

Those are the myths. Those are the things that are shakable that may come or may not come. We don't know. Or thus says the world.

Have you ever wondered why it is that we are governed by a geriatric class of power -hungry narcissists?

Have you ever wondered why that is? Why all three branches of government look like a bunch of escapees from a nursing home?

Now, I have nothing against old people, but all of these people could have retired 20, 30 years ago and gone off and sat on a beach somewhere in Hawaii and lived off of the wealth that they have amassed by plundering the public treasury.

They could have done that and lived lives of ease. Why will they not give up power? Why will they not give up influence?

Why will they not give up that position? Part of it, not all of it, but part of it is because that class of power -hungry narcissists believe that what is lasting, what is enduring, and what is unshakable and eternal is the things that they do in this life.

So they have to have a bridge named after them, a school named after them, they have to have their name on streets and on signs and on buildings in the nation's capital, some law named after them, some act, some principle, some thing that they have done so that it might endure forever.

That's what they are living for. That's why they can't give it up. Everything that the world says is lasting is actually passing away and faster than we realize.

Faster than we realize. And everything that the world says is uncertain and flaky is actually unshakable.

You and I have to fight the battle of the mind and of the heart each and every day to remind ourselves of what is true and lasting and unshakable.

It is not what this world offers. It is not what this world does. A million years from now the act, the law, the bill, the school named after some politician, it's going to mean nothing to us.

It won't mean nothing to anyone because all that they have and all that they have worked for that is outside of Jesus Christ will vanish in an instant.

It will all be undone. It will all be like a mist blown away by a breeze. What you and I believe in, what we have trusted in, what we have set our affections upon, is that which is truly unshakable.

And this is what God has pledged to you, brethren. Let's pray. Our Father, we love you and we thank you for your grace in salvation to give to us not just salvation and redemption and forgiveness but the righteousness of your

Son and then to pledge to us your goodness and your glory and your grace everlastingly forevermore.

What a mercy you have shown us, undeserved, lavished upon, worms and ruined humanity all for the praise of your glorious grace.

And so we pray that you would strengthen our hearts through this reminder that you have pledged to us a kingdom which cannot be shaken.

And so grant to us the grace to serve, honor, love and obey you out of grateful hearts that have been changed by this truth and by your word and by your

Holy Spirit. Plant these things deep within our hearts and minds that we may live lives of holiness and purity looking forward to that day when we will see you in glory and receive the fullness of this kingdom which is certainly to come.

We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Would you please stand as we end our service this morning and let's sing together,

All Glory be to Christ. Should nothing out our efforts stand no legacy survive unless the

Lord does raise the house it made its builder strive.

To you who goes to tomorrow's day tell me what is your life a mist that vanishes at dawn

All glory be to Christ All glory be to Christ our

King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign we'll ever see

All glory be to Christ His will be done,

His kingdom come on earth as it is above Who risen shall far gain regret,

Praise Him, the Lord of love Let living water satisfy the thirsty with a prize

We'll take a cup of kindness yet All glory be

All glory be to Christ Our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign we'll ever see

All glory be to Christ The Lamb who was born sinners slain is making all things new

Behold our God shall live with us and be our steadfast light

And we shall bear His people wing, All glory be to Christ All glory be to Christ our

King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign we'll ever see

All glory be to Christ our

King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign we'll ever see

All glory be to Christ And all

God's people said, Amen To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.